Rynason the next two hours in town, moving through the and about what Manning had said. He was right, in a way: this was no more than a for the Earthmen, a point. It wasn’t a yet; were still going up, prices not only of but also according to who did the selling. A of the men here were trying some out on the west Flat; their had so been small but they the only the had so yielded. The of the town was on its own weight: bars, houses, laundries, and diners—establishments which only there were men here to them. Several a of the men had killing and the small animals who through the alleys, but too many of those men had died and the had been abandoned. And they had noticed that when those animals in the the town, they died too.
A of the big had sent out men to look around, but it was too soon for any to have itself here; all the offered so was room to expand. Despite the wide of the Earthmen through the stars, a where were at all for was not to be overlooked; the population explosion, despite tight on the worlds, had up with the of these worlds, and new room was needed.
But the on Hirlaj was still new. A of Earthmen had come, but they had not yet their with them. They on the Flat, waiting for more to come in and with them. If there should be trouble more men arrived….
At 600 Rynason walked out on the dirt-packed to Manning’s quarters. He met Marc Stoworth and Jules Lessingham out the door. They looked worried.
“What’s wrong?” he said.
They didn’t stop as they by. “Ask the old man,” said Stoworth, going past with an step.
Rynason on in through the open door. Manning was in the room, of stunner-units. He looked up as Rynason entered and to him.
“Help me this unloaded, Lee.”
Rynason for his sheath-knife and started open one of the crates. “Why are you the arsenal?”
“Because we may need it. Couple of the boys were just out at the horse-pasture, and they say the have disappeared.”
“Jules and Stoworth? I met them on the way in.”
“They were doing some follow-up work out there … or at least they were going to. There’s not a single one of them there, not a of them.”
Rynason frowned. “They were all there this morning.”
“They’re not there now!” Manning snapped. “I don’t like it, not after what you’ve told me. We’re going to look for them.”
“With stunners?”
“Yes. Right now Mara is out at the of the to use in for them.”
Rynason the boxes of and power-packs on the where Manning indicated. There were about of them—blunt-barrelled with thick around the powerpacks, about ten each. They looked as as anvils, but they any animal at two hundred yards; a two-foot range, they shake a down.
“How many men are we taking with us?” Rynason asked, the on the floor.
Manning looked up at him briefly. “As many as we can get. I’m calling a militia; Stoworth and Lessingham into town to up some men.”
So he was going ahead with the power-grab; Malhomme had been right. No had been proven yet, but that wouldn’t stop Manning—nor the he’d been in the town. Killing was an thing to them.
“How many of the Hirlaji do you think we’ll have to kill to make it look to the Council?” Rynason asked after a moment, his voice inflectionless.
Manning looked up at him with a calculating eye. Rynason met his directly, the man to take offense. He didn’t.
“All right, it’s a for me,” Manning shrugged. “What did you expect? There’s little opportunity on this for in any that you might approve of.” He paused. “I don’t know if it will be necessary to kill any of them. Take it easy and we’ll see.”
Rynason’s were cold. “All right, we’ll see. But just remember, I’ll be just as closely as you. If you start any that isn’t necessary….”
“What will you do, Lee?” said Manning. “Report me to the Council? They’ll to me they’d pay attention to from a nobody who’s been around the for most of his life. That’s all you are, you know, Lee—a drifter, a bum, like the of them. That’s what out here on the Edge is … unless he something about it.
“I the right now. If I decide to do something that you don’t like, you won’t be able to stop me … neither you, your female friend.”
“So Mara’s against you too?” Rynason said.
“She a earlier,” Manning said calmly. “She may it soon enough.”
Rynason looked at the man through for a moment, then on a and one of the stunners. He it into the carefully, just what Manning had meant by his last remark. Was it a threat in any sense, or was Manning just off steam? Well, they’d see about that too … and Rynason would be watching.
Within an hour close to sixty men had Manning’s door. They were dirty and unshaven; some of them were in the town, a were miners, but most of them were who had the of the star frontier, who and in the of the town, sleeping by day and at night. They when they could, killed when they wanted.
The were men who had been all over the worlds of the Edge, who had years the new opened for and exploitation, but had got their own piece. They the of these on the Edge, and talk for hours about the worlds they had seen. But they were city men, all of them; they had the worlds, but only from the streets. They hadn’t taken part in the or the building, only in the touchdowns. When the was done, they on to the again and to the next world, out.
Rynason looked at their from where he in the doorway, to Manning talking to them. They were hard men, and sometimes vicious. Nameless faces, all of them, having no place in the more of the Terran civilization. And maybe that was their own fault. But Rynason that they were running, not to anything, but from the itself. Running … when an area was settled and started to respectable, they to see what they did not have. The temporary would come down, to be replaced by permanent that were meant to be in, not just as places for sleeping. Closets, and for landcars; and food integrators. They didn’t want to see that … they it, or they wanted it? It didn’t matter, Rynason decided. They ran, and now they were here on the Edge with all their anger and frustration, and Manning was to give them a way to let it out.
At the of the he saw a familiar of hair—Rene Malhomme. Was he with them, then? Rynason his for a view, and for a moment the to let him see Malhomme’s face. He was looking directly toward Rynason, a knife against his thick … and his were into the crooked, which Rynason had many times. No, Malhomme at least was not part of this mob.
“We already know which direction they went,” Manning was saying. “Lessingham will be in of the main body, and you’ll him. If he you an order, take it. This is a business; we won’t have room for bickering.
“Some of us will be with the flyers. We’ll be in radio with you. When we out where they are we’ll and make our plans from there.”
