17

FRAFFIN SWEPT ONTO THE LANDING PLATFORM WITH long, angry strides, his cloak whipping about his bowed legs. The sea shone like dark green crystals beyond the spider lines of the enclosing field. A file of ten flitters stood ready along the gray ramp, prepared to debark on his orders, checking the status of their "lovely little war." Perhaps it could still be saved. There was a biting smell of damp ozone in the air. It made the guardian layers of Fraffin's skin crawl in a protective reflex.

He could sense the planet flowering for him up there, spewing forth story after story in such a profusion as it had never done before. But if the report on Kelexel were true ... It couldn't be true. Logic said it couldn't be true.

Fraffin slowed his stride as he approached traffic control, the yellow bubble eye with Lutt, his Master-of-Craft, personally in charge. The squat, solid body of the crewman imparted a feeling of reassurance to Fraffin. Lutt's square face was bent over the yellow eye.

There was a crafty look to Lutt, though, and Fraffin suddenly remembered Cato saying: "Fear kings whose slaves are crafty." Ah, there'd been a native to admire --Cato. And Fraffin recalled Cato's Carthaginian enemies, the two kings looking down from Citadel-Byrsa onto the inner harbor of Corthon. "Proper sacrifice, right thinking, the best gods --those bring victory." Cato had said that, too.

But Cato was dead, his life whirled up in the crazy time-blur that was a Chem's memory. He was dead and the two kings were dead.

Surely the report on Kelexel is wrong, Fraffin thought.

A waiting flitter crewman signaled Lutt. The Master-of-Craft straightened, turned to face Fraffin. An alert air of caution in the man destroyed all illusion of reassurance.

He looks a little like Cato, Fraffin thought as he stopped three paces from Lutt. The same sort of bone structure in the face. Ah, we've bred much of ourselves into this place. Fraffin pulled his cloak around huh, aware of a sudden chill in the air.

"Honored director," Lutt said. How warily he spoke!

"I've just heard a disturbing report about the Investigator," Fraffin said.

"The Investigator?"

"Kelexel, you oaf!"

Lutt's tongue darted out and across his lips. He glanced left, right, returned his attention to Fraffin. "He ... he said he had your permission to ... he had the native female with him in a tagalong floater ... she ... what is wrong?"

Fraffin took a moment to compose himself. There was a slackdrum throbbing through every micro-instant that lay immersed in his being. This planet and its creatures! The erection/detumescence of each instant he'd shared with them lay on his awareness with scalding pressure. He felt like a bivalve at the tide-edge of the universe. History was collapsing within him and he could only remember the ages of his crime.

"The Investigator is gone then?" Fraffin asked, and he was proud of how calmly his voice emerged.

"Just a short trip," Lutt whispered. "He said just a short trip." Lutt nodded, a swift, jerking motion full of nervousness. "I ... everyone said the Investigator'd been snared. He had the female with him. She was unconscious!" Lutt pounced on this revelation as though it were a most important discovery. "The native female was unconscious in the flitter!" A sly smile twitched Lutt's mouth. "The better to control her, he said."

Fraffin spoke through a dry mouth: "Did he say where?"

"Planetside," Lutt hooked a thumb upward. Fraffin's eyes followed the motion, noting the warty skin, his mind filled with wonder that such a casual gesture could carry such a weight of terrifying possibilities.

"In the needleship?" Fraffin asked.

"He said he was more familiar with its controls," Lutt said.

There was a veil of fear over Lutt's eyes now. The Director's bland voice and appearance couldn't conceal the slashing purpose of these questions --and there'd already been one flash of anger.

"He assured me he had your approval," Lutt rasped. "He said it was part of his training when he gets his own ... " The glare in Fraffin's eyes stopped him, then: "He said the female would enjoy it."

"But she was unconscious," Fraffin said.

Lutt's head bobbed in affirmation.

Why was she unconscious? Fraffin wondered. Hope began to grow in him. What can he do? We own him! I was a fool to panic.

Beside Lutt, the eye of the traffic control selector shifted from yellow to red, blinked twice for override. The instrument emitted a harsh buzzing and projected Ynvic's round face onto the air in front of them. The shipsurgeon's features were drawn into a tight mask of worry. Her eyes stared fixedly at Fraffin.

"There you are!" she snapped. Her gaze darted to Lutt, to the platform background, returned to Fraffin. "Has he gone?"

"And taken the female with him," Fraffin said

"He's not been rejuvenated!" Ynvic blurted.

It took a long minute for Fraffin to find his voice. "But all the others ... he ... you ... " Again, he felt the distant slackdrum.

"Yes, all the others went immediately to the Rejuvenator," Ynvic agreed. "So I assumed this one'd been handled by an assistant or that Kelexel had taken care of it himself. You do!" A rasp of feral anger touched her voice. "Who'd think otherwise? But there's not a trace of him in Master Records. He's not been rejuvenated!"

Fraffin swallowed in a dry throat This was unthinkable! He felt himself go deathly still as though listening for the passage of suns and moons and planets his kind had all but forgotten. Not rejuvenated! The time ... the time ... His voice came out a husky whisper: "It's been at least ... "

"One of my assistants saw him with the female just a short while ago and alerted me," Ynvic said. "Kelexel shows obvious signs of deterioration."

Fraffin found it difficult to breathe. His chest ached. Not rejuvenated! If Kelexel destroyed all traces of the female ... But he couldn't! The storyship had a complete record of the liaison with the native. But if Kelexel destroyed her ...

Lutt tugged at Fraffin's coat

In a rage, Fraffin whirled on him: "What do you want?"

Lutt ducked backward, peered up at Fraffin. "Honored director, the intercom ... " Lutt touched the pickup instrument imbedded in the bone of his neck. "Kelexel's needleship has been seen planetside."

"Where?"

"In the home region of the female."

"Do they still see him?"

Fraffin held his breath.

Lutt listened a moment, shook his head. "The ship was seen to pass without shields. One who saw it inquired about this breach of security. He no longer has the ship in view." Planetside! Fraffin thought.

"You will drop every other activity!" he rasped. "You will order out every pilot and vehicle. That ship must be found! It must be found!"

"But ... what do we do when we find it?"

"The female," Ynvic said.

Fraffin glanced at the disembodied face projected above the traffic control selector, returned his attention to Lutt. "Yes, the female. You'll take her into custody and return her here. She's our property. We'll have an understanding with this Kelexel. No nonsense, you hear?

Bring her to me."

"If I can, honored director."

"You had better find a way," Fraffin said.