Gateway To Xanadu (17 page)

When our “drinks” came I ignored mine, which turned out to be a damned good thing. If I’d been sipping happily and listening politely to Val’s supposedly disarming chatter, I would have missed the approach of someone I hadn’t expected to see. The man was of medium height and somewhat on the thin side, and I knew that thick-lipped face as soon as I saw it. John Little was one of Radman’s stooges, a spotter who usually traveled with Radman and stayed on the lookout for salable merchandise. For some reason Radman had left him in the Station and had gone down to Xanadu alone, and now Little was coming over to us. He stopped at Val’s elbow, waited for his target to notice him, then came up with a greasy smile.

“Excuse me,” he said with the sort of cultured tones and practiced charm that usually broke the ice for him with anyone he approached. “I saw you from across the room, and feel certain that we’ve met before. I travel so often I must know half the people in the Federation. My name is John Little-do you remember me?”

He put his hand out for Val to take, another ploy that was designed to breed flattered awe and instant friendship, but he had apparently never tried the routine on someone like Val before. Without any sign of hesitation Val rose easily from his chair, took the hand offered him, and looked down at a very startled con man.

“Valdon Carter,” he acknowledged, pretending not to see the way Little flinched at the mashing of his hand. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Little, but I’m certain we’ve never met before. I have an excellent memory for faces and names, and yours just aren’t there. Good evening.”

If Little hadn’t been nursing crushed fingers, he probably would have gotten around the abrupt dismissal Val handed him. He backed off with uncharacteristic fluster as Val sat down again, then turned and headed back where he’d come from. I didn’t make the mistake of staring openly at him at any point, especially not after his hasty retreat, but I couldn’t help but find the attempted contact fascinating to consider.

“You did that just right, Jennifer,” Val said as soon as Little was out of hearing range, amusement in his voice. “Keep it up, and that dessert is yours.”

“Did what just right?” I asked, forgetting in the distraction of my thoughts that I wasn’t talking to him. “I didn’t say or do a thing.”

“Exactly,” he came back. “You obviously remembered that the option of approval or disapproval is mine, and left the situation to me to handle. I hope the next one uses more imagination in his approach, but at that he’s lucky he didn’t try going around me directly to you. I wouldn’t have been as pleasant as I was.”

“Pleasant,” I echoed, amused myself, finally understanding what he was talking about. “You thought he came prowling by because he was on the make for me? I’m sure he noticed everything about me, but only on a professional level. John Little’s tastes don’t run to my type; if it was a personal call, he was more interested in you.”

Val’s eyes darkened as he struggled against outrage and indignation.

“I don’t understand why you’re so upset,” I added, watching him fight his way back to control with a minimum of outward sign of the struggle. “If you’re still as desperate as you seemed to be a little while ago, it’s the perfect opportunity. Don’t forget, he came to you, so he isn’t likely to turn you down when you make a suggestion.”

“I thought you understood my own tastes run to softness,” he said at last, and there was the distinct hint of a growl left in his voice. “And how the hell would you know what that man prefers? If he was wearing a sign on his chest, I must have missed it.”

“It’s too bad you feel that way, ‘uncle’ Val,” I murmured, suddenly trying to control outrage of my own.

“Unfortunately for your tender sensibilities, John Little isn’t a subject we can ignore.”

Val opened his mouth to say something, argument-wise if his expression meant anything, but the robot waiter had trundled up to our table with the food that had been ordered, cutting off all relevant conversation. We sat there in silence while the table between us was filled with dishes, but once the little robot was out of pick-up range, Val leaned an elbow on the table.

“If I hadn’t been caught by surprise, I would have noticed sooner that you weren’t guessing about a stranger,” he said, his eyes now more intent than angry. “Who is he?”

“A friend of a friend of ours,” I answered, pointedly not glancing around. “But this isn’t the place to discuss it. We’ll go back to our suite.”

“You’re forgetting something,” Val said, interrupting the gathering-together-to-leave process I was starting. “We’ll finish our meal, and then we’ll go back to the suite. Little Jennifer needs her nourishment.”

