Part 32 (2/2)

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137.

rubber-legged on a surface that did not sway beneath them.

They were met by four locals. Three men and a woman, all middle-aged or older. One of the men, a short, portly Polynesian type, stepped forward to shake hands with each of them in turn. He was bald on top, had a fringe of white hair that ran around his head like a three-quarter halo. All his features were round and soft, like those of a cartoon figure.

”Ja-wen Pua'ahorofenua,” he announced. Cora de- cided that ”Ja” would do. ”I'm the current mayor of Vai'oire. We received a General Alert report from Mou'anui yesterday. Said that you folks had deter- mined that human pirates-I had to look the term up -or other Commonwealth intelligences were responsi- ble for the crisis we've been living with these past few months. That's hard for us to accept.”

”Hard but not impossible, Ja-wen,” the woman be- hind him said. Cora had noticed her first. She was so enormous that beside her Sam looked skinny. Yet as with Sam, the immense volume of flesh looked firm, and the rolls were minimal. ”But then all of these at- tacks are hard to accept.”

”I know that, H'ua,” the mayor said. ”I just can't imagine how any kind of human a.s.sault could get through screens and prewam systems, not without leaving at least a hint of how it had happened.”

”Four towns lost and n.o.body knows anything,” one of the other men grumbled sourly. He wore an object around his neck which looked like a single tooth. It was at least sixteen centimeters across at the base, and the point hung halfway to the man's navel. Cora won- dered what creature it might have been wrenched from and thought of what might still lie un.o.bserved in Cachalot's deeps.

Beads and sh.e.l.ls formed the rest of the necklace, alternating with light-emitting units. She wondered if

138.

CACHALOT.

it was some kind of personal ornament or perhaps a

local badge of office.

”At this point,” the last speaker concluded, ”I'd be- lieve anything.”

”That's the truth,” the fourth member of the greet- ing party said. ”My five-year enlistment is up in a couple of months. We're thinking of taking our sav- ings, Suzette and I, packing up the kids, and maybe moving to New Riviera or even someplace like Horseye, where the dangers are known.”

The mayor turned incredulously to his companion.

”You, Yermenov? You're lived on Cachalot all your

life.”

”I know, and I want to live the rest of it. I'd rather risk thirty years somewhere else than end up a miss- ing statistic here.”

”Well, I wouldn't worry about Vai'oire.” Ja-wen turned confidently back to his visitors. ”You can un- derstand our concern. We're all worried, but now that we have some idea what to look out for, I'm sure we can handle it. Vai'oire's a big, well-financed town. Our defensive equipment is the latest available to private buyers. If you people are certain of your-”

”We're as certain as we can be at this point,” Cora told him, ”that people are responsible and that there's not some unknown ent.i.ty lurking about that's swallow- ing towns whole.”

”We knew that from the start, Ja-wen.” The huge woman spoke in a voice that bordered on the girlish.

”Too many pieces left floating about.”

”Yes.” Ja-wen leaned close to Cora, spoke conspir- atorially. ”I'm sure you've heard that part of our trou- ble is preventing this information from starting rumors we can't control. If something isn't done soon, some shuttle pilot's going to hear about our problem and word will get off-planet. Then it'll get on a liner going ;

out-system, and before you know it, well-look at ( Yermenov. A lifelong resident. If people like him

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