Starrigger

'Then we don't play.'

He went over and sat on the bed, picked up the revolver and absently fiddled with it, looking at me.

'Thinking of shooting someone?' I asked.

'Huh?' Aware now that he had picked it up, he. said, 'No. Don't even know how this thing works.' He tossed it aside, then glanced at Wilkes and looked back at me. 'All right, you win. A little history. Word has been out for a year or two that I'm to be purged. Oh, it's an outdated word, of course. They want to ship me back to Terra for 'evaluation and reassessment.' Fortunately the mills of the Authority grind slowly, and I had some time. But where would I go? Easy. Someplace like the Outworlds. But the cost of living's pretty high here. And strictly cash, no Authority vouchers. I had no gold socked away to speak of. Of course, here you can go up into the hills and pan for it ? they actually do that, you know ? but I'm not the prospector type. Corey approached me about this drug thing. Sounded good, cornering the market and all that. He needed me, he said, to work out all the details about diverting raw material from Hothouse and secreting it out here.' He shrugged. 'I had no choice, really. I went along.'

'Why the raw stuff?' I asked. 'Why not the finished product?'

'Actually,' Wilkes said, 'that was my original idea. Van talked me out of it.'

Vance nodded. 'The controls are just too tight. The Authority guards its monopoly well. When you get right down to it, it's the source of their power.'

'Okay,' I said, 'so you got the idea to process the stuff here.'

'A big investment on my part,' Wilkes reminded him. 'You should keep that in mind. Van.'

'I will. We have a small factory and lab near Seahome, about ready to become operational.'

'And what about the Reticulans? What's their motivation for letting you truck gold back through their territory?'

'Same as anybody's,' Wilkes answered. 'They need gold as much as any race does for intermaze trade. I know it sounds mundane, but their economy is royally screwed up. Their social structure is top-heavy with nonproductive ruling classes who're preoccupied with quaint pastimes like hunting and riding eight-legged beasties around in the woods. They won't stoop to getting their hands dirty. Most technological things are left to slave clas,ses. Beside, Reticulans think it more honorable to take by conquest rather than to create. Only the Roadbugs have prevented them from running amuck, taking over every maze in sight. So, they're hard up for cash.' He extended a hand deferentially to Vance. 'Sorry. You were saying?'

'I was about to say that when we heard the Roadmap rumors, we knew that it was only a matter of time before the Authority would come barging into the Outworlds. Anyway, that was my fear. I'd have no place to hide.' He picked up the revolver again and began to twirl it on his finger. 'Now. Tell me about how the whole plan is null and void.'

I drained my cup and tried to put it on the lamp table next to me, but I misjudged and sent it clattering to the carpet. 'Sorry. Could I persuade you to turn that gadget off? I'd rather have a gun leveled at me, or be tied up.'

Vance looked at Wilkes tentatively, but Wilkes shook his head. 'I'm a little shorthanded. Van. Jake has a habit of brutalizing my bodyguards.' He gave me a grouchy look.

'No? Okay. Van, it looks to me like you're going to be up merte creek without a paddle. Wilkes doesn't want to change reality, he just wants the map. Once he has it, he'll sell it to the Authority. Or to the Ryxx, or the Hydrans, or to the highest bidder.'

'Beautiful, Jake, beautiful,' Wilkes marveled.

Vance lowered his eyelids in deep thought. When he came out of it, he exhaled noisily. 'I'm getting the distinct feeling that I've been very, very stupid.'

The hatch opened, and Wilkes' bodyguard showed Pender-gast in.

'Where the hell is the Peters girl?' the Captain bellowed at Wilkes.

It was the first time I'd seen Wilkes slightly embarrassed. 'George, just a moment.'

'She's a crewmember, Wilkes. You may be running the drug thing, but I'm still captain of this ship. If you've done anything to?'

Wilkes got up and hastened toward him, extending a placating hand. 'In the hall, George, please….'

'Oh, Captain? May I have a word with you?'

Pendergast spun around. 'Who the bloody hell was that?'

Even I had forgotten that Sam's key was still silting on the coffee table.

Wilkes motioned to his bodyguard. 'Turn that thing off.' To the Captain he said, 'It's nothing. An open circuit to McGraw's rig computer.'

Pendergast shouldered past him into the room. 'What do you want? ? wherever you are,' he said looking around the room.

'Tell Mr. Wilkes what happens to the gizzard of a whale when it gets perforated by a floater missile. Go on, tell him.'

Pendergast's brow furrowed into dark lines. He turned slowly to Wilkes. 'You say this is a computer?'

'Entelechy Matrix,' Wilkes murmured. 'On the table there.'

The Captain's eyes finally found it. 'Let me tell you what happens,' he barked at Sam. 'The entire GI tract of the beast goes into convulsions. You wouldn't survive?' He halted, tongue-tied with the absurdity of what he had said. 'Son of a bitch,' he muttered.

'I might even stop breathing, huh?'

'What do you want?' Pendergast said evenly, walking toward the table.

'First, I want this hold cleared of your crew. Everyone. And I mean up the elevator and out of scanner range. Second, I want my son and his companions delivered down here safe and sound.'

'Your son?'

'McGraw,' Wilkes supplied.

'It'll he done,' Pendergast said.

Wilkes walked back into the room. 'Captain, we can't, not just yet. He's bluffing.'

'You know me well enough to know I'm not, Corey.'

'I won't take chances with this ship!' Pendergast shouted.

'Sam,' Wilkes said. 'You'll have them when we have the creature.'

'I said I wanted my son and his companions, and I meant all of them.'

'You'll have them,' Pendergast said, 'and you'll have safe conduct to debark this ship. But I guarantee that you'll never make it off Splash.'

'We'll take our chances.'

'George,' Wilkes said soothingly, putting a hand on his shoulder. 'You forget that we don't have the creature to give. Another thing ? the Reticulan's tracking technique is inoperative at this point. We could lose him for good.'

Pendergast's eyes widened, and he turned his head sharply to the connecting hatch. 'Is she in there?' he breathed. 'With them?'

'You don't have to worry. Captain,' I broke in, as things began to lose their dreamlike quality. I now realized why the coffee had tasted bitter. 'They won't rip her apart. She's not sacred quarry.'

Pendergast strode to the connecting hatch and threw it open savagely.

'No, but you are, Jake,' Wilkes said darkly.

The Captain lunged at Wilkes, but the bodyguard got in the way. Pendergast elbowed him aside, but the boy brought his gun up menacingly. Pendergast stopped, his face dark with fury. 'You think you can threaten me?' he growled at Wilkes.

'George, take it easy. I thought she was hiding something when you talked to her, and she was. Jake paid her a lot of money to hide the creature. I had to question her myself. She was in no danger.'

Pendergast put a hand to his forehead, his rage suddenly ebbing. 'What's going on?'

'The wand, George. You haven't taken the antidote.'

The ship's warning siren keened again.

'What is it, George?'

'The pirate mega,' Pendergast said, his voice detached.

'Pirate?'

'Yes. We've been tracking her. We're expecting an attack at dawn.' He shook his head to clear it and rubbed