The First Chapter
Where Kissur the White Falcon gets in an accident while the first
vice-minister of finance discusses the reasons for the dearth in the state
treasury.
The Second Chapter
Where the sad history of the Assalah spacefield is told while the
ex-first minister of Empire finds himself a new friend.
The Third Chapter
Where Kissur opens the Emperor's eyes to a foreign briber while Terence
Bemish received a gift of a luxury villa.
The Fourth Chapter
Where Kissur tells investment bankers how to train a highwayman's horse
while Terence Bemish makes an acquintance with other contenders for Assalah
stocks.
The Fifth Chapter
Where Terence Bemish is being persuaded to drop out of Assalah stocks
auction while Shavash reminds the visitors that he is not familiar with the
financial term dictatorship.
The Sixth Chapter
Where company AC declares its real name while Mr. Shavash shares some
unusual thoughts about democracy's drawbacks.
The Seventh Chapter
Where all investors' difficulties are solved in the best way.
The Eight Chapter
Where Terence Bemish pays taxes with fallen leaves while the rock with
an ancient foretelling is dug out at the construction.
The Ninth Chapter
Where the demons' boss makes a pact with the pious people.
The Tenth Chapter
Where Terence Bemish becomes familiar with provincial life of the
Empire while Mr. Shavash offers an original plan for the restructuring of
the state debt.
The Eleventh Chapter
Where Terence Bemish's assistant goes to the sectants' meeting in
Imissa while Kissur the White Falcon looks around the Galaxy for abandoned
warheads.
The Twelfth Chapter
Where the Emperor of the Country of Great Light finds out the real
purpose of the Assalah construction from the opposition press and expresses
his confusion.
The Thirteenth Chapter
Where the nation expresses its will with unpredictable results.
The Fourteenth Chapter
Or the first minister as an international terrorist.
The Fifteenth Chapter
Where the saviors of the Country of Great Light pull the biggest
insider deal in the history of the Galaxy.
THE FIRST CHAPTER,
where Kissur the White Falcon gets in an accident while the first
vice-minister of finance discusses the reasons for the dearth in the state
treasury.
The walls of the living room were covered with blue silk and the
corners were overlayed with hexagonal tiles making the room an octagon, the
shape guided its owner's success in life and smoothed all turns in his fate.
Embroiderings grew over silk - blossoming lotuses with leaves lowered from
heat, plum flowers opening up, a snow white duck in a pond and a sping sun.
A light hung almost all the way down to the floor, looking like a
transparent upside down mushroom and golden figures of animals ran over its
rim.
A small table with a frosted jar and an armchair were next to the
light. A 30 year old man sitting in the armchair was dressed in the silk
pants and a jacket, girdled with a belt made from large silver links. His
face was very handsome but cruel, with blue eyes and eyebrows rising at the
tips. Old rings of delicate worksmanship looked strange on his predator's
hands with untrimmed nails. His hair was twisted in a bun and held with a
tortoise comb. A 3D transvisor on a fat golden leg stood in the left corner.
Periodically, the man would fill a small five walled cup from the jar,
close the cup with a lacquered cap enclosing a straw, and stick the straw in
his mouth. He was watching the transvisor.
On his left hand, a small drawing hung in a sable fur frame - a
beautiful drawing of a sick chickadee in snow. The picture bore the
Emperor's signature. It was a personal gift from the Emperor. Two golden
rings of orchids and clematis hang next to it. A sonar rabbit ear antenna
stuck up above the transvisor and a silvered pot with a blooming flower was
behind the antenna. The flower had a artful name "furled belle's eyebrows."
The picture in the transvisor greatly differed from that on the silk
paintings decorating the room. The transvisor was not showing either a sick
chickadee or blossoming plums. The transvisor was showing a
press-conference. A self-important patrician Earthman was talking and his
piggish eyes were routinely squinting from camera flashes. A whole flock of
microphones was gosseling out in front of the Earthman. He was earnestly
attempting to look inside the room through the screen and he probably felt
alien surrounded by blooming plums and golden flower rings.
Somebody asked the man on the screen in a thin voice, and he answered
benevolently,
"While we are not interfering in any way with the independent nation
and are not pressuring its government, the Federation of Nineteen would
encourage the Emperor to conduct the first Parliament elections in the
history of your country as a one more step in of your nation's integration
into the galactic society."
The man sitting in the chair poured the last remnants from the silver
jar into the cup. He slightly raised his hand and threw the jar at the
forehead of the smiling Earthman on the screen. The Earthman stopped smiling
and disappeared. The screen squeaked and exploded in tiny pieces. The
"furled belle's eyebrows" loudly crashed, and the nauseating smell of
burning plastic intestines filled the room. The painted doors moved apart
and a middle-aged majordomo in a blue caftan rolled into the room.
"Take it away," the man in the armchair said without raising his voice.
The majordomo threw his hands up and exclaimed,
"Oh, Mr. Kissur, that's the third one this week."
Kissur jumped out of the chair, slammed the door and was gone.
The majordomo in the room stuck his hand in the empty jar, scratched it
and licked... The lord was not even drunk, or almost not drunk - there was a
light palm wine in a jar, generously diluted by the apricot juice. Kissur
could get drunk and get drunk to his eyebrows, drunk enough to fight, drunk
enough to cut dogs or people cut in half. But, he could do it only at merry
party with a dozen friends. Kissur never drank by himself.
Kissur ran gasping down the staircase and leaped out into the inner
yard. The night was already in. It smelled of mint from countryside gardens,
gasoline and horses. A city mansion with a flat roof surrounded the yard on
three sides. A left wing tower decorated with grape carvings rose gracefully
like a reed leaf. In the past, high-ranking officials built towers like
this, for them to touch the sky like little fingers. The towers would be
like a staircase that Fortune walk down from the sky to the officials. In
the past, people had said that only the Emperor's castle spires were higher.
Now, one would not be able to say that, since a construction crane made from
steel matches was showing up on the black sky background; the crane was
touching the sky with its little finger. Enraged Kissur threw his fist to
the sky and stomped flying down the moonlighted path.
A servant in a short blue jacket stood in the backyard, in front of the
gates wrapped by brass vines. The servant lovingly washed a long glossy car
like he would be braiding a horse's tail. The black sides of the car gleamed
in the moonlight and the silver gills of the hydrogen engine air intakes
shined.
Kissur ripped the hose out of the slave's hand and threw himself in a
car. The tires screeched - the slave was barely able to jump away. The
terrified booth guard hit the button on the keyboard, the gates bobbed up,
and the car flew out on the deserted and wet night highway. "Once he won't
be able to get the gates up in time", Kissur thought, "and I'll break my
neck at my own wall."
The car was purring and eating hydrogen - isn't it strange that a horse
eats when it's resting while this black ironmonger eats only when it's
moving, and when it's not moving it doesn't eat anything. Yes! Seven years
ago when gloom was sometimes eating at his soul, Kissur would take a black
stallion with a wide back and tall legs and race him in the Emperor's
garden, in the gullies overgrown with bushes and grass, till the sunrise.
Where is this garden now? They peddled it, sold it like a wench in the
market, for some glass contraption. It was shameful, since Kissur himself
sold it to some corporation .
The highway ended abruptly at a flooded river; Kissur almost flipped
over in the water on the sliver of the pontoon bridge. At least, this thing
does race faster than a horse even if it stinks of iron. Only weapons
smelled like iron in the past, while now in an every beaurocrat's house a
barrel like this hangs out and stinks like iron. It's terrifying to think of
the size of the motherland piece this beaurocrat sold for this barrel...
Kissur turned around and slowly drove back. In a hundred yards, a cement
road forked off the highway. Moon tatters floated in a little puddle at the
road turn. "What road is that?", Kissur was curious and turned the car.
The road ended in ten minutes. The car beams tore at the darkness and
illuminated a tall concrete fence with barbed wire on top and a lonely guard
getting bored at the watchtower. A dark open field could be seen on the left
and a yellow light beam from the beacon was hitting the field. Kissur got
out of the car and walked down the field to the excavator that was ascending
like a clockwork mole over a not-yet-fully-eaten hill. Tracks and wheels
bulldozed the field and water gleamed in the clay ruts. The excavator was
huge, taller than a poplar. It was one of these huge machines that swallow
clay with some additives delivered from afar and spit out finished
construction blocks.
Kissur climbed up a steep staircase to the top of the excavator. It was
a long climb; the staircases twisted, went horizontal, changed in narrow
paths between steel casings covering various mechanisms and finally finished
at a tiny booth. The booth was locked; constellations of blue lights at the
napping console looked at Kissur through the glass.
At this moment, the moon peered out of clouds again; Drunken River
gleamed far away with the multi-coloured tower of Seven Clouds Bridge above
it. Kissur suddenly recognized this field; it happened here, next to Seven
Clouds, eight years ago. Kissur caught up with the rebel Khanalai right when
he was going to enter the capital; Kissur and his five hundred horsemen
drowned four thousand rebels in the river. The commander wore a ruby
necklace; Kissur remembered very well how he cut off his head with one hand
and stuffed the necklace in his coat with the other.
Kissur turned around and started to climb down the narrow staircase,
smelling of oil and chemistry. His car purred quietly and complained about
the open door. The guard hesitantly shifted from foot to foot in his nest.
What's happening? Did some boss come in a luxurious barrel to look at the
construction at night? It doesn't look like a robber... Take this excavator,
such an insanely expensive machine that's tall like a cypress, walks by
itself, digs earth by itself, piles the blocks behind by itself. They say
that this machine costs three times more than the village that the guard was
born and grew up in. They say even that it's more expensive than the
Emperor's scepter covered with jewels and gold. That's probably bullshit;
the Emperor's sceptor is the focus of the world and the buttress of power.
When the Emperor knocks his scepter, flowers bloom and birds build nests;
how can you compare it some ironmongery? You can't compare it to ironmongery
and that's why people from the sky get angry and laugh at the scepter. Like
it's all crap and the Spring comes not because the Emperor knocks the
sceptor on the floor in the Hall of Hundred Fields but because Weia planet
turns its side to the sun differently. But what if the people from the sky
don't bullshit? What if their excavator is more powerful than the Emperor's
scepter?
"Hey," Kissur asked, "what are they building here?"
" I don't know, sir", the frightened guard answered. "They say it will
be a garbage plant."
"Who is building it?"
The puzzled guard was silent for a moment.
"I knew, sir, but the name is such difficult..."
"Earthmen?"
"Earthmen."
The beacon from the tower was blinding Kissur's eyes, shamelessly
eclipsing the moon. Kissur rolled on the heels, threw a coin to the guard,
got in the car and left.
He didn't care where he went, but the wheels drove him of their own
accord to Jasper Hills, the most expensive suburb of the capital. Painted
walls extended behind the sidewalk covered with blue cloth; trees and turnip
shaped turrets flashed behind the walls, and traffic lights blinked in the
intersections illuminating statues of gods and road signs with transparent
lights.
Kissur drove the wrong way down a one way street, turned the wrong way
again and raced down night intersections not bothering to decrease his
speed. He passed red lights twice without problems, but third time he was
less lucky. Out of a white fence came a grey Daiquiri, looking like a gopher
with a sharp snout, the last year model made by the Republic of Gera.
Kissur wrenched the steering wheel left even before the slow
biolectronic guts of the car smelled danger. The brakes of both cars sang an
ugly song in the night. Grey Daiquiri swerved left. Everything would have
been fine, if not for the wet road cover. The grey car spun like a top and
hit Kissur's car right side head-on.
Metal screeched desperately, like a chainlink mail parting under an old
sword strike.
Everything became quiet.
The owner of Daiquiri jumped out of the car and rushed to the other
auto; he jerked the driver's door open and looked inside. He was probably
expecting to find a corpse or somebody severely wounded; he looked
astonished when he discovered that the culprit was sitting in the car and
getting his wallet out. Then, Kissur looked in rearview mirror, shifted from
the collision, and noticed that his hair twisted in a bun was in disarray
and the comb popped out of the bun like a button out of a safety switch.
Kissur pulled the comb out and started to arrange his hair.
The other driver's face contorted like an image in a transvisor with a
bad tracking; he started pulling Kissur out and hissed awfully in the
language of the people from the stars.
"You, Weian monkey! Climb down a tree first, before you start driving."
The smile slowly left Kissur's face. He left the comb alone, grabbed
the Earthman's wrists with his hands, got out of the car, and with a slight
swing punched the Earthman in the solar plexis with his knee. He went limp
and said "Ouch." Red unglazed tiles that were covering the ditch caved in
with a crunch and the Earthman tumbled down through the tiles with his legs
sticking up.
Kissur grinned, straightened up his shirt and started opening the car
door.
In the next second, something gleamed above his head and refracted in
the long titanium oxide rib of the car. Kissur turned with lightning speed.
Great Wei! The Earthman dragged himself out of the tiled ditch and was
flying at Kissur prancing like a goose. Astounded Kissur avoided the first
punch, but the second almost shattered his jaw. Kissur was hurled in the
corner between the door and rearview mirror. The mirror crunched and Kissur
noticed the Earthman's right foot an inch away from his ear. Kissur grabbed
and twisted this leg, but the masterly Earthman instead of smashing his face
in the road, let out a war cry, threw his body strangely in the air and
punched Kissur's belly with another leg. Kissur even fainted for a second.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself lying on the road like a pod
from an eaten bean and the Earthman was going to punch him again. Kissur
threw himself to the side; Earthman missed, and Kissur adroitly punched
Earthman right in the place where the Earthman's corn grew from. This time
Earthman's cry was less warlike. Kissur jumped with his back, bounced on his
feet and hit the foe in the face, once and again; he went limp. Kissur
prodded him in the groin to check, lifted him and flang the Earthman at the
grey Daiquiri's windshield. The layered glass cracked and started to break,
the Earthman dropped his head and lost consciousness.
Kissur stood breathing deeply and blinking with half mad eyes. He was
trained to loose any self control during a fight; at times like this,
Kissur's ancestors turned into wolves and bears. If Kissur had a sword, he
would cut the scoundrel down. However, it would be stupid to wear a sword
now and Kissur didn't have a liking for all these things with nulls, lights,
gases - all having a hole in the middle like a wench. Though he had an
automatic six pound laser and another very fashionable gadget in the car's
trunk, Kissur didn't know even why he carried them. His friends did, so did
he.
Kissur stood and shook his head purposelessly, slowly coming back in
this world. The Earthman was lying on the car hood like a squashed frog. His
white shirt and tie were hopelessly soiled with cranberry juice. The traffic
light at the intersection blinked and changed color - the fugurine of a
god-protector of intersections sparkled with green light. Kissur finally
came to his senses. He chewed his lips and retrieved his round wallet out of
a pocket. Kissur didn't respect plastic. He got out everything that he had
in the wallet - he vaguely remembered that it was twenty or maybe fifty
thousand - rolled the money in a wad and stuck it in the Earthmans's split
lips. He didn't want them to say that he beat people free of charge.
Then he got in his car and left.
X X X
The car slowly rolled forward. Kissur felt slightly sick; blood dripped
out of his nose. It wouldn't be proper to come back home looking like this.
Kissur passed several more mansions and stopped in front of beautiful
brass gates. Horses and peacocks intertwined in a dance on the gates; the
blue enamel on the horsetails glistened in the beam lights. The beauty of
gates was such they seemed to lead from earth to heaven. Night garden's
sweet smells wafted out from behind the gates. The turnip shaped turrets of
the side houses stuck out from the dark mass of trees. Melancholic gods sat
on the flat roofing of the covered road. At the side of the gates, a small
ivory plaque glimmered, "Shavash Ahdi. The first vice-minister of finance.
Vice prefect of the Sky City." A small figurine of the god-protector of the
gates was next to the plaque. The god had a small basket with fish in his
hand. A marble cup stood under the figurine. A piece of dried oil saturated
cow dung burned in the cup; it demontrated the owner's modesty and honored
the cane-built huts of ancient officials.
Surprisingly, the gates were closed - the vice prefect of the capital
was not feeding either officials or paupers today.
Kissur smirked.
The mansion's owner could've had numerous titles written on the plaque
- the Keeper of Piety, the Brocade of Truth, the Flower Garden of the Wisdom
Beyond the Sky, the Meadow of the State Virtue, etc... etc... He regularly
received these titles from the Emperor and was supposed to engrave them on
gate plaques. However, the owner of the mansion has often had visitors from
the skies and he probably realized that the Brocade of Truth and the Flower
Garden of Wisdom were not titles that would impress the foreigners.
Kissur blinked the lights; the gates suddenly moved to the sides
without a call and Kissur drove in.
The yard was brightly lit. Streams of water and light erupted from the
fountains and multi coloured balls bounced on the streams. Rows of columns
and rose bushes led to the open front entrance. The columns tops made from
carved jade and inlaid silver pointed to the moon. The host was already
running down the staircase rushing to the wide path. A bowing servant opened
the car door and Kissur stepped out of the car. Mr. Shavash froze as if he
had ran into a wall but he recovered at once, opened his arms and embraced
Kissur.
"Hello," he said.
"Well," said Kissur, "I was driving and decided to drop by. Sorry that
I didn't warn you... I don't like these - beep, beep," Kissur traced a
sickly body of a T-phone with his hand. "Are you busy?"
Mr. Shavash regarded the caved in car door and looked Kissur over from
his head to his toes.
"Give me your driver's license," said the vice-minister of finance and
the vice prefect of the capital.
Kissur bent his eyebrows, got the wallet out and handed his license
over. The vice prefect waved the license, thought a bit, tore it apart and
threw it in the lighted fountain.
"Whom have you run over?"
"I haven't run anybody over," answered Kissur, "I hit a pole."
This lie would have a short life span. If the Earthman is dead, Shavash
will learn everything tomorrow morning. If he is alive, Shavash may learn
about it tonight. Kissur, however, didn't come to Shavash to avoid a
scandal. Thank God, the time hasn't come yet for a foreigner wearing a tie
to turn in a complaint about a personal friend of the Emperor.
"The pole," mentioned Shavash, "had leaden fists."
"Are you waiting for somebody," asked Kissur, "did I come at a wrong
time?"
Shavash became slightly embarassed.
"You are always welcome."
Shavash gave orders; Kissur followed to the guest chambers. A servant
rushed along in mincing steps carrying a basket with clean sheets. Shavash
said to Kissur's back,
"You will not drive again. Otherwise you will die sometime."
"It's ok," replied Kissur, "if Gods like a man, he dies young."
X X X
Twenty minutes later, bowing servants walked Kissur down the roofed
path to the Pavilion of White Creeks.
There were two pavilions for receiving important guests in the
Shavash's estate - the Pavilion of White Creeks and the Red Pavilion.
Pavilion of White Creeks was decorated in the traditional style, the floors
were covered with knee deep white rugs, flower spheres swang under the
ceiling, incense flowed from golden braziers, silken scrolls rimmed with fur
hang on the walls, while the corners (corners are indeed atrocious things,
everything bad in a house comes from the corners) were hidden well from a
random glance by long ivy plants rising all the way to the ceiling. Red
Pavilion was designed by an Earthman.
Shavash usually received Weians in the Pavilion of White Creeks and
Earthmen in the Red Pavilion. They claimed that these places had magical
properties - when Mr. Shavash received Weians in the Pavilion of White
Creeks he discoursed one way, but when he received Earthmen in the Red
Pavilion his speeches were very different. For instance, when questioned
about the reasons for the Empire's poverty in the Pavilion of White Creeks,
he complained about the greed of people from the skies who only try to buy
as much Weia as possible for a keg of marinated onions. However when asked
the same question in the Red Pavilion, he complained about laziness and
selfishness of Weian officials. Since these different speeches belonged to
the same person, you have to agree, that the magical properties of these
buildings had to be involved.
The servants brought trays of roasted goose and baskets of picked fruit
and covered the table with vegetable and meat appetizers.The melon floating
in a silver basin was delivered the last. Shavash seated Kissur as the guest
of honor and broke off the top of clay wine jar. Kissur caught the top and
glanced at the stamp.
"Good wine," Kissur, "if this stamp is not counterfeited."
"There are no fakes in my house," Shavash replied, "it was made in
Inissa in the fifth year of sovereign Varnazd rein."
"It was made when the empire was still the empire. It was made when I
was not a minister yet, when I was a brigand in Kharain mountains and when
my wife was your fiancee.
Shavash smiled slightly and poured wine in the cups.
"I would," Kissur spoke, "drink a wine that was bottled in the times of
sovereign Irshahchan. When there were no merchants and bribers and when all
these barbarians from the mountains or from the sky didn't wave their swords
or their science in front of our people's faces.
"I am afraid," Shavash replied, "that no wine that ancient exists. And
even if it's around still, it has turned into vinegar."
The friends intertwined their hands and drank wine.
After that, Shavash started on a young bamboo shoot and a river
calimari with a spicy Iniss sauce appetizers. Kissur, squinting, rolled a
cup in his hands and looked at the man sitting across the table.
Even among Weian officials that nobody would suspect to be excessively
uncorrupted, Shavash had made himself quite a reputation. Shavash's servants
took bribes, Shavash's assistants took bribes, Shavash's wife (by the way,
Kissur's wife was her sister) took bribes; they took bribes with lands and
stocks, with licenses and money, with options and thoroughbreds, with the
newest financial tools and ancient paintings, took bribes from provincial
and center worlds, took bribes from the Federation of Nineteen and the
Republic of Gera - though the dictator of Gera didn't take bribes and didn't
really give much. One official asked what kind of place a supermarket was;
they told him that it was a place where one could by anything. "Oh, it's Mr.
Shavash's house," the astonished official exclaimed. Kissur once, after some
really offensive deal, grabbed Shavash by his shirt at the Emperor's soiree
and asked what the current price was for a pound of motherland. "I love
motherland and I charge a lot for it," Shavash leered. Mr. Shavash liked to
state that if a man says that he doesn't like money, it means that money
doesn't like him.
Since the Earthmen came to the planet, seven years and four cabinets
have passed. Every one of the cabinets fired all its predecessor's
functionaries. Shavash was the only higher level official who worked for all
the cabinets and survived. The first man he betrayed in order to survive was
his teacher and lord, Nan, who had made him a big boss out of an street
urchin thief. Thanks to such a long political life, Shavash was able to pull
all the strings of power and influence in the country in spite of his
relative youth - he was only two years older than Kissur.
Shavash could help or hinder anything. Even the biggest country bumpkin
Earthmen - who came to Weia to invest in a construction of some resort in
the middle of untamed nature or in the development of a uranium mine that
will sooner or later finish this untamed nature off - knew that they should
introduce themselves to the first vice minister of finance and they should
invest in Shavash first, and in a mine next.
Kissur had just finished half of the goose, when a bowing servant slid
in the room and handed Shavash a paper. "At the intersection of Spring
Fires, the traces of a two car collision were found, the unglazed tile ditch
cover was broken through, blood and fragments of headlights identical to the
broken headlight of Kissur's car were present. The grey paint particles
stuck to Kissur's car trunk match to the grey paint particles found at the
collision place." That was the answer to the orders Shavash had given his
secretary twenty minutes ago.
Shavash folded the paper sheet and put it in his pocket.
"What," Kissur asked, "are they building at the Seven Clouds field?"
The official pondered.
"Garbage processing plant," he said.
"Who? Another of their corporations?"
"The company CB Trade. The owner of company is Kaminski. What's the
problem?"
"Nothing. I was just passing by and got curious."
"So, have they built the plant?"
"No," Kissur said, "they haven't built it yet. They built a big road to
the garbage plant."
Shavash reflectively touched the paper in his pocket. Kissur sucked on
a goose breast bone, washed it down with another wine cup and said, "Garbage
plant! Our ancestors swept garbage out of their houses only at a full moon.
They used to call a charmer, so that a warlock would not be able to pick up
trash and put a spell on them. Imagine what would happen in Earthmen's
houses if they threw garbage out only once a month? All their wraps and cans
would rise above the ceiling even thought their ceilings are very high! How
can a people that generates so much garbage call itself civilized? How dare
these people teach us to manufacture goods only to dispose of them
afterwards?!
Shavash didn't react to this tirade in any way. Kissur silently
finished wine and his eyes became even more desperate.
"Why," Kissur asked, "does the capital need a garbage processing
plant?"
"Probably," Shavash supposed, "to process garbage."
"Crap," Kissur objected, "Earthmen don't need plants to process
garbage. They produce garbage, as an excuse to build garbage processing
plants. Why don't we ask the sovereign to ban this construction? Almost in
the center of the capital!"
Shavash pressed his thumb in the armchair and looked thoughtfully at
Kissur. It looked like he was pondering something.
"Don't be afraid," Shavash said suddenly, "Kaminski will not built his
garbage plant."
"How so?"
"As you mentioned, this is almost downtown. The status of the land will
be reconsidered; industrial construction will be prohibited; the business
and industrial land committee will submit a complaint; the sovereign will
sign it and the garbage plant construction will be cancelled."
"But the foundation is already there."
"Mr. Kaminski will receive a compensation for the foundation - two
million."
"And then?"
"Then, Mr. Kaminski will built a new business center instead of a
garbage plant on the business zoned land."
"I am probably very stupid," Kissur remarked, "but I don't understand
what's going on."
"Lands of the Empire that are sold to foreign investors as a private
property," Shavash patiently explained, "can be divided in four categories -
agrarian, residential, industrial and business lands. Industrial zoned land
costs twelve times less than business zoned one. If Mr. Kaminsky had bought
the land for a business center, it would have been too expensive for him."
"And what about the foundation?" Shavash spread his hands.
"I am not an engineer, of course, and they don't allow outsiders to
visit the construction. If however, I was an engineer and I was allowed
there, I would probably notice that the foundation and the underground
communications confirm to a business center specifications and not to a
garbage processing facility specifications."
Kissur's face froze.
"So," he said, "that's what Kaminsky will get two million compensation
for?"
"Kaminsky," Shavash responded, "will not get the compensation. The
compensation will be procured by a Weian official who affirms the complaint
and transfer land from one zoning category into another."
"Hold on, this deal must have passed through your prefecture!"
"In this case, the contract did not pass via the prefecture. It passed
through Mr. Khanida's department."
"I see. You can't forgive Khamida that it was him and not you to
receive the money."
"This money wouldn't hurt me"
Kissur stood up and started pacing in the pavilion.
"Mutual profit," Shavash talked, "is the basis of cooperation. Kaminsky
will save four hundred million; Khamida will receive two million. Weian
officials cost cheap."
"What if everything falls through? If the sovereign fires Khamida
before he changes the land zoning?"
"Well, Kaminsky gave Khamida only a little bit, less than seven hundred
thousand. The rest Khamida will get only upon a successful completion of the
deal and he will not get it from the Earthman - he will get it from the
state. Khamida is not the one who invented it, it's a well known setup."
"What other setups are there?" Kissur asked quickly.
The official spread his hands smiling like a porcelain cat. He
evidently didn't want to tell Kissur about all the different ways of selling
his own country, even though he was much more nimble than Khanida in this
business.
"Kissur, you haven't seen my watch collection in a while. Let's go and
look at it." Standing up unhurriedly, Shavash approached a fifth dynasty
cabinet that stood in the living room. Shavash' s collection of Weian pocket
watches was filling the sparkling malachite shelves in the cabinet. The
collection had indeed improved. A tiny sand watch in a tumbler braided with
gold knots was added. Also new were three mechanical pocket watches that
just started to appear in the Empire before the catastrophe and were luxury
and therefore art, with fanciful ornament and decorations, with
mother-of-pearl hands made in the image of the eternity god, hence they had
nothing to do with this flat crap that even women now worn on their wrists.
Other new additions were present: a tiny watch embedded in a lid of a jade
powder box - it didn't have a glass cover, it had a twined filigree lattice
and a single hour hand languished behind it as if in prison cell; an oval
watch strewn with pearls had two faces - one face for the minute and another
for the hour hand - and a long chain with jade pendants that high officials
used to wear personal seals. A seal was at the botton and the watch covered
with tiny jewels at the top.
Kissur suddenly grabbed Shavash by his right hand - a homely watch with
a simple platinum face was there and twenty six hours of Weian time were
marked with Earthern numerals.
"Yes," Shavash said thickly, "there are no more Weian numerals. Our
time has been severed. Let my hand go now or you will break it again."
Grinning Kissur released Shavash's hand, turned to the shelf and picked
up an onion shaped watch with a crystal top. Agitation briefly ran over
Shavash's face - he loved this onion more than any of his concubines and
Kissur knew that. Kissur squeezed the onion in his fist and waved it in
front of Shavash's face.
"So," Kissur asked, "what other ways are there? How many of your
monthly salaries did this onion cost?"
Shavash suddenly twisted like a cat protecting its kittens.
"Put it back now," he hissed.
Nobody knows how Kissur woud have answered if a brass gong had not
banged at the hall entrance and an incoming servant announced,
"Mr. Bemish begs forgiveness for being late."
"Let him in," Shavash cried desperately.
Kissur's lips twitched; he put the onion back in place and for a second
longer looked at the numerals in the hands of the eternity god twisted
around the dial.
Isn't it strange? A while ago this fashion for watches was started by
this scoundrel, minister Nan, who later appeared to be a barbarian from the
stars, - Kissur couldn't stand this fashion - how could it be that a watch
hand commanded a Man like an owner his slave. And now his heart hurt when he
saw the Weian numerals and a Weian device.
When Kissur turned around, the official was already standing at the
entrance and bowing ceremoniously to the Earthman.
"Please," Shavash said, "let me introduce you to each other. Terence
Bemish, the general director of ADO company and Mr. Kissur, an Emperor's
personal friend...."
The Earthman and Kissur looked at each other.
Kissur's eyes popped out; it was the same man he had a fight with only
two hours ago. Great Wei! Kissur thought the Earthman had died and the guy
even managed to change his shirt!
"We have met already," the Earthman reported in an even voice and
added, "Mr. Kissur, I was just going to hand you over a letter." He stepped
closer to Kissur and put a white envelope in his hand. Kissur felt a wad of
crimpled money under the plastic paper.
Kissur guffawed and slapped Bemish on the shoulder. Bemish bit his lips
for a second, pondering if he should punch the guy in the face, but Kissur
was laughing so merrily that Bemish couldn't help but join him.
Shavash batted his eyelids apprehensively. The official had to solve
several problems quickly and the most pressing one was where to receive the
guests and what language to use. It was a very important question due to
this strange quality of Shavash's soul; as we have discussed, a conversation
in a different language seemingly transferred it to a different world. We
have mentioned, that when somebody asked Shavash in
Interenglish about the reasons for pauperism in the Empire, Shavash
denounced passionately unbearable state expenses and the state budget that
half of the country's banks made fortunes on. However, when somebody asked
him the same question in Weian, he castigated the gluttony of the people
from the stars who were buying the country for a wine jar. Hence, Shavash
avoided speaking Interenglish next to a Weian and speaking Weian next to a
person from the stars. His brain got muddled otherwise.
Shavash carefully pulled a window curtain away and looked outside. A
taxi stood far outside, behind the white wall. Oh, the Earthman flew in
yesterday and rented a car - a grey Daiquiri. Hmm, to change a car is more
difficult than to change a shirt.
"Well, gentlemen," Shavash said, still undecided about the hall, "the
night is divine, why should we sit inside eight walls, let's go into the
garden."
"I apologize," Kissur bowed, " but I need to go."
"What..." Shavash started.
"Gentlemen," Kissur said, "I'll only get in your way. Two respectable
people are going to discuss an important business. It's not a place for a
vagrant like me. You are not going to waste your time on small things like a
garbage plant, are you?"
THE SECOND CHAPTER
Where the sad history of the Assalah spacefield is told while the
ex-first minister of Empire finds himself a new friend.
Next morning Terence Bemish sat in his room on the seventh floor of the
local Hilton hotel nudging the back of his head and feeling annoyed. His
head hurt as hell. A large peony-shaped bruise swelled on his cheekbone.
Somebody knocked in the door - Stephen C. Welsey, an employee of one of
the largest investment banks in the Galaxy and Terence's colleague on this
stupid trip, walked in.
"Wow," Welsey said, looking curiously at the peony bruise, "is it a
local mafia?"
"Ah, a guy shattered my car's headlamps."
"And then?" Welsey asked with an undisguised curiosity knowing that a
while ago the sixteen year old future corporate raider Terence Bemish got to
the semi-finals of a youth kickboxing Galaxy championship.
"To be honest," Bemish said, "I was a complete pig. These jerks charged
me three times more for the rent than this tin can really costs. I grabbed
the guy by his shirt and called him a Weian monkey or something like that.
He punched me in the face."
"Thank God, you were smart enough to hold back."
"To the contrary," Bemish said bitterly, "I punched him back."
Welsey's raised his eyebrows in astonishment.
"To summarize," Bemish explained, "he drove away and left me sitting
with my butt inside the crashed windshield."
"What about Shavash?"
"I changed my clothing and went to Shavash."
"Well?"
"Shavash is a very intelligent person," Bemish said, "and his education
is impeccable. He knows everything about IPO, underwriters, cumulative
privileged stocks, etc... You have to admit that in a country where most
people are sure that when an Earth starship reaches the sky, the Earthmen
knock in the sky and God opens them a brass door, that's pretty impressive.
He is a very intelligent man who encompassed the best in the both cultures -
Weian and Galactic ones."
"What does it mean?"
"He can bankrupt you without breaking a sweat like a vulture fund
manager and he can personally cut your head off like a true Weian official.
He is the most charming man."
"So, what has the most charming man told you about your desire to buy
Assalah?"
"That to agree to our proposal means to sell the motherhood for a sour
cream jar."
"Well, should we pack our things and leave?"
"Not necessarily. Mr. Shavash hinted that he would be ready to sell the
motherhood for a sour cream jar, if the jar was big enough."
Welsey hummed.
"Don't I dream sometimes," he said, "that at some point the Securities
and Stocks Committee will allow us to have an entry in a balance sheet -
"for bribing of the developing markets officials" - and it will be tax
deductible... How much does he want?"
"We didn't get to particular numbers."
Bemish was silent for a moment and continued,
"The company stocks are unbelievably under priced. I am not going to
give him any money. Let him buy stock warrants, this way it would be in his
interest for the company to survive and prosper."
"What is that you don't like?"
"Shavash is not the director of the company."
"Excuse me," Welsey was amazed, "what do you mean, he is not a
director? All the forms say - Shavash Ahdi, the director of the state-owned
Assalah Company."
"Stephen, it is a poor translation. The company is not owned by the
state, it is owned by the sovereign. Do you see the difference? "State" and
"sovereign" are two different conjugations of the same word in Weian - nouns
have conjugations here - what a language... When the translation says, the
state appoints, it really means, the sovereign appoints. The sovereign
personally appoints and revokes the company president; the sovereign
personally accepts financial plans. What if the sovereign does not accept
the IPO plan? Bye-bye sour cream..."
"Hmm," Welsey said, "From what I've heard, you can't really say he
spends all his time studying companies' IPO plans during the
de-nationalization process. They say he has seven hundred concubines..."
"Yes, but what's the guarantee that some official that can't stand
Shavash doesn't go to the sovereign and tell him about the sour cream jar."
"Giles from IC told me that we would not even be able to get papers for
the space field preliminary checkup without bribing Shavash first."
Bemish retorted, "What is the IC? I've never heard about this company."
Somebody knocked in the door.
"Come in," Welsey shouted.
A boy with a card on a silver tray materialized at the entrance. As a
local custom demanded, the boy kneeled down on a scrawny knee in front of
the foreigner. Bemish took the card. The boy said,
"A gentleman would like to have a breakfast with you. The gentleman is
waiting down in the foyer."
"I am coming," Bemish said.
The boy backed away and left. Bemish hurriedly pulled on pants and a
jacket. Welsey took the card.
"Kissur," he read, "wow, isn't he the Emperor's favorite who filched a
Van Leyven's bomber plane and slaughtered the rebels next to the capital?
Didn't he later get on LSD and gang up with anarchists on Earth? Where did
you pick this drug addict up?"
Bemish checked his bruise out in the mirror.
"Drug addicts," Bemish said, "don't fight like this."
X X X
Terence Bemish descended.
Slim and smiling Kissur sat on the car hood. He wore soft grey pants
girdled by a wide belt embroidered with silver sharks and a grey jacket. A
wide necklace made of jade plates set in gold glistened under the open
jacket akin to a collar. The attire was similar enough to the contemporary
fashion to look unobtrusive, except for the necklace and the finger rings.
Bemish winced involuntarily and touched his cheekbone where Kissur's ring
tore the skin off.
"Hello," Kissur said, "general director! Never in my life have I met a
general director who fights like this. Are you special?"
"I am special," Terence Bemish agreed.
Laughing, Kissur embraced him, seated him in the car and started the
engine.
"What have you seen in our capital?" Kissur asked.
"Nothing."
"Have you seen nothing at all?"
"Well, I saw cards in the hotel hall," Bemish said, "and I also saw a
warning there - don't eat fried river calamari on the market if the calamari
are from the left river, where the leather processing plant "flows" to."
"Got you," Kissur said, "let's go then."
They drove over the river across a blue lacquered bridge, loaded with
market stalls and people. Kissur stopped on the bridge in front of a wreath
shop, bought three of them, put one on his neck, another on Bemish's and
later left the third one in the temple of the Sky Swans.
After that, Kissur drove Bemish around the city.
The city, that Bemish hadn't seen yet, was both beautiful and ugly.
Temple turrets and muraled precinct gates mixed with astonishing five
storied shanty houses built from the stuff that Bemish wouldn't dare to
build a cardboard box; potters on the floating market sold enticing jars
painted with grasses and flowers and empty rainbow hued Coke bottles. Melon
peels and colorful wraps floated down the canal - the remnants of everything
that grew on Weia and came from the skies, everything that found a place in
the mammoth belly of the Sky City but didn't find a place in the weak bowels
of its sewage.
They watched a puppet show at the market based on a new popular TV
series demonstrating the mutual integration of the cultures; they fed holy
mice and dropped by the Temple of Isia-ratouph, where stone gods dressed in
long caftans and high suede boots nodded to visitors if they dropped coins
(bought here) down a slot in the wall.
Kissur showed the Earthman a wonderful town clock made in the very
beginning of the sovereign Kassia's rule. There were twenty three thousand
figurines next to the clock, a thousand for an every province, and they all
represented officials, peasants and artisans. They spun in front of the dial
displaying a blue mountain. Bemish asked why the mountain was blue and
Kissur answered that was the mountain that stood above the sky and had four
colors - blue, red, yellow and orange. The blue side of the mountain faces
the Earth - that's why sky is blue. The orange side of the mountain faces
the gods, hence the sky above the place where gods live is orange.
This was a standard cultural program except for the fact the director
of a modest company registered in the state of Delaware, USA, Federation of
Nineteen was accompanied by one of the richest people in the Empire.
Finally, Kissur stopped at a temple somewhere at the city outskirts.
He, probably, stopped there because of a two thousand step long staircase
leading to the temple. Kissur started running up the steps and Bemish
desperately tried to keep up. He was out of breath and his heart was
pounding in the chest, but the Earthman and the Weian got to the top of the
colonnade side by side, looked at each other and laughed.
"Like a pig race," Kissur said, gasping for breath, "Terence, have you
seen a pig race?"
"No."
"We must go there. I threw away twenty thousand last week on this Red
Nose bastard."
It was dark and cool inside the temple. A bronze god in a brocade
caftan and high suede boots sat amidst green and gold columns and his wife
sat in the next hall. Kissur said that Weians didn't put much stock in
bachelor gods. A god should be a good family man and an exemplary father,
otherwise what can he expect from people?
Bemish listened to the strange silence in the temple and perused the
face of the god and the family man.
"By the way, where did you learn to fight?"
"My father taught me," Bemish said, "he was a well-known sportsman. I
almost became one myself."
The ex-first minister's eyebrows, furled in contempt were visible even
in the temple dusk
"Sportsman..." he drawled, "it's a shameful business to fight for
plebeian delight. Why haven't you become a warrior?
Terence Bemish was amazed. To say the truth, it has never occurred to
him to join the army, not even in his wildest dreams.
"The army," Bemish said, "is for losers."
The ex-premier grinned.
"Yes," he replied, "for an Earthman, anything that can't procure wealth
is for losers. The Earthmen make money out of wars no longer; they make
money out of money.
"I didn't mean that," Bemish objected, "I want to be myself and not a
trigger pulling machine. The army means the loss of freedom."
"Crap," said Kissur, "the army is the only way to freedom. There is
nobody between a warrior and god."
"Maybe," Bemish agreed, "only our army hasn't fought for the last one
hundred thirteen years."
They left the hall, walked through a rock and flower garden and found
themselves in another temple wing - enticing smells wafted from there and
Bemish saw cars with diplomatic plate licenses through a twined lattice.
Bemish thought the temple rented this house out but Kissur told him that an
eatery had always been there.
They walked down into the yard. A fountain babbled in the yard
inconsolably and people sat at the tables under the swaying yellow tents.
Kissur seated Bemish at a table, grabbed a passing waiter, plucked two wine
jars from his basket and ordered food.
"So," Kissur said, pouring spicy palm wine down the clay mugs, "you
have never been to a war. What do you do then?"
"I am in finance. The company that belongs to me will possibly be
interested in buying some stuff here."
"Are you rich?"
"You don't have to be rich in order to acquire a company. You just have
to have a reputation of a man who can triple the stock price of this company
in a year and a financial company who can raise money for you."
"Aha. Do you have one?"
"Yes. My colleague Welsey represents it. It's LSV bank."
"Are foreign banks allowed here?"
"LSV is not a deposit bank. They are in investment business, "Bemish
said, feeling slightly offended for the fifth largest investment bank in the
Galaxy.
Here, Kissur astounded Bemish. The ex-first minister of the Empire of
the Great Light looked at Bemish and asked,
"Oh, do banks engage in anything beyond usury?"
Bemish was silent for a moment. Then he carefully inquired,
"Kissur, do you know what a stock is?"
"Hmm," the ex-minister said, "it's when you get a loan?"
Bemish almost choked.
"Am I not right?"
"When they loan money and issue securities it is called bonds."
"That's what I am saying. Isn't it the same thing?"
"No," Bemish said, "When a company issues stocks, whoever buys a stock
becomes a co-owner of the company and has a right to vote at a stock holder
meeting. He also gets dividends and their size depends on the company's
performance. On the other hand, when a company issues bonds, it means that
it borrows money and whoever buys bonds will have guaranteed payments till
the loan will be paid off, if the company does not go bankrupt, of course."
"Oh, how interesting," Kissur said; he snapped his fingers and shouted,
"Chief! Where is the jellyfish?"
Bemish had never eaten marinated jellyfish before and he wasn't
particularly curious about it; he sincerely wished that the place ran out of
them. However, the jellyfish arrived, looking like a pile of broken
plexiglass smothered in with red sauce, and Kissur continued,
"What company are you aiming at?"
"The company that received a concession for the Assalah spaceport
construction. Since the sovereign owns 65% of the company's capital,
accordingly to your laws he appointed the company director - Mr. Shavash."
Kissur, having some vague recollection that Shavash owned twelve more
companies like that including the Galaxy's second biggest (and rated one
hundred eighteenth in efficiency) uranium mine, silently nodded.
"Are you definitely buying it?"
"It depends on a number of factors."
"Such as?"
"It depends on the current state of the construction, the state of the
world stock market by the time of the IPO, the IPO volume and its prospects,
- you see, LSV can act as an underwriter and get a profit selling securities
but prices may go down after the IPO and then LSV will incur all the losses.
It is also important what kind of securities it will be, stocks, bonds, or
derivatives.
"Bonds would be better," Kissur said.
"Why?"
"You said it yourself - if anybody buys stocks, he also buys the
company. What if somebody buys the spaceport? All these ... trying to worm
their way in here..."
Bemish choked a bit, but it was probably caused by the unusual taste of
jellyfish.
"Tell me more about the company," Kissur demanded.
The Assalah Company was founded four years ago for the construction and
the industrial usage of a spaceport with a twenty five square mile landing
area that could potentially be increased. 15 square miles of peasant
communal land was appropriated for the construction. The company issued six
hundred forty million stocks with a nominal price of one hundred isheviks
each. The state kept 65% of the stocks and the management received five
percent. The community peasants got about seven percent. Instead of getting
cash for the appropriated lands, these people obtained a partnership in the
future construction. Fifteen percent of stocks was sold via the
over-the-counter market.
The construction was going along rapidly; the stocks were pretty high
up and their price reached three thousand isheviks or eighteen Galactic
dinars on the stock exchange. Then the director embezzled too much and a
scandal burst; it became apparent that only one third of planned
construction had been accomplished, the market crashed, almost all of upper
managers were arrested, the workers scurried away picking up everything that
the managers hadn't stolen yet; the construction halted on its own volition
and never started up again. Shavash was appointed the head of the company,
though I think that he had originally been on the Board of Directors.
"That's simple," Kissur said, "if Shavash was on the Board to begin
with, it means that he quarreled with his colleagues and had them
imprisoned."
"I don't know," Bemish said, "you see, this kind of stuff would not be
included in IPO prospects. Shavash tried to set up an international IPO and
he got in touch with "Merrill Roberto Darnhem." He almost pulled it off but
the investors refused to undersign the issue in the end."
"Why?"
"Because," Bemish gleefully explained, "a rebellion or something the
government considered a rebellion happened in Chakhar that month, and a
certain Kissur led his tanks among other things through the production
facilities of a soft beverage joint corporation, squashing under his tracks
a manager named Rodger Gernis. After this little trip, the securities of six
Weian companies that had passed the international certification plunged down
and bruised themselves and nobody wanted to talk about a new IPO. Didn't you
know about it?"
Kissur twirled his head thoughtfully.
"I've heard something about it," he said, "but I don't see anything
wrong if your sharks don't eat our carp."
"Your carp won't get smarter if nobody swallows it."
Kissur raised his head and looked thoughtfully at Bemish. His jaws
moved powerfully, crunching the jellyfish like it was not a jellyfish but at
least a lamb bone.
"That's well said, financier, " Kissur mentioned, "it's frank, at
least. Do you own a construction company?"
"More or less."
"What kind of construction?"
"It makes automated doors for monorail subway cars."
Kissur pondered. He was evidently trying to figure out the relationship
between the automated doors and the Assalah spacefield and he just could not
fathom it.
"Have you inherited it from your father?" Kissur asked.
"No, I bought it a year ago."
"Why?"
"To use it as a tool to acquire a bigger company."
This statement was more frank and even scandalous compared to the
previous one about the carp. It would make the Galactic Reserve bureaucrat
twitch but Kissur clearly didn't care.
Kissur poured Bemish palm wine and they drank a mug and then another
one.
"What's so special about you, director?" Kissur asked suddenly.
Bemish was silent for a moment. He wouldn't mind having Kissur as an
ally. He realized that Kissur detested everything to do with Earthmen and
their money and he couldn't predict the Kissur's reaction to his next
statement.
"Most general directors," Bemish delivered , "slowly climb up the
corporate ladder, play golf with their equals and charge their own companies
for the their cats' space travels. They won't let me play golf with them.
They call me and my likes corporate raiders. We don't play by the rules. We
buy companies and fire ineffective management. We buy companies with other
people's money and pay off loans by selling half of what we bought."
Kissur sipped wine. He didn't care a fig that the Securities and Stocks
Committee was now discussing the legal issues of corporate raiders' actions
yet again, and that Terence Bemish's name was often being mentioned in not
the most favorable way.
"So," Kissur said, "the Assalah spacefield. It's in Chakhar, at the
border with the capital region... They grow great grapes in Assalah... Isn't
one hole in the sky enough for Chakhar?"
"No," Bemish said, "one hole in the sky appears not to be enough. It
was also supposed to be a temporary hole built in a swamp. The Chakhar
capital becomes as inaccessible in the rainy season, as a marsh village
during a flood. The landing blocks grow wet mildew and the spaceships hang
out there in space and charge so much for the delays, that cost as much as
ten spacefields or one palace. "
"How horrible!" Kissur exclaimed.
"Didn't you know that?"
"I am not a shopkeeper," the ex-first minister of the Empire was
offended, "everybody, interested in this, starts giving bribes or making
money sooner or later."
He was silent for a moment and then added, "so did you come to Shavash
about this ... hole in the sky? How much did he ask?" Bemish grinned
savagely.
"I am not in the habit of giving anything to the management of the
companies acquired by me accept for a kick in the butt. Assalah will be sold
on an investment auction. I will win this auction and that's it."
Kissur's blue eyes bored in the Earthman sitting in from of him.
"Something is funky here, "Kissur thought. "Either the Earthman is afraid to
confess about the bribe or Shavash is going to get foxy on him. One of them
is lying to me and I'll rub an onion in his eyes.
X X X
Bemish drove away in an unknown direction. Stephen Welsey shaved, took
a shower, ate breakfast, prepared related papers, visited an official named
Ishmik, who was connected to the state archive, where the financial
documentation of the Assalah company's previous stage was stored accordingly
to the Empire laws.
Next to the gates covered with silver curls and golden feathers, two
guards squatted and shelled earth nuts.
"Is it Mr. Ishmik's house?" Welsey asked in Interenglish, slowing down
and sticking his head out of the car.
"Yep," one guard answered.
Welsey got out of the car and barely stepped on a white sand path.
"Where are the gifts?" the guard said.
"What gifts?" Welsey was astonished.
"Gifts so that we announced you to Mr. Ishmik."
Welsey got back in the car, turned around and left. Five minutes passed
by. The guards still sat shelling the earth nuts and looked thoughtfully at
the empty road.
"Nissan 254, " one of the guards said, "last model."
"Such ignorance," the other said, "how can you visit a high official's
house without gifts. Such an uncultured man!"
Welsey's next visit was to the land rights precinct. He needed to find
out the exact status of the peasant and state lands acquired for the Assalah
landing strips. The IPO documentation that he studied on Earth, mentioned a
long term lease with a right to buy out, and Welsey needed to find out
whether or not the acquisition had already happened. A plump official
rumpled the papers in his hands for a while and even pretended to read
English while holding the document upside down.
"Why isn't the paper signed?" he proclaimed suddenly, returning Welsey
the sheet. "But this is the first page!" Welsey said, "The signature is on
the second page."
The official knitted his brows.
"What if the first page is a fake?"
"Are you going to force me fly back to Earth to get the signature, "
Welsey asked irritably, "why don't you pay for a ticket then?"
The official realized how ignorant the man was and did his best to get
rid of him.
In the third precinct, Welsey barely stepped in the office, where a
young official with smart penetrating eyes stood to meet him, when the door
opened quietly again and a Tserrina consulate courier darted in, holding a
large basket in his hands. The official looked desperately at Welsey and the
latter uttered, "I'll wait outside, " and stepped out. In a moment, Welsey
heard in Interenglish,
"Please accept this trifle from me and turn a benevolent face towards
me."
Welsey rushed out.
X X X
After the pub, Kissur dragged Bemish home. Bemish didn't find Kissur's
mansion to be entirely immured in the past - a closed circuit camera roved
its eye and the powerful neon lamps hung among the marble columns flanking,
customarily, the path to the main building. However, Bemish made out an
altar in the garden and a lamb, slashed wide open, lay on it.
Evidently, Kissur brought Bemish home for dinner and their food at the
pub was just the appetizing hors d'oervres. Bemish hiccuped. Kissur warned
Bemish away from the women's quarters and went away vociferously instructing
the proper preparation of pheasants.
The Earthman was left in one of the halls with windows facing the
garden and walls draped with archaic silks. A weapons collection was
arranged on the wall - an encrusted with mother-of-pearl and gold poleax, a
simple battle-axe, swords, one arrow-head covered in blood. When Kissur
returned, Bemish inquired about the strange collection theme.
"These are the weapons I was not killed with," Kissure answered.
He moved to the wall and picked a heavy spear with a blue pinecone at
the end.
"In a two day trip from your Assalah, the mountains begin and I was cut
off in the mountain woods with maybe a thousand people, and Kharan - that
was the scoundrel's name - had about fifteen thousand. But while Kharan
dawdled on the plains, I ordered the trees along the road to be axed part
way. When they finally entered the forest, the trees started falling on
their heads and we butchered the ones who were still alive. Still, it wasn't
such an easy feat and I was almost killed with this spear."
