‘Hey, Shongili, I don't care what you say, your goosebumps just got goosebumps. Here,' and Ersol threw a sweater around his shoulders. 'You got some spare pants in your pack, don't you, Clotworthy? Mooney, break out a pair of socks, at least.’
They paused long enough to put Sean into minimal coverings and then continued down the slope. They emerged onto a low ridge and a clump of wind-raked bushes to stare down at the lake, its edges now frozen, on the other side of which Sinead had left them.
‘Hey, isn't that your sister?' Ersol cried, pointing to figures on the verge.
Somehow 'your sister' sounded like a nasty epithet. Sean ignored the tone, knowing that Sinead could be a trifle difficult at times and these men, particularly, needed the kind of lesson only she could teach on Petaybee.
Sean put both hands to his mouth and uttered the ululating call they always used to cover long distances. One figure responded, straightening up, and looking around.
‘SINEAD!’
The sound of her name reverberated under her feet. Then a piercing distant whistle from the far side of the lake indicated that Sinead had not only heard, but seen them.
‘Let's go.’
‘Isn't there anywhere we can go besides near her?' Minkus asked plaintively.
Sean chuckled to himself as he led the way down the slope. Somehow this encounter had restored him in a way not even the swimming could. Or maybe it was a case of both. The planet healing and then revealing what it was he had to do: organize the influx and protect Petaybee as best he could.
He was reminded again of the influx as, halfway back to Kilcoole, they met Clodagh leading the white-robes like a mother duck with her ducklings behind her. The white-robes broke formation, however, and hurried forward to fuss.
‘You poor men, we heard your cries!’
‘You couldn't've,' Mooney said. 'We weren't that loud.’
‘It was awful,' Clotworthy said to Sister Agate. 'I can't stop shaking.’
‘It's the cold, poor dear.’
The hunters confided to the other off-worlders about the cat, the unicorn, and their injuries.
‘Poor Mr de Peugh,' Brother Shale fretted. 'Whatever is wrong with him?’
Clodagh shrugged. 'Looks to me like he lost an argument with Petaybee.’
‘The Beneficence?' Brother Shale asked. 'The Beneficence did this to these poor men?’
‘Oh surely not,' Brother Schist said nervously. 'That wouldn't be very… benevolent… would it?’
‘Sin,' said Sister Igneous Rock firmly. 'He sinned against the planet and it smote him.’
‘Now you just cut that out!' Clodagh said. The hunters weren't the only frustrated people that day. 'Petaybee hasn't invented sin yet.’
Luzon's Headquarters
‘They did what? Dr Matthew Luzon said in a volume that blasted the eardrums of the party on the end of the comlink.
‘The PTS transporter licence has been revoked and the vehicle impounded.’
‘That can't be donel' Why, Luzon thought, angrily stamping the cane he still had to use into the thick carpet, there weren't nearly enough people down on the planet's surface yet and he hadn't been able to infiltrate enough of his agents to effect the sort of damage he had planned on creating. Makem hadn't reported in since he landed, either, and so Luzon had no idea if the Asian Esoteric and Exotic Company had reached the surface. They had been so eager to slay the unicorns for their horns, long believed to have aphrodisiac and healing powers, to acquire the whiskers of the orange cats, which they had been told had similar powers as well as life-extending properties. He had also given them a list of therapeutic plants and lichens, which incidentally included all the vegetation so far catalogued on the planet's surface. The way those fellows worked, a forest could be hewn, chopped into splinters and removed, quicker than one of those disgusting felines could blink. The'renewable wealth' of Petaybee would be past history.
‘Perhaps, but it has been done. The remote device was removed from the cockpit and there's one of those propulsion unit clamps that would blow the vessel into trash if someone tried a manual take-off. That ship is grounded.’
‘But that's a totally prohibited perversion of basic commercial venture rights. All the proper forms have been accepted by…’
‘They've just been dis-accepted, Luzon. The credit account has had its assets frozen and mail, messages or credit transfers addressed to PTS are being returned to sender.’
Matthew Luzon, fuming and sputtering and sorely tempted to send the comunit across the room into the mock-marble fireplace, was trying to figure out how the carefully constructed and protected PTS operation could have been discovered and blocked. Who? Unless that twit-brained Makem had been corrupted down on the planet's surface? The noise of his room buzzer penetrated his fury.
‘YES?' Even Luzon was astonished at the snarl in his voice and moderated his tone. 'Yes?’
‘Torkel Fiske to see you,' said the sexy-voiced receptionist of this exclusive health resort.
‘Ah, the very man.' Matthew's ire settled almost as instantly as it had flared. 'Enter. Enter. My dear Captain Fiske, how good of you to spare some time to visit the convalescent.’
