“To your average Exalted into ‘enjoying the Klensers’ the Klensers may have human bodies but they’re really not people,” he had said. “Their enjoyment isn’t in the equation.”
Thus, much as she might enjoy watching the runnerbeasts race, they were not the reason why she and Jock were at the track. The idea was to get friendly with one or two of the “enjoyers”, and go along with them on an outing involving Klensers, and get as close to the action as their stomachs would allow. They would make nodal records of the action to present to the Official Investigative Team as proof that the Exalted Citizens treated the Klensers as slaves.
They had almost reached the end of the barn when Jock grabbed Kati’s hand in the signal on which they had agreed before arriving at the Track. He had recognized a likely prospect for their scheme.
“Behind us,” he murmured to her, leaning close in a seemingly amorous pose, one which allowed him to speak to her quietly enough, that any node-enhanced ears about them could not catch the words. “The couple looking at the last beast we checked. Morgon and Dani Desote. Arrogant and thick-witted even by Exalted standards, and good for our purpose precisely because of that. They won’t suspect a trap, and we won’t have to put on much of an act of going along with their program—they’ll be too busy being exhibitionists, thrilled to have an audience. If you think you can tolerate hanging out with their like.”
“For our cause I’ll tolerate a lot,” Kati murmured in response. “What do we do? How do we approach them?”
“Leave that to me. But do hang onto me, act like you’re besotted with me. We can use that to explain much.”
Kati batted her eyelashes at him, and giggled. Jock took hold of her by an elbow, and steered her towards the Desotes.
“Shall we find out which runnerbeast this couple is betting to win the first race?” he asked. “If I remember correctly, they’ve had some luck with the wagering.”
“Sure, why not?” Kati responded with another audible giggle. “They friends of yours?”
“All the members of the Four Hundred here in the Capital City know one another,” Jock answered. “We’re all Upper Class, after all.”
Kati tittered at that. And then they were next to the Desotes, and she turned her eyes to the animal the couple were eyeing. When she and Jock had examined it earlier, the Granda had pointed out that it seemed to have a minor problem with one of its back legs, and therefore was not a good prospect.
“Thinking of putting some cash on this beauty?” Jock asked the couple by the animal.
“Possibly,” the man responded. “She is a lovely animal.”
“I don’t know,” his wife said petulantly. “I can never read the females, and the first race is all she-beasts. Maybe we should pass on the first race and wait for the males, and the mixed races.”
“Oh, come on, Dani, we’re not going to wimp out and pass on a bet,” the man protested. “Have you decided on a runner to support in this race, Carmaks?”
“Oh, my little off-world friend here is pretty helpful when it comes to picking animals to bet on,” Jock said, caressing Kati’s nape. “She’s not all that keen on this one; right, Kati?”
Kati giggled again.
“No, not really,” she said with a shake of her head. “I have a bad feeling about this girl.”
“Oh?” The male Desote looked her over curiously. “Do you now? Why would that be?”
Kati gave an elaborate shrug.
“No idea,” she lied. “Can’t ever give a reason for my hunches. They’re just there, take them or leave them.”
“So which animal would you recommend?” Desote then asked.
That drew a gale of giggles from Kati.
“Come on now,” she said, with a shake of her head. “You don’t expect me to give up all of my trade secrets, do you?”
Desote shrugged. His companion had been following the exchange, looking bored at first, but with growing interest as the subject developed. Now she joined the conversation:
“Could you at least give us an idea of a few animals that might be worth throwing a bet on?”
The four of them had begun the trek from the barns to the stands, and the betting booths which were at the bottom of the tiers of seats, doing a brisk business. Kati looked up at Jock as they strolled.
“Should I give them a hint?” she asked him.
“Why not?” Jock responded with a shrug. “If you give them your three top guesses, they can then decide among them for themselves.
“She’s not always correct,” he added for the Desotes’ benefit. “Though she comes close pretty often.”
