nal space
skills make it to Planet Pluto; that one of them
defends a high level official in a tavern brawl,
making for himself a mortal enemy of their
sanctuary's chief security officer. To cap it, the
escaped convicts are now guests in the home of the
official that they defended in the bar-room scrape
who, I might add, also happens to be a member of
the President's Council. See the problem?"

"Crank this in," Brad remarked, "the citizen, who
considers himself a high government official,
moves about without a bodyguard thus inviting
confrontations. Also, his attacker's arrival at the
bar-room couldn't possibly have been predicted, let
alone his drunken behavior and my colleague and I
happening to be there. Add who it was that took the
initiative for departure from the tavern, and that
it was the high government official that invited
the escaped convicts to his home. He wasn't
threatened or coerced into extending his
hospitality."

Drummer grinned, nodded. "You ordered Hodak
to intervene. Why?"

"First, tell me more about Scarf."

Drummer shrugged.

"He's been with Narval since the beginning of the
regime. Did, and still does, most of the dirty work
that keeps any government in power, and he's
better at it than most. He has a special hatred
for dissidents to Narval's policies and uses
spies, informers and killers to infiltrate their
organizations and tear them apart. By the way,
he also had your ship searched. Watch out for
him. Now, my question."

"When Scarf began to hassle you, I had no idea of
his identity or position. His words and actions in
the bar-room gave me an impression that, if we
got you out of that mess, you might reciprocate
by helping us to get permission to remain on
the planet, and maybe steer us to jobs. It was
a chance. Now, as to your problem with us:
is it insurmountable?"

Drummer studied Brad's face, trying to read his
thoughts. "Not really, insofar as getting you and
your friends temporary resident status," he said.
"Scarf will not be easy with you and your friends,
especially my rescuer, Hodak. I'll talk to my
associates. The skills you have might be useful
to us. Since you're a former ship's captain, I'll
consider you spokesman for your colleagues."

Chapter FOURTEEN

President Narval invited all INOR ambassadors to
meet with him in his conference suite; the subject
was not announced in advance. The ambassadors
sought guidance from their home governments. I