by Leslie Chase
She wondered if they could lie, say that it wasn't them. But the way the man spoke made it clear that he knew he had the right people, and pretending that he didn't would only make things worse. Besides, part of her wanted to know what this was about. So she nodded, bracing herself for his response.
Lilly wished that she had some way to defend herself. Her parents had tried to teach her to fight, but given her health she'd never had the stamina for it. Not that I'd stand a chance against this monster, she thought. The man was huge and his arms looked like they were going to burst free of his sleeves at any moment. Fighting him wouldn't get her anywhere; the best way to defend herself would be to run.
Even that would be pointless, of course. She'd be out of breath before she made it out of the diner. There was no escape from this, so she figured she might as well face it head-on. Nodding, she gripped her coffee cup tighter. If he did start a fight he'd win it, but he'd win with scalding-hot coffee splashed on his face.
He didn't move. Just glared at her for a second longer, an almost unbearable stretch of time. Then, finally, he nodded.
"You're getting yourself involved where you're not wanted," he said, quietly. His voice was disinterested, empty of emotion. "Both of you are. And if either of you come near those foreigners again, well, I'll come back and pay you another visit. You won't like that conversation. Understand?"
Lilly nodded again, her breathing tight. She felt a little light-headed — she'd never been threatened like that before. She didn't know what to do, what to say. Fortunately, her fear seemed to be all the answer that the man needed.
"If you were a guy, I'd give you some bruises to remember this by," he said conversationally, as though it were nothing at all. "Since you're a girl, though, do you think you can remember it without?"
This time she nodded vigorously. I really don't need to get hurt here.
That seemed to satisfy the thug. "Alright then. Don't you let me catch you around here again, and we'll all be happier."
He actually tipped his hat to her before turning away and walking off, looking as though nothing at all important had happened. Maybe that isn't anything to him, Lilly thought. Maybe a man like that delivers six threats before lunch every day.
Fingers trembling, she let go of her cup. However normal it might be for him, she had no experience of this kind of thing. And the experience wasn't one she wanted to relive.
But more importantly, it told her that there was something worth following up on. If someone wanted to warn her off, then there had to be a mystery worth solving!
To think Margaret thought it sounded like a conspiracy theory.
7
Jaranak
Jaranak didn't get much peace before they were interrupted again, this time by the knock they'd arranged with Captain Hennessey. With a shared sigh, the four aliens resumed their disguises and let him in. The Captain wasn't the kind of man to make a social call, if he was here he'd be bringing someone to meet them.
And so he was. Behind him were two more members of the audience. This time, though, the look in Hennessey's eyes warned Jaranak that this was a more serious visit than the ladies who'd accosted him. Good, he thought. That's why we need a local guide, after all, to be able to identify who's worth talking to amongst the humans.
"Come in," he said, looking the two men over. He recognized the man he'd identified as important and smiled, glad that he'd been right. Or at least, that Hennessey also thought the man was worth his time.
The man's bodyguards glared menacingly from the hallway, and Jaranak met their gazes steadily. They were big men, and armed. Jaranak wondered just how dangerous they were, but this wasn't the time to measure that. It was enough to know he was speaking with a human important enough to bring his own guards.
They stayed in the hall, though, while their two employers entered Jaranak's suite. Both men were well dressed, in suits that were obviously expensive even to Jaranak. One was older but still seemed strong and healthy. The other, younger, might be his son — they certainly looked enough alike.
"Greetings," Jaranak said, leaning a little on his accent. After nearly giving the game away with his vocabulary earlier, he didn't want to seem too good at English. "Forgive me, it has been a long day—"
"Christ, man, you came all the way to New York to meet me," he said, pushing into the room followed by his bodyguards. "Now you want to put me off? I don't think so. I'm Ambrose Cooper, and this is my son Michael."
There was an air of danger about him, and not just because he had armed men waiting outside. This wasn't a man to be trifled with, Jaranak could see that. He was reminded of the lords of his own world and shook his head. Half the joy of exploring the unknown reaches of the galaxy was in leaving people like this behind.
Michael Cooper smiled more genuinely than his father, but there was something weak in his expression. He lacked the power, the drive, of his father.
"We need them," Karnan reminded him in a whisper, and Jaranak nodded. It was true, wealthy human allies were what they needed, so he smiled.
"We were just about to eat dinner," he said to the human. "You would be welcome to join us?"
"Fuck no," Cooper said with passionate emphasis. "The food you get here is shit. I ate enough bad food while I was poor, thank you very much. Now that I can afford to eat well, I won't settle for less than the best."
Jaranak had to smile at that. To him, anything he found to eat in New York was an exotic delicacy, but he could appreciate a man who knew what he liked and wouldn't put up with less than the best.
"In that case, what can I do for you?"
"That's obvious, isn't it? I want your skymetal, " Cooper said, pulling out a handkerchief to dust a chair before sitting down. "The question is, what can I do for you? You've come a long way to be here, and you're selling your furs and such at quite a profit I understand. There must be something you want to buy with your new-found wealth."
