The Ganymede Club by Charles Sheffield

Author:Charles Sheffield [Sheffield, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Fantasy fiction, Fiction
ISBN: 9780812544602
Google: HDGKPQAACAAJ
Amazon: 0812544609
Publisher: Baen Books
Published: 1995-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

14

It was all very well for Bat to propose that Spook dash off for a quick look at the off-line Hidalgo data base tucked away on Callisto, and while he was at it check on Bryce Sonnenberg's background. Spook loved the idea of going. But Bat, in a way that Spook was beginning to find typical, ignored or brushed off the practical problems.

"I see no problems." Bat, a gigantic ebony Buddha on his Bat Cave chair, was at his most snooty and infuriating.

Spook paced the length of the Bat Cave, aware how much Bat disliked him moving around all the time. "That's because you're not looking for them. Try these two. First, I need a ticket to get to Callisto. And one to bring me back, I guess, unless I decide to stay there forever."

"Trivially easy, and not worthy of the name of 'problem.' Have I not assured you that I am more knowledgeable concerning outer system transportation than any other person, living or dead? You will have the tickets that you need, to leave and to return, whenever you decide to go."

"Legal tickets?"

"Legal beyond dispute. Not only do I have favors owed to me by all the major transporters, I also have accumulated travel credits sufficient for a hundred such trips."

"You've not been using them yourself?" But Spook said it only to annoy, and went on at once, "I mentioned the tickets first, but that's not the worst problem. It's Lola. What am I supposed to tell Lola?"

"What can you tell her, that will persuade her to allow you to make the trip?"

"It doesn't matter what I say. I'm grounded for the next two weeks, because she says I've been into her haldane data base."

"A vile calumny, I am sure."

"Well . . . sort of. Actually, I have been in there. Just a little. Not as much as she says, though. But that's not the point. The point is, she'll say no, regardless. She won't let me go."

"Then the matter becomes very simple." Bat gave a magisterial sniff. "You are permitting personal emotions to impede your mental processes. Were this part of a problem on the Puzzle Network, you would have reached the solution instantly. There is a solution, and from what you have told me it is the only clean and logical answer. No matter what you tell your sister, you say, she will not permit you to go to Callisto. Therefore . . ."

"Therefore, I go and don't tell her? Bat, she'll skin me."

"Possibly. But only upon your return. Do you really desire to go?"

"I can't wait."

"Then we will now obtain your tickets." Bat swiveled his chair, so that he was facing his communications console. "It is something I learned long ago in dealing with my own parents, that absolution is always easier to obtain than permission." He paused, as though obliged by honesty to make his next remark but reluctant to do so. "That, of course, was before they threw me out of the house."

* * *

Spook had escaped from Earth and come to Ganymede at the impressionable age of ten.

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