The cage was stowed with extra care just behind
the driver’s seat in the flitter, and during the transfer
from warehouse to flyer there had been not the slightest sound from
its interior. Yet twice more Troy had been aware of those paw taps
of exploration, touches that were gone the instant he was alert to
them. He was thinking hard as he left Zul in the flitter and went
to return the platform. The other had shown no signs of surprise or
interest in the cage. Did Zul find those subtle inquiries
ordinary—or did he not feel them at all? What kind or species
of animal traveled in that container?
Native life on a thousand worlds was now known to spacers,
explorer scouts, pioneers. And Troy had heard tales told in the
Dipple by men gathered from planets in a wide sector of the galaxy.
Yet never before had there been any suggestion that a form of life
existed that was able to contact men mentally. Mentally!
Troy paused. Mentally! So—that was it! He had put a name
to that elusive touch. But—
He did not know that his eyes had narrowed, that his fingers
were drumming a faint tattoo on his belt. This was something to
consider by himself. Out of the far past an emotion other than
surprise awoke, sent a warning through him. Look, listen, and keep
one’s thoughts to oneself—the law of survival.
Troy swung around so suddenly that he caught the slight movement
of a man he must have startled into that tiny betrayal. Varms stood
just outside, his elbow resting on a pile of boxes, obviously
waiting for orders. Yet he had been watching Troy, just as he was
so patently not watching him now. Did Varms expect Horan to spark a
patroller? He knew the inner laws of the Dipple better than that.
As long as Varms made no move toward looting Kyger’s, where
Troy’s loyalty was temporarily pledged, Horan would not
reveal any knowledge of him.
He walked past Varms without a sign, heading toward the flitter.
It was only chance that dictated the next warning. A porter was
wrangling with one of the bin attendants, and they now carried
their quarrel to the section manager. Since the object of their
dispute was large, they were hot-tonguing it not in the inner
office but outside in the corridor. A length of crystal mirror,
bright and backed with red-gold, bore a disfiguring crack down its
side.
That crack might distort a reflection, but it could not conceal
it. And in that patch of mirror Troy caught a glimpse of a
tailer—Varms! The interest a new recruit of the Guild might
have in a C.L. from the Dipple was negligible, but in a
cargo—that was a different matter. And Varms, clumsy and
inept as he was, might well be after the contents of the
cage—or of the two crates that accompanied it.
Troy came out into the brightness of the flitter park. There
were rows of waiting vans, very few passenger flyers. A series of
two-story patroller towers quartered the whole area. There must be
spy rays throughout every lane here. No one had ever dared a
highjacking job in this place. And he did not see how he and Zul
could be tackled once they were in the air—If they had been
on wheel lock, now—
But he discovered that surface travel was just what Zul was
intending. The wheels were extended from the body flaps, and the
little man edged the vehicle out on ground level.
“What’s the idea?” Troy folded his long legs
into the cramped quarters beside Zul. “Don’t we lift
back?”
For the first time those wide lips split in something
approaching a grin.
“No, no lift back.” The other mimicked his tone.
“We carry those who must ride easy.”
Not much of an explanation, Troy thought. If the occupants of
the cage had managed to survive passage in a space freighter, they
certainly could take very easily a short air flight back to Sixth
Square. He had something other to chew on also—that move by
Varms. Taken together with this action of Zul’s, it began to
make sense. Could the yellow man and the novice thief have rigged a
hijack between them, with himself set up to pin the blame
upon?
Troy dismissed that thought. Too many loose ends. He was not
driving; Zul was. He could prove that he had had no connection with
Kyger’s before this morning, knew nothing of any cargo that
was coming in for the shop. And somehow he was certain Zul was not
planning any double cross of his employer—in spite of Varms.
But there had to be a reason, other than the one he had been given,
for this ground-level progress.
It was not a straight-line progress either, he noted. Troy knew
the warehouse section of Tikil well enough to be certain with every
block they passed that Zul was taking a round-about way. Why? A
sidelong glance at the other’s closed face argued that this
was another question Zul was not going to answer.
Troy settled back as far as he could in a seat adjusted to
Zul’s comfort, not his own, and waited for further
enlightenment. Once more he was conscious of activity in the cage,
mental activity. It was no longer directed toward him, but at their
surroundings. Troy’s breath caught in a tiny gasp as he
realized—picking impressions and hints out of those vague,
strange currents—that the occupants of the cage were
engrossed in studying their new surroundings. Yet how could they
see through the thickly padded covering of the cage—unless
that covering was not what it seemed to superficial
examination?
