'And yours.'
'Administration has to be paid for. If you want to handle everything yourself, nothing is stopping you. But you'll find it doesn't pay.'
As the raid hadn't been as profitable as hoped and, in the darkness of her palms, Nadine could see the cold anger in the woman's face. The determination in her eyes.
'Nadine.' Jessie on the communicator. 'Earl Dumarest to see you.'
He came with the calm assurance of a man who needed no one but himself. An attribute which warmed her to him as, with quick intuition, she sensed the loneliness she knew too well.
'Dumarest.' She rose and smiled a welcome as she gestured him to a chair. 'Or may I call you Earl?' Her smile widened as he nodded. 'I've been hearing things about you. Someone said you cheated him.'
'Pember.'
'Yes. Did you?'
'I sold him an idea. Buy lot thirty-two. Take the units to a harsh world, lease them to those who needed them most. I know where they would be welcome. I told him the units were far better than anyone here could guess. Having them examined by an engineer would reveal their true value. I didn't lie and I didn't cheat. I simply didn't tell the entire truth.'
'I still don't understand. If you had revealed the truth the units would have attracted no bids. You could have bought them for practically nothing.'
Dumarest said, 'Do you gamble? There is a point in any game when a player has invested too much to throw in his hand. His loss would be too great for him not to risk more. Pember offered me a partnership. He thought I had a vested influence on the world I mentioned. I let him think that. I persuaded him to buy the units. Until he owned them I had nothing to bargain with.'
'If he'd bought them too cheaply he would be willing to cut his losses.' She nodded, appreciating the irony of one man thinking to cheat another and being cheated in turn. For Pember it was a case of poetic justice. 'But what do you get out of it?' She answered her own question. 'Of course! You have the missing components!'
Dumarest said nothing, watching her face, the movement of her eyes. She lacked the vibrant femininity of Zehava which flaunted itself like a challenge, instead she had a poised calmness which told of iron control. That and something else, a mannerism, a thing he had seen before. As if she had to make a conscious effort not to speak but wait until a question was asked before answering it.
He said, bluntly, 'Are you a reader?'
'I'm not a telepath if that's what you mean. I just guessed you had the components. I must warn you that I'm in no position to make a deal.'
Something he hadn't asked, but she had known it was on his mind. As she read now of his suspicions. Damn the man! Why did he have to be so shrewd?
'I knew a man once,' said Dumarest quietly. 'In a way he was a friend. He had a peculiar talent. He could read people. Not their minds but their actions. Small things which betrayed what they were thinking. He found it embarrassing at times. People tended to avoid him. They were afraid of what they might reveal.'
Something she knew too well. 'What happened to him?'
'Balman? He died.'
As her father had died. Her mother. As, she sensed, had all those close to Dumarest. Did he too feel the restraints which tormented her?
Dumarest said, 'If you were in my position, what would you do?'
'With the components? Offer them to Pember. He will have to give you a good price. Those units are worth far more than he paid for them.' She added, shrewdly, 'You don't trust him.'
'There is a lot of money involved.'
'Safeguards can be utilized. You must have thought of them. No!'
Dumarest said, 'You're doing it again. Rejecting an offer before it's made. At least listen to what I have to say.'
'You're wasting your time.'
'That is hardly the response of someone who should be interested in survival. Who is trusted by the Council to do the best for Kaldar. Should I go over your head? Make my offer to someone less intransigent?'
'You would do that?'
'It is your decision.' Dumarest moved his chair closer to the desk, placed an arm on the surface, leaned forward to put his face inches from her own. 'I'll deal with Pember if I have to but I'd rather not. He would complicate things. He might even try to kill me. He could succeed.'
Nadine doubted it. 'Why would he want to do that?'
Because of what he was; scum battening on filth. A parasite living on property stolen from others. Trading in goods stained with blood, pain, death and tears. A thing worse than any raider for without his kind to provide a market none could prosper. Things Dumarest didn't mention. Facts she read as if he had.
'Earl! We are what we are!'
'Then be what you are!' He leaned even closer, his face hard with the ferocity of a predator. 'What do you owe to Pember and his kind? Why show them concern? Act for me. For yourself. Sell him the components.'
'No.'
'Two hundred units.' Dumarest ignored the protest. 'Charge what you like and keep a tenth of what you get. An eighth. A fair commission.'
'You don't understand. We don't operate that way. Toibin-'
'Has nothing to do with this. He's made his sale but the components are mine. Money,' he urged. 'Think of what you could do with it!'
How had he known? Had he read her as she had read him? Sensing her need and playing on it? Offering the one lure she couldn't resist. The chance of freedom. Of independence. Of escape.
Looking up she saw the smiling face of her father. A smile of love or derision?
Dumarest said, quietly, 'The components are legally mine. Bought in normal trade.'
'That makes a difference?'
'To you, perhaps.' He smiled as her eyes dropped to meet his own. 'We are what we are. But what we are isn't always what we seem to be. Please, Nadine. I need your help.'
'To make a fortune?'
'No,' he said. 'To get transport to Earth.'
Chapter Seven
In the shadows a woman was chanting a saga composed to laud the prowess of the raiders, their bravery, their courage, their fierce independence. Verses which dealt with blood and conquest, each followed by a roar from the crowd. Sound augmented by fists drumming on tables and the clash of beakers. Barbaric melody laced with wild ululations and animal bellowing.
The Kaldari at play.
The auction was over, the dealers gone, the warehouse now empty. It was a time to relax, to celebrate and make plans for future enterprises. Time, also, for tempers to flare and imagined grievances to be revenged. For romance to flower and assignations to be made. For the true nature of the Kaldari to show itself in strutting, unthinking, barbaric arrogance.
Dumarest sat with Zehava at a corner table. An overhead lantern cast a soft, yellow light and others of varying hues filled the tavern with blotches of ruby and emerald, of sapphire, agate, amethyst. Doors and windows were illuminated with the nacreous sheen of pearl. Colors which accentuated the gleam of polished leather and metal, of bracelets, armbands, chains and heavy rings. Portable wealth advertising the prowess of the wearer.
'Drink!'
A man lurched to a halt before the table. He swayed a little, spilled wine shining wetly on his clothing. His belt was of wide golden links, the sheathed knife bright with jewels and ornate engraving.
'Drink,' he said again. 'Drink with Odumi.'
Dumarest rose without hesitation, his goblet lifted high. 'I drink,' he said loudly. 'To Odumi and to all his friends.'
'The toast?'
