Jock smirked as he dug in his pockets for what was left of the coin he and Kati had earmarked for the night, and the decent sum that the betting had added to it. Kati could guess what was going through his mind: the Desotes had a reputation for having mismanaged their province—like the Carmaks they had a whole province under their jurisdiction.
Jock handed the cash over to Morgon with a wink at Kati; they had agreed much earlier that if they could get to witness one of the “Klenser enjoyments” any and all money it took would be coin well spent. Morgon took it avidly, looking surprised after he had counted it.
“Music business must be profitable these days,” he said with a smirk.
Jock shrugged.
“It’s keeping us housed and fed. And with Kati’s information—the same as she gave to you—I managed to make as many shrewd bets as you and Dani did. You’re looking at the profits of those wagers.”
“And you’re going to spend it showing yourselves a good time? Not worried about annoying your fellow musicians?” Dani asked, her eyebrows up.
This time it was Kati who shrugged.
“I’m the Troupe Leader,” she said casually. “If Jock and I want to spend our race track winnings having fun, we do so. If somebody has a problem with it, they can argue it with me.”
“Hah!” Dani grinned. “I thought that you off-worlders were big on power-sharing!”
“Some are, some aren’t,” Kati replied with another shrug. “Joaley, the red-headed rikah-player can get a little difficult at times, because she wants more control, but I can manage her.”
“Now who’s talking arrogantly?” The Monk muttered.
“Just trying to fit my utterances to the company I keep,” Kati retorted subvocally, even as she noticed an amused expression crossing Jock’s visage.
The arrival of the flit saved her, and all four of them piled in, Morgon into the pilot’s seat.
“Wear your seat belt and hang on tight,” Jock whispered to Kati as the male Desote took hold of the controls. “This’ll be a ride to unsettle your stomach, unless I miss my guess.”
*****
The flight was frightening. Kati silently swore to the Granda that there was no way she would accept a flit ride back home from either of the Desotes. A lot of flits and flyers left the Racing Park at the same time, and Morgon used the opportunity to show off. Since most of the other flit operators were doing precisely the same thing, the air quickly filled with ducking and overflying machines, pirouetting, and circling one another. Near-collisions abounded; they were frequent enough that Kati decided that the flits must have been programmed to avoid each other. Surely if that was not so, their vehicle would have turned into a tangled wreck before they made it out of the Park! She requested The Monk to remind her to ask Jock about it later, when they weren’t hanging upside down in the air!
Blessedly, the flying distance to the Desotes’ abode, a row house with a flyer shelter behind it, was not long. The larger vehicle into which the four transferred, did not lend itself to the crazy antics the flit did, although the trip to the Klenser Farm was hardly sedate.
The Farm that Morgon took them to was not the one the Troupe had walked by on their way into the City. This one was even larger than the one that Kati had seen, and not nearly as quiet, at least not at this late hour. Apparently, whoever was in charge, made a practise of “renting out” the living stock, and there were a number of flyers already parked in the yard. A few of their Exalted owners were already climbing back into them with their rentals, and some of these were fondling the half-naked Klensers openly enough to make Kati blush.
“Maxim better not have given out our usuals,” Dani snapped as she watched the plethora of the other flyers while Morgon landed their machine.
“He won’t have,” Morgon said. “He knows that we come by on Race Days—most of them. And he’s got lots of stock; not too many of his herd are off-world earning Federation Scrip right now. I heard Molli tell someone that business was slow.”
Kati reminded The Monk to record everything that she was seeing, and the Granda retorted that by now she ought to know that she was not dealing with a fool in her head.
“Of course I’m recording everything,” he ended the subvocalization.
The Desotes, Jock and Kati exited the flyer, and Morgon led them into a small building which apparently served as the Farm Office. Behind it loomed huge barns and Kati would have given a lot to have been able to tour those barns, but clearly that was not going to happen this night. Uncle Kelt was supposed to be doing that sort of a thing; if Kati and Jock never managed a tour, his nodal record should suffice. Kati exchanged wry smiles with Jock as they hurried to keep up with the enthused Desote couple who were rushing across a grassy expanse to the door of the Office. Inside, chaos seemed to reign.
