A Hop, Skip and a Jump (Family Law Book 4)

by Mackey Chandler

  "Yes. They call them condominiums," Hawking informed her. "That would be perfect. The development plans heavily favor them and we have some very nice large buildings right downtown. They're quite safe and close to all the best events and services. Some have decent restaurants and shops right inside if you want to avoid the hassle of going out. Many find a city view as interesting as a natural landscape. I live in one myself. The better ones have the top floors made into apartments that cover full floors and have very secure entry from a private elevator and their own air car pads."

  "Wow, if you don't want to work for me when you retire you should sell real estate," Lee said. "That was a very persuasive pitch."

  "I'll try to take that as a compliment," Hawking said.

  "I believe that is regarded as beneath the station of a retired Admiral," Gordon told Lee.

  "I'm sorry, I didn't grow up in a human society and all these fine social points go right over my head sometimes. I don't know what has more or less status, as long as it's an honest living."

  "Indeed," Hawking agreed."It can be done that way too, I suppose."

  "So do we go look at apartments tomorrow?" Lee asked.

  "If I may be so bold, I can have someone send a few to look at on com tonight, and that will cut down on actually visiting them physically tomorrow. With a little luck you can find something and make your intent to buy it public before lunch," Hawking suggested. "That might allow it to be mentioned on Bode Benjamin's early show."

  "Ah. . . I've got it now. Send them on over," Lee invited. "Do you happen to know if any have a garden?"

  "Gardens, in a condo?" Hawking asked, blinking in dismay.

  "That must be uncommon," Lee decided from his reaction. "We stayed in a nice apartment suite on the Moon, Earth's Moon that is, and it had a lovely garden off the great room. Decorative garden, that is not vegetables, or a Koi pond might be nice."

  "Indoors?" Hawking inquired, still incredulous.

  "Of course, on the Moon, Luna, it had to be inside. It was in private spaces too, not out in public spaces like a park."

  "I've never heard of such a thing, but who knows? Ask the agent," he suggested.

  * * *

  Lee asked the realtor about gardens. She was short, rather full framed compared to most of the Fargone population, with short curly hair and spex that oddly had a strap across the back of her head. What purpose did that serve? Lee could see now she probably had Life Extension work done. She was starting to be able to recognize that in people.

  "Of course dear, it has a lovely terrace that doubles as an air car pad. There are already planters with rather nice palms and some native plants by the benches. You could even arrange some more outside the windows along one side of the penthouse. I think that would be lovely to do on the side that has the lesser view of the city lights. You have to pick them with some care so they can withstand the jet-wash from landing and taking off right next to them. You also need some sort of ground cover so the dirt doesn't blow out of the pots." The Realtor held a finger up to give her a moment to deal with flying.

  "B-13267 Dropping off net. Landing point in sight and going manual." Blessing said, punching the controls to make it happen. She didn't ask.

  "I'll take us around so you can see the place," Blessing Evens said, slamming the stubby control stick at the end of her armrest all the way against the left stops, and threw the air car into a descending bank that had them close to vertical and pressed in their seats hard.

  The building flashed by close, very close as they went around, but Lee was too busy reviewing her life before it ended to really appreciate the view.

  Blessing abruptly rolled flat, and pulled up in a roller coaster arch, so she could came down at the landing pad barely off the vertical. Lee was sure they'd crash into it but the last fifty meters or so the engine pods all roared and she only thought she was pressed into her seat before. The last few seconds must have topped six Gs.

  "If I let them land us on auto they take forever, and straight in so you wouldn't get to see the building," Blessing explained loudly over the engine sound. The amazing thing was it barely compressed the landing gear on contact and she cut the power so smoothly it just sprang back a few centimeters and didn't bounce at all.

  In the sudden silence, she looked at Lee oddly.

  "I hope that didn't bother you dear. I understand you two fly spaceships and jump to other stars. My goodness, that would scare me worse than any old air car."

  Lee smiled, like it hurt her face to force it.

  "The thing about it," Gordon said from the back seats, speaking for both of them, "is we go very fast, but the things we are going between are so far away they are just dots in our sky. Even when we come up on a big planet it grows slowly until it fills much of the sky."

  "Oh. . . I never thought about it that way," Blessing admitted. "I have learned to not go inverted with clients in the car. It seems to upset them even if the G forces are positive to keep their butt nailed in the seat."

  Well, her flying style explained the head strap for the lady's spex. "I'm curious," Lee said, forcing her fingers to unlock from the grab-bar in the dash. "What did you do before you started selling real estate?"

  "Oh, I got my fifty years in the military to get a retirement. I went in right out of school. The recruiters are always looking for short hypertensive females, and the fact I had good grades and was on the gymnastics team was just icing on the cake."

  "Yes, but what did you do?" Lee insisted.

  "Oh, I flew cargo lifters at first, and then they took some of us short landers and sent us to school to fly close support platforms for the infantry. Nobody has ever messed with Fargone though. I spend my entire service in peacetime."

  "I suspect that is entirely others' good fortune," Gordon said from the rear. "So, you learned to fly low and fast." He really didn't frame it as a question after her demonstration.

