Masters of the Galaxy

by Mike Resnick (ed)

  “How?”

  I couldn’t repress a chuckle. “Max, if I had a ready answer, it’d be routine and not creative. We’ll just keep plugging away until we find a flaw and work from there.”

  “Do you want to question them again tonight?” he asked.

  “Not really,” I said. “I can’t think of anything else to ask. Let me sleep on it.”

  “You are going to sleep now?”

  “In another hour or two,” I said. “I’ve been up a long time.”

  “Will you be sleeping here?”

  “No, this is my interrogation room,” I said.

  “Well, wherever you choose to sleep, let me know, so we can monitor you on the security system. I know you feel you’re not in any danger…”

  “I’m not.”

  “Nevertheless, I think we should keep a watch on you.”

  “Forget it,” I said. “I don’t like being watched.”

  “But Jake—”

  “I’m not kidding,” I said. “I want you to promise you won’t spy on me while I’m sleeping, or I’m going to spend the night in the suit house, where you can’t watch me.”

  “Of course we can. We got it working again.”

  “How?”

  “I had my Order Keepers contact the manufacturer, and once he’d checked our credentials, he gave us the proper codes to activate it again.”

  There was a big mental click! as the pieces suddenly fell into place. I toyed with pulling out a cigarette, but this time I decided I deserved the one smokeless cigar I’d brought along.

  “What is it, Jake?” said Max anxiously. “You’ve got the strangest expression on your face. Are you all right?”

  “Never been better,” I assured him.

  “Then what—”

  “I know who did it,” I said.

  “Then let’s make the arrest!” he said excitedly.

  “It’s not that easy,” I replied. “I know who did it, sure as you’re standing there—but I don’t have any proof that would stand up in a court of law.”

  “Who was it?”

  “Ktamborit.”

  He frowned. “But she had less reason to kill him than anyone else.”

  “Like I said, she’s an alien. I could be half a dozen lifetimes learning and understanding her motives. But a lot of little things didn’t add up.”

  “I didn’t notice anything untoward.”

  “Hang around the homicide bureau for a few years and you will,” I said. “For example, she had to know Kdin’s health was suspect. After all, that’s why he was stepping down. So why didn’t she insist that a robot accompany them outside the dome?”

  “But they found their way back without one,” said Max.

  “Yeah…and it took them ten minutes to cover a quarter mile, more than enough time to make sure he was dead when he got there. Maybe a robot could have led them back in four minutes; maybe Bdale could have revived him if he’d gotten to him soon enough.”

  “But by the same token, any one of them should have thought of having a robot accompany them,” noted Max.

  “That’s why I didn’t say anything at the time. But there was more. Why didn’t she contact Bdale on her suit’s radio when they were carrying Kdin back to the dome? Why wait until they got there?”

  “I never thought of that,” said Max. “But again, it applies to all of them.”

  “I agree. I knew something was wrong, but I still had six suspects.” I paused, ordering my thoughts. “I also thought it was strange that she didn’t insist that her security team come down to the dome. I mean, hell, she’s the boss, no one could stop them, and there was no logical reason for anyone to kill Kdin once he’d retired. There was at least a chance that she was the target, but she didn’t do anything about it.”

  “You’re right, Jake,” he said, his enthusiasm waning. “That will never hold up in a court of law. Even I am not convinced.”

  “Neither was I. I knew all that hours ago. And like I said, I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t know what. I began homing in on her when Bdale told me that she insisted that all the executives stay on Graydawn until the autopsy was performed on Bramanos. Why? Kdin’s own physician said he had died from natural causes. The only reason for the post mortem is that it’s standard when someone worth billions dies. But the killer would know that if the executives left, they’d just be called back for questioning.”

  “Ah!” said Max, his eyes widening. “I see. And based on that…”

  I shook my head. “Based on that, I thought she was the likeliest suspect, nothing more. I didn’t know for sure until you gave me the information I needed.”

