by Moulton, CD
"Oh, I see!" Kit replied. "Yes, I have access to any form of weaponry, but I only mentioned it in listing products at the desk. I didn't think your people have any need of weaponry out here. It's a very peaceful place it seems to me."
"We do not directly need weapons, but we have friends who are not so fortunate," it replied. "If your weapons are of certain types I refer you to another who knows about such things. If they are merely police small arms I deal with the subject."
"I have the larger military weapons, mainly," Kit said. "Shields. Phase shifters. Laser cannons. Disruptor beams. Big stuff. It's major military hardware, not civil police weapons."
"I will give you an address and an appointment with Jorpt," it replied. "You will be contacted about the other things should we have use for any of it.
"I am to ask if you plan to buy anything?"
"Yes," Kit said. "I plan to move cargo in both directions. I was planning to ask information about a list of companies that deal in exportable items."
"There are no companies here, but information will give you a list of those persons to contact. Here is Jorpt's address. Would this evening at nightmeal be convenient?"
Kit took the address and thanked the Rrnslth, went to the information desk to get a list of exports and contacts, then got into the car and punched for the hotel.
Tonight at nightmeal! Jorpt was most definitely NOT a Rrnslth name!
*
Tab went to the information center, found the method of moving about the city and where the best hotels for Bentans were, though he was immediately assured that the Rrnslth weren't in any way interested in baubles or luxury items.
Tab said he may be able to tranship from Glrvcch to the people in the arm who did want luxuries. He was referred to N-Out-N Industries, who were the only transhippers on the planet at the time. T8C6.
He punched T8 on the car and sat back.
Immin females wanted all the more barbaric trappings of power and that meant jewels and special rare animal pelts and such, all of which TR could produce in good quantity and in little time. It had already produced a nice tray of blood diamonds and burgundy rubies and opals and was building some of the finer pelts. They would be indistinguishable from the real thing.
Tab had an idea and instructed TR to add one little item to the pelts.
N-Out-N was operated by Bentans almost exclusively. They employed several Rrnslth for their special abilities. Tab gave the name Lipcz and was soon shown in to a Bentan called Morp, who talked awhile about generalities and about how business stunk out here. "There aren't any people who want the range of stuff we carry," he complained. "We can move all the cheap junk we can get in, but it's simply not worth the trouble to get it out here. There's a market for the really expensive garbage, but we can't afford to buy on chance. It leaves us in a lousy spot. Luckily, these people here buy and sell enough to keep us going and we have a couple of off-world contacts we do the major brokering for."
"We may be in luck then," Tab said. "Those people who like the expensive stuff might make us both a nice little profit. Could you move twelve perfect blood diamonds and some other really good stones? Nargreq hides, perfectly cured? Stuff like that?"
"We could move it, yes, but we couldn't take a chance on deposits," Morp answered. "They fail to pick up one item and we're over the line and broke. You're talking about primary deposits in the millions!"
"No deposits necessary," Tab replied. "If you can move the stuff in a short enough time I'll wait around. I'll sell it cheap. I don't want to take it back."
"Oh?" Morp asked.
"Let's say I don't have too huge an investment in it so I can sell for a price no one is likely to be able to better," Tab said dryly. "It would be a great pity if I have to cut the stones any smaller and the hides are, uh, identifiable, shall we say, by someone else who may feel he has an interest in them."
"If we were in any situation other than the one we're in I'd have Empire Police on your ass so fast you wouldn't know what hit you," Morp said smoothly. "We need a break. Twenty percent and we give you a for-cash buyer. We won't ask any questions and you won't volunteer anymore information. Fair enough?"
"I really don't care one way or another," Tab replied. "All sales cash does it for me."
Morp snapped on the com and said, "Zayz. Loud." They sat back to wait for less than two minutes. A male and female Bentan came into the room to be introduced. Loud, the male, presented him a standard contract which they filled out at twenty percent, then Morp and Loud left the room.
"They don't want to know who my contacts are or anything else about all of this," Zayz said. "I wouldn't deal any other way.
"What exactly do you have and what's your price?"
"Twelve two hundred ten MGS gemweight blood diamonds, perfect grade, twelve matched two hundred MGS gemweight burgundy rubies, ditto grade. I have one hundred forty four perfect Travittian Nargreq hides ditto grade.
"I want one million per diamond, four million for the twelve rubies and one million and a half for the hides. I'd like to make a single sale and be gone. The contract says you add commission to the price. That's still less than half the standard value."
"Seventeen point five million credits, plus a flat four," Zayz said. "I get overage above the twenty percent and I handle all cash and merchandise. I can't guarantee I can move it all – not at one sale, but I'll damned well try! If I can do this one this company will be financially safe for a few years, at least! I'd like to go to bed tonight knowing we would meet the salaries of our workers for the tenday, for a change!"
"That's good enough for me," Tab said. "How much time do you need?"
"I'll try to finalize in ... fifty hours," she said. "Speak to no one about any of this."
Tab nodded and gave her the address and comcode for himself at the hotel as well as the channel TR had set to use here so she could call him at the ship if necessary. He went to the hotel to wait.
