Part 2 (2/2)

”You want a name. Call me Cougar.” That was something, she mused. Labels helped. At least she had something to call him, improbable or no. And he did continually use her name, without prefacing it with the civilizedly-respectful ”seety” or even appending the ”-sahn” used on Terasaki and a few other planets. ”I meant, who are you with, Cougar? I did not have the opportunity to study your credentials. And you did work hard at taking me by surprise and overwhelming me.” ”Oh.” He fished out the card-packet and tossed it to her.

”So you are even clever enough to understand what I was doing, hummm?” The ID said he was a representative of the Res.h.i.+ Inner Police. The picture matched his face. The name was Sinchung Sin. She looked up. ”Nothing here about 'Cougar,' ” she said. He shrugged easily. ”I like the sound of it. Why have you been so intent on reaching Qalara-and are you still?” Janja regarded him in silence, turning the little ID cards over and over between her fingers.

Considering the distance to him, the distance to her go-bag. Forget that; her stopper was poked down in the chair she'd been sitting in. The orange one emblazoned with the yellow-and-red dragon. The one Sinchung Sin/Cougar now occupied. ”No,” she said at last. ”I have no interest in Qalara.” ”You mean 'no further interest,' since of course I do know why you've been on this quest. Did you know there was an attempt on his life on Franji's s.p.a.ce station-while you were there? Won't you give it up? Is it only him, or all slavers?'' Attempt? She shook her head. ”I have lived for no other reason but him. Other slavers I have not thought about. What do you mean-an 'attempt' on his life? Attempt?” 161 So he doesn't know everything then! Either he doesn't know I'm the one who made the ”attempt” back at Franjistation, or he's playing with me . . . some more, she added mentally, knowing that he'd played with her quite a bit already. His use of the word 'attempt' to describe her slaying of Jonuta was probably just that. More toying, more of his amused playing with her. Why didn't Kenowa scream? ”Tarkij was long ago. You were saving yourself for him, weren't you, Janja? But since then there have been many men-and women, and Jarps too, I'm sure. It isn't for Tarkij, your quest. It isn't a lover's quest or mission any more. It is pure personal vindictiveness.

Vendetta- there's another new phrase for you; see how much I know? You've been intent on murder, all this time.” She shrugged. She was trying to keep her eyes as flat as his, and her expression. ”You won't even deny that, Janja?” ”Months ago, I had trouble calling up Tarkij's face in my mind,” she admitted. ”But Jonuta had to be stopped. You are right, Cougar or Sin. It was a personal thing. Vindictiveness, vengeance. It will also save the Aglayans that he would otherwise have killed-or mind-kill, as he has me.” ”Nonsense.

There are other Jonutas.” ”Then I have ended one of them,” she said immediately. Neither of them had raised its voice a microdecibel. ”You are using an odd verb tense-the past. Have you given it up, then?” She stared.

Then she made herself appear impa.s.sive: ”I have succeeded.” She saw his start, and his own swift control of his expression, his reaction. ”Oh. So it was you, on Franjistation. You are guilty of multiple murder on Resh and theft on a couple of other worlds. You are guilty of theft in s.p.a.ce-piracy! Doesn't any of that disturb you?” 162 Pain lashed into her with that, and she shuttered her eyes while she worked anew to calm her self. She nodded slowly, but when she opened her eyes and answered, her gaze and voice were steady and as cool as his. ”Of course. It all disturbs me-though if you know so much, you must know what sort of slimy swine those creatures were, on Resh; ex-priest and his son or not. Res.h.i.+ Inner Police certainly weren't interfering with their cruelties, their murders! Jonuta is guilty of far more, though. As to the man you called Whitey ... I practically forced him to get me off Resh. He is an honorable man, and totally innocent. And Captain Tachi didn't have any idea who I was. Still doesn't, I a.s.sume.” He smiled. It was not, she noticed, a mocking smile. This man seemed fully in control of himself. ”Kitsko, Lins.h.i.+n, Whitey-all these are guilty of harboring, aiding and abetting a criminal. A murderer. Also of aiding a slave to escape. That of course is a separate charge. One must always search for as many charges as possible in an attempt to be certain that some idiot does not acquit the accused-the guilty. And Whitey? Honorable? Have you heard the phrase 'Uncle Tom'?” She nodded in silence. He raised his black, black eyebrows a little. ”I am impressed. You remember its meaning, its ancient application, back on Homeworld? You have studied that deeply?” ”On Homeworid there was one race. Galactics. A pale sub-race subjugated the darker sub-races. In one tribe the pale people released the dark from slavery, but continued to dominate them. I think it must have been because it was cheaper to force them out on their own, so that the paler people would not have to house and feed them. The chains of slavery have two ends, after all. By pretending to free their slaves they freed themselves of responsibility for them.” He smiled without apparent amus.e.m.e.nt.