Kissur was silent for a moment.
"It's silly to kill somebody with it now, isn't it? A laser would be
way more reliable."
Kissur pivoted and threw the spear. It flew through the open window and
implanted itself in a decorated gazebo pole. Bemish walked out to look - the
spear had completely run through the pole. The pole was more than ten inch
thick.
Bemish wrenched the spear out and returned to the room.
Having eaten, Kissur hauled his new friend across the river, where the
Lower City shined and melted in the afternoon sunlight, thousand year old
dwellings of artisans, shopkeepers, and thieves, filled with crooked back
alleys making them impassable for cars and blocked by gates that the local
denizens used to defend themselves against bandits and, occasionally,
officials.
A market thundered deafeningly next to the river; it smelled of fried
fish and fresh blood; an old woman with a face like a dried fig was quickly
and deftly plucking a cock; passing by a cabbage cart while unloading,
Bemish noticed a small rocket launcher under the cabbage.
Slightly further, people crowded around a movable stage where a show
was taking place.
"Let's go, Kissur suddenly yanked the Earthman, "you have to see this."
Kissur and Bemish squeezed in closer.
A dignified oldster in a waving red dress manufactured two human
figurines with an incredible nimbleness - one out of clay and another out of
white rock - put them on the stage, covered them with a decrepit rag. He
passed his hands, took the rag off - and where the clay figurines had been -
two youths jumped up. The youths started to dance in front of the audience,
and soon a lively conversation between them and the oldster issued forth.
Intrigued Bemish asked Kissur what the play was about.
"The show is based on an old myth," Kissur said.
You see, when god was making the world, he made two people - one out of
clay, another out of rock. Both of them knew as much as the gods knew but
the clay man was simple and guileless while the iron man was envious and
crafty. The gods took heed and thought, "People walk among us and they
probably know as much as we do. We could get in trouble."
They called the iron man in and asked, "What do you know?" Since the
iron man was crafty and secretive, he answered, just in case, that he was no
smarter than the carp had in his basket. The gods dismissed him and called
the clay man in. They asked him, what he knows. "Everything," the guileless
clay man replied. The gods pondered and took half of his knowledge away.
After Kissur had explained the meaning of the play to him, Bemish
started to follow what was happening on the stage. Soon it became evident to
him, that nothing good came out of the man who lied to the gods and knew as
much as they did. This man cooked up a lot of schemes, stole stars from the
sky, made an iron horse plow fields for him and was caught when he took a
god's image and fornicated with his wife.
After that, the god in the red dress chased after the iron man with a
bundle of whips; the iron man squealed and flipped over into an open hatch.
The audience guffawed. The show came to an end and the god in the red dress
started to walk among the people with a plate.
Bemish enjoyed this folk show much more than the morning TV play.
"Did I get it right that the iron man died?" Bemish queried.
"No. He dropped underground and he had children and grandchildren
there. Since then, the iron people live underground and they are responsible
for all the calamities above ground. They cajole the mountain spirits to
start earthquakes and generals to rebel. Accordingly to the legend, at the
end of the world, the iron men will crawl out from underground in the flesh,
or more precisely, in the iron; will take the land away from the people, the
sacrifices away from the gods and will generally misbehave."
"Will there be the second act?" Bemish asked. He wanted to see how the
iron men cajoled generals to rebel.
"Inevitably," Kissur grinned.
Then, the god stopped in front of them with the tray full of jingling
coins; Kissur, grinning widely, put two large pink bills with a crane
picture on the tray. "Braggart," Bemish thought irritably. He didn't want to
appear miserly, and he looked in the wallet. He didn't find any large Weian
banknotes there but he had about hundred dinars in the passport just in case
- the Earthman had been warned that ATM machines didn't readily present
themselves. Bemish extracted two notes and put them on the tray.
The god in a ragged dressing gown took the gray interplanetary money
with rainbow water signs along the edge, waved them in the air, merrily
announced something to the crowd - and tore them apart. Bemish stupidly took
it for trick.
"What did he say," he asked Kissur.
"That he doesn't take iron men's money," Kissur replied.
The crowd parted quickly and menacingly and Kissur quickly dragged
Bemish out - several gibes and a rotten tomato flew at the Earthman.
In just a moment, they were crossing the gleaming river over the
lacquered pedestrian bridge covered with shops. Bemish was still upset. He
didn't care about money, but he just couldn't figure out how a man who
earned twenty coins for the performance tore apart a sum hundred times
bigger. Bemish would have never done it himself.
"Is he mad, this illusionist?" Bemish asked.
"They use the performances to draw people in."
"Who are they?"
"Well, you would call them an opposition, we would call them a sect."
"There is a large difference between a sect and an opposition," Bemish
noted irritably. "Why have I come to this planet?," a thought passed his
mind, "who claimed that the Federal Committee guys would be able to prove
anything in the RCORP stocks story? I just bought them, that was it..."
"The difference, " Kissur agreed , "is ample. An opposition hangs out
in a parliament and a sect hangs on the gallows. Don't worry about the
money. They are great tricksters; he certainly didn't tear it apart and he
is now buying vodka for the local trash with it, since the trash believes
the shows but it believes them even better when watered with vodka.
He waited a moment and then added,
"There are things on Weia that you, the Earthmen, will not understand.
You will never understand why this oldster calls your automobile a phantom
and why they call you iron imps when they see your spaceships. You can take
in account the copper in our mountains, but how will you take this oldster
in account?"
"We can take him in account perfectly well," Bemish objected drily.
"How so?"
"In the stock price. In your stock prices, Kissur, that cost cheaper
than toilet paper. The name for this oldster is country risk."
X X X
When Welsey returned to the hotel in the evening, angry and disheveled,
the porter handed him over a note from Bemish. Bemish announced that Welsey
shouldn't expect him in the evening since he flew to Blue Mountains for a
fishing trip.
Bemish was out of town all week, while Welsey continued knocking on the
state precincts' doors. It appeared to be absolutely impossible to get the
simplest things done, to sign papers for a permission to transport necessary
equipment to this damned planet with a discount tariff, or to gain access to
the spacefield's stinking ruins. Stephen filled forms and refilled them, he
paid the scribes and he paid the officials.
At the White Clouds street precinct, he said,
"I would be very grateful to you if you sign this form."
"May I know the size of your gratitude?" the official replied
immediately.
At the Fertile Valleys street precinct, he was told to fill all the
forms in Weian. Welsey found a scribe and filled everything. The official
leafed the papers through and said,
"It is not allowed to accept the papers from Earthmen that they didn't
fill out themselves."
"Be merciful!" Welsey said.
"Mercy is an honorable trait." the official agreed pompously.
At the Autumn Leaves street precinct, Welsey banged his fist on the
table and screamed,
"Aren't you afraind of prison?"
"In our world," the official objected, "fright follows tranquility,
tranquility follows fright and only the sovereign's well-being is always
serene."
Then he asked Welsey for a ten thousand isheviks bribe.
In a week, Welsey cracked a bit. He was not an innocent maiden, and he
had had to appear twice before the Securities Committee. Admittedly, the LSV
bank was not only the fifth biggest but also the most notorious investment
bank in the Galaxy. Welsey knew how to give bribes to influence an
election's results and he had been telling dirty stories about Federation
officials all his life. Verily, he had never ever heard a Federation
official reply to, "I am grateful to you," by explicitily asking about the
size of your gratitude.
On Friday evening, Welsey dropped by the central communication station
and called the work number of Ronald T. Trevis - the head of LSV bank - the
man that some people called the un-crowned king of the Galaxy finances and
the others called the un-crowned bandit.
"How is it going?" a normal voice from a normal planet reached Welsey.
"It's not going," Welsey replied, "I have not obtained a single
signature in a week. I've been twice in their central office - their
secretaries know nothing and there is nobody around besides them."
"And Bemish?"
"Terence Bemish is fishing in Blue Mountains," Welsey said with a
vengeance.
"Who wants bribes and how much do they want?"
"I don't know," Welsey said, "there is a man named Shavash, the finance
vice-minister and a local Talleyrand, considered by some to be the hope of
the evolving nation. My impression is that the hope of the nation received a
huge bribe from IC so that not a single serious IC competitor could take
place in the auction."
"Do you think that your difficulties were caused by Mr. Shavash
himself?"
"Yes."
Then, something clicked in the receiver and the connection disappeared.
Welsey was going back to the hotel down the evening streets when he
heard a siren coming from behind him. A police car made him pull over. A
guard in a yellow coat - national police uniform - and with an assault rifle
in his hands jumped out of the car and tore the driver's door out of the
Welsey's "environmental" car with a hydrogen tank looking like a swollen
cucumber.
"Your papers!"
"What's are you doing?.." the Earthman started extending his driver's
license out.
But the guard didn't even look at the celluloid rectangle. He bent over
Welsey, grabbed the yellow briefcase lying on the passenger's seat and
pulled it out of the car.
"How dare you?" Welsey clamored.
The guard elbowed the sky boor off.
"It is a personal order of the minister himself!"
Crappy tires screeched and the police car drove away.
Welsey sat in his cucumber on wheels and felt totally shocked. That was
not a minor bribe anymore. That... There could be only one explanation - the
connection with the Earth didn't break off accidentally. He was followed by
the Shavash's agents. The conversation was tapped.
The consequences were catastrophic.
As mentioned before, he was not a virgin child and certain sums of
money had transferred hands from him to the Empire officials. While he was
not able to obtain even the most trivial information in some places, he
obtained absolutely confidential information in other places - and some
confidential materials lodged in his briefcase. The rough drafts of the IPO
were also there, including various financial machination notes and even the
approximate numbers of kickbacks.
This information would not hurt the Empire officials but, oh my God,
what could it do to LSV bank! From the moment of Ronald's Trevis meteoric
rise, LSV bank has joined the ranks of the most profitable but not the most
ethical banks of the Galaxy. The financial establishment used any pretext to
set "these bandits" back; the managers of the companies, passing away under
LSV-staged hostile takeovers, complained about wiretapping and employees
being bribed; two of Travis clients' inner circle members were in prison -
for insider trading and stock parking.
Actually, Terence Bemish, young and promising upstart supported by
Trevis, got the hint that his presence at the civilized capital markets was
not appreciated - that's why he went to Weia. In this country of
de-nationalizing economy, there were many companies with poor management and
no stock exchange rules.
And now, the Federation newspapers had a great opportunity to grind
Terence Bemish, Ronald Trevis, and Welsey himself flat - all this caused by
the Welsey's bumble. His future appeared to the young banker darker than
night. Trevis had thrown people out for smaller blunders and a banker, fired
by Trevis, could expect a cashier's job in a supermarket at best.
Welsey drove slowly to the nearest police precinct, pushed a frightened
guard away and walked to the supervisor's office.
"My name is Stephen Welsey," he said, "I represent a financial company
LSV and I flew in here from Sydney to consult our client taking part in an
investment auction. I have just been stopped by a police car with a plate
number 34-29-57. The guards confiscated my papers and escaped. This is
probably a misapprehension. I hope to receive the documents back within
three hours, otherwise I will act with no holds barred.
A young police official squinted frightened at the Earthman, ran in a
next room and chattered away on a computer keyboard.
"Number 34-29-57," he finally said, "That's wrong. There is no car with
this license plate number registered in the police department. In fact,
there is no car registered with this license plate number at all.
X X X
Three hours later, Welsey came back to hotel feeling atrocious. If he
needed a final proof that there was no law in this country, he got it. He
washed the lip cut by the sharp policeman's (or fake policeman's) fist,
opened the case and started to throw his belongings in randomly. He called
the spaceport, found out that the next Earth flight would be in eleven hours
and reserved a ticket.
The case was packed in fifteen minutes. Welsey looked at his watch - he
had ten more hours before the flight's departure. The trip to the spaceport
would take two hours. Welsey shrugged his shoulders, walked to the draped
window, pulled the curtain away, and looked from the fifth floor down at the
street. Thank God, he will leave this planet in ten more hours! The country
of scoundrels! Bribers! Malingerers! Oh my God, why did he give a five
thousand bribe to this bug-eyed guy from the eighth precinct? Now, if
Shavash arrests Welsey, he would force the guy to claim that the bribe was
hundred thousand and the official promised... Ouch!
The square in front of the hotel was brightly lit. A delicate
eight-columned temple stood slightly lower and across it. The garden beds
were arranged in front of the temple, and the spotlights hidden among the
flowers beamed right at the temple, illuminating marble columns and turnip
roof curls from below, scattering in a faraway fountain in the middle of the
temple yard, challenging large ripe stars. "Such beauty!", Welsey thought
suddenly.
Right then, a car appeared at the square's far end. It drove over a
flower bed edge, flattened a spotlight, swerved to the opposite lane and
stopped down there at the hotel entrance. Pulling in, it crashed into a
truck standing in front of it, but not too badly, no deeper than five
inches. Welsey's eyes popped out.
The car door opened and Bemish landed outside. Two valets rushed to him
from the glass entrance. Bemish stepped left, then right. Thence he lifted
his head and, swaying, started to contemplate the lighted entrance. He
sighed and sat on the curb. Even from the fifth floor, it was evident that
he was boozed up to the hilt.
Welsey shrugged his shoulders and walked down.
Two valets were already deferentially half carrying half supporting
Bemish towards him. Bemish resisted and assured everybody that he was
totally sober. He aspired to sing and invited both valets to fish in the
Blue Mountains. Valets quietly and with concentration dragged him up the
staircase to the room. They possibly couldn't understand him. They were
probably used to these sights.
Welsey felt himself blushing. Bemish was dragging the high status of
Earthman and beacon of civilization right down in the mud. Welsey stepped
towards him, grabbed Bemish by his tie and, with the valets' assistance,
dragged him to the room. Bemish was rolling his eyes around and opening his
mouth like a karaoke singer with the sound track turned off.
When Welsey threw Bemish on the couch, he swung his finger drunkenly
and said,
"Surprise."
And he fell asleep. A pig. A drunken pig.
Welsey tore his pants and jacket off, hung them on the chair and got
out. The jacket was too heavy - the chair tipped over and the jacket crashed
to the floor. Welsey returned and picked the jacket to hang it back. The
jacket inside pocket was crammed with rumpled papers. Welsey pried the
papers out and unrolled them. These were all the requests and
power-of-attorney forms that police in yellow jackets confiscated three
hours ago. Welsey leafed through them and found the right signatures on them
all. More than that, the forms were stamped with personal seals and that was
plain impossible.
Welsey went downstairs. He checked the Bemish's car out and found the
yellow briefcase, seized by the police, in the trunk. Mysteriously, there
was a grilled lamb lying next to the briefcase in the trunk. The lamb held a
thick gold ring in the mouth. The lamb was lying on a silver dish.
Welsey walked upstairs and put the recovered papers in the recovered
briefcase. He called the spaceport and canceled the reservation. He called a
boy valet and they hauled the lamb, the ring, and the dish upstairs.
The rest of the night, Welsey spent next to the window in his room
looking at the pink eight-columned temple, thoughtfully chewing on a grilled
lamb leg and washing it down with disgustingly warm carbonated water.
X X X
The most bewildering part of that all, was that Bemish couldn't even
recall how the signatures came to existence. He remembered perfectly well
the temple, two hundred kilometers away from the capital, that he and Kissur
drove to, and the manor, that belonged to a Kissur's friend, Khanadar the
Dried Date, next to the temple. They had fun in the manor - at first with
weapons, then at the table, and then with the chicks. Khanadar and Kissur
took turns making bets and shooting at a peach on each other's head at first
with a bow and then with a gun. The trick was to hit it right in a pit.
Bemish refused decisively to shoot the bow and, to assert his manhood, he
had a horrible fight with sinewy Khanadar, strong like a steam press.
Khanadar the Dried Date was the most extraordinary man - he was on of
the bravest Kissur's commanders and one of the best Empire's poets.
He plundered huge spoils during the civil war; he squandered money as
quickly as he got it and started looking for more. Piracy was the choice and
Khanadar wrestled a smugglers' space boat away from them . The boat was
designed with escape rather than attack in mind, but Khanadar decided that
the cowardly dogs from the skies wouldn't really notice this trifle if their
pockets were threatened. Unfortunately, Khanadar was not as good with a
photon reactor as he was with a Kharran sword and at the end of the second
trip the newly assigned pirate dinghy dug a three meter deep ditch in the
ground and was no longer in any shape to fly.
It was awfully fashionable to assist Weia then and Khanadar almost
received a literature Nobel Prize for his songs, full of wild beauty. So,
the information agencies are making two announcements in one day - that
Weian poet Khanadar is nominated for a literature Nobel Prize and that
somebody named Khanadar is wanted for the transgalactic liner "Mekong"
robbery. This is how Khanadar did not receive a Nobel Prize first time.
Then, Khanadar became the Arakka governor and generously gave money to
the people and tax cuts to the entrepreneurs. The money was from the state
budget and it was quickly gone; and since the tax cuts were abundant, the
money didn't come back. Khanadar asked a local polymetallic factory for
money; an Earthman owned the factory. The Earthman gave money once, once
more, and stopped; the people loved their governor and laid waste to the
factory.
Meanwhile, the time for the next Nobel Prize approached. Hence, the
information agencies are making two announcements in one day - that Weian
poet Khanadar is nominated for a literature Nobel Prize and that governor
Khanadar incited a mob and caused a three billion denars damage to
MetalPMOre company. This is how Khanadar did not receive a Nobel Prize
second time.
Then, the sovereign revoked Khanadar's appointment for overstepping his
bounds and Khanadar peacefully resided in a manor bestowed to him, next to
Shechen river in Inissa. Why did the head of the planet Gera trade mission
have to buy himself a villa nearby?
So, another year passes by and the Gera chief trade deputy sues
Khanadar for brawling on his land and burning his pig farm. Khanadar attends
the trial and asks the judge to give him a small paper cutting knife. The
judge offers him the knife and Khanadar attacks the trade deputy with the
knife right in front of the jury. The trade deputy escapes from the court
yard and does not return. Since it is a personal suit and the plaintiff is
not present in the court, the judge cancels the trial and Khanadar saves
bribe money.
Again, the Nobel Prize time approaches, and the information agencies
are making two announcements - that the famous Weian poet Khanadar is
nominated for a literature Nobel Prize and that Khanadar well-nigh cut down
a representative of a civilized nation right in a court.
This is how Khanadar never received his Nobel Prize, but it's an old
story and we should come back to Terence Bemish.
The next day, Khanadar, Kissur, Bemish, and two servants loaded
themselves in a helicopter and flew to the Blue Mountains. They harpooned
large white fishes and had many fistfights. Sun and merriness were abundant.
The helicopter rotated its winglets next to a raspberry colored tent with
silver stakes; the slaves brought horses for the evening. Four days went by.
Khanadar asked Bemish what brought him to the Country of the Great
Light and Bemish told him what he had already told Kissur. Khanadar the
Dried Date said the foreigner would drown in the paperwork, and Kissur said
that they should help him.
On Friday afternoon they flew to the Kissur's palace - the first guests
were already crowding there. Kissur introduced Bemish to the Shavash's
direct boss - minister of finance - and to the minister of police and to
many other respectable people. Shavash was also there. The minister of
finance told Bemish that his - minister of finance's - friend had seen
Bemish's friend, Welsey, and he was the fairest and the most honest man. The
minister of police told Mr. Bemish that, from this moment on, the goal of
his life would be to do what Mr. Bemish tells him to. The foreign trade
minister invited Mr. Bemish to his mansion and told him that he would roll
his Iniss carpet out under the wheels of the Mr. Bemish's car.
Bemish didn't remember how exactly it all got to the signatures. By
that time the heads of the Empire were drunk and Bemish was drunk even more.
The minister of police called his secretary and commanded to find a man
named Welsey immediately, take the papers from him and bring them here. The
secretary was probably drunk too and he, moreover, had with him a girl that
was licking his ear. In an hour, the papers were delivered to Bemish.
Bemish didn't really remember the rest. He remembered how roses poured
down from the ceiling, how some drunk girl jumped across a golden ring
entwined with burning paper, how they waded in a large pond with the girls,
how he couldn't share a girl with somebody, in the God's name, how was it
possible not to share a girl if there were two of them per man? Wasn't he
pissed off at Welsey? He remembered perfectly well how he got pissed off at
Welsey. Puritan! Pig! He just handed the papers rudely over to the secretary
but he refused to come himself.
Bemish decided that he would drive to the hotel and get Welsey. They
were probably trying to stop him. But Bemish outfoxed them - he tore through
the grapevines, got in the car and went for the banker. Yes, he had the
papers with him and he knew for sure that they were signed.
But who collected the signatures? For God's sake, he couldn't remember.
Kissur was likely to get them - he was more sober than others and though he
drank he wasn't getting drunk. Or... No, it was not Kissur, it was Shavash -
Shavash, smiling gently, was handing a form over to the minister of finance
while Kissur, yowling horribly, was cutting some rag with a sword on a bet.
X X X
Bemish was splashing in the shower, when somebody knocked in the door.
Welsey opened it - a large basket stood by the door and an errand boy looked
from behind.
"The gifts from Mr. Ireda for Mr. Bemish, " he declared, unloaded the
basket and he was off.
Welsey carried the basket in the room but, before he arranged it on the
table, somebody knocked in the door again. Welsey opened the door - the
messenger had a blue caftan on instead of a yellow one and had a casket
entwined with bands instead of a basket.
"Let Mr. Bemish accept these trifles from Mr. Ranik and a portal to the
heaven open in his soul, " the messenger said.
Welsey put the casket on the bed and noticed something leaking from the
basket. He hurried to the basket. Right then, wet and sad from the hangover
Bemish looked out of the shower. The phone rang and somebody knocked in the
door the same moment.
"Come in," Bemish said and picked up the receiver.
"Yes."
"Mr. Bemish," a soft caressing voice said in the receiver, "it's
Shavash speaking, vice-minister of finance. I would be happy if you could
visit me at 2pm."
"Of course, " Bemish said and put the receiver down. The door slid
open.
"Let me introduce you, Welsey, " Bemish said, "to Kissur. Kissur, this
is Welsey. As I have told you before, he is represents LSV bank here."
Kissur and Welsey looked at each other. Kissur saw a skinny young
Earthman with a face white and round like a headache pill. Welsey saw a
blue-eyed rascal, a bit above thirty, with a real golden chain on his neck
descending all the way down to the belt on the narrow washed down jeans. In
the open shirt neck there was a tattoo - a bird of prey crossed by a pink
scar. Welsey learned later that this was a falcon and this way of tattooing
was an old custom of the barbarian aloms. If they cut a war chief head off
in a battle and undressed him, how else would it be possible to recognize
the body?
Kissur looked at Welsey and said,
"Listen, Terence, you want to buy the spaceport but what is this
whey-faced fish doing here?"
"I explained it to you," Bemish replied, "I don't have money. LSV gets
money for me."
"Will they loan it to you?"
"They will underwrite the bonds."
Kissur pondered it and asked then,
"What interest do these usurers charge you?"
"The interest on the bonds will be sixteen percent."
"Why is it so expensive?" Kissur was aggravated.
"Because there is no collateral," Welsey gave voice, "if the company
goes bankrupt, it won't have any property it could sell off to cover the
debts."
"Shut up, leech," Kissur recoiled, "nobody is asking you. By the
sovereign Irshakhchan laws, usurers were boiled in oil and the Golden
Sovereign forbade interest rates higher than 3%"
"What was the inflation rate at the Golden Sovereign?" Welsey inquired.
"I don't know what the heck the inflation is," Kissur declared, "but I
do know that the Golden Sovereign would hang the first official, who tried
to arrange it, so high that nobody would even dream of it afterwards."
Welsey kept a shocked silence.
"Well, let's go? Kissur told Bemish.
"Stephen?"
"I would rather take a nap," Welsey uttered nervously - he didn't want
to get himself deeper in a capital market discussion with Kissur.
In a moment, Kissur and Bemish were downstairs, missing another basket
of gifts on the way.
They got in a car and Kissur dished out a wad of money to Bemish.
Bemish was dumbfounded,
"What the heck?!"
"We, " Kissur said, "are going to Mr. Ireda. The man was nice to you -
you should express your gratitude."
"But..." Bemish started.
They arrived to Ireda's palace in half an hour and gave him money.
Ireda's palace was located right next to the sovereign's palace wall.
The wall was huge and thick; wooden silvered geese stood on the top lowering
their heads and looked down with disapproval. Coolness flowed from the
yawning gate in the middle of the wall oozed like from a well and all the
space in front of the gates was crammed with multi-hued cars.
"The Gate of the Barbarians," Kissur said.
"Eh?"
"In the ancient times, there were four gates facing four sides of the
world.the Gate of the Emperor's Paramount Appearance, the Gate of the
Officials, the Gate of the Commoners, and the Gate of the Barbarians. Dumb
illiterate chiefs in loincloths entered the palace through the Gate of the
Barbarians. I was ten year old when they brought me to the palace via the
Barbarians Gate and all my friends teased me and laughed at me."
Kissur was silent for a moment.
"Now, only Earthmen enter the palace through the Barbarian Gate."
Their car was slowly crawling by a colorful crowd of parked vehicles.
"What about the present sovereign? How did he feel when our presence
ended the war?"
"An insignificant Emperor's subject does not dare to consider his
sovereign's thoughts," Kissur answered. Bemish jerked.
"What about you?"
"I was quite impressed," Kissur answered after a pause.
Bemish couldn't help but smile - during the day that Kissur first met
the Earthmen, he called them vultures, hijacked a military plane and, having
massacred the rebel camp, finished the civil war.
"What impressed you? Our weapons?"
"No, your weapons didn't faze me. I thought that in six months our
sovereign would buy the same stuff, maybe slightly older and cheaper. Then,
I saw the houses your commoners reside in and the vehicles they drive and I
thought that there was no way our sovereign would buy our people the same
houses and cars either in six or in sixty months.
"Haven't anything shocked you?" Bemish asked, "our pop culture, our
commercials... A lot of people say that Earthmen have too much material life
and not enough existence. They use Weia as an example."
"If somebody is unhappy, they can visit us. I 'll send them to my Iniss
mines and they will have a lot of ... existence."
He grinned and added,"
"Good-bye for now, Terrence. I need to go to the palace and it's time
for your visit to Shavash."
Bemish appeared at Shavash's place right on time.
Mr. Shavash received the Earthman in the Red Office.
The host and the visitor bowed each other ceremoniously. A polite
servant poured tea in the porcelain cups and disappeared behind the
gold-gilded doors. Bemish noticed no paintings drawn and signed by the
Emperor hanging on the office walls, otherwise decorated with the utmost
grace. Bemish didn't know yet that a roll signed and bequested by the
Emperor costs more than a rank and a title, and that Shavash offered half a
million to the Emperor's suckling brother, Ishim, to persuade the sovereign
Varnazd to bequest him a gift. Ishim, however, had to return the money -
somehow, the sovereign did not like Shavash.
"I am very grateful to you," Bemish mentioned at the desert, "that you
signed all these papers yesterday and agreed to help me."
Shavash smiled gently,
"Verily, everybody at the court can only talk about your great success.
How can such an insignificant person as me, assist you with anything."
Bemish lowered his eyes.
"Are you and Kissur old friends?"
"We met just before the end of the civil war."
"Where?"
"In a duel," Shavash said calmly, "Kissur rushed at me with a sword and
I shot at him with a revolver."
Bemish thought for a moment and wondered
"What revolver? The Earthmen hadn't..."
"It's a long story," Shavash waved his hand, "and a revolver was
jury-rigged."
"What happened then?"
I almost missed and Kissur's friends charged at me and started to teach
me how to conduct duels. Then, they tied me to a rope and dragged me all the
way through the city. My back and ribs were broken... Then, the Earthmen
appeared and managed to heal me. I've been limping slightly since. And my
hand...
Bemish noticed a while ago that Shavash was holding the cup with the
left hand while his right palm was shriveled and the fingers were slightly
twisted.
"What were you fighting about?"
"A woman. Lady Idari, Kissur's main wife had been my fiancee before
Kissur became the first minister and I became a roadside pebble. Kissur
arrested a man that I owed my carreer to and obtained his position and my
fiancee."
Shavash suddenly followed Bemish's glance and hid the right hand under
the table, but Bemish managed to notice his twisted fingers shaking.
"Now we are married to two sisters. My wife is the Lady Idary's younger
sister."
"Why is he telling me this?" Bemish was horrified.
Shavash put a peach morsel, soaked in honey, in his mouth and said
after a brief hesitation,
"Mr. Bemish! I would like to warn you as a friend. Kissur is the
sovereign's favorite. He can obstruct you easily, but he can't really help
you. A lot of officials hate Kissur for being Kissur. For the disdain Kissur
has towards bribers and entrepreneurs, while he lives by the sovereign's
benefactions. For the Kissur's opinion that no fortune is more disgraceful
than a merchant's profit. For the feasts he throws for the people; for the
zealots and heretics calling him the sovereign Irshakhchan reborn... Mr.
Inada promised to roll Iniss carpet under your car's wheels when a friend of
Kissur visits his villa... Mr. Inada will roll Iniss carpet under your
wheels and he will plant a plastic bomb under the Iniss carpet. The
offiicials will be signing your papers and playing foul behind your back.
Kissur will praise you to the sovereign - they will prove to the sovereign
that Kissur is mistaken. My advice to you is to keep your distance from him.
Bemish chewed on his lip.
"Mr. Shavash," he said, "I would like to remind you that if LSV is
interested in acquiring your company, we will just buy it at an open-access
auction. I guarrantee you that we will offer higher price that IC will, and
that nobody will be able to kick us out of the auction due to some invented
technicalities. Regarding the access to the financial documentation, I am
sure that without Kissur I would have spend two more years obtaining it and
I know probably the reasons for it. Also, if I may advise you, when you fake
the reports, pay more attention to secondary indicators. You know, it's
impossible that the construction rate increased by 300% while the energy
consumption stayed the same.
The official was silent for a moment and he closed his eyes.
"Of course. Good-bye, Mr. Bemish, and I wish you the best luck."
X X X
Bemish has barely driven through the Shavash's mansion gates, when a
white limousine, long like a sturgeon, slid a millimeter away from him.
Kissur's stuck his head out of the window and waved a hand. Bemish will-less
swerved to the curb. They got out of the cars and embraced.
"Let's go drive," Kissur demanded.
Bemish glanced at his Urun indecisively.
Kissur clicked his tongue - a small servant in linen pants got out of
the back seat. Kissur pointed a finger at him.
"Give him the keys and he return the car." Bemish gave him the keys and
sat next to Kissur.
"There is a great pub nearby," Kissur said, "let's go there."
The pub was low and damp; a fountain splashed in the middle of a
octagonal yard. Next to the fountain, a flat dancing god stood, with an
colossal-sized penis and four breasts. The god was generally naked except
for a huge advertisement boards covering him on three sides. The ad called
to buy 3D-sets by the Corund company.
A nimble chief appeared next to Kissur and placed a great grilled
goose, sprinkled with lime juice and covered with a golden crust, and a palm
wine jar in front of the guests. Kissur noticed that Bemish was ogling the
god and asked the host,
"How much did they pay you for putting the boards up?"
"Two."
"Here is four. Go and scrape this offal away." Bemish lowered his eyes.
He felt crappy after the yesterday's binge, he didn't eat anything at
Shavash's place - he couldn't even look at the goose! What should he do now?
Bemish realized that, when Shavash mentioned the offiicials hating Kissur,
he meant himself first of all - that's why he told Bemish about his fiancee
and his shriveled hand... Should he tell Kissur that his brother-in-law
hates him? But they are friends. It would look like an Earthman dropped by,
did some fishing with Kissur and quickly contrived to sow a discord between
him and his brother-in-law. Should he not say anything? What if Kissur
considers Shavash his friend and will be snared sooner or later?
Though, Kissur is hardly all that innocent. Bemish remembered how,
despite being totally stoned, he was shocked by one of the Khanadar's songs
about a battle with Akol people. A local tribal king dispatched his brother
and other highly placed war chiefs to Kissur asking him not to attack the
tribe. Kissur said, "So it will be," and showered the envoys with the gifts
way more luxurous than customary. They couldn't refuse the gifts, of course,
without insulting the Empire's most powerful military commander. So, they
returned to the king and Kissur sent them letters in such a way that the
king intercepted them. Kissur reminded in the letters that he promised not
to touch their land in exchange for their king's head and he asked them when
they were going to fulfill their part of agreement. The rich gifts were
presented as a bribe for the king's head. The king, naturally, ordered the
butchering of his brother and war chiefs, beheading the army leadership and
arousing the tribe's discontent. After that, it took Kissur two days to
finish him off.
And even though everybody agreed that Kissur was not even close to
deceased Arfarra with the tricks of this sort - he still didn't resemble a
guileless lamb.
Kissur, meanwhile, poured wine in the cups, covered them with the
lacquered tops with straws going through, and offered Bemish a cup.
"You are driving," Bemish reminded him.
Kissur grasped the straw imperturably and, seemingly, gulped all the
wine in a minute. Anyway, he opened the cup immediately and started to pour
more wine.
"Why are you so sad?" Kissur asked, "was the bribe, Shavash demanded
from you, too large?"
"No. It's just that I've never found myself in such a position. I don't
know what to do."
"You are doing great," Kissur laughed, "you have already fleeced
Shavash for six million."
"What?" Bemish was astonished.
"Didn't you know? The IC company gave Shavash six million so that it
gets the spaceport. Shavash has to return money now as an honest briber."
"It's impossible," Bemish said, "the auction takes a precedence over
bribes."
"How do you know that it all depends on the auction?"
"I came here," Bemish said drily, "only after I had learned the
experts' names and met the other companies' representatives, for example,
Eseko. None of them had any difficulties obtaining a permission to
participate in the auction."
"What about you?"
Bemish got a bit embarrassed.
"Well... small officials wanted small gifts..."
"It has nothing to do with gifts," Kissur said, "IC paid Shavash six
million dollars so that not a single company, that could really compete with
it, took part in the auction. This Eseko of yours could get all the
permissions with no sweat, while you and some other folks were blacklisted."
"Shavash is really afraid this Trevis of yours. He is nervous that
Trevish will devour him whole."
"What's he raving about?" a thought passed Bemish's mind. "Where could
this IC, a small and practically unknown company, scrape up such a bribe?
And why? It's local mythology and tabloids."
"I am sure," Bemish said, "that's you are not correct."
Kissur burst out laughing and waved his hands.
"Yeah! Shavash has already started digesting these six millions and -
kabloom! You get the company!"
Kissur laughed, happy with Shavash's failure.
"Hold on," Bemish exclaimed, "firstly, I didn't get the company, I just
obtained a permission to take part in the auction. Secondly..."
Bemish wanted to say that, secondly, he wasn't all that hot about
quarrelling with Shavash...
"But you will win the auction!"
"If my offer is better than the others,"
Here, Kissur slid his hand in the pocket and pulled out, to Bemish's
astonishment, a small white box.
"What is it," Bemish asked.
"It's a plasma bomb," Kissur answered, taking it amiss that the
Earthman has never seen such a commonplace invention of his own culture."
"What?!! Why?!!!"
"Why what? We'll leave it under the IC representative's door and, if he
doesn't get out of the planet then, we'll stick it under his pillow."
Bemish was dumbfounded for a while and, then, he said drily,
"I will not do that."
"Why? Are you afraid to get bagged?"
"Kissur, listen," the Earthman asked, "is it true that you engaged in a
personal combat during your wars, with the enemy's commanders before the
battles."
"So?"
"Why wouldn't you, during the fight, order your archers to shoot your
opponent?
"Are you nuts?" Kissur was astounded, "all my troops would abandon me
after such a base trick."
"Was it the only reason?"
Kissur lowered his eyes. Of course, it was not the only reason.
Bemish sighed,
"You know, Kissur, we grew up in different worlds and, if I was a
military commander, I wouldn't engage in a personal combat before a battle.
But, when I participate in an investment auction, I will not slip a bomb to
my opponent. You should have some decency."
"I've always thought, " Kissur said, "that, when money comes into play,
there is no place for decency."
"It may be true on Weia," Bemish said, "but it's not true on Earth."
Kissur put the bomb back in his pocket as casually as a pack of
cigarettes.
The Third Chapter
Where Kissur opens the Emperor's eyes to a foreign briber while Terence
Bemish received a gift of a luxury villa.
The next morning, Kissur was desperately bored. He called Bemish but
Bemish was running around somewhere like a chicken with his head cut off.
Kissur could find him but what was the point? The man is rushing from one
office to another - you can screw a slut together - but bribing an official
is a private matter; why would Bemish need Kissur as a witness? The other
guy, Welsey, said that tomorrow they would go to the spaceport.
Kissur beat a servant with no reason - Kissur didn't beat him really,
he just pushed him a bit, but the servant slammed into a bronze vase and
hurt himself badly with the vase. Kissur ate goose and marinated liver
pirogi for breakfast and went to a pub and, after that, to the
fortune-tellers. All the damned fortune-tellers were familiar, however, with
the sovereign favorite's mug and Kissur didn't learn anything interesting.
Finally, Kissur returned home, undressed and dived in a huge pond,
inlaid with heavily veined Chakhar marble and surrounded by blooming trees,
with an altar in the Western Gazebo hanging over the water.
Kissur was leisurely swimming in the pond, when a faraway car rustled
behind the carved lattice. A door banged, voices clamored excitedly, a man
from the car evidently shook the servants off and stomped down the garden
path.
Kissur dived. When he got to the surface, shining leather shoes stood
on the pond's marble edge. Excellent quality grey pants ascended above the
shoes.
"Ok, how much do you want?"
Kissur raised his head - an unfamiliar Earthman, with a red and round,
like a street light, face stood in front of him. The Earthman's eyes were
crazed and his chin stuck out aggressively.
"How much do you need?" the Earthman repeated. Kissur got out of water
unhurriedly and shook himself like a dog. The water drops from his blond
hair splashed the Earthman's expensive suit. The Earthman was clearly
uncomfortable - Kissur bathed naked, out of an old Alom habit, and he didn't
even try to cover himself with a towel, demonstrating his contempt for the
visitor.
"Who are you?" Kissur asked, "And what has happened to you?"
"You know perfectly well who I am!"
Having planted his feet against the pond's marble edge, Kissur moved
his bare toes. Reddish Weian sun danced on Kissur's wet hair and on the
water drops stuck in the cracks between his powerful muscles.
"Ok. My name is Kaminsky. Five months ago, I bought the land and they
promised me to classify it as industrial zoning. I started to build a
garbage processing plant. Now, thanks to the complaint you filed to the
sovereign, it is classified as business zoning. If I want to keep this land,
I have to pay the difference in price - two hundred million. If I don't want
to pay the difference, I can get my money back and the land will be resold."
"What's my part here?"
"Khanida demanded one million and three hundred thousand more; how much
do you need?"
"I don't sell my country."
Kaminsky burst out laughing. His stout face shook - he was probably
starting to get hysterical. He stuck his fat finger at Kissur.
"All Weian officials can be bought and they can be bought at a
clearance price. I have never seen people who want to sell so much of their
motherland at such a low price."
Kissur paled and his eyes narrowed a bit.
"These words," Kissur said, "are not like the land in Godfather's Dale.
You will pay full price for these words."
Kaminsky burst out laughing and he suddenly pulled out a large
crocodile skin wallet.
"Of course," he said. "I'll pay. How much should it be per word? Will
ten thousand be enough? Just don't tell anybody, please, that I pay money
for every spit or people will be waiting in line to spit at me..."
Kissur grabbed the Earthman by his broad tie with one hand and twisted
his arm and pulled him towards himself with the other. The Earthman flipped
over in the air, drew an arc and, with a thundering splash, landed in the
pond. Kissur wrapped a towel around himself and, not interested in the
least, whether or not his pestering visitor drowned, walked to the house.
X X X
Bemish spent all night studying the company reports (clearly
fabricated) and he spent all day dashing around the precincts.
He spoke to Earth three times. They told him that Werner McCormick, the
LSV expert on industrial construction, would arrive at the spaceport, next
to the capital, in the evening.
At three o'clock, Bemish drove to DJ Securities. One of the best broker
firms in the Empire resided in a tiny place in a distinguished neighborhood.
It was located in the palace pavilion's western wing - previously the
building had housed the Cheese Bureau. All these bureaus were dissolved,
along with the palace administration that used to duplicate the state
apparatus. The Earthmen moved in the former palace officials' pavilions. The
small building, crammed with super modern hardware, greeted Bemish with
wondrous flower smells and a silver fox snout jutting out of the bushes.
The broker, he came to talk to, was a fat young man with eyes, merrily
jumping, like the numbers on a money counter display, and smooth golden
skin. His name was Alexander Krasnov.
Krasnov led Bemish to an office, closed the window facing the garden,
turned the air conditioning on, and they started to talk about Assalah. The
approaching investment auction rumors slightly raised the Assalah shares'
prices. Almost nobody was, however, willing to sell them. The Assalah stocks
could still be considered non-liquid assets - the difference between the
buying and selling price had reached 20%.
Bemish was greatly impressed with the fine emanations of success,
coming from the small office, excellent employees' cars and cute long-legged
secretaries.
Before coming to Weia, Bemish had carefully studied various Weian
companies' conditions and prospects; he had chosen Assalah and acquired in
advance quite a significant block of shares- more than 80% of the stocks had
been acquired through Krasnov. These were bearer stocks, but an owner of a
block of shares larger than 5% was supposed to register. Bemish currently
owned 6% of the Assalah shares but he had not intention of declaring it.
Bemish and Krasnov discussed their financial dealings and, then, the
young broker plunged into his reminiscences of the Weian securities'
fabulous cheapness. The brokers had literally paid cents buying securities
but it would not happen again unless the "Followers of the Path" gained
power.
"It was such a margin," Krasnov described. "Imagine, they sold stocks
for a rice vodka crock. Do you know how much I paid for twenty seven
thousand shares of Ossoriy nickel concession? A vodka barrel for the village
and a Hershey chocolate bar! Do you know how much I sold them for? I sold
them for four hundred thousand dinars!"
Bemish grinned, "How much did you pay the peasants for the Assalah
shares?"
The broker was silent, pondering. Then he did something unexpected. He
started to undress. He took off his jacket and wide wine colored tie; then,
he took off a fashionable shirt with a vertical collar and turned his back
towards Bemish. Horrified Bemish loudly exhaled. The Krasnov's back was
covered with pale, but still noticeable pink welts, from the neck to the
tailbone.
Krasnov put the shirt on and coolly explained.
"When I arrived in Assalah, a local official met me. "Broker?" -
"Broker." - "Buying stocks?" - "Yes." - "Let's get to the precinct, I'll
weigh you the goods." We came to the precinct, and he put me in a manure pit
overnight, gave orders to whip me with a whip soaked in brine, and told me,
"I wouldn't like to see you in Assalah again."
"Oh, my God!"
"By the way, he kindly explained his actions to me. He claimed that the
people are like children, selling stocks for a vodka crock, and the
officials should take care of the people's welfare. While he is alive, not a
single foreign hyena will dare show its face in Assalah. Not that I couldn't
appreciate his welcome, really. You know, I hadn't been whipped with a
brined whip before."
"Haven't you sued him for the whipping?" Bemish wondered.
But Krasnov just looked at him in such a way that Bemish realized what
a stupid thing he just blurted out.
Having returned to the hotel, Bemish felt hungry and ambled to the
restaurant. Galactic dinar prices were the only civilized part of the
restaurant. Bemish randomly tapped couple of entries. In a moment, the
waiter brought him a full bowl of steaming soup with dumplings, several
small plates with appetizers and an object that reminded belatedly to Bemish
about the locals' favorite - dog meat burgers.
Bemish had just finished the appetizers, when a guy took a sit next to
him. Bemish raised his eyes - it was a middling tall man with stern eyes,
transparent like gasoline, and with a body that local peasants described as
"a really inept god hewed him out." However, upon more careful inspection,
the guy's face didn't go together with the overall crude image - it was
hard, as if made from the twisted together wires.
"Good day, Mr. Bemish," the man said, "My name is Robert Giles. I
represent IC company - you know, we are participating in the Assalah
spaceport investment auction.
"What a coincidence," Bemish said, "I am participating also in it."
"But you are not in good standing with Mr. Shavash."
"It's not a reason for disappointment."
"I recommend you, Mr. Bemish, to leave this planet before they kick you
out of here."
"And I recommend you to get out of this table before I bathe you in my
soup."
"Believe me, Mr. Bemish. A company's hostile takeover is intended for a
civilized country. While, if you try to buy a local company, when its
director doesn't want it... do you know that this director has his own
jail?"
"I know," Bemish said, "that this director can be dismissed by the
sovereign if somebody close to the sovereign proves that this director
doesn't act in the company's best interest. Have you heard what happened to
Joseph Kaminsky thanks to Kissur? Have I made myself clear?"
"Quite. So, Kissur stands behind you and Shavash stands behind me. Who
will flatten whom into the ground?"
Here, the waiter brought Bemish the dessert and, elongating his neck,
inquired Giles if he liked to order anything.
"No," Giles said, "I am leaving. And if you, Mr. Bemish, knew the local
cuisine well, you wouldn't have ordered a guinea pig burger."
X X X
Kissur spent the rest of the day with Khanadar, the Dried Date, and a
couple of close friends in the pubs. Kissur lost twenty thousand in dice and
he didn't really drink much, though he did thwack somebody's mug. In the
evening, Kissur got in his car and drove to Shavash.
Shavash was in the Cloud Gazebo and he had an Earthman as a visitor.
The Earthman had to be a close enough associate because, firstly,
Shavash received him in the gazebo for the Weian guests and, secondly, two
beautiful girls were also there. They were more undressed than dressed; one
girl sat on the Earthman's knees and another one, breathing zestfully,
licked that particular object sticking its bloated head out of Shavash's
unzipped pants. Shavash reclined, leaning backward, on the carpet and his
jacket and shirt sprawled nearby. The table was filled with appetizers and
fruits - the friends had finished the business part were starting to relax.
The Earthman shook the wench off and got up.
"Robert Giles," Shavash said, "the IC representative."
Kissur silently took the Earthman's chair and sat astride it.
"I guess, I should go," the Earthman said, glancing at the girl
regretfully."
"Go," Kissur said, "these girls cost five isheviks per pair next to
Trans-Gal, don't be greedy."
The Earthman left. Shavash pulled the girl on himself, half closing his
eyes, and the girl mounted him. Shavash breathed heavily and greedily.
"Lie on your back," he told the girl. She followed the command
obediently.
Kissur waited till Shavash came.
"Why don't you go, bring a jar of Inissa wine," Kissur told the girls.
"Both of you."
The girls left the gazebo. Shavash lay on the carpet groping for the
shirt with his hand.
"Everybody, like, is running around with this spaceport," Kissur said,
"and they all run to you."
"I am the company director."
"Who was the director before you?"
"A man named Rashar."
"Hey, wasn't he your secretary? So, at first you sent him to the
director's chair, and then to jail."
"You shouldn't steal," Shavash replied, "in busloads."
"Come on. He would give you away half a busload and you wanted three
quarters. You will waste the country, scoundrels."
Shavash finally buttoned up the shirt and pants, propped himself up and
poured a cup of wine.
"Kissur, one little tank trip of yours over the Coke plant cost more to
the country than everything I have ever stolen and I will ever steal."
"Why do you all fret so much about this stupid factory?" Kissur
exclaimed. "And Terence was just yakking about the same thing." Shavash
silently sucked on a straw.
"Whatever. Bemish will buy your company and make you all sweat."
"He will hardly buy the company," Shavash said. "Mr. Bemish often
acquires companies but I haven't heard him actually buying a single one."
"What do you mean?"
"Mr. Bemish is quite a good financier but he made his money the
following way. He would buy a company stocks threatening it by a takeover,
and then sell the shares back to the company at higher than market price.
It's called greenmail. He worked with very small companies in the beginning,
then, he switched to the larger ones but, then, they asked him to get out of
the civilized countries. He hasn't really broken any laws but they made it
clear for him and his boss that they should go out and have fun someplace
else."
"His boss?"
"His LSV boss. Ronald Trevis. Where do you think he got the greenmail
money? Trevis raised money for him and Bemish was just a cudgel. Did you see
a gentleman named Welsey, next to Bemish? This is Trevis - a morsel of
Trevis."
"I see," Kissur said.
"LSV is a cool company," Shavash continued, "They find people, ready to
get out of their own skins and skin the others to scrape together a dinar, a
crown and a dollar, and they set them at large companies. They are not
financiers - they are gangsters. They would be shot dead on our planet. They
were reproached elsewhere and they decided to move to the places with no
strict financial laws and a lot of under priced property."
Shavash was silent and, then, added,
"This rascal bought 7% of the Assalah shares through the dummy agents
and he has been buying them in small blocks for many months to not disturb
the market."
The girls came back with wine and one of them sat on Kissur's knees and
other one crawled to Shavash and started to touch him with her hands under
the shirt and Shavash laughed and put the wine glass on the table and
reclined on his back again.
X X X
The next day, the first vice-minister of finance Shavash stood in front
of the head of the government, old Mr. Yanik.
Mr. Yanik became first minister a year and a half ago after the death
of his predecessor's, a certain Mr. Arfarra. Everybody unanimously
considered Yanik to be a nonentity and a temporary replacement. Who cares
how to plug a hole as long as it doesn't leak? However, the nonentity clung
to his position way longer than many people who thought him to be a
temporary incident.
Yanik and Shavash belonged to different generations, and more
importantly, to different parties. Shavash occasionally expressed quite
loudly his opinion about Yanik while the latter occasionally and quite
loudly used the former, as an example to express his regret about the old
times when the overly rapacious officials would find themselves hanging on
all four palace gates - a quarter per gate.
"Make yourself familiar," Yanik said, handing Shavash a white plastic
folder.
Shavash opened the folder and concentrated on reading.
It was a construction project of a humongous aluminum complex in the
east of the Empire, in Tar'Salim, rich in alumina but poor in energy
resources. The construction consisted of the aluminum extraction and
processing facilities, two power plants - fission and magneto-hydrodynamic
ones, and a small plant making composite alloys for gravitonic engines.
The total construction estimated expenditure was two hundred million
galactic dinars. The company was naturally state-owned.
Shavash turned the last page and found what he was looking for - the
person nominated for the company general director position was Chanakka -
the first minister's twice removed grandson, an empty-headed and debased man
who had already failed at at least three projects. Cosmopolitan Shavash,
with his impeccable knowledge of the major Galactic languages and stylish
suits, especially loathed Chanakka's fanatical nationalism.
"This," the first minister said, "is an unquestionably important
project. No longer will we drag behind the Civilized Worlds. No other planet
has such a facility!"
Shavash thought that both Tranar and Dakia had the same facilities.
They, however, were not state-owned.
"In two year," the first minister said, "we will control the space
engines market! Your department has a week to budget seventy million dinars
for the primary equipment."
"We can't do that," Shavash said coolly.
"Why?"
"We don't have money. The officials in Chakhar haven't been paid since
last year."
Yanik looked at the finance vice-minister disapprovingly. Shavash was
too young. Yanik still remembered times when the words "We don't have money"
just didn't carry any meaning in Weian Empire. If money ran out, more of it
could always be printed. None of it influenced the prices, since the
merchandise prices were determined not by the amount of money in circulation
but by the Bill of Prices for goods and services.
"Mr. Shavash," Yanik asked, "what is your monthly salary?"
"It is three hundred isheviks," Your Eminence.
Is it true that your last toy, a private space yacht of the Emerald
class cost four hundred fifty thousand isheviks?"
"It was a friends' gift," the official smiled.
"Mr. Shavash," Yanik said, "Tas'Salim is the our country's most
important construction. We must find money for it. Otherwise, we will take
care of your yacht. Do you understand me?"
"Quite."
