by Moulton, CD
When Z rung off, Thing was livid. [ Why do you do things like that? Why not tell him we known damned well he's part of all this and we're going to see his ass executed? He HAS to know we aren't that stupid! He HAS to know we are aware of who he is and of what they're doing. Why not just tell the scuzzball to start running, for all the good that'll do? He knows we know! He has to! Nobody could be that stupid! ]
"No, he doesn't know. He thinks he has us both completely fooled. He'll play this 'Oh, I didn't have any IDEA!' game and think we're just a couple of jerks from some backwater hick world who're out of our element in the big city. That's the way those type think, Thing. I'm counting on it. We can use the lapses of intelligence to our own very real advantage."
[ And you're content to let him think that? To what advantage? Where could that lead? How? Why? ]
"Because we can place sensors to see who comes to his place and when. I'd say Narmel's the boss, or the boss's representative, and there'll be someone like Marmum on each world where they pull their scams. If we jump into Marmum's act we won't find out who the local crime lords are on the other worlds. They'll withdraw to protect themselves and will out wait us. It's an old game.
"We can be your everyday bumbling tourists on all the vacation worlds, as it is. You'd be surprised how gullible these kinds of crooks really are. They actually believe in good and bad luck. They'll think we're on some kind of blind lucky streak, while they're in a bad streak. You'll see. There's no one easier to con than a con. I wish we had some spy sensors here to put in place at that estate."
[ I'll fastcom Maita to have T Six put them in, then come to Tltle. They will be standard passive units with backups. They shouldn't be found. ]
"You talked to Maita about all that. Did T Six get back?"
[ It had mistimed and was outside the galaxy. Maita and TR both did that at first, but T Six should be back in a couple of hours. It can come here, place the sensors, and then experiment with the drive. I'll use the fastcom and we can have a snack before our flight. I want to change our seats and section at the last moment. ]
Z started to say something, then nodded. "See if the floater can read the passenger lists when you change. I see you're beginning to see how these people operate."
[ I've read some of your Earth novels. I thought that stuff was pure fantasy, but I am beginning to see they weren't at all – necessarily. I have to admit your knowing about the attempt to be made on our lives has changed the way I look at this stuff. I will now act much more like those detectives in your stupid books. As you often say, 'Whatever works, do it!' ]
They went to the fastcom, had gincha and a snack, then went to the check-in as soon as the boarding was called. Thing called the robot over and arranged for them to be transferred from section "A," at the front of the ship to section "D," behind center. The floater was plugged into the console for a second while the robot was arranging the seating, then they headed for the gate and on to their seats. The floater contracted to its minimum diameter and attached itself to the stays over Thing's seat. It still had the protective directives in place, so "knew" who were carrying weapons. It would watch everything happening in the section at all times and would sound alarms at anything at all suspicious.
When they were en route Thing had the floater print out the seating arrangements for the entire ship, when the seats were chosen, and what kind of being was in a given seat and section. Thing was listed as being Mentan because food and beverages were served according to type. As this was the first time a Mentan had ever flown a commercial carrier it must have presented a very interesting problem for the computers to make the selections. The ship would have to contact Library and EC to find what allergic reactions it might experience.
Z was listed as Tar With Fethrz, Maitan businessman on vacation, while Thing's reason for traveling was shown as a question mark. What is a perfectly logical reason for one type of being to do something makes no sense whatever to another. If one prefers privacy or if one simply sees the "Reason for visit" question as nobody's business he leaves the space blank.
There were three Zurn on the ship and one Jornian. Two of the Zurn were in Section "B" and were supposedly a couple on what served as a honeymoon to those people. The other was seated about as far from the Jornian as possible. The Jornian was seated behind where Z and thing were originally to sit. They selected their seats within one minute of one another and four and five minutes after Z selected the original seats.
There was a Cordth in Section "C" who selected her seat one minute later. She took a seat close to the center of the section. All seats were placed around tables according to the number of passengers in an individual party or by consent among those on the flight, the seats were on swivels, and were of many designs. Many types of beings would use them.
After the ship entered TTH drive the passengers could move around and mingle as they chose, but generally only within their own section. There were bulkheads between the sections that were opened except in takeoff and landing or in case of emergency, but mingling outside of the section was discouraged. There were generally six hundred to eight hundred people on a flight, so there must be a general way of keeping track of them.
Z had deliberately chosen this particular section because it had no Jornians, Cordth, or Zurn in it. The only other races likely to be involved in the more violent aspects of the crime syndicate were Bentans and a few less-known races – and Bentans weren't very likely at all, considering their psychology.
The floater reported there were no evidences of any energy weapons in the section, but one Trelot was carrying a heavy item concealed low on the calf of its left front leg. Calculations were that it could be an old- fashioned explosive shell projectile weapon or some form of very high-pressure gas-driven projectile weapon – or it could be perfectly innocent.