  "Sure, and you are a sweet talker, but we had some nice machines," Blessing said, "Not like this slug. My instructor impressed two things on me the first day. He said when you have to approach across your own forces it's their job to keep their heads down, and if you come back with all the paint on your bottom you aren't trying hard enough. It was fun, but even with Life Extension it's a young person's game. You could still do it," she said, appraising Lee.

  "I'm in love with star ships," Lee informed her firmly.

  Blessing reached over and patted her knee. "It takes all kinds," she said pleasantly.

  Gordon muttered something in the rear, but it wasn't really audible.

  Chapter 5

  The condo seemed plain, and Blessing apologized for that several times. She explained it was very recently vacant and the service that brought in furniture and art and a few odds and ends sitting around to make it look lived in and appealing hadn't got to it yet.

  Lee in turn explained it looked fine to them, closer to their normal than cluttered grounder ways of living. Spacers put everything away that's not bolted down, and have nothing loose sitting around, to become projectiles in the event of sudden maneuvers. It was now a cultural habit even in structures like habitats that could never experience much acceleration.

  After walking through, Lee stood looking out over the city. There was a river a couple kilometers away with nothing blocking the view. The river was big enough to have large boats on it, and there were wharves projecting out along the shore. Today there was a haze of high cloud cover, so there was no direct sunlight, but not so heavy it was gray.

  "It's quite spectacular at night with all the city lights, and even a bit prettier than this in the day, when it isn't cloudy like this," Blessing said.

  Lee just nodded politely and didn't say anything. Gordon had wandered off and she could see him out one window. He seemed to be going around the entire terrace looking over the edge.

  "OK, you don't like it," Blessing said. It wasn't that hard to figure out. "You don't have to tell me why, but it's really not going to insult me. It'
s not my personal property, I'm just selling it. But if you don't tell me what the problem is I may try to show you another place that has the same defect, and waste everybody's time and patience."

  "There's nowhere to have live-in help," Lee explained. "It doesn't look like I could remodel and make room for them either. I'm used to tiny cabins in ships, but I doubt a caretaker couple used to planetary living would accept the sort of cramped quarters I'm used to. That's about all you could fit in here. It's a nice apartment and a very nice city. I'm told it is a lovely planet a lot of places, but it's still a planet. I'm a spacer and I don't intend to settle down on any planet. I'll be gone for long periods and I can't see leaving it empty and unsecured. It needs to have somebody occupying it. That doesn't mean I want somebody sleeping in my bed and actually living here. Then where would they go the times I do come back? I want caretakers to see it isn't broken into to set a trap for me, or something busts and goes unreported for days."

  "Oh . . ." Blessing made a little face. "Very few Fargoers have that sort of help. The cost of labor is extremely high. We've been so selective in only allowing immigrants with specialized skills and worthwhile degrees that there are very few people who will do menial work."

  "I don't want menials," Lee explained. "I want security professionals, competent people who can make decisions on the fly, who will make sure nobody bugs the place or sets up unpleasant surprises for my return. The sort of people who can guard and escort me when I'm in town too.

  "If you mean somebody to keep things stocked and ready like bedding, towels, and the pantry, or do maintenance, they can hire that out. I won't be here often enough to need that sort of service all the time, and I wouldn't expect my security people to do that sort of work themselves. When I'm not in residence I won't be getting it dirty. It seems like a couple high-end bots can keep up with sweeping the carpet and dusting surfaces. I won't have a bunch of bric-a-brac sitting around a non-AI bot might have trouble working around."

  "You can afford to keep a high end security team in place for months at a time while you go off on these trips?" Blessing asked. The idea clearly shocked her. "Most folks who have that kind of security take it along with them when they travel."

  "Admiral Hawking sent us to you. Did he by any chance go into any detail about our financial situation?" Lee asked.

  "He did sternly order me not to insult you by asking for evidence you could afford the place. I don't consider it an insult. It's just the way business is done. When I started in this business, working under a leader, she'd have fired me for showing a property to anyone without prequalifying them. If anybody else but the Admiral had asked me to do that I'd have refused. I have a lot of respect for him because of his service."

  "I can see the problem," Lee admitted. "It's is a local cultural thing. I didn't know how business is done on Fargone. What would qualify me to your satisfaction, so we can dismiss it as a concern?"

  "Usually a third-party statement of income or a statement showing bank balances or reliable investments from a brokerage house," Blessing said.

  Lee considered that thoughtfully, and took out her com pad thumbing it for voice command. "Pad, please display an approximate total to the close of business yesterday for my deposits from the Claims Commission to my accounts Ceres, and deposits to accounts with The Bank of Derfhome, including accounts they maintain dispersed off world."

  "Would you like that in a list of the currencies of deposit, approximate exchange to one currency, or in grams of precious metals?" the little machine asked.

  "A total in dollars Ceres will do," Lee instructed it, then got security conscious. She didn't really know this condo was clean and nobody knew they were coming here, so she added, "Display to screen only, and set view to narrow."

