B002D48NTG EBOK Page 10

"Did you find out how much the diamonds were insured for?"

  "That's a little problematical," answered Forrice. "They have a blanket policy covering all their shipments from Blantyre IV at ninety percent of market value. They don't insure each batch separately."

  "Okay, we can work from there," said Cole. "How about the jewelry?"

  "Still working on it. It's harder to find, since they belonged to an individual rather than a publicly traded or Republic-owned company. I imagine we'll know within a Standard day or two. Christine is much better at this kind of detail work than I am. Once she takes charge during white shift, it ought to go a little faster."

  "All right," said Cole. "Now tell Morales I want to meet him in the mess hall."

  "I think he's there already."

  "Tell him to stay there. I'll join him in just a minute or two."

  Cole broke the connection, walked to the bathroom, splashed some cold water on his face, left his cabin, and took the airlift up to the mess hall. Esteban Morales was sitting alone at a small table, staring at him.

  "Good morning," said Cole. "Or afternoon. Or evening. Whatever your schedule is."

  "Hello, sir," said Morales. "Mr. Forrice told me you wanted to see me?"

  "Four Eyes is a lot of things good and bad," said Cole with a smile, "but I'm pretty sure `Mister' isn't one of them."

  "I'm sorry, sir."

  "I was just commenting, not correcting." He stared at Morales for a moment. "I'm betting you're too young to have ever served in the military. Am I right?"

  "Yes." Then, "Excuse me. I meant yes, sir."

  "You're still not in the military," said Cole. "Forget about the sir."

  "Yes, sir," said Morales. "I mean, yes."

  "I've got a job for you," continued Cole. "It's simple enough, but it just so happens that you're the only person aboard the ship who can do it."

  "Oh?" said Morales, unable to hide his excitement. "What is it?"

  "I want you to rent a small ship. One-man or two-man, no bigger."

  "Rent a ship?" repeated Morales, disappointed. "Anyone can do that."

  "Yeah, but you're the only one who can do it in the Republic without getting arrested."

  "I don't understand, sir." Morales fidgeted awkwardly. "I mean, I don't understand."

  "If you're more comfortable calling me sir, go ahead and do it," said Cole. "I just wanted you to know that you don't have to." He ordered a sandwich from the floating menu, then returned his attention to Morales. "Every other member of the crew is either a mutineer, or helped break a mutineer out of the brig, stole the Teddy R, and fled to the Inner Frontier. If anyone else on the ship tries to do anything requiring identification, they'll set off alarms from here all the way to Deluros."

  "I don't have any money, sir," replied Morales. "I Joined the Achilles when I was fifteen, and Captain Windsail didn't pay us very often or very well."

  "That's not a problem," answered Cole. "We'll give you enough money to rent it for a day or two. But you're the only one whose ID won't be connected with the Teddy R."

  "I'm happy to do it, sir," said Morales. "But we have our own starship and three functioning shuttles. Why do you need to rent a ship?"

  "We've done what we can to erase all traces of the ship's and shuttles' registration, but they're close to a century old, and there can't be that many military vessels of this age still in service. Most people don't know it or think about it, but the Navy doesn't sell old ships to private parties; it salvages what it can and then scraps them. So if I land in the shuttle, or orbit the world we're going to in the Teddy R, there's always the possibility that someone will be bright enough to report it to the authorities, and the world I'm going to is four hundred lightyears into the Republic; if there's a Navy ship anywhere in the area, we probably can't outrace it to the Frontier, and we sure as hell can't outgun it. And even if we reach the Frontier ahead of it, it doesn't have to stop when it's in hot pursuit-especially against the one ship that the Republic wants even more than they want the enemy."

  "I'll rent a two-man ship and come with you, sir," said Morales.

  "I'm going alone. It's a one-man job."

  "If you're disabled in any way, you'll need someone to pilot the ship."

  "If I'm disabled, I'm not going to be able to get back to the ship."

  "Sure you will," said Morales. "You're Wilson Cole. We heard all about you, even on the Frontier."