”A new theo- 163 ry. You do not possess all the facts, Janja. There was a war and murders and a lot more. But do go on. It is refres.h.i.+ng to hear a new interpretation. Especially from a former slave, hmm?” ”Why are we sitting here talking this way? You came for me and found me.” His eyebrows went high. ”This is better than executing you or cuffing you to take you away to Resh, isn't it? Humor me.” ”I think that you are enjoying this, Cougar. A cougar is a cat, and cats play with the prey they have caught, don't they. Are all you of Resh s.a.d.i.s.tic lovers of toying with others?” ”Not all anybodys or anythings are anything, Janja. You know that. If you don't, you deal in generalities, and that defines 'bigot.' All Aglayans are barbarians and all Res.h.i.+ are s.a.d.i.s.ts?

Hmm?” She elected to answer his earlier invitation, to go on explicating what she had learned and inferred. ”The militant former slaves called those of their own kind who consorted with or sucked up to their former masters and served them meekly . . . 'Uncle Toms.' The edutapes referred me to the phrase 'boot-licker,' and also to an ancient book, which the library did not have.” ”You have it very well,” he told her, steadying the deadly little weapon he carried while he crossed one leg over the other. (They appeared to be good legs, although his brown trousers were not snug.) ”Whitey is an Uncle Tom. Whitey told us about you.” ”No! That is false!” Her eyes suddenly blazed at him in the most defined display of emotion he had seen from her. ”He would not have-he could not! An Aglayan ...” ”Whitey is not an Aglayan,” he told her equably. ”He is an Uncle Tom. Would you wear a wig if you were not a fugitive?” ”I had forgotten that I am a fugitive,” Janja sighed. ”I 164 do not think of me as a fugitive. I bought the wig for another reason.” Since there was no reason to continue wearing the red wig, she jerked it from her head and tossed it in his direction. (The ”Bluejoy” package seemed to leap into his hand and point itself at her. She tried not to smile mockingly.) He studied her hair with a little frown. ”Do not all women on Aglaya wear their hair short?” ”Pos. Until marriage,” she said, using the term of his people; Them.

”I am not on Aglaya and we both know I am far beyond virgin. But Whitey-” ”-is not worth discussing, Janja. He wishes to serve, to be accepted. He will never be accepted. You don't give a millistell whether you're accepted or not. Thus you might have been-are, to a degree. Among some. But no, we have taken no action against Whitey. Or Kitsko, or Lins.h.i.+n. We wanted to find you first, Janja. Someone else might.” ”Someone else might find me first, or might do something to those good and kind people you mentioned?” ”Yes,” he said, frozen of eye. She sighed. ”Cougar: in my go-bag are only clothes. My stopper is stuck into the chair you're in. On the right.” She waited until he had found it-never taking his gaze off her-and brought it forth. He held it high to see it, nodded, checked its setting. He boosted it from One to Two. ”That stopper is of the outworlds type,” she told him. ”You wouldn't want me unconscious, would you?” ”Oh, I recognize its make. No, I wouldn't. But you aren't going to try anything, are you. That's why you just gave me your weapon.” She shook her head. ”Right. I am not. I do not believe that Whitey told you of me, Cougar.

