"Spacemen dislike combat with a woman so you've built up a myth about her to give an excuse for not killing her. But if she is the one who killed my father she's going to pay for it."
"Then why not let the police bring her in?"
"What police? Four planets have put a price on her head and she walks free in the cities of any of them."
"She's dangerous," Tabor repeated his warning. "And perhaps she is not the killer after all. There's no use crossing her trail needlessly."
"We'll soon know," Nathan promised.
He turned and strode out of the cavern of death while the two police officers began preparing his father's body for the trip back to the city under Tabor's direction. He paused a moment at the entrance and drew up the waterproof hood of his cloak and tied the knot beneath his chin, then went out into the sheeting rain.
At the bottom of the steep and slippery trail leading from the cave waited Perseus, the white stallion imported from Earth. In a world still battling incessantly against the jungle the horse was one of the chief means of private transportation, even though practically extinct on Earth.
Perseus nuzzled against Nathan's neck and the man rested his face against the horse's head for a moment. Loneliness and weariness descended upon Nathan. He was lonelier than he had ever known he could be, he thought. Thymar had never given much companionship to his son because their adventurous spirits had led them in opposite directions. But the mere knowledge of Thymar's existence somewhere in the universe was the only companionship Nathan had needed. Now that was gone.
And somewhere on Venus was a murderer he had to kill.