He reached up and grabbed her arm, pulling her down alongside him. "How did you find me?" he demanded. "It was an accident, although--" her voice trailed off. "Although what?" "You're hurting me!" "Although what, Miss Hilliard?" "I--well, I was looking for you, Jansen. I want to help you." "Sure," he said, a trace of bitterness in his voice. She smiled. "I'd say you need some help. You look all washed out." "Your sympathy is touching. Did you say the same thing to Ted, before he was killed?" "You fool. I liked your brother." "He used a different word." "All right. I loved him. He's dead now. We can't bring him back to life." "So what do you want?" "Bareen's here. In the bogs today." Instantly, Jansen was alert. He could feel fresh strength surge through his muscles, his blood. Bareen! At last, he thought, Bareen! For Ted.... And for Earth. Ted had been an Earth agent on Mercury. Jansen was not: Jansen had been prospecting in the asteroids when he heard of Ted's death. But he'd gone to Ted's agency at once and offered his services. Now he was here, where Ted had been. Now he was in Ted's place. What would Ted have done? He didn't know. But he had his orders. They were explicit--and ruthless. "You will report to Sun-side City," they had told him. "You will seek Bareen out. Without Bareen, the organization he has built up will crumble. With Bareen, it will gain control, complete control instead of managerial control, of the irrigation system and the sub-space tunnel. Bareen will become a fabulously wealthy and powerful man, at the expense of Earth's starving billions. You will find Bareen and kill him." Assassination, Jansen thought now. Legally, it would be a crime. The civilized worlds would forever be closed to Jansen. But morally it would be anything but a crime. Morally, Jansen would be helping billions of people he would never see--and, if he helped them, he would be from that day forth an outcast who must live out the rest of his life on the far outworlds. For Ted, he thought. And Earth.... "Why'd Bareen come here?" Jansen asked the girl suspiciously. "I thought he runs this show from the sub-space tunnel." "Sure he does. But periodically he comes here to check on his men. You must have known it: why did you come here?" "I couldn't get assigned to the sub-space tunnel. I'm no technician. I was going to figure a way in, later." "There's no later for you. How much time do you think you have, Jansen?" He shrugged, and asked a question of his own. "Why are you pretending to help me?" "Ted and I--" "He's dead now, remember?" Wendy stood up angrily. "All right, have it your way. Bareen is here. You're here. I thought that was what you wanted. I told you. I--"