The Noman Way by J. T. McIntosh

Author:J. T. McIntosh [McIntosh, J. T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4405-5945-7
Publisher: F+W Media
Published: 1964-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

AN EARLY RISER, Jeff got up at the fifth hour as usual the next morning. Janice’s only reaction to anything he said being to burrow her head deeper in the pillow, he decided to Walk round to the Grand Hotel and pick up his things.

Unable to shave because he had no razor with him, he washed and went downstairs.

In the lounge, early as it was, he found Lesley Dowling. And with her was Ofru.

“Hello, Jeffcrona,” said Ofru casually. “I thought she Was beautiful, but she’s twice what I expected. There’s just one snag. She doesn’t speak Noman and I don’t speak Terran.”

Jeff would have liked to remark that that should prove no great difficulty to a telepath, but didn’t dare.

“Tell her that I think she’s wonderful,” Ofru said. “Say the appropriate things. I don’t mind if you overdo it.”

“He thinks you’re wonderful,” Jeff told Lesley. “You eclipse the sun and stars.”

Lesley giggled, pleased.

“Did you send in your report?” Jeff said.

“Yes. The Senate want to know how long you’re staying on Nome.”

Jeff shrugged. “So long as Nome doesn’t kick us out, there will always be a UOF representative here. Me or somebody else.”

“And if the Senate kicked you out?”

“All inhabitants of UOF worlds would probably be banned from Nome. The UOF has that power. Nobody from member worlds is allowed to go as an ordinary tourist to places where the UOF isn’t officially represented.”

“And trade?”

“Would stop.”

“The Senate wouldn’t want that. We export a lot of diamonds.”

“Then the Senate had better not kick me out.”

Ofru grinned. “I only wanted to know. I’m not watching you any more, Jeffcrona. Nobody is. I’m not promising that the Senate won’t check up on you from time to time.”

His attitude made it clear that his personal interest in the UOF worlds was now confined entirely to Lesley. Satisfied with this state of affairs, Jeff nodded to them and left them.

Perhaps even if the Senate, or the Builders, discovered through Lesley that Janice was a secret UOF operative they would be indifferent to the fact. Officially only one UOF representative was allowed on the planet. But Ofru’s superiors, if they had written off the UOF probably wouldn’t consider it important that a UOF colleague of Jeff’s had arrived in Nome City as an ordinary tourist.

And in any case, if Ofru didn’t speak English and Lelsey didn’t speak Noman, there was no immediate prospect of the Builders finding out things about Janice which Lesley might have forgotten anyway.

Hurrying round to the Grand Hotel before too many children began to appear in the streets, Jeff wondered just how important his investigations on Nome were likely to turn out to be. Since the State grabbed all the possessions of people killed in the Sports, it wasn’t surprising that there was a certain amount of fiddling. It would have been far more surprising if there had been none.

Were the Builders anything more than a secret Senate committee engaged in minor skullduggery for financial gain? Did their activities amount to any

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