If there were Immins here – and he was sure of it now. They would be the only ones who would be looking for these items – they would be put in a real bind unless they had a tremendous amount of cash stored with themselves from a hundred years ago. They wouldn't be able to resist Kit's weapon's deal and they wouldn't be able to resist these symbols of ostentation. Quite a lot would be learned in the next few hours about the strength of the Immin forces out here.
Tab went back to TR where he contacted T6 and Kit.
"How did they hide?" Kit asked. "I didn't get the references that Syntar and Leilanta mentioned at Plamaita."
"There was the chamber on Searcher," TR replied. "You know about that?"
"You mean they put a whole army in stasis?!" T6 asked. "Great colliding galaxies!"
"They use fusion reactors so it would be easy to maintain automatically," Tab explained. "A hundred years is nothing. To them, it would be like blinking. Put the whole ship and contents into the field on an asteroid near some explored system there wouldn't be any reason for anyone to go to again. What we have to know is if there was one ship or several of them. If there were two or more we can get them to fighting each other the same way we did before."
Kit hadn't directly been involved with any of the Immin wars, having not been built yet, but had all the information in the memory banks on T6.
They waited. Finally Tab got a comcall at the hotel to contact Zayz immediately.
"I have the cash," she informed him. "Bring the stuff off of your ship and deliver it to me at the company. Have it all loose. We're going to check every piece very carefully!"
"For tracers and such, I'll bet!" Tab said to TR. "Maybe I know a trick or two myself!"
* *
Kit put down the com and grinned. He was to meet with the same Bentan who met with him for nightmeal two days ago, Foest. There was a deposit ready for some very heavy weapons. The arms were to be delivered at a specific time to a small moon in a close uninhabited system and left there. The remainder of the cash would be delivered as soon as the arms were
unloaded, then the ship was to leave the system. If any tracers or detectors were found Kit could fastcom his last goodbyes to whoever might be interested. They would have a crew check every single item with detector scanners.
As there would be no delivery it didn't much matter. This had determined as much as it could. The object was to estimate the number of Immins through the number of weapons, matched to the psychology of the race.
There were four ships. The new-style shields were ordered for three full sized battle cruisers and for one smaller ship. That would be the command ship. The numbers of other arms were figured closely so there would be between two hundred and two hundred fifty of them. The things they didn't order showed they were fairly well supplied already.
Kit made up his mind and went to meet Foest.
"You hold the deposit," he suggested. "There'll be a delay of a couple of days in delivering the stuff. For two reasons: There's some kind of plague that attacks mammals of certain types or something on Trav ... on the world where I stored the stuff. Causes the skin to break out in blisters, then to rot and fall off after a few days and the person dies in horrible pain. That's one reason.
"The other is my carrier was called by Hospital to carry serum to fight the virus. I wish they had the sense to immunize everyone like they do us.... Well! The ship was almost at Hospital when the plague got started and was scheduled to go to Tra ... to the planet where the plague is anyhow so was the natural choice. I have that serum aboard my ship at all times, but not enough for all of that! It spreads like crazy! Trouble is, symptoms don't show up for a couple of days so one person can spread the stuff over several planets."
Kit knew what Tab had instructed TR to do to the furs. This might come in handy – and if the plan failed for any reason he could still come in with the weapons and they could continue from that angle. Now it was up to Tab.
*
Tab received the update from Kit as he carried the last of the furs to the car. He grinned and went to meet Zayz at N-Out-N to pick up the cash. It would be a matter of planting an idea – which Kit had done. There would be no need to trace or to follow the stuff to the Immins. The next load would be something that would be needed in too much of a hurry for them to worry about traces.
TR contacted Fleet and had five full battleships dispatched for help with a small containment action. Maybe Maita wouldn't be bothered with that. If it was exploring out there it wouldn't want to come back anyway and hadn't received any distress or aid message from anyone. The battleships would lay off a ways beyond possible detection and would wait for instructions. TR and T6 would be in constant communication with Fleet command and could have them in place in very short time.
Tab left the merchandise with Zayz and took the credit chits back to TR where he spoke with Kit for awhile. Now they would wait.
Two days later TR reported that it had worked. There was a fastcom information request that was automatically shuttled to TR and T6 through the empire system if it came from this area of space. Tab and Kit were linked and read the exchange.
~Request: >Information:>Hospital:>Virulent diseases section: mammals:
Message as follows:
Word of plague, skin blistering and rot, death, great pain. Mammals of Maitan, Bentan and related races. <~?~> Is plague on Travittia N102/-1/57929 <~?~> How transmitted <~?~> Treatment
~ Private trader this code.~
TR replied:
~Private trader NT104T56:
Request <~?~> plague:
Message as follows:
Plague on Travittia called "Loose rot virus" transmitted through contact with animals and animal products contaminated.
Treatment: >~!~< Immunization.
Treatment: >~!~< Serum TLRV-M371263 type A or D. >Do not use serums in combination.
~ Hospital HVDSM~
That was the end of the transmission. It was less than three minutes later Kit was contacted and was asked if he carried any serum TLRV-M371263 types A or D. Kit replied he stocked that serum, he thought, and waited a minute while he was supposed to be checking his list.
