Melome

'No.' Avro drew air deep into his lungs. 'It is nothing.'

'The report on your physical condition stated that you are close to optimum function. There has been some loss of tissue, but that was to be expected despite the intravenous feeding during your journey back and the period here before your intelligence returned. And yet then, for a moment, you seemed about to collapse.'

'A slight nausea.' Avro corrected the statement, to be sick was to prove the inadequacy of the body. 'A lack of immediate coordination of mind and eye.' He gestured at the depiction. 'The retinal musculature has been at rest too long. Exercise will correct it.'

Marie nodded, dismissing the subject, Avro was the best judge of his condition. Again he faced the depiction and the planet he'd indicated.

'Heaven,' he said again. 'A world of little value even though the dominant avian life form holds a certain interest. From it Dumarest traveled to Aumont.'

'When?'

'Shortly after you were stricken. The captain of your vessel did his best to make the most of the situation in which he found himself. He could not attack for fear of destroying Dumarest and he had also to safeguard your person. Leaving the world, he headed far out into space and there hung in a position to monitor the other ship. A chance which succeeded; his instruments were of a superior quality. He could register the other vessel but the reverse did not apply. He waited long enough to track their direction of flight.'

'They could have altered course.'

'A possibility but of no importance. Dumarest landed on Aumont. Word had been sent ahead to our cybers and agents in the area and he was spotted. He left before action could be taken, first to Kreuz then to Tolen and then to Ceruti. There the ship was seized by our agents.'

'And Dumarest?'

'Missing. He had left the ship either on Kreuz or Tolen. Both are busy worlds with many vessels offering a choice of routes and directions.' Marie's tone did not change as he added, 'Which ship would he have taken? To which world would he have gone?'

A test; Marie would already have made the prediction and was now examining his ability. On the outcome could hang his fate. Avro studied the data which flashed on a wall; details of ships, cargoes, destinations, times. Dumarest would have been aware of his danger; a man on the run doing his best to delude his pursuers. Shifting in a random pattern and avoiding the obvious. But no pattern could be wholly random; each choice had to be dictated by the man himself and each would be governed by personal and subconscious idiosyncrasies. A dislike of the color red-and a ship so painted would be avoided. A dislike of cold, of mountains, of roaring winds. A reluctance to share a cabin. A fondness for warm climes. A host of minor spurs unsuspected by the quarry but glaring signposts to the hunters.

And Avro had studied every aspect of Dumarest's behavior known to the Cyclan.

'Schike,' he said. 'Dumarest would have traveled on the Hoyland to Schike.'

'And then?'

'The Vladek to Caltoon.' A small world on the edge of a busy cluster, one on which no cyber would find a use for his services but where a man could lose himself in a crowd. 'And then to Ostrogoth.'

And from there?

Avro checked the data. A normal man, even though aware of pursuit, would follow a predictable path, but Dumarest was far from ordinary. A man to take the obvious because it was just that, to bluff and counter-bluff, to do the unsuspected. Like traveling to Vanch with its continual rain. Or Leasdale with its icy seas. Bad worlds both and Dumarest would not want to be stranded. Where then?

Where?

'Baatz.' Marie supplied the answer. Avro had demonstrated his ability, to continue the test would be inefficient. 'Dumarest is on Baatz at the circus of Chen Wei. Cyber Tron is on his way to ensure his capture or to take possession of him should the capture have been made.'

'And if he should escape?'

'He will not.'

'The possibility exists,' said Avro. 'Nothing can be one hundred percent certain. Always there is the unknown factor. Tron is a stranger to Dumarest, he has yet to learn of his wiles. He could be overconfident. It has happened before.'

Too often and with too many dead cybers to add to the failures. A fact Marie knew as he was aware that, should Dumarest escape again, the blame would be his.

He said, 'I place you in charge of Dumarest's capture and return. You will leave immediately.' He added, in a tone bleak despite its even modulation, 'You failed once, Avro-do not fail again.'

CHAPTER EIGHT

Valaban said, 'Settle down, Earl. The way you pace about is making me nervous. Quit it before you disturb the beasts.'

Good advice and Dumarest took it, taking his place beside the old man on a bench. Around him stretched the cavernous area beneath the stands, one split and sectioned to avoid waste, the part reserved for the animals thick with smells.

He drew them into his nostrils, recognizing the tang of sweat, dung, oils, embrocation, urine. An odor too similar to another he knew but this, at least, was free of the reek of blood.

'You're restless,' said Valaban. 'I can sense it and so can the animals. Here.' He held out a bottle. 'Take a drink of this-it will calm you.'

'Thanks.' Dumarest took the bottle, held it to his lips, threw back his head and pretended to drink. Handing it back he said, 'So you never met Chen Wei. Who owned the circus before Shakira?'

'Damned if I know.' Valaban frowned at the single lamp which illuminated the area. A pool of light in a darkness edged with cages and gleaming, watchful eyes. 'It was a long time ago now. Maybe Chen Wei did, I only said I'd never met him. Burski hired me. He got himself killed on Daleth-a fight over a woman as I remember, then Shakira took over. That must be, oh, close to thirty years ago.'

A long time in a transient society and if Valaban lacked the answers they weren't to be found.

He stiffened as noise came from a cage, relaxing as it died.

'The klachen,' he grunted. 'The damned thing's more trouble than it's worth. Zucco must have been crazy to take it on.'

'Maybe he likes its rider?' A lithe young girl with a rounded face and slanted, enigmatic eyes, she danced on the platform of the creature's back with stunning agility. 'Is he like that?'

'What man isn't if he gets the chance?' Valaban shrugged. 'But Kiki's too tame for him, too docile. He likes strength in a woman, something he can beat down, use, conquer. I guess you know what he is.'

'I know.'

'Then you know enough to be careful. Stay away from him. Maybe he'll forget you're around.'

A warning? Dumarest looked at Valaban, studying the seamed face, the sunken eyes. An old man with an inner wisdom who would see more than he admitted and know more than he was willing to tell. But some information had been gained; small details which added to build a picture. Zucco, for example, a man who had joined the circus some five years earlier and who seemed to possess no special skills. One who had climbed fast and high. Dumarest wondered why.

'You're good, Earl,' said Valaban. 'I appreciate you helping me out. You've a way with animals. Some have it and some don't and no one knows just what it is. Trust, maybe, or just an absence of fear. You don't scare them.' He frowned as, again, the klachen kicked at the bars of its cage.

Dumarest said, 'When the circus moves do the beasts go with it?'

'Not all. We sell them off for breeding stock mostly, that's why none of the males has been neutered. Most can easily be trained but some can't. The cats, for instance, they come from Flyte. Special mutated stock bred for guardians. You know Flyte?'

'No.'

'It's a prison world. Jungle and cleared areas ringed with wire. Outside the cats are allowed to roam free.