  “I did?” he said, surprised.

  “That’s right.”

  “When?”

  “Just now.”

  Max frowned, and I could see him trying to replay our conversation in his mind. Finally he gave me that beachball shrug I was getting used to. “I give up, Jake. What was it?”

  “You told me you could monitor me even if I slept in the suit house.”

  “But we can.”

  “Why can you?” I asked.

  “Because we activated the security system,” said Max.

  “How?”

  “We fed it the proper codes to get it up and running again.”

  I just smiled at him.

  He stared back at me, and suddenly his eyes got wider and wider. “Of course!” he exclaimed excitedly. “This isn’t Kdin’s private house. It’s a corporate retreat. He would know all the codes, and Ktamborit arrived a few days early so that he could instruct her and turn over classified material to her. The security system in the suit house wasn’t broken; it was deactivated by someone who knew the code!”

  “Give the boy a cigar,” I said.

  “No, thank you, Jake,” said Max. “I do not smoke.”

  “It’s just an expression,” I said. “Anyway, Ktamborit’s the killer, but we can’t go into court with what we have. We’ll say she knew the codes, she’ll say Kdin never gave them to her, and we won’t be able to prove otherwise. In fact, a good lawyer will put the blame on Bdale; he doesn’t inherit, and he had ten years to spy on his boss and learn the code.”

  “Could he have done it?” asked Max.

  “No,” I said. “If he did, he’d never have claimed Kdin died from natural causes. He’d have known the post mortem would prove otherwise. And he wouldn’t kill him here on Graydawn, where he was one of seven suspects. He’d wait until Kdin was at a convention or a business meeting, surrounded by rivals. It’d be nothing to slip some poison in a drink, examine the corpse, announce that he’d been murdered, and let the police spend the next decade trying to sort out the two or three hundred people who had motive, means and opportunity. Take my word for it, it’s Ktamborit.”

  “How can we prove it?”

  “We’ll need some help,” I said.

  “Whose?”

  “Ktamborit’s.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You will,” I promised.

  I considered the Gaborians, but except for Bdale they hadn’t made much of an impression on me, and if I could see what a lawyer could do with Bdale, he could too, and was probably too busy planning his own defense to be of any use to me. That left Malcolm Shea and Toblinda. Shea was a Man, but he wasn’t a very impressive one, and I didn’t know how he’d perform under pressure. Toblinda’s race may have been this year’s mortal enemy, but I thought he was worth more than the other five put together. I was only going to have one shot at this, and I decided he offered me my best chance of success.

  “Max, have Toblinda come up here.”

  “Shall I tell him that—?”

  “No,” I cut him off. “We’ll tell him in private, so that if there’s any reaction, no one but you and I see it.”

  “And my Order Keepers?”

  I shook my head. “Not a word. They’re probably all trustworthy, but if they don’t know, they can’t inadvertently give it away.”
/>   “I’m confused, Jake,” he said. “I thought the whole purpose of this investigation was to identify the killer.”

  “I’ve identified her,” I told him. “Now the purpose is to come up with something that she won’t be able to explain away in court.”

  He left to find Toblinda, and while he was gone I had a robot bring another chair into the room. Then he was back, accompanied by the Thrale.

  “Have a seat,” I said. “You too, Max.”

  They sat down.

  “Something’s changed,” said Toblinda.

  “What makes you think so?” I asked.

  “You don’t mind my being comfortable this time,” he said with an alien grin. “And your friend here seems a little less nervous than usual.”

  “Okay, something’s changed,” I said. “I have a proposition for you.”

  “I’m listening,” said the Thrale.

  “What would you say to declaring a temporary truce between Men and Thrales, and helping me nail a killer?”

  “You know who it is?”

  I nodded.

  “Well?” he said expectantly.

  “Do we have a deal?” I said.

