Jinx On a Terran Inheritance by Brian Daley

Author:Brian Daley [Daley, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Fast Moves On Blackguard

Pollolo had commanded Floyt to return to the inner sanctum within an hour, so the Earther dawdled a bit, walking back through the main corridors of the Central Complex. He only dared defy the creature enough to irritate without making it worth Pollolo's bothering Baron Mason with a complaint.

Not that Mason had any right to be vexed. Floyt had been drawing information out of the various computer systems, raiding and collating, with increasing skill. Mason's game was blackmail, or at least pressure politics; Floyt was making himself as useful as possible.

As he strolled, he kept his tunic collar up straight, hiding the iron slave collar Pollolo insisted he wear. It wasn't that Floyt could keep the guards or Betters from realizing his status; his bracelet gave that away when it slid down his wrist, and so did his plain clothing, although he was still wearing the mask Mason had gotten him that first day. But now staff members in the outer rooms of the computer facility were used to his upturned collar, so that they never noticed when he entered wearing a neck shackle and left without one.

He browsed along displays in the shops of the main concourse. At one infocenter he scanned the Whereabouts. Among the images there was a face he recognized from the Grapple.

This time Janusz, the Rasputin lookalike outlaw, appeared in a forthright Wanted blurb. The blurb had been sponsored by the Langstretch Detective Agency, which in turn started Floyt fretting over Alacrity and wondering what was happening to him.

Preoccupied, he wandered past the display case of the infoemporium a few steps before registering what he'd just seen. He paused literally in midstep, one foot in the air, then backed up.

There were piles of them in a mountain range display: hardback books, info-wafers, and a half-dozen other formats. The mountain range was flanked and fronted by holopromos and subliminal pulsers, pyrotechnic flashers and computer-generated dramatizations of selected passages.

The window was just about filled with Hobart Floyt and Alacrity Fitzhugh in the Castle of the Death Addicts and Hobart Floyt and Alacrity Fitzhugh Challenge the Amazon Slave Women of the Supernova.

Oddly enough, Floyt's first coherent reaction was, Great and Holy Spirit of Terra! Didn't Sintilla even tell them what we really look like? That's not me; it's some triathalon champion with eye makeup! The Alacrity figure was an even more perfect specimen, slightly younger, and had nicer hair.

The illustrators had pulled out the chocks. Floyt, mesmerized by one of the promo loops, had to admit he didn't recall attacking a fangster with his bare hands and teeth. And if Alacrity really had participated in something called the Ecstasy Ritual of the Vortex Viragos, he'd neglected to invite Floyt along.

The ads proclaimed the books instant smash hits. As Floyt watched, the proprietor of the shop retrieved a microfiche edition from the window display for a masked Better.

Floyt gawped, wondering what Sintilla was going to do with all her money. He was speculating idly on where she might be and what she might be doing when he felt a tap at his shoulder.

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