Chaos Space - Marianne de Pierres [61]
‘Pfft!’ said Paraburd. ‘It requires nothing more than trailing around after a diplomat. This type of cross-utilisation of labour is a common and accepted practice. But then, as an esteemed scholar you would have seen such things. I am a reputable businessman and if you do not wish to make honest lucre, then—’ Gutnee Paraburd made a show of returning his purse to his pocket.
Thales forestalled any further negative pronouncement by taking the purse. ‘I apologise. Of course you are.’
‘Indeed,’ said Paraburd, mollified. ‘The purse contains an installment of the lucre. You shall have the balance when you return. It is not safe for a man to walk around with a million lucre in his pocket, Msr Berniere. Now let us go.’
Their final words were exchanged a short time later at the entrance to a docking tube. Thales could not see the craft but a deep whine emanated through the tube and it shuddered periodically.
Gutnee Paraburd pressed a document film into his hand. ‘Your instructions are all here.’ He gave Thales a wide-eyed look. ‘Safe travelling, Msr Thales—may fortune bring you back to me quickly.’
Thales could not think of a suitable reply and settled for ‘I will do my best, sir.’ He climbed the small rubber gradient to the entrance of the tube but when he turned to give Paraburd a final farewell the man had already gone.
A humanesque dressed in the same kind of uniform as Thales waited at the ship’s entrance.
‘You Paraburd’s man?’
Thales nodded, not sure that he liked the fellow’s curt tone and thick features.
‘Here,’ said the guard, slapping a mask against Thales’s chest. ‘Get this on. The diplomat will be here in a moment. Make sure you stand at the back.’
‘Is my uniform too unkempt?’ asked Thales, anxiously prodding the rip.
The man gave him an odd look. ‘Yeah. Sure enough. But that’s it.’
As Thales pulled the visor down over his face, more uniformed personnel appeared in the lock, assembling themselves into two lines. He dutifully lined up in the second row.
A few moments later two Brown Robes entered through the shuddering docking tube.
Thales held his breath, grateful that he’d been instructed to stand back. The politic guards scanned the group of assembled personnel and exchanged a few words with the man who had greeted Thales. Satisfied that all was in order, one of them spoke into a personal ‘cast.
The tube rattled again and the diplomat entered.
Thales found himself unable to let go of the breath that he was holding in. Sophos Mianos stood a mere body’s length away.
MIRA
‘Cryoprotectants?’
‘Surely even on your backward planet you’ve heard of them?’
‘I-I...’
‘Who opposes OLOSS, Baronessa?’
‘The Extropists, of course—’
‘OLOSS has been trying to destabilise them for years because they won’t sign the charter. One of the ways they’ve done that is to make the cryoprotectants that the Extros use in their transformation processes illegal—outside approved consignments for OLOSS use.’
‘They are illegal?’ Mira’s heart thundered.
‘Not just illegal, Fedor. Do you know what they do to ‘esques caught trafficking them?’ Rast’s eyes were so narrow that Mira wasn’t sure if they were even open. ‘They don’t bother to put them in jail. They just box them up and cremate them,’ she said.
‘OLOSS would not be so barbaric’
‘Would be and are,’ Rast said flatly. ‘Crux, Fedor, you’ve just had a close-up view of what humanesques can do to each other. Why would OLOSS be any different?’
‘But the charter—’
‘Prevents lawlessness but doesn’t stop cruelty.’
Rast impatiently tapped her fingers on the conductor pad while Mira digested what she had learned.
‘But if you knew I was going to an OLOSS planet—why would you risk such a thing?’ Mira said slowly.
Rast’s glance flicked to Catchut—so quickly that Mira wasn’t sure whether of not she’d imagined it. ‘You were going. Not us. We—ah—intended to…stay aboard. Didn’t figure the suspicious bastards would come out and search us.’
Is that the truth, Rast? Mira wondered. She examined the mercenary’s face but Rast