similes, Gus. Must be the effect of your long-time con-

 

tact with the ZRP's. Well, I wish you success, and a

 

speedy return to your base."

 

It was still quite dark, lacking another hour till dawn,

 

when Maddalena stole down the steps to the dock at

 

which Bracy's trawler was moored. A tightly co-ordi-

 

nated plan to distract the attention of the Cyclopean in-

 

spectors, nodding at their guard-posts, ensured that she

 

reached her goal safely and was able to slip below unno-

 

ticed.

 

There, she laid herself down in a concealed compart-

 

ment )ust forward of the engines and ran a quick check

 

of the new instrumentation which had been fitted. All

 

seemed to be in perfect order. She repressed a chuckle

 

due to sheer exhilaration and spoke in a whisper to the

 

microphone she wore taped against her vocal chords.

 

"Gas! I got aboardno troubleand your engineers

 

have done a magnificent )ob on the boat. I don't know

 

where it's all been put, but one still has so much room I

 

was afraid at first sight something had been left out!"

 

"If you really want to know," Langenschmidt an-

 

swered in a tinny buzz from the bone-conduction re-

 

ceiver Nole had fitted to her, "they took out the original

 

lining of the hull and replaced it with solid-state and

 

printed circuitry. Be careful not to foul any rocksa

 

dent in the hull could put a dozen gadgets out of oper-

 

ation."

 

"If you wanted to hit a rock with this kind of nav

 

equipment, you'd have to aim deliberatelyand at that

 

the automatics would probably overrule you." Mad-

 

dalena made reflexively to brush back her hair, and

 

remembered belatedly that last evening she had had it

 

trimmed to the regulation Patrol length of one inchas a

 

safety precaution when wearing a space-helmet. She

 

wasn't sure why, but a set of space-kit was among the

 

gear she had asked to have put aboard.

 

"Just a second," from Langenschmidt, and then:

 

"That was Nole. Bracy is now awake and they're check-

 

ing him over. His condition last night appeared good,

 

but you'll have to make sure he continues to take drugs

 

against the dose of radiation he received. Also he doesn't

 

like the flavour of our standard high-vitamin rations. I

 

tried him on synthesiser cake and he likes that okay, so

 

he'll be coming aboard with a portable diet-synthesiser

 

a 'farewell gift' from his friends in the Corps."

 

"Barly will probably take it off him," Maddalena said

 

sourly.

 

"He won't get the chance. I obtained his permit to

 

clear the trawler for open sea last night, and then Nole

 

fixed himuha liquid lullaby. He'll sleep till noon."

 

"A shame. I had as much as I could stand of synthe-

 

siser cake away back when on Fourteen. Well, all I have

 

to do now, I guess, is wait."

 

"Exactlyanril you're hull-down away from the last

 

of the Cyclopean ships watching this area. And then-

 

swift journey!"

 

Maddalena gave a throaty laugh and signed off.

 

Bracy Dyge played his part magnificently, Langen-

 

schmidt had to admit. He came down the steps to the

 

dock with just the right mixture of regret at leaving the

 

comfortable island and the luxuries the Corps enjoyed,

 

and eagerness to try out the new solar sails and mended

 

fish-finder which were the official extent of the modifica-

 

tions to his boat.

 

"There was no call to go to such trouble for the lad,"

 

said one of the Cyclopean inspectors, a man with a face

 

like a lemon whom Langenschmidt had preferred not to

 

fix a name on in case it was as ugly as he was. "I'm sure

 

Alura Quist will see he gets properly rewarded."

 

"I'm sure," Langenschmidt agreed blandly, forbearing

 

to mention that if all went well Quist would be getting a

 

reward of her own quite shortly.

 

He was almost holding his breath as the trawler eased

 

out to open water, with Bracy proudly waving at his

 

new solar sails. Then he relaxed. In two hours, or three

 

at the most, the boat would have passed the outermost

 

circle of quarantine vessels, and then some remarkable

 

changes would come over it.

 

The solar sails would be furled, and a pair of hydro-

 

foils would extrude from a hidden compartment under

 

the hull, and the compact fusion reactor which had re-

 

placed the old stored-power accumulators would feed

 

power to the pipesand the trawler, shaking a little, but

 

perfectly sound after what the engineers had done to it,

 

would take off for Rimerley's private island at a com-

 

fortable hundred and fifty knots.

 

Quite neat. Quite neat. He only hoped he would have

 

been able to wipe the grin from his face by the time he

 

next had to confront Barly and explain about the need

 

for his departure to attend this important conference

 

about a base to substitute for the one being closed down.

 

xvn

 

 

That voyage was among the most extraordinary ex-

 

periences of Maddalena's chequered life. She had hung

 

from the talons of a parradile; she had dropped through

 

atmosphere with nothing but a spacesuit's reacdon jets to

 

save her from a fatal crash; she had canoed over rapids

 

and ridden all manner of odd beasts of burden. But

 

streaking across the oceans of Cyclops was perhaps the

 

weirdest journey of all.

 

To start with, the news that a Gratignol trawlerlast

 

seem limping along at a typical speed of a few knots-

 

was outrunning all but the fastest passenger skimmers

 

plying between the more densely inhabited islands would

 

certainly have alerted someone's interest if it had been

 

noised around. Accordingly, whenever the automatic de-

 

tectors spotted another vessel in the vicinity, they cut

 

the power and spread the solar sails. Bracy and Mad-

 

dalena then sat out idly on the deck looking as though

 

they hadn't a worry in the universe bar the shortage of

 

oilfish in these waters. The danger past, the power re-

 

turned, the sails furled, and once more they leapt

 

towards their goal at the front tip of a mile-long jet of

 

heated water.

 

Bracy, although he had been very willing to start on

 

this mission, and at the outset was delighted with what

 

had been done to his craft, grew bored within a few

 

hours. Maddalena had shown him the operation of ev-

 

erything, including the devices which had no connection

 

with seafaring, in order to entertain him, but the fact

 

that control of his vessel had been given over to

 

machinery disturbed him, and he sat with a worried ex-

 

pression staring at the wake and listening with head

 

cocked to the hum of power emanating from below.

 

What was chiefly worrying him, Maddalena puzzled

 

out at last, was not being able to see where they were

 

going with his own eyes; he had known of radar, of

 

coursesome of the wealthier fishing-families in Grad-

 

gnol could afford both it and a fish-finder, whereas the

 

poor families had to settle for the latter onlybut the

 

little screen was no psychological equivalent for eye-

 

sight.

 

It was, naturally, out of the question to go on deck

 

with a hundred-fifty-knot wind howling past them; they

 

were only able to sit in the after cockpit because the

 

fairing over the cabin had been subtly altered to make it

 

aerodynamically efficient at these speeds. But when

 

Bracy showed signs of real distress at this headlong

 

career, she decided they might risk running for a while

 

on manual control, to show that the ultimate responsibil-

 

ity had not been ceded to the machines.

 

That was almost the last decision she took in life.

 

Some enormous marine creaturenot a wolfshark, but

 

nearly as large and quite as solidshowed up on the

 

fish-finder, and seeing such a huge obstacle dead ahead

 

Bracy yelled with alarm and put the helm hard over.

 

The boat dipped its side in the water, because the foils

 

could not cope with such a violent change of direction,

 

and for half a mile they skidded in a tight circle with

 

spray streaming over the deck and great shuddering

 

slams of water battering the hull.

 

By the time Maddelena got the helm away from him

 

and let the boat straighten of her own accord, the cause

 

of the trouble was miles astern. But that was the last at-

 

tempt the fisher-boy made to control his craft at its new

 

maximum velocity.

