by Moulton, CD
The Acnians are T-hypnotics. The trooper knew who Z was, so didn't hesitate. Eed suddenly went rigid. Z nodded at the Acnian.
"You will answer all questions truthfully, immediately, and completely," the trooper said, then nodded at Z.
"Where and what is the poison you were trying to take?"
"Second molar, left side. Sodium acid cyanide."
The trooper called to a medoff (Medical officer). Z decided to take a chance on getting Maita mad and asked, "Who is on the estate there on Long Toe Peninsula?"
"Wordt."
"Who is the boss of this whole conspiracy?"
"I don't know."
A Feach came down the ramp then to ask what the problem was. The trooper told about the cyanide in the tooth and the Feach had Eed open his mouth. She looked at the tooth, called something in Feach (It was some kind of nitrite. Z wasn't very familiar with Feach) and waited with Eed sitting on the floater with his mouth open. Another Feach, Krone, came to watch and handed a bottle to the one working on Eed. She sprayed something into his mouth, then reached in with a small forceps and lifted out the tooth. She sprayed again for a few seconds, then wiggled each tooth in turn.
"Okay. It's all neutralized," she declared. "I don't see why you worry if he's going to be executed anyway."
"Because he's going on the probe and may NOT be executed," Krone said. "Well, Agent Z! It seems we've accomplished quite a lot here!"
"We haven't even started very well," Z cautioned. "This is the sort of thing Tab does best, but he's busy on another case."
"Ah, yes," Krone replied. "Tabori. He will always be a hero to the Feach. The fact you are so closely associated with him and with the emperor means you must perform very well, indeed, or you will disappoint an entire race!"
"Perhaps not half so much as I would disappoint myself," Z agreed, understanding the Feach humor from his talks with Tab. "Maita would put me in need of the services of Feach if I screwed up too much. I still might, so keep the emergency room ready!"
Krone chuckled.
Imagine a nine foot tyrannosaurus chuckling and you can imagine the instinct of Z to run screaming from the scene. Luckily, he had been around all of the beings for years (Hundreds of them) and didn't react to those feelings anymore.
They talked a moment more as Eed was taken to a cell close by his friends, Klewt and Dorn, all of whom were being taken on to Sentah to the judge machine there that was responsible for this whole case. They had feared they would have to let Klewt and Dorn go until the Zurn who told Z there was a plague claimed he had been given direct orders to say just that. To divert a Hospital ship without medical cause was a serious crime. Such a thing could result in thousands of deaths.
The Zurns were nothing more nor less than hired guards, so they were released. They would be very wary about what they did in the future. Repeat offenders were NOT coddled nor given excuses in the empire, they were returned to their home planet in exile from the empire. This was a shame that was felt by the race in toto. They were generally treated very strictly by their own kind.
"They're not bad people," Krone said. "They're a young race and are impatient, both personally and racially. It makes for conflicts. They will mature, I am sure. Look at how the Bentans have matured in only a couple of hundred years! You, having been part of the taking of the pirate worlds, know that far better than I!"
"Yes," the Acnian trooper replied. "Meeting others does that.
"We may depart for Sentah?"
Z bid them farewell and went to T6, who checked the floater very carefully before sending him onto that estate. All they knew was they were supposed to meet someone by the name of Wordt and possibly others. They would have to await results of the probe on Eed, but may have to fight this one. When Eed didn't show up when he was supposed to there might be extra precautions.
Z decided he would rest and go in the morning, but T6 said he would go now and could grab rest on the floater.
"This may be your only opportunity to get inside the estate without being detected," T6 explained. "The later Eed is the more nervous they'll get. We have to be ready. I'll show you where the ship's hidden. It's not visible.
"They may try to leave, so be ready for that. I'll handle them if they take off. You try to prevent their leaving.
"I doubt they'll leave so long as there's still a chance Eed will show up, but that time limit will soon pass. Maybe you can blunder in as Lion. They won't know anything about the rest of it. Liahr may be a name they've heard."
"That would be one blunder too many. This'll have to be handled differently. I'll make some kind of plan before morning. If I don't have results from Eed I can't act, you know. Wordt hasn't legally done anything yet."
"He's occupying that place illegally."
"A small misdemeanor, if that. He's a board member of the corporation that owns the place."
"Harboring a fugitive?"
"That's a reason I almost wish I'd let Eed go there for. He didn't harbor anyone. Eed never got there.
"Is he mentioned in any way by anyone else – on the probe or otherwise?"
"Not a word. So how will you handle all of this? It doesn't seem you have any grip at all on any of it!"
"I'll have to play it by ear."
"Are you gonna start that crap again?"
"What start? I never stopped!"
They bantered a bit while Z ate a good meal and cleaned up. He got aboard the floater and headed for the estate, thinking T6 was getting very good at the game. It was nice to be that close to another being – even if it was a spaceship!
The floater had to move very cautiously onto the estate from the mountains in the rear, away from the road. There were fewer detectors there. The mountains were close to impassible. There was a scanning-beam locator, a form of radar, fixed beams and trip traps. This place was prepared for action! They were expecting some kind of trouble for some time. Those sensors and weapons weren't new. These people knew they would someday be in big trouble and would need a fortress with its own private little spaceport. No one here could plead innocence, but it wasn't enough for what Z needed at the time. As T Six said before he left, "Misdemeanors ain't gonna cut it!"
