The Tar Aiym Krang Part 2

Here at close range Flinx was able to study his two charges better. He did so, intently. The tail human was a fair sixth metre shorter than the huge Symm, but the thranx was truly a giant of its kind. With its upper body raised as it was now, its eyes were almost on a level with Flinx's own. The entire insect was a full two metres long. One and a half was normal for a male of the species. That their eyes were busy in their own scrutiny of him he did not mind. As a performer he was more than used to that. But he found himself looking away from those great golden orbs. Meeting them was too much like staring into an ocean of shattered prisms. He wondered what it was like to view life that way, through a thousand tiny eyes instead of merely two large ones.

When the man spoke, it was with a surprisingly melodious voice. 'How do you do, youngster. Our good dispenser of spirits here informs us that you are practically Indispensabie to one who wishes to see: something of your city.'

He extended a hand and Flinx shook it, surprised at the calluses there. As the enacts of the mildly hallucinogenic brew wore off, he became increasingly, aware of the uniqueness of the two beings he was going to be a.s.sociating with each exuded an aura of something he'd not encountered before, even in his wanderings among the denizens of the shuitle-port.

'My name is Tse-Mallory .. Bran. And this, my companion is the Eint Truzenzuzex.'

The insect bowed from the 'waist' at the introduction, a swooping, flowing motion not unlike that of a lake-skimmer diying for a surface swimming fish, Another surprise: it spoke Terranglo, instead of symbospeech. Hero was a learned and very polite bug indeed! Few thranx had the ability to master more than a few elementary phrases of Terrangio. Its inherent logical inconsistencies tended to give them headaches. The insect's p.r.o.nunciation, however, was as good as his own. The rasping quality of it was made unavoidable by the different arrangement of vocal cords.

'High metamorphosis to you, youth. We've been in need of a guide to this confusing city of yours for several days, actually. We're very glad you've agreed to help us out of our difficulty.'

'I'll do what I can, gentlesirs. 'This flattery was embarra.s.sing.

'We would prefer to start at dawn tomorrow,' said Tse-Mallory. 'We're here on business, you see, and a more intimate acquaintance with the city is a prerequisite which we have put off" too long already. We were expecting a guide to meet us, actually, but since he has apparently changed his mind, you will have the commission.'

'We are staying at a small inn a short distance down this same street..' added Truzenzuzex. It's sign is three fishes and...'

'... a stars.h.i.+p. I know the place, sir I'll meet you at first-fog - seven hours - tomorrow, in the lobby.' The two shook hands with him once again and made as if to take their leave. Flinx coughed delicately but insistency. 'Uh, a small detail, sirs.'

Tse-Mallory paused. 'Yes?'

'There is the matter of payment.'

The thranx made the series of rapid clicking sounds with its mandibles which pa.s.sed for laughter among its kind. The insects had a highly developed, sometimes mischievous sense of humour.

'So! Our guide is a plutocrat as well! No doubt as a larvae you were a hopeless sugar-h.o.a.rder. How about this, then? At the conclusion of our tour tomorrow - I daresay one day will be sufficient for our purposes - we will treat you to a meal at the finest constabulary in the food crescent.'

Well! Let's see now, twelve courses at Portio's would come to ... well! His mouth was watering already.

That'll be great ... sufficient, I mean, sirs.' Indeed, it would!

Chapter Two.

Flinx was of course not a guide by profession, but he knew ten times as much about the real Drallar as the bored government hirelings who conducted the official tours of the city's high spots for bemused off-worlders. He'd performed this function for other guests of Small Symm more than once in the past.

These, however, had proved themselves rather outretouristas . He showed them the great central marketplace, where goods from half-way across the Arm could be found. They did not buy. He took them to the great gate of Old Drallar, a monumental arch carved from water-pure silicon dioxide by native craftsmen, and so old it was not recorded in the palace chronicles. They did not comment. He took them also to the red towers where the fantastic flora of Moth grew lush in greenhouses under the tender ministrations of de dieted royal botanists. Then to' the tiny, out-of-the-way places, where could be bought the unusual, the rare, and the outlawed. Jewelled dishware, artwork, weaponry, utensils, gems, rare earths and rare clothings, tickets to anywhere. Scientific instruments, scientists, females or other s.e.xes of any species. Drugs: medicinal, hallucinogenic, deadly, preservative. Thoughts and palm-readings.

