The Andre Norton Megapack - 15 Classic Novels and Short Stories

Hume sorted out supplies and Vye loaded them into the waiting flitter, Yactisi approached the Hunter.
    “You have a definite plan of search?”
    “Just to cast north from their camp. If they’ve been gone long enough to hit the foothills we may be able to sight them climbing. Otherwise, we’ll go all the way up to the valley, wait for them there.”
    “You don’t believe that they will be released after they have been—processed?”
    Hume shook his head. “I don’t think we would have been free, Gentlehomo, if it hadn’t been for a series of fortunate accidents.”
    “Yes, though you didn’t give us many details about that, Hunter.”
    Hume put down the needler he had been charging. He studied Yactisi across that weapon.
    “Who are you?” His voice was soft but carried a snap.
    For the first time Vye saw the tall, lean civ really smile.
    “A man of many interests, Hunter—shall we let it go at that for the present? Though I assure you that Wass is not one of them in the way you might believe.”
    Gray eyes met brown, held so straightly. Then Hume spoke. “I believe you. But I have told you the truth.”
    “I have never doubted that—only the amount of it. There must be more talking later on—you understand that?”
    “I never thought otherwise.” Hume set the needler inside the flitter. The civ smiled again, this time including Vye in that evidence of good will before he walked away.
    Hume made no comment. “That does it,” he told his companion. “Still want to go?”
    “If you do—and you can’t do it alone.” No man could take on the valley and Wass and his men.
    Hume made no comment. They had rested briefly after their return to the safari camp, and Vye had been supplied with clothing from Hume’s bags, so that now he wore the uniform of the Guild. He went armed, too, with the equipment belt taken from Rovald and that other’s weapons, needler and tube. At least they started on their dubious rescue mission with every aid the safari camp could muster.
    It was mid-afternoon when the flitter took to the air once again, scattering the hovering globes. There was no alteration in the ranks of the blue watchers waiting—for the barrier to go down, or someone in the camp to step beyond that protection?
    “They’re stupid,” Vye said.
    “Not stupid, just geared to one set of actions,” Hume returned.
    “Which could mean that what sends them here can’t change its orders.”
    “Good guess. I’d say that they were governed by something akin to our tapes. No provision made for any innovations.”
    “So the guiding intelligence could be long gone.”
    “I think it has been.” Hume then changed the subject sharply.
    “How did you get into service at the Starfall?”
    It was hard now to think back to Nahuatl—as if the Vye Lansor who had been swamper in that den of the port town was a different person altogether. In that patch of memories into which Rynch Brodie still intruded he hunted for the proper answer.
    “I couldn’t hold the state jobs. And once you get the habit of eating, you don’t starve willingly.”
    “Why not the state jobs?”
    “Without premium they’re all low-rung tenders’ places. I tried hard enough. But to sit pressing buttons when a light flashed, hour after hour—” Vye shook his head. “They said I was too erratic and gave me the shove. One more move on and it would have been compulsive conditioning. I turned port-drift instead.”
    “Ever thought of trying for a loan premium?”
    Vye laughed shortly. “Loan premium? That’s a true fantasy if you’ve been job hopping. None of the companies will take a chance on a man with an in and out record. Oh, I tried.…” That memory arose to the surface, clear and very chilling. Yes, he had tried to break out of the net the law and custom had put around him from the day he had been made a state child. “No—it was conditioning, or port-drift.”
    “And you chose port-drift?”
    “I was still me—as long as I stayed away from conditioning.”
    “Then you became Rynch Brodie in spite of your flight.”
    “No—well, maybe, for a while. But I’m still Vye Lansor here.”
    “Yes, here. And I don’t think you’ll have to worry about raising a premium to get a new start. You can claim victim compensation, you know.”
    Vye was silent, but Hume did not let him remain so.
    “When the Patrol arrives, you put in your claim. I’ll back you.”
    “You can’t.”
    “That’s where you’re