Latest / Captives of the Thieve-Star / Lion Loose-James H. Schmitz

Transcript

Lion Loose-James H. Schmitz · Captives of the Thieve-Star

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Part one of Lion Loose. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: by Winston Tharp Lion Loose by James H. Schmitz, Part one.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: For twelve years, at a point where three major shipping
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: routes of the Federation of the Hub crossed within a
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: few hours flight of one another, the Seventh Star Hotel
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: had floated in space, a great golden sphere, gleaming softly
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: in the void through its translucent shells of battle plastic.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: The Star had been designed to be much more than
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: a convenient transfer station for travelers and freight. For some
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: years after it was opened to the public, it retained
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: a high rating among the more exotic pleasure resorts the Hub.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: The Seventh Star Hotel was the place to have been
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: that season, and the celebrities and fat cats converged on
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: it with their pals and hangers on. The Star blazed
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: with life, excitement, interstellar scandals, tinkled with streams of credits
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: dancing in from a thousand whorlds. In short, it had
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: started out as a paying proposition but gradually things changed.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: The Star's entertainment remained as delightfully outrageous as ever, the
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: cuisine as excellent, The accommodations in service were still above reproach.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: The fleecing in general became no less expertly painless. But
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: one had been there. By its eighth year, the Star
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: was dated. Now in its twelfth it lived soberly off
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: the liner and freighter trade. Four fifths of the guest
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: suite shut down, the remainder irregularly occupied between ship departures,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: and in another seven hours, if the plans of certain
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: men went through, the Seventh Star Hotel would abruptly wink
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: out of existence. Some fifty or sixty early diners were
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: scattered around the tables on the garden terraces of Fellagian House,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: the Seventh Star Hotel's most exclusive eatery. One of them
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: had just finished his meal, sat smoking and regarding a
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: spiraling flow of exquisitely indicated female figures across the garden's
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: skyscape with an air of friendly approval. He was a
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: large and muscular young man, deeply tanned, with shoulders of
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: impressive thickness, an aquiline nose, and dark reflective eyes. After
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: a minute or two, he yawned comfortably, put out his cigarette,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: and pushed his chair back from the table. As he
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: came to his feet, there was a soft bell note
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: from the table comweb. He hesitated said, go ahead, is
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: intrusion permitted? The comweb inquired the pens. The guest said,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: who is calling? The name is Rita Deston. He grinned,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: appeared pleasantly surprised. Put the lady through. There was a
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: brief silence. Then a woman's voice inquired softly, Quillan, right here? Daal?
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Where seal the comweb? Quillan, he reached down to the instrument,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: tapped the seal button, said all right, we're private, probably,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the woman's voice said, but better scramble this too. I
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: want to be very sure no one's listening. Quillan grunted,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: slid his left hand into an inner coat pocket, briefly
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: fingered a device of the approximate size and shape of
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: a cigarette. Drew his hand out again, scrambling, He announced,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: now what may day? Quillin The soft voice said, can
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: you come immediately? Quillan's face went expressionless. Of course, is
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: it urgent? I'm in no present danger, but we better
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: waste no time. Is it going to take real hardware?
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I'm carrying a finger gun at the moment. Then go
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: to your rooms and pick up something useful, Ritol said,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: this should take real hardware. All right? All right, then
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: where do I go? I'll meet you at your door.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: I know where it is. When Quillan arrived, she was
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: standing before the door to was sweet, a tall blonde
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: and a sleeveless black and gold sheath, a beautiful body,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: a warm, lovely, humorous face. The warmth and humor were real,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: but masked a mind as impersonally efficient as a computer,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: and a taste for high and dangerous living. When Quillan
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: had last met Retold Deston a year and a half before,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: the taste was being satisfied in industrial espionage. He hadn't
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: heard of her activities since then. She smiled thoughtfully at
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: him as he came up. I'll wait outside, she said,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: we're not talking here. Quillyn nodded, went into his living room,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: selected a gun belt and holstered gun from a suit case,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: fastened the belt around his waist under the coat, and
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: came out. Now what first? A little portal hopping? He
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: followed her across the corridor and into a tube portal.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Watched as she tapped out a setting. The exit light flashed.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: A moment later, they stepped out into a vacant lounge
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: somewhere else in the same building. Crossed it, entered another portal.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: After three more shifts, they emerged into a long haul,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: dimly lit, heavily carpeted. There was no one in sight.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Last stop, Retol said. She glanced up at his face.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: We're on the other side of the Star now, and
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: one of the sections they've closed up. I've established a
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: kind of emergency headquarters here. The star's nearly broke. Did
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: you know I'd heard of it? That appears to be
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: part of the reason for what's going on, Quillan said,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: what's going on? Retall slider arm through his said, come on,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: that's my mum unregistered suite over there, big boy. It's
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: very very selfish of me, but I was extremely glad
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: to detect your name on the list of newly arrived guests.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Just now, as to what's going on the Camelot berths
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: here at midnight, you know, Quillan nodded, I've some business
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: with one of her passengers. Retall bent to unlock the
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: entrance door to the indicated suite. The way it looks now,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: she remarked, the odds are pretty high that you're not
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: going to keep that appointment. Why not, because shortly after
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: the Camelot docks and something's been unloaded from her, the
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Camelot and the Seven Star Hotel are scheduled to go
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: poof together, along with you, me and some twelve thousand
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: other people, And so far I haven't been able to
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: think of a good way to keep it from happening.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Quillan was island a moment. Who's scheduling the poof? He asked.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Some old acquaintances of ours are among them? Come on in.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: What they're doing comes under the heading of destroying the evidence.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: She locked the door behind them, said just a moment,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: went over to the paneled wall, turned down a tiny
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: silver switch room portal. She said, nodding at the wall.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: It might come in handy. I keep it turned off
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: most of the time. Why are you turning it on now,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Quillan asked. One of the Star's stewards is working on
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: this with me. He'll be long as soon as he
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: can get away. Now, I'll give you the whole thing
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: as briefly as I can. The old acquaintances I mentioned
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: are some boys of the Brotherhood of Belden. Mouvain's here.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: He's got mars Coombs and Fluel with him, and about
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: thirty of the Brotherhood's top guns. No, Malancon's coming in
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: on the Camelot in person tonight to take charge, obviously,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: with all that brass on the job after something very big.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Just what it is, I don't know yet. I've got
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: one clue, but a rather puzzling one. Tell you about
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: that later. Do you know Velayden, the commodore here? Quillan nodded.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: I've never met him, but I know who he is.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Retol said. He's been manager of the seven Star Hotel
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: for the past nine years. He's involved in the Belden
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Outfits operation. So is the chief of the Star's private
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: security force. His name's writer, and half a dozen other
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Star executives. They've got plenty of firepower, too close to
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: half the entire security force, I understand, including all the
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: officers that would come to nearly seventy men. There's reason
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: to believe the rest of the force was disarmed and
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: murdered by them. In the subspace section of the Star
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: about twelve hours ago. They haven't been seen since then.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Now Vulayden, aside from his share and whatever they're after,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: has another reason for wanting to wipe out the Star
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: in an unexplained blow up there, I have definite information.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Did you know the Mooley brothers owned the Star? Yes.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: I have been working for the Moolies the past eight months,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Retol said, checking up on employees at for Leyden's level
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: for indications of graft. And it appears the commodore had
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: been robbing them blind here for at least several years.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Sort of a risky thing to try with the Moolies
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: from what I hear. Quillan remarked, yes, very Validen had
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: reason to be getting a little desperate about that. Two
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: men were planted here in a month ago. One of
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: the misscher, Hraga, the steward I told you about. The
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: other man, came in as a bookkeeper. Two weeks ago.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Haraga got word that the bookkeeper had disappeared. Vlayden and
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Rider apparently got wise to what he was trying to do,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: so the Moolies sent me here to try to find
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: out exactly what was going on before they took action
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I arrived four days ago. She gave a regretful little
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: head shake. I waited almost a day before contacting Raka.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: It seemed advisable to move very cautiously in the matter,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: but that made it a little too late to do anything, Quillan,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: For the past three days, the seven Star Hotel has
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: been locked up like a bank vault, and except for ourselves,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: only the people who are in on the plot are
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: aware of it. The message transmitters are inoperative, he asked.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Retol nodded. The story is that a kravitic storm center
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: in the area has disrupted transmissions completely for the time being.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: What about incoming ships? Yours was the only one scheduled