Only rarely did either of them say this or that small flung about their surroundings. One might almost have thought them bored.

Once it was at an antique cartographer's, and then in a language incomprehensible to the multilinguistic Flinx.

Yes, for two who had seemed so needful of a guide, they had thus far shown remarkably little interest in their surroundings. They seemed far more interested in Flinx and Pip than in the city he was showing them. As late afternoon. rolled around he was startled to realize how much they had learned about him through the most innocent and indirect questioning. Once, when Truzenzuzex had leaned forward to observe the minidrag more closely, it had drawn hack wanly and curled its head out of sight behind Flinx's neck. That itself was an oddity. The snake's normal reaction was usually either pa.s.sivity or belligerence. This was the first time Flinx could recall it's displaying uncertainty. Apparently Truzenzuzex made little of the incident) but he never tried to approach the reptile closely again.

'You are an outstanding guide and a cheerful companion,'the thranx said, 'and I for one count my self fortunate to have you with us.' They had moved along until they were now quite a distance from the city's centre. Truzenzuzex gestured ahead to where the tower homes of the very wealthy stretched away in landscaped splendour. 'Now we would wish to see the manicured grounds and hanging gardens of Drallar's inurbs, of which we have both heard so much.'

I'm afraid I cannot manage that, sir. The grounds of Braav murb are closed to such as I, and there are ground-keepers - with guns - who are posted by the walls to keep the common folk from infesting the greens.'

'But youdo know the ways within?' prodded Tse-Mallory.

'Well,' Flinx began hesitantly. After all, what did he really know of those two? 'At night I have sometimes found it necessary to ... but it is not night now, and we would surely be seen going over the walls.'

'Then we shall go through the gate. Take us,' he said firmly, shutting off Flinx's incipient protests, 'and we will worry about getting past the guards.'

Flinx shrugged, irritated by the man's stubbornness. Let them learn their own way, then. But he mentally added an expensive dessert to the evening's meal. He led them to the first gateway and stood in the background while the large, overbearing man who lounged in the little building there came over towards them, grumbling noticeably.

It was now that the most extraordinary event of the day took place. Before the obviously antagonistic fellow could so much as utter a word, Truzenzuzex put a truehand into a pouch and-thrust under the man's eyes a card taken from somewhere inside- The man's eyes widened and he all but saluted, the belligerence melting from his att.i.tude like wax. Flinx had never, never seen an inurb guard, a man widely noted for his cultivated rudeness and suspicious mannerisms, react so helplessly to anyone, not even the residents of the inurbs themselves. He grew even more curious as to the nature of his friends. But they remained basically unreadable.d.a.m.n that beer! It seemed to him that he had heard the name Tse-Maltory somewhere before, but he couldn't be certain. And he would have given much for a glimpse of the card Truzenzuzex had so negligently flashed before the guard.

The way was now quite unopposed. He would at least have the opportunity of seeing some familiar things for the first time in the light of day. At leisure, too, without having to glance continually over his shoulder.

They strolled silently amid the emerald parklike grounds and tinkling waterfalls, occasionally pa.s.sing some richly dressed inhabitant or sweating underling, sometimes startling a deer or phylope among the bushes.

I understand,' said Tse-Mallory, breaking the silence, 'that each tower belongs to one family, and is named thusly.'

'That's true enough.' replied Flinx.

'And arc you familiar with them?'

'Most, not all. Since you are curious, I'll name the ones I do know as we pa.s.s them.'

'Do that.' It seemed silly, but they were paying, so who was he to argue the practicality? A fine wine joined the dinner menu ...

'.. and this,' he said as they drew abreast of a tail black-glazed tower, 'is the House of Malaika. A misnomer, sir. As I understand, it means "angel" in a dead Terran language.'

'No Terran language is "dead,"' said Tse-Mallory cryptically, Then. 'He who is named Maxim?'

'Why, yes. I know because I've performed here for parties, several times past. This next, the yellow ... '

But they weren't listening, he saw. Both had halted by the black tower and were staring upwards to where the rose-tinted crystal proto-porches encircled the upper stories and over hung the lush greenery of the hanging vines and air-shrubs.

'It is fortuitous,' he heard Truzenzuzex remark, 'that you know each other. It might or might not facilitate certain matters. Come. we shall pay a call on your Mister Malaika.'

