Elliot shook his head. It was a mistake; his neck was still sore from the clobbering earlier, and the pain made him wince.

"You're talking to Housten Blayne," Sam said.

Elliot stared silently. He knew Housten Blayne. Blayne was the Venusian Commissioner for the Interplanetary Trade Board.

"You were in a brawl in a tavern, Mr. Elliot," said Blayne mildly. "I could revoke your pilot's papers for that. It might even appear that you were—ah—intoxicated when you smashed up the Space Needle. Naturally we couldn't let you take off in the Space Needle II, could we?"

Elliot saw the picture then. The fight in the bar had been staged. Blayne had shrewdly framed him in order to get him to lead him to the Dragonbird. And the fat man could do everything he said he would. Elliot was in his pocket.

"All right, Blayne," Elliot said stiffly. "When do we start?"

"Tuesday," Blayne said. "And I'd better warn you, Elliot, that we must protect each other. If I don't come back from this trip, certain papers in my safe would make things very difficult for you. If we make it, however, you will be well paid."

"What does that mean?"

Blayne smiled. "I believe ten thousand credits will be sufficient. That is, of course, if we actually get the Dragonbird."

They started the next day from North Venus City, Blayne and Elliot. Sam followed them as far as the boundary line, then waved and turned back.

The first few days of the journey weren't too bad. The little jeep went over the mossy undergrowth almost as though a road had been built for it. It was, Elliot reflected, a hell of a lot better way to travel than slogging through the Venusian jungle on foot. In four days, they covered the same ground that had taken Elliot five weeks when he'd cracked up his ship several hundred miles to the south.

At night, the two men took shifts, one of them sleeping in the rear of the jeep and the other standing guard, keeping his eyes peeled for predators. Here Elliot encountered a temptation that was almost overpowering.

It happened the first night, while Blayne slept. Elliot paced slowly back and forth, on the lookout. Half an hour before his watch was due to end, he heard a faint chittering sound coming from one of the swaying whip-trees overhead.

 Prev. P 3/11 next