LITMIR.BIZ

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He raised his own glass. It slopped over. “Oh, damn! I mean . . . gosh, I’m so sorry, I—”

      “No harm done. You aren’t used to our gravity yet.” Peri extended a flawless leg out of her slit skirt and turned it about on the couch, presumably in search of a more comfortable position. “And it must seem terribly cramped here on Earth, Pete,” she continued. “After roaming the desert, hunting, sleeping under the twin moons. Two moons! Why, what girl could resist that?”

      “Uh, well, as a matter of fact, the moons are barely visible,” floundered Matheny.

      “Must you spoil my dreams?” she said. “When I think of Mars, the frontier, where men are still men, why, my breast swells with emotion.”

      “Uh, yes.” Matheny gulped. “Swell. Yes.”

      She leaned closer to his chair. “Now that I’ve got you, don’t think you’ll get away,” she smiled. “A live Martian, trapped!”

      Doran looked at his watch. “Well,” he said, “I have got to get up tomorrow, so I had better run along now.”

      “Ta-ta,” said Peri. Matheny rose. She pulled him down beside her. “Oh, no, you don’t, Mars lad. I’m not through with you yet!”

      “But, but, but,” said Matheny.

      Doran chuckled. “I’ll meet you on the Terrace at fourteen hundred hours tomorrow,” he said. “Have fun, Pete.”

      The door closed on him.

      Peri slithered toward her guest. He felt a nudge and looked down. She had not actually touched him with her hands. “Gus is a good squiff,” she said, “but I wondered if he’d ever go.”

      “Why, why . . . what do you mean?” croaked Matheny.

      “Haven’t you guessed?”

      She kissed him. It was rather like being caught in a nuclear turbine with soft blades.

      Matheny, said Matheny, you represent your planet.

      Matheny, said Matheny, shut up.

      Time passed.

      “Have another drink,” said Peri, “while I slip into something more comfortable.”

      Her idea of comfort was modest in one sense of the word: a nightdress or something, like a breath of smoke, and a seat on Matheny’s lap.

      “If you kiss me like that just once more,” she breathed, “I’ll forget I’m a nice girl.”

      Matheny kissed her like that.

      The door crashed open. A large man stood there, breathing heavily. “What are you doing with my wife?” he bawled.

      “Sam!” screamed Peri. “I thought you were in Australia!”

      *

      “And he said he might settle out of court,” finished Matheny. He stared in a numb fashion at his beer. “He’ll come to my hotel room this afternoon. What am I going to do?”

      “It is a great shame,” said Doran. “I never thought . . . . You know, he told everybody he would be gone on business for weeks yet. Pete, I am more sorry than I can express.”

      “If he thinks I’ll pay his miserable blackmail,” bristled Matheny, “he can take his head and stick—”

      Doran shook his own. “I am sorry, Pete, but I would pay if I was you. He does have a case. It is too bad he just happened to be carrying that loaded camera, but he is a photographer and our laws on Earth are pretty strict about unlicensed correspondents. You could be very heavily fined as well as deported, plus all the civil-damage claims and the publicity. It would ruin your mission and even make trouble for the next man Mars sent.”

      “But,” stuttered Matheny, “b-but it’s a badger game!”

      “Look,” said Doran. He leaned over the table and gripped the Martian’s shoulder. “I am your friend, see? I feel real bad this happened. In a way, it is my fault and I want to help you. So let me go talk to Sam Wendt. I will cool him off if I can. I will talk down his figure. It will still cost you, Pete, but you can pad your expense account, can’t you? So we will both come see you today. That way there will be two people on your side, you and me, and Sam will not throw his weight around so much. You pay up in cash and it will be the end of the affair. I will see to that, pal!”

      Matheny stared at the small dapper man. His aloneness came to him like a blow in the stomach. Et tu, Brute, he thought.

      He bit his lip. “Thanks, Gus,” he said. “You are a real friend.”

      *

      Sam blocked the doorway with his shoulders as he entered the room. Doran followed like a diminutive tug pushing a very large liner. They closed the door. Matheny stood up, avoiding Sam’s glare.

      “Okay, louse,” said Sam. “You got a better pal here than you deserve, but he ain’t managed to talk me into settling for nothing.”

      “Let me get this—I mean—well,” said Matheny. “Look, sir, you claim that I, I mean that your wife and I were, uh, well, we weren’t. I was only visiting—”

      “Stow it, stow it.” Sam towered over the Martian. “Shoot it to the Moon. You had your fun. It’ll cost you. One million dollars.”

      “One mil—But—but—Gus,” wailed Matheny, “this is out of all reason! I thought you said—”

      Doran shrugged. “I am sorry, Pete. I could not get him any farther down. He started asking fifty. You better pay him.”

      “No!” Matheny scuttled behind a chair. “No, look here! I, Peter Matheny of the Martian Republic, declare you are blackmailing me!”

      “I’m asking compensation for damages,” growled Sam. “Hand it over or I’ll go talk to a lawyer. That ain’t blackmail. You got your choice, don’t you?”

      Matheny wilted. “Yes.”

      “A megabuck isn’t so bad, Pete,” soothed Doran. “I personally will see that you earn it back in—”

      “Oh, never mind.” Tears stood in Matheny’s eyes. “You win.” He took out his checkbook.

      “None of that,” rapped Sam. “Cash. Now.”

      “But you claimed this was a legitimate—”

      “You heard me.”

      “Well—could I have a receipt?” begged Matheny.

      Sam grinned.

      “I just thought I’d ask,” said Matheny. He opened a drawer and counted out one hundred ten-kilo-buck bills. “There! And, and, and I hope you choke on it!”

      Sam stuffed the money in a pocket and lumbered out.

      Doran lingered. “Look here, Pete,” he said, “I will make this up to you. Honest. All you have got to do is trust me.”

      “Sure.” Matheny slumped on the bed. “Not your fault. Let me alone for a while, will you?”

      “Listen, I will come back in a few hours and buy you the best dinner in all the Protectorates and—”

      “Sure,” said Matheny. “Sure.”

      Doran left, closing the door with great gentleness.

      *

      He returned at 1730, entered, and stopped dead. The floor space was half taken up by a screen and a film projector.

      “What happened, Pete?” he asked uncertainly.

      Matheny smiled. “I took some tourist movies,” he said. “Self-developing soundtrack film. Sit down and I’ll show you.”

      “Well, thanks, but I am not so much for

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