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: before the camelot arrives. It left again eight hours ago.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Nobody here had been let on board. The guests who
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: wanted to apply for outgoing bursts were told they were
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: none open, that they'd have to wait for the camelot.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: She went over to a desk, unlocked a drawer, took
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: out a sheaf of papers, and handed one of them
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: to Quillan. That's the layout of the Star, she said.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: This five level building over by the shell is the
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: executive block, the brotherhood and the Commodore's men moved in
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: there this morning. The block is the star's defense center.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: It's raid proofed, contains the control officers and the transmitter
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: and armament rooms about the standard arrangement. While they hold
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: the executive block, they have absolute control of the Star.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: If it's the defense center, it should be practically impossible
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: to do anything about them there. Quillan agreed they could
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: close it up and dump the air out of the
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: rest of the star in a minute if they had to.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: But there must be Well, what about the lifeboats in
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: the subspace section, and our pals must have a getaway
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: ships stashed away somewhere. They have two ships, Retoll said,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: a souped up freighter. The Brotherhood came in on in
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: a large armed yacht, which seems to be the Commodore's
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: personal property. Unfortunately, they're both in subspace locks. Why and
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: fortunately because they've sealed off subspace. Try portal it down
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: there and you'll find yourself looking at a battle plastic bulkhead.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: There's no way of getting either to the ships or
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: to the lifeboats. Well, then lifted his eyebrows, and that
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: hasn't caused any comment. What about the maintenance crews, the
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: warehouse man, all the work crews were hauled out of
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: subspace this morning, Rito said on the quiet the Stars
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: employees have been told that a gang of raiders was
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: spotted in the warehouse area and is at present cornered there. Naturally,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: the matter isn't going to be mentioned at the guests
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: to avoid arousing unnecessary concern. And that explains everything very needily.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: The absence of the security man, and why subspace is
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: sealed off, why the executive block is under guard and
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: can't be entered, and why the technical and office personnel
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: in there don't come out and can't communicate out. They've
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: been put on emergency status officially. Yeah, Quinnan said disgustedly.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: After a minute, this begins to look like a hopeless situation.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Do doll true? Let's see now retol interrupted. There is
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: one portal still open the subspace that's in the executive block,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: of course, and a RAGA reports it's heavily guarded. How
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: is he now The block's getting its meals from Belgian house.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: He floated a diner in there a few hours ago, well,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Quillan said, brightening, perhaps a deft flavoring of poison Retol
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: shook her head. I checked over the hospital stalks. Not
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: a thing there that couldn't be spotted at once. Unless
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: we can clobber them very thoroughly. We can't afford to
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: make them suspicious with a trick like that. Poison would
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: be a bit rough on the office help too, Quillen conceded.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: They wouldn't be in on the deal. No, they're not.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: They're working under god gas. No, I suppose not. It
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: would take too long to whip up something that could
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: turn the trick. Quillan glanced at his watch. If the
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Camelot docks at midnight, we've about six and a half
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: hours left, doll and I don't find myself coming up
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: with any brilliant ideas. What have you thought of? Retel
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: hesitated a moment. Nothing very brilliant either, She said, then,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: but there are two things we might try as a
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: last resort. Let's hear em. I know a number of
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: people registered in the Star at present would be carrying
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: personal weapons. If they were told the facts, I could
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: probably line up about twenty who'd be willing to make
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: a try to get into the executive block and take
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: over either the control offices or the transmitter room. If
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: we got a warning out of the Camelot that would
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: break up the blot. Of course, it wouldn't necessarily save
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: the star, no Quillan said, but it's worth trying. If
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: we can't think of something better, how would you get
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: them inside? We could crowd twenty men into one of
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: those diner trucks and Raga could take us in. What
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: kind of people are your pals? A few smugglers and
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: confidence men. I've had connections with fairly good boys for
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: this sort of thing. Then there's an old millionaire sportsman
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: with a party of six waiting to transfer to the
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Camelot for a safari and Jantera. Oh, Philmarin isn't all
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: there in my opinion, but he's dead game and loves
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: any kind of a rucus. We can count on him
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: and his friends if they're not too drunk at the moment. Still,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: that's not too many to set against something less than
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: a hundred professional guns, even though some of them must
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: be done on the two ships. No, not enough, Quillan looked, thoughtful.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: What's the other idea? Let the cat out of the bag.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Generally tell the guests of the employees out there what's
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: going on and see if some one can think of
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: something that might be done. He shook his head. What
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: you'd set off with that would be anywhere between a
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: riot and a panic. The boys in the executive block
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: would simply give us the breathless treatment. Apparently they prefer
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: to have everything looking quiet and normal when the camelot
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: gets here. But they don't have to play it that way.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Retoll agreed. We might be dead for hours before the
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: line of docks. If they keep the landing dock closed
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: until what they want has been unloaded. Nobody on the
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: camelot would realize what had happened before it was too late.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: There was a moment's silence. Then Quillan said, you mentioned
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: you'd picked up a clue as to what they were after.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: What was that. Well, that's a curious thing, Brito said.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: On the trip out here, a young girl named of
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Solvey Kinmartin attached herself to me. She didn't want to
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: talk much, but I gathered she was newly married and
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: that her husband was on board and was neglecting her.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: She's an appealing little thing, and she seems so forlorn
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: and upset that I adopted her for the rest of
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: the run after we arrived. Of course, I pretty well
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: forgot about the Kinmartins and their troubles. A few hours ago,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Solvey suddenly came bursting into the suite where I'm registered.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: She was shaking all over. After I calmed her down
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: a bit, she spilled out her story. She and her husband,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Brock Kinmartin, arrest Warden's with another man named Eltoc, whom
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Solvey describes as some sort of crazy old coot. They
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: are assigned to escort two de luxe private rescubicles to
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: a very exclusive sanatorium on Mesmali. But Roc told Sylvie
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: at the beginning of the trip that this was a
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: very unusual assignment, that he didn't want her even to
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: come near the cubicles. That wouldn't have bothered her so much,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: she says. But on the way here, Brock became increasingly
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: irritable and absent minded. She knew he was worrying about
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: the cubicles, and she began to wonder whether they weren't
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: involved in something illegal. The pay was very high. They're
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: both getting almost twice the regular warden fee for the job.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: One day, she found an opportunity to do a little
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: investigating the cubicles are registered, respectively to a Lady Pendrake
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: and to a Major Pendrake. Lady Penny Drake appears to
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: be genuine. The cubicle is unusually large and constructed somewhat
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: differently from the ones with which Solvey was familiar, but
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: it was clear that it had an occupant. However, the
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: life indicator on Major Pendrake's cubicle registered zero when she
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: turned it on. If there was something inside it, it
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: wasn't a living human being. That was all she learned
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: at the time. Because she was afraid Brock might catch
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: her in the cubicle room here in the Star, the
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: cubicles were taken to a sweet reserved for Lady Pendrake.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: The other man, Eltoc, stayed in the suite with the
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: cubicles while the Kinmartins were given other quarters. However, Brock
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: was still acting oddly and spending most of his time
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: in the Pendrake suite, so this morning Sylvey swiped his
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: key to the suite and slipped in when she knew
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: the two men had left it. She'd barely got there
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: when she heard Brock and Altoc at the door again.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: She ran into the next room and hid in the
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: closet Suddenly there was commotion in the front room, and
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Solvey realized that men from the stuff Our Security Force
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: had arrived and were arresting Brock and Eltoc. They hauled
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: both of them away, then floated the cubicles out on
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: a carrier and took them off too, locking the suite
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: behind them. Sulby was in a complete panic, sure that
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: she and Brock had become involved in some serious breach
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: of the warden code. She waited a few minutes, then
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: slipped out of the Pandrake suite and looked me up
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: to see if I couldn't help them. I had a
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Raga check and he reported that the King Martin's suite
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: was under observation. Apparently they want to pick up the
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: girl too, so I tucked her away in one of
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: the suites in this section and gave her something to
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: put her to sleep. She's there now, Quillan said, and
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: where are the prisoners and the cubicles in the executive block?