Flinx was completely taken aback. Was this why they had hired him in the first place? To come this far to an impossibility? Next to the king and his ministers, the trader families of Drallar, nomads who had taken their talents off planet, were the wealthiest and most powerful individuals on the planet. And some might possibly be wealthier, for the extent of the great fortunes was not a subject into which even the monarch could inquire with impunity.

It is a slight acquaintance only, sirs! What makes you believe he will do anything but kick us out? What makes you believe he'll even see us?'

'What makes you think we can enter an oh-so-restricted inurb?' replied Truzenzuzex confidently. 'He will see us.'

The two began to head up the paved walkway towards the great arch of the tower entrance and Flinx, exasperated and puzzled, had little choice but to follow.

The double doorway of simple carved crystal led to a domes hallway that was lined with statuary and paintings and mindgrams which even Flinx's untrained eye could recognize as being of great value. There, at the far end, was a single elevator.

They halted before the platinum-in laid wood. A woman's voice greeted them mechanically from a grid set off to one side.

'Good afternoon, gentlebeings, and welcome to the House of Malaika. Please to state your business.'

Now they would finish this foolishness! The message was all very nicely put, the surroundings pleasant.

Out of the corner of an eye he could see a screen, delicately painted, ruffling in the slight breeze of the chamber's ventilators. Beyond which no doubt the muzzle of a laser-cannon or other inhospitable device was already trained on them. It was comfortably cool in the hall, but. he felt himself none the less beginning to sweat.

'Ex-chancellor second sociologist Bran Tse-Mallory and first pililosoph the Ent Truzenzuzex present their compliments to Maxim of the House of Malaika and would have converse with him if he is at home and so disposed.'

Flinx's mind parted abruptly from thoughts of making a run for the entrance. No wonder they'd gotten past the gate guard so easily! A churchman and a pure scientist. Highranked at that, although Tse-Mallory had said 'ex'. Chancellor second -that was planetary level, at least. He was less sure of Truzenzuzex's importance, but he knew that the thranx held their philosophs, or theoreticians, in an esteem matched only by that of the honorary Hive-Mothers and the Chancellor Firsts of the Church themselves. His mind was deluged with questions, all tinged by uncertainty as much as curiosity. What were two such eminences doing slumming in a place like Small Symm's? Why had they picked him for a guide - a youth, a nothing - when they could have had a royal escort by a king's minister? That answer- he could read clearly. Incognito; the one word said much and implied more. At the moment, what dealings did two such sophisticated minds have with a solid, earthy merchant like Maxim Malaika?

While he had been dazedly forming questions without answer, a mind somewhere had been coming to a decision. The grid spoke again.

'Maxim of the House of Malaika extends greetings, albeit astonished, and wilt have converse immediately with the two honoursirs. He wishes the both of you ...' there was a pause while a hidden eye somewhere scanned, '... the three of you to come up. He is' now in the southwest porchroom and would greet you there soonest.'

The grid voice clicked off and immediately the rich grained doors slid back. Man and thranx, stepped unbidden into the dark-pile interior. Flinx debated a second whether to follow them or run like h.e.l.l, but Tse-Mallory decided for him.

'Don't stand there gawking, youth. Didn't you hear it say he wished to see thethree of us?' Flinx could nowhere detect malignance. He stepped in. The elevator held them all more than comfortably. He'd been in this house before, but if there was one thing he was certain of it was that he was not now being summoned to provide entertainment. And this was not the servants' entrance he'd used before. The soft fsssh of air as the doors closed sounded explosively loud m his ears.

They were met at the end of their ride by a tall skeleton of a man dressed in the black and crimson of the Malaika family colours. He said nothing as he conducted them to a room Flinx had not seen before.

The far end of the room looked open to the sky. Actually if was one of the great crystal proto-porches which made this section of Drallar resemble so well a bejewelled forest. He quivered momentarily as he stepped out on to what appeared to be slick nothingness. The two scientists seemed unaffected. He had been on one of these before, when performing, but it had been opaque. This one was perfectly transparent, with just a hint of rose colouring, all the way to the ground. He looked up and the vertigo pa.s.sed.

The furnis.h.i.+ngs were all in red and black, with here and there an occasional bright colour in some imported article or work of art. Incense hung cloyingly in the air. In the distance the sun of Moth had begun to set, diffused by the perpetual thin fog. It got dark early on Moth.

On one of the numerous big fluffy couches sat two figures. One he immediately recognized: Malaika. The other was smaller, blonde, and quite differently formed. The majority of her covering was formed by her waist-length hair.

