Silence is Deadly by Lloyd Biggle Jr

Author:Lloyd Biggle Jr. [Biggle Jr., Lloyd]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: spy, space opera, espionage, Jan Darzek, galactic empire
Publisher: Ingram Distribution
Published: 2012-10-25T02:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

With the castle blocked off to him, Darzek fell back on his pastime of studying Kammian psychology. He had been attempting to comprehend the alien mentalities that surrounded him; suddenly, to his vast amusement, he discovered that these aliens were the same vendors and customers he had met on so many worlds.

The newly arrived vendors moved slowly up and down the rows of tents and carts, craftily weighing the virtues and liabilities of each vacant space. Those with foodstuffs to sell preferred positions near the entrance. Kammians who followed the old religion would see the looming Winged Beast as they entered the mart and buy something for a sacrifice; and many customers preferred to buy foodstuffs on their way out of the mart, so that their hands and arms would be unencumbered when they haggled over more expensive purchases. Vendors of dyes liked to set up near weavers, who sold quantities of undyed cloth. Perfumers liked a position where there were as few nabrula as possible, so that their scents could be enjoyed by prospective customers without olfactory distractions. All vendors preferred to crowd in with their competition rather than to set up by themselves in a remote part of the mart. A customer seeing display after display of similar merchandise might be moved eventually to stop and buy, and all the vendors benefited. A solitary display did not provide such motivation.

Having watched for several days this sly maneuvering for desirable sites, Darzek was intrigued to see one newly arrived cart make immediately for the most remote corner of the mart. The elderly driver got out agilely, unharnessed the single nabrulk, and led it to the back of the cart, where he tied it to a feed trough. A pull of a rope folded down a canvas-covered framework at the side of the cart, and a sizable tent had been erected almost instantaneously. While Darzek watched in amazement, the owner deftly pegged it down. A jerk of another rope unrolled a small banner. A moment later, having moved in a few furnishings, the owner was seated in the tent entrance, ready for business.

Darzek drifted closer, wondering whether the mechanical ingenuity that had produced the unfolding tent could also have fashioned other contrivances. An electrical generator, for example.

Then he saw something even more startling. While this new vendor was still moving into his tent, a passer-by noticed his banner, turned into the mart, and hurried toward him. Shoppers already in the mart were streaming in that direction. The vendor had scarcely seated himself before he had a waiting line.

Darzek moved close enough to scrutinize the banner.

It contained only a large line drawing of a face, and the face seemed to be a fair likeness of the old man who sat in the tent opening. There was no hint of who he was or what he did.

Darzek asked one of the waiting customers. Bovranulz, was the answer. It meant, “Old Blind One.”

He was a clairvoyant, a fortuneteller, a keeper of secrets;

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