Retief Unbound by Keith Laumer Read Free Book Online Page B

you're doing it for
strangers."
    "What's the problem?"
Retief said, "Croanie about to foreclose?"
    "The loan's due. The wine crop
would put us in the clear; but we need harvest hands. Picking Bacchus grapes
isn't a job you can turn over to machinery—and we wouldn't if we could. Vintage
season is the high point of living on Lovenbroy. Everybody joins in. First,
there's the picking in the fields. Miles and miles of vineyards covering the
mountain sides, crowding the river banks, with gardens here and there. Big
vines, eight feet high, loaded with fruit, and deep grass growing between. The
wine-carriers keep on the run, bringing wine to the pickers. There's prizes
for the biggest day's output, bets on who can fill the most baskets in an hour.
The sun's high and bright, and it's just cool enough to give you plenty of
energy. Come nightfall the tables are set up in the garden plots, and the feast
is laid on: roast turkeys, beef, hams, all kinds of fowl. Big salads and plenty
of fruit and fresh-baked bread . . . and wine, plenty of wine. The cooking's
done by a different crew each night in each garden, and there's prizes for the
best crews.
    "Then the wine-making. We
still tramp out the vintage. That's mostly for the young folks—but anybody's
welcome. That's when things start to get loosened up. Matter of fact, pretty
near half our young-uns are born about nine months after a vintage. All bets
are off then. It keeps a fellow on his toes though; ever tried to hold onto a
gal wearin' nothing but a layer of grape juice?"
    "Never did," Retief said.
"You say most of the children are born after a vintage. That would make
them only twelve years old by the time—"
    "Oh, that's Lovenbroy years;
they'd be eighteen, Terry reckoning."
    "I was thinking you looked a
little mature for twenty- eight," Retief said.
    "Forty-two, Terry years,"
Arapoulous said. "But this year—it looks bad. We've got a bumper crop—and
we're short-handed. If we don't get a big vintage, Croanie steps in; lord knows
what they'll do to the land.
    "What we figured was, maybe
you Culture boys could help us out: a loan to see us through the vintage,
enough to hire extra hands. Then we'd repay it in sculpture, painting,
furniture—"
    "Sorry, Hank. All we do here
is work out itineraries for traveling side-shows, that kind of thing. Now if
you needed a troop of Groaci nose-flute players—"
    "Can they pick grapes?"
    "Nope—anyway they can't stand
the daylight. Have you talked this over with the Labor office?"
    "Sure did. They said they'd
fix us up with all the electronics specialists and computer programmers we
wanted—but no field hands. Said it was what they classified as menial drudgery;
you'd have thought I was trying to buy slaves."
    The buzzer sounded. Miss Furkle
appeared on the desk screen.
    "You're due at the Inter-Group
Council in five minutes," she said. "Then afterwards, there are the
Bogan students to meet."
    "Thanks." Retief finished
his glass and stood. "I have to run, Hank," he said. "Let me
think this over. Maybe I can come up with something. Check with me day after
tomorrow. And you'd better leave the bottles here. Cultural exhibits, you
know."
    As the council meeting broke up,
Retief caught the eye of a colleague across the table.
    "Mr. Whaffle, you mentioned a
shipment going to a place called Croanie. What are they getting?"
    Whaffle blinked. "You're the
fellow who's filling in for Magnan, over at MUDDLE," he said.
"Properly speaking, equipment grants are the sole concern of the Motorized
Equipment Depot, Division of Loans and Exchanges." He pursed his lips.
"However, I suppose there's no harm in my telling you. They'll be
receiving heavy mining equipment."
    "Drill rigs, that sort of
thing?"
    "Strip mining gear."
Whaffle took a slip of paper from a breast pocket and blinked at it. "Bolo
Model WV/1 tractors, to be specific. Why MUDDLE's interest in MEDDLE's
activities?"
    "Forgive my curiosity, Mr.
Whaffle. It's just that Croanie cropped up earlier