would like to see him inhere."
The man bowed and left. Waern turned back to Don.
"You see, Mr. Michaels," he said apologetically, "we are in difficulttimes here. My brother----"
"I know." Don nodded. "Pete was upset the other evening. He told me alittle. A little more than is made public."
Waern's eyebrows went up. "He said nothing about that."
Don waved negligently. "It did no harm. Maybe it was a good thing." Heturned toward the door, waiting.
* * * * *
Pete came in, looking about the room. "You brought Don Michaels here,Father?"
Waern shook his head. "He came. He insisted on talking to you, Petoen.And I find he is very persuasive."
"Oh." Pete turned. "I'm sorry, Don. Father thought that I----"
Don laughed shortly. "He was right--to some extent. But I'd like totalk to both of you about a few things."
He moved back, to perch on the edge of a heavily carved table.
"Let's look at it this way. I got into trouble over the affair. Notgood, of course, but what happened to me is just one small incident.All over Oredan, good intentioned people have things happening to them.Sometimes, they're pretty serious things--like someone getting killed.And they usually can't figure out what hit them. These things happenpretty often. Why?"
Waern looked uncomfortable, but said nothing. Don looked at himcuriously.
"Do you really think, Mr. Waern, that you can sit here in peace? Thatif you ignore this whole mess, it'll go away?"
Jasu Waern spread his hands. "What dare I do? My brother was trying todo something. He is gone."
"True. He tried to clean up a little here and fix a little there. Andthat only in one city. He didn't come boldly out and demand. He wasplaying on the edge of the board, not in the center. A king could domuch more than that."
Waern looked at him, shaking his head.
"Yes, I know about the succession," Don told him. "And why shouldn'tyou demand? You could get the support of the hill tribes. All you needdo is ask."
"I have thought of that. Perhaps we should have done that--once. Butnow? After my brother's death? And what could the hillmen do againstthe weapons of the plains?"
Don smiled at him. "Would the hillmen believe the stories about yourbrother in the face of your personal denial before their own council?Would they accept such a thing about any of the Waernu unless it wereproven by strong evidence? Yours is one of the clans, even yet, youmust remember. And how about the honor of the Waernu?"
Jasu's face was suddenly drawn. Don continued.
"And would the plainsmen dare use their weapons against a legitimateclaimant? For that matter, what good would their weapons be against aFederation Strike Group, even if they did use them?"
"You seem so sure."
"Not just sure. Certain." Don glanced at his watch, then frowned.
"We've lost a lot of time." His voice sharpened.
"Come on," he snapped. "My sportster will carry three people. Let's getout of here while we can still make it." He made shooing motions.
Waern moved toward the door, then turned.
"To the Morek?"
"That's right. Up to the Morek. We're going to start a feud."
* * * * *
Andrew Masterson looked at the handset approvingly. Little Mike wasgetting the idea. He was still just as fast as he'd ever been. He madea little noise in his throat, then spoke.
"Well, if you have any questions, Mr. Michaels, feel free to call ushere. Thank you, and good-by."
He dropped the handset to its cradle and leaned back again.
So that was set up. Little Mike would be on his way out to the hills bythe time he'd completed this next call. And he'd have the clans readyfor talks with the Waernu. Now, the next step would be to alert Jahns,down in the Resident Commissioner's office.
He looked at the surface of his desk, considering, then reached for thephone again. He'd have to be careful on this one.
The door opened and two men came through. One of them held out a card.
"Masterson?"
"That's right."
"Like to have you come with us. People investigating Rayson's accidenthave some questions they'd like to ask you."
"Oh?" Masterson's eyebrows went up. "I'm afraid I wouldn't be much helpon that. I saw him go down, of course, but the view from this windowisn't the best. I really----"
The other shook his head. "Look, don't tell me about it. They just toldus to come out and get you. Got a lot of experts down there. They'llask the questions."
Masterson looked at the man appraisingly, then glanced at his partner,who stood by the door, leaning against the wall.
These two, he thought, would be no great problem. Nothing here but armsand legs. But----
He smiled to himself.
_It would be you or the whole tribe_, he thought.
He might still be able to remain under cover, and he'd be a lot moreeffective that way.
So maybe they were a little suspicious. He glanced down at the desk.The little control box was safely destroyed and its operation had leftno evidence. Even if they did suspect the cause of Rayson's crash, theycouldn't prove a thing. No, his best bet was to go along with these twoand hope the questioning would be short enough to allow him to briefJahns with plenty of time to spare. He shrugged.
"Well," he said aloud, "I'll go with you, of course, though I don't seehow I can be of any help. Terrible thing, losing Rayson that way."
"Yeah. Real bad." The other nodded curtly. "Come on. Let's go."
* * * * *
Daniel Stern looked angrily at his aide.
"Just who is responsible for this report?" he demanded.
The aide looked aside. "It came in from Riandar Headquarters, yourhonor," he said. "Colonel Konir signed it himself."
"I can read," snapped Stern. "But who's responsible? What idiot letthis thing fall apart?" He shook the papers angrily.
"Look at this thing," he ordered. "Simple instructions were issued.With the organization they have up there, any fool could have carriedthem out. So long as they kept it simple, even an idiot could haveeliminated that Waern nuisance. But no! Someone had to be subtle.Someone had to make a big project out of it. And, of course, somethingwent wrong." He snorted angrily and slapped the papers down on hisdesk.
"Rayson was responsible in part, I suppose?"
The aide nodded unhappily and Stern let out an explosive breath.
"Your man! Well, at least, where he is, he can do no more harm. Tellme, are they going to get a confession out of that man, Masterson?"
"I doubt it, your honor. He claims to know nothing of the accident. Andthere isn't a scrap of evidence that----"
"Evidence! There's very little doubt is there? With those notes ofRayson's? And who else could have caused the crash?"
"Well, there certainly is no other----"
"Of course not. We know Masterson did it somehow. But why?"
The aide said nothing and Stern glared at him.
"Who is this Masterson?" he demanded. "Have you checked back on him?"
"He came here from Nogira," said the aide slowly, "seventeen years ago.He had some civil police experience there. We've checked that. He has adegree in criminalistic science. We checked that, too. Not a suspiciousmove since he came here. He was in the Civil Branch for a few years,then was assigned to instructional duty. He's got a perfectly cleanrecord."
Stern shook his head slowly, then looked down at the desk again.
"Just that little," he growled. "He could have simply hated Rayson forsome private reason. He could have seen him as an obstacle. We couldcare less about that." He tapped at a paper.
"Or, he could be working with the Waernu. And that's probable. He couldeven be an undercover agent for the Federation, though that seems alittle improbable. He's been here too long. Hah! He could be almostanything except what Rayson thou
ght." He looked up.
"Well, don't let him go. Keep him out of circulation. In fact, youbetter have him put in tight confinement. We'll look into him moreclosely later. Right now, I want to know what became of that Waernboy."
The aide pointed at the papers on the desk. "The boy and his father arereported to have left their residence, your honor. It is thought theywent with that same Donald Michaels who interfered with the originalplan."
Stern nodded. "The boy Rayson had right in his hands, and then let go.Yes."