Retief-Ambassador to Space Read Online Free PDF Page B

official loops of braid decorated by dangling straps and medals
undulated over, fingering a blast rifle of unmistakable Groaci manufacture.
     
     "What's
your problem, Two-eyes?" he inquired in Skweemish.
     
     "Just
a courtesy call," Retief replied in the same tongue. "Tell me, did
you see another Terry pass here early this morning?"
     
     The
Skweeman's eyes shifted. "Naw, nothing like that," he said flatly.
     
     "This
fellow would be hard to miss," Retief persisted. "Twelve feet tall,
flaming red hair all over, three eyes—"
     
     "Frinkle-fruit!
The guy wasn't as big as you, and ..." His voice trailed off.
     
     "I
see," Retief nodded. "Well, he was taking a birthday cake to the
Groaci Ambassador, and it seems he lost the cherry off the top of it. We
Terries are pitching in to help locate anyone who might have delayed him."
     
     "Not
me, Terry! I waved him through and he headed straight for town—thataway."
He pointed along the road.
     
     "Fine.
I'll tell them you're clean, then."
     
     "Gee,
thanks, fella." The guard set his gun aside and opened the gate.
     
     "Think
nothing of it." Retief waved cheerily and drove through.
     
     A
mile and a half past the gate he encountered a small village, identical with
its South Skweeman equivalent. Rows of grass huts, of various sizes depending
on the status of their occupants, were arranged around a small grassed plaza in
the center of which the public structures were grouped. As Retief pulled up to
the tall, conical buildings which presumably housed the town officials, half a
dozen uniformed North Skweemans came to the alert. One, more elaborately
decorated than his fellows, wobbled forward and looked the car over with the
air of a Customs officer tipped off to a load of contraband.
     
     "What
brings you here?" he demanded.
     
     "I'm
looking for the Groaci Consulate General," Retief said.
     
     "Yeah?
Where'd you lose it?" the Skweeman came back snappily.
     
     "The
last I heard it was neck-deep in North Skweeman internal affairs," Retief
replied breezily. "But that's for you fellows to worry about." He
looked around the somnolent town square. "I don't suppose you know where I
might find a fellow Terry who wandered over the line while chasing a
promotion?"
     
     "You
got that one right," the Skweeman nodded.
     
     "Well,
in that case I'll just move along and take a look at the dam the Groaci
suckered you into letting them build on your property." He glanced along
the line of the arched river-bed to the looming wall of concrete half a mile
distant. "I see it's still holding. Water's about halfway to the spillway
now, eh?" He looked thoughtful.
     
     "Whattaya
mean, suckered? That's the finest dam on Skweem!"
     
     "Um,"
Retief said. "What's it for?"
     
     "Huh?
To hold back the water, whattaya think?"
     
     "Why?"
     
     "Onacountof
... so we can ... I mean, it's for ..." The Skweeman broke off.
"Listen, you better talk to old Five-eyes personal; I mean, what's the big
idea trying to pump me for military secrets?"
     
     "Military
secrets, eh? Well, that's interesting. Just what sort of illegal military plans
are you concocting over on this side of the line?"
     
     "We
got no illegal plans!"
     
     "Any
military plans are illegal," Retief said flatly.
     
     "Who
says so?"
     
     "The
CDT."
     
     "Oh,
yeah?"
     
     "Uh-huh.
And we have the military resources to back it up, if you'll goad us far enough.
Starting a war ought to do it. And now, if you'll just sort of slither to one
side, I'll get on with my business."
     
     "Hey,
you can't—" The North Skweeman's words were drowned in a cloud of dust as
Retief gunned the car off toward the massive pile of the dam.
     
     Retief
parked the car on a stretch of bulldozed gravel on the shoulder of the hill
against which the abutment was anchored. Carrying a pair of miniaturized 100x9
binoculars, he moved up in the shelter of a small shed housing the dam's power
controls, looked over the scene