"It's good to see you awake, sir. I was beginning to worry. The midterm break is almost over, and tomorrow is a school day."
"I see. Is everyone else up and around?"
"Oh, yes, we have been for days. But you ate three times as much of Kodo as any of the rest of us, and I suppose that it just took you much longer to integrate all of that."
"I suppose that it serves me right for being greedy," Kren said.
"I'm beginning to wish that I'd taken two bites out of him myself, but at the time, I was too frightened to be that adventurous."
"So, are you now a doctor of engineering?"
"Not officially, but I've been through Bronki's extensive engineering library here, and everything in it seems childishly simple to me now. You know, it is possible to pay a fee and take a test, which, if you pass, gives you credit for a certain required course. I expect to have my doctorate in a year or two," Dol said. "My grade point average is excellent, and if I play it properly, I think that I can pull it all off without anyone suspecting that I have become a vampire."
"Perhaps I should do that, too."
"I'd advise against it, sir. You have to be an undergraduate to participate in the athletic program. If you graduate, you will lose a lucrative source of income."
"I suppose that's true. Is Bronki around?"
"Yes, and she's very anxious to talk to you. Shall I get her?"
"I'll go to her. You keep on doing whatever you're doing. What are you doing, anyway?" Kren asked.
"I'm getting your collection ready for mounting. I've ordered some display cases built to my design, in a style matching the other furniture here. They should be delivered in a few weeks. There will be one for your athletic medals, and two for your weapons."
"But, I didn't ask for any display cases."
"If you don't like them, I'll have them taken out, sir. I'd intended them as a gift, to show my appreciation for what you've done for me."
Kren had never received a gift before, and had absolutely no idea as to how to respond to such a strange thing.
"Well, uh, do as you wish, then," he said.
He found Bronki in her study, sitting at her computer.
"Kren, you can have no idea how refreshing it is to have my mathematical abilities back again! I can think properly for the first time in many weeks! Not only that, but I've had some thoughts that I think might be absolutely original!
"They are still fairly vague, but you know, there are times in social systems when very small events can cause very large changes. Like, when a scrubber leaves a wet spot on a staircase, a major leader happens to slip on it and breaks his neck, and so loses two weeks resurrecting before he can get back to the war, and this results in his side losing a battle, which in turn causes the whole war to be lost, which results in the entire nobility of a duchy being wiped out, and world history changes.
"Such things can also happen in the natural world as well, in weather patterns, for example, when a small change in one area eventually causes a large storm to shift course. I've been getting an inkling of an idea about a form of mathematics that could handle this sort of thing. I'm thinking of calling it 'Chaos Theory,' but I'm still a long way from formalizing it."
Kren said, "Well, I wish you great success. Is anything happening of a more immediate nature?"
"Yes. I've been going over all of these credit cards we collected up last week. There's a fair amount of money in them, but not nearly enough to be worth risking the wrath of the KUL."
Kren said, "Why are you worried about them possibly getting mad at you when they have in fact launched three armed assaults on you since the school term began? I cannot imagine what they could do to you that would be worse than that!"
"I'm worried because they aren't mad at me, yet. Kodo was mad at me. The KUL simply rented him fighters when he paid them to do it. If the KUL was angry with me, you would see many gross of fighters attacking us both from every angle, on every day, and eventually, they would kill us both, and everyone else in my household. In any event, what I have done is simply the same thing that I did the first time around. I've blamed it all on the PPG. This time, I picked one of their best corporate vice presidents for my patsy, and she has already been killed, although I don't know if the KUL or the PPG did it. They can't seem to imagine that someone would give away money just to get them fighting with each other. The total number of gangland killings in the war we kicked up is now over nine gross."
"This is good, I suppose. I am really getting tired of all these bits of trash trying to kill me," Kren said. "They are a murderous bunch, but you really couldn't call any of them a real warrior. There's not a challenge to be had in fighting any of them."
"Well, you are getting paid, as per our agreement. I've put two thousand into your account for the two attacks last week."
"Thank you. But two thousand is no longer a significant amount of money to me."
"Kren, that is a terrible attitude! An honorable person must always keep to the contracts that she has willingly made, even if they become unprofitable. If you don't, no one will trust you, and you will surely fail in business."
"I'm sure that you are right. But I still hope that it is all over now."
"So do I. But what I really wanted to talk to you about is Kodo's credit card. I promised you that everything that he had on his person would be your property, but Kren, there was a gross billion Ke in his account! I cannot imagine how he got so much money! Figures that big are normally handled by the dukes, and the other upper nobility, but never by a commoner! And to have it in his credit card account, well, it simply boggles the imagination!" Bronki said.
"And this huge sum is mine?"
"After a fashion. But so massive an amount can't just be transferred around without anybody noticing it. I mean, the computers handle most of the ordinary transactions without a living person ever knowing about them, unless somebody very good with a computer is curious. But this much, well, if I transfer it, gongs and horns will be going off in the bank's corporate headquarters!"
