"Don"t string me, Maclamore. I"m willing to give you a fair deal, but if you make it tough for me-"

"How do you know I haven"t got a detonator buried under my left ear," I said. "You can"t pry information out of me, Arena."

"I think you want to live, Maclamore. I think you got something you want to live for. I want a piece of it."

"I can make a deal with you, Arena," I said. "Return me and my shipmate to our scout boat. Fuel us up. You might throw in two qualified men to help handle the ship-minus their blackjacks, preferably-then clear out. We"ll handle the rest. And I"ll remember, with grat.i.tude."

Arena was silent for a long moment.

"Yeah, I could do that, Maclamore," he said finally. "But I won"t. Max Arena is not a guy to pick up the crumbs-or wait around for handouts. I want in. All the way in."

"This time you"ll have to settle for what you can get, Arena." I put the gun away and stood up.

I had a feeling I would have to put it over now or not at all.

"The rest of the squadron is still out there. If we don"t show, they"ll carry on alone. They"re supplied for a century"s operation. They don"t need us."

That was true up to a point. The squadron had everything-except fuel.

"You figure you got it made if you can get your hands on that scout boat," Arena said. "You figure to pick up fuel pretty easy by knocking off say the Lackawanna Pile."

"It shouldn"t be too tough; a fleet boat of the Navy packs a wallop."

Arena tapped his teeth with a slim paper cutter.

"You"re worried your outfit will wind up Max Arena"s private Navy, right? I"ll tell you something. You think I"m sitting on top of the world, huh? I own this town, and everybody in it. All the luxury and fancy dinners and women I can use. And you know what? I"m bored."

"And you think running the Navy might be diverting?"

"Call it whatever you want to. There"s something big going on out there, and I don"t plan to be left out."

"Arena, when I clear atmosphere, we"ll talk. Take it or leave it."

The smile was gone now. Arena looked at me, rubbing a finger along his blue cheek.

"Suppose I was to tell you I know where your other three boys are, Maclamore?"

"Do you?" I said.

"And the boat," Arena said. "The works."

"If you"ve got them here, I want to see them, Arena. If not, don"t waste my time."

"I haven"t exactly got "em here, Maclamore. But I know a guy that knows where they are."

"Yeah." I said.

Arena looked mad. "Okay, I"ll give it to you, Maclamore. I got a partner in this deal. Between us we got plenty. But we need what you got, too."

"I"ve made my offer, Arena. It stands."

"Have I got your word on that, Maclamore?" He stood up and came over to stand before me. "The old Academy word. You wouldn"t break that, would you Maelamore?"

"I"ll do what I said."

Arena walked to his desk, a ma.s.sive boulder of jadeite, cleaved and polished to a mirror surface. He thumbed a key.

"Send him in here," he said.

I waited. Arena sat down and looked across at me.

Thirty seconds pa.s.sed and then the door opened and Stenn walked in.

Stenn glanced at me.

"Well," he said. "Mr. Smith."

"The Smith routine is just a gag," Arena said. "His name is-Maclamore."

For an instant, I thought I saw a flash of expression on Stenn"s face. He crossed the room and sat down.

"Well," he said. "A very rational move, your coming here. I trust you struck a profitable bargain?" He looked hard at me, and this time there was expression. Hate, I would call it, offhand.

"Not much of a deal at that, Stenn," Arena said. "The Captain is a tough nut to crack. He wants my help with no strings attached. I think I"m going to buy it."

"How much information has he given you?"

Arena laughed. "Nothing," he said. "Max Arena going for a deal like that. Funny, huh? But that"s the way the fall out fogs "em."

"And what have you arranged?"

"I turn him loose, him and Williams. I figure you"ll go along, Stenn, and let him have the three guys you got. Williams will tell him where the scout boat is, so there"s no percentage in your holding out."

"What else?"

"What else is there?" Arena spread his hands. "They pick up the boat, fuel up-someplace-and they"re off. And the Captain here gives me the old Academy word he cuts me in, once he"s clear."

There was a long silence. Arena smiled comfortably; Stenn sat calmly, looking at each of us in turn. I crossed my fingers and tried to look bored.

"Very well," Stenn said. "I seem to be presented with a fait accompli . . ."

I let out a long breath. I was going to make it . . .

" . . . But I would suggest that before committing yourself, you take the precaution of searching Mr. Maclamore"s person. One never knows."

I could feel the look on my face. So could Arena.

"So," he said. "Another nifty." He didn"t seem to move, but the stunner was in his hand. He wasn"t smiling now, and the stunner caught me easily.

5.

The lights came on, and I blinked, looking around the room.

