"So am I," Chaylaifa replied. "I had to appear angry for the benefit of our agents here, but I did not expect such a pleasant ... respite ... on the first day of the talks."
"A most welcome respite. It"s such an exciting trip, isn"t it?"
"Are you glad I brought you, girl?"
"Of course, Chaylaifa! Ever so glad!"
The sha smiled. "Now just how glad might that be?"
Fehlorah smiled in a way far beyond her years. "Very glad, my sha. Has the chosha left anything for me?"
Chaylaifa laughed softly. "You know she has, little witch,"
he said. He sighed in mock exasperation. "How can such a one, small as you, destroy me again and again, time after time, endlessly? You"ll kill me yet, girl."
"/ kill youT Fehlorah"s paw began making its own, slow way down Chaylaifa"s ample body, in the way she had so re- cently learned that he liked the most. "More likely it will be the other way "round; I"ll be crushed under you-or between the both of you. A sad yet wonderful fate indeed."
"You"re much too spry to be caught like that, Fehtorah."
He ran the tips of his powerful claws along the stripe of gray fur covering her spine, and the thaka"thott shivered as her im- mature tail began twitching.
"You like that," he said in a low voice.
"Very much," she breathed. "And you?"
"What you"ve begun doing down there feels very good, my little love."
"Now, just how good might that be?" she asked him, laughing, as Chaylaifa"s breath began to hiss softly back and forth through his teeth.
A few moments later the bathroom door opened, throwing a bright golden light into the room. Nasu stood in it, a silhou- ette.
RHUUM SERVICE 89.
"Come back to bed, Nasu," Chaylaifa called. "We"ve grown a bit impatient for you here-as you might be able to tell."
"Yes," Fehlorah said, reaching out a dainty paw. "Come to us, Nasu. Be with us."
"I ... I think I might like to retire for the evening," Nasu said, knowing what was to come; she had no wish to repeat the vileness of it. "It has been a tiring day. I will sleep in the room a.s.signed to me-"
"Nonsense," said the sha, his tone suddenly harsh. "Come to bed, here and now. And turn out that d.a.m.ned light; the one in here is quite enough."
"Chaylaifa, I-"
He looked at her, his eyes holding her completely. After a moment, Nasu looked away and nodded- "Excellent." As Nasu seated herself at the foot of the bed, Chaylaifa reached behind him and retrieved a small box from the nightstand.
"What"s that?" asked Fehlorah.
"It is a Terran delicacy, love. They are called ritzcrackas, and I am a.s.sured that they are safe for us. Expensive, as is ev- erything else aboard this hotel, but I thought we might try them. They are something ... different." He grinned widely, showing his fangs. "After all, we have to fortify ourselves for the rigors ahead! HaT"1 Fehlorah giggled and, reaching over the sha, took a ritzcracka for herself and pa.s.sed another to Nasu. The chosha ate it, chewing slowly. Fehlorah saw her reluctance and gig- gled again as she turned to embrace Chaylaifa.
After a short while Nasu joined with them, her unwilling- ness quickly evaporating as their shared scent rose, engulfing her, trapping her.
The tastefully small bra.s.s sign on the door of the suite read: JACOBS ft BURKE. LTD.
FACILITATORS.
The reception area had been furnished by a Centaurian de- signer known for her terribly trendy and effectively audacious 90 Brad Ferguson approach to everything she did. Wallpaper and furnishings had been designed to intrigue a wide variety of senses, and fabrics had been chosen to appeal as broadly as possible to those to whom touch and smell were as sound and light. To prove that price had been no object, there was an original Sunday-edition full-color Calvin and Hobbes hanging over the faux fireplace, which itself radiated in a variety of spectra.
The look and feel of the room had instantly established the credibility of Jacobs and Burke aboard Hotel Andromeda, and that credibility had been the key to everything.
The other half of the suite was hidden behind a door con- cealed in the far wall of the reception area. Between them, the partners called it the Dark Side, and it looked as if it had been decorated by trolls. The Dark Side was the soundproofed and spy-proofed office where Jacobs and Burke actually did their work, and no one else ever got in there. The partners allowed the hotel"s cleaning robots into the Dark Side only once every six months or so. Even at that, they never let the robots do very much, frantic that something important, some significant sc.r.a.p of paper, might be s.n.a.t.c.hed up and thrown away. The partners were also terrible pack rats. For example, one of the Terran calendars on the wall was four years out of date, but the partners left it hanging there because it would be good again in only another seven.