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: How do you know? Retol smiled briefly. The Duke of
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Fleul told me, huh, the Brotherhood knows you're here. Relax,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Retol said, nobody, but Hiraga knows. I'm working for the moolies.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: I told the d I had a big con deal
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: set up when the camelot came in. I even't suggested
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: he might like to get in on it. He laughed
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: and said he had other plans, but he won't mention
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: to anyone that I'm here. Why not, because Retol said dryly,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: what the Duke is planning to get in on is
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: an hour of tender dolliance before the camelot arrives. Necessarily
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: the cold blooded little skunk. She hesitated a moment. When
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: she spoke again, her voice had turned harsh and nasal,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: wicked amusement sounding through it fart and busy at the moment, sweetheart,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: but we might find time for a drink or two
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: later on in the evening. Eh Quillan grunted, you're as
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: good at the voice imitations. As ever, how did you
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: find out about the cubicles? I took a chance and
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: fed him a moment of truth with fleul Gwenland said thoughtfully,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: that was taking a chance. Believe me, I was aware
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: of it. I've run into card carrying sadists before, but
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: the Duke's the only one who scares me silly, but
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: it did work. He dropped in for about a minute
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: and a half and came out without noticing a thing. Meanwhile,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: I'd got the answers to a few questions. The bomb
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: with which they're planning to mop up behind them has
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: already been planted up here in the norm space section.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Fluel didn't know where. Armaments experts took care of it.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: It's armed. Now. There's a firing switch on each of
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: their ships, and both switches have to be tripped before
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: the thing goes off. Part of what they're after is
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: in those pendrake rest cubicles. Part of it, Quillan asked,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Uh huh, An even hundred similar cubicles will be unloaded
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: from the camelot the bulk of the hall, which is
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: why no luncon is supervising things on the liner. I
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: started to ask what was in the cubicles, but I
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: saw Fluel was beginning to lose that blank look they
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: have under truth and switched back to light chain just
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: before he woke up. Yako's paying for the job, or
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: rather it will pay for the stuff on delivery, and
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: no questions asked. That's not very much help, is it,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Quillan said. After a moment, something a big crooked industrial combine.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Like Iyako thinks it can use it, must expect to
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: be able to use it to extremely good advantage. Retol said.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: The Brotherhood will collect thirty million credits for their part
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: of the operation. The Commodore's group presumably won't do any worse.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: She glanced past Quillan toward the room portal. It's okay, Hraga,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: come in, schaer Hurraga was a lean, dark skinned little
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: man with a badly bent nose, black curly hair, and
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: a nervous look. He regretted. He said that he hadn't
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: been able to uncover anything which might be a lead
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: to the location of the bomb. Apparently it wasn't even
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: being guarded, and of course a bomb of the size
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: required here would be quite easy to conceal if they
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: haven't put guards so for it. Retoll agreed, it'll take
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: blind luck to spot it unless we can get hold
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: of one of the men who knows where it's planted.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: There was silence for some seconds, then Quillan said, well,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: if we can't work out a good plan, we'd better
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: see what we can do with one of the bad ones.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Are the Commodore's security men wearing uniforms. Hraga shook his head.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Not the ones I saw. But here's an idea, Willn said.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: As things stand, barging into the executive block with a
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: small armed group can't accomplish much. It might be more
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: interesting than sitting around and waiting to be blown up,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: but it still would be suicide. However, if we could
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: get things softened up and disorganized in there first, softened
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: up and disorganized, how Retol asked, we can use that
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: notion you had of having Hiraga float in another diner.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: This time I'm on board in a steward's uniform. Case
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: the guard's check. They didn't the first time. Hraga said,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: sloppy of em. Well, they're just gun hands. Anyway. Once
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: we're inside, I shuck off the uniform and get out.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Haraga delivers his goodies and leaves again. Retol gave him
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: a look, you'll get shot down the instant you're seeing, dope.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: I think not. There are two groups in there, about
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: a hundred men at all, and they haven't had time
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: to get well acquainted yet. I'll have my gun in sight,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: and anyone who sees me should figure I belong to
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: the other group until I run into one of the
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Brotherhood boys who knows me personally. Then that's when you'll
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: get shot down. I haven't stand the last time you
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: and the Duke of Fluomett, he woke up with lumps.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: The Duke doesn't love me, Willyn admitted. But there's nothing
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: personal between me and Movain or mars Coombs. And I'll
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: have a message from Mouvain. What kind of a message.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: I'll have to play that by her a little. It
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: depends on how things look in there. But I have
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: a few ideas based on what you've learned of the operation. Now,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: just what I can do when I get that far,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: I don't know yet. I'll simply try to launce the
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: deal up as much as I can. That may take time,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: and of course it might turn out to be impossible
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: to get word out to you. So what do we
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: do meanwhile? Retall asked, If we start lining up our
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: attack group immediately and there's no action for another five
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: or six hours, there's always the chance of a leak.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: With about twenty people in the know, And if there's
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: a leak, Quillan agreed, you probably had it. No, you'd
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: better wait with that. If I'm not out and you
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: haven't heard from me before the Camelots actually do to dock.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Hiraga can still take the group. Everybody put yourself in
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: is scheduled. Why everybody but me? Retol asked, If nothing
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: else works, you might find some way of getting a
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: warning to the liner's security force after they're docked. It
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: isn't much of a possibility, but we can't afford to
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: throw it away. Yes, I see, retall it reflective. What
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: do you think, Hiraga the little man shrugged. You told
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: me that mister Quillan is not inexparience in dealing with
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: his enemies if he feels he might accomplish something in
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the executive block. I'm in favor of the plan. The
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: situation certainly could hardly become worse. That's the spirit Quillan approved,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: the positive outlook. That's what a thing like this mainly takes.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Can you arrange for the diner in the uniform? Oh? Yes,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Ragas said, I've had myself put in charge of that
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: detail naturally. And what can you tell me about the
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: executive block's layout? Retol stood up. Come over to the desk,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: she said, We've got diagrams the five levels, as you
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: see Rago was explaining a few moments later. Are built
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: directly into the curve of the Star's shelves. Level five
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: on the top is therefore quite small. The other levels
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: are fairly extensive. Two, three, and four could each accommodate
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: a hundred men comfortably. These levels contain mainly living quarters,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: private offices, and the like. The Brotherhood men appear to
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: be occupying the fourth level, v Leyden's group the second.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: The third may be reserved for meetings between representatives of
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: the two groups. All three of these levels are connected
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: by single exit portals to the large entrance area on
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: the ground level. The portal stood open when I went
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: in earlier today, and there were about twenty armed men
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: lounging about the entrance hall. I recognized approximately half of
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: them as being members of the Star Security Force. The
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: others were unfamiliar. Haraga cleared his throat. And there is
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: a possibility that the two groups do not entirely trust
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: each other, Quillan nodded. If they're playing around with something
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: like sixty million c R. Anybody would have to be
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: crazy to trust the brother of Belden. The transmitter room
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: and the control officers are guarded too yes, but not heavily,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Haraga said. There seem to be only a few men
