nothing in it for them but extra work? I’d lay long odds they’d classify
your ‘discovery’ an Imperial secret and forbid you under criminal
penalties ever to mention it anywhere. You might guess differently,
though. No insult to you, Dominic. I believe in insurance, that’s all.
Right?
“So my agent will ride along, and give you the navigational data after
you’re safely away in space, and never leave your side till you’ve
returned and told me personally what you found. Afterward, as a witness
to your behavior on active duty, a witness who’ll testify under
hypnoprobe if need be, why, he’ll keep on being my insurance against any
change of heart you might suffer.”
Flandry blew a smoke ring. “As you wish,” he conceded. “It’ll be pretty
cozy, two in a Comet, but I can rig an extra bunk and–Let’s discuss
this further, shall we? I think I will take the job, if certain
conditions can be met.”
Ammon would have bristled were he able. The Gorzunian sensed his
irritation and growled. “Conditions? From you?”
Flandry waved his cigar. “Nothing unreasonable, sir,” he said airily.
“For the most part, precautions that I’m sure you will agree are
sensible and may already have thought of for yourself. And that agent
you mentioned. Not ‘he’, please. It could get fatally irritating, living
cheek by unwashed jowl with some goon for weeks. I know you can find a
capable and at the same time amiable human female. Right? Right.”
He had everything he could do to maintain that surface calm. Beneath it,
his pulse racketed–and not simply because of the money, the risk, the
enjoyment. He had come here on a hunch, doubtless generated by equal
parts of curiosity and boredom. He had stayed with the idea that, if the
project seemed too hazardous, he could indeed betray Ammon and apply for
duty that would keep him beyond range of assassins. Now abruptly a
vision was coming to him, hazy, uncertain, and gigantic.
III
—
Djana was hard to shock. But when the apartment door had closed behind
her and she saw what waited, her “No!” broke free as a near scream.
“Do not be alarmed,” said the squatting shape. A vocalizer converted the
buzzes and whistles from its lower beak into recognizable Anglic
syllables. “You have nothing to fear and much to gain.”
“You–a man called me–”
“A dummy. It is not desirable that Ammon know you have met me in
private, and surely he has put a monitor onto you.”
Djana felt surreptitiously behind her. As expected, the door did not
respond; it had been set to lock itself. She clutched her large
ornamental purse. A stun pistol lay inside. Her past had seen
contingencies.
Bracing herself and wetting her lips, she said, “I don’t. Not with
xenos–” and in haste, fearing offense might be taken, “I mean nonhuman
sophonts. It isn’t right.”
“I suspect a large enough sum would change your mind,” the other said.
“You have a reputation for avarice. However, I plan a different kind of
proposition.” It moved slowly closer, a lumpy gray body on four thin
legs which brought the head at its middle about level with her waist.
One tentacle sent the single loose garment swirling about in a sinuous
gesture. Another clutched the vocalizer in boneless fingers. The
instrument was being used with considerable skill; it actually achieved
an ingratiating note. “You must know about me in your turn. I am only
Rax, harmless old Rax, the solitary representative of my species on this
world. I assure you my reproductive pattern is sufficiently unlike yours
that I find your assumption comical.”
Djana eased a bit. She had in fact noticed the creature during the three
years she herself had been on Irumclaw. A casual inquiry and answer
crossed her recollection, yes, Rax was a dealer in drugs, legal or
illegal, from … where was it? Nobody knew or cared. The planet had
some or other unpronounceable name and orbited in distant parts.
Probably Rax had had to make a hurried departure for reasons of health,
and had drifted about until it stranded at last on this tolerant shore.
Such cases were tiresomely common.
And who could remember all the races in the Terran Empire? Nobody: not