The Space Opera Megapack: 20 Modern and Classic Science Fiction Tales

by John W. Campbell

  “Well, gentlemen,” the detective began, “part of the mystery is straightened out. I was entirely wrong, and each of you were partly right. It was DuQuesne, in all probability. It is equally probable that a great company—in this case the World Steel Corporation—is backing him, though I don’t believe there is a ghost of a show of ever being able to prove it in law. Your ‘object-compass’ did the trick.”

  He narrated all the events of the previous night.

  “I’d like to send him to the chair for this job,” said Seaton with rising anger. “We ought to shoot him anyway, damn him—I’m sorry duels have gone out of fashion, for I can’t shoot him offhand, the way things are now—I sure wish I could.”

  “No, you cannot shoot him,” said Crane, thoughtfully, “and neither can I, worse luck. We are not in his class there. And you must not fight with him, either”—noting that Seaton’s powerful hands had doubled into fists, the knuckles showing white through the tanned skin—“though that would be a fight worth watching and I would like to see you give him the beating of his life. A little thing like a beating is not a fraction of what he deserves and it would show him that we have found him out. No, we must do it legally or let him entirely alone. You think there is no hope of proving it, Prescott?”

  “Frankly, I see very little chance of it. There is always hope, of course, and if that bunch of pirates ever makes a slip, we’ll be right there waiting to catch ’em. While I don’t believe in holding out false encouragement, they’ve never slipped yet. I’ll take my men off DuQuesne, now that we’ve linked him up with Steel. It doesn’t make any difference, does it, whether he goes to them every night or only once a week?

  “No.”

  “Then about all I can do is to get everything I can on that Steel crowd, and that is very much like trying to get blood out of a turnip. I intend to keep after them, of course, for I owe them something for killing two of my men here, as well as for other favors they have done me in the past, but don’t expect too much. I have tackled them before, and so have police headquarters and even the Secret Service itself, under cover, and all that any of us has been able to get is an occasional small fish. We could never land the big fellows. In fact, we have never found the slightest material proof of what we are morally certain is the truth, that World Steel is back of a lot of deviltry all over the country. The little fellows who do the work either don’t know anything or are afraid to tell. I’ll see if I can find out what they are doing with the stuff they stole, but I’m not even sure of doing that. You can’t plant instruments on that bunch—it would be like trying to stick a pin into a sleeping cat without waking him up. They undoubtedly have one of the best corps of detectives in the world. You haven’t perfected an instrument which enables you to see into a closed room and hear what is going on there, have you?” And upon being assured that they had not, he took his leave.

  “Optimistic cuss, ain’t he?” remarked Seaton.

  “He has cause to be, Dick. World Steel is a soulless corporation if there ever was one. They have the shrewdest lawyers in the country, and they get away legally with things that are flagrantly illegal, such as freezing out competitors, stealing patents, and the like. Report has it that they do not stop at arson, treason, or murder to attain their ends, but as Prescott said, they never leave any legal proof behind them.”

  “Well, we should fret, anyway. Of course, a monopoly is what they’re after, but they can’t form one because they can’t possibly get the rest of our solution. Even if they should get it, we can get more. It won’t be as easy as this last batch was, since the X was undoubtedly present in some particular lot of platinum in extraordinary quantities, but now that I know exactly what to look for, I can find more. So they can’t get their monopoly unless they kill us off.…”

  “Exactly. Go on, I see you are getting the idea. If we should both conveniently die, they could get the solution from the company, and have the monopoly, since no one else can handle it.”

  “But they couldn’t get away with it, Mart—never in a thousand years, even if they wanted to. Of course I am small fry, but you are too big a man for even Steel to do away with. It can’t be done.”

  “I am not so sure of that. Airplane accidents are numerous, and I am an aviator. Also, has it ever occurred to you that the heavy forging for the Skylark, ordered a while ago, are of steel?”

  Seaton paused, dumbfounded, in the act of lighting his pipe.

  “But thanks to your object-compass, we are warned.” Crane continued, evenly. “Those forgings are going through the most complete set of tests known to the industry, and if they go into the Skylark at all it will be after I am thoroughly convinced that they will not give way on our first trip into space. But we can do nothing until the steel arrives, and with the guard Prescott has here now we are safe enough. Luckily, the enemy knows nothing of the object-compass or the Xplosive, and we must keep them in ignorance. Hereinafter, not even the guards get a look at anything we do.”

  “They sure don’t. Let’s get busy!”

  DuQuesne and Brookings met in conference in a private room of the Perkins Café.

  “What’s the good word, Doctor?”

  “So-so,” replied the scientist. “The stuff is all they said it was, but we haven’t enough of it to build much of a power-plant. We can’t go ahead with it, anyway, as long as Seaton and Crane have nearly all their original solution.”

  “No, we can’t. We must find a way of getting it. I see now that we should have done as you suggested, and taken it before they had warning and put it out of our reach.”

  “There’s no use holding post-mortems. We’ve got to get it, some way, and everybody that knows anything about that new metal, how to get it or how to handle it, must die. At first, it would have been enough to kill Seaton. Now, however, there is no doubt that Crane knows all about it, and he probably has left complete instructions in case he gets killed in an accident—he’s the kind that would. We will have to keep our eyes open and wipe out those instructions and anyone who has seen them. You see that, don’t you?”

