Phylogenesis by Alan Dean Foster

height.
    “No, I do not know you.” The older man was staring hard, hard into Montoya’s eyes. “But I am learning more each time we meet. I placed your name before the involved parties, and I am happy to say it has been accepted. Conditionally, of course.”
    “Thank you, sir! Thank you!” At last, Montoya thought. The chance to fulfill all his dreams! He would show them all. Everyone who had ever mocked him, looked down on him, spit on his intentions. Here at last was the opportunity to prove himself to all of them, to each and every one of the sarcastic, heartless bastards. In particular, there was a worthless little town up in the Amistad…
    Something Ehrenhardt had said made him hesitate. “Conditionally, sir? Conditional on what?”
    “Well, my ambitious friend, surely you know that such opportunities do not come along every day, and those special things that do not come along every day are not for free. A franchise is what it is because it must be paid for. A minimal sum, provided as a guarantor of the prospective franchisee’s good faith.”
    Montoya swallowed and maintained his self-control. “How much?” So nervous was he that he forgot to say
sir
.
    Either Ehrenhardt did not notice or chose magnanimously to ignore the oversight. Smiling, he pushed a piece of embossed plastic across the table in the direction of his apprehensive guest. Montoya picked it up.
    He breathed a little easier. The amount was daunting, but not impossible. The date…
    “I have until this day of the indicated month to raise the required fee?”
    Ehrenhardt nodded paternally. “If it is not forthcoming by then, the franchise must by mutual agreement of the parties involved be awarded to another. That is the way of things. Tell me: Can you be in compliance?”
    “Yes, sir! I know that I can do it.” The time allowed was generous. But he had none to waste, to linger on the beaches and ogle the ladies in the bars and restaurants.
    “That is what I told the others.” The smile faded. “I know the extent of your financial condition, Cheelo. It is not one to inspire confidence.”
    He did his best to shrug off the criticism. “That’s because I enjoy myself, sir. I spend credit as I acquire it. But if you know my status, then you know that it is not always so insignificant.”
    To Montoya’s relief, the fixer’s smile returned. “Another good answer. Keep giving the right answers, Cheelo, and come up with the necessary fee by the indicated date, and you will have your chance to do something big. Take advantage of this opportunity, work hard, and you can become a wealthy and important person, just like myself. I need not tell you that such a chance comes along but rarely in a man’s lifetime. For most, it never comes at all.”
    “I won’t fail it, sir—or you.”
    Ehrenhardt waved diffidently. “This has nothing to do with me, Cheelo. It has everything to do with you. Remember that.” He sipped contemplatively at the pale liquid maintained at just above the freezing point by the thermotic tumbler. Somewhere within the rambling white stucco building that idiot macaw refused to shut up. It was making Montoya nervous. “Tell me, Cheelo—what do you think of these aliens that are so much in the news these days?”
    “Aliens, Mr. Ehrenhardt?”
    “These insectile creatures who persist in trying to further relations with us. What do you think is their real purpose?”
    “I really don’t know, sir. I don’t think much about such things.”
    “You should.” Adjusting his dark glasses, the fixer gazed out across the bay to the open ocean beyond. “This is a surprisingly crowded corner of the galaxy, Cheelo. It behooves every one of us to consider what is taking place here. We can no longer go about our business here on Earth indifferent to what happens on other worlds, as we could in the days before the invention of the drive. Take these reptilian AAnn, for example. The thranx insist they are incorrigible, aggressive