Part 22 (2/2)
”Oh?” said Quillan.
”Yes. You see I made two calls to the ticket office. One from a street ComWeb and one from the bank. If they already had spotted me by that tracer material, they could have had an audio pick-up on me, I suppose.”
”I think we'd better suppose it,” said Quillan. ”You had a tail when you came out of the bank anyway.” His glance went past her. ”We'll get back to that later. Right now, take a look at that entrance, will you?”
Trigger turned in the direction he'd indicated.
”They do look like they're somebody important,” she said. ”Do you know them?”
”Some of them. That gentleman who looks like he almost has to be the Dawn City's First Captain really is the Dawn City's First Captain. The lady he's escorting into the lounge is Lyad Ermetyne. The Ermetyne.
You've heard of the Ermetynes?”
”The Ermetyne Wars? Tranest?” Trigger said doubtfully.
”They're the ones. Lyad is the current head of the clan.”
The history of Hub systems other than one's own became so involved so rapidly that its detailed study was engaged in only by specialists.
Trigger wasn't one. ”Tranest is one of the restricted planets now, isn't it?” she ventured.
”It is. Restriction is supposed to be a handicap. But Tranest is also one of the wealthiest individual worlds in the Hub.”
Trigger watched the woman with some interest as the party moved along a dim corridor, followed by the viewer circuit's invisible pick-up. Lyad Ermetyne didn't look more than a few years older than she was herself.
Rather small, slender, with delicately pretty features. She wore something ankle-length and long-sleeved in l.u.s.terless gray with an odd, smoky quality to it.
”Isn't she the empress of Tranest or something of the sort?” Trigger asked.
Quillan shook his head. ”They've had no emperors there, technically, since they had to sign their treaty with the Federation. She just owns the planet, that's all.”
”What would she be doing, going to Manon?”
”I'd like to know,” Quillan said. ”The Ermetyne's a lady of many interests. Now--see the plump elderly man just behind her?”
”The ugly one with the big head who sort of keeps blinking?”
”That one. He's Belchik Pluly and--”
”Pluly?” Trigger interrupted. ”The Pluly Lines?”
”Yes. Why?”
”Oh--nothing really. I heard--a friend of mine--Pluly's got a yacht out in the Manon System. And a daughter.”
Quillan nodded. ”Nelauk.”
”How did you know?”
”I've met her. Quite a girl, that Nelauk. Only child of Pluly's old age, and he dotes on her. Anyway, he's been on the verge of being black-listed by Grand Commerce off and on through the past three decades. But n.o.body's ever been able to pin anything more culpable on him than that he keeps skimming extremely close to the limits of a large number of laws.”
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