his bulging body.
Magrit heard Tanya grunt. Rezel was silent, but she gazed at the picture with her mouth open.
“A meeting is not impossible,” Magrit went on. “However, there are a few things you ought to know that pictures cannot reveal. Bat does not travel. If you are determined to meet with him — which I still do not recommend — it would have to be at his home.”
“That is his home?” Tanya was staring at the dark walls and gloomy depths of the Bat Cave.
“That’s right.” Magrit smiled at the sisters. “It’s not as bad as it looks. The weapons are all disarmed — at least, that’s what Bat tells me. You two are not geeks.” Magrit spoke as one making a new and surprising discovery. “But Bat is a typical geek, always taking things to bits, fiddling with their computers, and putting them back together again. You’d really be wasting your time with him. It’s a pity there’s no one in your family with his sort of interests.”
Rezel arched her styled eyebrows at Tanya, who said to Magrit, “Stay where you are.” The two sisters stood up from the table and walked toward the back wall, which mysteriously became a door as they approached it.
Magrit was left alone. She disengaged the image cube of Bat and slipped it back in her pocket. It wasn’t likely the Ligon sisters would ask to see it again. After five more minutes she stood up and as an experiment walked around the table and across to where Rezel and Tanya had disappeared. The wall remained a wall. Apparently there was a recognition code built into it. Magrit went back to the table.
Three minutes more, and part of the back wall suddenly became the image of the reception Fax. Its eyes turned until they looked straight at Magrit — some fancy recognition software there, more than you’d find in any government office Fax — and it said, “Your meeting is over. I have been instructed to request that you now leave the Ligon corporate premises.”
So much for negotiation. Magrit, on the way back to her office, assessed the meeting. On the one hand, they had stopped pushing for a meeting with Bat; on the other hand, it was clear that they were not willing to deal with Magrit; nor had she ever expected them to. She had planted the seed of an idea with them at the end of the meeting, and that was about all she had hoped for.
Back in her office, Magrit tried a call to Bat. Reaching him was always an iffy proposition, because he had long ago assured her that he would not abandon certain sacred activities even if her incoming message warned that the Sun was going nova”. She had asked what those activities were. He mentioned cooking, eating, seeking Great War relics, and thinking about difficult abstract problems.
Magrit said, “But that’s all you ever do!”
Bat had pondered for a moment, folded his hands across his belly, and nodded.
Today he was not, by Bat standards, cooking or eating. True, he had in front of him three bowls of assorted sweetmeats, half-empty, but he was not in the kitchen juggling stock and shellfish and fine-chopped herbs.
He inclined his head, to indicate that he was aware of Magrit’s telepresence.
She waved the quick-print. “There’s a report from Argus Station at L-4. I was wondering—”
“I read it. It is interesting, and perhaps relevant. However, it is not the central phenomenon that causes me apprehension. What I sense goes farther back in time, and feels far more dangerous. Is that the reason for your presence? If so, then a simple message—”
“It’s not. Bat, I did you a favor today. I persuaded two members of the Ligon family that a meeting with you would not be to their advantage.”
“For this relief, much thanks.”
“But that doesn’t mean the pressure is off you, or off me. Bat, I know how you feel about this. You wish they would just go away. So do I. They’re not going to. Unless we can provide a reason for them to lay off — a strong reason — they are going to squeeze and squeeze until they spit you out of the middle of Pandora dead or alive. Do you have anything new that I can use?”
“You must be the judge of that. I am only able to tell you what I have discovered.”
“Shoot.”
“Very well.” Bat closed his eyes. “We could I suppose begin with Giacomo Ligon, whose first Antarctic leases were probably obtained through threat and bribery and covert murder. However, that was close to a century years ago. This leads me to suspect that some statute of limitations is likely to apply.”
“Look far enough back in anybody’s family, you’ll find villains. Anyway, that was all on Earth so Jovian law wouldn’t apply. Bat, we need something now, some hold on living family members.”
“This is something of which I am not unaware. However, it is my nature to be comprehensive rather than superficial. Permit me to continue, and since you wish it I will confine my attention to members of the Ligon family who are presently alive and make their homes on Ganymede. The most promising candidate, since he sits at the heart of Ligon financial affairs and has final say in them, is Prosper Ligon. I have, regrettably from our point of view, been unable to discover any taint on the man. If he has interests other than work, I have been unable to learn of them. He appears to have as few vices as I do.”
It was an awful temptation, but Magrit bit her tongue. “So cross off Prosper Ligon. Who else?”
“There are two sisters who specialize in the seduction, drugging, and blackmail of important figures in Jovian government and commerce. However, since the involved parties are all far more interested in concealment than revelation, I see little leverage.”
“Rezel and Tanya? Those two beauties are the ones who wanted to meet with you today. You’re lucky. I guess I saved you from seduction and drugging and blackmail.”
“Indubitably you did. May I continue, or must we both descend to the level of facetious commentary? Next we have Hector Ligon, who seems capable of any manner of debased behavior provided that it requires no iota of sense or original thought. We could certainly trap him into any number of compromising or illegal activities. Sadly, no member of the family would lift a finger or pay a sou to save him. Even his father regards it as merely a matter of time until some act of folly on Hector’s part leads to his disgrace and dismissal from the bosom of the Ligon family.”
“Bat, I know you like to be thorough. But I have a Board of Supervisors meeting in half an hour, and if I go in unprepared there’s a couple of people who’ll love to chew on my ass. Could you stop listing the Ligon family we can’t pressure, and come to the ones we can?”
“A consummation devoutly to be wished, but one that I fear is at the moment impossible. Juliana appears to be as free from vices as her Uncle Prosper. The various aged aunts have been guilty of gross acts, but so long ago that no one today will care. The family members who have chosen to become Commensals offer potential, but I must investigate them further. For awhile I believed that our best hope was Karolus, a man blackened by sins numerous and dastardly; regrettably, I am convinced that he also lacks all shame. If we threaten to expose him, he will laugh at us and admit to everything.”
“Right. Am I being unfair if I summarize what you’ve told me by saying we have nothing?”
“If you are unfair, you are also accurate.”
“So I’m glad I did what I did, earlier today. But if this works out, you’ll have to consider an action you do not want to take.”
Bat finally opened his eyes, so that he could stare accusingly at Magrit. “The logical complement of the things that I want to do forms a near-infinite set. Do you propose to be specific, or merely to taunt me with vagueness?”
“You will have to meet with a Ligon. Now hold on.” She could see Bat beginning to bristle. “This isn’t just any Ligon. It’s a man who works for me. I’ve met him, and I suspect that the two of you may actually get on together.”
“Hmph.”
“I set the bait earlier today in my meeting with the sisters. If they take it, I’m going to suggest that Alex Ligon fly out to see you, there in the Bat Cave. After that it will be up to you. You want to remain on Pandora? Then the two of you have to cut a deal that satisfies the Ligon family.”
“And you, I presume, have no suggestions as to what such a scheme might be.”
“Of course I don’t. That’s your job. I mean, you’re the smart one, aren’t you?”
“Hmph.”
“That’s what I thought. So you’re going to prove it. Now, I have to run.”
She cut the connection, to avoid discussion.
