Colonization_ Aftershocks Part 51

"Well, I don't, either," Rance admitted. "But weather this good this late in the year just doesn't feel right." He coughed, then wheezed out a curse under his breath. Coughing hurt. It always had, ever since he got shot up. It always would, up till the day they buried him. That, or something close to it, was on his mind these days. "Maybe I'm just antsy. d.a.m.ned if I know."

"What's to be antsy about?" Penny asked. "We're doing great-a lot better now that they dropped on good old Pierre. Plenty of business, plenty of customers . . . ."

"Yeah." Auerbach lit a cigarette. That would probably make him cough some more, but he didn't care. No, that wasn't right. He did care, but not enough to make him quit. "Maybe it's just that things are going too good. I keep waiting for the knock on the door at three in the morning."

Penny shook her head. "Not this time. If they didn't grab us when they got Pierre the t.u.r.d, they aren't gonna do it. You and me, sweetie, we're home free."

Now Rance eyed her with more than a little alarm. "Whenever you start thinking like that, you get careless. Remember what happened when we took that little trip down into Mexico? I don't want anything like that happening again. They owe us for a lot more now than they did back then."

"You worry too much," Penny said. "Everything's gonna be fine, you wait and see."

"You don't worry enough," Rance returned. "You go around acting like the Lizards and the Frenchmen can't see us, you're going to find out you're wrong. Then you'll be sorry, and so will I."

"I'm not the one who's been taking chances lately," Penny said. "You're the fellow who blackmailed that Lizard into finding good old Pierre's sister a job. Of course, that was just out of the goodness of your heart. Yeah, sure it was."

"Lay off me on account of that, will you please?" Auerbach said wearily. "I never messed around with her, and you can't say I did no matter how much you want to pin it on me."

"If I could, I'd be gone," Penny answered. "I don't stay where I'm not wanted, believe you me I don't." She glared at him. "But even if you didn't do anything, I could tell you wanted to."

"Oh, for Christ's sake." Rance rolled his eyes. He knew that was overacting, but he needed to overact a little, because Penny wasn't wrong. Picking his words with care and hoping that care didn't show, he said, "She's not ugly, but she's not anything special. I don't know what you're all up in arms about."

"Cut the c.r.a.p, Rance," Penny said crisply. "I'm not blind, and I'm not stupid, either. I said you didn't do anything, but I know how a man looks at a woman, and I know how a man acts around a woman he's sweet on, too. You're not the sort of guy who charges out and does big favors for just anybody."

That held enough truth to hurt if Rance looked at it closely. He limped over to an ashtray and stubbed out the cigarette. Returning the glare Penny'd given him, he answered, "Yeah, that's why I threw you out on your can when you called me up out of a clear blue sky."

"You know how I paid you back, buster." She tugged at her skirt, as if about to pull it off. "Some other gal could do it the same way."

"After what Monique Dutourd went through with that d.a.m.n n.a.z.i, I don't think she pays in that coin," Auerbach said, though he would have been interested in finding out whether he was wrong. "And we've been round this barn before, babe. Like I said, I sicced the Germans on that G.o.dd.a.m.n Roundbush because I wanted a piece of David Goldfarb's a.s.s."

When he'd used that line before, he'd made Penny laugh. Not this time. She said, "You sicced the n.a.z.is on Roundbush because he p.i.s.sed you off. That's the long and short of it."

That also held some truth, but only some. Stubbornly, he said, "I did it because I don't like to see anybody getting a raw deal. That goes for Goldfarb, and it goes for the French gal, too."

"Yeah, a knight in s.h.i.+ning armor," Penny snarled.

"I already told you once, I didn't throw you out when you called me on the phone," Auerbach rasped. "I'll tell you something else, too-I'm getting G.o.dd.a.m.n sick of you ragging on me all the time. You don't like it, leave me half the cash and get your own room and run your own business and leave me the h.e.l.l alone."

"I ought to," she said.

