Another Word for Magic

by Mackey Chandler

  “Hush you,” Jan rebuked him sharply. “Everybody has to start somewhere. I’m going to regard this as a keepsake. It’s my first money earned on Derfhome. I’ve worked security before but it was always more administrative. I only got… hands-on, in occasional bouts of over-enthusiasm. I seem to be starting at the bottom again.”

  “Oh…. I’ve been snookered already,” Mel concluded from the byplay. He wasn’t stupid.

  “Indeed, I predict we are precipitating an extraordinary episode of price inflation,” Jan admitted. “I have no advice on avoiding it except to grab every asset you can early to stay ahead of it.”

  “How much did I overpay?” Mel asked.

  “Not a bit. I predict Xerxes’ rate will be ten dollars a day by tomorrow,” Jan said. “And look at the bargain you got with me today. That will never be repeated.”

  “I’ll cherish the experience,” Mel promised.

  * * *

  “How does this change our mission?” Kirk asked Pam Harvac anxiously.

  “Why should it change our mission?” she countered.

  “Define what you think our mission is for me,” Kirk requested.

  “Our Director, Wilson, was concerned the purchases of biologicals by Central might indicate they planned a strike on Earth capable of destroying entire ecosystems. A continental strike on North America at least. Possibly a hemispheric attack or even one that would touch every corner of the Earth. We didn’t get into arguments about what constitutes an extinction event, but anything that didn’t spare kudzu or crabgrass would be pretty rough on people.”

  “Since they didn’t initiate such a wide attack even when Nor… when our nation attempted to wipe out all three habitats, isn’t the danger past?” Kirk Fuldheim asked.

  “My goodness no,” Pamela said. The very notion seemed to surprise her. “I can see several ways the danger has increased. What was the biggest surprise of this whole sequence of events?” Pam demanded.

  “I’m not sure I can pick any one thing,” Kirk said, avoiding the question.

  “Well, why were we sent instead of depending on our intelligence services?”

  “Oh, Wilson was very clear on that. He doesn’t expect to be on the inside for any real information. Everybody without any special leverage gets the mushroom treatment. Kept in the dark and fed crap. I have to agree, I think they cut us out worse than our actual enemies. They at least have some intelligence of par value to trade.”

  “Look how true that was,” Pam told him. “We had no clue they were going to attack the Spacer habitats. They have enough access to the top tiers of government that they should have known. Now, has our situation improved in any way? Do we suddenly have any better idea about what they may do next?”

  “No, but I thought things should be quiet for a while. Home is here, and word in the news services is that the other habs left too. So, what could either side do? If they were going to attack Earth they would have stayed there and done so instead of running away. What else would our agencies do to provoke them now that they have fled?”

  “We don’t know, do we? But if you haven’t noticed, let me point out that moving a huge habitat to another star system is beyond our abilities. They can also do it faster. They don’t even try to hide that if you check the dates they gave in the news reports about them leaving the Solar System. We haven’t heard anything but their side of the story and nothing about what has happened since they left. The news they shared here is all from the perspective of public sources that had the move imposed on them as a surprise.

  “Their leadership hasn’t felt any need to issue statements. It will be days before conventional jump ships bring us web fractions that have the old news stories from Earth sources. We have no idea what our government’s response has been to failing to destroy them. I also doubt that Central was satisfied to simply move the habitats out of harm's way and make no response. The Moon Queen, from everything I have heard, isn’t that nice.”

  “You think they would attack Central again?” Kirk asked. “That didn’t work out very well for the Chinese. I’m no geopolitical strategist, but that would be an incredibly dangerous thing to do.”

  “I don’t know. When we first came out here, I was naïve and expected better of people than I do now. I’ve kind of grown up and know now that they can do incredibly stupid things. It appears I may have become even more cynical than you,” Pam said with a sudden smile at that self-revelation. “I’m content to maintain our assignment and improve our cover business. Truth is, I think we are probably safer here than back in North America. If they wish to change our mission or withdraw us, they can find some way to tell us. Bureaucratic inertia being what it is, if we just don’t create any problems, they should be too busy to worry about us.”