X X X
Shavash returned to his luxurious office sincerely upset. He snapped at
the secretary, flung a fashionable jacket on the chair's back, threw himself
in the armchair, and sat immobile for a while. Those, who knew Shavash
superficially, would be certain that he was upset by the first minister's
open threat - the beautiful yacht clearly aggravated some people. However
strange it may sound, Shavash was upset due to totally different reasons. In
any case, in the absolute quietude of his office equipped with a dozen
counter-tapping devices, he allowed himself to wrap his hands around his
head and quietly utter,
"What are they doing? Do these fuckers understand what they are doing?"
He turned the office speaker on and ordered. "Daren! Could you find
Stephen Sigel for me, quickly?"
Stephen Sigel was a representative of Naren and Lissa Joint Bank, the
twelfth largest bank in this Galaxy sector; he had showed up on Weia a week
ago hoping to start joint projects.
Stephen Sigel appeared in the first finance vice-minister's office in
two hours.
"Mr. Sigel," Shavash rushed head-on, "the Weian government would like
to obtain a seventy million galactic dinar loan immediately from the Naren
and Lissa Joint Bank for six months at a nineteen percent interest. Could we
do it?"
Stephen Sigel swallowed. 19% interest was a very sweat deal. The
Federation bonds had 7% interest rate, the Earth Bonds - 7.5%. Though, the
Weian Empire finances were, no doubt, in a way worse state than the Earth's
finances, the bank would've considered 16% to be quite a decent number.
"Yes," Stephen Sigel said.
"Great," the official replied, "the credit agreement will be signed one
hour after one half of a percent from the loan appears on my table, in an
envelope."
Next morning, one hour before the government meeting, the first
vice-minister of finance Shavash put on the first minister Yanik's table the
credit agreement with the Naren and Lissa Joint Bank.
"Here is your seventy million," he said, "I assume there is no point
including it in the budget revenue. The money is allocated as an
out-of-budget industry support fund.
He turned away and left the office.
"He is such an incredibly deft man," the touched first minister
thought, "How has he managed to procure money so quickly?"
Of course, the first minister understood vaguely that there was some
connection between Shavash's ability to obtain galactic credits quickly and
his buying trinkets like a private space yacht. On the other hand, the first
minister enjoyed the thought that the money Shavash grabbed on this deal,
paled next to the rake-off his twice removed grandson would make buying the
galactic equipment for his company from the front intermediaries at doubled
prices.
X X X
The same day, when the budget problems for the Galaxy's fourth largest
aluminum facility were happily solved, McCormick, Welsey, and Bemish drove
to another construction - also state-owned and also humongous.
Halfway to their destination, they almost drowned in a huge pothole -
the road started again in seven meters after the rut. An oldster, living
nearby, gathered the people and they dragged the jeep across the pothole on
a sledge. They charged so little that Bemish even relinquished his
suspicions about the old guy digging the hole himself to make money on it.
Later Bemish learned that two districts joined at that point and their heads
could not agree on who would fix the pothole.
At the ruins, Bemish felt such sadness as he had never felt in his life
before - from the inconceivable waste of nature and construction equipment.
The black gate on the landing field lonely stuck out on the blue sky
background like a victory arch, it was decorated by various appeals to gods
and demons. Ponds, yellow and round like owl eyes, bloomed in the landing
chutes. The giant overpass had fallen apart, grass and flowers grew on the
poles and the blocks, ants dashed back and forth on the road designed for
multi-ton trucks.
An even and incredibly thorny hedge with little blue flowers and half
inch barbs covered exactly half the space field making it look like a forest
surrounding the Sleeping Beauty's castle. Alas, the thorns didn't disappear
with Bemish's arrival.
The spaceport administration wing was cleaved at the first floor level
and an elevator chute pointed right in the sky. There was no way, somebody
could work here but Bemish remembered clearly an office expenditures entree
in a company report and it was about this building. There was something
horrifying in this place that ceased to be a part of nature but didn't
become a part of the industrial world.
"However, the construction' expenses will be twice lower here," Bemish
noted.
The sun was hurrying up to noon, when Bemish and McCormick left the
building for a small bamboo grove rattling in the background of the bright
stainless steel hangar. Bemish saw that they were not the only ones here - a
helicopter stood on the fanned out paws behind the bamboo grove and the
wind, raised by its wings, entangled gentle green grass stuck to the landing
field. Bemish walked down to the helicopter. Under its belly, a man, in
washed out jeans, laid out a napkin and was eating a ham sandwich. Having
recognized Giles from IC, Bemish smirked. Another man stood nearby, petting
on the back a red horse with white stockings - Kissur.
"Good day," Bemish said, approaching. "Did you fly in together?"
"No," Kissur said, "I am riding."
And he pointed to the side, where two more riders were circling -
Khanadar the Dried Date and a servant.
"Did you ride here from the capital?" Welsey was shocked.
"I have friends nearby, and they have a private airport," Kissur
explained.
"Yeah, they know how to build here," Welsey said, "they juiced five
billions in and nobody even mows the hay down. Why don't they, do you have
any idea?"
"They are afraid of ghosts," Bemish supposed.
"Exactly right," Kissur said, "Do you know how a witch gets born?"
None of the Earthmen was a witch genesis specialist and Kissur
explained.
Sometimes, a temple or even a simple house is built at a road
intersection and then the world changes its masters, the temple gets
forgotten or a house owner moves away, God knows where to. The house cries,
grows older, grass grows on the roof and a hat of moss covers the gate
poles. Water starts to cut doodles and lines on the pole and a crow builds a
nest there. In the evening, the locals get frightened passing by the pole -
they think, somebody is standing guard in the dark. The fear grows into the
pole, covers its features and seeps in its soul. The pole's soul gets born
of fear and wind, it starts to watch the moon and walk in the rain and slush
- that's how a pole witch appears.
Kissur pointed at the wide open gate on the summer field and added.
"Who knows, maybe these poles also stroll around at night?"
Giles chortled. Kissur turned to Bemish and asked.
"So, does it cost a lot?"
"You should ask McCormick," Bemish replied. "I am not a specialist
here. My field is finance."
"They abandoned the construction to sell it cheaper afterwards,"
McCormick said. "They built it for a while and abandoned in three years."
"Why was it exactly three years?" Kissur wondered.
"Because, accordingly to your laws, a start-up company is salary
tax-exempt and can import equipment with half the custom tariffs for three
years," Bemish replied.
"Ahh," ex-minister drawled, "and whom are they going to sell it to?"
"Not to me," Bemish noted.
Kissur turned around and stared at Giles. The IC representative feigned
a yawn.
"It's time to go," Giles claimed. "I can give a ride to the capital to
anybody except the jeep."
"Terence will stay here," Kissur said. "We will ride horses together."
Kissur nodded to one of his companions and he jumped of the horse. They
walked the horse closer to Bemish and he stared in a large brown eye. The
horse chewed on its mouthpiece and her sides rose and lowered. The horse
watched Bemish and Bemish watched the horse.
"This is the tail," Kissur said, "this is the head and the driver's
seat is in the middle. What are you waiting for? Get in."
"I don't like," Bemish replied, "that it moves before I turn the
ignition on."
Kissur and his servants laughed agreeably.
Bemish, however, had to climb on the horse and trek through a crazy
forest where the power line poles entwined by lianas grew instead of the
trees. Bemish tired out, battered his butt and finally almost drowned in a
lawn which in reality proved to be a swamp inside a landing chute.
Kissur said, that he would cripple the horse riding this way, and
Bemish said that he would like to observe Kissur driving a car ten years
ago. Then, Kissur sent his people off with the horses and walked on foot
next to Bemish. Bemish enquired, where they were going, and Kissur explained
that the future owner of the spaceport should better get acquainted with the
local villages. "In ancient times, a good official always arrived to his
appointment region incognito, to learn the problems and difficulties of the
oppressed locals," Kissur said with admonition. Bemish wanted to point out,
that he was not an official and he was not going to solve the locals'
problems, but he was afraid of overdoing it and he shut up.
By the evening, they both departed from the spaceport through a hole in
the wall and walked in the dusk down a beautiful beaten dusty road, winding
by the neatly planted gardens and rice paddies. They were both unbelievably
dirty. Kissur braided a water lily wreath for himself and dashed around the
road, laughing.
"Kissur," Bemish said, "I have a request for you."
"Yes?"
"The spaceport is built on the peasant land, even though there is a lot
of state land around. But it was built on the communal land and the families
were handed shares in the way of compensation. I could buy them out."
"How much will you pay them?"
Bemish hesitated. He would happily buy them for a rice vodka jug but he
could still see the whip marks on the Krasnov's shoulders.
"These shares aren't liquid, Kissur. They cost no more than three
hundred isheviks each. I am ready to pay this money."
"And, when you build the spaceport, will each one cost three hundred
thousand? You will swindle this money out of the peasants."
"They will not cost three hundred thousand if I don't build the
spaceport."
"Shavash told me that you are not even going to build it."
Bemish shuddered.
"Shavash said," Kissur continued, "that you make money, buying a
company stocks, and then threatening the company management, till they buy
the stocks back at triple price, and that you are reputed to be such a man,
a greenmailer. Is it true?"
"Yes," Bemish said.
"So, are you going to buy Assalah?"
"I am."
"Why haven't you bought the other companies before?"
"I wanted to buy them. Only, the stock price increased so much during
the fight, that it would be stupid to buy them. As Shavash maybe told you,
two companies, whose management bought me off, went bankrupt."
"Has it happened because of you?"
"It was their choice to set a ludicrous stock price."
"The same will happen to Assalah, won't it? The price will seem too
high for you, you will sell the stocks and the company will go bankrupt."
I don't think so. You see, enormous amount of money was sunk in Assalah
and, despite all this view around us, - Bemish here gestured with his arm
encompassing the bamboo growth far away and the semicircular administration
center hulk, looking like an empty watermelon rind- despite all this, the
spaceport is more than three quarters built. If we try hard, the first ships
will start landing practically in six months. You heard, why it was
abandoned - to cost very cheap. Also, everybody has heard, that it's
dangerous to invest in a market like yours, but not everybody understands
that spaceports and, also, interstellar communication systems are the only
safe parts of your economy. This item will not be abandoned at any
government and it depends on the local communications, in the least, because
its main profits come from the sky. Assalah costs now less than two eateries
in the middle of Toronto but, really, it is impossibly under priced. So, the
stock price may increase tenfold but it will still be a good acquisition.
Kissur was silent for a moment.
"Are you buying the Assalah stocks now?"
"Yes."
"How much do you have?"
"The Empire Fund Committee requires registration of any company stock
acquisition of more than 5%. I have more now but I would ask you to keep it
confidential. I haven't registered it."
"How is it possible?"
"Several companies act as the dummy agent stockholders for me."
Kissur paused and asked then,
"What is this investment auction of yours?"
"Ffty one percent of government stocks will be divided in two blocks -
20% and 31%. As you see, I will have a controlling block of shares even if I
get only a 20% block at the auction."
"Wouldn't it be better to offer a good price at the auction?"
"I am not entirely satisfied by the tender conditions. They are defined
so cleverly that they allow, for instance, the government to raise the price
after the winner is selected."
"What, if you don't come out as a winner, and Shavash sells the company
to somebody else, will you sell these stocks with a multiple-fold profit?"
"I will buy Assalah."
Kissur was silent. The birds fluttered out of the grass, a lost cow
mooed far away in the field, and the sun, round like a pumpkin, rolled above
the Earthman's and the Empire ex-first minister's heads.
"What did the clerks do? The ones bankrupted by you?"
"What clerks?"
"Well, these..." Kissur clicked his fingers, "general directors."
"Nothing. They are civilized people."
"Now remember this, Bemish. I will help you. But, if you do as Shavash
said, I will shoot you."
Kissur got up and walked down the road.
X X X
Richard Giles, the IC company representative, found the finance
vice-minister, Shavash, performing a ceremony. Shavash walked stately around
the new building of Adako bank carrying in his hands a golden basin, with a
burning candle floating on a splinter, and two dozen children in the
identical silk clothes followed him with the same candles in their arms.
Numerous gapers enjoyed the view.
Shavash entered the building, sluiced water on the marble floor and,
with the proper words, handed the basin to the new bank's president - his
good friend's nephew.
When the ceremony finished in five minutes, Shavash withdrew to the
future director's office. Giles followed him. Shavash dropped the billowing
silk vestment and an impeccable white suit underneath revealed itself.
"Oh, that's you, Dick," he said. "Welcome here, how didn't I see you at
the ceremony start?"
"I flew to Assalah," Giles replied dryly. "Bemish was also there."
"He is in his right," Shavash shrugged his shoulders. "You have to
agree, if the company wants to participate in the auction, its general
director can visit a spaceport."
"We had an agreement that he would not take part in the auction."
"A man can't fulfill all his promises," Shavash explained, "especially,
if the other offer is better."
Giles swore glumly and said. "Damn it, if we pay a dinar per share, we
can't afford somebody else applying for the auction!"
"I regret, but you will have to raise the price. Terence Bemish is
offering seven point seven dinars - just raise the price."
"I didn't pay you, Shavash, to pay for the shares. Kick Bemish out."
"I am sorry," Shavash said, "but Bemish is a Kissur's prot g . If we
show him the door, Kissur will complain to the sovereign. Do you want a
second Kaminsky scandal?"
"Enraged Giles silently slammed the door. His friend was waiting for
him in the corridor.
"So?"
"The damned briber!" the enraged Earthman hissed, "Kissur's prot g , my
ass! Do you know who got the officials' signatures on the papers when they
were all drunk? Kissur? Devil's spawn! Kissur was lying with a wench -
Shavash was getting the signatures! He will now harry us with this Bemish
till we pay three dinars for a share."
X X X
By four o'clock, Bemish was fatigued. The road was dusty and covered
with potholes, the spaceport disappeared a long time ago behind the endless
flat fields and the rows of olive trees, planted next to the road so that
the dust settled on olives and they ripened faster. They made at least
twenty five miles, not including the morning spaceport trip. Bemish was
tired as a dog and was slowly getting nuts - what is Kissur trying to prove?
That he walks on foot better than Bemish? It comes as no surprise in a man
who fought in a country with motorized divisions consisting of one
horsepower units! The temptation to make it all clear to Kissur was pretty
strong. But Bemish still kept silence and dragged himself after the
ex-minister like a dog's tail.
By the evening, Bemish and Kissur reached a local village and came in a
tavern. Both wanderers were dirty up to their ears and looked so
unprepossessing, that the host didn't even move seeing them at the entrance.
Only, when Kissur sat at the table and bellowed, did he amble to the
visitors. Kissur inspected the geese the host offered, demanded to grill one
of them and ordered, additionally, mushroom sauce, appetizers and wine.
The goose soon appeared in front of the travelers in the grilled state
and it was impossible to recognize - such an appetizing crust covered it and
so cheerfully did the goose fat drip down in the steaming rice plate. The
travelers embarked on the food and, though Bemish was very hungry, he soon
realized that he had no chance holding his own with Kissur. They conversed
in English. Bemish noticed suddenly that Kissur was trying to not to bang
his spoon on the plate and was listening to the conversation between two
poorly dressed peasants - they were scraping rice quickly out of their
plates with their heads down. Finally Kissur couldn't hold it, he bid them
come to the table, handed over some goose and started to ask questions.
Bemish, being barely able to understand a few words, inquired what the
problem was.
"These are the peasants from the second village," Kissur said, "and
they are going to the manor's headman. Two years ago, their father became
sick and they borrowed money from the headman for medical treatment, at
first, and then for the funeral. In two years, the interest grew to match
the original loan size. At that point, the headman sent his servants to the
village and took their sister as a loan payment. The guys went to their
relatives to borrow money but it didn't work out and they are going to the
headman again." They were silent for a while.
"What about the shares," Bemish wondered. "Did you ask them about the
shares?"
"They don't know what shares are," Kissur replied, "if you mean the red
paper pieces they were issued for their land, they gave it to the headman as
a name day gift."
"But they cost ten isheviks a share even now!" Bemish exclaimed
involuntarily, totally forgetting a vodka crock.
The peasants swung their heads nervously, listening to two bums talking
- they were clearly speaking some thief's argot - the peasants couldn't make
a single word out! Kissur pulled a wad of money out of his pants, counted
two hundred isheviks and gave them to the older guy.
"Hold it," he said, "that's for your sister's bail." The peasant's eyes
bulged out at the bum, he fell down on his knees and started kissing the
earth in front of Kissur, till Kissur threw him outside.
"Where are we going now?" Bemish asked when the peasants left.
Kissur opened his dirty coat's flap, making sure that the gun was still
there, and said, "Let's spend a night in the manor where the sister was
taken to."
By the late evening, tired as a dog Bemish slogged after Kissur to a
hilltop crowned by a toothy tarred fence. Upon the travelers' arrival, a
gate appeared in the fence and a servant with a flashlight and an assault
rifle appeared in the gate.
"Talk," Kissur elbowed Bemish.
"I... our... sleep," Bemish started.
The servant raised his flashlight a bit, realized that he was dealing
with the foreigners that understood the human speech worse than dogs and let
them into the manor with hardly a word.
X X X
It's should be pointed out, that the headman, in the manor they came
to, was an awful man. He fleeced the peasants mercilessly, traded in girls,
purchased stolen goods and ruled a racketeering gang. He had a great
relationship with the regional authorities. At the same time, he attempted
to look honorable. Fleecing the peasants, he always referred to the manor
owner's merciless orders. Since the local peasants were really dumb, it had
never even come to their mind to complain to the manor's owner, living in
the capital and totally ignorant of all these depravities. In such a simple
way the headman persuaded the peasants that he was their protector.
So, Kissur and Bemish found a place in a hay bale inside the cattle
yard and watched the peasants come to the meeting hall. The headman even
came out to meet them.
"I am so sorry about this," he declared, "but I have already sent your
sister to the lord in the capital, so there is no way to get her back. If
the lord likes her, you are lucky - maybe he will agree to forgive you the
rest of your debt."
"But we managed to get the money," the peasant said happily and handed
the banknotes over.
Who could guess that the headman had quarreled with one of his servants
yesterday and bashed his head in with a stick? He stuck the body into the
trunk afterwards, got it out of the manor and threw it into the bushes next
to the construction. In the morning, he said that he had sent the servant to
buy some stuff in the capital. He was going to report the servant as having
deserted afterwards but an incredible idea came to him, when he saw the
money. He leafed through the bank notes again and, suddenly, he pulled one
of them out - it was a twenty isheviks note with a "200" ink bank mark.
"Hold them," he cried to the servants. "I gave this twenty isheviks
note to my servant Anai when I sent him out yesterday. Anai should have
returned this morning; they must have robbed and killed him. Otherwise,
where would they get the money?"
The servants grabbed the bewildered peasants.
"Where did you get the money?" the headman attacked them.
"Your grace," the elder begged, "a bum gave us the money; it looked
like he followed us here - he is sleeping now on the hay bale! How would we
know if he robbed somebody?"
The headman ordered the servants to take a look and they reported in no
time that, truly, one sturdy bum was sleeping on a bale and another one had
dug himself in it. The headman was pleased. "The prey comes to the hunter on
its own," he thought, "I will arrest these bums and accuse them of the
murder!" But then he changed his mind. "Who knows where these bums came
from? Only bandits carry this kind of money on them and they won't be
overjoyed, if I accuse an acclaimed gang member of murder and robbery! I
will meet my end this way. To the opposite, the bandits will appreciate my
tact if I don't get them mixed in this business."
And he assailed the peasants.
"It's such nonsense! Where would bums get this money? You don't even
stop at accusing innocent fellow travelers." And he ordered to bring whips
and canes.
X X X
Kissur was by no means sleeping in the bale at that time. He aspired to
see his philanthropy's results. To avoid attention, he took the boots off
and stuck them in the hay, so that they looked like a sleeper's legs,
noiselessly climbed on the barn roof and jumped from there to the main
house. He took off his belt with a hook on the end, snatched a post on the
roof with a hook and lowered himself down the belt, to a cornice encircling
the house. He walked down the cornice to the entry hall. Hanging down there,
he heard the peasants being accused of the servant's murder and he heard
them breaking down at the torture and confessing their guilt.
In a while, the prisoners were taken away, the headman locked the money
in the small metal safe in the corner and everybody left. Having waited for
half an hour, Kissur carefully pried the wooden frame open with a knife and
climbed inside.
X X X
Bemish woke up in the middle of the night - Kissur was missing. "Where
is he hanging his ass out?" Bemish got angry. The moon shined and the roofs
of wing houses and utility shacks were clearly outlined on the night sky
background. Just then, Bemish saw a man's silhouette sneaking along the main
house rooftop with a sack under his armpit. Bemish shuddered and rubbed his
eyes. The man jumped over to the garage roof and disappeared inside. "Hold
the thief!" a scream issued, and something glistened in the house. Bemish
jumped.
Something boomed in the garage, its gate was thrown wide open and a
truck rushed out puffing.
"Jump!" Kissur screamed.
Bemish leaped on the truck, tore the door open and fell on the seat.
The truck scurried around the yard, kicked out the gate and sprinted down
the slope. Awaken servants rushed after it but, since everybody was afraid
that the robbers could start firing and make some holes in the lackeys'
hides, - they limited their activities to the loud screams and flashlight
hustling.
The headman silently contemplated the stripped safe. "These robbers are
crummy people," he thought, "in my benevolence, I didn't prosecute them for
the murder and they thanked me in such a way!"
X X X
The truck swerved down the night road and, inside the truck Bemish
castigated the Empire ex-first minister. Bemish finished and Kissur asked,
"Terence, have you killed anybody at the construction?"
The Earthman only flapped his hands at such a question.
"I also think that you haven't killed anybody," Kissur agreed, "then,
how did the headman recognize this note?" and he started recounting, what
happened between the headman and the peasants.
"I think," the Earthman said, "the problem is, that the headman has
already sent the girl to his lord and he is afraid to call her back. That's
why he kicked this hoax with the money off; the servant ran away somewhere
or he will come in a week."
"You think well," Kissur said, "and the peasants likely think the same
way. Keep it."
And to the financier's horror, the Empire ex-minister handed him over a
wad of square notes that Bemish immediately recognized to be the Assalah
bearer stocks.
"My God," Bemish moaned, "what is this?"
"These are your stocks. Do you remember the peasants' story, how the
headman requested them as a gift?"
"Why?!"
"You said it yourself, that if you have these shares, you will be able
to control Shavash."
"Kissur! Firstly, I can buy low and sell high but I've never acquired
securities yet with a bandit's lock pick. Secondly, exactly five minutes
after this story comes out, not a single bank will agree to finance me.
Thirdly, this story will surely come out, since the headman will complain
about one of the robbers being a foreigner and there are not that many
foreigners..."
"He won't run to complain," Kissur said, "or he will have to explain,
how he got the shares as a gift."
Bemish gestured with his hand and became silent.
It took them an hour to drive back to the beginning of the destroyed
overpass, where Bemish and McCormick had abandoned the car in the morning -
the car was still there. Kissur got out of the truck, threw the stolen stuff
on the back seat and took the clean clothes out of the trunk.
"Change you clothes."
Kissur drove the car and Bemish grouched, kept silence and, looking at
Kissur, thought, "He is not a man, he is a walking scandal." They arrived at
a crumbly town and stopped in front of a red lacquered gate. Bemish realized
that it was a district precinct. It was probably the same precinct where
Krasnov was whipped for an attempt to acquire the shares.
"Are you going to rob another precinct head?"
Kissur, not responding, knocked in the gate. The district head, having
learned about the Emperor favorite's visit, put the clothes on and went out
to meet them. Kissur introduced Bemish to him.
"We were inspecting the construction till the nightfall and we were
barely able to get out," Kissur explained.
In the morning, even before Kissur and Bemish walked downstairs, a
bustle issued in the house. The official reported, bowing.
"Mr. Kissur! Your manor is located nearby, and a modest man named
Khanni is the headman there. Yesterday night, two bums robbed the house and
stole four hundred thousand! Probably, these two guys also killed his
servant and lifted his money - the servant's body was found today in the
riverside bushes!
Bemish understood some of the official's talk and froze.
They drove to the headman - a dozen Kissur's servants, that he called
that night from the capital, joined them on the way. The district head
entered the yard, with a large crowd already assembled, and Kissur stayed in
the crowd screened by his servants.
The murdered servant's body was delivered, two peasants were brought in
and the headman accused them.
"Everything is clear. These two made a deal with the bandits and robbed
and killed my servant - they didn't expect me recognizing the money. You
were going to rob the manor together next but, since you were arrested, the
bums went ahead on their own. Answer me - where did you bump into them?
Imagine it, I was trying to protect you before your lord, turned your sister
over to him, so that he would become lenient."
Here, the crowd moved and Kissur moved out of it surrounded by three
sturdy chaps.
"Hey, Khanni! What was this girl you turned over to me?"
The headman went gray in the face with horror. The crowd reacted.
"How much, are you saying, they stole from me?" Kissur continued.
"Four hundred thousand," the headman fretted. Here Kissur took the sack
of his shoulder and emptied it right out for everybody to see.
"Khanni," Kissur stated, "when I gave you this manor, I said, 'Don't
oppress the people, only take one tenth.' Yesterday, I was passing by, with
a friend, and I decided to check, how you obey my orders, and when you
arrested the people I gave money to, claimed this money for yourself, and
told them that I dishonored their sister that I haven't even met, it looked
to me, that you obeyed my orders like a pig you are - that you sucked on the
people's marrow and drank their blood. I decided to look in your safe and I
carried away from it not four hundred thousand but, rather, six and half
thousand and, secondly, I carried away from it the loan agreements signed
with my signature - and this is a fake signature. Then I realized that I
didn't waste my time poking into this safe, because you would doubtfully
have shown me these faked agreements!"
The headman could not speak - he bleated and crawled at Kissur's feet.
"Spit it out," Kissur barked. "How many girls have you sold to the
whorehouses in my name?"
"Twenty of them, at least," somebody in the crowd responded.
Here, Kissur leaped at the headman and crushed his nose and many other
parts, and then ordered to "hang this fucker on the gate" - Bemish could
barely persuade him to call the lynching off.
They still stuffed the headman in the stocks at the punishment pole. By
mid afternoon, hundreds of peasants drifted into the manor.
"That's what happened," the peasants were saying, "the damned headman
lied to us and cheated the master! Thanks to the master for coming here and
sorting things out!"
Kissur ordered to set a table across the pole, sat down at the table
and started to hand the loan agreements out to the peasants while the
district head, happy to still have his nose whole, was certifying that the
deeds were fake.
By the evening, the headman was taken away in the stocks and the
satisfied crowd dispersed.
X X X
Kissur and Bemish stayed in the orphaned manor overnight.
"So, how was I?" Kissur inquired Bemish at the dinner. He reminded
Bemish of a victorious fighting cock.
"If a society's fairness," Bemish said, "depended on the number of
squashed noses, then your Empire would be the fairest place in the Universe.
However, the situation is reversed."
Kissur frowned.
"The objective is," the Earthman said instructively, "not to break the
corrupted officials' noses. The objective is to position the officials in
such a way that they couldn't harass the people."
"How do you like this place?"
"Wonderful place," Bemish said, "one could build a heaven here or, at
least, a wondrous chicken farm."
Kissur burst out in laughter and slapped him on the shoulder.
"It's all yours, then!"
Bemish was astonished.
"I can't accept such a gift."
"Why? You just stated that the goal is not to kick a bad owner's butt,
but to find an honest one. You are all bark and no bite."
"But I don't even speak the language."
Kissur, however, wasn't even going to listen.
"Also, you need to live somewhere," he declared, "you will surely get
this company in your pocket, don't worry! I will wheedle it out of the
sovereign for you."
And he started enthusiastically treating Bemish with wine.
X X X
Bemish woke up late. The sun was pushing in the open window and dancing
on a deity's jade mug, grinning above the door, on an ancient silver lantern
where an electric light bulb bloated like a white bubble. With an effort,
Bemish recalled yesterday events. "There was a fight... We drank... Oh, my
God! He granted me the manor!" Bemish jumped up in the bed - the house deed
and a note from Kissur lay on the table - he returned to the capital.
In an hour, Bemish thoughtfully consumed breakfast on a veranda.
Frightened servants ran around. He could barely talk to the servants and was
absolutely unable to understand their replies. He thought for a moment, went
inside and called to Mr. Shavash's office.
"Mr. Shavash," the Earthman said, "could you recommend me a really
honest administrator?"
The first finance vice-minister assured him, in a slightly ironic
voice, that he would be happy to find for Mr. Bemish anything in the world -
an eternal phoenix, three-headed dragon, and even an honest administrator.
X X X
At the other end of the line, Shavash hung up the receiver. He pondered
for a moment and, then, he called the secretary and gave the necessary
orders.
Soon, a young man, with a round face and pleasant but sad azure eyes,
entered his office. The young man's face was unusually pale, a raw dough
color. An Earthman or another ignorant person would think that the face's
owner was unhealthy or hadn't left home for a while. A Weian would
immediately suspect that the guy had been in jail.
So, the young man named Adini, approached to the official's table and
froze three steps away, waiting for orders.
"Kissur," Shavash said, "bestowed to a Earthman, named Terence Bemish,
a manor next to Assalah and the Earthman is looking for a manor's headman. I
would like to bestow you to him."
"Yes, master," Adini said deferentially.
"You will watch him and report all his meetings and plans to me."
Shavash picked a sheet of paper with a personal seal out of a folder.
"The moment Bemish leaves the planet," Shavash said, "this sheet of
paper will be destroyed. It is in your best interests, to operate so that
Bemish leaves the planet quickly. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, master."
"Terence Bemish is a smart man and he, most certainly, expects me to
use this opportunity to send him a spy."
"Why did he ask you for a headman, then?"
"He hopes to allure the spy to his side. Once he has given you enough
favors, you may pretend that it indeed has happened. Remember, however, that
Bemish can give you money or a stipend but only I can get rid of this paper
for you. Also remember that, if Bemish had this sheet, he would not act as a
good Samaritan towards you. He will be kind to you only because he doesn't
have another weapon."
X X X
Bemish was enjoying the ancient mosaic overlaying the walls on the
second floor, when he heard a descending flyer's characteristic rustle. He
walked out to the gallery - a white flyer stood in the yard, the last
"rainbow" shimmers were beating above its wings. In a moment, the "rainbow"
dimmed, the flyer's roof opened up like a poppy flower carpel, and two
people got out of the car - a handsome lithe youth in a strict white suit
and another guy, more scrawny than slim, in a checked shirt with torn-off
sleeves and a red flower in his hair, following the contemporary rebel
fashion.
"You can live here two months and more," the youth in the strict suit
said loudly in English, evidently being sure that nobody could understand
him, "no one will say a word. The local headman has sinned quite a bit and
he won't even tell my brother about you."
"And how much has he sinned?"
"Not more than any damned bank director."
Here, the older youth turned around and noticed Bemish who was standing
openly at the gallery encircling the villa at the second store.
"Hey, who are you?" the youth called out in Weian.
"I am Terence Bemish and I am the villa's owner."
"That's nonsense! The villa belongs to my brother."
"That's true. However, Kissur threw out the manor's headman yesterday
and gave the manor to me."
The youth span his head nervously and Bemish said,
"You are welcome. I don't think that Kissur would be happy to know that
I showed his brother and his guest off."
Bemish ordered the servants to serve the terrace table and, soon, he
and his unexpected guests were devouring an ample breakfast. Kissur
brother's name was Ashidan and his companion introduced himself, not without
sarcasm, as John Smith.
"What do you do?" Ashidan asked.
"I am a financier."
"My brother makes strange acquaintances," Ashidan noticed.
"What do you do?" Bemish inquired from the new guest.
"It's none of your business, shithead."
Bemish was a bit flustered.
"Excuse me," he asked, "didn't we meet two minutes ago? I don't know
anything about you. What do you know about me to call me a shithead?"
"What class did you fly coming here?"
"First class."
"That's it. How can a man with enough money to fly first class not to
be a shithead?"
"Are you an anarchist," Bemish wondered, "a communist?"
"I am a sympathizer"
"Whom and what do you sympathize with? Esinole? Marks? Le Dan?"
"I sympathize with the people that the likes of you shit on with
money."
"Why do you sympathize with them on Weia?"
"This planet is interesting for me," Smith said. "People here haven't
choked on their money.
"Yes," Bemish agreed, recalling peasants, crawling in the fields, "they
haven't. But I hope to fix it."
"Eh?"
"I will help them to choke on their money," Bemish stated.
"It's nonsense! You don't care about anything except your profits!"
Bemish was unhurriedly eating the morning soup. Last time he heard the
same thing from the former ADO general director, whom he kicked out from a
comfortable for him, but burdensome for the company, armchair.
"Don't push it, Johnny," Ashidan said sarcastically, "or he will be
calling police in a second."
"I would certainly call police," Bemish said, "if I saw you making a
bomb. Since you are just yakking, why the heck should I call them?"
"Will you tell my brother?"
Bemish carefully looked at Ashidan. "What a brood," a thought passed
his mind, "one drives tanks down the foreign companies' facilities and
another reads Marx in Princeton... Why didn't Kissur give him the villa?"
Bemish fished a satellite phone out of his pocket and handed it to the
youth.
"Tell him yourself," Bemish suggested.
Ashidan got up and walked to the garden to make a call. Right then, the
servants rushed to the terrace to announce the district head's arrival.
The district head brought gifts with him - three dishes of grilled meat
with garlic, a suckling pig, salads in flat baskets and, also, a plate of
walnut shaped cookies and a round sweet quince pie decorated with the
Bemish's last name misspelled on top.
Bemish walked the guest to the garden gazebo. The official bowed to him
with the pie and said, "It's a great honor for us, Mr. Bemish that you will
now, in a way, live with us. I am happy to express my gratitude to you.
Thanks to your help and Kissur's courage, a crime of unimaginable magnitude
and horror was uncovered.
"I think you were aware of it," Bemish said.
"Hola, how can you say so?! I was shocked, squashed like a frog under a
wagon!"
Bemish shrugged his shoulders. A servant knocked and appeared in the
door with a steaming teapot and sweets in woven baskets.
The guest and the host treated each other with tea and, then, the
district head inquired,
"They say that you will be in the charge of our construction?"
"It's too early to say," Bemish said.
Here it seemed to Bemish that the district head winked his eye at him
in a coarse and canny way.
"Well, say," the district head said, "there is no reason to doubt now.
Believe me, I and the others around will be utterly happy to do everything
they can for Kissur's friend and their future colleague."
"Did you whip Krasnov?" Bemish asked.
"Eh?"
"I mean the trader, who came to Assalah for the stocks. You said, that
you wouldn't allow foreigners to rob the people."
The district head nodded understandingly. His face became now important
and benevolent.
"Unfortunately," he said, "the people are like children and officials
should protect them. How can I let them sell invaluable property for two
cents?"
"You can't let them sell it for two cents but you can let them sell it
for free? To pay for the taxes you invented?"
"Hola!" the district head exclaimed, "how can you say so?"
His round kind face reddened and tears appeared on the wide open eyes.
"Do you have company shares? Did you pay a cent for them?"
The district head's eyes looked at Bemis honestly and directly.
"From now on," the district head said, "the meaning of my life is to
serve you! What would you like me to do? Tell me and I will carry it out."
"I would like you," Bemish said, "to sell me the Assalah shares at the
same price the peasants sold them to you - for free."
The official choked.
"Otherwise," Bemish continued, "the sovereign will know how you chased
foreign vultures from here with a brined whip to bleed the people on your
own."
The official was silent for a moment and then bowed and pronounced, "It
will be my honor to serve you."
"I should get him fired," Bemish thought, "so that a man grateful to me
for the appointment and not the man hating me because of the shares is head
of the precinct.
X X X
When Bemish walked down in the garden, Ashidan was standing on the
swimming pool edge and throwing thin well sharpened darts into a fat pot.
"Well, did you talk to this mongrel? Ashidan asked, "How much money did
he give you, so that you didn't prosecute him?"
"Don't be rude, Ashidan."
"This district head is a real weirdo, "the youth continued, "He is the
only local official who spends every day in the office. Do you know what he
engages in in there?"
"Well?"
"He locks himself with his young male secretary since his wife comes
from a much better family than he does, and she doesn't allow these little
tricks at home."
The Fourth Chapter
Where Kissur tells investment bankers how to train a highwayman's horse
while Terence Bemish makes an acquintance with other contenders for Assalah
stocks.
The next day after his return to the capital, Bemish found himself at a
party thrown by the district prefect to celebrate the plum blossoming or
some other divine occasion.
The party was grand. All of the high society arrived.
The officials discussed the inflation and the importance of the
preservation of the customs. The people from the stars discussed the
inflation and the importance of the preservation of the customs.
In a corner, the foreign entrepreneurs shared more particular
impressions from the local business surroundings with each other.
"So, this abbot comes to me and offers to bless the bank against a
misfortune and he asks for two hundred thousand dinars for the ceremony. I
refuse and the next night a fire starts in the office. The next day this
vermin comes to me again, expresses its condolences, and asks for two
hundred thousand again. When I complained to the police, they gave me the
advice - don' buck and cough up the money - the abbot is connected to Horn's
gang."
"By the way, speaking about banks - do you know that only the
companies, with accounts in Shavash controlled banks, received the budget
financing this month? They say that Shavash had a ten percent kickback.
And so on. And so forth.
Bemish met the Federation of Nineteen envoy, an elderly Malaysian, and
the envoy led Bemish into a corner immediately and started telling him true
stories from local officials' lives.
There were about dozen envoys present. Bemish was suddenly surprised by
the number. He thought that only fifteen... not even fifteen - ten years ago
- the envoys' number would be way smaller. The Earth colonies were leaving
the Federation of Nineteen one after another, peacefully or with swords
drawn.
Bemish was also introduced to the Gera envoy. The envoy was talking to
two people that looked familiar to Bemish.
"Mr. Lawrence Edwards," the envoy introduced one of them.
"Mr. Jonathan Rusby," he introduced the other one.
Bemish didn't bat an eyelid.
Half the Galaxy police have been looking for Mr. Lawrence Edwards. Mr.
Edwards had owned one of the Galaxy's largest and most respectable
businesses. An airport technician's son, he made a five billion dinar
fortune by the age of thirty. He used land allotments he acquired for
construction purposes, as collateral to obtain the bank loans, and the banks
trusted him completely. Unfortunately, Mr. Edwards had more and more
difficulties in the last several years and he created a network of companies
buying these land allotments from each other and using them later as
collateral for bank loans. At the fifth act's end, Edwards escaped. When
disappointed banks arrested the land allotments and unfinished skyscrapers,
they found out their real price was very different from the price paid by
the affiliated companies, and it didn't even cover one twentieth of Mr.
Edwards loans.
As for Mr. Rusby, he had also been a financial legend and the manager
of a successful offshore fund investing citizens' savings in risk free
government securities. Unfortunately, the interest promised by Mr. Rusby
exceeded the possible government securities trading profits by 3% and,
henceforth, Mr. Rusby, while promising the complete safety, invested his
clients' money using much more profitable but much less secure financial
instruments. The clients, lured by high risk free profits, crowded at his
office, the modest retirees and dishwashers who would have never invested in
his fund if they had known the fund's structure, brought their money to him.
Rusby, with his incredible nose for trading, often gleaned up huge pickings
buying a bankrupted company's shares at 5% of the face value that would
later rise to 90% and he had a great time meanwhile with the margin between
his take-in and his payments to the clients.
It was not economical but rather political quandaries that destroyed
him - a new tax law on Aegeia, where his head office was, and a couple of
the adroit auditors. Rusby's assets were arrested, his wife divorced him
scandalously, the fund immediately bankrupted and Rusby escaped to Gera,
where he kept insisting that, all this time, he fulfilled his obligations
towards the clients and paid them exactly as he promised.
By the way, the federal committee didn't argue that.
It just claimed that if the Rusby investments' real risk level had been
known, he would have had to pay the investors five-fold.
"Eh, Mr. Bemish," Rusby said with a friendly smile, "I heard that you
were also taking part in the Assalah auction?"
"Also?" Bemish winced. "Wow! Would Shavash really let this man, wanted
by the Galaxy police, participate in an auction."
Next to a lighted pond with gold fish, a small man stood - Shavash.
"Thanks for the headman," Bemish said, "what salary should I pay him?"
"Nothing - he is your slave."
Bemish choked.
"I thought there is no slavery on Weia.
"Call it the way you want. This man owes me two hundred thousand
isheviks and he signed a contract that he would work this debt off any way I
choose. I will transfer the contract to you and send it tomorrow with the
courier."
Bemish was silent.
"By the way," Shavash asked suddenly, "they say, all the Assalah
documentation was transferred to you. What's your opinion?"
"What do you mean?"
"I meant just what I said. You just familiarized yourself with the most
detailed documentation, you are a financier. What do you say?"
Bemish hesitated.
I'd say that I realized how they make money on Weia. They make money
not on private profits but on state expenses. They fed off Assalah in two
ways. The first way was the inflated contracts and the second way was the
written-off equipment. For instance, the company Alarcon was in charge of
the land works. The same man was both the Assalah director and the Alarcon
founder. He owned 20% of the shares. There is the geological study's
conclusion, that Assalah stands on an excellent basalt foundation with a
forest situated above it. There are, also, seven million isheviks paid to
Alarcon for draining swamps that have never existed. There is construction
equipment paid for with the budget money at triple fold prices. And the same
equipment was sold to Alarcon in two weeks and 97% of the resource was
claimed to be exhausted. How can you exhaust 97% of the resource of a step
excavator in ten working days? I bet, it was still standing unpacked at a
warehouse, new and shiny! Any action was a financial pump that pumped state
budget money from the company a manager was in charge of, to the company the
manager owned.
Shavash listened to the Earthman with eyes half closed.
"You said that the director owned 20% of the Alarcon shares. Who owned
the other 80%?"
"I assume that you owned it, Shavash."
A deferential waiter stopped next to them and Shavash took a crystal
glass on a thin stem from the silver tray.
"However, I didn't understand certain things," Bemish continued, "what
is an "ishevik bill of credit"?"
Shavash spread his hands.
"We were forced to do this. When the ministry doesn't have money, it
has sometimes to issue short-term bills of credit maturing in three months.
You need to pay the contractors somehow."
"In other words, you, Mr. Shavash, issue your own money."
"Not exactly," the vice-ministry pointed out indifferently, "Money
costs as much as it costs. While, when you obtain "ishevik bills of credit",
you go to a bank to exchange them for money. The bank can pay you thirty
percent of the face value or it can pay you hundred percent. It depends on
how good friends you, I and bank are."
"I believe," Bemish enquired, "it's meaningless to ask you if you
approve of cutting the ineffective industry subsidies down."
"Theoretically speaking, I approve of it," Shavash said tiredly. "You
don't read local media. I am an enthusiastic supporter of the budget deficit
curbing. This Assalah thing swallowed two billion isheviks while the real
expenses were not even two million."
The official's voice didn't carry either cynicism or sarcasm in it.
Bemish kept silent - he didn't know how to snub a man who issued pseudo
money as the first finance vice-minister, received it on the Assalah's
account as a Board of Director's member, and ferried it to his personal
account as real money.
Right then, Bemish realized a very simple thing - Kissur can bequest a
villa to him, Kissur can secure Assalah for him - but only Shavash has the
life and death power over money in this country.
"Who was the man who visited the manor with Ashidan?" Shavash asked
suddenly. "Did you recognize him?"
"No," Bemish came to his senses.
Shavash silently opened the folder he had with him and extracted a
newspaper article. The article showed the late Ashidan's companion and the
title announced, "The main suspect in the Menszel trading exchange center
escapes in an unknown direction."
Bemish hadn't heard about the explosion and he leafed through the text
quickly. The explosion was indeed a small one - two or three doors cracked
and a computer had its brains blown out. The blast was small because only
one explosive device performed - a non-fragmentation demolition shell with
ten grams of trinex. A case with the equivalent of three kilograms of
dynamite was next to it but, miraculously, it didn't detonated. If the case
had exploded, the victim count would have been in tens or, even hundreds.
"They left the villa," Bemish said, "the same day."
"Ashidan has nasty companions, " Shavash said. "Though this guy is a
friend of Kissur's."
"Pardon my curiosity, Mr. Shavash - it's surprising how you know
everything. You know even what happens at a villa two hundred kilometers
away from the capital. Are you a vice-minister of finance or of police?"
"I am simply a rich man," the small official said. "And a rich man is
not the man who owns a personal villa or a personal spaceship. It is a man
who owns a personal jail."
"A personal jail? Is that a joke?"
Shavash smiled.
"Would you like to see it? I can organize a trip."
"One way?"
"Never joke about jail, Mr. Bemish," calmly and coldly the Empire
official said. They were silent for a moment and, then, Bemish said,
"How much is IC going to pay for the stocks? I can pay more?"
"It doesn't matter, Terence, whether you pay more or less for the
stocks," Shavash grinned. "Imagine, that you pay for the stocks more but
your application is not set up correctly."
"How much does a correct application cost?"
In the uneven light by the lamps outside the window, the small
official's raised eyebrows were easy to see.
"Come on," Shavash smiled.
"Listen," Bemish said quietly and clearly, "a fantastic sum given to
you by IC was mentioned to me. I don't know whether or not it's true. I am
not going to offer you this kind of money. If, however, I buy the company
and you buy the stock options, in three years, your shares will be worth
eighteen times more than any of IC's pitches."
Shavash only smiled.
"You know perfectly well what IC is, Shavash. And you know that it will
bankrupt Assalah, and you know why it will do it."
Shavash had a perfect composure but Bemish noticed surprise or, even,
horror passing in his eyes.
Here, the Gera envoy with another man entered the hall and Bemish bowed
and walked away to the balcony.
Giles sat at a corner table on the balcony. A glass of palm vodka,
mixed with mango juice, stood next to him and an open magazine, that Giles
was probably reading, was under the glass.
"Good day, Mr. Bemish! They say that you already own half the Assalah
with a cute villa on top?"
Giles was drunk. He lamented probably that half the Assalah didn't
belong to him.
"I haven't asked for this gift," Bemish said, "and, anyway, I found
myself in an idiotic position."
"Especially, since you are not going to buy the company anyway, are
you?"
Bemish was tempted to empty the glass of vodka in the Giles face.
"Let me introduce you to our executive director," Giles said lazily,
"James McFergson."
Bemish turned around - behind him, a stout short man with unusually
lively eyes and a mole on a pug nose was smiling and extending amicably his
hand.
"Overjoyed to meet you," MacFergson declared, shaking Bemish's hand. It
really looked, as if he was overjoyed to meet Bemish, and, as if no Bemish
existed in this world, he would fall dead with sorrow.
Here, the stage in the garden under the balcony was lightened, the
harmonious sounds of flutes and lute-shells poured forth and a performance
started below - in not too prudish dresses, four beauties were dancing a
complex dance with swords. Quite a crowd surrounded the stage quickly and,
when the performance finished, a guest -likely drunk- climbed the boards to
kiss the dancing girls.
"Who is this bloke?" Bemish enquired.
"The Adana envoy, " McFergson answered. "The envoy fits the country."
"An Earthman?" Bemish said with surprise.
"They are no longer Earthmen," McFergson smirked, "the planet Adana,
for your information, was settled by SD Warheim. So, Warheim brought there
several dozen thousand unemployed people - subsidizing their one-way
tickets. In just a short while, the unemployed realized that there were a
lot of jobs on Adana and no unemployment benefits. So, they all screamed
that it was slavery in disguise and demanded that the company transport them
back to Earth. When the company offered the opportunity to earn money for
the transportation fees on their own, they called it Earth imperialism and
declared independence. However, I heard that their current President makes
them work way harder than the company did and in concentration camps rather
than free."
"Mr. Bemish knows that," Giles interrupted his colleague. "Just when
the trouble started, he bought United Ferrous shares and sold them later at
triple fold price when the new Adana government transferred all of Warheim's
concessions to United."
Several people from the group of Weian officials noiselessly approached
the conversing Earthmen. Among them, Bemish noticed Jonathan Rusby with the
smiling Gera envoy.
"Mr. Bemish has also provided a great assistance to Andjey Gerst. In my
opinion, your decision to create a Gera-oriented portfolio investment fund
made many financiers pay attention to Gera economics."
"What's so bad about it?" Bemish enquired irritably.
"Gerst is a dictator."
"And how exactly does it show?"
"So far, it shows, " Giles said, "in him attracting high level
scientists and advancing huge loans to local companies for the newest
technologies development - our government is forced to spend this money on
social expenses. And Gera banks are reputed to be the most reliable in the
Galaxy, though not due to the government protection but rather due to the
very strict laws specifying the total personal responsibility of the
management."
"Whose nails do they pull out?"
"Nobody's."
"And where is the dictatorship?
"Eh," Giles said, "in your opinion, a dictatorship is when they pull
the people's nails out and talk stupidly... Only a weak dictatorship pulls
the people's nails out, it's not a dangerous dictatorship, it will expire of
its own accord, it's doomed because when they pull the people's nails out,
the people don't work as much and the less they work, the more nails they
have to pull out."
"Do I understand you correctly," Bemish inquired, "that any state,
where they don't pull your nails out, is a strong dictatorship? I think you
just envy that Gera is better off than your own eh...?"
"Australia," Giles said, "I am an Australian. I understand you, though.
You have better opinion of Gera than of your own country because Gera's Dow
index grows faster."
He stood up.
"It's a stupid argument," he said, "I've been to Gera and I could give
you hundred proofs that its Leader is thousand times more dangerous than all
the psychopaths... Why don't you think about this - the Gera army's total
military capabilities are approaching those of Earth and all the other
Federation of Nineteen members' armies combined, and every time, when
somebody in the Federation Assembly proposes to boost the defense spending,
the owners of the accounts in the stable Gera banks start screaming that we
should not spend money on war, we should spend the money on social
assistance."
Kissur came in after midnight - by his looks, he spent the evening in a
more interesting way - in a pub. He ran into Bemish on a garden path, next
to a grotto that, due to an evident reason, Bemish needed to visit in
private.
Kissur slapped Bemish on the shoulder and noted.
"I haven't expected to meet you at this zoo! So, trader, haven't you
yet changed your mind about buying Assalah?"
"I will buy Assalah," Bemish said, "no matter what. At least, so that
Giles wouldn't get it."
"What's the difference between Giles or you buying it?" Bemish was
silent for a moment. Kissur was clearly drunk and Bemish wasn't a picture of
sobriety either.
"The difference? I guess, I will explain to you, Kissur, what Giles is
doing. Giles represents a company that nobody knows anything about. He says
that a private financier stays hidden behind the IC initials and he is ready
to invest ten billion in this business. That's bullshit. There are no such
investors."
"Why is he doing that?"
This is chicanery. Whoever is behind Giles gets Assalah and issues the
new shares. Your planet desperately lacks the space infrastructure, it's
generally a state property, and private spaceport investments should be
fantastically profitable. The stocks prices rise through the ceiling, IC
makes billions on the price differential and gets out. Shavash gets
millions, IC gets billions and the Federation investors with the Empire
nationals get a fly speck. I spent this week making enquires about IC. It is
a phantom. This is a trickster company that had a couple of projects on some
planets that nobody has heard anything about, - and these planets had been
expelled from the United Nations. A planet that's not a UN member - from a
financial viewpoint - Kissur, is a planet where the public companies'
accounting doesn't have to follow the Federal financial committee standards.
They have a well developed system - they bribe an official, issue the
stocks, advertising their "connections to the government", peddle these
stocks to fools through a phony company, the stocks grow, the company cleans
the cream off, and then - kabloom! Got it?
"Got it," Kissur said. "I got it, that our companies have a merry
choice - they can choose between a disreputable greenmailer and a company
like IC."
Kissur left soon, having loud-mouthed the Federation envoy and publicly
promised some official to set the dogs at him, "If you, bastard, demonstrate
your disdain to the sovereign again by parking your ill-gotten with bribes
Rolls-Royce next to the Nut Pavilion."
He did, however, invite Bemish for a dinner at Red Dog restaurant the
day after tomorrow.
