Chapter II

Mia MacIver tried to concentrate on her head overseer's report. She felt hot and sticky and the figures ran together, didn't make sense. Moreover, the delicate notes of a flute kept scattering her thoughts. They came through the casement window from the patio outside her study.

"Damn," said Mia MacIver and wriggled at her desk.

She was barefooted, clad only in a short yellow tunic, but she felt as if she were locked in a steam bath. She'd never get used to Venus, she supposed, to its turkish bath atmosphere, its lush phosphorescent vegetation, its ridiculous mingling of periods, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and the glass age all flourishing together. The Pan-like notes continued to assail her ears from outside the study.

She wrinkled her nose, wiped a trickle of sweat from the end. In despair, she flipped on the Newscaster.

The features of a plump young man flashed on the screen.

"Last night," his voice came through the audio, "the plantation of Councillor Bemmelman was raided by the Renegade. Luckily, he was discovered immediately and the Security Patrol notified. But as usual the Renegade had vanished without a trace."

Mia MacIver snapped to attention. It was absurd, she felt with a surge of anger that a man could make fools of the Venusian authorities as the Renegade had done for years.

She knew little of Venus. Her life had been spent in boarding schools on Earth. But when she'd received news that her father was dead, murdered by the Renegade, she'd booked passage to Venusport at once, determined to manage the plantation herself.

"Here's a special bulletin," the announcer was saying. "The plantation owners are subscribing ten thousand monads to be added to the price already on the Renegade's head. That makes a total of fifty thousand monads for his capture. A punitive expedition is also being organized against his headquarters in the Cloud Mountains."

Mia MacIver switched off the Newscaster, stood up. The notes of the pipes drifted into her study, exotic, compelling. She bit her lip, stepped through the window onto the vine roofed patio.

"Stop that noise, Cosmo! You're driving me insane!"

Cosmo Horn took the Venusian pipes from his mouth, said dryly, "I didn't think I was that bad."

He was sprawled in a hammock, looking like a handsome, rather distinguished tramp.

"Did you hear the Newscaster, Cosmo?"

"No." He shook his head. He had a lean, hawk-like visage, close cropped brown hair, green eyes.

"The Renegade was at the Bemmelman plantation last night!"

"Sure enough?"

Cosmo sat up, put the reeds in his pocket. He was wearing only coat and trousers. The brown triangle of hair on his chest extended in a thin line down his flat belly. "How much did he nick that dealer in flesh for?"

"Nothing. They scared him off before he had a chance to take anything. Cosmo, why can't they catch him?"

"No one's seen him without his hood. They don't know who he is; they don't know where to look, or what to look for."

"On Earth ..." began Mia.

"On Earth there wouldn't be a Renegade," interrupted Cosmo dryly. "Earth is unified. It isn't split up into hundreds of independent countries like Venus. They don't have slavery or serfdom or the feudal system on Earth. Men aren't driven into outlawry...."

"Driven!" said Mia in a heated voice. "What makes you think he was driven? I'd say he was doing exactly as he pleased."

Cosmo stood up, towering over the girl, took several short paces across the patio.

"I don't think anyone would enjoy being constantly hunted. Everyman's hand against him. Always on guard against treachery, surprise. And no matter how careful he is, sooner or later he's bound to be caught. He can't even quit, now. I feel sorry for him."

"Feel sorry for him! I'd like to see him shot!"

* * * * *

Cosmo looked startled. "You're a blood-thirsty little devil." He grinned suddenly. "What I've been saying must have buzzed in one ear and out the other."

Mia said: "He murdered father."

Cosmo regarded her in surprise. "Great guns, Mia, where did you get that idea?"

"Hal Bemmelman told me. He found father down in the tara field where...." Her voice faltered, but she recovered herself, went on. "Where the serfs had hacked him to pieces with grass knives. They were the Renegade's men."

"Did he? Did he indeed?" Cosmo's voice was grim. "What was Bemmelman doing there?"

Mia frowned. "He was trailing a runaway serf. Why?"

"Of course he was." Her gray eyes widened. She stared at him. "Surely you aren't accusing Bemmelman of murdering father. Why he's the most influential member of the Council of Land Owners. He's...."

"Did you ever hear of the Blue Venus?" he interrupted.

"The Blue Venus? What's that?"

Cosmo's face was grim, his green eyes cold. "She's a cross between a Jovian Dawn Man and an Earth woman. She's supposed to be the most beautiful girl in the System. She belongs to Bemmelman. He forced her mother to mate with a Jovian primitive as an experiment. He's asking five thousand monad for her on the Slave Mart. Hal Bemmelman is a slave breeder."

