HEIST JOB ON THIZAR
By RANDALL GARRETT
In the future, we may discover new planets; our shipsmay rocket to new worlds; robots may be smarter thanpeople. But we'll still have slick characters willingand able to turn a fast buck—even though they haveto be smarter than Einstein to do it.
Anson Drake sat quietlyin the Flamebird Roomof the Royal Gandyll Hotel,listening to the alien, butsoothing strains of the nativeorchestra and sipping a drink.He knew perfectly well thathe had no business displayinghimself in public on the planetThizar; there were influentialThizarians who held nolove for a certain Earthmannamed Anson Drake.
It didn't particularlybother Drake; life was dangerand danger was life tohim, and Anson Drake wasknown on half a hundredplanets as a man who couldtake care of himself.
Even so, he wouldn't havebothered to come if it had notbeen for the fact that VironBelgezad was a pompousbraggart.
Belgezad had already sufferedat the hands of AnsonDrake. Some years before, anarcotics gang had beensmashed high, wide, andhandsome on Thizar. Threemen had died from an overdoseof their own thionitedrug, and fifty thousand creditsof illicit gain had vanishedinto nowhere. The Thizarianpolice didn't know who haddone the job, and they didn'tknow who had financed thering.
But Belgezad knew thatAnson Drake was the former,and Drake knew that VironBelgezad was the latter. Andeach one was waiting hischance to get the other.
A week before, Drake hadbeen relaxing happily on abeach on Seladon II, twelvelight-years from Thizar,reading a newsfax. He hadbecome interested in an articlewhich told of the sentencingof a certain lady to sevenyears in Seladon Prison,when his attention was attractedby another headline.
VIRON BELGEZAD BUYSALGOL NECKLACE
Thizar (GNS)—VironBelgezad, wealthy Thizarianfinancier, has purchasedthe fabulousNecklace of Algol, it wasannounced today. Thenecklace, made of matchedStar Diamonds, is estimatedto be worth morethan a million credits, althoughthe price paid byBelgezad is not known.
The coronation on Thizar was a thing of vast magnificence.Such an interesting bitseemed worthy of further investigation,so Drake had immediatelybooked passage onthe first space liner to Thizar.
And thus it was that animmaculately dressed, broad-shouldered,handsome youngman sat quietly in the FlamebirdRoom of Thizar's flushiesthostelry surveying hissurroundings with steadygreen eyes and wonderinghow he was going to get hishands on the Necklace ofAlgol.
The police couldn't touchBelgezad, but Anson Drakecould—and would.
"Hello, Drake," said a coldvoice at his elbow.
Drake turned and lookedup into the sardonically smilingface of Jomis Dobigel, theheavy-set, dark-faced Thizarianwho worked with Belgezad.
"Well, well," Anson said,smiling, "if it isn't Little Bo-Peep.How is the dope business?And how is the BigDope Himself?"
Dobigel's smile soured."You're very funny, Earthman.But we don't like Earthmenhere."
"Do sit down, Dobbie, andtell me all about it. The lastI heard—which was threehours ago—the governmentof Thizar was perfectly happyto have me here. In fact,they were good enough tostamp my passport to proveit."
Dobigel pulled out a chairand sat down, keeping hishands beneath the table."What are you doing here,Drake?" he asked in a cold