World's End

Page 13

already talking to his back. I looked around the empty office, searching futilely for a seat or a table. The room had not miraculously produced any, and so I leaned against the wall, filling out forms in quadruplicate for an hour with a broken stylus I found on the floor in a corner. By the time I was through detailing my business, requesting permissions, swearing solvency and sanity and revealing details of my physical and mental condition that were not even a physician's business, I had begun to think that the Company was a more formidable foe than any I'd ever meet in World's End. I wiped the sweat from my eyes for the hundredth time. There were still blank spaces left unfilled on half a dozen sheets, affidavits unattached, data unconfirmed. I went back to the wall. "Moron!" I shouted.

The clerk answered me almost promptly this time. He took my papers and frowned and shook his head. "These aren't completed."

"I know that," I said, barely civil. "It's impossible. I couldn't get everything you want there if I spent a

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month back in Foursgate. ... I'd have to send to Kharemough!

I can't wait years--"

He shrugged, picking at his hangnails; the forms rustled.

I could smell him, a faint musty smell riding the cool air. "Should have come better prepared."

He looked up at me as if he expected to see something that wasn't on my face. When he didn't find it, he shuffled the papers again. "Well . . . might be a way around some of these things here .

. . might be some things we could do for you . . . might be some things we could overlook.

. . ." He looked up at me once more, expectantly.

I didn't answer, not understanding what he wanted.

Finally he said, "It'll cost you."

I stiffened. "You mean a bribe? You expect me to pay you off, is that what you mean? I want to speak to your superior, Moron."

15

JOAND. VINGE

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"Morang," he said coldly. "I'm in charge here. And I don't like your attitude. The Company doesn't have to do anything for you, you understand?

Nobody needs you here; your kind is as cheap as dirt. We let you explore Company territory out of our generosity, and if you're not willing to give and take a little, you can just take the next shuttle out of here."