They had stopped in Darkside, the spaceport on the side of Luna that
keeps perpetually averted from Earth, as if the moon knows shame and
wants to hide the rough and roaring dome city that nestles in one
of the great craters. Duane remembered sitting in a low-ceilinged,
smoke-heavy room, across the table from a tall man with white hair.
Stevens!
"_Four thousand electron rifles_," the man had said. "_Latest
government issue. Never mind how I got them; they're perfect. You know
my price. Take it or leave it. And it's payable the minute we touch
ground on Callisto._"
There had been a few minutes of haggling over terms, then a handshake
and a drink from a thin-necked flagon of pale-yellow liquid fire.
He and the white-haired man had gone out then, made their way by
unfrequented side streets to a great windowless building. Duane
remembered the white-hot stars overhead, shining piercingly through
the great transparent dome that kept the air in the sealed city of
Darkside, as they stood at the entrance of the warehouse and spoke in
low tones to the man who answered their summons.
Then, inside. And they were looking at a huge chamber full of stacked
fiber boxes--containing nothing but dehydrated dairy products and
mining tools, by the stencils they bore. Duane had turned to the
white-haired man with a puzzled question--and the man had laughed aloud.
He dragged one of the boxes down, ripped it open with the sharp point
of a handling hook. Short-barreled, flare-mouthed guns rolled out,
tumbling over the floor. Eight of them were in that one box, and
hundreds of boxes all about. Duane picked one up, broke it, peered into
the chamber where the tiny capsule of U-235 would explode with infinite
violence when the trigger was pulled, spraying radiant death three
thousand yards in the direction the gun was aimed....
And that memory ended.
Duane got up, stared at his haggard face in the cracked mirror over
the bed. "_They say I'm a killer_," he thought. "_Apparently I'm a
gun-runner as well. Good lord--what am I not?_"
His reflection--white, drawn face made all the more pallid by the red
hair that blazed over it--stared back at him. There was no answer
there. If only he could remember--
"All right, Duane." The deep voice of a guard came to him as the door
swung open. "Stop making eyes at yourself."
Duane looked around. The guard beckoned. "Governor Andrias wants to
speak to you--now. Let's not keep the governor waiting."
* * * * *
A long, narrow room, with a long carpet leading from the entrance up to
a great heavy desk--that was Andrias' office. Duane felt a click in his
memory as he entered. One of the ancient Earth dictators had employed
just such a psychological trick to overawe those who came to beg favors
of him. Muslini, or some such name.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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