Freedom's Ransom

Chapter Twenty

Just as Zainal was hovering over Kierse's storage space, he saw the blue flash that meant Herb had effected a short in the power system. Such shorts happened so frequently that the guards would not be sus-picious. Zainal had had a chance to note that there were sentries near Kierse's shed, so he dismounted the lift and went to the dark alley be-tween Kierse's and his neighbor's units. Wrapping the lead line of the lift around his wrist, he carefully eased himself off to the now unse-cured entrance. He was in, lift and all, in moments. With a tiny hand light, he found the materials he wanted from Kierse, in revenge for bearing false witness against Kathy and Kris. He peeked out before he ventured into the side lane and then, lying uncomfortably on his purloined goods, eased the lift up and began his way back to the BASS-1, sticking to shadows whenever possible-which meant he cruised just above the roofs of the sheds.

He heard the noise of the distraction Erbri had promised, though he hadn't a clue what it was. But, as he entered the docking area, there was no one running up and down the corridors, and keeping to the shadows cast by ground lights, he made it back to the BASS-1 and into the open cargo hold without detection. It took only moments for him to find the nets he had assigned for the goods he would re-trieve and tip the lift to send its burden slipping into the shrouds. Then he put the lift into its storage brackets. A sudden shadow caused him a moment's panic but when he saw slender legs dangling over the side of a lift, he realized it had to be one of the boys. The lift was very heavy and sank slowly. He made his way over and opened the netting so that the contents could be slid into place.

"We could go back for another dip," Ditsy said, clearly elated with success. "We fixed the security lock so it won't come back on again." "We must not be too greedy ourselves," Zainal said, but he thought of what use the tires would be at their destination and how the rubber was slowly perishing in its current site. "Let's make sure everyone else is in safe and sound," he added as the black prow of an-other lift appeared in the cargo entrance.

He did send Ditsy, Clune, and Ninety back for another load of tires and batteries but after that he called a halt to the operation. Brone returned to the ship to report that he and Tavis had settled Eric and his equipment safely in the compound and would see them in the morning. Brone gave the appearance of not noticing the cargo bay's new contents.

Zainal would have preferred lifting as soon as possible now but he had good reasons for wanting possible clients to know that he was leaving. Even appearing at his former site the morning after mass pil ferage might deflect blame from him. Gail's signs had already been put up at the stall, announcing its closure. Those who had enjoyed early coffee were milling around, as if hoping to continue their coffee habit against all visible evidence to the contrary. It was also a relief to know that so far the previous night's burglaries had not yet been discovered. Kapash would know soon enough but he would not immediately sus-pect Zainal. He was surprised to see Kierse among those viewing the emptied premises.

"Where are you going? How will I sell what I have left of that un-salable stuff from Terra?"

"I will tell you when I know," Zainal answered and started to pass Kierse. The man grabbed his tunic. Ninety Doyle took a step forward but Zainal stopped him with a swift glance.

"But I have to sell it," Kierse said. "You've been my first buyer in months."

"I was willing to buy but you wanted more than I had to pay." "I have to return a profit to my investors, you know"

"That is your problem, not mine." Zainal chopped at the restrain-ing hand and Kierse did not persist, though his expression remained defeated. There were any number of inflammatory remarks Zainal could have made about greed and the irrationality of stealing things without knowing of available marketplaces-though Zainal now had a novel idea about that little problem.

"And what about more coffee?" Kierse asked plaintively.

"You have enough beans to last awhile," Zainal said with no sympathy.

"And then?"

"Kapash has the rest of my beans," he suggested helpfully, and waved farewell to the man, standing in the middle of the aisle in front of their stall, looking bereft, as he hurried off on his next vital errand of the day before someone else detained him.

When Zainal got to the market manager's office to pay Eric's rental on a better stall situation in the first square of the market, Ka-pash's haughty assistant announced that Manager Kapash was too busy to see to any minor details, but he was quite willing to write out the lease for the space Zainal wanted and give a receipt for it and Eric's "office." Zainal was relieved not to see Kapash again but he would have liked to have been an insect on the wall when Kapash discovered that he would be responsible for reimbursing the merchants (perhaps with the coffee beans he now owned) for their losses from the bur-glaries of their supposedly safe lockups. Since Eric had so many promi-nent clients, including Ladade, who had no use for Kapash, he felt the aggressive dentist would have no trouble, and probably take pleasure in, contending with Kapash if the man was stupid enough to contest a lease signed by his own assistant. Eric was smart enough to make use of Ladade's patronage if needed. Ferris wanted to stay, and Zainal was half-tempted to let him, except that Ferris's light-fingered ways might also make things awkward for Eric.