 

Especially when they were compelled to slow to avoid

 

comment on sighting other ships, Maddalena had a good

 

deal of time to talk to the boy, and by the end of the

 

voyage had come to like him a great deal. Faced with

 

such problems as he had, many youths would have given

 

np at once; instead, orphaned, with nothing but this

 

trawler as a means of livelihood, he had grimly set out to

 

replace two healthy, hard-working adults with decades

 

of seafaring experience. That sort of thing took guts of a

 

different kind than those needed to save one from panic

 

at the sight of strange armoured figures chasing a hospi-

 

tal patient through a nightmare of menacing machinery.

 

She had thought of him entirely as an instrument, a way

 

to escape the surveillance of the Cyclopeans and follow

 

Kobi to Rimerley's island; now at last she came to see

 

him as a personshy, ambitious even though trapped by

 

circumstances, and intensely proud.

 

Also, handicapped as he was by his overdose of radia-

 

tion, he had the kind of tough persistence legend attrib-

 

uted to the pre-galactic coolie who, half-starved,

 

half-frozen, dressed in rags, had maintained unstoppable

 

energy.

 

By the time they came over the horizon to Rimerley's

 

island, and accordingly had to slow to typical trawler

 

speed to escape notice, she had extensively revised her

 

original plan and spent a couple of hours before nightfall

 

and the landing in briefing him with the new instruc-

 

tions.

 

It was ironical that they should be able to drift with

 

the current here, in plain view, Maddalena thought as she

 

surveyed the doctor's private domain. So much the bet-

 

ter, thoughto have had to wait till dark before coming

 

into line-of-sight would have imposed extra difficulties.

 

With a powerful magnifying periscope which had

 

been built into the mast of the trawler and projected a

 

needle-sharp image on a screen at the bottom, she studied

 

the prospect before her. Clearly, Rimerley was one of

 

Cyclops's "top twentieth", as Gus Langenschmidt called

 

themindeed, he must be among the thousand wealthiest

 

men on the planet to maintain premises like these. A

 

huge house, part of it extending out into the ocean so

 

mat one coma en)oy tne sensation or t)emg in a vast

 

aquarium by descending a short flight of steps; a private

 

dockyard with two skimmers at the quay; a 'copter

 

parked behind the house, and beyond that a road wind-

 

ing up to the topmost point on the island, where trees

 

concealed the ground.

 

If it was true that he had built his fortune by selling

 

the spare parts of human beings, he must have run

 

through scorespossibly hundredsof victims, Mad-

 

dalena thought, and the realisation made her stomach

 

churn with nausea.

 

Faint from below came the sound of martial music,

 

and then a voice too muted for her to catch the words,

 

but having a distinctly coaxing tone. Bracy was playing

 

with the radio again. Though his family had had one be-

 

fore his parents died, he had had to sell it, he told her,

 

during the hungry month of last winter, and in any case

 

the one which the Corps had fitted aboard the trawler

 

was far superior to any in Grarignol.

 

She continued her study of the land ahead, looking for

 

signs of life. Some turned up: a man came back from

 

taking in fish-lines, carrying a large basket of gloaming

 

sea-creatures; a man in white, probably a mechanic, came

 

out to attend to some job on the 'copter and went into

 

the house again.

 

"Bracy! "she called.

 

"Just a moment." There was a pause, and then he put

 

his head out of the cockpit. "Yes?"

 

"I'm sorrywere you listening to something?"

 

The boy's lip curled. "A government announcement.

 

The man was saying how the closing of your base would

 

make life more difficult, but we must think of our poor

 

brothers on the refugee planets. What I want to know is,

 

why are they so eager to have more poor people to cope

 

with when they can't even give us a decent living?"

 

Good question, Maddalena commented silently. Dur-

 

ing the voyage Bracy had plied her with questions about

 

Cyclops and other planets, and had shown a surprising

 

degree of natural insight into the problems they dis-

 

cussed. Most likely, Maddalena assumed, his parents had

 

been comparatively literate as Cyclopean fisherfolk -went,

 

and had done their best to pass on their education to

 

their son.

 

"You wanted something?" Bracy added.

 

"Yes. I want to find out if there's any communication

 

going on between the island and some other part of the

 

planet. There's a device for doing that among the equip-

 

ment below. I showed you how it worksdo you think

 

you can remember the details?"

 

"Yes, I think so. If I can't, I'll be honest." He gave her

 

a flashing grin and vanished again.

 

She chuckled, resuming her examination of the island's

 

image. Shortly, he called back to her.

 

"No, there are no communicators operating as close as

 

that. The nearest is over to the eastward1 think it's a

 

pleasure-boat acknowledging an alteration of schedule."

 

"Goodthank you. Now how about internal commu-

 

nicators?"

 

"Right!"

 

And within minutes: "Maddalena! There's a conversa-

 

tion going on I think you might like to hear."

 

She rose in a lithe movement and dropped through the

 

open hatch. A voice was coming from the remote tapper

 

which enabled eavesdropping on room-to-room commu-

 

nicators at distances up to ten miles.

 

"everything ready by midnight," the crisp words

 

rang out. "Now there must be no delays! I know I al-

 

ways say that, but tonight is more crucial than usual,

 

even. We must have the entire job finished within half

 

an hour."

 

A different voice said, "With this quarantine and em-

 

bargo business, what happens if they recognise an un-

 

scheduled landing and take it for a Corps intrusion?"

 

Maddalena tensed.

 

"They won't!" the first voice snapped. "It's not an un-

 

scheduled landing. This one is for Quist, remember?

 

And I got her to have it officially scheduled. I don't

 

blow what it's being called: luxury goods for private

 

consumption, I think"

 

An appreciative though fawning laugh broke in, and a

 

muttered, "Very good, very good!"

 

"So!" the first speaker said. "Anything else?"

 

"No, I guess not."

 

"Get on with it, then."

 

The tapper went silent; there were no communicators

 

in use on the island any longer.

 

"What was all that about?" Bracy demanded, staring.

 

"Something is going to be brought down-from space,

 

for Quist," Maddalena said. "At about midnight. That

 

much is clear, but exactly what"

 

She broke off, a light dawning. Langenschmidt had

 

mentioned to her his half-formed suspicion that the ulti-

 

matum for evacuation of the Corps base might be con-

 

nected with Kolb's leg and the risk of its origin being

 

discovered, but he had been unable to see what link

 

could compel Quist into action. Suppose, though, it

 

wasn't a matter of compulsion, but of bribery; suppose

 

she was due to become one of Rimerley's customers for

 

the renewal of some failing organfrom her recorded

 

image at the Non-Interference Conference it was plain

 

she was no longer youthfuland Rimerley had told her

 

that she would lose her chance if the Corps cut off the

 

supply of spare parts . . .

 

"That must be it!" she exclaimed, and ignoring Bracy's

 

bewilderment she dived for the subspace communicator

 

which was her link with the Corps. The bands it used

 

were untappable, as far as was known, by any equipment

 

on Cyclops, but just in case Corps intelligence was faulty

 

in that area there was an automatic scrambler on the cir-

 

cuit as well.

 

"Maddalena Santos," she said as soon as she had her

 

connection. *1 want to speak to Commandant Langen-

 

schmidt."

 

"I'm sorry," came the smooth reply. "The comman-

 

dant has been called off the planet for a conference on

 

redeployment of base personnel."

 

"Damnalready? Then give me whoever*s acting for

 

him."

 

"Dr Nole is the senior officer at present on duty, bat

 

he's engaged with the Cyclopean inspection team at the

 

hospital. Is there anyone else you wish to speak to?"

 

"Not particularly," Maddelena sighed. "Wait a second,

 

though, I have an idea. Can you record a scrambled

 

message and get it to Langenschmidt for me?"

