“A ceremonial vase,” Tiar said.
“Somebody’s grandmother buried in it?”
“Not from what I figure. I’ve run oji through every cognate and every derivation I can find. It means ‘ceremonial object with accumulated value’ and it’s related to the word for ‘antique’ and ‘relic.’ Its transferred meanings and derivatives seem to mean ‘ceremonial object with social virtue,’ ‘communal high tea,’ …”
“You’re kidding.”
“… and ‘inheritance.’ “
“No’shto-shti-stlen’s going to die?” Fala asked.
“Who knows?” A shrug was not politic, but it was close company, here. “Maybe gtst is designating a successor. Maybe the old son is going home to die.”
“They do that,” Chihin said. “Stsho won’t die in view of strangers. Bad taste.”
“It’s pay in advance. Gtst can’t change gtst mind.”
“That’s for certain.”
Hilfy stared at the stack. “Pay in advance. Gods, it pays. You just keep asking yourself why.”
“What can go wrong?” Fala asked, and got a circle of flat-eared looks and a moment of silence.
“There’s an encyclopaedia entry,” Hilfy said, “under oijgi, related substantive, to the effect that an object like that can’t be paid for, that it just transfers, and money can’t touch it directly. Mustn’t touch it directly. It’s all status. Of some kind. It could account for the extravagance.”
“We could outright ask somebody,” Tarras said.
“No. Not when we don’t know what we’re dealing with—or how explosive it is. No’shto-shti-stlen has ears in every wall in this station.”
“Electronically speaking,” Tiar said.
“I certainly wouldn’t bet the contract against it.”
“So you’re leaning toward signing?”
“Once every quarter hour. Elsewhen I’m inclined to take our cargo on to Hoas and forget I ever heard about it. Why in a mahen hell does this thing have to go rush-shipment to Urtur? Why not a slow trip via Hoas in the first place? Does the governor have to be difficult? Does the thing explode on delivery?”
“You want my opinion?”
“What?” she asked.
“I say if we take the contract, we get all our cargo buys nailed down in advance. And stall signing to the very last moment. Gossip’s going to fly the moment that check hits the bank. They’ll jack the prices on us.”
“Give the old son no time,” Tarras said, “to frame us for anything. Because you can bet the next trip’s take that bastard No’shto-shti-stlen is thinking how to get that money back before it hits our pockets. On gtst deathbed gtst would make that arrangement. Gtst isn’t the richest son this side of space for no reason.”
“Trouble is,” Chihin said, “—we’ve got to take certain cargo for Urtur if that’s where we’re going. And unless old No’shto-shti-stlen’s been uncommonly discreet, there are stsho on this station who know what the deal is; and if they know, security’s already shot. If we’re going to deal, we’d better deal fast, because I’ve got a notion if this thing is that important to the stsho, it could be important to No’shto-shti-stlen’s enemies, too. If it is, figure on spies reporting what we buy, and what we deal for, and what we’ve got contracts on—if we sneeze, it’s going into somebody’s databank and right to No’shto-shti-stlen’s ears for a starter.”
“And elsewhere simultaneously,” Hilfy said. Aunt Py had dealt with the stsho. And still did; what was aunt Py’s expression? Never trust the stsho to be hani? They weren’t. They wouldn’t be. No more than hani would play by stsho rules; or mahen ones; and the stsho had been cosmopolitan enough to know that single fact before the han or the mahendo’sat ever figured it out. Add to it, that a hani who happened to be fluent in stsho trade tongue and its history might deceive herself in special, personal blind spots related to the interface between languages and world-views.
“I want,” Hilfy said, extruding claws one after the other to signify the items: “an estimate on a list of things I’ve left on file, under ‘Urtur.’ I’m betting on goods that originate from beyond Meetpoint, that no one’s going to bring in from the other direction. Things we know Urtur’s short on. And I want a search on the manifests for ships going out of here. We can’t account for what might come in from Kshshti—so let’s concentrate on stsho and t’ca goods.”
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