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: stationed at each of these points. Ostensibly, there is a
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: s safeguard in case the imaginary raiders attempt to break
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: out of the subspace section. What's the arrangement of the
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: ordinary walk in two portals in the executive block? There
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: is one which interconnects the five levels. On each of
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: the lower levels. There are an addition, several portals which
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: lead out to the various points in the seven star hotel.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: On the fifth level there is only one portal of
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: this kind, except for the portal which operates between the
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: different levels in the executive block. All of them have
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: been rendered unusable at present. Unusable in what way? They
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: have been sealed off on the executive block side? Can
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: you get me a diagram of the entry and exit
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: systems these outgoing portals connect with, Quillan asked, I might
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: turn one of them usable again. Yes, I can do that.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: How about the communication possibilities? The comweb system is functioning
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: normally on the second, third, and fourth levels. It has
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: been shut off on the first level to avoid the
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: spread of alarming rumors by office personnel. There is no
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: conweb on the fifth level. Retol said, we'll shift our
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: operating headquarters back to my registered suite. Then the conwebs
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: are turned off in those vacant sections. I'll stay in
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: the other suite in case you find his chance to
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: signal in. Hraga left a few minutes later to make
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: his arrangements. Retoll smiled at Quinlan a little dubiously good
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: luck guy, She said, anything else to settle before you
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: start off. Quillan nodded, couple of details. If you're going
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: to be in your regular suite and Fluel finds himself
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: with some idle time on hand, he might show up
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: for the dalliance you mentioned. Retol's smile changed slightly. Her
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: left hand fluffed. The hair at the back of her
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: head flicked down again. There was a tiny click, and
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: Quillan looked at a small jeweled hair clasp in her palm,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: its needle beak pointing at him. It hasn't got much range,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Retoll said, but within ten feet it will scramble the
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Duke's brains just as thoroughly is they need to be
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: scrambled good enough, Quillan said, Just don't give that boy
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: the ghost of a chance to all. He is a
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: rip for playing very unnice games with the ladies. I
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: know his reputation. Retoll replaced the tiny gun in her hair.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Anything else, Yes, let's look in on the kin Martin
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: chick for a moment. If she's awake, she may have
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: remembered something or other by now that she didn't think
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: to tell you. They found solve Kin Martin awake and
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: tearfully glad to see Retall. Quillan was introduced as a
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: member of the legal profession who would do what he
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: could for Slvey and her husband. Solvee frowned prettily, trying
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: very hard to remember anything that might be of use.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: But it appeared that she had told Retoll all she
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: knew and of Part one, Part two of Lion Loose
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: by James H. Schmidtz. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: public domain. The blue and white Fellagion House diner, driven
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: by Hiraga, was admitted without comment into the executive block.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: It floated on unchallenged through the big entry hall and
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: into a corridor immediately behind the first turn of the corridor.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: The diner paused a few seconds. Its side door opened
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: and closed. The diner moved on Quillan, coatless and with
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: the well worn butt of a big meum Devil's special
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: protruding from the holster on his right hip, came briskly
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: back along the corridor. Between fifteen and twenty men, their
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: guns also conspicuously in evidence, were scattered about the entrance hall,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: expressions and attitudes indicating a curious mixture of boredom and
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: uneasy tension. The eyes of about half of them swiveled
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: around a Quillen when he came into the hall, then,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: with one exception, they looked indifferently away again. The exception,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: leaning against the wall near the three open portals to
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: the upper levels, continued to stare as Quillan came toward him,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: fore ind creased in a deep scowl, as if he
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: were painfully ransacking his mind for something. Quillan stopped in
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: front of him. Chum, He asked, any idea where Mouvain
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: is at the moment. They just gave me this message
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: for him, still scowling, The other scratched his chin and blinked.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: Uh dunno, for sure, he said. After a moment he
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: ought to be in the third level conference room with
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: the rest of him. Uh dunno. You ought to barge
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: in there now, pal, the commodore's really hot about something.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: Quillan looked worried. Got a chance it. I guess message
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: is pretty important, they say. He turned, went through the
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: center portal of the three abruptly found himself walking along
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: a wide, well lit hall. Nobody in sight here or
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: in the first intersecting passage he came to. When he
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: reached the next passage, he heard voices on the right,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: turned toward them, went by a string of closed doors
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: on both sides, until forty feet on the passage angled
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: again and opened into a long, high ceilinged room. The
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: voices came through an open door on the right side
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: of the room. Standing against the wall beside the door
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: were two men whose heads turned sharply towards Quillan as
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: he appeared in the passage. The short, chunky one scowled.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: The big man next to him, the top of whose
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: head had been permanently seared clear of hair years before
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: by a near miss from a blaster, dropped his jaw slowly.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: His eyes popped. My god, he said, mauvain in there, Baldie.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: Quillan inquired, coming up o vain, he you how The
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: chunky man took out his gun, waved it negligently at Quillan.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: Telly Ape to blow perk. He isn't wanted here, ape,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: Quillan asked softly. His right hand moved, had the gun
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: by the barrel, twisted, reversed the gun, jammed it back
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: with some violence into the chunky man's stomach. Ape he repeated.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: The chunky man went white, bad news. Baldiperk breathed, Take
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: it easy. That's Orca. He's the commodore's torpedo. How where's
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Mouvain Mauvain? He uh, all right, is not here and
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Lancyon can't have arrived yet. Is Coomb's in there, Yeah,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: Baldiperk said weakly. Coombs is in there. Quillan, let's go in.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Quillan withdrew the gun, slid it into a pocket, smiled
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: down at Orca. Get it back from your boss, slob
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: be seeing you. Orca's voice was a husky whisper. You will, friend,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: you will. The conference room was big and sparsely furnished.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: Four men sat at the long table at its center.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: Quillan knew two of them, Marris Combs, second in command
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: of the Belden brotherhood's detachment here and the Duke of
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: Fluel Muvain's personal gun. Going by hiragous descriptions. The big
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: florid faced man with white hair and flowing white mustaches
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: who was doing the talking was Vladen the Commodore. Well.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: A fourth man, younger, wiry, with thinning black hair plastered
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: back across his skull, would be Rider, chief of the
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: Star's security force. What I object to primarily is that
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: the attempt was made without obtaining my consent, and secretly.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Vlayden was saying with a toothy grin, but in a
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: voice that shook with open fury. And now it's been
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: made and bungled. You have a nerve asking for our help.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: The problem is yours, and you'd better take care of
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: it fast. I can't spare Rider. If Combs Baldyperk broke
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: in desperately from the door, bad news Quillan's here, and
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: the heads of the four men at the table came
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: around simultaneously. The eyes of two of them widened for
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: an instant. Then Mars Coombs began laughing softly. Now everything's happened,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: he said. Coombs, the Commodore said testily, I prefer not
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: to be interrupted. Now, can't be helped, Commodore Willan said,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: moving forward, Perk shuffling along unhappily beside him. I've got
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: news for Mauvain, and the news can't wait. Mauvain, the
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: commodore repeated, blue eyes bulging at Quinlan Mauvain Coombs. Who
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: is this man you're looking at? Bad news, Quillyn Coombe said, Hi,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: jacking specialist with somewhat numerous side lines. But the point
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: right now is that he isn't a member of the brotherhood.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: What Bulayden's big fist smashed down on the table? Now?
