There was the time he slipped into a deserted wilderness camp and went to work. He knocked down the approach bridge and dropped all the bedding from the cabins into the nearest stream. Then he went to the bathrooms, set the showers to produce nothing but cold water, and adjusted the toilets to back up violently if anyone tried to flush them.

After the first three days Blade had to be a little more careful. From the number of flyers he saw in the sky it seemed likely the Mestarians were finally coming after him. Now it was time to lead his pursuers on the longest and merriest chase possible.

Blade managed to stretch that chase out for a week. It wasn't always easy, because his pursuers were numerous even if unskilled. He found he had to avoid moving by day, and was never able to sleep for more than a couple of hours at a time. His shoes wore through and he had to move on barefooted. His clothes became ragged, but he didn't dare try to capture new ones even if he could have found a Kananite whose clothes would have fit him. He ran out of emergency rations and could no longer risk approaching any campground or cabin to steal food. They were all guarded now. So he went back to eating berries and mushrooms and raw fish. He grew gaunt and grim-looking, his skin dark with sun and dirt, his beard and hair bristling in all directions.

He'd seldom had more fun in his entire life.

Eventually Blade decided that the time for fun was over. He must have a small army chasing him now, and among them were bound to be one or two hotheads who might be getting a little trigger-happy. It was time to let himself be captured and move on to the next stage of his plan.

So on the morning of the eleventh day he woke up, caught two fish, built a fire, and settled down to let his breakfast cook and his pursuers see the smoke. In less than an hour two flyers swooped low overhead, heads sticking out of their side windows. One of the flyers dashed off to the west, no doubt to call up reinforcements. The other started circling the clearing, staying carefully outside the lethal range of Blade's rifle.

Minutes passed, turning into an hour, then two. Blade began to wonder who they were calling up by way of reinforcements. The circling flyer was replaced by two new ones. Blade finished the last of the fish and began to dig a small pit for the bones and guts.

Then a shadow passed over the clearing. Blade looked up and saw a full-sized spaceship hanging in the sky over the treetops. It was at least two hundred feet long, and the half-dozen flyers holding formation on either side of it looked like pilotfish escorting a shark. Behind the first ship came a second, even larger. Blade recognized the second one as a Menel ship.

Blade backed slowly toward the trees, holding his rifle ready to fire. This was really calling up the reinforcements! Those two ships could be carrying enough firepower to blast half the forest. He wasn't sure why things were being done this way, and he also didn't want to be a sitting target in the open while he found out.

He'd just reached the trees when an enormously amplified voice boomed down from the first ship:

«Blade-come out and join us. We will listen to whatever you have to say. Come out now and nothing will happen to you.»

Blade shouted as loud as he could, hoping he'd be heard. «Who is the 'we'? What I have to say is for the Council of Kanan. Are you Council members?»

«No, but-«

Good. They could hear him. «I've been kept waiting too long already. You've been wasting time and giving it to the Targans. I won't help you waste any more time playing games. It's your world, not-«

A new voice cut in. In spite of distortion from the amplification, Blade recognized Riyannah, tense and desperate. «Blade, you'll get to the Council of Kanan. If these fools won't-«

«Shut up, you filthy traitor whore! You've already done-«the voice broke off in sounds of scuffling. A man's voice was cursing incoherently, then Riyannah screamed in unmistakable pain.

Blade hit the ground, raising his rifle and sighting on the nearest flyer as he did. «If any of you bastards lays one more finger on Riyannah, I'll start shooting.»

The man's voice was trembling with rage. «You can't hope to win, Blade. Come out now and-«

«Be burned down? What kind of a fool do you think-?» He broke off as he saw one of the flyers turn and start to drop toward the clearing.

Suddenly crimson flamed from the bow of the Menel ship. It was only a low-powered blast, but precisely aimed. Air crackled and the flyer's propeller became a puff of greasy smoke. Still supported by its anti-gravity, the machine bobbed helplessly, like a cork in a boiling pot. Then a new voice broke in.

«Richard Blade, far traveler, who would be a friend. We will let no harm come to you. We have sworn this, and we do not break our oaths. Come out, and come under our protection if you do not trust those of Kanan.»

Blade recognized the voice of a Menel coming through a Speaker. So that was why the reinforcements had come in two spaceships. They needed something big enough to carry Speakers and the computers for them. But why the Menel at all, and why this promise to him? Most important, could he trust it?

Certainly it was hard to trust the man who seemed to command the Kananites. He'd called Riyannah a traitor, struck her, been ready to order his flyers to open fire on Blade. Why Blade wasn't sure, but he'd be dead if the Menel hadn't intervened. Whether or not the Menel had sworn on oath to protect him, they'd been willing to do so-willing enough to shoot at Kananites! If he was that important to the Menel, perhaps he could trust them.

«All right,» he shouted. «I'll come out, on two conditions. First, you set Riyannah down on the ground, now!

«Second, we both go wherever we're going in the Menel ship. Any Kananite who gets within rifle range of me in the next hour is going to get a hurd-ray through his guts.»

The silence following Blade's conditions lasted so long he began to wonder if they'd ever heard him. Then a hatch slid open in the belly of the Kananite ship. A slim figure dropped through the opening, held by a sling on the end of a wire. Blade slung his rifle and sprinted across the clearing in time to help Riyannah out of the sling. She was shaking all over, and would have fallen to the ground if he hadn't told her.

After a moment she got herself under control and managed a feeble smile. Blade noticed that one eye was swollen half-shut.

«Did that bastard-?»

«He did, but don't worry about him. He was acting without orders, and when they hear what he did and what the Menel did after that-«Her smile was grim. «I suspect he'd prefer having you beat him to what's going to happen to him.»

«What-?»

«I'll tell you once we're out of here. That, and many other things.» Looking over Riyannah's shoulder Blade saw a flyer dropping from the Menel ship and heading toward them.

«All right.» He suspected what some of these things might be and knew that others would be complete surprises. None of them would be as big a surprise as the situation he was in now.

He'd fought the Menel twice, in two Dimensions. Now he owed his life and much of his hope of success to their protection.

If anyone had ever told me I'd be trusting my life to the Menel, I'd have rung for the doctor and had them taken away.

Then the flyer was landing and the pilot was sticking his head out the window, urgently waving all four arms and clicking his claws.