He is an Aglayan. You do not understand Aglayans, no matter how much you know.” She leaned a little forward and fixed him with a 165 steady stare. '

'What must I do to insure the safety of him, and Kitsko, and Lins.h.i.+n?'' This time he showed his shock. This time she had forced him off balance. Janja was glad, for now he had displayed more emotion-reaction than she, and thus had told her more than she had told him. In other words she was right; Cougar or Sinchung Sin wanted something. ”What makes you think-” She cut him off with a triumphant trace of scorn in her voice. ”You came here to catch me by surprise and tell me all this. You wanted me to know that you know everything about me.

But you do not, and you want something from me or you'd have arrested me. What is it you want? My body?” ”What makes you think-” She tried to flip her fingers, but could not. With a sigh and a grim face she said, ”Everyone wants my body.” ”I'd not turn it down,” he said, appraising her with bold eyes. ”But if everybody wants your body, Janja, I continue to be the odd one. I want your brain too.” She studied him a moment with her head on one side. ”My brain is not for sale,” she said, wondering if he knew its value. Could he know the secret of Aglayan cherming? Could Whitey have-no! ”Those men who have had my body, Cougar . . . none of them has had any part of my mind, or conquered it in the least measure.” ”The penalty for theft on Resh,” he said quietly, gazing into her eyes, ”by a slave, is amputation of the right hand. Without regens, Janja. Unless the thief happens to be left-handed . . . The penalty for murder on Resh-by a slave, Janja-is death. Resh is a slaveworld. Do you know what death in the psychoid chamber is?” Janja shrugged and stared with hooded eyes. ”Something civilized, and therefore barbarously unpleasant. Slave or otherwise, Cougar, I slew two men who were monsters, on Resh. The father was worse, because he hid all his life 166 beneath the yellow mantle of priesthood. I would gladly slay the present High Priest, too. He also is a murderer, who lurks behind the name of Gri, of religion. My arrangement with Whitey was our business. My action in getting off Franji . . . Jonuta of Qalara had wh.o.r.ed me, and the only way to get to Qalara and him seemed to be as a wh.o.r.e. I am not a wh.o.r.e, and have no wish to play the part, any more than I have desired rape-any of the times your civilized galactic race has raped me. I am going to stand up, now; be ready with your killer ray and my stopper!” ”Y-” He broke off, for she stood, not rapidly, and moved about the room. He kept her stopper in his hand, without bothering to aim it at her. ”I knew no other way than to play the wh.o.r.e, Cougar. So whence came kindness and rescue? From a pirate! Corundum. An outlaw! You must know or know of the employmaster at the s.p.a.ceport on Franji. That slug offered to house and feed me until Lion of Islam arrived, in exchange for the obvious. The usual! 1 refused. I pa.s.sed up an opportunity too to be trysted by two s.p.a.cefarers. With Corundum I went most willingly. He treated me as what he was-a gentleman. He was also a murdering trickster, and when opportunity came to leave him, I did.

True friends.h.i.+p has come to me from Jarps, Cougar, not your kind!” Standing behind her chair, she stared at him. ”I will be a hust only when I must, Cougar. When I stole, it was enough to keep me alive until I reached another .

. . plateau. A major error was in taking nothing from those swine on Res.h.!.+” It was a long speech for her. She stopped to take a deep breath and stood straight behind her chair. Veiling her eyes, realizing that she had said much.

Perhaps more than she had said at one time to anyone, ever. And to this stranger! 167 ”Agreed,” he said, leaning a little forward and fixing her with his nearly black eyes, which he narrowed. (He should not have raised the mustache, she reflected. His eyes are too good to be distracted from by that mustache. It was definitely not an attractive or flattering one, that down-turning growth above his mouth.) ”You could have stolen enough to pay your pa.s.sage to Qalara.” ”I did not consider it. It would not have been right.” He sighed, looked strangely at her, leaned back. ”Janja, Janja. Not right, you tell me! Not right!” ”I have always been prepared to pay a price to get myself to Qalara,” she told him. ”Whatever the price was-whatever was necessary to catch up to Jonuta. If it had to be paid with this body, very well then. As I told you, those who have had the body have never had the mind.

