Cerberus: A Wolf in the Fold flotd-2

by Jack L. Chalker

  I decided on Dylan first, just because I needed her final evaluation on my pregnant potential weak link.

  I had to wait for the weekend to get down there, though, because I needed the time with the information Sugal supplied to work things out. Also after a day chasing borks or at least patrolling for them and then cleaning and checking the boat, Dylan was not very lively company in the evenings. In one way we were incompatible: anybody who liked getting up at dawn to go to work was a bit strange and incomprehensible in my book.

  I arranged to meet her at a small club in town to make sure that Sanda wouldn’t be around. We’d met like this a couple of times before, just to be social—and we had gotten very social the last time—but this meeting would be slightly different. She was a very attractive woman, though, and even more so when she dressed for a night on the town rather than a day on the sea.

  We ordered dinner and mostly exchanged small talk, then ate and went out to a small cabaret and did a little drinking and dancing. At the end of the evening, we went over to her apartment as-we had before, but this time I had something additional in mind.

  And at the right moment as I judged it, while we lay there, relaxed, I finally got to the point. In fact, she provided the opening. “You seemed distracted, far away tonight,” she noted. “Something wrong with you? Or is it me?”

  “No, nothing’s wrong,” I assured her, “but, yes, you’re right. Dylan, it’s time I came out in the open, I think, and I hope I know you well enough to trust you.”

  She sat up and looked at me, half puzzled, half expectant.

  “Dylan, we’ve gotten to know each other quite well. I think we somehow complement each other. And we’ve talked freely about ourselves, I think. Still, what do you know about me?”

  “You’re Qwin Zhang, you’re a computer programmer for Tooker, and you came from Outside,” she replied. “And you’ve been an awful lot of places across the galaxy. You were loadmaster on a spaceship. And, according to some friends I know, your name is female on the civilized worlds. So? You trying to say you were once a woman? So what?”

  “I came here as a woman, yes,” I told her, taking the big gamble, “but I wasn’t born in that body. It was Qwin Zhang’s body—but I’m not Qwin Zhang. Not the original one, anyway.”

  “I thought only Cerberans could do that.”

  “It’s a different process. A mechanical one, basically. But I wasn’t a criminal and I wasn’t a loadmaster.”

  She was staring at me, fascinated but not apprehensive. “So? Who are you, then, and what did you do?”

  “I killed people the Confederacy wanted killed,” I told her. “I tracked them down, found them out, and killed them.”

  There was a sharp intake of breath, but no other reaction. Finally she asked, “And they sent you here to kill someone?”

  I nodded. “Yes. But it’s someone who needs it, and since I’m stuck here the same as everybody else, that’s important. They might try and kill me if I didn’t, but that’s beside the point. I’m confident enough they wouldn’t succeed, and what they want is what I want, too.”

  “Who?” she asked.

  “Wagant Laroo,” I told her.

  She whistled. “They don’t think small, do they? And neither do you. Well, at least that explains why you were so interested in Laroo’s Island.”

  I nodded. “I’m going to do it, Dylan. Nothing is more certain than that—although there are still a lot of steps in the way, and so a lot of time will pass before I can do it. Still it will happen. Nobody is invulnerable, not even me.”

  “Any particular reason why?”

  “Problems. It seems Laroo and the other Lords of the Diamond made a deal with some aliens to help conquer the Confederacy. I don’t have real affection one way or the other for the Confederacy, but I have a lot for the human race.”

  “These—aliens. What are they like?”

  “We don’t know,” I told her. “All we do know is they’re so nonhuman that there’s no way they can do their own dirty work. That’s why the Four Lords were hired. I’m sure they figure they’ll get revenge and be on the winning side, but we don’t know about these aliens. After they crack the Confederacy they might just decide they don’t need ms any more, either. They’re trying to find out all they can about these creatures, whoever and whatever they are, but the only common link is the Warden Diamond. And one way of at least throwing a curve is to eliminate the Four Lords as currently constituted. A power struggle would disrupt things, buy time—and the new Lords might not be so thrilled about cooperating with and trusting these allies. I drew Laroo, But after seeing how he runs things here, I’d like a shot at him anyway. There are better, freer ways to run things than this, ones that don’t cost people so much of their self-respect.

  You only have to think of the motherhood to know what I mean.”

  “I’m not too sure I follow that last bit, but the rest I understand,” she said. “I don’t think anybody, not even the Four Lords, can commit people like me to help these aliens. All I keep thinking about is a race of sly, clever borks.”

  “Perhaps,” I told her. “Or they might be a lot more appealing—it makes no difference. We don’t know anything except that they’re very nonhuman. Until I get a lot more assurances, that’s all I need to know. We here in the Warden Diamond are sitting ducks when they don’t need us any more. A civilization capable of crossing space and subtle enough to hire the Four Lords isn’t one I could trust with my future.”

  She was silent for a moment, finally lighting one of those big cigars that took a fair share of her pay. Finally, in a haze of smoke, she asked softly, “Qwin? Why are you telling me this?”

  “The first step is influence. I need influential friends in high places who can give me information. Dylan, who owns your boat?”

