Myth-Fortunes

Chapter 18

"Where is he?" Bendix spun in a circle and ended up facing me. He jabbed a rolled up document at my chest. "Where's Aahz?"

"Can't I help you?" I asked.

"I doubt it!" the Pervish lawyer snarled. Veins stood out in his yellow eyes. I knew that meant he was furious. "Where is that son of a used-car salesman! The infomercial demonstrator! Snake oil!"

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"You were in on that, too," Bendix said, as if he had suddenly recognized me. He grabbed me by the throat. I squeaked as he picked me up and shook me. I got my wits back and used magik to put a step under my feet and pry his claws apart.

"On what?" I asked. "Aahz sold you a pyramid stone. Nothing else. What's wrong?"

"You idiots put a curse on me! Now it's going around my entire law firm!"

"What?" I asked. "There aren't any curses here. I admit that we've had some bad luck, but..."

Bendix cut me off with a gesture. "No! I checked. You don't get to my position in life without being able to tell one kind of magik from another. We have curse-checkers in our mailroom. You wouldn't believe what kind of things people send us, especially clients whose cases are unsuccessful."

Though he was shorter than I was, he strode ahead of me into the And Company offices. The reception desk lay empty. A few Ghord clerks looked at us in alarm. I held up my hands to show I was handling the situation. They looked relieved, though a couple took refuge behind their desks. Bendix marched down to the office Aahz and I shared. It was empty. The tray still lay there on our table. All the plates and bowls were empty. Bendix looked around.

"Where is Aahz? Is he hiding?"

"No, sir, of course not," I said. "Maybe he just went out for some falafel. The food's really good here." Bendix eyed me. "Does it move?" "Er . . . Not usually, no."

"Then it's trash! Like that lying grafter of a salesman! 'Enjoy the view of a lifetime,' he said. 'Be the first on your block,' he said. I never thought I would fall for a carnival barker's sales pitch again, but he convinced me. And now, look where it got me? My partners would be laughing if they weren't so mad. Aahz! Where are you?" Bendix bellowed. He started throwing open doors in the long corridor.

Slam! Slam! Slam!

All the rooms he tried were empty. Until we came to the supply cupboard.

Bendix jerked open the door and started to walk away automatically—until he realized it was occupied.

Aahz and Miss Tauret were there, caught in a passionate clinch. Aahz's shirt was half off, and the receptionist's usually smooth robes were askew. Piles of wax tablets and boxes of styluses were scattered around their feet.

"Oh," I said.

Aahz looked at both of us, and his brows went down in annoyance. "Do you mind? The lady is modest!"

Bendix jumped back. Aahz reached out and pulled the door shut with a bang. We heard voices, Aahz wheedling and Miss Tauret slightly hysterical. When he opened it again, he slipped out into the corridor, buttoning his shirt.

"Just, uh, taking inventory," he said. "Hey, Bendix, how's it hanging?"

Bendix gave him a disgusted look. "I can tell how yours is. You complete moron, you stuck me with a communicable curse!" He shook the contract at Aahz.

Aahz held out his palms. "No way! I would never put a curse on you, Bendix. You're an old friend. I admire you. You got in on the ground floor of a terrific deal, and I even gave you a discount! That ought to tell you I'm serious about this project." He tried to lead the angry Pervect toward our office.

Bendix shook off his hand. "Tell that to my partners. The Formican flu is going around the office like a nasty rumor, and we lost a client that we have had for years because the one clerk we have been keeping from ever talking to him was the only person around when he stopped by unexpectedly at lunchtime. We had a party where the wrong gender Pervect stripper jumped out of a cake for our oldest partner, who's retiring. The bakery claimed that's what was on our order. In front of six hundred guests!"

"Coincidences," Aahz said, blandly. "Why do you think it's a curse?

"It is a curse," Bendix insisted. "It's spread by contaminated pieces of paper. I brought my detector with me. Look at this!" He took a small box out of his pocket and held it up to the contract. The little dial on the box turned bright red.

"It had to be in your office," Aahz said.