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: What kind of a game? How did he get in here? Well,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: Quillan said, mildly. I oozed in through the north wall
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: about a minute ago, I he checked, conscious of having
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: created some kind of sensation. The four men at the
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: table were staring up at him without moving. Baldy Perk
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: appeared to be holding his breath. Then the commodore coughed,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: cleared his throat, drummed his fingers on the table. He
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: said reflectively, he could have news good or bad at
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: that for all of us. He chewed on one of
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: his mustache chips, grinned suddenly up at Quillan. Well, sit down, friend,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: let's talk. You can't talk to Mauvain. You see Mouvein's
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: um I had an accident, passed away suddenly half an
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: hour ago. Sorry to hear it, Quillan said, that's the
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: sort of thing that happened so often in the brotherhood.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: He swung a chair around, sat down facing the table.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: You're looking well to night flewel. He observed the Duke
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: of fluol Lean and dapper in silver jacket and tight
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: fitting silver trousers, gave him a wintry smile. Said nothing now, then, friend,
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: Layden inquired confidentially, just what was your business with Mauvain. Well,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: it will come to her around twenty percent of the take,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: Quillen informed them. We won't argue about a half million
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: c ar more or less, but around twenty perr. The
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: face is thoughtful. After some seconds, the commodore asked, and
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: who's we A number of citizens, Quillan said, who have
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: been rather unhappy since discovering that you too are interested
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: in Lady Pendrake and her pals. We gone to considerable
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: expense and trouble to well. Her ladyship was scheduled to
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: show up in Mesmiali, you know, and now she isn't
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: going to show up there, all right? That's business twenty perr.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: No hard feelings. Otherwise, it won't do you a bit
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: of good to blow up the star in the liner.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: They'll still be loose talk. Maybe other complications too. You
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: know how it goes. You wouldn't be happy, and neither
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: would Yako. Right. The Commodore's massive head turned back to Coombs.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: How well do you know this man? Morris Coombs grinned dryly.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: Well enough is he leveling? He'd be nuts to be
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: here if he wasn't, and he isn't nuts, at least
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: not that way. There might be a question about that.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: Flul observed. He looked at the commodore. Why not ask
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: him for a couple of the names that are in
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: it with him? Hog Ready and Bolton, Quillan said, Blayden
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: chewed the other mustache tip. I know hog Ready if
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: he I know both of them, Coombe said. Bolton works
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: hijacking crews out of Arado. Quinnlan operates there occasionally. Poppy
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: Bolton there's an old business associate. Quillan agreed, reliable, sort
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: of a guy. Doesn't mind taking a few chances either.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: 'layden's protruding blue eyes measured him for a moment. We
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: can check on those two, you know, check away, Quillan said.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: Wolayden nodded, we will. He was silent for a second
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: or two, then glanced over at Coombs. There have been
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: no leaks on our side, he remarked, And they must
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: have known about this for weeks of alian neppt bungling. Oh,
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: don't be too hard on the brotherhood, commodore, Quillan said,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: leaks happen. You ought to know. What do you mean,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: Playden snapped, from what we heard, the Brotherhood's pulling you
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: out of a hole here. You should feel rather kindly
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: toward them. The commodore stared at him reflectively. Then he grinned,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: could be I should? He said? Did you come here alone? Yes?
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: The commodore nod. If you're bluffing, God help you. If
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: you're not. Your group's in twenty per. No time for haggling.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: We can raise Jacko's price to cover it. He stood up,
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: and Riders stood up with him. Marris, the commodore went on,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: tell him what's happened? If he's half as hot as
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: he sounds, he's the boy to put on that job.
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: Let him get in on a little of the work
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: for the twenty percent rider. Come on we one moment,
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: Sir Quillan interrupted. He took Orci's gun by the muzzle
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: from his pocket, held it out to Eladen. One of
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: your men lost this thing, the one outside the door.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: If you don't mind, he might pout if he doesn't
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: get it back. The fifth level of the executive block
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: appeared to be, as Sarraga had said, quite small. The
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: tiny entry hall, on which two walk in portals opened,
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: led directly into the large room where the two pendrake
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: rust cubicles had been placed. One of the cubicles now
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: stood open to right and left. A narrow passage stretched
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: away from the room, ending apparently in smaller rooms. Baldy
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: Perk was perspiring profusely. Now right here, he said, in
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: a low voice, was where I was standing. Movain was
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: over there on the right of the cubicle, and Coombs
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: was beside him. Ribero was a little behind me, hanging
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: on to the punk. That Kinmartin and the Duke, he
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: nodded back at the wide door space to the hall
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: was standing back there all right. The punks opened a
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: cubicle crack, looking like he's about to pass out while
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: he's doing it. This bearded guy Eltoc stands in front
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: of the cubicle holding the gadget he controls the thing with.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: Where's the gadget now, Quinnlan asked Marris Coomb's got it?