  "You never heard that I made a getaway after being torn up by pulse and laser blasts," said Cole.

  "Just the same, I think I should come, sir," continued Morales. "What if the spaceport insists that the pilot be the man who rented the ship?"

  "All right, Mr. Morales, that's a valid point," admitted Cole. "You'll come along. But you won't leave the ship once we touch down."

  "How soon do you need me to rent the ship, sir?" asked Morales.

  "As soon as possible. The Teddy R can only enter so many more atmospheres before it burns up or falls apart, so take the shuttle."

  "I could leave it as collateral," suggested Morales.

  Cole shook his head. "I don't want to give anyone a full day to identify it. I'll assign a crew member to take you down and drop you off. The shuttle will stay on the planet until you signal it that you've got the ship."

  "Then should I follow it back up to the Teddy R?"

  "Take a good look at it," said Cole. "If it looks like transferring from here to there will be easy, follow the shuttle up. If not-and most of these oneand two-man jobs were never designed to transfer people or anything else between ships-then tell whoever's piloting the shuttle to bring me back down and I'll get onto the ship at the spaceport."

  "So should I leave right now?" asked Morales.

  "Check with Four Eyes, or if it's close to white shift, with Christine Mboya, have whoever's in command spot the next inhabited planet along our route and radio ahead to make sure you can rent a ship, and then take it from there." He raised his voice. "You paying attention to all this, Colonel Blacksmith?"

  Sharon's image suddenly appeared. "Yes."

  "Pick a crew member-not Christine, and not yourself-to go down with Mr. Morales when he's ready to procure a ship."

  "How's he going to pay for it?"

  "How much does a ship cost to rent?"

  Sharon laughed. "You've been in the service too long, Wilson."

  "What does that mean?"

  "It means I'll bet you've never rented a ship, or even an aircar."

  "You'd win," said Cole. "What am I missing?"

  "They're going to want a refundable deposit. They may only charge you a thousand credits or so for a day, but they're not about to trust a total stranger with a three-hundred-thousand-credit spaceship without a substantial deposit."

  "We haven't got that much money on the Teddy R. That's what we're renting a ship for, so we can go get it." He lowered his head in thought for a moment. "Okay, here's what we'll do. I'll give Mr. Morales half a dozen diamonds. That should be a sufficient deposit. And I'll send Bull Pampas and Braxite and maybe the tall woman who's never in the science lab when I need her-what's her name?- Idena Mueller. Might as well give her something to do."

  "What, for instance?" asked Sharon.

  "I should have thought that would be obvious," answered Cole. "If they won't accept the diamonds, we're going to steal the ship."

  "And take it to a planet that'll be on the lookout for it?" demanded Sharon.

  "We'll have Bull, Braxite, and Mueller stay there and explain, gently but firmly, that the ship will be returned within one Standard day and, as long as the people connected with the rental agency are reasonable and behave themselves, they'll be paid their fee plus a bonus."

  "And if they're not?"

  "Then the fee will go to their survivors and we'll keep the bonus."

  "You'd really kill them?"

  "Hell, no," said Cole. "But I won't tell them if you won't. And you have to admit that Bull and Braxite are pretty impressive-looking specimens of th
eir respective races."

  "Then why send Idena Mueller at all?"

  "There might be twenty employees. You might have a female customer in the ladies' room when they make their threats, a customer who can contact the cops. That's not to say that Sokolov or some other man can't do the job, but why upset people more than we have to?"

  "That from a guy who's going to threaten to kill them," said Sharon in amused tones.

  "I know from many long and vigorous nights spent together that subtlety isn't your strong point," said Cole, "but there's a difference between killing them and threatening to kill them."

  "Were you being subtle last night before or after you-?"

  "Don't say it," he interrupted. "You'll shock our newest crew member. Just contact the three I mentioned and have them standing by."

  Her image vanished and he turned back to Morales. "Okay, come with me to the science lab."

  "The science lab?"

  "Yeah. That's where I've stashed the diamonds."

  "Is there any particular reason why?"

  "Yeah. In all the time I've been aboard the Teddy R, I have never seen anyone willingly go there. At least, once I made sure they couldn't stash their drug supplies there."

