"I tried not to talk too much. I built up a picture of these Seekers in my mind, and maybe I got it across. Secretive. Not very many of 'em. Too many Scientists, maybe half a dozen. They've got a cassette and reader but they don't show it to outsiders. They threw away their silver suit, but they've got records on how to maintain it. And they swear to kill anyone who tells their secrets. The citizen who told me disappeared. He was high on fringe and I was just a kid, but I had a better memory than most kids . . . That part's true anyway," Rather said. "I haven't told Mickl all of this."

"Dangerous," Jeffer said. "You'll have Mickl desperate to meet them."

"Not if I read him right. Scientist, you know the story now, and you can back me up. Give him details I didn't."

Clave asked, "Jeffer, did Kendy get the records he wanted?"

"I haven't heard from him."

"If we're lucky the treefeeder never will call back. Anyway, we must have looked innocent enough. We never did anything odd because we didn't know anything. So. Twenty days ago three dwarves pulled up to Logbearer in a Navy rocket. Mickl and another man and awoman, all the same size. Weird. They gave us the pressure suit and went away. We're supposed to get the jets going and pay off the Seekers. Would you like ten years' supply of fringe?"

"No. You'd better leave it here if you're supposed to."

They carried the suit and helmet into the dead foliage. Rather and Carlot set to moving their cargo while they looked about.-

Entropy and parasites had eaten a deep cavity into the fisher jungle's dead trunk. The CARM was there, and Jeffer's camp: rocks for a fireplace, a rack of poles for smoking meat, a midden a decent distance away. Jeffer had made a third wing for himself, a prudent move for a man alone. From the blackened look of it he'd been using it to fan his fire.

Jeffer had the pressure suit splayed like a bird's flayed skin. "Rather, did you try it?"

"It's too big for me. -And the air feed doesn't work. I got the panel open. A little wheel isn't connecting to anything, and there's a spoke with nothing on it."

Jeffer grinned. "I see."

Rather laughed. "Mickl doesn't want the Seekers stealing his silver suit! If they try it they'll find out nobody's worthy!"

"I'll refuel it. No guarantee the jets still work."

"Well, if they do work, I get the impression that Booce will get a decent offer for the Wart. Mickl never actually said so."

"Three pressure suits?"

Clave said, "Stet. We may have to do this twice more. And they're searching Dark and sky for a fourth pressure suit. They must be looking hard at where Logbearer went. You may want to move the CARM."