He was behind the wall before he could see it hit, but there was no doubt in Kren’s mind. It was a perfect head shot.
Just to be on the safe side, Kren was ready to return the javelin, but it never came. He had won. The crowd was cheering enthusiastically, beating their left hands on their chests.
Injuries happened often enough in the game, so the rules were both well defined and well known. If the javelin was not out of bounds, it must be returned. And if a player was not able to continue, she lost.
Kren had expected the javelin to bounce off, rendering the girl unconscious. When he walked around the wall, he found her sitting there with the blunt javelin having gone into the skull, just above the eyes. A yard of it was sticking out the back of her head, stuck in the grass. It was propping her unconscious body up as the stretcher bearers arrived.
The next day, at the awards ceremonies, someone announced that she had lived, and was expected to be playing again in a few weeks.
Motile brain cells have several advantages. Among them was the ability to repair major brain damage. A human would probably have died on the spot.
The sportscasters said that Kren must have been very shaken up about the accident, since he did so poorly at the last two events of the day, the javelin distance and accuracy throws.
The director of athletics was furious at not having been informed of Kren’s intention of winning the javelin tennis competition.
Kren said that he hadn’t been sure that he could win it, that he wasn’t sure that using a javelin to pole-vault with would be allowed by the judges, and that the director had been gone for most of the week, and out of touch, so he couldn’t be consulted.
The director walked away grumbling.
Kren didn’t really care. Not when his net worth was now one billion, two gross seven dozen and six million Ke. Plus a small duchy, of course.
The memory of the stunned look on his opponent’s face as the javelin came at her was a very nice, lingering satisfaction.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
FROM CAPTURED HISTORY TAPES,
FILE 1846583A ca. 1832 a.d.
BUT CONCERNING EVENTS OF UP TO
2000 YEARS EARLIER
Kren’s Kiddy Hotel—
They Check In but They Don’t Check Out
The contractors started work promptly on Monday morning, putting up the first twelve miles of fencing around the new property. If it worked, they would get the go-ahead to complete the project, but they wouldn’t have the whole job done for twelve weeks.
With Bronki working on the sales end of things, Kren and Dol started getting production going.
“We have to have an efficient method of gathering up the juvenals, getting them on the train, getting them to market,” Kren said. “I think that the best way to do it would be to drug them, put them in boxes, and use material handling equipment from then on. There is a chemical called piperphentamone that is not on the illegal list, because it has no effect on adults. Injected into a juvenal in the proper dosage, it will knock her unconscious for a week. Also, there is an antidote, brantadiatol, which can bring them around in a few minutes, and it too is legal. I want you to find a manufacturer who can produce these for us.”
“I’ll get on it in the morning, sir.”
“Right. Next, we’ll need some shipping boxes for them. Find out what the standard sizes are, and what they cost. Collecting the juvenals up won’t be a problem at first, because winter is coming on, and they will be collecting themselves at the wintering centers. I note that each of these centers is near a train terminal.”
Lacking the human urge for creativity, all Mitchegai train terminals were built the same. Once they had an efficient design, they stuck with it. Rarely used terminals in the countryside were just as large and well equipped as those in the cities, although more of them had been added as the cities grew. Since they were expected to last forever, and had been built before many of the current cities existed, there was a certain logic to this way of doing things.
“I’m sure that it was simply easier to build the centers where the materials could be easily delivered,” Dol said.
“I expect that you are right, but it is still very convenient for us. I want you to work on some method of efficiently taking contented children from the center and turning them into boxes of product loaded on a hovercraft that can deliver them to the train station. Bear in mind that this will have to be done mostly outdoors, in the wintertime.”
“Right, sir. Then there were the buildings you mentioned earlier?”
“That’s what I’ll be doing, drawing up some rough sketches of what we need. Later, you can do up some finished drawings on that fancy computer of yours.”
“Very well, and I already have a plotter on order, to do proper technical drawings. It should get here in a week. You really should learn to use a computer, sir.”
“Later, maybe. Just now, I don’t have time. We’ll need the packaging center, to gather juvenals from the fields and prepare them for shipment. I’ll want it built and running by spring, and I’m very eager to start in on the breeding projects we talked about.”
“Not to mention the grass-mowing machines and the business of growing grass under artificial lights.”
“Right. The grass mowing is your project. We’ll need it by next summer, I expect. Keep me posted. As to the artificial lights, I need some research done there. All of the artificial lights I’ve seen have imitated the spectrum of sunlight. But plants are most efficient under a particular wave length of monochromatic red light. Any photons with less energy simply do the plant no good at all. Any energy above a certain level is wasted, and just goes into waste heat, which has to be gotten rid of. I want you to find me some inexpensive, monochromatic light sources.”
“I’ll see what I can do, sir. Do you know the precise wave length we need?”
“No, that slips my memory. I only remember that it was red. Vampire memories are not perfect.”
“Or maybe Kodo forgot it.”
“That too is possible. Well, you know what to do.”
* * *
The next weekend was an away game, and the opposing javelin tennis team had been studying tapes of Kren’s last performance. They all showed up to the meet wearing protective headgear, and they made all of their shots to the rear of the court, from which Kren could not effectively pole-vault. This made for some long and boring games. One of them was indeed a world record setter for both length and dullness, but they didn’t give away any platinum medals for that. Kren didn’t come close to winning.
Kren had suspected that something like this would happen, and hadn’t bet on the tennis tournament. The odds were too low, anyway.
Instead, he won the javelin distance event, without setting any records. The payoff was only two to one, and Kren, in keeping with his earlier vows, had only bet half of his purse on the outcome. Bronki had always been a bit secretive about her betting, but Dol said that she would continue betting everything she had, since a girl never could tell when she might need another billion Ke.
* * *
“Dol, I’ve been invited back to Duke Dennon’s palace for the weekend. Would you like to come along?” Kren asked.
“A visit to a ducal palace? Most definitely, sir!”
“Then book us a cabin on an express train on Friday afternoon, and find out from Bronki who we should contact at the palace to tell them we’re coming. Tell her that she’s invited along, if she wants, but if she’s too busy, that’s okay, too.”
* * *
As he and Dol walked into the ducal palace, Kren noted that many small changes had taken place. The carpeting was new, and of the very best quality, as were the drapes. Minor repairs had been made where necessary, and the servants all sported new uniforms. Only the very professional guards were unchanged, although Kren was sure that by now they’d all gotten their back pay.
They were immediately escorted to Duke Dennon’s private quarters, which had been lavishly redecorated. They made the proper bow to His Grace, who stood up to greet them.
The duke said, “Kren! Welcome back! All the more so since you have made me a half gross billion Ke richer!”
“I thought that it might have been you who bet a gross billion Ke on that fencing match! Your wager drove the odds down so low that we almost decided to win the javelin accuracy throw instead!”