Thing called up the information on Trelot, having never heard of the world before, and discovered they were a four legged, two armed, unclassifiable race who had never shown any predilection for violence, though their early history was a very bloody one. The floater would keep it carefully under observation, as it would keep everyone under close scrutiny.
The trip went without incident. The meals were fair, even to the very spoiled tastes of Z and Thing. They made several new acquaintances among the passengers. People tended to be curious about Thing, so it circulated to put on various of the little acts it had developed for various reasons over the years and did mathematical tricks for awhile. It then played a short form of Stars and Comets against a committee of seven people for points only. It was a standard one thousand point game and Thing took nine hundred eight points.
[ You really have some very good strategists among you! ] Thing complimented at the end of the game.
"What do you mean?" a Feach woman asked. "I do better against the machines!"
[ So do I. Far better! Even the most sophisticated machine has never taken more than twenty nine points against me. Mentans are natural mathematicians, with the ability to change their strategy, while machines play to programming. Once a strategy is determined by the computers the machine will continue on that basic plan unless it is a complete failure. If that happens it will then switch to another strategy as rigid as the failure. Within six moves the program can be discerned and thwarted. ]
"There's a machine called Theron, a spaceship of the Zulians, who is intelligent and could beat you!" a Bentan said.
"Tec played against Theron," Z said. "Theron's the one who got the twenty nine points. Tec is leaving out the fact it was a hundred point game. It's still the best player in the empire, machines included. I imagine there are other Mentans who could beat it. Maybe the intelligent machine, Searcher, could beat it because Searcher would take ten years between moves after figuring every conceivable ending after each move."
[ I am good, even as a Mentan. There are those who are better – far better. It's rare for one of my people to leave Menta. We aren't particularly comfortable in these low-pressure situation
s, though I am personally well-adjusted now. I do prefer a world where I can go into water several kilometers in depth to enjoy what is a natural pressure for me. I can relax in that situation more than any other. ]
They got into a discussion about Mentans and Z laid back to doze when he saw the floater suddenly spin to face its weapons toward the Trelot, who was taking something from a pouch on its leg. Fortunately, only Thing and Z knew such was the case because the Trelot simply removed a carry case containing a small fission generator, perfectly shielded, and plugged its personal computer into it to work some puzzles. Later in the trip Thing spoke with the being and they played a very complicated game on the computer that wasn't unlike the three dimensional chess Z enjoyed. The Trelot was very good at the game and managed to play Thing to a draw the second game and beat it soundly the first. Thing was fascinated with the game. It was invited to copy the program into the floater's banks so it could learn to play. Thing and the Trelot quickly became fairly good friends through the shared interest. Thing wasn't lying when it told people it preferred playing a game against someone who could beat it because it learned from those times.
Much later when Maita input the game it said there was simply no way a machine could be programmed for it, so it was going to do a study of the Trelot people. It found the people had a double brain much like Thing's, but both brains were in constant use, unlike Thing's. They could handle these puzzles easily, and were brilliant natural theoretical mathematicians. That talent would eventually make their race well-known and respected throughout the empire.
Z dozed much of the time, but he also watched what was going on between naps. He was just drifting off when he saw the Zurn slip through the bulkhead door and take a seat in the far corner of the section. He sent as strong a feeling of danger as he could muster at Thing. Thing's empathic talent picked up the signal and it glanced at Z with one eye. Z pointed at the corner as he yawned and stretched, then felt the Bip! on the recorder that meant the message was received and understood. The floater was instructed through Thing's contact to locate the Zurn, identify it, and watch it carefully. The floater reported back through the contact the Zurn was armed with a high energy weapon.
Thing ordered the floater to take no chances whatever with this one. It was to keep a weapon trained on it at all times. If it made any move with the weapon at all it was to be stunned, at the very least, and killed if there was no option. No more innocent bystanders were to be harmed in this.
When Thing finally begged that it needed rest and the others drifted away it came to the seat next to Z.
[ This is the last time we take a commercial flight until this thing is settled! It isn't worth the potential dangers to others. I fervently hope the floater can protect these other passengers if that Zurn tries to use the weapon. I can't condone our placing innocent people in danger. Not under any circumstances. ]
"I agree wholeheartedly!" Z replied. "I think that one is only supposed to keep us in sight and to follow us, but I'm going to be very nervous, all the same.
"Floater, if anyone at all speaks to or otherwise contacts the Zurn, please keep careful watch on them, too. If they're carrying any kind of detectable weapons, follow the same procedures as you are with it. Keep weapons at the ready and aimed. If there are any electromagnetic or photonic communications with anyone you are to identify them, if possible, and watch them."
Soon the admonition to stay in the seats and away from the bulkheads, which would now be closed, was given, then they were aground. Nothing was done by the Zurn except that it followed them at a distance until they entered their hotel.
Now to locate Narmel.
