Ethan’s expression twisted slightly. There had been several occasions when his friend had alluded to a checkered past. Ethan had pressed for details without ever obtaining any. Well, Skua’s privacy was his own business and as his friend he was duty-bound to respect it.
“I can’t thank you enough, sir.”
“Yes, you’re welcome.” Malaika reluctantly shifted his attention back to his employee. “Great things are in the offing for the House of Malaika, young man, great things. This past year has been rich with the unusual. I have done some traveling of my own, entered new markets, overseen the expansion of the company. Also met this extraordinary child, a young adult really, wise in some ways beyond his years and in others the epitome of the naive.” He shrugged. “But why burden you with the details of my life when yours has obviously been so much more interesting.”
“Not by choice it hasn’t been, sir.”
“I understand.”
“Thank you. I guess that’s everything then, sir. The Spindizzy is due in orbit here next week and I’ll be on it. I’ll make contact with my district representative as soon as possible. I don’t think it would do any good to try and resume my normal route where I left off, not almost two years late. For all I know my samples are a year out of date. Is Langan Ferris still my supervisor in this area?”
“Yes, Ferris is still out your way,” Malaika said indifferently. “But why the rush? What’s your hurry to be away?”
“What’s my hurry?” For an instant Ethan forgot whom he was talking with. “Sir, I’ve been stuck on this ice ball for more than a year. I’d like to get back to civilization. I’d like to converse in Terranglo instead of Tran, enjoy some civilized company and companionship.”
“Think of how you’ve positioned yourself, Fortune. Think of it! From what you’ve told me you’re uniquely familiar with the natives and their ways. With their culture and their desires, their wants. You’re best qualified to advise the new Resident Commissioner on how to deal with these Tran.
“If this local federation or union or whatever it is continues to mature and grow, these Tran will be ready to apply for associate status within the Commonwealth in a very short time. If they are accepted it means that their world will be upgraded from a restricted Class IVB to a IVA. They might even qualify for a special Class II. That means they would be allowed access to reasonably sophisticated goods and services. Goods and services which outside concerns would bid to provide.” Ethan tried to inject an objection but Malaika raised a hand and rushed on.
“You have gained the trust of these people. I do not need to tell you how important trust is when you’re trying to sell somebody something. You know the natives and what they would want. You could so advise the new Resident Commissioner.”
“Please, sir.” Ethan found he was starting to sweat. It was clear where Malaika was heading and Ethan searched desperately for a side road. “Any company rep could do what I’ve done. I’d be glad to brief anyone you decide to send out here. Myself, I’m looking forward to getting back to my old routine.”
“Old routine. It defines itself.” Malaika leaned back in his chair. “That’s for your average, mildly competent, unimaginative salesman.”
“But sir, that’s what I am.”
“Your modesty does you credit, Fortune. I couldn’t begin to ask a man like you, who’s been through what you’ve been through, accomplished what you’ve accomplished, to go back to the dull, boring grind of visiting the same old places and talking to the same old customers. I wouldn’t dream of asking it of you.”
“Ask it of me, please.”
Malaika went on as though he hadn’t heard the last: Perhaps he hadn’t, though Ethan doubted it. The head of the House hadn’t missed anything else.
“I envy you, Fortune; yes, I do. To have enjoyed the experiences you have and emerged from them wiser and more knowledgeable is something the rest of us, chained to our computers, can only imagine. The life of a travelling sales rep is clearly not for you, no, clearly not.”
“Begging to differ with you, sir, but I don’t have an adventurous bone in my body. Everything that’s happened has been an accident, and I’m tired of living an accident.”
Malaika nodded. “I understand, truly I do, Fortune. You’ve tired of aimless wandering, you’re tired of being bounced around the surface of a backward, primitive world. You want some stability, want to know where you’re going to be from day to day. You want a regular routine again, want to know that tomorrow’s work is assured and not radically different from what you’ve done today.”
Ethan relaxed a little. For a while there he feared he wasn’t going to be able to make his point. “Yes, that’s exactly what I want, sir. If it’s not too much to ask.”
“Of course not. We are in agreement, then.”
Ethan sat up straight in his chair. “We are?”
“Certainly. Taking into account all that you have told me, I have no choice but to appoint you as full factotum representing the House of Malaika on Tran-ky-ky. You will supervise the establishment and growth of a full-scale trading operation. With your unique knowledge and experience to draw upon, we will have a near monopoly on trade with the locals before any of the other great houses so much as get wind of the possibilities there. There are possibilities, I take it?”
“Yes sir, but as to the need for a permanent representative…”
“Every world no matter how recently opened to trade requires a permanent representative. A lucky man I am to have someone well qualified already on the spot!” Again Ethan hastened to argue and again Malaika overrode any incipient protests.
“Naturally such a promotion and increase in responsibility carries with it a hefty rise in salary. You can look forward to a better and earlier retirement, Fortune. You will have people under you to supervise. No more worrying about lost commissions and an irregular income.”
“Even so, sir, I…”
“Don’t thank me, don’t thank me. You’ve earned this. It’s an opportunity that comes rarely to one your age. Normally one serves twenty to thirty years before being appointed a factotum. And after our monopoly has been secured and you’ve trained a solid core of new people to handle the business, the House would consider transferring you to another world. Paris, say, or New Riviera.”
Ethan hesitated. By themselves the promotion and increase in salary weren’t sufficient to make him consider staying, but the possibility of obtaining both and then taking them with him to one of the paradise worlds, that was something worth thinking about. More than that, the offer was tempting. A factotum on a world like New Riviera could make an enormous amount of money while working in the most congenial surroundings the Commonwealth had to offer.
Even so, the memories of the bone-chilling arctic cold, the unceasing wind, and the more prosaic dangers of Tran-ky-ky were far fresher in his memory than tridees of warm beaches on unvisited worlds. Not that he didn’t have a choice. He could accept promotion and promise or he could quit and take the next ship one way to Drax IV and start looking for a new profession. Drax IV was a nice civilized world but not a major one. Jobs there might not be so easy to come by.
“Don’t thank me,” Malaika said again. “I will make arrangements for an account to be opened in the company’s name for you to draw upon. Within, oh, say a few weeks I’ll expect to see a comprehensive report on our prospects there, I’ll need to know what kind of approach you think we should begin with, what kind of assistance you’ll need, what sort of office equipment, what trade goods will be admissible under the planet’s current status, that sort of thing. I have complete confidence that you will do a thorough and businesslike job. Your raise in pay will be entered into the company’s computers immediately. I think that’s everything.” He reached forward to break the connection, paused.