 

"Yes, certainly. Just one moment." A series of clicks;

 

then"Go ahead now, please. Recording."

 

In terse words Maddalena summed up her suspicions

 

and ended, "By the way, Gus! Since you're so sure

 

you'll be back as soon as the Cyclopeans feel the pinch,

 

why not try and con the authorities into assigning this

 

evacuation fleet to search for the unknown ZRP, instead

 

of just tamely spreading our personnel here over a dozen

 

bases and leaving it at that? It's going to take at least

 

thirty ships to shift what's being lifted awayhalf that

 

number could carry out a thorough sweep of the high-

 

probability locations.

 

"Of course, knowing you, that's probably exactly

 

what you're doing at the moment."

 

She closed the message and thanked the Corps opera-

 

tor. Then she turned to Bracy.

 

"Can you use an energy gun?" she demanded.

 

The boy shook his head.

 

"I think I'll pass the next half hour teaching you.

 

Whatever's being brought down here at midnight is

 

valuable, and if we interfere there may be trouble.

 

Lucky I brought a spare gun along, isn't it?"

 

xvm

 

 

Darkness closed around the boat, still drifting as any

 

fishing-boat might when awaiting the arrival of a shoal

 

along the line of a nutrient-rich current.

 

"That makes us effectively invisible to the naked eye,"

 

Maddalena muttered. "Now let's make ourselves invisible

 

to his burglar alarms, and we can go ashore."

 

Bracy had tried and failed to comprehend the concepts

 

behind this cryptic statement. He put out his arm pas-

 

sively, and Maddalena strapped a miniature radio beacon

 

around it.

 

She had programmed a geepee computer for the task

 

of making them electronically invisible, and it was per-

 

haps the neatest trick of all those they were using. Essen-

 

tially she had shifted frequencies on the tapper and

 

connected both it and the computer to an ultra-tight-

 

beam transmitter. The beacons would show their loca-

 

tion at any given moment; the tapper would indicate on

 

what band the detectors were operating, and the trans-

 

mitter would put out an eddy current, so to speak,

 

which would confuse the circuits in the detectors and

 

cause them to record something as diffuse and harmless

 

as a patch of sea-mist. The fact that slight mist usually

 

followed sundown at these latitudes in summer was an

 

additional advantage.

 

"Remember, though," Maddalena admonished Bracy

 

sternly, "even if it is pitch dark, and you're masked for

 

the detectors, you can still make noise, and that'll give us

 

away. Be careful."

 

Bracy nodded and grinned. The grin vanished as he

 

glanced down at the butt of his energy gun, protruding

 

from its water-proof holster. Maddalena felt a twinge of

 

worrywas it wise to have given him the weapon when

 

any instruction had necessarily to be theoretical? She

 

had restrained him from firing it only with difficulty,

 

but she dared not let him see a bolt actually fireden-

 

ergy guns were not the sort of weapons common fisher-

 

folk could afford, and their discharge was extremely

 

conspicuous, especially over water where they raised a

 

wall of steam fifty or more feet high.

 

Too late to change her mind nowtime was wasting,

 

and well before midnight they had to explore the house,

 

the nearby estate and the high ground behind, among the

 

trees. For that, in Maddalena's judgement, was the only

 

place a spaceship could put down near here, unless it

 

landed on water, and that too was an attention-getting

 

event attended by clouds of spray and high waves.

 

Almost certainly among the trees, she had concluded.

 

And going at a snail's pace, it would talte a couple of

 

hours to carry out their preliminary survey, let alone

 

prepare counter-action against Rimerley and his staff.

 

"Anchor!" she told Bracy.

 

Silent as a ghost, he lowered it to the bottom and gave

 

a cautious tug to ensure it had gripped. On his whispered

 

confirmation, Maddalena let herself over the side and,

 

using a stroke that created minimum disturbance in the

 

water, set off for the shore.

 

There were lights on in the extension of the house that

 

ran along the sea-bed, but the room within was empty.

 

On a low table lay the remains of a mealthe eater, ap-

 

parently, had had little appetite tonight. Through win-

 

dows higher up, women could be seen moving about

 

three of them in all, one in white, the others in dark

 

green gowns.

 

Maddalena led Bracy some distance along the shore

 

before heading inland. She had already got a clear idea

 

of the layout of the house: the seaward side was the

 

owner's, the landward included servants' quarters and all

 

the domestic and mechanical offices. There seemed to be

 

no trace of children; presumably either Rimerley was

 

unmarried or he maintained a separate establishment else-

 

where. Or, of course, he might be old enough to have

 

children already grownshe had somehow been thinking

 

of him as a young man, greedy and ruthless, rather than

 

an old man, merely callous.

 

Their first stop was the dock where the skimmers

 

were moored. No one noticed them as they bent over

 

first one, then the other, of the graceful craft. From

 

there, they went to the 'copter. The mechanic was just

 

finishing his job, wiping his hands and putting away

 

some tools. They waited for five minutes to let him get

 

clear, and then Maddalena tossed a small sticky object at

 

the side of the machine. It clung as it touched.

 

Now, anyone attempting to leave the island by skim-

 

mer or 'copter would attract the unwelcome attention of

 

a homing rocket with a shaped-charge head, unless he

 

was sufficiently observant to remove the sticky objects

 

Maddalena had planted.

 

Which she doubted. The said person was likely to be

 

in a wild panic.

 

"Door shut," Maddalena whispered very softly. "Now

 

the ventilators."

 

The house's air-conditioning system was quite conspic-

 

uous from the trawler: two high circulating stacks led

 

down to the pump-chamber on the roof. Bracy had as-

 

sured her that he, accustomed to grappling with solar

 

sails in unexpected gales of wind, could get to the top

 

easily; nonetheless, she waited with heart in mouth and

 

hand on gun while he scaled the intake stack and placed

 

at the top the three glass canisters tied into a bundle with

 

an explosive cord which she had given him. There was a

 

radio-activated fuse on the end of the cord.

 

She had been puzzling for some time over the matter

 

of where Justin Kolb would be located; it wasn't until

 

she was planning this job on the air-conditioning that she

 

saw the most likely possibility. Any sensible doctor tak-

 

ing patients into his private dwelling would put them at

 

the terminal end of the air-circulation system, in case

 

they had infections which draughts could carry to the

 

other occupants. As soon as Bracy had come down

 

safely, she told him to keep watch for her and ap-

 

proached the window of the room adjacent to the base

 

of the discharge stack.

 

And there he was, in a large room full of medical

 

equipment, watching a musical recording and sipping a

 

cup of wine. No one else was in the room with him, but

 

there were open communicators on both sides of the

 

bed, and a medical scanner was focused on his torso.

 

Her original plan had ended with the location of Jus-

 

tin Kolb and his removal to a point from which the

 

Corps could send down a ship to retrieve him, and she

 

was glad that she had acquired information leading to a

 

change of plan. It would have been far too easy, as she

 

had envisaged it. Just fire the radio-fuse, wait ten

 

minutes until everyone in the house was unconscious,

 

smash a way in to bring Kolb to the boat, andend.

 

Tame. This way was much better.

 

She had seen enough of the house now, and led Bracy

 

away from it towards the high ground. They kept a

 

course parallel to the road, but out of sight of it, a pre-

 

caution she was glad of when a fast ground-skimmer

 

hummed up from the house to the concealing trees

 

ahead, and within minutes came back.

 

The trees were thickly leaved and prickly, some local

 

species she hadn't been warned about; before Bracy was

 

able to show her how to avoid the dropping branches,

 

she sustained several scratches on her face. They made

 

the last stretch of their )oumey interminably slow, but at

 

length they emerged into sight of a small plateau crown-

 

ing the island.

