The Return of Nathan Brazil

Nautilus—Topside

“Marquoz!”

The sight of the familiar, squat little dragon puffing on his ever-present cigar seemed to reassure her, bring her back to reality. Mavra had never felt so helpless, so alone, not even when she was alone, making her own way from orphaned beggar to streetwalker to space captain and master thief.

She felt like hugging the little monster, but refrained. Instead she just held up a hand in greeting and waited for him to come across the grassy lawn to her. He could move damned fast, she found.

“Well! Mavra, I hope?” the Chugach’s foghorn voice boomed. “Still in harness, so to speak?”

She shrugged. “Obie said it would help if I kept this shape a little longer. He’s running this show.”

And that, of course, was part of the problem. As had happened on the Well World many years before when Mavra was a hopeless cripple, she felt like a pawn, an ornament, in a grand design being woven by others, uncertain of her future, even of whether she had a future, and unable to do a damned thing about it.

Marquoz seemed to understand. “Obie had us bugged, as you know,” he told her. “When the Olympians moved, he dispatched more of the crew to get us. Man, was that Amazon leader mad!”

That was more like it. Real. Down-to-earth. “What have you done with the Olympians?” she asked.

“Ran ’em through Obie, of course,” the little dragon replied. “Tame as kittens now.”

She nodded. “And where’s Brazil?”

“Eating—eating big, too, for such a little man. Says it’s the first nonsynthetic stuff he’s had in ages except grain products. One of the boys is going to take him on the grand tour later.”

That returned her thoughts to reality, and she didn’t want any more of that right at the moment. “Where’s Gypsy?” she asked. “I could use a good card game or something right now. Bet he lorded it all over you that he stayed back here nice and comfortable while we were getting shot up!”

Marquoz’s large head cocked itself slightly to one side. “That’s the odd thing. He isn’t here. Obie said he asked to borrow a ship to fix up some personal things before he got completely tied down and trapped in this business. Rather odd—I didn’t even know he could fly one. Even odder that Obie would give it to him.”

She nodded, a funny feeling in her stomach. “He’s a very strange man,” she said, “with very strange powers. I wonder where he went?”

“Stranger than that,” the little dragon added. “He didn’t go anyplace at all. We were in the Rhone sector, we’re still in the Rhone sector, and his ship’s on standby in deep space just a few light-years from here, or so Obie tells me.”

That was even odder. “Has Obie given you any idea about what’s going on? I mean, is Gypsy doing something for us that we’re just not being told about?”

Marquoz shrugged. “Who knows? What on Earth would anybody use Gypsy for? No, I got the distinct impression that Obie is as bewildered as we are—but, just like with the customs men, security men, and the rest, Gypsy seems to have a power over even Obie.”

She shivered slightly. “I hope he’s on our side.”

“Oh, I have no doubt he’s on his own side and no other,” the Chugach said. “But he’s not against us, I’ll stake my life on that. Have, in fact.”

“I hope you’re right” was all she could manage. “Still, I’d like to ask him a few questions when he gets back. Curious, too, that he should take off like that just when Brazil comes on. I wonder if he will be back? Doesn’t he want to meet Nathan Brazil?”

“Perhaps not,” the dragon admitted. “We’ll see… Well, come on. Let’s go up and relax a bit. I’m not as adept at gaming as Gypsy, but me and the boys would be delighted to have you join us in a little game of chance.”