"I need time to think," I insisted. "There are things I could accomplish in the political arena that might be difficult to pull off if I were a mere businessman."

"It'll be half a year at least before the Galapharma dismantling protocol is finalized and the Concerns merge," Simon pointed out. "I guess I can hold the fort that long. Nothing much can happen till then."

"I guess not."

Clairvoyance has never been my strong suit, nor Simon's, either.

"So take a nice long vacation," he urged me. "God knows you earned it."

"I might go out to Kedge-Lockaby for a couple of months. I'll be fairly safe from media harassment there. The locals in the Out Islands aren't fond of busybodies. I can drive my submarine and scuba-dive and weigh the options. If you need my input for something of cosmic importance, my next door neighbor on Eyebrow Cay has a subspace communicator. He'll know how to find me. You remember him: Mimo Bermudez."

A nod. "The old smuggler. Nearly as squirrelly as you."

"My best friend. Another man with quixotic principles."

We sat in silence for a time, watching the fire. Then, on impulse, I asked him, "Did you ever hear of another elderly smuggler named Barky Tregarth? He operated out in the Spur over forty years ago, peddling contraband weaponry and materiel to the Haluk and Qastt."

"Damn! I haven't thought about Barky for years. How'd you hear about him? From Bermudez?"

"Yes." And Karl Nazarian had known about the old crook, too.

Simon's brow wrinkled thoughtfully. "Hamilcar Barca Tregarth, teller of tall tales!

Spun this crazy yarn about going to the Haluk Cluster on a bet, back when Galapharma owned the Spur. Said he ran rings around their patrols, then managed to sweet-talk the Haluk leadership into letting him land on one of their major worlds to refuel. Even claimed the aliens gave him the key to the city because he reminded 'em of some legendary Haluk hero. The poor bastard never did collect on the bet-and it was a sizable one. Seems nobody believed his story when he got back to the Spur. The souvenir he claimed he got from the Haluk could've come from anywhere."

"Did you meet Tregarth personally?"

"Once. Before his alleged trip. I had a drink with the guy in a saloon on Hadrach, maybe half a dozen years after Rampart got the Perseus Mandate. Jesus, he was a piece o'

work! Sharp as a Buck knife and talk an arm and leg off you. My Lord, Barky'd be over a hundred twenty years old if he's still alive."

"Do you think his story about going to the Haluk Cluster might have been true?"

"Most folks thought he was lying in his teeth. Especially those in on the bet. But Barky sure as shit ran a lot of guns to the eleven Blueberry colonies in the Spur when Rampart was just getting started. Zone Patrol finally nabbed his ass- when?-maybe just after the turn of the century. Somebody broke him out of the Tyrins slammer before he came to trial. He was Thrown Away in absentia. Never operated in the Spur again."

Simon eyed me dubiously. "What's your interest in Barky Tregarth, anyhow?"

I was saved from having to answer by a gentle knocking at the inner door of the living room. It opened and the cook, Rosalia Alejo-Mertz, came in with a food-laden serving cart. "I hope you two are hungry," she said. "I brought some extra things I happened to have cluttering up the kitchen. Spit-roasted turkey slices, duck liver pate, and wild strawberry shortcake."

In an instant Simon forgot about Barky Tregarth. "Rosie, you angel! Me'n Asa are hungry enough to eat a folded tarp and burp grommets!"

We began helping ourselves to huge portions of everything. Rosie smiled at us benignly and left us to our supper. Time for further distraction away from the Barky Hunt. I said, "Tomorrow I intend to have a little chat with Adam Stanislawski at Macrodur, see if I can do damage control for the Journal gaffe."

"Good idea," Simon said. "At least get his reaction to your nomination, so we know where we stand."

I spooned chili into my face and talked with my mouth full. "I've decided to make a surprise visit to Galapharma Tower, too."

Simon stopped short in the act of devouring his fifth shrimp nacho. "Why?" he asked suspiciously.

Oops. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that. A Freudian slip? My wise old pal Mimo Bermudez would have called it seeking Big Daddy's approval even as I spit in his eye.

