(I wondered if he believed that. I could think of three obvious places for an Ear: my jumpbag, his pockets, and the cushions of the carriage. And there were always endless unobvious places. But it was his problem. I had no secrets. None, now that my bellybutton was a window to the world.)
“Äso let me talk fast. I’m meeting your price. Furthermore there will be a bonus on completed performance. The trip is from Earth to The Realm. That’s what you’re paid for; the trip back is deadhead but, since the round trip is four months, you’ll be paid for four months. You collect your bonus at the far end at the imperial capital. SalaryÄone month in advance, the rest as you go. Okay?”
“Okay.” I had to avoid sounding too enthusiastic. A round trip to The Realm? My dear man, only yesterday I was anxious to make this trip at petty officer’s wages. “What about my expenses?”
“You won’t have much in the way of expenses. Those luxury liners are all-expense deals.”
“Gratuities, squeeze, groundside excursions, walking-around money, Bingo and such aboard shipÄat a minimum such expenses are never less than twenty-five percent of the price 6f the ticket. If I’m going to pretend to be a rich tourist, I must behave like one. Is that my cover?”
“Uh . . . Well, yes. All right, all rightÄnobody’s going to fuss if you spend a few thousand pretending to be Miss Rich Bitch. Keep track and bill us at the end.”
“No. Advance the money, twenty-five percent of the ticket cost. I won’t keep records as it would not be in character; Miss Rich Bitch would not keep track of such trivia.”
“All right already! Shut up and let me talk; we’ll soon be there. You’re a living artifact.”
I had not felt that cold chill in quite a while. Then I braced up and resolved to make him pay heavily for that one crude, rude remark. “Are you being intentionally offensive?”
“No, I’m not. Don’t get in a flutter. You and I know that an artificial person can’t be told, offhand, from a natural person. You’ll be carrying, in stasis, a modified human ovum. You will carry it in your navel pouch, where the constant temperature and the cushioning will protect the stasis. When you reach The Realm, you will catch a flu bug or some such and go to hospital. While you are in this hospital, what you are carrying will be transferred to where it will do the most good. You’ll be paid the bonus and will leave the hospital . . . with the happy knowledge that you have enabled a young couple to have a perfect baby when they were dead-certain, almost, to have a defective one. Christmas disease.”
I decided that the story was mostly true. “The Dauphiness.”
“What? Don’t be silly!”
“And it is considerably more than Christmas disease, which, by itself, might be ignored in a royal person. The First Citizen himself is concerned with this since this time succession is passing through his daughter rather than through a son. This job is much more important and much more hazardous than you told me . . . so the price goes up.”
That pair of beautiful bays went clopping on up Rodeo Drive another hundred meters before Mosby answered. “All right. God help
you if you talk. You wouldn’t live long. We’ll increase the bonus.
AndÄ”
“You’ll damn well double the bonus and deposit it to my account before we warp. This is the kind of a job where people grow forgetful after it’s over.”
“WellÄI’ll do what I can. We are about to have lunch with Mr. SikmaaÄand you are expected not to spot the fact that he is personal representative of The First Citizen with an interworld rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. Now straighten up and mind your table manners.”
Four days later I was again minding my table manners at the right of the Captain of H. S. Forward. My name was now Miss Marjorie Friday and I was so offensively rich that I had been fetched up from groundside to Stationary Station in Mr. Sikmaa’s own antigrav yacht and whisked through into the Forward without having to bother with anything so plebeian as passport control, health, and so forth. My luggage had come aboard at the same timeÄbox after box of expensive, stylish clothing, appropriate jewelryÄbut others took care of it; I did not have to bother with anything.
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