crime. Had it been enough? I felt a quick surge of guilt and the need to contact her. Easier said than done. First I must find the League building, my only point of reference, and work back from there.
It was dusk by the time I located it - and I was getting very, very tired. Yet there was no choice, I must go on. Following the route the horse conveyance had taken with Bibs and her captors, finding the corner where we had emerged from it. From there it was easy enough to get to the restaurant where we had eaten, to drop into a chair with a sigh of relief. I could only hope now that she remembered the place and would think of coming here. I took off my hat and a hot band of pain circled my throat.
'Traitor,' Bibs's voice hissed in my ear as I gurgled and groped but could reach nothing. Was this the end…?
It almost was. I was sinking into unconsciousness before the pain eased and the length of wire fell into my lap. I rubbed my sore, bleeding neck as Bibs pulled out a chair and sat down at the table. She weighed my shoulder bag, then looked inside. She had a black eye and some bruises around her mouth.
'I could have killed you,' she said. 'I was that angry, that was what I was going to do. But when I saw you had brought the money I realized you had planned the whole thing this way and had come here to meet me. But since they had worked me over I felt I owed you some of the same. I'll order some wine.'
'Planned…' I croaked, then coughed. 'Knocked you out - so they would think you weren't in on the robbery.'
'It worked - or I wouldn't be here. They bashed me about a bit, then they all ran out after you. I went right behind them in the confusion. Just wandered around and stayed out of sight until dark. Hating you. I had no money, nothing. Other than this black eye. You're lucky I didn't throttle you all the way.'
'Thanks,' I said, then glugged down half a mug of wine when the waiter set it in front of me. 'It was the only thing I could do. While you were talking to the old boy I looked at the defenses. There was no way in past them. But since we were already inside I saw that there was a good chance of getting out. So I took the money.'
'Tremendous. You might have told me.'
'There was no way to. Knocking you out was the only thing I could think of that would not get you involved. I'm sorry - but it worked. '
Bibs actually smiled as she ran her fingers through the coins. 'You are right, Jim my boy. It was worth a few bruises to get this much loot. Now let's get moving. You've changed clothes and I must do the same thing.'
'Then to the best ostel in town.'
'For a hot bath and a real meal. You're on!' The ostel was a sprawling building hidden behind high walls. Suites of rooms led off the central courtyard and we had the best, if the bowing and dry handwashing of the help meant anything. The wine was chilled and the finest I had ever tasted. I prowled around the carpeted rooms and nibbled the toasted tidbits that came with the wine, while Bibs burbled and splashed in the adjoining pool. She eventually emerged wrapped in a towel, glowing with health and growling with hunger. There was no nonsense about dining rooms or restaurants in this establishment. Servants brought the food on brass trays and we gorged ourselves. When they had cleaned up the leavings I threw the bolt in the outer door and filled Bibs's crystal mug with more wine.
'This is the life,' she said.
'It surely is.' I sprawled on the cushions across from her. 'A good night's sleep and I will be feeling human again.'
She lay back on the couch and looked at me through half-closed eyes. Well, really one half-closed and one all the way closed where she had been bopped. She shook her head and smiled.
'You are something else again, Jimmy. Just a kid, really, yet you are sure a winner. You survived Spiovente, which is not easy. Took out those two cops - then you took on all the hogh's thugs - and got away with it.'
'Just luck,' I said. Enjoying the praise but not that 'kid' remark.
'I doubt it. And you saved my neck. Got me out of the hands of the law and stole enough clinkers to get me off this planet. I would like to say thanks.'
'You don't have to, not really. You are going to help me find Garth so that makes us even.' I stood and yawned. 'I want to ask you about him - but it can wait until morning. I need some sleep.'
She smiled again. 'But, Jim, I told you I would like to thank you. In my own way.'
Was it chance that as she lay back the towel slipped a little? No it was not chance. Nor was it by accident that she was devastatingly naked underneath. Despite the black eye Bibs was a terribly, terribly attractive girl. What does one do on an occasion like this?
What one does not do is talk about it to others. I'm sorry. This is a private matter between two consenting adults. Very consenting. You will excuse me if I draw the curtain over this day and insert a space in this text to denote the passing of a good many hours.
Never had the sun shone so warmly and brightly. The afternoon sun. I smiled back at it just as warmly, bereft of any guilt, filled full with happiness. Nibbling a bit of fruit and sipping some wine. Turning languidly from the window as Bibs reentered the room.
'You mean it?' she asked. 'You won't go off-planet with me? You don't want to?'
'Of course I want to. But not until I have found Garth.'
'He'll find you first and kill you.'
'Perhaps he might be the one who gets killed.' She cocked her head most prettily to one side, then nodded. 'From anyone but you I would think that bragging. But you might just do it.' She sighed. 'But I won't be here to see it. I rate survival ahead of vengeance. He put me into jail - you got me out. Case closed. Though I admit to a big bundle of curiosity. If you do get out of this, will you let me know what happened? A message care of the Venian Crewmembers' Union will get to me eventually.' She passed over a slip of paper. 'I've written down everything that I remembered, just like you asked.'
'General,' I read. 'Either Zennor or Zennar.'
'I never saw it spelled out. Just overheard one of the officers talking to him when they didn't know I could hear them.'
'What is Mortstertoro?'
'A big military base, perhaps their biggest. That's where we landed to take on cargo. They wouldn't let us out of the spacer, but what we could see was very impressive. A big limousine, all flags and stars, would come for Garth and take him away. There was a lot of saluting - and they always saluted him first. He is something big, high-up, and whatever he is involved with has to do with that base. I'm sorry, I know it's not much.'
'It's a lot, all I need now.' I folded the paper and put it away. 'What next.'
'We should have identification documents by tonight. They are expensive but real. Issued by one of the smaller duchies that needs the foreign exchange. So I can ship out on any spacer I want to. As long as the League agents don't recognize me. But I've managed to bribe my way onto a trade delegation that made their flight arrangements months ago. One of them has been well paid to get in.'
'When do you leave?'
'Midnight,' she said in a very quiet voice.
'No! So soon…'
'I felt the same way - which is why I am leaving. I am not the kind of person that gets tied down in a relationship, Jimmy.'
'I don't know what you mean.'
'Good. Then I am getting away before you find out.' This sort of conversation was all very new and confusing. I am reluctantly forced to admit that up until the previous evening my contact with the opposite sex had been, shall we say, more distant. Now I was at an unaccustomed loss for words, indecisive and more than a little bewildered. When I blurted this out Bibs had nodded in apparent complete understanding. I realized now that there was an awful lot I did not know about women, a mountain of knowledge I might never acquire.
'My plans aren't that fixed…' I started to say, but she silenced me with a warm finger to my lips.
'Yes they are. And you're not going to change them on my account. You seemed very certain this morning about what you felt you had to do.'
'And I am still certain,' I said firmly, with more firmness and certainty than I felt. 'The bribe to get me over to Nevenkebla was taken?'
'Doubled before accepted. If you are going to go missing then old Grbonja will never be permitted to go ashore there again. But he has been ready to retire for years. The bribe is just the financial cushion he