He would have given a great deal at that moment to be able to
turn and sweep the covering to the floor of the flitter, to see the
unseen. A great deal, but not today’s employment. Troy was
very sure that such a move on his part would see Zul’s
summoning of the nearest patroller, his own ignominious and
disastrous return to the Dipple. Curiosity was not spur enough to
risk that.
They made two more unnecessary turns. There were other flitters
wheeling—usually private jobs delivering passengers to the
buildings, so Zul’s method of progress was in no way
extraordinary. But Troy’s attention went now to the
visa-screen above the controls. He watched for Varms—was the
other still trailing?
He could pick out no following flitter that seemed suspicious.
But Troy would be the first to admit that he could not match skills
with any of the Guild. For all he knew, every one of those flyers
and the men and women in them could be part of some fantastic
scheme to loot the one in which he was traveling. Should he warn
Zul?
The latter was driving at a rate well within the safety
regulations of ground level. A portion of vulnerable skin and
muscles between Troy’s shoulders began to itch as the feeling
of expectancy built up inside him. And his growing distrust was
shared by those in the cage. Their interest had changed to a desire
to warn—or alert—
Troy opened his mouth to speak. A yowling wail burst from the
cage, loud enough to drown out any spoken word. Zul’s head
jerked up. The yowl sank into silence but Troy caught the
message—danger was coming, and fast. His hand shot out,
fingers fumbling with the catch of the arms locker. But his thumb
pressure could not unlock it.
Zul sent the flitter into a burst of speed, which tore them out
of the mouth of an avenue into one of the circles of space
surrounded by the first ring of shops. With an expert’s skill
the small man wove a devious pattern among the other flitters
there. Troy, tense, kept his attention divided between the path
ahead and the near misses Zul guided them through. There had been
no further outburst from the cage. But he did not need the wave of
expectation issuing from there to warn him of trouble yet to
come.
They might have made it free and clear had not Zul
miscalculated, or been outplayed, by inches. Troy was slammed
against the arms locker, his raised arm protecting his head, as the
flitter smashed into an ornamental standard, edged into that to
avoid the forward ram of another flyer.
The shock of his impact must have sprung the lock on the arms
compartment. As Troy pushed back from it, the panel gaped and he
grabbed the butt of a stunner inside. The arm that had taken the
shock of his weight was numb, hanging heavy from his shoulder, but
the other was all right and his fingers curled hungrily about the
weapon.
On Zul’s left the door had burst open, spilling the little
man into the street. He was already dragging himself up, blood
pouring from a cut over one eye. When he tried to stand, he gave a
grunt and reeled back against the flitter, apparently unable to
rest his weight on his right ankle.
Troy sent his shoulder against the door on his own side, went
out and down in a roll, the stunner in his hand and ready. He was
sure he was going to face some aggressor more dangerous than any
indignant flitter owner Zul might have scraped. As he brought up
against the twin of the pillar they had crashed, he saw Zul draw
his knife and a man leap with the ease of a trained street fighter
from between two parked flitters.
There were pedestrians, a crowd of them, gathering. But until
they knew that this was not some private challenge-fight, none
would call a patroller. By drawing his belt knife instead of trying
for a stunner, Zul had labeled this a meeting-of-honor, unorthodox
as its setting might be. And had not Troy been warned, he might
have hesitated to come to the other’s assistance.
His numbed arm bothered him, and he rested the barrel of the
stunner on his knees to take aim against the attacker. Knife blades
flashed in the sunlight. Zul, his back braced against the wrecked
flitter, was seemingly cornered and on the defensive from the
first.
Troy pressed the firing stud of his weapon, remembering the
long-ago training by Lang: “Point your barrel as you would
your finger, boy. Aim means more than speed.”
There was the faint “pssst” from the stunner. The
man fronting Zul wavered, slewed partly around, and staggered back,
bringing up against one of the parked vehicles, shaking his head
dazedly. But the small man he had attacked did not try to follow up
the advantage. Troy tapped with his thumb, sending another charge
into the stunner.
He was just in time, for again that ear-torturing wail sounded
from the interior of the flitter, and the impact of warning reached
him full blast. Instinctively he hurled himself to the right. A
knife struck the pillar and clattered to the ground.