Jaranak tried to measure the man sitting in his room, but he was frustratingly hard to read. On the one hand, he was smiling easily, but on the other, there was something about his eyes. Something that made Jaranak pause before trusting him.
Still, he was the only person they'd seen so far who seemed even slightly useful.
"We do have some needs, yes," he said with a smile. He tried not to let too much hope show in his eyes. "There is a metal, rare here perhaps, dull gray in color, which we call tragg. I do not know its English name, but we would pay well for it."
In fact, it was possible that there was no English word for tragg. Worse, the only sure way to describe it would be an instant giveaway that they weren't who they pretended to be. They could give the humans the element's atomic number, but none of them had come up with an even slightly plausible explanation of how they'd know it.
On the other hand, if they could get hold of it, they might be able to rig up a small nuclear reactor. That would give them the power they needed to bootstrap the transstar drive and restart the engine. Of course, they still wouldn't be able to take off until they could shut down the interference that had wrecked the engine last time. But one problem at a time.
Cooper's smile widened, almost like a hunting cat's. "I'm not sure what that would be, but I do know a man who would," he said. "A metal supplier who deals in damned near everything — and he's a good friend of mine. Of course, I'd prefer to know what you need it for."
His smile hardened and he leaned forward in the chair, looking around the room carefully as though he might spot some kind of clue. Jaranak frowned, hoping that there wasn't anything on display. Karnan had packed away the equipment, but Jaranak couldn't help feeling as though the jaws of a trap were closing around him.
He glanced up at the son, but Michael had a blank incurious look on his face and seemed to be taking none of this in at all. If he was part of any cunning scheme, Jaranak thought, he had to be the best actor this planet had produced.
"I can help you," Cooper said, quietly. "I can help you a great
deal, but I can do more for you if you trust me. The girl was right, back at your demonstration — your story doesn't hold together, not when you really look at it. The air of spectacle your magic tricks attract might hide it from most people, but not me."
Jaranak wanted to swear but restrained himself. No point in giving away more than he had to, and the man couldn't know much.
After a moment, Cooper laughed, a harsh and unpleasant noise. His son joined in immediately, though there was no sign that he'd gotten the joke, whatever it was.
"Don't worry," Cooper said. "I've no interest in causing you trouble. You have the secret of this skymetal, and I want it. The rest of the audience may have seen a fucking parlor trick, but I see a technology that will make me millions of dollars. So I'll help you with whatever you need, as long as I get the secret."
"Our need for the metal is religious—" Karnan said, only for Cooper to wave him off.
"Don't embarrass yourselves with explanations we both know aren't true. If you're not going to trust me, fuck it, I don't need to know. As long as I get what I want."
Jaranak thought about it. In principle it was a good deal, though a bit one sided — the technology to make the skymetal alloy was far beyond Earth's capabilities at the moment. It didn't matter how clever Cooper was, he wouldn't be able to manufacture enough of it to be more than a curiosity. Not without a lot more technology that Jaranak certainly wasn't going to give him.
But there was still that predatory glint in his eyes. Jaranak had the disconcerting feeling that Cooper felt he was getting the better of this deal. How, though? Jaranak couldn't see where the problem would come from. Was it simply that he thought he could fool them and pay them off with nothing of value?
The predatory intelligence in the human's eyes suggested that there was more to it than that, and they had to start somewhere. If he didn't take this offer, who could say when another would come along?
"All right," he said cautiously. "If you can put us in touch with someone who can help us get the metal we need, we'll show you how to make and use the skymetal."
"Capital," Cooper said, beaming and extending his hand. "We're all going to get fucking rich off this, friend. Tell you what, I'll set up a meeting with my metals guy tomorrow — Michael here can take you. I'll send a car."
"We've got our own," Jaranak said, shaking the offered hand and suppressing a shudder. The humans' road vehicles seemed hideously unsafe, like sitting on a tank of burning fuel, and after their first drive through the city Jaranak had insisted on hiring one of the safer cars. If he could avoid trusting his life to the internal combustion engine the humans were so fond of, he would.
Cooper's smile flickered and then he continued a little more testily. "Even better, then. Michael will pick you up and take you to lunch with my metallurgist friend. And there's my metalworker, too, he can make any damned thing you need once you have the metal. I'll set up a meeting with him tomorrow as well, and we can get things started."
It all sounded a little too good to be true, but they needed the help and getting it was the point of this whole charade. Jaranak didn't trust Cooper, not really, but there wasn't much else for it. They needed to move forward, quickly, if they were going to get their ship repaired before the deception fell apart around them.
"Agreed," he said. "We'll show you how to manufacture and use skymetal in exchange for your help. But we do have a pressing need for speed."
Cooper chuckled. "Of course. I don't know what you're hiding, friend, but it's fucking obvious that you're not who you say you are and that girl won't be the last to ask questions. Don't worry, though, I'll keep 'em off your back. Whatever your secret is, I don't want it to cause you any problems before I make my money."
With that, he pulled himself to his feet and walked to the door. At the threshold he turned back, meeting Jaranak's eyes and looking like he was judging him. Slowly, he nodded.
