Reward for Retief (30 page)

            "Cause them was our
orders," Manny stated defensively.

            "Who gave the
orders?" Retief insisted.

            "Well, Boss did who do
ya think?" Manny replied as one Stating the Obvious (702-C).

            "Where'd you learn that
702?" was Retief's next question.

            "You mean the dopey
look?" Manny inquired. "Picked that up from a old wino said he was a
diplomat—but he couldn'ta been."

            "Why not?"

            "Never had no striped
pants," Manny supplied bluntly. "Name of Ebbtide. Never had no pants
at all. Said he was 'set upon* whatever that is, by brigands, whatever them
are."

            "Very well,"
Retief said soothingly. "Who are you, Manny, and how did you get
here?"

            'Tm Manny, like you
said," Manny said in a puzzled tone. "And I walked over from Vegas.
What's so funny about that?"

            "Vegas," Retief told
him, "is a town on Terra, some forty-five hundred lights from here."

            "Naw, you got the wrong
dope, pal," Manny cut in impatiently. "Vegas is just around the bend
there, five minutes maybe, if you walk slow."

            "What does this Boss of
yours look like?" Retief asked next.

            "Never seen the
guy," Manny replied promptly. "Kinda weird sort of fella: sneaks up
and whispers stuff in your ear, and ducks out before you can turn around. Guess
he's kinda shy about anybody identifying him."

            "Why do you take orders
from him?" Retief demanded.

            "I heard what happens
to guys that don't cooperate," Manny admitted glumly. "Like Roy; nice
quiet guy, too. Boss tole him to go collect stores from the hopper, and he was
on a hot roll and he says to Boss, 'Fetch 'em yer own-self,' and he never
rolled nothing but deuces all night. Fell over his own foot going out. Roy was
a guy with a like curse on him from then on. Like me and Boony will prolly be
when we don't bring you in.

            "Perish the
thought," Retief reassured Manny. "As soon as Boony awakens, I'll be
glad to accompany you back to Vegas."

            "Yeah?" Manny said
wonderingly. "Put her there, pal!" He extended a callussed hand, and
when Retief took it, he instantly attempted a hip throw which somehow went
awry, so that it was Manny who hit the wet stone floor face-first.

            "Par me, pal," he
said through bruised lips as he climbed to his feet. "Just what they call
reflex," he explained lamely. "Guess I din't do it right."

            "Your technique
could
stand a bit of polishing," Retief told him. He glanced at Boony, who
was now sitting up, groaning. "If you'll help Boony up, we can be
off," he told Manny.

            "You mean—you don't
hold no grudge?" Manny queried. "You're still game to go in wit' us,
and ack like we taken you and all?"

            "Why not?" Retief
replied easily, and watched as Manny dragged Boony to his feet, whispering urgently
to his dazed partner.

            Then he came up to Retief
and jabbed him roughly with a well-chewed forefinger. "I tole Boon you was
a right guy," he stated. "Let's move the dogs," he ordered.

            Retief caught the thick
wrist and squeezed. "Keep your pinkies to yourself, Manny," he
advised the lout. At that point Boony staggered over and commented.

            "You two boys holding
hands or what?"

            "What we're doing,
Boon," Manny answered him, "we're holding our hp—like you oughta be
doing."

            Before Boony could voice the
resentment which was revealed in his snarling expression, Retief turned slightly
to block him away from the object of his annoyance.

            "No time for personal gratification
just now," he told the frustrated chap. "You were taking me to the
boss, remember?"

            "Well, not egzackly
to
the boss," Manny hastened to clarify, as he tugged at the restraint;
and Boony set off ahead, along the passage from which the two enforcers had
first emerged. "Just where Boss said, is all," Manny completed his
explication. "You gotta leggo my arm, pal, which I can't hardly walk
backwards too good, OK?"

            Retief released the wrist,
which Manny hugged to his chest like a mother bear recovering a straying cub,
and massaged it gently.

            "It's prolly
broke," he lamented. "Look at this here bump—it usta be way over
here." He demonstrated the fancied displacement with the twin to the
finger with which he had incurred the discomfort.

            "I was careful,
Manny," Retief reassured him. "By tomorrow it will be as good as
new—just keep it close to home in the meantime."

            "You bet I will,
pal," Manny said. "I guess Manuel Lipschitz is a guy which he's a
fast learner."

            Bright lights glared ahead.
The passage made an abrupt right-hand turning and as the trio rounded it, the
sounds of a nervously excited crowd abruptly blared.

            Boony paused at the entrance
to a brilliantly lit casino; the formally attired throng, intent on their
wagers, ignored the new arrivals. Here in the light Retief saw that both his
escorts were neatly dressed in old-fashioned tuxedos. His own travel-worn, torn
and stained early late-morning informal coverall was in stark contrast.

            "See?" Manny told
Retief. "I tole you it was onny a few minutes walk and all."

           
you needn't be embarrassed,
Junior spoke up unexpectedly.
if you'll turn to the alcove on your right,
you'll find a more suitable costume.

           
Manny and Boony
turned as one to shush Retief.

