Mapped Space 1: The Antaran Codex (13 page)

“Why the wait?” Gwandoya demanded
impatiently.

“After the bidding closes,” Sarat
replied, “we will fully authenticate your digital-vault balances to ensure each
bid is valid.”

Digital-vaults had layers of
authentication. Most transactions were executed quickly with the lowest level
security, but full validation took time to process encryption keys through complex
multivariate analyses. It was what enabled each vault-key to effectively be a
tiny piece of Earth Bank itself.

“You will enter your bids into
this console,” Sarat said, motioning to a small Earth Bank auctioneer held by
one of his butler-guards. The sturdy, rectangular machine was coated in black, poly-dense
armor, with an unbroken Earth Bank molecular seal at the only access point,
proof the machine’s internal systems had not been tampered with in any way.
Such machines were rare outside the Core Systems, not only because of their
cost, but because Earth Bank rarely let them out of their sight. Its verdict
would be final and unequivocal and it would ensure the appropriate
digital-vault keys were updated. “Shall we set the floor price at one thousand
tera
-credits?”

Sarat watched us all, assessing
if this astronomical figure was within our reach. I didn’t know if he’d picked
that number because it was the price the Irzaen had instructed him to begin
with, or because I’d shown him my bankroll – which in hindsight was a mistake.
Either way, none of the other bidders seemed perturbed by the number, so I
guess they all thought the Antaran Codex – whatever it was – was worth it.

“Only one thousand
tera
-credits?” Breckinridge joked as he stepped forward,
having decided to bid first as a show of confidence. The mining magnate
inserted his vault key into the auctioneer and entered his bid, watched
intently by Bo Qiang. I exchanged looks with Marie, seeing uncertainty in her
eyes.

“So Esmin, who’s going to win?” I
whispered.

“The best woman of course!” she said
with more confidence than she felt. “And if you call me that name again, I’ll
share your innermost secrets with . . . Jase!”

I feigned a frown. “You wouldn’t?”

She smiled, daring me to keep
taunting her.

When Breckinridge completed his
bid, Vargis went next. When he was finished, I motioned for Bo to go next, but
he declined.

“I prefer to bid last, Captain Kade,
if you don’t mind. It is an ancient Chinese tradition.”

“I didn’t know that,” I said,
approaching the machine and sliding Lena’s vault-key into the Earth Bank auctioneer,
then waited while it verified my identify.

There must have been a strategy
to this kind of bidding, but I had no idea what it was. All I knew for sure was
if I went too low, I’d be eliminated in the first round. I began to realize why
the Irzaens had a reputation for shrewdness. This process was designed to panic
buyers into paying as much as they could afford. I decided not to go all out in
round one, but didn’t want to low ball myself, so I bet three quarters of the
balance in the vault and hoped I’d still be in the game tomorrow.

Marie followed me, then Bo Qiang
went last.

With round one bidding concluded,
we retired to the lounge for cocktails and small talk. While I sipped my drink,
I wondered what kind of alien-tech would attract a mining magnate, a pirate
king, a white collar criminal genius, the Beneficial Society and a Chinese
alien artifact collector? Whatever it was, even though Lena had given me an
obscenely large bucket of credits to play with, I had a feeling it wouldn’t be
enough.

* * * *

An impressive table was set for dinner in a
banquet hall with panoramic views of the iceberg strewn sea. Before the first
course arrived, a darkness descended over the ocean outside, broken only by the
distant lights of a solitary factory ship.

By unspoken agreement Marie and I
sat together, while the inscrutable Bo Qiang sat on my other side. The other
three bidders sat opposite, with Jase at one end of the table and Sarat, smoking
one of his foul smelling fume-sticks, at the other. Sarat’s butler-guards moved
around the table serving food and drinks efficiently, but without courtesy. To
my surprise, dinner was not seafood, but included meat and vegetables,
obviously prepared by a gourmet chef with imported ingredients.

