The nearest Colony post, Caine judged, was thirty miles away. That
meant no one would observe his silver ship dropping into the forbidden
jungle. But even breaking the treaty would be no worse than inflicting
the wrath of a guest of the Treasurer. Or the Treasurer's daughter.
He drifted slowly above the hill. At least, he hoped, there would be no
Venusians around this part, although you couldn't tell. If there were,
probably they wouldn't do anything, Caine decided, because they did not
believe in violence or in physical conflict.
But there was a matter of honor, and Caine for one, especially Caine,
did not want to be responsible on this, his last day on the planet, for
breaching that honor with these native people.
The perils of the swamp was a thing he saved for final consideration.
They would go no further than the boundaries of the small hill. But
in reality, Caine hoped that something might be down there, waiting
to scare the stupidity out of the loud kid who was forcing him down.
Caine didn't know what that might be, because you could never tell what
waited for you in the Venusian jungle. It was all strange, unexplored
land, and this land, Caine had learned, produced many very weird and
awful things.
They would soon find out.
He dropped the ship slowly, aiming for the center of the gradually
sloping hill. The boy was like a crazy bird locked in a cage. The girl
shook her hair, her teeth shining whitely while she laughed, but Caine
could feel her eyes watching him, watching him.
Caine knew then, in that split second before the wheels of the ship
touched the purple hill, that it hadn't been the boy's demand that
had forced him down, but the girl, watching him through the mirror,
taunting him, daring him, that had made him do this.
He looked up at her and the look she returned made a shiver dance along
his spine.
The wheels touched ground.
The boy clawed at the door. "Lookee, lookee, lookee!" he yelled.
Caine's hand snapped out and struck the boy's fingers away from the
lock of the door.
"Hey!" said the boy, spinning. "Watch out, Driver. Watch out with that.
You don't want to make me mad now, friend. Do you, friend? Do you?"
Caine looked at the narrow glittering eyes of the boy. "No," he said
quietly. "I don't want to make you mad."
"That's fine," the boy said, nodding. "That's fine."
The girl reached over and touched the boy. "You tell him, Vanny. You
tell him anything you want to. He'll listen and nod and say yes to
anything. He's a very sweet fellow, Nic is."
Caine jambed his seat back and stood up. He took out his holstered
pistol from the small compartment beneath the instrument panel. He
strapped the holster to his waist and turned around.
"I don't want either one of you going beyond the boundary of this hill.
I don't like being down here. I'll tell you that before we get out. And
so I don't want any trouble. Get out and look and that's all. In five
minutes I'm taking off. If you're not in this ship you can walk back.
Do you understand?"