"It's something I've been planning for some time, contingent on our winning the court case. There's an informal request I want to put to their top brass-preferably Lorne Buchanan, the CEO-while they're still reeling from the verdict. If Gala gives me what I want, I'm ready to promise that Rampart will mitigate bloodshed among Gala's management during the consolidation. Maybe try to stave off criminal prosecution, too."

My father's eyes narrowed. "Informal request? What the fuck kind of informal request?" "I'd rather not say." Because it involved sharp practice at best, and trade-treaty violations at worst. But it did have the potential for uncovering Haluk double-dealing, so I reckoned the risk was worth it.

Simon exploded. "Dammit, Asa! You're not the boss hand of this outfit yet. Tell me what you're up to!"

Well, I'd opened my big yap.

"I'm going to suggest that Gala immediately give me everything they have concerning the allomorph trait eradication and demiclone procedures that they developed for the Haluk. Most specifically, I want the genetic marker that Emily Konigsberg incorporated into the demicloning process. The thing that ID's the fake humans. The marker was Drummond's secret way of keeping tabs on the Haluk scheme. Emily told Eve that the alien leader, the Servant of Servants, knew nothing about the marker. I also want complete details about the clandestine demiclone labs that were in operation prior to the Dagasatt blowup. Karl Nazarian and his crew obtained some intelligence about them from the data-dump of Chispa Dos, that starship I stole from the Galapharma agent. But it needs verification from another source before we can present it as hard evidence."

Speechless with consternation, Simon gaped at me. I plowed on.

"I also want to know how many imitation human beings those demiclone labs produced. Someone at Galapharma knows! Its security people were in charge of most of the demi facilities, and its agents tracked every gram of PD32:C2 illegally sold to the aliens."

Simon relaxed in premature relief. "All those incriminating Gala files were sealed by the Secretariat for Xenoaffairs as part of the new Haluk nonaggression pact." "I intend to unseal them-very carefully-and pass on selected excerpts to an influential friend of mine in the Commonwealth Assembly. Efrem Sontag is Chairman of the Xenoaffairs Oversight Committee. He'd go along with immunity for the Gala execs involved if I asked him to."

"What the fuckin' hell do you hope to accomplish?" Simon exclaimed furiously.

"You were wrong when you said I was the only one dubious about the Haluk. Sontag has already initiated a secret probe of demiclone shenanigans, based on intelligence supplied by me right after the Dagasatt affair. He also believes that SXA's cover-up deal with the aliens stank to high heaven, even if it did pave the way for the new trade treaty."

"But... Christ on a crutch! Something like this could swamp the consortium if the Haluk find out!"

"Nonsense. The aliens won't like it, but they'll hardly stop buying human products.

You're going to have to trust me on this, Pop. We need this information. I know Gala was supposed to have surrendered all the incriminating data to Xenoaffairs, but you can bet your left nut that somebody in the Concern kept copies-just in case Gala won the civil case and it needed an ace in the hole sometime in the future. As an edge against other consortium members, maybe. Or even against the Haluk themselves. Alistair Drummond didn't trust our needy blue buddies either."

"Couldn't you hold off until-"

"No. Right now, I'm in a perfect position to exert pressure on Galapharma's top officers, while they're afraid of losing their precious jobs and stakeholdings. If I wait for the consolidation, it could be too late. Gala will wipe the computers clean rather than take a chance that Rampart would discover the data. They could be doing it right now."

"Maybe it's done."

"No-they'd wait until the trial verdict was in."

"You really got a wild blue hair up your ass, don't you, boy?"

"I'm convinced the Haluk are mortally dangerous, yes."

"God almighty!" My father shook his head. "All right. Put your goddamn request to Lorne Buchanan. Nobody else. He's got the most to lose in the consolidation, and he has the power to get what you want if anyone does."

"I promise to use the utmost discretion. I'll get Ef Sontag to promise the same. We won't go public unless we have proof of malicious intent by the Haluk."

Simon pushed his plate of food away, shaking his head, and got to his feet. "You just can't leave things be, can you? Always lookin' to stir up trouble."

