ls to make, and we're our own masters. The
United Galaxies leaves us pretty much alone unless they need us. You do
your job, and your job is what I tell you to do, period. You got that
straight?"

Saltario very nearly smiled. "It sounds good to me, sir."

"I hope it'll sound good in a year, Saltario, because once you're in you
don't get out except feet first. Is that clear? I have life and death
rights over you. You owe allegiance to the Red Company and me and to no
one else. Got that? Today your best friends are the men of Rajay-Ben's
Lukanian Fourth Free Patrol, and your worst enemies are the men of
Mandasiva's Sirian O Company. Tomorrow Rajay-Ben's boys may be your
worst enemies, and Mandasiva's troops your best friends. It all depends
on the contract. A Company on the same contract is a friend, a Company
against the contract is an enemy. You'll drink with a man today, and
kill him tomorrow. Got it? If you kill a Free Companion without a
contract you go to court-martial. If you kill a citizen of the United
Galaxies except in a battle under contract I throw you to the wolves and
that means you're finished. That's the way it is."

"Yes, sir." Saltario never moved a muscle. He was rigid.

"Right," I said, "get your gear, see the Adjutant and sign the
agreement. I think you'll do."

Saltario left. I sat back in my chair and thought about how many
non-Earthmen I was taking into the Company. Maybe I should have been
thinking about this one single non-Earthman and the something he was
carrying inside him, but I didn't, and it cost the Companies thirty
thousand men we couldn't afford to lose. We can't afford to lose one
man. There are only a hundred Companies now, twenty thousand men each,
give or take a few thousand depending on how the last contract went.
Life is good in the United Galaxies now that they've disarmed and
outlawed all war again, and our breed is dying out faster than it did in
the 500 years of peace before the War of Survival. Too many of the old
Companions like me went west in the War of Survival. The Galactic
Council know they need us, know that you can't change all living
creatures into good Galactic citizens overnight, so they let us go on
fighting for anyone in the Universe who wants to take something from
someone else, or who thinks someone else wants to take something from
him. And even the mighty United Galaxies needs guards for expeditions to
the unexplored galaxies. But they don't like us and