  “That’s a good attitude,” Kirk decided. “I won’t borrow trouble as they say. When we were on the way here, I was expecting it to be a hardship post. Then just a couple of months ago I was fretting about when we’d get recalled and my time with you would be over for the foreseeable future. I need to learn to just go with the flow and agonize less over things way over my pay grade and out of my control.”

  Pam gave him a tight possessive hug. “I not only recommend that,” she said in his ear, “as your supervisor, I’ll make it an order. It’s now your official duty to chill out.”

  Chapter 9

  The building in which the Earth lawyers, King and Burnstein, had offices was an odd mix of Human custom and traditional Derf architecture that wasn’t seen much yet. The idea of combining residential and commercial space was common, as was office space on a shop or plant. Splitting the use of a large building between many offices had never taken hold because large businesses that existed to handle data and shuffle paper didn’t exist. Neither did vast bureaucracies or government agencies for military or regulatory oversight.

  The building was perched high on the hillside with a small parking lot on the uphill side. A single row of spaces served since most people would be using car services. The building was long and thin because all the offices had a view over the river valley holding Derfhome.

  “This is nicer than my bank,” Xerxes said. “How can they possibly afford this?”

  “If their business is like most Earth law firms, they only have a portion of the building,” Mel said. “That’s a very common arrangement.”

  “I bet it is mostly Human businesses then,” Xerxes predicted. “I’d never feel comfortable sharing a building with unrelated businesses. Excuse me if it offends but it seems low class.”

  “Don’t be shy to tell me things like that,” Mel said. “Learning the Derf way of looking at things is exactly why I hired you. But we’re dealing with Humans here so just hold the car.”

  As he expected, the guide to the occupants in the lobby bore out Xerxes' prediction. There was a clear majority of Human names and English business names on the directory. The lobby went straight through to a glass wall three stories high with a wonderful view. There was no elevator but Derf width stairs went up to a balcony on both sides and down to a lower level with a bridge at the middle entry and upper level. Somebody was bright enough to split the stairs into half steps for Humans that Derf could take two at a time. King and Burnstein were on the walk-in level.

  “I don’t know the market, but this is nice,” Mel said. “There just isn’t that much trade to this world to support expensive consultation services. At least before we arrived. How can they afford this?” It didn’t seem a rhetorical question at all, as Mel addressed it directly to Jan with a piercing gaze.

  Jan gave an indifferent shrug. Everything about him was low-key.

  “You can ask quite directly. That often works rather than dancing around it.”

  “I might,” Mel said. He made it sound like a threat.

  The office had glass doors with handles and their names in gold leaf on the right door. With no entry pad or screen, it seemed an invitation to come in. The door was unlocked when Mel tried it but he stopped
just inside, uncomfortable to go further until he called out.

  There were a couple of leather library chairs and big leather sofas to the left, turned toward each other for talking but all favoring the window wall and view. They were all sized for Humans so that indicated their expected clientele. The window was framed by a couple of big frilly plants like ferns and an antique telescope on a tripod was available to examine the town below.

  “Come in,” a voice insisted, and an arm stuck out from behind one of the chairs to wave them in. They were halfway to the setting before the fellow extricated himself from the depths of the chair to turn and greet them. His eyes went to Jan first, lingering, and to Mel like an afterthought.

  “I’m Mel Wainwright,” Mel said forcing his attention to remain on him by offering his hand. “I’d like to talk about your services and possibly retain you. I am contracted to several Homies who intend to have some sort of a permanent presence on Derfhome even if they may move on if Home doesn’t stay here. I’m looking to provide secure residences and services so I need to come up to speed quickly. Derfhome will be a brief stay for some, a retreat and planetary vacation home, or a commercial site and market for others.”

