Manning’s were larger than most of the in the new Earth town; the was out near the end of one of the streets, a single-storied plastic-and-metal box on a quick-concrete base. Well, it was as well as any of the in the Edge planetfalls, Rynason as he on the door. And there was room for all of the survey team workers.
Manning himself let him in, his hand in a that the man’s joviality. “Come on in; the others are already here,” Manning said, and walked ahead of him into the larger of the two rooms inside. His step was as always, but there was a touch of in it which Rynason noticed immediately. Manning was about something.
“All right; we’re all set,” Manning said, against a at the of the room. Rynason a seat on the arm of a chair next to Mara and Marc Stoworth, a heavy, blond-haired man in his who his cut on the but long in back. He looked like every one of the Rynason had in the outworlds, and would have gone into that of position if he’d had the connections. He out of place among the of who the and … but these were by the big who were in the outworlds; Stoworth to move up into the management offices when the moved in.
“Gentlemen, there’s something very about these we’ve been with,” Manning said. “I’m going to out a at you and see if you don’t come to the same that Larsborg and I did.”
Rynason over to Mara and murmured, “What’s his problem today?”
But she was frowning. “He’s got a one. Listen.”
Manning had up a of from the table next to him and was through it, his grimly. “This is the report I got yesterday from Larsborg here—architecture and other artifacts. It’s very interesting. Herb, that onto the screen.”
The lights off and the screen in the Manning up with a of one of the Hirlaji out on the Flat. It in the of an rock-cliff, protected from the planet’s on three sides. Larsborg had set up lights for a picture; the whole out against the of the background.
“This look familiar to any of you?” Manning said quietly.
For a moment Rynason to at the picture. He had a of the Hirlaji since they’d landed; this one was but not different in design. Larsborg had away most of the and which had been packed up against its sides, the full of the structure, and he’d sand-blasted the designs over the entrance, but….
Then he what he was seeing. The of the was a different than that from which he’d the other on Tentar XI, but the was unmistakable. This was a in of that same building, the one they’d two years before.
He a of voices around the room, and Manning’s voice cut-through it with: “That’s right, gentlemen: it’s an Outsiders building. It’s not in that crazy, metal or or it was that they used, but it’s the same design. Take a good long look at it we go on to the next photo.”
Rynason looked … closely. Yes, it was the same design a cruder, and the weren’t the same, but the lines of the and the cornice….
The next picture onto the screen. It was a of the designs over the entrance, in so that they out starkly. The room was so that Rynason the the screen in the wall.
“That’s Outsiders too,” said Breune. “It’s not the same, though … distorted.”
“It’s in stone, not in metal,” Manning said. “It’s the same thing, all right. Anybody disagree?”
No one did.
“All right, then; let’s have the lights up again.”
The lights came on and once more there was a of talking around the room. Rynason his position on the seat and to catch the that had through his mind just the screen had faded. There was another similarity…. Well, he’d a of the Outsider in the past years; it wasn’t necessary to all the right now.
“What I want to know is, why didn’t any of the of you see this?” said Manning angrily. “Have you all got plastic for brains? Over a dozen men these horsefaces, and only one of you has the to see the of his own eyes!”
“Maybe we should turn in our spades,” said Stoworth.
Manning at him. “Maybe you should, if you think this isn’t serious. Let’s this clear: these old that so many of you think are just as as can be have been in the same as the Outsiders. Quaint, are they? Harmless too, I suppose!”
He with his hands on his hips, his and took a long, breath. When he looked up again his was into an frown. “Gentlemen … as I call you from of … we’ve been of the Outsiders for centuries. They were all over God how many your or mine had stopped playing with their tails; as as we can tell they had a as tightly-knit as our own, and stronger. And about thousand years ago they started out. They left nothing but empty and a of machinery. And we’ve been those since we got out of our own star-system.
“Well, we just may have them at last. Right here, on Hirlaj. Now what do you think of that?”
No one said anything for a minute. Rynason looked at Mara, her smile, and up.
“I don’t think the Hirlaji are the Outsiders,” he said calmly.
Manning a at him. “You saw the photos.”
“Yes, I saw them. That’s Outsiders work, all right, or something a like it. But it doesn’t necessarily prove that these … how many of them are there? Twenty-five? I don’t think these are the Outsiders. We’ve their history to the point of complete barbarism. Their was once high to them off this planet, let alone to let them spread all over among the stars.”
Manning waited for him to finish, then he to the of the men in the room and spread his hands. “Now that, gentlemen, just how much we’ve out so far.” He looked over at Rynason again. “Has it to you, Lee, that if these are the Outsiders, that maybe they know a little more than we do? I you’re going to say you had a with one of them and you didn’t see a thing to make you … but just that they’ve been using for thousand years and that you know what you’re doing when you try it.
“Look, I don’t trust them—if they’re the Outsiders they’ve got maybe a hundred thousand years head-start on us scientifically. There may be only a dozen of them, but we don’t know how they are.”
“That’s if they’re the Outsiders,” said Rynason.
Manning his impatiently. “Yes, that’s what I’m saying. If they’re the Outsiders, which looks like a conclusion. Or do you have a one?”