The man who had hurled it was holding back, but his companion
came on, ready for another try, his eyes narrow and calculating.
Troy aimed at the other’s head, praying he would not be
wearing a force screen.
The determination of the attack, and the time and place it had
been delivered, argued that the Guild men either were after some
fabulous loot or had been hired at the high rate, which in turn
suggested they would have top equipment.
But Troy never had a chance to discover if his fears were
correct. A white coil materialized out of thin air only a foot or
so above the head of the advancing knifeman. It whirled in a
circle, throwing off, with almost dizzying speed, a web of white
filaments that fell about the attacker, touching and then clinging
to shoulders, arms, body, and, finally, legs. The man struggled
against the enwebment fruitlessly. Within a matter of moments he
was down, as well packaged as a spider’s prey. And a second
web had taken care of his companion.
Troy straightened up, dropped the stunner to the ground well out
in view, not having any wish for the patrollers to start in on him.
Leaving the weapon where it lay, he went to Zul.
Blood made a gory and devilish mask of the small man’s
face, and he clung to the swinging door of the wrecked flitter with
one hand, as if he needed that support badly. As Troy came to him,
the younger man was suddenly aware of the fact that the warnings
that had flowed from the cage were at an end; there was no contact
with its inhabitants now.
The first patroller took charge. Troy answered questions with
the strict truth concerning what he had seen—but he did not
mention the unheard warnings. And Zul either could not or would not
elaborate on that report. Somewhat to Troy’s surprise, Kyger
himself stepped out of the second patrol flitter. And his
efficiency matched that of the law. Zul was sent off to have his
hurts tended before Kyger examined the cage. When Troy helped him
swing it out to the pavement, he was brisk.
“No harm done, officer,” he informed the patroller.
“Apparently it was just an attempted hijack—not that
such a theft would have done them any good.”
“Why not?” The patroller was a Swatzerkan, his
green-tinged skin showing a faint lacing of scales across the backs
of his hands as he held a small recorder to catch their
answers.
“Because these animals cannot live long without their own
imported food and trained care, officer. They are a special
order—for the Gentle Fem San duk Var—”
The Swatzerkan did not exactly blink, but perhaps there was a
shade more deference in his voice when he replied, “You have
indeed been favored by fortune, Merchant, in that your shipment did
not fall into the hands of these worms’ castings.” His
eyes touched briefly on the bound, or webbed, prisoners. “It
will be your wishing to take these precious creatures to your shop.
But one fears that your flitter is beyond the power of
rising—”
“An accommodation will serve.”
“Ah—so. Mulat, an accommodation for the
merchant!”
One of the other patrollers went to the com unit of the official
flitter. And for the first time Kyger appeared to really notice
Troy.
“You used that?” He nodded toward the stunner still
lying by the knife-scored pillar.
“Yes.”
“Good enough.” Kyger crossed to retrieve the weapon
and hand it to the Swatzerkan. “I witness my man used this in
defense of my goods,” he said, using the formal,
responsibility-assuming phrase.
“It is so noted, Merchant.”
Troy stared at Kyger. Such a move was made on the behalf of a
full-time employee, a subcitizen, not for a day laborer out of the
Dipple. Did Kyger mean—?
But this was no time to ask questions. An accommodation flitter
set down on the clear oval beyond the pillars, and Troy helped
Kyger move the cage and the two crates into it. There was still
nothing from the transport box. One could almost imagine that he
had dreamed that questing thought process. But Troy’s
curiosity pricked the more fiercely after the events of the past
half hour.
Any pets offered to the wife of Var suk Sark would indeed be the
most exotic as well as the most expensive obtainable. Suk Sark was
of one of the Fifty Noble Families on Wolf Three. But the Gentle
Fem San duk Var was not accepted in that lineage-conscious
assemblage. Gossip was undoubtedly correct in ascribing the present
residence of the Var household on Korwar to that fact. One could
not buy one’s way into the Fifty, no matter how limitless was
the pile of credits one could dip into. But there were other
circles one could impress with one’s importance—many
such on Korwar.
