Robert Asprin – Tambu

“Fine,” Tambu nodded. “And now the big question. How much?”

Hendricks produced a small notepad and scribbled briefly on it.

“I dislike haggling,” he announced, pushing the pad across the table. “This is a firm price, including installation.”

Tambu glanced at the figure on the pad and smiled.

“Let’s be realistic, Mr. Hendricks. We want to buy the guns without a ship attached-used guns, at that.”

“In mint condition,” Hendricks countered. “Warehousing them has cost me dear.”

“Which is all the more reason for you to be eager to sell them,” Tambu pointed out. “And there can’t be much demand for them if you’ve had to carry them in inventory this long.”

Hendricks began to protest, but Tambu held up a restraining hand.

“Fortunately, I also dislike haggling. Here is my top offer, and we’ll install them ourselves.”

He crossed out Hendrick’s figure and scribbled a number of his own on the pad.

“Ridiculous!” Hendricks scoffed, looking at the pad. “Just because I deal with pirates doesn’t mean I’ll stand still for being robbed myself. I’ll let the guns rust away before…”

Tambu smiled to himself as he listened to the man’s orations. Despite the volume and bitterness of his objections, Hendricks had not moved from his seat after examining their offer.

They would reach an agreement soon.

INTERVIEW III

“It sounds like you were getting it from all sides in the beginning,” Erickson commented. Sympathy was always a good ploy to loosen a subject’s defenses.

“Yes, we were quite alone then. Still, that is not particularly surprising. We were setting a new pattern, and change is always resisted. The people we dealt with were constantly assuming that we fit in the order they already knew. Our only consolation was that if they had realized then what we were about, they probably would have treated us much more harshly.”