Aftershocks

“Too bad,” Veffani said. “I would rather have been able to reckon him a fool, but he served his not-empire well.”

“He was a murderous barbarian, and I am glad to know that he is dead and no longer a danger to the Race,” Felless said.

“I agree with every word of what you have said,” Veffani answered. “None of that, however, in any way contradicts what I said.”

“No, I suppose not.” Felless paused and thought about the ambassador’s tone of voice. “You admire him, superior sir. Is that not a truth?” She knew she sounded accusing. She enjoyed sounded accusing, as a matter of fact. She’d spent a lot of time listening to Veffani’s accusations, which were usually all too well justified. Now she could get some of her own back.

“Maybe I do,” Veffani admitted. “Have you never admired some particularly skillful opponent in a game?”

“Of course I have.” Felless made her voice stiff with disapproval. “But I would hardly call our continuing struggle against the Big Uglies a game.”

“No? Would you not, Senior Researcher?” Veffani said. “Then what else is it? To me, it is the largest, most complex game ever played, and also the game with the highest stakes. One can hardly help respecting the Big Uglies who played it well.”

“They play it with our lives,” Felless said angrily.

“Well, so they do,” Veffani said. “We play it with their lives, too. And if you are going to look at methods, they have done few things to us that we have not also done to them. They save their worst horrors for their own kind.”

“And I suppose you will be excusing those next,” Felless said.

The ambassador made the negative gesture. “I excuse nothing. But neither do I diminish the Tosevites and their accomplishments. That is a failing too much encountered among the males and females of the colonization fleet. The Big Uglies are barbarians, yes. They are not fools.” He used an emphatic cough. “Treat them as fools and you will regret it.” That rated another emphatic cough.

“I understand, superior sir,” Felless said, which was a long way from saying that she agreed.

With maddening patience, Veffani said, “Experience will eventually teach you the same thing, Senior Researcher.” Felless thought he would say farewell then. Instead, he added, “Experience should also teach you to be wary of which males you choose as your acquaintances. Good day.” His image did disappear then.

Felless stared at the monitor even after Veffani was gone. He knows. She shuddered. He may not know quite enough to charge me, but he knows. What do I do now?

Pe

“Oh, we might make some money off this,” Rance answered. He’d known Pe

“That’s not why you’re doing it, though,” she snapped. “You’re doing it because you think that little French gal is cute.”

Oho, he thought. So that’s it. As a matter of fact, he did think Monique Dutourd was cute, but letting Pe

Pe

“Have to be, to keep up with you,” he said. That was flattery, but flattery with a good deal of underlying truth. He went on, “Besides, with Pierre the Turd in the Lizard hoosegow, doing our regular sort of business isn’t as easy as it used to be. We ought to thank God he hasn’t ratted on us. So we’ll try something different for a while, okay? And his sister did warn us the Lizards caught him.”

Pe

“Then it’s something else,” Auerbach said. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, if you’d only listen to me.”

“You’ve been trying to tell me all kinds of things,” Pe

Rance nodded again. “I like lost causes. I must. I took you in a while ago, didn’t I? Or did you manage to forget about that?”

Astonishment spread over her face as she raised a hand to her cheek. “Now you’ve gone and made me blush, and I don’t know when the hell the last time I did that was. Okay, Rance, go do it, and we’ll see what happens. But you better remember what I said about that French gal, too.”

“I’m not likely to forget,” he said. “You want to come along and hold my hand?”

“I oughta say yes,” Pe

“I will.” Auerbach wondered how much help he’d get from Pe

He met Monique Dutourd in a little cafe not far from the dress shop where she’d found work after her brother was arrested. “Bonjour,” he said, and then, in English, “Are you ready?”

“I think so,” she said. “I hope so.” She rose, draining the wineglass in front of her.

“Then let’s go,” he said. “Allons-y. I have the taxi waiting outside.”

The taxi, inevitably, was a Volkswagen. Rance hated getting into and out of the buggy little holdovers from the Reich. Being knee to knee with Monique in the back seat made up for some of that, as it had with Pe

“It shall be done,” he said in the Lizards’ language, and got the VW going with a horrible clash of gears.

Getting out of the taxi, as usual, was even harder for Auerbach than getting into it had been. He paid off the driver; from what he’d seen, Monique wasn’t rolling in loot. They went into the consulate together. A Lizard looked up from whatever he-or maybe she-had been doing and spoke in hissing French: “Oui? Qu’est-ce que vous desirez?”

“We want to see the female named Felless,” Rance answered in the language of the Race. He didn’t speak it well, but judged it would be useful here.

It got the receptionist’s attention, at any rate. “I will ask,” the Lizard said. “Give me your names.”

“It shall be done,” Rance said, as the taxi driver had before him. Once he’d named himself and Monique, he added, “I thank you.” When dealing with Lizard officialdom, he made a point of being polite.

“You are welcome,” this Lizard said, so it must have done some good. “Now please wait.” After talking on the telephone, the Lizard swung an eye turret back toward Auerbach and Monique. “Senior Researcher Felless will be here shortly.”

“I thank you,” Rance said again. Monique nodded. He switched to French for her: “It could be that this will work.”

“It could be,” she echoed. Then, just for a moment, she set a hand on his arm. “Thank you very much for trying. No one else has cared at all.”

“We’ll see what we can do, that’s all,” he said in English. “If you don’t bet, you can’t win.” He wasn’t sure he could have put that into French. She nodded again to show she understood.

Auerbach started to say something more, but a Lizard came up the hallway from the back part of the consulate. The receptionist pointed with his-her? — tongue. The newly arrived Lizard walked over to him and Monique and said, “I greet you. I am Felless. Which of you is which?”

“I am Auerbach,” Rance said in the Lizards’ language. Then he introduced Monique, adding, “And we greet you.” He wanted to laugh about Felless’ inability to tell them apart at a glance, but he didn’t. If Monique hadn’t told him, he wouldn’t have known Felless was a female, so why wouldn’t it work the other way?

“What is it that you want with me?” Felless asked. Did she recognize Monique’s name? Rance couldn’t tell. He didn’t think she would have heard his before. That was probably just as well.

He said, “Can we find some private space to speak?” That was probably a warning-it was certainly a warning if she had any brains-but he didn’t see what else he could do. He sure didn’t want to talk business out here in the foyer.

Felless drew back and hesitated before she spoke. She had brains, all right; she knew something was fishy, even if she didn’t know what. After that momentary hesitation, she said, “Very well. Come with me.” Brusquely, she turned away and went down the hallway from which she’d come. Rance and Monique followed.

He didn’t know what he’d expected: that she would take the two humans back to her own quarters, perhaps. She didn’t. The room into which she led them was the obvious Lizard equivalent of an Earthly conference room. Rance didn’t much like the Lizards’ chairs, which were too small and shaped for beings without much in the way of buttocks. With his bad leg, though, he liked standing even less. He sat. So did Monique.

Felless, for her part, paced back and forth. When she spoke, he thought he heard bitterness in her voice: “Now you will tell me what you want. It will be something to do with ginger, I do not doubt.”

“Not directly,” Auerbach said. “My friend here is a scholar. She is grateful that you saved her from the prison of the Francais.” He delivered a ru

“She is welcome,” Felless said. “What is the point of this? It is not directly co

“When the explosive-metal bomb destroyed much of Marseille, it destroyed Monique’s university, too,” Rance answered. “Now she has no position. She wants work in what she knows about, not in selling wrappings to other Tosevites.”