"Where the Haluk are concerned, damn right I am. But I'll do it as quietly as possible now-for Rampart's sake. I'm not trying to dissolve the Haluk trade treaty, and I certainly don't intend to force them back into their overcrowded star-cluster. But I do aim to make sure they behave if they move into our neighborhood."

"Arrogant, self-righteous young prick!" Simon growled. "Who elected you Speaker of the Commonwealth Assembly?"

"Nobody," I said. "Frankly, I'd rather be a beach bum on Kedge-Lockaby. But if I decide to give Rampart's chairmanship a pass, I may just turn into the meanest goddamn Reversionist beach bum you and the Assembly and the Hundred Concerns and the Haluk ever met."

"I've lost my appetite," my father said unhappily, heading for the door. "I'm going to bed." "You can always fire me," I called after him. "By law, I'd revert instantly to Throwaway status. I'd be out of the galactic poker game for keeps and out of your corporate hair."

"Nope," Simon Frost said. "Gonna let my bet on you ride. God help us all."

The door closed behind him.

I decided it was high time for some more of Jack Daniel's best. Maybe even a double.

Later, when it was a reasonable hour on Kedge-Lockaby's Eyebrow Cay, I called Mimo Bermudez on the ranch's sub-space com. He'd seen the Journal posting and congratulated me on Rampart's legal triumph while being tactful about Simon's notion to promote me beyond my station.

Then we got around to the reason for my call: the Barky Hunt. Mimo had promised to make discreet inquiries about the ancient gunrunner among doddering members of the Spur underworld. My friend's courtly Mexican manners had thus far precluded his asking me for an explanation.

"I found several people who knew Tregarth in the old days," Mimo said, "even a few who had participated in the original wager that supposedly sent him off on his incredible journey. All but one of those that I spoke to branded Tregarth a bare-faced liar with an overly fertile imagination. The exception was a certain vejarron named Clifton Castle who once worked as a fence on Tyrins. After Tregarth escaped from the lockup there, he contacted Castle and sold him an extremely rare jewel to finance his flight back to the Orion Arm. It was a exotic fossil cabochon set in platinum-beyond a doubt Haluk in origin. Tregarth claimed it had been a gift from the official of a planet he visited in the Haluk Cluster."

"He might also have got it from one of their Spur colonies."

"That's always a possibility. Clifton Castle had another interesting piece of information. Tregarth made a condition that the fossil not be resold for one month, saying he hoped to buy it back-at a premium, of course-since it was his only souvenir of the great adventure."

"Pawning the thing. Did Barky redeem it?"

"Yes, three weeks later. Castle sent it by registered StelEx to the planet Famagusta in Sector 5. This happened in the year 2201."

"I don't suppose this Castle knows whether Barky is still alive."

"He had no idea. I could send out more feelers, but as you know, my principal sources are in the Perseus Spur, not the inner Orion Arm. You might have better luck consulting our mutual friend, Chief Superintendent Jake Silver. Tregarth might be in the CCID database."

"Maybe I'll talk to Jake. I'm heading for Toronto tomorrow."

My pal's dark eyes peered from thoughtful slits. "You've never told me why you're so anxious to find this geriatric contrabandista"

"Mimo, it's better you don't know."

He shook his frowsy head in chagrin. "Helly, Helly, Helly. It's rather obvious, isn't it?

You still believe that the Haluk intend to wage war on humanity."

"I think they might-if their population pressure is exceptionally severe. This guy Tregarth might be dead or he might be a total shuck-and-jive artist, the biggest liar since Baron Munchausen. On the other hand, he might just know more about our mysterious blue buddies than any other human being. I want to talk to him."

"And then what?"

I smiled at the SS com screen. "I've got a sabbatical coming, while the Galapharma settlement is sorted out and I decide whether to accept the Rampart chairmanship. I told my father I'd spend the time loafing on K-L-but it might be more fun to take my modified Y770 starship on a grand tour."

"Caracoles!" The semiretired Smuggler King of the Perseus Spur immediately guessed what I had in mind and was appalled. "Please tell me you're joking!"

"Of course I am," I lied.

