Odd how he had pursued an even course for twenty-eight years, driving toward a goal he and his brother had planned since childhood, then suddenly losing his props. The Patrol had been a prerequisite of the government licenses they needed. For his part, Logan had been able to face hell, crawl through the stink and the mud and the cold of the outer planets. Yet the five years of service had been a task apart from him, a bridge to an end. Even his black Patrol uniform had seemed alien and temporary. But the blood on Johnny's chest and the ugly dirk protruding from the flesh had struck home.
"Tell Mike to make it a good space line. I'll be around to see it," were Johnny's last words when they found him. Two days later the Patrol had smoked Snyder out of a cheap rooming house—trapped, still with the damned cynical smile.
There was movement at the field exit and four figures detached themselves from the darkness. Edward Snyder towered above the others, carrying his opal-eyed pet in his fettered hands; a sad-faced monkey-sized creature that imitated gestures and obeyed mental commands. Logan glanced swiftly at his watch—ten minutes! and moved to intercept the body.
"I'll take over," he said crisply.
Snyder's eyes widened, tiny chip blue flakes lost in flabby flesh. "Is this the pilot?" he demanded. "He'll kill me." But he kept his queer smile.
The guards were Jovians, local police, short, rotund, lobster-faced individuals. One of them stepped forward. "Lieutenant Logan?"
Mike Logan nodded and showed his papers. The Jovian satisfied himself and returned them. His eyes waved on the end of stalks—supple, transparent muscles; never still.
"We are in charge until the moment of take-off, Lieutenant," he said stiffly. "If you will step aside we will chain the prisoner within the ship." He spoke with characteristic hollowness, a racial organic flaw.
"I think I can handle that," Mike said testily. Snyder laughed and he looked up a foot at the mocking face.
"They know you're going to kill me. You can wait till space, can't you, Logan?" He had found out his name.