A retired hunter ofalien zoo specimens, William Blackhorse Singer, the last Navajo on afuture Earth, has come to what he sees as the end of his life. The WorldGovernment calls upon him for aid in protecting an alien diplomat from apowerful and hostile member of his own species. Knowing both theimportance of the task and his inability to handle it on his own, Singergoes to confront his greatest conquest with a strange bargain. Ashape-shifting alien, the last of his species, sits in a special cage atan institute dedicated to the study of extraterrestrial beings. Mostfrequently he projects the aspect of a one-eyed catlike creature, but hecan appear as almost anything.One of Singer’s secrets, and hisgreatest guilt, is his suspicion that the creature is intelligent. Heconfronts him and offers his own life for Cat’s cooperation in savingthe alien. Cat accepts, and later, their mission fulfilled, demands arefinement on the original bargain. Rather than a simple death he wants areturn bout—a chase with Singer as the hunted rather than the hunter.Thegods, powers and monsters of Navajo legend provide the backdrop for theworking out of Singer’s fate—for the chase is as much for his soul asfor his body. As he uses matter transmitters to flit from Paris toLondon to the Middle East to the American Southwest, he must search backinto his own early life as well as the root beliefs of his vanishedpeople and come to terms with a world that has adopted him, made use ofhis skills, and left him feeling that he has no place to call his own.