X X X
The next day, Bemish returned to the city and went, first thing, to DJ
securities. The flower pot with summer hyacinths, right in front of the
office entrance, was bent in by bulky jeep tires and people bustled through
the wide open office doors like ants in a smashed anthill.
"What's going on?" Bemish inquired from Krasnov coming out to meet him.
"Tax police visited us," Krasnov said. "They locked up all the
paperwork."
"What laws did you break?"
"You should better ask what laws we didn't break! What laws can you
avoid breaking in a country where the regulations are made not with the goal
of paying the taxes to the state but with the goal of paying the hush money
to the tax collectors!"
"Haven't you tamed the tax collectors?"
"We? Come on, Bemish, every month... They apologized - we wouldn't do
it but we were ordered to..."
"Who exactly signed the order?"
"A man named Danisha. He is a prot g of Shavash's, by the way."
"Is it because of Assalah?"
The broker shrugged his shoulders.
"Have you seen the article?"
` "What article?"
Krasnov took a battered yellowish newspaper from a desk drawer and gave
it to Bemish. The newspaper was local and Bemish was only able to make out
Shavash's picture and he was barely able to get the paper's name - Red Star.
On the picture, Shavash appeared from the waist up, presenting an outrageous
sight with a girl, dressed only in a band, coquettishly tied around her
neck.
"What is it about?"
"It is about the Assalah company investment auction, where a corrupted
and lewd official Shavash settled with a foreign shark Bemish to sell him
Assalah for the price of a rotten melon."
Bemish took the newspaper with him and, in half an hour, he drove
through Kissur's mansion gate. The majordomo wordlessly walked him to the
living room; excited voices were coming from it. Bemish entered. The voices
stopped. A very beautiful thirty-year-old woman, with the eyes, black as
boysenberries, and a black braid tied around her head, rose to meet him. On
the coach, dismayed Shavash pressed himself against the pillows. Shavash
hurled the bundle of papers, he held in his hands, to the floor and said,
"Let me introduce you - Terence Bemish - the house mistress." Bemish
realized that Mrs. Idari, Kissur's wife, was in front of him and he bowed
awkwardly. The woman laughed. Her laughter was akin to a silver bell.
"Where is Kissur?" Bemish asked stupidly.
"Kissur is not here," the official answered. "He will fly in tomorrow."
Bemish suddenly felt himself blushing furiously.
"I ... I will go... I didn't know..."
"Please stay," Idari said politely, "I will leave. It is not befitting
for a woman to stay too long with a man her husband hasn't introduced to
her."
She bowed and left - only the black braid tied around her head
glistened in the door. Bemish was looking after her and blinking piteously.
Then, he turned to the official.
"Sit down, " Shavash waved his hand, "sit down and eat. Every time this
obnoxious majordomo sees me with his mistress, he would even bring a peddler
to the room."
The peddler comparison didn't please Bemish.
Shavash took him by his hand and walked him to a veranda where a round
table covered for two people stood next to the gold-gilded rails. A plump
maid was already standing next to a silver hand washing jar. Bemish washed
his hands and dried them carefully with an embroidered towel and, when he
turned around, the servants were already loading on the table a flat leather
dish with an aromatic mound of chopped steaming meat.
Having propped himself on the pillows, Shavash watched the Earthman.
"What is, "Shavash asked, "sticking out of your pocket?
"The Red Star article."
"Ahh," Shavash drawled. "These nutcases... Where did you get it, by the
way?"
"My broker showed it to me. Tax police busted him. A man named
Danisha."
Bemish got used to Shavash enough to be ready now for an ugly snub from
him. He could easily imagine Shavash smiling and saying, "Oh, Terence, what
should we do! The Earthmen allow themselves so much on Weia, it's scary!
These people had three different sets of books and didn't pay any taxes this
year. They can loose the license."
But Bemish didn't expect to see what happened next.
Shavash's eyebrows levitated in astonishment.
"What are you saying!" the small official said. "Verily, if you send an
idiot to bring you water, he will revert a spring to your house!"
He grabbed a T-phone off his belt.
"Danisha," Shavash started speaking in the receiver in several seconds,
"what happened to DJ securities?"
The receiver quacked.
"I'll show you three sets of books," Shavash screamed. "I'll show you
taking the license away! You will bring me the fine, they paid you,
personally. And you will bring me, what Giles paid you! You will bring it in
an hour or you can go away to Inissa as a cheese inspector in two hours."
Shavash threw the receiver down.
"Not convincing," Bemish said.
"I have nothing to do with it," Shavash snorted. "I just introduced
Danisha to this scoundrel of Giles."
"And the Red Sun article is not yours."
"Come on!" Shavash drawled. "That's disgusting sleaze. I would sue them
but I don't want to get my hands dirty."
"Well, this article came out just right for you. Now, you can refer to
the article to say, 'if I sell this company to Bemish, I will lose my
reputation."
Shavash shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't even want to listen to you, Terence. Red Star is the zealots'
newspaper. They tried to assassinate me twice."
"What zealots?"
"You saw them yourself while walking with Kissur - remember the iron
people show?"
Bemish shuddered slightly. As if it's not enough, that Shavash already
knew who and when anyone visited Kissur's villa in Assalah! What's he doing
- does he follow Bemish's every step?
"Where did this iron men story come from?"
"It was an old book," the finance vice-minister smiled, "with an iron
braggart story. There was a prophecy at the end of the book, that at the
world's end, plagues, hail and dishonest officials will come, and the iron
men will crawl out from the underground. I have to say that every time
rebellions or barbarian invasions happened in the Empire, the rebels were
thought to be the iron men. However, once the rebels took power, everybody
would immediately realize that they were not the iron men. As for the
Earthmen - you don't grab the power and don't hang your enemies. Can't you
be anybody else but the iron men?"
"The ones that crawl out from underground?"
"The ones that crawl out from the underground, eat children's brains,
and carry na ve peasants and officials underground, down their bewitched
halls, to inflict visions on them."
"And how many people believe it?"
"A lot of people," Shavash said, "peasants, officials, artisans. Hey, I
fired my secretary, Akhhar, because of that, right after our US tour."
Bemish finally realized that Shavash was making fun of him.
"Well," he said, smiling, "you secretary, having flown to Earth, is
unlikely to think that we crawled out of hell."
"My friend," Shavash said, "Akhhar just considers it to be an allegory,
the wisdom of our ancestors who possessed the hidden knowledge and warned us
about the danger. You see, when you talk about science, you either
understand how a nuclear reactor works, or you don't. A myth, meanwhile, is
capable of joining together the most different people's groups and minds. A
simple peasant understands the prophecy literally, while an educated man
interprets it metaphorically."
"And how," Bemish asked, "do the preachers understand the prophecy?"
"Oh, while talking to the authorities, they claim it is an allegory!
Are they idiots to admit that they know the real truth about the iron men?"
"It's incredible," Bemish muttered. "Can't you explain to your crazies
what's really going on?"
"It's impossible to explain to them, it's only possible to hang them. I
think, however, that if we start hanging people for believing Earthmen to be
demons, than you, the demons, will raise a horrible buzz."
Bemish lowered his head.
"Don't feel bad. These people have a special gift of quarrelling not
only with the state but also with each other. Take cars, for instance. One
sect will believes that cars don't exist, that they are demonic phantoms,
and that you are not moving in a car but rather are moved by a demonic
force. Another one believes that the ancestors themselves sent us the cars,
but the iron demons grabbed the gift on the way and used it illegally."
Shavash picked the newspaper up, waved it at Bemish's nose and said.
"I am explaining all this to you, Bemish, so that you understand how
difficult it would be for me to get an article published in Red Star, where,
on the top of it, they christen me," Shavash squinted slightly and started
translating the text, "a foul dung beetle, "a cockroach with a sack of gold
instead of the heart," and "the foam of sacrilege..."
Shavash paused for a moment and unexpectedly added.
"You know, what my conclusion from the article is?"
Bemish couldn't help but glance. The dirty article, as it has been
mentioned, was accompanied by the picture of Shavash naked and Bemish
imagined for a moment, what he would feel if he appeared on a newspaper page
in such a saucy way.
"My conclusion is that I should lose some weight. It's a shame of a
picture, don't you think so?"
X X X
Bemish was leaving the mansion when a dark skinned servant reported to
him, bowing.
"The mistress is expecting you in the Blooming Plums Gazebo."
Bemish walked into the garden. The woman that had withdrawn from the
room before the dinner was now walking on a white garden path, overcast with
sideways moon shadows, and the lace decorating her dress sleeves resembled
moon rays coiling around her wrists.
Bemish bowed shyly and said.
"Believe me, I am very sorry that you didn't dine with us."
"Men and women do not eat together," Idari objected. "Are you the
Earthman that has been buying Assalah via DJ securities?"
"You are informed surprisingly well," Bemish muttered abashedly,
realizing that the Idari's husband is unlikely to even know that DJ
securities exist.
"Well, if women eat separately from men," Idari smiled, "it doesn't
really mean that they don't know anything. Are you married?"
"I am divorced."
"Did your wife love you?"
"She loved my bank account."
Idari sat down on a bench in a fluid catlike motion and Bemish heard a
hydrangea bush rustle against her skirt. Idari gestured Bemish to sit next
to her.
"I appreciate everything you have done for my husband," Idari said.
"I haven't done anything for him," the Earthman objected, "while he has
done a lot for me."
"You are the first man from the stars that he made friends with. It's
so strange that this man belongs to Ronald Travis' circle."
And Bemish was again quite surprised by Idari's awareness.
"I thought he had Earthmen friends."
"Yes. People who throw bombs at the supermarkets and use drugs to
liberate themselves from the corrupting influence of the civilization."
Idari and Bemish sat very close to each other. The night had descended
already but the two moons shone powerfully like beacons and Bemish could
clearly see Idari's profile, a small head with the black braid wrapped
around the head and the hairpins glistening in the moonlight.
"My husband exerts a great influence on the Emperor," Idari continued,
"and you may exert a great influence on my husband. It would have been very
bad for my country, if Kissur had befriended, instead of you, the people he
had met two years ago on Earth."
Idari paused.
"What do you know of our history?"
Bemish flushed. His ignorance of everything related to Weian history
was practically absolute, it could only compare to his ignorance of Earth
history. If anything was of interest to him on this planet - it was the
budget deficit size or the central bank interest rate. The central bank
interest rate did not depend on history in any way.
"Is the name Arfarra familiar to you?"
Bemish faltered.
"He was the first minister..."
"He was the first minister twice. Once, before Earthmen. Second time,
after them. Once the Earthmen came to Weia, the Emperor appointed a man
named Nan as the first minister. Then, Nan was removed - with my husband's
help."
Bemish vaguely remembered the five-year-old scandal - since the scandal
took place on Earth, not on Weia. There was something about Kissur - the
Weian ex-first minister, hanging out on Earth. Or was it on Lann? Amidst
terrorists and drug abusers. A stolen car, drugs, a beaten policeman, the
arrest of a terrorist activity suspect, a scandal diligently stirred up by
somebody, and finally Kissur's statement that Nan was the main culprit in
the tragedy that happened after the hijacking of a military plane. This
statement played a part in the Earthman-minister resignation.
"Afterwards, a different premier and a different program of state
investment policy were instated. The taxes were high and the budget expenses
were huge. The only money left in the country was that in the state treasury
and in the banks with the highest officials as the stock holders. The
workers were not allowed to leave the companies they worked for and to
testify against their owners."
Idari grinned and added.
Shavash was, at that time, one of the most active supporters of the
state investments. He needed to clean his reputation up after his friendship
with Nan and he invented all the programs for the government, where money
just sank in the sand. Three tons of concrete were claimed where one ton of
concrete was used; five kilos of paint were reported where one kilo was
applied.
Concerning the laws that enslaved the workers, he wrote a memorandum
where he claimed, that the Weian way is different from the Galactic one,
since an owner doesn't exploit the workers as a hired cattle, but rather
takes fatherly life-long care of them. It should have ended with the
destruction of the country but it ended with a rebellion and the
government's resignation.
Then, Arfarra came in. He cut the state expenses down and rescinded the
employment laws. Meanwhile, my husband crushed the rebellions in the places
where the governors missed the old times.
Bemish almost didn't hear, what the woman was saying. The crossed light
bands from the two full breasted moons gleamed on the marble garden path and
silver bracelets like many-winged snakes entwined Idari's wrists, as thin as
ivy twigs.
"A bit later, Arfarra said to a man, named Van Leyven, that used to
invest a lot of money in Weia, "we are selling state constructions now, why
don't you buy Assalah?" - "I won't do that," Van Leyven said, "it's the most
disgusting of all Shavash's feeding troughs." - "Weian economics improved a
lot this year," Arfarra said, "but you used this year to freeze the
constructions, sell them to the state or get rid of the stocks via dummy
fronts. Why?" - Van Leyven thought for a bit and said. "I invested a lot of
money in Weia and incurred big losses. I staked it all and I lost. You let
the time slip by. The people lost their trust to the officials, the Earthmen
and the sovereign. You are old and sick, what will happen when you die?" -
"I've been dying for six years," Arfarra got angry, "will you buy Assalah or
not?" - "No." They parted then. Arfarra died the next day.
Bemish was now listening and holding his breath.
"My husband idolized Arfarra," Idari continued, "and it was extremely
difficult for me to persuade him not to take vengeance on Van Leyven outside
of Weia. He still had to leave Weia, since his death here would have been
certain, and he lost much more money than he had expected. I am saying this,
Mr. Bemish, so that you realized that profit and death walk closer to each
other on Weia, than they do on Earth. Especially if you buy Assalah and make
friends with Kissur."
Bemish returned to the hotel late at night. Dogs yapped far away in the
city, stars hung above the white temple and, in the next block, a sad
woman's voice was singing something accompanied by a flute.
Falling asleep, Bemish thought about the woman, with the black eyes and
the black braid wrapped around her head, and about the two people who had
lost their heads over that woman - Kissur and Shavash. He also thought about
Clyde Van Leyven; he knew a lot about this man, unlike the other actors of
the Idari's story. Since, Van Leyven was a billionaire and the financial
community watched his each step holding its breath. Unlike Idari, Bemish
knew that Van Leyven almost died half a year after the Weian events - the
brakes on his air cushioned seven-meter-long limo failed, the car broke
through the rail and dived in water from a twenty-meter-high bridge, the
driver drowned, the bodyguard broke his head on the front panel, and Van
Leyven miraculously survived. This story didn't hit the newspapers thanks to
Van Leyven's connections. And now Bemish was not sure that Kissur had held
on to his promise not to retaliate outside of Weia.
The Red Dog tavern was located in a less than prominent neighborhood.
Its entrance was gated by two snake gods entwining around two brass door
poles, brass lamps with sparkles swung under the planked ceiling, and the
wooden walls were decorated by a couple dozen signatures and crosses. The
signatures have been collected for the last twenty years and they belonged
to the most famous literate thieves of the current sovereign's rule. The
crosses belonged to the most famous illiterate thieves.
At least two people from this respectable circle sat in a corner
discussing their
crooked dealings and, upon Kissur's arrival, approached to greet him.
Kissur introduced them to Bemish. The first thief, a glum
golden-toothed middle aged handsome man extracted a business card out of his
pocket, where he was presented as some company's director, and assured
Bemish, that he would be happy to be of any service if Bemish ever needed
him.
Hence, both thieves, accompanied by their bodyguards, left in an
unknown direction. Kissur glumly mentioned that they were going to a meeting
with their competitors and, if they were apprehended, there would be one
less shoot out in the city.
"Apprehend them, then," Bemish suggested.
"Why? Let the spiders devour themselves."
Kissur and Bemish had just started on a suckling piglet, rising like a
soft white mountain from a savory sauce sea, when Kissur suddenly raised his
head - Kaminsky stood in front of him. The businessman had a somewhat
down-hearted look to him. He had a huge blue spot under his eye - like a
shaman painting himself before a divination- and his hand hung in a silk
sling.
"I came to say good-bye," Kaminsky said. "I am flying to Earth
tomorrow."
Kissur was looking at him silently.
Kaminski pushed a chair away and sat down.
"I was wrong," he said. "Out of all the Weian officials you are indeed
the only honest one. You didn't want a penny from me. Having returned, I'll
certainly tell all my friends, that there are two types of the Weian
officials - the officials who demand bribes from the Earthmen and use them
as pawns in their feuds and the one honest official who bathed me in a
swimming pool."
"You will also," Kissur said, "tell them that you are an innocent
victim of the dark machinations; that you wanted to buy land for twelve
millions but the officials persuaded you to buy it for a million and a half
with a knife at your throat."
"No," Kaminsky said.
I will not tell them what exactly has happened. But I wouldn't mind
telling you about it, ex-minister, to improve your economics education. I
arrive here and go to Khanida, "I would like to build a business center."
Khanida is politeness personified. He pours lavish praise all over me. He
has the utmost desire for future collaboration. He praises my unselfishness
and is so overwhelmed with it that he offers me the land not for twelve
million but for a million and a half. Reluctant to engage in doubtful
dealings, I refuse. Well! Twelve million it will be. Mr. Khanida is so
happy. He says that a base man cares about profit and an honorable man cares
about fairness. He sees both of us belonging to the honorable people ranks.
I start the construction and invest the money. Meanwhile, the land is still
not bought yet - they assure me - it's a pure formality. On a nice day, I
visit Mr. Khanida and he starts the million and a half talk again. I refuse
politely. Khanida shrugs his shoulders and becomes as cold as a frog. He
says that he is breaking the contract off. I lose it - come on, I've already
sunk big money in! For an answer, Khanida utters through clenched teeth
something about exploitators sucking on Weia's blood and liver. Then, I go
to Shavash, your dearest friend. He offers me... it's enough to say, Mr.
Kissur, that he offers me something similar but he wants twice more than
Khanida. I made a mistake here. I should've turned away and left. Screw the
expenses. But I felt bad about the lost money. I've already inhaled enough
of your stink. I saw that Khanida would do what he promised and I signed the
contract. My mistake was that I forgot about Shavash, who offered me the
same deal as Khanida. Shavash was irritated that Khanida didn't share the
loot with him. Naturally, the local customs code didn't allow him to rat on
me directly. And so, having chosen a right moment, he tells you the story
and you raise the buzz! And this buzz reverberates in Shavash's soul with
coins jingling pleasantly. And the Empire is left empty-handed again, and
Shavash is left in the full confidence that Khanida will give him half the
money next time, just to avoid the problems!
Kissur got the checkbook out of his pocket and asked.
"How much money did you give to Khanida?"
Kaminsky was astounded, and then, laughed.
"I don't need your money."
"Money is the only thing the Earthmen need. That's why the Earthmen's
destiny is suffering, since money not spent for friends and alms brings
trouble."
"Where do you get money, Kissur, eh? You don't trade, you don't take
bribes and you don't rob passers-by! Where does the money come from? The
Emperor just gives it to you, doesn't he? And it doesn't cost anything to
the Emperor - when the treasury runs out of money, he invents another tax.
You call a man who sells and buys a criminal, and a man who collects the
taxes for you, the cornerstone of the state! That's why you won't like it if
a parliament forms and only parliament can authorize the taxes collected in
this country."
"Do you want to swim again?"
Kaminsky took heed.
"No," he said bitterly, "I don't want to swim. You almost killed me
that time. Since you don't have any arguments other than swimming, I would
rather be silent. But I will advise all my friends on Earth and, by the way,
Terence Bemish, sitting next to you, never, under no circumstances, do any
business on Weia since nothing will come out of it besides debasement and
shame. Believe me, Mr. Kissur - I could still patch everything together. But
I am grateful to you that I lost this money; I recalled again that I have
honor and self-respect."
He turned and walked away.
Kissur looked at Bemish.
"Well," Kissur asked, "is he correct?"
"Yes," Bemish said.
"Will you leave?"
"No," Bemish shook his head "I won't leave. You, however, should."
"Where?"
"Anywhere."
"Too late," Kissur replied. "I applied to the Federation Military
Academy. They didn't accept me. I am not interested in any other place in
your Galaxy, full of worms like a year-old fig."
X X X
The next day, Bemish flew to the villa, where several members of his
team and two LSV employees arrived. They had a simple task - to develop the
contract's financial shell by the week's end.
The bankers worked day and night. In two days, a helicopter arrived,
carrying a cheerful and slightly drunk Kissur and a much more sober Shavash.
Kissur barged in the central hall where the bankers, having pulled an
all-nighter, were finishing the IPO prospectus.
"You are not asleep, too!" Kissur heartened. "Where did you ditch the
girls? Let's drink!"
And he banged a jar of expensive Inissa wine on the table next to the
printer, spitting out the financial projections. At this point, generally
phlegmatic Welsey, scared to hell by Kissur, demonstrated a true greatness
of the spirit.
"Kissur," he said, "I will drink with you only after you help me to
calculate the cash flow in the company if the embargo on the Gera trade is
enacted and the cargo flow decreases correspondingly."
Kissur was astounded. He was not able to calculate cash flows.
"C-cads!" he muttered drunkenly.
Bemish found him a girl in the village and returned to the office,
where Shavash was waiting for him. Shavash sat in the armchair next to a
window looking thoughtfully at the neglected garden.
"What's your price," Shavash asked.
"Eight fifty five for a share."
"Thirty four million total," Shavash noted. "What are your investment
obligations?"
"Sixty million. I am going to land the first ships in six months after
the construction starts."
"You don't have any experience building spaceports, do you?"
"I have experience involving professionals and setting up financial
contracts, Mr. Shavash. This company should start bringing in cash flow in
less than a year, otherwise it will go bankrupt."
"How are you going to finance the deal?"
"The banks provide ten million out of ninety four. This is a ten
percent loan, with the company property as collateral. Eighty four million
are financed through the high interest bonds issued by my company ADO and
placed by LSV on the intergalactic exchange market. Approximately four
million belong to me and my friends."
"So, you risk only four million of your money out of ninety four."
"I risk the other people's money and my own head." Shavash reclined in
the armchair.
"As far as I know, it's a standard way for buying the companies with
existing cash flow used to pay interest. While you are buying a hole that
you need to fill with piles of money."
"We will try to construct the contract's financial shell in such a way
that we won't pay anything this year. We are planning to issue some
zero-coupon bonds with a two year maturity time. It means," Bemish
explained, "that the bonds will be sold at a discount to their face value
and the difference between the selling bond price and the maturity price,
equal to the face value, will make a profit."
"Don't take me for Kissur, Terence," Shavash pointed out. "I know what
zero-coupon bonds are."
Bemish quacked in exasperation.
"We are also considering securities with the alternative coupon
payments - they can be paid with money or with the new bonds."
Shavash paused. Trumpet sounds suddenly entered the room through the
window - the shepherd was herding the cows back to the village.
"That's a risky affair, Mr. Bemish. I am not sure if your bond price
will get to 70% of its face value on the market. What will remain then, from
your so-called eight and a half dinars per share?"
Bemish swallowed. He knew that the official was all too correct.
"The securities will cost dinar for a dinar," Bemish said. "The IPO
prospectus has a condition, that the bond interest will be re-evaluated a
year after the issue so that the securities cost will be equal to their face
value."
Shavash paused.
"It's quite an unusual decision," he said finally.
"This decision will allow me to lower the cost of financing the deal by
three percent."
"What if, to the contrary, your securities price falls?"
"The price will only rise," Bemish said.
Terence Bemish was so sure of himself that he was not going to frighten
the investors by a predetermined ceiling of the adjustable rate. As it came
out afterwards, he had signed the death verdict to Assalah project.
Then, however, Shavash seemed to be positively impressed with Bemish's
words.
"There are Weian banks," he said, "that would be glad to take part in
this affair and buy your bonds on a big scale. However, the affair is quite
risky and you need to sweeten it up a bit. I suppose that the large
investors could have an opportunity to buy, besides the bonds, the stock
warrants for three years - ten shares for a dinar. You could reserve 20% of
the shares for this purpose."
Bemish raised his eyebrows slightly. Shavash's idea meant that the
warrant's buyer will be able to acquire the Assalah stocks at their current
price in three years. Bemish hoped that, in three years, the Assalah shares
will cost hundred times more.
"So, who will buy the warrants?" Bemish asked.
"The Weian banks which will acquire the bonds."
"Can you be more precise?"
"It will be I and my friends."
X X X
In an hour, Welsey and Shavash descended to the central hall. Bemish
stayed on the upper floor to take a shower and change his shirt - he had
broken a sweat. When he walked down, Kissur was sitting in the hall and
instructing two young Trevis' aides how to train a highwayman's horse, so
that it could find the road in the dark and didn't neigh in an ambush. The
bankers listened attentively. Their young and honest faces expressed a
sincere interest. The bankers were used to express a sincere interest to any
client. One could suppose that setting up ambushes among rocky gorges was
their primary occupation.
"If the path is rocky, you should wrap the hoofs with felt," Kissur
said.
He turned around to the sound of steps.
"Why are you so glum, Terence," he said in Weian, "and why is it all so
dirty?"
Kissur trailed his fingers in disgust down an expensive pink wood table
- a banker dropped pizza on the table, hurriedly eating it.
"You don't have a woman - that's the problem," Kissur noted. "Idari
says the same."
The headman, having noiselessly approached on the side, bowed and
quickly popped in.
"If the lord needs a maid, I have a good candidate - a small official's
daughter, a seventeen-year-old maiden, gentle as jasmine petals. Her father
was caught stealing and he is currently under an investigation. To collect
the money to butter the judges up and secure his daughter's future, he could
sell her for fifty thousand."
Bemish glanced quickly towards his colleagues - the conversation was in
Weian and they clearly didn't understand it.
"I'll think about it," Bemish said.
"There is nothing to think about," Kissur stated. "I'll check the girl
out and, if she is as good as this scoundrel claims, she is yours."
A printer rattled at the table nearby and the last financial
projections crawled out of it.
X X X
When the next night, deathly tired, Bemish walked up to his bedroom at
two o'clock, he found that he was not the only one there. In the bed, coiled
like a doughnut, a cute girl of about seventeen years age was sleeping
tranquilly. Bemish pulled the blanket off her and found her to be quite
naked - Adani probably brought her in the evening and he was afraid of
bothering the master, busy with calculations - the girl waited and waited
some more and fell asleep.
Once Bemish raised the blanket, the girl got cold - she woke up and
stared at Bemish with her eyes, large and round like the moon. She had small
budding breasts with tiny nipples, heavy thighs and long white legs. Her
pubic hair was shaved off. The girl looked at Bemish unabashedly, as if
unknown foreigners inspected her, naked, every day.
"What's your name," Bemish asked, mangling Weian words.
"Inis."
"How old are you?"
"Sixteen."
"Are you a maiden?"
"Of course, master. Mr. Kissur has chosen me himself."
Bemish jerked his eyebrows irritated.
"How did Kissur choose you?"
"He took me to Mrs. Idari," Inis said, "and the mistress said that you
needed a woman for your body and your house. She checked that I was a virgin
and that I cooked well, and she was satisfied."
When Idari's name was mentioned, Bemish's hands perspired suddenly. The
girl smiled and added teasingly.
"She was afraid of leaving me to Kissur. She is a very good wife. Do
you have a wife?"
Not answering her, Bemish released the blanket and it covered the girl
again. The thought about Jane destroyed all the pleasure. And also Idari! He
knew that, while caressing the Idari's gift, he would always think only
about the gift bearer.
"Put your clothes on. Ask Adini to find a bedroom for you."
"Won't we make love?" the frightened girl asked.
"No."
"Why did you buy me?"
"So, that somebody else wouldn't buy you."
It could be a sixty-year-old sadist in the district head rank, who
makes love to his secretaries in his office.
The girl was upset.
"If you made love to me," she said, "you would give me a new skirt and
earrings but you won't give me anything now."
"What skirt do you want?"
"I've just seen one at a fair - a long blue silk skirt, with a "dancing
flowers" embroidering and with three bands along the lap with pictures of
fishes, animals, and birds."
Bemish grinned. "All they want is money for the skirts," he thought
about Jane. "Blessed is the world, where they just ask openly for it."
He lay silently on the bed, in the pants and the jacket.
"Undress me," he ordered Inis.
The Fifth Chapter
Where Terence Bemish is being persuaded to drop out of Assalah stocks
auction while Shavash reminds the visitors that he is not familiar with the
financial term dictatorship.
One and a half tons of the equipment (out of the three tons ordered by
Bemish) arrived at the spaceport, and the Earthmen were spending days and
nights there.
On the third day, the precinct head herded the peasants to fix the road
with old concrete blocks so that the new White Villa master could drive his
iron barrel from the villa to the construction site.
The next week Bemish started to search for the missing equipment and
found it at Ravadan spaceport where it had been from the beginning. He had
to go to Ravadan.
Passing by the nearest village, Bemish noticed an unhitched wagon - the
peasants were gathering at the wagon and unloading the planks for the
assembling stage. It seemed to Bemish that the oldster in charge of the
construction was the same oldster, who played a god on the market in the
capital and tore apart the banknotes Bemish gave him.
An inspector in Ravadan claimed that the equipment containers were
emitting gamma radiation (it happened, rarely) and that they had to undergo
an expensive treatment. Bemish silently gave five thousand isheviks to the
inspector and, in half an hour, he was organizing the boxes being loaded in
a rented truck. The containers didn't emit any radiation whatsoever.
The boxes rode to Assalah, while Bemish stayed at the capital for a
reception given in the honor of the sovereign's ancestor, who had slept with
a mermaid three hundred and forty years ago.
There were very few women at the reception and Bemish's heart skipped a
beat when he saw Idari next to a lighted pool. She had a black dress with
sparkles and black shoes on. Two heavy braids entwining her head were held
by a butterfly shaped hairpin, strewn with the pink pearls, and a necklace
of the same pearls encircled her neck. She was talking to Shavash and
another man, unfamiliar to Bemish.
"Here you are, Bemish," Shavash turned around. "Let me introduce you -
the Empire's first minister, Mr. Yanik."
Bemish had been looking at Idari till then; he quickly turned to the
first minister. He was a neat senior man with a head, slightly flattened at
the temples, and grey eyes, more clever than intelligent. He was dressed
accordingly to Galactic fashion. Bemish didn't see anything striking in his
face and he immediately recalled the rumors about Yanik being a temporary
figurehead, a non-entity, put forth to the Emperor, till his patrons
couldn't settle on a compromise; the non-entity stuck to his position,
however, for a longer time, than the patrons had planned.
"Mr. Bemish would like to buy Assalah spaceport," Shavash said.
"Where will the money come from?"
"Mr. Bemish expects to collect the necessary money via the
high-interest bonds, underwritten on the world market by the well known LSV
bank."
At that point, a voice came from behind.
"It would be great, if Mr. Bemish explained where he will find the
money to pay the interest if the spaceport doesn't give two cents in the
first year."
Bemish turned around. Quite a number of people approached Yanik and the
words belonged to Giles.
"Mr. Giles' company," Shavash explained, "is also participating in the
auction,"
"The spaceport's owner," Bemish said, "will jump out of his pants to
find money. What will you do, however, besides buying the shares at one
price and offering them at the market at another? What will prevent you from
washing your hands?"
"That's right," another voice came in. "Your company's reputation is
not the best one."
"Mr. Rusby," Shavash introduced, "is another investment auction
participant."
Bemish and Giles turned around almost simultaneously.
"It's not for you to talk about reputation," Giles cried out.
"Who, exactly, is financing your offer?" Bemish was surprised.
Standing next to Rusby, the Gera envoy inclined his head slightly and
said.
"Several Gera banks support Mr. Rusby."
"Be careful," Giles grinned, "this man cheated the Galaxy investors out
of one and a half billion."
"The Securities Commission cheated them out of one and a half billion,"
Rusby objected. "Nobody can blame me in failing to pay what I promised, in
unsuccessful investments or in a pyramid scheme."
Giles went blue in the face.
"Is it true, Mr. Shavash," he said, "that the man who bankrupted two
hundred thousand investors, is participating in the Assalah auction?"
"Everybody is participating in the auction," the small official said.
"Including a rogue supported by the dictator's money?"
"I am not familiar with a financial term dictatorship," Shavash
replied.
Bemish looked around and noticed another witness of this ruckus -
Khanadar the Dried Date looked at him out of a corner. Bemish quietly came
to him and asked.
"So, how do you like the business world?"
Khanadar grinned.
"Once, twenty years ago," he said, "my comrades and I were coming back
from a not-so-successful trip. We had been going to pillage a town but when
we came in, the town had already been pillaged and the guys, who had
pillaged it, drove us away. We were famished since we didn't eat anything
for days. Even our horses croaked. Finally, we reached the coast and a town,
and the food and the loot in the town. Then, we got friendlier to each other
and began to hug and we had tried to keep a ten step distance, before, - to
avoid being eaten."
"I see. So, the Earthmen resemble you in this trip, before you found
this town."
"Eh, Terence-rey (Khanadar used a respectful Alom postfix.) We only
needed three rolls for a man not to worry about being eaten, but I still
haven't figured out how much an Earthman needs, not to eat another
Earthman."
X X X
The officials attended to Bemish extensively and soon the whole villa
was filled by their gifts - Bemish, however, had to make gifts of his own in
return.
Shavash send Bemish a painting as a gift. The painting was done in the
"thousand scales" style with spider web lines drawn on silk; a girl, feeding
from her hand a dragon that stuck its head out of the water, was depicted.
The girl with black hair and eyes, big like olives, resembled Idari and
Bemish hung it right above the table in his office. At their next meeting,
Shavash praised Bemish's taste and said that it was a fifth dynasty
painting, most probably, an excellent copy of a Koinna's masterpiece.
Bemish, somewhat galled that the gift was only a copy, inquired about the
original's location and Shavash, laughing, told him that the original was
stored in the palace and was fated to an eternal confinement, like the
Emperor's wives.
X X X
"However," Shavash added with a grin, "they now sell the palace
treasures left and right. I think that nobody reaps as much money as the
custodians of paintings and bowls; at least one third of everything that has
ever been painted and potted in by Eukemen is stored in the palace. Nobody
except the Emperor and the custodian in charge has access to the treasures,
there is absolutely no order there - steal as much as you want."
The headman heard this conversation and, arching his body in the usual
way, told Bemish that a far relative of his worked in the palace and would
love to meet the Earthman.
Bemish met him. The far relative appeared to be a small red nosed
official from the Department of Paintings, Tripods, and Bowls. The relative
showed Bemish color photographs of the astoundingly beautiful fifth dynasty
vessels and several paintings done in the "morning fog" style, most popular
at the Golden Sovereign times, and in the "thousand scales" style. The girl
and dragon painting was not there. Or, more precisely, it was there and not
one, but several of them - it was a popular sea prince tale - but none of
them belonged to Koinna's hand.
The official offered Bemish to sell anything the latter would like and
the price he asked for the fifth dynasty last survived silk paintings was
twice less than what any modern doodle, sold in Bonn's galleries, would
cost.
Bemish thanked the official and refused.
X X X
Kissur arranged for Bemish an audience in the Hundred Fields Hall.
Bemish left his car next to the Sky Palace wall and he was escorted
down the sanded paths and fragrant alleys.
In a light flooded hall, resembling a fragment from a fairy tale from
the sky, the officials whispered, dressed in ancient court clothes. In half
an hour, a silver curtain moved to the side - the Emperor Varnazd was
sitting on the amethyst throne. The Emperor was dressed in white, he had a
sad delicate face with strikingly made-up eyebrows, rising at the tips. It
looked like a silent single actor play. Bemish thought it to be a very sad
play.
The curtain soon moved back and the officials dispersed to attend their
own business.
Bemish crossed the fragrant gardens and exited the palace gate. The
square in front of the palace gasped with heat, two half-naked brats
explored a stinking street rut with their hands.
Bemish opened his car, foraged in the glove compartment and dished
several chocolate bars out to the brats. They tore the wrappers apart
sinking their rotting teeth into the chocolate.
"Hey," Bemish asked in his crappy Weian, "do you know what Earth is?"
"Of course. It's a place in the sky, where we'll go after we die, if we
behave ourselves and obey the Emperor."
Having turned the air conditioning on, Bemish sat in the car for a
while, looking at the silver beasts on the palace wall crest, remembering
the Hundred Fields Hall's immense luxury, the golden ceiling and jade
columns. "A very rich government of a very poor nation," he thought.
X X X
In two weeks, Bemish was at a party that the first minister threw to
celebrate his birthday. There was food and binge drinking and girls. There
was swimming in a night pond. There were various contracts made and papers
signed amidst the dishes with stuffed dates and the dishes with everything
that was raised in the sky and raised on the ground, these very papers would
normally involve huge bribes; the bribes, however, were still supposed be
paid later. There were also songs and poetry. A ministry of finance official
- was his name Tai? - took something resembling a lute and started playing
music and singing.
Then, a girl sang a song - it was a very lyrical song. Bemish was told
that an official named Andarz had written this song about twenty years ago.
He was the police minister and he had suppressed the Chakhar uprising,
having hung everybody who couldn't buy him off and letting off everybody who
could. Coming back to the capital, he wrote the cycle of his best poetry
about the four seasons. Bemish felt chills run down his spine, he leaned
over to Kissur and said.
"This is a great singer."
The girl finished the song and sat, by Kissur's order, on Bemish's
knees.
Afterwards, they started playing rhymes. Bemish, of course, didn't know
Weian good enough to compose a verse with a given rhyme or to finish a line.
But, somehow, he felt that he wouldn't do any better in English than in
Weian.
A street singer was brought in.
Bemish recalled how he was driving from the spaceport and asked his
interpreter - the guy had started as one of the Weians that washed dishes on
the ground - to stop the car. He wanted to look at the street puppeteer with
a crowd gathered around him on the curb. The interpreter answered that it
was "uncultured." Bemish asked what was "cultured," and he found out that it
was "cultured" for the whole neighborhood to attend trashy Hollywood and
Seilass movies.
Here, among the higher officials, nobody thought that listening to a
street singer was uncultured.
The street singer sang praise to the guests and they tossed money into
his hat and showed him to the kitchen. The officials started singing
themselves.
If only they hadn't sung! Then, everything would have been fine and it
would have just been corrupted bureaucrats' drunken debauchery. But they
sang so well! Bemish had a difficulty imagining state department officials
coming to their boss's party and singing so well - or signing such papers at
the same party.
Or was it all related? And will the poetry follow the corruption on its
way to extinction? Mr. Andars departed Chakhar, burned by him, for the
capital and composed his most beautiful poetry cycle about summer and fall.
He was probably very happy. He probably obtained a lot of booty on the
Chakhar trip.
Eight years later, Kissur and Andars found themselves on the different
sides of the same sword and Kissur had hung rebellious Andars and loved
listening to his poetry.
The next week, Bemish arranged a return feast at his villa.
During the dinner, Shavash kept glancing at Inis, who was serving the
guests. When she, having provided the guests with the sweets, walked by
Shavash with an empty tray, the official pulled her to himself suddenly and
seated her on his knees. Inis jumped off hurriedly, upsetting Shavash's cup
with her sleeve. Fortunately, there was no wine left in the cup.
Excusing himself, Shavash left earlier than the others. Bemish walked
him down.
Getting in his car, Shavash said.
"Inis is charming, Terence. They say you made her your secretary? She
is as smart as she is attractive, isn't she?"
"Yes."
"I will never believe it! Would you like a bet - I will take your
secretary in for two weeks, and if I am satisfied, I owe you fifty
thousand."
Bemish was silent.
"Mr. Bemish!"
"I can't do you this favor, vice-minister."
"Let me have her for one night, then. She can choose afterwards."
"Look, Shavash, have you asked Kissur to let you have Idari for a
night?"
"How can you compare it?" Shavash was offended. "Idari is a highborn
lady and what do you have here? A small briber's daughter that you bought
for thirty thousand - they cheated you by charging twice more than the
regular price."
"Get out of here, vice-minister," Bemish said, "before you hurt
yourself over my fist."
X X X
In the evening, after all the guests had left, Bemish walked upstairs
to the bedroom. Inis lay in the bed. Bemish sat on the blanket's edge and
the woman, propping herself up, started to unbutton his jacket and shirt.
"This official, Shavash, asked me to hand you over to him," Bemish
said. "At first, he hoped that I would offer you myself and, then, he
couldn't hold it any longer and just blurted it out. I almost trounced him."
Inis shuddered.
"Don't give me away to Shavash," she said. "He is a nasty man. He has
five wives and a whip for each one. He hangs out in red light streets at
night and locks himself with his secretaries during the daytime - a week ago
a secretary of his hanged himself - they said he embezzled too much. And how
he entertains himself in bawdy houses!"
Bemish reddened. His knowledge of Shavash's behavior in bawdy houses
was based on personal observations. And he doubted his behavior was much
better.
X X X
The next day, when Bemish walked upstairs, Inis's room was empty. A
pale note lay lonely on the table. "I hate him. But he called me and said
that he would hang my father."
Bemish was at the ministry of finance in an hour. He threw a frightened
secretary away and appeared at Shavash's office door.
"You scoundrel," Bemish said. "I'll tell Kissur everything. I'll tell
the sovereign..."
"And the human rights committee," the official nodded. "I don't want to
place you in an uncomfortable position, director. I assure you that Inis's
father deserves a rope - I have his dossier here. It's pretty horrible - all
these dirty tricks that a small, stupid, and greedy briber can commit, the
dirty tricks that ended with deaths and dishonor. Can you believe that - for
a bribe, he switched some names on the arraignment orders after the Chakhar
rebellion, he accepted as completed a water dam that burst in a month and
destroyed a whole village. I assure you - if you complain to the sovereign,
her father will certainly be executed."
"Give me back my wife," Bemish screamed.
The official stood up unhurriedly from his armchair, walked around the
table and stopped right next to the Earthman. Bemish stared right into his
attentive golden eyes and long lightly mascara coated eyelashes.
"What do you want from me?" Bemish said. "Deals? Bribes?"
Shavash smiled at the Earthman without answering. Shavash was still
very beautiful, maybe slight overweight for his height, and Bemish was
surprised to notice some grey strands in his hair.
Shavash raised his hand slowly and suddenly started to unbutton
Terence's jacket. Bemish was confounded and he closed his eyes. The hot
hands slipped under his shirt and a soft voice sounded right next to him.
"If you want to quench your thirst, don't quarrel with a spring,
Earthman."
Bemish didn't feel repulsion. But he definitely felt horror. Shavash's
lips appeared next to his and, at least a minute passed, till Bemish
realized that they were kissing. Then, a phone rang far away.
Bemish came back to his senses.
His jacket was unbuttoned, the shirt stood out above the pants in a
funny way and something jutted in the pants. The small official stood in
front of him and looked at the Earthman with laughing eyes.
Bemish raised his hand lifelessly and wiped his mouth with the palm.
"Beat it," Shavash said. "Take your concubine and beat it. She bores
me. She mewled in bed all night."
Bemish retreated crabwise to the door, turned around and rushed out.
"Button yourself, at least!" the official sarcastically shouted after
him.
Having torn out the office door handle, Bemish jumped out into the
foyer. Something flapped in the air and a plastic folder fell at Bemish's
feet with multicolored pages standing out. It was the folder with the Inis'
father dossier. Bemish snatched it and kept running.
X X X
Nobody believed that Kissur would make friends with the Earthman.
Greenmailer, par venue, gobbler that has recently swallowed a small
automated door
company with LSV help and used it as a step to swallow something
bigger; one of the youngsters, that Trevis made his money with - a nobody
without Trevis. This man had the crappiest reputation on Wall Street. "The
hungriest of Trevis's scoundrels," the director of the automated door
company said about him after he had been fired. How could Kissur, who
considered a well-behaved president of, say, Morgan James to be an usurer
fit for the gallows, be friends with this financial horse thief?
The friendship between the Earthman and Kissur caused a bit of harmless
gossip - everybody expected that either the Earthman calls Kissur a
pedigreed bandit or Kissur reproaches Bemish with the latter's passionate
avarice. However, Kissur's presenting Bemish with his manor, caused thoughts
and glances in the five main precincts.
Bemish visited the capital police prefect to sign a paper with a blue
line. The prefect congratulated him with the manor, sighed and said.
"You shouldn't be so close to Kissur. Do you know how he launched his
career? He and his seven friends robbed a state caravan. They killed thirty
six guards and Kissur put the caravan master's head on a stake, thought the
man was not guilty of anything except having children and an old mother that
he needed to support. Then, Kissur quarreled with the robbers because their
leader didn't want to step aside for him and he baked the leader in an earth
oven."
"But now," Bemish quipped, "Kissur doesn't have to rob caravans."
The prefect passed his hand over his cheek.
"There are, alas, dozens of people around Kissur. These people can
handle weapons, despise bribers and traders and think robbery to be the only
respectable profit source. Do you think that our country is poor due to
bribers and large taxes? Alas, our businessmen don't pay money to the
government, they, instead, pay money to the bandits who protect them from
the other bandits."
"Nobody," Bemish said, "asked me for the protection money."
"Exactly," the police prefect said.
Bemish wanted to grab the damn official by his neck and ask him whether
he was hinting that Kissur was in charge of the capital criminals. He,
however, thanked him for the signature and left. Although, Kissur did take
him to one of the city's most famous thief's taverns and he was welcome
there - Bemish learned later that if he ambled in this tavern without a
pass, he wouldn't have just been killed there - the tavern's guests would
have been fed his body in a soup - that was their cute way of getting rid of
the corpses.
X X X
That day, Bemish was in the finance ministry, at Shavash's. Entering
his office, he stumbled upon a pale upset man, dressed in standard clothing
but having soft Weian manners.
Shavash led him into the garden, where fountains and birds chirped, and
ordered a table with appetizers. Somehow the conversation unnoticeably
drifted to Idari, Kissur's wife. Shavash said that if not for Idari, Kissur
would have smashed his head long time ago.
"He loves her a lot," Shavash said, sighing. Three months ago, he
feasted the people at her naming day, and he spent three million."
He paused and added.
"Where do you think Kissur gets so much money if he doesn't take bribes
and doesn't do any business?"
"It's the tax police business and not mine, to know where he gets the
money," Bemish said. "And it's the sovereign's business, since he bequests
him an oil well or a manor every month."
Shavash waved his hand and started drinking tea. In five minutes, he
suddenly said.
"Do you know the man who left just before you came in? He is the Damass
insurance company director. It was robbed yesterday. They took twenty
million dinars in cash."
Bemish was surprised - newspapers published nothing about the robbery.
"Why did they have so much money in cash?" Bemish inquired.
"That's exactly the problem," Shavash sighed. "That's the question, who
is the company going to pay such a sum of money to - on a holiday evening?"
He paused.
"It will not appear in the newspapers. But the company was indeed
robbed."
"Will it appear to the police?"
"Yes," Shavash said, "since our police - if asked - will not inquire
why the company needed this money."
Bemish finished his coffee and asked.
"Listen, Shavash, are you trying to tell me that Kissur robs banks at
nights or that you, at least, will do your best to convince the sovereign of
it?"
"Come on, Mr. Bemish," the official was taken aback, "why did you..."
And suddenly he tousled his hair. "He is a madman! If he is passing a house
on fire, he will rush inside to get a child out and, if he is passing a
house that's not burning, he will set it aflame."
Bemish bit his lip. The official was lying gently and consciously but
he was correct on one point - Kissur despised bankers unflappably and he
would approve of a bank robber. The words "order," "debt," and "commitment
to the sovereign" were never far from his lips but Bemish knew perfectly
well, that this adherent of order lived his life in such a way that he far
outperformed any anarchist and rebel buff. Kissur wouldn't rob a bank for
money but the sovereign's favorite could easily take the money for fun and
throw it in the next canal.
X X X
In the evening, when Bemish dropped by the hotel, yearning for the food
of his childhood and hoping to get something other than a marinated
jellyfish or a guinea pig burger, somebody called him. Bemish turned around
and recognized Richard Giles and another Richard - MacFarlein - the IC
people.
"Drop it," Giles said.
"What?"
"Drop this project. You won't get anything out of it, anyway. Do
something else - build the business center instead of Kaminsky."
Bemish felt his face paling with rage. It looked like Giles has already
picked up the local officials' manners.
"I," Bemish said, "have invested too much in this business to just drop
it."
"How much have you invested," Giles smiled. "IC will pay your
expenses."
"How is that? Since when do the private companies pay the competitors'
expenses?"
"You will not win this auction," Giles said.
Here, McFarlein spoke softly.
"Mr. Bemish," he said, "why do you need this planet? Bribers,
criminals, heretics, zealots, and now, terrorists. Have you heard that
yesterday an Earthman was shot in Chakhar - he owned several plants. By the
way, the Chakhar governor's son did the shooting - a Sorbonne graduate, an
anarcho-communist or something like that. Another lad, an Earthman, was with
him... "We will instigate a full-scale terror against the Earth
exploitators, weed the bribers out and build the Crystal Palace on Weia
afterwards, and erect two monuments in front of the palace - for Karl Marx
and for the sovereign Irshahchan."
Bemish stared at him dumbfounded. "Uh-huh," a thought passed his mind,
"isn't it the same lad who came with Ashidan?"
And Giles cast a transparent eye and delivered.
"Yeah. Aren't you afraid to be shot by a heretic, a local or an
imported one?"
Bemish took Giles by a button and said.
"Listen, Giles, have you seen how Kissur casts a spear?"
"What does a spear have to do with it?" Giles was astonished.
"Kissur just casts a spear and the spear runs through a hefty birch all
the way. And today one guy told me that I should keep away from Kissur since
he robbed caravans and another hinted that I should keep away from Kissur
since he robbed banks. And though Kissur doesn't rob banks - I am sure, you
know, that if I pass our conversation to Kissur, and I'll do it, and I am
killed afterwards - then Kissur will kill you, Mr. Giles and you, Mr.
McFarlein. And he will assuredly kill you - nobody has heard yet about
Kissur wanting to kill somebody and failing."
Giles stepped back. Clearly, he didn't like all that much the words
about the spear and the birch.
X X X
Richard Giles walked upstairs to his room still under the impression
from the conversation in the hall. Whistling through his teeth, he dialed
the personal Shavash's line number - no secretaries - and, in two seconds,
he said in the receiver.
"This son of a bitch, Bemish - are you still going to admit him to the
auction?"
"I guarantee you," Shavash replied, "that this man is absolutely
harmless. Everything will happen accordingly to our plan."
"Harmless?" Giles screamed. "Do you know that half of his inquires on
Earth deal with IC? Do you know what he told Kissur?"
"I know," Shavash said ironically, "if I am not mistaken, you got the
taped conversation from me."
"Damn it! Yes, that was you. Anyway, do you think that's fine? What if
Kissur repeats these words to the sovereign? Where will we be then?"
"What do you want?"
"Take action."
"I will not take any action," Shavash said, "causing your newspapers to
write that the Empire is an unsafe place for foreign investors. If you take
such an action, you will not get even the tiniest piece of Assalah, not even
the size of a melon seed. Have I made myself clear?"
"Very clear," Giles muttered.
"You have no reasons to be nervous," Shavash said.
"No reasons? What if he just buys the damn company?"
"You will have to offer a bit more for the shares. Nine point one
dinar, at least. You have to agree that I just can't give the company away
to an investor that paid twice less for it. Everything has a limit."
"Son of a bitch," Giles said, slamming the receiver down. "He is just
using this Bemish to squeeze more money out of us. Nine point one! How can I
get a clearance for this money?"
"No problem," his companion said. "We can use an alternative approach
and deflate his ego meanwhile."
"Have you heard, what he said?"
"I heard it. I said - a totally alternative approach. Who finances this
Bemish guy? Trevis..."
Bemish left the hotel for the city. He spent some time in the temple
that he had visited with Kissur and descended to the tavern. A young man met
him in the tavern.
The young man offered to sell him twenty thousand Assalah shares at six
hundred a piece.
They bargained a bit and Bemish bought the shares for five hundred
eighty.
Bemish silently pulled the checkbook out and tore of a check that was
already filled with the correct number. The young man looked at him
respectfully and said.
"How did you know what price we would agree on?"
Bemish grinned. He had three checkbooks in his pockets and all of them
had the first check filled out - the other two checks Bemish would feed to
the garbage burner in an hour.