Bazil and Peran had learned valuable lessons here, but not the ones young Catteni-especially Emassis-should acquire. Brone now had them well in hand and actually liking their lessons. Perhaps, Zainal thought, this venture had primed the pump for a return even if this first visit had not been such an overwhelming success in itself. Al-though, in some respects, they had achieved more than they had had any right to expect: he had the all-important information that would be of benefit to Botany and his goals. There were other options now for how to proceed.

And he had another idea that might solve all their problems soon, if not immediately. He wished he could think of a reason to go for-ward with the plan right now to give the Botany group the resources to buy up everything they had come for, but acting too quickly might cause more problems than it solved. As wise to give the diffident merchants a little time to regret missing the chance to empty their ware-houses of useless products. Do them no harm.

Besides which, he thought with humor, they had to leave soon or the bananas would be overripe. Kris had her heart set on producing them at Botany. She had been much relieved to know that, although Kapash's men had taken all the remaining bean sacks in the hold, they had overlooked the beans in the roaster. Kris was glad for anything that diminished the benefit to Kapash of her trumped-up "ransom." There would be some beans for Botany as well as bananas.

"We shall get coffee plants the next time we're on Earth," Zainal told her, to cheer her up. "I think I remember that someone on one of the plantations told me that the plants would travel well and could adapt to new environments as long as the temperature and the rain were correct,"

"We are going back to Earth, are we?"

"I've got data for folks to figure out which slave ship went where, and who among the missing might still be located wherever they were sold," he assured her.

She gave a little shudder at how close she had come to being another name on those lists. "And we've loads of merchandise to ease the current shortages."

"And we did get the most updated register from Vitali, along with the air charts," Zainal said, nodding toward the worktop where he kept such things. Then he leaned back in his chair, locking his fingers behind his head.

"Why are you grinning, Zainal?" Kris asked, suspicious of such good humor.

"I think I have justified a short detour I want to make on our de-parture."

"Detour?" Kris repeated, mystified.

His grin widened. "As Chuck said, the best place to hide some-thing is right out in the open."

"What?"

"I won't say because I could be wrong.. "

"Who are you trying to impress now?"

"I want to show Botany more results than we've had."

"I don't think we've done that badly," Kris said encouragingly. "Sally said we got the most profit on the coffee beans-"

"Since they cost us nothing-"

"Apart from two lift platforms: and we do have a range of comm sat parts, the tires, the batteries and spark plugs-though they're for Earth, aren't they?"

Zainal nodded.

"So you intend to go back to Earth, just for coffee beans and the plants?"

"And possibly to find someone with enough experience to mar-age a Botany coffee plantation and bean warehouse."

"And the roasting," Kris said firmly. "I don't think I quite got the hang of it."

"But Floss saved the beans for us."

She flushed but managed a tentative smile for him. "Yes, but it isn't something I planned to do. I still have a score to settle with that smirking Kapash."

"Oh, last night was a good way to settle that score, dear heart," he said, pushing himself up out of the chair. On his way out of their "of-fice," he gave her a warm kiss. "I wonder if Brone ever had to visit the junkyard."

She stared after him. hey received permission to clear Barevi port the next morning, with Kathy, a willing but slightly nervous pilot, handling the dis-engagement of the docking clamps, easing the KDM into the traffic heading out for the space station. When they had passed the space station with an "all clear" to proceed, Zainal motioned Kathy out of her seat.

"But I did it right, didn't I?"

"Yes, indeed you did, Captain, but we're making a short detour," Zainal said and altered the settings so that the BASS-1 veered toward the jumble of waste material in the junkyard. Almost immediately a comm unit buzzed and Zainal answered it.

"You have changed course, BASS-1. Is there a problem?"

"No, I cleared this with your operations yesterday, Captain. We need to see if the junkyard has any spare KDM water tanks. We need one."

There was an obviously hasty conference at the space station. "All clear, BASS-One." Zainal didn't recognize the voice. "You may proceed. Good luck."

"I hope that wasn't Ladade," Kris muttered, more to herself than to anyone else.

"No, it was not," Zainal said. "Only the duty officer knew that my flight plan included the side trip."

"I didn't know we needed a spare tank," Kathy said.

"I want to see what else is there, in case we do need it, Kathy," Zainal said, slowing the forward motion of the BASS-1 as they ap-proached the jumbled elements of the junkyard.

"How are you going to find one in all that?" Kathy asked.

"Oh, one of us may spot what we're looking for. See if you can find anything that looks out of place in its company."

"Say again?" Kathy asked, confused.

"Brone, come to the control room, on the double," Zainal said on the interior com.

"Yes, Emassi," was the immediate response. Brone came with Peran and Bazil, who wedged their boyish bodies into the jump seat next to Kris and strapped in, as they were now in free fall. Kathy had vacated the second officer's position for Brone at Zainal's request but she hung on to the safety rail, not wishing to miss whatever was go-ing to happen.

