Chapter 26
IT HAD BEEN TOO EASY, thought Grimes. So far. He said as much to the women. Fenella said that it had been easy because he had been throwing money around like a drunken spaceman. Shirl said that Mal would not have been so keen to help had not two of his own people been involved. Fenella said that good money had been paid out but, at the moment there was only the vague promise of assistance. Darleen said that a New Alician’s word was his bond. Fenella said, changing the subject slightly, that it was indeed strange that Mal was willing to get rid of his fellow Matilda’s Children. Shirl said that the chief had set a far higher value on herself and Darleen than on Fenella.
Before the catfight got out of control Grimes steered the discussion on to what he hoped would be a safe track. He said, “The two of you were still yapping around the fire after Fenella and I turned in last night. What did you find out?”
“Kangaroo Valley ain’t entirely cut off from the world,” said Darleen. “It’s left alone because it’s useful. There’s a sorta lizard livin’ in rocky places. It ain’t good eatin’—but there’s some demand for parts of its guts. Have ter be dried in the sun, then roasted, then ground into a sorta powder . . . It sells at fancy prices in the cities . . .”
“What’s it used for?” asked Grimes stupidly.
“What would anything be used for on this world? Mal doesn’t sell it all, o’ course. He keeps some for his own use. For all his big talk he’s gettin’ old, over the hill. He wanted us, last night. Both of us. An’ he knew that he could only manage one with the amount of juice that he has in his batteries at his age. So he charged himself up . . .”
“An’ the worst of it was,” said Shirl, “that after he was quite finished he wouldn’t let us sleep on the cushions in his humpy but bundled us off to get what rest we could on a bed o’ leaves . . .”
“He’s a jealous bastard, that Mal,” went on Darleen. “He thought that you’d been havin’ it off with us an’ didn’t want you bustin’ in and interferin’. But if the stuff is mixed in drink—like beer—an’ if the mug is shared by two people—like you an’ Fenella did once last night—it’s supposed to work for that couple only . . .”
Grimes looked at Fenella.
She looked at him.
She said coldly, “So that’s why you were capable last night.”
He thought, So that’s why you weren’t your usual bitchy self.
He said, “That stuff must be pricey.”
“Even wholesale it’s not all that cheap,” she agreed.
“Then why is this camp so primitive?”
“Mal likes it that way. Matilda’s Children like it that way.”
“What happens to the money?” persisted Grimes.
“It’s banked. It builds up. Then, every year, there’s a lottery. The winner gets a passage back home, to New Alice.”
“And yet,” said Fenella Pruin, “Able Enterprises never seem to have any trouble in getting new recruits for the brothels—and worse—of this planet. Surely those lucky winners spread the word about how things really are on New Venusberg . . .”
“I met one,” said Shirl, “just before I came out here. The lying bitch! New Venusberg, according to her, was the original get-rich-quick-in-luxury planet. Ha!”
“Do you think that she was in Drongo Kane’s pay?” asked Grimes.
“Not necessarily,” said Fenella Pruin. “A thorough brain-scrubbing, then artificial memories . . .”
“But that’s not legal,” said Grimes.
“Some of the things that happened to us weren’t legal. But they happened just the same. The only crime here is not having enough money to be able to break interstellar law with impunity. So . . . But what else did you two find out during your night of unbridled passion?”
Shirl and Darleen gave her almost identical dirty looks.
“Mal didn’t want us for talking to,” said Shirl. “But after he threw us out we slept in a big humpy with two of his wives. They wanted to spend what was left of the night nattering. They told us what a hard life it was catchin’ the lizards, an’ gutting an’ all the rest of it, an’ how the only thing to look forward to was Cap’n Onslow comin’ in to collect the . . . the . . .”
“Aphrodisiac,” supplied Fenella.
“Yair. He always brings some decent beer an’ some tins o’ food, luxury items, like. He’s from some world where the people have a thing about ships—the sort of ships that sail on the sea, I mean . . .”
“Atlantia?” asked Grimes. “Aquarius?”
“Aquarius. I think. He was a shipowner there, an’ a captain. He sold out, came here for a holiday. He decided to stay after he found out that a little ship, with no crew to pay, could make a living sniffing around little settlements like this, pickin’ up little parcels of cargo . . .”
“Sounds like a good life,” said Grimes.
“You should know,” said Fenella. “But perhaps he doesn’t have the same uncanny genius for getting into trouble that you have.”
“From here,” Shirl went on, “he sails direct for Troy—that’s a seaport just south of New Bali Beach. It’s not all that far from Port Aphrodite.”
“And then it’s only a short tube ride back to my own ship,” said Grimes.
“You hope,” said Fenella Pruin. “We all hope. But first of all we must hope that this Onslow person will agree to carry us to Troy.”