"Yes," murmured Mondar, "the Newtonian appetite for credit is real enough."
"Exactly," Cletus said. "Once he showed that appetite, I knew I had him hooked. I kept drawing him on until he, himself, suggested his Advanced Associated Communities might possibly be interested in putting up a small share themselves - perhaps supplying 20 per cent of the equipment, or an equivalent amount of the trained personnel, in return for no more than a five-year mortgage on property here on Bakhalla."
"He did?" Mondar's face became thoughtful. "It's a steep price, of course, but considering our chances of actually getting Alliance money are practically nonexistent - "
"Just what I told him," interrupted Cletus. "The price was so steep as to be ridiculous. In fact, I laughed in his face."
"You did?" Mondar's gaze sharpened. "Cletus, that wasn't wise. An offer like that from a chairman of the board on Newton - "
"Is hardly realistic, as I frankly told him," said Cletus. "I wasn't likely to put myself in the position of carrying an offer from them to you that was penurious to the point of insult. After all, as I told him, I had an obligation to my Dorsais to maintain good relationships with the governments of all independent new worlds colonies - and on second thought, I'd even begun to feel a little doubtful that I ought to have mentioned the matter to him in any case. After all, I'd only been given authority to speak to my relatives and contacts back on Earth."
"And he stood for that?" Mondar stared at Cletus. "He not only stood for it," said Cletus, "he didn't waste any time in apologizing and amending his offer to a more realistic level. However, as I told him, by this tune I was beginning to feel a little bit unsure about the whole business where he was concerned. But he kept on raising his offer until he was willing to supply the entire amount of necessary equipment, plus as many trained people as necessary to drill the core-tap and get it into operation as a power source. I finally agreed - reluctantly - to bring that offer back to you before going on to Earth."
"Cletus!" Mondar's eyes were alight. "You did it!"
"Not really," said Cletus. "There was still that matter of the Newtonians requiring Bakhallan property as security in addition to a mortgage on the core-tap itself. I was due to leave the next day, so early that morning, before I left, I sent him a message saying I'd thought it over during the night and, since there was absolutely no doubt that the Alliance would be happy to finance the project with a mortgage merely on the basis of the core-tap mortgage alone, I'd decided to disregard his offer after all and go directly on to Earth."
Mondar breathed out slowly. "With that much of an offer from him already in your hands," he said - and from anyone but an Exotic the tone of the words would have been bitter - "you had to gamble on a bluff like that!"
"There wasn't any gamble involved," said Cletus. "By this time the man had talked himself into buying a piece of the project at any cost. I believe I could even have gotten more from him if I hadn't already implied the limits of what the Alliance would do. So, it's just a matter of your sending someone to sign the papers."
"You can count on that. We won't waste time," answered Mondar. He shook his head. "We'll owe you a favor for this, Cletus. I suppose you know that."
"The thought would be a strange one to overlook," said Cletus, soberly. "But I'm hoping Exotics and Dorsais have stronger grounds for mutual assistance in the long run than just a pattern of reciprocal favors."
He returned to the Dorsai, eight days later, ship's-time, to find the three thousand men, about whom he had messaged from Newton, already mobilized and ready to embark. Of these, only some five hundred were new-trained Dorsais. The other twenty-five hundred were good solid mercenary troops from the planet, but as yet lacking in Cletus' specialized training. However, that fact did not matter; since the untrained twenty-five hundred would be essentially, according to Cletus' plans, along only for the ride.
Meanwhile, before he left with them for Newton in three days' time, there was his marriage to Melissa to accomplish. The negotiations at Bakhalla and on Newton had delayed him. As a result, he arrived - having messaged ahead that he would be there in time for the ceremony if he had to hijack an atmosphere ship to make it - less than forty-five minutes short of the appointed hour - all this, only to find the first news to greet him was that perhaps all his hurry had been needless.
"She says she's changed her mind, that's all," Eachan Khan said to Cletus, low-voiced, in the privacy of the shadowed dining room. Over Eachan's stiff shoulders Cletus could see, some thirty feet away, the chaplain of his regiment of new-trained Dorsais, along with the other guests, eating and drinking in light-hearted ignorance of the sudden, drastic change in plans. The gathering was made up of old, fast friends of Eachan's and new, but equally fast, friends and officers of Cletus'. Among the mercenaries, loyalties were apt to be hard-won, but once won, unshakable. Those who were friends of Cletus' outnumbered those of Eachan's by more than two to one. Cletus had set up the invitation list that way.
"She says there's something wrong," said Eachan, helplessly, "and she has to see you. I don't understand her. I used to understand her, before deCastries - " He broke off. His shoulders sagged under the jacket of his dress uniform. "But not any more."
"Where is she?" asked Cletus.
"In the garden. The end of the garden, down beyond the bushes in the summer house," said Eachan.
Cletus turned and went out one of the french doors of the dining room toward the garden. Once he was out of sight of Eachan, he circled around to the parking area and the rented car he had flown out here from Foralie.
Opening the car, he got out his luggage case and opened it. Inside were his weapon belt and sidearm. He strapped the belt around his waist, discarding the weather flap that normally protected the polished butt of the sidearm. Then he turned back toward the garden.
He found her where Eachan had said. She was standing in the summer house with her back to him, her hands on the white railing before her, looking through a screen of bushes at the far ridge of the surrounding mountains. At the sound of his boots on the wooden floor of the summer house, she turned to face him.
"Cletus!" she said. Her face was quite normal in color and expression, although her lips were somewhat firm. "Dad told you?"
"Yes," he answered, stopping in front of her. "You should be inside getting ready. As it is we're going to have to go ahead just the way we are."
Her eyes widened slightly. A look of uncertainty crept into them. "Go ahead?" she echoed. "Cletus, haven't you been up to the house? I thought you said you'd already talked to Dad."
"I have," he said.
"Then... " She stared at him. "Cletus, didn't you understand what he said? I told him - it's wrong. It's just wrong. I don't know what's wrong about it, but something is. I'm not going to marry you!"
Cletus looked at her. And, as she gazed back at him, Melissa's face changed. There crept into her face that expression that Cletus had seen her wear only once before. It was the look he had seen on her face after he had emerged alive from the ditch in which he had played dead in order to destroy with the dally gun the Neulander guerrillas who had attacked their armored car on its way into Bakhalla.