Heinlein, Robert A – Friday

“Thank you. Some, anyhow. Who’s watching the portside boat? Or is there someone?”

“Graham. Little sandy bloke. Perhaps you’ve noticed him?”

“Too often.”

“I picked this side because you toured this boat with Mr. Udell yesterday. Day before yesterday, depending on how you figure it.”

“I don’t care how you figure it. Pete, what happens when you are missed?”

“I may not be missed. Joe StupidÄsorry, Joseph SteubenÄthe other is just my private name for himÄI have instructed to relieve me after he eats breakfast. If I know Joe, he’ll make no fuss at not finding me at the door; he will just sit down on the deck with his back to the door and sleep until someone comes along and unlocks it. Then he’ll stay there until this boat drops away . . . whereupon he will go to his room and sack in until I look for him. Joe is steady but not bright. Which I figured on.”

“Pete, it sounds as if you had planned this.”

“I didn’t plan to get a sore neck and a headache out of it. If you had waited long enough to let me speak, you wouldn’t have had to carry me.”

“Pete, if you’re trying to sweet-talk me into untying you, you are barking down the wrong well.”

“Don’t you mean `up the wrong tree’?”

“The wrong one, in any case, and you aren’t improving your chances by criticizing my figures of speech. You’re in deep trouble, Pete. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you and leave you here. For the Captain is right; I’m jumping ship. I can’t be bothered with you.”

“Well. . . one reason is that they’ll find my body later this morning, while they are unloading. Then they’ll be looking for you.”

“I’ll be many kilometers the other side of the horizon. But why would they look for me? I’m not going to leave my fingerprints on you. Just some purple bruises around your neck.”

“Motive and opportunity. Botany Bay is a pretty law-abiding community, Miss Friday. You can probably talk your way out of trouble in jumping ship thereÄothers have. But if you are wanted for a murder aboard ship, the local people will cooperate.”

“I’ll plead self-defense. A known rapist. Fer Gossake, Pete, what am I going to do with you? You’re an embarrassment. You know I won’t kill you; I can’t kill in cold blood. It has to be forced on me. But if I keep you tied upÄ Let me seeÄfive and three is eight, then add at least two hours before they work back to here in unloadingÄ that’s ten hours at leastÄand I’ll have to gag youÄand it’s getting coldÄ”

“You bet it’s getting cold! Could you sort of drape my sweater around me?”

“All right, but I’ll have to use it later when I gag you.”

“And besides being cold, my hands and feet are going to sleep. Miss Friday, if you leave me tied up this way for ten hours, I’ll have gangrene in both hands and both feetÄand lose them. No regeneration out here. By the time I’m back where they can do it, I’ll be a permanent basket case. Kinder to kill me.”

“Damn it, you’re trying to work on my sympathy!”

“I’m not sure you have any.”

“Look,” I told him, “if I untie you and let you put your clothes back on so that you won’t freeze, will you let me tie you up and gag you later without fussing about it? Or must I clip you a good deal

harder than I did and knock you out cold? Run a risk of breaking your neck? I can, you know. You’ve seen me fightÄ”

“I didn’t see it; I just saw the results. Heard about ft.”

“Same thing. Then you know. And you must know why I can do such things. `My mother was a test tubeÄ’

” `Äand my father was a knife,’ “he interrupted. “Miss Friday, I didn’t have to let you clip me. You’re fast . . . but I’m just as fast and my arms are longer. I knew that you were enhanced but you did not know that I am. So I would have had the edge.”