That afternoon Brooks comes back, marching ahead of a pack of
woods-Moklins with greenish skins and saucer eyes that've been guiding
him around. He's a good-looking kind of fellow, Brooks is, with a good
build and a solid jaw.
When he comes out of the woods on the landing field--the trees are
all settled down by then--he's striding impatient and loose-jointed.
With the woods-Moklins trailing him, he looks plenty dramatic, like a
visi-reel picture of a explorer on some unknown planet, coming back
from the dark and perilous forests, followed by the strange natives who
do not yet know whether this visitor from outer space is a god or what.
You know the stuff.
I see Inspector Caldwell take a good look at him, and I see her eyes
widen. She looks like he is a shock, and not a painful one.
He blinks when he sees her. He grunts. "What's this? A she-Moklin?"
Inspector Caldwell draws herself up to her full five-foot-three. She
bristles.
I say quick, "This here is Inspector Caldwell that the _Palmyra_ dumped
off here today. Uh--Inspector, this is Brooks, the Head Trader."
They shake hands. He looks at her and says, "I'd lost hope my reports
would ever get any attention paid to them. You've come to check my
report that the trading post on Moklin has to be abandoned?"
"I have not!" says Inspector Caldwell, sharp. "That's absurd! This
planet has great potentialities, this post is profitable and the
natives are friendly, and the trade should continue to increase. The
Board is even considering the introduction of special crops."
That strikes me as a bright idea. I'd like to see what would happen if
Moklins started cultivating new kinds of plants! It would be a thing to
watch--with regular Moklin plants seeing strangers getting good growing
places and special attention! I can't even guess what'll happen, but I
want to watch!
"What I want to ask right off," says Inspector Caldwell, fierce, "is
why you have allowed a competitive trading post to be established,
why you did not report it sooner, and why you haven't identified the
company back of it?"
Brooks stares at her. He gets mad.
"Hell!" he says. "My reports cover all that! Haven't you read them?"
"Of course not," says Inspector Caldwell. "I was given an outline of
the situation here and told to investigate and correct it."
"Oh!" says Brooks. "That's it!"
Then he looks like he's swallowing naughty words. It is funny to see
them glare at each other, both of them looking like they are seeing
something that interests them plenty, but throwing off angry sparks
just the same.
"If you'll show me samples of their trade goods," says Inspector
Caldwell, arrogant, "and I hope you can do _that_ much, I'll identify
the trading company handling them!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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