'Bennie, this is the chance of a lifetime,' Aahz said, in his most persuasive tone. 'Look over there at the finished one.'
'But you're asking me to invest in something on which you haven't even broken ground. I like to see what's on the table before I write a check, Aahz. I don't like the idea of buying a siskin in a satchel.'
'What's a . . . ?' I began. Aahz gave me a quick gesture to forestall the question.
'Is that one over there for sale?' Bendix asked.
'That's a rival operation,' Aahz said, dismissively. 'Not connected to this project.'
Bendix was not so easily deterred. 'Well, how do I buy a piece of that? Maybe you can introduce me.'
'You couldn't afford it. It was privately funded. One owner.'
'That guy has the right idea,' Bendix said. 'He the king or something?'
'Something like that,' Aahz said, changing the subject immediately. 'But he had to fork out the entire price of his pyramid. Your wife would never put up with that.'
'You got that right! You should have heard her when I wanted a new crystal ball for the office.'
'Well, this is just a small piece of the whole thing, and you get the benefit of everyone else's investment. All you need to finance is a millionth of the total. You can have bragging rights that you were in on this one from the start.'
Bendix stroked his chin. 'That's appealing. But how much are we talking for a nice spot near the top? Say, the third level?'
'Only fifty thousand gold pieces.'
'What?'
I covered my ears to shut out the bellow.
Deals between Pervects were nowhere near as loud or shrill as those in the Bazaar, but they escalated a lot faster to imprecations and counter-accusations. I had more respect than ever for Aahz's vocabulary by the time he and Bendix paused for breath.
The Pervish attorney gasped in air in outrage.
'You've got to be out of your mind. You say you invested in this . . . this non-hole in the ground? I used to have some respect for your brain, buddy. The sun must have baked it out of you.'
'I'm not nuts!' Aahz insisted. 'It's a great deal! You'll never find one like it.'
'No, not unless I want to help some scam artist move his late uncle's nonexistent millions out of the dimension! Fifty thousand! When I think what I went through over a crystal ball—you know Deplora. She'd tear my claws out. That's it. Forget it.'
Bendix pulled a small device out of his pocket. With his eye on the small flat screen, he started moving it around. When it was in line with the wavy blue line in the sky, he reached for the red button below the screen. He was leaving. It looked like no sale. I gave Aahz a look of deepest sympathy.
Aahz's yellow eyes seemed to smolder into a blaze. He drew himself up as if calling on internal strength. Then he reached out and put out a hand to forestall Bendix. As if prying the words out of his mouth with a crowbar, he managed to eke out a single sentence.
'We . . . might be able to work out a . . . discount.'
I was so taken aback at the concept that it took me a moment to remember to breathe. Aahz? Negotiating a discount? On a multi-thousand coin deal? For someone else? When it took all of us to remind him not to stiff waiters?
Bendix was similarly impressed. His eyebrow ridge shifted upward. He whistled. 'You must really want this bad, Aahz. What's the catch? Pervects don't give something for nothing.'
Aahz waved a hand. 'It's not for nothing. Your partners are gonna be envious about your new asset. You can share the wealth with them—and I'll make sure you get a discount off your own stone in return.'
'How much are we talking?'
Aahz countered the question with a question. 'How many senior partners in the firm?'
Bendix turned up a palm. 'Ten. But my name's first on the letterhead. What consideration are you willing to offer me, as most senior partner—and an old friend?'
'Five percent,' Aahz said promptly, even though the words sounded as if they hurt as much as major surgery. 'Each. If they each buy a stone of equivalent value, yours is half price. Find twenty prospects, and it's free.'
Bendix eyed him. 'Sounds too good to be true.'
'It's the deal I'm getting from the developer. I'm getting such a great bargain I'm passing the savings on to you. I still get a piece of the action, but I'm more interested in sharing an opportunity. Like I said, it's once in a lifetime.'
'That's not what the sales brochure says. There are going to be twenty of these pyramids here in two hundred years.'
Aahz draped an arm over his shoulders and drew a panorama with the other palm. 'Yeah, but this is gonna be the showpiece. The tallest. The most well-equipped. You get to choose the parts of your life story you want carved on the sides. Think of it, pal: your most successful cases engraved the way you want them remembered. Never mind the Pervish Law Review that'll get backed up in some hard drive somewhere. This'll be out where anyone can read it, forever. And how about your other exploits, huh? When we were young? How many babes in that cabana fell for you over that weekend? Wouldn't that look good in a stone frieze?' He nudged Bendix familiarly in the ribs. 'It'll all be written in hieroglyphs—you don't have to tell Deplora what they mean.'
Bendix was starting to get that same dreamy look that Aahz had had when Samwise talked him into buying. He snapped out of it momentarily, and the brow ridge went down again. He glowered.
'I'll bet every tooth in my head that you're not giving me the same discount you're getting.'
'I'm full-time on site,' Aahz snarled. 'You want to set up shop here, too? I thought you had a full caseload.'
'No, no . . . but you'll have to give me your word you won't let any of my partners have the same deal as you gave me. I want it to be exclusive, or there's no deal.'
Aahz raised his hands. 'What arrangements you make with your partners is up to you. I don't care if you charge them double. I don't care if they pay you in marshmallow bunnies as long as Samwise gets paid in gold. I'll even give you the contracts to sign them up yourself, so they never have to deal with me at all. Now, let's talk about location. ...'
By the time Bendix bamfed out of Ghordon, Aahz was strutting with pride. The Bendix Frimmis Wisten Katz and
Associates wing would almost fill the level third from the top. In keeping with Bendix's status, he took a corner tomb with a stunning view of the western mountains. 'Things are looking up, partner,' Aahz said.
'I didn't know my own strength.'
But when our waiting Camel brought us back to Phase One, instead of looking up, we found that things had actually gone down.
We pushed through a frantic crowd of workers clustered around the northeast corner of the pyramid. Everyone was shouting. I looked where they were pointing.
To my horror, the house-sized corner stone had tilted downward. Part of its outer corner was buried in the sand and sinking fast. The whole structure looked threatened. The slabs above the tilted one were at risk of slipping or cracking. Ghord workers in loincloths had thrown themselves against the massive block. Others had dashed to their shrines to invoke the assistance of their ancestors.
Countless Scarabs dug away at the foundation to get at the lower edge. A rooster-tail of sand flew under their feet. As soon as it was visible, they swarmed under it, dragging ropes and harnesses.
