"As I recall, Latuun's goat legs were covered with the stuff. Six Bold Lions, the bravos of Araminta Station, wore fur as they swaggered, staggered, pounced, lurched, romped, rambled and swilled wine."

Kirdy made an instant declaration: "Please exclude me; I drank very little!"

Bodwyn Wook paid no heed.

"I saw a Kazakh robber with fur pants, a mang, and also a Tantic giant with a fur vest."

"The giant was a frame on Dalremy Diffin's shoulders. In that costume he could not conveniently have used the truck," said Scharde.

Again Bodwyn Wook ignored the remark.

"No doubt there were others, but no need to explore these avenues until we make our inquiries of Xalanave. Junior Sergeant Kirdy and Cadet Glawen: here are your orders. Tomorrow morning go to the compound, make a proper and official approach to Xalanave and bring him here, at, let us say, two hours before noon;

that should be convenient for all." Bodwyn Wook rose to his feet.

"This has been a tiring day and I am off to bed."

Glawen was only just finishing his breakfast when Kirdy arrived.

"I'll be right with you," said Glawen.

"I did not expect you quite so early. Will you take a cup of tea?"

Ill

"No, thank you," said Kirdy, and added in a voice of bored disapproval: "I knew you would not be ready; that's why I came ten minutes early."

Glawen raised his eyebrows in wonder.

"But I'll be ready in less than ten minutes. In fact, I'm ready now, as soon as I slip on my jacket."

Kirdy looked him up and down.

"You're not going like that?

Where is your uniform?"

"To go down to the compound? Do we need uniforms for that?"

"It's official business. We represent the Bureau." Kirdy himself was meticulously turned out in correct Bureau B sergeant's uniform. Glawen glanced at Scharde, who looked out the window.

"Oh, very well," said Glawen.

"I suppose you are right. Just a moment. I'll still be ready on time."

Correctly attired, the two marched to the compound. Kirdy inquired at the entry office for Xalanave, and the attendant telephoned Xalanave's chambers.

No one responded. Investigation revealed that Xalanave was neither in his chambers nor anywhere in the compound.

The attendant suggested: "He may be working double-shift at the hotel; he'll do that once or twice a week."

A call to the Hotel Araminta kitchen revealed that Xalanave was not on the premises.

"He worked the evening shift last night until midnight," stated the kitchen manager.

"I don't expect him back until this afternoon."

"Thank you, sir," said Kirdy.

"You have been very helpful."

"Wait!" said Glawen.

"Ask if Xalanave received any calls during the evening, or if anything unusual happened."

Kirdy glanced at Glawen with a frown, then turned and spoke into the telephone; response came in the uncertain negative.

Kirdy thereupon telephoned Bodwyn Wook, and explained the situation..

"Find Namour," said Bodwyn Wook.

"Explain the circumstances to him, and ask him to find Xalanave. If he has any questions he can call me."

Namour's inquiries yielded no more information of significance. Xalanave had departed the Hotel Araminta kitchen at midnight and had not been seen since, by anyone who cared to admit to the meeting.

When Kirdy and Glawen, upon instructions from Bodwyn Wook, went to seek out Zamian, they were thwarted once again.

Zamian, like Xalanave, was nowhere to be found within the precincts of Araminta Station, but for a different reason.

Zamian had departed aboard the morning ferry to Yipton. A scrutiny of the passenger manifest indicated that the same was not true in the case of Xalanave, and there was a consensus at Bureau B that Xalanave had been attacked in the shadows at the back of the hotel, carried down to the hotel dock and dropped into the sea.

The day passed and the night which came after. Early in the morning, before dawn had lightened the sky, Scharde slipped from Clattuc House and set off down Wansey Way in the direction of the ocean.

The air was cool and still. No sound could be heard but the soft crisp scrape of Scharde's footsteps on the crushed-stone way. A high haze frosted the sky; Lorca and Sing, halfway down the west, swam in a pool of rose-pink luminosity; as Scharde passed under the riverbank poplars, he traversed spatters of wan rose light and black shade.

At the shore road, Scharde turned left and a few moments later came to the airfield. A drooping-eyed Chiike awaited him in the office.

Chilke's greeting was subdued.

"This is not my time of day.

All this wet dew and early birdcalls just irritate me. As I see it, the only good thing about morning is breakfast."

"At least you're happy and cheerful."

"Am I? I guess it's because the worst is over. I'll be back in bed before you're twenty feet off the ground."

The two went out to the flyer, which stood ready beside the hangar. Chiike watched as Scharde performed the routine preflight check.