“Does that provide the sex workers with protection?” Kati wanted to know. “From diseases, abuse, exploitation, and so forth?”
“Don’t talk nonsense,” Jock snorted. “The brothel owners are the biggest abusers and exploiters. They do do disease prevention, but only because diseases threaten their investment.”
“So we’re talking gilded cages, then?” Kati muttered.
“That’s not a bad image,” Jock agreed. “Although not harsh enough to my way of thinking. We generally leave caged birds alone most of the time; some of them, at least at times, sing. I would guess that very few of the sex workers in this city do much singing, regardless of whether they are paid employees, bonded servants or chattels of their owners.”
“Bonded servants or chattels,” Kati muttered. “By chattels you mean slaves don’t you?”
“Afraid so,” Jock replied with a deep sigh. “Although no-one is supposed to use that term, certainly not in polite company. Vultaire, like all the other Federation Worlds, officially abominates slavery.”
“But, unofficially, it makes a practise of the very thing.”
“Hypocrisy is a way of life for the Exalted of the Capital City. That’s the main reason why I went back to Ithcar, even though I was doing well here with my music. You start to feel like the dirt’s rubbing off on you, even if you keep your own hands clean. Uncle Kelt didn’t want me to leave; he said that there were so few sane people of our class in the City that it was hard to have much of a social life. The Ordinary Citizens avoid even those of us who they know would never treat them badly—and there are precious few of us, as they well know—because they know that they’ll be targeted by the other ninety-five percent of the Oligarchic class if they are seen to be ‘trying to rise above their natural station’.”
“Does that mean that your supposed connection with me, and the real one with the Troupe is going to cause problems?” Kati asked.
“No, I don’t think so.” Jock grinned impishly at her. “I’ll be seen as quite the rogue, hooking up with an off-world woman understood to be an Adventuress. And travelling around the countryside with a runnerbeast cart is one thing if you’re doing it in the company of Ordinary Citizens, but an entirely different one when you’re with a group of off-world musicians who are doing it as a lark. Next season’s in thing will be to form entertainment troupes to gallivant around the country. Although I’m sure the Exalted who do it, will be entertaining themselves more than the populations of the settlements.”
“That notion will have legs only if the Exalted doing it hire professionals to do the playing and the singing,” Kati said with a shake of her head. “Although, I guess it would provide a few more musicians with jobs.”
“And expose them to the childish temper of the average Exalted feverishly looking to amuse himself.”
“Indeed. Still, a certain percentage of the residents of this planet are constantly being exposed to the tantrums of the bored Exalted. And they’ll go on being mistreated unless we can do something about it.”
“That’s true. So let us do our tour of the Sin City, Kati. And let me know if anything you see rings a nodal bell.”
They walked down several curving streets while Kati stared at the old mansions which had apparently been turned into Houses of Ill Repute by their Exalted owners. Sin must be profitable, Kati mused wryly, as she admired the well-kept edifices and the carefully tended gardens. Nelli’s Inn and the neighbourhood surrounding it were positively seedy-looking by comparison; yet when they had first arrived Kati had found it quite pleasant, and not run-down. When she commented on this to Jock, he laughed.
“The owners have to keep fixing up these premises,” he said. “Most of the city’s building trades are kept busy in this quarter, since the patrons, willing as they are to pay big money to indulge their tastes, are also the most destructive segment of the society. If a young man feels like punching in a wall or uprooting an ornamental tree, he does just that, and the House Manager gets it fixed, sending the bill to the destructive stripling’s Family. Most of the time the Family pays up without an argument; they know that the shoe could be on the other foot tomorrow.”
Jock grinned.
“The one good thing about it is that the Ordinary Citizens in the building trades get a lot of work,” he added. “The odd minor fortune has been amassed that way, although the earners make a point of keeping their good luck quiet; ostentation among the regular folk would encourage the government to re-jig the taxing practises to take all that money back.”
Kati shook her head.