"I see. We must therefore insure that the transaction is made with someone who would ordinarily handle such amounts. Someone who is above the normal run of things. Someone whose word may not be questioned."
"Just who did you have in mind?" Bronki asked.
"I am told that Duke Dennon, who lost so badly with the Senta Copper Mine, is in dire need of money. Perhaps he would have something that he could sell me for that amount of money."
"All Duke Dennon has is a fine army and an impoverished duchy."
"I have no use for his army, but perhaps he could sell me some land, if the price was right, of course. Is it possible that you would know how to contact him?"
"Not directly, but a thousand years ago, I was quite friendly with Sala, the person who is now his chief accountant, and we never had a falling out. I could talk to her, if you like," she said.
"Please do so. And if you can pull this off, I will pay you a billion Ke."
"On a per gross basis, that's really not much of a commission."
"It's bigger than anything you've ever gotten before, and it's all that I'm willing to pay. Furthermore, you might not get it in cash, but in some other form. Nonetheless, I want you to call your friend this morning. It would be best if the money was transferred before anyone knows that Kodo is missing, and when he doesn't show up at his college tomorrow, they will start asking questions," Kren said.
"Very well. I'll get right on it. Your knowledge of business seems greatly improved."
"Yes, it appears that I have learned from a master."
* * *
Kren found that the main door to Bronki's apartment had been replaced with one much stronger, that the outer doors of the guest rooms had been reinforced, and that a new security door had been added between the guest hallway and the stairwell. He thought it reasonable, after all of the attacks that they had endured lately.
There were a dozen new carpets in the apartment, and the painting that h
ad been damaged by his spear had been restored.
He noticed that the door to the third guest room was open and walked in. Brandee was there, putting small amounts of paint on a large piece of stretched cloth. She was so intent on what she was doing that she didn't notice him at all. Kren, interested, sat down to watch her.
In a bit, he deduced that she was making a copy of an older painting that was framed and hanging on the wall. It seemed like a tedious method of reproduction, to him. Hadn't the girl ever heard of a camera?
Bronki came in and said, "Oh, here you are, Kren. Come, we must leave immediately. I'll explain on the way. Bring your credit card and a large amount of currency. Put on a fresh robe, and wear a different sword than you usually do."
"What's wrong with my sword?"
"Nothing, except that it was originally issued by Duke Dennon to one of his soldiers, whom you later ate. The duke might take offense at that, and we are going to see him now."
They left with Brandee as oblivious to their departure as she had been to their arrival.
Bronki had booked a private cabin on an express MagFloat train, so they could talk without interruptions.
As soon as the door was closed, Bronki said, "Well, I found out why Kodo had so much money in his credit card account. He had organized a syndicate to purchase a major tract of land from Duke Dennon. He was to have finalized the deal last week, but you killed him the night before that happened. Kodo is probably fortunate at this point to be dead, because both the duke and the syndicate members have been desperately looking for him for a week, now. They assume that he has absconded with the money."
"And we are now going to take Kodo's place?"
"Yes. The duke doesn't care where the money comes from, but he desperately needs it. We're stepping into a done deal. Here is a copy of the papers we'll be signing. You'd better read them. We should arrive in two hours."
Kren read, fascinated. When he had finished, he was amazed.
"Duke Dennon is deeding away one-third of his duchy," Kren said.
"In area, yes. But it's mostly just empty hinterland. There are no cities or factories on it, just a few freeholders whose rights you are required to respect."
"If you say so, but this also grants me the rights of both high and low justice! I can create a law and then punish anyone I want for breaking it! I can do anything that I want on that land! By the terms of these agreements, I'm not just buying land, I'm almost being made a duke myself!"
Bronki said, "Almost, although I would advise against using the title. You can see why Kodo and his syndicate were willing to pay so much for it. On this land, they would not only be above the law, they'd actually be the law."
"Until some other duke decided to invade and take it from them."
"True. But first off, the agreements, while filed with the Bonding Authority, are otherwise secret. The rest of the world will think that the property still belongs to Duke Dennon, and he has a very fine army. Second, you will be paying Dennon an additional gross million Ke a year for his protection. If you are attacked, he will come to your aid, or you won't be there to pay him his gross million next year. It also keeps him from attacking you, for the same reason."
"Kodo was a remarkable business man," Kren said. "This is an amazing deal!"
"It's also the only deal in town. Neither the syndicate nor the duke has reported Kodo missing as yet, but you can be sure that his college will tomorrow. The papers must be signed, the money transferred, and the Bonding Authority paid today. Otherwise, this credit card will become just a piece of plastic and Kodo's fortune will be in probate."
"Where am I supposed to have gotten this kind of money? Surely, the duke will be curious!"
"We will say that you made it betting on yourself in the games. You are quite famous, you know, having won a planetary record and two gold medals on your first time out as a freshman. If you had borrowed everything that I owned, and bet it all on each of your victories thus far this year, you would have made more than what is held in Kodo's credit card account. Or, maybe you had saved that much in the thousand years that you have been alive. Who could prove that this didn't happen?"
