Free The Return of Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future by Mike Resnick Page A

after playing a couple of hands I just naturally assumed everyone at the table was supposed to cheat. Well, he could have killed me for that, but instead he laughed so hard I thought he'd bring down the ceiling, and we've been friends ever since."
           "How many men has he killed?"
           "You'll have to ask him. First, I don't know, and second, even if I did know it's been better than a year since I've seen him, and he's probably added to his total since then."
           "If he's such a fearsome killer, why does anyone else live on Tusculum II?" asked Dante.
           Virgil stared at him. "The Bard of the Inner Frontier doesn't ask stupid questions."
           " Was it a stupid question?"
           "Figure it out."
           Dante considered it for a moment, then nodded. "Of course. They're there for protection." He paused. "How does it work? They pay him a fee to live there, and he doesn't allow any bounty hunters to land?"
           "Well, you got the first part right. They pay for the privilege of living on Tusculum. But Tyrannosaur will let anyone land. He owns a casino, and he doesn't much care whose money he takes. He just makes it clear that if you kill a resident, one of 'his children', as he calls them, you won't live to enjoy the reward."
           Dante chuckled. "I take it Tusculum II is a pretty peaceful place."
           "So far. But you never know what'll happen tomorrow."
           "You made it sound like no one could kill this Tyrannosaur."
           "You're on the Inner Frontier now, where just about every man and woman carries a weapon and can be hazardous to your health."
           "What are you getting at?"
           "If they're alive and they're carrying weapons, what does it imply to you?"
           "Stop with the guessing games," said Dante irritably. "What is it supposed to mean to me?"
           "That every last one of them is undefeated in mortal combat," said Virgil. "They don't all have big reputations. In fact, mighty few have reputations to rival Tyrannosaur's. But there's fifty, maybe sixty million people out here, all of 'em undefeated. It seems unrealistic to assume a few dozen of them couldn't kill Tyrannosaur if push came to shove." He paused. "That's why you have to be a little cautious out here. You know the odds, but you never can tell which of those nondescript men has it within him to be the next Santiago."
           "Hey, I'm just a poet and an historian," said Dante. "I don't plan on challenging anyone."
           "And I'm a lover," said Virgil wryly. "Problem is, you don't always have a choice."
           "As far as I know, no one ever called Black Orpheus out for a duel to the death."
           "Yeah—but he was the real thing. You're just an apprentice Orpheus."
           "Keep talking like that and I may tear up your verse," said Dante.
           "Keep thinking you're above the fray and you may not live long enough to write a second one."
           The ship jerked just then, as it entered Tusculum II's stratosphere at an oblique angle.
           Dante stared at his instrument panel. "Now what?"
           "Now you land."
           "But no one's fed any landing coordinates into the navigational computer."
           "You're not in the Democracy any more," said Virgil. "Have the sensors pinpoint the larger Tradertown, and then find the landing field just north of it."
           "And then?"
           "And then tell it to land."
           "Just like that?" asked Dante.
           "Just like that."
           "Amazing," said Dante after issuing instructions to the sensors and the computer. "Have you ever been to Deluros VIII?"
           "Nope."
           "It's got more than two thousand orbiting space docks that can each handle something like ten thousand ships. There are dozens of passenger platforms miles above the planet, and thousands of