Insider

shares that the latter acquired when their price was forty ishevik a share; afterwards, he had the gall to fire the official. Since Terence Bemish violated the regulations regarding share block registration, I demand the companies Raniko, Alvisir Trust and LLA be removed from the Assalah stock owners list without any compensation. '

The Emperor raised his hand.

'These are serious accusations, Mr. Bemish. Can you answer them?'

'Can I answer them? Of course! Shavash has just mentioned 13 % of shares that the peasants had received free of charge as compensation for the spaceport construction taking place on their land. Would you really believe that Shavash waited for me to seize the stocks from the peasants? Yes! I confiscated the stocks from the official and I didn't pay him anything — because I was going to return these stocks to the peasants. Shavash accuses me of violating the local securities regulations. It would have taken place if Raniko had owned more than 5 % of shares and hadn't registered it. Otherwise, there are no violations involved. Unlike me, Shavash can be accused of many things, most importantly, that when the stock price plummeted to the minimum, Shavash secretly issued more stocks and distributed them among his friends. Weian securities regulations are quite bizarre but those actions are criminal even here. I will be bold enough to claim that IC was aware of this outrage taking place and that nothing but this thievery caused Mr. Shavash to sell the company to the people that will not make any complaints.

'Can you answer these accusations, Mr. Shavash?' the Emperor asked.

'Of course,' Shavash said. 'I will, however, need a computer with a CDROM.'

It took a moment, for a CD player (instead of a computer) to be delivered to the room. Shavash fished a disk out of his pocket, inserted it in a slit and pressed a button.

An open tavern veranda appeared on the screen, together with a table and a window. Bemish sat at the table with a small man — tensing, he recognized the palace official offering him the paintings from the Empire treasury on sale.

The official pulled several photographs out and Bemish started to leaf through them. The camera zoomed in on the photographs where Bemish suddenly saw the Koinna's painting. Then, Bemish pointed at a girl and a dragon with his finger and he chose several more photographs. The official nodded.

Then, the camera glanced over a group of people delivering several boxes to Bemish's villa and zoomed in on a girl and a dragon in his office.

'This man talks about ethics,' Shavash said, 'buying, meanwhile, for a thousand dinars the paintings that cost millions — the paintings from the forbidden chambers that a mere mortal could not put his eyes on! The Koinna's painting is a national treasure, this painting numbers among the palace's first hundred sacred objects, the Emperor's ancestors brought bloodless sacrifices and prayed for the dynasty fortune in front of this painting — in his gall, this man hung this painting above his table — so that the two founders of the Alom dynasty could look at the doughnuts that the Earthman eats at his table assessing the Empire value at his computer! I don't know, what punishments fit the exchange brokers, but nobody has yet rescinded the law about palace thieves having their guts torn out! And nothing is written there about exceptions being made for Earthmen, since the law was enacted four hundred fifty years ago when the Empire was the center of the world and nobody heard a whisper yet about all these people from the skies!'

The first minister Yanik even clicked his tongue in admiration listening to Shavash. Unlike the Earthmen, he knew very well that the sovereign was indifferent to securities and uranium mines, that he knew very little about, but that he was enraged to the utmost by palace robbery; almost everything stolen had not only artistic value but was also sacred, and the ignorance of the Earthmen buying invaluable objects for a penny hurt the sovereign to his heart.

'You gave me this painting!' Bemish shouted.

'I gave you a copy, while you arranged it with the thieves to substitute it for an original!'

'You are a piece of shit and a scoundrel,' Kissur screamed at Shavash. 'And this tape is a fake.'

'I am ready to submit this tape to an international examination,' Shavash claimed, smiling, 'with experts' opinions published in all the newspapers.'

Giles quietly leaned towards Bemish and whispered.

'They warned you, Bemish, that they would flatten you into the ground. That they would make egg powder out of you and send it as humanitarian aid to Ganaya lizards. Do you understand that you stand a chance to be hanged?'

'Can I have your complaint, please, Mr. Bemish?' the Emperor said.

Bemish sat completely dismayed. He was close to bursting into tears. Shavash smiling impudently pulled the folder out of his hand and handed it to the sovereign. The sovereign took an ancient quill dusted with gold powder and signed the complaint. Then, he took the seal, showing a dragon catching its tail, off his neck, pressed the seal to a pad saturated with incensed phoenix's blood ink and stamped it on the paper. He handed the sheet over to Bemish and said.

'Accept my congratulations, Mr. Bemish — I relieved Mr. Shavash from the company director position and appointed you at this post.'

'But sovereign,' Shavash exclaimed with indignation. The sovereign spun and his embroidered sleeves cuffed Bemish in the face.

'Be silent, vice-minister. I do not need foreign experts to tell me who is the scoundrel — you or the Earthman! And if you dare show your tape even to a frog in a road ditch, you will lose more than Assalah!'

Bemish picked the paper sheet with a lifeless hand, glanced at it and noticed with astonishment that the order was dated with yesterday's date. The papers asserted that Shavash had been fired before he signed the contract with IC.

Pale with spite, Shavash silently stood up and left the room.

'Could you, kindly, leave me, gentlemen,' the sovereign said smiling sadly. 'You tired me out. Kissur, visit me tomorrow morning.'

X X X

Bemish was too shocked to think coherently. Having departed the pavilion, he dragged himself to a rocky pond, where white-bellied seals splashed, and slumped on a flower hill, probably breaking all the etiquette rules. The question was — what should he do next? Next, Terence Bemish, the Assalah state company director, will sell this company to Terence Bemish, the ADO director. Dammit, Assalah has to be sold to ADO so that intergalactic, instead of Weian, securities land on the market… What will the business ethics committee say? Having watching the tape… A shadow stood above his shoulder and Kissur slumped on the grass nearby.

'It's very clear,' Kissur said, 'that you haven't smelled shit. They used to say that I had fish scales on my sides and my ears grew together at the back of my head — big deal, a spliced tape.'

'He was ready to submit the tape to any examination,' Bemish said. 'He was not bluffing. Do you understand what it means? Where did he get the hardware to bake a forgery that can withstand any examination? Do you understand that this hardware was not acquired for a single usage, that this hardware was not acquired for me, it was acquired for you, for Yanik, for the other local officials…'

'Well,' Kissur said, 'we need to wash this deal down. Let's go to a pub.'

And they went to a pub.

X X X

It was dark when they left the pub, and large constellation bundles shone in the sky faded like an old watercolor, so alien to Bemish, and a man in a summer silk suit and white jacket dallied leaning on a long car shaped like a water droplet.

'I will give Mr. Bemish a ride,' the silky man said. He raised his head and Bemish recognized the small official.

They sat silently on the back seat. The car started. Shavash dug a fat package from under his feet and handed it over to Bemish.

'What is it?' Bemish said.

'This is the company documentation. You have seen most of it, new director. This is the original tape; you can throw it in a brazier tonight.'

And the small official handed the laser disk box to Bemish.

'Are you sure that it's really documentation,' Bemish inquired, 'and not a remotely controlled bomb, two hundred thousand in Gera currency or a drug load I will be arrested tonight for possession?'