 

Maddalena pursed her lips. Even without more help

 

than starlight, she could see that this was one of the

 

best-equipped private landing-grounds she had ever

 

heard of. A squat building dominated it, with an im-

 

pressive array of antennae on top, mcinding one unmis-

 

takable one meant for subspace communication over

 

interstellar distancesa real shock, to find that sort of

 

equipment here. Maybe the Cyclopean government was

 

conniving at Rimerley's actions'

 

And what could it be that was expected at or soon af-

 

ter midnight? A new leg for Justin Kolb? Such a

 

gruesome piece of evidence as that would be enough to

 

convict Rimerley and his associates even in a Cyclopean

 

court, let alone a galactic one!

 

"What now?" Bracy whispered, touching her arm to

 

attract her attention.

 

"I'm going to try and plan an ambush for the people

 

who are coming from space," Maddalena told him,

 

equally softly. "I don't know how many there may be of

 

them, nor how many of the staff from the house will

 

come with Rimerley to greet the ship. Those who stay

 

behind, of course, won't pose any problems . . . Oh,

 

damnation!"

 

She clapped her hand to her forehead.

 

"What's wrong?" Bracy demanded. He had put on a

 

wolfish grin at the thought of what was to hold back

 

those in the house from interferingit was a trick that

 

tickled him immensely, especially since he had had per-

 

sonal experience of the same brand of anaesthetic gas

 

when he was cornered in the operations control room of

 

the Corps base. The grin had vanished immediately Mad-

 

dalena let out her stifled exclamation.

 

"Rimerley may not come up here by ground-skimmer.

 

He may prefer to use the 'copter, and if he does, it'll be

 

brought down instantly. I'll have to go back and unbug

 

the damned thing!"

 

"Let me go," Bracy suggested.

 

She hesitated. But so far he had shown himself reliable,

 

and after all there was little time now . . .

 

"Okay!" she decided. "All you have to do is get close

 

enough to take off the sticky thingyon saw -where I

 

threw it?"

 

"Yes. I can do it quicidy and come back soon!"

 

"Good luck!" she shot after him as he disappeared.

 

Then, furious with her own excess of ingenuity, she

 

set off on a tour of the miniature spaceport, looking for

 

the best hiding-places and points of vantage. To ambush

 

the crew of an interstellar ship with only two persons

 

was a tall order, but there was equipment in the trawler

 

which should make it possible, if she could get back

 

there, collect it, and get it installed in time . . . What was

 

keeping Bracy? Was it necessary to wait for himcould

 

she not meet him on the way back to the shore and save

 

time?

 

Better not.

 

The stars crept around the sky towards the midnight

 

configuration, and still no Bracy. With a start she real-

 

ised that if he took any longer it would already be too

 

late to fetch what she needed from the trawler.

 

And it was too late! From the direction of the house

 

came the distinctive drone of the 'copter's engines; she

 

could see lights moving around its parking-place, and

 

shadowy figures crossing bright lamps.

 

It began to rise, and for long moments she was imagin-

 

ing the whish and crash of the rocket which was keyed

 

to home on the sticky beacon. But nothing happened.

 

The 'copter merely turned towards the tiny spaceport.

 

There was a rusde in the undergrowth beside her, and

 

she spun, hand slapping the butt of her gun.

 

"Bracy!" the boy said in alarm, and she recognized

 

him. Furious, she railed at him.

 

"What kept yon? Now we have no time to go to the

 

trawler and get what we need!"

 

"I'm sorry. I dared not go close. They were working

 

on the machinefitting something like a tray under its

 

belly. In the end I could not wait any more. I caught

 

one of the men, about my size, as he went out of sight of

 

the others, and did so." Graphically, he closed his hand

 

on his own throat and groaned. "Then I took his clothes

 

and went openly to the machine to remove the sticky

 

thing. I was just in timea man of great importance

 

came from the house to see that all was well with the

 

work. So I went back and killed the man I had taken

 

clothes from, and got rid of his body. They looked for

 

as long as I was near enough to hear, but I think they

 

will not find him. There is a wolfshark in the baydid

 

you see it, earlier?"

 

"No r'Maddalena exclaimed.

 

"Yes. Not feeding, not followed by buzzards, but they

 

are always hungry for human meat."

 

Maddalena digested that information as well as she

 

could.

 

"What now?" Bracy pressed her.

 

She shrugged. "We play by ear, I guess."

 

"What?"

 

"Never mind. Watch, and listen, and take your orders

 

from my signals. We shall simply have to do as well as

 

we can with two energy guns and the advantage of sur-

 

prise."

 

She motioned him silent, for the 'copter was humming

 

down over the treetops, and the last scene of the night's

 

drama was all set

 

XIX

 

 

As the ship slanted through the fringes of the air, Lors

 

Heirndall wondered grimly )ust how much of his ex-

 

planation his men had believed. He'd told them that this

 

deal was so profitable they could afford to return home

 

ahead of schedule, and there weren't likely to be many

 

complaints about thatthe natives could get along with-

 

out Receivers of the Sick for a while, until the next time

 

some death-fearing client put in for a new heart or some

 

wealthy idiot crossed up another wolfshark, like Justin

 

Kolb.

 

Nonetheless, it was quite unprecedented in the history

 

of their venture to pull the entire team off the ZRP and

 

go home en masse.

 

He'd taken the decision to do this in cold blood. If by

 

any chance Rimerley had been wrong in his estimate of

 

the effect on the Corps of Quist's ultimatum, and some

 

too-nosy doctor had thought to check the gene-type of

 

Kolb's leg, he didn't want to be trapped by the Patrol on

 

a noisome, dirty, mud-grubbing planet not worth a snap

 

of the fingers.

 

There wasn't any question of cancelling their long-

 

term plans completely, of course. In a few years more,

 

he himself would inevitably become a customer for Ri-

 

merley's skilled attentionssometimes, after great effort,

 

he found it hard to breathe, and knew that his lungs and

 

bronchi were aging. And why should he squander most

 

of his hard-earned fortune on a trip to some prosperous

 

world, for medical treatment, when he was indispensable

 

to Rimerley and could persuade the doctor to overhaul

 

him without charge?

 

All this aside, though, he did wonder very seriously

 

whether his men had not guessed the truth behind his or-

 

der to pull out.

 

It was lucky the trip was such a short one; the ship

 

was crowded, and in a confined space tempers could eas-

 

ily be rubbed raw.

 

Also there was the girl, who was indisputably attrac-

 

tive. Most of the men hadn't been able to overcome their

 

revulsion against dirt and take themselves a native

 

woman during their stay on the ZRP. Now Soraya had

 

been washed and disinfected, though . . . Yes: the

 

shortness of the journey was something to be thankful

 

for.

 

"They're waiting for us at the landing ground," the

 

pilot reported unnecessarily. "I'm going straight in."

 

"You're watching out for Patrol ships? With the evac-

 

uation of the Corps base, I'd expected local space to be

 

crawling with them."

 

"They're over the shoulder of the planet," the pilot

 

grunted. "Two, two and a half thousand miles from

 

where we're setting down."

 

Not a hitch. Heirndall found himself relaxing from un-

 

noticed tension.

 

Everything, indeed, went with such smoothness that he

 

was almost disappointed to have wasted so much energy

 

on needless apprehension. The ship settled with hardly a

 

bumpthe pilot had become accustomed to rough land-

 

ings on the ZRP, and this was the next best thing to a.

 

public spaceport. Heirndall was already at the port when

 

the all-clear lamps winked on, and the panels slid back to

 

reveal the night outside, and a few glinring lights silhou-

 

etting a parked 'copter with a group of four men close

 

by.

