"Listen," Mia said in a hoarse whisper. "I just thought. Listen. To
hell with how he found out. Here's the point. Maybe he'll shoot us,
too, when the hunt's over."
Ri licked his lips. "No. He wouldn't do that. We're not--not just
anybody. He couldn't kill us like that. Not even _him_. And besides,
why would he want to do that? It wouldn't do any good to shoot us. Too
many people already know about the farn beasts. You said that yourself."
Mia said, "I hope you're right." They stood side by side, studying the
blast area in silence. Finally, Mia said, "We better be getting back."
"What'll we tell him?"
"That we saw tracks. What else can we tell him?"
They turned back along their trail, stumbling over vines.
"It gets hotter at sunset," Ri said nervously.
"The breeze dies down."
"It's screwy. I didn't think farn beasts had this wide a range. There
must be a lot of them, to be on both sides of the ridge like this."
"There may be a pass," Mia said, pushing a vine away.
Ri wrinkled his brow, panting. "I guess that's it. If there were a lot
of them, we'd have heard something before we did. But even so, it's
damned funny, when you think about it."
Mia looked up at the darkening sky. "We better hurry," he said.
* * * * *
When it came over the hastily established camp, the rocket was low,
obviously looking for a landing site. It was a military craft, from the
outpost on the near moon, and forward, near the nose, there was the
blazoned emblem of the Ninth Fleet. The rocket roared directly over
Extrone's tent, turned slowly, spouting fuel expensively, and settled
into the scrub forest, turning the vegetation beneath it sere by its
blasts.
Extrone sat on an upholstered stool before his tent and spat
disgustedly and combed his beard with his blunt fingers.
Shortly, from the direction of the rocket, a group of four high-ranking
officers came out of the forest, heading toward him. They were spruce,
the officers, with military discipline holding their waists in and
knees almost stiff.
"What in hell do you want?" Extrone asked.
They stopped a respectful distance away. "Sir...." one began.
"Haven't I told you gentlemen that rockets frighten the game?" Extrone
demanded, ominously not raising his voice.
"Sir," the lead officer said, "it's another alien ship. It was sighted
a few hours ago, off this very planet, sir."
Extrone's face looked much too innocent. "How did it get there,
gentlemen? Why wasn't it destroyed?"
"We lost it again, sir. Temporarily, sir."
"So?" Extrone mocked.
"We thought you ought to return to a safer planet, sir. Until we could
locate and destroy it."
Extrone stared at them for a space. Then, indifferently, he turned
away, in the direction of a resting bearer. "You!" he said. "Hey! Bring
me a drink!" He faced the officers again. He smiled maliciously. "I'm
staying here."