“I know you don’t,” said Val with a smile. “That’s why he’s robbing you blind.”
“So what do we do now?” asked Cole.
“Now we study the Skullcracker for a few more minutes.”
“I thought it was the dealer we were going to expose.”
“The dealer has a confederate,” said Val. “And it’s clearly the Skullcracker. I want to see his tendencies.”
“Tendencies?” asked David Copperfield.
“See if he’s right-handed or left-handed, see how he holds his head, see what I can learn about him.” She smiled. “Cole’s got the easy part; all he has to do is expose the dealer. I’ve got to get the money back from Skullcracker Morrison.”
“It might be easier to just shoot him,” suggested the Duke. “I’m all the law there is on Singapore Station. I pardon you in advance.”
Val, still smiling, shook her head. “I always thought I was good enough to be the freehand champion if I’d stayed in the Republic. Tonight I’ll find out if I was right.”
“And if you’re not?” asked the Duke.
“Then I don’t give a damn what you do to him.”
“Before or after he kills your captain?”
“If I’m dead, what do I care?” shot back Val.
“I can’t tell you how touched I am by your concern,” said Cole wryly. “Are we about ready to get this show on the road?”
“Another minute or two,” said Val, studying Morrison intently. “He’s right-handed. If he pulls a knife or some other weapon I can’t see, it’ll be with his right hand.”
“Does it matter which hand he pulls a weapon with?” asked David.
“Of course,” answered Val. “The first arm I break will be his right one.”
“Break his arm?” said David incredulously. “He’s as big as a mountain!”
“Just stand clear when he falls,” said Val. She studied Morrison for another minute, then nodded. “All right. Let’s go earn our money.”
Cole handed his burner to Sharon. “Just in case we both need avenging,” he said, then turned to follow Val to the table. “It’d be nice if you’d tell me exactly what I’m supposed to do,” he said softly.
“Just stand next to Morrison while I’m showing everyone how they’re being cheated,” she said.
“I hope you don’t think I’m going to fight him?”
“No. But he’s the one with the money, so we don’t want him getting away. Just stick a burner or a pulse gun in his back until I finish with the dealer. I’ll take over from there—though if you’d like to disarm him, I’d consider that a personal favor.”
“I’ll disarm him,” said Cole. “What do you know about the dealer that the holo cameras don’t show?”
“I know he’s cheating. I know it’s not a marked deck, because there’s never been a marked deck I couldn’t read, so I know he’s got to be using a shiner.
“But the cameras can’t spot it, and I’m sure they search every dealer when they come on the floor and when they quit for the night or even take a break.”
“I’m sure, too.”
“Then, to repeat: what do you think you know?”
“You’re a smart man,” she said. “You’ll figure it out.”
“I can only think of one thing,” said Cole. “And if you’re wrong, you’re going to maim him.”
“See?” said Val with another smile. “I told you you’d figure it out.”
“Oh, shit!” muttered Cole. “You’d damned well better be right.”
Then they were at the table.
“Back for more?” asked the dealer pleasantly, as Cole edged around the table and took up a position directly behind where Morrison was seated.
“No,” said Val. “I don’t like to be cheated more than once a night.”
“There’s no reason to be a bad loser, ma’am,” said the dealer.
“There was no reason to be a loser at all,” she replied. “You’ve been cheating all week, you and your partner.”
“Ma’am, if you become difficult, I’m going to have to call Security.”
“Call them,” said Val. “It’ll save me the trouble. After all, we’re going to have to lock you up.”
“That’s enough!” snapped Morrison.
Cole pressed the end of his pulse gun against Morrison’s back.
“Just relax,” he said softly. “Don’t turn around, and keep your hands on the table.”
“Is this a robbery?” asked Morrison, looking straight ahead.
“No, this is the end of a robbery,” answered Cole, removing the huge man’s burner and screecher.
“Nobody’s robbing anyone,” said the dealer.
“You’ve got that right,” agreed Val. “How long did you think you could get away with it?”
“I’m not getting away with anything!” said the dealer heatedly.
“Not anymore,” agreed Val. “But I have to admit it’s the best-hidden shiner I’ve ever experienced.”
The dealer held his hands out, palms up. “Do you see a shiner?” he demanded. He looked around at the crowd that was gathering. “Does anyone see a mirror? Do you want me to roll my sleeves up?”
“Why bother?” said Val. “It’s not in your sleeves.”
“Then where do
you
think it is?” he snapped.
“I’m looking at it,” said Val.
“What are you talking about?”
“This!” she said, grabbing his left wrist with a powerful hand.
“You’re hurting me!” yelped the dealer.
“Don’t worry,” said Val. “What I do next won’t hurt a bit.”
Suddenly there was a knife in her other hand, and before anyone quite realized what she was doing, she held the dealer’s left hand against the table and severed the thumb with a knife.
“Anyone see any blood?” she said triumphantly.
There wasn’t any.
“Take a look,” she said, holding the prosthetic thumb up for everyone to see. She released her grip on the dealer’s hand, and rolled down the skin on the underside of the thumb, revealing a tiny mirror. Then she picked a card up from the table and rubbed the artificial skin back in place with the edge of the pasteboard.
“Neat trick, isn’t it?” she said. “Some of you hold him while I have a little chat with his partner.” She walked over and stood next to Morrison. “Pay back everything you’ve won since you got to Singapore Station and you can walk away. No one will stop you.”
“No one’s going to stop me now,” he growled ominously.