Concentrate on Jornians
The first thing Z did when they were in the hotel was to go to a public booth to fastcom to Maita. They knew there was no way the message could be breached, but the fact they fastcommed to an unlisted channel WAS traced, as the charges were automatically added to their bill. It would be suspicious at best, and they already knew Narmel or his boss had control of the people at some of the hotels. The public booth wouldn't have any record to be found of those channels, as the call was paid at the destination or by personal credit card. No one was involved other than the parties using the set and the machines at central. The public booths didn't go through the hotel switchboard. The calls on the special channels the crew used were not recorded at all.
Maita said T6 had placed the passive sensors on Sentah and would soon be padding on Tltle. It agreed there could be no more commercial flights so long as the presence of Thing or Z could place others in danger. That was unacceptable. It involved innocent bystanders.
T6 reported they could use Thing's floater to access a lot of machines on the worlds through processes Tab had perfected and it now was programmed with. It figured the TTH14 fairly well, but needed practice. A lot of it had to be self-taught.
Thing explained about the Zurn “hit man” and about the probability they had been followed by no less than four people from Sentah.
*The Jornian, I think, is the important one. They will hold all the higher positions in these things if Z's information is correct about the old Earth syndicates. I'm afraid he may be prejudiced.*
"Uh-uh! Different races had different syndicates. The Italians used others, but the mafia wasn't restricted only to Italians, it was Sicilian – a much smaller geographical area. The tongs were strictly Chinese, each generally from a specific area in China. Other races had their own things, but usually one race controlled one sector of the crime business.
"I'm not saying the Italians had it all – like many seemed to think at the time – I'm saying the Italians had all of the mafia, like the Chinese had all of the tongs, and the Spanish had the Cosa Nostra. There were as many stories about German syndicates and Greek syndicates and Jewish syndicates and even a Polish syndicate, but none of them mixed up the races in their own organization except for a few very smart cookies like Lansky, who became a boss in the mafia.
"Maita's right. If the Jornians have a syndicate here all the top people will be Jornian and the lower ones will be a few other races. They won't mix in the upper echelons – IF the same rules hold here. We don't know they do yet, but my personal opinion is that the rule will hold."
[ We can concentrate on Jornians then. When T Six gets here it can give us access to the records we need. Maita can make a unit for reading the machines for me to carry on my floater if we are going to do many of these things. I'll also want T Six to add several other protective weapons I can point in different directions. If the floater is instructed to watch several people in a group like on that commercial carrier I'll want it to be able to have weapons pointed at every damned one of them! No more chances with innocent people. Period! Case closed! T Six can learn to do the detecting, too. It can use floaters to access various machines and can do general surveillance when we need it. It can do the 'legwork' and 'stakeouts,' like in Z's novels. ]
*I am planning a surprise for you there, but it will have to wait. You will do the detective thing from time to time, as Tab will do some of the things you generally do. It keeps everyone up to date on things, I think. Be careful.*
"I'll be there in about six hours," T6 replied. "I can build the unit for your floater. I know how. It'll be ready when I get there because you're going to need it, apparently. I've got a lot of data to correlate, so I'll enjoy sitting on that pad without other duties for awhile."
Thing was riding Z's shoulder while the floater stayed above them to translate. It used English in their private conversations because there was less than one chance in ten billion or so that anyone would understand it. Earth was only recently a member of the empire. None from that planet had ever yet come to the vacation worlds except for Z, who was one of the original party who established the pleasure planets (Book three: Pirates).
They spent the rest of the afternoon in getting the feel of the place. It wasn't necessary to get attention here because they already had more than they really wanted.
&
nbsp; The floater told them they were now being followed by an armed Bentan, which surprised them only slightly. They expected the syndicate to use as many different kinds of beings as possible so they wouldn't suspect being tailed. Bentans were a good choice here because most of the "natives" were Bentans, as well as more than half of the transient population. Z had already spotted the follower, though. He was really inept and was obvious. They kept losing him, then letting him "find" them again just before he gave up.
At one point, Z suddenly turned around in a doorway and walked directly toward him. He didn't know whether to run or hold his ground, so Z asked him where the Sunset Casino was. The fellow stammered a moment, then pointed to the building only two blocks farther along the road. He hung back a bit more after that.
[ We've had enough fun for one afternoon. I'm hungry. Let's eat and go to one of the casinos Narmel is supposed to own part of and break the bank. They will wonder why we are challenging them in such a manner and will feel they must respond, somehow. It should be fun. ]
"Unless they decide the best thing to do is to shoot us down in a crowd!" Z replied. "It's worth a try, but the floater will have to be very careful.
"We'll go to T Six later. They can wonder how our ship got here when we took a commercial flight. I want them to have a lot of questions. Sooner or later they're going to have to grab us to find some answers."
They ate a decent meal, went to their room, where the floater said there was a visual and audial bug behind the mirror, cleaned up, and went out.
They first went to the Palace of Gems, but felt it wasn't big enough or gaudy enough to be part of the criminal chain. The Lucky Gormn was, as Thing put it, [ Purely atrocious! It's totally, absolutely tasteless! Great exploding galaxies! Who could possibly be this completely classless! It makes you want to puke! ]