They entered a room nearly filled with the Exalted, in groups, couples, and sometimes singly. All of them seemed to be making demands on the two Ordinary Citizens, a man and a woman, who were standing behind a short counter with what looked like record-books in front of them. Each was holding a straight pen, and there was an ink-well between them. The man was making notations into the book in front of him, while the woman was standing still, her hands, even the one holding the pen, resting on the counter in front of her. She was looking at the nobility in front of her with something close to an angry sneer on her face.
“We can get through quickly,” Morgon said to his companions in a low mutter. “We have enough money to pay for the night’s rental outright, so we can deal with Kara instead of having to wait our turn with Sebas, and listen while he goes on about the money we already owe.”
“Well, let’s push our way to Kara,” Dani responded. “Then we’ll find out if Scoon and Tess are still here. I’m going to be furious if they’ve been given to someone else. After all, we’re paying the night’s rent outright in cash. We deserve to get our pick of the Klensers!”
Kati glanced at Jock who rolled his eyes at her, and grinned sardonically.
“I trust we’ll get our money’s worth of nodal records,” he leaned down to whisper to her.
Dani was already forcing her way through the crowd to the counter where the female worker stood. Morgon followed her, and Jock and Kati trailed him, even as The Monk paid careful attention to all that was happening around Kati.
“Hey, Kara, are Scoon and Tess still here?” Dani asked as soon as she reached the counter. “You and Sebas better not have rented them out to someone else, tonight.”
Kara gave Dani a cold stare.
“They’re still here, Exalted Citizen Desote,” she replied formally. “However, I only deal with the leasers who have cash on hand, so you will have to wait in line to conduct business with Sebas.”
“Oh, but we have enough coin to pay for them outright, tonight,” Dani said smugly. “Morgon, isn’t that right?”
“But I suppose that’s all you have?” Kara queried, her voice still cold. “You have nothing to put towards the debt you two have already built up, do you now?”
“We might have a coin or two to put towards that,” Morgon said sourly, as he pulled out the money that Jock had given him.
“No, Morgon,” Dani hissed at him, in a voice too low for a person without a node to hear. “We should save the extra for the next time.”
“It hardly matters,” Morgon hissed back to her. “They’ll get our extra money eventually anyway.”
He pushed his way to stand beside his wife and slapped the bills and the coins on the counter.
“Send for Scoon and Tess,” he imperiously ordered the woman behind it.
Instead of answering or complying, she raked the money towards herself, counting it as she did so.
“Fine,” she said coolly when she was done. “It’s enough, and even works down your debt to the government a tiny bit.”
She looked like she would have loved to have asked how the Desotes came by the cash; then she caught sight of Kati waiting with Jock behind the couple, and he
r eyes widened. Kati grinned at her, even as she wanted to laugh out loud. Kara drew a deep breath, and turned to look behind her, shouting someone’s name even as she did so. Another worker appeared; she gave him the instruction to fetch Scoon and Tess for the Desotes from the barns.
“They’ll be outside,” she said to Dani and Morgon. “You might as well wait for them out there since it’s so busy in here.”
Kati felt Kara’s eyes on her as she made her way back through the crowd and out the door with Jock and the Desotes.
“So how does that work?” she asked the Exalted couple as they waited on the grass for their rentals, along with a few other groups and individuals. “Why is one of the two workers doing almost all the work while the other one just stands there?”
“Oh, if you can pay cash, you get priority service,” Morgon explained. “The Barns are run by the government, so no Exalted Citizen is denied access to the stock, but they try to encourage people to pay up, by making you line up, and wait for service if you can’t pay cash. The workers love it because they get to look at their betters with contempt, and make them wait when they don’t have ready money. It’s disgusting, but the Senate refuses to do anything about it; they claim that the government needs the rental money and if we want fast service we should pay for it.”