  Lee stood looking at the screen, and Blessing was surprised it didn't have an immediate answer. That meant the problem was complex and it had to inquire of many data bases and probably buy recent data dumps off incoming star ships. It was almost half a minute before it was compiled and Lee turned the screen to let her read it.

  Blessing was an old warrior and unflappable, but her eyes got big. They tracked across the number twice, double checking the number of digits despite their separation with underscores instead of commas which made them very easy to read.

  "That's billions of dollars Ceres?" she asked in a small voice.

  "That's cash on hand, plus or minus two percent," Lee reminded her. It was too late to ask Blessing not to say anything out loud in case there were bugs. But that was general enough it wasn't anything that couldn't be figured out from public sources.

  "Some reports take weeks to trickle in. Would you like to see some estimated income figures, or have it certified and signed by my accountants? I have some real property I can pledge as collateral, and a few starships I own outright or in shares, but that sort of thing isn't terribly liquid."

  "I don't think that's necessary," Blessing allowed. She recovered from her shock quickly however, and got a thoughtful look.

  "You could easily develop your own building, retain the penthouse and top two floors, and make enough selling off the lower floors to pay for your own property."

  "By this afternoon?" Lee asked

  "Well, no. What's the rush?" Blessing asked."Are you leaving right away?"

  "Soon, but despite wanting to have a closer relationship with Fargone and do more business here we have a more immediate goal. We're trying to get citizenship, and trying to buy property is just one more pressure point to achieve that. Admiral Hawking assured us that the business community wants the door opened to those willing to spend money," Lee said.

  "He's got that right," Blessing agreed. "If they kill my sale to you I'll call up my district representative, who I know by name, and yell at him."

  "We've been on the Bode Benjamin show to try to get public opinion on our side and we hoped to make an offer on a place so he could mention it in a follow up on his early show," Lee revealed. "Do you ever watch Bode? Did you see us on his show by any chance?"

  "Honey, I'm too busy out hustling for a living to sit around the pool sipping Mimosas, and watching video in the afternoon. Besides, he kind of creeps me out. He always has this crazed look like he's on some kind of speed."

  "Yeah, well it isn't something he puts on for the camera," Lee told her. "He's just the same, if not worse, talking to him off camera. He's always on, and it is kind of overwhelming."

  "Half the population seems to think the sun won't come up in the morning without his help to schedule it, so you got the right guy to push your cause," Blessing admitted. "This all puts a different light on things. I see a possible solution if you don't mind spending a little more of all that money."

  "That's what it's for," Lee encouraged her.

  "There's a pretty regular turnover of units on the lower floors. Buy this for yourself and get a smaller condo below for your staff," Blessing suggested.

  "And what if nothing comes open by the time I need to hire people?" Lee worried.

  "Most folks are a lot more sensitive to price than you," Blessing said. "If you offer more than market price there's bound to be somebody in the building who'll grab the opportunity to turn a profit. In fact, you might just research which of the units you'd care to own and target them with your offers directly. That will take a little more time. This unit is held by my company for sale. We already paid off the owner and hold title, so as their agent I can give you possession today. Then we can search for another unit for your live-in help. With a little luck there'll be one with a wall against your elevator shaft, and they can add an entry in their unit, and have a direct lift between properties."

  "I had no idea how that worked. Your experience is proving valuable," Lee said.

  "Well, it hasn't yet," Blessing admitted. "But I'm confident it can be done that way."

  "I'm convinced too. Let's do this," Lee said.

  "You don't want to look at any more properties this morning?" Blessing asked.

>   "Blessing, I don't know real estate, but I do know once the customer says OK to stop selling. All you can do is kill the deal you just made."

  Blessing just laughed, but she didn't argue either.

  "Where's Blessing?" Gordon asked Lee, when he found her staring out the window.

  "She's in the car printing out sales papers. Fargone has some old fashioned rules about selling real property. I just wanted to swipe my pay port past hers and she looked horrified. She said they will want a wet ink signature. I'm glad I decided to bring my Bank of Derfhome hanko along. She'll take that without going to find witnesses to a manual signing."

  Lee waved a hand at the city out the window. "Do you have any idea how many planets named their first city Landing?"

  "You should ask the computer, not me," Gordon said. "I can think of four, two of which don't even have air we can breathe, but if you look on the official charts and their history books this one is First Landing. I've just never heard anybody say the long form," Gordon said. "Just like a lot folks just say the sun for their local star if they can walk around under it like Earth."

  "Yeah, Dad did that on Providence," Lee remembered. "Given their odd customs with names it's a wonder it isn't Glorious Landing or Dutiful Landing."

  Out on the aircar pad Blessing was exiting her vehicle with a big wad of printouts in her hands and looking happy. "Here we go finally," Lee said, nodding at the approaching agent.

  "I'd suggest you just go with the flow with Grounders and their strange ideas," Gordon said. "If she wants to cut a goose quill pen and write it on sheepskin, smile and humor her. We're not here to change their customs and society," Gordon said.

  "Yet," Lee muttered under her breath.

  * * *

  After a long tirade of complaints, and personal invective, Golden Yberra lifted his nose haughtily and told Admiral Hawking, "I intensely dislike you attempting to apply this kind of political pressure to my office."