Z found a spot in a shed beside the bunker where the ship was hidden. He could "see" the entire area from the house to the bunker as well as all the lawns around, which covered several acres. There were lights in three places inside the house and a portion of the entrance road was lit. They still expected Eed.
Good! Their plan would have to be on hold until Eed showed up or until they could be sure he wouldn't. They would be getting very nervous as the night dragged on.
Z settled down for the long Bypass night. The floater would awaken him if he was needed.
Deeper and Deeper
Z had no idea of how long it had been since he dozed off. The small plug in his ear awakened him with, "Are you planning to sleep all night or do you want to know what's happening out there you lazy oversexed bum?"
T6 had a floater on the mountains behind and a focused light beam device to call in to Z's place in the shed. It had various sensors around that transmitted through the same floater. Z wouldn't answer directly, because that would make detectable sounds. He used the coder keyboard on the floater to speak.
"What's going on, Cookiekins?" he asked.
"The quarry's getting sorta nervous and is snooping around, Sugarlips," T6 replied. "There seems to only be one Jornian here – that would be Wordt – without even a Zurn bodyguard. Does that seem odd to you, or is it what you expected, Honeybuns?"
"Not expected. Now I want to know exactly what that probe will show. Something's going on here besides the obvious. I wonder! Is there a gang war?"
"I don't know what you mean, exactly. Do you mean criminals fighting criminals? Why?"
"A power struggle, I'd say. Little old Eed was in the process of working his way into the Sentah six. Maybe someone didn't exactly like the idea."
"I assume the Sentah six are the board
of directors. Klewt and Dorn were both on that board. So is Wordt. That leaves Hoed, Lang, and Bast on Sentah. What was the plan?"
"Kill either Klewt or Dorn – or both – and take their place. That would mean one of them did something to anger or scare the bigger bosses. None of it could happen without their blessings. The fact there aren't guards here tells me something, but I'm not sure what, at this point."
"I think Wordt there will get nervous and will leave. Friend Eed should have been here hours ago. He'll suspect something's wrong. See if you can prevent him from getting to the ship. There's only the entrance through that shed you're in, and one big door opens with a motor to let the ship in or out. I'm sure you can blockade the small door there and perhaps do something to the big door."
"I'll disconnect the motor's power. We have to keep this turkey here until we get Eed's readings.
"You know what I hope?"
"I don't even know what the hell you're saying! Every time you say something I have to look through thousands of idioms!
"What do you hope?"
"If Eed's actually making a power play, then he'll know the identity of at least one of the higher bosses! The six are his direct bosses now. He'd have to know at least one of the higher bosses before he could dare to try such a move. Put a tracer on this ship just in case he decides to go to a meeting."
"Agreed. Are you going to sit there until Wordt walks in on you? He's heading directly to that shed!"
Z pushed open the door into the blackness of the "hangar" and drew the floater in. He closed the door carefully and let the floater locate the motors to the main door. They were above and drew the door upward where it accordianed near the top. He sent the floater up to quickly cut the power leads to the motors while he hid behind some boxes. The floater did its job and hung tightly against the top of the structure among the machinery and equipment there. The sensor pickups and weapons controls seemed all to be up there. That meant there was no more than a control board inside the house to control the entire defenses. The floater could access all the functions. Z could use the system, himself, if necessary.
Wordt came in the smaller door and looked around, then went to the ship to check something. Z assumed he was making sure it had full power and supplies in case he would have to leave suddenly.
Z came out, went through the small door toward the shed and closed it. The floater came down, but there was no communication with the outside.
He went to the side door and was reaching to open it when he thought better. He waved the floater close and typed for it to use detectors of whatever type it had to see if anyone was in the shed.
After a few seconds the screens displayed, "Sonics indicate heartbeat of one organic being on other side of door."
Z nodded and quietly stepped back and behind the boxes again as the floater went against the wall behind some equipment. They waited awhile and the door opened, letting Wordt in again. He was carrying a box under one arm and a satchel in the other. He went out and aboard the ship with the items, was there a few seconds, and came back to the shed door again. Z waited while the process was repeated, waited more, called the floater over to determine Wordt had left the shed, then went aboard the ship, carrying a hand scanner. The lights were on inside the ship. He didn't need the hand torch or the larger light on the floater to locate the boxes and the satchel. He used the hand scanner to record all of it without taking time to read any of it, himself. He had the crystal for the Jornian language in the second socket, so could have, but didn't want to take any time that wasn't absolutely necessary. (There were sockets in each of his earlobes wired directly to his brain. By placing a crystal containing the language and customs of a people in the sockets he had the full use of that language. The wiring was to his speech centers and, though there were languages he simply wasn't designed to use, he generally could read, write, and speak a language immediately upon placing the information crystal.)
He finished, scanned everything he could in the ship, noted everything was on standby, then went out and to the shed. The floater immediately spent more than six minutes sending T6 all the information from the scanners and a complete report of all they had seen and done.
