And the pressure. He was going to have to learn to get used to it.
Later, he reported to the Ship, his voice fumbling and hesitant.
The answer crackled back. "She's alerted the others, you idiot! We
picked up her message. There's four more of them down there."
Parr tried to think of an excuse, knowing how pointless it would be
even to offer one.
"You should have used your head," the Ship continued. "What made you
think the Oholo was necessarily male?"
"I ... I don't know. I just did."
"You know what happened on Zelta when an advanceman was careless? You
want that to happen here?"
"I...."
On Zelta? He knew it should be familiar to him. He cursed inwardly,
reaching for other memories, to see how many he had lost.... A
sentence, unbidden, flashed across his mind: "Never sell an Oholo
short." It was what someone had told him once. "They think differently
than you do." How, he pondered confusedly, could they expect him to
think like an Oholo?
"I can't think like an Oholo," he said tonelessly.
"You could.... Never mind."
"I could? Listen, how can they be thinking, to leave a flank like this
unprotected? Why didn't they take this planet into protective custody
long ago? How can you _think_ like that? They aren't logical. How could
I know they'd let a woman...."
"Parr!" the Ship ordered sharply.
Parr gulped. "Sorry."
"Insubordination on your record."
Parr clicked off the comset.
Damn! he thought angrily.
There was still the annoying pressure on his mind. "Damn you!" he
thought without lowering his shield. "Damn you!" he thought again,
dissolving enough of the shield to let the thought escape.
She did not answer.
There was a knock at the door.
A man with his suit.
* * * * *
It was almost ten o'clock when Parr arrived at the warehouse. The
windows were alive with sunshine, and through them he could see the
freshly cleaned interior.
The men with the furniture were waiting, the driver angry at the delay,
his assistant indifferent. Already there was a line of job applicants
who shifted uneasily, eyes turned curiously upon Parr as he crossed and
unlocked the warehouse doors.
Parr, one hand resting on the knob, said to the delivery man, "Bring
the stuff inside."
The driver growled and picked up a clip board from the seat. "I gotta
bill here, doc. You wanna pay before I haul the stuff out?" He held out
the clip board, jerking it savagely for Parr's attention.
Parr glanced at the sum. He reached for his wallet. One by one he
removed the bills and handed them over to the driver. When he had met
the amount there were only two bills remaining.
"Now take them inside."
"Okay, doc."
Parr went immediately to the roof. The shed had been knocked down as he
had ordered, and the chute had been installed.
The two packages were lying at the top of the chute. The bundle of
money and the sample, dummy parcel--both night deposited from the Ship.
He picked them up.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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