  “You look familiar to me,” King allowed. “But I know your associate. Are you partners or is he one of your clients?”

  “I’m his customer. He’s my security escort. You haven’t looked me up in your spex?”

  “I’m not very skilled at doing extensive searches on my spex and hiding it,” King admitted. “I don’t multi-task well and I think a lot of people who claim to be able to are fooling themselves. I’d rather not offend my customers by seeming distracted and not giving them my full attention. Some of them may assume I’m doing other business rather than attending to their needs. Give me a moment now and I’ll get that out of the way.”

  It wasn’t that long, perhaps a full minute before he returned his attention to them. Mel took the opportunity to look at Jan who made a small affirmative nod without eye contact.

  “OK. You were administrative supervisor over President Wiggen’s residential security, supervisor during her presidency,” King said. “I wouldn’t have bet either way, whether Jan Hagen might have hired you for security instead of the other way around.”

  “I’ve never been one to do hands-on security,” Mel disclaimed. “Oddly, Jan claims the same. But I did remove President Wiggen from the White House when it was attacked.”

  “That sounds pretty hands-on to me,” King said.

  Mel shrugged. “One does what one must. I wasn’t entirely sure all my people were reliable. I had hidden assets none of them knew about, and if you get right down to it, I was rescuing myself as much as her. I’m sure I was on the target list of those coming for her. Is that going to be a problem working for me that I thwarted factions that may still be represented in the current North American government?”

  “Not at all. They probably won’t know we are doing business. We are their source to monitor public events and contracts on Derfhome. I sincerely doubt it’s important enough to have redundancy. If anyone brings it up, we’ll just say we are spying on you. I’m sure we can find some mutually agreeable tidbit to feed them about you that is safe for everyone.”

  Mel’s eyebrows shot up. “You readily admit you work for North America? How can you do that and not be yanked back home immediately?”

  “Do you think we’re going to report our cover is blown?” King asked. “We have a good thing going here. We have a nice safe posting with no risk anyone is going to shoot us in the head or pack explosives in our car service rental as might happen in more adversarial environments. Who we work for is an open secret among the local agencies. We know each other by name. I’ve been told they are happy to know us and keep an eye on us. You have to understand, it isn’t even illegal to be a spy here. The Mothers have never thought to make a law against it. They’d probably think such a law silly. They sensibly seem to avoid making laws they know will just be ignored. If we were recalled they would have to discover who replaced us and learn everything about them from scratch. If a problem arises, we can give our counterparts a call and figure something out before our masters make one or the other of us do something stupid.”

  Jan Hagen smiled and nodded his agreement.

  “We have little to investigate or report we can’t get off the public net and summarize in a few hours every morning. With a little luck, we can stay here until retirement age and retain both personal assets and an ongoing business. Life Extension Therapy is becoming available here and both of us will be able to afford it when we choose to buy it. That isn’t an option back home. We contrived to make our position here secure. Even though USNA dollars aren’t what they used to be, we have managed to get most of our support transferred to local control. Who knows, we may even be able to do that with our retirement pay if things stay stable long enough.”

  “How did you manage that?” Jan inquired. “I managed that by getting my pay routed to a Swiss bank. It must be more difficult with North American funds.”

  “Doing any significant cash transfer would be hard and raise all sorts of red flags,” King said. “But if I order fifty kilos of chocolate and a gross of medium cotton t-shirts at a time on our accounts, it flies right by the tripwires. It’s all gravy at this point so it becomes a game, finding ways to convert funds. When they first sent us out here, we were given carte blanc to buy a safe house to avoid the uncertainty of sending support funds regularly. They didn’t really know real estate values and were used to getting horrible rates of exchange, so we bought this building in my name and have been collecting the rents ever since. It covers our expenses and then some nicely, with no way for them to claw it back.

  “One always finds loose assets doing fieldwork,” Jan agreed. “Good job.”

