“Calm down, sweetheart, and tell Uncle Edacki all about it now. You must remember the crew are corporate employees, not information-gathering specialists. I should have thought to send one along but I was trusting to your natural talent. I can scarcely believe you got your hands on the man and did not find the place from which the horns came or secure any more of them.”
“Oh, I found it, all right. At least, I found the place he got the first ones from. But there -weren’t any more and there are only a dozen or so in his sack.”
“I have a hunch he is holding out on you, darling girl. Do ask him again nicely.”
“I ca-a-a-n’t,” she wailed miserably. “He got away? “
“No I sort of, you know …” She made an approximation of the sound of a laser burning through flesh. She did it very well, and it was a difficult and unpleasant noise to reproduce.
“Did you let your enthusiasm get away with you before you investigated thoroughly, Kisia Manjari?” Ganoosh asked her sternly.
“Nooo! Really, Uncle! We checked his computers and according to them it was the right place. But after I zapped him, these little explosions started going off everywhere and the MQcD was about to be hit so we took off and left him. We can always go back if you want us to, and take his ship and check the computers again.”
“No, no, my dear, that would most likely be unproductive. I should have known persons such as the late Mr. Becker would have no truly valuable finds to share with us, no matter how prettily you asked.”
“You’re not cross, are you. Uncle? Perhaps you could send me to the school, you know, where your information extraction specialists learn their trade. I know I can very helpful in this work if you‘11 just give me another chance.”
“Oh, precious, don’t fret your little head about it. Of course I’m not cross with you. You did get more horns. All the horns Mr. Becker had. And I have no doubt but What, if a school for information extraction specialists existed, you would, except for that little tendency toward impatience of yours, be at the head of the class in no time. In fact, with your natural talent, I’m sure you could be an instructor.”
He saw her well enough now to discern that she was blushing with pleasure. Positive reinforcement worked well with this girl.
“I have so much faith in you, in fact, that I want you and the Mu)a^ to undertake a new mission.”
“Oh, goody! What is it? Do I get to extract information?”
“Certainly, my darling girl, and from a wealthy and pampered pair of newlyweds, one of whom is a very close personal friend of your own close personal enemy …”
“Which one?” she asked eagerly and he could see her taking inventory of people she knew of who filled his description. “Oh, Uncle, you don’t mean that wily old sheik, do you?”
“Now who is wily? You figured that out immediately. Bright girl. Good girl. Yes, I’m afraid the stupid Yasmin allowed herself to be found. To buy her own head she betrayed the tail I had on her. I expected no better, to tell you the truth. However, Harakamian’s ship the Shahrazcu) has just left the Rushiman orbit. Fortunately, Yasmin apparently did not feel it necessary to tell her captors about the secondary monitoring devices she placed aboard the ship. We are still able to get a fix on the Shahrazad without difficulty.”
“Can I kill Yasmin for you when we get back?” Kisia asked. “She shouldn’t have tattled on our surveillance ship.”
“I’ll think about it. Patience, remember, darling. Yasmin has her limitations but she may still prove useful if I can retrieve her from the settlers-preferably after she’s done a bit of hard penal labor to remind her who her friends are. No, I want you to follow, properly cloaked and shielded, until such time as you can board the Shahraza