"If you say so. The only part I don't understand is why the duke won't know that we are using Kodo's credit card."
"He won't know because his chief accountant, my friend Sala, will handle the transaction, and she won't tell him," Bronki said.
"And why won't she tell him?"
"Because you will be paying her a billion Ke not to."
"The amounts called for in these contracts will take almost every Ke in Kodo's credit card account. I don't have another billion Ke," Kren said.
"No, but I do, partner."
CHAPTER THIRTY
Different Folks, Different Strokes
New Yugoslavia, 2212 a.d.
Our new ally, Bellor, had been talking with the professor for over three months, and apparently, things were happening.
The most obvious thing to me was that a large, portable swimming pool had been set up in my garage. It contained a pleasant grotto where Bellor spent half of his time, and a spigot that dispensed the industrial strength booze that he preferred.
Agnieshka said that thermal imaging of the energy he generated suggested that he was metabolizing only six percent of what he drank, and chemical tests said that none of it was getting out into the garage, yet he didn't seem to be gaining any mass. He had been repeatedly asked about this, but he politely sidestepped the questions, and nobody wanted to press him too hard about it.
The Tellefontu refugees on New Yugoslavia had made it several hundred light-years from their home planet, but they didn't know if other fleeing groups had gotten to other places in Human Space. Some ninety-six of their diplomats had been sent to forty-eight human planets where their species might possibly have settled. It was expected to take years before these emissaries came back to make their reports. Each pair had an entire planet to search.
Agnieshka and her metal ladies had located twenty-eight tons of ninety-five percent ethanol on the planet. Only a small amount of it was really bonded Everclear, but Bellor said that he could live with that. At his suggestion, this consignment had been weighted down and dumped into the ocean at a precise geographical location. He said that his people would take care of it from there.
This would have raised eyebrows, except that the Tellefontu's first gift to us, the "ray gun that made things disappear," had been built in a prototype lab on New Kashubia. Soon, people were just calling it the "Disappearing Gun."
The professor himself wasn't too clear as to how and why it worked, but it did work. Our new allies kept explaining the basic principles again and again, ever more slowly.
On the other hand, the crabs were equally confused by our Hassan-Smith transporters. Our physicists said that our allies just couldn't grasp the basic principles.
Hell, I couldn't, either.
Our two races just looked at the universe differently, was all that I could figure out. Nonetheless, they could give us working plans for things that worked. And that was enough, in my book. Our smart boys would figure it all out eventually. After all, it took us a whole generation before many of us could understand Einstein.
It seemed that I was now mostly out of the loop, but that didn't bother me in the least. I had other problems of my own.
I had been assuming that the neutron bombs that the Mitchegai used were similar to the neutron bombs that had been developed on Earth centuries ago. This would mean that with a bit of warning, if I could fill the lowest level of the Loway transportation system with air, and get the entire population down there, I could keep them alive.
The specifications for the Mitchegai bombs that our crabby friends had given us suggested that we were off by a factor of about thirty. Their bombs could instantly destroy everything alive, be it electronic or biological, down to a depth of five hundred meters. And it wasn't realy safe unless you had at least three kilometers of dirt and rock above your head.
> "Agnieshka, you and your sisters have a really big job to do. We are going to need a set of fallout shelters dug at least three kilometers down, and big enough to hold everybody on this planet, biological and electronic. They are going to need food, water and oxygen supplies to last them for at least two years, while we figure out a way to fight the enemy on the surface. And if we are going to keep the humans sane, we will need something for them to do down there, and some sort of entertainment. We will also have to make provisions for the Tellefontu. Get our technical people on it ASAP, and let me see what they come up with."
"Yes, sir. Does this mean that the social drone project is getting dumped?"
"Not exactly, but it has definitely become a low priority item. Sorry about that, but equality won't do you guys any good at all if none of us are alive."
"Yes, sir."
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
FROM CAPTURED HISTORY TAPES,
FILE 1846583A ca. 1832 a.d.
BUT CONCERNING EVENTS OF UP TO
2000 YEARS EARLIER
Duke Dennon
Sala met them at the Capital Train Station and said, "Bronki! It's so nice to see you again after so long! And this must be Kren, the athlete that we've all been watching so avidly on the sports casts! You know, the duke is a fan of yours. I think that he is secretly delighted to be working with you on this matter, and not that horrid Kodo person. Well, do you have it with you?"
"If you mean the credit card, yes, of course," Bronki said.
"Then we'll go directly to my office and take care of that first," Sala said, leading the way.
As he followed, Kren noticed that while Sala's clothing was of the finest quality, it was slightly worn and the hem was tattered. This shabby-genteel impression was reinforced as they got to the nearby ducal palace. It was certainly a fine, ancient building, built for defense as well as for beauty, but as they walked up the long hallways, he couldn't help noticing that the carpets were worn, and that the curtains were faded. Many thousands of years had gone by since any of it had been replaced.
Kren of the Mitchegai Page 19