Troy wondered how suk Sark enjoyed running his autocratic
government of the Sweepers from so far away. The Sweepers in the
galaxy as a whole were small fry, a collection of six minor solar
systems, and they never ventured too far into the conflicts between
the real lords of space. But sometimes even such small
organizations had moments when their allegiance or enmity could tip
the scales of an uneasy balance of power. Suk Sark was only one of
the “powers” who, for one reason or another, made
Korwar their residence, apart from their official headquarters.
“You have a family in the Dipple?” Kyger’s
abrupt question broke Troy’s line of thought.
“No, Merchant.”
“Would you take contract, for a limit of time?”
“With you, Merchant?”
“With me. Zul will be of little use for a while. I will
need an extra pair of hands in his place. Who knows?” Kyger
glanced at him and then away. “It may lead to something
better, Dippleman.”
“I will take contract, Merchant.” Troy schooled his
voice, hoping his elation was not too apparent. Somehow he did not
wish this spacer-turned-merchant to know just how much that offer
meant to him.
They lifted from the square of the crash and took the
straightest line to the court at the rear of the shop. Troy was
told to load the two crates on a runner and put them in the
storeroom. Kyger himself remained by the curtained cage once he had
returned the accommodation flitter on auto-control to the rental
station. So far he made no move to open the cage, and Troy’s
desire to see what was inside grew.
“Shall I take this also, Merchant?” Troy asked as he
returned and brought the runner to a halt beside the cage.
Kyger turned on him once more the searching stare with which he
had measured him at their first meeting that morning. Then the shop
owner pulled at some hidden fastening. The padded curtains fell
away and Troy looked into a very well-appointed traveling box. The
flooring, sides, and roof were padded with plastafoam, a precaution
against the pressure of ship acceleration, and there were two inset
feeding and watering niches. But the occupants were close to the
mesh front, sitting on their haunches, their front paws placed
neatly together, the tips of their tails folded over those
paws.
One was black, a black so deep as to have, in the sunlight, a
bluish tinge—or perhaps that was a reflection from its
companion’s coat, for the second and slightly smaller animal
was blue—or parts of its close, thick fur coat held that
shade, muting into a gray that was very dark on head, legs, and
tail. And the four eyes of the pair, regarding both men
impartially, were as vividly blue-green as aquamarines.
“Terran,” Kyger announced with a note of pride plain
in his voice. “Terran cats!”
The cage was stowed with extra care just behind
the driver’s seat in the flitter, and during the transfer
from warehouse to flyer there had been not the slightest sound from
its interior. Yet twice more Troy had been aware of those paw taps
of exploration, touches that were gone the instant he was alert to
them. He was thinking hard as he left Zul in the flitter and went
to return the platform. The other had shown no signs of surprise or
interest in the cage. Did Zul find those subtle inquiries
ordinary—or did he not feel them at all? What kind or species
of animal traveled in that container?
Native life on a thousand worlds was now known to spacers,
explorer scouts, pioneers. And Troy had heard tales told in the
Dipple by men gathered from planets in a wide sector of the galaxy.
Yet never before had there been any suggestion that a form of life
existed that was able to contact men mentally. Mentally!
Troy paused. Mentally! So—that was it! He had put a name
to that elusive touch. But—
He did not know that his eyes had narrowed, that his fingers
were drumming a faint tattoo on his belt. This was something to
consider by himself. Out of the far past an emotion other than
surprise awoke, sent a warning through him. Look, listen, and keep
one’s thoughts to oneself—the law of survival.
Troy swung around so suddenly that he caught the slight movement
of a man he must have startled into that tiny betrayal. Varms stood
just outside, his elbow resting on a pile of boxes, obviously
waiting for orders. Yet he had been watching Troy, just as he was
so patently not watching him now. Did Varms expect Horan to spark a
patroller? He knew the inner laws of the Dipple better than that.
As long as Varms made no move toward looting Kyger’s, where
Troy’s loyalty was temporarily pledged, Horan would not
reveal any knowledge of him.
He walked past Varms without a sign, heading toward the flitter.
It was only chance that dictated the next warning. A porter was
wrangling with one of the bin attendants, and they now carried
their quarrel to the section manager. Since the object of their
dispute was large, they were hot-tonguing it not in the inner
office but outside in the corridor. A length of crystal mirror,
bright and backed with red-gold, bore a disfiguring crack down its
side.