"Go ahead," Rance told her. "Go right ahead. We split up once before. Did you think we were going to last forever this time?" He was spoiling for a fight. He could feel it.

"That'll give you the excuse you need to hop on the next train for Tours and your little professor, won't it?"Penny blazed.

Rance laughed in her face. "I knew you were gonna say that. G.o.d d.a.m.n it to h.e.l.l, I knew you would. But there's something you don't get, sweetheart. If I'm by myself, I don't go to Tours. If I'm by myself, I go to the airport and hop on the first plane I can catch that's heading for the States."

Penny laughed, too, every bit as nastily as he had. "And you last about three days before the guys whose hired goons you plugged find out you're back and fill you full of holes for payback."

He shook his head. "I don't think so. Once I'm home, I can fade into the woodwork again. I did it for years before you barged in and livened things up. I figure I can do it again without much trouble."

"Go back to Fort Worth and finish drinking yourself to death? Quarter-limit poker with the boys at the American Legion hall?" Penny didn't hide her scorn. "You reckon you can stand the excitement?"

"It wasn't so bad," he answered.

Before Penny could say something else nasty, the telephone on the nightstand rang. She was standing a lot closer to it than Rance was, so she picked it up. "Allo?" "Allo?" That tried to be French, but ended up sounding a lot more like Kansas. She listened for a minute or so, then said, That tried to be French, but ended up sounding a lot more like Kansas. She listened for a minute or so, then said, "Un moment, s'il vous plait," "Un moment, s'il vous plait," and held the phone out to Auerbach. "Talk to this guy, will you? I can't make out more than about every other word." and held the phone out to Auerbach. "Talk to this guy, will you? I can't make out more than about every other word."

What that meant was, she had no idea what the Frenchman was saying. She spoke some French, but she'd always had a devil of a time understanding it when spoken. Rance limped over and took the phone from her. "Allo?" "Allo?" His own accent wasn't great, but he managed. His own accent wasn't great, but he managed.

"h.e.l.lo, Auerbach," said the frog on the other end of the line. "The s.h.i.+pment is early, for a wonder. You want to pick it up tonight instead of Friday?"

Now Rance said, "Un moment." "Un moment." He held his hand over the mouthpiece and spoke to Penny in English: "Want to get the stuff tonight?" He held his hand over the mouthpiece and spoke to Penny in English: "Want to get the stuff tonight?"

"Sure," she said at once. "Are we still in business?"

"You need me, or somebody who can really talk some, anyway," Auerbach answered. She made a face at him. He went back to French: "C'est bon." "C'est bon."

"All right," the ginger dealer said. "Usual time. Usual place. But tonight." The line went dead.

Auerbach hung up the phone and folded his arms across his chest. "Like I said, you want to walk out on me, go right ahead. We'll see which one of us lasts longer as a solo act."

"Oh, screw you," she said, and then, half laughing and half still angry, she proceeded to do exactly that. She clawed him and bit his shoulder hard enough to draw blood. As he bucked above her, he was trying to hurt her at least as much as he was trying to please her. Afterwards, panting and sweaty, she asked him, "Where you gonna get a lay like that from your professor?"

"She's not my professor, dammit," he said. "If you listened as well as you screw, you'd know that."

"I don't want to listen," Penny said. "The more you listen, the more lies you hear. I've already heard too many." But after that she did stop putting him through the wringer about Monique Dutourd, for which he was more than duly grateful.

They got dressed and went downstairs to grab a taxi. "We want to go to 7 Rue des Flots-Bleu, in the Anse de la Fausse Monnaie," Rance said in French to the driver of the battered VW. In English, he remarked, "Just like Ma.r.s.eille to have a district named for counterfeit money." Then he had to squeeze into the cab's cramped back seat. "One more reason to hate the G.o.dd.a.m.n n.a.z.is," he muttered as his leg complained.

