"Nah; they wouldn't even tell me the right time. Afraid it would
excite me."
So I told him; first who Bish Ware really was, and then who Ravick
really was. He gaped for a moment, and then shoveled in more food.
"Go on; what happened?"
I told him how Bish had smuggled Gerrit and Leo Belsher out on Second
Level Down and gotten them to the spaceport, where Courtland's men had
been waiting for them.
"Gerrit's going to Terra, and from there to Loki. They want the
natives to see what happens to a Terran who breaks Terran law; teach
them that our law isn't just to protect us. Belsher's going to Terra,
too. There was a big ship captains' meeting; they voted to reclaim
their wax and sell it individually to Murell, but to retain membership
in the Co-op. They think they'll have to stay in the Co-op to get
anything that's gettable out of Gerrit's and Belsher's money. Oscar
Fujisawa and Cesário Vieira are going to Terra on the _Cape Canaveral_
to start suit to recover anything they can, and also to petition for
reclassification of Fenris. Oscar's coming back on the next ship, but
Cesário's going to stay on as the Co-op representative. I suppose he
and Linda will be getting married."
"Natch. They'll both stay on Terra, I suppose. Hey, whattaya know!
Cesário's getting off Fenris without having to die and reincarnate."
He finished his lunch, such as it was and what there was of it, and I
relieved him of the tray and set it on the floor beyond his chair. I
found an ashtray and lit a cigarette for him and one for myself, using
the big lighter. Tom looked at it dubiously, predicting that sometime
I'd push the wrong thing and send myself bye-byes for a couple of
hours. I told him how Bish had used it.
"Bet a lot of people wanted to hang him, too, before they found out
who he was and what he'd really done. What's my father think of Bish,
now?"
"Bish Ware is a great and good man, and the savior of Fenris," I said.
"And he was real smart, to keep an act like that up for five years.
Your father modestly admits that it even fooled him."
"Bet Oscar Fujisawa knew it all along."
"Well, Oscar modestly admits that he suspected something of the sort,
but he didn't feel it was his place to say anything."
Tom laughed, and then wanted to know if they were going to hang Mort
Hallstock. "I hope they wait till I can get out of here."
"No, Odin Dock & Shipyard claim he's a political refugee and they
won't give him up. They did loan us a couple of accountants to go over
the city books, to see if we could find any real evidence of
misappropriation, and whattaya know, there were no city books. The
city of Port Sandor didn't keep books. We can't even take that three
hundred thousand sols away from him; for all we can prove, he saved
them out of his five-thousand-sol-a-year salary. He's shipping out on
the _Cape Canaveral_, too."
"Then we don't have any government at all!"
"Are you fooling yourself we ever had one?"
"No, but--"
"Well, we have one now. A temporary dictatorship; Bish Ware is
dictator. Fieschi loaned him Ranjit Singh and some of his men. The
first thing he did was gather up the city treasurer and the chief of
police and march them to the spaceport; Fieschi made Hallstock buy
them tickets, too. But there aren't going to be any unofficial
hangings. This is a law-abiding planet, now."
A nurse came in, and disapproved of Tom smoking and of me being in the
room at all.
"Haven't you had your lunch yet?" she asked Tom.