“But we’re already broadcasting at a very high level,” Donner protested. “I’m concerned that we’ll harm the fools if we raise it again, and you know how difficult it is to replace Lomeri.”
“If you’re talking about the three Lomeri I saw on my way here,” Hansen said, stepping toward the throne, “then they’re beyond anybody else hurting. They seem to have gotten into a fight and pretty well finished each other off.”
“What?” peeped Donner.
“What?” boomed Strombrand, lurching up from his chair. Hansen couldn’t help blinking because the motion was so similar to that of an avalanche rumbling toward him.
“Well, it’s like I said,” Hansen explained. “They’d done each other with spears and teeth, you know.”
He shrugged. “There were a couple sailbacks around, which is why I thought of the bodies when you said herdsmen.”
“When was this?” the android chieftain demanded. Despite the bestiality of his form, Strombrand’s white skin was so smooth that the bars of light lay on it in distinct patches rather than a general blur.
“Three hours, perhaps?” Hansen said. Even without the artificial intelligence—and Walker—Hansen’s internal clock could have given the time to within five minutes; but that wasn’t anything Strombrand needed to know.
“And the herd’s been wandering?” Strombrand boomed. “Well, don’t just stand there, Donner! Round up the house slaves and get off after them!”
Sweat beaded on Donner’s bald scalp as he wrung his hands together. “Oh, it’ll never work,” he moaned. “Those damned cattle, they like to stray, and by the time we get out there in the mud they’ll all be gone!”
“Did I ask for an opinion?” demanded the android, balling a fist larger than Hansen’s head.
“If all you’re concerned with is getting back your cattle,” Hansen said, “I can call them home for you.”
All eyes in the room focused on him.
“Clever, clever Hansen,” Walker whispered in his ears.
“Of course,” Hansen continued, “there’s something I need that you can help me with, Lord Strombrand. Shall we make a pact, you and I?”
The android seated himself again. His right index finger tapped the arm of his throne. It sounded like a maul striking a chopping block.
“What sort of pact?” he asked.
“There’s a question I want to ask your brother’s data bank,” Hansen said. “Will you help me get the chance to ask it?”
Strombrand’s great brows drew down in a scowl. “That?” he said. “It’s not Strelbrand’s, it’s all of ours, from when we came here. He’ll never give you permission, no matter what I say.”
“That’s not the deal,” Hansen said. “I call your cattle back . . . and you use your best efforts to allow me to ask one question of the data bank. Your oath on that?”
“Oaths have power here on Northworld . . . ,” Walker said, repeating one of the first things he’d told Hansen on the snow-covered bluff.
Strombrand knuckled his broad jaw. “All right,” he said.
The android stood up, more deliberately than he had before but no less threateningly. “But I’m not interested in best efforts, stranger. If you don’t bring back my whole herd, you’ll provide the main course for my dinner tonight. Do you understand?”
“Oh, yes,” Hansen said with a cold grin. “I understand you very well, Lord Strombrand.”
See to it that you understand me, he thought; and that was not a boast.
Walker’s signals prodded the herd of edaphosaurs home while Hansen stood in the muddy courtyard whistling bars from In the Baggage Coach Ahead. Later that afternoon as Hansen climbed into an aircar to be taken to the estate of Strombrand’s brother, he noticed the chief slave Donner leaning close to one of the sailbacks.
Donner was whistling earnestly, hoping to see some flicker of interest in the reptilian eyes.
Strelbrand’s palace was identical to that of his brother.
Strelbrand himself was Strombrand’s mirror image; his wife, as broad as either man with two pairs of arms and legs, was still more hideous.
And Strelbrand’s reaction to his brother’s request was just as Strombrand had warned.
“What?” the seated android boomed. “Is there madness in our batch, Strombrand, that you’d think of asking me this thing? No! No, of course not!”