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People always devise their own justifications Fixed and immovable Lawyour justifications and the prejudices behind them The only universally acceptable law for mortals would be one which fitted every justification What obvious nonsense Law must expose prejudice and question justification Thus, Law e to fit new demands Otherwise, it becomes merely the justification of the powerful

- Gowachin Law (The BuSab Translation)

It required a moment after Bahrank drove away for McKie to recover his sense of purpose The buildings rose tall and rowth, an opening to the west allowed a spike of the silvery afternoon sunlight to slant into the narrow street The light threw hard shadows on every object, accented the pressure of Human movement McKie did not like the way people looked at hih everyone ain

Slowly, McKie pressed through the passing throng to the arched entry, observing all he could without see to do so After all those years in BuSab, all of the training and experience which had qualified hiency, he possessed superb knowledge of the ConSentiency&039;s species He drew on that knowledge now, sensing the powerful secrecy which governed these people Unfortunately, his experience also was replete with knowledge of what species could do to species, not to mention what a species could do to itself The Huwith a constant readiness to defend hiht of stairs into cool shadohere the foot traffic was lighter but the smells of rot and mold were more pronounced

Second door on the left

He went to the doorway to which Bahrank had directed hi: another stairway down Sorowing in his mind was not at all what Aritch&039;s people had drawn Had they deliberately misled him? If so, why? Was it possible they really didn&039;t understand their monster? The array of answers to his questions chilled him What if a few of the observers sent here by Aritch&039;s people had chosen to capitalize on whatever power Dosadi provided?

In all of his career, McKie had never before come across a world so completely cut off from the rest of the universe This planet was alone, without raced the other ConSentient worlds: no common access to jumpdoors, no concourse of the known species, none of the refined pleasures nor the sophisticated traps which occupied the denizens of other worlds Dosadi had developed its oays And the instructors on Tandaloor had returned ti - that these lonely primitives would take over the ConSentiency if released upon the universe

"Nothing restrains the"

That was, perhaps, an overstates did restrain the Dosadi physically But they were not held back by the conventions orcould be purchased here, any forbidden depravity which the iht conceive This idea haunted McKie He thought of this and of the countless substances to which e such things gave to the unprincipled feas terrifying

He dared not pause here wrestling with his indecisions, though McKie stepped into the stairith a boldness which he did not feel, following Bahrank&039;s directions because he had no choice The bottoht on a black door Two Humans dozed in chairs beside the door while a third squatted beside them hat appeared to be a crude projectile weapon in his hands

"Jedrik suuard with the weapon nodded for hilanced at the weapon: a length of pipe with a er atop the box held by the guard&039;s thumb McKie almost missed a step The weapon was a dead-uard&039;s thu no doubt would explode and kill everyone in the stairwell McKie glanced at the two sleepers How could they sleep in such circuht cohly seasoned cooking dominated the other stinks here McKie saw that it was a heavy door with a glittering spyeye at face level The door opened at his approach He stepped through into a large low room crowded - jammed! - with people seated on benches at trestle tables There was barely rooe between the benches And everywhere that McKie looked he saw people spooning food into their mouths from sh the narrow spaces slapping dols and re empties

The whole scene was presided over by a fat woman seated at a small desk on a platform at his left She was positioned in such a way that she co doors at the side through which the serving people flowed back and forth She was a h she had never been anywhere else Indeed, it was easy for McKie to iine that she could not move from her position Her arms were bloated where they squeezed froreen coveralls Her ankles hung over her shoe tops in folds

Take a seat and wait

Bahrank had been explicit and the warning clear

McKie looked for an opening on the benches Before he could move, the fat woaze darted toward those beady eyes in their folds of fat

"McKie"

"Thought so"

She raised a di boy ca He could not have been over nine years old but his eyes were cold with adult wisdom He looked up to the fat woman for instructions

"This is the one Guide hi to see if McKie followed, hurried down the narrow pathhere the doors swung back and forth to pere of the servitors Twice, McKie was aluide was able to anticipate the opening of every door and skipped aside

At the end of this passage, there was another solid black door with spyeye The door opened onto a short passage with closed doors on both sides, a blank wall at the end The blank wall slid aside for thehted by widely spaced bulbs overhead The walls were da Occasionally, there ide places with guards They passed through several guarded doors, climbed up and went down McKie lost track of the turns, the doors, and guard posts After a ti its sides The boy opened the second door on the right, waited for McKie to enter, closed the door It was all done without words McKie heard the boy&039;s footsteps recede

The rooh in the wall opposite the door A trestle table about twowith benches down both sides and a chair at each end alrey stone and unadorned McKie worked his way around to the chair at the far end, sat down He re this place It was cold in the rooh s behind him was open a crack and he could hear street noises: a heavy vehicle passing, voices arguing,in upon this roo Nearer at hand fro and an occasional hiss as of steam

Presently, the door opened and a tall, slender wo For a ht from the s concentrated on her face, then she sat down at the end of the right-hand bench, dropping into shadows

McKie had never before seen such hard features on a woman She was brittle rock with ice crystal eyes of palest blue Her black hair was closely cropped into a stiff bristle He repressed a shudder The rigidity of her body amplified the hard expression on her face It was not the hardness of suffering, not that alone, but so anchored in a kind of agony which htest touch On a ConSentient world where the geriatric arts were available, she could have been any age between thirty-five and one hundred and thirty-five The diht into which she had seated herself coer than thirty-five

"So you are McKie"

He nodded

"You&039;re fortunate Adril&039;s people gotfor you I wasn&039;t warned that you were so dark"

He shrugged

"Bahrank sent word that you could get us all killed if we&039;re not careful with you He says you don&039;t have even rudi"

This surprised McKie, but he held his silence

She sighed "At least you have the good sense not to protest Wellwelcome to Dosadi, McKie Perhaps I&039;ll be able to keep you alive long enough for you to be of some use to us"

Welcome to Dosadi!

"I&039;nize you"

This was only partly true None of the representations he&039;d seen had conveyed the ruthless brutality which radiated froone

"You don&039;t respond when I welcome you to our planet"

McKie shook his head Aritch&039;s people had been specific in their injunction:

"She doesn&039;t know your origin Under no circumstances may you reveal to her that you come from beyond the God Wall It could be immediately fatal"

McKie continued to stare silently at her

A colder look ca in the muscles at the corners of the mouth and eyes

"We shall see Now: Bahrank says you carry a wallet of so First, hand me the wallet"

My toolkit?