She, Jock and the Granda had narrowed their choices for the race down to three.
“All right, then,” Kati said, and named the three racers. Perhaps chatting about racing and helping the Desotes choose animals to bet on would later give Jock the opening to bring up the topic that was their real interest. Or perhaps Jock expected that any conversation with the couple, if it lasted long enough, would eventually get around to the subject of the Klensers and the Desotes’ interest in them. Presumably he knew the targets, and what he was doing.
At the betting booth Jock waited for Morgon Desote to place his wager before doing his and Kati’s transaction, a small bet on the animal they had chosen as the most likely one to win. To Kati’s surprise but not to Jock’s, apparently, the Desotes waited while he made the transaction, and then joined him and Kati as they climbed up into the stands.
The stands filled rapidly, the betting booths were doing a brisk business, and the runnerbeasts for the first race were heading for the starting gates. The giant vid-screens all around were showing images from the cameras in the flits which were hovering above the starting gates. At the bottom of the screens were the odds on the starting animals as calculated by the machines which took the bets—the runnerbeast of Jock’s choice was at three-to-one when the betting booths closed. The last audience members scrambled for seats, some having to settle for perches on the stairs, when an announcement came on to tell that the start of the first race was imminent.
It looked to Kati that the first hundred meters, or so, was crucial to the race, as it measured the distance between the starting gate and the entry into the park proper, where the track became a narrow path, traversable by no more than two beasts abreast. The first animal to get on the path would have an advantage, although it could, of course, be overtaken by quicker animals once the race was well under way. Apparently the race organizers were of a mind with her, since one of the camera flits hurried to the exit point and stopped to hover there as starting signal sounded.
The gates opened, and the animals rushed off. They scattered dust into the air with their paws as they fought to be the first to reach the path. Kati followed the glyph that marked the animal she and Jock had money on, both in real life, as well as on the screen that showed the beasts from the air. The runners were well-marked, with identifying glyphs on both sides as well as their backs; it was easy, especially with node-enhanced sight, to keep track of one’s favourite.
“We’re the first to the path!” Dani Desote cried suddenly, clapping her hands.
She looked as thrilled as if her animal had already won the race and paid well. Kati noted that the animal in question was not the one Jock had bet on—that one was panting at its heels. The Desotes’ beast was running at slightly lower odds than the one that Jock had chosen. He may have tried for a decent payoff, in case they should come out winners—which was not their main pursuit, of course.
“Just this much will have them glued to us for the rest of the evening,” Jock whispered to her in a very low voice while the Desotes cheered their beast on. “If they’d bet on the one they were planning to back, they’d been out of the race already. Not what you’d call astute gamblers, those two.”
“And sooner or later the topic we want to broach will come up, is what you’re implying,” Kati whispered back.
“Precisely. They’ll even bring it up. Want to bet?”
Kati didn’t have to pretend to giggle, not that anyone was paying the least attention to them. The first race might not have been an important race, but it was as exciting to the watchers as any other. The audience was following the progress of the runners along the path through the park with rapt attention.
*****
As it was, the beast the Desotes had bet on did not relinquish its early lead the whole of the race, and came in a winner, earning a small but significant profit for its backers, and a whack of credibility for Kati.
“Hey, don’t expect me to do that every race,” she protested when Dani Desote congratulated her on the call. “Note that we didn’t wager on that animal; Jock and I put our bet on the beast that came in second. So I’m obviously not infallible. We lost our money.”
“Seems that we’ve already done better today, than we usually do all evening,” said Morgon Desote, laughing. “Figure on us sticking to you two like glue, all night long. You gave us three possibilities and two of them came in first and second. That’s pretty good, I’d say. If you can do half as well the rest of the races, you’re worth hanging around.”
Kati and Jock shared a quick smile, and The Monk snorted inside Kati’s head.
“Useless gamblers, those two,” he subvocalized. “I imagine that the track loves their kind. They give away their money.”