 

"Wait a moment!" Heirndall snapped to those of his

 

own team who were excessively eager to jump down,

 

and called in a low voice across the field. "Doctor?"

 

"Here I am," Rimerley answered. "You weren't Jboth-

 

ered, were you?"

 

"No, no challengesnothing. Can you take the girl

 

down in the 'copter? I've kept her in coma all the way."

 

"Yes, there's a cradle slung for her stretcher. Get her

 

over here quickly and we'll take her to the house. Then

 

I'll come back for you."

 

"Right!" Heirndall turned and gestured curtly for the

 

girl to be carried to the lock. He thought it as well not

 

to tell Rimerley yet that there would have to be at least

 

three trips with the 'copter to bring down all the men

 

who had returned with him.

 

Soraya was carried by two complaining bearers over

 

to the 'copter and placed in the cradle. Heirndall walked

 

with her, and as soon as the job was done nodded to Ri-

 

merley.

 

"Off you gobut don't be too long over sending back

 

the 'copter, will you?"

 

Rimerley, edgy, caught a false note in the words, and

 

gave him a long hard stare. Then he walked a few paces

 

away, beyond the pool of light in which the 'copter

 

rested, so that he could see the dim glow of the ship's

 

lock. There were more craning, peering heads in view

 

than there ought to have been.

 

"Heirndall, have you brought your whole damned

 

team with you?" he rasped.

 

Heirndall took a deep breath. "Yes. And we're not go-

 

ing back till the pressure is off."

 

Starded, the men who had come up with Rimerley

 

closed on their boss; similarly, catching Heirndall's words

 

and finding their half-formed suspicions confirmed, ev-

 

eryone from the ship came scrambling out of the lock

 

and hurried to ask frantic questions. There was a bab-

 

bling argument within seconds, and accusations and

 

counter-accusations poured out as though a dam had

 

burst.

 

Couldift be better, Maddalena thought. That's every-

 

one from the ship outside now. I'll bet on itthere sim-

 

ply wovldn't be room for any more. And they said

 

something about bringing a girl with them. From the

 

ZRP, beyond doubt.

 

She nudged Bracy, who slipped away into the

 

darkness a score of paces, and as soon as he was at his ap-

 

pointed position she rose to her feet.

 

Her voice rang out with shocking authority, amplified

 

to ten rimes natural volume. "Stand still, all of you! I am

 

an executive officer of the Corps Galacrica, and you arc

 

under arrest for violations of the Unified Galactic

 

Code!"

 

The effect of the roaring order was all Maddalena had

 

hoped for. Long seconds passed with everyone on the

 

port immobilised by shock; during the passage of those

 

seconds, she pressed the little button on a device clipped

 

to her belt and transmitted the signal which would ex-

 

plode the cord tying the three glass cylinders together at

 

the top of the intake stack supplying the house's air.

 

Enough anaesthetic to knock out an army flowed slug-

 

gishly down to the ventilators.

 

Then the man whom she had managed to identify as

 

Rimerley quicker-witted than his companionsbroke

 

from the group and ran hell-bent for the 'copter. Shouts

 

greeted this act, and someone with good sense yelled,

 

"Stop him!"

 

"Patrol Probationer Bracy!" Maddalena shouted into

 

her loud-hailer. "Disable that helicopter!"

 

And for pity's sake, do it without injuring the girl

 

slung underneath!

 

She thought he would never respond, and was lifting

 

her own gun when at last he did.

 

Perfect.

 

He had displayed the unexpected good sense not to

 

hurry over this first use of his weapon; he had remained

 

calm enough to sight as he had been told, to steady his

 

arm, hold his breath, and only then let go the bolt.

 

It blazed across the field, illuminating the entire island

 

as brilliantly as lightning, and sheared away the rotor

 

from the 'copter just as Rimerley got the power on and

 

turned the blades into a shimmering disc.

 

Droplets of molten metal shattered the transparent

 

roof of the pilot compartment into shards of opaque

 

plastic, and Rimerley screamed like a frightened beast.

 

But it was unlikely the girl, protected by the craft's hull,

 

had suffered any hurt.

 

"Thank you, Bracy," Maddalena said at full volume.

 

"The rest of you, stay where you are, and if one of these

 

disgusting butchers makes a move, or tries to run for it,

 

burn him, understood? Bracy, come over and help me

 

disarm them."

 

There was a powerful psychological impact in the un-

 

leashed violence of an energy gun, even to people raised

 

on Cyclops, where violence was far commoner than on

 

most civilised worlds. Sullen, sick-faced with terror, the

 

cluster d { men waited as patiently as cattle in a slaugh-

 

terhouse for Bracy and Maddalena to come up to them.

 

Bracy was grinning all over his face, he was so pleased

 

with his contribution to the night's work; Maddalena

 

had to scowl ferociously before he smoothed his features

 

into a pattern more suited to a probationer on official

 

business.

 

The technique Maddalena had devised for this stage of

 

the proceedings worked beautifully. Bracy came up to

 

each man in turn, gun in his right hand, palming in his

 

left an anaesthetic capsule with a self-injector attached.

 

He clapped the victim on the shoulder and left the cap-

 

sule sticking to the flesh while he withdrew any weapon

 

the man had at his belt: in all, four of them had arms. A

 

look of vague surprise would cross the man's face, and

 

he would slump about half a minute later.

 

Meantime, Maddalena had gone over to the 'copter,

 

playing a handlight on the wreckage. Rimerley was sit-

 

ting still and moaning. Below him, the girl lay uncaring,

 

long black hair draped over the end of the stretcher.

 

Hminm! Very pretty! I wonder if they toere going

 

toto dismantle her for spares!

 

But she had no time for such gruesome reflections.

 

There was a flash from behind her, and she whirled. The

 

tall, cruel-nosed man who had supervised the bringing of

 

the girl from the shipHeirndall, Rimerley had called

 

himhad broken from the group and was dashing

 

towards the dark shelter of the trees. Bracy had loosed a

 

bolt at him, and fired wide.

 

Maddalena's gun was np on the instant, and her bolt

 

did not miss.

 

Those of the group who were still conscious gaped,

 

and then, in comical unison, doubled up to vomit on the

 

ground. At this range, an energy gun turned a man into

 

a handful of calcined bones, and a smell, sickeningly de-

 

licious, of well-roasted meat...

 

Maddalena waited till she was sure Bracy had the situ-

 

ation under control again, holstered her gun, and turned

 

back to Rimerley. He had regamed some of his self-pos-

 

session, and was bieating into the communicator, trying

 

to raise his staff back at the house.

 

"That won't do you any good," Maddalena said curt-

 

ly. "I gassed the house and they'll sleep till morning.

 

Come onget down from there! "

 

Like a badly operated marionette, Rimerley complied,

 

falling awkwardly and twisting his ankle. He limped

 

when Maddalena ordered him to move towards his col-

 

leagues, and made a whimpering complaint about such

 

treatment.

 

"If you complain once more," Maddalena told him

 

stonily, "I'll take a leg off you, the way you did to the

 

poor bastard who provided a graft for Jusdn Kolb. Is

 

that clear?"

 

Rimerley gulped enormously, and began to waddle

 

hastily forward.

 

"That's the lot," Bracy said proudly, indicating the

 

scattered forms oa the ground. "And I've piled their

 

guns over there."

 

"Excellent," Maddalena said. "I never thought we'd do

 

it, to be frank. You've been quite amazing." She clapped

 

him on the shoulder, forgetful for the moment of what

 

he had )ust been doing, and was first startled, then

 

amazed, when he put up his hand anxiously to make cer-

 

tain it was not the end of his usefulness and his turn to

 

be knocked unconscious.