Bemish signed the check and gave it to the youth.
"Would you like to eat?" Bemish asked.
"I'd rather go."
"Hold on. How did you get the shares?"
"They are not mine, they belong to my uncle."
"How did your uncle get them?"
"He bought them."
"Why did he buy these shares in particular?"
"He bought a lot of securities."
"Why did he decide to sell them?"
"He needs money urgently. He got sent to prison."
"Why?"
The youth pointed at his basket.
"Because of the Assalah shares?"
"The investigator was asking him about these shares at the
interrogation. He hinted my uncle that he would let him go if my uncle gives
the shares to a higher official that would like to acquire them."
"Shavash?"
"Don't say it out loud. It works this way, Mr. Earthman - while a word
is in your mouth - you are its master, and when the word is out of your
mouth - it is your master."
"Why didn't your uncle give the shares to the official?"
"He went nuts, when he heard it," the youth said. "He said that he
would give these shares to a man that can kick the official in the butt."
"He could sell them cheaper, then."
"No. The jailers take too much. Good food in the jail costs more than
in the best restaurant, you know. Also, very strict orders concerning my
uncle have been given and the jailers charge him a higher price for being
benevolent."
"Oh, well," Bemish said. "It could be worse, two million for half a
percent."
The youth hesitated.
"It's actually," he said, "no more than twenty five hundredth of a
percent."
"Whaaat?!"
"Don't you know that? Half a year ago, when the share price was lower
than the moon in a well, Shavash secretly issued additional shares and
distributed them among his friends."
"Secret shares?!!"
"What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing, this is first time in my life when I stumbled upon this
particular type of securities manipulation. And how many shares have been
issued?"
"I don't know. Some people say that it was a million and a half, some
people say that it was two million."
"Who says that? Where could I find this out?"
"Promise not to refer to my uncle's name."
"I don't know his name, how can I refer to it?"
"Still, promise it."
"Ok."
"I think that the Assalah district chief judge has these shares and
knows a lot."
X X X
Bemish returned to Kissur's villa late at night. He almost always
stopped there now when he visited the capital. He wanted to see Idari more
often.
A phone call woke Bemish in the middle of the night.
"Yes?"
"Terence?"
Bemish almost jumped up. The LSV director was talking to him from
Earth.
"We have a great offer for you," Trevis said, "the Union Disk company.
They make laser disks. Get here. It can be bought."
"I am working on Assalah."
"It's not a promising deal. We will not finance it."
Bemish fell apart inside.
"Ronald! You guaranteed it..."
"We will pay you the forfeit."
"I don't need the forfeit, I need Assalah."
"Get back to Earth," Trevis said, "and we will talk about Union Disk."
"What should I do with the Assalah shares? I bought 17%!!!"
"Sell them. It's your profession."
"If you don't finance this deal, I will find another company."
"You will not find another company, Terence, because no other company
lets you on their doorstep. You are nothing, Terence. You are a greenmailer
with twenty million dollars in your pocket. We made you. Nobody else needs
you. You are a financial pirate. I will be waiting for you tomorrow in my
office, at fifteen thirty. If you don't get stuck in traffic, you will make
it."
And Ronald Trevis put the receiver down.
X X X
Bemish turned the light on, put the clothes on and sat at the table. He
sat there for a while, till he heard the door creaking. Bemish turned around
- Kissur and Khanadar the Dried Date walked in. Khanadar looked quite
dashing in black laced pants and a brocade barbarian jacket. Kissur had a
grey suit and a tie on.
"Hey," Kissur said, "it's fantastic that you are not asleep. We decided
to get some kicks in a pub. Let's go."
Bemish was silent.
"What has happened to you, Terence? You look like a fly in insect
spray!"
"I am screwed," Bemish said. "Trevis refuses to finance the deal."
"Why?"
"I don't know. I don't know where Shavash got such powerful
connections."
"I see. What are you going to do?"
"I am going to sell the shares. I don't have any other choice."
"Are you going to sell them at the higher price than you bought them
at?"
"Naturally... I hold a large block. I can make IC's life hard if it
doesn't buy it at the price I want. If I, for instance, appeal IC's actions
in an international arbiter court, it will get into one hell of a
trouble..."
"It's called greenmail, right?" Kissur specified.
"Yes."
"Shavash was right, then," Kissur said.
"How dare you!" Bemish shouted, leaping up - and he saw Kissur's
contorted face in front of him and the white knuckles on his fist. Bemish
managed to duck the first punch. The second one threw him off the chair and
to the floor. Bemish somersaulted and bounced back on his feet, the Kissur's
boot square tip missed his ear by a centimeter.
Bemish had a chance of holding his own against Kissur but Khanadar the
Dried Date was also in the office.
"Dumb jerk," Bemish screamed getting in a fighting stance but here
Khanadar grabbed him by the elbows. At the next moment, Kissur's knee
collided with Bemish's groin; Kissur turned and kicked Bemish in the ear
with the same leg. The Earthman collapsed to the floor. Kissur sat atride
him and started to choke him.
"Haven't I told you," Kissur hissed sitting astride the expiring
Earthman, "that I would kill you?"
Bemish grunted and hissed striving to say something. Khanadar
approached and stood next to them.
"Let him go for a second," Khanadar said, "let him admit that he wanted
to cheat us from the very beginning. He thinks it's a planet he can take a
good crap at."
Kissur grinned and loosened up the clench. Bemish lay like a worm on a
garden path.
"Idiot," the financier coughed, "I wanted to buy Assalah."
An atrocious kick with a boot in the ribs silenced him.
"Again."
"I wanted to buy Assalah. Trevis was ready to finance the deal. I don't
know why he refused. He was browbeaten."
Another kick followed, this time it was the groin.
"Liar! Trevis didn't refuse anything. You were playing your favorite
game! You took us for worms, didn't you?"
"I wanted to buy Assalah. Trevis was browbeaten."
"Who?"
"Shavash."
"Yeah? Why wasn't it IC?"
"IC has headquarters in an Arkansas dog's kernel. Their balls are too
small to push Trevis around. They should buy a new fax machine first."
"Why is Shavash afraid of you?"
"Shavash wants a buyer who will blink at all his frauds. It was not a
company - they were just pumping the budget money into private pockets! Last
year Shavash secretly issued more bonds! I think that this goes against even
the bizarre local securities regulations."
"What is "secret bond issue?"
"I don't know. I have never stumbled upon such a financial product as a
secretly issued bond in all my life. But, basically, it means that Shavash
re-divided the company accordingly to his wishes - he gave his friends more
and he devalued the stocks belonging to his enemies or bystanders."
"What about the state's share?"
"It depends on how many additional shares the state obtained."
"He is lying through his teeth," Khanadar said. "They would have
arranged it with Shavash about thieving. He was going to cheat us from the
very beginning."
"No!"
"All right," Kissur said. "I will believe you but only with one
condition. You will sell the company shares at the same price you bought
them."
"No."
Kissur grinned and took one of the swords hanging in the room from a
prop. He got it out of the sheath and pushed its triangular tip in Bemish's
throat.
"Yes, or I will kill you."
Bemish licked his lips. He didn't doubt that Kissur would kill him.
It's stupid. Terence Bemish, a successful financier, half-crook half-genius,
had never considered ending his life in a huge city manor of an Empire
ex-minister - in the manor, where not a single servant would ever blurt out
anything about his fate or, to the opposite, all the servants would swear
that Bemish left the manor gate whole and unhurt... Nobody would ever prove
anything. Even Shavash would not kill him. Not because he minded killing,
but because he was a rational man and he clearly would not want Weia to be
declared a place where foreign investors were found with their throats
cut... Nothing is cheaper than hiring a killer. But Shavash didn't kill
Bemish, he went for Trevis instead - it was an order of magnitude more
difficult and expensive...
"If I don't sell the shares with a rake-off," Bemish said, "I'll go
bankrupt. They will point their fingers at me. I will not do what you want."
"Take your knife, Kissur, and cut his balls off, " Khanadar said, "it
doesn't befit you to dirty your noble sword by a money-grubber."
"You wanted that from the very beginning, didn't you?"
"No, I wanted to buy Assalah."
"How much do you need to buy Assalah?"
"If only half of my potential creditors fulfill their promises without
Trevis, I'll need five million."
"I will find this money," Kissur said, throwing the sword back in the
sheath and he left.
The Sixth Chapter
Where company AC declares its real name while Mr. Shavash mentions
several unexpected thoughts about democracy's drawbacks.
The announcement of the investment auction for the acquisition of the
state-owned block of shares was published in the government's White Herald a
day before the application deadline. The announcement mandated that the
auction participants should turn in a deposit of 6% of projected investment
and should demonstrate reliable proof of being able to fulfill the assumed
financial obligations.
Trevis hadn't called Bemish since - it was below his dignity. On the
other hand, the corporate financing department head called and told Bemish
that he didn't need to hurry back to Trevis' headquarters since he wouldn't
be received anyway.
The next day, Bemish stepped out of a luxurious limo that arrived at
the ministry of finance, formerly first minister Rush's palace. A crowd was
already there, including the local financiers who, having heard about the
Assalah fray, were willing to risk taking part in the auction. Kissur
appeared in the registration hall at almost the same time as Bemish.
Shavash, the director of the company offered for tender, ignored Bemish
utterly. He was talking to an Earth journalist. The subject of the talk was
the importance of foreign investors - only they were able to force Weian
companies to correspond to international audit standards and raise Empire
finances to a new level.
Bemish silently watched the official registering his application and
entering the necessary financial contrivances into the computer. What if
this bastard makes an error and Bemish won't be allowed to participate on
technical grounds.
The official finished the registration, shoved an embossed sheet with
the application in the printer and, having printed everything, carried it to
Shavash for a signature. Shavash, without being distracted from the
progressive interview, signed everything.
Bemish moved away to a small table where, by Weian custom, fruits and a
special bowl constantly filled with peach juice stood. The juice filled the
bowl through a special tube and symbolized the everlasting plenty. Bemish
poured some juice in a cup and here Giles approached him.
"Can I ask you where you got the money?" Giles enquired.
"The investment company Plana offered me credit."
"What kind of company is it?"
"It's a company located on Gera," Bemish replied gloating.
"A company located on Gera? Why not a company located in a devil's
arse? When did it come to being, yesterday?"
Bemish looked at his watch.
"To be precise, it came to being today, three hours ago."
Meanwhile, Shavash finished his enlightened interview and led Kissur
aside.
"Did you," he asked, "loan Bemish money?"
"Am I a usurer?" Kissur was offended, "to loan money? It was a gift."
"You were born of a Barsharg goat!" Shavash swore. "This is the last
you'll see of it."
"Let's see," Kissur said, "who wins the auction."
Here, another Earth journalist approached Shavash and the company
director started repeating how only a scrupulous foreign investor could save
Weian economics.
By the evening, the bored journalists, hanging out at the cafe, could
record in their notebooks that three companies were interested in the
state's offer - Bemish's ADO, IC Corporation, and Rusby and C - were
offering to buy the shares out first and to finance the construction out of
the galactic company resources afterwards. Five or six large investment
banks were also interested. They were not going to buy Assalah shares
themselves. They mostly offered to the government various alternatives of
convertible bonds that these banks would distribute to the Galactic
investors - the bonds would be converted, at some date, to Assalah shares
now belonging to the state. Such a large number of investment bank aspirants
had surprised Bemish at first but he was told later that actually his modest
person was the source. The players on the fund market ferreted out that
Terence Bemish was going to buy some blip-blop limited in some banana
republic, decided that it had to be a swell deal and followed him like the
honey gatherers follow a bee.
X X X
A phone call from Kissur woke Bemish up at 3am.
"Hello, Terence. The investment auction is cancelled. Two hours, after
the applications had been submitted, Shavash sold 51% of state-owned Assalah
shares to IC Company at five and a half dinars per share."
"What do you mean sold?" Bemish choked.
The line went off.
X X X
Fifteen minutes later, a car stopped under the hotel windows and Kissur
jumped out of it.
"Dress," Kissur said. "We are going to the sovereign."
"Why?"
At this point, the phone rang again. Bemish picked up the receiver.
"Terence, this is Shavash. Call your complaint off."
"What complaint?"
"Don't pretend. Call off the complaint that you wrote to the sovereign
requesting to arrest me for bribery."
"Have you lost your mind? I've never written this crap!"
"Terence, if you go to the sovereign you will be squashed flat. You can
forget about working in a bank - they won't hire you as a cashier in a
supermarket. Got it?"
"I haven't..."
Shavash slammed the receiver.
"I signed the complaint for you, Bemish," Kissur said. "The sovereign
will examine it at this morning audience."
Bemish grabbed his head.
"Oh, my God, Kissur are you nuts? If you don't have mercy for me, have
mercy for your own country!"
"I have mercy for my country," Kissur said. "You explained to me, what
IC is yourself. They will just rob us and that's it. Or, were you bulling
me?"
"I didn't bull you, Kissur. Just get it - the contract has been signed.
That's it. Finita la comedia. These stocks are IC's property. If they find
out that an international company can have its property taken away from it
on your planet just because some authorities think that some bribes were
involved, you will not need any spaceports anymore! No financier will ever
come here! It's worse than tank trips over a joint company. "
Kissur stuck out his lip stubbornly. Clearly, the threat that no more
dinar and dollar fans appear in the Empire, didn't frighten him much.
"Get it, you stupid idiot, that any losses resulting from Assalah sold
off incorrectly won't even come close with the losses resulting from the
cancellation of a completed contract. I will not even mention that nobody
will let me back to LSV. I will not even mention that IC is totally in its
right to sue me in arbitration court even if I get your complaint thrown
back at my face!"
"But I will say that it's my complaint."
"And they will, of course, believe you on the spot," Bemish waved his
hand. "Well, leave me alone for these three hours."
"What are you gonna do?"
"Think," Bemish said.
X X X
Exactly four hours later, Bemish, accompanied by Kissur walked down the
sovereign garden's paths to a small six room pavilion. Above the pavilion
entrance, a flag with an inscription Fairness and Concentration Hall was
swaying. Two golden peacocks of wondrous craftsmanship guarded the inner
hall entrance. The sovereign Varnazd sat in a down armchair next to a
window. He wore a long white dress, with wide sleeves fastened at the wrists
by pearl clasps and, uncovered, his face, thin as onion undergarment peels,
looked somewhat lost and na ve. Shavash followed Bemish into the hall and
first minister Yanik also came in. Shavash and Yanik were draped in the
ceremonial kaftans with all their rank insignias - Bemish had never seen
them before. A red fiery dragon, with rubies sewn in his claws, on the first
minister's dress dazed him unexpectedly and Bemish suddenly felt something
he had never suspected before - a certain meagerness of his impeccably made
cashmere wool suite compared to the red dragon with the ruby decorated
claws. As for Kissur, he was dressed the same way as he had been earlier,
visiting Bemish, - in ragged leather pants.
"You filed a complaint, Mr. Bemish," the sovereign said, "could you
describe how you were mistreated."
"I didn't file this complaint," Bemish said. "And, having certain
business ethics views, I consider it impossible to request a
re-consideration of a completed contract. However, I have a question to Mr.
Shavash - what was your decision to cancel the investment auction based on
and what was your decision to sell the company for a three times less money,
than I offered, based on?"
The sovereign turned to the vice-minister of finance.
"I would like to hear your answer, Mr. Shavash."
"We didn't cancel the auction," Shavash stated. "We just ran it on a
shorter time scale. Considering Mr. Bemish's application, we judged it to be
incomplete since LSV investment bank, which had been expected to underwrite
the bonds, and several other large commercial banks, which had been expected
to advance credit to Mr. Bemish, pulled out having realized that the offer
had been overpriced.
"After some investors pulled out, I found others!" Bemish cried out.
"The company from Gera, that loaned money to you, doesn't have any
credit history and is very suspicious. SC Trading that promised to
distribute your bonds is a tiny investment boutique with absolutely no
authority on the capital market. We doubt that the bonds distributed by it
will be worth more than fifty cents for a dinar. Therefore, your application
is comparable with that of IC."
Shavash paused and continued.
"Meanwhile, Mr. Bemish's actions clearly demonstrated that he was not
going to acquire Assalah. Long before his arrival, he had been buying
Assalah stocks through several companies. Violating the law, he didn't
register the fact that he owned in reality more than 13% of Assalah stocks.
The only goal of his actions was to put pressure at the future company
management so that they would acquire the stocks at a higher price. To
achieve this purpose Terence Bemish didn't shrink from anything. A foreigner
ignoring the ways and customs of our country, thinking only about his
rake-off, - he abused his position as a manor owner forcing the peasants
present him with their shares. Using his highly placed connections, he
browbeat a local official into giving him the Assalah shares that the latter
acquired when their price was forty ishevik a share; afterwards, he had the
gall to fire the official. Since Terence Bemish violated the regulations
regarding share block registration, I demand the companies Raniko, Alvisir
Trust and LLA be removed from the Assalah stock owners list without any
compensation. "
The Emperor raised his hand.
"These are serious accusations, Mr. Bemish. Can you answer them?"
"Can I answer them? Of course! Shavash has just mentioned 13% of shares
that the peasants had received free of charge as compensation for the
spaceport construction taking place on their land. Would you really believe
that Shavash waited for me to seize the stocks from the peasants? Yes! I
confiscated the stocks from the official and I didn't pay him anything -
because I was going to return these stocks to the peasants. Shavash accuses
me of violating the local securities regulations. It would have taken place
if Raniko had owned more than 5% of shares and hadn't registered it.
Otherwise, there are no violations involved. Unlike me, Shavash can be
accused of many things, most importantly, that when the stock price
plummeted to the minimum, Shavash secretly issued more stocks and
distributed them among his friends. Weian securities regulations are quite
bizarre but those actions are criminal even here. I will be bold enough to
claim that IC was aware of this outrage taking place and that nothing but
this thievery caused Mr. Shavash to sell the company to the people that will
not make any complaints.
"Can you answer these accusations, Mr. Shavash?" the Emperor asked.
"Of course," Shavash said. "I will, however, need a computer with a
CDROM."
It took a moment, for a CD player (instead of a computer) to be
delivered to the room. Shavash fished a disk out of his pocket, inserted it
in a slit and pressed a button.
An open tavern veranda appeared on the screen, together with a table
and a window. Bemish sat at the table with a small man - tensing, he
recognized the palace official offering him the paintings from the Empire
treasury on sale.
The official pulled several photographs out and Bemish started to leaf
through them. The camera zoomed in on the photographs where Bemish suddenly
saw the Koinna's painting. Then, Bemish pointed at a girl and a dragon with
his finger and he chose several more photographs. The official nodded.
Then, the camera glanced over a group of people delivering several
boxes to Bemish's villa and zoomed in on a girl and a dragon in his office.
"This man talks about ethics," Shavash said, "buying, meanwhile, for a
thousand dinars the paintings that cost millions - the paintings from the
forbidden chambers that a mere mortal could not put his eyes on! The
Koinna's painting is a national treasure, this painting numbers among the
palace's first hundred sacred objects, the Emperor's ancestors brought
bloodless sacrifices and prayed for the dynasty fortune in front of this
painting - in his gall, this man hung this painting above his table - so
that the two founders of the Alom dynasty could look at the doughnuts that
the Earthman eats at his table assessing the Empire value at his computer! I
don't know, what punishments fit the exchange brokers, but nobody has yet
rescinded the law about palace thieves having their guts torn out! And
nothing is written there about exceptions being made for Earthmen, since the
law was enacted four hundred fifty years ago when the Empire was the center
of the world and nobody heard a whisper yet about all these people from the
skies!"
The first minister Yanik even clicked his tongue in admiration
listening to Shavash. Unlike the Earthmen, he knew very well that the
sovereign was indifferent to securities and uranium mines, that he knew very
little about, but that he was enraged to the utmost by palace robbery;
almost everything stolen had not only artistic value but was also sacred,
and the ignorance of the Earthmen buying invaluable objects for a penny hurt
the sovereign to his heart.
"You gave me this painting!" Bemish shouted.
"I gave you a copy, while you arranged it with the thieves to
substitute it for an original!"
"You are a piece of shit and a scoundrel," Kissur screamed at Shavash.
"And this tape is a fake."
"I am ready to submit this tape to an international examination,"
Shavash claimed, smiling, "with experts' opinions published in all the
newspapers."
Giles quietly leaned towards Bemish and whispered.
"They warned you, Bemish, that they would flatten you into the ground.
That they would make egg powder out of you and send it as humanitarian aid
to Ganaya lizards. Do you understand that you stand a chance to be hanged?"
"Can I have your complaint, please, Mr. Bemish?" the Emperor said.
Bemish sat completely dismayed. He was close to bursting into tears.
Shavash smiling impudently pulled the folder out of his hand and handed it
to the sovereign. The sovereign took an ancient quill dusted with gold
powder and signed the complaint. Then, he took the seal, showing a dragon
catching its tail, off his neck, pressed the seal to a pad saturated with
incensed phoenix's blood ink and stamped it on the paper. He handed the
sheet over to Bemish and said.
"Accept my congratulations, Mr. Bemish - I relieved Mr. Shavash from
the company director position and appointed you at this post."
"But sovereign," Shavash exclaimed with indignation. The sovereign spun
and his embroidered sleeves cuffed Bemish in the face.
"Be silent, vice-minister. I do not need foreign experts to tell me who
is the scoundrel - you or the Earthman! And if you dare show your tape even
to a frog in a road ditch, you will lose more than Assalah!"
Bemish picked the paper sheet with a lifeless hand, glanced at it and
noticed with astonishment that the order was dated with yesterday's date.
The papers asserted that Shavash had been fired before he signed the
contract with IC.
Pale with spite, Shavash silently stood up and left the room.
"Could you, kindly, leave me, gentlemen," the sovereign said smiling
sadly. "You tired me out. Kissur, visit me tomorrow morning."
X X X
Bemish was too shocked to think coherently. Having departed the
pavilion, he dragged himself to a rocky pond, where white-bellied seals
splashed, and slumped on a flower hill, probably breaking all the etiquette
rules. The question was - what should he do next? Next, Terence Bemish, the
Assalah state company director, will sell this company to Terence Bemish,
the ADO director. Dammit, Assalah has to be sold to ADO so that
intergalactic, instead of Weian, securities land on the market... What will
the business ethics committee say? Having watching the tape... A shadow
stood above his shoulder and Kissur slumped on the grass nearby.
"It's very clear," Kissur said, "that you haven't smelled shit. They
used to say that I had fish scales on my sides and my ears grew together at
the back of my head - big deal, a spliced tape."
"He was ready to submit the tape to any examination," Bemish said. "He
was not bluffing. Do you understand what it means? Where did he get the
hardware to bake a forgery that can withstand any examination? Do you
understand that this hardware was not acquired for a single usage, that this
hardware was not acquired for me, it was acquired for you, for Yanik, for
the other local officials..."
"Well," Kissur said, "we need to wash this deal down. Let's go to a
pub."
And they went to a pub.
X X X
It was dark when they left the pub, and large constellation bundles
shone in the sky faded like an old watercolor, so alien to Bemish, and a man
in a summer silk suit and white jacket dallied leaning on a long car shaped
like a water droplet.
"I will give Mr. Bemish a ride," the silky man said. He raised his head
and Bemish recognized the small official.
They sat silently on the back seat. The car started. Shavash dug a fat
package from under his feet and handed it over to Bemish.
"What is it?" Bemish said.
"This is the company documentation. You have seen most of it, new
director. This is the original tape; you can throw it in a brazier tonight."
And the small official handed the laser disk box to Bemish.
"Are you sure that it's really documentation," Bemish inquired, "and
not a remotely controlled bomb, two hundred thousand in Gera currency or a
drug load I will be arrested tonight for possession?"
The small official was silent.
"Damn you," Bemish said, "if, perchance, your Emperor had woken up in a
different mood today, I could have been hanged for real. I should hate you
for your tricks."
"And I should hate you."
"Me?"
"All of you, Earthmen."
"Why? What have we done to you?"
"What? Do you know what it means to be an official of the Empire that
owns the world, and suddenly this Empire appears to be a pebble on a beach,
crummy and penniless as well?"
"We, at least, left you free," Bemish noted, "but would you, Mr.
Shavash, like this country to be occupied by another empire and you being
turned into a slave who rubs his owner's back?"
"That's exactly right. You left us free. If I became a slave and rubbed
my owner's back, I would be a headman there in two years and I would be
manumitted and appointed to a minister position in two more years. But you
left us free and I can become the first minister on Weia with no problem
but, you have to agree, that even if I emigrate - what is the chance of me
becoming a Federation Assembly member?"
Bemish gaped. He had not met yet such an interpretation of the
fatherland independence concept. They drove in silence.
Parting with Bemish at the hotel cabin gate, Shavash suddenly grinned.
"You have a guest, don't you? I will not hinder your meeting."
Indeed, a white like goose down Volvo dallied next to trimmed bushes
and a man with a colorless face dressed in a cream colored suit - Richard
Giles - walked back and forth the terrace. Bemish drew himself together.
"Good day," Giles rendered, "I have been waiting for you for three
hours."
"Why did you come around?"
"I came," Giles said smiling, "to offer you a job in our company."
"Why is that?"
"Why not? We have a history of several projects that were carried out
quite successfully..."
"You are nuts," Bemish said, "three blown soap bubbles in countries
kicked out of UN..."
"Oh-oh," Giles interrupted him, "Nika and Sadun have joined UN a while
ago and the Lakhar situation has started to improve recently..."
"But at the time you were there, they were not UN members yet."
"Exactly," Giles said. "When we came here, they had nutcase governments
in charge. That's why I am saying, 'successfully carried out projects', in
spite of their evident financial bust."
"What do you do?"
Giles silently pulled a plastic card out of his pocket and handed it to
Bemish. It was an ID of a senior Federal Intelligence and
Counterintelligence Bureau officer.
"I can't believe it," Bemish said. "I had no clue that our spies made
billions on fake stocks. And afterwards they collect taxes from us for
democracy development!"
"Yes," Giles agreed. "We usually offer not exactly reputable financial
projects to our partners in the government of the country that makes us
nervous. And these officials, having pocketed several millions, find out
that if they want to have more millions and not to have a scandal, they
should push certain political decisions through."
"Why does this country make you nervous?"
"Weia? This country doesn't make anybody nervous. This country, Mr.
Bemish, is now located in the Galaxy backyard and it will be there for
another two hundred years... Whatever political adventures happen here, they
will not cause problems for anybody except the Weians themselves. It's Gera
that makes us nervous."
"Gera?"
"Yeah. Weia is located halfway between Gera and the Federation planets.
It is a strategically important Galaxy location - an ideal base for the
defense forces - and if it gets to a war between Gera and the Federation, it
would be better if..."
"If the war happened around a corrupted planet in the Galaxy's
backyard," Bemish completed.
Giles nodded.
"And how are you going to transform a financial gamble in a military
base?"
"Like a charm. We buy the company, we build as many bases as we can, we
do the construction behind barbed wire, we do not publish financial reports
and we arrange a leak claiming that the barbed wire is caused by the total
absence of any construction. The company's shares plummet; the defense
committee buys all the securities and announces that it has a military base
for a scrap of the price. "
"Are you serious?"
"Come on! You can build a business center on this planet calling it a
garbage processing facility. You can make narcotics using tax breaks
reserved for the production of medical drugs! A military spaceport instead
of a civil one - is nothing by local standards!"
"Why are you telling me this?"
"You upset our plans and became the company director. Now you are going
to build the base."
"Will you leave on your own," Bemish inquired, "or should I throw you
over the rails?"
"Don't you want to help your own country?"
"You are out of your mind," Bemish said. "You wanted to drown me in
shit! You made this mucky tape - now I understand why Shavash assured us it
would withstand any examination - and when they sent you to hell, you have a
gall to come to me with this talk."
"That's your personal aggravation. What about the good of the country?"
"The good of the country!" the raider exploded. "The good of the
country is when the state doesn't stick its nose in corporate business! I
guarantee you that, in half an hour, I will find in your project five
incorrect decisions and ten less-than-optimal ones! I haven't seen a state
project that was less than three times pricier than a private one! Why?
Because, the more expensive the project is, the more important the official
in charge of it feels! You can't save a penny and here you are, discussing
the good of the country. Save money on this construction and this will be
for the good of the country!"
"Is that all?" Giles queried.
"No, that's not all! This is only economics. As for the rest, what you
call "preventive actions" is what actually starts wars. You say, "We don't
want to fight but we should be able to defend ourselves!" Gerans say, "We
don't want to fight but they built a military base right under our nose!"
Before five years pass, both sides will be armed to their teeth, the taxes
that you collected from me will turn to vapor, and you'll raise your hands
on TV screens and catechize, "The Gerans wouldn't be so impudent if we
invested five billion more in defense!" And the citizens squawk and give you
five more billion!"
Having heard this, Giles, instead of leaving, sat in a low armchair,
trimmed to the floor with feathers, leaned all the way back and asked.
"So, do you think that there is no difference between the democracy
officials and the Weian ones?"
"There is a difference," Bemish said. "Here, the state is set up in
such a way that the officials' pickings go directly to their pockets.
Democracy doesn't give you this opportunity. You, however, have an
opportunity to push through the projects that will require tripling the
taxes I pay but will also enlarge your departments and demonstrate your
importance. If you simply embezzled, it would cause less harm."
"So, you won't work on our project."
"No. If Gera is dangerous, try to push this project through congress."
"One month before your arrival," Giles said imperturbably, "I talked to
Mr. Shavash. I found out that we could pay the state a billion and a half,
get the permit and build the military base ourselves. We could also pay the
state a billion and a half, get the permit and build the civil spaceport. We
could also pay seven million not to the state but rather to Shavash, and
then the state will take care of the above mentioned construction. A dummy
front company would get the spaceport, both sides would share the expenses
and, if the reporters on Gera or Earth ferreted out anything about the
construction, Earth would have nothing to do with it - see, the Weian
officials, known for their ingrained tendency to cheat their own people,
started quietly to make a military base out of a civil spaceport."
"Shavash doesn't believe his motherland is worth much," Bemish
muttered.
"It's even cheaper than you think. Since we found out that if we openly
start building the military base, the Weian people and the sovereign may
have issues with it. They may say for instance that we are clandestinely
occupying the country. Or that we are making Weia a pawn in a big game - if
the war with Gera starts, Weia will be attacked first as the closest to Gera
Federation military base. If however Weia was in charge of the spaceport
construction, all these issues would not arise."
"And did you," Bemish uttered through his teeth, "decide to save
money?"
"It's not the question of saving money. As you acutely remarked, the
state unlike private companies doesn't really care about savings. But you
know perfectly well that while the President has minority in the Assembly,
we will never obtain funding for one more military base - that's one
problem. All the peace lovers, free ones and the ones on Gera payroll, will
raise their hands with banners to the sky and take it to the streets to get
on the evening news - that's the second problem. The base is twice more
important if it's kept under wraps - that's the third problem."
Bemish was silent. Somehow the whole thing seemed especially
disgusting. Yes, everybody around traded in the sovereign's name, but, in
the end, it was the private agents and companies that gave bribes on Weia.
But, for a bribe and such a huge bribe to be given by the Federation of
Nineteen... Has it happened because parliament wouldn't approve of this
project?
"Out of this money," Giles said, "one half has already been paid and
quite a number of classified documents are in Shavash's hands. If Shavash
doesn't get the second half, to squeeze some profit he will find a way to
sell the papers to Gera. It won't hurt Shavash - such deeds are considered
to be valiant on Weia - but what a scandal will burst in the Federation."
Bemish could easily imagine this, jumbo titles everywhere.
"Bribes instead of bread!", "A little bit of war", "We are controlled
by the Intelligence Service."
"Shavash," Bemish said, "will not get what he deserves, because he is
an Empire official, and you will get everything you deserve because you are
democracy officials. If you have to build a base, you should be able to
explain it to the people. If you can't explain it to the people, than you
are lying about the construction being necessary. If the President considers
that he can't make certain things public but he has to do them, he should
change his occupation immediately. Why didn't you raise the question about
the base in public?"
"Because everybody thinks the way you do," Giles shrugged his
shoulders.
"Because nobody looks beyond his personal profit and, once the
government endeavors to do something about the common good, they all get
nervous about raising the taxes! Because thanks to the idiots like you,
Gera, while lagging great distance behind us economically, has already
surpassed us militarily."
"Get out."
"Not before we shake hands on it," the spy said, lying in the armchair.
The next moment, Bemish jerked him out of the armchair with one hand
and socked him on the jaw with all his heart. The punch was strong enough
for the Federation agent to flip over the armchair and to the floor. He
however somersaulted over his head, bounced softly in a fighting stance and
hissed.
"You are Geran slut."
Thence Giles attempted to land a right hand punch on Bemish's temple.
He shouldn't have done it. The bungling spy's hand was blocked and twisted
and Giles squeaked piteously and dropped on his knees facing away from
Bemish. He couldn't move - his hand would break.
"Your training isn't any good," Bemish commented, "if a financier can
wipe your mug!"
"I will wipe your mug; I will jail you for illegal parking for five
years... Ouch..."
At this moment, Kissur showed up on the terrace - behind their yells,
Bemish and Giles didn't even hear the rustle that the car made entering the
gate. Bemish freed the spy's wrist. Giles hissed something through his
teeth, picked the folder off the table, locked it in his black case and
said.
"I am sorry, but I have to go. I'll see you tomorrow noon as agreed,
Mr. Bemish."
"Did I get in your way?" Kissur inquired, looking over the recent
discussion participants with curiosity.
"Not at all," Giles said, "sorry, I am in hurry. I will not take your
time, Mr. Kissur."
He fixed the collar torn by Bemish and disappeared. The next moment, a
flyer whistled taking off in the backyard.
Bemish was chewing on his lips and tapping on a twined rail pole.
"Where have I seen his mug?" Kissur said. "Oh, yes, he was also at the
sovereign's. This is the jerk that bribed Shavash so that nobody except his
company could get the spaceport concession. IC. Yes, IC Company. What did he
want?"
Bemish paused.
"He let me know that the contract will be sabotaged. You know, the
workers will go on a strike, the officials will support the workers..."
"You don't have to tell me," Kissur said. "I know how it happens. I was
the first minister myself. What are you gonna do now?"
At this point, an idea came to Bemish's mind, simple and evident like a
soft beverage commercial. "I'll leave. I'll drop it all and leave. If
somebody has to be a bastard, at least, it won't be me. Let it be the day of
farewell."
"Let's go riding," Bemish said. They trotted for a while down yellow
roads amidst blue fields and they tied the horses afterwards and had a bare
knuckle fistfight and swam in a pond, round and green like a bottle bottom.
Bemish rode back, tired and reticent, looking at the road, with the
palm trees planted along it, and a fair spread beneath the white wall of a
capital suburb. The day was hot, the clouds boiled away, the sun bubbled
like an egg yolk on a frying pan. Kissur kept glancing at his friend.
Somebody really upset the Earthman. They had let him know that they would
foul the contract up. Well, construction is different from a duel. You can
go to a duel uncaring whether you win or die. You can't work on
construction, understanding that you will not obtain any profit. He will
leave. It's too bad. Kissur suddenly realized that he became attached to
this man. He lied much less than the local officials and he had some honesty
inside in spite of his occupation that didn't encourage honor.
"What was this parking thing that Giles was going to jail you for?"
Kissur asked suddenly.
"It's not here. It's on Earth," Bemish replied mechanically.
"No way!" Kissur was astonished. "Where did you park your auto to get
five years in prison? Did you drive on the Federation Assembly roof?"
Bemish wanted to explain that it wasn't about parking but Kissur
continued.
"What kind of laws are you guys making? They fine their citizens for
spitting on the streets and allow Gera more than we allow our bandits!
Though we, I have to admit, allow our bandits a lot."
"What has Gera got to do with this?" Bemish exclaimed in anger.
"Well, while you feed the homeless and make laws that protect green
parrot species from getting extinct, they finance military programs and they
will conquer you in five years! Even a donkey would get that, so I can."
"They won't conquer us," Bemish objected, "we are more powerful."
"You are not more powerful," Kissur said, "you are richer. The history
has it that the rich, but lacking in spirit, countries get conquered by the
poor and warlike countries. See, wealth makes a country stuffed and lazy
like a fat ram while poverty makes it sinewy and greedy like a wolf."
"In this case, Gera will conquer you first - you are weaker."
"Why would they conquer us? Nobody needs us even free of charge. Wolves
feed on sheep, not on northern moss."
Bemish puffed up and kept silence. It was nonsense. Barbarians have
indeed gobbled empires up because their citizens were lazier than the
barbarians while barbarian weapons were not any worse. While Gera - damn it,
Gera's weapons may be the same... Still, the analogy is stupid. History
doesn't gallop in a circle anymore. It's funny that the Federation
Intelligence thinks along the same lines as an educated barbarian...
They parted by midnight and Kissur returned to his palace. He sat in a
hall for a long while and, then, he called a servant to arrange a
sacrificial basket and walked to a small room, adjoining his bedroom, where
an Arfarra memorial altar stood. In front of the altar, a candle burned
fixed atop a tortoise shield and a fresh pine branch floated in a silver
water bowl. Kissur kneeled in front of the altar and sipped a bit from the
bowl.
"Arfarra," he said quietly, "what should I do? My gods are silent. They
have been silent for seven years. You had been next to me before that. You
made decisions for me everywhere except war and I was free at war because
there is nobody between a warrior and god. Can't I do anything for my
country or can I only muck things up? Send me somebody! I have nobody. What
are these Earthmen? The best of their best have credit cards, where their
hearts should be, and the others are god knows what! Khanadar is like a
goldfinch, who can only sing silly songs, and this man, Nan, that I could
ask for an advice, would advise me to break my neck because it will be most
useful for the country and most pleasing for Nan."
Kissur prayed like this for a while and called Arfarra. Suddenly he
felt a draught coming from the door. Kissur froze. The door slowly opened
and somebody's shadow stretched at the doorstep
"Great Wei!" Kissur cried out jumping on his feet and turning around.
"Oh, it's you."
The Earthman stood in the door frame - Terence Bemish.
"Have you been waiting for somebody?" Bemish was concerned. Kissur
looked at the altar with his head bowed.
"No," Kissur responded, "he will hardly come."
Bemish sat in the armchair.
"You were right, Kissur," he said. "IC did give Shavash six million
dollars for this contract. But it was not IC money. This money belonged to
Federation Intelligence. IC is just a front. They wanted to cram the
spaceport with surveillance hardware and then with military equipment. They
want to watch Gera first, and then..."
"But then Weia," Kissur said, "will become an Earth's military ally."
"It will become a military ally for those who don't want to fight. And
when it all comes out, Weia will become a target for Gera and the
Federation, the first point to attack in the case of war!"
"A military ally," Kissur repeated. His eyes lit, he looked over Bemish
to the altar.
"Don't sprout crap!" Bemish cried out. "If Gera is not going to fight,
why would the Federation need military allies? And if it is - imagine what
your planet will be turned into. You will be the grass that elephants
trample as they fight! Your planet's destruction will be, of course, a great
rallying cry for the Earth's people indignation - Earth will wake up at your
expense."
"Military ally," Kissur repeated for the third time. And he laughed.
"And did Shavash charge your government six million for such a gift?"
"And so they wanted to cover me in mud with this tape - you understand,
Kissur, it was our Intelligence that made the tape for Shavash - and after
that they have the gall to come to me and offer me a dance at their tune!"
"I hope you said, yes."
"I refused. I make money out of air but not out of shit."
At this moment, the door squeaked again and Shavash entered the room.
"Just as I thought," he declared, taking a look at disheveled enraged
Bemish and Kissur, coldly baring his teeth at the altar.
Kissur approached Shavash, embraced and kissed him.
"I am sorry," he said.
Shavash gently freed himself from his embrace and turned to the
Earthman.
"So? Has Kissur persuaded you yet?"
"No," Bemish shouted, "you are both blockheads! You, Shavash, are ready
to sell you motherland for a fried chicken and, when this guy hears the word
"war" he's jumping out of his pants with joy."
"I...," Shavash started with dignity.
Bemish threw the folder at him.
You can have it! The contract is here. I am leaving for Earth.
Shavash picked up scattered papers and suddenly he gawked at them
fixedly. His eyes gaped wide in astonishment and his face assumed such an
astounded look that Bemish couldn't help but ask.
"What are you reading there?"
"Tomorrow newspapers," Shavash said sweetly, "it's written here that
the zealots from the Marked by the Sky sect killed Terence P. Bemish who had
been appointed by the sovereign to the Assalah construction director
position. Or... no, not Marked by The Sky but Following the Way. Yes, of
course! This sect has a branch next to Assalah and they also learned of the
dishonest ways that Bemish used to obtain the shares... These ways will of
course be published, too..."
"How dare you?"
"Mr. Bemish! I dared much more than that. And I saved you from a
certain death twice when Giles was ready to pay for your head! If the
zealots kill you, it will cause wide spread abhorrence. If you suddenly
decline the sovereign's appointment, it will cause a lot of false rumors and
your silence is not guaranteed."
"He doesn't look like a man who will keep silent," Kissur said.
Bemish came to the table where a phone was, picked up the receiver and
dialed a number.
"Is it Ravadan? When is the next Earth passenger flight? Is it in
twenty hours? No I don't want a stopover. Yes, I would like to buy two
tickets, please. Terence Bemish... hmm... Inis Bemish. Yes, damn it, your
Weian name - Inis. No, just one way, I don't need round trip tickets.
During the conversation, Shavash was whispering something at Kissur's
ear. Bemish finished the phone call, pulled a table drawer out and took out
Kissur's small laser that he knew Kissur tended to keep there. He stuck the
gun under his belt and left.
Kissur rose to follow him but Shavash grabbed him by his hand.
"Don't do it - let everybody see that he left this house alive and
unhurt."
X X X
At the night's wane Bemish appeared at the finance vice-minister's
mansion. The small official sat in the office sleepily checking some
numbers.
"Why didn't you take off?" Shavash asked.
"Why didn't you kill me?" Bemish snapped back.
He sat in an armchair on bird legs and said.
"I agree on one condition."
The official raised his eyebrows.
Bemish silently handed him a paper sheet. Shavash looked the text over
- it was an act abolishing ishevik bills of credit."
"Do you understand," Shavash said, "that without ishevik bills we would
spend three times more in subsidies?"
"Why don't you abolish subsidies together with ishevik bills."
Shavash grinned.
"Do you know how much money you, Terence Bemish, could make on it?"
"I would make nothing. I would make this money for one, two, three
years. Then, the Galactic Bank, where like in any other large company where
only idiots are employed, will finally realize that ishevik bills are pseudo
money printed personally by Mr. Shavash, all this shit will turn to
hyperinflation, your insurance rating will keel over and I will lose five
times more on my stocks than I'll steal on ishevik bills.
Shavash raised his eyebrows just a bit.
People like you, Mr. Bemish, used to come to a bad end in the old
times. They handed the sovereign reports about the importance of integrity
and..."
"And they had their heads cut off," Bemish grinned.
"Yes, sometimes they had their heads cut off. And sometimes the
sovereign would turn his ear towards their reports and they started to cut
the other people's heads off."
The Seventh Chapter
Where all investors' difficulties are solved in the best way.
The full transfer didn't take much time - less than five days.
Everything worked out in the end. Bemish became the Assalah president and
CEO. Richard Giles, who believe it or not had resigned from IC, became the
first vice-president. Shavash kept his appointment at the Board of
Directors.
Trevis, naturally, started financing the whole project again. The
financing layout developed by Bemish was not changed. 51% of the company,
meaning the whole state stock block, was sold by the Assalah company
director Terence Bemish to the ADO director Terence Bemish and the observers
commented acidly that the shares were sold at not such a high price. The
same day, Ronald Trevis sent out a note that his bank assured - it would be
possible to raise the money necessary for the investment through ADO bonds.
In a month, ADO issued junk bonds for two million dinars that made up the
first-round financing and big-league investors fought for the bonds like
starving hyenas.
The second-round financing was made of convertible bonds. These bonds
had 8% coupons and could be converted in stocks within one year at the
present stock face value. This operation promised to be incredibly
profitable - if everything worked out, the Assalah stock price could
increase hundred fold. Even technically, the stocks were available only to a
very small investors' circle - to those who were allowed to invest money in
the derivatives of, accordingly to the Galaxy business world virtuous choice
of words, "the third reliability category markets." Bemish, Trevis and
Shavash narrowed this circle down even more, having sold the bonds mostly to
the people they needed.
Additionally, there were warrants - the stock warrants acquired at
three dinars per warrant. In two years, they enabled the buyer to acquire
Assalah stocks at their present cost. In the worst case, the buyer would
lose three dinars, in the best he would acquire a share at a price hundreds
times less than the current one. The project, submitted to the sovereign,
pointed out that warrants were needed to encourage the biggest investors,
necessary to attract their attention to a remote and dangerous market.
Mudslingers claimed that 50% of the warrants ware shared among Shavash,
Trevis and Bemish. The mudslingers were wrong. These three shared 75% of the
warrants.
The relationship between Bemish and the state proved to be mutually
profitable. For instance, it was great to have a spaceport, of course, but
how would you pass the loads and passengers further? The highway from
Assalah to the capital was built in sovereign Irshahchan times, and though
in sovereign Irshahchan times it was a miraculous highway enabling
government informers to reach Assalah in two days and the troops, sent to
pacify the rebels, in four days, it didn't really satisfy contemporary
requirements. From the north - from Liss, the region promising to become one
of the Galaxy's largest mining areas - a modern highway stretched. But it
was cut off forty kilometers away from the spaceport by Orkh River, one of
the largest rivers in the Empire. These forty kilometers also needed to be
connected somehow.
Bemish spent this month delivering popular presentations at all the
Federation financial centers. Two air flights a day and three space flights
a week were normal for the new director and his team. The success thundered.
Really, junk bonds and developing markets seemed to be created for each
other. A fringe market company acquired by a small Federation company that
had passed Galaxy exchange listing; and this company later financed the
production issuing junk bonds - it was beautiful. It was bold.
Neither Kissur nor Shavash attended the presentations. Kissur could
frighten a Swiss mutual fond representative or a London insurer to death
with his escapades. Shavash's position - a finance vice-minister of some
dinky empire, or even the first vice-minister - wouldn't mean much for an
uninformed man.
Shavash asked the Empire first minister, Yanik, however, to attend and
the investors rightfully concluded that Bemish had good relations with the
Empire authorities. Shavash also asked an Empire ex-first minister, Nan, or
more precisely, David N. Streighton, to attend.
Having resigned after his adversaries ran a smear campaign - that a man
from the stars shouldn't be in charge of the Empire - Nan resided on Earth
and he didn't try to hide that his Weian appointment made him not just a
millionaire, but a billionaire. His knowledge of Weian current events was
unsurpassed and his active buying of Assalah securities boosted their
trading to a great degree. It is should be pointed out that Nan obtained 20%
of the warrants out of remaining 25%.
The only dark spot blemishing Bemish's triumph was headman Adini's
fate. There was no doubt that he had been the culprit in the trick with the
paintings and that he had acted on Shavash's orders.
When Bemish, Khanadar and Kissur flew to the villa the next day, the
young headman was bustling around there as if nothing had happened. Bemish
was especially surprised that Shavash hadn't even tried to warn his spy,
though he knew perfectly well that Adini wouldn't get out of it unscathed.
Kissur, who had never been noted for exquisite manners, threw Adini to
the floor and kicked him a couple times and, then, having snatched his
throat with one hand and lifted him to the knees with the other, demanded
all of the truth from him, "So that I knew whom to hang on the same log with
you."
Adini blurted everything out and, accordingly to his tale, Shavash and
Giles should have hung on the same log with him.
Having gotten attached to the young headman, Bemish started to ask him
how he, Bemish, had maltreated him and Adini covered with blood, sweat and
tears confessed that, having been young and silly, he had taken part in
palace pilfering a year ago - just a little bit, two Iniss rugs, not
particularly old, were the only things that he had peddled. A powerful gang,
probably connected to Shavash, ratted on the competitor or they decided to
write the stolen stuff off using Adini. Thus, he found himself in Shavash's
personal jail and he was freed only after he had admitted of being guilty in
three hundred million dinars worth of palace thefts.
Bemish ordered Adini to beat it but Kissur snatched the young guy and
said that the cad should be hanged and that to let him go would mean to lose
face. Bemish said that hanging Adini would be like an official, castigated
by his superior, venting his anger at his wife.
Kissur agreed with this argument but he claimed that he would keep
Adini and have some words with him about his pilfering - it's kind of
doubtful that Adini had stolen only two rugs. Bemish agreed and he shouldn't
have - the next morning they found Adini hung on the gate of Shavash's
luxurious mansion.
Everybody thought that the Assalah company director himself had gave
this order and they respected Bemish mightily for adhering to local customs;
Kissur proved to Bemish that it was crystal clear - the guy was rotten all
the way through, complete as a water putrefied nut. Hanged Adini visited
Bemish's dreams for a week or two and then stopped. The painting with the
dragon and the princess Terence, of course, returned to the palace the same
day with apologies.
Five carts and priests dressed in heavy brocade pallias came for the
painting.
X X X
In a month, Bemish arrived at Assalah accompanied by a large retinue of
investors. Shavash organized a brilliant reception for them in a temple
complex located about twenty kilometers away from the spaceport - the Black
Valley.
About two and half thousand years ago, one would have found there a
wonderful Temple of Isii-ratouph, who was depicted then not as a squirrel
but rather as a webbed snake and was considered to be not a woman but a man.
Nothing was left from the old temple besides the huge columns - and right
around here, about a kilometer away, the sacred gardens began with chapels
strewn here and there.
The reception was wonderful. Blooming rhododendrons stood as if dressed
in multihued fur coats, brocade leg and jasmine fragrances rode over the
aroma from the delicacies and tame squirrel-ratouphs with gilded tails
jumped amidst the invited guests. Assuming a certain ignorance of Weian
history, the dishes served to the guests could be taken for the exact copy
of the delicacies present here ten years ago at the province governor's
appointment celebration.
The guests were served with a wondrous lamb, just lanced and grilled
for a god (the gods were fed smells and the guests would be fed meat) and
Shavash stood and made a short speech. Shavash said that he was happy to
inform the guests that the territory belonging to the company had obtained
immunity by a sovereign's bill - it was now exempt from the local officials'
jurisdiction and the company had revenue and judicial rights within its
territory.
"However," Shavash immediately reassured, "the company won't really
have to pay taxes since the sovereign's bill gives it extensive tax deferral
for the next two years.
Once the dumbfounded guests had digested the pleasant news, that
somewhat compromised the state sovereignty in the company's favor, Shavash
continued that poor communications was one of the main Assalah drawbacks,
considered at the examination of the project - the direct highway to the
capital had been built in sovereign Irshahchan times and the road to the
rich Liss region was cut off forty kilometers away from Assalah by the
second largest Empire river. Shavash was happy to inform the guests that the
state had already allocated funds for the road and the bridge construction.
Why, would you think though, should the government bustle about? If
Assalah needs it, let Assalah build it, Assalah has loads of dough, why
would you spend budget money in a starving country?
Large investors are an intelligent crowd and they all took a note of
Shavash's part at the presentation and the very polite attitude displayed by
the first minister Yanik towards him. Five people or so asked Bemish if he
was going to limit himself to Assalah or to create a Weian stocks investment
fund.
After Shavash's speech, Trevis, having met Shavash in person for the
first time, approached him trying to clarify the tax referral situation.
Shavash, however, avoided a direct answer.
"Don't worry, either way this company will not pay taxes," he said
imperturbably.
Here, a cute girl appeared in front of Trevis, the girl held a silver
tray, of ram grilled with plants and roots, in her hands. The girl bowed and
sang that an ancient custom commanded to meet a guest with a black
sacrificial ram.
Trevis took a piece with pleasure.
"A great custom," he noted, trying tender meat out, "so coming back to
tax exempts..."
"The custom is great," Shavash replied, "but it's not exactly like
this."
Trevis raised his eyebrows.
"The ancient custom says to meet a guest with a grilled black dog," the
official explained.