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: How does it work? Baldy shook his head. We can't
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: figure it out. It's got all kinds of little knobs
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: and dials on it. Pushed this one and it squeaks,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: turned that one in. It buzzes like that. Quillan nodded,
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: all right, what happened? Well, Movain tells the old guy
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: to go ahead and do the demonstrating. The old guy
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: sort of grins and fiddles with the gadget. The cubicle
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: door pops open and this thing comes pouring out. I
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: never seen nothing like it. It's like a barn door
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: with dirty fur on it. It swirls up and around
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: and it wraps its upper end clean around poor Movain.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: He never even screeches. Then everything pops at once. The
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: old guy is laughing like crazy, and that half smart
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: Ribero drills him right through the head. I take one
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: shot at the thing low so it's not to hit Mouvein,
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: and then we're all running how I'm halfway to the
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: hall when Coon's tears past me like a rocket. The
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: Duke and the others are already piling out through the portal.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: I get to the hall and there's this terrific smack
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: of sound in the room. I look back, and Baldy
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: paused and gulped. And what Quillan asked? There behind the cubicles,
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: I see poor Movain sticking halfway out of the wall,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: Baldi reported, in a hushed whisper. Half way out of
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: the wall. From the waist up, he's in it. From
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: the waist down, he's dangling into the room. I tell
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: you I never see nothing like it. And this hell
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: lot creature that's gone. I figured the smack I heard
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: was when it hit the wall flat carrying Mouvain. It
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: went on into it movein, didn't at least the last
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: half of him didn't, well, Quillan said, after a pause.
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: In a way, Mouvain got his demonstration. The lots can
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: move through solid matter and carry other objects along with them,
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: as advertised. If Yaco can work out how it's done,
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: and build a gadget that does the same thing. They're
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: getting ha lots cheap. What happened then? I told Marris
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: Coombs about Movain and he sent me in a half
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: dozen other boys back up there with riot guns to
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: see what we could do for him, which was nothing.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: Of course, Baldy gulped again. We finally cut this end
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: of him off with a beam and took it back down.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: The thing didn't show up while you were here. Baldy
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: shuddered and said no, and the technician Ailtoc was dead.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: Sure holdin his head, you could shove your fist through somebody.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: Quillan observed, ought the drill Robero for that stupid trick
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: the Duke did first thing after we get back to
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: the fourth level. So the lot's on the loose and
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: all we really have at the moment of the cubicles
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: and rest Martin Kinmartin, where's he? By the way, He
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: tried to take off when we got down to level
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: four and somebody coal cocked him. The doc says he
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: ought to be comin around again pretty soon. Quinland grunted
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: shoved the meum Devil, specially into its holster, said Okay,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: you stay here where you can watch the room and
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: those passages in the hall. If you feel a floor
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: start moving, under scream, I'll take a look at the cubicle.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: Lady Pendrake's cubicle was about half as big again as
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: a standard one, but aside from one detail, its outer settings,
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: instruments and operating devices appeared normal. The modification was a
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: recess almost six feet long and a foot wide and
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: deep in one side, which could be opened either to
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: the room or to the interior of the rest cubicle,
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: but not simultaneously to both. Quillen already knew its purpose.
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: The supposed other cubicle was a camouflaged food locker containing
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: fifty pounds slabs of sea beef, each of which represented
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: a meal for the lot. The recess made it possible
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: to feed it without allowing it to be seen or
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: possibly attempting to emerge. Kin Martin's nervousness, as reported by
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: his wife, seemed understandable any rest warden might get disturbed
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: over such a charge. Quillan asked over his shoulder, any
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: one find out yet why the things can't get out
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: of the closed rest cubicle? Yeah, baldyperk said, kin Martin says,
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: it's the cubicle's defense fields. They could get through the material,
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: they can't get through the field. Someone think to energize
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: the executive blocks battlefields, Quillan inquired, Yeah, but Leyden took
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: care of that before he came screaming up to the
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: third level to argue with Combs and Fluel. So it
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: can't slip out of the block unless it shows itself
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: down on the ground level when the entry locks open. Yeah,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: Baldy muttered, But I don't know is that good. Quillan
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: looked at him. Well, we would like it back. Why
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: there's fifty more coming in on the liner tonight. We
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: don't have the fifty yet. If someone louses up the detail, yah,
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: Baldy said faintly. There was a crash of sound as
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: his riot gun went off. Quillan spun around, hair bristling
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: gun out. What happened, I'll swear, Baldy said, whitefaced. I
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: saw something moving along that passage. Quillan looked, saw nothing,
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: slowly replaced the gun. Baldy, he said, if you think
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: you see it again, just say so. That's an order.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: If it comes at us, we get out of this
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: level fast. But we don't shoot before we have to.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: If we kill it, it's no good to us. Got that, yeah,
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: Baldy said, But I got an idea. Now bad news.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: He looked at the other cubicle. Let's leave that meat
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: box open. Why if it's hungry, Baldy explained, simply, I'd
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: sooner wrapped itself around a few chunks of sea beef
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: and not around me. Quillan punched him encouragingly in the shoulder, Baldi,
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: he said, in your own way, you have had an idea,
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: But we won't leave the meat box open. When kin
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: Martin wakes up, I want him to show me how
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: to bake this cubicle with a piece of sea beef,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: so it'll snap shot if the plot goes inside. Meanwhile,
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: it won't hurt if it gets a little hungry. That said, Baldi,
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: isn't the way I feel about it. There must be
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: around one hundred and fifty people in the executive block
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: at present, Quillan said, look at it that way. Even
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: if the thing keeps stuffing away, your odds are pretty good, Baldy.
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: Baldy shuddered, aside from a dark bruise high on his forehead.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: Brock Kinmartin showed no direct effects of having been knocked out. However,
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: his face was strained and his voice not entirely steady.
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: It was obvious that the young rest warden had never
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: been in a similarly unnerving situation before, but he was
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: making a valiant effort not to appear frightened and at
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: the same time to indicate that he would co operate
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: to the best of his ability with his captors. He'd
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: regained consciousness by the time Quillan and Perk returned to
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: the fourth level, and Quillan suggested bringing him to Marris
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: Coombe's private quarters for questioning. The Brotherhood chief agreed, he
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: was primarily interested in finding out how the Hallot control
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: device functioned. Kin Martin shook his head. He knew nothing
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: about the instrument, he said, except that it was called
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: a Halot talker. It was very unfortunate that Elta had
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: been shot, because Eltoc undoubtedly could have told them all
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: they wanted to know about it. If what he had
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: told kin Martin was true, Eltok had been directly involved
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: in the development of the device, Was he some Federation
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: scientist Cooms asked, fiddling absently with the mysterious cylindrical object. No, sir,
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: the young man said, But again, if what he told
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: me was the truth, he was the man who actually
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: discovered those lots. At least he was the first man
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: to discover them who wasn't immediately killed by them. Cooms
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: glanced thoughtfully at Quillen, then asked, and where was that?
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: Kin Martin shook his head again. He didn't tell me,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: and I didn't really want to know. I was anxious
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: to get our convoy to its destination and then to
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: be relieved of the assignment. I well, I've been trained
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: to act as rest barden to human beings, after all,
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: not to monstrosities. He produced an uncertain smile, glancing from
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: one or the other of his interrogators. The smile promptly
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: faded out again. You've no idea at all, then, about
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: the place they came from, Coombs asked expressionlessly. Oh yes,
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: kin Martin said hastily. Eltok talked a great deal about
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: the lots, and actually, except for its location, gave me
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: a pretty good picture of what the planet must be like.
