by Payne, Lee
"Your sister's right, Miss Laral," Em said. "I don't like his looks."
Laral turned on him. "Hasn't he murdered and raped enough for you, Em? He must be terrible indeed if he doesn't measure up to your high standards."
"You know that's not true," Em protested. "I've never . . . "
"Never murdered? Only when Nol tells you to. Seldom raped? And then only my sister, the one Nol gave you and said it was OK. Do forgive me, dear brother-in-law, for blackening your sterling reputation. I didn't realize it was possible."
"Laral," Silane protested. "You know that's not fair. You don't want our guest to think we . . ."
"Fair? Yes, I'm sorry. Degrees of evil are very important in this household. And I certainly wouldn't want tubby here, to think badly of us. He was kind enough to bring Leahn back for our uncle to murder."
She turned to Leahn. "Perhaps you haven't heard. Our generous uncle gave Silane to Em, rather like throwing a bone to a faithful dog. We're all to be nice to our dear brother-in-law, even if he did help murder our parents. And as for that 'old junk' our father collected, it just happens to be the most comprehensive collection of historical artifacts in the highlands. If you hadn't been so busy playing with swords and falling out of trees, you might have known how proud he was of it. If you'd spent a tenth as much time with him as you did with the horses . . ."
She buried her face in her hands but quickly recovered. "Come on, chub. You came to see my father's old junk? I'll show it to you."
"Do call me Commodore. All my friends . . ."
"Laral," Em shouted. "You know your uncle doesn't like you in his study." He started after them but remembered Leahn. He turned to the Commodore's guard who was watching him nervously. "Stay with him, you fool. Don't let him touch anything."
***
Laral and the Commodore were halfway down the hall when the guard came running after them. "Ah, my taciturn companion. I was afraid you had gotten lost."
"Em doesn't seem to trust you very much," Laral commented.
"Actually it's your uncle who is a trifle apprehensive. My associates and myself were the unwitting agents who delivered your sister into his household. He still suspects our motives though I assure you, our only purpose in coming here was to view your father's collection of artifacts."
"You knew my father?"
"Alas, we met only once in the capital but as you know, he was exceedingly proud of his collection. We had a lovely chat and he invited me to stop by if I was ever in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, other affairs intervened and I waited much too long before accepting his kind offer. He was a charming fellow."
Laral paused. "He was the nicest kindest man I've ever known," she said quietly. "That's why I feel so bad when I try to hate him for what he allowed to happen here."
She turned and shouted at the guard. "Don't just stand there you stupid oaf. Open the door."
The guard, taken by surprise, fumbled with the latch and finally let them in. The room was large, with dark wood paneling and a great stone fireplace covering half of one wall. The other walls were mostly shelves and cabinets filled with books and artifacts.
"Em says don't touch anything," the guard mumbled.
"And quite right he is, too," the Commodore agreed. "Look but don't touch, that's the story of my life, and of yours as well perhaps, dear chap. From the way he's been watching you, Miss Laral, I believe I detect a certain interest . . ."
"Him?" Laral spat. "I could stand naked before him and he'd be too terrified to blink an eye. He knows who I belong to." She picked up a bluestone figurine and handed it to the Commodore. The guard's eyes flickered with suppressed anger but he did not speak. "You say you met my father at the capital? When exactly was that? He was only there a few times."
"It was several years ago. I have a terrible memory for dates. I remember his saying that very thing, how infrequently he came to the city."
"I don't recall him ever mentioning you."
The Commodore was examining another figurine. "Now here's a fine piece. You and he were close, were you?"
"Yes, we were. I was the youngest until Leahn came along. I used to love this room. I'd bring my dolls in here to play while he was working. He would tell me all about his pieces even though I was too young to understand half of what he was saying. Later I helped him catalog the collection."
"You have a catalog?"
"It's right here." She took a large notebook from a shelf and handed it to him. "Didn't he mention this? He was very proud of it."
"Of course. I'm sure he did, though I can't recall whether he was planning it or had actually begun work on it."
Laral surveyed the big man critically. "It's odd that I don't remember him mentioning you. He met so few who shared his interest and a fellow collector as . . . as colorful as you would have been a topic of conversation."
"I sometimes have that effect on people." He spread his hands in mock resignation. "Large but forgettable. Perhaps he spoke of me while you were absorbed in your doll play, one of the parts of the conversation to which you paid little heed."
"Perhaps. Did you two correspond?"
"Helped file his letters, did you?" the Commodore laughed. "No, my dear. I'm afraid I'm not much of a letter writer." He was thumbing through the catalog. "That's an unusual skin over the fireplace but I don't see it listed here. What sort of beast is it?"
"Daddy said it was the skin of a man. I'm not sure I believed him. He said the colonists had to fight some terrible bloodthirsty savages who skinned each other alive. He said the colonists defeated them in a great battle and took this trophy. It was the savages' most prized possession. Daddy never listed it because he wasn't sure whether it was a true story or just a legend."
The Commodore had turned to another page in the catalog. "I see here that you have some hand weapons dating back to the early colonial era. May I see them?"
