ensive, and fearsome Sandeman
free-lance assassins. That conviction was strengthened by the fact that
DarLowrie had his own ship, the Last Resort, and it was registered to
him personally rather than to Clan Lowrie. The Sandeman would neither
confirm nor deny that occupation, of course, but the simple fact that
he was attempting to trace an IntelDiv field agent lent still further
credence to the informant's conclusion.

Owajima would have liked more information, but it seemed prudent to act
on the informant's suspicions. The Sandeman had filed a flight plan
for Olathe, where Owajima had spent some time and built up a
respectable net; that seemed most promising. It was unfortunate,
Owajima thought, that he was unable to investigate DarLowrie himself;
that would have to wait until he was finished with the final touches on
his present case, a matter of a day or two.

Still, he could begin making preparations. He would be entitled to a
leave after this mission, and he had planned to take it at home on
Nippon-Ni; that was now an even better idea. His contacts on his home
world made his networks elsewhere, good as they were, seem like
children's clubs--and it should not be difficult at all to permit
DarLowrie to "discover" those intentions. It would undoubtedly be
unpleasant for the one he discovered them from, since it was unlikely
DarLowrie would believe information he obtained too easily.

That, however, was not a serious problem; a number of his Olathe
network owed him enough that he could call on them even for such a
service. It would take DarLowrie perhaps a week to reach Olathe,
another week and a half to get to Nippon-Ni; that would give Owajima
time to make adequate preparations, then visit with his family for
several days. He smiled to himself, transmitted the necessary
messages, and returned his attention to his immediate mission.

* * * * *

Nevan entered the Lucky Bull, a medium-priced bar near the Olathe City
spaceport, and ordered a glass of chocolate milk before finding a table
near the rear of the main room. In the early days after Annexation,
he'd heard, bars had carried alcoholic beverages almost exclusively,
and Sandemans were made fun of for drinking only the non-alcoholic
variety, but by the time he'd started frequenting bars as an excellent
source of information, the sweet high-energy beverages Sandemans
preferred were as normal as alcohol.

If he had Owajima fi