The Anse de la Fausse Monnaie lay on the southern side of the headland whose northern side helped shape Ma.r.s.eille's Vieux Port. Being well to the west of the center of the city, it hadn't suffered badly from the explosive-metal bomb. The locals hardly thought of themselves as citizens of Ma.r.s.eille at all. They hadn't been till the Germans built roads connecting their little settlement to the main part of the city.

As soon as Auerbach paid off the cabby, the fellow drove away faster than a Volkswagen had any business going. Rance didn't care for that. "He doesn't much want to be around here, does he?" he said. "Next question is, what does he know that we don't?" The hotel couldn't have been more than a mile and a half away, but was effectively in a different world-and, with Rance's bad leg, a far distant one.

Penny, as usual, refused to worry. "We've been here before. We'll do fine this time, too," she said, and headed off toward the tavern that was their target. Sighing, wis.h.i.+ng he were carrying a submachine gun, Auerbach followed.

Inside, fishermen and hookers looked up from their booze. The barkeep had seen the two new arrivals before, though. When he jerked a thumb at the staircase and said, "Room eight," everybody relaxed-even if the newcomers didn't look as if they belonged, they were known, expected, and therefore not immediately dangerous.

Rance's leg complained about the stairs, too, but he couldn't do anything about that. By the moans and low thumpings coming from behind the thin doors upstairs, most of those rooms weren't being used for ginger deals, but for a much older kind of transaction.

Rance knocked on the door with the tarnished bra.s.s 8. "Auerbach?" asked the Frenchman who'd telephoned.

"Who else?" he said in English. He didn't think the frog knew any, but that didn't matter. His ruined voice identified him as surely as a pa.s.sport photo.

The door opened. A blinding light shone in his face. Another one speared Penny. The room was full of Lizards. They all pointed automatic rifles at the Americans. Rance's imagined submachine gun wouldn't have done him a d.a.m.n bit of good. "You are under arrest for trafficking in ginger!" one of the Lizards shouted in his own language. "We shall lock you up and eat the key!"

A human would have spoken of throwing away the key. As Auerbach raised his hands over his head, he wasn't inclined to quibble about differ-ences in slang. He'd always known this day might come. He found himself less frightened, less furious, than he'd imagined he would or could be if it did. Turning his head toward Penny, he said, "I told you so."

"Oh, shut up," she answered, but he still thought he got the last word.

Nesseref always checked her telephone for messages when she got home after walking Orbit. As often as not, the messages she did get were advertis.e.m.e.nts, some delivered by real members of the Race reading from scripts, some altogether electronic. She deleted both sorts without the least hesitation. n.o.body was ever going to convince her that she could set foot on the road to riches by responding to a phone call from someone far likelier to be out for his profit than her own.

Today, though, she had one of a different sort. A weary-looking male's visage appeared on her monitor. "I am Gorppet, of Security," he said. "I am calling from Kanth, near Breslau, in the Greater German Reich. Reich. We are both acquaintances of the Big Ugly named Mordechai Anielewicz. Please return my call at your convenience. I thank you." His recorded image disappeared. We are both acquaintances of the Big Ugly named Mordechai Anielewicz. Please return my call at your convenience. I thank you." His recorded image disappeared.

What sort of trouble has Anielewicz found now? Nesseref wondered. Gorppet's phone code was part of the message. She let the computer reply, wondering if she would have to record a message for him in turn. But she got him. "Small-Unit Group Leader Gorppet speaking," he announced. "I greet you." Nesseref wondered. Gorppet's phone code was part of the message. She let the computer reply, wondering if she would have to record a message for him in turn. But she got him. "Small-Unit Group Leader Gorppet speaking," he announced. "I greet you."

"And I greet you. Shuttlecraft Pilot Nesseref, returning your call."

"Ah. I thank you for being so prompt," Gorppet said.

"Mordechai Anielewicz is not just an acquaintance to me," Nesseref said. "As you will probably know, he is a friend. From your call, I presume that he is now a friend in trouble. How can I help him?"