"I don't believe it!" Mia said in horror, then asked with feminine perversity: "How do you know?"

Cosmo sat down in the hammock, grinned faintly. "I'm going to tell you something I've never told anyone but your father, Mia. I think you ought to know, because you're in danger." His green eyes twinkled. "Quit chewing your fingernails."

"Go on," said Mia. "Go on, for the Lord's sake, before I burst."

He said: "Twenty-six years ago my father owned the Bemmelman plantation. He was murdered under almost the same circumstances as your father. So was my mother. My nurse escaped with me, hid me out in the mountains. I was only five."

"Who did it?"

"Jovian Dawn Men. Slaves imported from Jupiter. They run amok during their rutting season, you know, and they were supposed to be amok at the time."

"But ..." began Mia.

"Wait a moment. Bemmelman held notes on the plantation. He moved in. But before Bemmelman took over our plantation, he was a slave runner. He imported Dawn Men from Jupiter for the Venusian Slave Mart."

"You--you think Hal Bemmelman was in back of it?"

"Yes," he said flatly.

"But why? Couldn't he buy land?"

"No," said Cosmo, "he couldn't. Land here is entailed. It stays in the same family from generation to generation. Mu is one of the few countries on Venus where Terrans have been able to settle at all. Bemmelman's only chance was to have my people murdered and forge notes."

"Does he know who you are?"

Cosmo nodded. "He's tried to have me assassinated several times," he said indifferently.

Mia swallowed. "You--you said I was in danger."

"Doesn't it strike you there's a great deal of similarity between your case and mine. Your father has been murdered, supposedly by the Renegade. It looks like Bemmelman is getting ready to expand."

"He--he wouldn't kill me!" said Mia indignantly. "Would he?"

"No," said Cosmo, a smile quirking the corners of his wide, grim-lipped mouth. His lean, narrow jaw and thin, hooked nose gave him a saturnine cast. "But I wouldn't put it past him to kidnap you. Remember the Blue Venus. I happen to know Bemmelman's been anxious to repeat that experiment, but a beautiful Terran girl is hard to get."

She shivered slightly, said: "That's preposterous! He wouldn't dare! Would he?"

But Cosmo had leaped to his feet. "There's a plane coming!" he said in an edgy voice.

A surface flying car flashed to the edge of the patio, stopped, settled to the ground. The extreme altitude of the bullet-shaped vehicle was under three hundred feet, Cosmo knew. But even that height was impractical for flight on Venus, roofed as the planet was by the low, swirling cloud blanket. As a rule, the planes barely skimmed the surface.

A door in the monoloid hull swung open. A heavy set man got out.

"Why it's Hal Bemmelman," exclaimed Mia. "What does he want?"

"Speak of the devil," drawled Cosmo.

* * * * *

Bemmelman strode across the patio, his eyes on Cosmo, said in a disagreeable voice: "If it isn't the fortieth-century troubadour."

Cosmo's features set blankly. He didn't reply.

"Mia." Bemmelman took both the girl's hands in his big paws. "I've bad news. Yes sir, very bad news. Three of my serfs ganged my second overseer, chopped him to pieces with grass knives."

"What?" Mia's eyes dilated in horror.

"They got him from behind, I guess. Then they broke into the arsenal. They're armed, Mia, and heading this way. I dropped everything to fly over and warn you."

"Coming this way?" Mia firmly disengaged her hands. "But why?"

"They're trying to reach the Cloud Mountains and join the Renegade. Your place lies directly between mine and the mountains."

"The Renegade!" Mia's level gray eyes frosted with hate. "The rurals can't catch him. He makes monkeys out of the Security Patrol. What is he? A wizard?"

"You've heard the news?" Bemmelman interrupted. "The Renegade was at my place last night. I've been worried about you, Mia, alone here on the edge of the mountains. Yes sir, I came to take you to my plantation until we have these murderous serfs behind bars."

"But I'm quite safe. I--I...."

"This isn't Earth, Mia," he said in a silky voice. "I haven't much time. No sir. I must return to organize the pursuit. We'll teach those brutes a lesson they won't soon forget."

"If you catch them," put in Cosmo in an amused voice.

"We'll catch them!" Bemmelman turned his small, brown, pig-like eyes on Cosmo. "Yes sir, and the Renegade, too."

Mia said with a grimace: "Thanks, Hal, but I'm not coming."

Bemmelman lowered his head like a bull. "I haven't the men to spare to guard you, even if I could trust them. I was too good a friend of your father's, Mia, to leave you here with those three murderers roaming in the neighborhood. You're coming with me."

Cosmo, observing quietly, frowned to himself. What was the planter trying to pull?