“Not all of us live in rich provinces like the Carmaks do,” Dani added petulantly. “Many of us are constantly short of cash.”
“My colleagues and I travelled through Ithcar on our tour,” Kati said. “It’s a well-run place. The people living there are happy and productive. If the Carmaks are doing all right, money-wise, it looked to me like it’s because they deserve to.”
“If I had my way,” Dani snapped, “The government would take that province away from the Carmaks and split whatever proceeds there are among the loyal Exalted. That should be done with the property of the other dissidents as well.”
“Now, Dani,” Morgon said uneasily. “Remember the company we’re in.”
“I’ll speak my mind if I want to,” his wife objected. “Fact is, that I think the Senate and the Councils are much too lenient with those of our Class who disagree with the majority views. They are being allowed to get rich while some of the rest of us grow poorer all the time.”
“Yeah, well,” Jock said lightly. “The Senate and the Councils know that they’d have to buy a lot more stuff off-world if they didn’t leave alone those of us who actually manage to keep our jurisdictions productive. Just to cite one example, every scrap of paper that the government uses comes from our mills in Ithcar. What has your province sold to the government lately, Dani Desote?”
It was probably quite fortunate that the Barn worker herding a pair of Klensers arrived just then, and Dani and Morgon’s interest was abruptly diverted from politics and economics to sex. The Klensers wore leather collars around their necks, and the worker passed the leashes attached to the collars to Morgon while Kati stared in astonishment.
“What did you expect?” The Monk subvocalized. “They’re considered to be animals, after all.”
Kati schooled her face into neutrality while Dani attacked the male Klenser, a handsome, muscular blonde with a vacant face. The Exalted woman slid her hand inside the Klenser’s shorts and began to play with the contents. She was licking her lips, clearly aroused, while the Klenser was apparently not.
“The only problem with these creatures,” she said as they started to walk towards the Desote flyer, “is that it takes so long to get them into the mood. But, once Scoon is hard, he provides me with pleasure for hours!”
“A woman has an advantage when it comes to playing with Klensers,” Morgon complained. “With us men, no matter how perfect the body you’re playing with, once you’re done, you’re done.”
Dani giggled.
“That’s why I prefer we play with the Klensers, my dear. Scoon never falls asleep on me like you do.”
“That’s only because he’s never fully awake, my dear” her husband retorted.
Kati felt nauseous as she climbed into the flyer after the Desotes had carefully stowed their rentals in there, and Dani had settled next to the male to continue her attentions to him. Morgon climbed back into the pilot’s seat, and Jock elected to take the seat beside him, after giving Kati a quick, reassuring pat on her hand.
The Granda began to soothe the nerves of Kati’s digestive system, and to her relief, Kati’s feelings of wanting to throw up all over Dani Desote slowly eased up. She could then pay proper attention to the twosome in collars, and do her job.
The female Klenser—it was easier for her to start with the woman since she sat alone, although Morgon had the loose end of the attached leash wrapped around his wrist—was a lovely specimen of the Vultairian humankind. Kati guessed her to be young, even younger than Kaya had been, barely out of her teens. She had made the climb into the flyer easily and surely at Morgon’s prompting, but now she sat with her eyes closed, looking to be in a trance. She was barefoot, and wearing nothing but a scanty shift of some flimsy material which left her small breasts, shapely arms, wasp waist and rounded hips and buttocks, as well as the long, well-muscled legs, visible to an ogler. She seemed totally unconscious of this, sitting completely at ease in her seat in spite of the collar and the leash, her attention centred on something inward, and ignoring the indignity of her outward situation.
