"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--"
Just then the one streamlined swamp-buggy Jansen had seen came chugging
up through the brackish water. A hatch opened and as it did so Wendy
moved quickly away from Jansen. She waded toward the buggy, smiling. A
man appeared in the hatch, a big man, big as Jansen and wider. He was
younger than Jansen thought he would be. He was handsome and somehow
cold-looking.
"Wendy, my dear," Jansen heard him say. "This is a pleasant surprise."
Wendy reached the swamp-buggy. Bareen--for it was Bareen--leaned over
and offered her a hand. He drew her up to him and she turned her cheek
for his kiss. Then they disappeared inside the buggy and it chugged
away.
Jansen sat there for a moment. Bareen, he thought. Bareen and Wendy
Hilliard. Well, why not? Hadn't Ted been killed?
_But why did she come to me?_
Jansen stood up. His limbs trembled with heat-fatigue and he popped two
salt tablets into his mouth. He began to walk.
"Hey, you!" a supervisor called. "Lunch hour's almost over. Where you
going?"
Jansen didn't answer. The swamp-buggy, moving slowly through the brown
water, was almost out of sight. A dome corridor led from the chlorella
bogs to the irrigation station, Jansen knew. The buggy was headed in
that direction.
"I said, where you going?"
Jansen didn't answer the shouted question. There wasn't time. He ran,
splashing through the thigh-deep water, moving clumsily and slowly.
Instead of following Bareen's buggy, he headed for where the other
vehicles were parked. He climbed on one and began to unbolt the hatch
when he heard boots on metal behind him.