"I'm not," said Mia indignantly. "Really this is preposterous. It's...."

Bemmelman glared at her, seized her arm. "Girl, don't be a fool. If those runaways show up here, they'd chop you to pieces. Come along." Unceremoniously, he began to drag her toward his plane.

"Cosmo!" Mia's gray eyes snapped open like saucers.

Cosmo's hand fell on Bemmelman's shoulder, spun him around.

"You heard Miss MacIver." Two rouge-like spots sprang out on Cosmo's high cheek bones. His green eyes were opaque.

"Get your dirty paws off me!" Bemmelman roared in surprise. He almost choked with rage. "By Jupiter! I'll teach you a lesson you won't soon forget! Yes sir!"

With a growl, the red-faced planter lashed out with his fist. The blow struck Cosmo on his right cheek bone, snapped back his head.

"You shouldn't have done that," said Cosmo. He turned loose Bemmelman's shoulder.

The planter swung again wildly. Cosmo slipped the blow. With a straight left, he knocked Bemmelman down.

The planter shook his head. There was a surprised look on his beefy red features. Sinking his head in his bull neck, he scrambled to his feet.

Cosmo knocked him down again.

Bemmelman turned his brown pig-like eyes up to Cosmo. He tried to rise. Cosmo knocked him down for the third time.

He said: "Bemmelman, get out of here. If you ever lay hands to me again, I'll kill you."

The planter heaved himself to his feet, lip drooling blood. He crossed to his surface plane, scrambled inside. Then he shook his fist at Cosmo.

"I'll get you for this, Horn. You haven't MacIver to protect you now. I'll get you."

Cosmo took a step toward the plane.

Bemmelman hastily slammed the door. The vehicle swooped from the ground, sped away like a silver bullet.

"He will," said Mia in a small voice. "You shouldn't have done that, Cosmo. He's powerful. He controls the Council of Land Owners."

"He struck me." Cosmo's lean features were like clay. "If he does it again, I'll kill him."

Mia shivered. "Do you always get so violent?"

"He hit me," said Cosmo. "I should have killed him."

All at once Mia said: "Cosmo!" in a strained, frightened voice.

He flicked a glance past the startled girl, stiffened in alarm. At the edge of the patio, three men stood in a silent group.

One, he saw, was a serf. Naked to the waist, the Venusian was darker, squatter than the Fozoqls, the killer caste of Venus. But he had the same venomous green eyes. A grass knife was thrust through his sash, and he held a ray rifle at a menacing angle.

It was the second figure, though, that took his breath away. A huge, naked, blue giant. His only weapon was a club.

"A Jovian Dawn Man!" said Mia in a stifled voice.

Cosmo felt his palms dampen. The terrific gravity of Jupiter endowed the Jovian primitives with superhuman strength. Normally, they were docile creatures and highly prized among the Venusians as slaves because of their terrible strength and weird beauty. The Dawn Man faced them now, nostrils flaring as he tested their scent. He was handsome as a matinee idol. But somewhere the Jovians had run into an evolutionary blind pocket. They would never evolve into true men. They were animals.

Cosmo scarcely noted the third member of the group, the short barrel-shaped Mercurian. He stood a little apart, smiling blandly and quietly like an inscrutable Buddha.

"Look at the scars on their shoulders," Mia whispered hoarsely. "The fern leaf! That's Bemmelman's brand. They're the runaways!"

The Venusian raised his rifle. His green eyes burned with hate for the Earthlings.

Mia shrank toward Cosmo. "He--he's...."

"Put down your rifle," said Cosmo in the Venusian dialect of Mu. He could feel the pulse beat in his ears; his lips felt dry. "Seek you the Renegade?"

The Venusian hesitated, indecision reflected in his dark-yellow features. The Dawn Man shook his club, growled deep in his chest. Muscles rippled like hawsers beneath his blue hide.

"Most certainly." It was the Mercurian who spoke.

Cosmo glanced at him sharply, realized that behind the Mercurian's smiling mask, he was violently distressed. Mercurians didn't approve of bloodshed, he recalled.

Sweat dappled Cosmo's forehead. Then, with a faint shrug, he made a peculiar gesture with his hand.

An expression of wonder and comprehension filled their faces. Only the blue giant continued to rumble deep in his chest.

"The Renegade!" cried the fat Mercurian, and his yellow eyes twinkled with relief. He plumped on his knees, repeated the cabalistic symbol.

With only a moment's hesitation the serf followed suit. "Down, you big ox!" he shouted at the Jovian and thwacked him behind the knees with his ray rifle. "Down! That's the Renegade!"