layout?"
Reetal stood up. "Come over to the desk," she said. "We've gotdiagrams."
* * * * *
"The five levels, as you see," Heraga was explaining a few momentslater, "are built directly into the curve of the Star's shells. LevelFive, on the top, is therefore quite small. The other levels arefairly extensive. Two, Three, and Four could each accommodate ahundred men comfortably. These levels contain mainly living quarters,private offices, and the like. The Brotherhood men appear to beoccupying the fourth level, Velladon's group the second. The third maybe reserved for meetings between representatives of the two groups.All three of these levels are connected by single-exit portals to thelarge entrance area on the ground level.
"The portals stood open when I went in earlier today, and there wereabout twenty armed men lounging about the entrance hall. I recognizedapproximately half of them as being members of the Star's securityforce. The others were unfamiliar." Heraga cleared his throat. "Thereis a possibility that the two groups do not entirely trust eachother."
Quillan nodded. "If they're playing around with something like sixtymillion CR, anybody would have to be crazy to trust the Brotherhood ofBeldon. The transmitter room and the control officers are guarded,too?"
"Yes, but not heavily," Heraga said. "There seem to be only a few menstationed at each of those points. Ostensibly, they're there as asafe-guard--in case the imaginary raiders attempt to break out of thesubspace section."
"What's the arrangement of the ordinary walk-in tube portals in theExecutive Block?"
"There is one which interconnects the five levels. On each of thelower levels, there are, in addition, several portals which lead outto various points in the Seventh Star Hotel. On the fifth level, thereis only one portal of this kind. Except for the portal which operatesbetween the different levels in the Executive Block, all of them havebeen rendered unusable at present."
"Unusable in what way?"
"They have been sealed off on the Executive Block side."
"Can you get me a diagram of the entry and exit systems those outgoingportals connect with?" Quillan asked. "I might turn one of them usableagain."
"Yes, I can do that."
"How about the communication possibilities?"
"The ComWeb system is functioning normally on the second, third, andfourth levels. It has been shut off on the first level--to avoid thespread of 'alarming rumors' by office personnel. There is no ComWeb onthe fifth level."
Reetal said, "We'll shift our operating headquarters back to myregistered suite then. The ComWebs are turned off in these vacantsections. I'll stay in the other suite in case you find a chance tosignal in."
Heraga left a few minutes later to make his arrangements. Reetalsmiled at Quillan, a little dubiously.
"Good luck, guy," she said. "Anything else to settle before you startoff?"
Quillan nodded. "Couple of details. If you're going to be in yourregular suite, and Fluel finds himself with some idle time on hand, hemight show up for the dalliance you mentioned."
Reetal's smile changed slightly. Her left hand fluffed the hair at theback of her head, flicked down again. There was a tiny click, andQuillan looked at a small jeweled hair-clasp in her palm, its needlebeak pointing at him.
"It hasn't got much range," Reetal said, "but within ten feet it willscramble the Duke's brains just as thoroughly as they need to bescrambled."
"Good enough," Quillan said. "Just don't give that boy the ghost of achance, doll. He has a rep for playing very unnice games with theladies."
"I know his reputation." Reetal replaced the tiny gun in her hair."Anything else?"
"Yes. Let's look in on the Kinmarten chick for a moment. If she'sawake, she may have remembered something or other by now that shedidn't think to tell you."
They found Solvey Kinmarten awake, and tearfully glad to see Reetal.Quillan was introduced as a member of the legal profession who woulddo what he could for Solvey and her husband. Solvey frowned prettily,trying very hard to remember anything that might be of use. But itappeared that she had told Reetal all she knew.
* * * * *
The blue and white Phalagon House diner, driven by Heraga, wasadmitted without comment into the Executive Block. It floated onunchallenged through the big entry hall and into a corridor.Immediately behind the first turn of the corridor, the diner paused afew seconds. Its side door opened and closed. The diner moved on.
Quillan, coatless and with the well-worn butt of a big Miam DevilSpecial protruding from the holster on his right hip, came brisklyback along the corridor. Between fifteen and twenty men, their gunsalso conspicuously in evidence, were scattered about the entrancehall, expressions and attitudes indicating a curious mixture ofboredom and uneasy tension. The eyes of about half of them swiveledaround to Quillan when he came into the hall; then, with oneexception, they looked indifferently away again.
The exception, leaning against the wall near the three open portals tothe upper levels, continued to stare as Quillan came toward him,forehead creased in a deep scowl as if he were painfully ransackinghis mind for something. Quillan stopped in front of him.
"Chum," he asked, "any idea where Movaine is at the moment? They justgive me this message for him--"
Still scowling, the other scratched his chin and blinked. "Uh ...dunno for sure," he said after a moment. "He oughta be in the thirdlevel conference room with the rest of 'em. Uh ... dunno you oughtabarge in there right now, pal! The commodore's _reee-lly_ hot aboutsomethin'!"
Quillan looked worried. "Gotta chance it, I guess! Message is prettyimportant, they say--" He turned, went through the center portal ofthe three, abruptly found himself walking along a wide, well-lit hall.
Nobody in sight here, or in the first intersecting passage he came to.When he reached the next passage, he heard voices on the right, turnedtoward them, went by a string of closed doors on both sides until,forty feet on, the passage angled again and opened into a long,high-ceilinged room. The voices came through an open door on the rightside of the room. Standing against the wall beside the door were twomen whose heads turned sharply toward Quillan as he appeared in thepassage. The short, chunky one scowled. The big man next to him, thetop of whose head had been permanently seared clear of hair yearsbefore by a near miss from a blaster, dropped his jaw slowly. His eyespopped.
"My God!" he said.
"Movaine in there, Baldy?" Quillan inquired, coming up.
"Movaine! He ... you ... how--"
The chunky man took out his gun, waved it negligently at Quillan."Tell the ape to blow, Perk. He isn't wanted here."
"Ape?" Quillan asked softly. His right hand moved, had the gun by thebarrel, twisted, reversed the gun, jammed it back with some violenceinto the chunky man's stomach. "Ape?" he repeated. The chunky man wentwhite.
"Bad News--" Baldy Perk breathed. "Take it easy! That's Orca. He's thecommodore's torpedo. How--"
"Where's Movaine?"
"Movaine ... he ... uh--"
"All right, he's not here. And Lancion can't have arrived yet. IsCooms in there?"
"Yeah," Baldy Perk said weakly. "Cooms is in there, Quillan."
"Let's go in." Quillan withdrew the gun, slid it into a pocket, smileddown at Orca. "Get it back from your boss, slob. Be seeing you!"
Orca's voice was a husky whisper.
"You will, friend! You will!"
* * * * *
The conference room was big and sparsely furnished. Four men sat atthe long table in its center. Quillan knew two of them--Marras Cooms,second in command of the Beldon Brotherhood's detachment here, and theDuke of Fluel, Movaine's personal gun. Going by Heraga'sdescriptions, the big, florid-faced man with white hair and flowingwhite mustaches who was doing the talking was Velladon, the commodore;while the fourth man, younger, wiry, with thinning black hairplastered back across his skull, would be Ryter, chief of the Star'ssecurity force.
"What I object to primaril
y is that the attempt was made withoutobtaining my consent, and secretly," Velladon was saying, with atoothy grin but in a voice that shook with open fury. "And now it'sbeen made and bungled, you have a nerve asking for our help. Theproblem is yours--and you better take care of it fast! I can't spareRyter. If--"
"Cooms," Baldy Perk broke in desperately from the door, "Bad NewsQuillan's here an'--"
The heads of the four men at the table came around simultaneously. Theeyes of two of them widened for an instant. Then
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