f Hunters raced past, barely giving him a glance. Barrent
began to feel more hopeful. He had gained valuable time. The last light
of Omega's watery sun was disappearing below the horizon. Night would
give him additional opportunities, and with any luck he could elude the
Hunters until dawn. After that were the Games, of course; but Barrent
wasn't planning on taking part in them. If his disguise was good enough
to protect him from an entire hunting city, there was no reason why he
should be captured for the Games.

Perhaps, after the holiday was over, he could appear again in Omegan
society. Quite possibly if he managed to survive the Hunt and altogether
escape the Games, he would be especially rewarded. Such a presumptuous
and successful breaking of the law would have to be rewarded....

He saw another group of Hunters coming toward him. There were five in
the group, and with them was Tem Rend, looking somber and proud in his
new Assassin's uniform.

"You!" one of the Hunters shouted. "Have you seen a Quarry pass this
way?"

"No, Citizen," Barrent said, bowing his head respectfully, his
needlebeam ready under his rags.

"Don't believe him," a man said. "These damned mutants never tell us a
thing."

"Come on, we'll find him," another man said. The group moved away, but
Tem Rend stayed behind.

"You sure you haven't seen one of the Hunted go by here?" Rend asked.

"Positive, Citizen," Barrent said, wondering if Rend had recognized him.
He didn't want to kill him; in fact, he wasn't sure he could, for Rend's
reflexes were uncannily fast. Right now, Rend's needlebeam was hanging
loosely from his hand, while Barrent's was already aimed. That
split-second advantage might cancel out Rend's superior speed and
accuracy. But if it came to conclusions, Barrent thought, it would
probably be a tie; in which case, they would more than likely kill each
other.

"Well," Rend said, "if you _do_ see any of the Hunted, tell them not to
disguise themselves as mutants."

"Why not?"

"That trick never works for long," Rend said evenly. "It gives a man
about an hour's grace. Then the informers spot him. Now if _I_ were
being hunted, I might use mutant's disguise. But I wouldn't just sit on
a curbstone with it. I'd make a break out of Tetrahyde."

"You would?"

"Most certainly. A few Hunteds every year escape into the mountains. The
officials won't talk about it, of course, and most citizens don't know.
But the Assassin's Guil