  “Yes, I am afraid that is the only way out. We must have the monopoly, and anyone who might be able to interfere with it must be removed. How has your search for more X prospered?”

  “About as well as I expected. We bought up all the platinum wastes we could get, and reworked all the metallic platinum and allied metals we could buy in the open market, and got less than a gram of X out of the whole lot. It’s scarcer than radium. Seaton’s finding so much of it at once was an accident, pure and simple—it couldn’t happen once in a million years.”

  “Well, have you any suggestions as to how we can get that solution?”

  “No. I haven’t thought of anything but that very thing ever since I found that they had hidden it, and I can’t yet see any good way of getting it. My forte is direct action and that fails in this case, since no amount of force or torture could make Crane reveal the hiding-place of the solution. It’s probably in the safest safe-deposit vault in the country. He wouldn’t carry the key on him, probably wouldn’t have it in the house. Killing Seaton or Crane, or both of them, is easy enough, but it probably wouldn’t get us the solution, as I have no doubt that Crane has provided for everything.”

  “Probably he has. But if he should disappear the stuff would have to come to light, or the Seaton-Crane Company might start their power-plant. In that case, we probably could get it?”

  “Possibly, you mean. That method is too slow to suit me, though. It would take months, perhaps years, and would be devilishly uncertain, to boot. They’ll know something is in the wind, and the stuff will be surrounded by every safeguard they can think of. There must be some better way than that, but I haven’t been able to think of it.”

  “Neither have I, but your phrase ‘direct action’ gives me an idea. You say that that method has failed. What do you think of trying indirect action in the shape of Perkins, who is indirection personified?”

  “Bring him in. He may
be able to figure out something.”

  Perkins was called in, and the main phases of the situation laid before him. The three men sat in silence for many minutes while the crafty strategist studied the problem. Finally he spoke.

  “There’s only one way, gentlemen. We must get a handle on either Seaton or Crane strong enough to make them give up their bottle of dope, their plans, and everything.…”

  “Handle!” interrupted DuQuesne. “You talk like a fool! You can’t get anything on either of them.”

  “You misunderstand me, Doctor. You can get a handle of some kind on any living man. Not necessarily in his past, you understand—I know that anything like that is out of the question in this case—but in his future. With some men it is money, with others power, with others fame, with others women or some woman, and so on down the list. What can we use here? Money is out of the question, so are power and fame, as they already have both in plain sight. It seems to me that women would be our best chance.”

  “Hah!” snorted the chemist. “Crane has been chased by all the women of three continents so long that he’s womanproof. Seaton is worse—he’s engaged, and wouldn’t realize that a woman was on his trail, even if you could find a better looking one to work on him than the girl he’s engaged to—which would be a hard job. Cleopatra herself couldn’t swing that order.”

  “Engaged? That makes it simple as A B C.”

  “Simple? In the devil’s name, how?”

  “Easy as falling off a log. You have enough of the dope to build a space-car from those plans, haven’t you?”

  “Yes. What has that to do with the case?”

  “It has everything to do with it. I would suggest that we build such a car and use it to carry off the girl. After we have her safe we could tell Seaton that she is marooned on some distant planet, and that she will be returned to earth only after all the solution, all notes, plans, and everything pertaining to the new metal are surrendered. That will bring him, and Crane will consent. Then, afterward, Dr. Seaton may go away indefinitely, and if desirable, Mr. Crane may accompany him.”

  “But suppose they try to fight?” asked Brookings.

  Perkins slid down into his chair in deep thought, his pale eyes under half-closed lids darting here and there, his stubby fingers worrying his watch-chain restlessly.

  “Who is the girl?” he asked at last.

  “Dorothy Vaneman, the daughter of the lawyer. She’s that auburn-haired beauty that the papers were so full of when she came out last year.”

  “Vaneman is a director in the Seaton-Crane Company. That makes it still better. If they show fight and follow us, that beautiful car we are making for them will collapse and they will be out of the way. Vaneman, as Seaton’s prospective father-in-law and a member of his company, probably knows something about the secret. Maybe all of it. With his daughter in a space-car, supposedly out in space, and Seaton and Crane out of the way, Vaneman would listen to reason and let go of the solution, particularly as nobody knows much about it except Seaton and Crane.”

  “That strikes me as a perfectly feasible plan,” said Brookings. “But you wouldn’t really take her to another planet, would you? Why not use an automobile or an airplane, and tell Seaton that it was a space-car?”

  “I wouldn’t advise that. He might not believe it, and they might make a lot of trouble. It must be a real space-car even if we don’t take her out of the city. To make it more impressive, you should take her in plain sight of Seaton—no, that would be too dangerous, as I have found out from the police that Seaton has a permit to carry arms, and I know that he is one of the fastest men with a pistol in the whole country. Do it in plain sight of her folks, say, or a crowd of people; being masked, of course, or dressed in an aviator’s suit, with the hood and goggles on. Take her straight up out of sight, then hide her somewhere until Seaton listens to reason. I know that he will listen, but if he doesn’t, you might let him see you start out to visit her. He’ll be sure to follow you in their rotten car. As soon as he does that, he’s our meat. But that raises the question of who is going to drive the car?”

