He ambled over with long-legged strides that closed the distance
between us in seconds.
"Call me Joe," he said.
I dropped my bags and stared at him. Maybe this _was_ going to be a
simple assignment after all. "I sure am glad to see you, Joe," I said.
"Same here, Toots," he answered.
"The guys back in Space II are searching high and low for you," I told
him.
"You've got the wrong number," he said, and I was a little surprised at
his use of Terran idiom.
"You are Joe, aren't you? Joe the trader?"
"I'm Joe, all right," he said. "Only thing I ever traded, though, was a
pocketknife. Got a set of keys for it."
"Oh," I said, my voice conveying my disappointment. I sighed and began
wondering just how I should go about contacting the Joe I was looking
for. My orders said I was to report to Captain Bransten immediately
upon arrival. I figured the hell with Captain Bransten. I outranked him
anyway, and there wasn't much he could do if I decided to stop for a
drink first.
"Where's the Officer's Club?" I asked the Venusian.
"Are you buying information or are you just curious?"
"Can you take me there?" I asked.
"Sure thing, Toots." He picked up my bags and started walking up a
heavily overgrown path. We'd probably walked for about ten minutes when
he dropped my bags and said, "There it is."
The Officer's Club was a plasteel hut with window shields that
protected it from the heat of the sun. It didn't look too comfortable
but I really wanted that drink. I reached into my tunic and slipped
the native thirty solars.
He stared at the credits curiously and then shrugged his shoulders. "Oh
well, you're new here. We'll let it go."
He took off then, while I stared after him, wondering just what he'd
meant. Had I tipped him too little?
I shrugged and looked over at the Officer's Club. From the outside it
looked as hot as hell.
On the inside it was about two degrees short of that mark. I began to
curse Walsh for taking me away from my nice soft job in Space II.
There wasn't much inside the club. A few tables and chairs, a dart game
and a bar. Behind the bar a tall Venusian lounged.