Star Hunter | Page 3

not talk. If you had a good thing, and
Wass accepted temporary partnership, he kept his side of the bargain rigidly. You did the
same--or regretted your stupidity.
"A claimant to the Kogan estate--that good enough for you?"
Wass showed no surprise. "And how would such a claimant be profitable to us?"
Hume appreciated that "us"; he had an in now. "If you supply the claimant, surely you
can claim a reward, in more ways than one."
"True. But one does not produce a claimant out of a Krusha dream. The investigation for
any such claim now would be made by a verity lab and no imposture will pass those tests.
While a real claimant would not need your help or mine."
"Depends upon the claimant."
"One you discovered on Jumala?"
"No." Hume shook his head slowly. "I found something else on Jumala--an L-B from
Largo Drift intact and in good shape. From the evidence now in existence it could have
landed there with survivors aboard."
"And the evidence of such survivors living on--that exists also?"
Hume shrugged, his plasta-flesh fingers flexed slightly. "It has been six planet years,
there is a forest where the L-B rests. No, no evidence at present."
"The Largo Drift," Wass repeated slowly, "carrying, among others, Gentlefem Tharlee
Kogan Brodie."
"And her son Rynch Brodie, who was at the time of the Largo Drift's disappearance a boy
of fourteen."
"You have indeed made a find." Wass gave that simple statement enough emphasis to
assure Hume he had won. His one-in-a-thousand idea had been absorbed, was now being
examined, amplified, broken down into details he could never have hoped to manage for
himself, by the most cunning criminal brain in at least five solar systems.
"Is there any hope of survivors?" Wass attacked the problem straight on.
"No evidence even of there being any passengers when the L-B planeted. Those are
automatic and released a certain number of seconds after an accident alarm. For what it's
worth the hatch of this one was open. It could have brought in survivors. But I was on
Jumala for three months with a full Guild crew and we found no sign of any castaways."

"So you propose--?"
"On the basis of my report Jumala has been put up for a safari choice. The L-B could well
be innocently discovered by a client. Every one knows the story with the case dragging
through the Ten Sector-Terran Courts now. Gentlefem Brodie and her son might not have
been news ten years ago. Now, with a third of the Kogan-Bors-Wazalitz control going to
them, any find linked with the Largo Drift would gain full galactic coverage."
"You have a choice of survivor? The Gentlefem?"
Hume shook his head. "The boy. He was bright, according to the stories since, and he
would have the survival manual from the ship to study. He could have grown up in the
wilds of an unopened planet. To use a woman is too tricky."
"You are entirely right. But we shall require an extremely clever imposter."
"I think not." Hume's cool glance met Wass'. "We only need a youth of the proper general
physical description and the use of a conditioner."
Wass' expression did not change, there was no sign that Hume's hint had struck home.
But when he replied there was a slight change in the monotone of his voice.
"You seem to know a great deal."
"I am a man who listens," Hume replied, "and I do not always discount rumor as mere
fantasy."
"That is true. As one of the guild you would be interested in the root of fact beneath the
plant of fiction," Wass acknowledged. "You appear to have done some planning on your
own."
"I have waited and watched for just such an opportunity as this," Hume answered.
"Ah, yes. The Kogan-Bors-Wazalitz combine incurred your displeasure. I see you are
also a man who does not forget easily. And that, too, I understand. It is a foible of my
own, Out-Hunter. I neither forget nor forgive my enemies, though I may seem to do so
and time separates them from their past deeds for a space."
Hume accepted that warning--both must keep any bargain. Wass was silent for a moment,
as if to leave time for the thought to root itself, then he spoke again.
"A youth with the proper physical qualifications. Have you any such in mind?"
"I think so." Hume was short.
"He will need certain memories; those take time to tape."
"Those dealing with Jumala, I can supply."

"Yes. You will have to provide a tape beginning with his arrival on that world. For such
family material as is necessary I shall have ready. An interesting project, even apart from
its value to us. This is one to intrigue experts."