Sammy took a loose chair and sat down facing the figure in the light. A hundred seconds passed. Two hundred. The last rays of sunset were fading. The Man's stare was blank, but he reacted to the coolness on his face. His head moved, vaguely searching, and he seemed to notice his visitor. Sammy turned so his face was lit by the sunset sky. Something came into the other's eyes, puzzlement, memories swimming up from the depths. Abruptly, The Man's hands came out of his blankets and jerked clawlike at Sammy's face.

"You!"

"Yes, sir. Me." The search of eight centuries was over.

The Man shifted uncomfortably in his wheeled chair, rearranging his blankets. He was silent for some seconds, and when he finally spoke, his words were halting. "I knew your...kind would still be looking for me. I financed this damn Xupere cult, but I always knew...it might not be enough." He shifted again on the chair. There was a glitter in his eyes that Sammy had never seen in the old days. "Don't tell me. Each Family pitched in a little. Maybe every Qeng Ho ship has one crewmember who keeps a lookout for me."

He had no concept of the search that had finally found him. "We mean you no harm, sir."

The Man gave a rasp of a laugh, not arguing, but certainly disbelieving. "It's my bad luck that you would be the agent they assigned to Triland. You're smart enough to find me. They should have done better by you, Sammy. You should be a Fleet Captain and more, not some assassin errand boy." He shifted again, reached down as if to scratch his butt. What was it? Hemorrhoids? Cancer?Lordy, I bet he's sitting on a handgun. He's beenready all these years, and now it's tangled up in the blankets.

Sammy leaned forward earnestly. The Man was stringing him along. Fine. It might be the only way he would talk at all. "So we were finally lucky, sir. Myself, I guessed you might come here, because of the OnOff star."

The surreptitious probing of blankets paused for a moment.