“Well, I don’t know if it’s better,” said Rynason. “It may not be as attractive, for that matter. But have you that maybe when the Outsiders out of our area they moved on elsewhere? We’re so used to that we think that the Outsiders must be too, which I is what’s you about the Hirlaji here alive. But it might be worse. That whole have moved on to this area; we be on the of it right now, to head-on into a hundred star just with the Outsiders.”
Manning at him, and the on his was not anger. Something like it, but not anger.
“The we’ve here were by the Hirlaji,” Rynason said. “I saw them when I was with Horng, and these are the same structures. But the design was from older buildings, and I don’t know how I’d have to search the memories I where they originally got that of approach to design. Maybe they telepathy. But this isn’t as old as the Outsiders; they came out of thousands of years after the Outsiders had left those we’ve been finding. The are that if the Hirlaji were by the Outsiders it was around thirty thousand years ago … which means the Outsiders came this way when they left those cities. That would that we’re them … and we might catch up at any time.”
He stopped for a moment, then said, “We’re moving than they were, and we have no idea where they may have settled again. One more the Edge, and we may into one of their present outposts. But this isn’t it. Not yet.”
Manning was still at Rynason, but it was a stare. “You’re sure that what you’ve been out of that horseface’s is real?” he asked levelly. “You trust them?”
Rynason nodded. “Horng was afraid; that was real. I it myself. And the of it was real, too—I see the whole memory there, and nobody have been making that up. If you’d that…”
“Well, I didn’t,” Manning said shortly. “And I don’t think I trust them.” He paused, and after a moment frowned. “But this direct to be the best way we have of on them. I want you to busy, Lee, and go after that horse’s for us. Don’t let him drive you out again; if he’s something, in there and see what it is. Above all, don’t trust him.
“If these are the Outsiders, they be us.”
Manning stopped talking, and a minute. He looked up under at Rynason. “And be careful, Lee. I’m on you.”
Rynason his gaze, and to Mara. “We’ll try it again tomorrow,” he said. “Get in a for a this afternoon; make sure we’ll have one to go thing in the morning. I’ll check with you about an hour after we here today.”
She looked up at him, surprised. “Check back? Why?”
“I put in a myself, yesterday. Wine from Cluster II, ’86. I was for some company.”
She smiled. “All right.”
Manning was the session. “…Carl, be sure to those of the Outsiders together for me by tonight. And I’m going to hand your reports to each of the of you; go through them and watch for those you over the time. We may be able to turn up something else that doesn’t check out. Go over them carefully—all the reports were jobs. You’re all trying to work too fast.”
Rynason rose with the of them, as he how Manning had those reports. Well, that was one of the of authority: fault. He started for the door.
“Lee! Hold it a minute; I want to talk to you, alone.”
Rynason sat, and when all the others had gone Manning came and sat opposite him. He slowly took out a and it.
“My last pack till the next makes touchdown,” he said. “Sorry I can’t offer you one, but I’m a for the things. I know they’re to be non-habit-forming these days, but I’m a man of many vices.”
Rynason shrugged, waiting for him to come to the point.
“I it makes me a more open-minded about what the members of my staff do,” Manning on. “You know—why should I on or smoking, for instance, when I do it myself?”
“I’m you see it that way,” Rynason said drily. “Why did you want me to stay?”
Manning a long of slowly, it through eyes. “Well, though I’m easy going about things, I do try to keep an on you. When you come right to it, I’m for every man who’s with me out here.” He stopped, and laughed shortly. “Not that I’m as as that sounds, of course—you know me, Lee. But when you’re in a position of authority you have to the responsibilities. You me?”
“You have to protect your own at Cluster headquarters,” Rynason said.
“Well, yes. Of course, you into a pattern of … of a feeling, I suppose, though I’ve been on the on the in-worlds. But I it—it happens, I that feeling. And I’m a about you, Lee.”
Rynason see what was now. He sat into the chair and said, “Why?”
Manning with concern. “I’ve been noticing you with Mara lately. You in her.”
“Is she one of those you were telling me about, Manning?” said Rynason quietly. “You want to me to away from her?”
Manning his head, a quick the idea. “No, Lee, not at all. She’s not that of a woman. And that’s my point. I can see how you look at her, and you’re on the track. When you’re out here on the Edge, you don’t want a wife.”
“What I need is some good healthy vice, is that what you mean?”
Manning sat forward. “That puts it clearly. Yeah, that’s about it. Lee, you’re up some on this job, and don’t think I’m not aware of it. Telepathing with that is rough, from what you’ve told me. I think you should go good and and up tonight. And take one of the town women; they’re always available. Do you good, I it.”
Rynason up. “Maybe tomorrow night,” he said. “Tonight I’m busy. With Mara.” He and walked toward the door.
“I’d you with someone else,” Manning said him. “I’m telling you this for your own good, it or not.”
Rynason at the door and the man coldly. “She’s not in you, Manning,” he said. He out and the door him.
Manning be with his posing, but his didn’t Rynason. In any case, he had something else on his mind just now. He had what it had been about the over the Hirlaji in the that had touched a memory him: there was a to the that he had seen, through Tebron’s eyes, the Temple of Kor. The of Kor, Tebron had called them … from the of the Old Ones.
The Outsiders?
