"He's mine," said the Hadji on the left. His friends moved back as he drew his sidearm.
"Wait!" Barrent called out. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to shoot you," the man said.
"But why?"
The man smiled. "Because it's a Hadji privilege. On every Landing Day, we have the right to shoot down any new peon who leaves his barracks area."
"But I wasn't told!"
"Of course not," the man said. "If you new men were told, none of you would leave your barracks on Landing Day. And that would spoil all the fun."
He took aim.
Barrent reacted instantaneously. He threw himself to the ground as the Hadji fired, heard a hiss, and saw a jagged heatburn score the brick building next to which he had been standing.