Well, officer..


    "Off the top of my head?" The Pair of MIB agents asking about some 
pocket watch I'd pawned didn't seem to recognize the idiom, but 
oh well. The greys were allways like that, and it was no supprise 
their servants were the same, so I plowed on to the punchline.
    "No clue.    I didn't ask, he didn't say.   Most of my buisness is 
like that, you know.   Guy wants to do the buy, trade, selling thing and 
take somethin off my hands, it's his buisness.  I don't need to know who
he is."
    And all the more so since he'd had a gun.    It was a nice one, too 
- a Largo Draconis war surplus energy pistol.   The kind of thing you 
hunt power armor with.  Not a cheap peice, and not local either.
So when they guy barges in and says he wants to pawn his watch and 
buy this other one I'd picked up afew weeks before that, I didn't 
argue.  I mean, he could have robbed me - he had the firepower, 
after all.
    Didn't expect the MIB to show up the next day and breathe 
down my neck over it though - they ususally take at least a week to 
notice somthing like this, even when it's connected to something big.
    Personaly I didn't understand what was so important about a 
pocket watch - I mean sure, it kept acurate galactic time, so it
wasn't a earth peice, but hey.  It was just a watch.
    Of course, I just run a pawnshop, too, so that might not be true.
I hadn't checked that closely, after all.   It could have been 
something else.   The Remote for someone's ship, cleverly 
disguised for example. Which would make it a shame that I'd sold 
it; I want off this backwater rock so bad it hurts.
    "Very well, then.   If you see him again, contact us."  Agent A's 
voice dragged me out of my self recriminations.  The big agent
- okay, the *bigger* agent, they were both big, gave me the 'you 
better coperate, scumbag' look they all seem to pick up as he 
turned to leave, but his partner just moseyed out my door.
    I don't know why the agency doesn't like me, either.  I follow the
rules and I toe the line, unlike some out of towners I know.
Of course, the outstanding galactic warrents on my head might have
something to do with it..
    Ah, the relics of a misspent youth.   
    Anyway, I still didn't know who the guy was that bought 
the watch.   Or why the Agency is so interested in him.
    But I did know one thing - the two agents were going to have a 
hard time taking him down.    The Largo Draconis armies had
good stuff, for one.    And even the agency's cybered to the gills 
cloneguy's wouldn't be able to mess with a Jurai.   
    Funny that.   I didn't think Jurai needed guns much, but he handled 
it like he knew how to use it.   And he was such an old guy, too.
Maybe the fabled Jurai power dims with age?  Dunno.   
    At least the Largo Draconis stuff is easy to maintain.  The peice
was in really good condition.   He got a nice five hundred thou off me 
for it.   'Course, he had two.
    Still, I don't think I'll be pawning this one.   It's a nice gun.


"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, 
I have fought my way here
To the castle beyond the goblin city
To take back the child that you have stolen
For my will is as strong as yours 
And my kingdom is as great
You have no power over me."

Gamlain, transuniversal courier & Hero for rent 
Sheldon Burnham gamlain@airmail.net   
Http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bay/8762/index.html


The Sunburst Project, Week 8
http://www.chaoseed.com/btr/sbp/
5/13/00