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binocs over his head and dialed in the magnification that would give him a
fair view of what was happening down there.
As he watched the two female scholars come out with the male aide trailing
behind and a small crowd of locals circling and shoving around them, he
thought regretfully about the rangegun the Ykkuval wouldn t let him bring out
of the Kushayt. With a bit of luck and explosive loads he could turn that
plaza into a crater and no more worry about the University group; they
wouldn t have mouths to open. Trouble was, it left detectable residues and
with the Yaraka involved here, that wasn t on.
The Harper and the Aide climbed into the flier, but the Scholar stayed on the
ground; she and the
Aide talked a while, then she stepped back and watched while the flier lifted
and circled to gain altitude.
Kurz took a moment to watch her as she turned her head, said something to one
of the locals, then started strid-ing back toward the buildings, the locals
scurrying to keep up with her. Then he shifted the viewfield, lo-cated the
flier just before it vanished into the clouds.
He switched to infra and followed the pulsing blur north toward the end of the
Vale.
What are they up to? North?
He followed the blur as it curved round the end of the Vale and started south
along the eastern line of peaks, winced as the binocs picked up a sudden flare
of energy. He switched back to visual and swore again as he saw the flier
slant steeply downward and vanish into the trees. He pulled the viewer off,
rubbed at his eyes.  Hunting, he said aloud. And was grimly sure he knew what
game they hunted.
It was over an hour before the flier rose again. It hesitated a moment then
darted into the clouds. He followed the blur south until there was another
energy flare. He took off the binocs, slid the instrument into its padded
case, checked to be sure the cutter was clamped solidly to his belt, then he
swung down the tree, dropped to the ground and trotted to the mini-skip.
Speculation was all very well, but seeing with his own eyes would give him a
better measure of what was happening.
He walked along the line of red-faced, angry men, shouting at him to untie
them. They were bound with thin tough cord. Not filament. Must be some local
fiber. When he reached a face he remembered, he stopped.  What happened?
The man glared at him, then looked away, shamed to be found so helpless.
 Mesuch, he said after a moment. His voice was hoarse and full of a violence
he couldn t let out any other way.  That thing you call a stunner. They took
the cutters. He wriggled closer to Kurz.  Turn us loose. They said they
coming back for us. Turn us loose.
 Before I do, explain him. He pointed at a man who lay in a huddle next to
some bushes, his face contorted, drying foam on his mouth and chin.
The chorek s throat twitched. He still wouldn t look at Kurz. He didn t say
anything until Kurz turned
and made as if he were going to walk away.  They wanted to know about you.
The words came out in a hurried mumble.  The woman wanted to know why we were
here, where we got the cutters, where you d got to.
 I see.
 Garv din t tell her nothing. She put some kind of poison in him, but he din t
tell. He s dead, in t he.
 Oh, yes, he said.
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And you re a liar. Babble of some kind, he talked his fool head off before it
got him.
He unclipped the cutter and sliced through the chorek s neck. Ignoring their
struggles, screams, and pleading, he killed the rest of the bound men, then
trudged off for the miniskip. Put any one of these grubs under a verifier and
what they d say would be very bad for Chandava. Which meant he had to follow
the flier and do the same with the rest of the choreks the woman stunned. It
wasn t pleasant work, but it had to be done.
His plan for the multiple invasion of the Vale was as dead now as those
choreks were going to be.
Un-derneath his calm mask he was angry, he wanted that Harp player dead. He
was impatient with the need to finish the choreks, he wanted to start the
stalk now, but he didn t dare. If he failed, Hunnar and
Jilet would fall, his family with them. He couldn t afford anger at
Hunnar or any High Jilet, so he channeled it all onto the Harper s head.
3
 When we found out there were six different bands getting set to raid the
Vale, we couldn t ignore that. Shadith nodded to Daizil.  Marrin can give you
the general locations where we found them. We stunned them, tied them into
neat parcels for you and left them to be collected later. You ll find a few of
them rather dead. The babble drug has unfortunate side ef-fects in some Fior.
She waited until Marrin had left with the Speaker, sighed, and turned to
Aslan.  We collected over sev-enty cutters, Scholar. She laid three of the
weapons on the table.  In case you need them. We have the others locked in a
cache in the flikit, didn t think it was a very good idea to have them
floating loose.
Too much temptation.
 I agree. Did you get enough information to go after the spy?
 Enough to know he s probably about somewhere. We ll spiral out looking for
whatever we can find. She wrinkled her nose.  And try not to get shot down.
You be careful, Lan. I mean it. You didn t hear what they told me. I don t
want you thinking you re safe, just because you re here surrounded by people.
4
Kurz whirled the bolas over his head, the weights at the end whistling loud
enough to bring up the heads of the grazers. They were domesticated beasts so
they didn t panic, but they did move away from it, scatter-ing as was their
habit, to give a stalking predator a number of targets. He let the bolas go
and grunted with satisfaction as it tangled round the legs of a fe-male with a
calf. He ran forward a few steps, slipped a second bolas off his arm and
brought it up to speed, downing a second beast not far from the first.
He slipped his improvised halter onto the first, drove the tether s holding
peg into the ground with a powerful blow of his fist. As soon as he d dealt
with the second, he cut them free and let them get to their feet. Then he
backed off and squatted next to a bush where his silhouette would be
camouflaged.
They pulled at the tethers for a moment, blatting their distress, but
when nothing more alarming happened, they forgot about the intruder and
went back to grazing.
He waited patiently. Grazers were grazers on every world he d visited, the
same narrow acuteness and the same stupidity. When he thought the time was
right, he moved slowly, a step at a time, away from the bush. They retreated
as far as they could, but he didn t chase them, just dumped two small heaps of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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