Part 29 (1/2)
”I'm afraid it's missing, Ms. Haseen,” Antonio said, at last. ”The young woman we just had removed may be part of a conspiracy to steal the technology. We have to find out whether she was working alone or with a gang.”
”This is terrible,” Skyler said. ”Under our very noses! You will get to the bottom of this. Both of you,” she added, glaring at Chinn.
”At once, Secretary,” the station commander agreed. Her dismayed gaze met Antonio's.
”...More interviews are being conducted into the theft of the wonder substance, Opalite. Station police ask that if you have any information, you can submit it anonymously on any communications kiosk, no questions asked.” The newscaster s.h.i.+fted her eyes to the next story on her teleprompter. ”Fans of the Blue Asteroids were overjoyed today when their team went 1-0 against the undefeated Star Slayers in overtime...”
”Hope they don't come down here,” Merg growled, kicking a discarded water tube that was in his way on the corridor floor. The owner, a girl of twelve or thirteen, scrambled to retrieve it and stuff it back among her belongings.
”Hey, sc.u.m!”
”Amlin,” Merg muttered under his breath.
The guard muscled over to them and shoved her face close to theirs. ”That conduit in the main square you said you fixed, it's spewing c.r.a.p all over the ground. There's sparks shooting out of it now. The traders want your eyeb.a.l.l.s.”
Merg lifted a scanty eyebrow. ”That's nothing we did.”
”Take care of it, and I won't tell the Chief you screwed up! Now, move it!”
”Dammit,” Merg muttered, as they retraced their steps toward the main corridor. ”It's worse than being in the army.”
”Eat new Frosted Star Cl.u.s.ters!” the cheerful woman's voice said. ”Now with all essential vitamins and minerals! Part of this complete breakfast.”
Hap couldn't see the screen. He didn't want to think about food at that moment. The leaking pipe had waited just until he and Merg were underneath it, then it had let loose. Gallons of unrefined sewage from Upstairs poured out all over them. Whole peelings, bones, feces, whatever dropped into the disposers up above was all over the place.
Merg grabbed for his radio. ”Hey, Sal, turn off the main hose in section 54 Z. Yeah, the one in the market. No, now! Hang in there, kid.”
Hap thrust his arm up inside the nearest whole section of pipe, feeling for the emergency valve. His lips and eyes were pressed shut. He wished he could plug his nose and ears against the stench, too. Suddenly, the torrent ceased. He staggered backwards and sat down in a foot of sludge. The traders, men and women who sold anything they could scavenge or make to one another in exchange for a few credits, stood on their tables or climbed handy beams and shouted complaints at the two workmen. Merg got on his radio and called for more maintenance men, but Hap doubted anybody else would come.
He rubbed his hands on his disgusting coverall, das.h.i.+ng away liquid garbage. Something went 'plink' as it flew away and hit the floor. Hap caught a glint of electric red and blue. A chip, perhaps? A piece of jewelry that someone accidentally dropped into a loo?
He picked up the small lump and shook the goo off it. It was an irregularly shaped piece of clay or something, but not like any clay he'd ever seen. It was pretty, glittering in the emergency lights. Hap stuffed it into his pocket to look at later. In the meantime, there was a lot of c.r.a.p to clean up. Then he was going to march into the bathhouse and demand a full shower, no matter if it wasn't his day to bathe.
Chief Gormley eyed Station Commander Chinn up and down. ”Well, well. We're not usually this honored down here,” he said, leaning back in his chair with his thick hands clasped comfortably over his belly. ”It's like G.o.d paying a visit on Lucifer, or am I quoting you wrong? That's what you called me in the media last time.”
”You stole a whole s.h.i.+pment of machinery,” Chinn said, trying not to look as uncomfortable as she felt.
”Take that back!” Gormley shouted. At his back was a whole contingent of s.h.i.+psuited men and women, all heavily armed. She wondered how they got ammunition down here, when it was strictly controlled Upstairs. She only had two, which she had only been able to bring to this meeting after considerable negotiation. ”I received it. Too bad for you if the delivery captain was new and couldn't read the markings on the ports. I didn't change'em.”
Chinn hesitated. What he said was true. Earth-Gov hadn't been happy about the error. Neither had the people who'd ordered those synthesizers. The only thing that had saved her and the captain from paying for the lost unit out of their own pocket had been her eloquence. She never dreamed she'd have her words thrown back in her teeth.
