Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds (36 page)

She was not inside. On a hunch, Floyt went and hit the playback on her answering unit. On a table lay his and Alacrity's proteuses; they'd completely slipped his mind. He shoved them into a pocket.

No messages were recorded, but in her answering recording, Sintilla said that she would be at funeral rites slated to be held by some of the non-Inheritors.

"So she went straight there after we left her in the corridor," Floyt concluded with relief, "and she won't be back until midnight or so. She's all right, then. Alacrity? What are you doing?"

The breakabout was bent over the journalist's personal, desk-model proteus. "Oh
no
!
Oh, God, Buddha, and Freud in the Void!"

"What is it?"

"Read for yourself!"

Floyt leaned over the screen and read the message on which Sintilla had been working.

TO: ANDRAX MIXTO, MANAGING EDITOR, FIRST BURST PUBLICATIONS

FROM: SINTILLA ANDY, SIT DOWN BEFORE YOU READ THIS, LOVE! I

HAVE THE

PERFECT NEW SERIES FOR PUBLICATION UNDER MY BOMBASTICO

HERDMAN PSEUDONYM! THE SITUATION FITS THE

READERSHIP-PSYCHOMETRICIANS' REQUIREMENT EXACTLY:

VERIFIABLY EXTANT MAIN CHARACTERS WITH AN "EVERYMAN"

TOUCH; VERY LOW PROBABILITY THAT THEY'D EVEN STEP FORWARD

TO IDENTIFY THEMSELVES, MUCH LESS DENOUNCE THE STORIES;

PLENTY OF LEEWAY TO "SWEETEN" THE STORY LINES. IT'S A NATURAL

FOR MY READERS!

WORKING TITLE FOR THE FIRST BOOK IS HOBART FLOYT AND

ALACRITY FITZHUGH IN THE CASTLE OF THE DEATH ADDICTS. OTHERS

ALREADY OUTLINED ARE HOBART FLOYT AND ALACRITY FITZHUGH

VERSUS THE BRAIN EATERS OF THE GALACTICRIM, AND HOBART

FLOYT AND ALACRITY FITZHUGH CHALLENGE THE AMAZON SLAVE

WOMEN OF THE SUPERNOVA.

IT COULD MAKE US EVEN MORE MONEY THAN THE WEIR BOOKS! I'LL

BE WAITING TO HEAR FROM YOU, ANDY!

KISSES, TILLA

"Well, she
said
we were going to make her rich," Floyt remarked weakly.

"So. She wrote all those Weir books too. No wonder she's a privileged character around here. I'll bet that's how he bribed her into not writing any more of them."

"Alacrity, she can't
do
this to us!"

"What're
you
complaining about? At least your name's first." He settled into a chair, shoulders slumped. "If I sat right here and thought all day, I couldn't think of anything that'd get Earthservice madder, or make things tougher on us. Once this gets out, every mental case in the galaxy's gonna be on the lookout for us."

They both had the same thought in that moment: Kid Risk, and the many kinds of sorrow a similar fate had brought down upon him.

"Alacrity, we've got to hurry." Floyt grabbed his luggage; Alacrity snatched up his warbag. They made for the door.

"Yeah, that's the ticket, Ho! If we can get everything squared away before she gets those books published, maybe we'll be all right."

They spied a corridor tram and hastened toward it. "And if we don't manage that?" Floyt couldn't help wondering aloud.

"The crackpots'll be all over us like a cheap spacesuit. They'll be out to rob us, or challenge us!"

"Or
interview
us!"

"Run, Ho!
Run!"

Brian Daley is the author of seven previous novels of science fiction and fantasy, the most recent being
A Tapestry of Magics.
He also scripted the National Public Radio serial adaptations of
Star
Wars
and
The Empire Strikes Back.
His whereabouts are subject to change without notice, but he favors Manhattan.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 84-91792

ISBN 0-345-31487-5

Scan Notes:

[v1—25 apr 2003—scanned and proofed by anonymous]

[v2—26 oct 2003—reproofed by Escaped Chicken Spirits (ECS)]