“No, Ander, it’s not like that. You’ve seen my homeworld. There’s only one ocean on We Made It, and it’s all one storm. Nobody swims.”

“So what are we doing here?”

I had come here following a woman’s whim, but Ander shouldn’t know that. “I don’t care who wins. I just get a kick out of watching how good they are.”

But I’d listened to enough of Sharrol’s prattling. Water war derived from a game the kzinti played on the continent, on land. In both forms the game is local to Fafnir. No offworld tourist would know of it. I need only open my mouth and let Sharrol speak.

“They all swim like dolphins, don’t they? But the dolphins can’t grab the prey, they can only push the other players around, except that the Structure Team dolphin has hands. It’s an option. But the rig is slowing her down; can you tell? Do you know anything about strategy? They’re down to seven teams, looks like—” I saw that he was only waiting for me to stop talking. “Ander, what are you doing on Fafnir?”

“Looking for you.”

“Yah, I always thought so. You’re with the United Nations police.” I need not pretend to like it.

Ander frowned. “Not…exactly. I’m not an ARM. I’m with Sigmund Ausfaller, and Sigmund is an ARM, but he has his own agenda. By which I mean to say I’m not here to bring you back, Beowulf.”

“That’s good. I don’t want to go back.” I didn’t have my story yet, but it would not include wanting to return to Earth. “Why, then?”

“Can you tell me what happened to Feather Filip?”

“It’s long and ugly.”

“No problem. I’ll take you to dinner.”

“Thanks.” It might help me, now or later, if Ander thought I was short of money. Better yet—“There’s an item of great value involved, Ander. One I can’t touch myself. That, and Feather, and the way I look: they’re all linked.”

“Yes. Good,” he said absently. “And, though he never said so to me, Sigmund may have wanted you to know that if you outsmarted the ARM, you did not outsmart Sigmund.”

“I expect he did. Anything else?”

“Oh, yes. I got into this because we were talking about Pierson’s puppeteers. Sigmund and I decided that you, Beowulf Shaeffer, know as much about these aliens as any ARM.”

“Hah. Were you sober?”

“And then we worked out where you must be. No, not sober then, but we talked the next morning and didn’t change our minds. Beowulf, how did you first learn of the puppeteers?”

“School and the holo cube. We watched a lot of travelogues when we were kids. And we hung around the spaceport, so I knew they make the General Products ships.”

“And your first contact?”