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of sleep, his terrible headaches, and the concerns that had dogged him
ever since he was old enough to realize that he was seriously different
from everyone else. Not to mention his involvement with something
unimaginably vast, threatening, and all but beyond human ken.
Just your average boy s life, he mused as the engine roared and
he was pressed back into the chair and harness. Only he wasn t a
boy anymore, and, except for a brief period on Moth, when he had
roamed free and without a care under the casual supervision of the
tolerant Mother Mastiff, he was not sure he had ever been one. Time
to put away childish things. Trouble was, Flinx had been more or
less forced to do that when he had turned twelve.
Through the shuttle s foreport the sky faded smoothly and rapidly
from blue to purple to the familiar endless blackness flecked with
stars. One light flashing larger and brighter than the others shot past
his field of view to starboard: an incoming shuttle, carrying cargo and
passengers preoccupied with the mundanities of normal, everyday
lives. An ordinariness, a blissful ignorance he had come to envy. It
was a condition that had been denied him for many years now and one
that the immediate future held no prospect of his experiencing.
If only all he had to worry about, he reflected, were death and
taxes.
Missed him!
The woman who had been riding one of the two repellers re-
moved the illegal jack she had used to tap into the shuttleport s box.
The faces of her four companions reflected their disappointment.
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47
ALAN DEAN FOSTER
What ship? asked one of the five who had been dispatched by
the Order of Null to Goldin IV in an attempt to terminate the poten-
tially unsettling problem that was Philip Lynx.
The woman scanned the information she had downloaded from
the port s system. The only traveler who matches his description
was passed by Security and Emigration and left through the private
lounge about three hours ago.
Three hours! The other woman in the group murmured some-
thing under her breath that would have sounded innocuous to most had
she voiced it aloud. He ll be in space-plus by now and untraceable.
We ll find him. One of her two male companions displayed
the quiet confidence that was so characteristic of the members of the
Order or, given their philosophical basis, perhaps fatalistic would
have been a better description. Wherever he goes, to whatever
world, members of the Order will be waiting and looking for him.
It would have been better to have concluded this now. The se-
nior member of the group looked resigned. Though I suppose there
is no hurry, as long as he makes no attempt to disseminate what he
knows.
On the contrary, declared his companion encouragingly, he
appears inclined to silence.
All the better for our ends. The other woman knew their
quarry s silence would not keep him from being killed. There were
no certainties except death, as members of the Order knew far better
than most.
If he left via the private lounge the senior among them was
speaking again that means he has access to a private starship. I
wonder who it belongs to? Given his age, surely it s not his own?
On loan from a large Trading House, perhaps. It is evident that
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48
FLINX S FOLLY
he must have powerful friends, to have avoided the Commonwealth
authorities for so long.
It does not matter. The senior man gestured toward the busy
main assembly area. Let s get something to eat. Important friends
or not, he has to die. If any others interfere, they may have to share
the same fate.
The fate that is coming to us all, added the woman with
satisfaction.
Strange, is it not, murmured the senior man as he turned to go,
how our colleagues, experienced fliers both, were suddenly over-
come by an overwhelming fear of heights? He contemplated the
mystery even as he addressed his companions. That is a matter that
demands deeper examination.
The five strolled in the direction of the port s busiest area. They
were dressed in clean but unspectacular attire, and attracted not the
slightest attention. They might have been a group of friends on holi-
day, members of an extended family setting off to visit far-flung re-
lations, or simply locals out for an afternoon s diversion, intent on
sampling the delights of the port s many shops and restaurants.
They certainly did not look like the earnest devotees of ultimate
destruction.
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49
C H A P T E R
4
Drifting in stately procession against the radiant background of
stars separate, apart, and smaller than most of the numerous other
vessels in orbit the Teacher awaited his arrival. His ship was un-
pretentious enough to be innocuous yet large enough for one person
to rattle around in in the depths of space for weeks at a time without
becoming bored. To anyone who had observed it at its last port of
call, it would not have been recognizable.
As always, and as programmed, it welcomed him with music.
The undulating opening glissando of Retsoff s Second Soirée for
Orchestra and Bandalon tickled his ears as he strode purposefully
from the shuttle bay to the command and control center. Pip joyfully
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