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Starns continued to question. Hume laughed. "Not to be found on Jumala, you may be sure of that the seas here are small and shallow. Such, not to be picked up by the verifier, would have to exist at great depths and never venture on land. So we need not fear any surprises here. The Guild takes no chances." "As it always continues to assure one," Yactisi replied. "The hour grows late.
Hume had had him planted here, in the first place, provided with the memory of Rynch Brodie the reward for him was to be a billion credits. Too much staff work had gone into his conditioning for just a small stake. So Rynch Brodie was on Jumala, and Hume had come with witnesses to find him. Another part of his mind stood aloof now, applauding the clearness of his reasoning.
Mir Khan, give Tallantire Sahib the best of the horses, and tell five men to ride to Jumala with the Deputy Commissioner Sahib Bahadur. There is a hurry toward. There was; and it was not in the least bettered by Debendra Nath De clinging to a policeman's bridle and demanding the shortest, the very shortest way to Jumala. Now originality is fatal to the Bengali.
"But that one idea in a thousand can also pay off in odds of a million to one, when and if a man has it." "And you have such a one?" "I have such a one." It was Hume's role now to impress the other by his unshakable confidence. He had studied all the possibilities. Wass was the right man, perhaps the only partner he could find. But Wass must not know that. "On Jumala?" Wass returned.
"Three months, maybe four. There's research to be done and tapes to be made." "It will be six months probably before the Guild sets up a safari for Jumala." Wass smiled. "That need not worry us. When the time comes for a safari, there shall also be clients, impeccable clients, asking for it to be planned." There would be, too, Hume knew.
That's X-Tee Patrol business. We don't land on any planet with unknown intelligent life forms. Why should we court trouble couldn't run a safari in under those conditions. X-Tee certified Jumala as a wild world, our survey confirmed that." "Someone or something landed here after you left?" "I don't believe so. This is too well organized an action.
"I'm the Guild man on Jumala, and the Guild man is responsible for all civs." "You can't call him your client!" Hume shook his head. "No, he's no client. But he's human." It narrowed down to that when a man was on the frontier worlds humans stood together. Vye wanted to deny it, but his own emotions, as well as the centuries of age-old tradition, argued him down.
"Suppose this was started a long time ago, and those who did it are gone, so now it goes on working without any real intelligence behind it. That could be the answer, couldn't it?" "Some process triggers into action when a ship sets down on this portion of Jumala, maybe when one planet's under certain conditions only? Yes, that makes sense.
And how very close they had been themselves to joining that unknown in his permanent residence. "So now we make time back to the safari camp. Get our message off to the Patrol and then we'll try to trace Wass and see what we can do. Jumala is off a regular route. The Patrol won't be here tomorrow at sunrise, no matter how much we wish a scouter would planet then."
"Of course " Hume began and then stopped abruptly. Wass smiled. "You see complications already. I do not wish to explain anything to the Patrol. Nor do you either, my young friend, not when you stop to think about what might result from such explanations." "There wouldn't have been any trouble if you'd kept away from Jumala."
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