"Daddy called those his rarest items. When the colonists machines stopped working they took most of them apart to try to fix the rest and finally threw them away in disgust. These are the only ones he ever found." She brought out two small boxes.
The guard took a step closer and the Commodore backed away, his hands in the air. "Fear not, my friend. I do not intend to threaten you with 500-year-old hand lasers."
"It wouldn't do any good anyway," Laral said ruefully. "They don't work. I've tried them both."
***
Blackman Nol joined them in the study. He was all smiles. "Here you are, Commodore. And Laral, how kind of you to entertain our guest in my absence. I've just been to the kitchen and have been informed that supper will be ready shortly."
"Your niece has been a very informative guide through this fascinating material. Some of these artifacts are quite valuable. That is, in fact, what brought me here. As I said before, I met your brother many years ago, he told me a little about his collection. Well, you can imagine my excitement. As scientists, of course, we prefer to do our own field work but we also rely on the research that has been done by others. But here, alas, there are only a handful of scholars with an interest in the past. That's what makes your brother's collection so . . ."
"Yes, yes." Nol interrupted impatiently. "Personally I am more interested in the future than in the past. I would rather build an empire of my own than read about those that fell to dust centuries ago. But you met my brother in the capital? When exactly was that?"
"Your niece asked me that same question. As I told her . . . "
"We think it must have been in '27," Laral said. "I remember father mentioning it. I believe I recall some correspondence in the files, though it would take a while to dig it out."
Nol seemed slightly surprised. "What? Oh, no. That's not necessary."
Was he disappointed, the Commodore wondered. He could read no expression at all in Laral's gray eyes.
"Let's join the others in the living room," Nol said heartily. "I've taken the liberty of having Em lay out your machinery there. You did promise to explain it all
to me. These old things have their interest, I suppose." He waved his arm depreciatingly around the room. "But my mind works in the future and machinery, I am convinced, will be its key."
Leahn was seated as they had left her. Em had been replaced as her guard by two burly stone-faced individuals who stood on either side behind her. Em was at the other end of the spacious room where the twins' equipment had been laid out on a large table.
The twins and their guards were present as were all Leahn's sisters. Beautifully dressed in long gowns, they clustered nervously near her. Nol seemed to relish the role of genial host. Wading jovially into the tension-filled room, he introduced the Commodore and the twins to all his nieces. The two the Commodore had not yet met were slim pretty women, still red around the eyes and ill at ease.
Nol led his guests over to the bar where Caran was mixing a drink Nol called a colonist's revenge. She was clearly startled when Nol took one for himself. "Keep the glasses full, Caran," he called over his shoulder as he led the way to the equipment table.
"We have too few parties here," he confided to the Commodore. "I must work much of the time but still, it's just not a very jolly crowd around here. It's more fun to go into town. The girls there know how to have a good time."
"It's the same everywhere. The breadwinner is seldom appreciated in his own home."
"If I were doing it for myself, that would be one thing, but look at me. My needs are simple. I'm doing all this for the family. You'd think they would take an interest . . . Ah, here are the machines. Let's start with this big one."
While Em hovered anxiously nearby, the Commodore explained the workings of the computer, then had the twins hook it up to the sonar probes to produce a drawing of the wine cellar beneath them. The Commodore brought out the pyramid drawings but Nol's attention had already wandered on to the ultrasonic insect repeller.
"That is my pride and joy, worth its weight in credits. My associates seem immune to bugs. They probably don't taste very good. But that just leaves more for me. They love me. I itch, I turn red, I swell up like a balloon. But with this," he patted the compact device, "I survive."
"How does it work?" Nol demanded.
Blinking through his fish-eye glasses, Elor demonstrated. But with few bugs in the Nol living room, it was difficult to show its effect. Nol turned its single knob up to full power and held it to his ear. It hummed. He thumped it on the table and listened again. It still hummed. "Does it kill them?" he asked.
"Kill who?"
"The bugs."
"Oh no," Elor replied. "It sets up a sonic field, an instability in the air that is tuned at cross purposes to their own bodily rhythms. It merely disturbs them and they go away."
"It doesn't kill them?"
"No."
"Would it work on a man?"
"Only if it were very much larger and more powerful."
Nol had already lost interest in the insect repeller and picked up another small instrument. "What's this?"
"Ah," said the Commodore. "I'd forgotten about that."
"Oh?"
"It's the calldown box for the governor's aircar."
Nol was suddenly interested. "I've always wanted an aircar. How does it work?"
"It's like a homing device. We're scheduled to switch it on three days from now. It sends out a beam that will guide the car's driver right to us."
"The driver, eh?"
"And two of the governor's marines. I don't know if that's standard procedure but there were two of them aboard the car that brought us to the coast. And of course, they're in constant radio contact with the capital."
Nol's eyes went dark. "If the governor thinks he can send an assassin after me, he'll soon wish he hadn't." His face had started to go red but it suddenly cleared.
He smiled at Leahn. "There she sits, the dear little niece you so generously brought me."
The Commodore started to protest.
