Dar’s mouth went dry. “Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to do it—but I don’t have much experience at that kind of traveling.”

“No, nor do you know how to work your way through the web of the I.D.E. bureaucracy on Terra—but I understand there’s a young lady, just in from the home planet, who’s been in your company lately …”

“Sam Bine,” Dar croaked.

“Yes, a Ms. Bine. I know it’s beastly to ask her to leave so soon after she’s arrived; but, in view of the importance of the matter …”

“She was just leaving, anyway.” Better and better! Escape to Terra, and with a female traveling companion! “Or should I say, I think I can talk her into it.”

“Please do.” Shacklar picked up a pen and made a note. “With luck, the two of you might reach BOA about the same time as my request for clarification of the Honorable Bhelabher’s credentials.”

“You could cancel that, you know,” Bhelabher pointed out.

Shacklar looked up, his face a total blank. Then the light slowly dawned. “Do you know, I believe you’re right.”

“You see?” Bhelabher beamed at Dar. “There’s so much I can do here!”

“True,” Dar agreed—but he wondered how long Shacklar could keep up such high-quality acting.

Long enough for Bhelabher’s resignation to reach Terra, at least.

“You’ll have an official pardon, of course,” Shacklar added.

“I’ll do it! But, uh—just one question…”

“Yes?” Shacklar blinked mildly.

“Why’ll it be so hard to find the right person in the BOA bureaucracy to give your resignation to?”

“Because,” said Bhelabher, “my appointment to Wolmar was a very highly classified secret.”

Dar managed not to look startled.

 

6

But if it was such a deep dark secret, how did you find out about it?” Dar demanded.

Sam’s lips thinned. “Oh, all right! If you really have to know—I was a clerk in the classified division, with a top-level security clearance.”

“Oh.” Dar’s lower lip thrust out as he nodded slowly. “Yeah, that makes sense. Weren’t your bosses a little, ah, taken aback, when you resigned?”

“Very,” Sam said grimly, “especially when they found out I’d turned into a Hume. I had a very difficult time getting a passport.”

“How did you manage it?”

Sam shrugged. “Very involved. Let’s just say I know how to handle a bureaucracy.”

“Uh, yeah, I don’t think I really want to know the details.” Dar pressed a hand over his eyes. “But you did get away. That’s what counts.”

“Not all that much,” Sam answered with a grim smile. “There was a commercial traveler outbound from Terra on the same liner I was on, and he made every transfer I did, up until the last leg from Haldane IV to here.”

“Agent, following you?” Cholly grunted.

Sam nodded, and held out her glass for a refill. “You sound as though you recognize the symptoms.”

“In a manner of speaking.” Cholly poured. “Now, I’m certain it’s just my nasty, suspicious mind, but—I do believe that nice young blond man from Bhelabher’s staff’s been keeping an eye on you.”

“Just my glamor and magnetic personality, I’m sure,” Sam said dryly. “I’ve noticed him, too. In fact, I’d’ve had to’ve been blind not to.”

“Well, every secret agent has to learn his trade sometime.”

“I know a way to ditch him,” Dar ventured.

“So do I,” she said sourly. “Leave Wolmar.”

Dar stared. “How’d you know?”

Sam’s head lifted. “You mean you were seriously going to recommend that? What’s the matter, am I getting to be an embarrassment?”

“No, no, just the other way around!” Dar said quickly. “You see, I’ve got this great offer to leave, but I have to take somebody with me who knows the ropes in the Terran bureaucracy.”

The silence stretched out while Sam’s lower lip slowly protruded. “So. They made you an offer you couldn’t refuse.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say couldn’t—but I wasn’t about to. How about it?”

Sam frowned. “The idea’s got its appeal—I’ve learned what I wanted to here. But this place has a lot of advantages over Terra, if you know what I mean.”

“No,” Dar said promptly. “I can’t imagine how any place could have an advantage over Terra—especially a backwater like this.”

Cholly turned away to put glasses back on shelves, whistling tunelessly between his teeth.

“Don’t worry,” Sam said bitterly, “you will. And, although I wouldn’t mind a return visit to Terra, I have a notion I’d very quickly find myself looking back to this place with nostalgia. How do I get back here if I want to? It took me ten years of saving, just to get the fare out here in the first place.”

“Well, I think Shacklar might be induced to guarantee your return fare,” Dar said judiciously. “He seemed awfully anxious to get me to leave.”

“Sheriff trouble?”

“No, no! I’m taking Bhelabher’s resignation back to Terra!”

Cholly dropped a glass and spun around. “That’s all I need to hear. You’re going. An’ so’re you.” He aimed a finger at Sam. “Can’t leave this poor, innocent lamb to the mercy of them Terran wolves. I’ll guarantee yer return fare, if it comes to it.”

“Done!” Sam slapped the bar. “I’m off on the road back to Terra! But why can’t Bhelabher take it back himself?”

“Because he’s staying here.”

Cholly dropped another glass.

“Oh.” Sam chewed that one over. “How about his staff?”

“They’re staying too. Seems we’ll be needing ‘em.”

“No, don’t tell me—you’re cutting into me glassware.” Cholly held up a hand. “Shacklar’s giving ‘em all jobs.”

Dar nodded. “Bhelabher’s going to revise the filing system and streamline the bureaucracy.”

“Well, there goes private enterprise,” Cholly sighed.

“No, Bhelabher’s not that bad,” Sam said judiciously. “He did a fine job as long as he was only in charge of the records for Terra. It was when they put him in charge of the records for the whole I.D.E. that he ran into trouble.”

“Oh?” Cholly looked up, with a glimmer of hope. “He had the ability, but couldn’t handle responsibility, heh?”

Sam nodded. “Something like that. As long as he was able to take orders, he was fine. It was being top man that stymied him.”

“Better ‘n better.” Cholly nodded. “Then no doubt he’ll take Shacklar’s orders to leave some glitches in the bureaucracy.”

Sam frowned. “Why?”

“It makes for flexibility, lass. If the bureaucracy’s too efficient, it gives the central government too much power, and they control every aspect of life. But a little inefficiency … now, that leaves some room for a man to beat the system… Well! You’ll only have one problem, then, Dar.”

Dar looked up, startled. “What’s that?”

“Shacklar thinks you’re Ardnam Rod now, and all yer papers’ll be made out to him.”

“Oh.” Dar pursed his lips. “That will be a problem, won’t it?”

“But not much of one.” Sam patted his arm reassuringly. “Trust your traveling bureaucrat.”

 

Dar frowned. “Where’s he going?”

“Who?” Sam pressed up to the window, craning her neck. “That guy in the coverall, going over to the control shed?”

“Yeah—he’s the pilot! Who’s going to fly the ferry up to the courier ship?”

Sam shrugged. “His relief, I suppose. No doubt he’s taking a planet-side leave.”

“He’s just had a week’s worth—or, no, I can’t really say that, can I?”

“Right. For all you know, he’s run daily missions since Bhelabher came in.”

“But I didn’t know we had a relief pilot down here.”

“Is it your job to know the duty roster?”

Dar turned to her. “You know, as a traveling companion, you might get to be a bit difficult.”

Sam shrugged. “You’re free to choose any other BOA clerk you can find here.”

“Well, I suppose I could talk to one of Bhelabher’s people.” Dar turned back to the window. “But somehow, I think you’d be a little more …”