A hot, dry wind swept across the surface of Last Chance, a remote world on the edge of the Inner Frontier. Dust devils swirled up to heights of 60 feet, breathing became almost impossible, and the few indigenous animals burrowed into the ground to wait out the duststorm.

A lone figure, his clothing nondescript, his face protected against the elements by a dust mask, walked down the main street of the planet's only Tradertown, looking neither right nor left. The door of an abandoned building suddenly buckled from the force of the wind, and he quickly crouched, withdrew a hand weapon, and fired at the source of the noise. The door briefly turned a bright blue and then vanished. The man remained motionless for a moment, then holstered his weapon and continued walking toward the brightly-lit building at the end of the street.

He came to a stop about twenty yards from his destination, then placed his hands on his hips and studied the structure before him. The walls were made of a titanium alloy with a tight molecular bonding, finished to look like wood. The front veranda possessed two large doorways, both leading to the crowded interior of The End of the Line. From where he was standing, he couldn't tell which section was the bar and which was the casino, though he suspected the casino was at the back, where it could be more easily protected against any potential robberies.

A door slid open for a moment, and the man ducked behind a vehicle and withdrew his weapon again as a tall woman emerged, took one step into the dust, then shook her head and went back into the building, coughing heavily.

The man strode back out into the middle of the street and continued staring at the building. Finally he began walking again, turning to his left after a moment and circling the entire building. There weren't any windows, which didn't surprise him given the force of the duststorm, but he hadn't survived this long by not being thorough, and he methodically checked out every means of ingress. All the various doors were closed, probably locked, certainly tied in to a security system. Briefly he considered climbing to the roof -- it was not beyond his capabilities to scale the side of the building, made rough by the abrasive action of the wind and the dust -- but he couldn't see any advantage to be gained, and he rejected the idea.

He finally decided that he had no choice but to enter through one of the doorways at the front of the building. He was unhappy about it -- not that he minded being identified after his work was done, but he preferred not to call any attention to himself before he'd earned his money -- but no viable alternative had presented itself, and the dust mask made him feel constricted, even claustrophobic.

He realized that he was still holding his weapon in his hand, that he had been holding it since the woman had temporarily emerged from the building, and he once again replaced it in his holster. Then he climbed the three stairs to the veranda, walked across it, entered The End of the Line, and removed his mask. He would get the feel of the place, spot his quarry, wash the dust in his mouth away with a beer or two, and then go to work.

The place was as crowded as he had anticipated. A long chrome bar lined the left side of the front room, with perhaps a dozen tables scattered around the right side. The clientele was primarily human, for this was a human outpost world, but here and there were Canphorites, Lodinites, and a pair of beings of a type he had never seen before.

The back room was as large as the tavern, and even more crowded. There were roulette tables, dice tables, poker tables, two tables boasting alien games of chance. He scanned the faces at the tables, wondering which of them, if any, was his quarry. Then, finally, he turned and walked over to the bar.

A balding, overweight man with a slight limp approached him from the other side of the bar.

"Good evening," he said. "What can I get for you?"

"A beer."

"Coming right up," said the man behind the bar, placing a mug under a tap and activating it. "I haven't seen you around here before."

"I just got here."

"Sorry we have such lousy weather today," continued the bartender. "Usually Last Chance is a pretty pleasant place, even a bit on the cool side."

"I didn't come here for the weather."

"Good. Then you won't be disappointed."

The man lifted the mug to his lips and downed half of it in a single long swallow.

"I need a little information," he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"If it's mine to give," replied the bartender.

"I'm looking for someone."

"Well, I know almost everyone here. Who is it?"

"A man named Carlos Mendoza. Some people call him the Iceman."

"Mendoza, eh?" said the bartender. He looked around the room. "You owe him some money? I can give it to him for you."

"Just point him out to me."

"I hope you're not looking for trouble," said the bartender. "They say Mendoza is a pretty tough customer."

"What I'm looking for is none of your business," said the man coldly.

"Fine by me," said the bartender with a shrug. "I just figured that since you don't know him, probably you've been hired by someone who does know him. Thought I could save you a little misery."

"Save your thoughts for Mendoza."

"Well," said the bartender with a shrug, "at least you've been warned."

"All right, I've been warned," said the man. "Now point him out to me."

"See that fellow sitting by himself in the corner?" asked the bartender. "The one dressed all in black?"