Only Tarkij could have had that. And Whitey, perhaps. But-” He waved a hand, nodding. ”You are a moralist. You are a fanatic, Janja! You have formed your own religion, Janja of Aglaya. And like the founders of many religions, you feel that you have a great and n.o.ble purpose. That you are right, in the Right. Therefore you give yourself license to do anything you want to achieve that purpose. No no now-don't remind me that you have scruples. Petty alley thievery and grand larceny are little different before the law, I'm afraid.” Janja was frowning. She saw the truth in what he said. When truth was present, she could not overlook it, no matter how it troubled or discommoded her; the attribute of a good disciplined mind. It disturbed her now. She knew that she had deceived herself, in some areas. But . . .

”Moralist?” ”Absolutely.” He bobbed his head with vigor, and she watched the flash-flash of light off the frozen chips of jet that served him as eyes. ”Oh yes, you are a moralist. 168 Slavery is bad. Jonuta is bad. Jonuta did Janja wrong. Therefore Janja must do him wrong. A worse wrong; she must take his life, mental and physical. Janja's masters on Resh were bad men, therefore it is forgivable for Janja to slay them. She must reach Qalara-you thought, though you'd not have found Jonuta there, of course-and so it was acceptable to use Whitey, to use herself. Selling her body for gain because of n.o.ble purpose. She needed money and others had more than they needed and no such n.o.ble purpose.” He nodded, smiling. ”Oh yes, Janja. A moralist. Most of you moralists are careful rationalizers, you see. Whole societies have been disrupted and nations ruined by your kind.” After a long while she came around her chair and sat. ”No nations improved, or birthed?” ”None worth talking about. At any rate, now what? You killed Jonuta, is that correct?” ”You know that.” ”I do now. What about your purpose for living then, Janja? What is going to drive you now?” When the seconds dragged on and she did not answer but only stared-looking sad, hard hit-he spoke again. ”You aren't of us Galactics, and even fancy that you're better. Jonuta's death was your reason for living, wasn't it?” She nodded, looking down. A glaze came over her eyes; it s.h.i.+mmered. ”Then you must seek new purpose, or languish or plain die. You asked me what I wanted of you. Perhaps to give you new purpose. Jonuta is far from the only bad man along the s.p.a.ceways! Others are far, far worse. A moral-less demagogue can do more harm on one planet than Jonuta ever could, selling a few people here and there.” Janja raised her head to stare. ”Who . .

. are you?” ”Surely I will tell you sometime, Janja.” 169 ”How nice. You want me to do something for you. What? How?” He looked at her shrewdly. ”Do you want to, Janja?” Janja blinked. She put her head on one side. After a while she asked, ”Do I have a choice? You are going to offer me some sort of bargain, involving whether or not I will be arrested and tried. And killed.” ”The word is 'executed,' oh my,” he said, with a satirical smile.

”How delightfully quick and intelligent you are! Almost Captain Janja, and in such a short time!” She was still, staring, waiting. ”Yes, of course I do. You could not only have purpose but be valuable, Janja. Why, you could actually accomplish something! I could have said that thirty mins ago. First I wanted to hear the depths of this self-set mission in your eyes, to hear it. To learn about you-moralist! I didn't want you to accept a proposition from me just to save yourself from punishment. Most would-and I really believe you would be silly enough to reject that!” She sat still, chin high, staring and listening.

Waiting. He looked around. ”Someone else might possibly be as sharp on a trail as I am. Suppose we get out of here. Suppose we get off Terasaki together.