Trevis almost dropped the plate and, then, he burst in laughter.
"Why doesn't he want to become a first minister?" Trevis asked Bemish,
when Shavash stepped aside.
"The Emperor will never allow it."
"He is an amazing man."
"Yes. Once he expressed his regret about the Earthmen not having
conquered the Empire and enslaved him. He said that by today he would have
been the Earth Emperor's senior trusted personage..."
Trevis grinned.
"I would like to have slaves," he said suddenly, "especially people
like Shavash. Do you have slaves, Bemish?"
Bemish frowned slightly. Adini was his first slave.
"Yes. These three, cleaning up the tables - but I haven't bought them,
I have obtained them as gifts from different people."
"We are investing money in a funky business," Ronald Trevis muttered.
Bemish nodded heedlessly.
"By the way," Trevis said, "when we were driving by your villa, I
noticed a tall peasant standing in the crowd, he was missing his left ear. I
am sure that I saw him next to the hotel in the capital and he was not
dressed as a peasant then, he sat deep inside a Hurricane."
"You are as watchful as usual, Ronald," Bemish said. "He is not a
peasant, he is one of the best known Weian criminals."
"Oh, my God! Does he want to fleece some foreign sheep?"
"To the contrary, doing a favor to some influential people, he is
protecting these sheep from some lice."
"What are you whispering about?"
Bemish turned around. Kissur stood in front of him, dressed in Earthern
clothing and not even a bit drunk. During the whole evening, Kissur hadn't
caused any disturbance yet - he hadn't broken a single investor's jaw and
hadn't washed anybody in a pool. The reason was very simple - Kissur was
with his wife, Idari.
"Let me introduce you," Bemish said, "Ronald Trevis, the head of LSV
bank. Kissur, an ex-owner of the same villa."
"Also an ex-minister of the Empire," Kissur finished with a grin. And
he added right away, talking to Bemish. "I didn't know that the sovereign
bestowed you with immunity."
"You see, Kissur, after you gave me the villa, the local official
herded the peasants to fix the road for free, to curry my favor. I don't
want the local officials to curry my favor this way. And I promise you to
fleece the peasants three times less and to hang five times less criminals."
"That's exactly wrong," Kissur stated. "In order to be respected, you
have to hang twice more, otherwise why do you need this immunity? What do
you think, Trevis?"
It was ten in the evening, when the temple abbot noiselessly approached
Bemish, standing on a lawn and encircled by the guests, and whispered in his
ear that Shavash wanted to talk to him in private. Bemish finished the
cocktail and left the guests unnoticed.
He found Shavash on the temple tower second floor - the small official
stood with a wine glass in his hand and he seemed to clink the glass with a
goddess dancing in the alcove. Having heard the Bemish's steps, he turned
around. Bemish brandished his hand welcomingly and sat in an oak-backed
armchair standing to the right of the window.
"Trevis says that you will raise twice more money than you need. People
really stand in lines to buy a piece of Weia if Bemish himself handles their
finances. What are you going to do with the extra money?"
"I could create a couple of funds," Bemish said.
Shavash, half turned to the window, gestured with the glass. Outside of
the window in the sunset light, the dense gardens' greenery and the even
squares of rice patties gleaned. Ivory imps danced above the window and
smiled mockingly at the official. Bemish noticed that Shavash was drunk -
not as much as he was at Weian feasts when everybody walked on their hands
and knees by a night's end, but much more that it was customary on
Earthmen's business meetings.
"This planet," Shavash said, "is a planet of mad opportunities. It has
the least developed natural resources in the Galaxy. It has human resources.
It doesn't have money."
Shavash turned around abruptly.
"You will bring this money in, Terence. How much can you raise for your
funds?"
Bemish contemplated.
"I could raise five hundred million in the first year. Then it depends
on the fund's profitability."
"You will sell what I say and buy what I say. First year your profit
will be seven hundred million. Your real profit will be one billion. But you
will give three hundred million to me. Do you understand it?"
Bemish paused.
"They jail you for such things."
Shavash leaned over the Earthman.
"You are mistaken, Terence. They jail you for such things on Earth. On
Weia, they cut your head off."
"Why are you risking your head for money?" The pale vice-minister's
face with mad golden eyes and raised eyebrows' tips moved right to the
Earthman.
"You understand nothing here, Terence. I don't need money. I need to
turn this country in something decent. It is possible only if I become the
richest official in this country. For that - I need money. I need huge
money, money that this country doesn't have. But, the Galaxy has this money
and you, Terence, will deliver this money from the Galaxy to here."
X X X
To conclude, the reception worked out great if not for an accident at
its very end. It was already midnight, the time when men liked to have fun
was getting closer and the wives of several higher Weian officials hurried
to take leave and disappear and women's laughter started to come out of the
temple gazebos. Bemish and Trevis walked down a garden path under falling
cherry petals by the gods cramped in the darkness. They had discussed
everything already and they simply enjoyed in silence the dark and tart
night, dusted by the fragrance of night flowers and the faraway singing of
expensive whores.
The road led them to a small pond, where a marble god in a brocade
caftan stood on the bank.
"Here is Shavash," Trevis said, "but it looks like the timing is
wrong."
Shavash half sat under the god's statue and fondled a midnight cowgirl.
Something made Bemish hearken and he stopped.
"Let's get out of here," Trevis restrained him.
Suddenly something gleaned in the woman's hand.
"Terence!"
Bemish didn't remember how he dashed across the lawn. He remembered
only Idari's voice and the dagger in her hands. The next second, Bemish
pulled the official to the side. A fish scale flash of the dagger tore air
right where Shavash had just sat. Idari leaped to her feet, lithe and agile
like a sand lizard.
Shavash stank with cognac and palm tree wine - a killer combination. He
was boozed up to the hilt - much more than he had been an hour ago in the
tower.
"What are you doing?" the official rasped.
Bemish silently pulled a short jab at Shavash's jaw. The official
closed his eyes and went down to the ground. Trevis rushed to Bemish, pale
as death.
"Bye-bye your fund," Trevis muttered.
"He will remember nothing," Bemish objected.
"I hope that you will also remember nothing," Idari said.
Bemish's heart was hopping like a mouse in a jar.
"Should I walk you?" he asked Idari.
But the woman only shook her head slightly and, in a moment, she
disappeared in the bushes. The dagger had vanished even earlier in her
blowsy sleeve folds. Shavash mumbled something, turned over on his back and
started snoring.
"Why did you have to beat him?" Trevis got angry. "Is she your lover or
what?"
Furious Bemish turned around. Trevis pulled back.
"Just forget it," Bemish muttered finally, "otherwise we will all get a
lot of problems."
They were almost at the house, when Bemish, having kept glum silence
all the way, suddenly said, "If a civil war starts in this Empire, it will
start on this woman's account."
X X X
The morning after the reception, some guests signed a treaty of intent
- about creating together with Shavash and Bemish several joint companies
specializing mostly in export-import operations. Weian tariffs were quite
high, but Shavash hinted to the people present that they probably wouldn't
have to pay them.
The official was pale after the yesterday's binge and a huge bruise
blossomed under his cheekbone, artistically masked by various powders.
Bemish didn't have to torture himself long about whether or not the official
remembered who socked him. Having returned to his room, Bemish discovered
there a gift basket full of soft turquoise figs and Shavash's note. "As you
see, I can be grateful," Shavash wrote in calligraphy. "You had given me one
fig and I gave you hundred." A bruise was called a fig in Weian.
****
The next day after the investors had left Bemish returned to the villa
and was stopped by a small peasant crowd.
"What's the problem?" Bemish asked.
A tall barefoot old man stepped out of the crowd.
"They told us," He said, "that the great Lord from the stars will build
a magic city in this place."
"More or less," Bemish agreed.
"They told us that this city will be built on our lands. What will
happen to us?"
"You will have the lands across the river," Bemish answered.
"We are happy that the Lord from the skies gives out part of our land
to us. But our old land was taken away from us without any payments."
"You were paid by company shares," Bemish said. "You squandered these
shares and you don't retain any rights to them."
"Does it mean that the Lord from the stars has money to treat
officials, but he doesn't have money to pay us for our land?"
"I will not pay you a cent," Bemish cut them off.
Having learned about this accident with the peasants, Kissur said.
"You acted like a man, Terence. Why do Earthmen act like men only when
it comes to money?"
The new headman approved of his boss altogether.
"These people are such," he said, "that if you show them a finger, they
will devour the whole hand. They are but spongers!"
"Don't you come from the same people?" Bemish cut him off and the new
headman shut up, offended.
X X X
Bemish had to see Idari quite often. A great number of the company's
contracts - lumber, concrete, tungsten glass - in a nutshell, everything
that was cheaper and more profitable to buy in the Empire, passed through
Kissur's estate and his wife was in charge of it.
Only gradually Bemish realized how important a part this graceful
fragile woman plays not only in the economics of Kissur's estate but in the
economics of the Empire. Thanks to her and only to her, not a single oil
well that the sovereign had bestowed on Kissur passed away or was sold to
cover debts - to the opposite, every gift was preserved, multiplied and grew
and this fragile woman controlled with an iron fist at least three banks and
the second biggest Weian aluminum plant. They said that the applicants for
the bank positions had interviews in front of a curtain - Idari didn't
consider it possible to talk in private with a male stranger and Bemish had
never seen her in anything other than Weian dress.
Idari had only one son and Bemish saw that it deeply hurt her, because
in her view, a good wife should bring a litter every year. To conceive more
children, she had even submitted to an Earthman physician but the physician
had only raised his hands and said that nothing could be done. Three boys
that Kissur fathered whoring around and a total orphan that Kissur extracted
from under his own tank tracks were being brought up in the house.
A lot of maligners told Kissur that the Earthman visited Idari somewhat
more often that the business contacts required but, since the people who
said that wanted very much to obtain everything Bemish had from the Empire,
Kissur ignored these words.
The Eight Chapter
Where Terence Bemish pays taxes with fallen leaves while the rock with
an ancient foretelling is dug out at the construction.
Ashinik was born into a peasant family that was ruined during the civil
war. His father was recruited into the local prince's army and killed there
and his mother died just quietly. In the last year, Ashinik was also
recruited, but by this time the prince's army had dwindled down to five
hundred people and the prince was called a prince no longer but he was
rather called a bandit. When the prince heard that nothing was left of
Khanalai's army, conducting a siege on the capital, but two barns of ashes
and that the new masters - the people from the skies - were giving orders in
the capital, he was scared and rushed in to beg for peace. The sovereign
forgave him and the people from the stars gave everybody a fancy can with a
picture of meat in sauce drawn on it. Ashinik hid the can under his head and
went to sleep and when he pulled the can out in the morning, he found out
that it didn't have the bottom and was empty. Ashinik rushed to his friends
that had just finished the breakfast and they burst in laughter and they
said that it had been this way from the beginning.
Ashinik dragged himself from the city back to the village, to the land,
but there was no land. A fence of brushwood and concrete was where the land
had been and the Earthman was behind the fence. It came out that Ashinik's
father bequeathed the land to the prince and the prince sold this land in
the capital to a trust that dug a hole in the ground. Having heard Ashinik
out, the Earthman went crazy and threw him out.
What happened was that the Earthman had long ago realized the prince
cheated him and he hadn't held the title for all of the land. He gave money
to the first petitioners and, having heard about it, all the locals rushed
picking up their relatives and friends and testifying that they had held
such and such piece of land. With their peasants' minds they instinctively
sized Earthmen up as a power-to-be and held it for a virtue to cheat the
trust that was so stupid that it was ready to pay for the land which had
already been sold to it, even if the people that sold the land didn't own
it. The Earthman had seen that he was being hoodwinked and now he kicked out
everybody who came with a complaint about the land as cheaters.
"I didn't get much from the Earthmen for my field - an empty can and a
kick in the butt," Ashinik thought. Ashinik left for his relatives in the
neighboring province, but he got sick on the way. An old couple picked him
up and ministered to him. Having learned that the total strangers washed him
and spoon fed him, the youth burst into tears - it was the fourth year he
lived as a snail without a shell, only a lazy man wouldn't step on him.
The people, who nursed Ashinik back to health, were tanners. Ashinik
started helping them with their work and with the house. At first, Ashinik
didn't notice anything except that they didn't eat meat in the house but
then, listening to the masters' conversations, he started to realize that
his hosts were some sect's members. This sect had existed for a long time
and it was based on a prophecy about iron people who would appear from
underground to destroy the Empire. On numerous occasions, they had taken
barbarians and rebels for iron men but then a rebel would become an Emperor
and it would become clear that the prophecy was not about him. The masters
hinted to Ashinik a number of times that Earthmen were these iron demons,
and that they wanted to destroy the Empire and that the mine, he was invited
to work on, was nothing else but a hole to hell - the demons would drag him
down there and eat him.
At first, Ashinik didn't really believe it. He had also heard some
really dirty gossip about zealots - they were rumored to entice people with
their lies, nurse the infirm, pick up orphans, and then preach stupid stuff
and engage them in orgies and even worse on their meetings. But he felt
uncomfortable arguing with the elders who had saved his life and he also had
nowhere else to go.
Soon, they took him to a meeting where they directly said that Earthmen
were demons and all the things they owned were either phantoms or had been
stolen from the gods. Then a teacher, clothed in white, in front of their
eyes grew a golden staircase out of a seed, climbed up it to the skies and
came back with a fancy pot that the gods gave him.
Ashinik started taking part in the weekly meetings but doubts assailed
him. "Of course, all I got from the Earthmen for my field was an empty can
and a kick in the butt," Ashinik thought. "But if I consider everybody I got
a kick in the butt from to be demons, there would be more demons than
people." Finally, these thoughts hurt him so unbearably that once in the
repair shop Ashinik fainted and crashed to the ground. When he came back to
his senses, people were crowded around him - it appeared that a great spirit
had seized him and he had been preaching.
Ashinik was taken to the teachers, they housed him with them. Since
Ashinik's words were always taken with great attention, the fits started to
happen more and more often but Ashinik never remembered what he was saying.
Thanks to his prophecy gift and natural cleverness, Ashinik suddenly started
to climb quickly up the hierarchical ladder. Ashinik was especially shocked
by the following. The zealots he found himself with at first believed that
Earthmen were really demons. On the second level, they told him that words
iron devil and demon with respect to Earthmen should be treated
metaphorically and Earthmen live on the sky rather than underground. He was
told that the stupider were the rumors about Earthmen, the easier the dumb
people would believe them. But on the third level, he was told that Earthmen
were demons! And they explained to him that the more metaphorical the
prophecies' interpretations were, the easier would silly officials believe
them since they wouldn't see the gut sense behind the false reasoning. And
on the fourth level, he was told again that the prophecy should be treated
metaphorically!
When he achieved the seventh level - there were ten of them all in all
- Ashinik couldn't distinguish anymore where a metaphor was, where the
reality was and where the deep meaning of both of them was. Talking to a
commoner, he spoke as if he was on the first level. Talking to an educated
man, he spoke as if he was on the second level. He believed what his
audience could believe. Thanks to that, his sermons gathered huge crowds. He
was also taught to prophecy right at the meetings and he usually remembered
what he had said.
Four years passed this way - Ashinik was now twenty. Once the White
Elder called and commanded him to leave for Assalah village on Chakhar
border. He said,
"The demons build their holes there. They call this hole a spaceport
and they say that they fly to the sky out of these holes, but, in reality,
these holes go underground all the way to hell. The Assalah demons wronged
our peasants mightily and we have a strong society there. But yesterday the
society head died. Go to Assalah and take his place."
X X X
This time the trip to the capital took eight hours instead of two
months - the next day's morning a yellow bus left Ashinik at the road fork
going to spaceport.
Ashinik threw his sack over his shoulder and started walking. The
trucks, looking like huge silk worms, flew past him to the construction, a
cloud of dust and bad smells hung over the road and in the fields, recoiling
from the curb, ripening rice ears were covered with a thick layer of cement
dust. It was a long walk and Ashinik tried waving a twig several times to
hitch a ride but nobody stopped. Even during the worst war years Ashinik
remembered always being able to get a ride from a passerby in a cart. They
could kill you once they had picked you up, but at least they would always
pick you up.
Suddenly a car slowed down. Ashinik nervously saw that it was not a
truck but rather a passenger car shaped like a tiny bug. The driver threw
open a door - after a brief hesitation Ashinik climbed inside. They drove in
silence for a while.
"Are you going to the construction site?" the driver asked. He spoke in
demon's brogue.
"No," Ashinik replied, "I am going to the village."
"Who are you going to?"
"My uncle called me in. His son died - maybe he will adopt me."
"There are a lot of zealots," the driver said, "in this village.
Following the Way. Are you one of them?"
"Yes."
"What level are you?"
"What do you know about levels?"
The driver looked the lad over - he had a round good-natured face, wide
lips and adjoining thick eyebrows over his beautiful brown eyes.
"A week ago," the driver said, "the local Following the Way man died.
You are coming to replace him, aren't you?"
"What do you do?"
"My name is Terence Bemish, I am the Assalah company director."
Ashinik swallowed.
"Do you pick all passersby up or did you know that I was coming?"
"I pick all the bums up," Bemish said. "The drivers at the construction
rarely give a ride to anybody and if you are a bum, they might even kill
you. They have already killed two people this way."
"Your workers aren't any good."
"It's difficult to get any worse. They drink, steal, and make the
newcomers do the same. There are gangs among them. Two of them were caught
yesterday - they sold an anti-corrosion paint box. How much do you think
they sold it for? They sold it for a rice vodka crock! Yesterday, one guard
shot at another guard - he was boozed up. They arrested him, started an
investigation and discovered that he was wanted in the capital for robbery
and murder. Everybody who wants to escape the capital after screwing
something up there, go here."
"Yes," Ashinik said, "it's not easy. I have never had to own people
that drink, steal and eat meat. A master is like a seed and his subordinate
is like grass that grows out of the seed. Grass follows seeds. It's not
surprising that the demons' servants steal anti-corrosion paint from them."
Bemish was so upset by this comment that he lost his self control. His
true nature emerged and Ashinik noticed at once that Bemish's head was
really just a meat egg. Ashinik felt himself very uncomfortable. "What if he
asks now - do you really think I am a demon?"
But Bemish didn't ask anything like this, he shook his meat egg and
said.
"The village is just beyond this hill. Would you be uncomfortable
entering the village in my car? Would you like to get out at the turn?"
"Not a problem at all," Ashinik said.
In the evening, the whole village listened to their new prophet's
stories about riding in the chief demon's car and seeing a meat egg on the
demon's shoulders.
X X X
Bemish was not exaggerating the problems in his conversation with the
future zealots' guru. The construction situation worsened every day. The
worsening, however, was reflected neither in the balance books nor in the
profits and expenses reports and the most meticulous auditor would not be
able to enter the locals' feelings into the company's debits column.
It was also partly Bemish's fault. As an ardent player who felt better
next to a computer screen rather on the construction site, Bemish visited
the latter only occasionally, being engrossed completely in the capital
business maelstrom.
He started up a hedge fund acquiring Weian stocks - it was quoted in
the intergalactic system. Trevis raised money for him, a sum unheard-off for
a developing market - five hundred million dinars. He acquired the broker
house DJ securities and used it to conduct the hedge fund operations; he
also acquired 12% shares of the bank that Assalah Company had an account in.
Together with Idari, Shavash and two other useful people, he founded a
local Assabank and soon, by a special sovereign's law, all the budget funds
allocated by the government for the construction of the roads,
communications and the other Assalah infrastructure passed this bank.
Bemish swam like a fish in the market where the quotes often fluctuated
30-40% a week, where even relatively liquid shares had an 8% spread and
where trading based on insider information was not a crime but a norm. He
had disposed of almost all the stocks a week before the government announced
the new tax regulations that caused a market crash and by the year's end his
fund was the only one showing a profit gain of 36% compared to the other
funds' losses fluctuating between 14% and 86%. The real profit was even
higher, but as it had already been agreed on, Shavash obtained one third of
it.
However, while Terence Bemish hung out in the capital, bought and sold
accordingly to Shavash's hints, opened new banks, had fun with Kissur and
gave an interview to Galamoney as the head of the company in charge of the
most successful fund of the year, other people controlled the construction,
most of all the company vice-president Richard Giles. Oh, of course, Bemish
received the construction and money flow reports every day. A minor
financial glitch, not even close to larceny, would not remain unnoticed.
"Why do you have this leftover at the active accounts?" angry Bemish
screamed at the receiver. "Couldn't you place an overnight credit?"
And the leftover was only five thousand dinars.
But the peasants and workers' attitude was not reflected in any way in
the financial reports and increasing theft was at first written off by
Bemish as the bad heritage of two thousand years of socialism.
As Bemish realized looking back, a lot of things would have been
different if the construction had started not when the peasants had been
planting rice and when every pair of hands had been precious. But the
construction started right in the spring - the peasants didn't let their
lads go to the construction site and the guys who came later met with a
construction lifestyle already in place - the lifestyle of lost city
dwellers, bums and simply bandits that stole watermelons from the fields,
trampled rice down, fought the village lads en masse and considered hard
porn with stereo effects to be the highest achievement of the alien culture.
At one point, Bemish ran into a ceremony of Following the Way on a road
and the sect's head, a tall old man with a grey beard, pointed his finger at
him and started calling him a sorcerer of the basest type. Bemish inquired
what exactly his sorcery was and received an answer.
"All your flashy labels and commercials, cigarettes and movies - they
are all your dirty magic and rituals. You use all this to get people
together."
Bemish objected.
"I am sick of these commercials no less than you are."
"This is even worse," the old man grinned. "It means that you have one
culture for small people and another one for big people. This is
ill-conceived because everything can be different for small people and for
big people - what they own and what they wear - but their culture should be
the same. The spring day is celebrated by a farm hand and in the palace. And
if your workers go to see The Triple Strike and you don't... What's the
point of talking about it?!"
He thought and added with curiosity.
"Is it true, that you live underground just like the wild people in the
North who change their ruler every four years and, having changed him, eat
him?"
"We change a ruler," Bemish admitted, "but we don't eat him."
The old man died then, Ashinik arrived to take his place and the
situation worsened. Whatever Bemish did, it came out wrong. They delivered a
worker to the hospital with appendicitis for surgery and Ashinik made
everybody believe that the demons from the skies cut the guy's corn off and
attached a goat's equipment instead and now only goats would be born from
him.
Bemish had loaned some money to the village, at the previous village
headman's time, and Ashinik started a rumor that they tricked the headman
using his poor knowledge of English and made him sign a paper permitting the
Earthmen to demolish the whole village. There was another rumor also
contrived by Ashinik that Bemish had a black cord. One end of the cord was
in a table drawer, in the villa, and the sovereign himself was tied to
another end. If the Earthman pulled on the cord, the sovereign would toss
and groan and hail would start coming down from the sky.
Slowly, bypassing official district authorities and official
construction management, underground organizations started to form in the
village and at the construction site. The sect grew quickly in the village.
The number of zealots increased from the starting few as quickly as a
crystal grows in a saturated solution once a seed crystal is submerged
there. As for the construction... let's be honest, mafia started to rule the
construction.
At some point, a name appeared among the private cofounders of new
import-export companies - O'Hare - the same O'Hare who had been introduced
to Bemish in the thief's tavern and who had taken care of the presentation.
Bemish crossed the cofounder's name out with red ink commenting that
such a company would end up selling drugs and that would be really
disgusting. Giles, as an Intelligence employee agreed with the company
director wholeheartedly.
Only now Bemish realized how horribly he had been tricked by the small
official Shavash when he agreed to take the construction out of the local
authorities' jurisdiction. The district officials were corrupted and
unceremonious. They could have managed both the bandits and zealots and
happily ignored any humanitarian issues. They could have relocated the whole
village to, say, Chakhar in three days or just burned it to the ground.
Unlike them, Bemish would not be able to drive a tank over the village
or land in the middle of it, "as a miss", a sixty thousand ton space freight
ship - as Shavash suggested to him altogether seriously. And not a single
international legal system existed that would ban planet dwellers from
singing songs and going nuts en masse.
Now, Bemish found himself in a classical chess fork - if he started
arresting the zealots himself, even the most pro-Earthmen officials would be
indignant. If he asked for the authorities' help, it would be a sign of his
utter powerlessness.
The tipping point for the village and construction confrontation was
the following. They started to dig the foundation pits for service buildings
on the northern hill and dug out old temple complex remnants.
Having checked it out with archives, they found out the remnants were
the old temples of Adera-benefactor goddess that had prospered almost two
thousand years ago when the capital officials hadn't dared to force their
way into these surroundings calling the local dwellers "bandits" but not,
however, making any attempts to eradicate them.
This Adera lady had quite an irritable disposition, she had a tendency
to appear in people's dreams extorting gifts and even human sacrifices,
threatening with floods; indescribable orgies took place at her
celebrations. The sovereign Irshahchan obliterated the temple mercilessly,
recognizing this cult to be a crime against humanity and disobedience to the
authorities.
Having being trained to respect any ruin, Bemish stopped all the
construction there and asked Shavash and Kissur what he should do. Kissur
told him to clean up the damned temple and recycle it for construction
materials, if needed. Shavash took a look at the altar where boys were
rumored to be offered as a sacrifice and said that the altar was not
impressive as a cultural monument since carving was too crude.
The newspapers did hear about the temple however. The newspapers
demanded the Earthmen to take their dirty hands away from the national
heritage. Bemish snapped back tactlessly that the Weians themselves had
destroyed the temple while the Earthmen actually found it.
Soon, the most unbelievable myths related to the temple riches emerged.
They had dug out a large two hundred meter deep well in the temple, and a
rumor emerged that every local dweller had thrown his most valuable
belongings down this well as a sacrifice to Adera for centuries. Half-drunk
construction workers and deranged religious peasants believed every inch of
it and were climbing over the fence built around the temple twenty four
hours a day. Bemish ordered an exploration of the well's bottom and, in the
presence of the authorities and the journalists, loads of flint arrowheads,
brass round handles and clay female figurines with huge bellies was
extracted. There was a possibility that the local denizens had indeed thrown
their most valuable belongings down the Adera well but, during these times,
flint arrowheads had been the most valuable things here.
That, of course, didn't hurt the myth. Everybody saw how much equipment
was thrown at the well and that a hundred men spent three days around it! No
need! The rumors assured that the well appeared to be empty because the
managers had robbed it earlier. The money amounts, the names of the
spaceships used to transport the treasure to Earth, the names of the
museums, the name of the construction director and Shavash's name were
specified.
The morning of the eighteenth, Bemish found himself in the capital at a
conference dealing with developing countries investments issues. Bemish was
presented there both as a speaker and an exhibition object.
Bemish conversed with the relevant people and, immediately after the
talk he left for the spaceport, having picked up a man named Born - a United
Galactic Fund representative who was observing the situation with the
stabilization credit allocated for the Empire.
A flock of local journalists waited for Bemish at the helicopter and
attacked him with their questions.
"Mr. Bemish, is it true that when an old catalpa was ripped out at your
construction, blood appeared at its roots? Doesn't this omen foretell
misfortunes?"
"No."
"Is it true that a she-goat nearby changed to a he-goat?"
"A she-goat didn't change to a he-goat."
"Is it true, that they dug out a rock that had been buried during White
Emperor's times and it had words written on it, "In a month after this rock
is extracted the construction will perish."
"It is true. The words were, however, written with phenyl paint
developed and set in production five years ago. If the zealots decide to
counterfeit the White Emperor's words again, I would advise them not to buy
paint in the nearest kiosk."
"Mr. Bemish, is it true that you paid taxes this year with Weian
National Bank bonds at their face value?"
Here, Bemish's escort - he, accordingly to a local custom, obtained
himself three beefy flatheads - socked the peppiest journalist on his jaw
and the newspapermen bolted.
On the return helicopter trip to Assalah, Born inquired why the
journalist's had been punched in his mug.
"He is from White Sky," Bemish answered. "This is a newspaper owned by
zealots who think Earthmen to be demons crawling out from underground. They
say that if we flew from the sky, we would meet gods on the way. He was
asking boorish questions."
"Ah, zealot," the satisfied banker drawled, "zealots aren't dangerous."
"It's not dangerous but it's annoying," Bemish agreed.
"What were they asking about taxes?"
Bemish paused deciding whether or not he should explain. But the whole
thing had raised a stink and they had mentioned about it in the newspapers
couple times.
"There was a bank," Bemish said, "that went bankrupt. The government
nationalized it, restructured its loans and turned them into bonds."
"And what is the bonds' value?"
"It's seven-ten percent of their nominal value."
"And at what value were your bonds appraised?"
"They were appraised at hundred percent of their nominal value."
The banker grunted with astonishment, but he controlled himself and
didn't say anything.
Bemish asked Born what Weian official he liked the most, and Mr. Gerald
Born named Shavash without hesitation. And he added, "What do you think -
would Mr. Shavash agree to resign from his Empire appointment and head the
developing markets department in our bank?"
Bemish almost gaped.
"Why do you think," He asked cautiously, "that Shavash may want to
retire?"
"Because of all this slander directed at him! I can tell you with total
frankness that not a single tranche of our credit would reach its
destination if it was not for Shavash! The local officials would have
embezzled everything! This is the only man who is doing something to save
the country's economy. And what does he get back? The best Empire economist
languishes under a dimwitted minister and the officials fling disgusting
slander at him being unable to endure one honest man in their midst. I think
that the best solution for him would be to leave this planet. Do you
disagree?"
"No, not really," Bemish said, "Shavash is an amazing man - you are
right."
Bemish wanted to pass Born into Giles's hands, so that the latter dealt
with the guest till the take off, but Giles vanished somewhere and even his
cell was off - Bemish resolved to thrash him soundly.
Bemish personally walked his old acquaintance to the boarding ramp. The
latter was pleasantly surprised having learned that the spaceport had an
extraterritorial status and the spaceport's management collected taxes and
had independent jurisdiction."
Bemish had barely returned to his office when a phone rang.
Bemish picked up the receiver.
"Hello, Terence," the fairest Empire economist told him. "What's the
story with Golden Deer Company? I heard that you detained their freight."
"There is no story," Bemish said. "It's just that there is forty tons
of electronics there and they paid tariffs for five tons only. Why don't
they pay everything required and pick it up."
"Terence, be so kind. Their guy will drop by - stamp his papers and let
him go." And Shavash put the receiver down not waiting for a reply.
Giles announced himself in half an hour. He shakily walked in the
office. His face was smashed and his expensive suit was splattered in mud.
"Oh, my God, Giles what's happened to you?"
"Somebody attacked me."
"Who was it?"
"Who was it? It was some hoodlums. It was all the damn hoodlums of this
planet who don't have anything better to do than to get hired at this
construction!"
"Security is your problem, Giles. If your crappy service can't pacify
two dozen crooks, how is it going to pacify two dozen dictators?
"We will pacify crooks," Giles exploded. "Security troops will be here
in a week."
"What? Have you sent a request?"
"I will send it today."
"I forbid you."
"Why?"
"Because, at the moment it becomes public, everybody will start selling
my securities! At first, Federation Special Forces will send their troops to
devaluate the construction and then they will buy it dirt cheap, won't
they?"
"Won't zealots and bandits devaluate it?
"Exchange market doesn't care about zealots! It doesn't know what they
mean. It perfectly well understands what the Special Forces mean!"
Giles touched his torn cheekbone.
Bemish picked up the receiver and called Shavash.
"Shavash, my deputy was assaulted today. Who? Crooks! Send your police
in and eradicate these hoods."
"Terence, only Federation laws are valid at the spaceport territory.
You can call your troops in but not our police."
"Call this stupid immunity off!"
"You grumbled about corrupted officials yourself..."
"Your corrupted officials, at least, will not overload themselves with
legalities bashing these hoods' teeth in."
"I am glad that you see some advantages of our officials."
"They have advantages only compared to your crooks."
X X X
On the other end, Shavash switched to another line and told his
secretary to summon a car. In an hour, a narrow silver car drove Shavash to
a decorated gate of a bawdy house, famous across the whole country. Having
ignored the welcoming girls who leaped up at his arrival, Shavash walked
upstairs.
In a secluded office, a fully dressed short fifty-year-old Weian was
cooling his heels off.
"You got it," Shavash said. "Bemish is going to cleanse Assalah of
crooks using federal troops."
"It's not good if Long Stick sends the troops," the short man said.
"I can't do anything here," Shavash spread his hands. "It's your fault.
Who robbed Giles?"
"I will find out," the man said.
"Find it out, please. It's useful to know sometimes what your people
do."
Shavash paused and added.
"You, O'Hara, are like a parasite at the construction. You suck but you
don't feed, you harvest and you don't plough. Why would Bemish love you?
While if you helped him..."
"How can I help him? Should I not steal? How will I make my living?"
"Why should you not steal? For instance, Bemish has serious problems
with zealots. If you step on the zealots' tails, you will help Bemish."
The guy looked at the vice-minister with animosity. Weian crooks didn't
attack zealots as a rule. The pickings would be slim, and the zealots would
go totally mad - if you touched them they wouldn't rest till they cut the
whole gang down and declare it to be gods' wrath.
"I have a feeling that the zealots blighted you, not Bemish," the thief
said, "and that I will do a favor to you rather than to Bemish."
X X X
Two hours later, Bemish's helicopter landed in Kissur villa's backyard.
"The master is not at home," a maid reported, "the mistress will see
you in a moment. Could you, please, step into Lake Hall?"
Idari met him dressed in a blue skirt with golden sable trim and a
jacket embroidered with peacocks and squirrels. Her hair was pulled up in a
large black bun and a silver hairpin in the shape of a Lamass rowboat
pierced the bun. Bemish looked at the hairpin and it seemed to him that the
hairpin was piercing his heart.
Bemish kissed the house mistress' hand and said.
"I am touched that you received me in Kissur's absence."
Idari sat on the couch and pulled a tambour with a partially knitted
belt onto her knees.
The belt was embroidered with clouds and rivers. She almost always had
needlework with her.
Two servants brought fruit and cookie baskets to the veranda and
departed. A tame peacock dropped by the veranda, unfolded his tail,
scratched the doorstep with his red foot and left for the garden.
"What are you upset about, Mr. Bemish?" Idari asked. "Do you have any
problems with the fund?"
"No," Bemish said. "It's just that while I bought and sold other
people's stocks, I possibly wasted my own company."
"I thought that you finished assembling the first line of landing pads
a week before you planned."
"I mean the mood at the construction - zealots and crooks. I can't
eradicate them. Shavash tricked me when he obtained legal immunity for the
construction." Idari was silent.
"Why did he do it?" Bemish cried out. "Did he need me to hang the
zealots? Does he need the Earthmen to butcher these idiots instead of the
Empire, so that his hands are clean and the Earthmen's hands are smeared
with shit?"
"What am I saying?" a thought passed in Bemish's mind. "I am sitting
with a woman that I would give all of Assalah away for - ok, not all of
Assalah but at least thirty percent of it - and I am talking to her about
god knows what and she considers me to be a greedy and cowardly Earthman."
"He is not fully satisfied with you," Idari said.
"What is he not satisfied with? The only thing I don't export is
drugs!"
"That's exactly right."
Bemish froze, as if he just collided with a wall.
"Are you...serious?"
"I mean that all the legal violations taking place at the spaceport
deal only with taxes. You have not broken any criminal laws yet, Terence,
and Shavash doesn't like that. If you break tax laws you can be prosecuted
only at this planet. If you break criminal laws, you can be prosecuted
across the whole Galaxy. The more crimes you commit, the more power Shavash
will have over you."
"Bastard," Bemish muttered glumly. "If only I had known..."
"Shavash is better than you are," Idari objected.
"Shavash? Better?!!"
"Shavash will be forgiven many things because he wants a lot. He wants
women, power, glory, while you want only money."
"I want you. I want you more than money," Bemish wanted to say.
"You are right, Idari," he said, "I like money more than anything
else."
X X X
The next evening, the phone rang in Bemish's office. Ross called - an
ex-colleague of Giles - now his deputy on security issues.
"We have an emergency," Ross said. "A packer boy was knifed. We got the
killer."
"Did he resist?"
"No. He is quite a lout."
"Bring him to me," Bemish ordered.
Murders happened quite often at the construction. Generally, the
killers could not be found. Even if a man was killed in broad daylight,
somehow nobody saw anything.
Bemish was leafing through a draft of the yearly company report
prepared by the PR department on Earth when two wide-angled guys from the
security department brought the killer in the office - an inconspicuous
sixty-year-old man in washed out jeans and a jacket with white trim showing
that he worked in the fifth roadwork team. The killer's hands were twisted
behind his head and locked with handcuffs.
The guys left and Bemish pointed the involuntary visitor to a chair.
"Sit down."
He sat silently. Bemish was leafing through the report's last pages.
"Why don't you let me go, boss. They say you have a right to do it."
Bemish was staggered by his gall.
"Why did you kill the lad?"
"I wanted to talk to you, boss," the visitor said. "See, it ain't easy
to speak to you. I made an appointment with you, see, three times and you
were just cooling it off. I make another appointment today, come in and they
tell me, "the boss ain't here for you, Weian peasant mug, the boss is
driving a big dog around the construction, it's not your lawn anymore, move
it - go back to your barrack. So, I went back and it put me out. Why won't I
do something that the boss notice me?"
Bemish didn't interrupt the man yet. He had realized a while ago that
sooner or later the bandits would visit him but he hadn't suspected that
they would choose such an original way. And this knave is also reminding in
a subtle way - I have no problem knifing a boy down or you, boss...
"That was not a good idea," Bemish grinned, "because they will cut your
head off now."
"Our authorities?" the bandit laughed out, "Boss, it's not my first
murder, and my head is still with me. Do you think you will find witnesses
against me?"
That was true. The witnesses were available when the bandit had to meet
Bemish. Concerning his head though...
"What did you want to offer me in person?"
"Let's get things in order."
"What order?"
"What's all this mess around? They pick up stuff, swear - you know
what's going on - steal materials, drink people away. Say, yesterday, a gang
came in and started to play, six people sold themselves into slavery. So
they are slaves and what happens next? They work and their owner rubs his
belly and gets paid. We, on the other hand, would tidy things up."
"And what do you want in return?"
"Appoint me the landing field security manager."
"Do you want to traffic drugs?"
"Why should I traffic drugs, people make fortunes just on cigarettes.
Say, you boss, made a company with Shavash and everybody says that the
company hauls everything it wants and doesn't pay any tariffs."
"Is that it?"
"Pay us ten million dinars."
"Why should I pay you exactly ten million dinars?"
"You carried away two hundred million worth of Adera treasure and this
treasure belongs to the people. The brothers think that if you return people
one twentieth part it would be fair.
Bemish froze.
"The Adera treasure," Bemish said, "doesn't exist. There is neither
gold nor silver in Chakhar, where could the treasure come from two thousand
years ago?"
"Don't bullshit me, boss," the bandit said, "and don't act like a
little white lamb. You hang around with Shavash, he stole half the country
and we only pick up the crumbs..."
"I won't collaborate with you."
"Aha, you can do it with Shavash but you can't do it with us."
"There is a certain intelligence gap," Bemish said, "that makes our
collaboration impossible. Shavash can pocket several million after a
financial trick but he will not believe that a well with emerald walls
exists in a God-forsaken hole."
And he barked into the intercom.
"Escort the prisoner!"
In a moment, the security department guys were dragging the thief out
of the chair.
"Remember," he turned around at the door, "you stole more than your
underling, boss, but it would be just as easy to knife you."
"Move it," a beefy guy, barbarian Alom, said and jabbed the thief in
his ribs.
Bemish turned the air conditioner on and opened the window wide to
clear the office of the thief's smell.
The night air was stuffy and soaked by the dust raised by the dozens of
excavators and the hundreds of trucks. Far away a compressor station rumbled
and the stars, large and jagged like the shards from a bottle that the gods
smashed at the stone firmament, were cooling off above him.
Bemish was dismayed. Life was a disgusting and useless thing. He was
building a military spaceport on a crazy planet with corrupted officials and
an illiterate population and, as if it was not enough already, mafia coming
to him and offering to transfer cars and cigarettes via the functioning
spaceport's sectors. At the same time, it was totally clear to Bemish that
the thief acted on Shavash's hints and all his castigations against the
vice-minister were probably staged by this same small official. Idari is
right this man will not stop pestering him till he starts exporting drugs
via the spaceport...
The door squeaked.
Bemish span around and darted to the table where a gun was stored in a
drawer. Needless to say, the thief's warning made a strong impression on
him.
The gun, however, would not be needed. On the doorstep, Kissur stood in
fancy velvet pants and a multihued shirt embroidered with kissing ducks.
"Oh, my God! What brought you here?"
"Ah," Kissur said, "I spent too much time at home. I thought, "I
haven't inhaled that gasoline smell at Bemish's for a while." But I should
get used to it. Soon, my whole country will stink like your spaceport."
Bemish was silent.
"Why are you so sad?"
"A thief today told me straight that if I didn't collaborate with
mafia, I would regret it. Do you know what he asked as a proof of our
friendship? He asked me for the Adera treasure."
"Hm," Kissur said, "Maybe you should give this treasure away to the
bandit? I've heard it brings misfortune to its owner, anyway."
Terence stared at Kissur with astonishment. The latter suddenly broke
into laughter and slapped the Earthman on his shoulder.
"I gotcha!" Kissur cried out, "I gotcha again! Don't you get jokes?"
A phone squealed. Bemish picked up the receiver and slammed it back
down.
"It's not that I just stopped getting jokes," Bemish screamed. "I will
start believing in this treasure myself tomorrow! I will believe in a field
witch that is born of a rotten pole, in a tin can witch that is born of an
old tin can and in a carburetor witch coming from a carburetor dumped in a
swamp. I will believe that I am building a hole to hell, put a white robe on
and go preaching to the Following the Way that Earthmen are demons and
everything made by them is a phantom because I am not able to prove it's not
true."
"Actually, it's very easy," Kissur said.
"What?"
"It's easy to prove that Earthmen don't send phantoms."
"Be so kind, tell me."
"It's a very old trick," Kissur said, "I used it myself eight years ago
when I ran across a gang of crazies in some province. Their chief assured
that he was invulnerable to arrows and I told him that if it was the case
why wouldn't he stand next to a wall and I would shoot at him with my bow.
And he believed what he was saying and he stood next to a wall. I struck him
so that my arrow entered his chest and stuck out of his spine for a full
elbow and he pulled his legs from under himself and hung from this arrow and
his followers ran away, disappointed. It would be enough for you to take an
assault rifle and suggest to their preacher to place his belly in the way of
a rifle burst. If you, say, stay alive than all our hardware is a phantom
and I promise you to leave, and if you die than you lied. Don't you like
it?"
"No."
"Why? Are you afraid the rifle will misfire?"
Bemish paused and asked.
"So, Kissur what should I do with the bandits? Should I make peace or
war?"
"How are you to make war with the bandits?" Kissur got angry. "I am
telling you - if you want to kill the zealots off, take a gun and shoot at a
zealot - he will approach you himself! You don't want to shoot at a zealot
that will stick his belly at you. Do you think that a bandit will stick his
belly at you?"
"What would be your advice then?"
"You are a chicken, Terence. You turned the construction in a
shithouse. Just recently Shavash was amazed how you accounted for some
equipment in such a way that you managed to shave the tax by half a million
and he was so amazed by this - even he didn't know this trick. And while you
were accounting your contraptions and books..." and Kissur grinned. "Well,
if gods didn't give you the ability to shoot, you will have to make peace."
"What if I asked you to kill the bandits off?"
"I won't do it."
"Why? Do you have a lot of good friends among them?"
Kissur paused. At this moment, the office door flung open and angry
Giles flew in.
"Why don't you answer the phone, Terence," he shouted, "what is this
habit of hanging the receiver!"
"Do you have something urgent?"
"Urgent? Do you know what's happening at the Adera Temple? This
preacher, Ashinik, brought a crowd in, they broke the fence, forced their
way into the temple and they are having a worship service."
Bemish turned and picked up a close-knit hemp overcoat that he often
wore at the construction to be less conspicuous.
"What are you going to do?"
"I am going to attend the worship."
"You're going nuts," Giles said. "Call Shavash. Call the troops in.
They have finally broken the laws!"
"Call the troops in and what? Should I jail the whole village?"
"You should jail the rabble-rousers."
"And I should turn the others from ill-wishers into terrorists,
shouldn't I?"
"Bemish was tying the overcoat's laces decisively."
"I know what Terence wants," Kissur said, "I will go with him."
"Where are you going? Just the two of you? Oh, my God!" the spy roared
and seeing Kissur and Bemish rushing out of the office, followed them.
The Ninth Chapter
Where the demons' boss makes a pact with the pious people.
Adera's temple floated in the night lit with torches from below. The
crowd was huge - people in woolen jackets and grass overcoats girdled with
red belts crowded in the broken hall where the sky instead of a roof covered
a hurriedly built stage. Kissur and two Earthmen, dressed in rural hemp
overcoats, were ignored. Only when Bemish, while elbowing energetically to
the stage, pushed somebody in the back a guy jammed him in return and said
rudely, "Don't push like a demon!"
On the left and on the right of the stage, huge copper lanterns burned
and a round basin with fragrant water steamed on the altar. At the very edge
of the stage, Ashinik stood - the young preacher of Following the Way. His
face, thin as an onion peel, reddened, his eyes glistened in the torchlight
and the crowd responded with an ardent bellow to his every word. Ashinik was
dressed in a red hooded overcoat embroidered with red winged bulls reaching
all the way to the ground. His belt was made out of polished copper plates.
Black suede high boots looked out from under the overcoat. A bound white
goose lay at Ashinik's feet.
Ashinik preached about Earthmen. More precisely, he preached that the
clothing sewn by demons should not be worn.
"Two hundred years ago, in the last years of Emperor Sashar's rule,"
the man in the red overcoat gleaning in the torchlight was saying, "a
fashion spread among the people from the country of Great Light - a fashion
to wear the clothing made out of wool brought in by barbarians. It was a
clear omen that the barbarians would conquer the country. And now people
wear the clothing sewn by demons - a clear omen that the demons will conquer
the country. So, everyone wearing their foul jeans or jackets is, basically,
walking naked. You should know that everything that demons make is just
phantom and deceit. And they can't make anything but phantoms. Although they
are very powerful sorcerers, we are even more powerful than they are."
"Bullshit," Kissur said.
Everybody present turned facing him.
"Who are you?" Ashinik cried.
"My name is Kissur the White Falcon and this is Terence Bemish, the
construction boss, my best friend and we came today to see how you go nuts."
"It doesn't befit you, Kissur, to hobnob with demons," Ashinik spoke
harshly, "Since many people call you Irshahchan reborn but, truly, even a
white cloud dirties itself over an unclean mole."
Kissur unhurriedly ascended the stage and poked the youth in the chest.
Ashinik's bodyguards stirred agitatedly - didn't Ashinik see Kissur in his
last sovereign prophecy?
"You are a dog and you are a dog's bone," Kissur shouted with the same
voice he used to command an army of many thousand troops and the voice
carried above the quelled crowd without any speakers - you addle people's
minds and prattle a lot of nonsense and you say that white is black and mix
up hell and Big Galaxy and nothing but harm to the state comes from zealots.
And if you think that everything Earthmen make is phantoms - do you see what
this is?"
"It's a weapon of theirs," Ashinik said.
"Laser gun Star-M," Kissur thundered, "fan effect with improved
specifications. And you will stand at this gross shithouse that you call an
altar and I will shoot at you with this gun. And if Earthmen's weapons are
phantoms and you are a sorcerer, you will stay alive, and if the Earthmen's
weapons are weapons and you are a liar and a cheat, you will keel over and
go to hell that you say so much crap about."
Ashinik paled. He had never stood in front of a laser barrel. He heard
many times that the demons shot at the pious and it all came out to be a
phantom. But...
"Are you afraid?!" Kissur shouted. And he turned to the peasants. "Yes,
he is afraid; he knows that he is lying to you!"
"Shoot," Ashinik cried.
"Go to the altar!" Kissur shouted. "And all of you move aside and watch
with two eyes and don't tell people afterwards what didn't happen."
The crowd quieted and only breathed intensely. Ashinik snarled at his
bodyguards and they crawled aside hurriedly. Ashinik came to the altar,
raised his hands and faced Kissur.
"It's all stupidity and phantom," Ashinik said and you, Kissur, fell
prey to it. But when you shoot and I come back alive, your delusion will
disperse and you will not shame your name any more and will stand with us
against demons.
Kissur silently picked a fresh "doughnut" out of his pocket, recharged
the gun and turned off the safety switch with a clip. The eye on the
"doughnut's" top swelled with green light. Ashinik closed his eyes and
extended his hands forward. Bemish could clearly see the zealots' leader
young face covered with sweat and his chicken neck in the torchlight. "Good
lad," Giles whispered nearby. Kissur raised the laser.
"Don't you dare shoot, Kissur," Bemish said.
"What are you doing?" Giles hissed from the side.
Bemish pushed him away and leaped on the stage.
"Don't shoot!"
"Idiot," Kissur smirked.
"I can't allow you to kill a man right at my eyes, whatever this man
believes in!"
"You are demon!" Ashinik shrieked, "Look, people, he knows that he
can't kill me!"
The crowd clamored threateningly and rocked to the stage.
"Son of a bitch," Giles screeched, yanking a Kalet laser from under his
armpit.
"Kill them," Ashinik screamed. "They can't harm you!"
People were pushing at the stage.
"One more step and we will shoot," Giles shouted.
"Stop!" Bemish cried out.
Strangely, the crowd stopped for a moment.
Bemish turned to the crowd spreading his palms - a local greeting
gesture.
"What are you blaming me for?" he asked. "Not all the Earthmen, just
me, you know, I can't be responsible for every conman born on the other side
of the sky. What do you blame me personally for, Terence Bemish, the Assalah
construction director?"
Jumbled shouts came out of the crowd.
"They beat the villagers... Walk around drunk... Took the land away...
Make a lot of money..."
"Ah, make a lot of money!" Bemish shouted. "Why don't you make a lot of
money? Have I offered you a job? I have! I have hundreds of jobs for you!
Whose fault is it that you make less? Is it mine? Or is it those who don't
allow you to work at the construction?"
The crowd was getting restless. It was evident that the idea about the
sect being guilty of current problems had indeed popped in various minds,
especially the young ones but nobody had said it aloud and it's as if an
unsaid idea doesn't really exist.
"There is no order at the construction," a cry came out of the crowd.
Bemish raised his hand.
"You are right. I was not able to establish order at the construction."
And he turned to Ashinik.
"Will you be able to establish it?"
"The god is capable of everything and I am his servant here, in the
village," Ashinik said.
"Excellent," Bemish said, "Your adherents are right. I can't maintain
order at the construction. The sovereign, after all, can't maintain order in
this whole country, who am I to maintain order in the spaceport? Scoundrels
and cads trickled in to the construction and I can't figure out who the
culprits are. So, I am asking you, Ashinik, to become my vice-president,
fire everybody you would like to and hire everybody you would like to."
The zealot looked somewhat shocked.
"I can't serve demons," Ashinik said.
"In this case," Bemish said, "You will be responsible for the every
binge, fight and depravity happening at the spaceport. Since, if you worked
at the construction, you would be able to prevent this depravity. Why do you
refuse to do good for the people? Can't you do this? Why then do you muddle
people's minds calling yourself a man of power? Don't you want to do this?
Why do you call yourself a pious man then?"
The grey crowd looking like a huge centipede with burning eyes made of
the torches turned and moved and voices reached Bemish, standing on the
stage.
"If Ashinik became a boss, everything would be really different."
Ashinik was silent. Bemish waited - what kind of man is he and what's
stronger in him - the desire to hurt the people from the stars or the desire
to help the peasants.
"You know my beliefs, Mr. Bemish," Ashinik uttered. "Do you think I
will exchange them for your window they disburse money from?"
"I," Bemish said, "Believe in the freedom of conscience. The freedom of
conscience is not, when you let your employees believe in what you like,
it's when you let your employees believe what they want to. If you want to
consider me a demon - go ahead. If you are afraid that a close encounter
with me will weaken your beliefs, then they aren't worth much."
