Escape Velocity by Christopher Stasheff

Author:Christopher Stasheff
Language: eng
Format: epub

Half an hour later, swathed in evening clothes and padded out to the equator, they filed out of Madam Tessie's like a flock of pregnant penguins.

“Well, you can't deny they were hospitable,” Dar said through a dazed but happy smile.

“I don't particularly care for that sort of hospitality.” Sam was fuming.

Dar glanced at her, and couldn't help feeling gratified. Yesterday he would've felt downright hopeful. Today, though, he was primarily concerned with Lona, who was, unfortunately, taking it all in stride.

“They even offered me a job,” she noted.

Sam hadn't been asked. “Is that's what's bothering you?” Dar could at least make it sound as though she had.

“No,” Sam snapped. “What bothered me was that who1le scene in the tavern.”

Whitey shrugged. “A brawl is a brawl—and you can't blame the cops; squelching that kind of thing is their job.”

“Yeah, but they don't have to gang up three-on-one.” Dar frowned, remembering. “Especially since I was losing.”

“No, that isn't standard.” Whitey frowned, too. Then he shrugged. “Anyway, I had a good time.”

“I didn't,” Sam said stiffly. “I recognized the chock who led the cops in—and he wasn't in uniform.”

“Oh?” Dar looked up. “Anyone I know?”

“You might say that. He had a face like a rat.”

“A rat! What's he doing here . . . ? Oh.” Dar pursed his lips. “We never did see who was piloting our courier ship, did we?”

“We didn't,” Sam confirmed. “I wondered why he took off and left us to the pirates, remember?”

“If you don't mind my asking,” Father Marco put in, “What's this all about?”

“Our nemesis, at a guess,” Sam said slowly. “We thought we'd left him back on Wolmar, with the rest of Governor Bhelabher's staff. At least, Terra sent Bhelabher out to take over the governorship; but he, ah, wound up resigning. We got the assignment of taking his resignation back to Terra.”

“And we thought we were the only ones who left,” Dar explained. “But apparently Bhelabher had a change of heart, and sent his right-hand man along to stop us.”

“No, it wasn't Bhelabher.” Sam shook her head. “If he'd changed his mind, all his sidekick would've had to do is order us to hand back that resignation form—or even to hand in a counter-letter from Bhelabher.”

“You mean Rat-Face is doing this all on his own?”

“I wouldn't say that,” Sam said slowly. “He is a career bureaucrat in the Bureau of Otherworldly Activities, remember. Chances are he's doing what his superiors in BOA want done.”

“A man with a face like a rat, in the BOA bureaucracy?” Father Marco asked. He was frowning.

Dar nodded. “That's him. But why would he be trying to kill us?”

“Kill you?”

Sam shook her head. “There were two cops after me, but the worst thing they had was a hypodermic bulb.”

“A hypo?” Dar looked up sharply. “They were trying to put you out and take you in?”

Sam nodded. “That's the way it looked. But it doesn't make sense. There were two of them, and they were a lot bigger than I was. Why'd

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