”I'm sorry. It was a mistake. Politics. Look, Chief Gormley, I've got a problem.”
Gormley grinned. ”I know. It's been all over the news. You tell 'em not to talk, but someone takes a reporter aside in confidence, and your face is red. p.i.s.ser, isn't it? It wasn't the girl who stole it. We're taking care of her. It wasn't nice of you to dump her down here just like that, just for dropping that lump down the drain by accident. She's a hard worker, and I think you even broke her contract not sending her back to Alpha. Well, personally, I haven't seen your missing Opalite. You can take that to the bank, though I doubt you will. Chances are if it went down a disposer it's been broken up into hydrogen by now. But if it didn't, a whole lot of hypothetical questions beg to be asked. If I knew where this thing was, and if I could return it to you safely and not break it by accident and not sell it to someone else and not go public about my new acquisition, what will it gain me? You know, I hate long negotiations. I've got so much to do, haven't I, mates?”
His little army murmured agreement.
”If you haven't got it,” Chinn said, ”then maybe one of your people found it. Listen to me,” she addressed the ragged band. ”If one of you finds it, I'll reward you very well. You can't use it; you don't know how. It's of no use down there. If you return the Opalite you can write your own ticket, but I am authorized to reward only one person. All you have to do is contact me in the main office Upstairs. Don't waste my time with phony claims.” She nodded curtly to Gormley. ”Thank you for seeing me.” Spinning on her heel, she marched out.
Behind her, she heard Gormley laughing at her. ”Lovely exit,” he snickered.
”Chief?”
Aha, Gormley thought, his attention snapping away from his vidscreen, where the news was running a segment about the station police's phony search for the Opalite. Who'd have guessed it would be the boy.
”Come in, Hap,” he said. ”Sit down. Want some coffee? Better than the muck in the street machines.”
The youth looked at the synthesizer nervously. ”Well...”
”All right,” Gormley said, taking charge. ”Two coffees. Real connoisseurs drink it black.” The machine churned and raised its flap on two cups. He handed one to the boy and sat down on the edge of his battered desk.
The boy felt in his pocket and brought out a folded sc.r.a.p of cloth. ”I found it. This is it, isn't it?”
He shook the brown rag open. Prismatic shafts of living color, reds, blues, violets, golds and greens, lanced out of the knot of pale matrix, strong enough to knock a person's eyes out. Gormley nodded, grinning broadly.
”Congratulations, Hap. So that's what a hundred million credits looks like, eh?”
The very concept of that much wealth was too much for the boy. His hands started shaking. Gormley took everything out of his hands and put it on the desk.
”I guess you'll want to talk to the Station Commander, then,” he said.
”Yes, sir!”
”Thought about what you want to ask for as a reward?”
Hap nodded vigorously. He was almost grateful to the burst pipe for raining down c.r.a.p on him. ”I want to go Upstairs, Chief.”
Gormley's eyebrows rose up toward his thinning hair. ”Not a chance.”
”But why not?” Hap said, crestfallen. ”She said I could write my own ticket. You don't want me to do it?”
The Chief blew a raspberry. ”What I want has nothing to do with it. You heard Chinn when she was desperate. They've all had time to think about their problem. Don't try to ask for too much. This is a big fat embarra.s.sment to them. You know what they did to that girl who made the mistake. They shucked her down here without hesitation. She was nothing to them. You're less than nothing. They'll promise you everything you want.”
”But this'll be my ticket Upstairs! A job! An ID! A home! A wife! Kids!”
”Don't do it,” the Chief warned, looking alarmed for the first time. ”If you do, you're marked. You don't know how to live up there.”
”I've seen it all on vids,” Hap protested. He didn't understand why the Chief was trying to hold him back. ”They'll show me what to do.”
”No, they won't. You'll be on your own. Anything you get at gunpoint, like this, they'll resent forever. You'll make mistakes, plenty of them. They'll be waiting. First infraction, even a tiny one-zing! All your benefits, gone. Second infraction-bang! Jail. Third-you're back down here.”
”At least I'll have had a chance to try,” Hap said.
”I've had it, and it's not as great as you think. Settle for your dreams as dreams, kid, and you'll never be disappointed. I'm free down here. I'm king, because I only have what I can hold. Can you control anything? Are you ready?”