  “Hroyasail, of course. Why?”

  “Who’s president of Hroyasail?”

  “Nobody. I told you that.”

  I nodded. “Suppose I was president of Hroyasail? Set the salaries, got better parts, newer equipment—the best.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Suppose we ran Hroyasail, you and I. Not just a captain whose job can be cut by some bureaucrat, but really running the place. Boss. Sound interesting?”

  “Go on.”

  “I need you to make that possible. You and one other. I’m talking about something criminal, but nobody gets killed or, I hope, even hurt. What I have in mind will take some guts, but I know you have that. Are you willing?”

  “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

  “I’m going to get the president of Tooker fired. I’m going to totally discredit him. As a result, certain high-placed officials will move up and be grateful to me. They’ll give me Hroyasail and a big bank account and information when I need it. See?”

  “You can do that?”

  I smiled. “Easily. If they haven’t changed the fire alarm system in the borough in the past three years.”

  “What?”

  I spent the night with Dylan, and over breakfast we discussed the other problem. “Unless you can think of somebody quickly who I would trust, and you could trust, for an operation like this, we’ll need Sanda as well,” I told her. “She’s got brains and spunk, and she can do the job, I think. But can we rely on her not to talk? I can’t get into Akeba House to see what she’s like away from the rest of us. You were there once. What do you think?”

  “She’d be a good choice,” she agreed. “She’s got the biggest crush on you I’ve ever seen. But to do what you’re proposing—I don’t think the temptation is possible for her to resist. She’ll blow it there.”

  “If I promise her a way out of the Motherhood free and clear at a later date? Right now I need her where she is. I need that expense account she has, and that anonymity as well. But when we’re done, I can get her out.”

  “I don’t know. The promise of something later versus something now isn’t easy to handle wh
en you’re faced with it.”

  “I think I can handle that part,” I assured her. “The question is, if I trick her back into her own body, will she blow the thing just for spite?”

  “Nobody can say,” she said honestly. “But my gut instinct is that she wouldn’t. She’s got it bad for you. For that matter, so do I, damn it. Qwin, is that all I am to you? Somebody to accomplish your mission, then be paid off?”

  I took her hand and squeezed it. “No,” I responded gently. “No, you’re a lot more than that. And so is Sanda.”

  She smiled. “I wish I knew for sure. I really do. Somebody like you is a little out of my league, you know, and way out of Sanda’s. You were born, bred, and trained for your job. People trust you and don’t know why. People confide in you and don’t know why. Women fall for you and don’t know why. I wonder whether even you know what about you is real.”

  “In the past, in the old days, you’d be right,” I responded honestly. “But not here now, and for the future on Cerberus. This is my home now. My permanent home, and my life. It’s different now, Dylan, and so am I. Look, I’ve just put my life in your hands by what I’ve told you. You can see that, surely?”

  “Well, there is that,” she admitted, and finished her breakfast.

  On Dylan’s advice, I decided to talk to Sanda alone first, then let her go talk to Dylan afterward. I decided not to be as honest with her as I had been with Dylan, mostly because I was less sure of her abilities to keep things quiet.

  “Dylan and I are going to try to do something very risky,” I told her. “Basically, I’ve got a setup that could put me in control of Hroyasail if the law can be successfully bent, shall we say.”

  She was interested and fascinated. I could see the romance of it all catching on inside her. This was the land of thing “real world” people did, not the mothers of Akeba House.

  “Now,” I continued carefully, “before I go any further, I have to warn you of something. This is no game. If I tell you more, you’ll hold both my life and Dylan’s in your hands because they’ll kill us if there’s any leak, if there’s even the slightest suspicion. That means no talking to anyone except for the two of us—and no excitement, no betrayal of even the fact that you have secrets to keep, or you’ll do us in. We need help, but not if you don’t think you can handle it. Understand?”

  She nodded. “You’re afraid I can’t keep it to myself?”

  “There’s nothing personal, but both you and Dylan have told me about life inside that harem, and it’s sounds like harems throughout past history. You sit around, you talk, you gossip, you know each other so well you note when something’s not right with somebody else and the word gets spread all over. Be very honest—do you think you could keep something like this to yourself?”

  “I think I can,” she responded.

  “Not think. Know! Be absolutely sure of yourself or it stops here and we find somebody else.”

  “I’m sure. I wouldn’t:—couldn’t—do anything that might hurt you or Dylan.”

  “All right, then. We really do need you on this for what you can tell me even now. You had some nurse’s training?”

  She nodded. “We all do. Some more than others, but I got interested. Dylan knows more than me, though. She was at it longer.”

  I nodded. “All I need is some basic information right now. The first question is, have you ever been hypnotized?”

  She nodded. “Sure. We do it all the time for deliveries, since we can’t use much in the way of anesthetics. Not too many folks on Cerberus will come anywhere near hypnotism, though.”

  That was certainly true. You put total control of what body you wore and what body you would wear into someone else’s hands, and that was something you didn’t do lightly. Not here.

