Duty Bound by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller Page A

motionless--but it was always motionless
at this time of the day, local ordinance requiring the Solemn Six
Hours of Dawn to match that of the spiritual city Querna on the
planet below.
    "Repair order!" said the man, vaguely Aus,
waving a flimsy in the air and lugging his kit with him. "I'm good,
I'm expensive, and I'm on my night differential."
    He looked like one of those semi-retired
types: just the kind of guy who'd know how to keep an antique
nerligig running.
    The bartender shrugged, waved the man and
his tools toward the ailing equipment, and poured a legal drink
into one glass and its twin into another then gave them both to the
customer at the end of the bar.
    "Hey, asked for one drink--right?"
    "Solemn Six, bud! Can't sell youse that much
in one glass this time of the day..."
    The repairman shook his head, set up his
tools, adroitly removed the wachmalog and the bornduggle from the
nerligig, and waited patiently for the boss.
    The boss was a heavyset Terran, and he
traveled today with three guards. He came in looking tired and his
guards swept by, checking out the patrons, glancing at the
bartender, reconnoitering the restrooms...
    It was the boss who saw the nerligig guy,
professionally polishing one of the inner gimbag joints.
    "What's going on here?" he demanded.
    The guy glanced at him out of serious dark
eyes. "Time to do scheduled maintenance."
    The boss grimaced, but gave the correct
reply.
    "I don't need nothing fancy today."
    "Dollar's greener when you do," said the
man, polishing away.
    "At's awful old."
    The repairman looked up, eyes steady--
    "I only come out at night, you know."
    The boss looked at the bartender, sighed,
and watched his guards stand importantly around the bar for a
moment.
    "You cost me some help today," he said
finally, turning back to the nerligig guy.
    The man shrugged.
    "Good help is hard to find. Better you know
before there's a life in it."
    The boss sighed again, and waved the repair
guy toward his office.
    "C'mon back."
    The office was sparely appointed; a working
place and not a showplace. Daav took a supple leather chair for
himself, nodding at its agreeability.
    The boss sat in his own chair, rubbed his
face with his left hand and gestured at his visitor with his
right.
    "What's your pleasure?"
    Daav opened his hands slightly with a
half-shrug.
    "Information. About that message..." The
message that shouted the name of Val Con yos'Phelium to all with
ears to hear, near-space and far. The message that had shaken him
out of his professorial Balancing and brought him into the office
of a Juntavas, seeking news.
    The boss pinched the bridge of his nose and
nodded.
    "Yeah, I figure every quiet hand in the
universe will want to know about that. I think it's the first time
the damned 'danger tree' was really used..."
    Daav sat quietly, watching the man's tired
face. No effort to hide how he felt--Daav's greeting, as old as it
was, was one recognized by Juntavas on many worlds. The short form
was: Help this person, he has a right to it. The person in question
might be a retired sector boss, an assassin on the way to or from a
run--or the whole charade could simply be a test of loyalty.
    "What do you need to know?" asked the boss.
"What's the aim?"
    "Everything you know. I am, let us say, a
specialist in people. I can hide them and I can find them. As may
be required. I'll need the background as deep as it goes."
    The boss man gave a snort.
    "I bet you can hide 'em. Standing in my own
front room with a whole bag of equipment like you own the place and
my guards probably can't tell me the color of your hair or what
kind of shoes you wear. Damn smooth...." He shook his head in
admiration, sighed, and went on, looking straight at Daav.
    "Where we are is that there's been--a change
of administration. Some of this is official and some's not..."
    Daav looked on with polite interest, no
change on his face.
    The boss nodded. "Right. He was asking for
it if anyone was, but anyhow, politics aside,