  “Of course we have a deal. Every member of the Democracy and half the neutral planets will be sure I did it if we don’t catch the real killer.” He grinned again. “And everyone else will think it was Malcolm Shea.”

  “It’s neither of you,” I said. “Ktamborit killed him.” I gave him the same explanation I’d given Max, and as I did so his expression changed from disbelief to anger.

  “I guess gratitude is not in the Gaborian lexicon,” he said. “He made her one of the six or seven most powerful corporate heads in the entire galaxy, and this was how she thanked him.”

  “I don’t know her motive, and neither do you,” I said. “Maybe we never will. But that won’t stop us from incarcerating her if we play our cards right.”

  “Cards?” interjected Max, puzzled.

  “Another figure of speech,” I said. “Since I can’t come up with enough proof to please a court, we’re going to have to make her incriminate herself.”

  “I love the devious human mind,” said Toblinda. “How do you plan to do this?”

  “I’m working on it. I’d be happy to consider suggestions from either of you. What we have to do is convince her that there’s evidence that can convict her, something she overlooked. Then we sit back and wait for her to go looking for it, and we’ve got her.”

  “We could say that there was a secondary security system that she missed,” offered Max.

  “She’d know it’s a lie,” I said. “Remember, she couldn’t have deactivated the system if Kdin hadn’t shown her where it was and how to shut it off. Why would he do that and then not tell her about a second system?” I looked from one to the other. “Remember, we’ve only got one shot at this. Once she knows we’re trying to trap her, she’ll sit there like a statue and take her chances in court.”

  “Let’s look at it logically,” said Toblinda. “If she were to leave a clue, the most logical place for it is in the outbuilding that holds the suits. She knows the security system was off, so whatever she did isn’t recorded, and she knows the Order Keepers came up with nothing when they searched the building. So there is probably no way she can be enticed back there to look for incriminating evidence. And she knows that no one will ever find a clue outside the dome.”

  “I agree.”

  “Then we’re defeated and she goes on to run the cartel for the next thirty years,” said Toblinda.

  “Come on,” I said. “If the Thrales gave up that easily, our war would have been over in a week.”

  He smiled. “I will take that as a compliment to my race, if not myself. But I still say that the only place to look for a clue is the outbuilding.”

  I shook my head. “No. You’re right: it’s not likely that we can trick her into going back there.”

  “Then what’s left?”

  “Only one thing,” I said.

  “The body?” he asked.

  “No,” I said. “She never touched the body.”

  “The suit!” shouted Max.

  “The suit,” I agreed.

  “But they’ve examined it on Bramanos,” said Toblinda.

  “I know,” I said. “They didn’t find anything.” I paused. “I’ve got my own expert arriving on Bramanos tomorrow morning. He won’t find anything either—but what if we say he landed a few hours ago, and what if we hint that he did find something?”

  “Hint?” repeated Toblinda. “Why not just say it?”

  “Because if we say what he found, she’ll know we’re lying,” I answered. “Let’s let her worry about it.”

  “All right. She’s worried. Now what?”

  “Now Max, who is the inexperienced member of the team, lets slip what it is that we’re looking for. We’ll have to dope out what it is, but Max will tell her that they found some microscopic trace elements on the suit where it had been tampered with. If she was a human, I’d say it could be something as tiny and easy to overlook as a flake of dandruff. But whatever it is, it’ll be something that she’ll believe will clearly identify her as the killer.”

  “So she’ll have to get rid of it!” exclaimed Max.

  “Right,” I said. “But once she knows they found one trace of something, she can’t be sure they won’t find traces of something else tomorrow or next week or next month. So we’re going to bet the farm—no, Max, I don’t own a farm; it’s another figure of speech—that she’ll try to foist the incriminating evidence off on another executive rather than destroy it. Once we have a killer in custody, it stands to reason that we’ll stop looking for another.”

  “Why are you looking at me with that expression on your face?” asked Toblinda.

