The lawyer did not join in the mirth. "How are you fixed for cash?" he asked abruptly. * * * * * The young man's face split in a sardonic grin. "Why do you think I risked public communion with a darkside character like you, Les? I shot my wad making the shift. I could use a little loan. You know I have millions stashed away," the young man said angrily as Gorman remained silent. "I'll pay you as soon as the hounds take the chump who's leasing my hulk." "Maybe you can earn some money." Gorman toyed with a paperweight. "Did you get a look at that big blond guy in the cafe--the one I told you about on the phone?" "Yeah. Nice life-form he had with him. I wouldn't mind being in that body." "Seems he wants somebody exterminated. And I told him I heard Jed Carmody was in the parish and might be interested." The young man sprang to his feet, furious. "You _what_?" "Turn your antigravs off. I told him Jed Carmody was in the parish. Are you Jed Carmody?" The other sat down and exhaled heavily. "You're on course--I'm nobody just now." "Any identification come with the package?" "Naah, what'd you expect...? But why tell anyone that Jed Carmody's hitting the locality?" "I thought you might be interested in picking up a little free-falling foliage." The young man shook his head impatiently. "Risk having this hulk heated up for a half-credit crime? Don't be an alien, Gorman. I'm going to hit subsoil until this other life-form gets collected by the hounds." "Thought you might like to do it to help me out," Gorman murmured. The other man stared. "How do you fit into the pattern?" Gorman shrugged. "Oh, I get it: this guy's putting the barometer on you?" Gorman nodded. "Bad landing, counselor. But you don't seriously expect...? Hey!" The wide-set eyes glistened darkly. "I got it! Why don't you get this guy who's got my hulk to make the flight? Send somebody out to magnetize him like you thought he was the real Carmody, see?" * * * * * Gorman looked hopeful for a moment; then shook his thin-haired head. "No reason to think the man is an extralegal." "Anyone who finds himself in my hulk damn well has to be if he wants to stay out of the sardine box.... Look, what's the first thing he's going to want to do when he finds out what he's been stuck with? Go to another parish and hop hulks, right? And he'll need plenty of foliage to do it." "Maybe he has money," Gorman suggested wearily. "No fuel lost finding out." The young man rubbed his hands together gleefully. "If he takes on the flight, though, see that he gets my flash, huh? Rosy up the picture." "Maybe he can kill whoever this Lockard has in mind without getting picked up by the police. Such things have happened; otherwise you wouldn't have been able to run around loose so long, Jed."