"He is indeed a friend in trouble." Gorppet made the affirmative gesture. "He is being held hostage by several males of the Jewish superst.i.tion here in Kanth. They may well kill him. It is even possible they have killed him already."

"Wait!" Nesseref exclaimed. "You must be mistaken. Anielewicz belongs to this superst.i.tion himself."

"I spoke truth," Gorppet said. "You do know that these Jews in Poland have an explosive-metal bomb."

"I know Anielewicz claimed to have one," Nesseref replied. "I never knew whether that was a truth, or only a fiction intended to impress me."

"It is, unfortunately, a truth," Gorppet told her. "And Jews, it seems, are no more immune to factional squabbles than any other Big Uglies. A faction that wanted to damage the Deutsche to the greatest possible degree seized control of the bomb during the late fighting and moved it to this vicinity."

"I ... ... see." Nesseref saw only too well, and liked none of what she saw. "What will the Deutsche do if such a bomb bursts among them? What see." Nesseref saw only too well, and liked none of what she saw. "What will the Deutsche do if such a bomb bursts among them? What can can they do?" they do?"

"No one precisely knows except for their own high-ranking officers," Gorppet said. "No one is eager to find out. We are operating on the a.s.sumption that they have more weapons than they surrendered to us. All evidence strongly points that way. That is why Anielewicz agreed to try to persuade these Jews to give themselves up."

"To help the Race? To help the Deutsche?" Nesseref said. "That is extraordinarily generous of him." She used an emphatic cough.

Gorppet's voice was dry: "I doubt those were his main motivations. I think he was more concerned lest Poland, his homeland, receive the brunt of whatever counterattack the Deutsche might make."

"Ah. Yes, that does make a certain amount of sense," Nesseref agreed. "But you have not answered the first question I asked you: how can I help him?"

"I have not thought of any direct way," Gorppet said. "Still, you know him well and you know Big Uglies well in general, especially for a female from the colonization fleet. Would you be willing to enter the Reich Reich and become part of the team that is seeking to regain control over this bomb?" and become part of the team that is seeking to regain control over this bomb?"

"Provided my superiors approve, I would be happy to," Nesseref said.

"I have taken the liberty of making those arrangements before speaking to you," Gorppet said. "I will send transportation for you shortly."

"Have you? Will you?" Nesseref couldn't decide whether to be grateful or annoyed. "How very . . . . . efficient." She grudgingly gave the male the benefit of the doubt. efficient." She grudgingly gave the male the benefit of the doubt.

He proved as good as his word. Nesseref had just got Orbit's food and water ready for her own absence when an official motorcar pulled up in front of her apartment building. The driver telephoned from the motorcar, as if to leave her in no possible doubt: "I await you, Shuttlecraft Pilot."

"Coming." Nesseref hurried to the elevator, waited impatiently for it to arrive, and then rode down to the lobby. When she went out to the motorcar, she asked the driver, "Will you take me to this town by Breslau?"

"No, superior female," he said, and drove her out of the new town to where a helicopter waited on the yellowish, dying gra.s.s of a meadow. She did not care for helicopters, reckoning them unsafe. But she boarded this one with no more than a minimal qualm. It sprang into the air and flew off toward the west.

When it landed, it came down not far from the wrecked and radioactive Deutsch city, at an encampment almost as large as the nearby Tosevite town of Kanth. At first, Nesseref was surprised to discover that the encampment contained Deutsch Tosevites as well as members of the Race. Then she realized that made good logical sense. The Deutsche, after all, were the ones most intimately concerned with the explosive-metal bomb.

"Yes, it is a considerable embarra.s.sment for us," Gorppet said when she was escorted to his tent. "The Jews, after all, are Big Uglies who are sup-posed to be under our control. For them to act so emphatically against our interest makes us look like fools to the Deutsche."

"And to other Big Uglies," Nesseref remarked.

