Star Bridge by James Gunn Page B

think?” The woman was silent for a moment. “Maybe you’re right. But then you don’t love Eron, do you?”
    â€œShould I?”
    â€œWhy did you enlist in the Guard if you didn’t want to serve Eron?”
    â€œThere was another choice?”
    â€œAnd yet Eron pays you, feeds you, shelters you. What do you give Eron in return?”
    â€œWhat Eron asks of me and everyone: obedience.”
    â€œYou think we are hard masters then, the Golden Folk?”
    â€œMasters are good and bad. Eron remains the same. It didn’t grow strong by kindness. Eron is fat; the rest of the Empire starves.”
    â€œThen why doesn’t it revolt?”
    â€œWith what? Fists against battleships? No, Eron is safe as long as it has the Tube.”
    The woman was silent for a long time. The guard stood straight, but his breath came quickly.
    â€œWhy will the assassin come back?” she asked finally.
    â€œWhere else can he go? The desert is suicide. The hills will soon be as deadly. His only chance is to come back here and steal a ship. Once among other men, you will never find him.”
    â€œI think you sympathize with him.”
    â€œHe is a man like other men. Deluded, perhaps, but he did no more than any guard is paid to do.”
    â€œAt least you’re honest,” the woman said. “I won’t ask your number. I’d have to report you for treason, and you’ve helped me tonight. I’m grateful.”
    She turned away. As she turned, they heard a faint groan. The woman started to swing back and found herself inside the arc of the guard’s powerful arm, a sweaty palm clamped over her mouth. She took a quick, sharp breath and started to struggle.
    Horn cursed softly to himself as he fought against the woman’s unsuspected strength. Her body was surprisingly firm and youthful, and her muscles twisted wirily inside his arms.
    A few minutes more and he could have dashed for the scoutship, but the woman had blundered along before he was more than dressed. It wouldn’t have mattered if he hadn’t been weak and talkative. Those had trapped him.
    He should have killed the careless guard, the fool who turned his back to shadows, but at the last moment he had slowed his hand. Here was a man, like himself perhaps, trapped into serving Eron; why should he die? He was no enemy. And Horn had let him live, to groan. And then he had kept the woman here with foolish chatter when she wanted to leave.
    Why? Horn decided to trust his intuition.
    The woman struggled fiercely, silently; she twisted and kicked, and her breath came hot and quick against Horn’s hand. Suddenly she stopped fighting. Her body stiffened.
    â€œYes,” Horn whispered. “The assassin.”
    A wandering light swept close. Horn drew the woman back with him into the shadows. The diffused edge of the beam touched them. The woman’s hood had fallen back from her shoulders, revealing a long, tumbling mass of red-gold hair and the gentle sweep of a golden cheek. For an instant Horn’s arms relaxed; she almost got away from him then.
    In his arms was Wendre Kohlnar, the lovely face in the coin, Director for Communications, daughter of the man he had killed.
    Horn’s arms tightened just in time. “I don’t want to kill you,” he whispered. “But I will if you make me. It’s up to you. I’m going to let you go in a moment. Don’t move until I tell you. Don’t shout or scream. The moment you take a deep breath I’ll shoot you through the back. The pistol is turned to low velocity; it won’t make any noise. Understand?”
    She nodded. Horn’s arms dropped away. She drew in a quick breath. The pistol barrel jabbed into her back.
    â€œCareful!” Horn whispered.
    â€œI couldn’t breathe,” she said quickly. “You bloody killer!” she added bitterly.
    â€œI killed one man,” Horn said. “How many billions did