  “All right,” I told her, “now—Dylan told me that on special occasions some of the mothers would switch so those in the late stages of pregnancy could go out. Just a temporary courtesy.”

  “That’s right. It’s not usual, but we’ve all done it.”

  “Good. Can you think of anybody you might be able to switch with for a full day and night?”

  She thought a moment “Yeah. I guess so. Marga, maybe, although I’d owe her one. When would this be?”

  “Two weeks from now. Friday evening through Saturday evening or maybe Sunday morning.”

  “I’ll work it out.”

  “Good. Talk it over with Dylan, too, all you want. I’m going to be doing dry runs and setups au week. Next weekend I’ll work out a little test or two to see if there are any kinks in company security. Now, two more things.” I fished a couple of papers from my pocket and handed them to her. She looked at them quizzically.

  “What are these?”

  “Remember Otah?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Well, he does a lot of interesting bootlegs other than just entertainment,” I told her. “If I came in with those, though, he might get suspicious, and the money would still be missing from my account. I want you—or somebody else who won’t ask questions and can act for you—to go into Otah’s place with those and ask for those specific parts. Tell him they are required spares for a surprise fire inspection at Akeba House. Tell him that they have to be exactly like those on the sheet because of special equipment in the House. If he presses further, act ignorant of any more, but insist he make those specific parts, without variations and without substitutions.”

  She looked at the diagrams, then turned them first one way, then upside down. “It won’t be hard to pretend ignorance. What are they?”

  “Computer memory chips,” I told her. “I need ’em as soon as possible, but definitely within a week. Understand?”

  She nodded. “He makes these things?”

  “He can have them made.”

  “How much should I pay for them?”

  “You have almost unlimited credit, you said. It’s why I’ve let you buy me so many dinners. The price’ll be high, since the transaction is under the counter. Probably two or three hundred units each.”

  She whistled. “Wow.”

  “Too steep for you?”

  “No, but it’s more than I’m ever used to paying.”

  “Will it show up in your personal account?”

  “Oh, no. We don’t have them. It’s another way they keep us barefoot and pregnant. It’s the House account.”

  I nodded to myself, then pulled her close and kissed her. “You know,” I said, “I never realized before how sexy a pregnant woman can be to a man.”

  By God, I told myself, this crazy, insane, totally absurd plot was going to work!

  “Tell me about nuraform,” I asked them on the boat Friday night.

  “It’s an anesthetic, one of the few that works here,” Dylan replied. “A couple of whiffs and you’ll go out like a light for twenty minutes or so—but you won’t be able to change bodies with it. That’s why it’s approved at all. Major operations and stuff like that, or on-the-job accidents where somebody’s in great pain. But it’s a controlled substance. Doctors and medical personnel only.”

  “That’s no trouble,” I replied. “The company dispensary keeps some around. I can steal it pretty easy.”

  “Why bother?” she asked me, and pulled a small magnakey from her pocket “We always carry a small supply on the boats.”

  I not only could have kissed her, I did.

  “But what good’s nuraform?” Sanda asked. “I mean, you can’t switch with it, and if somebody’s knocked out with it they’ll know.”

  “Not if they’re asleep,” I told her. “Look, let’s go on to other phases of this operation. What about the chips?”

  “He took the job,” Sanda told me, “although it required some real haggling, and I had to do a lot of squirming. I also had to borrow Marga’s body to get in there, so I’m really going to have to find something to get her.”

  “You figure that out and I’ll get it,” I assured her. “Now—when will you have them?’

  “Tues
day. He was pretty firm about that, no matter what. I can send a messenger then, because it’s prepaid.”

  “Okay. I’ll need ’em Tuesday evening, and I’ll drop down to pick them up. We’re looking good—fewer hitches than I’d ever dreamed. You can do wonders when you’re doing a duty deed for the boss. The amount of information I’ve gotten would have taken a year of hard and risky work.”

  “I still say you’re crazy and this plan’s insane,” Dylan said, shaking her head. “It’s so crazy and so complicated it can’t possibly work.”

  “You think they make this kind of operation easy? Look, every corporation president, every syndicate boss, got where he was by doing the insane and crooked thing at just the right time. Even with that, their investigators will know they’ve been had. Within two weeks they’ll have figured out how it was done—although, hopefully, not who did it, since I’m not even the one getting rewarded at the end but pastured instead. No, they’ll come up with the right solution, all right, but the scheme is so crazy they won’t believe it themselves, and that’ll stop that. As for its being complicated—yes, I don’t like that. The more complicated something is, the more likely it is to go wrong. But at least there are provisions almost to the end to back out at any point, so if we do our jobs properly there’s minimal risk of getting caught. Don’t worry about that part—just worry about your own.”

  “I am,” Dylan responded glumly.

  “Look, let’s go through the key rehearsal now. Just think about this, both of you. If it works, you, Dylan, will have your own boat under nobody’s supervision and no real worries—independent and secure. And you, Sanda, I promise—if all goes as planned, we’re going to liberate you from the motherhood and do it so slickly that nobody will bat an eyelash. If you can be patient and not jump the gun, the three of us might wind up running this damned world in a couple of years.”