The voice that rumbled out of the thick-muscled neck was like a dormant volcano stirring to life. 'Je?

Our visitors are here. You run along, Sissiph, dear, and make yourself more pretty,ndiyo ?'

He gave her a crus.h.i.+ng peck on the cheek and sent her from the room with a resounding swat on the most prominent portion of her anatomy. He's got a new one, thought Flinx. This one was blonde and a bit more ripely curved" than the last. Apparently the trader's tastes were expanding along with his belly. In truth, though, it showed only slightly as yet.

'Well! Well,' boomed Malaika. His teeth flashed whitley in the ebony face, sparkling amidst wisps of curly beard. He was up to them and shaking hands in two steps. 'Bran Tse-Mallory and the Eint Tnizenzuzux.Usitawi .Thee Truzenzuzex?'

The insect performed another of its slow, graceful bows. 'I plead guilty of necessity to the accusation.'

Flinx took the time to admire the insect's abilities. Due to the nature of their physiology the thranx were usually extremely stiff in their movements. To see one bow as did Truzenzuzex was exceptional.

When the Humanx Commonwealth was in the process of being formed, humans had marvelled at the scintillating blue and blue-green iridescence of the thranx body colouring and swooned at the natural perfume they exuded. They had wondered miserably what the thranx would see in their own dun-coloured, stinky soft selves. What the thranx had seen was a flexibility coupled with firmness which no thranx could ever hope to match. Soon travelling dance companies from humanoid planets had become among the most popular forms of live entertainment on the thranx colonies and bomeworlds.

But from the thorax up, at least, Truzenzuzex gave the impression of being made of rubber.

Malaika finished shaking hands with both and then gave Flinx another little surprise. The' merchant extended his head and touched nose to antenna with the insect. It was the nearest a human could come to the traditional-thranx greeting of interwining antennae. But then, he reminded himself, a man who did business with as many races as had Malaika would know every gesture as a matter of course... and commerce.

'Sit down, sit down" he roared in what be undoubtedly thought to be gentle tone of voice. 'What do you think of my littlemwenzangu there, eh? Companion,' he added, seeing the puzzlement on their faces. He jerked his head in the direction taken by the departed girl.

Tse-Mallory said nothing, the twinkle in his eyes being sufficient. Truzenzuzex went further, If I read current human values aright, I should venture to say that such a propagation of marmoreal flesh to the width of the pelvic region would be viewed as more than usually aesthetic.'

Malaika roared. 'Stars, youare a scientist, sir! Powers of observation, indeed! What can I give you both to drink?'

'Ginger ale for me, if you have a good year.'

'f.a.gh! I do, but 'pon my word, sir, you've mellowed if you're the same Tse-Mallory I've heard tell of, And you, sir?'

'Would you by any chance have some apricot brandy?'

'Oh ho! A gourmet, as well as a man of science! I believe we can accommodate you, good philosoph.

But it will necessitate a-trip to the cellars. I don't often receive such a discerning guest.' The shadow which had conducted them from the elevator still stood wraithlike at the back of the room. Maiaika waved to it. 'See to it, Wolf.' The sentinel bowed imperceptibly and shuffled from the room, taking something in the atmosphere with him. More sensitive to it than the others, Flinx was relieved when the man's presence had gone.

Now, for the first time, that hearty voice lost some of its bantering tone. 'Je? What brings you two here, to Drallar? And so very quietly, too.' He glanced keenly from one imperturbable' face to the other, stroking that rich a.s.syrian beard slowly. 'Much as' my ego would be flattered, I cannot believe that such a stealthy entrance to our fair city has been effected purely for the pleasure of making my company.' He leaned forward expectantly in a manner that suggested he could smell money at least as well as Mother Mastiff.

Malaika was not as tall as Tse-Mallory, but he was at least twice as broad and had the build of an over-age wrestler. Shockingly white teeth gleamed in the dusky face which bore the stamp of the kings of ancient Monomotapa and Zimbabwe. Ma.s.sive, hairy arms protruded from the sleeves of the one-piece semisilk dressing-gown he wore casually belted at the waist. Legs to match, as solid looking as a Mothian ironwood tree, thrust out from the pleated folds at the knees. The short, k.n.o.bbly toes on the splayed Feet bore a close resemblance to the woody parasites that often infested such growths. At least, they did on one foot. The other, Flinx knew, ended at the knee. Fuelled by credits, the prosthetic surgeons had laboured their best to make the left match its natural counterpart on the right. The match was not quite perfect.