That crack might distort a reflection, but it could not conceal
it. And in that patch of mirror Troy caught a glimpse of a
tailer—Varms! The interest a new recruit of the Guild might
have in a C.L. from the Dipple was negligible, but in a
cargo—that was a different matter. And Varms, clumsy and
inept as he was, might well be after the contents of the
cage—or of the two crates that accompanied it.
Troy came out into the brightness of the flitter park. There
were rows of waiting vans, very few passenger flyers. A series of
two-story patroller towers quartered the whole area. There must be
spy rays throughout every lane here. No one had ever dared a
highjacking job in this place. And he did not see how he and Zul
could be tackled once they were in the air—If they had been
on wheel lock, now—
But he discovered that surface travel was just what Zul was
intending. The wheels were extended from the body flaps, and the
little man edged the vehicle out on ground level.
“What’s the idea?” Troy folded his long legs
into the cramped quarters beside Zul. “Don’t we lift
back?”
For the first time those wide lips split in something
approaching a grin.
“No, no lift back.” The other mimicked his tone.
“We carry those who must ride easy.”
Not much of an explanation, Troy thought. If the occupants of
the cage had managed to survive passage in a space freighter, they
certainly could take very easily a short air flight back to Sixth
Square. He had something other to chew on also—that move by
Varms. Taken together with this action of Zul’s, it began to
make sense. Could the yellow man and the novice thief have rigged a
hijack between them, with himself set up to pin the blame
upon?
Troy dismissed that thought. Too many loose ends. He was not
driving; Zul was. He could prove that he had had no connection with
Kyger’s before this morning, knew nothing of any cargo that
was coming in for the shop. And somehow he was certain Zul was not
planning any double cross of his employer—in spite of Varms.
But there had to be a reason, other than the one he had been given,
for this ground-level progress.
It was not a straight-line progress either, he noted. Troy knew
the warehouse section of Tikil well enough to be certain with every
block they passed that Zul was taking a round-about way. Why? A
sidelong glance at the other’s closed face argued that this
was another question Zul was not going to answer.
Troy settled back as far as he could in a seat adjusted to
Zul’s comfort, not his own, and waited for further
enlightenment. Once more he was conscious of activity in the cage,
mental activity. It was no longer directed toward him, but at their
surroundings. Troy’s breath caught in a tiny gasp as he
realized—picking impressions and hints out of those vague,
strange currents—that the occupants of the cage were
engrossed in studying their new surroundings. Yet how could they
see through the thickly padded covering of the cage—unless
that covering was not what it seemed to superficial
examination?
He would have given a great deal at that moment to be able to
turn and sweep the covering to the floor of the flitter, to see the
unseen. A great deal, but not today’s employment. Troy was
very sure that such a move on his part would see Zul’s
summoning of the nearest patroller, his own ignominious and
disastrous return to the Dipple. Curiosity was not spur enough to
risk that.
They made two more unnecessary turns. There were other flitters
wheeling—usually private jobs delivering passengers to the
buildings, so Zul’s method of progress was in no way
extraordinary. But Troy’s attention went now to the
visa-screen above the controls. He watched for Varms—was the
other still trailing?
He could pick out no following flitter that seemed suspicious.
But Troy would be the first to admit that he could not match skills
with any of the Guild. For all he knew, every one of those flyers
and the men and women in them could be part of some fantastic
scheme to loot the one in which he was traveling. Should he warn
Zul?
The latter was driving at a rate well within the safety
regulations of ground level. A portion of vulnerable skin and
muscles between Troy’s shoulders began to itch as the feeling
of expectancy built up inside him. And his growing distrust was
shared by those in the cage. Their interest had changed to a desire
to warn—or alert—
Troy opened his mouth to speak. A yowling wail burst from the
cage, loud enough to drown out any spoken word. Zul’s head
jerked up. The yowl sank into silence but Troy caught the
message—danger was coming, and fast. His hand shot out,
fingers fumbling with the catch of the arms locker. But his thumb
pressure could not unlock it.
Zul sent the flitter into a burst of speed, which tore them out
of the mouth of an avenue into one of the circles of space
surrounded by the first ring of shops. With an expert’s skill
the small man wove a devious pattern among the other flitters
there. Troy, tense, kept his attention divided between the path
ahead and the near misses Zul guided them through. There had been
no further outburst from the cage. But he did not need the wave of
expectation issuing from there to warn him of trouble yet to
come.