The loosely spinning objects, some of them sides of battered hulls, twisted structural members, some of them fused together, con-tinued on their intrinsic orbit far from Barevi. Zainal matched veloc ity and, deftly using his thrusters, inserted himself into the moving mass, adjusting his speed as he edged farther into the swarm. "Watch the passing parade, crew, and point out anything that looks like it shouldn't be here."

Peran gave a snort. "How would we know what shouldn't be here?" he asked.

"You mean, like that large loaf of bread?" Kathy asked, pointing to a tumbling object whose matte-black angles reflected a gleam from one of the perimeter warning lights.

"Which one?" Zainal asked.

"Oh, I'd put it at eleven o'clock," Kathy replied, pointing.

"The scan says the contents are metallic," Brone said, reading the screen's assessment.

"Looks like an immense loaf of bread to me," Kathy repeated. "Wrapped with heavy chain, too, so whatever is in it won't fall out." Zainal inched the KDM closer.

"There's another one just like it at four o'clock," Kris said.

"Also full of metal," Brone said, having checked it out on the screen.

"Now, why isn't the metal just emptied in with all the other stuff?" Kathy asked-because, not only were the ship's proximity warnings shrieking, but there were pings as much smaller objects bounced against the hull of the BASS-1.

"Very good point, Kathy," Zainal said with an air of satisfaction. He switched on the intercom. "Chuck, stand by the airlock. We're going to try to collect some space garbage. Can you defuse the charge as we did with the comm sat?"

"Sure, Zainal," Chuck said. "In a few. I've been checking man-ifests."

They were closing in on the loaf when he announced his presence at the airlock, with a handy chain to take the static charge away from the BASS-1.

"Open airlock and be prepared to lose gravity," Zainal said and deftly hit the altitude thrusters so the broad side of the ship was pre-sented to the intended captive. Then, with a blast on the warning hooter, he flipped off the gravity. Once again, the object sparked as the defusing chain hit it and not long after found itself eased into the airlock and the hatch closed on its prize. "Stand by, Chuck. We have a possible second."

On the open link, they could hear Chuck wondering out loud why they needed garbage from an effing junkyard.

"Because they are right out in the open where anyone could see them," Zainal replied cryptically.

"Oh!" Chuck's response indicated enlightenment. As soon as the second bread loaf was in the airlock, Zainal ordered it closed, the ma-neuver over, and internal gravity was restored.

"Now, we're out of here," he said, turning the nose of the ship to starboard and easing it, by means of cautious spurts of the forward thrusters, out of the junkyard and safely into open space. "Captain Harvey, if you would resume piloting, we can proceed, full speed, to Botany."

"Aye, sir," she replied, still mystified by the diversion.

"Hey, there's another bread loaf," Peran said, pointing at three o'clock.

"Why, so there is, Peran. Good eyes on you," Zainal said cheer-fully, tousling his son's hair-something he knew Peran disliked, but it distracted the boy. "It'll be interesting to see if it's still there on our return. Meanwhile, let's go see what we snared."

Peran and Bazil were both pleased at that invitation. "Coming, Kris?" Peran asked.

"For the sake of my insatiable curiosity," Kris said. Peran and Bazil had both been much nicer to her lately, though she didn't think it had much to do with Brone's influence. The change had started just after she had so staunchly rescued Ferris from Kapash's vengeance. She would miss the boy's cheerfulness, but he'd be fine with Eric and Tavis, and she was glad Zainal had relented and let him stay behind.

"Okay, Zainal," Chuck said when those from the control room had made it to the lock. "I never thought I'd be rescuing junk from the deep six."

"Because they were there, Chuck," Zainal said. "Have we got any metal cutters for those chains?" he added as he took full note of the garlands of chain looping the objects.

Ditsy said he had some and went off to the hold where he and Natchi had stashed the tools they used to repair what they found at the Barevian junkyards. The boy didn't have quite enough strength to make the tool bite through the chains, but Brone did. The chains fell away and Zainal opened the first lid and looked in. He gave a long whistle and then pushed the chest over to scatter its contents before the wondering eyes of the onlookers.

"Jackpot!" Ditsy said, kneeling down to scoop up handfuls of the coins that spilled out, and the larger oddments that had been disclosed. "Hey, look! A crown!" He picked up the huge, jewel-encrusted affair and put it on his head. Its rim fell to his shoulders, being much too wide to sit on his narrow skull.

Kris held up another golden band, and then pulled out from the coins a long rod with a globe on one end.

"This looks like the English scepter of state," she said, trying to look queenly. "Just like the Eosi to enter the Tower of London and steal the crown jewels!"

