This was it--the corner of no return. But Wass had his own code. The Veep had established his tight control of his lawless organization by set rules, and one of them was, don't be greedy. Wass was never greedy, which is why the patrol had never been able to pull him down, and those who dealt with him did not talk. If you had a good thing, and Wass accepted temporary partnership, he kept his side of the bargain rigidly. You did the same--or regretted your stupidity. "A claimant to the Kogan estate--that good enough for you?" Wass showed no surprise. "And how would such a claimant be profitable to us?" Hume appreciated that "us"; he had an in now. "If you supply the claimant, surely you can claim a reward, in more ways than one." "True. But one does not produce a claimant out of a Krusha dream. The investigation for any such claim now would be made by a verity lab and no imposture will pass those tests. While a real claimant would not need your help or mine." "Depends upon the claimant." "One you discovered on Jumala?" "No." Hume shook his head slowly. "I found something else on Jumala--an L-B from Largo Drift intact and in good shape. From the evidence now in existence it could have landed there with survivors aboard." "And the evidence of such survivors living on--that exists also?" Hume shrugged, his plasta-flesh fingers flexed slightly. "It has been six planet years, there is a forest where the L-B rests. No, no evidence at present." "The Largo Drift," Wass repeated slowly, "carrying, among others, Gentlefem Tharlee Kogan Brodie." "And her son Rynch Brodie, who was at the time of the Largo Drift's disappearance a boy of fourteen." "You have indeed made a find." Wass gave that simple statement enough emphasis to assure Hume he had won. His one-in-a-thousand idea had been absorbed, was now being examined, amplified, broken down into details he could never have hoped to manage for himself, by the most cunning criminal brain in at least five solar systems. "Is there any hope of survivors?" Wass attacked the problem straight on. "No evidence even of there being any passengers when the L-B planeted. Those are automatic and released a certain number of seconds after an accident alarm. For what it's worth the hatch of this one was open. It could have brought in survivors. But I was on Jumala for three months with a full Guild crew and we found no sign of any castaways." "So you propose--?" "On the basis of my report Jumala has been put up for a safari choice. The L-B could well be innocently discovered by a client. Every one knows the story with the case dragging through the Ten Sector-Terran Courts now. Gentlefem Brodie and her son might not have been news ten years ago. Now, with a third of the Kogan-Bors-Wazalitz control going to them, any find linked with the Largo Drift would gain full galactic coverage." "You have a choice of survivor? The Gentlefem?"