Read Online Inferno: A Chronicle of a Distant World (The Galactic Comedy) by Mike Resnick - Free Book Online Page A

translator had finished.
    Labu grinned. "That the arena food is not very good, but the human beer is excellent!"
    The tension was diffused by a burst of laughter. Labu smiled and waved to the crowd, then took his seat and listened as Bobby concluded his tirade.
    The next morning Labu was back, with five hundred soldiers, to place the prime minister under house arrest.
    The first person Bobby sent for was Arthur Cartright, who showed up half an hour later and found his way blocked by Labu himself.
    "What is the meaning of this?" demanded Cartright. "I have been summoned here by the prime minister."
    Labu shrugged, a grotesque gesture for an alien with his enormous bulk.
    "Thank you very much," he said with a smile.
    "I beg your pardon?"
    "Thank you very much," repeated Labu.
    Then Cartright remembered that the jason was uncomfortable with Terran, quite possibly illiterate it in, and he switched to the Maringo dialect.
    "What is going on here?" he said.
    "I am simply following my orders," replied Labu.
    "You were ordered to arrest the prime minister and confine him to his house?" said Cartright. "Why?"
    Labu shrugged again. "I have no idea," he said. "I am sure it must be a mistake, and will soon be corrected."
    "Does the president know about this?"
    "He is the one who issued the order," replied Labu with a huge grin.
    Cartright paused and stared at Labu for a moment. "The prime minister has sent for me," he said at last. "May I please pass through your lines?"
    "Of course, friend Cartright," said Labu. "We are great friends, are we not?"
    "I don't know," said Cartright. "Are we?"
    "Of course, of course," said Labu, thumping him on the back. "I have no enemies."
    "That must be a great comfort," said Cartright.
    Labu laughed uproariously, as if Cartright had just made a joke, then stepped aside and signaled his men to let the human through. A moment later another uniformed jason escorted him into the mansion and up to the door of Bobby's bedroom. The door slid open long enough for Cartright to step inside the room, then closed behind him.
    "Arthur!" said Bobby, rising from a huge desk where he had been scribbling something in longhand. "I am so glad you came!"
    "What's happened?" asked Cartright. "I got your message, and I arrived to find your house surrounded by the army."
    "I don't know!" said Bobby. "They haven't charged me with anything—but they won't let me leave!"
    "Last night's speech didn't exactly endear you to your enemies," said Certright. "Let me contact Barioke and see what we can work out."
    "Thank you."
    Cartright left the prime minister's home and returned to his office, where he called Barioke on the vidphone. After twenty minutes of being transferred from one bureaucrat to another, he was finally connected to the lean, conservatively-attired president.
    "Good morning, Mr. Cartright," said Barioke. "I've been expecting to hear from you."
    "Then you must know why I'm calling, Mr. President."
    "Certainly."
    There was a long pause.
    "Well?" said Cartright.
    "Well what, Mr. Cartright?"
    "Why has he been arrested?"
    "He has not been arrested," replied Barioke. "No charges have been made."
    "Then why has he been confined to his quarters by the head of your army?"
    "Because I don't know what to do with him, and I am keeping him there until I can decide."
    "That's illegal!"
    "Would you be happier if I charge him with treason?" asked Barioke mildly. "I have every right to, you know."
    "He's broken no laws."
    "He threatened to disobey a presidential edict," said Barioke, "and he did it in front of 40,000 witnesses. Left to his own devices, I am sure he will eventually urge the Enkoti to rebel against the planetary government and set up their own separate state."
    "You can't arrest him because of what you think he might do!" said Cartright.
    "Do you think it would be wiser to wait until he had completely discredited the duly elected government?" asked Barioke sardonically.
    "I think the two of you should get together and