Star Risk - 02 Scoundrel Worlds by Chris Bunch Read Free Book Online

thugs?"
    "Pah," Reynard said. "First, everyone worthwhile on Montrois already knows who you are, that I've hired you, and for what end."
    "Still," Riss said. "I'm not sure if I'm happy assuming that the oppos know exactly what you're thinking about them."
    "They are dolts!" Reynard said. "They know nothing."
    "Are you sure this room is secure?" von Baldur asked.
    "Of course I am! I have been coming to Tournelle's since I was a boy! They know me here, and I like to think of them as my friends."
    "Friends," Goodnight said, "can be bought. Or things can happen when their backs are turned."
    "You are mistaken, Mr. Goodnight," Reynard insisted. "We can say anything at all inside these rooms. Besides, I've had trusted members of my own party sweep the room within the past week."
    "Still�" von Baldur said, and nodded at Grok.
    The enormous alien unslung a small pack, took a small gray box with an earpiece out, and turned it on.
    Reynard watched Grok, tight-lipped, as he moved around the room.
    "There," he said when Grok had finished. "Now are you satisfied?"
    "I am," Grok said. "There are four bugs. One here, in this table leg, another up there, in the chandelier, another here, at the door, inside this fixture, and a fourth, probably meant to be discovered, under this chair."
    Reynard was purpling. Grok paid no attention, taking very small ovoids from his pack, turning them on, and sticking them next to the taps.
    "Now all they'll hear is a dull roar," Grok said. "If we had more time, I could synthesize your voice, Mr. Reynard, maybe reading children's dragon tales or something to completely charm your listeners."
    "I shall complain to the management!"
    "Why bother?" Riss said. "They won't be able to do anything until we're gone."
    "That is true," Reynard said. "But you may rest assured I shall have a word with the owners."
    "Better you should maybe check the bank accounts of the trusted members of your party who supposedly swept this room," Riss suggested.
    A waiter came in, bowed.
    "You'll forgive me if I order for everyone," Reynard said. "There are some very famous dishes found here that you will curse yourself if you do not try."
    "Proceed," von Baldur said.
    "My first question," King said, unobtrusively turning on a recorder, "is�"
    "No," Reynard said. "First we eat. Dining is important."
    He ordered, and then they ate wild fungi and meat terrine with a roasted pepper sauce; spiced game steaks with a cabbagelike confit and red wine sauce; roasted wild vegetables; a braised endivelike gratin; a fruit and vegetable salad; and finished with a chocolate chestnut torte.
    Riss leaned over to King and whispered, "I'm never going to eat again."
    King said, "I'm never going to be able to eat again. If this is a midday meal, I don't want to even think about what they do for dinner."
    Goodnight, in spite of his ability to slug down thousands of calories to refuel after going bester, foundered before the salad.
    But Grok and von Baldur kept apace with Reynard to the last plate.
    Finally, the former premier dabbed at his mouth with a napkin and said, with a bit of regret, "And now to work.
    "Your opponents," he went on. "Of course, there are the never-to-be-sufficiently-despised Universalists, traitorous bastards that they are. They�"
    "A moment," Grok asked. "Traitorous? In what way?"
    "That is, or should be, obvious to any citizen of Dampier. Rather than follow sensible policies, and stand against the Torguth, they are a party of the rich, and care for nothing but their bankbooks.
    "Domestically, they think that if the rich get richer, the poor will inevitably benefit from this, which of course is foolishness.
    "As for foreign relations, they would prefer that we remain at loggerheads with Torguth�never quite going to war, which is destructive, but maintaining a constant state of tension, which allows them to keep spending tax money for useless weaponry. They're not aware that they're teasing the tiger, and that Torguth is in