Star Hunter Part 20

"We have here the tape report of Ras Hume, Out-Hunter of the Guild."

Vye watched the officer in the black and silver of the Patrol, a black and silver modified with the small, green, eye badge of X-Tee, with level and hostile gaze.

"Then you know the story." He was going to make no additions nor explanations. Maybe Hume had cleared him. All right, that was all he would ask, to be free to go his way and forget about Jumala--and Ras Hume.

He had not seen the Hunter since they had both been loaded into the Patrol flitter in the gap. Wa.s.s had come out of the valley a witless, dazed creature, still under the mental influence of whoever, or whatever, had set that trap. As far as Vye knew the Veep had not yet recovered his full senses, he might never do so. And if Hume had not dictated that confession to d.a.m.n himself before the Patrol, he might have escaped. They could suspect--but they would have had no proof.

"You continue to refuse to tape?" The officer favored him with one of the closed-jaw looks Vye had often seen on the face of authority.

"I have my rights."

"You have the right to claim victim compensation--a good compensation, Lansor."

Vye shrugged and then winced at a warning from the tender skin over ribs.

"I make no claim, and no tape," he repeated. And he intended to go on saying that as long as they asked him. This was the second visit in two days and he was getting a little tired of it all. Perhaps he should do as prudence dictated and demand to be returned to Nahuatl.

Only his odd, unexplainable desire to at least see Hume kept him from making the request they would have to honor.

"You had better reconsider." Authority resumed.

"Rights of person--" Vye almost grinned as he recited that. For the first time in his pushed-around life he could use that particular phrase and make it stick. He thought there was a sour twist to the officer's mouth, but the other still retained his impersonal tone as he spoke into the intership com:

"He refused to make a tape."

Vye waited for the other's next move. This should mark the end of their interview. But instead the officer appeared to relax the restraint of his official manner. He brought a viv-root case from an inner pocket, offered a choice of contents to Vye, who gave an instant and suspicious refusal by shake of head. The officer selected one of the small tubes, snapped off the protecto-nib, and set it between his lips for a satisfying and lengthy pull. Then the panel of the cabin door pushed open, and Vye sat up with a jerk as Ras Hume, his head banded with a skin-core covering, entered.

The officer waved his hand at Vye with the air of one turning over a problem. "You were entirely right. And he's all yours, Hume."

Vye looked from one to the other. With Hume's tape in official hands why wasn't the Hunter under restraint? Unless, because they were aboard the Patrol cruiser, the officers didn't think a closer confinement was necessary. Yet the Hunter wasn't acting the role of prisoner very well. In fact he perched on a wall-flip seat with the ease of one completely at home, accepted the viv-root Vye had refused.

"So you won't make a tape," he asked cheerfully.

"You act as if you want me to!" Vye was so completely baffled by this odd turn of action that his voice came out almost plaintively.

"Seeing as how a great deal of time and effort went into placing you in the position where you _could_ give us that tape, I must admit some disappointment."

"Give _us_?" Vye echoed.

The officer removed the viv-root from between his lips. "Tell him the whole sad story, Hume."

But Vye began to guess. Life in the Starfall, or as port-drift, either sharpened the wits or deadened them. Vye's had suffered the burnishing process. "A set-up?"

"A set-up," Hume agreed. Then he glanced at the Patrol officer a little defensively. "I might as well tell the whole truth--this didn't quite begin on the right side of the law. I had my reasons for wanting to make trouble for the Kogan estate, only not because of the credits involved." He moved his plasta-flesh hand. "When I found that L-B from the Largo Drift and saw the possibilities, did a little day dreaming--I worked out this scheme. But I'm a Guild man and as it happens, I want to stay one. So I reported to one of the Masters and told him the whole story--why I hadn't taped on the records my discovery on Jumala.

"When he pa.s.sed along the news of the L-B to the Patrol, he also suggested that there might be room for fraud along the way I had thought it out. That started a chain reaction. It happened that the Patrol wanted Wa.s.s. But he was too big and slick to be caught in a case which couldn't be broken in court. They thought that here was just the bait he might snap at, and I was the one to offer it to him.