  Sam Burnstein came in the door just then and showed no surprise at their guests.

  “There’s a Derf sitting racking up time in a rental in the parking lot,” Sam said. “Is he surveilling us? Should I go offer him coffee and a snack and see who employs him? He isn’t near sneaky enough to be a private investigator and I thought everyone else knew us.”

  “He’s ours,” Mel admitted. “He’s not any sort of professional at all, just a native guide. Ignore him because we don’t want him knowing our business or yours.”

  “OK, you’re Homies then,” Sam figured out, “even though you don’t look the part. I just saw a bunch of them in town and they are all dressed strangely and have on ballet slippers that will be in shreds before the end of the day.”

  “We’re former Earthies and Home transplants,” Jan said. “Figure that we never went totally native. I dressed conservatively by habit to be less visible, perhaps it backfired in the present circumstances.”

  “Yeah, a clown suit would have blended better than a one-ounce Italian suit and half-ounce bespoke Spanish shoes. You sure are pretty though,” Sam allowed. “I have entire outfits worth less than that tie.”

  “Sam makes a hobby of being able to discern one’s origins and station in life from one’s dress. He is surprisingly accurate, even with Fargoers, and he’s never been there.”

  “Accurate indeed,” Jan admitted. “But the suit was bought in Singapore, where the Italian tailors will fit you much cheaper than at home and the tie is a Hermes.”

  “New spooks too?” Sam inquired.

  “Close enough. Security professionals of slightly different flavors,” Mel said.

  “We’re thrilled to have Home here,” Sam said. “We’ve been building a consultancy here but there just hasn’t been enough traffic to make it a very big practice. It’s a gift from the heavens.”

  “We pretty much concluded that,” Mel admitted.

  “You hiring us?” Sam asked directly.

  “That is what we were working our way around to with your partner,” Mel said. “We have yet to understand what services you offer. I was told your bank will do things here that expand the envelope way beyond what any
Earth bank will do. Yet there are things I hesitate to ask and areas I may not wish to bring to their attention.”

  “Oh true,” Sam agreed. “Some things we do are very mundane. We know what sort of contracts the Derf will accept and what will be rejected. Their standards are different than Earth's custom. We can help you word them correctly. Oddly, one of the most difficult things to buy on Derfhome is insurance. You can ask your bank to issue a policy, but the sort they feel comfortable writing is much narrower than Earth companies. They regard personal life insurance with suspicion. They don’t have enough people wanting to buy insurance to be able to apply statistics and have valid actuarial tables.

  “If you wish a business insured against loss and disaster your bank may take that as a sign you don’t have confidence in the soundness of the venture. Since contracts are a public matter your insurance policy tells everyone much more about your business than some people like to reveal.”

  “And how do you get around that?” Mel asked.

  “Banks here tend to serve a particular trade. We know how to write a proposal and which bank will entertain such an agreement. There are a couple of banks that serve the clans. They tend to be very conservative but they will take risks that are unlikely to apply to widely scattered clan territories. A bank serving ranchers and farmers tend to have customers in a small enough geographic area that weather disasters would apply to all of their customers and are thus too great a risk. A bank for merchants may accept a certain amount of exposure for weather damage but cap it and refuse any more, over a certain arbitrary ceiling. We know which is which.”

  “We can also guide you to several Fargone businesses that will insure almost anything if they find the odds attractive. There are also a few Human insurers who will pool risk even in other star systems,” King added.

  “Lloyd’s I’d wager,” Jan said.

  “Yes, that’s one, and interesting that you’d phrase it that way,” Bill King said. Some of our Fargoer sources would simply be regarded as bookies on Earth, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t very sophisticated about calculating odds and they have the assets to be safe counter-parties. One we’ve used runs an actual casino, but they will take both sides of a bet, writing one policy to cover you for untimely death, and another to protect you against outliving your retirement assets.”