Freedom's Ransom

Chapter Ten

The next morning started very well indeed, with an impatient clutch of people waiting for them to start serving the coffee. There were even some wanting to trade, and Zainal managed to ob-tain a carton of Nokia cell phones, a real prize.

"And most of them will do anything to secure a supply of the drink," Zainal replied, pointing to the ever-increasing diversity of cartons that were piling up as fruits of his labors to trade coffee for spare parts. "Gold and dentistry are doing well enough but take time." He waved to Eric's stall and the rat-tat-tat of his hammer on the gold he was pounding into the proper thickness for the crowns that had al-ready been ordered: half payment on signing the contract and half on completion.

"Ah, another customer," Zainal said as a tall uniformed Catteni walked up to Eric's office, looking about for whoever manned it. He gestured to Clune to tell Eric that he had an interested party. There was a brief silence from the hammer, then Eric emerged and evi-dently Clime took over the flattening, though his blows weren't spaced as evenly as Eric's were and the rhythm of the rat-tat-tat was uneven.

"May I be of service?" Eric asked with the deference of a profes-sional to any uniform.

"I have heard of your services and wish to avail myself of them." As the man spoke, Zainal could see the empty spaces in his teeth-the four central ones. That seemed to characterize the usual applicant for Eric's skills. Three out of four, or so Eric had once re-marked, adding, "Don't your people ever duck?"

"Now, sir, what may I do for you?" "I am Emassi Ladade."

"I am Emassi Doctor Sachs," Eric responded, courteously proud. "If you would step this way where I may conduct a quick private ex-amination." Eric ushered him into his "office." Much better for po-tential patients.

Ferris was proving extremely useful in sussing out genuine leads and had already saved Zainal from spending time with sellers who had nothing he wanted and were only there for the free coffee. But Zainal recalled an earlier conversation he'd had with Kris.

"We must watch him, Zainal," she had said, her anxiety getting the better of common sense.

"Why?"

"He's a magpie. A klepto," she said, trying to burrow into his shoulder.

"A what?"

"A magpie is a Terran bird who will grab anything that sparkles and take it off to its nest to play with."

"And the other word? Klepto?"

Zainal had excellent aural memory so she wasn't surprised that he queried an unfamiliar word. "That is a human who keeps taking things that do not belong to him or her, for a variety of reasons: sometimes it's merely envy of someone else possessing a pretty or valuable thing; other times it's just a psychological compulsion, the acquisition of the object as a one-sided game, played against the le-gitimate owners of the item. Or a denial of other people's rights to possession. It is considered a minor crime but a genuine obsession. The kleptomaniac often steals for the fun, not the need of the object stolen. Ferris is the second type, stealing for the fun of it and to win pleasure by giving it to someone."

"And he does not understand that stealing is wrong?"

"He understands that, but doesn't stop doing it. He became very deft, and I fear he was encouraged by his circumstances during the in-vasion to acquire things without paying the legitimate owners."

"The Catteni?" Zainal asked with remarkable charity.

"Not just the Catteni. He really is a Human sort of magpie, thiev-ing because he likes the look of something or to outwit the owner."

"And you worry that he might start using his craft here?"

"I don't think Commander Kapash would turn a blind eye if Fer-ris were caught in the act."

"Is he often caught?"

"Now, only by those who know he has acquired without pay-ment. Ferris has a grave character flaw. He really cannot understand buying and selling when he likes something or knows it's needed."

"Knowing it's needed might cause us more harm than good. I am glad you advised me about Ferris."

Even with that earlier conversation in mind, Zainal couldn't help thinking that the boy had been extremely useful on this mission. Fer-ris had supplied the numbers and names of store shed holders with whom Zainal could most profitably invest time and effort. However, Zainal dealt from a stronger position if the sellers came to him first. If he made known too publicly what he wanted, prices would be driven up. To date, Barevi merchants had found buyers thin on the ground so many had scrutinized him.

He had dealt as shrewdly as he could with those who had approached him, with beans and more carefully with what materials they had brought with them.