He could check on me, learn that I had excellent reason to do what I said I was doing. So I went to him with my story and he liked it. We made the plan work just as I had outlined it. And he planted Rovald on me as a check. But I didn't know Yactisi was a plant, also."

The Patrol officer smiled. "Insurance," he waved the viv-root, "just insurance."

"What we didn't foresee was this complicating alien trouble. You were to be collected as the castaway, brought back to the Center and then, once Wa.s.s was firmly enmeshed, the Patrol would blow the thing wide open. Now we do have Wa.s.s, with your tape we'll have him for good, subject to complete reconditioning. But we also have an X-Tee puzzle which will keep the services busy for some time. And we would like your tape."

Vye watched Hume narrowly. "Then you're an agent?"

Hume shook his head. "No, just what I said I am, an Out-Hunter who happened to come into some knowledge that will a.s.sist in straightening out a few crooked quirks in several systems. I have no love for the Kogan clan, but to help bring down a Veep of Wa.s.s' measure does aid in reinstating one's self-esteem."

"This victim compensation--I _could_ claim it, even though the deal was a set-up?"

"You'll have first call on Wa.s.s' a.s.sets. He has plenty invested in legitimate enterprises, though we'll probably never locate all his hidden funds. But everything we can get open t.i.tle to will be impounded. Have something to do with your share?" inquired the officer.

"Yes."

Hume was smiling subtly. He was a different man from the one Vye had known on Jumala. "Premium for the Guild is one thousand credits down, two thousand for training and say another for about the best field outfit you can buy. That'll give you maybe another two or three thousand to save for your honorable retirement."

"How did you know?" Vye began and then had to laugh in spite of himself as Hume replied:

"I didn't. Good guess, eh? Well, zoom out your recorder, Commander. I think you are going to have some very free speech now." He got to his feet. "You know, the Guild has a stake in this alien discovery. We may just find that we haven't seen the last of that valley after all, recruit."

He was gone and Vye, eager to have the past done with, and the future beginning, reached for the dictation mike.

TWO COMPLETE s.p.a.cE ADVENTURE NOVELS

PLANET OF ALIEN MONSTERS....

Somewheres on the jungle world of Jumala, there was a man in hiding--a man whose mind had been reconditioned with another's brain pattern and for whom there was a fabulous reward. STAR HUNTER is a thrill-packed account of that other-worldly game of hide-and-seek between a man who did not know all his own powers and an interstellar safari that sought something no man had a right to find....

PLANET OF MIND MAGICIANS....

Dane Thorson of the s.p.a.ce-trader Solar Queen found himself embroiled in a desperate battle of minds between the rational science of the s.p.a.ceways and the hypnotic witchcraft of the mental wizard that ruled the VOODOO PLANET.

_Here is a double prize-package of Andre Norton s.p.a.ce treasures!_

Andre Norton novels available from Ace Books include:

THE LAST PLANET (M-151) SEA SIEGE (F-147) CATSEYE (G-654) THE DEFIANT AGENTS (M-150) STAR BORN (M-148) THE STARS ARE OURS! (M-147) WITCH WORLD (G-655) HUON OF THE HORN (F-226) STAR GATE (M-157) THE TIME TRADERS (F-386) LORD OF THUNDER (F-243) WEB OF THE WITCH WORLD (F-263) SHADOW HAWK (G-538) SARGa.s.sO OF s.p.a.cE (F-279) JUDGMENT ON Ja.n.u.s (F-308) PLAGUE SHIP (F-291) KEY OUT OF TIME (F-287) ORDEAL IN OTHERWHERE (F-325) NIGHT OF MASKS (F-365) QUEST CROSSTIME (G-595) STAR GUARD (G-599) YEAR OF THE UNICORN (F-357) THREE AGAINST THE WITCH WORLD (F-332) THE SIOUX s.p.a.cEMAN (F-408) WARLOCK OF THE WITCH WORLD (G-630) MOON OF THREE RINGS (H-33) DAYBREAK--2250 A.D. (G-717) THE X FACTOR (G-646) VICTORY ON Ja.n.u.s (G-703)

F-books are 40 G-books are 50 M-books are 45 H-books are 60