“I was hoping you’d say that,” said Val, landing a roundhouse blow that knocked the huge man off his chair and onto the floor. “Stand back, Cole,” she said. “I’ll take it from here.”
Cole backed away as Morrison got to his feet.
“Say a short prayer to your God,” he told Val. “Because you’re not going to live long enough to say a long one.”
He took a swing at her, one that might well have decapitated her had it landed. She ducked, stepped in, feinted for his groin, and as he bent over to protect himself she jabbed a thumb in his eye. He howled with pain, raised a hand to cover the eye, and as he did so she landed a heavy kick to his left knee. He bellowed again, caught her on the shoulder with a glancing blow, got a broken nose for his trouble, and as he took a step toward her and reached out with both hands to grab her, she landed a powerful kick full in his groin.
He dropped to his knees, and took four more quick blows to the head. A chop across his throat had him gagging and gasping for air. Another blow demolished what was left of his nose, and he collapsed face-down on the floor.
Val rolled him over, went through his pockets, pulled out a large wad of bills, rolled him back on his stomach, and removed a miniature burner he had bonded to the small of his back. Finally she stood up.
“He let himself get out of shape,” she said contemptuously. “Hell, Bull Pampas could have taken him just as easily.”
She turned and began walking back to the Duke’s table as the crowded parted before her, looking at her with a mixture of awe and fear.
Cole turned to the assembled gamblers. “They’re all yours,” he said. “But I think we’ve had enough violence on the premises.”
Some of them dragged the unconscious Morrison to an exit, while others prodded the terrified dealer with their weapons until he, too, went to the exit.
“They’re going to kill both of them,” said Sharon when Cole and Val had reached the table.
“Probably,” agreed the Duke. “After all, this
is
the Frontier. There will be no fast-talking lawyers getting them off on technicalities.”
“That’s very much like justice,” said David Copperfield. “Certainly Skullcracker Morrison would have killed the Valkyrie if he could have.”
“He never had a chance,” said Cole.
“You weren’t worried?”
“I’ve seen her in action.”
“Enough chatter,” said Val. “Let’s get down to business.”
She put the bills on the table and began dividing them. When they were done she handed her half over to Cole. “A little over six hundred thousand,” she announced. “That’s not bad for a one-minute workout.”
“You are an exceptional woman!” enthused the Duke. “They could have kept that scam going for weeks, and certainly
I
wasn’t about to challenge Skullcracker Morrison. How can I ever thank you?”
“Seriously?” said Val.
“Absolutely,” answered the Duke. “I’m too old and have too many artificial parts to give you a courtly bow of sincerity, but try to imagine it.”
“Fine,” said Val. “Get me my own ship.”
9
“It’s simple enough,” explained David Copperfield when the senior officers met aboard the
Teddy R.
“It should take a week, two at the most, and we’ll have a million Far London pounds.”
“How much is that in real money?” asked Forrice.
“About two million Republic credits, or just under half a million Maria Theresa dollars, give or take,” said Copperfield. “And, if Olivia Twist works it right, there’s every possibility that she’ll wind up with her own ship.”
“Why not humor me and call me Val?” she said.
“My dear woman, you’ve had eleven different names just in the time I’ve known you,” answered Copperfield. “Why don’t
you
humor an old man and let me call you the name that pleases me the most?”
“Save it, David,” said Val. “You’re probably not old, you’re certainly not a man, and that name was used just once, by Cole not by me, solely to gain entrance to your office.”
“Details, details,” replied Copperfield.
“Cut to the chase,” said Cole. “What exactly are we being paid to do?”
“The Apollo Cartel exports all the gemstones that are extracted from any world within twenty light-years of Bannister II,” said Copperfield. He sighed deeply. “I could have told them not to locate there.”
“Why not?” asked Forrice.
“Because it’s right in the middle of the territory controlled by a very minor warlord who has taken the name of Genghis Khan, who controls Bannister and its neighboring systems with an iron hand. He was there five years ahead of them, so it can hardly be a surprise that he’s causing them problems.”
“Is he human?” asked Cole.
“With a name like Genghis Khan he’d have to be,” said Christine.
“Don’t bet on it,” said Cole. “Out here they change names the way you and I change clothes.”
“But his name—” she began.
“Is David human?” interrupted Cole.
“I’m human where it counts,” said Copperfield with dignity.
“Fine,” said Cole. “Just don’t point to where it counts.” Then: “So is Genghis Khan a Man?”
“To tell the truth, I have absolutely no idea what race he belongs to,” said Copperfield. “I don’t know anyone who’s ever seen him.”
“All right,” said Cole. “Someone or something called Genghis Khan thinks he owns the Bannister system, and the Apollo Cartel wants him gone. That explains why they want the
Teddy R
. But how does it get Val her ship?”
“Khan sends a representative once a week to collect what I think you would call protection money,” said Copperfield. “This representative travels without any enforcers or bodyguards, because no one in the system, or indeed anywhere in the sector, dares to stand up to Genghis Khan.” He shot Val a smile. “He doesn’t get to Bannister by flapping his arms.”
“Too easy,” said Cole. “No one’s going to pay us a million pounds to kill a lone man, especially if it’s not Genghis Khan himself.”
“Of course not,” said Copperfield. “I was answering your question about replacing dear Olivia’s late lamented vessel.
That
is where she’ll get her ship, if she’s so inclined. As for earning the million pounds, that will require the elimination of Genghis Khan and his followers—or should I call them his horde?—as a threat to the Apollo Cartel.”
“How many ships has he got and where are they located?” asked Cole.