Fornri stared at him. “Wembling and Company?”
They were angry. Often the council members had been resentful of Fornri, but now they were openly rebellious.
“I can’t believe that an enemy would give us a medical center!” Narrif exclaimed.
Banu, seated as usual with bowed head and closed eyes, completed the search of his memory. “The Langri didn’t mention a medical center,” he said.
Fornri said stubbornly, “We must refuse this gift and ask the ships to leave.”
Dalla turned on him furiously. “What harm can come of a medical center? How can it be bad to save lives?”
“The Langri said gifts always have a price,” Fornri said slowly. “He said to beware of them, or we might learn too late that we have sold our world and ourselves.”
“How can there be a price on something that is freely given?” Dalla demanded. “Are you too proud to admit that we need this medical center? Must we watch our children die while Fornri enjoys his pride?”
Fornri said wearily, “I ask your support. We must refuse this medical center and ask the ships to leave.” He looked about the circle of silent, hostile faces. “Very well,” he said finally. “According to the Plan, you must choose a new leader.”
He had intended merely to step down from the leadership and become a member of the council, but when he took a place beside Dalla, she deliberately turned her back to him. Slowly, feeling very tired, he pushed through the undergrowth and walked off into the forest.
Later the Elder found him, and after they had talked long together, they walked toward the embassy looking for Aric Hort. They came upon him at the edge of the landing field, talking with Talitha Warr, and at the sound of angry, raised voices they discreetly watched from the concealment of a convenient cluster of bushes.
“There’s such a thing as too great a price!” Hort shouted.
“Too great a price for whom?” Miss Warr returned. “For Dabbi? Someone has to violate the natives’ rights in order to save their lives!”
“It isn’t that simple. You have to understand—”
“I understand that you can watch a child die without being affected,” she said furiously. “I can’t.”
She stormed off, leaving Hort looking after her. Finally he walked a short distance to a group of boulders and sat down to watch the bustle of unloading around the ships.
He greeted Fornri and the Elder with a wan smile when they approached him. “My friends,” he said, “I need your help. The ambassador wants to send me to another world. I’d rather stay here, so I’m no longer employed by him. Have I your permission to remain on Langri?”
“We implore you to remain,” the Elder said. “I fear that my people are in serious trouble.”
“That is my fear,” Hort said soberly.
“We welcome your presence as a friend, and we need your counsel,” Fornri said. “Now more than ever. Have you found a way to send a message to the attorneys?”
“The problem was to find a safe way to send a message,” Hort said. “The answer is no. Every ship that lands here from now on will be owned or chartered by Wembling and Company—I have a hunch that we won’t see the courier ship again. If we paid a crewman to smuggle out a message, he would guess that the ambassador would pay more to know what the message said, and he’d be right. It’s a difficult problem.”
“What if one of us were to go to see the attorneys?” the Elder asked.
Hort smiled at them. “You’re asking whether it would be easier to smuggle out a person than a message. Probably not. It might be possible to have someone leave openly, as a passenger; and when a passenger pays his passage there are laws protecting him and he’s under no obligation to tell the captain his ultimate destination or why he’s going. Whoever went would find it a frightening experience. Whom were you going to send?”
“Fornri,” the Elder said. “Since he has lost his leadership—”
“What?”
Hort scrutinized their faces. “So that’s how it is,” he said finally. “Tried to get them to turn it down, did you? And they wouldn’t. I don’t know if it would have made any difference. I don’t know—yet—just how Wembling means to do it and how he expects to get away with it, but obviously he intends to build a resort, whether you want one or not. By accepting the medical center, they’re making it much easier for him. So you want to see the attorneys yourself.”
“If that is possible,” Fornri said.
“It may be much worse than a frightening experience. It may be worse than terrifying.”
“If you will tell me what to expect and what I must do,” Fornri said, “I will go in confidence.”
“There won’t be any trouble about the passage,” Hort said. “Ill tell Wembling that I’m leaving, and he’ll be so pleased he’ll arrange it himself. Just before the ship lifts you can go aboard in my place. You’ll need clothing. I’ll see what I can buy from the crewmen.”
“When would I go?” Fornri asked.
“There’s a ship leaving tonight, but that’s rather soon. I think on the last of these three, if I can arrange it. We’ll need as much time as possible. I’ll send you first to a friend of mine, who is also an anthropologist. He’ll be delighted to give you lessons in civilization, and he’ll help you find those attorneys. Or, if that firm no longer exists, perhaps he can help you find another.”
“There is one thing more,” Fornri said. “We have some retron crystals.”
“Really?” Hort exclaimed. “You actually have some crystals? Now that’s interesting!”
“We would like to convert them to monetary units. Should I take them with me?”
“Certainly not. Crystals have to be transported in special containers, or their emissions mess up a ship’s instrumentation. You’d be asked to leave the ship before lift-off. Maybe the attorneys could help you find out how to do it.”
The three of them sat for a time in silence, looking down at the ships. Finally Hort said to the Elder, “Has Langri developed any sayings about the fickleness of women?”
“Many,” the Elder said. “But I think the word is ‘contrariness.’”
Hort nodded. “Yes. That’s the word.”
12
In the background stood the geodesic frameworks for the clusters of small domes that were to constitute the medical center. A machine was at work leveling the top of the bluff on which the building was being erected. Talitha Warr strode about confidently, giving instructions; the foreman followed her, and Dalla followed the foreman, and both listened attentively.
“A sturdy wall,” Talitha said. “We don’t want anyone falling over the edge. Resident patients can come here and enjoy the breeze and the sea view.”
The foreman scowled and scratched his bead. “Resident patients? The plans don’t call for no hospital accommodations.”
“The hospital will be at the rear of the medical center,” Talitha said. “As much as possible we’ll keep the patients in native-style buildings. They’ll be more comfortable in familiar surroundings. The center will house the various treatment and surgical and laboratory clinics.”
“I see.”
“Back there we’ll put the children’s playground,” Talitha said, pointing. “Over here I want a formal park laid out, with a fountain and the most attractive Langrian flowers and shrubs we can find. Now—about the road down to the beach. I want the grade as easy as possible. Sick patients will have to climb it, or their friends will have to carry them up. I’d like to have a lift for them, but I’m afraid it’d be too expensive.”
“Doesn’t have to be,” the foreman said. “We can cobble up something for you.”