“As long as the ruse gets us to witness the Klenser abuse,” Kati responded. “I want enough evidence of slavery to shake this planet out of its orbit.”
“You don’t mean that literally, I trust,” muttered The Monk.
Kati did not bother to answer. Instead, she concentrated on the runnerbeasts for the next race. She got the Granda to show them to her from the memory of the walk through the barn, and to give his input on each animal. She had to pick a few animals to recommend to the Desotes, including one which Jock could wager on.
*****
Kati and Jock’s patience bore fruit before the fifth race.
Morgon and Jock were down at the betting booths putting in their wagers—Kati had once again, with The Monk’s help, picked out three possible winners, and the two men had been discussing the merits of each, as they had left their seats. The Desotes had won the third race with one of Kati’s picks, and Jock’s choice had come a winner in the fourth. Kati had begun to think that she had more talent for picking winners than she had realized—or possibly, The Monk knew more about gambling than he had admitted. The upshot was that the Desotes, in spite of their arrogance, were delighted with Jock Carmaks’ little off-world toy. So thrilled were they with their betting that Jock hardly had to remind them to be nice to Kati; mostly they remembered where the tips were coming from, and only said insulting things about short, ugly off-worlders now and then. And Kati herself, in the pursuit of higher goals, was prepared to ignore the rude comments when they did foul the air.
With Morgon and Jock gone to the bottom of the stands, Dani and Kati were left to amuse themselves. During such interludes, earlier, Dani Desote had managed to slip away from her seat to chat up people she knew among the other Exalted, mostly women who had been left to save seats while their partners had gone down to the betting booths. But this time she remained where she was, looking glum and somewhat annoyed, and Kati remembered that she had not seemed happy when she had returned to her seat before the fourth race. Kati had presumed that whoever Dani had talked to, had irritated her in some fashion—not a difficult thing to do. Now the Desote woman sat morosely next to the off-worlder, who studied the racing program, wondering whether or not she should try to start a conversation. Her preference was to not do so; Jock was right, the Desotes were unpleasant, and stupid. However, she had work to do, and being nice to the Desotes was a part of the job. She felt torn.
“Has Jock got plans for after the races?” Dani suddenly asked her.
“You mean tonight?” Kati queried, taken by surprise.
“Of course tonight,” Dani replied, in a tone that suggested that she must be talking to a stupid child. “There are only two races left after this one, so there’ll be plenty of the night left.”
“Right,” Kati agreed, swallowing the bile on her tongue. “I don’t know what Jock’s plans are, to tell the truth. Did you have something in mind?”
“I did hear talk about how he, you and that off-world Ape, went to the Malaudin House the other day, looking for action,” Dani said. “It didn’t work out, I heard, though the Malaudins wouldn’t explain what exactly happened, except that they blamed the Ape for everything. Which could be true, or not—with the Malaudins you never know. They lie and cheat; they do so even to us Exalted in good standing, so they may well have tried something with a Carmaks and a couple of aliens.”
She shrugged her shoulders.
“Doesn’t matter to me. Morgon and I never go to the Malaudin House; they have nothing we want. But if you’re interested in unusual experiences, maybe you’d like to come with us to take part in something that you won’t find anywhere outside of Vultaire.”
Well. Kati stared at the program in her hands without seeing a single word. Was it really going to be this easy, getting to what she had begun to refer to in her mind as a “Klenser Orgy”?
“We’ll have to mention it to Jock when he gets back,” she replied very carefully. “I don’t want to mess with his plans, if he has any.”
“Oh, he’ll agree to it, if you put it to him,” Dani said airily. “I hear that he caters to you scandalously. Makes a person wonder what you’re feeding him.”