"I think we can do great things together."
"I don't trust him," Parvak said as soon as Cooper was out of the room. "He's up to something."
"Anyone who deals with us is going to be up to something," Orshar replied. His eyes hadn't left the door, as though he was expecting Cooper's bodyguards to come bursting through. "That's the nature of the business. We're going to have to accept that, and make the best of it."
He didn't sound as though he minded that, Jaranak thought. Orshar seemed to be enjoying himself, despite the tension. But he had a point — given that their bargaining position had to be based on lies, they could hardly expect better of their human business partners.
"Orshar is right," he said. "We have to work with Cooper. That doesn't mean we trust him, though."
"Going to the meeting will be risky," Karnan said. "Especially if one of us goes alone."
Jaranak pursed his lips. One of the problems of there only being four of them was having the numbers. They had to keep their ship safe, the equipment they'd brought with them, and themselves. It wasn't easy.
"We stick together," he decided. "The scanner has to stay here and keep running. The ship is secure. But we can't afford for any of us to be taken by surprise alone, so we'll all go to this meeting."
The others nodded reluctantly. "I don't like leaving the scanner on its own," Parvak said. "What if something happens to it? Then we'll lose all our work on tracking down the Skystorm and the interference."
Karnan looked torn, but he shook his head. "There just aren't enough of us to have someone sitting around while it does its work," he said. "The scan will take days to complete and we have too much else to do. Getting the parts, making repairs to the ship, and talking to the humans. It's all going to take time and attention."
He spread his hands. "No one wants to find the Skystorm more than I do, but sitting here staring at the scanner won't help it happen. And if this is some kind of trap or ambush, we're better off all being there to fight our way clear of it. We can rig one of the communicators to stay in touch with the scanner: it'll alert us if anyone messes with it."
The others nodded glumly, accepting that with visible reluctance. Jaranak was glad of Karnan's support. Their time amongst the humans was wearing on the whole crew. The last thing they needed was to fight amongst themselves.
Orshar alone amongst them looked happy. Jaranak saw his hands opening and closing unconsciously, and knew he was thinking of the hunt. Of course he'd be happy for me to walk into an ambush. That would give him the chance to do the killing he's wanted since we arrived. At least this time, though, his violent urges might be well-placed.
"Okay, it's agreed," Jaranak said, shaking off his doubts. "Tomorrow we'll see if we can get the supplies we need. Then we're half-way home."
That was perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but it was still a cheerful thought. The sooner he could say goodbye to this damned planet and get back into space, the better.
8
Lilly
"This is ridiculous," Margaret complained as she straightened the cap on Lilly's uniform. Lilly had to admit that her friend had a point. Dressing up as a maid and sneaking into the prince's room might not be the smartest plan imaginable, but everything else they'd thought of had been worse. After a night's sleep, they still didn't have a better idea.
Perhaps it would be more sensible to leave the mystery alone, but neither of them were willing to do that now. Not after someone was threatening them to keep them away — neither Margaret nor Lilly were the kind of people to be so easily frightened off. But neither did they want to be spotted by the thugs, so a disguise was called for.
Though now that she was in the uniform, Lilly was starting to doubt the wisdom of this idea. It was, however, too late to back out now. They'd bribed one of the maids for a uniform, they'd waited for the prince and his men to leave the hotel, and Lilly had gotten dressed up to try the ruse. Stopping at this point would be worse than carrying on.
"You aren't the one going up there," she pointed out. "I'm the one taking the risk."
"That's
what I mean!" Margaret stepped back, looking at Lilly critically, and sighed. "You'll do, I guess. But it should be me doing the sneaking around. At least I can run away if I'm spotted — and they know to look for you!"
Lilly just grinned. "Margaret, you can run faster than me. That doesn't mean you can outdistance one of those thugs if it comes to it, does it? And how would I feel if my craziness got you into trouble?"
"About the same way I'd feel if I don't stop it from getting you into trouble," Margaret shot back. Then she sighed again. "But, sure, you're more likely to find something useful than I am. I don't know the first thing about what they might be hiding. So you go, and I'll wait here and worry. If I see them coming back, I'll try and warn you."
Lilly hugged her friend again for luck. "I won't let anything happen, don't worry. I'll be fine, and we'll be home in no time."
"Remember the time you said that, and ended up trapped in your father's attic for half a day waiting for a chance to sneak out?" Margaret said, smiling nervously. "I hope you have better luck today."
Grinning, Lilly set out. The first part of the plan was easy enough; no one really looked at a maid. As long as she kept walking like she belonged here, no one was going to stop her.
Quickly making her way up the back stairs of the hotel, she climbed to the third floor and made her way to Jaranak's suite. That was where the plan hit its first snag.
The door was flanked by a couple of thugs in cheap suits, looking bored and restless. What the hell are they doing here? she wondered. It was too late to turn back now, not without looking more suspicious anyway, so she kept walking. The men looked up at her, one smiling almost charmingly and nudging the other. Both looked distressingly like the man who'd threatened Lilly and Margaret the day before.
