Read Online Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Isaac Asimov
Ads: Link
you’re in this cell with me and when you were marched here the guns were pointed just as hard at you as at me. Listen, you were all boiled up about my notions on the subject of war and peace.”
He waited fruitlessly, “All fight, let me ask you something. You said your country was licked once. By whom? Comet people from the outer nebulae?”
Barr looked up. “By the Empire.”
“That so? Then what are you doing here?”
Barr maintained an eloquent silence.
The trader thrust out a lower lip and nodded his head slowly. He slipped off the flat-linked bracelet that hugged his fight wrist and held it out. “What do you think of that?” He wore the mate to it on his left.
The Siwennian took the ornament. He responded slowly to the trader’s gesture and put it on. The odd tingling at the wrist passed away quickly.
Devers’ voice changed at once. “Right, doc, you’ve got the action now. Just speak casually. If this room is wired, they won’t get a thing. That’s a Field Distorter you’ve got there; genuine Mallow design. Sells for twenty-five credits on any world from here to the outer rim. You get it free. Hold your lips still when you talk and take it easy. You’ve got to get the trick of it.”
Ducem Barr was suddenly weary. The trader’s boring eyes were luminous and urging. He felt unequal to their demands.
Barr said, “What do you want?” The words slurred from between unmoving lips.
“I’ve told you. You make mouth noises like what we call a patriot. Yet your own world has been mashed up by the Empire, and here you are playing ball with the Empire’s fair-haired general. Doesn’t make sense, does it?”
Barr said, “I have done my part. A conquering Imperial viceroy is dead because of me.”
“That so? Recently?”
“Forty years ago.”
“Forty … years … ago!” The words seemed to have meaning to the trader. He frowned, “That’s a long time to live on memories. Does that young squirt in the general’s uniform know about it?”
Barr nodded.
Devers’ eyes were dark with thought. “You want the Empire to win?”
And the old Siwennian patrician broke out in sudden deep anger, “May the Empire and all its works perish in universal catastrophe. All Siwenna prays that daily. I had brothers once, a sister, a father. But I have children now, grandchildren. The general knows where to find them.”
Devers waited.
Barr continued in a whisper, “But that would not stop me if the results in view warranted the risk. They would know how to die.”
The trader said gently, “You killed a viceroy once, huh? You know, I recognize a few things. We once had a mayor, Hober Mallow his name was. He visited Siwenna; that’s your world, isn’t it? He met a man named Barr.”
Ducem Barr stared hard, suspiciously. “What do you know of this?”
“What every trader on the Foundation knows. You might be a smart old fellow put in here to get on my right side. Sure, they’d point guns at you, and you’d hate the Empire and be all-out for its smashing. Then I’d fall all over you and pour out my heart to you, and wouldn’t the general be pleased. There’s not much chance of that, doc.
“But just the same I’d like to have you prove that you’re the son of Onum Barr of Siwenna – the sixth and youngest who escaped the massacre.”
Ducem Barr’s hand shook as he opened the flat metal box in a wall recess. The metal object he withdrew clanked softly as he thrust it into the trader’s hands. “Look at that,” he said.
Devers stared. He held the swollen central link of the chain close to his eyes and swore softly. “That’s Mallow’s monogram, or I’m a space-struck rookie, and the design is fifty years old if it’s a day.”
He looked up and smiled.
“Shake, doc. A man-sized nuclear shield is all the proof I need,” and he held out his large hand.
Foundation 2 - Foundation and Empire
6. THE FAVORITE
The tiny ships had appeared out of the vacant depths and darted into the
He waited fruitlessly, “All fight, let me ask you something. You said your country was licked once. By whom? Comet people from the outer nebulae?”
Barr looked up. “By the Empire.”
“That so? Then what are you doing here?”
Barr maintained an eloquent silence.
The trader thrust out a lower lip and nodded his head slowly. He slipped off the flat-linked bracelet that hugged his fight wrist and held it out. “What do you think of that?” He wore the mate to it on his left.
The Siwennian took the ornament. He responded slowly to the trader’s gesture and put it on. The odd tingling at the wrist passed away quickly.
Devers’ voice changed at once. “Right, doc, you’ve got the action now. Just speak casually. If this room is wired, they won’t get a thing. That’s a Field Distorter you’ve got there; genuine Mallow design. Sells for twenty-five credits on any world from here to the outer rim. You get it free. Hold your lips still when you talk and take it easy. You’ve got to get the trick of it.”
Ducem Barr was suddenly weary. The trader’s boring eyes were luminous and urging. He felt unequal to their demands.
Barr said, “What do you want?” The words slurred from between unmoving lips.
“I’ve told you. You make mouth noises like what we call a patriot. Yet your own world has been mashed up by the Empire, and here you are playing ball with the Empire’s fair-haired general. Doesn’t make sense, does it?”
Barr said, “I have done my part. A conquering Imperial viceroy is dead because of me.”
“That so? Recently?”
“Forty years ago.”
“Forty … years … ago!” The words seemed to have meaning to the trader. He frowned, “That’s a long time to live on memories. Does that young squirt in the general’s uniform know about it?”
Barr nodded.
Devers’ eyes were dark with thought. “You want the Empire to win?”
And the old Siwennian patrician broke out in sudden deep anger, “May the Empire and all its works perish in universal catastrophe. All Siwenna prays that daily. I had brothers once, a sister, a father. But I have children now, grandchildren. The general knows where to find them.”
Devers waited.
Barr continued in a whisper, “But that would not stop me if the results in view warranted the risk. They would know how to die.”
The trader said gently, “You killed a viceroy once, huh? You know, I recognize a few things. We once had a mayor, Hober Mallow his name was. He visited Siwenna; that’s your world, isn’t it? He met a man named Barr.”
Ducem Barr stared hard, suspiciously. “What do you know of this?”
“What every trader on the Foundation knows. You might be a smart old fellow put in here to get on my right side. Sure, they’d point guns at you, and you’d hate the Empire and be all-out for its smashing. Then I’d fall all over you and pour out my heart to you, and wouldn’t the general be pleased. There’s not much chance of that, doc.
“But just the same I’d like to have you prove that you’re the son of Onum Barr of Siwenna – the sixth and youngest who escaped the massacre.”
Ducem Barr’s hand shook as he opened the flat metal box in a wall recess. The metal object he withdrew clanked softly as he thrust it into the trader’s hands. “Look at that,” he said.
Devers stared. He held the swollen central link of the chain close to his eyes and swore softly. “That’s Mallow’s monogram, or I’m a space-struck rookie, and the design is fifty years old if it’s a day.”
He looked up and smiled.
“Shake, doc. A man-sized nuclear shield is all the proof I need,” and he held out his large hand.
Foundation 2 - Foundation and Empire
6. THE FAVORITE
The tiny ships had appeared out of the vacant depths and darted into the
Similar Books
