“What is all this talk?” Gruwert squealed quietly to Carson. “Scan him to dust—No, wait!”
A new thought had struck the pig. Cautiously he descended to the ground. “How would you like to have such fighters in your commando, Brigadier?” he murmured. “These fellows could prove mighty useful.”
“But the cooperation of a kosho is almost impossible to acquire,” Carson reminded him.
“Oh really? But he isn’t a free agent as it is. You just heard him say he’s acting under orders.” Gruwert spoke up and addressed the warrior. “Who is this principal of yours? Point him out to me.”
“He is the manlike chimera who first fired on you.”
“Bring him here,” Gruwert said, peering in Pout’s direction. “We want to talk to him.”
“Under safe conduct?”
Major Carson nodded.
Ikematsu walked back to Pout. “Listen carefully,” he said. “I have defended your life and my obligation to you is over. But I will perform you one more service, for a price.
“These are fighters from Diadem, the centre of the Empire. You would like to leave Earth and go to Diadem, would you not? Yes. 1 know you would. Above our heads is a huge fleet with thousands of men and animals on board. Eventually it will go to Diadem. 1 will talk to the officers from the fleet. I will persuade them that they should take you with them.
“All I want in return is that gun you have.”
“This gun?” Hopefully Pout tendered the scangun he had taken from Hesper Positana.
“No, the other gun.”
Pout’s ears twitched and his eyes widened pitifully. The kosho had approached the strangers without a word to him, leaving him bewildered and frightened. He gazed down at the dead gun in his other hand, then clutched it to his chest.
“No!” he mewled. “My beautiful gun! 1 won’t give up my gun!”
“It does not even work any more.”
“It will work!” Pout spat desperately. “One day it will work!”
“Had I a mind I could kill you here, for the harm and the hatred in you, and take the gun.”
These words frightened Pout and he dodged aside from Ikematsu to run towards the armoured men and the animals standing by the big metal thing. He was less afraid of them, at this moment, than he was of his onetime protector.
Balefully the predators glared at him, but he ignored them and fell to his knees before the two humans. “I am a nice animal!” he gasped. “I love the Empire! Save me from those people!”
A cheery voice came suddenly from inside the pod. “Now now, what’s all this panic?”
The men moved apart. Pout found himself staring into a fat-jowled pig face with twinkling little eyes. “Things are getting confusing,” Gruwert remarked. “Tell me, is it not you who is supposed to be the, er, master of that kosho over there?”
“Yes, yes, I am,” babbled Pout.
“Now there’s an odd thing in itself. He looks pure human to me, and you… well, what are you exactly?”
A hint of pride came into Pout’s voice. “I am a chimera of every primate species, sir.” He spoke respectfully, realising he was in the presence of authority. Indeed, something about the pig’s manner reminded him of the role of Torth Nascimento in the museum…
Gruwert waddled from the pod once more. He raised his snout and sniffed the air with a loud sniffing sound. “Really? Now that is interesting. They say this is the planet we all came from. The old Earth herself, cradle of our biota. Just the place, one might think, to find something unusual, shall we say? Well, citizen—you are a citizen, aren’t you? Of course you are: a citizen of the second class, like myself. Now citizen, we didn’t mean you any harm. We spotted your group from up in space and decided to talk to you, that’s basically it. It seems we gave you a fright—our commandos are a bit rough, I admit! But you see, there has been much wickedness in this sector and it’s our business to deal with it. You wouldn’t believe it, but there are criminals in Escoria who are against the Empire and want to plunge us all back into barbarism. We are looking for one who landed in this region a few days ago. It’s very bare country hereabouts, so maybe you can help us?” Gruwert’s tone hardened. “Where is he?”
“It isn’t a he, it’s a girl!” Pout offered eagerly. “She wore a black and silver suit and came down in an egg! Look, she gave me this scangun.”
Gruwert watched while Major Kastrillo took the weapon from Pout’s grasp, glanced at it, then tossed it through the door of the drop pod. “Yes, that’s the one,” he said slowly. The rebels tracked to Mars had worn the same uniform. “Let’s have her, then.”
“Oh, she’s not here, she’s—”
Pout stopped. He wondered how much bargaining power his knowledge of the girls’ whereabouts gave him—and did he dare try to use it?
He glanced back. The kosho and his young nephew were walking slowly towards him!
His skin prickled. “I am glad to be of service to the Empire.” he said obsequiously. Then, in a voice of panic: “Take me with you and I’ll tell you where she is!”
“You are coming with us anyway,” Gruwert said commandingly. “Now quickly, end this deviousness.”
While Ikematsu and Sinbiane stood silently by, Pout said: “There are some moving cities that roam flat ground over that way.” He waved an arm. “She’s in the nearest of them It’s called Mo.”
“Yes, we saw them. Where in this city?”
Pout shrugged. “They’re not as large as all that.”
“I suppose that will do,” Gruwert said, satisfied. “All right, get inside the pod.”
“Are you really taking the chimera?” Brigadier Carson asked in surprise.
“Yes I am,” Gruwert had dark thoughts about the creature. Though he had spoken to him as though to a child, he suspected there might be considerably more to him than that. Why was the kosho, a proud and highly trained human being—he recalled something about koshos now—apparently his servant? A pan-primate chimera too… it was reminiscent of the pan-mammalian chimera the Whole-Earth-Biotists wanted to install as Emperor Protector.
“We’ll take the kosho, too,” he decided. “Don’t they have special mental training? Heightened psychic flexibility?” He pondered. It was, he supposed, exactly the faculty—heightened imagination—which animals were supposed to be incapable of. “That’s the sort of quality we might need if we’re to investigate that rent in space.”
“Yes, you’re absolutely right,” muttered Carson. Yet looking at the imperturbable warrior,and his array of weapons, he wondered exactly how he was to be “taken”.
Pout was stopped from entering the pod by a dog who came up to him and began sniffing him all over. The beast stood nearly as tall as Pout himself; the chimera cringed but the commando persisted, and eventually its muzzle lunged and came out gripping the zen gun he had put back in his bib.
“He had another gun,” the dog growled between clenched teeth.
“It doesn’t work. It’s my lucky charm.” Pout watched with pleading eyes as Carson took the gun and turned it over. The man grunted in amusement, then pointed it at the horizon and squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened.
“It’s made of wood,” he remarked lightly. “Only an old curio.” Pout timorously extended a paw; he casually handed the gun back to him.
On seeing Pout skulk his way into the pod, tucking the gun in his bib, Ikematsu stepped forward. “If I am to come with you I must keep my weapons,” he said to the Brigadier. “A kosho does not discard his armoury.”
Indignantly Carson looked at him. “We’re not allowing you on one of our ships rigged out like that! You’re a walking war!” He waved Sinbiane back. “And we don’t need you, young man. You stay here.”