It's obvious that you are very, very interested.” ”Of course I am. I also own a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, and have friends. I can't-” ”Yes you can. You will.” He stood, putting away the spurious stick-pak that housed the awful weapon and hanging onto her stopper as if negligently. ”You have to. I want Janja. Captain Janjaglaya of Sunmother won't do.” ”But I-” ”Janja! Listen! You failed. You failed, Janja! Jonuta is alive-alive! You tricked him-he tricked you! Jonuta is not dead. You need not give me that 'You're a liar' stare-any news broadcast can tell you of the attempt on Jonuta, on Franjistation. He is not dead, Janji. He is not 170 even harmed. I will admit that he is most likely a bit peeved!” He gazed serenely at her while she stared, her face working, her eyes bright. ”You see? Now you have all sorts of reasons to live again! Come along-get that go-bag and let's go.” She came slowly to her feet again, supple as a wild creature. ”How do I know . . . how can I trust you?” ”You don't,” he said, with a tiny smile, eyebrows up. He gestured. ”Going to bring your satchel?” ”Look here, Cougar, d.a.m.n it-I have to tell my friends something!”. ”Wrong,” he said coolly. ”You do not.” She lifted the go-bag-and threw it. Powerful legs propelled her after it, pouncing at him. He sidestepped the satchel and beamed her with the stopper while she was in mid-leap. At that he was fast enough to drop the slim cylinder and catch the unconscious blond before she banged limply to the floor. 13 The wrong use of a thing is far worse than the non-use. -Socrates, Euthydemos ”You rotten fobbin'

b.a.s.t.a.r.d-you kidnapped me!” ”True. You've been kidnapped by the bad guys, Janja. Now you've been s.n.a.t.c.hed by a good guy. That's called poetic justice, or something like that.” ”Justice? I remember your mentioning that there's no real difference between grand and pet.i.t larceny!” ”You're judging by your own concept of morality, Janja. That's a learned att.i.tude, from early experiences and formal teaching. It also depends on adequate emotional development. You're an emotional child, Janja. All scarred up in the head, too,” ”Noted. Who are you, Cougar? You are not with Res.h.i.+ Inner Police, no matter what your ID says.

Bigger, I think. More scope and more power-that's made you more arrogant than most policers, even. Who are you? Who is 'we'?” ”You've played that tape. I told you I'd tell you later.” ”Where are we going? What've you done that has my body paralyzed and my mouth and mind free?” ”Leaving the mouth free was a mistake. We're going to where I want you to be. I used a drug. Call it frabgipator.” ”Fra-is that what it's called, really?” 171 172 ”Why not?” ”You are just wedded to lying, aren't you? You'd rather lie than not!” ”Maybe I had my training in a hospital. Trust me.” ”Can I trust you?” ”I can't think of any reason you should. I offer you no promises, Janja. Just purpose. I mean purpose after Jonuta, Janja!” 14 In time interstellar man will come to outnumber all the stay-at-homes who have remained on Earth or in its immediate vicinity. He's the future of our race. -Chris Morgan, Future Man (1980) It hurt, some of it. There were gleaming steel surfaces, some sharp and some not, and blinding lights and a machine that taught her while she was semi-conscious, feeding information into her between the blinks of her eyes.

Remification. Too, they went into her skull with something long and sharp and s.h.i.+ny and incredibly thin, and they did something there, and they did something else with a needle-thin beam of light too. Light with ma.s.s. When she was in position to wonder, she wondered if her brain was taking on ma.s.s along with all this information. She received implants and transplants. All this from men and women all of whom were in gray or in white, in this s.h.i.+ning gray-metal place on a gray world to which they had come in a gray s.h.i.+p without markings or name. ”Very good, Janja-nine bullseyes! But that tenth shot was off, and you're dead. Again. Turn, holster. Spin and draw and trigger at the count of five. One-two-oh, squat as you fire this time-three-” and 173 174 ”Ah, Janja, Janja. One very good hour on the simulator- but in the past two minutes you have taken us right in to the Demonhole. I wish I could just forget modern psychology and beat your a.s.s when you screw up this way. Oops-missed! Naughty, naughty. Try for me again and I'll crotch-kick you-understand? Firm, then-let's go study Jonuta some more.” and ”Don't you ever get tired, Cougar?” ”Nahh-you Aglayans short on endurance or guts or what?” and ”Yesterday her adjusted system threw off a direct injection of Pasteurella pestis in less than nine minutes.” ”Sure, sure. That's only Bubonic Plague. What about something really nasty, like Shanki fever?” ”Nothing's like Shanki fever, Sin. You really are a baby-eater, aren't you? Anyhow, we'll try that in a few days.” ”Great. If she survives she might make it at that. What's she doing now?” ”Treadmill. Two gravities, ten k.p.h.” ”s.h.i.+t. Why not give her something hard to do? With those fat-calved legs of hers she can run twenty kloms an hour, in three gravs!” ”You trying to kill her, Sin?” ”Nah, just raising her like a daughter I want to be strong and mean as a kalpy with mange and rabies.” and ”It took her exactly three mins thirteen secs to overpower Bull and Suko-she didn't know it was a test and broke two of Suko's fingers. Took her one min and fifty-nine secs to tie them with their own clothing. After ten mins they still hadn't got free.” ”Good!