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: For one thing, it's an uncolonized world. Of course, it
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: must be terotype, or very nearly so. Because Altoc lived
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: there for fifteen years, with apparently only a minimum of equipment.
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: The lots are confined to a single large island. He
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: discovered them by accident. And what was he doing there? Well, sir?
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: He came from Pyle's Frisian. He was a krim. He'd
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: been engaged in some form of piracy, and when the
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: authorities began looking for him, he decided it would be
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: best to get clean out of the hub. He cracked
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: up his ship on this world and couldn't leave again.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: When he discovered the lots and realized their peculiar ability,
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: he kept out of their way and observed them. He
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: found out they had a means of communicating with each other,
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: and then he could duplicate it. That stopped them from
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: harming him, And eventually he said he was using them
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: like hunting dogs. They were accustomed to cooperating with one
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: another because when there was some animal around that was
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: too large for one of them to handle, they would
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: attack in a group. He went on for another minute
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: or two on the subject the halts. The word meant
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: rock lion in one of the Hile's Frisian dialects, describing
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: a carnivorous animal which had some superficial resemblance to the
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: creatures Eltok had happened on frequented the sea coast and
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: submerged themselves in sand rocks and debris, whipping up out
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: of it to seize some food animal and taking it
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: down with them again to devour it at leisure. Quillan interrupted,
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: you heard what happened to the man at attacked on
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: the fifth level? Yes, sir. Why would the thing have
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: left him half outside the wall as it did? Kin
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: Martin said that it must simply have been moving too fast.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: It could slip into an out of solid substances without
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: a pause itself, but it needed a little time to
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: restructure an object that was carrying in the same manner.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: No more time, however, than two or three seconds, depending
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: more on the nature of the object than on its size.
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: According to Eltoc, it can restructure anything. On that matter,
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: Quillan asked. Kin Martin hesitated, well, sir, I don't know.
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: I suppose there might be limitations on its ability. Eltock
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: told me the one we were escorting had been the
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: subject of extensive experimentation during the past year, and that
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: the results are very satisfactory. Suppose it carries a living
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: man through a wall. Will a man still be alive
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: when he comes out the other side, assuming the lot
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: doesn't kill him deliberately? Yes, sir, the process itself wouldn't
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: hurt him. Pulling glanced at Kumb's you know, he said,
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: we might be letting Yako off too cheaply. Coombs raised
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: an eyebrow warningly and grinned, our friend will be learning
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: about Yako soon enough. Why did Eltoc tell the creature
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: to attack kin Martin, Sir, I don't know. Kin Martin
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: said he was a man of rather violent habits. My impression, however,
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: was that he was simply attempting to obtain a hostage.
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: How did you get off the island with a halt?
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: A University League explorer was investigating the planet. Eltoc contacted
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: them and obtained a guarantee of a full pardon and
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: a large cash settlement, and returned for what he could
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: tell them about the halts. They took him in this
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: one specimen along for experimentation. What about the helots on
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: the camelot? Altoc said, those had been quite recently trapped
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: on the island. Coombs ran his fingers over the cylinder,
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: producing a rapid series of squeaks and whistles. That's one
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: thing Yaco may not like. He observed. They won't have
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: a monopoly on the thing. Quillan shook his head. Their
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: scientists don't have to to work through red tape like
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: the U League. By the time this news breaks, if
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: the Veneration ever intends to break it, Yaco will have
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: at least a five year start on everybody else. That's
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: all an outfit like that needs. He looked at kin Martin.
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: Any little thing you haven't thought to tell us, friend,
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: he inquired pleasantly. A thin film of sweat showed suddenly
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: on kin Martin's forehead. No, sir, he said, I've really
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: told you everything I know. I might try him under dope,
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: Coombe said, absently, uh uh, Quinlan said, I want him
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: wide awake to help me bait the cubicle for the thing.
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: Has vladen shown any indication of becoming willing to cooperate
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: and hunting it. Coombe's gestured with his head. Ask flewel
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: I sent him down to try to patch up things
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: with the commodore. He just showed up again. Quillan glanced around.
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: The duke was lounging in the doorway. He grinned slightly, said,
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: Blayden's still sore at us, but he'll talk to Quillan
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: kin Martin here. Did he tell you his wife's on
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: the star brock? Kin Martin went utterly white. Coombs looked
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: at him, said softly, no, that must have slipped his mind.
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: Fools said, yeah, well she is, and Ryder says they'll
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: have her picked up inside half an hour when they
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: bring her in. We really should check on how candid
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: King Martin's been about everything. The rest warden said, in
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: a voice that shook uncontrollably. Gentlemen, my wife knows absolutely
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: nothing about these matters. I swear it. She. Quillan stood up, Well,
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: i'll see if I can't get the laden in a
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: better mood. Are you keeping that a lot talker? Coomb's
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: Coombe smiled, I am marus figures. The Duke's flat voice
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: explained that if the thing comes into the room and
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: he squeaks at it a few times, he won't get hurt.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: That's possible, Coombe said, unruffled. At any rate, I intend
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: to hang on to it. Well, I wouldn't play around
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: with those buttons too much. Quillan observed, why not, you
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: might get lucky and tap out some pattern that spells
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: come to show in the Lot's vocabulary. End of Part two,
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: Part three of Lion Loose by James H. Schmidtz. This
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. There were considerably
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: more men and evidence on level two than on the fourth,
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: and fewer signs of nervousness. The Starman had been told
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: of the Lot's escape from its cubicle, but weren't taking
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: it too seriously. Quillan was conducted to the Commodore and
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: favored with and alarmingly toothy grin Rider. The security chief
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: joined them a few seconds later. Apparently Leyden had summoned him.
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: O'layden said, writer here has made a few transmitter calls.
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: We hear Poppy Bolton and pulled his outfit out of
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: the Orado area about a month ago present whereabouts unknown.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: Hagready went off on some hush hush job. At about
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: the same time Quinland smiled, uh huh, so he did.
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: We also, said, Rider learned a number of things about
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: you personally. He produced a thin smile. You lead a
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: busy and apparently profitable life. Business is fair, Quinnllan agreed,
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: but I can always be improved. The Commodore turned on
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: the toothy grin. So all right, he growled, you're clear.
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: We rather liked what we heard, eh Rider Rider nodded.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: The Brotherhood of Beldon now. The Commodore shook his head heavily.
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: Quillan was silent a moment. They might be getting sloppy.
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: He said, I don't know. It's one possibility. They used
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: to be a rather sharp outfit, you know, That's what
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: i'd heard. Uladen chewed savagely on his mustache, asked, finally,
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: what's another possibility. Quillan leaned back in his chair. Just
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: a feeling so far, But the business with the cubicle
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: upstairs might have angles that weren't mentioned. They looked at
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: him thoughtfully, Rider said, mind amplifying that Coombs told me.
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: Quillan said that Nome Lanceyon had given Mauvein instructions to
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: make a test with Lady Pendrake on the quiet and
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: find out if those creatures actually can do what they're
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: supposed to do. I think he was telling the truth.