“It all sounds convoluted and crazy to me,” she said. “I’m not sure that I can follow the economic system of this world at all.”
“You’re not alone in that. That’s why Jorun had your friend Roxanna studying all those lists of exports and imports, and all the other money lists that he and his associates could get their hands on.”
Abruptly, Kati grabbed hold of Jock’s arm. The Granda had attracted her attention to a particularly attractive mansion across the street.
“Some of the images I have from Roxanna,” The Monk subvocalized to her, “could fit very well into the garden there. It’s a little hard to be certain; she would have been looking down upon it from an upstairs window in the one clear memory that I have. Maybe, if we could get a look at the grounds from a slightly different perspective, I could tell for sure.”
“The Granda thinks that the house across the street might be the one in which Roxanna was kept,” Kati whispered to Jock.
“Hm.” Jock studied the estate. “My node seems to know that it belongs to the Malaudin Family. Apparently I performed for them once, although my role was strictly musical. They’re very well connected to the inner circles of the government. Whatever corruption is going on, they’ll be in on it. I wonder....” His whisper trailed off.
Kati waited patiently while Jock weighed options. The wait was not long; moments later the Vultairian turned to look at her, smiling broadly.
“Suppose we take a direct approach?” he asked. “We Carmaks have the reputation for being strange, so there’s no reason why we couldn’t get away with it. We’ll just march up to the door, ring the chimes, and I’ll say that I’ve heard that they have some really interesting off-world whores on the premises, and we would like to look at them, right now, if possible, because we’re planning to have an interesting night, and are deciding who should populate it. Your tastes, Kati, my dear, apparently run the gamut and I’m trying to please you.
“Think you can manage some prurient interest in the Malaudin holdings?”
His grin was crooked and Kati wrinkled her nose.
“Yuck!” was the first word that came out of her mouth, and the grin in front of her grew more crooked.
“You’re enjoying this!” she protested; they looked at each other full-faced, and only managed to keep from laughing by turning their eyes to the hedge next to them.
Kati noted that there were tiny blue flowers among the hedge leaves, not noticeable unless one was looking directly at them, close up.
“My inner Monk tells me that if I can’t manage the interest, all I have to do is let him take over. He’ll put on a fine act, if I let him.”
She made a wry face as she turned to look at Jock again.
“I won’t let him, of course,” she added. “But knowing that he could, and would, is a great motivator. So tell me what my role is, exactly, and I’ll play the part!”
*****
Jock used a firm hand on her back to steer a giggling Kati across the road and down a stone walk to the mansion door. She pulled the bell cord as per his instructions, giggling while she did so. The two of them carried on an animated but incoherent discussion as they waited for an answer to the summons; meanwhile The Monk gave Kati a blow-by-blow review of her performance as a woman walking about in a slightly druggy haze.
“Don’t stop chattering” and “Keep giggling” were the gist of the advice. Jock watched her and listened to he
r with some bemusement—a good sign, she judged.
She was starting to worry that she would run out of steam before the door would be answered, when suddenly it was, by a stern-looking woman wearing livery of some kind. Kati did not have to feign her startlement.
“Ooh, a lady in a uniform!” was the comment that came to her tongue, and she spit it out with an extra giggle.
The said lady ran her eyes over Kati’s (to a Vultairian) short form, her lips thinning to an expression close to disgust. Then her accusing eyes fell on Jock, standing behind her.
“And what do you think you’re doing at the door of the Malaudin House?” she asked in a voice as cold as glacier water.
“Oh, excuse me,” Jock replied, abruptly sounding more arrogant than Kati would have thought possible.
He dug in an inside vest pocket and pulled out a colourful badge—greens and golds, Carmaks colours. He thrust it under the uniformed woman’s nose.
“Travelling incognito,” he explained blandly, still sounding arrogant.
The woman stared at the badge, swallowed, then smirked at him.
“A Carmaks, are you?” she asked mildly enough, but even Kati could sense the angry words she was holding back.