  "They took drugs?"

  "Once upon a time," said Cole. Suddenly his face hardened, and there was something cold, almost frightening, about his eyes. "Not anymore."

  For the first time Morales saw some hint of what made this very pleasant man the most decorated officer in the Fleet-and even why the Fleet would declare him its greatest enemy.

  "I'm sorry, sir," said Morales as the two-man ship sped toward New Madrid.

  "It wasn't your fault," replied Cole. "No honest man was ever going to take those diamonds as a deposit." He shrugged. "It was just our bad luck-and his-that we ran up against an honest man."

  "And his?" repeated Morales. "Are you going to kill him when we get back?"

  "No, of course not," said Cole. "But if he'd been a reasonable man, not made a fuss, and promised to keep his mouth shut, I'd have left him a diamond or two. We're going to need to rent ships again; it would have been nice to find someone we could trust. Now that we know he's going to turn over descriptions and any holodisks he's got of the four of you to the authorities, I figure he's blown a very handsome tip. Which reminds me," he added, "when we return the ship and pick up Bull and the others, let's go over every inch of that place and see if we can find and destroy any images he's got of us."

  "He doesn't have any of you, sir."

  "I've got half a trillion Men out for my scalp, and almost as many Teronis," responded Cole. "One more enemy doesn't really make a hell of a lot of difference." He looked at the controls. "How much longer?"

  "At this multiple of light, maybe six more hours," announced Morales. "If I can find the wormhole Wxakgini told me exists just outside the Romeo system, maybe forty minutes."

  "Look for it. I hate shuttle food."

  Cole got up and began walking toward the back of the shuttle.

  "Is something wrong, sir?" asked Morales.

  "No sense both of us being bored," replied Cole. "I'm going to take a nap. Wake me when we get there."

  Morales tried to find the wormhole, but he lacked Wxakgini's skills, and it was six hours later that he woke Cole and announced that they were in orbit around New Madrid, had been cleared to land, and would be touching down in about five minutes.

  Cole stood up, stretched, and sent a message to the New Madrid branch of the Pilargo Company, asking for an appointment with whomever was in charge of the office. He refused to answer any questions, and merely said that it was a matter of major importance. When the reception robot was reluctant to make an appointment, he asked for the name and address of the largest rival insurance company on the planet. That got a human response, and by the time the ship had landed his meeting was confirmed.

  "Are you going to take the diamonds with you?" asked Morales, looking at the small case.

  "And have them taken away at gunpoint?" replied Cole with a smile. "Not a chance. We'll leave them right here."

  "In the ship?"

  "I'd love to put them in a locker at the spaceport and just trade the combination for the cash, but they'd be crazy to make the deal before they knew the combination was valid-and once they knew it, we're back to the same scenario: they take the diamonds, hold a gun on me, and call the cops. At least this way we can make sure no one's armed before we let them aboard, and I get back to the ship in one piece."

  "Do you think they'll go for it?"

  "To save a few million credits? Absolutely. They'll make sure they can identify the ship, and I'm sure you had to give its registration number when you got permission to land, but since it's not our ship and we're never going to see it again after tomorrow, we don't really care about that."

  "How long should I wait, sir?" asked Morales. "In case something goes wrong?"

  "Well, let's see. I gather that once I clear Customs I should get to their office within five minutes. Give me two hours to negotiate. They're going to bluster and threaten and scream bloody murder before they give in. We'll give them another hour, tops, to get the money from their bank." He paused, considering everything that could delay him. "If I'm not back in four Standard hours, I'll try to contact you and give you the order to take off."

  "You'll try?"

  "If they decide to grill me, shall we say, forcefully, they'll probably remove my communicator." And half my skin. He picked it off his belt, where it had been bonded, and laid it down. "Come to think of it, I'm better off without it. I don't want anyone to be able to home in on the signal, or send you a false message. After all, I'm just the negotiator; the treasure's right here on the ship. Just remember: wait four hours, and if I'm not back, take off."

