Star Hunter | Page 7

can make the scales a little even this way."
"Make the scales even." Vye's fading hope brightened. Then the Out-Hunter was a
follower of the Fata Rite. That would explain everything. If you could not repay a good
deed to the one you owed, you must balance the Eternal Scales in another fashion. He
relaxed again, a great many of his unasked questions so answered.
"You will accept?"
Vye nodded eagerly. "Yes, Out-Hunter." He still could not believe that this was
happening.
The other pressed the refresher button, and this time he handed Lansor the brimming cup.
"Drink on the bargain." His words had the ring of command.
Lansor drank, gulping down the contents of the cup, and suddenly was aware of being
tired. He leaned back against the wall, his eyes closed.
Ras Hume took the cup from the lax fingers of the young man. So far, very good. Chance
appeared to be playing on his side of the board. It had been chance which had steered him
into the Starfall just three nights ago when he had been in quest of his imposter. And Vye
Lansor was better than he dared hope to find. The boy had the right coloring, he had been
batted around enough to fall for the initial story, he was malleable now. And after Wass'
techs worked on him he would be Rynch Brodie--heir to one-third of
Kogan-Bors-Wazalitz!
"Come!" He touched Vye on the shoulder. The boy opened his eyes but his gaze did not
focus as he got slowly to his feet. Hume glanced at his planet-time watch. It was still very
early; the chance he must run in getting Lansor out of this building was small if they went
at once. Guiding the younger man with a light hold above the elbow, he walked him out
back to the flitter landing stage. The air-car was waiting. Hume's sense of being a
gambler facing a run of good luck grew as he shepherded the boy into the flitter, punched
a cover destination and took off.
On another street he transferred himself and his charge into a second air-car, set the
destination to within a block of the address Wass had given him. Not much later he

walked Vye into a small lobby with a discreet list of names posted in its rack. No
occupations attached to those colored streamers Hume noted. This meant either that their
owners represented luxury trades, where a name signified the profession or service, or
that they were covers--perhaps both. Wass' world fringed many different circles,
intermingled with some quite surprising professions dedicated to the comfort, pleasure or
health of the idle rich, off-world nobility, and the criminal elite.
Hume fingered the right call button, knowing that the thumb pattern he had left on Wass'
conference table would have already been relayed as his symbol of admission here. A
flicker of light winked below the name, the wall to the right shimmered, and produced a
doorway. Steering Vye to it, Hume nodded to the man waiting there. He was a flat-faced
Eucorian of the servant caste, and now he reached out to draw Lansor over the threshold.
"I have him, gentlehomo." His voice was as expressionless as his face. There was another
shimmer and the door disappeared.
Hume brushed his hand down the outer side of his thigh, wiping flesh against the coarse
stuff of the crew uniform. He left the lobby frowning at his own thoughts.
Stupid! A swamper from one of the worst rat holes in the port. Like as not that youngster
would have had his brains kicked out in a brawl, or been fried to a crisp when some
drunk got wild with a blaster, before the year was out. He'd done him a real kindness,
given him a chance at a future less than one man in a billion ever had the power to even
dream about. Why, if Vye Lansor had known what was going to happen to him, he would
have been so willing to volunteer, that he would have dragged Hume here. There was no
reason to have any regrets over the boy, he had never had it so good--never! There was
only one small period of risk for Vye to face. Those days he would have to spend alone
on Jumala between the time Wass' organization would plant him there and the coming of
Hume's party to "discover" him. Hume himself would tape every possible aid to cover
that period. All the knowledge of a Guild Out-Hunter, added to the information gathered
by the survey, would be used to provide Rynch Brodie with the training necessary for
wilderness survival. Hume was already listing the items to be included as he strode down
the street, his tread once more assured.

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