"I've got dispellers who come in every Friday afternoon and go over the whole suite," Bendix said. "It had to be something here."

"Check if you want," Aahz said. "I've got nothing to hide from you."

Bendix held the box in front of him and started going over the office building, room by room. The dial stayed within the green-to-yellow range. We went over most of the drawing rooms, set aside for other architects if Samwise had employed any. Nothing. Nothing registered in the front room, as the nervous Ghord clerks watched Bendix stalk around like a detective looking for clues.

"Aha!" Bendix exclaimed. He showed us the detector. It showed orange when he pointed it toward Samwise's chamber. We followed him.

Samwise wasn't there at the moment, but the plans were unrolled on one of the big, broad tables. Bendix headed toward them. I could see over his shoulder that the little square had gone to brilliant red.

"There!" Bendix said, half-triumphant, half-furious. "I told you so! The plans themselves are contaminated!"

"You're kidding." Aahz whistled. "The only thing we didn't check. Didn't even look at the plans."

Bendix was astonished. "You didn't spell-check it? What happened to you? You never used to act like an amateur."

"It was an honest mistake, Bendix."

"Honest, my foot. I want out. And all my partners do, too.

"You can't do that!" Aahz bellowed, confronting him. "We have a contract." "Bah! Try and stop me."

"You bet I will. There's nothing in this contract that says curses invalidate the clauses."

Bendix smiled, a mean expression on his face. "You really want to take me on, Aahz? Me? Just back off and give me my deposit back."

"A refund! Never!"

Two Pervects arguing about money was as ugly as it ever got. Bendix reasoned, albeit at the top of his lungs, that he had thought to invest in a unique piece of real estate, but he couldn't take the liability of an extraneous curse that had the potential to embarrass him and, by extension, anyone else he chose to involve in the project. Aahz argued that the real estate was still there, would still be there, that Bendix had signed the contract, and that the clauses still held, and that curses were temporary.

"Do you know how to remove it?" Bendix asked. "Well, do you?"

Aahz fell silent. "No. Not yet."

"Fine. Until you work out your internal problems, I want out of this project. I hope none of my partners offered a deal to any of their clients on your behalf. I'll get back to you on that. In the meantime, I'll take a check right now, for me and my partners. In full."

Aahz was humiliated beyond belief. I waited as he escorted Bendix out into the anteroom. Miss Tauret, looking everywhere except at us, made out a voucher.

"This is good through the Bank of Zoorik," she explained to Bendix. She caught my eye by accident, and her cheeks actually reddened. I gave her a sympathetic smile. Bendix snatched it up and stalked out. Miss Tauret glanced up at Aahz for support, but he was too devastated to offer anyone else an emotional lifesaver. He stalked back to our office and slammed the door.

I followed him and opened it softly.

"Can I do anything to help?" I asked.

"No! I've lost everything!" He kicked the waste-papyrus basket across the room. It bounced off the wall and fell over.

"Not everything. You still have your health. My mother always said, if you have your health ..." I let the thought trail off. Aahz wasn't listening, and in light of my concerns, it was a bad idea to bring it up. He was so mad, he might rupture something. "You still have your friends," I finished encouragingly. That much I knew to be true.

Aahz looked up at me and snarled, "Where's Samwise?"

"I left him on top of Phase One."

Aahz stormed out of the office and up the ramps. I followed him. Samwise hurried to meet us.

"Aahz! My friend! Come and see how well we're getting on!

"Forget that!" Aahz growled. "Diksen's plans were cursed, and you didn't figure that he had anything to protect him from light-fingered employees? Like you?"

"No, Aahz, he wasn't happy with it!"

"Did he really throw it out?"

"Of course he did! I mean, it was under the table, all crumpled up. I'd call that a discard. Wouldn't you?"

He was getting no concessions from Aahz. I interrupted.

"What was he designing?" I asked. "Why not use the same plans to build another pyramid? He must have had something new in mind. What was it?"

"I don't know! I told you, he didn't talk to me. He sort of mumbles, to tell the truth."

"Well, he's going to talk to us," Aahz said grimly. "If there's a curse going around, he's going to catch a piece of it."