Jonathan Lee Jacobs was sitting at his desk in the Dark Side, his head in his hands. "I guess what I don"t appreciate the most," he complained, "is that this c.r.a.p always gets sprung on us at the last possible G.o.dd.a.m.n minute."
His partner had not really heard him. Trudy Burke was ly- ing back in her reclining chair. Her eyes were closed. She was very busy.
Jacobs grabbed his most abused pencil of the day and began tapping a rapid tattoo on the gla.s.s surface of his desk. "First I get absolutely no notice that Bannister Investments is exercising its option with us, this after we don"t hear from those bloodsuck- ers for years, so we have to handle the Rhuum trade reps for them as long as they"re aboard Andromeda. So, fine. We say h.e.l.lo and how are you, we get Amba.s.sador Chaylaifa and his entourage settled, all twenty-three of the useless b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, we make sure the hotel is treating everybody right, all that jazz. We even gel a break on the logistics-no arrival ceremonies and no RHUUM SERVICE 91.
dinners, thank G.o.d; neither side wants "em. Good enough. Now it turns out that the Bloxx rep is going to be late because, hot pilot he, he"s blown a driver. Not a big deal, but somehow this idiot Chaylaifa thinks it"s our fault! Before I can even talk to him about it, though, he stalks off to his room with his wife and kid in tow. This is supposed to be an easy contract? Isn"t that what Bannister said?" He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "d.a.m.n.
These micro-contacts are killing me."
His partner still said nothing.
Jacobs cleared his throat and tried again. "I hear they can rot your corneas."
Trudy remained quiet.
"Well?" Jacobs demanded as his pencil finally broke. He brushed the two halves onto the floor.
" "Well" what?" Trudy answered. Her tone was lazy, dis- tracted. "Do you want something, Jonny Lee? I"m trying-"
"I know, I know. I"m bothering you." Jacobs waved a hand.
"Sony. Find out anything yet?"
"Come on in, and I"ll show you what I"ve isolated so far."
"All right, but let"s not take too long. We"ve got things to do." Jacobs ordered his own chair to recline and, still tense but reasonably comfortable, he accessed the neural network.
The office was suddenly replaced by a garden. It was a dif- ferent garden, though, smaller and prettier than Trudy"s usual interface metaphor. There was a short picket fence around the plot, and from somewhere not far off came the sounds of chil- dren at play; Jacobs could also hear birds. Turning around, he saw a small, neat, white house. His view of anything farther away was blocked by tall hedges ringing the property.
"This is very nice," Jacobs said, and he meant it. "Some- one"s backyard, right?"
"My grandmother"s, as a matter of fact," Trudy said. "I"ve been working on it for a while. Do you really like it?"
Jacobs looked up at the clear blue sky. "Very much. Where are we?"
"Pennsylvania-the nice part. I spent a lot of time here af- ter Mother and Daddy split up." Trudy gestured around her.
"Grandmother"s garden was my favorite place of all, espe- cially at this time of year, when I"d help her get it into shape after the winter; it"s mid-April here now, in case you couldn"t 92 Brad Ferguson tell from the flowers. The other gardens I wrote were just practice; I wanted to get this one right."
Jacobs looked around. "I think you did. It"s beautiful. I wish I"d met your grandma. Is she here?"
"Oh, G.o.d, no, Jonny Lee"" Trudy said, disconcerted. "I couldn"t write her No, we"re the only ones here-and we ought to get down to business. You were in a mad rush, re- member?"
"I guess I was. Hey, looky here." Jacobs bent and picked up an insect. He held it lightly between his fingers and grinned. "Hey, honey, your program"s got a-"
"Don"t you dare say it."
"Shoot. All right, I won"t." He stooped to let the thing drop safely to the ground and watched as it skittered away. "What have you got for me?"
Trudy bent quickly and picked a daffodil. "First of all, here"s the summary of the deal Bannister says Amba.s.sador Chaylaifa wants to strike with the Bloxx," she said, handing him the flower. "The wish list has pharmaceuticals, minerals, and other standard stuff on it; Bannister"s given us the quan- t.i.ties desired and what Chaylaifa intends to offer for them in goods and credits standard. Chaylaifa runs the biggest import trust in the Rhuum Organization, so this deal could mean bil- lions of creds stan to him personally. Bannister Investments is brokering it, so they get the usual huge cut."