My mementos didn"t look much, resting in the center of Arena"s polished half-acre of desk top. The information was stored in the five tiny rods, less than an inch long, and the projector was a flat polyhedron the size of a pillbox. But the information they contained was worth more than all the treasure sunk in all the seas.

"This is merely a small sample," Stenn said. "The star surveys are said to be unbelievably complete. They represent a mapping task which would require a thousand years."

"The angles," Arena said. "Just figuring the angles will take plenty time."

"And this is what you almost let him walk out with," Stenn said.

Arena gave me a slashing look.

"Don"t let your indignation run away with you, Arena," Stenn said. "I don"t think you remembered to mention the fuel situation to Mr. Maclamore, did you?"

Arena turned to Stenn, looming over the smaller man. "Maybe you better b.u.t.ton your lip," he said quietly. "I don"t like the way you use it."

"Afraid I"ll lower you in the gentleman"s esteem?" Stenn said. He looked Arena in the eye.

"Nuts to the gentleman"s esteem," Arena said.

"You thought you"d squeeze me out, Arena," Stenn said. "You didn"t need me any more. You intended to let Maclamore and Williams go and have them followed. There was no danger of an escape, since you knew they"d find no fuel."

He turned to me. "During your years in s.p.a.ce, Mr. Maclamore, technology moved on. And politics as well. Power fuels could be used to construct bombs. Ergo, all stations were converted for short half-life secondaries, and the primary materials stored at Fort Knox. You would have found yourself fuelless and therefore helpless. Mr. Arena would have arrived soon thereafter to seize the scout boat."

"What would he want with the boat without fuel?" I asked.

"Mr. Arena was foresighted enough to stock up some years ago," Stenn said. "I understand he has enough metal h.o.a.rded to power your entire squadron for an indefinite time."

"Why tell this guy that?" Arena asked. "Kick him to h.e.l.l out of here and let"s get busy. You gab too much."

"I see that I"m tacitly reinstated as a partner," Stenn said. "Most gratifying."

"Max Arena is no welcher," Arena said. "You tipped me to the tapes, so you"re in."

"Besides which you perhaps sense that I have other valuable contributions to make."

"I figure you to pull your weight."

"What are your plans for Mr. Maclamore?"

"I told you. Kick him out. He"ll never wise up and cooperate with us."

"First, you"d better ask him a few more questions."

"Why? So he"ll blow his head off and mess up my rug, like . . ." Arena stopped. "You won"t get anything out of him."

"A man of his type has a strong aversion to suicide. He won"t die to protect trivial information. And if he does-we"ll know there"s something important being held out."

"I don"t like messy stuff," Arena said.

"I"ll be most careful," Stenn said. "Get me some men in here to secure him to a chair, and we"ll have a nice long chat with him."

"No messy stuff," Arena repeated. He crossed to his desk, thumbed a lever and spoke to someone outside.

Stenn was standing in front of me.

"Let him think he"s pumping you," he hissed.

"Find out where his fuel is stored. I"m on your side." Then Arena was coming back, and Stenn was looking at me indifferently.

Arena had overcome his aversion to messy stuff sufficiently to hit me in the mouth now and then during the past few hours. It made talking painful, but I kept at it.

"How do I know you have Williams?" I said.

Arena crossed to his desk, took out a defaced snapshot.

"Here"s his I.D.," he said. "Take a look." He tossed it over. Stenn held it up.

"Let me talk to him."

"For what?"

"See how he feels about it," I mumbled. I was having trouble staying awake. I hadn"t seen a bed for three days. It was hard to remember what information I was supposed to get from Arena.

"He"ll join in if you do," Arena said. "Give up. Don"t fight. Let it happen."

"You say you"ve got fuel. You"re a liar. You"ve got no fuel."

"I got plenty fuel, wise guy!" Arena yelled. He was tired too.

"Lousy crook," I said. "Can"t even cheat a little without getting caught at it."

"Who"s caught now, swabbie?" Arena was getting mad. That suited me.

"You"re a lousy liar, Arena. You can"t hide hot metal. Even Stenn ought to know that."

"What else was in the cache, Maclamore?" Stenn asked-for the hundredth time. He slapped me-also for the hundredth time. It jarred me and stung. It was the last straw. If Stenn was acting, I"d help him along. I lunged against the wires, swung a foot and caught him under the ribs. He oofed and fell off his chair.

"Don"t push me any farther, you small-time chiselers!" I yelled. "You"ve got nothing but a cast bra.s.s gall to offer. There"s no hole deep enough to hide out power metal, even if a dumb slob like you thought of it."