They might have made it free and clear had not Zul
miscalculated, or been outplayed, by inches. Troy was slammed
against the arms locker, his raised arm protecting his head, as the
flitter smashed into an ornamental standard, edged into that to
avoid the forward ram of another flyer.
The shock of his impact must have sprung the lock on the arms
compartment. As Troy pushed back from it, the panel gaped and he
grabbed the butt of a stunner inside. The arm that had taken the
shock of his weight was numb, hanging heavy from his shoulder, but
the other was all right and his fingers curled hungrily about the
weapon.
On Zul’s left the door had burst open, spilling the little
man into the street. He was already dragging himself up, blood
pouring from a cut over one eye. When he tried to stand, he gave a
grunt and reeled back against the flitter, apparently unable to
rest his weight on his right ankle.
Troy sent his shoulder against the door on his own side, went
out and down in a roll, the stunner in his hand and ready. He was
sure he was going to face some aggressor more dangerous than any
indignant flitter owner Zul might have scraped. As he brought up
against the twin of the pillar they had crashed, he saw Zul draw
his knife and a man leap with the ease of a trained street fighter
from between two parked flitters.
There were pedestrians, a crowd of them, gathering. But until
they knew that this was not some private challenge-fight, none
would call a patroller. By drawing his belt knife instead of trying
for a stunner, Zul had labeled this a meeting-of-honor, unorthodox
as its setting might be. And had not Troy been warned, he might
have hesitated to come to the other’s assistance.
His numbed arm bothered him, and he rested the barrel of the
stunner on his knees to take aim against the attacker. Knife blades
flashed in the sunlight. Zul, his back braced against the wrecked
flitter, was seemingly cornered and on the defensive from the
first.
Troy pressed the firing stud of his weapon, remembering the
long-ago training by Lang: “Point your barrel as you would
your finger, boy. Aim means more than speed.”
There was the faint “pssst” from the stunner. The
man fronting Zul wavered, slewed partly around, and staggered back,
bringing up against one of the parked vehicles, shaking his head
dazedly. But the small man he had attacked did not try to follow up
the advantage. Troy tapped with his thumb, sending another charge
into the stunner.
He was just in time, for again that ear-torturing wail sounded
from the interior of the flitter, and the impact of warning reached
him full blast. Instinctively he hurled himself to the right. A
knife struck the pillar and clattered to the ground.
The man who had hurled it was holding back, but his companion
came on, ready for another try, his eyes narrow and calculating.
Troy aimed at the other’s head, praying he would not be
wearing a force screen.
The determination of the attack, and the time and place it had
been delivered, argued that the Guild men either were after some
fabulous loot or had been hired at the high rate, which in turn
suggested they would have top equipment.
But Troy never had a chance to discover if his fears were
correct. A white coil materialized out of thin air only a foot or
so above the head of the advancing knifeman. It whirled in a
circle, throwing off, with almost dizzying speed, a web of white
filaments that fell about the attacker, touching and then clinging
to shoulders, arms, body, and, finally, legs. The man struggled
against the enwebment fruitlessly. Within a matter of moments he
was down, as well packaged as a spider’s prey. And a second
web had taken care of his companion.
Troy straightened up, dropped the stunner to the ground well out
in view, not having any wish for the patrollers to start in on him.
Leaving the weapon where it lay, he went to Zul.
Blood made a gory and devilish mask of the small man’s
face, and he clung to the swinging door of the wrecked flitter with
one hand, as if he needed that support badly. As Troy came to him,
the younger man was suddenly aware of the fact that the warnings
that had flowed from the cage were at an end; there was no contact
with its inhabitants now.
The first patroller took charge. Troy answered questions with
the strict truth concerning what he had seen—but he did not
mention the unheard warnings. And Zul either could not or would not
elaborate on that report. Somewhat to Troy’s surprise, Kyger
himself stepped out of the second patrol flitter. And his
efficiency matched that of the law. Zul was sent off to have his
hurts tended before Kyger examined the cage. When Troy helped him
swing it out to the pavement, he was brisk.
“No harm done, officer,” he informed the patroller.
“Apparently it was just an attempted hijack—not that
such a theft would have done them any good.”
“Why not?” The patroller was a Swatzerkan, his
green-tinged skin showing a faint lacing of scales across the backs
of his hands as he held a small recorder to catch their
answers.
