"But you can sell me?"

"Sell the holding," she corrected. "I can do that, yes, and you will, naturally, go with it. All residents do. A formality," she added. "A change of holder means almost nothing."

To others, maybe, but they lacked his value. In the overhead mirror Dumarest saw the woman's face, the sudden alertness revealed in the tautness of skin, the tension of the eyes.

He said with deliberate casualness, "Has anyone made you an offer for the holding?"

"The Maximus. A good offer but I refused it." Her face had sharpened even more. "Should I have?"

"Not if it made you a profit." Dumarest reared to sit upright on the bed. "Why did you refuse?"

"A whim." She rose to sit beside him, legs crossed, the mane of her hair hanging like a curtain over her shoulders and breasts. "I have no love for Kalova so why yield to his demands? In any case delay will make him the more eager to close a deal. Who knows? He may offer double again." And then, with transparent motive, she added, "Would it matter to you, Earl?"

"If you sold? No."

A lie she chose not to question. The music died as she again touched the button, warm air wafting, heavy with pungent scents to fill the chamber with exotic perfumes. Leaning back she stared at the mirror, the twin reflections so close above.

"Life," she mused. "Why must it always be struggle? To spend it with someone special, to eat and drink and have a soft bed-how can there be more? Tell me, Earl, have you never wanted to settle down? To marry, rear sons, watch them grow? To belong to a family of note and walk with pride? To know real security. Real happiness?"

"A dream," he said. "Always there is the need to struggle. Always someone hungry for what you have. Willing to kill for it. Or are you saying that Sacaweena is a world different from the rest?"

"You should know, Earl. What brought you here anyway? A promise, you said. A name. The promise of what? Great wealth? The eggs you stole from Kalova?"

"Stole?"

"Of course. You raided his holding." She shook her head in mock reproof at his ignorance. "Did your friend mislead you? Didn't you know you were stealing from the Maximus? Perhaps that's why he's so eager to gain this special sector. You and what you stole and, without doubt, a bloody revenge. You and your friend both, but he looked to be dying, so it all falls on you." Her hand reached up to caress his shoulder, golden hair clothing his arm with a mantle of silk. "You see how much you need me, my darling?"

The threat exposed-if she sold it would cost him his life. Not from the Maximus, though she believed him to be the enemy, but from the cyber at his side, Zao who would stop at nothing to achieve the capture of himself and his secret.

His real worth-if the woman guessed it how safe would he be?

The answer lay in the mirrors all around; for her there could be only one person of any importance. As yet she had tried to manipulate him to learn what she could-the truth would condemn him.

How to escape the trap?

"Earl?" Her hand ceased its movement, hair whispering as she pulled away from his body. "Is something wrong?"

"No. Of course not."

"You sat so still-did my stupid words worry you?"

"I was thinking of what you said. About a wife and family and the security it could bring. Yet you are alone, uncle dead, father dead, mother?"

"Dead too." She. sounded bitter. "Suicide. When I was five. Emil-" Irritation edged her voice. "He-well, never mind. That was twenty-five years ago."

"Emil?"

"My elder brother. He was drowned on an inspection tour of undersea installations. So I'm all alone, Earl. But it isn't so bad-at least I haven't hungry dependents and stupid advisors to contend with and there are no Family Councils." She forced brightness into her voice. "And the rest? The name?"

He smiled to match her own expression. "Name? Oh, what brought me to this world. Erce." He watched her in the mirrors. "I was told that used to be its name. Erce. You've heard of it?"

"Sacaweena was called that a long time ago. Before the Orres took over from the settlers they found here. A problem, Earl, one they solved in their own way. To be known as the Original Residents was a contradiction if they bought the world from others so they changed the name. A new world and so new settlers. No contradiction."

"And the others?"

"Those here before?" She shook her head. "Who knows? They couldn't make a go of it and were happy to sell."

With guns to help them make up their minds, threats added to bribery or it could have been a plain, simple massacre. Such things had been common in the past-had the name been changed to dilute the guilt?

Even if they had been allowed to leave peacefully it didn't help. How to follow them? Where to go? And if they had left anything of value behind them it must have long since been sold or broken for basic worth. And nothing would have been able to exist in the hills.

"So they had an entire world," mused Fiona. "A whole damned planet to call their own. One to hold and share out and play with just as they liked. One to keep all to themselves just as we keep it now. Just as we share it now. Hoarding it, you might say. But what makes you so interested in a name?" She frowned when he told her. "Earth? You're looking for Earth!"

She could have heard something, learned something-the chance had to be taken. A hope which died as she laughed.

"Earl, you're joking or crazy! The place doesn't exist. If it did it would be listed in the almanacs and navigation tables. With enough money you could hire a ship or buy a passage. It's a myth, I tell you. A legend!"

It was real and Dumarest knew it. He had been born on Earth, had left it as a boy, had spent years now searching for the way back. A way lost as he had traveled deeper into the galaxy, the very name a subject for amusement. Yet the planet was there, waiting for him and, one day, he would find it.

The soft voice said, "Maximus, Cyber Zao asks for audience."

The man could wait! Leaning back in his chair Rham Kalova scowled at the dancing lights on the relay and felt anger at the interruption. The plan needed careful preparation; every diversity and potential fluctuation had to be assessed before the first attack was undertaken. A diversion, he'd decided, one to forestall potential defenses, allow him to move in subtle ways and then, at the last, to win him the prize.

He'd have Fiona Velen groveling at his feet before it was over!

"Maximus?" The soft voice held a note of interrogation and he realized he hadn't answered the original announcement. For a moment he was tempted to vocalize his immediate reaction then thought better of it. Not that he needed Zao-for once he would act on his own, yet to insult the cyber would be to act with stupidity.

He said, temporizing, "I am engaged. Ask him to have patience and wait."

"For how long, Maximus?"

An hour? Two? How to tell how long it would take?

"I will summon him later." He looked again at the screen, frowned as again the voice broke his concentration, "What is it now?"

"Cyber Zao asks that you be notified that he will be unavailable for three hours, Maximus."

A snub and later he would decide what to do about it but for now let the man think he had asserted his authority.

"In three hours, then."

"Yes, Maximus."

Again he concentrated on the pattern of lights. All was relatively calm; only slight activity from a few minor holders maneuvering for advantage, as was to be expected. The large holders were quiescent, probably studying the situation and waiting for an opportunity. Arment would need to consolidate his recent gains and Helm must realize how dangerous it was to expand too fast. Bulem was easy meat and could be vanquished at a touch but would that be to his benefit? Reed held a flexible position and Lynne Oldrant's aspirations were obvious.