"'How' is easy enough--by keeping one jump ahead of the other guy, like I did with your pal here, and by being smart enough to have good engineers put into my ship everything that any other one ever had and everything they could dream up besides. As to 'why,' that's simple, too. I don't trust anybody except myself. If nobody except myself ever knows what I'm going to do, or when, nobody except myself is ever going to be able to stick a knife into me when I ain't looking--see? So far, it's paid off big. I'm still around, and still healthy, while them that trusted other guys ain't." "I see. Crude, but graphic. The more I study you, the more convinced I become that you would be a worth-while addition to our force--" "No deal, Mendonai," Kinnison interrupted, shaking his unkempt head positively. "I never yet took orders from no boss, and I ain't going to, never." "You misunderstand me, Thyron." The zwilnik was queerly patient and much too forbearing. Kinnison's insulting omission of his title should have touched him off like a rocket. "I was not thinking of you in any minor capacity, but as an ally. An entirely independent ally, working with us in certain mutually advantageous undertakings." "Such as?" Kinnison allowed himself to betray his first sign of interest. "You may be talking sense now, brother, but what's in it for me? Believe me, there's got to be plenty." "There will be plenty. With the ability you have already shown, and with our vast resources back of you, you will take more every week than you have been taking in a year." "Yeah? People like you just love to do things like that for people like me. What do _you_ figure on getting out of it?" Kinnison wondered, and Lensed a sharp thought to his junior at the board. "On your toes, Frank. He's stalling for something, and I'm betting it's maulers." "None detectable yet, sir." * * * * * "We stand to gain, of course," the pirate admitted, smoothly. "For instance, there are certain features of your vessel which might--just possibly, you will observe, and speaking only to mention an example--be of some interest to our naval designers. Also, we have heard that you have an unusually hot battery of primary beams. You might tell me about some of those things now; or at least refocus your plate so that I can see something besides your not unattractive face." "I might not, too. What I've got here is my own business, and stays mine." "Is that what we are to expect from you in the way of co-operation?" The commander's voice was still low and level, but now bore a chill of deadly menace. "Co-operation!" The cutthroat chief was unimpressed. "I'll maybe tell you a thing or two--eat out of your dish--after I get good and sold on your proposition, whatever it is, but not one second sooner!"