"I got type A," he said. "It's the stuff my carrier was taking to Trav ... to the plague."
"We know it's Travittia," the voice answered. "Some people traveling out here purchased a few fur pieces that seem to have somehow been contaminated. We need serum!"
"Oh, I don't have enough for a whole planet!" Kit cried. "The way that stuff spreads you'll need tons! Call Hospital! Quickly!"
"How much do you have?" the voice asked. "We're very limited in those who may have been exposed. We have isolated them and there are only a few of us out here who may have the virus."
"Well, I have two hundred sixty doses," Kit replied. "Most of it's immunization though. The actual serum – maybe twenty doses."
"That will do fine!" the voice said. "There are only the four who handled the furs who actually have it now and the comman ... one other. We can use immunization on the other two hundred thirty! I'll send Foest for the serum!"
"Oh, it's in the stasis chamber," Kit replied. "It's one of those things that have to be used within minutes of removing from the stasis chamber. The immunization stuff can be kept, but not the serum."
There was a pause and the background sound of an argument.
"Can you deliver to coordinates?" the voice asked. "You will be well paid."
"Okay," Kit said. "Let me put the recorder on and you tell the ship exact coordinates. I don't want to work out that stuff and the ship has it programed in anyhow."
If he showed up at the coordinates the serum would be grabbed. He wouldn't live two minutes and knew it – but then, he had no intention of showing up. He direct-linked the fastcom through himself and let the coordinates be fed directly to the Fleet ships, then he said he would meet Tab and TR there.
It was over relatively quickly. When Fleet came in they were attacked all out and destroyed two of the large Immin ships. They captured the other large ship and traced the smaller one. There were three Immins and Foest aboard.
"So you had TR add a substance that Immins are strongly allergic to," Syntar said. "Their queen – or whatever they called this one – started itching and blistering soon after she played around on the furs. The more she itched the more she scratched and the more she scratched the worse she blistered! Kit suggested plague and she panicked. Kit also said he had serum aboard T Six. She called Foest, came to Glrvcch and the rest is history."
"But what happened to the Immins the fleet captured?" Leilanta asked.
"They were on a planet that wasn't going to be harmed by a little colonization," Kit answered. "Fleet destroyed any chance they had to leave the place and quarantined them there. There's an empire warning satellite to keep anyone from approaching. There were only sixty one males and four females among the survivors. They'll die out quickly. They can't breed there."
"What about Foest? And Zayz and her friends?" Syntar asked.
"They liked the Immins so much we decided it wouldn't be right to deprive them of each other's company. Zayz and Foest are on the planet with them. The others were only charged with various ethics violations. They had no idea Immins were involved. They wouldn't have had anything to do with that. Zayz and Foest worked directly with Immins and knew exactly what they were doing."
"Well, it seems there is SOME poetic justice!" Leilanta exclaimed. "You'll have to watch now and again in fifty years and again at two hundred and at two fifty. That's as long as the Immins would use the stasis field. I think there's very little likelihood of anymore, but then, we thought we were rid of them for the past hundred years.
"What was the military buildup all about?"
"It was the result of Bentans coming in with their companies," T6 answered. "In their always complete methodical way the Rrnslth checked all previous records of the results of that kind of companies coming into an area in general and Bentan companies in particular. They decided they needed the strong economic boost and could increase police units to contain the cr
iminal problems. This is another case of being called to a place where we're needed, but for a reason that's not really related."
It sometimes turns out well. There were very careful checks all over the galaxy and no other Immins were found. Tab/TR and Kit/T6 stayed two days on Plamaita, then were changed back to their standard form before they headed back to Perfect 3. Maita, Thing and Z weren't on EC so there was no point in going there. Kit felt he was finally learning how this detective business worked. He could look forward to the next case.
Sixth Case
The liner "Wavewalker" rose high on the crest of a wave, then shuddered as it slammed toward the trough, cutting the next wave in a geyser of exploding water and foam. The shock-absorbing pads between the outer and inner hulls absorbed most of the force and turned it into heat, which was rapidly dissipated through the circulatory system built into the pads. The ship sluiced slightly sideways as the computers fought for stability. There was a short moment of peaceful intermission before it rose high on the crest of the next wave.
Nord Flar of Sorvich carefully made his way along the covered companionway and automatically braced his strong tail against the decking as he felt the ship begin to roll forward for the next jolt. While it was true the pads absorbed most of the shock, they didn't absorb it all. The ship was constructed to withstand this battering but, even so, this storm was something far beyond the ordinary.
These sudden typhoons were a feature of the planet Gliszon. This eighty percent water world was known for the violence of its storms, but the wild beauty of the place and the excitement and adventure made it a vacation not to be forgotten, even when the storms were only normal.
The shock came. Flar resumed his trek toward the dining salon. He would take eleven steps while the ship was relatively becalmed between the waves, holding the tail somewhat backward, hold it normal for six, then drag it for nine before lifting it to balance against the next fall. It was a pattern he wasn't consciously aware of. He was moving forward on the ship from his cabin, about one third of the way from the stern on the second deck.
