Drums Drone Death

He took extra clips for it. Went over the kit he was going to take along.

He had been studying hard, just before he left, and on the trip. Fingerprinting and camera work, criminal psychology and evidence, the work of medical examiners. He had the equipment and the theory; all he needed was practice, and his hunch proclaimed he was going to get that.

His small, compact amphibian rode at mooring outside the official dock basin. He got a lounging native to paddle him off. The man backed hastily away as Carter cast off, and the aitumanu sputtered into life.

There was no reef at Vate, and the plane taxied over the still water of the landlocked harbor, breaking up the reflected pattern of the stars, sending off blue and green swirls of luminifaræ, the fireflies of the sea.

The floats lost suction, the plane scuttered like a rising duck, lifted, gaining elevation, the land wind tailing.

Carter flew nor'-nor'east, over two small islands, then ba