o brief
Jahns with plenty of time to spare. He shrugged.

"Well," he said aloud, "I'll go with you, of course, though I don't see
how I can be of any help. Terrible thing, losing Rayson that way."

"Yeah. Real bad." The other nodded curtly. "Come on. Let's go."

* * * * *

Daniel Stern looked angrily at his aide.

"Just who is responsible for this report?" he demanded.

The aide looked aside. "It came in from Riandar Headquarters, your
honor," he said. "Colonel Konir signed it himself."

"I can read," snapped Stern. "But who's responsible? What idiot let
this thing fall apart?" He shook the papers angrily.

"Look at this thing," he ordered. "Simple instructions were issued.
With the organization they have up there, any fool could have carried
them out. So long as they kept it simple, even an idiot could have
eliminated that Waern nuisance. But no! Someone had to be subtle.
Someone had to make a big project out of it. And, of course, something
went wrong." He snorted angrily and slapped the papers down on his
desk.

"Rayson was responsible in part, I suppose?"

The aide nodded unhappily and Stern let out an explosive breath.

"Your man! Well, at least, where he is, he can do no more harm. Tell
me, are they going to get a confession out of that man, Masterson?"

"I doubt it, your honor. He claims to know nothing of the accident. And
there isn't a scrap of evidence that----"

"Evidence! There's very little doubt is there? With those notes of
Rayson's? And who else could have caused the crash?"

"Well, there certainly is no other----"

"Of course not. We know Masterson did it somehow. But why?"

The aide said nothing and Stern glared at him.

"Who is this Masterson?" he demanded. "Have you checked back on him?"

"He came here from Nogira," said the aide slowly, "seventeen years ago.
He had some civil police experience there. We've checked that. He has a
degree in criminalistic science. We checked that, too. Not a suspicious
move since he came here. He was in the Civil Branch for a few years,
then was assigned to instructional duty. He's got a perfectly clean
record."

Stern shook his head slowly, then looked down at the desk again.

"Just that little," he growled. "He could have simply hated Rayson for
some private reason. He could have seen him as an obstacle. We could
care less about that." He tapped at a paper.

"Or, he could be working with the Waernu. And