Kati studied her for a few moments, allowing The Monk to get a good, long image for his records, and then she turned to do the same with the male—and Dani, who had resumed trying to arouse him as soon as the two were seated. The blond man was young, too, and extremely muscular, even as the Klensers Kati had seen at the Rebel Base had been. He had none of Zass’s alertness, however; like his female compatriot, he seemed to be in a trance and completely unaware of his surroundings, even of the Exalted woman who was hungrily caressing his genitals. Watching Dani, who had tied the Klenser’s leash around her waist after Morgon had handed it to her, play with her live sex doll, Kati resolved, once again, to see changes take place on the planet before she left it. The Forest Spirit was right; Vultaire was badly out of balance. The insanity of a situation in which the arrogant and stupid Desotes were members of the Ruling Elite, while beautiful creatures like Tess and Scoon, with their unique talents, were treated as herd animals, was staggering.
*****
Kati did not last long in the Desote couple’s messy bedroom. She and Jock got the nodal records that they had come for: Dani Desote having sex with Scoon whose sex organ had finally grown usable, but who seemed entranced otherwise; and Morgon performing what, as far as Kati was concerned, was rape, upon Tess’s unresponsive body. When Morgon rolled off Tess and told Jock that it was his turn, Kati’s earlier nausea returned with a vengeance, and Jock told the male Desote that he would have to pass, and take Kati away. Perhaps Klenser enjoyments weren’t her thing, after all.
Morgon merely shrugged. He did not offer to reimburse Jock for any of the money that the Carmaks had spent on services not rendered.
*****
“So, have you had enough of the Exalted decadence, Kati of Terra?” Jock asked, later, when The Monk had soothed away Kati’s nausea, and they were walking towards Nelli’s Inn.
“Enough to make me want to run off to Ithcar, as I gather you did some time ago,” Kati replied. “I’m glad to be out of the Desotes’ company but I feel rotten about Scoon and Tess, left to be their toys until noon.”
“There’s nothing either of us could have done about that tonight,” Jock sighed. “We’ll just have to do our best to get what we’ve recorded to the notice of that Official Investigation you’ve been talking about. If there’s enough pressure from the Federation, as well as from the Ordinary Citizens, that is, the Rebels, maybe all this idiocy can be brought to a halt.
“I need to believe that,” he added softly. “Otherwise I really don’t see the point in anything.”
He sounded somewhat despondent, and Kati looked at him sharply.
�
��It’s a pity we gave all our money to those two for the Klensers,” she said. “Otherwise we could have stopped at that all-night Bistro I see ahead of us, to fortify ourselves with a meal, and maybe a glass of something. It’s been a long time since supper and the Desotes weren’t exactly hospitable to their paying guests.”
That drew a laugh out of Jock. He put his hand inside his tunic, drawing out a few bills from an inside pocket.
“That’s a really first-class idea, Kati, and it so happens that it’s perfectly doable. I held out on Morgon and Dani, knowing full well that they would under no circumstances return change to us. I think that what we have here will buy us a meal and a mug or two of ale each, and we’ll feel better for having them.”
“It’s a pity there’s nothing resembling public transport or taxi-cabs in this burg,” Kati sighed. “If there were, we could ride to Nelli’s and make a pleasant meal from Joaley’s left-overs, while we regaled the rest of the Troupe with our stories of gambling and sexual decadence. Oh well, we do the best we can with what’s available, and the Bistro up ahead looks like a fine place, even at this ridiculous hour. The others will hear our tales later.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Early the next morning Kati found herself tossing and turning in her bed, unable to fall asleep again, in spite of how exhausting the previous day had been. She glared in the direction of Joaley’s bed, through the dark, envying the red-head for her peaceful rest.
“What’s the matter with me?” she subvocalized to The Monk, sitting up. “Can’t you relax me enough to go back to sleep? Or was there something in the food Jock and I ate in that Bistro that didn’t agree with me?”
“There’s something in the atmosphere,” The Monk responded. “A disturbance in the aura around you. I’m not quite sure, but I get the sense that the Forest Spirit is trying to alert you to something that puzzles it. Maybe you should put on some clothes and go outside; find a place that has enough growing plants that the Spirit can manifest, and explain itself.”
On Assignment to the Planet of the Exalted Page 58
