After a few minutes, Adele seated herself cross-legged and got out her handheld unit. There were enough people to keep an eye on the natives—who appeared to be happy drunks after all, so long as spacers continued to pour refills—while Daniel and Tovera between them would prevent anybody from accidentally stepping on the librarian sitting in the dirt. When Daniel pointed out the feathered creatures flitting about the stump from which Hogg shot the limb, Adele could plunge straight into the database to see what was known about them.
Apparently nothing was known. Commander Bergen’s was the only formal account of Morzanga in the Cinnabar archives, and Uncle Stacey hadn’t shared his nephew’s interest in natural history. Perhaps a paper: Notes on Aviform Species of Morzanga, by Daniel Leary, Lieutenant RCN. . . .
“Friends!” called the son of the dead man who now stood, a trifle wobbly, beside the corpse; he held a flint knife. He must’ve gotten to his feet while Adele was lost in her unsuccessful data search.
The whole assembly rose; those who were able to, at any rate. Daniel kept his eyes on what was happening around him, but he held his left arm out as a bar on which Adele could lift herself. She gripped it and pulled herself upright with one hand as she put away the data unit with the other.
“My father bids you greet him so that he can give you his final gifts!” the son said. “Praise him as you go about your business in this world, so that he may have honor in the afterlife!”
The Captain walked forward, tugging the uncertain Klimovna along with him. The son raised a string of money and snipped it with his knife. He tossed the section to the Captain, cut another and gave it to Valentina, and—as the Captain pulled Valentina out of the way—gave a third piece to the new Lieutenant.
The whole village began filing past the corpse, getting gifts of money. The length of the string didn’t seem to matter; the sections ranged from a foot or so long to about a yard. The son flicked a loop up with one hand and clipped it with the other, thus stretching a greater or lesser amount depending where the other end lay in the pile.
The Klimovna showed her string to the rest of them. Daniel and the Count learned forward; after a moment, and with a vague sense of irritation, Adele bent closer also. Deep in her soul she believed that information was something you looked up instead of collecting yourself, but the Sailing Directions’ cursory description of Morzanga didn’t cover seed money any more than it did feathered creatures.
The seeds were symmetrical ovals, flat, and of a pale ivory color. The string was some sort of vegetable fiber, knotted on either side of each seed. The money seemed to smell faintly of camphor, but the odor might’ve come from the paint covering the dead man’s body.
A good half the village had filed past to get their gift. The son jerked a fresh string loose. Now that so much had been dispensed, Adele could see that the money was heaped around a glittering ball resting in the lap of the corpse. She nudged Daniel and pointed; he adjusted his visor magnification with a quick ease that she could never manage. The Klimovna turned to see what they were looking at.
Husband and wife reacted simultaneously—she by screaming, him with a choked cry, “The Earth Diamond!”
Valentina lunged for the gleaming object, the string of money dangling forgotten from her right hand. Daniel grabbed her from behind by the collar and jerked her back, so quickly and hard that her feet both kicked off the ground for an instant.
“What?” said the Count, an outraged expression forming. He started toward Daniel; Hogg body-checked him dead in his tracks.
“Valentina,” Daniel said, releasing the woman but keeping himself between her and the adorned corpse. “Please. We’ll get it, I promise you; but not in a fashion that we’re all butchered on a pile of wog corpses, please.”
The Klimovna shook herself. Her icy fury melted with the suddenness of snow slumping off a roof. “Yes, Captain,” she said. “You will fetch us the diamond when you can; but if you please, don’t be too long about it.”