  "If I do, I'll be back tomorrow with the Teddy R."

  "That's a command decision," replied Cole, "and if I'm not there, Four Eyes will be the one to make it. Let's assume that these are all hypotheticals and that I'm going to be back in an hour or two loaded down with money."

  Cole walked to the hatch, climbed down to the ground, and walked to Customs and Immigration. He used an ID that he'd picked up before disposing of the Achilles' crew members, and Sharon had altered it to match his voiceprint, thumbprint, and retinagram. It wouldn't pass muster on Deluros VIII or any of the more populated worlds of the Republic, but he was pretty sure he could get away with it out here, so close to the Inner Frontier. He knew that within a day or two-hopefully even longer-some computer somewhere would latch onto the fact that Sales Representative Roger Cowin and mutineer Wilson Cole had the same retinagram and looked an awful lot alike, but he felt he was safe for the next few hours, which was all he cared about.

  He caught public transportation to take him into the nearby city, then asked a glowing street sign how to find the Pilargo Company, waited while it printed out a holomap with audio instructions, and soon entered the insurance company's premises.

  There was a shining silver robot sitting at the reception desk.

  "May I help you?" it asked in lilting feminine tones.

  "My name is Roger Cowin," said Cole. "I have an appointment with a Mr. Taniguchi."

  "I will inform him that you are here." The robot was motionless for some twenty seconds. "He will see you now. His office is at the end of the corridor on your left."

  "Thank you," said Cole, but the robot gave no indication that it had heard him. He walked down the corridor, came to the last office, and waited for the door to iris and let him pass through. He found himself confronting a heavyset man with thinning black hair and a goatee that was too neatly trimmed, that looked more like paint or makeup than hair.

  "Mr. Cowin?" said the man, rising and extending his hand.

  "That's right," said Cole, taking and shaking it.

  "And I am Hector Taniguchi."

  "I'm pleased to meet you."

  "Our computer says that we have never had any dealings with you before, Mr. Cowin. You c
laim to be a sales representative, though you did not identify your company. I am wondering why you feel you have to speak to me personally, rather than our purchasing director."

  "I think what I'm selling may be a little out of his bailiwick," said Cole.

  "Oh?" said Taniguchi, trying unsuccessfully to hide his interest.

  "Yes. But first I wonder if you have a Neverlie Machine on the premises?"

  Taniguchi frowned. "Most major companies have one. It's not as sophisticated as the ones the police have, of course, but it's functional."

  "Good. Before we begin, I'd like you to ask me two questions while the machine is monitoring my answers. Once you're convinced that I'm telling the truth, we can proceed with our business."

  "You make this sound quite intriguing, Mr. Cowin," said Taniguchi. "Have we any business to transact?"

  "Oh, yes," Cole assured him. "We very definitely have business to transact."

  Taniguchi summoned a subordinate and had Cole hooked up to the machine two minutes later.

  "What now, Mr. Cowin?"

  Cole took a small cube out of his pocket and handed it to Taniguchi. "Have your man leave us alone. Then put this in your computer. It contains two questions. I will answer only those and no others while I'm tied to the machine. If you ask me any other while the machine is monitoring me, I will walk out of this office and you will never see me again."

  "Will that be such a terrible thing?" asked Taniguchi.

  "Lose your assistant, ask the questions, and then you can decide."

  Taniguchi nodded to his subordinate, who silently left the room. Then he inserted the cube and read the questions, frowning as he did so.

  "Mr. Cowin," said Tanaguchi, "have you ever been to Blantyre IV?"

  "No, I have not," said Cole.

  "Did you steal four hundred and sixteen uncut diamonds from Blantyre IV, or kill anyone who worked for the mining company there?"

  "No, I did not," said Cole. He paused. "What does the machine say?"

  "That you're telling the truth."

  "Okay. Unhook me."

  "I'd like to know if-"

  "If you finish that question while I'm still tied to the machine, I'm leaving," said Cole. I hope that sounds convincing. You're probably the only guy alive who'll pay me more than five percent. I'd never walk out, but hopefully you won't figure that out too soon.