 

Rimerley, breathing raggedly, fought to recover his

 

dignity. He said, "I demand to know by what right

 

you"

 

"I told you," Maddalena snapped. "If you want spe-

 

cific charges, the main one will probably be murder, and

 

the subsidiary, interference with a Zarathustra Refugee

 

Planet."

 

Rimerley gave an oily smile. He said, "My govern-

 

ment contests the legality of the non-interference rule, as

 

you ought to know. And plenty of planets recognise the

 

right of euthanasia. If you're assuming that we commit-

 

ted murder to obtain the grafts we have employed,

 

you're wrong. I can show you a release for each of the

 

donors, agreeing to euthanasia because of incurable

 

illness or serious injury."

 

"Including the girl over there?" Maddalena countered,

 

and saw with satisfaction the look of horror that wiped

 

away the doctor's smile.

 

"What now?" Bracy pressed her.

 

"Well, since they've been so kind as to provide the

 

means," Maddalena said, "I think we might as well go

 

directly to see Commandant Langenschmidt. I haven't

 

flown a spaceship for several years, but I was taught how

 

in Corps indoctrination, and they say what the Corps

 

teaches you can never be forgotten. Want to try space

 

for a change, Bracy?"

 

The boy hesitated. Then self-respect overcame his

 

doubts, and he pat his shoulders back and nodded vigor-

 

ously.

 

"Then help me drag this load of carrion aboard, and

 

we'll leave." Maddalena said.

 

XX

 

 

The ship bringing the three-merober board of inquiry

 

from Earth, which had pat the parsecs behind it at a

 

speed to make light look like a tired snail, dropped into

 

its assigned slot at the Cy-clops base. The three board

 

members emerged: Senior General Lyia Baden, small of

 

build but large of voice, and two colonelsa staff rank,

 

indicating that they had not served in the Patrol, but had

 

spent their entire careers in administration.

 

"General Baden?" said Dr Anstey Nole, stepping for-

 

ward to greet them. "My name is Nole, second senior

 

officer here at present."

 

General Baden looked at her surroundings with an icy

 

blue eye. She said at length, "You're under ultimatum to

 

leave this base by tomorrow at latest, aren't you? Where

 

are your preparations for departure?"

 

Indeed, it was obvious to the most casual glance that

 

the work of the base was proceeding normallyfar from

 

tearing down the installations, men and robots were at

 

work on repair and renovation, a fact which had given

 

the Cyclopean inspectors a bad time recently. It made

 

them feel peculiarly helpless, for there was nothing

 

whatever a backward world like Cyclops could do

 

against the Corps if it decided to dig in its heels.

 

Major Barly strode forward from where he had been

 

standing, next to Nole. "I want to register the strongest

 

possible protest against the defiant behaviour of your

 

base commandant!" he thundered. "Until yesterday he

 

was according us full cooperation. Then suddenly he

 

turned about and countermanded all his orders, and re-

 

fused to see me and explain his high-handed obstinacy."

 

"Hmmm!" General Baden looked him over. "Who

 

are you?"

 

"My apologies." Barly recollected himself and clicked

 

his heels. "Bengt Barly, Major, Cyclops Space Force, as-

 

signed to supervise the evacuation of this base."

 

"I see. Where is this commandant now? Why didn't

 

he come down to meet us on our arrival?" A chill per-

 

vaded the general's words.

 

"Commandant Langenschmidt is awaiting you in his

 

villa. General," Nole said calmly. "I am asked to take

 

you there at once."

 

"Carry on, then," the general said grimly. "I shall

 

want an explanationand it will have to be a good one."

 

Langenschmidt greeted the newcomers with a mask of

 

inscrutability. He was not alone in the room where he

 

received them. In addition to six armed Corpsmen, there

 

were an aging man who looked to be ill from some cause

 

subtler than diseasepossibly fear; a youth who held

 

himself as erect as a Corpsman but clearly wasn't, for his

 

hair was completely shaven, not trimmed to the Patrol's

 

standard inch; a very young girl with dark hair and

 

wide, doe-like eyes full of alarm; and a woman in

 

undress Corps uniform around whose mouth played the

 

suspicion of a smile.

 

Without preamble. General Baden said, "I'm told by

 

the head of the Cyclopean inspection team that you've

 

countermanded the orders to evacuate. Why?"

 

Not twitching an eyelid, Langenschmidt retorted, "Be-

 

cause the base is not going to be closed. Furthermore, I

 

intend to ask that the ships assigned to transport our per-

 

sonnel away, which are released from that duty now, be

 

reassigned to me for a special task." He paused. "In fact,

 

I think about half the total number of ships will suffice

 

the rest can return to regular duty."

 

"Have you taken leave of your senses, man?" rapped

 

the general, emphasising the last word as though she had

 

long ago ceased to expect intelligence in members of the

 

opposite sex.

 

"General, if you'd sit down? Chairs!" Langenschmidt

 

barked, and the Corpsmen moved hastily to bring some.

 

"I think you need only listen to me for a few minute

 

to see I know what I'm talking about. I'd like to

 

start by introducing all those present, if I may. Ah . . .

 

Maddalena Santos here is attached to my staff for special

 

duties, and I'll be asking you to take back with you a

 

commendation in her name for diligence above the call

 

of duty. But that's by the way. This young man here is a

 

Cyclopean fisherboy from a place called Grarignol,

 

Bracy Dyge; he has applied for probadoner status in the

 

Corps and has so conducted himself as to earn my max-

 

imum approval for the application."

 

Bracy grinned broadly and went back to the pastime

 

mainly engaging his attention at the moment: looking at

 

the slender, attractive girl next to him.

 

"This," Langenschmidt continued, "is Dr Aleazar Ri-

 

merley, who is not here under quite such favourable aus-

 

pices. He is in fact under arrest for systematic and

 

flagrant violation of several clauses of the Unified Galac-

 

tic Code, details of which I shall be giving you.

 

"And thischild, I think one must say," he concluded,

 

turning, "is named Soraya. She doesn't understand much

 

of what we are saying, which is hardly surprising. She

 

wasn't brought up to speak pure Galactic, but an Irani.

 

dialect with some Galactic admixtures. She is, in

 

fact''and he looked straight at General Baden, wanting

 

to see the full impact of his bombshell"a native of ZRP

 

Number Twenty-two, whose location we haven't yet es-

 

tablished, but which narrows down to a thirty-parsec

 

sphere now, and"

 

"Twenty-two?" echoed the general in a strangled

 

voice.

 

"But" said both colonels simultaneously.

 

Langenschmidt let his face relax at last, into a beaming

 

smile. "Have I your permission to explain my actions

 

now?"

 

It had been decided at the last moment to make the

 

closing session of the Conference on Non-Interference

 

with Zarathustra Refugee Planets a public affair, with as

 

much pomp and spectacle as Cyclopean resources could

 

furnish at short notice, and full coverage by the planet's

 

news services. There was much adulation of Omar

 

Haust, the living representative of those who on un-

 

tamed worlds struggled to wrest a precarious living from

 

a hostile environmentat least, that was how Quist's

 

speech compositor put it, and she was far too preoccu-

 

pied to worry about the phrase herself. But there were

 

some worried faces in the public seats, where Cyclopean

 

notables, hurriedly summoned to show themselves, sat

 

listening and scrutinising the offworld delegates arranged

 

at a long table on the dais of the conference hall.

 

The matter troubling Quist was the same as it had

 

been since she first yielded to Rimerley's irresistible

 

bribe: would or would not the Corps leave enough sal-

 

vageable material to balance the planetary budget this

 

year, while they cast around for some other external rev-

 

enue to replace what was being thrown away?