The man nodded. "He's armed like he's going into battle," he said. "Laser pistol, sonic gun, projectile pistol. Probably got a knife tucked into that boot, too."

"Actually, he's got a knife in each boot," said the bartender. He paused. "Are you really sure you want to go through with this?"

"It's my work," said the man, turning to face his prey.

"You could talk," suggested the bartender. "The Iceman's always willing to talk instead of fight."

"He is, huh?"

"That's what I hear."

"I don't get paid to talk," answered the man.

He took a few steps toward the man in black, then stopped.

"Mendoza!" he said in a loud voice.

Most of the action at the gaming tables stopped as the man in black looked up at him curiously.

"Are you talking to me?"

The man's fingers hovered above the hilt of his sonic pistol.

"Time to die, Mendoza."

"Do I know you?" asked the man in black.

"All you have to know is that I'm the last thing you're ever going to see."

Suddenly the newcomer flinched, and a puzzled expression crossed his face. He blinked his eyes rapidly, as if trying to comprehend what had happened, then groaned once and pitched forward on his face, a large knife protruding from his back.

The bartender limped over to him, withdrew the knife he had thrown with deadly accuracy, and wiped it off on a bar towel.

"They get younger and dumber every week," he said, turning the dead man onto his back with a foot. "No problem, friends," he announced, raising his voice. "Just our weekly visitor from wherever."

And because of who he was, most of the patrons took his word for it and returned to their drinks and their gambling.

The man in black walked over and stared at the corpse.

"Ever see him before?" asked the bartender.

"No," said the man in black. "You know who he is, Iceman?"

The Iceman shook his balding head. "No idea. But that's four of them this month. Somebody really wants me dead." He paused. "I just wish I knew why. I haven't been off the planet in damned near four years."

"If you hadn't killed him, maybe we could have found out," said the man in black. "After all, that's what you hired me for. You're not making my job any easier."

"I made your job easier," replied the Iceman. "He would have taken you."

The man in black frowned. "What makes you think so?"

The Iceman knelt down, gripped the corpse's left hand in his own, and displayed the index finger.

"Prosthetic," he said. "I spotted it at the bar, and when he turned his back, I saw the powerpack under his shirt. While you were drawing your weapon, he'd have just pointed at you and burned a hole right through your chest."

"Well, I'll be damned!" muttered the man in black. "I guess you did make my job easier, at that."

"I'll take it out of your pay," said the Iceman wryly.

"You know, one of these days someone's going to come out here who knows what you look like," said the man in black. "What are you going to do then?"

"Duck, I suppose," replied the Iceman. "In the meantime, let's move our late friend here into my office and see what we can learn about him."

"I have a feeling he's going to be just like the others you described to me," predicted the man in black. "No identification, no fingerprints, surgically-altered retinagram."

"Probably," agreed the Iceman. "But let's do it anyway."

The man in black shrugged and gestured for a couple of other men to pick up the corpse. They began carrying it toward the casino.

The Iceman immediately barred their way. "Out the front and around to the side," he said. "We've got customers here. How would you like it if someone dragged a dead body right in front of you while you were drinking?" He paused, then sighed deeply. "Don't answer. Just do it."

They reversed their direction and carried the dead man out the front door.

"Well," said the man in black, "are you finally going to tell me what this is all about?"

"I wish to hell I knew," answered the Iceman, limping back to the bar and pouring himself a beer. He offered one to the man in black, who turned it down.

"Don't kill the next one and maybe you'll find out."

"Anyone who comes after me on Last Chance dies," answered the Iceman firmly. "That's part of the myth I spent three decades creating. If I let even one of these bastards live, the myth becomes a fairy tale and they'll be coming after me every hour instead of every week. Lord knows I've made enough enemies over the years."

"Then why did you hire me at all?" asked the man in black in frustrated tones.

"As you say, one of them may know who I am -- and I happen to be a 71-year-old man with a beer belly and an artificial leg. When I finally need you, you'll earn your money, never fear."

"You ought to let me cripple one of them," said the man in black. "Then we'd get some answers."

"You want to cripple one?" asked the Iceman. He gestured to the door. "You've got the whole damned planet on which to do it. But once they walk through that door, my first concern is staying alive." He finished his beer. "Now, if you want to practice on men who are here to kill you, that's your privilege and good luck to you -- but I didn't get to be this old by taking chances."