Why the big frown, then?” 175 ”She seemed to ... go amok, Sin. If Suko weren't experienced it'd be a broken arm stead of two fingers.” ”Berserker Janja! So set the fingers then, and tell Suko she should be ashamed. She's the one turned up her nose at training a 'simple barbarian girl from some skungeball planet,' wasn't it?” and ”No no no, girl, you walk like some barbarian girl off some barbarian planet who's used to walking barefoot and never heard of polite society. Now try to get this through yourAOWW!” ”Try teaching me without the snot, Suko, or I'll break the other four on that hand.” ”What are you, Janja-some kind of s.a.d.i.s.t?” ”Don't say that to me, Suko! I've been in the hands of that kind of swine-have you? You don't talk to me that way.

Ever!” ”All ... right, Janja.” Now do you want to try walking again, and this time think all the while that you're a lady of Ghanj?” ”Firm. And if I don't get it right this time I want to go wrestle the android again.” and ”What happened to Suko?” ”I'm your new trainer, Janja. Shut up with the questions and let's see you sip that saufee, instead of guzzling. You make noises like a pig.” ”Listen you, you may be uglier and bigger than Suko, but you can't-uh!” and ”Narzha broke one of Janja's fingers, Sin. 'sthat what you wanted?” ”Sure. That p.i.s.sant Suko let her think she's tough. Finger all right?” ”Of course!” ”Tell Narzha to try kicking her legs out from under her 176 if she gets out of line again-and stomp a little. Janja can take it.

Now get out of here, d.a.m.n it-I'm ears deep in reports. Can you believe some a.s.shole out on Corsi's planetformed moon is actually doing research in nuclear weapons?'' and ”... capital, Norcross. Gravity point eight-two-ess. Exports as follows: mercury, enarpan, holomovies, the small, superb, prestige-priced groundcars called Hummingbirds, polykel bearings, Tabulata ceramic-ware-” ”All right, Janja. Now Panish.” ”Panish. Fourth planet of the star Kopernikos.

Capital, Harmony. Gravit-” ”How many/s.p.a.ce stations?” ”Three.” ”All right.

What color is Kenowa's hair?” ”What is this, Cougar, kiddy-time? She doesn't have any.” ”Try not to be such a snot, Janja. What's the gravity on Shankar?” and ”Mulkraj refuses to have anything further to do with her. He was trying to teach her to walk like a hust-” ”What?” ”-on high heels and aware of her sensuality, and he made some remark about her background. She kicked him in the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es.” ”The what?” ”b.a.l.l.s, b.a.l.l.s.” ”How'd she do?” ”Good point, Ratran. She used the flying kick Narzha taught her, and the monitor got it all. Perfect technique. Absolutely beautiful.” ”Put Mulkraj on cleanup detail and let's see the monitor run of Janja's flying-kick tecnhique. Call me that again and you can try training her!” 177 and ”... and when the light becomes blue in this quadrant, you then push lever three. All the way in, until it locks. That's in a standard Raushma cabin, Janja. If you happen to be in a Yuan control-cabin you push lever two down to two, key in B, and depress key three until it clicks. That sets the entire autoplanetfall mechanism into motion. Best thing then is make sure you're zipped and let computer do the rest. However! If the computer is not in full online status and/or you have reason to suspect malfunction-” and ”Another report from KT, Ratran. The research on that moon of Corsi.” ”Keep Janja occupied while I study it. Looks like a mission coming up. Nuclear weapons! The stupid son of a b.i.t.c.h!” and ”-and machines machines MACHINES!” ”Stop being a silly barbarian.

