He stopped worrying about that and concentrated on making The Assassin see. When it was over Jeff grinned with more confidence than he felt. The young man sat down on the floor with his head lowered between his knees. The Assassin began to groan very faintly. A grenade exploded against the side of the house. Fumbling in his pants pocket for a match, Jeff addressed the few assassins that remained. "Better get him out of here right away." "But how do we know it wasn't a trick? How do we know he can see?" A short, weary-faced mountain man leaned against the door jamb, a skar cradled under his arm. His voice had the unpleasant sound of the one The Assassin said was to be successor. "He sees or you die." "Come here." Jeff raised one of the eyelids. As he shadowed the staring eye with his hand the pupil enlarged perceptibly. "But can he see out of it?" "It may be some days before he can even distinguish light from darkness," Jeff replied cautiously. With luck the old man might be able to do that now but there was no use sticking his neck out with his and Kit's lives depending on it. "Then you are coming with us." As Jeff opened his mouth to protest, the old man groaned loudly, then croaked: "The sky so blue. My crags, my people, the bright and glorious sun." He strained toward the germicidal light. The earless young man rose to his side gasping: "He is dying." "No," Jeff insisted. "He has just distinguished light from darkness. You'd better get him out of here before the Security Guards close in on this house." "But first I must see the woman," the old man cried. "The cancellation of her death has cost me my necklace. After we disarmed Konrad, your advisor spoke alone with him; that accursed one begged me to cancel our agreement. To be ethical I had to give him the necklace since it was where the money went." He paused for breath. "I must see this woman who is worth more than a necklace. While Konrad was screaming some nonsense about your advisor double-crossing him, I swore I would see her who has cost me my necklace and the waste of a skar." "But your eyes won't focus yet." "We shall see. Let me up. Shade me from the sun." So what if she sees him, Jeff thought. He will be just "that old murderer" with stranger's eyes. He switched off The Assassin's "sun." Kit entered. The followers sidled from her advance, until the old man sat alone before her upon the operating table, turning his head vainly from side to side. For there was little current in the great nerves of his eyes as yet. The unused synapses did not make full contact. "Woman, I hear your breathing. Your scent is close to me. Ranad, give me light again." The heir swept back the curtain, throwing a beam of sunlight across the operating room. It gilded the side of the old man's face and as he turned his head blindly toward it, it lighted his strange eyes huge and bright.