“That’s it, Jim? You turn coward at the slightest setback. For shame! What would The Bishop say to this?” He would say stop talking in public, I thought as I noticed the strange looks I was getting. So I whistled happily, not a care in the world, turned a corner and saw the tables and chairs, men sitting and drinking interesting beverages, under a sign that said SOSTEN HA GWYRAS which conveyed exactly nothing to me. But underneath it was printed Nl PAROLOS ESPERANTO, BONVENUU. I hoped that they spoke Esperanto better than they wrote it. I found a table against the wall, dropped into a chair and snapped my fingers at the ancient waiter. “Dhethplegadow,” he said.
“Plegadow the others,” I said. “We speak Esperanto. What’s to drink. Dad?”
“Beer, wirie, dowr-tom-ys.”
“I’m just not in the mood for a dowr-tom-ys today. A large beer, if you please.”
When he turned away I dug out Rasco’s wallet. If my guards were supposed to encourage the local economy they should be carrying some of the local currency. The wallet clunked when I dropped it onto the table, heavy with little metal discs. I shook one out and turned it over. It had the number two stamped into one side, with Arghans on the other.
“That will be one Arghans,” the waiter said, putting a brimming clay pot in front of me. I passed over the coin.
“Take that, my good man, and keep the change.”
“You offworlders are so generous,” he said, muffledly as he bit the coin. “Not mean, stupid, vicious like the locals. You want girl? Boy? Kewarghen to smoke?”
“Later perhaps. I’ll let you know. Beer now and the heady pleasures of native life to come.”
He went away xnuttering and I took a great slug of the beer. Instantly regretting it. I swallowed—and regretted that as well as the noxious brew bubbled and seethed its way through my digestive tract. I pushed the jar away and belched. Enough of this tomfoolery. I had escaped, great, step one. But what came next?
Nothing that I could think of at the moment. I sipped at the beer, it still tasted just as repulsive, but even this heroic treatment produced no inspiration. I was grateful for the interruption when the waiter sidled over and whispered hoarsely behind the back of his hand.
“New shipment kewarghen fresh from the fields. You get high, stay up for many days. Want some? No? What about girl with whips? Snakes? Leather straps and hot mud…”
I interrupted since I wasn’t sure that I enjoyed where the conversation was going. “I am sated, I tell you sated. All I wish are directions to return to the municipal edifice.”
“Do not know what long words mean.”
“Want to find building big, high, filled with plenty offworlders.”
“Ahh, you mean the lys. For one Arghans I take you there.”
“For one Arghans you give me instructions. I don’t want to drag you away from your work.” Nor did I want to be led astray to one of the many offers he had made. In the end he had to agree. I memorized the instructions, sipped some more of the beer and instantly regretted it, then slipped away when he had vanished into the back room.
As I walked a glimmer of a plan began to develop. I must think of a way to get to Bibs, the crewgirl from the freighter. Garth, the captain of her ship, had escaped, I wa
She was my only link with this villain. But how could I get into the prison? I knew the name she had been arrested under, Marianney Giuffrida. Could I pass myself off as a concerned relative, one Hasenpeffer Giufinda? The local identification should be easy to forge—if it existed at all. But would the computer identify me as an ex-prisoner when I entered the building? Or had I been wiped from its memory when I had left? Perhaps I had been, but would Fatso put me back in memory when he reported my escape?
These thoughts were rattling around in my head when I turned the next corner aftd found the gigantic edifice before me. It rose up from the low buildings of the city like a towering cliff—and looked just as impenetrable. I strolled by and looked up at the steps I had so recently descended, watched the doors open to admit a visitor. Then close again like a bank vault. My mind was still blank. I stood with my back to a brick wall across from the building. Which was perhaps not too bright, since I was still wearing prison garb. But such was the variety of local costume that my uniform drew no notice at all. I leaned and waited for inspiration to strike.
It didn’t. But pure, random luck, a chance in athousand did. The doors opened one more time and three people emerged. Two minions of the law, this obvious from the size of their boots, flanking a delicate female form. One thick wrist was manacled to her tiny one. It was Bibs.
The suddenness of her appearance froze me in place. Kept me leaning against the wall as they descended to street level where one of the guards waved and whistled. In quick response two of the horsedrawn vehicles raced their way, one of them neatly cutting off the other. There were shouted curses and loud neighing as the horses reared up. This was quickly sorted out and the loser trotted off. The high body of the horsedrawn hulk blocked my view, but as clear as though it were transparent I knew what was happening. Door being opened, prisoner escorted inside, door closed…
The thing started forward as the driver’s whip cracked,
even as I was hurrying across the road. Getting up speed as I ran after it, jumped, got my feet on the step and hauled the door open.
“Out,” the nearest guard said, turning toward me. “This cab is taken…”
We looked at each other in mutual recognition—he was the night guard from the prison. With a cry of anger he reached for me. But I reached quicker, jumping in on top of him. He was big and strong—but I was fast. I had a quick glimpse of the shocked look on Bibs’s face as I turned all my attention to avoiding his clutch and getting in a quick blow with the edge of my hand.
As soon as he went limp I rolled over to face the other guard and discovered that he had no interest in me at all. Bibs had her free arm around his neck and was throttling him to death. He flailed with his other hand but could do nothing because it was manacled to her wrist.
“Just wait… until this one… is dead too,” Bibs gasped.
I didn’t explain that the guard I had taken care of was only unconscious but reached over and grabbed her elbow hard, index finger grinding into the big nerve there. Her arm went numb, dropped away, and her face grew red with friry. But before she could speak I silenced the gasping guard and unlocked the cuff’s. She rubbed her wrist and smiled.
“I don’t know where you dropped from, buster, or why, but I appreciate the help.” She cocked her head and looked more closely at me. “I know you, don’t I? Yes, of course, you’re the midnight passenger, Jimmy something.”
“That’s right. Bibs. Jim diGriz at your service.” She laughed, loud and happily, while she removed all the possessions of the two unconscious guards, then scowled when I manacled them together. “Better to kill them,” she said.
“Better not to. Right now we’re not important enough to them to cause much fuss. But if we murdered two of their men they would turn this planet over to find us.”
“I guess you’re right,” she said with reluctant agreement—then kicked both unconscious bodies with sudden fury. “They can’t feel anything.”
“They will when they wake up. So where do we go from here, Jim?”
“You tell me. I know absolutely nothing at all about this planet. ”
“I know far too much.”
“Then lead the way.”
“Right.”
She opened the door as our vehicle slowed and we slipped out, stepped up onto the pavement as it lumbered from sight.