"Your sympathy is touching. Did you say the same thing to Ted, before he was killed?"
"You fool. I liked your brother."
"He used a different word."
"All right. I loved him. He's dead now. We can't bring him back to life."
"So what do you want?"
"Bareen's here. In the bogs today."
Instantly, Jansen was alert. He could feel fresh strength surge through his muscles, his blood. Bareen! At last, he thought, Bareen! For Ted....
And for Earth.
Ted had been an Earth agent on Mercury. Jansen was not: Jansen had been prospecting in the asteroids when he heard of Ted's death. But he'd gone to Ted's agency at once and offered his services. Now he was here, where Ted had been. Now he was in Ted's place. What would Ted have done? He didn't know. But he had his orders. They were explicit—and ruthless.
"You will report to Sun-side City," they had told him. "You will seek Bareen out. Without Bareen, the organization he has built up will crumble. With Bareen, it will gain control, complete control instead of managerial control, of the irrigation system and the sub-space tunnel. Bareen will become a fabulously wealthy and powerful man, at the expense of Earth's starving billions. You will find Bareen and kill him."