• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“At once, sir. Coming right up.” The Sljee pirouetted on its many short podia and sailed off in the direction of the service bar.

“So we know I’m not Zlarb,” Han resumed to Fiolla. “Who are you not?”

She chuckled. “I’m not a slaver, but you know my real name, or at least part of it. Im Hart-and-Parn Gorra-Fiolla of Lorrd, Assistant Auditor-General, Corporate Sector Authority.”

An Authority exec, Han groaned to himself. Why don’t I just go down to the Espo prison, pick a comfortable cell, and get it over with? Instead he pursued the conversation. “Slavers must have interesting audits, fascinating expense vouchers.”

“Doubtless, but I’ve never read one. I’m an auditor-at-large, sort of a roving assignment conducting random checks of Authority operations. I was working here with my assistant when I found out that there’s a slavery ring operating inside the Authority. Some top execs are implicated, and a number of Espo officials. I think it might go as high as the territorial manager for this entire part of the Authority, Odumin, and that’s a shock in itself. Although I’ve never met him, I’ve heard that Odumin’s always shunned the limelight, but he’s always been a decent administrator, a regular humanitarian as managers go. Anyway, I’m conducting my own investigation. When I’ve developed all the information, I’m going to dump it right in the lap of the Board of Directors.” She smiled brightly. “Then I’m going to nail myself the juiciest promotion and raise you ever saw. You’re looking at Fiolla of Lorrd, heroine of the spaceways. Now how about you?”

He spread his hands. “I fly for hire. I rendezvoused with Zlarb without knowing he wanted me to move slaves. We disagreed and he got shot. And I don’t care who’s doing what to whom; I’ve got ten thousand in cash coming and I want it. Zlarb had a tape message to meet someone here for payment so I kept his appointment. How did you end up there in the lounge?”

“It was part of the information I came across. Did Zlarb tell you anything else?”

“Zlarb made the Final Jump shortly after being burned with a disruptor, but he had a record of ship registrations and leasing permits. Almost all of them were funneled through an agency on Ammuud.”

She was listening distractedly, but he went on. “Do you mind telling me how come I’m in your confidence all of a sudden? Not that it doesn’t stir me deeply, of course.”

“Simple; this thing’s even bigger than I’d thought. I need some additional help and I can’t go to the Espos. You seem to know what you’re doing in an unsubtle sort of way. And you definitely aren’t a member of the slavery ring unless murder is a standard business pay-down.”

“You’d be surprised. But don’t get any ideas; I’m not the helpful type. How’d you end up out there today, by the way?”

“My assistant, Magg, got his hands on a message that the management was holding for Zlarb back there at the lounge. When I decided you weren’t going to tell me much I sent you off to chase yourself and—”

Han leaned forward with a certain look on his face that caused Bollux to fear for Fiolla’s safety. “And Magg followed me to put my lights out, right?”

She looked honestly shocked. “Are you saying someone attacked you?”

“Somebody did everything except zeroize my rotors.”

She drew a deep breath. “I gave you the number of an Authority pool hangar. The ship there was the one Magg and I arrived in. I knew it was on down time, waiting for parts, and there’d be no one around. But listen—Magg trailed your hairy friend when he left the lounge and that’s how we found out which ship was yours. When we couldn’t get aboard for a search, I went off to keep Zlarb’s appointment myself because the instructions said one person and one scooter. I sent Magg to see what he could find out about you.”

Han was so busy trying to unravel what she had said that he forgot to be angry at her mention of the attempted break-in. He was impressed with her resourcefulness, antagonized a bit by her