            "Hold it down,"
Manny hissed. "We figger to make a like inobtrusive entry and all."

            "The costume I'm
wearing," Retief replied to Junior subvocally, "is just right for
what I have in mind."

           
i do hope you intend no violence
, Junior communicated. I
abhor mayhem, you know.

           
"Whatta ya
mean, Violence'?" Manny demanded, backing away. "I thought we had a
nice modus vivendi worked out here. Me, I'm a non-violent guy, and even old
Boon here don't never do no violence unless he really gotta. Right, Boon?"

            "Sharrup," Boony
replied curtly. "I gotta think!"

            "Geeze!" Manny
turned to Retief miming awe. "He got-ta think, pal! Just think o'
that!"

            "That does it,
dum-dum," Boony snarled and rammed a short left into Manny's ribs. "I
taken all yer crap I'm gonna take, see?" He fended off Manny, who had
folded against him. Abruptly Manny lashed out, catching Boony a smart clip to
the side of his lumpy head. Boony muttered a muffled yell and staggered
backward through the archway, jostling a plump woman in a tight scarlet gown
and clashing blue hair. As she recovered her balance, muttering, a
powerfully-built man with smooth gray hair stepped forward truculently, but the
overweight woman caught his arm and led him away, scolding as she went.

            "Nice joint, see,
pal?" Manny remarked. "Class, see? No hassle even if old Boon had a
few too many and goes knocking down the fat old dames. Come on, I guess the
cover is broke anyways. Ill innerdooce youse around." He advanced into the
deep-carpeted room, grabbing Boony by the elbow as he went past, and steering
the dazed fellow alongside. Retief lit up a hyacinth dope-stick and followed.
His attention was caught by a long board like an outsized billiard table,
marked in an intricate pattern in red, yellow and white lines, with a black
disc at the center.

            "Try your luck,
chum?" a tall croupier type said ingratiatingly.

            "Where's the zoop
tower?" Retief countered.

            "Oh, you'll find that
over the other side, outside my turf," the croupier replied with a yawn.

            "Nix, pal," Manny
objected, "you don't wanna mess with no zoop tower nor with no blim-blam
rig neither. Them boys play for keeps."

            'That's fine," Retief
reassured him. "When
I
win,
I
keep."

            "Yeah, but nobody don't
never win over Slick," Manny stated with finality. "He ain't no
dummy."

            "I assume you mean he
is
no dummy," Retief replied. "Nonetheless, I'd like to observe his
technique."

            "Technique got nothing
to do with it," Manny pointed out. "See, I never said 'ain't' that
time."

            "You're a quick study,
Manny," Retief conceded. "Have you ever tried studying?"

            "You mean like looking
at books and like that?" Manny's hoarse voice expressed Amazement at a
Totally Inappropriate Suggestion, a close approximation of the official 2731-a,
or even a 'b,' Retief estimated.

            "You seem to have a
natural flair for diplomatic subtleties," Retief complimented Manny, who
very nearly dug in a toe and blushed, but stopped short of saying 'corn
shuckins.'

            "Yes, books, and tapes,
and maps and diagrams," Retief confirmed. "You might find it
interesting to discover something about the universe you five in, and how it
all came to be."

            "Don't need to, I
awready know all that stuff," Manny dismissed the idea.

            "Then tell me, in a few
well-chosen words," Retief proposed, as they paused beside a relatively
quiet porp table, where a leather-vested Hoom gaulieter seemed to be in the
process of breaking the bank.

            "Well," Manny
replied, "you see, a long time ago, Zanny-Du here was just a ordinary little
backwater world. Point eight-seven T, it was, whatever that means. Then this
here life-form done arose and all, and it had a like yen to get plenty of eats
and plenty of rest, onney there was too many meat-eating fellows bigger'n it
around alia time, so it seems like it come up with this here tricky nervous
system and all, where it could mess wit the other critters' brains, what they
had of'em, to make 'em
think
they was getting a full meal, while the
victim eased off inna underbrush and got clear. Old carnivores went away happy,
and pretty soon they all died o' starvation, see?"

            "Fascinating,"
Retief encouraged the suddenly talkative fellow. "Where did you learn all
this?"

           
i told him,
Junior's crisp Voice supplied. I
simply had to talk to someone. you see, mr.
retief, i'm not like these thugs; i'm thoughtful, indeed philosophically
inclined. I confess that trait, while a source of pride, has caused me a great
deal of difficulty in my lifetime, and i'm actually still quite a young fellow.

           
junior,
the
Big Voice boomed out.
I'VE
warned you
for the last time! now I'm forced to take action!

           
Retief noticed a
flurry of activity across the room. People were retreating from the path of a
short, stout man, who had dashed out through the door marked Private, slamming
it behind him.

            Manny and Boony hurried to
the scene of the excitement, and conferred with other dinner-jacketed thugs.
Then one went to the slammed door and wrenched it open. At the instant
slam!
of a hardshot, Boony staggered back and fell across a crap table. Two of
the others at once grappled with Manny, who had started toward the fallen man.
Manny yelled, "Boony! How bad are you?"