“I’m the pilot in command. The head of Severance Pay, Ltd. That makes it my job to clean up the situation. Besides, even if I wanted to delegate the responsibility, this is a very small firm. I don’t see any convenient vice-president standing around to send after Racer.”

“There’s me.”

“You’ve already done more than your share to defend the mail and the firm. It’s my turn. I’ll be back before the screens fail. Believe me? I spent the year after Jeude’s death getting to know this jungle very well.”

She chewed helplessly on her lower lip and then nodded once. “I believe you, Severance.” And she did. If he didn’t come back before the screens failed, it would be because he couldn’t come back. She didn’t want to think about that possibility.

“I’ll see you before nightfall, then.”

“And then what?” she challenged. But she knew even as she spoke that she had accepted the inevitable. There was no choice but for him to leave. Taking her with him would slow him down far too much.

“When I come back, I’ll bring the skimmer and a fresh set of screens. If we can’t repair the skimmer, we can still use the communications equipment to call for aid.”

She drew a deep breath. “What about Racer?”

Severance didn’t look up as he adjusted the utility loop. “What about him?”

She searched his face. “You’re going to kill him, aren’t you?”

“Don’t think about it, Cidra. Racer is my problem.” He leaned down to brush his mouth over hers. When he lifted his head, he was smiling again. “I’ve got to stop doing that.”

She touched her lips with her fingertips, realizing how accustomed she was becoming to his brief, intimate gestures. She remembered how she had felt when she’d stood in the stern of Racer’s skimmer and watched as she was dragged farther and farther away from Severance. Then, in a wordless rush, she threw her arms around his neck. “Be careful, Severance. Please be careful.”

“I’ll be back for you before nightfall.” He held her, his arms closing with bruising fierceness around her slender body. Then he released her and moved through the screens without glancing back.

Cidra watched until he was out of sight. It didn’t take long. The undergrowth closed behind him, and it was as if he had never been standing there with her at all. Out on the river all was once again placid, giving no hint of the living hell that cruised just below the surface.

Cidra was staring at the spot where the skimmer had floated when she caught sight of something shiny out of the corner of her eye. It was a container of Renaissance Rose ale that had apparently survived the explosion of the skimmer. It was caught in the reeds near shore. Cidra risked a quick trip through the deflectors to rescue the container. Severance would appreciate the ale when he returned.

Holding the Renaissance Rose as if it were a talisman mat could somehow guarantee Severance’s safe return, Cidra slipped back into the safety of the deflectors.

Chapter Eleven

He had to get the deflectors and the skimmer’s communication equipment. And he would probably have to kill Racer to do it.

Severance didn’t try to fool himself. There was an outside chance that Racer would allow himself to be dragged back to Try Again and turned over to the company authorities, but it wasn’t likely. He had too much to lose. He was far more likely to force Severance’s hand, counting on what he knew of his ex-partner to keep him from getting killed. Deep down Racer was probably convinced that Severance wouldn’t have the guts to kill him.

Severance moved through the undergrowth along the river-bank, trying to make as little noise as possible. There was no chance that Racer would hear him, but there was every chance something else might come to investigate the strange movement. Without the deflector screens a man with a pulser and a utility knife was among the more poorly armed of Renaissance’s inhabitants.

Severance knew that all of his senses were on full alert. He had reached that unpleasantly acute state of awareness he had come to know well during the year after Jeude’s death. It didn’t take much to translate awareness into panic. There were a lot of things that could kill on Renaissance, but panic was one of the surest methods. Severance let his eyes and ears and the hairs on the back of his neck do their job while he thought about Racer.

Racer, who had once been his friend. Racer, who in some ways he knew better man any other living man in the universe. Racer, who had tried to take Cidra as a battle prize while he left his former partner to die.

A band of dark green slithered through the light green river grass ahead of Severance. Automatically he brought the pulser up and trained it on the wedge-shaped head. But the green slicer apparently had better things to do than sample a jungle boot. It moved out of the way, shivering iridescently in the morning light. Behind him Severance heard a startled squawk that ended with telling abruptness. The green slicer had found another meal.

Severance kept moving, using the utility knife when the tangled vines became too thick to push aside. He tried to calculate how far Racer could get with a failing set of fuel cells. The second and third pulser shots this morning had done real damage; Severance was sure of it. But it was difficult to tell how far the craft would go before it started sinking toward the water line. As long as Racer ran the skimmer at top speed, the end was bound to come quickly. And he was certain Racer would force the craft as far as he could at the highest possible speed. Racer was the nervous type under pressure. He tended to panic.

That tendency was a side of the man few people would ever know. Only when you had worked with a man in a high-pressure situation did you learn his real weaknesses, the ones that could get you killed. Severance had learned them the hard way. Finding yourself facing a killweaver alone had a way of making a lasting impression.

So he’d learned his lesson. Never trust anyone—except perhaps a Harmonic—completely. Severance’s partnership with Racer had dissolved. Life went on, and Severance saw to it that he and Racer rarely came into contact. Racer had been cooperative in that respect. Severance also avoided any more attempts at forming a partnership. Severance Pay, Ltd., he’d decided, would take a slightly slower route to success.

There was a flurry of black wings up ahead. Severance paused and gave the flying reptile the chance to get off the ground with its prey impaled in its toothed beak. Then he started moving again, circling a stand of suspicious-looking flowers. Anything as beautiful as those flowers had to be deadly on this planet.