The last bit was a comment best ignored. It did suggest that Jock had been right in the first place, when he had said that if he and Kati pretended to a dalliance, that dalliance would serve to open doors among the Exalted. He knew his kind, apparently, and his kind were not all that different from the bored idle anywhere. Gossipy, hungry for scandal, looking for new amusements, preferably ones more exciting than the last season’s favourites. But ever mindful of the self-imposed limits on Exalted behaviour, which allowed venality while proscribing useful work.
“They would certainly benefit from worthwhile labour,” subvocalized The Monk snarkily. “Like toiling in the salt-mines.”
That, too, was a comment best ignored.
*****
“The Exalted Citizen Desote suggested that, tonight, we might join her and her husband in experiencing something unusual, and unique to Vultaire,” Kati said to Jock once he was again seated next to her. “Of course if you have other plans....” She allowed her voice to trail off into silence.
Jock took a second to grasp her hand in a quick, triumphant gesture before turning to look at the Desotes. He shook his head at Dani.
“Have you been putting ideas into my off-world friend’s head while I was laying bets, Dani Desote?” he asked. “What sort of decadence would you have in mind?”
“Oh, don’t go all Carmaks moralistic on me, Jock,” Dani protested petulantly. “Or have you finished refreshing yourself among the true Exalted, while playing with your little foreign piece? Are you ready to go and confess your sins at Kelt Carmaks’ knee, and then run off to Hector and Marina in Ithcar, like a good boy?”
“I will have to return to the bosom of my family, eventually,” Jock replied easily. “You know that. Not too many people will pay to see me sing and cavort once my foreign friends have taken their adventuresome selves to other worlds or Space Stations. But that’s not about to happen quite yet, or so I have been assured. So, tell me, with what sort of ideas have you been filling Kati’s head? “
“Oh, nothing very strange,” Dani said with a laugh. “It just occurred to me that your friend might not know the marvellous physical beauty of the human beasts, the Klensers. Seeing them, making love to one—or a few—would be an experience which she could not have anywhere except this world. Morgon and I often end an evening’s entertainment that way; we pick up a specimen of both sexes from a barn where the caretakers let us have them overnight for a fee.” Now the woman’s voice grew almost drea
my: “Their bodies are so perfect, so exquisite, yet they have no will to resist anything you want to do to them. Playing with them is lovely, like having human-sized dolls to toy with. Much better than lying just with one’s partner.”
“I don’t know about this woman,” muttered The Monk.
“Jock did warn me that she and her husband were creepy,” Kati subvocalized back. “And we will go and witness the creepiness, that’s all there is to it. Maybe a record of it will light a fire under some Federation butts!”
“So, Kati, what do you think?” Jock asked her. “Should we check this particular brand of fun out? Is it up your alley in any way?”
“I can’t tell whether it’s my thing or not, until I’ve seen it, can I?” Kati countered, making her voice sound coy. “If your friends are willing to include us in their activities tonight, why don’t we check it out? Assuming that you hadn’t already made other plans?”
“Well, no, as a matter-of-fact, I hadn’t,” Jock answered lazily.
“So it’s set then,” Dani said, smiling smugly.
The beginning of the Fifth Race was announced, and they turned their attention to the starting gates and the vid-screens.
*****
Morgon and Dani—by the end of the last race the Desotes had decided that being on a first-name basis with Jock Carmaks and his little off-world piece who had helped them win money in three races, was not out of the question—had arrived at the Race Park in their flit, and offered to transport the other two to their residence in it.
“It’ll be a bit of a squeeze with the four of us, but we’ll exchange it for a flyer at home,” Morgon said, as they waited for the flit to bring itself from Air Vehicle Parking. “Then we’ll fly to the Klenser Farm; the flyer is big enough to easily accommodate all of us.”
“You figure that two Klensers will be enough for the four of us?” Dani cooed at him.
“We can share,” Morgon replied shortly. Then he turned to Jock. “How much money can you contribute?” he asked. “The Klensers don’t come cheap, and even though I won a few bets—well, we Desotes aren’t made of cash.”
On Assignment to the Planet of the Exalted Page 57