Fiske came in, suavely dressed and smiling, with a touch of smug satisfaction that was visible to the shrewd eye of his observer. Matthew began to feel that his unexpected visitor was going to cheer him no end and prolonged that pleasure until he had seen Fiske suitably supplied with the drink of his choice and some of the enticing tidbits that the resort offered its distinguished clientele.
‘I came, Doctor Luzon, because I felt that you might not have heard the news,' Fiske said, still smiling unctuously. He took another sip, chose one of the little canapes to eat.
‘I fear the medics have required me to suspend my usual activities until my injuries are completely healed,' Luzon said, 'so I've not kept up with general news. If anything is bad enough, someone always manages to inform the galaxy,' and he smiled condescendingly over such a foible.
‘Then I was right. You haven't heard about the kidnapping.’
‘Kidnapping?' And Luzon leaned towards his guest, his heart pounding in the suspense of waiting to hear the names of the victims.
‘Yes, kidnapping. And from Gal-Three where, as you may know, they have such a tight security system.' Fiske smiled at Luzon, a smile deprecating the machinations of a security system that failed to secure.
‘Really? How very alarming.’
‘Yes, and everyone is astounded. I mean, who would have thought that Marmion de Revers Algemeine had a single enemy in the galaxy.’
‘Not her!' Luzon could scarcely contain his joy though he expressed a horror which caused Fiske to grin more broadly.
‘And… you'll never guess who was kidnapped along with her?’
‘No, indeed I cannot, so do tell me.' Luzon was all but bouncing about on the seat of his electronic mobility device.
‘Colonel Yanaba Maddock-Shongili…’
‘Not the doughty Colonel?’
‘And…’
‘Oh, not more victims! How appalling!’
‘Buneka Rourke and young Diego Etheridge-Metaxos too.’
Luzon raised his eyes ceilingward. 'There is justice in the universe. Truly, there is!' He bowed his head. Then peered up at the grinning Fiske. 'Who perpetrated this atrocity?’
‘The infamous Captain Onidi Louchard!’
‘Oh! Famous… I mean, infamous. I've heard the pirate was clever but to breech Gal-Three Security, I'm truly speechless. And?’
‘And what?’
‘Have the bodies been returned?’
‘You are bloodthirsty, Doctor,' Fiske said, his glance tinged with censure. 'The ransom has been set…’
‘On Algemeine?' Luzon snorted with scorn. 'It'll never be paid.’
‘What do you mean?' Fiske sat forward, concerned.
Luzon waved his hand at such folly. 'My dear Fiske, Marmion Algemeine is one of the top financiers in the known galaxy. She would adhere to the Code out of principle, unlike the cravens on the Amber Unicorn.’
‘What Code do you mean?' Fiske repeated, now seriously agitated.
‘Why, the Anti-Extortion Code, of course. Surely you're aware that the really rich have the most stringent laws against the payment of ransoms? To prevent wholesale kidnappings and the payment of vast sums of ransom monies? A wise move and no-one has tested the Code since the spectacular and highly publicized failure of the Amber Unicorn ploy over a hundred years ago.’
‘But… but… Louchard is smart and ruthless. He'll figure a way around it.’
‘Not if he was fool enough to choose Marmion de Algemeine, he won't,' Luzon said, dismissing the matter with a snort. 'Why, what's the matter?’
For his handsome guest had turned quite pale under his space tan.
‘Then Maddock and those kids will die too?’
‘Of course. They've no assets… unless…' and now Matthew rubbed the carved jade head of his cane against his lips. The coolness of jade was so soothing and helped him think. 'Unless Louchard can figure out a way to get concessions out of Petaybee.' Immediately the words were out of his mouth, Luzon cancelled that possibility - until he glanced at Fiske again. 'Don't tell me that was your master plan, Fiske?' he asked scornfully. 'Tell me - what was Louchard like?’
‘I never met Louchard,' Fiske said, his expression set, his tone distracted, like that of a man, Luzon recognized, who is thinking very fast about something else entirely.
‘But didn't you mention to me the fact that Louchard was involved in the smuggling of those miserable quantities of ore that were extracted from the planet?’
Actually both men knew that Fiske had mentioned no such thing and Louchard's involvement was speculation. Still, that would account for the pirate being willing to kidnap that wretched trio in the hope of being able to obtain concessions no-one else had had from Shongili. Luzon would never believe it was the planet: therefore the mind behind all his misfortunes on Petaybee had to be the very human one of the man who stood to lose most - Sean Shongili.
‘He might just do something to protect that unborn bastard of his, at that,' Luzon mused. 'Where are you going, Fiske? You bring me such interesting news.' But Luzon's words did not pass the door that Torkel Fiske had slammed behind him.
It was a considerably more cheerful Luzon who began tapping out numbers on his comlink.