"On Earth I am very powerful. I have money, property."
"Of what good could that be to me?" Ratan smiled. "And when I get there—I have it all anyway."
"What I mean," Blaine persisted, "I am an organizer. I know the resources of Earth—"
"And to that I agree," Ratan interrupted. "You mean, you would join us, as a friend."
"For a position of power among you Radaks, yes. You will find I can handle the Lei." He smiled cannily. "On Earth they called me ruthless. I could bend men to my will—and always to my own profit."
Blaine's keen, appraising gaze was watching the Radak. Ratan was smiling; he could understand talk like this, and it was obvious that he liked it.... Blaine's heart was pounding. At Ratan's broad grey belt a little pot-bellied metal cylinder was hanging. He gestured to it casually.
"What is that, Ratan?"
"That? It is a weapon of ours. Very important. There are only very few of us who may carry it. A Rak-gun, perhaps your language would term it."
"Let me see it. How does it work?"
But Ratan was only fingering it lovingly. He made no move to detach it from his belt. He was smiling. "It is what brought you from Earth."