 

Gradually, through her mood of anxiety, a noise from

 

outside the hall began to seep. She started, turning to

 

gaze at the window which offered a view of the large

 

square outside. There, thousands of the city's people

 

were watching on public telescreens the proceedings of

 

the conference.

 

They shouldn't be shouting like that. The thought

 

briefly crossed her mind, and as it passed she leapt in

 

amazement from her seat.

 

Down across the frame of the tall window a mon-

 

strous shining shape had moved, like a fish settling

 

through clear water. A spaceship. A spaceship so large

 

that the entire square was barely wide enough to afford

 

it room.

 

Others in the hall had seen it go by, and the bewil-

 

dered speaker at therostram one of the lesser delegates

 

from Earth, heaping praise on Cyclops for its noble self-

 

sacrificebroke off his address. The shouting from out-

 

side turned to real screaming now.

 

The ranked notables started to get up, muttering in

 

alarm, and then the scene was frozen by the impact of

 

shock.

 

The tall main doors of the hall were slammed open

 

not sliding back into the walls as they were meant to

 

move, but simply buried from their frames by a tremen-

 

dous blow from the far side. Over them, with the stolid

 

tramp of machines, came what most of the people

 

present had never seen except in historical recordings: a

 

squadron of the Corps Galactica in full battle equipment,

 

armour tough enough to repel an energy bolt, so heavy

 

that it was driven by miniaturised fusion reactors mounted

 

at the back, and polished to more-than-mirror brilliance

 

in every band of the spectrum. The crazy reflections

 

rendered it almost impossible to focus on the wearers,

 

making them seem like nightmare illusions.

 

That was why Gus Langenschmidt had insisted it be

 

worn. He didn't expect any resistance fierce enough to

 

justify its actual use.

 

The squadron wheeled right and left and filed around

 

the hill, taking station to surround it entirely, and he

 

came in last of all, striding directly towards Quist where

 

she stood, petrified, among the offworld delegates.

 

He wanted to get his opening statement out before

 

any of the news technicians regained enough presence of

 

mind to switch off the exterior transmissions.

 

"Alura Quist" he said, and the words rang around the

 

hall like the knell of doom, "I am Commandant Gustav

 

Langenschmidt, a duly appointed executive of the Corps

 

Galactica, and I arrest you for complicity in the follow-

 

ing violations of the Unified Galactic Code, to wit: mur-

 

der with malice, murder by default, conspiracy to"

 

The screaming and panic began then. Langenschmidt

 

paused; his squadron was fully- briefed on how to handle

 

this sort of trouble. It took only a few minutes to restore

 

calm, with the local notables sitting white-faced in their

 

chairs, their hands between their knees as though they

 

were trying to shrink and become too small to be seen,

 

the offworld delegates muttering frantic unanswerable

 

questions to each other, and the places of the news tech-

 

nicians taken by Corpsmen to ensure that the transmis-

 

sions would go on without a break.

 

Langenschmidt resumed. "Conspiracy to interfere with

 

the autonomous development of a Zarathustra Refugee

 

Planet, conspiracy with Aleazar Rimerley and Lors Heim-

 

dall and others to murder one Ekim Hakimi and dismem-

 

ber his corpse, and certain other charges."

 

He wheeled where he stood, knowing that two ar-

 

moured men had stamped to Quist's side and pinioned

 

her arms, and confronted the cowering Cyclopeans in

 

the public seats. He had intercepted a list of those invited

 

which was supplied to the news service, and knew that

 

all those he would name were present.

 

"Sophy Alt, I charge you with conspiracy with Alea-

 

zar Rimerley and Lors Heirndall and others to kill one

 

Mara Rustum and dismember her corpse. Don Ambon-

 

ine, I charge you with conspiracy with the same parties

 

to kill one Ali Qurab and dismember his corpse. Ved

 

Conakry, I charge you"

 

And so on, the entire miserable tale of Rimerley's rich

 

clients and their miserable victims, until there were more

 

than thirty men and women shivering with terror before

 

him.

 

Then he handed the documents from which he had

 

been reading to one of his men, threw back his helmet,

 

and strode to the dais. With the entire attention of the

 

planet riveted on him, he began.

 

"People of Cyclops, and in particular you offworld

 

visitors who have come here to attend the conference I

 

so rudely interrupted"he gave them a a sidelong glance

 

and saw they were listening as inteody as everyone

 

else"I want to explain the story behind the shocking

 

scene you have just witnessed.

 

"You all know about the Zarathustra Refugee Planets.

 

You perhaps also know that many moreperhaps well

 

over a million morepeople escaped from the Zarathus-

 

tra nova than we have to date accounted for.

 

"Well, we have learned in the past few days that an-

 

other shipload survived, on a world whose existence was

 

discovered by accident and not notified to my Corps.

 

The discoverer was the captain of a tramp space-

 

freighter, named Lors Heirndall. He was making a some-

 

what unusual journey along a route served by no regular

 

space-lines, when the strain proved too great for his en-

 

gines and he was forced to make an emergency landing

 

to conduct repairs on a Class Athat's a tolerably habit-

 

ableplanet in an unvisited system.

 

"There, he discovered the descendants of a group of

 

Irani-stock Zarathustrans, making the best of what they

 

had.

 

"He kept the discovery to himself and his crew, be-

 

lieving that in some way he would eventually be able to

 

exploit this secret. Not long afterwards, his chance oc-

 

curred. A certain Justin Kolb, celebrated on Cyclops for

 

his part in an accident in space, required the replacement

 

of his right leg. Although he was in the care of your

 

planet's leading surgeon, Aleazar Rimerley, the facilities

 

here were not adequate for full-scale limb regeneration,

 

and sending a patient to a more prosperous world is

 

costly.

 

"Heirndall went to Rimerley with a proposition. He

 

could secure for Kolb a replacement graft, a limb

 

matched closely to his own, for a fraction of the cost of

 

regeneration; Rimerley could charge his clientnot

 

Kolb; Alura Quist was paying, out of your planetary

 

fundsthe cost of a regeneration, and Heirndall and Ri-

 

merley could split the surplus profit.

 

"Rimericy accepted the offer. And Heirndall sectired

 

the limb as promised, by a peculiarly unpleasant decep-

 

tion practised on the unfortunate inhabitants of his pri-

 

vate ZRP.

 

"In the early days of their life there, they had insti-

 

tuted a humane system of quarantine for people suffering

 

from disease beyond their limited resources to cureand

 

there were plenty of those. Volunteers acted as what

 

they called Receivers of the Sick, to convey them away

 

from their community and the danger of infecting oth-

 

ers, and tended them until they recovered or died.

 

"This system was on the verge of disappearanceso

 

often had the Receivers died of the same illness as their

 

patients, the idea seemed no longer practical. But Heim-

 

dall set himself and his men up as a new team of Re-

 

ceivers, worming their way into the natives' confidence

 

and taking away not the truly ill, whom they preferred

 

to disregard, but those whose bodily characteristics ren-

 

dered them suitable as suppliers of spare parts.

 

"For Rimerley had seen the possibilities in an unlim-

 

ited supply of graft material. Not many people on Cy-

 

clops are rich, but those who are are disproportionately

 

so, and as greedy for youth as for material wealth. As

 

you have heard, no fewer than thirty people in this hall

 

have enjoyed the fruits of Rimerley's butcherynew

 

limbs, new eyes, new vital organs!

 

"It is being pleaded that they did no more than offer

 

euthanasia to the hopelessly sick, a practice tolerated

 

here and on most inhabited planets. This is not true.

 

How do we know?

