Free Corrupting Dr. Nice by John Kessel Page A

was in the basement, next to a large warehouse of stalls and cages that held livestock waiting to be shipped uptime. A window wall in the office opened onto a view of a Galilean valley. A young woman, whose name tag read "Maureen," greeted them at the desk.
    "Good morning," August said. "Can we purchase a dog here?"
    "I'm afraid we aren't in the business of sales. But I can give you the addresses of several reputable dealers in the city."
    "How about an animal carrier?"
    "You can purchase that there as well. Here at the kennel we only take care of animals prior to shipment."
    "Very good," August said. Under the pretext of getting a look at the kennel where they intended to keep this valuable dog they were planning to buy, August made the woman show them down the aisles of cages in back. Gen examined the security setup. The usual camera midges, hooked into the hotel's AI, hovered in the corners of the rooms. There were ways of disabling them. But they needed some information on the hotel personnel routines.
    "Father, do you think we could get someone to come with us to purchase this dog?" Gen asked.
    "If you're worried about security in the city, it's really not that dangerous," the woman said.
    "Don't a lot of the historicals resent us?"
    "Only a radical minority. Most of them are happy we're here. Here's Simon, for instance. Excuse me, Simon?" the woman called to a small, dark man wheeling a cart of food down one of the aisles.
    "Yes?"
    "Simon, I want you to help these guests go out and purchase a dog."
    The man's brow furrowed. "Mr. Callahan told me to clean out the large cages."
    “I’ll speak to Mr. Callahan,” Maureen said. "Go now."
    "We will pay you handsomely for your help," August said.
    "There's no need for that," Maureen said. "We pay you quite enough already, don't we, Simon."
    Simon was silent. He looked at Gen for the first time, then did a barely noticeable double take. "I will take you," he said.
    Despite Maureen's assurances, Gen had no doubt that Simon had seen enough of tourists to get tired of them. Working in the hotel, he would have become familiar with their condescension. The very fact that he had to take orders from a woman must at the very least gall any man of this time period, and at worst humiliate him.
    "Shalom, Simon," Gen said, bowing her head.
    The historical looked at her for a moment with open astonishment, then ducked his head and began to set out a bowl of food for the mewling cat inside the next cage. "Go to the hotel lobby. I will meet you there in five minutes."
    A moment after they got to the hotel entrance, Simon approached from a service door, still in his hotel coverall but wearing a shawl and headband. The day was bright and hot, the cloudless sky above the busy plaza a depthless blue. The upper market filled the area just outside the palace walls below Mariamme's tower. Since the upper city had largely been taken over by the time travelers, most of the shops were electrified and bore signs in English as well as Hebrew. It was the hottest spot in Judaea for legal trade. Shadier dealings tended to go on in the lower city: the plaza near the Hippodrome was a notorious black market for currency, condoms and antibiotics.
    A fishmonger hawked his wares from a polyfoam cooler. Outside a wine merchant's shop hung skins of wine like the bellies of pregnant women. An old man with a barrow scraped up the leavings of donkeys and horses to keep the pavements clean for the tourists. Simon led August and Genevieve across the plaza and down a narrow side street. The street climbed up a hill between two-story stone buildings. They turned a couple of times and ended up in a still narrower street of shops close to what had once been Herod the Great's magnificent stables. From down the way Gen smelled fresh bread from a bakery, heard the barking of dogs from an animal wholesaler's.
    Genevieve had owned a pet only once in her life. She and her mother were living in a run-down house west of Dufferin