The two planes swept apart. The ornithopter descended toward the landing stage of Rahn. The freight plane swept toward the ship that carried Tommy. Again the snaky rope coiled down. And Tommy swung up the fifteen feet that alone separated the two soaring planes, and looked into the hard, amused eyes of Jacaro where he sat between two other emissaries of Rahn. One of them was half naked and savage, with the light of madness in his eyes. A Ragged Man. The other was lean and desperate, despite the colored tunic of a civilized man that he wore.
“Hello,” said Jacaro blandly. “We come up to talk things over.”
Tommy gave him the briefest of nods. He looked at Denham—who was deathly white and grim—and the bearded Councilor.
“I’ been givin’ ’em the dope,” said Jacaro easily. “We got the whip hand now. We got gas masks, we got guns just the same as you have, an’ we got the women.”
“You haven’t ammunition,” said Tommy evenly, “or damned little. Your men brought down one ship, and stopped. If you had enough shells would you have stopped there?”
Jacaro grinned.
“You got arithmetic, Reames,” he conceded. “That’s so. But—I’m sayin’ it again—we got the women. Your girl, for one! Now, how about throwin’ in with me, you an’ the professor?”
“No,” said Tommy.
“In a coupla months, Rahn’ll be runnin’ this planet,” said Jacaro blandly, “and I’m runnin’ Rahn! I didn’t know how easy the racket’d be, or I’d ‘ve let Yugna alone. I’d ‘ve come here first. Now get it! Rahn runnin’ the planet, with a couple guys runnin’ Rahn an’ passin’ down through a Tube any little thing we want, like a few million bucks in solid gold. An’ Rahn an’ the other cities for kinda country homes for us an’ our friends. All the women we want, good liquor, an’ a swell time!”