“Reason enough to come here incognito, don’t you think?” Jock queried, dropping the arrogance, and replacing it with a layer of charm, a transformation which had Kati sputtering.
“Ooh, you’re a fine piece of work, you are!” she beamed at him, poking a finger playfully at his chest.
“Did you want something, Exalted Carmaks?” the liveried woman asked, looking a little doubtful. “We don’t normally conduct business this early in the morning. Our workers need time to rest, and this is that time of day.”
“Well, maybe we don’t need to disturb anyone but you at this time,” Jock said thoughtfully. “You see, I had heard that your House had a rather interesting selection of off-world sex-workers these days, and since my little friend here expressed interest in a pluralistic session, I thought I’d inquire about your collection. Of course there are other Houses that, I hear, also have selections, but....”
“...but ours is the most interesting one, and the most varied,” the uniformed woman finished for him, looking smug.
“Well, yes, something like that,” Jock admitted, with a shrug. “We had hoped to get a look at your selection but if it can’t be done, can you at least describe your off-worlders for us? If it sounds like it might be worth our while to come look at them later in the day, we might do that.”
“Well.” The liveried lady pursed her lips. “Maybe you’re interested in young boys. We have a handful just come in recently, preteens. Sort of odd-looking ones; I really don’t know where they’re from. We workers are having trouble communicating with them; we don’t know their language, although the Exalted owners have picked up quite a bit of it already. But they’re not around all the time and...but you’re not interested in that.”
“You’d be surprised, Lady Livery,” Kati subvocalized to The Monk.
“But they’re very biddable boys and will do whatever you want them to, if you can communicate your wishes to them,” the uniformed woman finished.
“Hm, boys,” commented Jock. “That may suit my wee friend here, but do you have anything for me? I like women of all ages, and all sizes, as you can see,” he added giving Kati a light swat on the ass, and grinning.
“He’s gonna get a kick in the shins once we’re alone,” Kati told the Granda whose Monk image glared at her.
“Play your role,” he ordered her, and she obediently batted her eyelashes at Jock.
“We have a couple of nice red-heads, a few green-skinned girls, all of whom can handle a bit of pain, if that is what you like to spice things up with. And there’s a very fair-haired, pale-skinned young woman who is quite proficient in languages; she’s as good as the Exalted are. But you would be required to be very careful with her; the Exalted Owners seem to find her quite useful and don’t want her harmed.”
“Maybe one of them has a special interest in her,” Jock suggested with a lewd smile, but Lady Livery shook her head.
“No, it’s nothing like that. The Malaudins are all business when it comes to this establishment. I think their own interests run more to gambling and cavorting with Klensers....” She shut her mouth, a slightly horrified expression crossing her face.
“Your Jock managed to lull her into carelessness, there,” the Granda subvocalized to Kati. “That was rather clever of him. Do cover for him before the Lady catches on.”
“Well, sounds like they do have some variety,” Kati snickered, snuggling up to Jock. “Maybe we ought to come back later and at least take a look at their wares. Don’t know that I’m willing to share you with any fair-haired woman, though, even a whore, especially if I have to be nice to her, too.”
“Ah, don’t be a fool, sweetie. You’ll be nice to anyone I want you to be nice to.”
There was a hint of arrogance in the words, and Kati could see the uniformed woman relax visibly. The Exalted, even if he was a Carmaks, had reverted to behaving like an Exalted. Her world was in order, and she had not dug herself into a hole.
Jock clung to his attitude of arrogance while he arranged a viewing after the dinner hour. He made no promises as to business to be conducted, and Lady Livery did not push him on it. Kati assumed that it was not the place of a mere worker to persuade or to cajole, but merely to offer up the wares of the House. An Exalted did what he chose to do, and did it arrogantly.
*****
“That Malaudin House has got to be it,” Kati said, as they continued the tour of the District, with less enthusiasm now that they had a target to zero in on.
But, as The Monk pointed out, it was good tactics to seem to take an interest in a few other possible targets.