Zainal held up a beautiful drinking bowl in gold, its jeweled rim sparkling in the hold's overhead lights.

"And that's a Cellini bowl," she said, pointing to it. "I've seen pic-tures of something like it from a museum. The Eosi obviously were in line for the best of the best. What are the coins?"

Zainal sighed. "We could have used these." He let some trickle through his fingers. "Catteni gold bunts, large coin as well as halves and quarters: probably mined from one of the Eosi's holdings or the rents they were paid as landlords. These were minted in Barevi though. See the B stamped on it." He showed it around the admiring circle.

Fascinated by the heavy coins, Bazil began to stack them in piles before casually scattering them back on the floor of the hatch. "Didn't know there could be so much coin," Bazil said, awed. "We'd've got everything we wanted for just this much. " He scooped up a double handful and then let it fall back, tinkling. He chased a piece that rolled away to the edge of the deck, catching it just before it dis-appeared into a slot by a girder. He carefully replaced it. "If we went back to Barevi, we could get just about everything else we needed."

"We probably could, Bazil, but not today, I think. I don't want to arouse suspicions," Zainal said. "Our sudden wealth would make Ka-pash as well as Ladade very suspicious."

"Won't they be suspicious because we made that detour?" "Possibly, but while they are greedy men, the KDM is faster than any of their ships and I did explain why we went there. Not unusual for a ship to search through a station's junkyard. They would also have to have been watching very carefully to see what we took."

"But I saw more loaves," Bazil said.

"And we have other duties to perform right now" "They'll keep," Kathy said.

"I'd love to put their noses further out of joint," Chuck said, set-ting his jaw as he remembered all the slights and delays they had suf-fered at the hands of the merchants. "D'you think this was a wise idea, Zainal?"

"If we went back now, it would be a stupid move. I asked for a wa-ter tank. This is about the right size and conformation to anyone who might have been watching us from the station. They've yet to discover last night's work. I certainly wouldn't want to be back on Barevi when they do. Let's organize the contents. And what's in the other one?" That chest proved to contain very carefully rolled-up paintings, some of which Kris recognized.

"The Eosi really knew what to loot," she murmured, carefully rerolling one painting.

"They would," Zainal said. "And you spotted another loaf, didn't you, Peran?"

"Yes, Father, I did."

"Well, we won't go back for it now. We know what we're looking for and Ladade and Kapash will not. We shall hope that the Eosi's de-ception lasts until our return, when we will search for any other un-likely objects in that junkyard."

"And they do look like bread loaves!" Kris said, regarding the rounded lids and the rectangular ends, with a shade of respect for such subterfuge. "Whoever would have thunk it."

Brone reappeared in the lock with writing materials and started an inventory list. Floss tried on the crown, which fit her better than it had Ditsy, although she declared that it was very heavy. "Uneasy is the head:" she said in a "quoting" tone but did not explain further. Then she spotted a diamond-and-ruby bracelet, which she fastened on her arm. Pleased with that, she started sorting through the coins for other jewelry. The boys found more and shortly had filled both her arms and found rings for all her fingers.

"Never thought I'd see this much ice! Nor so many kinds of rocks," Floss crowed, striding gawkily around the hatch, her arms held out to display her finery in the manner of a fashion mannequin. "What would you like, Kris? Diamonds, emeralds, rubies, or sap-phires? Dress-up time."

Kris was attracted by the translucent glamour of pearls and wound several long strands around her neck, imitating Floss's catwalk posture. "Way cool!" Floss said when Kris stalked about.

"We have to return the crown jewels," Kris said, almost regret-fully, as such items were not much use to them. Only beautiful! She unwound the pearls and put them carefully in Brone's lap. "C'mon, Floss, we'd better find something more appropriate to wrap those things in. I think I have some coffee bean bags left and enough labels." "Beans for the baubles, huh?" Floss said blithely, but she spent the afternoon with Jax, Gail, and Kathy playing with the jewelry as they packed and Brone inventoried it.

"Won't buy much in a bazaar on Earth though," she said once, scornfully. "Who'd trade this sort of stuff for a loaf of bread?" "Would you believe a country?" Kris said, remembering her his-tory lessons as she carefully padded the crown in a worn old rag of a towel. "At that, I think the towel is worth more on the open market. Sic transit gloria mundi." She gave the crown a final pat.

"Sick transit Gloria: Who's she?" Floss asked, curious.

"It's Latin and refers to the transitory nature of human vanities." "Hey, look at me, Gloria. I ain't sick," was Floss's giggling rejoinder. "Well, look where all this," and Kris motioned at the still large pile of jewelry awaiting packing, "ended up. As junk, orbiting hundreds of miles from civilization."

"That is, if you can call Barevi civilized," Floss said contemp-tuously.