have been roused from sleep and come at once.
Trevelyan stretched luxuriously and sat back in the booth.
“Thanks,” he said. “I was getting somewhat tired waiting.”
“You’re a Solman, all right,” said the Nomad, “and it wouldn’t surprise me a bit to learn you really are a Cordy.
Want to talk about it?”
Trevelyan hesitated a moment. “No. I’m sorry you were, awakened, Suppose I buy a round of drinks and we call
it even.”
“You can buy the drinks,” said the Nomad, plumping his large bottom onto the seat. “I’m not so sure about the rest of it, though.”
Trevelyan signaled the proprietor. “There’s been no real harm done,” he insisted. “I’M not after you people, if that’s what’s worrying you. This was a-let’s say an experiment.”
“I’ll need to know more than that.”
“If you insist, I’ll explain everything. But you wouldn’t know whether it’s the truth or not, so wby bother?”
“There is that,” said the Nomad. His face had gone expressionless.
The bearded man took their orders. They sat in silence, waiting.
Sean’s voice explodcd the quiet. “What to do, Hal?” He pushed the words out of a tautened throat. “What’s going on?”
“We’ll see-.” The reply wis as wooden as the countenance.
“I’m-” Sean gulped. His face wis drawn tight and there was a twitch in the angle of his jaw. “I’m sorry about this, Hal.”
“All right, lad. If it hadn’t been you, it’d have been somebody else. You it least bad the sense to call me.” The Nomad’s eyes were cold on Trevelyan’s, and when he smiled it was catlike. “Just to show we have some manners, I’m Peregrine Joachim Henry-rank, skipper.”
Trevelvan nodded. “Hello,” he said politely. “I want to warn you, Captain Joachim, against doing anything rash.’ The phrase was carefully chosen on his guess about the other man’s character. The melodramatic flavor should both irritate him and make him underestimate his opponentvery slightly, to be sure, but those things added up.
“I assure you,” Trevelvan went on, “that you’ve nothing to fear.” He smiled. “You seem to know that Coordinators don’t run around with identification cards, like a fictional hero. So how do you even know I am one? I could be a practical joker.”
“It doesn’t smell right, somehow,” said Joachim bleakly. The drinks arrived. They touched glasses and Joachim
downed his in three gulps. Decision settled his features into an iron mold. “All right,” he said. “You’re coming along with us, lad, and at the first wriggle or squeak you get it. Sean will take you up to the Peregrine.” He turned to the younger Nomad. “I’ve made all arrangements. The stuff’ll be loaded tomorrow and we can leave at about eighteen hundred hours. If this person has friends looking for him, it isn’t likely they’ll think of us before we get clear of the system.”
“Now wait a minute-” began Trevelyan.
“Tbat’ll do. We need to find out more about you, and there’ll be a nice long voyage to do it in. If you keep clean, you won’t get hurt, and we’ll let you go eventually.”
Trevelyan narrower his eyes. “I won’t say anything about charges of kidnappings he murmured, “but bow do you know
I don’t want to be taken aboard your ship?”
Joachim’ s grin flashed out, suddenly merry. “Why, It wouldn’t surprise me at all if you did,” he answered. “In which case, I wish you joy of it. All right, friends, let’s drink up and get out of here.”
Trevelyan walked meekly between the two Nomads. He didn’t think of the many days of preparation-research in the Coordination and police files at Stellamont, tediously worked-out equations indicating psychological probabilities, study of the town, and rehearsal of his role. Those were behind him now, and for what followed he had no data, no predictions-When they came to the spaceport-it must have been a good half-hour’s walk and not a word spoken-tlie gate scanned them and opened. They crossed blank concrete, passing under the dim forms of slumbering spaceships, until they came to a hanger. The door there recognized its lessee and admitted them. There were a couple of small fliers resting here, and Sean opened the airlock of one. Lights came on within the ascetic interior, spilling out into the gloom of the building. Trevelyan saw that the fliers had a heavy retractable rifle in the nose and machine guns and missle. tubes in the air fins.