"All right," Ashinik said, "I accept your offer."
"You are nuts, Bemish," Giles said dismally.
Annoyed Kissur weighed the gun in his hand and threw it down the black
Adera well.
"You are a fool, Terence," he said, "and all of you, Earthmen, are
fools. It looks like your chicanery is of more use than your weapons."
The next day, the old bandit was taken to the capital in a truck. On
its way, a crowd of peasant zealots stopped the truck, pulled the bandit out
and dragged him to the village, somehow the bandit happened to be torn apart
on the way.
Not informing local police, Bemish called special troops in masks but
with an evident barbarian accent from the capital - mostly they were
Kissur's ex-warriors - and they scoured the hired workers' barracks
mercilessly fishing everybody suspicious out. They found about fifty such
people, beat them senseless, deposited them in a net and attached the net to
a freight helicopter. The helicopter made three triumphal circles above the
spaceport and flew to the capital.
Afterwards Bemish let Ashinik and his zealots into the barracks. He
gave full power to Ashinik and he proved to be right. The young fanatic was
a great manager and his intelligence service seemed to know the background
of each worker. They knew who in the barracks was a perspective zealot cowed
by the bandits and the thieves, who was an honest worker away from all these
catfights, who had robbed an Iniss bank last year and who had begged in
Upper Kharaine. Ashinik just brought Bemish the lists of workers to be fired
and Bemish initialed them without asking for any explanations that he
wouldn't get anyway.
The same day, Shavash called Bemish and insistently demanded the arrest
of all of the zealots. Bemish refused saying that they was necessary to
exterminate the bandits. Shavash said that he would give Bemish two weeks to
finish the bandits off and then Bemish should consecutively arrest all the
zealots for abusing their authority, lynching and sadistic treatment of
their subordinates. Actually, Shavash didn't suggest this plan out loud but
rather pretended that it had been Bemish's plan from the very beginning. To
destroy one infection using another one and then to write off all the
depravities that had happened during the extermination of the former to the
latter.
During that week, order and cleanliness came to rule the construction.
Bemish didn't entertain any illusions about the methods the zealots used to
attain this cleanliness - he saw how two janitors were whipping their
colleague for a rug that he hadn't washed at his shift's end - they whipped
him bloody with cries and brined whips.
For two weeks, Bemish wordlessly signed Ashinik's requests including a
request for buying, at the company's expense, three hundred meters of white
silk and three white geese even though Bemish was totally aware that white
silk would be used for belts the zealots covered with spells and wore on
their bodies and the three geese would be used for the divination about the
demons' fate.
In the beginning of the third week, Bemish found his new human
resources manager sitting and reading an acetylene welder construction and
repair manual that a zealot, considering acetylene welding to be a phantom
and illusion, was not supposed to do.
X X X
The next day, a highly placed committee from a Federation financial
advisory body arrived. The committee was supposed to study Weian economics
and collect data on the Galactic Bank target loan provided by the
Federation. From Bemish's point of view, this endeavor was pointless since
he hadn't seen a single target loan yet that was used for purposes other
than the construction of suburban villas for the officials in charge of the
credit distribution. The loans were humongous and the villas came out
luxurious. And since the loans were guaranteed by the state, the Federation
officials didn't give a damn what they were used for.
The committee landed in Assalah spaceport and expressed a desire to
examine the finished buildings and also the construction's next stage,
separated from the spaceport's operating part by steel mesh.
The committee was absolutely impressed with the order at the
construction site. Parting with Bemish, the committee head, the Galactic
Bank of Development Assistance vice-chairman, told him that he had a
brilliant trade union leader.
"It's incredible! Terence, where have you found this treasure? Have you
seen how the workers listen to him? They listen to him holding their breath
as if he was a prophet, and he is not even twenty yet!"
The vice-president said that this guy should immediately get a
scholarship and go to Havishem or Harvard and promised to write him a
reference letter.
Upon the committee's departure, Ashinik asked Bemish why Shavash hadn't
arrived with the Earthmen, since he had mostly been responsible for the
distribution of the above mentioned loans. Bemish answered that Shavash had
been busy. In fact, Shavash had called an hour before the flight and said
that he would come on one condition only - if he could take back with him
Ashinik's head in a sack. Shavash expressed himself exactly this way -
"head."
"Do you know," Shavash asked, "That these Following the Way guys
organized the last attempt at my assassination?"
"How would I know," Bemish snapped back, "If you hanged completely
different people for it?"
X X X
The next day, Bemish saw the Okuri company stock price skyrocketing and
it happened since Okuri perchance had secured from the sovereign the rights
to develop copper deposits recently found in the Chakhar mountains. Bemish
called Shavash to find out if Okuri had really gobbled this chunk or if
somebody was spreading the rumors to pick some dough and to find out if
there really was any copper ore in the Chakhar Mountains to begin with.
"I will exchange information about Okuri on Ashinik's balls," Shavash
said.
"No," Bemish said.
"What's happened to you, Terence, have you fallen in love with him? I
haven't noticed you leaning this way before."
Bemish choked.
"I am kidding. Since you love a different - woman," Shavash said
heavily and with a hidden meaning. And he dropped the receiver.
This evening, when Ashinik was having a dinner in the common cafeteria,
Bemish sat next to him. After tea, Bemish asked.
"Why does your sect dislike Shavash so much?"
Ashinik paused.
"Shavash is a briber and a scoundrel."
"Ashinik, sonny, all Weian officials are bribers and scoundrels. You,
however, dislike Shavash much more than, say, Khanida or Akhaggar - while
they cause just as much harm."
"Khanida hasn't tried to destroy us."
"That's why. And has Shavash tried?"
"Yes. He filled our circle with spies and dissidents. He bribed those
who were not firm in their convictions and they started preaching a lot of
nonsense and many people let themselves be lured."
"What kind of nonsense did they preach?"
"He bribed Dakhak and Dakhak started saying that it's wrong to deny
salvation to demons and that they would not be damned forever. And he bribed
Amarn and Amarn started teaching..." Ashinik suddenly stopped. "Our
teachings are none of your business," he finished.
Bemish couldn't conceal his smile.
"Are you sure that every zealot that doesn't believe the same things
you do, is necessarily bribed or seduced?"
"These people were bribed by Shavash," Ashinik cut him off.
Bemish paused. Really, Ashinik's words could be true. Shavash himself
told the Earthman that nothing was more efficient at killing the zealots
than discords among the sects. And the whole thing just looked like
Shavash's doing. Yes, this official stole, embezzled and it was not an
accident that a joke about him traveled around - out of all gods Shavash
envied ten handed Khagge the most - imagine how much you can steal with ten
hands? At the same time, only Shavash among all the bribers surrounding him
could be seriously concerned with the future danger of Following the Way.
Yes. It makes sense that Shavash tried to take care of the sect in a
way that wouldn't cause an international scandal. It would be one thing to
hang the zealots publicly pissing off all the human rights committees and
another thing to make them throttle each other.
X X X
At the end of the third week, Bemish found Ashinik on the border of an
unfinished sector. The lad was holding Bemish's gun that he had probably
picked up in a drawer in the office and, having extracted the battery, was
contemplating the "doughnut" thoughtfully. Ten meters away from Ashinik, a
huge basalt rock arose; it had been left on the field since it was too heavy
to transport. Now, a regular Atari could drag the rock away in two trips -
it was cut in half and black basalt foam bubbled at the jagged wound's
edges.
The light on the "doughnut" top blinked red - the battery was dead.
When Bemish approached, the zealot threw the gun on the grass and asked.
"Why didn't Kissur shoot me?" Bemish rolled on his feet.
"I've already told you. I can't let a deliberate murder happen right in
front of me even if the victim doesn't mind."
"I thought that this thing couldn't shoot me. At that moment, I thought
that you didn't allow Kissur to show that I was right."
Bemish silently looked at the youth. It would be interesting to know
how much time it took him to quarter the rock. Star's "doughnut" is
specified for forty eight minutes of uninterrupted shooting.
"It's very difficult," Ashinik said, "when you had seen that something
was black and then it appeared to be white."
"Have you really had visions, Ashinik?"
"I still have them."
"What are they about? Are they about Earthmen being demons?"
"Yes," Ashinik remarked, "Tell me, could a man be born out of a golden
egg?"
"Read a biology textbook," Bemish dryly suggested.
X X X
The next day, Ashinik was managing the forest clearing in a new area
and he fainted in the workers' view. He regained his senses in ten minutes
and continued working even though Bemish told him on the radio to go and
rest.
Ashinik felt fine for two days and he fainted again on the third one.
Then, he told the workers that he would turn them into cockroaches if they
told Bemish about the fits and Bemish didn't know anything till, in two
weeks, Ashinik fainted at a morning business meeting.
He recovered quickly but Bemish, not letting him open his mouth,
dragged him to the health services - to Isaak Malinovskii who was in charge
of influenza, accidents and malaria at the construction and who also kept
terrorizing Bemish with the possibility of a cholera epidemic.
Malinovskii took the youth's blood pressure, put him on the couch,
wrapped him with wires and ran a tomography on him. Ashinik didn't resist.
He didn't seem to care.
"What problems do you have?" Malinovskii finally asked, having covered
the youth with a blanket and sitting next to him.
"Am I fine?"
"You have a bad case of nervous exhaustion. What happens to you before
you faint?"
"I see different pictures. I was sitting, for example, at the today's
meeting and then everybody around started growing horns and snouts and a
wall tied around me and began choking me."
Ashinik paused.
"Tell me, doctor, am I crazy?"
"Why are you asking this question?"
"I have visions. I read this thick book - a psychiatry textbook. It
said that if a man saw what others didn't, it meant that something was wrong
with his brains."
"If an Earthman came to me and told me what you had just described, I
would definitely recommend him a psychiatrist. But the specific subculture
you belong to is very different. For Following the Way a trance is normal
and the ability to fall in a trance is one of the ways to prove your
leadership skills. You are a very nervous and excitable man, Ashinik, but
you are mentally normal. And I think that your visions will disappear soon
because here, working for the company, you've found another way to be a
leader.
Malinovskii attached a plastic drug vial to a syringe and said, "And
now you need to sleep long and well."
When Ashinik woke up, it was already day time. The fiery snouts that
had buzzed in his mind yesterday disappeared. He lay in a wide bed in a room
with carved pink wood walls and a wide open window. A cardinal sat on the
windowsill and studied him with eyes that looked like mercury droplets and
far away, behind the bird's red feathers and bush greenery two hundred
meters of Assalah spaceport control tower soared in the sky.
Ashinik realized that he had probably been moved to Terence Bemish's
villa. He hadn't been to the villa yet because there was a lot of work at
the spaceport and because Bemish either slept at the spaceport or flew to
the capital on business.
Ashinik turned his head and saw a girl sitting next to him. The girl
was dressed in a velvet jacket and a long bell shaped skirt sewn with
flowers and grasses. A hazy silk belt tied with a five-petal knot fluttered
behind her back like butterfly wings.
The girl smiled at Ashinik shyly and Ashinik suddenly smiled back.
Something scurried between them - Ashinik imagined for a moment a furry
little animal jumping out one smile into another.
"Mr. Bemish said that you should stay in bed and should not get up."
"Are you Bemish's concubine?" Ashinik asked. His voice suddenly
acquired the cold confidence that he preached to hundreds of people with.
"Yes."
"I heard about you. You are Inis. How much did he pay for you?"
Inis shuddered.
"He paid for me as much as they asked."
"Does he love you?"
"Mr. Bemish likes me quite a bit." Inis said.
"Why haven't I seen you at the construction?"
Inis smiled guiltily.
"Mr. Bemish really wanted me to be at the construction," Inis said.
"He taught me himself how to work with accounting software and make
accounting reports. He made me his secretary. And then this crap happened...
I was once sitting in the office in the evening when three workers came in.
They were going to file a complaint about their manager but when they saw me
sitting there alone, they assaulted me and... I was just able to call for
help. After that, I asked Mr. Bemish to let me stay in the villa and he
agreed."
Inis straightened up and added proudly.
"But I do a lot of stuff here. I check all the bills and last month I
saved Mr. Bemish two hundred thousand when I noticed one local official
running fake accounts through the company."
She sighed and added.
"We still had to give this official a fifty thousand bribe."
"What software do you use," Ashinik asked.
He had practically no experience with computers and, frankly, he was
afraid of these scary answerers that Earthmen always carried with them like
handkerchiefs and at every third word took them out of their pockets and
spread open. Seeing them always reminded him one of the most popular sect
myths - that demons took their souls out and put them in these organic
silicon handkerchiefs or iron boxes and the demons' souls felt lonely and
blinked on the monitors with multicolored lights.
Inis started saying something but Ashinik had drifted off. "The demon
is not very jealous if he leaves his concubine alone with a young man," he
thought.
X X X
Ashinik returned to the construction in three days and Bemish was very
happy since it was quite difficult to manage things without him. Bemish
happened to send Ashinik to villa several times for important papers or with
some orders and Ashinik always drove there with a visible delight.
Soon Inis appeared in Bemish's office again as a secretary and
Ashinik's frequent trips to the villa came to an end. Ashinik and Inis were
quite a bit younger than Terence Bemish - she was seventeen, he was twenty -
but Bemish just didn't notice how Inis' blushed when his young deputy
entered the company director's office and how often Ashinik and Inis ate
together in the company cafeteria or in one of the port's restaurants that
had grown around like mushrooms.
Although, Terence Bemish declared at his first meeting with Inis some
words about the freedom of will, in reality this freedom of will extended
only as far as him making Inis his secretary - while Inis was a nice and
kind girl, blindingly bright she was not. Bemish was quite happy when she
handed him a clean shirt and socks in the morning, excellent coffee at noon
and spent nights in his bed - when, of course, the Assalah company head was
not having fun in a capital bordello or at a high rank official reception
that would usually come to an end in the same bordello.
Bemish took as good care of her as he did of expensive house furniture
but he knew that nothing better than a secretary could come out of Inis - a
nice pleasant girl with a warm heart and, let's admit it, not a very smart
head. And Terence Bemish assigned automatically any unintelligent person to
a place at the very bottom of his rating list.
X X X
The next week, Trevis visited the construction. The meeting had been
planned a while ago and had nothing to do with the zealots' affair but
Trevis probably heard something during the flight. His first question upon
arrival was,
"Terence, what's going on here? They say that you appointed some zealot
to be your deputy?"
"Let me introduce Ashinik to you," Bemish said.
Ashinik bowed. Trevis stared at the youth.
"Do you consider me a demon?" Trevis inquired.
"I am not familiar with you," Ashinik answered seriously, "But what
I've heard about you makes me think that a lot of people would call you a
demon and you wouldn't take an offence at this name anyway."
Trevis laughed out.
"Well, even if you are a zealot, at least you are not crazy," he said.
X X X
On the eighteenth, Bemish spoke to the sovereign Varnazd. It happened
the following way.
Bemish collected quite a number of papers requiring Shavash's signature
and he arrived to the capital in person bringing the papers and gifts with
him. He was told that Shavash was in the palace and he would be there till
morning. Bemish went to the palace. He entered without an issue.
Umpteen pavilions and inner yards and the gardens breathing with
freshness were so unexpectedly beautiful that Bemish, tired of the banging
concrete blocks and of all the filth of his huge construction, forgot
everything walking thoughtlessly amidst the dancing gods and pompously
cackling peacocks. Suddenly somebody called him out of a carved gazebo.
"Mr. Bemish!"
Bemish turned around and came closer trying to recall where, out of all
the endless receptions, he saw this young official with a nice and uncertain
face and eyebrows pulling upwards like a sparrow's tail.
"Don't you recognize me?" the official asked smiling.
"Oh, my sovereign," Bemish exclaimed, going down on one knee, "How can
one not recognize you?!"
The sovereign pointed Bemish to a woven chair deep in the gazebo.
Bemish sat in the chair and pushed the paper folder behind his back.
"I wanted to ask you," the sovereign continued, "What is
"unfathomable?"
"What?" Bemish was astounded. The sovereign picked a volume lying in
front of him and read, stretching the vowels slightly.
Unfathomable sea, whose waves are years,
Ocean of time, whose waters of deep woe,
Are salted with the salt of human tears...
Bemish lowered his eyes looking at the front page - it was Percy Bysshe
Shelley.
"Ah," Bemish said, "Unfathomable means bottomless. It's a poetic word.
I don't think anybody would need it now."
"Yes," the sovereign nodded, "A lot of poetic words disappeared from
your language. But numerous abbreviations appeared, didn't they?
Bemish nodded.
"It's a pity," the sovereign said, "that they don't translate your old
books. They translate dictionaries and manuals but not Shelley."
"Do you like Shelley?" Bemish asked with trepidation to maintain the
conversation, even though the only Shelley he had read was a certain A.D.
Shelley, one of the co-authors of a book Assembling Radiowave Beacons on
Geostationary Orbits in Order to Correct the Spaceship's Trajectory in the
Proximity of Planets."
"Yes," the sovereign said, "Reading him I understand that we and
Earthmen are very much alike. Or we were alike. You know this representation
of time that brings downfall to the best and the proudest, goes
backwards..."
The sovereign paused.
"Were you looking for someone?" he said suddenly, nodding at the folder
a corner of which was sticking out of the armchair.
"Yes, I was looking for Shavash. I need his signature."
"Maybe I could sign something here? I am sure you don't have
anything... reprehensible."
Sovereign Varnazd smiled shyly saying these words and Bemish had an
unpleasant feeling. What does he mean, "anything reprehensible?" Does he
mean that Bemish is not a swindler? Or that all the filth doesn't touch the
papers?
"So would you like me to sign anything?"
Bemish hesitated. On one side, two papers indeed required the
sovereign's signature - he would have to wait three weeks to get it. On the
other hand, what if Shavash gets displeased? He will think that Bemish crept
into the garden, found the sovereign behind the Shavash's back, told him God
knows what, left Shavash without rightly earned gifts and, to conclude,
acted improperly.
Bemish raised his eyes. The Emperor suddenly smiled bitterly and spoke.
"I am sorry. I know that my signature doesn't mean much but I often
forget that it can also cause damage."
Oh, my God! - Bemish was astonished - he understands everything! But
why...
"I would like to do something nice for you," the sovereign said.
"You... I have seen some of your paintings. May I see others?"
The sovereign smiled.
"Let's go."
In five minutes, they passed through the sovereign's bedroom into a
light room with eight corners. The guards gaped, if any Earthmen - Van
Leyven or Nan - had found themselves in the guarded halls, at least, it had
happened a long time ago.
Bemish wasn't mistaken - the sovereign's Varnazd drawings were
wondrously good. He probably wasn't a genius painter, he likely followed one
of the old masters - every single drawing was done in a traditional manner
with light watercolors, slightly faded from the beginning, - and there was
something sad and defenseless in all of them, something that resonated
surprisingly well with the face of the sovereign of Great Light Country. "I
wouldn't hire him even as a department head," Bemish thought.
Bemish stopped for a long while in front of a certain drawing. It
depicted a view out of a window - probably a palace one, judging by a curled
frame corner - a view of a winter garden. Huge wet snow sheets pushed dry
flowers to the ground, four commoner gardeners looking like sparrows with
ruffled feathers, were starting a fire in the middle of a large black
clearing. A forlorn spear was poised behind the fire. It was clear that the
painter felt bad for these people but he thought that he couldn't change
anything. It was winter coming year after year. Unfathomable sea whose waves
are years...
"Well," the sovereign Varnazd said, "Which one do you like the most?"
Bemish pointed at the drawing with the gardeners at the fire.
"What else?"
Bemish picked another one.
"You have an excellent taste," the sovereign said. "These are the
best."
"Have you painted them a while ago?"
"Yes, it was seven years ago when I was a Khanalai's prisoner. These
are my guards. Do you see the spear?"
Bemish paled. Yes, sovereign Varnazd was a Khanalai's prisoner seven
years ago and not just a prisoner - Khanalai did everything but starved him,
wiped his fingers at Varnazd's hair during his feasts, and just waited for
the full victory to execute an unworthy emperor...
"It's possible that to draw well, you have to suffer. I had a reason
then to pity myself."
"You seem not to pity yourself," Bemish dared. "You seem to pity the
peasants that guard you."
They left the eight cornered room for a terrace. A light armchair with
a golden head and spreading wings at the sides - it seemed to be flying -
stood next to the balustrade and several foot stools stood next to it. The
sovereign sat in the armchair and showed Bemish to a stool. They sat down,
the sovereign paused and asked.
"They write in your newspapers that I should have a parliament elected
and transfer the power to the people - that is, they say, the only way to
manage corruption and power abuse. And my officials keep pointing out that
the people are poor, lost and embittered and that there are a lot of
underground sects in the country. If only rich are allowed to vote, a
rebellion will fire up and if everybody is allowed to vote, crazy zealots
will make one half of parliament and the officials bribed by the criminals -
another half. They also say that an assembly can rule only during easy
times, and one man should rule during uneasy times. It is in assemblies'
nature to think slowly and in the uneasy times one has to make fast
decisions and any slow decision in uneasy times will be a wrong one. What do
you think?"
Bemish felt uncomfortable sitting on a gilded perch - he wasn't a
parrot, was he? He stood and said.
"I think that one can always find a thousand reasons why democracy is
not good. And I think that all these reasons are untrustworthy. I don't
think that people are as stupid as unscrupulous politicians picture them and
I bring you my apologies, sovereign, but I am sure that it is more difficult
to fool a million of stupid commoners than one smart emperor."
Varnazd paused.
"When I was Khanalai's prisoner, I thought a lot about it. I thought
that my own errors caused the civil war and the worst of it was that it
wasn't really my fault. It's just that if everything depends on one person,
the officials around him want to solve all their problems by fooling this
person and they, of course, succeed. And I decided that one man shouldn't
rule the country because perfect sovereigns don't exist and only the
sovereigns who consider themselves be perfect, exist."
Bemish grinned.
"I apologize, sovereign, but it's not really evident that you have
chosen this way."
"I was talked out of it," Varnazd said, "By the Earthmen - Nan and Van
Leyven. They started arguing that an election would cause anarchy, that the
people would consider it to be a shame and a concession to the Earthmen who
forced their decisions on the freed emperor, that even Khanalai realized
that the Empire of Great Light existence was based on worshipping God-king
while an elected assembly would be despised, not respected. It may all be
correct, but the real reason was that Nan and Van Leyven knew it would be
easier for them to rule in my name than in an elected assembly's name. Yes,
they talked me out of it."
"I don't think so," Bemish said. "You let yourself be persuaded. You
had shrunk away from power when you hadn't had it, but when you got it back
you didn't really want to refuse it."
Bemish expected anger or an emotionless "no" but the sovereign lowered
his head suddenly and tears showed at his eyelashes.
"It's so strange," Varnazd said. "I told myself what you've just said
many times. And now you told me the same words and I am ready to hate you
for it."
And he flapped his sleeves.
"Where is it, my power? You are even afraid to get your papers signed,
the same ones that Shavash will bring tomorrow for my signature! You are
afraid that Shavash will suspect you conniving something and will not let
you use the papers signed by me! And you and Shavash are friends!"
"Sovereign," Bemish said, "if you understand everything, why do you act
this way? Why wouldn't you set an election day?"
"Do you know," Varnazd asked, "who will become the Empire's first
minister after the election?"
Bemish shrugged his shoulders.
"Shavash! I don't believe that my people will elect a zealot or a fool!
They will elect a smart man. Shavash will bribe everybody and everybody will
like him, he will even find a path to the zealots' hearts using his spies -
but while I am alive, Mr. Bemish, I will not allow Shavash to rule my
people. We don't have a god similar to your Satan but believe me, if we did,
Shavash would be his son."
Before leaving Bemish, the sovereign Varnazd suddenly brought his guest
to a pavilion where the paintings drawn the previous centuries hung. The
paintings covered the wall like a spotty carpet - like an iconostasis -
small marble altars, braziers and gold basins with fresh pine branches
floating in them, stood in front of the most beautiful paintings.
Bemish saw a girl and a dragon immediately - an altar stood in front of
it - and Bemish thought worriedly whether the brazier smoke harmed the
drawing or, to the contrary, protected it.
"I would like to give it to you," the emperor said. Bemish bowed.
"Your Eternity, I can't accept such a gift."
"But I would like you to!"
"A man was killed because of this painting. It will always remind me
about his death."
"Who was he?"
"It was my headman, Adini. The man, who swapped the original and the
copy, following Shavash's orders."
Bemish hesitated, considering whether he was going to say something
that would be taken as an affront, and finished.
"I would prefer the gardeners around a fire."
The sovereign didn't give Bemish the gardeners, of course. Two days
later, he however bestowed a watercolor to the Earthman that depicted
mermaids, imps and people in a dancing frenzy around a fire soaring to the
sky. The colors were painfully bright, the people's pupils narrowed from the
blinding light and the fire itself was formed by a circle of the intertwined
transparent snakelike demons. One of the guests whispered to Bemish with a
smile that somewhere around fifth century, the god of wealth secret worships
had been depicted in such a way.
Terence Bemish had an overcoat, that such gifts were supposed to be
accepted in, put on his shoulders and he kneeled and kissed the emperor's
hand and the golden brush attached to the roll's right corner.
The very fact, that the emperor bestowed one of his own paintings to a
man from the stars, brought forth many rumors - Terence Bemish was the first
man born on the sky that received such a gift. The whispers started that the
foreigner would soon be offered a Chakhar governor or a minister of finance
position but better informed people shook their heads and said that nobody
would change a bill prohibiting people from the stars from taking Empyreal
appointments - this bill had been designed specially to kick Nan out of the
country.
X X X
The day that Bemish spent talking to sovereign Varnazd, his first
deputy Ashinik spent at the new site A-33. The place was barely developed -
a tractor path wove in the middle of it but it was enough to step ten meters
away to see birds fluttering out of the grass and lizards presenting their
green back to the sun on the spotty rocks. When lunch time came, the workers
climbed in a jeep and drove to the cafeteria. Ashinik wanted to spend some
time alone. He walked up a sunlit hillock, sat on the grass and uncovered a
rug his lunch was wrapped in - two flatbread pieces with sheep cheese and
butter.
Somebody settled down on the grass next to him. Ashinik turned around.
Near him, a man sat in a rough hay overcoat and a yellow repairman belt - it
was not a repairman, however, but a man named Yadan. Yadan was the very same
zealot that had taught Ashinik and raised him to the third level. Yadan was
not the head of the zealots, there was one man above him who was not
supposed to be called by his name and whom everybody called White Elder.
White Elder was not a nickname - it was a position. If the White Elder died,
Yadan would become the White Elder. Yadan was the most uncompromising
Earthmen's opponent in the sect and he was the second in its hierarchy.
"Good day, Ashinik."
"Good day, teacher. Why didn't you say that you wanted to see me? It's
dangerous for you to come here. What if somebody identifies you?"
"Why is it dangerous? I thought that this is the safest place in the
whole Empire for me. Isn't everybody working at the construction devoted to
us?"
"What can you require from simple peasants, teacher? It's easy to tempt
a man with a high salary and a thick bun and this demon Giles stuck his
steel eyes everywhere and watches me all the time. All that he wants is to
use me to catch a big fish that will feed demons' Intelligence and that
Shavash will enjoy."
Ashinik was saying these words mechanically squeezing the unwrapped rag
with a bun and cheese in his hand. He felt fear shoving its sticky fingers
in his heart. What will Yadan ask from him? The teacher's voice didn't
promise anything pleasant. He will be punished now... Why? What rules has
Ashinik broken? He always followed all rituals and customs carefully. An
evening hasn't passed yet without Ashinik calling the workers in for a brief
prayer, a morning hasn't passed without him getting out of the bed and
splashing his left shoulder with water... And still Ashinik's heart
fluttered....
"You are afraid," Yagan said unexpectedly. "Why are you shaking,
Ashinik?"
Ashinik was silent.
"Oh, I am sorry my lad, that I am asking such a stupid question," Yadan
spoke suddenly. "It's difficult to live amidst demons and not be afraid,
isn't it?"
"Yes, of course."
They were silent for a moment. Yadan, dry and rangy, stared at the
uprooted patch and a covered with clay excavator immobilized at a huge
foundation pit.
"I am hungry," Yadan spoke suddenly.
Ashinik hurriedly broke the bun in half.
"Hola, my lad!" the zealot said quietly. "Do you eat demons' food
already?"
Ashinik looked at the bun in horror.
He picked up the snack at a road stand where a village matron was
selling cheap Weian food. The bun was frankly of the simplest kind, the same
one as women had baked here for the thousands of years and the cheese was
homemade sharp goat cheese rolled in small white balls. But red hot sauce
between cheese and onions - here Yadan was totally right - came not from the
local places but out of an imported demons' can. Ashinik went cold. Even a
month ago, he, Ashinik, would have noticed himself that it was demons' food
and here he just bought the bun and wrapped it in the rug automatically.
Gods, what's happening to him, Ashinik, that he doesn't notice so simple
things? Or, is it all that important what can this sauce comes from?
Ashinik blushed furiously and threw the bun in the pit filled with
water.
"How often do you eat their food?"
Ashinik kept guilty silence. Constantly having body cleanliness and the
teacher's admonitions in mind, he mostly tried to avoid the Earthmen's
dishes but it wasn't easy. The first time, he had to eat their food was at
that bank committee reception. Ashinik was seated with the other people at a
banquet table and, though Ashinik could handle hunger, he couldn't handle
the understanding and relaxed look that Terence Bemish glanced at Ashinik's
empty plate with.
Then - either a meeting after which Inis gets a pizza or working till
late night and a hamburger - it's difficult to live with the demons and not
eat their food. Forget about the food, it such a shame that Ashinik has a
suit hanging in his closet - made out of the same demons' cloth that he
frightened the believers with.
"Do you eat demons' food often?" Yadan repeated his question.
"I have to sometimes," Ashinik uttered.
"So, that's what is happening," Yadan grinned. "The gods addled the
demons' minds and turned them into the gods' tool - did we suppose that the
demons would handle their main construction over to us..."
And he stood suddenly.
"It's enough of demons' food for you; the time has come for you to eat
food for your soul. Come to Inissa by the sixth, you know, where you should
be."
He turned away and disappeared.
Ashinik sat unmoving for a while. He thought that everything could have
been way worse. Yadan could order him to kill Bemish or to set a bomb off
next to a passenger terminal. What would have Ashinik done then? He couldn't
refuse...
Instead of this, they just called him to Inissa for an all-round sect
meeting. What does it mean? Do they approve of his actions? Or are they
going to bring him to a trial and the sixth will become his life's last day?
Or he will be commanded to make up for his crime by killing the very same
man that tempted him away from the true road - Terence Bemish?
Ashinik stood up abruptly. He suddenly felt how his body became sticky
with sweat and he also felt horrible hunger pangs. Really, he hadn't eaten
since five am. He would have happily picked up the bun if he had thrown it
to the ground. Ashinik was a simple and resilient village lad and by the
war's end, during the famine, he had to eat not just buns covered in mud but
also live caterpillars. But he had thrown the bun away in the foundation
pit, should he swim after it?
Ashinik slowly lumbered west where the spaceport's hangars and
technical services started on the other side of the torn out fence's planks.
In five minutes, he entered the main building via an underground
tunnel. Weian and English words blinked on a board, alien words hang in the
air like flies and thousands of people scurried back and forth.
Ashinik spun his head around looking for the nearest Weian seller but,
then, he turned sharply and approached a huge gleaming fast food stand
covered with all kinds of hamburgers and bottles full of dyed water.
X X X
In half an hour, Ashinik ran right into Giles on the twelfth floor.
Ashinik didn't like Giles. He knew that the latter was Shavash's close
friend, and unlike Terence Bemish, who never grilled Ashinik about the sect
or the reasons behind his orders, Giles constantly wondered about customs
and meetings and more than once or twice he would start explaining pompously
to Ashinik why, accordingly to Earth scientific laws, nothing could get born
out of a golden egg.
"Hey, Ashinik, what do you need here?" Giles inquired.
"The report that I gave to Mr. Bemish yesterday," Ashinik answered. "I
need to fix some stuff."
"Ah, hm-hm," the security chief said mysteriously. Here, the elevator
doors opened finally, Giles jumped in and left.
Ashinik twitched his mouth and opened the door to Bemish's personal
office. He told Giles the truth and nothing but the truth - he did need his
yesterday's report. Leaving for the capital, Bemish said that he scribbled
some remarks on it and Ashinik needed to fix the report accordingly to the
remarks and hand it over to Bemish when the latter returned.
The report however was nowhere to be found. Ashinik cautiously searched
the papers strewn across Terence's table and found nothing. Ashinik
hesitated and, having approached a door at the far end of the office, he
pushed it and entered.
It was Terence Bemish's personal residence. A forty square meters
living room started right behind the office doors, its windows, made out of
soundproof glass, faced the landing pads. A personal elevator could deliver
the owner to the bedroom and the guests even higher, to the very tower top
where a rocky garden with cactuses and agaves was set out. Other plants
didn't take well to this height, either wind got in their way or it was the
nonstop roaring of the ships taking off - there was no soundproof glass
around the plants.
Going to his bedroom, Bemish generally used, instead of the elevator, a
wide and beautiful staircase that started right in the living room.
The report was not in the living room either. Ashinik thought that
Bemish had slept here yesterday and most probably he had left the report on
a table in the bedroom. Bemish had left papers there before occasionally and
he had sent Ashinik after them. Ashinik, after a brief hesitation, walked
upstairs.
Semi-darkness and cleanliness ruled the bedroom and Ashinik noticed the
blasted report at once - it lay under the bed, next to Bemish's slippers,
and one could see how mercilessly it had been scribbled over even all the
way from the door. Then, something moved to the side next to a mirror.
Ashinik turned his head and saw Inis.
"What are you doing here?" Inis said.
"I came to get the report," Ashinik answered, bending and picking up
the papers. "And you?"
"Don't you see? It's the new skirt!" Indeed, Inis stood next to the
mirror twisting around to see her own profile and, instead of a somber
business suit that she had had on in the morning, she was dressed in a
wraparound skirt.
Ashinik, still holding the report in his hands, sat on the bed edge
mechanically.
"Has Mr. Bemish bought it?"
"Silly! It's a surprise. It's a gift from Idari."
Inis picked the skirt edge with her fingertips and raised her hands and
suddenly swirled across the room. Entranced Ashinik looked at her white
legs.
He had never noticed before what Inis was dressed in. He had always
undressed her in his thoughts.
"It's beautiful. Isn't it beautiful, really?"
"It's very beautiful," Ashinik whispered.
Inis laughed and ran to the door on her toes. Her hand groped for a
switch. She turned the light off. However, it was still quite bright in the
bedroom, thanks to wide windows going across the whole wall. The windows had
no curtains - a layer of special compound inside them of them blocked
incoming light either partially or completely. Now, the windows were working
part way, softening blinding lights of the launching pads and, the lights'
positions told Ashinik that a ship in K1 pad was going to take off any
minute.
It should be howling outside by now, but the walls cut the sound off.
"Imagine, Mr. Bemish would sit like this, and I would appear here,"
Inis spoke.
She swirled around the room and suddenly froze spreading the skirt at
the lighted window background. At that moment, the yellow take off lights
fired, the nose of a large freight Atlant shuddered and moved up, fire and
smoke beams started under its exhausts, bulky like hippopotamus legs, the
room was lit in a blinding blood red color and Ashinik saw Inis's black
silhouette standing out on this blood red light background.
"Ouch," Inis cried out, stumbling for a moment.
She fell on the bed and Ashinik pressed her to himself at the same
moment.
"Exactly," Inis spoke laughing, "Here, Mr. Bemish will embrace me like
this... let me go..."
Not answering, Ashinik was kissing her.
"Let me go!"
Ashinik and Inis had kissed several times before that, but now Ashinik
wasn't really controlling himself. He was madly frightened by the
conversation with Yadan, the darkness and the faraway light bursts excited
him and he was absolutely certain that Terence Bemish was in the capital,
two hours away, and nobody would enter his bedroom.
"Inis, I am leaving soon. I can't leave without that." Ashinik
whispered.
Inis was fighting him no more. The girl, having thrown her head
backwards, let him kiss her and moaned slightly. Ashinik pulled her closer.
"Hold on," Inis suddenly said, "I will take the skirt off or you will
tear it."
Ashinik relaxed his hands and looked at Inis unbuttoning her blouse and
pulling the skirt over her head in a lithe feline movement. Then, her hands
embraced the youth and before Ashinik figured out what's happening, the girl
unbuckled his belt and her thin nimble fingers slid down to his male
nature...
"Wow, what a python I have awakened," Inis whispered.
X X X
In half an hour, they were still lying completely naked in the Assalah
company director's wide queen size bed and Inis was thoughtfully gliding her
finger over Ashinik's flat boyish stomach. Going into the sky torches were
still blazing up and fading behind the window. Ashinik extended his hand and
having found the transparency regulator, made the window slightly darker.
"Where is the master sending you to?" Inis asked suddenly.
"Eh?"
Ashinik didn't immediately figure out what she meant.
"It's not the master. It's... I just need to go back to my place."
They were silent. Ashinik felt a strange fury thinking that tomorrow
night she would be lying with Bemish the same way and everything that she
was able to do - and she was able to do a lot and she had demonstrated it to
Ashinik - all of it she learned from the man from the stars.
"In the past," Insis said thoughtfully sorting Ashinik's hair, "they
put adulterous concubines in sacks and threw them alive into a river."
"Terence Bemish will hardly through you into the river," Ashinik
objected. "He is an Earthman."
"I wonder, what he would do to us," Inis pondered.
"He won't do anything to us if we tell him nothing."
"The workday is finished. Stay here," Inis suggested. "The master is in
the capital anyway and he won't return before the morning."
"I still need to fix the report," Ashinik said.
"You can fix it in the morning."
And Ashinik stayed.
Bemish indeed returned only the next day and not even in the morning,
but in the afternoon. Ashinik had managed to fix the report but Bemish
didn't even look at it. He called a meeting and demanded that work on the
fifteenth launch pad be temporarily frozen and all freed workforce to be
used at the new storage construction. Ashinik sat at the meeting not raising
his eyes. A full bookshelf hung behind Bemish's back and Ashinik remembered
that a Lassal's demolition manual was on the shelf. Ashinik needed this book
but he was afraid to take it out that morning because it seemed to him that
the security head Giles had indeed seen old Yadan and if Ashinik started
reading demolition manuals after Yadan's visit, then Giles would place
surveillance bugs even in Ashinik's pants.
"Ashinik, do you understand what you need to do?"
Ashinik raised his head bewildered. Bemish was telling him something,
but he missed it all. Ashinik nodded and only then he noticed the company
director's swollen cheeks and dark circles under his eyes - he had probably
had a lot of fun yesterday.
Yikes, bordellos - demons' pastime where corrupted officials put Weian
girls in the demons' beds...
"Yes, I got it."
"Ashinik, what's wrong with you? Are you sick?"
"I am all right. I'll go..."
"You will go and lie still in my bedroom. Do you understand?"
Bemish embraced the lad with one hand and flung the door to the inner
living room with the other. Out of the wide open office door, Inis caught
embarrassed Ashinik's glance and smiled at him slightly.
X X X
Of course, when in two hours, Bemish walked upstairs to the bedroom, he
found Ashinik not lying in bed but, to the contrary, sitting hunched on the
floor and reading a book. Bemish approached him and looked over his
shoulder. The lad shuddered. The book was a Lassal's demolition manual.
"It's an old manual," Bemish said. "Let's go - I'll try to find a
better book."
They walked to Bemish's office and the construction director having
rummaged around in the books, dug out a fundamental and intelligible
Feinstein's textbook.
"Here it is," Bemish said.
Ashinik held the book tightly like a shepherd would hold a sick lamb,
hunched and walked to the door. Bemish watched him carefully. It seemed that
Ashinik was expecting a question - why would he need a demolition manual,
though why would a manager at the construction that uses up three kilos of
TNT equivalent a week - not read this manual."
Ashinik pushed the door open.
"Hold on," Bemish said, "I need to talk to you."
Ashinik returned and sat down obediently. "Giles spied on me and Inis,"
a thought glanced in his mind. "Or he spied on Yadan. Great gods, let this
conversation be about Yadan!"
"Is it very difficult for you?" Bemish asked.
"Why should it be difficult for me?" Ashinik responded in a dull voice.
"Because you became my deputy to establish order in the company but you
could do it only as the head of the sect that considers the construction to
be demons' business. So, you could be my deputy only being the sect's head
and you can be the sect's head only not being my deputy."'
"I will manage, Ashinik said.
He was still looking down hunching.
"You almost fainted two hours ago."
"What do you want?"
"You could leave," Bemish said. "They send many people to study
overseas. It's not right that you work fourteen hours and then sit reading
books."
"He is throwing me out!" a thought lit in Ashinik's mind. "He used me
to establish order at the construction and now he is throwing me out at
Shavash's order!"
"May I go to Inissa for a week?" Ashinik asked.
"You don't have folks in Inissa, do you? Are you going to a sect's
meeting?"
Ashinik was silent.
"Of course, you can go, Ashinik," Bemish said.
X X X
Ashinik had barely stepped out of the office, when Giles took his
place. Strangely, Bemish and spy became good friends. The reason was that
Giles demonstrated good businessman qualities - he scurried around all the
country, looked for the best agreements, contrived, plotted, gave bribes and
pushed himself to the limit for the company. He, also, appeared to be an
amiable companion. He often slept over at the villa where he, like most
Earthmen employees, had his own room; he was a charming talker and got along
well with Inis. He never talked to Bemish about the good of the Federation,
having figured out that a businessman and a spy had absolutely opposite
views to what was the good of the Federation.
"What happened," Bemish inquired.
Giles threw a picture on the table.
"Do you know this guy?"
Bemish looked at the picture for a while. The guy on the photo sat near
a fire in ragged local clothing with his feet under him cramming gruel.
"Beats me... Maybe I've seen him somewhere at the construction..."
"You haven't seen him at the construction. You have seen him at your
villa with Kissur's brother, Ashidan." Bemish shuddered. Of course!
""Damn it! Does he work at the construction?"
"He worked here till yesterday."
"And what happened yesterday?"
"Yesterday, one of my people found out that somebody was trying to
crack the security software at five in the morning and at five in the
morning this guy was cleaning his room."
"And..."
"Somebody was able to warn the guy. He took off."
"I will ask Ashinik..."
"Nobody besides Ashinik's people could've warned him. It's a funny
combination - Following the Way sect and an anarcho-syndicalist demon, isn't
it?"
"It's totally unbelievable."
"There is something even more unbelievable - the guy came here from one
of Kissur's manors. And his reference letter was signed by Kissur. You know
- that he was a diligent worker and gathered hay just great...By the way, he
is an old acquaintance of Kissur's."
Bemish paused.
"What exactly was he ferreting out?"
"Oh, his interests were all-inclusive. Mostly, however, he was
interested in certain trading operations of Weian New Age fund. For
instance, he was interested in the situation when several hours before an
announcement about transnational Metal Uranium buying a totally non-liquid
uranium mine came out, you had bought two hundred thirty million worth of
this mine's shares. And you sold them in two days at three billion. Oh,
there is another strikingly interesting accident - Shavash's friend Igon who
was in charge of the country's international loans, claimed that Weia was
considering postponing paying off the interest on the international loan
known as Iron Bonds. Since, say, some bearer's bonds had been stolen at
Lamass bank robbery and they needed to find out how the current bonds'
owners had acquired them. The securities' rating collapsed almost by a
factor of two and in a day Shavash threw Igon out with a scandal, published
a denouncement and paid the interest off right on time so that practically
in a week the rating was back to normal. Remarkably, you bought forty
million worth of these securities right after Igon's announcement and sold
them in a week at, correspondingly, eighty million. You were also reckless
enough to transfer, at the same time, quite a significant amount of money to
Shavash's and Igon's accounts."
"Has the anarchist dug it out or has it been your work?" Bemish
inquired.
"It was the anarchist. He spent a month in your computer and then he
tried hacking into our systems and he was uncovered. He was also likely to
find out a lot of interesting stuff about the spaceport."
Bemish was silent. The guy could surely learn a lot of interesting
stuff about the spaceport. Bemish clenched his teeth sometimes realizing
what was happening at the spaceport. The "fan" approach to the formation of
export-import companies that existed for two months only, till the deadline
for the first tax declaration, was the most innocent trick out of what was
happening.
But there was nothing else to do - so many gifts were required, so many
unofficial expenses were needed on the top of official ones, and Bemish
sadly realized that the larger was the embezzlement scale, the safer the
embezzlement was.
X X X
The next day, the security department crew got together in Bemish's
office again.
The size of the damage caused by the anarchist was quite large;
Bemish's calls had most probably been tapped. Certainly, the anarchist had
had access to the Assalah director's personal computer and therefore to the
files dealing with the funds' operations.
"Frankly," Giles admitted after the conversation had been finished,
"The theft itself bothers me less than the guy's contacts with Kissur. He is
such an unpredictable man! He patronizes us and at the same time he
patronizes the guy who would smear a launching chute with plastic explosives
without any guilt whatsoever!"
"Would you like, Giles, to prevent Kissur from hanging out together
with terrorists?"
"Well?"
"He applied to the military academy, didn't he? Accept him."
"It's impossible..."
"Why?"
"Firstly, this man started his acquaintance with our equipment
kidnapping a military airplane that he immediately put to its intended use.
Secondly, Kissur is a savage. He should learn algebra first."
"Come on, you are not going to make a rocket battle cruiser commander
out of him. Eight years ago this man was an excellent war leader. War and
freedom were the same for him because freedom was for him the right to kill.
And when the sovereign asked him to eradicate separatists three years ago,
he and his people appeared to manage rocket launchers pretty well."
"Are you asking this on your own volition," Giles inquired, "or has
Kissur asked you?"
"I am asking this on my own. Kissur will die first before he asks
Earthmen for anything. But I know, Giles, that he is capable of God knows
what if he is not busy with something useful. He is not going to take
bribes, he can't be a sovereign's lapdog, the only thing he can do is to
fight. Earthmen came and destroyed his old war. He applied to the academy
but they didn't let him into the new war. How can a man, who won more
battles that our generals conducted maneuvers, take it?"
"The new war is not what Kissur thinks it is."
"That's exactly why it would be useful for Kissur make a closer
acquaintance with it."
X X X
In two days, Shavash finally appeared at the spaceport. It was an
official visit - Shavash accompanied a Joined Economics Assembly committee -
and they were in public during the entire visit. At the second chute,
Shavash leaned to the company director's ear and asked quietly,
"Where is your deputy, Ashinik, by the way?"
"He took a one week vacation," Bemish said.
"Ah, he took a vacation... You know something akin to a Following the
Way meeting started in Inissa, in Gaddar. They are having a celebration of
somebody's "resurrection" and working meetings of the circles' heads.
"Well?" Bemish said.
"These people are very dangerous," Shavash shook his head. "We have to
smile and tell the world community that the people who consider Earthmen to
be demons are no more important than the people on Earth who spend their
time in mental institutions and claim themselves to be Napoleons - but I
warn you, Terence, that even you don't know how dangerous they are."
"What are you whispering about?" a committee member asked.
Bemish turned to his countryman and said that they were whispering
about local Dahan factory that supplied the construction with titanium
supports and started explaining the problems they had with supplies.
The Tenth Chapter
Where Terence Bemish becomes familiar with provincial life of the
Empire while Mr. Shavash offers an original plan for the restructuring of
the state debt.
Giles returned from Earth in three days and he brought a bulky bundle
of papers sealed with vacuum tape - for authorized personnel only. Giles
handed the bundle to Bemish and locked the door, and Bemish mounted his legs
on the table and engrossed himself in the papers.
In an hour, having looked through the documents, Bemish said,
"That's great but have you talked to your bosses about my request?"
"What request do you mean?"
"I mean Kissur and the military academy."
"Yes. They are against it."
"Why?"
Giles paused.
"Terence, tell me, have you told Kissur what we are building here?"
"How does it matter?"
"It matters because five years ago, after Kissur had escaped from
Earth, he found himself in a Gera training camp. It was there that he
learned how to handle rocket launchers and all the other modern killing
machinery that he manages now so well."
"Is that all?"
"No, it's not all. Haven't you forgotten the guy who came to the
construction with Kissur's reference letter and hacked your computer?"
"It was not Kissur's reference letter. It was a reference letter from
one of his bailiffs. These letters cost ten "pinkies" a piece on the local
black market. Would you like me to get a dozen for you by tomorrow?"
"A month ago Kissur flew to Cassandra. He met an old acquaintance of
his there - this guy."
And Giles fished a photo out of his pocket and put it down in front of
Bemish.
"This man, by the way, led at some point anarcho-terrorist group ABC.
He has on his account..."
"I am not interested in his account," Bemish cut off the spy.
"Really? Shavash was quite interested."
"I would recommend to you not to discuss these matters with Shavash -
you and Shavash have different goals."
"What do you mean?"
"You want to figure out whether or not Kissur is connected to
terrorists and Shavash wants to prove that he is connected to them. Of
course, he will prove it."
"Will his conclusion be purely arbitrary?"
"Kissur is a thousand and one adventures. If a house next to him is on
fire, he will run in and save a child. If a house is not on fire, he may
start one. Of course, a terrorist visited Kissur. Kissur is too colorful a
figure not to be visited. So what? I didn't see Shavash right when you were
asking him this question but I could swear that he was dying of laughter. If
he had answered you honestly, he would have said on the spot that a man who
dared to compare the sovereign Irshahchan with this wasted Earthman Marx -
this man was risking taking a bath in a swimming pool right there. But
Shavash didn't say that because Shavash hates Kissur. You dished an idea out
to Shavash - he will find the proofs. He will find terrorists' liaisons to
Kissur and he will train them what they should say. Kissur is an
unpredictable man but Shavash can predict even him. If a man approaches
Kissur and says, "Let's bomb this bank for a glorious future's sake," Kissur
will throw him out of a window. While a man instructed by Shavash will
approach Kissur and say,
"Why don't we bomb this bank and feed these bribers with a dish they
deserved?"
"What a wonderful idea!" Kissur will exclaim. It will enable Shavash to
annihilate Kissur even though it would be proper to jail Shavash and not
Kissur for the bank robbery."
Giles paused.
"I thought the same, Terence," he said. "I started shouting that it was
all crap... To make the long story short, they introduced me to an
investigator. Kissur traffics in drugs."
"What?!!"
"Kissur sells drugs. They grow a lot of wolf's wisk on his lands in
Upper Warnaraine. It happens with a full blessing of the landowner. I am
very sorry Terence but we can't accept to the military academy one of Weian
drug mafia bosses."
And the spy left the office, having carefully closed the door behind
him.
In about five minutes, Ashinik walked into the office with a bunch of
printouts.
"What's wrong with you, master? Are you crying?"
Bemish was not responding.
"Are you ok? Should I call a doctor?"
X X X
In three days, Kissur with Khanadar the Dried Date, Aldon the Lynx Cub
and a couple of dogs dropped by Bemish and all five of them left for a horse
ride.
The field they were riding over was already covered with concrete
blocks. Tree stumps stuck out far away on a knoll like teeth leftovers in an
old man's mouth and a cheerful red tractor was pulling them out of earth
amidst din and screech.
The new road ended unnoticed - the riders raced down an old Empire
track with yellowish stone ruts, wide palm trees and narrow pyramids of
poplars planted along the road accordingly to the ancient laws... Green
knolls and rice paddies covered with water flashed far away. Bemish spun his
head excitedly - the beauty around seemed to be like a photo.
A squirrel sat on a poplar branch and ate a nut. Amusing himself,
Khanadar the Dried Date shot at the nut and knocked it out of the squirrel's
paws; it whisked up the tree in horror.
"Hunting used to be good here," Khanadar told Bemish. "And now the only
big game here is your bulldozers."
"Hey," Kissur said, "Why don't we go to Black Nest? Hunting is great
there."
"When?"
"Why don't we go there right now?"
"Riding?"
