fanatic, and
he thinks I'm his key to ruling at least a Subsector. He'll be after
me, and I'm willing to bet his people have the equipment they need to
find us."

Dave shook his head. "It's not as easy as you make it sound, sir.
People who've wanted to be found have been lost in these mountains for
weeks. We don't want to be--and we're in a cave, which'll make it that
much harder for them." He hesitated, a thought surfacing. "Unless
they search on foot, and happen across us. If they do, I guess it'll
be up to me to decoy them away."

Tarlac didn't like that idea, but he also didn't have Lord Robert's
convenient ability to ignore unpleasant reality. A Ranger was, to put
it bluntly, far more valuable to the Empire than any youngster. It was
a hell of a note, he thought sourly, that he had to look at it that
way; Dave had saved his life once already, and it would be his doing if
Tarlac lived through the next couple of days. The fact that Dave would
get a substantial reward if they made it out wasn't a lot of help;
dammit, part of his job was protecting Imperial citizens! Still . . .
"I'm afraid it will."

To his surprise, Dave grinned. "That shouldn't be too hard. Those
rebels're city people; they don't know what real mountains're like.
Chaos, I don't think they'd even know to avoid something as simple as a
trapper vine!"

"This is no holo show," Tarlac cautioned him. "If they do find us,
we've bought it."

"I know--but Mom was a Marine for thirty years and never even saw a
live Ranger. I go on a camping trip, and end up helping one, against a
bunch of rebels!"

Looked at that way, Tarlac conceded with some amusement, it did have
something in common with a holoshow. And maybe having Dave treat this
as an adventure wouldn't hurt--might even help, by keeping his morale
up. It was a good bet the youngster would need all the pluses he could
find . . . he damnsure wouldn't be one! The way he felt, he wouldn't
even be conscious much longer. Which would be a definite
improvement . . .

* * * * *

Dave spent the rest of that day alternating between caring for the
unconscious Ranger and watching rebel aircars crisscross the sky in
what seemed, from the little he could see through trees, to be
ever-widening search patterns. The rebels did think they were alive,
then, but didn't have enough of an idea of where they might be to mount
a concentrated search. So far, so good--thou