“Because these animals cannot live long without their own
imported food and trained care, officer. They are a special
order—for the Gentle Fem San duk Var—”
The Swatzerkan did not exactly blink, but perhaps there was a
shade more deference in his voice when he replied, “You have
indeed been favored by fortune, Merchant, in that your shipment did
not fall into the hands of these worms’ castings.” His
eyes touched briefly on the bound, or webbed, prisoners. “It
will be your wishing to take these precious creatures to your shop.
But one fears that your flitter is beyond the power of
rising—”
“An accommodation will serve.”
“Ah—so. Mulat, an accommodation for the
merchant!”
One of the other patrollers went to the com unit of the official
flitter. And for the first time Kyger appeared to really notice
Troy.
“You used that?” He nodded toward the stunner still
lying by the knife-scored pillar.
“Yes.”
“Good enough.” Kyger crossed to retrieve the weapon
and hand it to the Swatzerkan. “I witness my man used this in
defense of my goods,” he said, using the formal,
responsibility-assuming phrase.
“It is so noted, Merchant.”
Troy stared at Kyger. Such a move was made on the behalf of a
full-time employee, a subcitizen, not for a day laborer out of the
Dipple. Did Kyger mean—?
But this was no time to ask questions. An accommodation flitter
set down on the clear oval beyond the pillars, and Troy helped
Kyger move the cage and the two crates into it. There was still
nothing from the transport box. One could almost imagine that he
had dreamed that questing thought process. But Troy’s
curiosity pricked the more fiercely after the events of the past
half hour.
Any pets offered to the wife of Var suk Sark would indeed be the
most exotic as well as the most expensive obtainable. Suk Sark was
of one of the Fifty Noble Families on Wolf Three. But the Gentle
Fem San duk Var was not accepted in that lineage-conscious
assemblage. Gossip was undoubtedly correct in ascribing the present
residence of the Var household on Korwar to that fact. One could
not buy one’s way into the Fifty, no matter how limitless was
the pile of credits one could dip into. But there were other
circles one could impress with one’s importance—many
such on Korwar.
Troy wondered how suk Sark enjoyed running his autocratic
government of the Sweepers from so far away. The Sweepers in the
galaxy as a whole were small fry, a collection of six minor solar
systems, and they never ventured too far into the conflicts between
the real lords of space. But sometimes even such small
organizations had moments when their allegiance or enmity could tip
the scales of an uneasy balance of power. Suk Sark was only one of
the “powers” who, for one reason or another, made
Korwar their residence, apart from their official headquarters.
“You have a family in the Dipple?” Kyger’s
abrupt question broke Troy’s line of thought.
“No, Merchant.”
“Would you take contract, for a limit of time?”
“With you, Merchant?”
“With me. Zul will be of little use for a while. I will
need an extra pair of hands in his place. Who knows?” Kyger
glanced at him and then away. “It may lead to something
better, Dippleman.”
“I will take contract, Merchant.” Troy schooled his
voice, hoping his elation was not too apparent. Somehow he did not
wish this spacer-turned-merchant to know just how much that offer
meant to him.
They lifted from the square of the crash and took the
straightest line to the court at the rear of the shop. Troy was
told to load the two crates on a runner and put them in the
storeroom. Kyger himself remained by the curtained cage once he had
returned the accommodation flitter on auto-control to the rental
station. So far he made no move to open the cage, and Troy’s
desire to see what was inside grew.
“Shall I take this also, Merchant?” Troy asked as he
returned and brought the runner to a halt beside the cage.
Kyger turned on him once more the searching stare with which he
had measured him at their first meeting that morning. Then the shop
owner pulled at some hidden fastening. The padded curtains fell
away and Troy looked into a very well-appointed traveling box. The
flooring, sides, and roof were padded with plastafoam, a precaution
against the pressure of ship acceleration, and there were two inset
feeding and watering niches. But the occupants were close to the
mesh front, sitting on their haunches, their front paws placed
neatly together, the tips of their tails folded over those
paws.
One was black, a black so deep as to have, in the sunlight, a
bluish tinge—or perhaps that was a reflection from its
companion’s coat, for the second and slightly smaller animal
was blue—or parts of its close, thick fur coat held that
shade, muting into a gray that was very dark on head, legs, and
tail. And the four eyes of the pair, regarding both men
impartially, were as vividly blue-green as aquamarines.
“Terran,” Kyger announced with a note of pride plain
in his voice. “Terran cats!”