Presently, Vargis turned to Sarat
and asked, “Why should we trust these Irzaens? For all we know this could be an
elaborate swindle.”

“Trust is their business, Senor Vargis.
If they cheated you, other more important customers would hear about it.”

“But why would anyone care if the
Irzaens cheated us?” Breckinridge asked.

“The Irzaens are an ancient and
distinguished civilization,” Sarat replied. “Cheating the newest interstellar
civilization in the entire galaxy would harm their reputation. That’s what they
care about, not us.”

“Even if they don’t cheat us,” I
said, “what possible use are our credits to them?”

Sarat took a long slow pull on
his fume-stick, before exhaling. “They have no interest in our technology, our
art or our culture, but they have discovered one thing we have that they want.
You see they’re herbivores, which partly explains why they are one of the least
aggressive species in the galaxy. Recently, they became aware of an Earth
plant, called
convallaria
majalis
, more
commonly known as the ‘lily of the valley’. It’s an extremely aromatic plant,
especially to Irzaen senses, and one they find particularly appetizing.”

“Are you saying they want to buy
flowers from us?” Gwandoya growled contemptuously.

“No,” Sarat replied, “They want
to buy food from us. A lot of food. Once they have the credits from this deal,
they’ll establish diplomatic relations with Earth. They will then place a large
ongoing order for that plant triggering a great new agricultural industry for
mankind, one that will allow us to trade with one of the more advanced
civilizations in the galaxy. They get – what is to them – a rare and exotic
delicacy and we get rich. Everyone wins.”

It made such good sense I began
to wonder whether there really was an impending Access Treaty violation. If the
Irzaens were the reputable traders Sarat claimed and the deal was ultimately
about food, then the only risk was related to the Antaran Codex itself – and I
wouldn’t know what that was until after the bidding. Even if the Codex really was
harmless, I had to win the auction in case it wasn’t.

The next course came and the
conversation splintered. Presently, I whispered to Marie, “So Esmin, how long
have you been fronting for the Society?”

She held up her knife, admiring
its sharp edge in the light. “Are you sure you want to keep calling me that
name?”

“Well, since you put it like that
. . .”

She lowered the knife to her
plate. “My family has lived and breathed the Society for generations. I don’t
front for them, I am them.”

It had never occurred to me before,
that there were inner layers to the Beneficial Society of Traders which were
hidden from some members, even second generation members like me. Perhaps it was
more of a secret society than I realized. “I’m surprised they’re interested in
an old alien-tech relic.”

She gave me a puzzled look. “Really?
How could they not be? It’s everything they ever wanted?”

I was burning to know why the
Society wanted it so badly, but once she realized I was in the dark, she’d play
me. Irrespective of what we were in the bedroom, in this game we were
competitors – and that’s how we both liked it.

“Buying stolen or illegal
alien-tech might upset the navy,” I said, “maybe even the Earth Council.”

“The risk is worth it. You of all
people should see that,” she said without looking up. “So how did you get mixed
up with Jie Kang Li?”

“Oh, we go way back.” When I’d
been a serving EIS agent, I’d taken down a high ranking Yiwu crime lord and his
gang on
Shengtai
, which was why I avoided PFA systems
these days. There were still plenty of Yiwu agents out there who might
recognize me. “Li introduced me to kung
pao
chicken. It’s
a little hot for my taste, but he insisted I’d get used to it. I never did.”

She looked bemused, unsure if I
was joking or not. “What will the Yiwu do with the Codex, if you win?”

“Jie Kang Li didn’t tell me.”

She sliced through the beef on
her plate, adding absently. “It’s not something I thought they could use.”

“That’s what I said when Li
offered me the job.”

She turned towards me with a
knowing look and whispered, “You have absolutely no idea what it is, do you?”

As usual, she’d seen right
through me. “Nope, not a clue. Care to throw me a bone?”

