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