“So what do you want to do about it?” Jock asked her. “Do you want to go in as a customer and talk to the sex-workers to find out where they’re from and how they ended up in a brothel on Vultaire?”
“I think I need two things,” Kati replied thoughtfully, “and neither of them needs to take long. One: I need to get a look at the new, biddable boys. I suspect that they’re Murra’s boys, most likely ones who have outlived their usefulness in the rug trade—fingers grown too large to nimbly knot the threads—and have been resold for further profit. That’s what happened to Kerris, the boy who started us on the road to investigating Vultaire. Two: I need a chance to talk to the fair-haired woman—I’m assuming she’s Ingrid. I want to connect nodally with her like I did with Roxanna, to give her the know-how to make nodal records; that way she can be a witness for us.
“It won’t hurt to talk with other workers if we get the chance, but I don’t think that I have it in me to have sex with bordello staff, even to find out what their status is.”
“Although a pretense of such would gain us the privacy we’ll need for chatting,” Jock pointed out, “and, at the moment, I can’t think of an easier way for you to get this Ingrid’s left hand into yours.”
Kati sighed.
“I know. But I’m glad we don’t need to do it quite yet. Right now, role-playing that drug-addled dingbat that I was channelling, in a brothel bed, just has no appeal.”
“At least it’s merely a drug-addled ding-bat that you have to channel,” Jock said with a short laugh. “Me, I get to be an arrogant ass who thinks that the whole world should revolve around my tastes.”
He sighed.
“I’m going to have to go and see Uncle Kelt today, before the gossip-mill reaches him, and delights in informing him that his dear relative, Jock, has picked up habits more normal to 98.5 percent of the Four Hundred Families than to the Carmaks or their supporters.”
“Would he be home now?” Kati asked. “Or is it too close to lunch time to make a social call like that? We could go see him, and inform the others of our results later.”
Jock’s eyes brightened.
“Hey, that’s definitely an idea! We’ll fin
d him in his office at the Legislative Building, since the government is in session—well, at least for an hour or two every day. He’s pretty conscientious; a lot of the other Senators laugh at him because they can’t figure out what he does in his office all day. They go only to the sittings, and don’t bother to research anything. He’ll be happy to give us a tour of the Legislative Grounds.”
“And we can take him out for lunch,” Kati added. “Wouldn’t that be in character, don’t you think? Jock and his pet off-worlder trying to suck up to the Family Senator by buying him lunch?”
“Sure, why not? And that’ll give us a chance to talk somewhere where we won’t be overheard by the government’s electronic spy-ears.”
“Ah, spy-ears. I can detect those, remember? I can sense them, pin-point their location, and even destroy them if it’s necessary, and not too disruptive.”
“You can warn us when it’s not safe to speak freely,” Jock said. “That’ll be useful around the Legislature, believe me.
“Let’s start hoofing it in the right direction. A half an hour’s walk—even on your short legs—should get us there. In time for a late lunch.”
*****
Uncle Kelt welcomed them at his office in the Legislative Building. An aging, gregarious Vultairian, he wore the bright tabard of the Exalted in the Carmaks colours, and adorned with the Family crest. He welcomed Kati warmly, and did not comment on Jock’s lack of Family insignia.
He grilled Jock about things in Ithcar: how did the harvest seem to be coming along, how was the paper production doing, and how did the grape crops for wine look? What was the mood of the locals in Carmakville, and how were Hector, Marina and their children? He queried after Carmaks whose names Kati did not recognize. He chuckled to hear that Jock had joined Kati’s musical Troupe for the Capital City leg of their tour.
Kati noted that in spite of his volubility, Kelt Carmaks asked only questions to which anyone could have found the answers. She got the Granda to do a quick ESP sweep of the room, and found a half-a-dozen bugs in the walls and the ceiling. The Four Hundred had spent a lot of coin to spy on the people they distrusted, even those who were, in fact, members of their own class.
On Assignment to the Planet of the Exalted Page 52
