"Twins have some ESP to each other. I knew Miellyn had gone to the
Toymaker. I tried to get Dallisa to find out where Miellyn had gone,
learn more about it. Dallisa wouldn't risk it, but Kyral saw me with
Dallisa and thought it was Miellyn. That put him on my tail, too, and I
had to leave Shainsa. I was afraid of Kyral," he added soberly. "Afraid
of what he'd do. I couldn't do anything without Rindy and I knew if I
told Juli what I was doing, she'd take Rindy away into the Terran Zone,
and I'd be as good as dead."
As he talked, I began to realize how vast a web Evarin and the
underground organization of Nebran had spread for us. "Evarin was here
today. What for?"
Rakhal laughed mirthlessly. "He's been trying to get us to kill each
other off. That would get rid of us both. He wants to turn over Wolf to
the nonhumans entirely, I think he's sincere enough, but"--he spread his
hands helplessly--"I can't sit by and see it."
I asked point-blank, "Are you working for Terra? Or for the Dry-towns?
Or any of the anti-Terran movements?"
"I'm working for _me_", he said with a shrug. "I don't think much of the
Terran Empire, but one planet can't fight a galaxy. Race, I want just
one thing. I want the Dry-towns and the rest of Wolf, to have a voice in
their own government. Any planet which makes a substantial contribution
to galactic science, by the laws of the Terran Empire, is automatically
given the status of an independent commonwealth.
"If a man from the Dry-towns discovers something like a matter
transmitter, Wolf gets dominion status. But Evarin and his gang want to
keep it secret, keep it away from Terra, keep it locked up in places
like Canarsa! Somebody has to get it away from them. And if I do it, I
get a nice fat bonus, and an official position."
I believed that, where I would have suspected too much protestation of
altruism. Rakhal tossed it aside.
"You've got Miellyn to take you through the transmitters. Go back to the
Mastershrine, and tell Evarin that Race Cargill is dead. In the Trade
City they think I'm Cargill, and I can get in and out as I choose--sorry
if it caused you trouble, but it was the safest thing I could think
of--and I'll 'vise Magnusson and have him send soldiers to guard the
street-shrines. Evarin might try to escape through one of them."
I shook my head. "Terra hasn't enough men on all Wolf to cover the
street-shrines in Charin alone. And I can't go back with Miellyn." I
explained. Rakhal pursed his lips and whistled when I described the
fight in the transmitter.
"You have all the luck, Cargill! I've never been near enough even to be
sure how they work--and I'll bet you didn't begin to understand! We'll
have to do it the hard way, then. It won't be the first time we've
bulled our way through a tight place! We'll face Evarin in his own
hideout! If Rindy's with us, we needn't worry."
I was willing to let him assume command, but I protested, "You'd take a
child into that--that--"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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