Chapter Eleven
The morning when Eric started up his dental unit for the first time a new whirring sound broke through the usual noise of the mar-ketplace. Zainal swiveled around, toward the sound made by Eric Sachs's equipment, and saw a huge Catteni sitting in the dental chair, his mouth wide open and the broken stubs of his upper teeth visible. There were also more merchants waiting to receive a cup of coffee and more coins in the little dish Kathy had put out.
There were three other very burly Catteni, guards from the look of their gear and clothing, watching as Eric attended to the man in his chair. The man did not dare flinch or squirm, and shortly Eric told him he could sit up. Then he began to tell him his options, with pic-tures he had provided himself for just such demonstrations, while Ninety Doyle did what translations he could with the technical terms involved.
"I can provide you with new gold teeth," Eric said. "It will take several days as well as quite a few visits to me to prepare and fit the crowns. And the work is not cheap."
"I have plenty of money," the Catteni said with a shrug, fascinated by the photographs of the step-by-step process he was about to un-dertake. From the textbooks he had removed from his office, Eric had, with Gail's help, organized some illustrative examples of treat-ment on yet another set of flip cards. "I am told you take cartons of things. I have cartons. I was a Catteni cargo captain. I took much from storehouses."
Eric snapped his fingers and Ferris, who had been hovering at his elbow, immediately produced copies of the lists. The man glanced down the columns of alphanumerically listed items and shook his head. Ditsy then produced the various logos for the companies that manufactured the spare parts wanted. The man tapped a finger on several, including, Zainal noticed, the NASA and Boeing logos. "Have some cartons with these on them. You want?"
"First," Zainal said, stepping closer, "we will have to check the cartons to see if they are what we require."
The man grunted. "I am told you will buy anything."
"Not anything," Zainal said with a dignified contempt for such an assumption. "We have specific needs, and the services you require-as well as the gold for the teeth-will be expensive."
"I have gold," the man said with typical Catteni arrogance.
"It must be of a certain weight and purity," Zainal said, and Eric grinned at him-as much because Zainal had been relatively certain they would be required to supply the metal as because of his patient's attitude. Eric rummaged around in his supplies and brought up the gold-testing equipment.
"However, if you will show us your gold, we will see if it is of the quality that can be used for this unusual purpose."
"Gold is gold!" the Catteni protested.
"No, it is not," Eric replied, for he understood that much Catteni and the spirit of the remark. "For proper work, we need a certain quality of gold." He reached for his testing equipment, which their erstwhile customer recognized.
The man rose from the chair, signaled brusquely to one of his friends to stay and observe, then removed a nugget of gold from his pouch and handed it to Eric, as if certain of its intrinsic value and suitability.
"You come with me, then, and see what I have."
"Ditsy, if you will accompany me," Zainal said as he had no in-tention of wasting his time checking inventories.
"My pleasure, Emassi," Ditsy said with just the right touch of def-erence due a superior officer.
The man, who gave Zainal his name as Luxel, led them into the very depths of the marketplace, down rows of storage places, most with heavy metal doors and locks with complicated knobs and spikes. "The kind you lose hands from trying to open," Zainal murmured in an aside to Ditsy, who then kept his hands close to his sides.
Luxel finally halted at an intersection of corridors.
"Stay, until I call," he said, pausing only long enough to be certain they stopped before he turned right.
They could clearly hear the snick of metal, a rasp of hinges, and then Luxel called to them to come.
Ditsy ran on a little ahead of Zainal, but when he stopped by Luxel's side he gave a whistle that Zainal had heard, expressing sur-prise or amazement.
"Opensezme," Ditsy murmured. "Ali Baba!" He was clearly im-pressed. And so was Zainal when he joined him.
Hughes and Lockheed logos dominated the mess of cartons in Luxel's little shed. Ditsy had his list out and was delving into its depths when Luxel suddenly yanked Zainal across the entry, himself assum ing a blocking pose as three Catteni appeared in the alley. Zainal was quite willing to drape himself across the doorway, obscuring its con-tents from the passersby, who fortunately did no more than glance in their direction and quickly away, visibly picking up their pace to make speed past them. Luxel glared at Zainal as if he were to blame for their unexpected passage. Zainal returned his angry glance with an indif-ferent shrug. What did it matter if anyone saw what he had stored there? No one but Terrans could use it, much less buy it.
Clearly stenciled on the boxes were numbers and contents, and Ditsy had no trouble picking out items on the wish list. Solar Panel Array Assembled, HG-SP-88373-BO5, Expandable dish antenna: HG-MW-7712-d15-2-5. High on the list were circuit boards #A.05, but all Ditsy could find were A.01 and A.02. But that was a start. "Jeez, Zainal, it's all the solar panel stuff," Ditsy said, shielding his jubilant remark from Luxel's hearing.
"Calm down, lad, calm down. Just check them all off as if they were quite ordinary."
"Oops, sorry, boss. Shouldn't have given myself away like that." "No, you shouldn't have. Rule number one in bargaining: pretend you don't really want the items."
"I know, sir." Ditsy was most chagrined. "I'm sorry, Zainal, but most of the items are on here." He flicked the list as if it were annoy-ing him. As they were speaking English, Luxel was unlikely to have understood. He then crammed the list in his pocket as if he were dis-carding it but could not presume to litter the slab floor with his trash. He went to the doorway and lounged negligently against the frame.
"There are some items here that might interest me," Zainal said, ignoring the disbelief in Luxel's expression. "But these are crates"-he mimicked their shape "and the dentist man requires payment worthy of his skill, practice, and hard work, which is not as easily quantified as a mere crate."
"It is what the crate contains, Emassi," replied Luxel, still feeling he had the upper hand.
"You say you are a ship captain?" Luxel nodded.
"How much are you paid by the day?"
"It cannot take a full day's captaincy to pay to replace a tooth-when I have provided the necessary gold metal," was his protest. "And how long was it before you were allowed to dock a ship at Barevi port?"
"I had to serve only the minimum time before I got my full ticket," Luxel replied stoutly, expecting Zainal to be impressed. "How long was that?" Zainal insisted.
"In my fourth year." He still felt Zainal should be impressed.
"It was in his seventh year in the practice of his profession that Eric Doctor was allowed to contrive gold crowns."
"Seven years?" Luxel was impressed. "It can't be that hard to do."
"Watch and see how cleverly he will shape the metal." Zainal ticked off points on his fingers. "Then, how carefully he prepares your tooth, which will take several days' work, how he makes a mold to fit exactly in your face." Zainal's expression suggested that this "face" was not worth so much effort. "And then fits the tooth. That is not as easy as parking a ship at Barevi port and takes much more skill and training." Zainal gave a nonchalant shrug and, jerking his chin at Ditsy to follow him, walked out into the alleyway, paying no further attention to Luxel. They did hear the click and snick as the captain secured his shed and his footsteps as he hurried after them. As much, Zainal thought, to be sure they were going to quit the sheds as to catch up with them.