"The ship's on standby, the doors aren't going to open to let it out of there, and you've found one hell of a lot of information that's in a code that may be unbreakable," T6 said. "I'm going to input all of it into a special computer Maita put aboard for just such things.
"Wordt's back at the house and is coding a number into the comphone. I imagine he's going to try to contact Eed."
"Be Eed! Handle it! Keep him here!" Z quickly printed.
T6 carried the whole conversation on Z's earphone for him:
Wordt: "What happened? Why haven't you gotten here?"
T6 (In Eed's voice): "Don't use the coms! I have trouble with this thing and may have to walk. Two hours. Don't use the coms."
Wordt: "I'll send an autocar. Half an hour."
He broke connection and T6 said Wordt was going to the garage area.
"Now he's programming a car," T6 reported. "He has a problem in that he didn't find Eed's exact location. He's thinking. Now he's figured how far a two hour walk would be. He'll have to program in some kind of ID for the car to respond to, but I suppose they have something.
"Now the car's going out. We have until that car returns to say no one was on the road in double or whatever distance was programmed in for error."
"How close are they to putting Eed on the probe?" Z asked.
"They won't be to Sentah for another three and three quarter hours, then they have to appear before the judge, then go to the probe station – four and a half to five hours."
"When he finds he can't get that ship out of here we're in for trouble. Can you detect what kind of weapons he has in the house? The floater can handle what's out here."
"There's power for ... what is he doing? Z! He's gotten into a car and is heading out the gate. He took a laser rifle from a case and is checking it as he goes."
"Maybe he expects Eed to be followed. He.... Ahha! Eed knows too much. A delay might mean anything! Wordt has to wonder if the big bosses want more changes on the board of directors than he knows about! He plans to get rid of Eed. This is a break!
"T Six! Make some kind of thing that'll look like Eed riding the autocar. If he shoots it we can claim it's conspiracy due to former knowledge. We can claim attempted murder. We don't have to wait for Eed to grab him. We can put him on the probe ourselves – and we damned well will! I'm tired of bureaucratic delays!"
"Gotcha! He's gone for awhile. See what's in that house."
"Yo!" Z agreed and headed for the house on the floater. He was using vocals since Wordt headed for the garage. There was no one to read the sensors if they located him.
There were several places in the house where Eed could have been disposed of. It was plain it was Wordt's intention to get rid of him all along.
"He either figured Eed knew dangerously too much – he may have thought Eed was going to try to kill HIM, either under orders or on his own, or there's a general purge going on and it's everyone for himself," Z reported.
"Maita thinks the top bosses are probably consolidating their positions by eliminating anyone they can't fully trust. Thing says we've scared the top bosses by putting people on the probe. They want to eliminate anyone who knows anything BEFORE they go on the probe. The information has to come to dead stop BEFORE the top bosses are identified."
"I agree with Thing, but it may be a combination of reasons. The important thing is they broke their solid front. We can now use the probe as a wedge to split them further. They'll beg for the chance to rat on each other."
"One thing's beginning to worry me 'way beyond tolerance."
"What's that?"
"I understood everything you said then! This is terrible! TR and Tab warned me you would corrupt me! Thing never lets up telling me you've even corrupted Maita!"
"Stick it in your focus coils!"
They relaxed a bit with the game until T6 reported Wordt had lasered the autocar with Eed aboard. He must have hit the powerpack, because it exploded. There isn't anything left to identify it or its passenger.
"I stopped the autocar and used it," T6 explained. "I figured it would have some kind of locator device. Wordt knew where it was before it was in sight. I suppose it broadcasts a sonic or something. Wordt's on his way home again."
"T Six, I'm sending the floater to repair the power leads to that motor. I want to see where he goes. If we have to wait for the probe reading it's another small delay. We can take your visual recordings of his shooting the autocar to the judge machine at any time. If he knows a place but not a name we might come out way ahead. It'll also serve not to alert anyone else. If the big boss is able to break the chain before we get to him he can start the whole thing all over again some other place and some other time and will learn how to avoid getting caught so easily. Be sure there's a good tracer on the ship."
"Suits me. Fix it and get back here fast. I've got an IDmode tracer unit on the floater. It knows how to put it on his ship. He'll be back in less than a quarter hour."
Z moved as fast as he could, and had the floater do all it could, then went up the mountains and headed back to T6. He didn't have much time left when he finished the things he felt must be done at the estate. T6 told him to brace himself soon after he started for Northport. The atmosphere shields went up and he headed for space on the floater at its highest speed. He met T6 above atmosphere and felt the shift into TTH mode before he was able to dismount from the floater in T6's hold.
"He's in one hell of a hurry and the damned tracer isn't strong enough if he gets too far from a relay out of relspace. This is going to be tricky as all get out! I can always find where he is when he comes out of TTH, but I'm afraid the important things'll happen before we could reach him. I want to be within ten minutes of him at all times.
"I'm gonna try something stupid, but I'm afraid I'll lose him, otherwise."
There was a spinning jerk and Z was thrown to the floor.
