Business was business, nothing more, nothing less. This was the principle by which Smoothbore operated, but this particular client had left him feeling bewildered.
First, the client had gone about the commission all wrong. He wanted to speak in person, which was extremely unusual in this line of business. Smoothbore remembered his instructor’s repeated admonitions three decades prior: their relationship with clients should be like that of the forehead to the back of the skull; the two should never meet. This, of course, was in the best interest of both parties.
Smoothbore was even more surprised by the client’s choice of meeting place. The opulent Presidential Hall in the most luxurious five star hotel in the city was a spectacularly unsuitable venue for this sort of transaction. According to the other party, this contract would involve processing three units. This was no trouble – he did not mind a little extra work.
An attendant held open the gilded doors of the Presidential Hall.Before he entered, Smoothbore inconspicuously reached a hand into his jacket and gently undid the snaps on the holster under his left armpit. In truth, it was unnecessary – no one would try to pull anything unexpected in a place like this.
The hall was resplendent in glittering greens and golds, a world apart from the reality outside. This world’s sun was a massive crystal chandelier, shining down on an endless plain of scarlet carpet. At first glance the room seemed empty, but Smoothbore quickly spied its occupants clustered around two French windows in the corner of the hall,lifting the heavy curtains to look at sky outside. He swept an eye over them and counted thirteen people. Smoothbore had anticipated a client,not clients. His instructor had also said that clients were like mistresses:you could have more than one, but you should never let them meet.
Smoothbore knew exactly what they were looking at: the Elder Brothers’ spaceship. It had moved back over the Southern Hemisphere and was clearly visible in the sky. Three years had passed since the Creator civilization had left Earth. Their grand cosmic visit had drastically increased humanity’s ability to mentally cope with alien civilizations.Moreover, the Creators’ fleet of 20,000 spaceships had blotted out the sky,but only one ship from the Elder Brothers’ world had arrived on Earth. It was not as bizarrely shaped as the spaceships of the Creators. Cylindrical with rounded ends, it looked like an intergalactic cold relief capsule.