  “I am,” replied DuQuesne. “I will need some help, though, as at least one man must stay with the girl while I bring the car back.”

  “We don’t want to let anybody else in on this if we can help it,” cautioned Brookings. “You could go along, couldn’t you, Perkins?”

  “Is it safe?”

  “Absolutely,” answered DuQuesne. “They have everything worked out to the queen’s taste.”

  “That’s all right, then. I’ll take the trip. Also,” turning to Brookings, “it will help in another little thing we are doing—the Spencer affair.”

  “Haven’t you got that stuff away from her yet, after having had her locked up in that hell-hole for two months?” asked Brookings.

  “No. She’s stubborn as a mule. We’ve given her the third degree time after time, but it’s no use.”

  “What’s this?” asked DuQuesne. “Deviltry in the main office?”

  “Yes. This Margaret Spencer claims that we swindled her father out of an invention and indirectly caused his death. She secured a position with us in search of evidence. She is an expert stenographer, and showed such ability that she was promoted until she became my secretary. Our detectives must have been asleep, as she made away with some photographs and drawings before they caught her. She has no real evidence, of course, but she might cause trouble with a jury, especially as she is one of the best-looking women in Washington. Perkins is holding her until she returns the stolen articles.”

  “Why can’t you kill her off?”

  “She cannot be disposed of until after we know where the stuff is, because she says, and Perkins believes, that the evidence will show up in her effects. We must do something about her soon, as the search for her is dying down and she will be given up for dead.”

  “What’s the idea about her and the space-car?”

  “If the car proves reliable we might actually take her out into space and give her the choice between telling and walking back. She has nerve enough here on earth to die before giving up, but I don’t believe any human being would be game to go it alone on a strange world. She’d wilt.”

  “I believe you’re right, Perkins. Your suggestions are the best way out. Don’t you think so, Doctor?”

  “Yes, I don’t see how we can fail—we’re sure to win, either way. You are prepared for trouble afterward, of course?”

  “Certainly, but I don’t think there will be much trouble. They can’t possibly link the three of us together. They aren’t wise to you, are they, Doctor?”

  “Not a chance!” sneered DuQuesne. “They ran themselves ragged trying to get something on me, but they couldn’t do it. They have given me up as a bad job. I am still as careful as ever, though—I am merely a pure scientist in the Bureau of Chemistry!”

  All three laughed, and Perkins left the room. The talk then turned to the construction of the space-car. It was decided to rush the work on it, so that DuQuesne could familiarize himself with its operation, but not to take any steps in the actual abduction until such time as Seaton and Crane were nearly ready to take their first flight, so that they could pursue the abductors in case Seaton was still obdurate after a few days of his fiancée’s absence. DuQuesne insisted that the car should mount a couple of heavy guns, to destroy the pursuing car if the faulty members should happen to hold together long enough to carry it out into space.

  After a long discussion, in which every detail of the plan was carefully considered, the two men left the restaurant, by different exits.

  CHAPTER VII

  The Trial Voyage

  The great steel forgings which were to form the framework of the Skylark finally arrived and were hauled into the testing shed. There, behind closed doors, Crane inspected every square inch of the massive members with a lens, but could find nothing wrong. Still unsatisfied, he fitted up an electrical testing apparatus in order to search out flaws which might be hidd
en beneath the surface. This device revealed flaws in every piece, and after thoroughly testing each one and mapping out the imperfections he turned to Seaton with a grave face.

  “Worse than useless, every one of them. They are barely strong enough to stand shipment. They figured that we would go slowly until we were well out of the atmosphere, then put on power—then something would give way and we would never come back.”

  “That’s about the right dope, I guess. But now what’ll we do? We can’t cancel without letting them know we’re onto them, and we certainly can’t use this stuff.”

  “No, but we will go ahead and build this ship, anyway, so that they will think that we are going ahead with it. At the same time we will build another one, about four times this size, in absolute secrecy, and.…”

  “What d’you mean, absolute secrecy? How can you keep steel castings and forgings of that size secret from Steel?”

  “I know a chap who owns and operates a small steel plant, so insignificant, relatively, that he has not yet been bought out or frozen out by Steel. I was able to do him a small favor once, and I am sure that he will be glad to return it. We will not be able to oversee the work, that is a drawback. We can get MacDougall to do it for us, however, and with him doing the work we can rest assured that there will be nothing off color. Even Steel couldn’t buy him.”

  “MacDougall! The man who installed the Intercontinental plant? He wouldn’t touch a little job like this with a pole!”

  “I think he would. He and I are rather friendly, and after I tell him all about it he will be glad to take it. It means building the first interplanetary vessel, you know.”

  “Wouldn’t Steel follow him up if he should go to work on a mysterious project? He’s too big to hide.”

  “No. He will go camping—he often does. I have gone with him several times when we were completely out of touch with civilization for two months at a time. Now, about the ship we want. Have you any ideas?”