The central location gave them some chance to see what was
coming. Suddenly Jason was very tired.

"Grif, this city of yours is sure down at the heels. I hope the other
ones are in better shape."

"I don't know what you mean talking about heels. But there are no other
cities. Some mining camps that can't be located inside the perimeter.
But no other cities."

This surprised Jason. He had always visualized the planet with more than
one city. There were a _lot_ of things he didn't know about Pyrrus, he
realized suddenly. All of his efforts since landing had been taken up
with the survival studies. There were a number of questions he wanted to
ask. But ask them of somebody other than his grouchy eight-year-old
bodyguard. There was one person who would be best equipped to tell him
what he wanted to know.

"Do you know Kerk?" he asked the boy. "Apparently he's your ambassador
to a lot of places, but his last name--"

"Sure, everybody knows Kerk. But he's busy, you shouldn't see him."

Jason shook a finger at him. "Minder of my body you may be. But minder
of my soul you are not. What do you say I call the shots and you go
along to shoot the monsters? O.K.?"

* * * * *

They took shelter from a sudden storm of fist-sized hailstones. Then,
with ill grace, Grif led the way to one of the larger, central
buildings. There were more people here and some of them even glanced at
Jason for a minute, before turning back to their business. Jason dragged
himself up two flights of stairs before they reached a door marked
CO-ORDINATION AND SUPPLY.

"Kerk in here?" Jason asked.

"Sure," the boy told him. "He's in charge."

"Fine. Now you get a nice cold drink, or your lunch, or something, and
meet me back here in a couple of hours. I imagine Kerk can do as good a
job of looking after me as you can."

The boy stood doubtfully for a few seconds, then turned away. Jason
wiped off some more sweat and pushed through the door.

There were a handful of people in the office beyond. None of them looked
up at Jason or asked his business. Everything has a purpose on Pyrrus.
If he came there--he must have had a good reason. No one would ever
think to ask him what he wanted. Jason, used to the petty officialdom of
a thousand worlds, waited for a few moments before he understood. There
was only one other door. He shuffled over and opened it.

Kerk looked up from a desk strewed about with papers and ledgers.