The delivery truck resembled a dog catcher's wagon as it rolled
up behind the governor's palace. It was Joel's first glimpse of
Priscilla's home--a towering plastic structure in the style of the
symbolists.
After the girl had bought him, guards had whisked him from the slave
block. He'd been hauled through the streets like a wild beast.
Joel was led inside an office where the major-domo, a tall,
tremendously fat man in a white slave tunic, signed the receipt for
him. Alpha Centauri A had set. An angry orange light streamed through
the windows from Alpha Centauri B.
The major-domo grunted, heaved himself to his feet. He was staring
fixedly at Joel's arm.
Joel glanced down. The tattoo mark was fluorescing a vivid green!
"So!" said the major-domo.
Joel opened his mouth. The major-domo put his finger to his lips with a
silencing gesture, covered the action with a yawn. But his eyes held a
warning.
He slid his hand beneath his desk. Something clicked. The tattoo quit
fluorescing.
"Put this on," he said going to a clothes locker and tossing Joel one
of the white slave tunics. "Miss Cameron left orders that you weren't
to be assigned until she sent for you."
Joel dropped the tunic over his head with a confused feeling.
"This way." The fat man led him into a corridor. As the door shut on
the office, he stopped so abruptly that Joel bumped into him.
"All right," he said, "it's safe to talk here. But watch the mirrors.
They're televisors! There isn't a room in the palace that isn't
equipped with them. We're under constant surveillance."
Joel's brain was reeling. So the palace serfs were organized too!
"Listen close," the major-domo went on low-voiced. "Meeting tonight.
You'll be instructed in your part for _the day_."
The words were scarcely out of his mouth when the door at the opposite
end of the corridor slid aside. The fat man jumped a foot, his face
taking on the color of wet clay.
A girl brushed into the passage, stopped with a startled expression.
She was young, Joel saw, and pretty with straight brown hair. Her short
white tunic exposed long symmetrical legs.
"Hullo!" she said. "I was looking for you." Her brown eyes flicked a
glance at Joel. "This the new man?"
The major-domo said, "Yes," in a relieved voice.
"Big devil. Does he bite?"
"He's a legitimate maladjustment case, if that's what you're driving
at," the fat man replied stiffly. "What did you want?"
"Miss Cameron sent me to fetch him." She jerked her head at Joel.
The major-domo frowned. "You'll have to go," he said to Joel. "I was
hoping she'd give you time to get your bearings. But that's not her
way."
"Listen," said the girl turning anxiously to Joel. "I'm Peg--Miss
Cameron's maid. You watch your step. That baggage has bought dozens of
men off the Star Ships. They would be around for a week, ten days. Then
pouf! Gone! Nobody would ever see 'em again!"