 

"You may have heard that the Corps base is under or-

 

ders to close, ostensibly as a symbol of protest against

 

non-interference with ZRP's." He twisted his mouth

 

around the words, and knew the irony was not lost on

 

his hearers. "You may have seen this as an idealistic ges-

 

ture, since Cyclops can ill afford to lose the revenue

 

from the base. Or you may equally have wondered what

 

possessed Alura Quist to issue her ultimatum.

 

"She issued it because Rimerley offered her a bribe: a

 

new lease of life. He knew we were within sight of his

 

secret; he thought to provide us with a distraction that

 

would make our half-formed suspicions seem not worth

 

the trouble of investigation. And the bait he dangled be-

 

fore Quist was the body, complete and healthy, of a

 

young girl named Soraya: a source of new organs to re-

 

place her failing ones.

 

"That girl is aliveby a miracleand in our hands.

 

And she has told how, perfectly well, she was caused to

 

appear to her friends as the victim of a fatal disease, a

 

suitable subject for the ministrations of the Receivers of

 

the Sick. She was not ill at all; she was not offered an

 

easy death under the pretence that she was sick and in-

 

curableshe was simply shipped to Cyclops like an ani-

 

mal to the slaughter."

 

Langenschmidt paused. "People of Cyclops, it is no

 

part of the Corps's duty to tell you what you should do.

 

But I have worked on your planet for many years, and

 

come to know you at least a little. I am sure you will

 

knowwha.t you should do."

 

He turned to look at the pale, trembling conference

 

delegates. "And as for you," he said, "I hardly need say

 

that you have seen a Zarathustra Refugee Planet 'inter-

 

fered with'. Think it over. Andgo home."

 

For long moments, no one moved. Then, as if in a

 

dream, the old man from ZRP One, Omar Haust, stood

 

up and approached Quist. He looked at her as though at

 

something disgusting found under a stone. Pursed his

 

lips. Spat full in her face.

 

Langenschmidt snapped his helmet back over his head

 

and gave the signal to his men. They left their stations

 

and went to take hold of the men and women named in

 

the long criminal indictment. Some passive and hopeless,

 

some struggling and yelling hysterically, they were led

 

away.

 

Last of all, with Langenschmidt at her heels, Qnist was

 

taken to endure the execration of her planet's people as

 

she was marched towards the waiting spaceship.

 

XXI

 

 

"Made up your mind about non-interference?" Lan-

 

genschmidt said to Maddalena with a tone of false jocu-

 

larity.

 

There was no attempt to match it in her reply-

 

depressed, abstracted.

 

"Gus, that isn't fair. Cyclops isn't a typical civilised

 

planet, and come to that Heirndall and Rimerley aren't

 

typical Cyclopeans."

 

"Granted." He looked down from the wall-length

 

window of his villa towards the base, now back in full

 

operation after the cancellation of the evacuation. "On

 

the other hand, they do seem to be typical of those who

 

get power, get influence, get wealth simply because they

 

desire them so greedily. Truly civilised people don't crave

 

power. They havewhat would one call it?empathy,

 

perhaps, which holds them back."

 

"There's another and much older word," Maddalena

 

said.

 

"Which is?"

 

"Conscience." Maddalena stirred as though unable to

 

find a comfortable position on the luxuriously padded

 

seat she was using. "But look at it another way, Gus. It's

 

also empathy which makes me curse when I remember

 

all the poor sick and crippled people I saw on Thir-

 

teenin twenty solid years, remember. You've never had

 

an on-planet assignment lasting longer then weeks or

 

months. We ought to fix a limitwe ought to say if

 

these people don't show signs of progress within such a

 

time, we'll re-contact them openly and help them."

 

"Can we define progress?" countered Langenschmidt.

 

"I thought that was one of the basic precepts behind

 

non-interference. We must have lost our sense of direc-

 

rion if we can breed Heirndalls and Rimerleys on a so-

 

called 'civilised world'. Maybe the ZRP's will re-discover

 

what we've lost."

 

"I've heard all that," Maddalena snapped. "It still

 

doesn't Well, take a current conspicuous example. That

 

poor girl Soraya had a boy-friend at home, and a sick

 

mother. She was going to be married. We apply the non-

 

interference rule strictly, and forbid her to return to

 

her own planet with the memory of what she's seen since

 

she was kidnapped. Precious little that must be, if she was

 

kept in coma, but there the ruling stands, and I can't say

 

I like it."

 

"In fact, you've chosen a bad example," Langen-

 

schmidt grunted. "Her adoring boy-friend accepted the

 

payment Heirndall offered as a means of keeping the

 

people eager to part with their sick kinfolk, took it

 

home, and was promptly so well off he could take his

 

pick of the eligible girls. And did, within the week."

 

"What? How do you know?" Disbelieving, Mad-

 

dalena stared at him.

 

"Report came in a few hours ago. Using the informa-

 

tion supplied by Heirndall's crew, a Corps party dressed

 

themselves up as Receivers of the Sick and went to So-

 

raya's home village. It's going to be a very useful dis-

 

guise for our permanent agents, thatand I think you

 

can rely on the non-interference rule being bent far

 

enough to heal a really deserving case, now and again."

 

He grinned maliciously. "Wouldn't like your next as-

 

signment to be a Twenty-two, would you? Or are you

 

leaving the Corps?"

 

"Nono, I don't think so. Not yet." Maddalena's at-

 

tention had been caught by two figures moving beyond

 

the window: a youth and a girl both with long black

 

hair. "Is that Bracy and Soraya out there?"

 

"Haven't you noticed how much time they're spend-

 

ing together? I took Bracy aside and told him what she'd

 

been through, and gave him his first Corps assignment

 

looking after her. Not that he needed orders."

 

"He's already had his first Corps assignment. With

 

me."

 

"He hadn't even applied for probationary status

 

thenexcept verbally, to Nole, and that doesn't count.

 

This time it's official: rehabilitation of victim of criminal

 

assault."

 

Maddalena laughed, and the sound was gratifyingly

 

unforced to Langenschmidt's keen ears. "Damn you,

 

Gus! Why do you have to be such a nice guy?"

 

"Long practice," he retorted. "When you reach my

 

age-"

 

"You're also an idiot, but that must be congenital."

 

Maddalena's face clouded again. "Seriously, you know

 

. . . I had had it in mind to apply for another on-planet

 

posting. In spite of what I said when I first came here.

 

But I feel I wouldn't be able to tackle the )ob ob)ecriv&-

 

ly. I've been so submerged in dirt and disease and stupid-

 

ity and barbarism I'm in danger of thinking of galactic

 

civilisation as the next thing to paradise. Well, I guess in

 

some senses it is, but it isn't my idea of paradise. Not

 

basically."

 

She paused and looked directly at him.

 

"Gus, I'd like to postpone my leave. I can, if I wish. I

 

don't much want to go back to Earthif I was attached

 

to my home world, I'd never have left it in the first

 

place. At this distance it seems like an illusion. But

 

planets like Cyclops are all too real. Could you bear to

 

have me on your staffsay for a yearwhile I catch up

 

on reality by degrees?"

 

"I'd be honoured," Langenschmidt said. "Do you

 

know something? Long ago1 hadn't thought of it in

 

years until I spoke to Pavel Brzeska the other day1 told

 

him I thought you were going to make history eventu-

 

ally, and I'd like to be around when it happened. Well,

 

twenty years passed and no history to speak of. And

 

then suddenly you orbit back into my sector and things

 

happen. I want to thank you for staying your hand until

 

I was present as a witness and could have my wish

 

granted."

 

"You're a sweetheart," Maddalena said fondly, and put

 

out her fingers to meet his.