World's End

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JOAND. VINGE

pack beast. "They're mine, goddamn it! I found them first--"

Harkonni ran after him. "No! Leave them alone! It's my treasure--" He clawed at Ang's shoulder.

Spadrin followed them and struck Harkonni with his rifle butt, knocking him down. Ang went through the bags until he found the one he was looking for. Harkonni sat protesting on the ground, with Spadrin's stun rifle pointing into his face.

Ang jerked the bag open and plunged his hand into it, Generated by ABC Amber LIT

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pulling out a handful of lumps. He looked down at what he held, and the blind greed in his eyes turned to incredulity.

"Shit!" He flung the handful away, and dumped the bag's contents onto the ground. "It's nothing but shit!"

At first I thought he only meant that he hadn't found what he wanted. But then I saw his face. I pushed away from the rover and went to where he stood looking down. Scattered on the ground around his feet were small brownish-gray lumps of dried excrement.

I looked from Ang's face to Harkonni's, and Spadrin's.

"Gods!" Spadrin muttered. His mouth twisted with disgust.

The stun rifle quivered in his hands. For a minute

I thought he was going to fire it into Harkonni's terrified face. At that range the charge would kill him. Harkonni began to cry. Spadrin stepped back and away from him, as if killing him was beneath even Spadrin's dignity.

"Let's get out of here."

Ang nodded and dropped the bag he was still holding onto the pile of dung. He wiped his hands on his shorts. His face was empty of everything but relief.

"It's still up there." He looked away, following the whillp's shining acid-etched trail on up the canyon

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with his eyes. "My treasure." He started back to the rover. Spadrin grabbed up a sack of Harkonni's food supplies and followed him.

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WORLD S END