Manning paused, looking at the him. “Most of you are already, I see. We have some here; if you need them, come on up. But remember, the men who the will be in front; and their will be to the horses—any killing that’s to be done will be left to those of you who have knives, or anything lethal.”
There was a of voices from the crowd. Some men came for weapons; Rynason saw others and hatchets, and a of them had guns, type. Rynason with eyes; it had been a on Manning’s part to this mob, and his open of their was dangerous. Once they were loose, what stop them?
There was a in the of the mob; men and away, cursing. Rynason there, and of meeting flesh. The men at the of the to look back, and some to their way through to the fight.
A came from the of the crowd, and was answered by an excited, angry of voices around the men. Suddenly Manning was among them, his way through with a in his hand, it like a club.
“Get the out of the way!” he shouted, through the men. They and to let him by, but Rynason the men still in the rear, and then he saw them. There were three of them, two men and what looked like a boy still in his teens. The boy had red and a dark, complexion: he was new to the outworlds. The two older men had the of the Edge drifters, in the light of and sealed on the less worlds.
The larger of the two men had a knife, a of a type that was common out here; many of the men used them as when necessary. This one with blood; the smaller man’s left arm was open just the shoulder, and uselessly. He in the dust, a of at the man with the knife, while the boy him, with and in his eyes. He had a smaller knife, but he it and at his side.
Manning them. He had sized up the already, and he paused now only long to bite out three short, which told these men what he of them. The man with the knife and something which Rynason didn’t hear.
Manning the and let him have it. The blast the man in the and him around, him into the crowd; of them down. The long knife to the ground, where mixed with the blood on it. There was silence.
Manning looked around him, the in his hand. After a moment he said calmly, but loud for all to hear, “We won’t have time for among ourselves. The next man who anything will be killed outright. Now these men out of here.” He and through the while the boy and a of the other men took the away.
Malhomme had moved into the crowd. He was silent; he among these men and jovially, them all with ease. But now he the men around him with a his face. Malhomme was worried, and Rynason, that, his tighten.
Manning the men from the of the crowd. He at them shrewdly, each man’s for a seconds. Then he grinned, and said, “Save it for the horses, boys. Save it for them.”
Rynason out to the with Manning, Stoworth, and a of the others. It was a in the landcar, and none of them spoke much. Even Stoworth silently, his easy of forgotten. Rynason was about Manning: he had the and enough, the men in line, but it had been only a temporary measure. They would be some action soon, and Manning was already them the Hirlaji. If the out to be a false one, would he be as easily able to stop them then?
Or would he try?
The were when they got to the field, but Mara was gone. Les Harcourt met them at the radio office on the of the field; he was the man out here. He them into the low, quick-concrete office and some at Manning to be signed.
“If there’s any trouble, you’ll be for it,” he said to Manning. “The men can look out for themselves, but the are Company property.”
Manning and to the papers.
“Where’s Mara?” Rynason asked.
“She’s already taken one of the out,” Harcourt said. “Left ten minutes ago. We’ve got her screen in the next room.” He a hand toward the door in the of the room.
Rynason on and the live set. The screen, from a camera on the flyer, the of the southern over which Mara was flying. They were and blunt; the which up from the Flat had been in the passage of years. Mara was over a low range and on to the beyond.
Rynason up the mike. “Mara, this is Lee; we just got here. Have you them yet?”
Her voice came over the speaker. “Not yet. I I saw some movement in one of the passes, but the light wasn’t too good. I’m looking for that pass again.”
“All right. We’ll be going up ourselves in a minutes; if you them, be careful. Wait for us.”
He the in its and rose. But as he to the door her voice came again: “There they are!”
He looked at the screen, but for the moment he couldn’t see anything. Mara’s was out of the now, the Flat her on the screen. Rynason see the pass through which she had been flying, but there was no movement there; it took him to see the low off to the right, and the moving through them.
The screen and toward them; she was her altitude.
“I see them,” he said into the mike. “Can’t make out what they’re doing, on the screen. Can you see them any more clearly?”
“They’re entering one of the there,” she said after a moment. “I’ve almost twenty of them so far; they must all be here.”
“Can you go and see what they’re doing? The sooner we out, the better: Manning’s got a of so-called on the way out there.”
She didn’t reply, but on the screen he saw the larger and nearer. He make out now: a had and was half-buried in the and sand; an entire had in on another building, only in the interior. It was difficult to tell sometimes when the original lines of the had fallen: they had all been by the wind-blown sand, so that looked almost as though they had been that way, and upright, solitary.
At last, he saw the Hirlaji. They were slowly the steps of one of the largest of the and into the of the interior. This was not as as most of the others; as Mara’s low over it Rynason see its lines and clear.
With a start, he sat up and said hurriedly, “Mara, take another close pass over that building, the one they’re entering.”
In a moment she came in again over the structure, and Rynason looked closely at the screen. There was no it now: the high steps leading up to a which almost the building, the large over the main entrance.
“You’d set away from them!” he said. “That’s the Temple of Kor!” But as he speaking the image on the screen and rocked, and the closer toward the below.
“They’re something!”
He saw that she was trying to altitude, but something was wrong; the on the screen and wavered, up and down, spinning.
“Mara! Pull up—get out of there!”
“One of the is damaged,” she said quickly, and there was another on the screen and he her gasp. The picture and itself, to for a moment, and then the of one of the was directly ahead and larger.
“Mara!”
The image wildly, the the screen, and then it black; he a crash from the speaker, cut off almost it had sounded. The room was silent.
