It was the usual arrangement: We're carrying a one-third xor of the pad. Independent shippers are carrying the others. At the destination, the three parts would be xor'd together. The result could supply a dozen worlds' crypto needs on the Net for --" Downstairs there was a commotion. Someone was smoking something a bit too strong for the air scrubbers. Ravna caught a whiff,
复件 (34) air max, enough to shimmer her vision. It had knocked out several patrons on the main level. Management was counseling the offending customer. Blueshell made an abrupt noise. He backed his skrode from the table and rolled to the railing. "Don't want to be caught unawares. Some people can be so abrupt...." When nothing more came of the incident, he returned. "Uh, where was I?" He was silent a moment, consulting the short-term memory built into his skrode. "Yes, yes.... We would become relatively rich if our plans work out. Unfortunately,
复件 (4) air max2, we stopped on Straum to drop off some bulk data." He pivoted on his rear four wheels. "Surely that was safe? Straum is more than a hundred light-years from their lab in the Transcend. Yet --" One of the certificants interrupted with loud gabble. The house translator kicked in a moment later: "Yes. It should have been safe. We saw no violence. Ship's recorders show that our safeness was not breached. Yet now there are rumors. Net groups claim that Straumli Realm is owned by perversion. Absurdity. Yet these rumors have crossed the Net to our destination. Our cargo is not trusted, so our cargo is ruined: now it is only a few grams of data medium carrying random --" In the middle of the flat-voiced translation, the humanoid lunged out of the shadows. Ravna had a glimpse of a jaw edged with razor-sharp gums. He threw his drink bulb at the table in front of her. Pham Nuwen's hand flashed out, snatching the drink before it hit -- before she had quite realized what was happening. The redhead came slowly to his feet. From the shadows, the two other humanoids came to their feet and moved toward their friend. Pham Nuwen didn't say a word. He set the bulb carefully down and leaned just slightly toward the other, his hands relaxed yet bladelike. Cheap fiction talks about "looks of deadly menace". Ravna had never expected to see the real thing. But the humanoids saw it too. They tugged their friend gently back from the table. The loudmouth did not resist,
DRE BEATS POWERBEATS, but once beyond Pham's reach he erupted in a barrage of squeals and hisses that left the house translator speechless. He made a sharp gesture with three fingers, and shut up. The three swept silently down the stairs and away. Pham Nuwen sat down, his gray eyes calm and untroubled. Maybe he did have something to be arrogant about! Ravna looked across at the two Skroderiders. "I'm sorry your cargo lost value." Most of Ravna's past contacts had been with Lesser Skroderiders,
复件 (89) air max2, whose reflexes were only slightly augmented beyond their sessile heritage. Had these two even noticed the interruption? But Blueshell answered immediately, "Do not apologize. Ever since our arrival, those three have been complaining. Contract partners or not, I'm very tired of them." He lapsed into potted-plant mode. After a moment, the other Rider -- Greenstalk,
复件 (44) air max1, was it? -- spoke. "Besides, our commercial situation may not be a complete failure. I am sure the other thirds of the shipment went nowhere near Straumli Realm." That was the usual procedure anyway: each part of the shipment was carried by a different company,
复件 (40) air max2, each taking a very different path.
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