I looked at him sharply, my lips parting to argue, but that damned “no” was so strong in his eyes that I threw my purse back on the table without saying a word. He was determined to make me listen to him, and to say I was furious would just be indicating the inadequacy of spoken language to communicate with accuracy.

Despite an excellent kitchen, that had to be one of the worst meals I’d ever had. The leather armchair I sat in grew more uncomfortable every time something else was added to my plate, and at least one sample of everything that had been put down ended up there. I didn’t want any of it no matter how long it had been since I’d last eaten, but Val couldn’t have cared less. He callously served me everything, then kept those eyes on me while I tried picking at it-which he refused to allow. I ended up swallowing most of it down in tasteless lumps, so upset that nothing of this universe would have appealed to me. I hated being under seventeen and having to listen to Val, and I was even beginning to hate him.

When torture time was finally over, I was nearly sick to my stomach. I was glad to hear there would be no dessert-until I was told it was being withheld because I’d been a bad girl by teasing my uncle Val. At that point I was tempted to throw up everything he’d forced on me, right there in the middle of the dining room, and I would have if I hadn’t been so anxious to get the hell out of there. I knew it was absurd, but it felt as though everyone in the room could tell how humiliated I felt, and was laughing over it and at me. Look at the little girl all dressed up and pretending to be a woman, their amusement seemed to say, the amusement I could feel even though I looked only straight ahead as Val guided me out of the place. I wasn’t pretending to do everything he told me to, I was being forced into really doing it, and the difference between the two states was so vast it was well-nigh indefinable.

“is something wrong?” I heard Val’s voice say, and looked up to see that he wasn’t talking to me. The five security men moving around near the elevator bank were the targets of his curiosity, and the captain who turned to him gave no indication that he knew the curiosity was as phony as my supposed biological age.

“There was a report that some children were using these elevators as a playground, sir,” the captain lied smoothly, looking Val right in the eye. “A few of our guests were disturbed, so we’ve been sent to see if we. can find out who they were. We’d like to ask their parents to watch them a little more closely.”

Val nodded as though everything had been made perfectly clear and his curiosity had now been satisfied, but his play-acting annoyed me. He didn’t really know what he was doing, and I suddenly had the urge to prove it to him.

“They assigned a captain of security to look for a bunch of kids?” I asked before the captain could turn away or Val could hustle me into the waiting elevator car. “What did they do, play the game of execution for real?”

I was also tempted to mention the constant computer surveillance-which would have made guesswork about anybody messing with the elevators unnecessary-but the general public didn’t know how tight surveillance was on orbital stations, and I was just annoyed, not looking to get myself noticed. For the last, though, I’d forgotten again what I was wearing. The security captain, a broad, attractive man, noticed me anyway, and a faint grin lit his features.

“Nothing but the best of service for guests on Xanadu Station, Miss,” he drawled, letting his eyes move over me slowly. “Children who presume are asking to be punished, and I may have to question you later to see if you know anything about the problem. I’m sure I can count on your cooperation. ”

“Of course you can, Captain,” I purred, smiling slowly to let him know he’d have all the cooperation he wanted. He really was a very attractive man, but I’d forgotten there was a fly in the ointment I’d planned on using to grease the new friendship.

“We’ll both be glad to cooperate, Captain,” Val put in so smoothly he sounded more amused than annoyed. “If you happen to call after my niece’s bedtime, I’ll be glad to answer any questions you might have alone. We’ve only been on the Station a matter of hours, and girls my niece’s age need their rest. ”

“Girls your niece’s age?” the captain asked Val blankly, his grin gone completely. “What age is she?”

“Not yet seventeen,” Val answered, ignoring the furious look I turned on him. “I know she seems older, especially in that outfit, but her age was confirmed at the time we registered.”

