Engineman - Eric Brown [56]
Quiberon was shaking his head. "Is this some kind of joke?"
Hunter was in the process of counting out twenty thousand credits in five hundred credit notes. He looked up. "No joke, Monsieur Quiberon. Here is the money. Please check it to ensure I haven't underpaid you." He dropped it onto the stone slab.
Lights sequenced along the flank of the flux-tank. Sassoon opened the hatch and pulled out the slide-bed. Hunter helped him withdraw the jacks from Miguelino's occipital console. While he was doing this he noticed the dwarf quickly snatch the money and rifle through it.
They swung Miguelino into a sitting position on the slide-bed. He was in a daze, the usual look of loss in his eyes extinguished by communion with the ultimate.
"Good work in locating the tank, Mr Miguelino," Hunter said, making a circle with his thumb and forefinger before the Engineman's face. "This is the one."
Miguelino was in no fit state to respond.
Sassoon said, "I'll make the arrangements for shipment immediately."
Hunter was aware of the hard pressure of exultation in his chest. "This means it won't be long now, Mr Sassoon. We're on our way."
Quiberon was still counting the notes when Hunter left the crypt and walked back through the graveyard.
Rossilini had the Mercedes waiting by the gates. Hunter slipped into the back seat and the roadster started up and swept him north through the derelict suburbs. He watched the dark buildings slide by, thinking only of the time when the mission would be over and he could concentrate as much effort on righting the affairs of his personal life.
As they approached the mortuary, Rossilini's communicator buzzed. He spoke in hushed tones, then turned to Hunter. "It's base, sir. Delgardo of the KVO in Kuala Lumpur is wanting to speak to you. He says it's urgent."
"Excellent," Hunter said. "Tell them to put him through to my room. I'll be back in five minutes."
When they reached the warehouse building, Hunter took the elevator to the top floor. He hurried through the main chamber and entered his room, closing the door behind him. He activated the wall-screen and it flooded the previously darkened room with light. The picture resolved, showing a thin, silver-haired man in his seventies seated behind a desk.
Hunter manoeuvred an armchair in front of the wall-screen and sat down. "Jose. Sorry to keep you waiting."
Delgardo smiled. "I've been trying to contact you for hours, Hirst."
"I have a security network filtering and checking on all calls. Secrecy is of the utmost importance."
"Is it possible to ask where you are?"
"I'm sorry. If my opponents were to find out... This is a secure link, Jose, but even so..."
Delgardo gestured. "Not to worry. It's great to hear from you again. It's been a long time."
"Years," Hunter said, aware that they were both beating around the proverbial bush. "Too many years."
Jose Delgardo was something of a paradox: head of one of the Organisations responsible for putting the bigship Lines out of business, he was nevertheless a believer, a Disciple. He had trained to become an Engineman, and even pushed briefly as a Gamma before ill-health had forced his early retirement. Hunter had known and liked him when both men worked for the Hartmann Company on Mars in the early days of interface development. He had been the obvious person to approach about this matter.
Hunter cleared his throat. "I take it you've considered my communiqué?"
Delgardo sat up, equatorial sunlight falling about him through the window-wall of his office. "I must admit, Hirst, that my first reaction to this-" he tapped a sheaf of print-outs before him on the desk "- was