"And to other Big Uglies," the male from Security agreed. "The problem the Jews pose the Deutsche is at present the most urgent, however."

"These Jews refuse to release Anielewicz?" Nesseref asked.

Gorppet made the affirmative gesture. "He went to them, they seized him, and he has not been seen since. We cannot prove he is still alive, but we presume he is, or the Big Uglies with the bomb would likely have tried to detonate it."

"I ... ... see," Nesseref said, as she had when he telephoned her. "You have a lot of optimistic speculation resting on very little evidence, or so it seems to me." see," Nesseref said, as she had when he telephoned her. "You have a lot of optimistic speculation resting on very little evidence, or so it seems to me."

"That may well be so," Gorppet said.

"Has anyone found a way to extract Anielewicz from his predicament?" Nesseref asked.

Now Gorppet used the negative gesture. " "Not without unacceptable risk of having the bomb go off," he replied.

"That would be unfortunate," Nesseref said.

"Truth. And especially for Anielewicz." Yes, Gorppet's voice was dry. "Consideration is also being given to a bombardment so sharp and intense, it would kill everyone in the house before anyone could trigger the bomb."

"That would be wonderful, if it worked," Nesseref said. "How likely is it to work, do you think?"

"If either we or the Deutsche thought it likely, it would have been attempted by now," the male replied. "That no one has attempted it shows how risky it is. That it remains under consideration shows how seriously both we and the Deutsche view this situation."

"I understand," Nesseref said. "Have you come to any better notion of how I may help rescue Anielewicz and keep the bomb from going off?"

"Unfortunately, no," the male from Security told her. "But, since you know him well, I was hoping you might have insights and ideas that have not occurred to me." Another male came in. His body paint was slightly more elaborate than Gorppet's. To him, Gorppet said, "Superior sir, here is Shuttlecraft Pilot Nesseref. Shuttlecraft Pilot, I present to you Hozzanet, my superior."

"I greet you," Nesseref said.

"And I greet you," Hozzanet replied. "Welcome to the waiting room, Shuttlecraft Pilot. We hope we are far enough away to escape the worst effects of blast and radiation. We also hope we do not have to try to find out experimentally."

"I can see that you might." Nesseref swung an eye turret from Hozzanet to Gorppet and back again. "Are all Security males as cynical as the two of you?"

"Probably," Hozzanet answered. "It is a useful part of our professional baggage. Believing the males and females and Big Uglies we are in charge of investigating would only trap us in a net of lies."

"From your point of view, I suppose that makes sense," Nesseref said. "You must have endless trouble with such unreliable and ever-s.h.i.+fting circ.u.mstances. I am glad I deal with the physical universe, with constants rather than variables."

A couple of other males in the body paint of Security pushed their way into the tent. Nesseref paid them no special notice till one of them asked, "Small-Unit Group Leader Gorppet?" When Gorppet made the affirmative gesture, both males drew pistols and aimed them at him. The one who'd spoken before said, "You are under arrest, on suspicion of dealing in ginger and violent a.s.sault on the Race in the subregion known as South Africa. Your Tosevite accomplices have been captured in the not-empire of France, and have made full confessions."

Nesseref stared in astonishment. Gorppet said, "I deny everything." He sounded convincing. But he'd just shown he, like Hozzanet, believed in very little. He would would sound convincing, regardless of whether he spoke truth. sound convincing, regardless of whether he spoke truth.

Hozzanet spoke to the males with the pistols: "We are in an emergency situation here. For the good of the Race, I ask that you allow my subordinate to stay free till it is resolved. If it is resolved satisfactorily, he will probably have earned a pardon. If not"-he shrugged-"we are all liable to be dead."

The Security male who'd been quiet till then said, "We have no authority to bargain with you or with him."

"Then you had better get some." Hozzanet was as ready to bend the rules as a Big Ugly. "Go on. I give my pledge, in the Emperor's name, that he will not flee."