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20Bloodhype.txt
After contemplating the portal by which the youth had departed, Mal turned and
walked over to the incredibly archaic video see. He began examining it in some
detail, wishing at the same time that he was more familiar with such
profitable trade items as luxury antiques and similar oddities. He was in the
process of trying to open the hinged back to see how much of the innards were
original when Rose entered via another of the ubiquitous paneled doorways.
"Good day, good day to you, Captain Hammurabi! I've heard tell of you in
shipping circles. They speak well of you there." The old man extended a hand.
Mal took it and immediately felt dirtier than when he'd entered the room.
Without waiting for an invitation be sat himself down on a comfortable?looking
old easy chair. It was covered in hand?stitched upholstery and was worth a few
thousand credits at the least.
"Can I order something for you, Captain? Liquid refreshment, mayhap? The
congenial companionship of a nubile young lady? Well?trained, I assure you."
"A fast shot of bloodhype, perhaps?" said Mal evenly. He'd taken the offensive
since sitting himself down and intended to maintain it until he left the
island kilometers behind. "Don't try and look startled. You knew I
had it and you knew I knew what it was, or I wouldn't be here now. No, skip
the oh?so?coy verbal byplay, too. I don't appreciate it and I've no time for
it."
Rose sighed with great care. "So few of the accepted verities remain these
days. You youngsters ignore the pleasures of a game you don't even understand.
Such hurry, such rush, such haste to make money! But as you will. How much?"
"It's not for sale."
"Oh come now, Captain!" chuckled the old merchant. "Everything is for sale!
I know. I've bought it. Your very livelihood depends on how astutely you hire
your body and the bodies of your crew out to the highest bidder. And you
profess to know what is and what is not available for sale!" The last words
dripped contempt.
"I won't shoot words with you, Rose. You've more experience at it than I, for
one thing. For another, long dialogues full of double?entendres and metaphors
bore the crap out of me. Also, you might just trick me into saying the wrong
thing at the wrong time and I'd feel bound by it. Now, this is what I want:
"I want you to halt all traffic in bloodhype. I want you to destroy any not
yet shipped. I want you to supply a list of known addicts?addicts, Rose;
not pushers, not dealers, addicts?to Church authorities so that those few
cases which haven't passed the point of no return can be treated. I want you
to make a respectable effort?if you have enough control, which I
suspect you do?to shut off all production of the drug and to destroy whatever
growths or synthetics that furnish the raw stuff for the refined product."
"That's interesting," Rose said, helping himself to a transparent chocolate
from a silver dish nearby. "One thing for you, Captain. Your threats are
specific. I like that."
"Shipwaste!" Hammurabi said in disgust. "I said I wouldn't bandy words." He
slammed a fist the size of a small ham onto an ancient coffee table. The
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20Bloodhype.txt old wood groaned alarmingly.
Rose swallowed the last of the chocolate, licked two fingers daintily.
"Pardon, Captain, but somehow you did not impress me as the altruistic type."
"Any maws nature contains a certain number of variables, Rose. On rare
occasions it behooves some of us to do a decent thing."
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"Never suffered the urge," replied the dragger.
"Some variables are all at the same end of the psychological spectrum. In
return for cutting off future profits, which are always speculative anyway,"
Mal continued, "I'll return all the other drugs to you. You can have back your
aelo, mak, heroin?B, and all the rest. I'll mention nothing of any of this to
the authorities and post a personal bondship to an independent broker to
guarantee it. Only one other being on the Umbra knows what your little case of
spice contains, and she won't talk without my say?so. Records of the initial
chemical analysis of the contents of the spice jars will be wiped by my own
hand from the ship's memory core."
"How good you are! And if I do not care for your terms?"
"Then I go straight to the padre in Repler City with the drugs and every scrap
of knowledge I can gather concerning their origin, destination, and method of
shipping. Not to mention a' certain old man whose business it is to speed such
filth on its merry way."
Rose sat quietly, smiling, thinking. The thoughts and quiet Mal could
understand. The smile could be forced, or it could be genuine. A genuine smile
would mean unforeseen and unplanned?for factors?to wit, an aces equivalent in
the deck, Wait and see.
Rose appeared to be fascinated by the fingers of his left hand. He turned his
attention to the right, as though to assure himself that it did, indeed, match
its mate.
"Now I'll introduce a little something extra into the universe, Captain.
Since you insist on playing the role of the gallant, honest, good?Samaritan
type ?ergo, civilized..."
"Words again? Hammurabi said irritably.
"... I believe I shall try you on damsels?in?distress. It should prove
instructive. When I entered you were absorbed in an inspection of that lovely
20th?century video set?a genuine Victor, I might add. Like myself, the insides
had long since reached an advanced state of decomposition. They have been
replaced with especially adapted modern equivalents. Watch it.
You'll see something."
Rose removed 'a pencil that wasn't from a breast pocket. He fiddled with it
for a moment. A picture in full tridee appeared instantly. It displayed an
exquisitely attractive young girl strapped naked to a low wooden table. Off to
one side an alien being struggled futilely in a cocoon of surfoam. Mars trader
encyclopedia identified it as a native of the planetary system
Tolus. A fairly handsome young man, nude to the waist, held some
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