"That's a great idea," Kissur said. "Let's ride!"
Khanadar laughed uproariously.
And they raced. Bemish felt as good as he had never felt in his life.
He wanted to cancel all the meetings in the world, he didn't give a damn
about the spaceport and the investment funds - he just wanted to ride down
this road where his car would get stuck and his bulldozer would just tear
up.
By the evening, Kissur pointed at an altar house overgrown with
burdocks and inquired,
"Will we sleep over here or in the field?"
Bemish came to his senses.
"Kissur," he said, "I have a business meeting tomorrow at eight in the
morning. Will we be able to return before sunrise?"
Khanadar almost fell off the saddle laughing.
"Terence," he said, "Black Nest is Kissur's clan castle in Mountain
Warnaraine. Old Elda lives there and Ashidan arrived there a week ago."
"Hold on," Bemish said. "It's fifteen hundred kilometers!"
"It's sixteen hundred thirty, if I haven't forgotten your damned
units," Khanadar chortled. Bemish turned his horse back.
"I am sorry gentlemen," he spoke, "but I don't have time for a ten day
ride next to good highways."
"Hey," Kissur said, "you can't go back on your word! You promised me a
hunt in Black Nest!"
"I didn't promise to ride a horse there," Bemish stormed.
"One can't," Khanadar said, "reach a real castle by a car. One has to
ride to the real castle for five days and five nights. And the Earthman's
butt is already sore."
The comment was unfair. It was especially unfair since Bemish had been
riding a horse around the construction in the morning for the last two
months, having admitted the advantage a horse had over a heavy-assed jeep
and a fleeting flyer. So, Bemish became quite a decent horse rider though he
was not in the same league with the barbarians whose fathers had put them on
horses before their mothers started teaching them to walk.
"All right," Kissur said, "You can go back but I will be waiting for
you in Black Nest on the twenty third."
"What do you mean twenty third? Are you going to ride your horse to the
castle in five days?"
"Seven years ago," Khanadar said, "I made this trip in five days and I
had two hundred shield and spear horsemen with me and we had a skirmish
every day."
"All right," Bemish said," I will take a car and drive to your Nest,
whether it's black or white, and I am sure that I will get there before
you."
X X X
The guests came in the next morning - the Federation envoy, Mr.
Liddell, Shavash and his direct boss, the finance minister Sarjik. The
finance minister was in really bad shape - his bald head shook and his
watery eyes kept running. Shavash extracted this man from somewhere in
Chakhar province where he had been sitting since sovereign Neevik's times.
Accordingly to the non-confirmed rumors, the finance minister didn't have
credit cards and, seeing other people using them, he would shake his head,
"Nothing good will come out of it I assure you! Say, Shakunik Bank had also
issued private money and then the bank was confiscated and the money was
lost! What if the Federation government runs out of money and confiscates
your bank?" The old minister firmly grasped in his youth the following rule
- the richer is an entrepreneur, the more the state covers his riches - and
he couldn't change himself.
They abandoned the minister in a room and Shavash drove examining the
construction.
"Where is Kissur," he asked. "And why are you so disheveled?"
"Kissur," Bemish said, "rode to Black Nest with his friends, on a horse
back."
Shavash grinned.
"And what's happened to you?"
"And I rode back all night. There was not a single phone in the
villages around and I was dumb enough not take a satellite phone with me."
Bemish was exhausted, since he rode slowly, afraid of tiring the horse
out, and he couldn't sleep in saddle and he wasn't going to learn this
skill.
"I see," Shavash said, "Khanadar the Dried Date is going to ride down
the glorious battles' path. These people live in the previous century."
In the end, Bemish asked, where the story of Kissur trafficking in
drugs came from, but smiling Shavash claimed his total ignorance.
X X X
Upon serious consideration, Bemish decided to drive and he was very
proud that he would see the Country of Great Light not through an airplane
window but through a windshield.
He chose an old 4WD jeep with large wheels and he put in the trunk the
second spare tire, high hunting boots, a whole battery of drinking water
bottles and several tinned food cans. He welded steel supports to the rack
and fastened a light motorcycle to them. Bemish remembered how Khanadar had
smiled saying that it was impossible to reach Black Nest by a car and one
had to ride there on a horse. Knowing Khanadar, he suspected that he had
been a butt of a dirty joke and a car road to the castle existed only on the
map.
Bemish was driving out of the Empire's center to its barbarian
outskirts and it seemed that every kilometer, put between him and the
capital, was transposing him backwards in time. Cute manors with satellite
dishes disappeared first, foreign goods on the road stands disappeared next,
factory-made shirts on people around him disappeared last. A different
landscape stretched around him - rice paddies covered with water, clay
villages where dogs barked and drums boomed in precincts and where peasants
in hemp pants sang thousand-year-old songs while collecting the harvest, and
only a perfect highway, like a bridge spanning over time for a curious
observer, connected a sprightly rolling jeep with the faraway world of glass
and steel.
In thousand kilometers the road finally ended - the jeep started
hopping down a rocky mountain path - the highest achievement of the
construction methods in sovereign Irshahchan's times. The animals became
more audacious and began crossing the road. Occasional people, however,
dashed away from a weird cart into the woods. Rice paddies disappeared; the
few villages existing in these mountains still lived by hunting and
gathering and by robbing occasional travelers.
In the second day's evening, Bemish saw five familiar horses at a
roadside tavern and stopped there.
Kissur and his companions were sitting at a plank table and gobbling up
a wild boar. Bemish joined them.
"I'll leave you behind," Bemish said.
"Hmm," Kissur said, "By the way, I could order to puncture your tires."
Bemish bantered back, "And I can sue you."
Kissur was chewing greedily on the boar.
"This is my land. I am the master of taxes and jurisdiction here. So,
if you sue me, I may as well sentence you to hanging for perjury."
"Do you judge this way often?"
"Never," Kissur said. "If you sentence a man to death, his relatives
will start hunting you in a vendetta. Who will avenge you?"
"Nobody will avenge an Earthman," Khanadar the Dried Date agreed.
"Earthmen think that their government should avenge them. Soon, their
government will sleep with their women for them."
Bemish was assigned the best den in the tavern and Kissur sent him a
girl. The girl had been washed and she was quite cute. She stood shyly
tugging at a mat with her bare toes. Bemish seated the girl on his knees and
started fingering her necklace. There were numerous coins on the necklace -
several heavy silver asymmetric coins with a hole inside and a partially
rubbed off Gold Sovereign's seal, a dozen of dimes and quarters, a Swiss
frank and even as far as Bemish could decipher German, one Cologne subway
nickel token.
Bemish pushed the girl off his knees, dug in his wallet and spilled all
the change on his hand. He found there a dime that had spent a long time in
the wallet, showed it to the girl and tapped with his finger a silver
"unicorn" the size of a chicken egg, square shaped and with a round hole in
the middle and an encryption glorifying sovereign Meenun on the girl's
necklace.
"Let's exchange," he said.
The girl's eyes blossomed with joy. She quickly started pulling the
necklace off her neck. Bemish grabbed her hand.
"Listen, stupid," he said. "If you take this dime and one more and a
hundred more and a thousand more and fill this coffer in the corner with all
these dimes, the whole coffer will be worth less than this silver coin. Got
it?"
The girl nodded.
"And now get out," Bemish said. The girl's eyes saddened.
"Won't we exchange?" she asked looking at the dime with an unconcealed
longing. Bemish gave her the dime and kicked her out.
When Bemish woke up next morning, Kissur and his retinue were no longer
there, they had ridden away at the crack of dawn.
"Will I catch up with them soon?" Bemish asked the hostess.
"No," the hostess said, "You need to take a detour via the White Pass
and they rode straight. You will reach the castle by the evening."
"And what will happen to them?"
"Hmm," the woman hesitated, "If snow melts a bit in the daytime and an
avalanche comes down, you, of course, will get their first but if no
avalanche happens they, of course, will get there before you."
"Is the straight path hard?"
"I don't know. Since old Shun broke his neck there ten years ago,
nobody has taken it."
The mountain road winded like a pumpkin vine. Heavy rain shredded with
snow started suddenly. The wipers were not able to handle it. Bemish was
horrified for Kissur - he was not old Shun, of course, but he still could
break his neck.
This mountainous area was wild to the utmost. Trade had flourished in
the coastal regions and three dozens years ago local cities such as Lamass
or Kudum could brag about their good communities and abundant traders. The
civil war in the Empire turned everything around - the castles' inhabitants
straightened up, the traders' sons left for the castles' regiments and their
daughters became concubines. The demand for warlike Alom nobility was such
that an average knight could rob more in two month in the Empire than an
average trader could make in two years. By the war's end, trading paid off
so little that Lamass traders became extinct and it was the land of bandits
and robbers that welcomed the people from the stars.
The hands of the Empire could barely reach this strange region;
formally a castle owner was responsible for upholding order in the local
lands but he usually happened to be the biggest bandit. Nobody even
considered mine development here because horsemen with rocket launchers
under their armpits invariably approached mine engineers to demand a
tribute.
No passerby was safe here. The most disgusting accident happened three
years ago when a World Bank vice president, an amateur mountaineer, and two
friends of his decided, damn it, to conquer a local mountain Aych-Akhal.
While approaching the peak, he was taken prisoner by a local pedigreed
bandit and escorted to his castle. Next day the bank received a fax with a
picture of the vice president sitting chained in a real underground pit and
a one trillion dinars ransom demand. The World Bank stock capital was five
trillion dinars.
The media howled.
The Galaxy demanded the Empire to take decisive actions. The Galaxy
demanded to locate the castle the prisoner was in. "Whatever," the Empire
envoy shrugged his shoulders, "Whoever caught him keeps him." The Galaxy
demanded the decisive actions to be taken at this region.
The castle owner announced that if anybody resorts to decisive actions,
the prisoner would have his throat cut. Kissur helped the World Bank out. He
flew to his castle immediately and called the local lords in for a feast and
counsel. They arrived. Kissur imperturbably arrested the three dozens guests
that came to visit him and announced that he would shoot all these folks if
the vice president was not released.
The landowner who took the vice president prisoner was not present
among Kissur's guests. However, his brother and his father-in-law were
there. The same night, the vice president was released without any ransom.
Afterwards, Kissur didn't even bother meeting the man he had saved.
By the evening, Bemish reached the main and the only one street in
Black Village; faraway on the mountain amidst the clouds, the castle and its
wall, jagged like an EEG, showed up for a moment.
Right at this moment, a goose appeared on the wet road.
Bemish expected the goose to move aside and let the car pass since, in
the Earthman's opinion, roads were created for cars not geese. In the
goose's opinion however, roads were created for geese and accordingly to his
views the goose stared at the car with curiosity and then turned its back to
it and lowered its head.
They explained to Bemish afterwards that he should have lowered speed
and driven over the goose and the goose would have been unharmed and the car
would have been fine. But Bemish wasn't familiar with local geese' customs.
He turned the steering wheel to the right and floored the brake. The
car spun like a feather. Bemish flew into boysenberry bushes that the locals
used for fences and he almost split his head apart over the steering wheel.
The car shuddered and froze. Bemish slammed the door and stepped out to take
a look. The front wheels sat deep in the rut and one of them fell off.
Bemish looked around. The gosling, glancing sideways, desperately ran away
from the road. "Son of a bitch!" Bemish said loudly.
It was getting dark quickly. There was no way to fix the car. A dog
behind the boysenberry fence tried to compensate for a lacking fire alarm.
More and more dogs were joining it. As for the people - the village seemed
to be dead.
"Hei," Bemish shouted, "is anybody there?"
He had to shout for a while. Finally a house door opened and somebody
asked from a doorstep,
"What's this shouting in the dark?"
Something was gleaming behind the door but Bemish was not able to see
the man.
"Do you have a phone?" Bemish asked.
"I don't have a phone. I have a fan laser," the answer was.
Bemish bared his teeth.
"I have a fan laser myself."
The guy shut the door. Bemish kicked the car thoughtfully. He threw the
fan emitter on his left shoulder, a daypack on his right shoulder and took
the small bike off the rack. "Fan laser," he thought, thinking about the
gleam in the opened door, "No way, it's a fan laser, damn it - it's at least
a plasma rocket launcher."
X X X
The guards let Bemish into the castle without any surprise; bike or no
bike - who can understand these Earthmen? "Yes," Bemish thought, "people
here are very different from the plains' dwellers, they hugged their swords
in silence for a thousand years and now they silently hug their rocket
launchers, every trial verdict starts a vendetta here..."
It was slippery and wet in the castle yard, like in a defrosted
refrigerator. Kissur hadn't arrived yet. Old Elda was napping in an armchair
in the upper hall. She looked at the nervous Earthman as she would look at a
frog and said that the Earthman's iron cart would fall apart on the
Earthmen's roads smooth like a eunuch's cheek before her son falls from a
steep slope in the local mountains.
Bemish took off together with his nerves.
The young castle owner Ashidan, a Cambridge student, was passed out in
the main hall having dropped his golden curls into a plate with leftovers. A
bull mask with torches in place of horns bared its teeth above him and
something smoldering in the fireplace under the mask produced a horrible
smell; at a closer view it, appeared to be a hand phone remnants.
"What is it?" Bemish asked the majordomo.
"Lady Elda," he answered, "said that she didn't want any witchcraft
objects in her house. She just found it in the morning having gone over the
rooms."
Bemish looked Ashidan over more carefully. He slept shuddering
nervously and he didn't appear to Bemish to be drunk.
"Aren't there any communication devices in the castle?"
"Oh," the servant said, "what communication are you talking about?!
Look - even the cloth is homespun. She would burn anything else." And he
pointed at his dress. Bemish felt his sleeve - it really was burlap. He
hadn't understood that at first and thought in surprise that the servant had
a very luxurious jacket - thick knotted cloth like this was fashionable this
year.
Bemish didn't sleep at night and tossed; old pines squeaked behind a
narrow window, designed to shoot out from not to look out of, and their
squeaking branches made sounds like a hanged man's rope. Bemish pulled an
antenna out of a small radio and started listening. Suddenly while he was
searching for a station, he heard his name and a long string of words
spitted out in Alom - Bemish didn't make them out through the noise. Bemish
turned the dial again but the conversation had ended. "Hmm," Bemish thought,
"Somebody in this castle hid a transmitter away from old Elda."
X X X
In the morning Bemish left for the village. He didn't really want to
complain to old Elda that his iron cart fell apart on the road that even a
ram would pass through in a snowstorm and he was also sure that the castle
inhabitants knew as much about cars as he knew about divination on oil.
Bemish walked down a fresh road passing boysenberry fences and curious
chicken, thinking about this strange area where a phone in a house was a
luxury and an assault rifle was a necessary tool.
He reached the car and stopped in surprise.
The car stood at the same place and the busted wheel still hunched in
the rut. The other three wheels had disappeared in an unknown direction -
the lonesome car sank on its axles. The wipers were gone off the windshield
and the windshield was also gone. Bemish's eyes traveled into the car -
radio, head supports, rugs, handles and all five windows beside the
windshield had carefully packed up and left. An untouched first aid kit sat
in the back seat.
Bemish walked around the car and opened the trunk. There was nothing
inside except for a pair of old worn out bark sandals. Bemish was surprised
at first because he didn't have a habit of wearing bark sandals but then he
realized that the thief probably put Bemish's leather boots on and left the
bark sandals there. With gloomy anticipation, Bemish raised the hood and
gazed at the engine. Bemish was quite familiar with the car's design. He
immediately realized that the night thieves were much more familiar with
this design.
Bemish looked around - geese and turkey with red snot surrounded him
and the same rocket launcher old guy was digging cabbage in his garden. He
didn't have the rocket launcher next to him, probably thanks to the
daylight.
"Hey," Bemish said.
The old guy turned around. He wore a shirt that used to be white in its
youth and the pants that nobody would be able to say anything about.
"Come here," Bemish said. The old guy approached. Further into the
garden, his son hoed the ground mechanically without looking around. Bemish
waved the bark sandals and extended them over the fence.
"Do you know," Bemish said, "Who owns these?"
The old man took the sandals and fished out a ten dinar note that
Bemish had pushed down the toe earlier. He rolled the note and stuck it
behind his ear and handed the sandals back to Bemish.
"I don't know," he said.
Bemish lost his speech.
He looked at himself suddenly with the peasant's eyes. He looked at a
well dressed alien coming out of the world that all the people, who worked
well and obeyed the authorities, would go to after death - and he looked at
this half bare destitute village where no phones existed but news about a
car that could be stripped spread quickly without the phone, where no
toilets existed but mortars were available, and everybody knew everything
but would say nothing about his neighbors - and he realized with utter
clarity that even if the night adepts had stripped the car in the view of
the whole village and it probably had happened this way, not all the police
in the world would be able to find out who had done this.
Wheels rustled on the road.
"What's the problem?"
Bemish turned around. Behind him in a sport car, turquoise and narrow
like an orchid petal, Kissur's brother, Ashidan sat. A perfect shirt, a
precise hairdo, the smell of cologne - a starting manager and a Cambridge
graduate - Bemish felt his world pleasantly coming back to him.
Terence Bemish sardonically raised the bark footwear.
"Here," he said, "somebody decided to exchange transportation means
with me."
But Ashidan had figured it out already. He got out of the car, opened
the passenger's door and bowed to Bemish inviting him into the car. Bemish
got in. The peasant watched them with frightened eyes.
"Hey," Ashidan shouted to the guy in the garden, "come here!" The
peasant approached.
"Get in the car," Ashidan told the guy.
Bemish stretched to open a door.
"Get in the trunk," Ashidan added, looking in disgust at the guy's bare
and dirty feet. "Ah, well, you may change your clothing."
The guy ran to the house. Bemish regained his speech.
"Why do you think," Bemish asked, "that he stripped the car? It could
be anybody..."
"If," Ashidan said in an even voice, "a crime is committed in a village
and the criminal is not apprehended, the lord should arrest several village
inhabitants and keep them as hostages till they die or till the others
deliver the guilty party."
Bemish stared at Ashidan with wide opened eyes. The charming boy - and
he was a very beautiful lad - looked very much like a successful manager.
"In this voice his ancestors spoke generation after generation," Bemish
thought, "It looks like progress here is characterized by the lord putting a
peasant in a car's trunk instead of tying him to a horse's tail."
"This man," Ashidan said, pointing at Bemish, "is a named brother of my
brother and a guest of my ancestors. My brother is coming today - the
servants brought news that he got stuck at the Trekking Pass and took a
detour via Lokh."
The peasant dropped to his knees.
"Master!" it was unclear whether he addressed Ashidan or the alien.
The peasant's son walked out of the house in clean white clothing with
a satchel in his hand. A ten-year-old boy accompanied him.
"Master," the oldster continued, "take the younger one, we have so much
work now!"
Ashidan thoughtfully tapped the leather steering wheel.
"Our ancestor's guest," he said, "had a bad dream that somebody robbed
his car. I had this dream, too, and I hurried here. But now it seems to me
that it was a false dream and that the car, complete and unharmed, will
return to the castle by the evening."
Having said this, Ashinik floored the accelerator and the car sprayed
the white peasant's dress with a load of mud and rushed away.
X X X
Kissur reached the castle only by noon. The rumors appeared to be
correct - an avalanche had descended off the Trekking Pass and it had
brushed by the people and the horses. Everybody was alive but Kissur's
horse, Stargazer, with a white arrow on his forehead and wide hooves, was
dragged down and only a red spot blinked in the snow for a moment. They took
the same road that Bemish had used; Kissur's eyes swelled with blood like
ripe cherries because of the horse. Kissur glanced at Bemish and snapped,
"You won the bet. We will hunt tomorrow." And he ran upstairs.
Bemish didn't pursue him. Something scary suddenly hung in the air, the
stone gods' masks grimaced with their mouths at the Earthman and clanged
their teeth. Bemish turned around - pale Ashidan stood next to him rubbing
his temples.
Kissur locked himself in a corner tower and didn't let anybody in.
Khanadar explained that he was mourning the horse following the customs.
When Bemish's car drove into the castle's yard in the evening, Bemish
was sitting on a guard tower looking at the dragon-like clouds. Bemish ran
downstairs.
A well-built flaxen guy stepped out of the car and, bowing, handed the
keys to him. Everything was fixed including the broken wheel. Bemish looked
the guy over and said,
"Thanks. How many auto repair shops are in the village?"
"One," the guy answered without blushing.
Bemish looked at the guy's feet - he stood in a pool wiggling his bare
toes. The Earthman walked around the car and unlocked the trunk - the case
bristled there self-importantly. Bemish opened the case - underwear and
clothing was there, only two shirts were wet - clearly, they had been washed
and ironed. Bemish extracted leather boots out of the case.
"Hold it," Bemish said, "That's a gift for you. The guy gasped and took
the boots. Bemish stuck his hand in his pocket, took three hundred local
"unicorns" out and handed them to the guy.
"It's for your work."
"Mister," the guy said, "we just fixed the wheel. It costs twenty
"unicorns."
"Where are you going now?" Bemish asked.
"I am going to the Blue Ravine, to the village's left end."
"Get in," Bemish said, "I'll give you a ride." The village stretched
along the road, between the mountain and the canyon. It was rarely more than
hundred meters wide and about eight kilometers long. The guy squeezed
himself in a corner almost under the seat and kept silent. One could think
that he sat in the car first time in his life. "Hmm," Bemish thought, "on
the other hand, a master and an alien is giving him a ride for the first
time... I hope I am not compromising White Falcon clan's honor."
"How long has Ashidan been living in the castle?" Bemish asked.
"It's been two months, master."
"Does he drink?"
"No, master," the guy said nervously.
Bemish dropped the guy off at a field where girls in blue and red
skirts were already starting to dance and came closer to see what it was
that they grew in this field. He was going to ask for how long the peasants
had been growing this stuff but the bailiff rushed towards him. Bemish
turned around and drove away.
It was just before the sunset - he drove down a forest till he found a
nice lawn to the road's left. He drove into the lawn, turned the ignition
off, lifted the hood and gazed at the engine.
The carburetor was assembled like a bird's nest from many different
parts and the air filter was also taken from another car. The night thieves
from the only auto repair shop in the village had installed everything else
where they had taken it from.
Bemish turned around and drove back.
Kissur had already descended to the yard and they explored the castle
together. It was huge, the walls rose one after another like cabbage leaves.
The castle sat on the very mountaintop and only one road led to it from
the west. The outer wall hovered above an abyss on all the other sides and
the abyss had been hewed off for better defense, forming a wall smooth like
glass.
Kissur showed his guest a yard where Kanut the Falcon had been killed
and a small castle garden where Kissur's great grandmother had sinned with a
winged two-headed bull under an apple tree. Bemish told Kissur that tourists
from the whole Galaxy could visit the castle.
"This castle is not fit for tourists," Kissur smirked, "It does not
have disabled access." And he squeezed himself nimbly onto a narrow and
incredibly steep staircase spiraling along one of the outside walls.
Merriness ruled the castle in the evening - the grooms braided the
horses' tails, servants dragged out of the closets huge yew old bows,
wrapped in old rotten cloth with silver inscriptions. Bemish glanced into a
semi-dark stable and froze - Kissur, smiling coldly, was hiding a stubby
black assault rifle in a saddlebag.
Bemish stepped inside. Kissur lowered the woven bag lid.
"What game," Bemish asked, "are we going to hunt tomorrow?"
"In this area," Kissur said, "people have been hunting big game -
boars, bears - since old times."
A question hung on Bemish's tongue tip, "What kind of boar would you
hunt with an assault rifle?" But Bemish licked his lips and swallowed the
question.
They rode out before the crescent left the black sky, equipped the same
way as eight or hundred years ago - Kissur wore grey suede tall boots,
decorated with lilies, with high red heels but without spurs, green pants
and a red jacket girdled with a heavy belt made out of gold plates - every
plate depicted a beast or a fish. Kissur's overcoat was also green, with two
wide lanes sewn with golden mesh. A bow hung on his shoulder and a leather
quiver hung behind his back; arrow feathers, white like plastic foam, stuck
out of the quiver. A throw-axe hung at his belt and two yew javelins and a
sword hung at the saddle. The other nobles were dressed the same way. It
would be wrong to call it carnival dress - Kissur, like the majority of
Weians, dressed archaically even in the capital and he practically always
wore a wide necklace, made out of jade plates set in woven gold and
depicting falcons. As for Bemish, he clearly understood that his hunting bib
layered with PVC would call the local gods' fury at his head and they would
withhold the game that they guarded, from him. Now he felt like an impostor
in leather pants embroidered with silver.
Before leaving, Kissur threw a piece of fresh meat on an altar next to
the gate and tapped a bare sword over a rock to attract the god's attention.
Bemish looked at the sword with interest; it was very heavy and long,
with a three edged blade and some engraving that looked like running horses
along its edge. The handle had been made in the shape of intertwined snakes.
Bemish asked why they needed a sword and Kissur replied that gods didn't
grant fortune without a sword since the road to the other world went along
its edge and they brought and took away beasts down this road.
They watched the sunrise from a mountaintop, aerial wind danced in
their horses' tails - they said that this wind used to mount fillies in
ancient times and black horses with white spots had been born of this wind -
shells scrunched occasionally under the hooves reminding that a sea had been
there millions of years ago. Then, Kissur espied a deer that also decided to
enjoy the sunrise and they released the dogs and rode following them.
There were five nobles - Kissur, Ashidan, Khanadar the Dried Date,
Aldon and Bemish, there were also eight dogs and three servants - they drove
the deer at Kissur and he, having opened his eyes wide and screamed wildly,
threw a spear handed to him by one of the servants. Painted yellow, with a
green pinecone on the end, the spear almost pierced the deer all the way
through easier than it pierced the old maple in Kissur's manor in the
capital. Suddenly the forest buzzed and leaves flew. Either it entered
Bemish's mind on its own or the gods gave him a hint, "Kissur will get in an
accident. The mountain took the horse yesterday, today..."
By noon, Bemish was drunk with blood, the servants lagged somewhere
behind, he, Kissur and Ashidan rode out to a lawn overgrown with red
flowers. Kissur, having ridden to another side of the lawn, was making out
moss on a tree, he was probably foretelling.
At this moment, a bear cub jumped out on the lawn and crazily rushed up
the tree.
"Don't do it," Kissur told his brother, "It's a bad omen."
But Ashidan had already pulled his bow and shot - the cub let the tree
go and fell. Ashidan jumped off the saddle and ran to the cub. The bushes
were pulled apart, a roar issued forth and a huge black and brown she-bear
barged in.
"Ashidan," Bemish screamed.
Ashidan turned around. The she-bear rose on her hind paws and the youth
stood in front of her, bewildered with a broken arrow pulled out of her son.
Bemish snatched at his gun. Before he raised his hand, Kissur had
rolled off his saddle with a sword in his hand and dived under the bear's
belly. Ashidan with a squeal jumped aside. Bemish fired. The bear swung its
paws heavily in the air and crashed on Kissur. She shuddered and froze like
a pile of peat dumped off a truck.
Bemish and Ashidan rushed to the bear.
"Kissur are you alive?"
No answer issued.
Bemish approached the bear and started pulling it by its ear. At this
moment the pile of seemingly dead meat moved and Kissur materialized.
"Damn," he bared his teeth, "sword..."
But the sword, after they had turned the bear over, appeared to be fine
- it had entered her belly almost all the way to the guard. They examined
her snout - the bullet hit the bear right in her eye.
Yes, the hunt was excellent, even Dried Date who was not capable of
smiling screamed and hooted. He sat at the fire next to Kissur's knees and
started singing his songs that Bemish had heard so many times from boom
boxes in the workers' barracks that he came to liking them.
They rode back in the dusk. The horses walked down the path two
abreast, black oily earth crumbled under their hooves, a forested slope rose
like a dark wall on the right, the fuzzy sun was rolling behind the faraway
mountains covered with gleaming snow like a cake glazed with white. The
birds fluttered up from under the hooves and life was wondrously good. "Oh,
my God, it's such a great place for a hotel," a thought passed Bemish's
mind. He was a practical man and he always sought for ways to adjust nature
to money.
After the bear cub accident, Ashidan saddened and it happened somehow
that Kissur and his retinue raced in front and Bemish lagged behind them and
rode next to Ashidan. The latter was pale - either due to the weed that the
peasants grew in a local field or because of Cambridge. Bemish leaned to
Ashidan and asked quietly,
"Does Kissur know that you are a drug addict?"
"I am not a drug addict, I am just curious! I can stop this any
moment."
Bemish sniggered involuntarily. The youth shuddered. Then he abruptly
turned his grey eyes to the Earthman. His pupils were unnaturally
contracted.
It's not my fault, it's yours," he said, "Seven years ago Warnaraine
was ruled from this castle, and now it's a dump because there is no eight
line highway next to it! You have chased our gods away and what have you
given us instead, a Pepsi can?"
Ashidan grabbed the Earthman by his hand.
"This weed has always grown here! They ate it to speak to the gods! You
declared even talking to the gods to be a crime!"
"Come on, Ashidan! You don't converse to a god or a demon, you just
gobble this weed up to get high and you are afraid of Kissur because he will
throw you into a hospital for drug addicts or just chain you."
"I am afraid of the sword he took," Ashidan said, "I saw this sword in
Khanalai's hand and if people are killed, their souls enter their swords."
Khanalai was the rebel that fought Kissur seven years ago.
"Khanalai?" Bemish was astonished, "Have you met Khanalai?"
"He took me prisoner," Ashidan answered.
Bemish stared at the youth - he was young, slim like a snake and
incredibly beautiful, with golden hair and grey eyes heavily mascara coated
for the hunt.
"Oh, my God! How old were you?"
"I was fifteen, almost fifteen. Kissur entrusted me with five thousand
horsemen and Dried Date and Aldon's uncle - Aldon the Striped - were with
me. We should have waited for Kissur in the Black Mountains. But we heard
that down there, in the town of Lukhun, merchants had come in for a fair and
were bunched all together there because of the war. We decided to seize this
town because we would get more loot if we didn't wait for Kissur.
So, we approached this town with a guide and when the sun came out we
realized that it was a trap - Khanalai's army encircled us. Khanalai was
going to catch Kissur."
Ashidan rocked in the saddle.
I rode forward and challenged Khanalai to a duel. My shield had an
image of the White Falcon on it; Khanalai thought that Kissur himself got in
his trap. He really didn't want to fight but he had to accept the challenge.
He was afraid that his captains would mock him.
There is not much to say about this fight - Khanalai split my shoulder
and threw me to the ground like a kitten and then he removed my helmet to
cut my head off. He was really surprised and he asked me, "Who are you,
brat, to wear a White Falcon shield?" I told him that my name was Ashidan
and that my brother Kissur would avenge me and why wouldn't he just shut his
lousy trap and cut my head off. I was a very cute boy and Khanalai suddenly
took pity on me. He raised his sword and then he thought, "I will die - and
these words contained all the horror of irreversible, you couldn't sleep at
night having heard them. So, would it be worth it to bring the sword down?"
At least, that's what he told me afterwards. So he threw me like a wench
over his horse's back and rode to his army. And my army was obliterated down
to the last man. You see, it was a war very different from a war between two
countries. When one country and another country make a war, it's fair to
spare the enemy and to make him your vassal. While when a government fights
rebels, it's fair to obliterate the rebels completely.
"What happened to Dried Date?" Bemish suddenly realized.
"Dried Date and old Aldon were taken prisoners."
"And what happened next?"
They brought me and Dried Date to Khanalai's tent where he was feasting
after the battle and Khanalai said that he would like to hear a song about
this battle from Dried Date. Dried Date answered that the battle was not
finished yet because not everybody, supposed to be executed after this
battle, was executed and when Khalai executed everybody who was supposed to
be executed, there would be nobody left to sing this song. Khanalai grinned
and gave his new lute and his sword to Dried Date, and this sword was so
valuable that it cost more that Dried Date's honor. He sat and sang a song
of praise to Khanalai and I don't think that you'll ever hear it from Dried
Date or on a tape recorder. Then, Khanalai turned to me and said that he
would like to let me go. I was insolent to him. He paused and said, "All
right, they will crucify you tomorrow, brat. At first they will crucify
Aldon and then you."
"What happened tomorrow?"
"They brought Aldon and me out and Khanalai said, `If you let me pardon
you, I will let Aldon go.' I spit in his face."
Ashidan paused. He face paled completely and Bemish suddenly imagined
how cute a boy he had been at "almost fifteen."
"Khanalai rocked on his feet for a while and then said, `You are too
beautiful a boy to die.' They crucified Aldon and quarreled for a while and
then took me away."
"And what happened to Dried Date?"
"Dried Date sang songs of praise to Khanalai till he was offended, that
he, a man from a noble family, was serving a commoner who used to tread cow
dung in his childhood. He cut one of Khanalai's aides head off, threw it in
a sack and raced to Kissur with this ransom. And he also gave Khanalai's
sword to Kissur."
Ashidan paused and said, "I also met Khanalai's son there - we were of
the same age and the lad was quite gifted. I think that Khanalai took mercy
on me because of him. He asked me once, "What if Kissur gets a hold of my
son? Do you think he will let him live like I let you?"
"Yes," Bemish thought, "Kissur, however, didn't take mercy on
Khanalai's son and he didn't take mercy on anybody else."
"Hey," Khanadar the Dried Date shouted ahead, "have you fallen asleep?
Come here quickly!"
Bemish and Ashidan hastened their horses. The road split in two in
front of them, the riders grouped at the fork.
"We should go left," Kissur said, "We should visit Aldis so that the
next hunt would be even more fruitful than the last one."
"Well," Ashidan objected, "we won't reach the castle before nightfall."
"No problem," Kissur said, "we will sleep over at the old altar house."
Ashidan's face fell.
"Look," Khanadar said, "you aren't afraid of the old altar house, are
you?"
And he continued having turned to Bemish,
"Aldis the White Falcon is buried next to the old altar and two
families were assigned to take care of the grave. But they ignored their
duty and Aldis ate them and he liked it - he started climbing out every
night, chased passersby with all his retinue and herded them into his place
for a feast. A traveler passes by and sees a manor with lights on, and only
his bones are left by the morning. People took notice - if on a new moon
night there were fire and commotion at the old altar house - then, some
family would wail somewhere soon enough. They would have pounded a stake
down his coffin long time ago if he had been a commoner but they are afraid
of doing it - you know, he is Kissur's great grandfather." Ashidan grinned.
"It's not fitting to visit ancestors' graves with an Earthman
outlander," he said, "It's enough for a stranger that we took him for a
hunt."
"I have never hunted here before," Kissur answered, "and not shared my
booty with my ancestor."
And they rode to the old altar house, having dismissed the servants and
having tied the bear cub's body to a saddle.
The old altar house sat between a forest and a horseshoe shaped
mountain on the very edge of a sheer, as if cut with a knife, gorge. Behind
a black carved fence, one could see a roof tied in a knot; yellow light
issued forth from a round window, people's voices were coming from behind
the fence. Ashidan's face acquired a pallid color of toothpowder.
"Oh-ho-ho," Kissur said, "is Aldis getting rowdy again?"
The riders quietly dismounted, Kissur petted his horse so it wouldn't
neigh and stuck covertly a stubby assault rifle under his overcoat. A pine
tree, that had fallen last year, crushed the fence and miraculously spared
the chapel - they took a look over the tree log into a wide yard. There, on
a stone site, a small space boat Orinoko-22 stood looking like a striped
squash. People in body suits were standing in a line and passing sacks from
the altar house to the boat.
"Heia," Kissur said loudly, "that's called progress! Even ghosts can no
longer fly without engines!"
He bounced over the log and stepped in the lit circle. Frankly, it was
Kissur that looked more like a ghost here - a hunter in an ancient green
caftan with a yew bow hanging over his shoulder and his face painted with
blue stripes for the hunt - amidst people in flying suits who froze for a
moment next to a cargo hatch. The people dropped plastic sacks. Three guys
jumped out of an altar house window with long barreled lasers in their
hands. A horse quietly neighed - Khanadar and Ashidan stepped out into the
light from the other side, leading their horses.
"False alarm," somebody said, "these are the landlords."
Kissur unhurriedly walked to a short round eyed character whom Bemish
recognized to be the local bailiff.
"Oh, it's you Lakhor. What are you doing here?"
"You know, my Lord," Lakhor said with a certain dignity, "We are
loading..."
Kissur placed his foot on a sack, dragged a hunting knife from his belt
and ripped the plastic cover from top to bottom.
"I swear by god's goiter," Kissur said, "Everybody around says "Lord,"
"Lord" to you, kisses your knees while you don't even know what it is that
you lord over. What are these oats you are hauling to the boat? Nothing but
oats has ever grown around here, if my memory doesn't fail me."
Kissur scooped up a bit out of the sack with his hand and sniffed it.
"No," he shook his head, "no way, oats could smell like this. Khanadar,
do you know what it is?"
Khanadar also picked a sack, tore it apart with his whip's claw, picked
some weed up and stuck it under his horse's nose. It neighed and turned its
head aside.
"No," Khanadar said, "I don't know what it is but it's not oats. Look,
Striped is putting its nose up and it doesn't want it." At this point, Aldon
the Lynx Cub joined the conversation.
"Hey, it's hemp," he said, "wolf's whisk." Weian zealots and local
serfs have used it since old times to visit the skies and now people carry
it to the Sky in plastic bags. I heard, they pay a lot of money for this
weed on the sky. Earthmen always pay a lot of money for what a horse put its
nose up away."
The only thing that Bemish couldn't understand was why they were all
still alive.
Here, Ashidan's breaking voice sounded.
"Kissur," he said, "it's my fault. I failed to ask your permission."
Kissur span around.
"Are you trying to say," he spoke with a phony astonishment, "that you
allowed my serfs to trade weed grown in my lands without asking for my
consent?"
"But I was not sure..." Ashidan started.
"Tell me," Kissur inquired, "who is the senior in our clan, you or me?"
"You are."
"And who owns the land and everything above it and below it, the senior
or the junior?"
"The senior does."
"Then, why are you breaking the law and pocketing the profit from this
business?"
"I was afraid that you won't understand..."
"Of course, I won't understand," Kissur thundered, "my serfs on my land
start a business and don't pay me two cents! Who should feed me, the
sovereign or my own holding?"
"My Lord, my Lord," round eyed Lakhor hurried, "We didn't know that
master Ashidan paid you nothing, I'll turn into a frog if we wanted to break
the law!"
At this point, a man in a flying suit ducked out of the cargo hatch.
"I bring my apologies, Mr. Kissur," he said in Interenglish, "We really
didn't know that you were not aware of our modest business."
Kissur looked him over from head to toes.
"How much do you pay my brother for a sack?"
"Ten."
"You will pay me twelve. I want money now."
"Do you think I have so much?" the pilot snapped.
"Don't cross him," Lakhor peeped in horror.
"I am waiting," Kissur said coldly, "or I will rip all the sacks
apart."
"Don't pick a fight with him," another Earthman said, "he is livid."
"You would become livid here," Khanadar the Dried Date objected, "when
your own serfs don't pay you their taxes fairly and you brother cheats you -
hasn't Ashidan promised you Kissur's protection?"
Kissur and the pilot disappeared in the hatch opening. Ashidan sat on
the log not raising his pale face. Bemish's mind was reeling. If Kissur
hadn't known whom he would meet at the old altar house, why had he brought
the assault rifle that he was now carefully hiding under his hunting coat?
And if he had known, why had he dragged Bemish with him? Did he think that
Bemish would keep silent? No, damn it, did he think that Terence Bemish
would swallow even that? Or would he suggest landing these boats in Assalah
spaceport?
Kissur and the pilot stepped out of the hatch again. The pilot was
smiling. It was clear that in his opinion he got away cheaply and found
himself such a protector that all Weian police would not be able to lay a
finger on him. Kissur stuck the money in his pants pocket and, having bent
his leg, placed it right in front of the pilot on a boarding ramp's aluminum
stair.
The latter started looking around confusedly.
"Stupid," old Lakhor hissed, "Kiss the foot, the Lord's foot."
The Earthman shrugged his shoulders and bended down to the dusty boot.
At this moment, Kissur kneed the pilot under his chin. The pilot
squealed. His body flew upwards and Kissur's joined hands crushed his neck -
his backbone crunched.
Out of the corner of his eye, Bemish barely managed to see how Aldon
plucked Ashidan and threw him into the bushes. Kissur went flat behind a
steel landing support, whipped his gun out and started firing at the
confused people, Aldon and Khanadar joined the fray.
Three Earthmen with guns went supine, the fourth one, unnoticed by
Kissur, leaped out of the altar house. Bemish jumped at him and kicked his
gun away; both of them went to the ground. The gunman seized Bemish's throat
and started choking him. Bemish rolled on his back and quite nimbly kicked
the attacker in the place where legs grow from. The latter said "ouch"
loudly and let Bemish go but he immediately recovered and butted him in the
stomach and then punched him with the right hand. Bemish intercepted this
punch, seized the gunman's sleeve with his left hand and, with fingers
spread apart, hit him in the eyes. One eye burst and oozed down his cheek.
"Aaahhh!" the gunman screamed. In a tight embrace, they rolled down to
the abyss over boulders and hummocks.
Bemish banged a rock with his back badly and he fainted for a moment.
The gunman whipped an arrow out of the quiver, hanging behind Bemish's back.
The arrow was sharp and firm, with white icy feathers. A hexagonal titanium
tip gleaned in the moonlight above Bemish. "That's it," Bemish thought.
The smuggler dropped the arrow, however, and then he sighed and fell on
Bemish's chest. Bemish shook himself up and climbed from under his enemy's
body. A long knife was stuck in the guy's back and Khanadar the Dried Date
stood over the knife.
Date extended his hand and helped Bemish get up. They climbed the loose
rocks uphill to the lighted altar house and space boat.
Everything had already been done there. Bemish counted the corpses -
sixteen people, five wore body suits or jeans and the others were locals.
The gunpowder smell of shots mixed with the smell of fresh hemp and blood.
Ashidan sat on a rock holding his head in his hands.
Following Kissur's orders they gathered the corpses and the sacks next
to the altar house walls, poured gas over them and lit them on fire.
"I feel bad about the grave," Khanadar said.
"It's desecrated now, what can we do?" Kissur responded. Still, he
untied the bear cub off the saddle and threw it in the fire.
Afterwards, Kissur tore off the emergency control seals, turned the
safety block off and started clicking the switches till the main screen
swelled red and screamed in an ugly voice.
"Mount," Kissur yelled, running out of the space boat. Khanadar had
already leaped across the broken fence and he was prancing on his horse next
to the forest.
"Should I repeat it for you?" Kissur screamed at Ashidan, "It will blow
up in a moment."
Ashidan raced following the others.
It blew up in such a way that the moon almost dropped off the sky and
fire imps leaped out of the mountains and danced over the altar house left
behind; when people in the village found the remnants, they said, with
astonishment, that old Aldis had dragged stupid travelers from the sky to
him and nothing good, of course, had come out of it.
With his head low, Ashidan rode between Aldon and Khanadar and Khanadar
held his horse's reins.
Bemish rode behind everybody. He didn't feel all that good. A dull pain
walked up and down where his spine had banged against the rock and his side
was skinned in places. Kissur suddenly slowed his horse a bit and waited for
his friend.
Kissur jabbed Bemish with his elbow and said, with a laugh,
"So, Earthman, admit that your feet got cold? Admit that you decided I
would ask you to land this boat next time in Assalah spaceport?"
"You should have called police in."
"I," Kissur said, "am the master over this land's taxes and courts.
What would have happened if I had called police? Firstly, I wouldn't have
found this boat, because our justice is worse than a whore and they would be
warned away. When the justice sells out, a man should take it in its own
hands. Or do you think that I acted wrongly?"
"Yes," Bemish answered, "I don't think that you acted right. It was not
justice you cared about but rather shame besmirching your clan's honor. If
you had executed people accordingly to their guilt, Ashidan would have been
executed first since he knows perfectly well that selling drugs is a crime,
unlike a stupid old serf who did what his master told him to and anyway he
had no clue that it's illegal to eat this weed, since all the shamans in
this village have been eating it for the last thousand years and so what?
You would have given him couple lashes and sent him away."
They rode down a broad dark path between the abyss and the cliff and
the sky on the other side of the cliff was red and crackled.
"Ashidan," Kissur quietly called out, "do you hear what Terence is
saying? He is saying that your guilt is larger than that of people who are
dead already and it's not fair."
Even in the light brought by the moon and by the faraway fire one could
see the youth's shoulders shaking.
"Get off the horse, Ashidan," Kissur ordered. Ashidan dismounted.
Kissur also jumped down and pulled the sword with the intertwined snakes
handle out of the sheath fastened to the saddle.
"Get on your knees," Kissur ordered.
Ashidan wordlessly kneeled next to the abyss. The wind started playing
with his golden hair and it glistened in the moonlight. Ashidan lowered his
head and pulled his hair off the base of the neck with his own hand.
"It would have been better," Kissur spoke, "if you had died of his
sword eight years ago and not now," and he raised the sword over the
brother's bowed head.
Bemish jumped off his horse and seized Kissur's hand.
"Isn't enough for today, Kissur? You are drunk with blood."
"You said it yourself," Kissur objected, "that I acted unfairly. I
don't want people to say that about me."
"Damn it," Bemish said, "you did everything correct. Let the lad be."
"Get in the saddle, Ashidan," Kissur spoke quietly.
X X X
In a week, Bemish returned to the capital. He was buried up to his neck
in work, he had to attend a benefit dinner, a risk strategy and investment
conference, a Fall Leaves celebration in the palace, and a negotiation round
with the management of a Chakhar company that Bemish had plans for.
Ronald Trevis was also at the conference, he gained some weight since
they had met last time and, as Bemish learned, he had exchanged his third
wife for a fourth one. Shavash invited both friends to join his retinue and
visit Chakhar and after the vice minister had introduced the two Earthmen to
the company director, the negotiations were concluded surprisingly quickly.
In the evening, Bemish and Trevis suddenly found themselves at a villa
with Shavash while the rest of his retinue hung out at another hotel. The
guests were served an incomparable dinner but, when the girls that had
circling around the guests left and a waiter from the security department
brought a counter surveillance device with the desert, Bemish realized that
the serious conversation was just starting.
"I would like," Shavash said, leaning back in his armchair and putting
an empty bowl for the glazed fruits aside, "to discuss with you our state
debt. We are stuck all the way to our ears. The interest payments alone are
bigger that one third of our GDP."
"I wouldn't say that you have a large state debt," Trevis mentioned,
"You just have a very small GDP."
"That's what I have in mind," Shavash nodded, "when I suggest
restructuring the debt."
Trevis bounced in his chair about to protest against this idea but
Shavash's next words caused his eyes to pop out.
"I think that it would be possible to create a private company that
will be responsible for paying interest on certain state debt tranches and
this company will obtain Chakhar."
"What do you mean, Chakhar?" Trevis was astonished.
"I mean Chakhar or any other province where this company would be able
to collect taxes, make laws and build factories. If a province frightens
you, you can limit yourself with some mining deposits."
A long silence ruled the table.
"Shavash, aren't you afraid that someday they will arrest you for
treason?" Trevis finally inquired.
The small official shrugged his shoulders.
"Why? It's just a way to decrease budget expenses. If a company doesn't
pay the state debt out, it will, of course, loose the license. I've already
talked to Dachanak and Ibinna and they are ready to be the company's
co-founders. Mr. Bemish will fit perfectly there and as for you," here
Shavash smiled charmingly at the banker, "I would like you, Ronald, to
handle the negotiations with the bonds' owners."
Ronald Trevis leaned forward - his eyes reflected the lights from the
candles burning on the table and the green illumination coming from the
counter surveillance device. "He will never stop," a thought passed Bemish's
mind, "He will handle the most fantastic deals for Shavash because Shavash
can offer him what nobody has ever done in the Galaxy yet. He will be a
consultant if Shavash asks him to privatize the ministry of finance."
Three days later, Bemish dropped by Assalah, for a couple of hours - he
was accompanying a Galactic Bank committee.
The committee was shown a new section of finished launching pads,
numbers seven to seventeen, and was escorted down the unfinished but already
working spaceport building with twelve underground service floors and a
fifteen story tower that housed Bemish's office on its very top.
Bemish entered his office with the bank vice president and
contemplated, smiling slightly, his table covered with a barely perceptible
layer of dust.
After the committee had left, Giles walked into the office.
"How is Kissur's castle?" the spy inquired.
Bemish mumbled something vague.
"By the way," Giles said, "satellites observed a space boat explosion
in this area. It was something like a Colombine or a Trial with a boosted up
engine - they use them to traffic drugs. By any chance, have you heard about
it?"
"I witnessed it," Bemish said. "Kissur blew up the boat. Before that,
he torched ten million worth of drugs and killed sixteen men. Afterwards he
almost cut his own brother's head off. Ashidan was involved in the
business."
"Did you memorize the space boat's license plate number?"
"It was D-3756A Orinoko, if the plate wasn't a fake."
Giles paused.
"Do you think that Kissur took you with him on purpose? Did he know
that we suspected him in drug trafficking and that they had refused his
application to the military academy exactly because of this?"
"Yes. Only, Kissur is a proud man and he will die before he says it out
loud."
Giles was biting his lips.
"Where is Ashidan now?" he asked finally.
"Ashidan stayed in the castle. More precisely, he stayed in the
castle's cellar." Bemish specified.
He paused and added,
"You said that you had proof of Kissur's connection to drug dealers.
Where did you get this proof?"
"Make a guess."
"Shavash?"
Giles nodded and spoke,
"But he could just be mistaken."
Bemish blew up and banged his fist on the table,
"There is no way this bastard could be mistaken!" he screamed, "You can
fool the Earthmen from a sky far away and tell them that Kissur traffics in
drugs! You can't fool Shavash! He has better spies that all the local
gangsters combined! He knew for sure that Kissur had nothing to do with it!
But he also knew that Kissur, if cornered, would sooner or later break his
head!"
"But Shavash is Kissur's friend..."
"Friend? The only thing he wants is to get into Idari's bed! If Kissur
keels over, before a year goes by, Idari will have a choice - either to go
bumming or to marry Shavash!"
Giles looked at Bemish and said suddenly,
"I think that Mrs. Idari will also have the third alternative - to
marry the Assalah spaceport director. Not that a barbarian from the stars
could really allure her..."
The Eleventh Chapter
Where Terence Bemish's assistant goes to the sectants' meeting in
Imissa while Kissur the White Falcon looks around the Galaxy for abandoned
warheads.
Two days later, Ashinik returned to the spaceport and he didn't drop a
word about the Inissa meeting. It could not be ruled out that the zealots
had made certain decisions and that these decisions could include an order
for Ashinik to plant a bomb for Bemish or to throw it down a launching
chute. But Bemish didn't have time to think about it.
Three days later, Bemish wandered into his office for half an hour to
dictate a whole pile of documents, Ashinik interrupted him calling from
somewhere in the port.
"Mr. Bemish, could you find an hour for me? There is a man here who
would like to meet you. "
"What man?" Bemish asked.
"It's an... old man."
Bemish was quite impressed. He cleaned up his office and changed his
jacket, just in case; he hung his regular one in the closet and picked out a
light grey jacket that had one very useful feature - it could resist a laser
burst at a three meter distance.
Ashinik led into the office an eighty-year-old man in peasant clothing,
with white and bushy eyebrows, straight back and a square cap on a seemingly
bald head. The old man looked at the Earthman with scary bulging eyes.
"You," the old man said, "are the boss of this place. And who am I?"
"You are probably," Bemish said, "the boss of the people who don't like
this place."
"We don't have bosses," the old man declared, "We have students and
teachers."
Bemish had nothing to reply, so he asked, "Would you like some tea?"
Strangely, the old man agreed. Bemish ordered it and soon Inis entered
the office carrying a tray with a teapot, cups, and several baskets filled
with sweet cookies.
The old man disapprovingly stared at Inis' skirt. It was exactly one
meter shorter than what he would consider decent. Even Bemish, in the back
of his mind, disapproved of Inis strolling in this skirt anywhere outside of
his bedroom. But what could h