"I'm relieved to hear it. You realize that a private individual who traveled to the Haluk Cluster would violate both the nonaggression pact and the trade treaty with that race, laying himself open to sanctions from both the Xenoaffairs and Interstellar Commerce Secretariats. Every asset the individual possessed might be seized-and he himself would not only be disenfranchised, but probably also incarcerated without possibility of parole."

"Unless the illegal expedition was accomplished without the individual being caught.

And the individual came back with significant intelligence data."

"Why you?" my old friend exclaimed in exasperation.

"Who else?" I retorted. "I've got the inclination and time to spare. I've also got the ship."

My personal blitzboat was named Makebate-an old word meaning "troublemaker."

She was a Rampart executive perquisite, the only expensive toy I'd allowed myself during the two tedious years of brain-bending legal work associated with the Galapharma trial. I'd managed to take only rare brief jaunts in her to visit my friends on Kedge- Lockaby in the Spur. A chance remark of Mimo's at a luau on Eyebrow Cay three months ago had planted the seed for the Barky Hunt... and what might follow if it was successful and the old crook really did have important information about the Haluk Cluster worlds.

Returning to Toronto for the climactic part of the trial, I had arranged for Rampart Fleet Maintenance technicians to modify Makebate while I was grounded. Her fuel bunkers had been greatly enlarged and her weaponry significantly beefed up. She now carried state-of-the-art sublight drive dissimulators for stealthy near-planet maneuvering and orbital concealment. I was having special bodycount gadgetry installed that would make clandestine fly-by census scans of hostile planets feasible, and I also intended to look for warships. The Commonwealth seemed content to believe that massive Haluk purchases of astrogational equipment were intended for use in colonial transports; I thought that notion was pure bovine excrement.

Mimo sighed. "Always the cowboy! I had hopes that your stint as Rampart's Chief Legal Officer would have mellowed you."

"Tourism can be amusing and educational," I said. "Wanna come along? I could use some human company. Talking to the ship's computer gets boring after a few days. And there's always the possibility of a good fight."

"And a quick death. Or worse, if you're captured."

I just grinned at him. "I'm going to count blue noses and look for blue battleboats whether or not the Barky Hunt works out. Come on! It'll be a hoot."

"Unfortunately I have a previous engagement in the tank."

It took me a moment to realize what he was saying. "The-The tank?"

"I'd accompany you to the Haluk Cluster if I could, Helly, if only to keep you out of trouble. After all, I'm a much better shot with a photon cannon! I'm also curious how the Haluk manage to mine transactinides, given their technology lag. But this old body of mine is in need of serious repair. I must go into dystasis in Rampart Central's big hospital on Seriphos, since the doctors at the Big Beach don't have the resources to deal with my case."

I tried not to show my dismay. Mimo was a man in late middle age, but as far as I knew, he was healthy. "So. It's something serious?"

"It is," he said gently. "A flare-up of an old problem. However, the prognosis is good.

All that's necessary is a grotesque amount of money to pay for the sixteen-week procedure. No importa dos cojones." His standard disclaimer: It doesn't matter two balls'

worth.

Of course money was no problem to Mimo. Decades of smuggling fine liquor, Cuban cigars, premium coffee, and other luxuries past Rampart excise collectors had made him one of the wealthiest private individuals in the Perseus Spur. But I felt a pang of guilt as I recalled the threadbare state of Kedge-Lockaby's modest little hospital. I should have done something about that a long time ago, now that I had the means. K-L had been good to me.

And so had Captain Guillermo Bermudez Obregon.

I said, "You have a nice long soak in the tank, Meem. Cure what ails you. With luck, I'll be there on Seriphos waiting for your rollout. I'll ferry you back to K-L and wait on you hand and foot while you convalesce. I owe you, amigo."

"All you owe me is staying alive." He was no longer meeting my gaze. "For the sake of prudence, I've sent a small package to your office in Rampart Tower via StelEx. You should find it waiting when you arrive tomorrow. Please take good care of what's inside.

Do what must be done if... circumstances warrant."

I felt a cold breath of irrational dread and pushed it aside, knowing that Mimo was going to be fine. The hospital at Rampart Central on Seriphos had the finest genetic engineering therapy department in Zone 23, and I'd pull strings to make certain that Mimo had Ultra Important Patient status.