“You shouldn’t let her wear clothes like that,” the security man growled, looking me over again in an entirely different way. “If she smiles like that at the wrong man at the wrong time, you could find yourself filing rape charges on her behalf. If I were you, I’d do something to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“You’re absolutely right, Captain,” Val said hastily, deliberately interrupting the way I began to assure that jerk of a security man that I could damn well take care of myself no matter what I was wearing or who I smiled at. “I’ll see to it first thing in the morning. Good night.”

With his hand wrapped tight around my arm I was forced into the elevator car, and a few minutes later we were walking into our suite. As soon as Val closed the door behind us, I rounded on him in a fury.

“That was a hell of a lousy thing to do to me, and I won’t forget it!” I snapped, throwing my purse away from me hard enough to break something if it hit the wrong way. “You just wait until you find something you’d like to take to bed! She’ll be gone so fast it’ll make your eyes water! In this business there’s supposed to be courtesy between partners, partner, and courtesy means not cramping your partner’s style even if you think you have something to get even for! You don’t screw somebody out of a good time when that could be the last good time they’ll ever have! In case it’s slipped your mind, we’re not here partnering for laughs!”

I turned away from the sober, quiet way he was looking at me, more raw over the stupid stunt he had pulled than I’d been when he’d only threatened it, and his next words didn’t help much.

“You said we’d talk about Little when we got back to the suite,” he reminded me in calmer tones than I’d been using. “What does Little have to do with Radman?”

“Is that all you’ve got to say?” I demanded, whirling back to face him, outraged. “Back to business, and to hell with everything else that’s happened? Well, why not? You’re not one of us, and you never will be.

Little works for Radman in the capacity of flesh expert, someone who knows immediately and almost instinctively which bodies will and won’t sell. The decision isn’t as easy as most people think it is, so he collects a nice piece of change for his efforts. I don’t know why Radman didn’t take him down to Xanadu or leave him behind altogether at their headquarters; Little sure as hell can’t ply his trade in this Station.”

“Why not?” Val asked, opening his jacket before sitting. “For the same reason that you can’t operate here?”

“In his case, computer surveillance doesn’t mean a thing,” I denied with a head shake. “The only thing a computer scan would show him doing is looking, a pastime 98 percent of the people in this Station indulge in. When it comes time to go for the target, it’s handled by professionals in that field, ones who know when and where to hit. No, Little can’t operate here because the Management on Xanadu doesn’t want anything like that going on in this Station. Rich people avoid places that aren’t safe, and the Management doesn’t want Xanadu and its Station avoided. That’s why their security is so tight: to protect their clientele. Radman has no choice but to go along with it; Xanadu’s one of his biggest customers.”

“Then why did Little come over to us?” Val asked, frowning at the same puzzle that had been bothering me. “If they can’t do any kidnapping in this Station, why did he try to get to know us?”

“They may be thinking of sending a team to follow us after we leave here.” I shrugged, starting to pace around. I wasn’t in the mood to sit down, not with everything I had on my mind. “What happens to people after they leave is not the Management’s concern, and Xanadu isn’t the only market Radman has.

He doesn’t have to worry about being embarrassed by selling the Management slaves who used to be clients. I’d just like to know if he has anything else on mind-or if he has any intentions of joining Radman on Xanadu. Following Little would be a hell of a lot easier than sniffing along a cold and probably guarded trail.”

“You sound like you have something in mind,” Val observed, watching me where my pacing had taken me, about two feet from where he sat. “Something to make him take off so that we can follow?”

“Not exactly,” I said, partially distracted by consideration of all the possibilities my mind was developing. “If we make him take off, there’s no guarantee he’ll take off in Radman’s direction. If we let him join the party, though, he’ll very likely use the opportunity to let the boss confirm the wisdom of his choice.”

“What do you mean, let him join the party?” Val asked, suspicion suddenly lighting in his eyes. “You intend asking him to come along with us?”

“No, you’re the one who’ll do the asking,” I came back, staring down at, the agitation he was trying to keep under control. “It would be out of character and probably a waste of time if I tried it, even if he swung that way. You’re supposed to be the head of this expedition, so the invitation has to come from you. What’s the matter, partner’? You afraid he’ll catch you in a weak moment and rape you?”