"They say there was a time when you took chances," replied the man in black. "Lots of 'em."

"I was young. I learned better."

"That's not the way I heard it."

"Then someone must have lied to you," said the Iceman.

"They even say," continued the man in black, "that you're the only man who ever took on the Oracle and won."

The Iceman grimaced. "I didn't win anything."

"Is she still alive?"

"I suppose so," replied the Iceman. "I can't imagine anything being able to kill her."

"Has the thought crossed your mind that she's behind all this?"

"Not for an instant."

"Why not?"

"Because if she was, I'd be dead," said the Iceman with absolute certainty.

"You faced her before, and you're still alive," persisted the man in black.

"Forget about her," replied the Iceman. "She's got nothing to do with this."

"You're sure?"

"To her, I'm about as insignificant as a grain of sand on a deserted beach." He paused. "If she's still alive, she's got more important things on her mind."

"What kind of things?"

"I hope to hell I never find out," answered the Iceman seriously. "Come on," he added. "Let's take a look at the body."

They walked over to his office and entered it, where they found the corpse laid out on a broad wooden desk.

The man in black examined the corpse's fingers closely.

"No prints," he announced. "Damned nice job on that fake finger. I never spotted it." He looked down at the dead man's face. "Got an ophthalmoscope?"

"A small one, inside the center drawer of the desk," said the Iceman, going over the body for scars or identifying marks. "But it's not tied into any computers."

The man in black walked to the desk and returned with the instrument. "I have a feeling that tying into a computer won't do you a bit of good with this guy -- but let's see." He stared through the scope for a moment, then put it away. "Yeah, there's some scar tissue on the rods and cones. Five'll get you ten they're not on record anywhere in the galaxy."

"No serial numbers on any of the weapons, either," noted the Iceman. "Strange. Out here on the Inner Frontier, most killers pick colorful names and brag about their accomplishments. But this is the fourth one in a row who has no name, no identification, no reputation."

"Nice boots, though," said the man in black.

"I suppose so."

"Very nice."

"I checked for labels or manufacturer's marks," said the Iceman. "There aren't any."

The man in black continued staring at the boots.

"Do you see something I'm missing?" asked the Iceman, suddenly interested.

"It's possible," said the man in black, taking a boot from the corpse's foot and examining it.

"Looks sort of blue when the light hits it," commented the Iceman.

"I know," said the man in black. He handed the boot to the Iceman. "There aren't a lot of blue reptiles on the Inner Frontier -- and I only know of one that's got this circular pattern of scales."

"Oh?"

The man in black nodded. "Big sonuvabitch. It lives on a world called Greycloud, out by the Quinellus Cluster." He paused. "They call it a Bluefire Dragon. It could swallow you whole and then look around for the main course."

"How big a world is Greycloud?"

"About the size of Last Chance, maybe a little smaller."

"Oxygen world?"

"Yes."

"Any sentient life forms?" asked the Iceman. "Not since we colonized it a few centuries ago," answered the man in black.

"How many Men?"

"Maybe seven thousand, mostly miners and aquaculturalists. It's mostly freshwater ocean, with a batch of islands and one very small continent."

"Does it do much exporting?"

The man in black shook his head. "Too small. Probably doesn't get a mail or cargo ship more than seven or eight times a year."

"So," continued the Iceman, "if our killer was wearing boots made from the local lizard..."

"There's a pretty good chance that he bought them there," concluded the man in black.

"They look relatively new," said the Iceman, studying the boots. "I think maybe you'd better pay a little visit to Greycloud. Take a couple of holos of our friend here before we bury him, and see if anyone knows who he was or who he worked for."

"I assume you'll be all right while I'm gone?"

"I'll make do," replied the Iceman dryly. "By the way, if Greycloud is so far off the beaten track, how come you know about this Bluefire Dragon?"

"I've been there."

"When?"

The man in black shrugged. "Oh, about eight or ten years ago."

"On business?"

"In a manner of speaking," said the man in black noncommittally.

"Good," said the Iceman. "You'll have some contacts there, some people you can talk to."

The man in black shook his head. "Everyone I knew there is dead."

"Recently?"

"About eight or ten years ago."

The Iceman smiled in grim amusement. "No wonder they call you the Gravedancer."