"All unknowing, on your part," Nol hastened to assure him. "Of that I am now convinced. Yet you have brought her to me like a present. A lovely present. And like a child with a lovely present, I cannot wait to remove the wrapping and learn what secrets lie hidden inside. If the governor and his cronies think they can just walk in and take all I've created here . . . "
He was beginning to go red again when Silane announced that dinner was served. Caran had kept their glasses filled as ordered and Nol was in a festive mood as he gallantly escorted Leahn into the dining room with the others. The long table was set with fine crystal and silver. There were eleven of them—the six sisters, Nol, Em, the Commodore and the twins. The guards placed themselves strategically around the room. Nol seated Leahn at one end of the table, himself at the other. "So I can keep an eye on my lovely present," he laughed.
"If you don't untie her hands, she cannot eat," Silane protested.
"With all these knives and forks around? You forget how unstable the poor child is. She might injure herself. Besides, she hasn't been here with her family for . . . what? Three years now. I'm sure it will be pleasure enough for her just to sit and watch us eat. Isn't that so, Leahn? This is, after all, the last time we shall all be together."
Leahn glared at him but said nothing. The rest of the guests looked unhappy. Nol took no notice. He was charming. The food was excellent and the wine flowed freely. Of the sisters, only Laral seemed to have an appetite. The Commodore told a number of carefully selected stories, a couple of which even got a smile from the grim guards.
***
"Delightful evening, Commodore." Blackman Nol sighed happily as Caran poured a round of after-dinner drinks. "Can't remember when I've had a more pleasant one. But you are here on business and it's time we got to it."
He smiled at Leahn. "I have one more appointment this evening. But let's get your business attended to first. We'll retire to my study and you can tell me how many of my brother's priceless heirlooms you wish to buy. I fear I have you at a disadvantage in that I've seen the inside of your purse. I know you've brought 63 credits and I wouldn't be surprised if whatever it is you want to buy comes to very nearly that exact amount." He roared with laughter as he guided the Commodore and the twins toward the study.
He turned at the hallway and called back to Em. "Do escort the ladies back into the living room. They weren't at all talkative during dinner but they might want to say farewell to their sister."
He led them down the hall and opened the study door. "After you, gentlemen."
The Commodore stepped inside, stopped, turned and stepped out again, closing the door behind him. Elor, following close behind, collided and bounced away.
"Your hospitality has been more than generous," the Commodore rumbled. "But I cannot in good conscience begin our business dealings without laying all our cards on the table, so to speak . . . Ah, yes, the table. Gentlemen, if you will accompany me back to the table in the living room where our map case is, this will take but a moment. Erol you might go on ahead and take out our aerial surveys. I believe we owe our host a full and complete explanation of our visit here."
As he herded the puzzled group back toward the living room, the Commodore reflected on the astonishing tableau he had just witnessed in the study. A dirty young boy stood in front of the fireplace, Leahn's sword on one hand, a familiar basket in the other. An equally scruffy lad was on top of the mantle while Malie, on his shoulders, was attempting to unfasten the top of the skin that hung there. Frozen in place, he left them staring at him as he had backed out and closed the door.
It was a scene, he had no doubt, forever engraved on his memory, one he would carry with him to the grave.
He entered the living room where the others were waiting for an explanation of his odd behavior. He started talking. "Everything we have told you, my dear Blackman, has, of course, been the absolute truth. But not, I fear, the entire truth." He spread his hand wide in resignation. "Alas, you and I are men of principle in a world woefully short of that commodity."
He unrolled the survey maps. "
My associates and I have travelled through the lowlands on a survey expedition and we did come here by aircar to view your brother's collection. That much is the absolute truth. But there is more, and of this, it grieves me to say, we have been less than candid." He gestured toward Leahn just being led to her chair by Hossen Em. "It concerns that unfortunate young woman."
Nol's hand was on his dagger and his eyes were sparkling in fascination as the Commodore continued. "At the beginning of our expedition we naturally visited the capital to obtain the assistance of the authorities. While they had no objection to our research, they hired us to carry out a secret investigation on their behalf.
"We then had two assignments, the original one which brought us here, the one you know about. And a second mission about which we were sworn to secrecy."
He paused, for dramatic effect and to think of what to say next. He shuffled his maps around as if searching for the right one. "When I say that my two associates are scientists, I understate the case. They possess, without a doubt, the two most highly trained scientific minds on this planet. When your governor discovered this, he asked us to undertake an aerial reconnaissance of his realm. We were to search for . . . petroleum. Do you know what petroleum is, Blackman?"
"Of course. It's a combustible fuel rather like coal but in liquid form. Our world is woefully short of it."
"You are short of it no longer." The Commodore pointed triumphantly to one of the radar maps. "We found structural indications of its presence right here." He pointed to the map. "And here." He pointed to Blackman Nol's floor. Nol's eyes went wide with surprise.
The Commodore held up a sonic probe. "These devices read the insides of pyramids. They read the inside of your wine cellar. They also read the secrets locked deep within the earth. Our second, secret mission was to come here and, with this machine, verify our findings. But someone who knew of our mission apparently became greedy. they sent an assassin, an assassin disguised as a Cirian bodyguard. Your niece."
