Balshazzar's Serpent by Jack L. Chalker

Author:Jack L. Chalker [Chalker, Jack L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Action & Adventure, General
ISBN: 9780671319991
Amazon: 0671578804
Goodreads: 584390
Publisher: Baen
Published: 1999-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

VIII:

IS THE DEVIL

A GENTLEMAN?

The note was in a scraggly hand, clearly the work of someone who wrote down very few things and those mostly for his own use.

"Dear Doctor Woodward," it began, misspelling his name and getting him irritated right from the start by so doing. "I am Captain Morgudan Sapenza, once of the proud ship Amandal, now, as you know, half sunk in the great lake, but still master of her crew and systems. I am sorry to have had to do this, but after all this time we have become desperate and feel we have nothing to lose. This is a backward planet, but we have some comforts of civilization below and we have many modern tools of our trade. We must talk, but your own ships and company can easily do me great harm and then where am I? So, you will have to come to where the messenger here will lead you. It is not far and you have my word that no harm will come to you nor will you be touched. You may bring a fully armed bodyguard to insure this. I will wait for you with a way for us to speak. If you do not come, I will leave at least one of our guests from your company there by two hours before sundown today, or rather I will leave the body and you shall see how this person died. The next time it will be two. Then four an hour after that. And so on. I am sorry, but it is the only way I know of to insist that you come. Until then, I remain, very sincerely, Captain Morgudan Sapenza.

"P.S. Nice move, but I have no kids."

Woodward shook with rage, and he looked ready to kill the small villager who'd brought the note. Cromwell carefully retrieved the message and handed it to a technician. "Any clues and analysis, Sister—and move on it!"

The aide took the sheet with gloved hand and dashed off to the lab.

"And where are we supposed to meet this—this creature?" Karl Woodward thundered at the messenger.

"Please, sir! I'm just a villager. Not one of them! I even dunno what the thing says. I never learned to read, which is why he took me, I guess. If we don't do what they tell us, our families—gone! You got to understand!"

Woodward seemed to soften for a second, but only for that brief flash. He had only the word of this little man that the messenger wasn't really a certain captain himself, or the chief torturer. The Father of Lies was the greatest actor in all creation.

"I didn't ask you to throw yourself on your knife," the Doctor reminded him. "I asked where this meeting was to be held."

"Just over that knob, in the crindin pasture," the little man told him. "The exact spot I'd have to show you."

"Near one of their tunnel entrances, I assume?"

"Oh, yes, sir. There's about a dozen around here, and one inside the village barn. They don't use this one much, though.

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