Certain Symmetry Read Online Free PDF Page B

patience of a true gambler he closed the book and
settled back into his chair.
    First, something to eat, and some wine. His
day would no doubt be full.
    * * *
    IN ANOTHER PART of the city of Solcintra, a
second late-rising young gentleman rang for his morning-wine and
likewise sat down to review his letters and the news.
    His correspondence was sparse--two pieces
only. The first was a terse page from his man of business, noting
receipt into his lordship's portfolio of a substantial gift of
stocks and other assets.
    The second note was scarcely less terse, and
its subject remarkably similar. Betea sen'Equa wished to know when
the consideration she had earned would be forthcoming. Happily the
young gentleman had lately expended some thought upon just this
subject, and knew precisely how to answer her.
    From the bottom drawer in his desk, he
withdrew a blank sheet of thin paper, of the sort provided to the
guests of Mid-Port hotels. On it, he scrawled a few lines with his
off-hand, not forgetting to omit his name, nor the sixth-cantra
required to hold the reservation, sealed it and slid it into his
pocket.
    That done, he sipped his wine and perused
the news.
    His preferred service concerned itself not
at all with Port news, so he lacked the account of the disagreement
between the Terran and Liaden crews; nor was his latest investment,
which had done very well indeed, of the sort to make the board at
the Exchange.
    Fal Den ter'Antod's suicide, though--that
news he did take in common with the other tardy young gentleman.
He, too, blinked upon encountering the unexpected headline, for he
had lately been at pains to become intimate with Fal Den and would
not have wagered upon finding him thus weak-willed. In point of
fact, he had erred in precisely the opposite direction.
    The young gentleman sighed sharply, vexed;
the note he had written to Betea sen'Equa absurdly heavy in his
sleeve-pocket. He drank off the rest of his wine and sat in his
chair, hands folded beneath his chin, staring sightlessly at the
news screen.
    Long minutes passed, with the gentleman sunk
deep in his thoughts. Eventually, he blinked, and sighed a second
time, considerably less vexed, and owned that his plans might go
forward, unimpeded. The lack of Fal Den was--naturally!--a blow,
but life, after all, went on.
    Just so.
    Satisfied in his reasoning, the young
gentleman cleared the news screen, and filed away the letter from
his man of business.
    The note from Beta sen'Equa he carried over
to the recycler. Reaching into inside pocket he withdrew one of his
special sort of cigarillo, and sucked on it twice to light it. He
puffed for a moment or two, tasting of the invigorating smoke,
until the central embers came to red. Then he touched the tip of
the cigarillo gently to one edge of the paper and held it gingerly
by the opposite corner. When the quick flames licked toward his
fingertips, he dropped the thing into the unit, which extinguished
the flames and proceeded to process the carbon.
    He puffed again, the sweet smoke rising to
join that of the paper and disguise its odor. The cigarillo
followed in a few moments; ashes to ashes, to further muddle any
trail.
    Satisfied with his morning's work, the young
gentleman left his rooms, lightfooted and whistling.
    * * *
    "THAT'S PREPOSTEROUS." The man who said so
was some years Pat Rin's elder; a tea merchant who owned a
comfortable establishment in the High Port. Neither Shan nor Shan's
father, Er Thom yos'Galan--master traders, both--had been strangers
in this place, and Bed War tel'Pyton welcomed Pat Rin in the names
of his cousins.
    "Alas," Pat Rin said gently, and bowed.
    Master tel'Pyton had recourse to his
teacup.
    "By his own hand? Forgive me, sir, but
that's powerful hard to accommodate, for the Fal Den ter'Antod I
knew was no such fool."
    "I understand your perplexity," Pat Rin
murmured. "Indeed, I share it. And yet it is truly said that we
cannot know the necessities of another's secret heart."
    "True,"