“Not interested,” answered Cain.

“In Santiago?”

“In talking to you,” said Cain. “I’ve heard about you, Swagman.”

“All lies, I can assure you,” said the Swagman smoothly.

“Can you now?”

“Absolutely,” replied the Swagman with an amused laugh. “Anyone who can tell you the truth about me is safely dead and buried.” He pulled out a thin cigar and lit it. “If you don’t want to talk about Santiago, then how about Virtue?”

“What about Virtue?”

“What Altair of Altair told you is absolutely true. She’s on her way to join the Angel.”

“How do you know what she told me?” asked Cain sharply.

“I was a spectator at your little encounter,” said the Swagman, dropping an ash on the ground and just missing a ten-legged purple-and-gold Altairian beetle with it.

“How did you manage that?”

“With the help of our cyborg friend here,” replied the Swagman easily. “He’s hooked into her computer.” He smiled. “I would be less than candid if I didn’t confess that I knew you were here to obtain information from Altair of Altair, and based on everything I knew about her, she wasn’t very likely to give it to you. So, since there was no sense in both of us risking our lives, I hunted up Schussler and gave you silent moral support while we observed you from up here.” The Swagman paused. “Just what did she do to you at the end there?”

“What did it look like?” asked Cain, curious.

“Nothing special. She kept urging you to cross a brook, but we couldn’t see any—and I guess she tried to convince you that your gun was a stick?” His inflection made it a question as much as an observation.

“Something like that.”

“Well, I must say that you’re every bit as good as Virtue said you were. Any bookmaker would have made Altair of Altair a ten-to-one favorite to kill you, especially on her own territory.”

“Doubtless your moral support made all the difference,” said Cain dryly. “What would you have done if she’d killed me?”

“There’s very little I could have done,” admitted the Swagman. “With you dead and Virtue gone over to the enemy, I’d have been out of partners.”

“There are worse things than being out of partners,” said Cain. “Such as not being out of them.” He paused. “Why did Virtue go out after the Angel?”

“I should think that would be obvious,” replied the Swagman. “She’s come to the conclusion that he’s got a better chance to kill Santiago than you do.”

“That’s what she told you?”

“Of course not. What she told me was that she planned to spy on him and perhaps feed him some false information.”

“Bullshit,” said Cain.