Read Online Mission: Earth "Fortune of Fear" by Ron L. Hubbard - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Ron L. Hubbard
Tags: sf_humor
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"They're all there." He was still tugging at me. "You'll make me miss my plane!"
"...297, 298, 299, 300!" I counted. "They're all there!"
"Yes, they're all there," said Bolz. "And I'm Gods (bleep) glad to get rid of them, the kind of crew I've got and the price of gold being what it is on this planet. Now, watch. I am locking the door. Come back to my cabin."
He got me there. In a daze, I initialled the invoice. He put it in his safe and he locked the safe securely. He handed me the storeroom key. Then he picked up his grip and put on his civilian hat.
"You're on your own," said Captain Bolz. "Some of the crew will be aboard and I've told the mate they can give you a hand unloading it, but I take no responsibility for it from here on out. Good-bye."
He left.
Chapter 2
I sank down at his table. I couldn't get my eyes shut: they were popped too wide, a frozen reflex.
Minutes went by. I became aware of the fact, at last, that my heart was still beating and that I was still breathing.
Thirty thousand pounds of gold!
Zanco had owed me a 30,000-credit bribe for all the hospital supplies I ordered. That meant that they had paid what must have been a professional price for the metal, a credit a pound. They used a lot of gold in cello-logical items because it did not tarnish and so did not poison cells. Well, that was all to my benefit: and it was a straight professional deal.
There was a law forbidding the export of metals that would upset the currencies of primitive worlds which was why the Apparatus had never done this on the Earth base. But if they were willing to overlook that, so was I.
I seized a scrap of paper off the littered floor and began to calculate.
The 30,000 pounds on Voltar would weigh about 25,000 pounds on Earth. That was 300,000 Troy ounces.
Gold had shot up lately. It was running around $850 an ounce. It had been that years ago and then had dropped but now inflation had caught up with it again. It would go higher, not lower.
I calculated further. I gasped. That was $255,000, – 000.00!
GODS!
I could pay off the credit card companies!
I wouldn't lose the villa. The staff wouldn't be sold into slavery. I wouldn't be sold into slavery.
More! With that much money, I could wheel and deal and wangle and get anything done to Heller and Krak that I wanted!
WOW!
It didn't even make any difference if she was using my credit card!
Who the Hells cared?
WOW! WOW!
I could buy that bulletproof limousine!
I could buy and sell anybody I wanted to!
Utanc even would fawn on me!
Oh, a gorgeous world was really opening up!
WOW! WOW!! WOW!!!
But wait.
Thirty thousand pounds of gold!
That was 12 1/2Earth TONS!
I couldn't even get a truck to carry it!
I could not hide it or bury it.
Keeping gold lying around meant its loss, as I had just so harshly experienced.
Ye Gods, I couldn't even get it out of the hangar!
No wonder Bolz had told me I was on my own.
My problem was I HAD TOO MUCH GOLD!
I briefly toyed with the idea of just accepting a little bit. But that was unthinkable. I could not abandon even a shadow of that beautiful metal.
Wait. I had to think!
The mistake I had made before was trying to hold on to it. I must not make that same mistake again!
If I turned up in Istanbul with that much gold, they'd investigate me to bits. My cunning plan of local buying through the Pahalt General Merchandising Emporium that I had set up earlier couldn't account for any amount like this. I doubted that there was this much gold reserve in the whole Turkish National Bank!
Yet, I had to convert it. Despite my overwhelming love of it, I had to convert it into ready cash before somebody turned it into lead and paint. But where? And how?
The only place they would accept gold with no questions, under their new laws, was Switzerland. But there were lots of borders to cross between here and there!
Borders? "Border-jumper." The line-jumper!
But that meant letting the Antimancos in on it. It meant dangling gold
"...297, 298, 299, 300!" I counted. "They're all there!"
"Yes, they're all there," said Bolz. "And I'm Gods (bleep) glad to get rid of them, the kind of crew I've got and the price of gold being what it is on this planet. Now, watch. I am locking the door. Come back to my cabin."
He got me there. In a daze, I initialled the invoice. He put it in his safe and he locked the safe securely. He handed me the storeroom key. Then he picked up his grip and put on his civilian hat.
"You're on your own," said Captain Bolz. "Some of the crew will be aboard and I've told the mate they can give you a hand unloading it, but I take no responsibility for it from here on out. Good-bye."
He left.
Chapter 2
I sank down at his table. I couldn't get my eyes shut: they were popped too wide, a frozen reflex.
Minutes went by. I became aware of the fact, at last, that my heart was still beating and that I was still breathing.
Thirty thousand pounds of gold!
Zanco had owed me a 30,000-credit bribe for all the hospital supplies I ordered. That meant that they had paid what must have been a professional price for the metal, a credit a pound. They used a lot of gold in cello-logical items because it did not tarnish and so did not poison cells. Well, that was all to my benefit: and it was a straight professional deal.
There was a law forbidding the export of metals that would upset the currencies of primitive worlds which was why the Apparatus had never done this on the Earth base. But if they were willing to overlook that, so was I.
I seized a scrap of paper off the littered floor and began to calculate.
The 30,000 pounds on Voltar would weigh about 25,000 pounds on Earth. That was 300,000 Troy ounces.
Gold had shot up lately. It was running around $850 an ounce. It had been that years ago and then had dropped but now inflation had caught up with it again. It would go higher, not lower.
I calculated further. I gasped. That was $255,000, – 000.00!
GODS!
I could pay off the credit card companies!
I wouldn't lose the villa. The staff wouldn't be sold into slavery. I wouldn't be sold into slavery.
More! With that much money, I could wheel and deal and wangle and get anything done to Heller and Krak that I wanted!
WOW!
It didn't even make any difference if she was using my credit card!
Who the Hells cared?
WOW! WOW!
I could buy that bulletproof limousine!
I could buy and sell anybody I wanted to!
Utanc even would fawn on me!
Oh, a gorgeous world was really opening up!
WOW! WOW!! WOW!!!
But wait.
Thirty thousand pounds of gold!
That was 12 1/2Earth TONS!
I couldn't even get a truck to carry it!
I could not hide it or bury it.
Keeping gold lying around meant its loss, as I had just so harshly experienced.
Ye Gods, I couldn't even get it out of the hangar!
No wonder Bolz had told me I was on my own.
My problem was I HAD TOO MUCH GOLD!
I briefly toyed with the idea of just accepting a little bit. But that was unthinkable. I could not abandon even a shadow of that beautiful metal.
Wait. I had to think!
The mistake I had made before was trying to hold on to it. I must not make that same mistake again!
If I turned up in Istanbul with that much gold, they'd investigate me to bits. My cunning plan of local buying through the Pahalt General Merchandising Emporium that I had set up earlier couldn't account for any amount like this. I doubted that there was this much gold reserve in the whole Turkish National Bank!
Yet, I had to convert it. Despite my overwhelming love of it, I had to convert it into ready cash before somebody turned it into lead and paint. But where? And how?
The only place they would accept gold with no questions, under their new laws, was Switzerland. But there were lots of borders to cross between here and there!
Borders? "Border-jumper." The line-jumper!
But that meant letting the Antimancos in on it. It meant dangling gold
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