"I don't see any reason to waste time," he announced. "We might as well get to work."
"Have you something in mind?" asked Dante.
"There's no sense building an organization when we can simply take one over," answered the Bandit. "Find the biggest drug and smuggling rings in the sector."
"They might not be anxious to join us," said Dante.
"They won't have a choice. You just find them; I'll handle it from there."
"Whatever you say, Santiago," replied Dante.
"You don't need me for that," said Matilda. "I think I could serve you better by contacting some of the people I know and recruiting them."
The Bandit nodded his approval. "Keep in touch," he said, dismissing her. She left the room and he turned back to Dante. "Will you need to spread any money around to find out who's in charge of each ring?"
"Almost certainly."
"Take whatever you think you'll require. We're going to get it back anyway."
"You're going to kill the leaders?" It wasn't really a question.
"My job is protecting the citizens of the Inner Frontier," replied the Bandit. "They are preying on my people."
"We might be able to buy them off, get them on our side," suggested Dante.
The Bandit stared at him expressionlessly. "We don't want them on our side. They're parasites, nothing more."
Which is precisely what we'll become when we take over their organizations. I wonder how you rationalize that—or does Santiago just not consider such things?
"Killing their leaders will be an object lesson to the rank and file," continued the Bandit. "No one rises to a position of authority in such an organization without being totally ruthless. This will convince them that Santiago is an even more ruthless killer. That should impress them and keep them on our side." Why do I feel uneasy about this, wondered Dante. This is exactly what Santiago is supposed to do, so why does it worry me when you talk about doing it?
"That's all," said the Bandit, dismissing him. "Let me know when you have the information."
"Yes, Santiago," said Dante, getting up and leaving the office.
Matilda was waiting for him in the corridor. "Well," she said as they walked past a number of holographs of savage alien animals to the living room, "what do you think?"
"About what?"
"About him," said Matilda. "He's growing into the role exactly as we'd hoped."
"If you say so."
"You don't think so?"
He shrugged. "I don't know."
"What's bothering you?" she asked.
"I can't put my finger on it," said Dante.
"He was right to want to kill the old woman, you know," said Matilda. "It would have been suicide to have left her behind."
"There were alternatives."
"What? Take her along for a month and then turn her loose? She'd still have betrayed us."
"Nonsense," he replied irritably. "All he had to do was turn to me or Virgil, address us as Santiago, and ask if we wanted him to do anything else."
She stared at him, surprised. "Hey, that's not bad."
"Yeah—but he didn't think of it."
"Not everyone's as devious as you are."
"You asked, I answered." He paused. "Also, he really gets into giving orders. The 'misters' and 'ma'ams' vanished pretty fast."
"He's Santiago. It's his job to give orders."
"I know, I know—but good manners ought to last a little longer."
"He's adaptable. And he's a born leader. Look at his decision to rob the bank, and burn Santiago's name into the wall. Look at the other ideas he's had." She paused. "What does he want you to do?"
"Find the biggest smugglers and drug runners in the sector."
"Whom he'll then proceed to kill?"
Dante nodded. "And take over their operations."
"Isn't that precisely the kind of thing that Santiago is supposed to do?"
"I suppose so. I just don't like it."
"That's why you're the Rhymer and he's Santiago."
"Probably you're right," he said.
"Then let's get going," said Matilda. "We both have work to do."
Dante sought out Virgil and handed him a wad of credits and Maria Theresa dollars.
"What's this for?" asked the Injun.
"The best drugs you can buy."
"That's my job?" asked Virgil with a happy smile. "I could really get into working for this guy."
"Just buy them, don't take them," said Dante.
"I'm ambidextrous," said Virgil. "I can do both."
"You heard me," said Dante firmly. "Buy it, and see if you can find out who sells it."
"The guy I buy it from."
"Find out who he works for, as high up the line as you can go."
"But I can't take any of the drugs?"
"That's right."
"This fucking scheme was a lot better when it just had me thinking about it," muttered Virgil.
"And let me know where you're going, so we don't visit the same worlds."
"You're buying drugs too?"
"That doubles our chances of finding the headman."
"Do you get to take any?"
"You can have mine when this is all over and we've got our man," said Dante disgustedly.
Virgil grinned. "That's more like it!" he said, and headed off toward the newly-poured slab that housed all their ships.
Dante stopped by his room, packed a small bag, made sure he had enough money left, and then walked to the tiny landing slab. He fired up the pile on a one-man ship, climbed into it, had the navigational computer throw up a globe of the sector and its populated worlds, and decided on Alibaster, about 16 light-years distant. He radioed his destination to Virgil to make sure they didn't both visit the same planet, and then took off. He hit the stratosphere about 90 seconds later, then jumped to light speeds.
He slept through most of the voyage, and awoke when the ship's computer told him he was in orbit around Alibaster. The world was almost totally covered the fleecy white clouds that gave it its name. The ship turned over control of its functions to the spaceport's landing tower, and touched down without incident.
Dante emerged, passed through Customs, and caught a subterranean monorail that took him into the underground city of Snakepit. There were too many cyclones and tornadoes on the surface, so Man had built this commercial outpost where none of the planet's weather could bother him.
Snakepit extended about two miles in each direction. Since the planet had never been inhabited by a sentient race, the native quarter—the exclusive domain of offworld non-Men—was a little smaller and more upscale than usual. There were a number of banks—all far more heavily-guarded than the one on Heliopolis II—and the usual array of traders, assay offices, hotels, brothels, casinos, restaurants, subspace stations, holo theaters, and permanent residences.
Dante checked into a hotel and then decided to take a look around and get the feel of the place. The first building he passed was a grocery selling fruits from Pollux IV, vegetables from Greenveldt and Sunnyblue, mutated beef from Alpha Bezerine IV, even some wine from distant Altagore.