Terra's World by Mitch Benn Read Free Book Online

Think you can handle it?
    Strannit made a gesture of benign disinterest, then waddled over to study the inert figure on the gurney. - Is that it? He frowned, his long snout quivering with distaste.
    - That’s it. And it gave me a lot of trouble. A LOT of trouble. A note of accusation in this last statement. Strannit felt the need to defend his professionalism.
    - I’m sorry if I gave you the impression this job would be easier than it was, but you must understand, I only have the information my clients supply me with. If they told me that the Ymn would be an easy mark I had no business telling you otherwise.
    The young Ymn’s eyes narrowed. - Perhaps I should take it up with them, he hissed.
    - Out of the question, I’m afraid, stated Strannit flatly. I couldn’t possibly divulge their identity. Confidentiality lies at the very heart of all Kotari transactions. As a member of the Morbis Guild, I’m sure you appreciate the importance of adhering to codes of professional conduct. Besides, if you’ll pardon the vulgarity, should my clients and my contractors ever get talking to each other, they could decide to cut out the middle-being. As a highly paid middle-being, Strannit wasn’t about to let that happen.
    - In that case, the young Ymn replied, I might have to take my complaint back to the Morbis Guild. They may be able to think of some way of getting hold of that information. Bear in mind that when MY people decide to cut out the middle-being, they do it one piece at a time.
    Strannit paled from deep to royal blue. - Oh come now, he said. It would never come to that. If the Morbis Guild found itself in dispute with the Walkers of the True Path, he pronounced this with a knowing smile, I’m sure it could be resolved entirely amicably.
    Naughty Strannit, he thought, giving away the name of your client. Still, it didn’t sound like the Guild and the Walkers were likely to go into business together in the immediate future, quite the reverse in fact. A showdown between those two gangs of maniacs . . . Conflict always brought all sorts of lucrative opportunities for someone with contacts on both sides. Strannit silently congratulated himself on his own craftiness.
    The young Ymn smiled coldly. - That just leaves the matter of payment.
    Strannit got to his feet. - Of course. He waddled across to a decorated metal chest on the floor of the cabin. He flipped it open. It was full of silvery metallic strips.
    - Dolfric ingots, as agreed. Untraceable and good for trade in any system. He shut the lid and went over to inspect the sleeping girl. Quite pretty in an alien way. Not for much longer, he suspected.
    The Ymn bent to pick up the chest with one hand; he winced and dropped it the floor. The clang caused Strannit to wheel round in alarm.
    The Ymn looked up at him. - Could you help me get this to my ship? She managed to get a good wound in before I put her down. He indicated one of his arms. Like I said, trouble.
    - Of course, said Strannit, grunting with effort as he picked up the chest. Not the sort of work he relished, and he was glad that none of his fellow traders were there to see it (he’d never have heard the end of it at the next Traders’ Association Hapto-Shan party), but the sooner he got this surly wokker off his ship, the better.
    Strannit struggled through the umbilical, his feet sticking to the attraction strip running along its floor; at least the chest’s weight was annulled in the umbilical, along with his own. Another being of Strannit’s size might have relished a brief burst of weightlessness, but Strannit had worked hard to attain his bulk and was proud of it. He had to bend low to pass through the bug-eyed ship’s hatch. He gasped as he entered the little ship’s internal gravity field, and sighed gratefully as he lowered the chest to the floor of the poky flight cabin.
    A sound came from behind him. A familiar sound. The sound of his own ship’s hatch sliding shut. He spun around in