Power Play - Anne McCaffrey [110]
“Yes?” he asked. “This is a private channel. How did you gain access? You are in violation of the Intergalactic Communications and Trade Act—”
“Fiske, you two-timing maggoty imbecile. You set me up.”
“I don’t believe I’ve had the honor,” Torkel said in his stiffest military manner.
“This is Louchard speaking, Onidi Louchard. Ring a bell?”
No wonder the pirate sent Dinah O’Neill to negotiate for him! She was a damn sight easier to look at and more discreet, as well. She’d know better than to try to contact clients in their own homes. This was a definite breach of professional etiquette and he didn’t intend to stand for it.
“Not here, it damn sure doesn’t. I’m ending this trans—”
“I. Would. Not,” the Aurelian said, and Torkel remembered that the pirate was reputed to have an efficient complement of skilled assassins to eliminate those dissatisfied with Louchardian arrangements. “Now, listen to me, Fiske. You completely neglected to mention the Gentlepersons’ Agreement regarding abductions when you suggested I kidnap the Algemeine woman. You knew that ransoms are never paid by people of that ilk.”
“Your emissary,” Torkel said, managing a sneer, “should have been aware of it, since the Agreement’s a long-standing one. So that’s your error, not mine! I’m ending now.”
“No, you’re not. You wouldn’t care to entertain a visit from my termination specialists, now would you? And you will, unless you see to it that we’re compensated for our trouble in her case.”
“Compensation is your business, not mine. Why should I pay for her return?”
The pirate did something most unusual with his head, eyes, and tentacles that made Torkel’s stomach heave, and the noise it made was even more ghastly. Aurelian laughter? Then Louchard said, “There’s also the matter of Colonel Maddock-Shongili. She says—”
“I don’t care what she says. I was led to believe you were competent at what you do. Obviously I was misinformed. If you can’t get your ransoms, then kill both of them, for all I care. If you were as professional as you were said to be, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Out.”
And he clicked the comm control with great satisfaction, feeling that he’d definitely had the best of that exchange. The best of that bitch, Yanaba Maddock! And nothing to link them with her demise.
Matthew Luzon received the call from the Aurelian as he was engaged in assisting with the enlightenment of the people of Potala, who had, before company renovations, been so wasteful as to have nearly seventy percent of their populace serving as celibate clerics. Potala had set up a theocracy until the company put a stop to it, reminding the little planet that, while it might believe that killing animals was wrong and certain places were sacred, the planet was, in fact, entirely and in all respects the property of Intergal. Fortunately, so far, Potala had showed no outward inclination to join in personally on the side of its inhabitants, despite the claims of certain tenets of their religion.
Matthew was busily reinterpreting those tenets when his comm unit signaled for his attention on the company’s priority channel. A hideous Aurelian face and waving tentacles filled the screen.
“Luzon, you’ve been cutting in on enterprises that were guaranteed to us as part of our deal with you and Fiske.”
“And who might you be, brother?” Luzon asked.
“I am Louchard, captain of the Pirate Jenny. I have taken receipt of certain live cargo whose possession was supposed to guarantee me the right to exploit the assets of the world known as Petaybee, formerly an Intergal installation.”