You are a machine, Janja. A machine fueled and driven by the internal combustion of hydrocarbons. Machines have made you next to immune to diseases-and accidents. Try not to be such a bigot-you are one of the 'Thingmakers,' now. Things bring health, ease, speed, practically instant healing and long life, and ability to acquire all the knowledge machines have made available. Using things and then babbling against them is just bigotry, Janja . . . terminal stupidity!” and ”Ratran Yao! But-then why did you tell me your name is Sinchung Sin?” ”I didn't. I gave you some ID and you believed it.

Think I'm Res.h.i.+?” ”You exasperating, lying-you did tell me your name is Cougar!” ”True. Cougar's just a nickname . . . Cloud-top.” 178 Cougar/Sinchung Sin/Ratran Yao shrugged broad shoulders well padded with muscle. He was a deceptively slender man, packed with muscle. She had learned that he possessed far more strength than he ”should,” for his size. She also knew that was partly because he was preposterously fast, and just terribly expert. Still, when she wore the tall-heeled boots that she hated but which were ”necessary,”

she was as tall as he. Whoever he was. The pain of it was her inability to deny logic and evidence: She had to respect this man. Whatever his name was. ”Still a lie.” She stared across his desk at him, still stripped after having worked out with some strong, fast, expert goon who had come in from . .

. somewhere. Because, Janja suspected, she had become better than any trainer here-and maybe anyone here. Except, probably, Cougar. That is, Ratran . . .

well, whatever his name was. ”You always twist truth and avoid it as if it might burn you.” ”I'm your chief trainer, Janja. Merely trying to set an example for you.” He showed her his exasperating smile. ”You had me cold, on Terasaki. Why not tell me then that your name was Ratran Yao? What difference could it possibly haye made?” ”A lot. You have used several names, remember?

Ever notice that in the holomellers the villain usually says too d.a.m.ned much and that turns out to be a mistake? Something might have gone wrong. You might have escaped or pa.s.sed a message. In that case you would have been able to pa.s.s my real name . . . 'Lins.h.i.+n.' Janjaglaya Wye.” Now his smile had gone mocking. The man who had entered her Terasak hotel room two months ago and ”recruited” her seldom smiled or even laughed in genuine mirth. Instead he used smiles. Satirical, or cynical, or mocking. Of course there were those 179 who said that cynicism never existed until his organization was born. ”You know how to use false names and places to confuse and cloud, Janja, and you're just a beginner. I'm an expert. On Resh I was Sin Yans.h.i.+n. At the s.p.a.ceport on Franji I was Humayun and some numbers. At my hotel there I was Tabash and some numbers. And to you, Sinchung Sin. And Cougar.” He flipped his fingers. ”One name's as good as another, don't you think. And some are better, at times!” ”How can I even be sure your name is Ratran Yao?” Finger-flip: ”You can't. Everyone here a.s.sumes it is though, and I answer to it. Use it.” He shrugged. ”I like Cougar, too.” So she ignored ”Cougar,” but began to use the new name. But she shortened it. ”Still another s.h.i.+p has been hijacked just outside the Tri-System Accord area.” Ratran stared at the messenger. ”d.a.m.n!

That's . . . what? Five in the past two months?” ”Right. And four in the previous four months. Six in the twelve months preceding.” ”And even that's a lot! So it's stepping up. No wonder- T-SA hasn't been able to do a thing. So .

. . ?” ”So T-SA has asked TAI for help.” ”TAI!” Ratran Yao's exclamation wasn't in incredulity; it was an unmasked sneer at Terra Alta Imperata, which was hardly TGO. The other man nodded. ”Right. No contact to us. Our gal in the T-SA council persuaded someone else to suggest us. The prez-our old friend, you will remember-said he preferred not to ask us for anything, and he got council agreement.” Ratran slapped a hand over his heart. ”Ah, how the galaxy doth love us, Yash

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