"Bob Kennett," the other said simply, sticking out his hand. "And you are in on it. That wasn't an accident when I bumped into you there at the bar. I thought I'd like to know you, because I heard you were making a few undercover inquiries about Prather! Mind telling me just what your interest is in that pirate?"
Marnay replied, his voice suddenly gloomy. "Guess I should have said I'm formerly of Tri-Planet News. You see, it's an old, familiar story. I was on an assignment back on Earth, and I happened to uncover a huge spacer-contract graft ... you know, millions being side-tracked into private pockets...."
"Well?"
"Well," Marnay wailed, "how was I to know that one of the big-shots implicated was my boss's brother-in-law? So to shut me up I was given this assignment. Sent out here to get a line on Prather, or else. It's a cute side-track, often used; what we newsmen call the graveyard assignment."
Kennett was interested. "Uh-huh," he nodded. "And just how much of a line have you got on Prather so far?"
"I'll give you one guess! Precisely nothing. Oh, of course I know all the stories. In the past few years the Patrol has destroyed his base of operations on Io, and again on Mercury, and twice on Ceres. But that pirate's as elusive as the last pea on the plate! Always he's one jump ahead of them, because of his spy system." Marnay shrugged hopelessly. "I suppose some of his men were in the Halo tonight, but how would I know 'em? I hear they drift in and out like ghosts. And that, by the way, is why I was trying to shut you up with that story you were broadcasting."
"And that," Kennett said very grimly, "is exactly what I wanted to do, broadcast it. Subtly, of course."
"Yes, I gather that, now. And I think I see your idea. You deliberately want Prather to go after the Vera! But—what then?"
Kennett stopped and looked straight at Marnay. When he replied his voice was suddenly ice: "What then? Then I'll accomplish what the entire Patrol has been trying for five years. I'll get that pirate."
Marnay, looking at him, saw a sudden bitter look in his eyes, and grim lines around his mouth. He knew that the other men had said what Kennett just said—but Prather was still free in the spaceways.