“Who? Shaeffer?”

I could see four in the cave. Bellamy was standing over me; Warren was nearer the cave mouth. The two others were near the back, near a line of plastic crates. One was a man I’d never seen. The other—huge and frightening in the semidark, a monster from man’s dimmest past, when demons and supernatural beings walked the homeworld—was Lloobee. They sat silently facing each other, as if each were waiting for something.

“Yes,” said Bellamy. “Beowulf Shaeffer. He seemed such a nice guy. Why would he go to so much effort to get me in trouble?”

“You forget, Larch.” Warren spoke with patient understanding. “They are the good guys; we are the bad guys. A simple sense of law and order—”

“Too much law and order around, Warren. There are no more frontiers. We sit in our one small area of the universe called known space, sixty light-years across, and we rot. Too much security. Everyone wants security.”

“That’s Shaeffer’s motive. He was backing up law and order.”

“I don’t think so. Bey’s not the type.”

“What type is he?”

“Lazy. A survival type, but lazy. He doesn’t start to use his brain until he’s in obvious, overt trouble. But he’s got pride.”

“Could the other one have talked him into it?”

“I suppose so.”

There was an uncomfortable silence.

“Well,” said Warren, “it’s too bad. What’ll we do with them?”

Bellamy looked unhappily down at me. He couldn’t see my eyes behind the goggles, not in the dim cave light. “They could be found half-eaten. By one of those big hopping things, say. The ones that prey on the gray plains herbivores.”

“The carnivore that did it would be poisoned. It would have to be found nearby.”

“Right.” Bellamy pondered. “It’s vital that there be no evidence against us. If we tried to square a murder rap in the contract, they’d chivvy our price down to nothing. You were bright to use the sonic. A mercy needle would have left chemicals.”

A small, sharp rock was pressing against the side of my neck. It itched. If I was planning to leap to my feet from this ridiculous position, I couldn’t delay too long. Sooner or later I’d reach to scratch. Sooner or later Bellamy or Warren would notice the butts of Emil’s altered police stunners and know them for what they were.

“First we need a plains carnivore,” said Warren. “Do you think we can starve it into—”

Lloobee leapt.

He was five yards from the man who was guarding him at the back of the cave. The man fired instantly, and then he screamed and tried to dodge. The Kdatlyno slammed into him and knocked him sliding across the floor.

I didn’t see any more. I was running. I heard panicky shouting and then Bellamy’s roar: “Relax, you idiot. He was unconscious before he left the ground.” And Warren’s, “Relax, hell! Where’s Shaeffer?”