Battlefield Earth

Lord Voraz sat forward and drew the resolution to him. He pe

It was all finished. The small gray men got up. They were all beaming smiles. Sir Robert let go of a morose Jo

“I think,” said Voraz to MacAdam and the baron, “that we can work together splendidly! It is banking right after my own heart!”

They laughed. The small gray men gathered their papers and left.

"Wheeoo and whuff!" said MacAdam, gri

Chapter 5

MacAdam and Baron von Roth were picking up their papers, admiring the signatures, getting ready to leave.

Jo

The baron boomed a laugh. “It was the way we started our account. It went all through the bank in seconds. Since the

Psychlos hogged it and it was already scarce, gold in the Gredides is soaring at half a million credits an ounce. We opened our account with gold. Your gold, Jo

Jo

“After all that work at the lode,” said MacAdam, “that gold belonged to you and the crews! We'll bring it home, if you want. But it's on exhibit right this minute behind armored glass in what's left of the main foyer of the Galactic Bank in Snautch! Historic gold, Jo

“Another thing,” said Jo

“Ker?” said the baron. “Well for one thing, he's your friend, Jo

Jo

Jo

They gri

“But,” said Jo

MacAdam laughed. “When Brown Limper Staffor tried to use it to secure his new currency issue, we saw that it wasn't a legal contract. Terl had even tried to forge his own signature!” He had a copy of the original and it was a ridiculous mess. “So the baron and I got to thinking. It had been nearly eleven months since you sent those bombs to Psychlo and there had been no counterattack. If Psychlo were gone, then according to Ker, there wasn't much chance of other mining planets having enough breathe-gas left. They'd all be dead.”

“So,” said the baron, “we took a banker's chance and worded it so that it was valid either way.”

“And there's one additional reason,” said MacAdam, “knowing how you operate. If you set out to destroy Psychlo, which you did, we put our bets on the fact that you had really done it. And we were right!”

“You can't go very wrong putting your chips on Jo

“Oh, no, we're not!” said Sir Robert. His tone was so positive and censorious that they stopped and looked at him, startled.

“I think,” said Sir Robert, “that it's a wee bit disgraceful, the way you use this poor lad!”

“I don't understand!” said MacAdam, shocked.

“You use his picture on Earth currency, you use his energy and ideas to further your own ends. You own the bulk of sixteen universes. You're now plotting to put his face on Galactic money. And here he is, poor as a church mouse. Why, he doesn't even collect his own pilot pay that I know of! I know you're going to lend him money for a factory. But what's that? just a plan to get him in debt. You should be ashamed of yourselves!” And he meant it.

He couldn't have had more effect on MacAdam and the baron if he'd shot them with a stun gun.

Jo

The baron looked at MacAdam and MacAdam looked at the baron. Clearly they were two very puzzled men.

Sir Robert just kept on glaring at them. It was very uncomfortable. Finally, Sir Robert said, “You might at least give him a little payment for using his picture!”

Suddenly a light seemed to dawn on MacAdam's face. He dropped his bundled documents on the table and began to rifle through a near-bursting attachee case. He found what he was looking for and, holding it, sat in a chair before them.

“Oh, Jo

“When you never mentioned it,” said the baron, “we thought you didn't want it known.”

MacAdam was holding out the information a

The information sheet on the charter mentioned only MacAdam and Baron von Roth. The baron and MacAdam looked at each other and in chorus said, “Brown Limper Staffor!"

“For reasons of his own,” said

MacAdam, “he miscopied the resolution for public release. We stupidly thought you didn't want it disclosed.”

He opened up the original charter and there at the top, ahead of the names of Baron von Roth and Andrew MacAdam, was the name, bright and clear: Jo

“Haven't you ever noticed we always try to ask your opinion of any big deals?” pleaded the baron, very contrite.

“You were doing so many things more important that we just carried on,” said MacAdam. “But Sir Robert! This lad is the owner of a third part of the Earth Planetary Bank. By charter!”

The baron said to Sir Robert, "Jo

Company.” He turned to MacAdam. “Maybe we should make it more.”

MacAdam looked at Sir Robert. “Did you think we would leave the poor lad, as you call him, out in the cold? He also owns part of that ton of gold. And all together you'd need a computer to add up his money. It 's in the quintillions! He's the richest poor lad these sixteen universes have ever seen, including the late Emperor of Psychlo!"

Sir Robert let go of Jo