"All right," Jacobs said, sniffing at the flower. As he did, his mind filled with the details of what he needed to know.
"Seems to pa.s.s the smell test. The Rhuum bids are low, but that"s why traders get together and haggle. Okay, no problem so far. Now, what have we got on the clients?"
Trudy picked another flower-a hyacinth this time. "First of all, here"s what the neural net has on the Rhuum," she said.
"It"s a condensation of a survey report done about fifty years back."
"A little history, and that"s it," Jacobs said, sniffing again.
"Pretty d.a.m.ned condensed, if you ask me."
"There"s not much in the extended survey report, either,"
Trudy said. She picked a perfect tomato from a nearby vine and handed it to Jacobs.
"This is out of season, isn"t it?" he asked.
"I needed an a.n.a.logue you might be able to handle, 0 ye RHUUM SERVICE 93.
of common tastes. Anyway, the report is largely technical; you probably won"t want to eat alt of it."
"We"ll see about that." Jacobs bit into the tomato, and juice dribbled down his chin. Suddenly, his eyes bulged. "Ugh m.u.f.f mughh," he said.
"Problem?" Trudy asked sweetly.
"Gluph fwu." Working hard, Jacobs chewed slowly and men more slowly stilt before giving up. It was like chewing lead. Turning aside politely, he spit into a convenient bush.
"Warned you," Trudy said. "I didn"t get much further into it than that myself."
"We"ll hire an expert to come up with a summary," Jacobs said. "Anything else?"
"That"s it. There"s considerably more material on the Bloxx, though." Trudy handed Jacobs a big bowl of salad makings and a pair of wooden forks. "Here. You toss, I"ll serve."
"I wish you"d find another metaphor," Jacobs said. "I hate salad." He began to mix the contents of the bowl.
Trudy suddenly looked distant.
Jacobs knew that look. "What is it?" he asked.
"You"re going to hate this, too," Trudy replied. "The Bloxx fixed that busted driver of his. He"ll be here in about an hour."
"Oh," Jacobs said. "We"d better get out of here; I still have to shave. d.a.m.n, I hate being pushed on things like this."
Jacobs and Trudy waited in the reception bay for the arrival of the Bloxx craft. It dropped out of hypers.p.a.ce on schedule and achieved rendezvous without incident. Being relatively small, the ship made its own way into the parking bay as dis- appointed robot tugs scuttled out of the way. Robot valets, their headlights blinking on and off in a pattern of welcome, quickly came into position, b.u.mping into each other in their programmed eagerness.
"I love watching this," Trudy said. "The "bots are so cute."
"Umph. My tie knotted okay?"
"For the twelfth time, yes- Oops-green light. That was fast."
The airlock to the parking bay slid open, and there stood a 94 Brad Ferguson tall, muscled man with the reddest hair Jacobs and Trudy had ever seen.
"Sir Kethrommon?" Jacobs asked, as if mere could be any doubt. "Do you speak trader talk?"
"That I am and that I do," he said, nodding. "You the con- tacts Bannister was talking about?"
"Yes, m"lord, we are. I"m Jonathan Lee Jacobs, and this is my partner Trudy Burke. As you"ve surmised, we represent Bannister Investments-"
"Bunch of crooks, them. Hope you"re not the same. If you"re Terrans, then let"s all speak Anglish; I know it pretty good. Hi, Trudy."
"h.e.l.lo, m"lord amba.s.sador. Pleased to meet you."
"M"lord?" Jacobs asked. "Is there really no one else in your party?"
"n.o.body else, pal. I"m it."
"Uh, you are? I mean to say, m"lord, that the Rhuum have sent a lead negotiator and twenty-three a.s.sistants."
"Yep," he rumbled. "So what? Don"t need others to deal with people from Rhuum or anywhere else. Been doing this kind of thing all my d.a.m.n life. I captain my own craft and chart my own course; King Bolo understands that. Helps that he"s my uncle, natch."
"But, m"lord, did I misunderstand? We were informed that your people have never before held talks with the Rhuum."
"That"s right. So? We have stuff they want. They"ll do a deal without too much trouble. King Bolo understands that, too. Hey, Trudy Burke, you tied down?"
"Excuse me, m"loro?"
"You committed to some guy?"
Jacobs cleared his throat. "Sir, Miss Burke is also my wife."
"That the same as mated, pal? I don"t know Terran ways much."
"Yes. Yes, it is. Miss Burke is my wife."