The real one, Flinx had learned from a talkative young woman at one of Malaika's parties, had been lost in the man's youth. He had been on a fur-gathering expedition to the planet of a minor sun in Draco when his party had been attacked by an ice-lizard. Being rather stupidly caught away from their weapons, they had watched helplessly as the carnivore instinctively sought out the weakest member of their party, the youthful female accountant. Malaika alone bad intervened. Lacking a suitable weapon, he had choked the beast to death by the simple expedient of jamming his left leg down its throat. It was the sort of extreme stunt that one wouldn't expect of the pragmatic merchant. Unfortunately, by the time they could get him to sufficient hospital facilities the limb had been torn and frozen beyond repair.

'We neither intended nor expected to deceive you, friend Malaika. We happen in fact to be on the trail of something we have good reason to think you would find of value, yes. To us, however, it means much more than a paltry few hundred million credits.'

Flinx swallowed.

'But,' Tse-Mallory continued, 'our personal resources are limited, and so we are forced, however reluctantly, to seek an outside source of aid. One with an open credit slip and a closed mouth.'

'And so you've wound your way to me. Well, well, well! It seems I'm to be flattered after all. I wouldn't be truthful if I said I were not. None the less, you must of course prove that what you wish me to provide credit for is going to be profitable to me ... in hard credit, not philosophical intangibles ... your pardon, friends. Tell me more about this thing which is worth much more than a mere few millions of credit.'

'We a.s.sumed that would be your reaction. Any other, to tell the truth, would have made us suspicious. It is one of the reasons why we feel we can deal openly with your type of person.'

'How comforting to know that you regard me as so obviously predictable,' Malaika said dryly. 'Do go on.'

'We could have gone to a government organization. The best are all too often corrupt, despite Church p.r.o.nouncements. We could have gone to a large philanthropic organization. They are too p.r.o.ne to shock. In the end we decided it would be best to go where the promise of much credit would insure the exclusivity of our enterprise.'

'And supposing that I do agree to put upfedha for this venture, what guarantee have you that I will not kill you outright if it proves successful and return with the object of search and two cancelled cheques?'

'Very simple. First, odd as it may sound, we know you to be both reliable and reasonably honest in your business dealings. This has proved among the best of your wares in the past and should again, despite the bloodthirsty image your publicists enjoy presenting to the gullible public, Second, we don't know what we're looking for, but we will know it when we find it. And there is an excellent possibility that we will find nothing at all. Or worse, something will be found which will still remain worthless to us because of its incomprehensibility.'

'Good! Any other thoughts andI would have become suspicious! I become more and more curious.

Elucidate for the benefit of my poor, ignorant trader's mind. Why me,por favor ?'

Truzenzuzex ignored the pun and made the thranx equivalent of a shrug. 'Someone was necessary. As already mentioned, your reputation in a business noted for its back-stabbing made my s.h.i.+p-brother select you.' Another revelation, thought Flinx. "And Moth itself is close to our objective . . . in a relative sense only, so it would do you little good and much expense to try to find it on your own. Also, another vessel departing Moth would mean nothing, with its constant flux of star travel. Our course would not be suspect from here, whereas elsewhere it might engender unwanted cogitation. Traders, however, often fly peculiar tangents to throw off compet.i.tors.'

At this point the drinks arrived. Conversation was suspended by mutual consent as the debaters sipped at their refreshments. Flinx sampled Tse-Mallory's mug of ginger ale and found it delicious, if mild.

Malaika drained at least half the contents of a huge tankard in one gulp. He rubbed his foamy lips with the sleeve of an immaculate gown, staining it irreparably. Knowing the fabric's worth in the marketplace, Flinx couldn't help but wince.

'I again apologize for my denseness, sirs, but I would have whatever it is the compet.i.tion is to be thrown off of spelled out to me.' He turned to face Tse-Mallory directly. 'And although you are apparently no longer a.s.sociated with the Church in an official capacity, sociologist, I confess I am curious to know why you did not approach them seeking aid.'

'My dealings with the United Church, Malaika, have not been over close for a number of years now. My parting was amicable enough, but there was a certain amount of unavoidable bitterness in certain quarters over my leaving that ... matters would be complicated, shall we say, should I reveal our knowledge to them at this time. Such would be necessary to secure their aid.'