  “Max is going to blurt out to her that we think you’re the killer, and we hope to be able to prove it before long. Then you’re going to have a public blow-up with me and Shea—you hate Men, remember?—and stalk off to spend the night in the suit house. Max and his agents and I are all going to spend the night on the main floor, waiting to hear the latest news from my forensics expert.”

  “And sometime during the night she plants the evidence in my room?” said Toblinda.

  “Right. You’re the only one who could spend the night in an out-building and make it believable; my race isn’t at war with anyone else. I’ll have Max and at least two of his agents make a complete inventory of your room before we have our little scene, so they can testify that you didn’t possess whatever it is that she’s going to plant there.”

  “She’ll just say someone else planted it.”

  “She can say anything she wants,” I replied. “The house’s security system isn’t disabled.”

  “Yet,” said the Thrale.

  “Yet,” I agreed. “But I’ll post one of Max’s agents by the computer that runs the house and the system, and if she tries to disable it in front of a witness, that ought to be enough to convict her.”

  “If anything goes wrong, you’ll testify that this was your scheme and I merely agreed to follow your orders?” demanded Toblinda.

  “I’ll put it in writing or state it for your personal computer, whichever you prefer,” I said.

  “Both,” he answered.

  “Agreed,” I said. “Now all we have to do is figure out what she’s got that could leave a microscopic trace, and yet wouldn’t seem totally out of place in a Thrale’s room.”

  “That requires us to enter her room and examine it,” said Max.

  “Why?” I said. “She’s made use of the security system. Why shouldn’t we? There has to be a control room for the computer that runs the retreat and the security system. Take Toblinda there and scan her room until he finds something that fits our needs.”

  “You’ll stay here?” asked Max.

  “No, I’m going down to socialize.” They both looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “I’ve been cooped up here all day, questioning them one at
a time. I just spoke to Toblinda a second time. If I go down to the main level now, it may lend to the impression that I’ve found what I’m looking for.”

  “You are as devious as a Thrale!” said Toblinda with a laugh. “And that is a high compliment.”

  “Thanks. I think.”

  We all left the room and took the airlift down to the main level. They turned one way and headed toward the control room, while I joined the five Gaborians and Malcolm Shea in the huge room where I’d first met them.

  I hate small talk, but I made my share of it for the next few minutes. Once I awkwardly let slip that I didn’t trust Toblinda any farther than I could spit with my mouth closed, and if things worked out the way I anticipated he was going to be sorry he’d ever met me.

  Then Max and Toblinda joined us. I didn’t know if they’d found what they were looking for, but after a few minutes the Thrale picked a fight with Shea and me and then stalked off in a fury, announcing that he wouldn’t spend the night under the same roof as any Man, and he was going to the suit house.

  I kept talking for another fifteen minutes while Max and a pair of his agents made their inventory of Toblinda’s room. When he returned I announced that I was going into the pantry kitchen to find something to drink, and he knew enough to follow me.

  “Okay,” I said. “What was it?”

  “We made an educated guess,” answered Max. “The robots sterilize the rooms every day, and the residue of their chemicals causes some very minor discomfort, especially for the Gaborians. They have each been supplied with a small vial of powder that, when opened, eliminates the discomfort. Thrales do not suffer from the affliction, or perhaps it is a weakness. At any rate, Toblinda does not have such a vial. That seemed to be the only thing in her room that was not in his.”

  “I don’t like it,” I said. “This is our only shot at her, and it requires her to think this powder leaves some residue on her hands or gloves, whatever she was wearing, and she also has to think that it wouldn’t be out of place in a Thrale’s room when Toblinda tells you it would.”

  “We don’t have to tell her anything, Jake,” said Max. “We can wait and try something else.”

  I shook my head. “How many times can Toblinda stalk off and sleep in another building?” I said. “Besides, I’ve already dropped a hint that I think he’s the killer. No, we’ll have to go with it, but I sure have bad vibes about it.”