“If only you hadn’t called me
Esmin so many times!” She drained her glass of imported wine, patted me on the
shoulder with mock sympathy and excused herself for the ladies’ room.

When she was out of earshot, Bo
Qiang leaned towards me and said in a low voice, “The Yiwu Alliance would find
many uses for the Codex.”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Oh yes,” he continued slowly. “They
would pay a great deal for this kind of opportunity and would be very
disappointed not to win. One might say, even angry with anyone who got in their
way.”

I realized Marie’s presence had
distracted me, preventing me from noticing how carefully Bo had been listening
to our conversation. I realized he’d shadowed me to the table, choosing his
seat only after Marie and I had chosen ours, ensuring he sat beside me where he
could listen to my every word.

“You say that like a man with
knowledge of such things,” I said.

Bo inclined his head evasively.
“I am a simple lawyer. I revere my ancestors. I care for my family. And I work
tirelessly for my client.”

“Right,” I said warily, sensing
there was something else going on with Bo that I didn’t understand. “Your client
is a collector?”

“Most assuredly, Captain Kade. He
is a man of great discretion, diverse interests and . . . sadly, an unforgiving
nature.”

There was no mistaking his implied
threat, although I wasn’t sure why this seemingly innocuous little man would
want to threaten me. “I guess you’ll be in trouble if you don’t win.”

“There is one thing my client
does not collect, Captain Kade.”

“And what would that be?”

“Enemies,” Bo said quietly.

“Everyone has enemies.”

“An enemy is only an enemy until
he is dead, and then he is just a corpse,” Bo said with quiet menace.

For the first time, I realized
there was a cold ruthless streak in little Bo. He’d hidden it well, but for
some reason he’d decided to reveal it to me. “Right, he has no enemies because
he’s unforgiving.”

“Precisely.”

I had a terrible feeling I knew
what Bo was trying to tell me and it wasn’t simply that the enemies of his
client ended up dead. “This client of yours, this unforgiving collector, his
name would be . . . ?”

“Jie Kang Li,” Bo whispered so
no-one else would hear.

“Of course it is,” I said knowing
my cover was blown.

I wondered if I could kill Bo
without drawing attention to the act. The others were talking quietly among
themselves. The butler-guards were hovering nearby, but no one was paying us
any particular attention. I knew when Marie returned, all male eyes would be drawn
to her beauty, if only for a moment. With ultra-reflexed muscles, I could kill
Bo with a single, lightning fast blow to the temple, or break his neck, but could
I do it fast enough not to be seen? “It seems Jie Kang Li is bidding against
himself.”

Bo sipped his green tea,
replacing the cup slowly. “I think not, Captain Kade.”

“Then one of us is not who he
says he is.”

Bo pursed his lips thoughtfully.
“Apparently not.”

Marie returned to the room and
for a moment all eyes turned towards her as expected. I tensed, thinking I
could drive a knuckle into Bo’s temple in under a second, then pretend he was
choking and jump to my feet to help him, masking the blow.

“The cautious seldom err,” Bo
said quickly.

I hesitated. “What?”

“The cautious seldom err,” he
repeated. “Confucius said it four and half thousand years ago. Wise then, wiser
today.”

“I guess so.”

“Attempting to strike me down would
not be cautious, Captain Kade. Indeed, it would be a grievous error.”

He’d read my body language? I’d
tensed ever so slightly, preparing to strike in a way that should have been
impossible to read.

Bo saw the confusion on my face.
“In martial arts, one studies the eyes, not the form, to anticipate an
opponent’s move. For a grand master, a look is an eternity.”

I’d telegraphed my intention with
my eyes? It seemed impossible but Bo was telling me he was a grand master – and
he’d been right! Even if he wasn’t re-sequenced, a grand master might just be
fast enough to deflect an ultra-reflexed blow. It was something I’d never put
to the test and decided with no chance of surprise, this wasn’t the time or
place to try. I visibly relaxed, leaned toward him and whispered, “You’re not
really a lawyer, are you?”