Free Partnership by Anne McCaffrey, Margaret Ball Page A

PARTNERSHIP 59

    our dear families have landed us with? Winner to take a twenty-five percent share in each of the losers'
    operations — business, goods, or cold credits?"

    *
do we decide to stop and make the final
    evaluation?" DarneU asked.
    "Five years — that's the end of most of our tours of duty, isn't it?"

    "You know it is," said Alpha quickly. "Standard tour.
    And," she went on under Polyon's firm gaze, " I think it's a fliarvelous idea. I've got my own plans, you know."

    "What?" Darnell demanded.

    Alpha gave him a slow, lazy smile. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

    "I'm sure we would all like to know," Polyon put in.
    Adeft twist of the joyball set Thingberry's jeweled web spinning over the top half of the display screen. "Will you enlighten them, Alpha, or shall I — er — con-tribute my own scraps of information?" He crooked his finger, beckoning to her, and she moved closer to his control chair.

    "Nothing much," Alpha said. "But . . . Summerlands is a double clinic. One side for the paying customers —
    mostly VIPs — and one side for charity cases, to improve their SUM rating. I've got some ideas for an improve-ment on Blissto — something we can give addicts in controlled doses. They won't get locked into a cycle of craving and ever-increasing hits of street drugs."

    "Hey, / like Blissto," Darnell protested, "and I don't get into that cycle."

    "Good," Alpha told him. "You're not an addictive personality. Some people aren't that lucky. You've seen Blissed-Out cases? Big enough doses, over a long enough period of time, until their nervous systems look like shredded wheat? My version won't do that. We'll be able to take Blissed-Out cases out of the hospital and send them out to do useful work as long as they stay on their meds. And I'm the one who did all the preliminary 60

    Anne McCaffrey 6? Margaret Ball

    PARTNERSHIP

    61

    design work on this drug. Actually, it was a side-effect of my work on — well, there's no need to discuss all the boring details of my research," she concluded with a sidelong glance at Polyon. "What matters is that I've got the formulas and all the lab notes on hedra."

    "But won't Central Meds hold the patent, if you did the work there?"

    "When—and if— it's patented," Alpha agreed.

    "And you can't sell it until it's passed the trials and been patented — so it's no good to you!"

    Alpha's eyes met Polyon's over Darnell's head.
    "Quite true," she agreed gravely, "but I think I may find a way to profit from the situation anyway."

    "What about you, Fassa?" Polyon asked. The girl had been very quiet since her jab about the slave names of the Nyota system. "You going to take this boondocks construction company Daddy handed you lying down?" His tone invested the question with a wealth of obscene possibilities.

    "Double profit on every job," Fassa announced calmly. "I've got a degree in accounting. I can fix the books in ways an auditor will never catch."

    Darnell whistled appreciatively. "But if you are caught — "

    Fassa coiled herself on the other side of Polyon's chair in a series of languorous, sinuous movements that drew all eyes to her. "I think," she said dreamily,
    "that I can distract any auditors who may think about checking the books. Or any building inspectors who need to sign off on materials quality." Her slow, dreamy smile promised a world of secret delights.
    "There's a lot of money in construction ... if you go about it the right way."

    The four of them made a tight grouping now: Polyon in the control chair, Darnell standing behind him, Fassa and Alpha seated on either side of him.
    Four pairs of eyes gazed expectantly at Blaize.

    "Well," he said, swallowed, and started over again.
    «*^h — PTA doesn't offer quite as much scope for creativity as the rest of your outfits, does it now?"

    "You're with us or against us," said Polyon. "Which is it to be, little cousin?"
    "Ah —neutrality?"

    "Not good enough." Polyon glanced around at the other three.