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"Let's hope, anyway." Libanos hesitated. "Do me a favor, Mister Wolfe. Don't come back anytime soon,
hear? Life gets a little exciting with you about.
"A little too exciting."
As they turned back to theGrayle , Wolfe noticed that Candia was looking at him oddly.
"You're sure the dancer didn't have any idea you're on a contract for us?" Cisco asked.
"Positive," Wolfe said.
"So where'd you leave her?"
"I don't think you need to know that. Somewhere she'll be safe. Somewhere quiet. She said she thought
she'd like to try a little quieter life by herself. She said& things had changed." Wolfe tried to smile but
didn't quite manage it. "Cisco, drop her, all right? She's not a player. I want to know how many
goddamned Chitet there are, and you keep ducking the question! How far do I have to run, how deep a
hole do I have to dig, how many cubic feet of dirt do I have to pull in after me?"
Cisco considered his words. "We don't know."
"What do you mean? How many worlds do they have& how many ships& how many people? Those
are
pretty simple matters. And what in the hell are they doing icing people for these goddamned Luminas?
What do they care about the Al'ar? Or doesn't Federa-tion Intelligence know that, either?"
"We know the size of their culture. But we don't know how many of them have gone outlaw or what
they want."
Wolfe blinked. "Wait a minute. What do you mean, outlaw? I surely got the idea the woman who called
her-self Bori was speaking for the entire movement or cul-ture or whatever the hell it's calling itself."
"We think differently," Cisco said.
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"Why?"
"I can't tell you. To be honest, I don't know myself. All I know is I got the word, from people who're far
higher in the directorate than I am, that there's only a few renegades who're calling themselves Chitet, and
we're already in the process of rounding them up. We're just giving them a little time and a little rope
un-til we make sure we've got all of them in the net.
"The main Chitet culture is just what it's always been. That's an absolute."
"So one of your boys called whoever speaks for all the Order, and he said cross his heart, we're all just
reputable citizens, eh? About the level of analysis FI usually does."
Cisco made no response. Wolfe looked hard into his eyes. The intelligence executive met and held his
gaze. Wolfe began to ask another question but changed his mind.
"But that doesn't alter the problem I've got," he said
instead. "It only takes one of them and one gun and I'm history."
"You're under our cover, Wolfe. Don't worry about them. I've already put the word out, and they'll be
dealt with. They won't have time to be messing with you."
Wolfe looked unconvinced.
"But that wasn't why I wanted a face-to-face," Cisco said. He got up, walked to one of theGrayle's
screens, and looked at the huge bulk of the Federation frigate that lay half a mile distant, outlined by
far-distant stars. Then he turned back.
"The contract has changed," he said.
"To what?"
"We've had further developments I'm not able to tell you about. We're doubling the fee, and I'll give you
some numbers that you can use to get whatever backup you need, anytime, anywhere.
"When you find the Al'ar, you're to take him out."
Wolfe was on his feet. "The hell I will! I'm not one of your goddamned assassins!"
"You've done it before."
"That was a long time ago!"
Cisco grimaced. "I'm sorry you feel like that. You know, if I'd had done to me what those bastards did
to you, I'd be more than happy to put the last one in his meat crate."
"You're you," Wolfe said. "No deal."
"You aren't being asked, Joshua."
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"And if I tell you to shove it, I'll be out in the open for the Chitet?"
"That," Cisco said carefully, "and very conceivably worse. You don't need FI for an enemy, even out
here in the Outlaw Worlds."
Wolfe stared at him once more, and this time the man looked away.
"Get off my ship," Wolfe said, his voice calm.
"You'll keep the contract?'
"You heard me."
Cisco took a microfiche from his pocket and set it down on the panel next to him. "Here's the contact
numbers you might need. You've also got open call on any FI warships in your area if it gets that bad."
He went to the open lock door and started to wriggle into his suit. Wolfe followed him, watched, made
no move to help.
Cisco's gauntleted hand was about to snap the face-plate closed, when he paused.
"I'd say I'm sorry, Wolfe. But this whole thing is big and getting bigger. None of us has any choice.
Come on, man! This is for the Federation!"
Wolfe made no response. Cisco snapped the plate closed and touched a sensor on the hull. The inner
lock door irised shut
Joshua waited until he heard the outer lock cycle open, then went to a screen and watched Cisco being
reeled across space toward the Federation warship's yawning lock.
He thought about what Cisco had just said and won-dered again who in the government was so
interested in Luminas.
"The question is really, I suppose," he said, "how
many Chitet are inside Federation Intelligence?"
* * *
"I see," Joshua said thoughtfully. "So you really don't have any way of knowing when I could bookThe
Secrets of the Al'ar ."
He waited while his words and image jumped through several subspace transponder units to the screen
on the harried-looking woman's Uttered desk.
"Not really," she answered. "I'm afraid Mister Javits is, shall we say, a bit eccentric. Perhaps that's why
he chose to use my agency instead of one of the larger ones.
"All I can do is list your number and Carlton VI, and when Mister Javits contacts me, which he does on
a regular basis, I'll inform him of your interest. Then I'll get back to you and we can arrange a contract,
security deposits, and so forth.
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"Certainly it should be no longer than an E-month, perhaps two. But in the interim," the woman went on,
"you have the show's past itinerary, and you're more than welcome to check with any of the promoters
who've bookedThe Secrets . It's one of my most popu-lar attractions."
"I'd also like to see the show myself," Wolfe said. "I've had friends who caught it, but I've learned to
never book anything I'm not really enthusiastic about myself."
"I'll upload the current tour schedule right now," the agent said. "Mister Javits I've never met him, never
even seen him seems to always be on the road." She giggled. "Now, isn't that funny that we still say
that?"
"It's better than saying 'on the ether,'" Wolfe said, "or 'on the hyperspace' and sound like Space Rangers
of the Galaxy."
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