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: Nome tends to be overcautious when it's a really big deal,
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: unless he's sure of the halots he wouldn't want to
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: be involved in a thing like blowing up the star
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: and the line. The commodore scowled absently. Uh huh, he said,
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: he knows we can't back out of it, all right.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: The Brotherhood's full of ambitious men. Behind Lanceyon Mauvain was
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: top man, Coombs behind him, Flue behind Coombs. Suppose that
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: this halot control device Coombs is hanging on to so
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: tightly isn't as entirely incomprehensible as they make it out
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: to be. Suppose Coombs makes a deal with Eltoc, I'll
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: talk tickles the gadget, and the halot kills Mouvain. Rubero
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: immediately guns down Eltoc and is killed by Fluel a
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: couple of minutes later, supposedly for blowing his top and
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: killing the man who knew how to control the helot.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: Ryder cleared his throat. Flue was Mouvain's gun, he observed,
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: so he was. Quillan said, would you like the duke
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: to be yours? Ryder grinned shook his head, no thanks.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: Quillan looked back of Laden. How well are you actually
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: covered against the Brotherhood? Well, that's air sight. The Commodore said,
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: we've got them out gunned here. When the liner lands
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: will be about even. But Lancion won't start anything. We're
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: too even. Once we're clear of the Star, we don't
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: meet again. We deal with Yako individually. The Brotherhood has
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: the halts, and we have the trained Federation technicians accompanying them,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: who who who alone are supposed to be able to
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: inform Yako how to control the lots. Rider finished for him.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: The security chief's face was expressionless. By God, the commodore
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: said softly, Well, it's only a possibility that somebody's playing dirty.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: Quillan remarked, we'd want to be sure of it. But
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: if anyone can handle a lot with a control instrument,
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: the Brotherhood has an advantage now that it isn't talking about.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: It can offer Yako everything Yako needs in one package.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: Of course, Yako might s you'll be willing to pay
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: for the lot of technicians. If it didn't, you and
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: writer could make the same kind of trouble for it
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: that my friends can. The color was draining slowly from
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: m'layden's face. There's a difference, he said, if we threatened
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: to make trouble for Yako, they'd see to it that
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: our president employers learned that writer and I are still alive.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: That's the movies, Eh, yes, tough. Quillan knuckled his chin thoughtfully. Well,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: let's put it this way, then, he said. My group
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: doesn't have that kind of problem, but if things worked
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: out so that we'd have something more substantial than nuisance
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: value to offer Yako, we'd prefer it, of course. Felayden nodded,
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: Very understandable. Under the circumstances, cooperation appears to be indicated. Eh,
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: that's what I had in mind. You've made a deal,
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: Layden said, Any immediate suggestions, Quillan looked at his watch.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: A couple. We don't want to make any mistake about this.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: It's almost five hours before the camelot pulls in, and
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: until she does, you're way ahead on firepower. I wouldn't
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: make any accusations just now, but you might mention to
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: Coombs you'd like to borrow the halot gadget to have
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: it examined by some of your technical experts. The way
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: he reacts might tell us something. If he balks, the
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: matter shouldn't be pushed too hard at the moment. It's
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: a toss up whether you or the Brotherhood is a
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: better claim to the thing. But then there's Kinmartin, the
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: rest warden in charge of the cubicle. I talked with
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: him while Coomb's and Fleuel were around, but he might
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: have been briefed on what to say. Coombs mentioned doping him,
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: which could be a convenient way to keeping him shut up,
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: assuming he knows more than he's told. He's one of
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: the personnel you're to offer, Yako. I think you can
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: insist on having kit Martin hand it over to you immediately.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: It should be interesting again to see how Coombs reacts.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: Layden's big head nodded vigorously. Good idea, by the way,
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: Quillan said. Flul mentioned you've been looking for kin Martin's wife.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: The second rest warden on the Pendrake convoy found her,
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: yet not a trace so far. Rider said that's a
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: little surprising too, isn't it under the circumstances. The commodore
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: said it might not be surprising at all. He had
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: regained his color was beginning to look angry. If they well,
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: Quillan said, soothingly, we don't know. It's just that things
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: do seem to be adding up a little. Now, there's
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: one other point. We should do something immediately about catching
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: that a lot Layden grunted and picked at his teeth
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: with his thumb nail. It would be best to get
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: it back in its cubicle, of course, But I'm not
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: worrying about it. Just an animal, after all, Even the
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: light hard ware these beld and fancied Dans carry should
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: handle it. You use a man's sized gun, icy, so
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: do I. If it shows up around here, it gets smeared,
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: that's all. They're fifty more of the beasts on the camelot.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: Willan nodded, you're right on that. But there's the possibility
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: that it is being controlled by the Brotherhood at present.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: If it is, it isn't just an animal anymore. It
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: could be turned into a thoroughly dangerous nuisance. The commodore
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: thought a moment, nodded, you're right. I suppose what do
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: you want to do about it? Baiting the cubicle on
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: the fifth level might work. Then there should be life
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: detectors in the Star's security supplies. Rider nodded. We have
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: a couple of dozen of them, but not in the
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: executive block. They were left in the security building. The
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: Commodore stood up. You stay here with Rider, he told Quillan.
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: There's a couple of things I want to go over
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: with you too. I'll order the life detectors from the
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: office here. Second, pass it down, isn't it? Rider? And Rider?
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: I have another idea. I'm pulling a man in space
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: armor off the subspace portal and detailing him to level five.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: He grinned at Quillan. That boy's got a brace of
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: grenades and built in spray guns. If Coombs is thinking
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: of pulling any fancy stunts up there, he'll think again.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: The Commodore headed briskly down the narrow passageway, his big
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: holstered gun slapping his thigh with every step. The two
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: security guards stationed at the door to the second level
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: office came to attention as he approached, saluted smartly. He grunted,
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: went in without returning the salutes, and started over toward
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: the comweb on a desk at the far end of
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: the big room, Skirting the long, dusty looking black rug
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: against one wall, Laden unbuckled his gun belt, placed the
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: gun on the desk, sat down, and switched on the
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: comweb behind him. The black rug stirred silently and rose up.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: You called that, one rider was saying, seven or eight
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: minutes later, almost two. Oh. Well. Quillan shook his head,
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: poked at the commodore's gun on the desk with his finger,
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: looked about the silent office, and back at the door,
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: where a small group of security men stood staring in
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: at them. Three men gone without a sound, he said.
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: He indicated the glowing disc of the conweb. He had
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: time enough to turn it on, not time enough to
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: make his call. Any chance of camouflaged portals in this section,
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: No rider said, I know the location of every portal
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: in the executive block. No number of men could have
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: taken Valden and the two guards without a fight. Anyway
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: we'd have heard it. It didn't happen that way, which
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: leaves Quillan said, one way it could have happened. He
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: jerked his head toward the door. Will those men keep
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: quiet if I tell them to? And play it like this?
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: Two guards have vanished a lot, obviously, did it. The
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: thing's deadly. That'll keep every man in the group on
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: the alert every instant from now on. But we don't
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: say Vlayden has vanished. He's outside in the star at
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: the moment taking care of something. Rider licked his lips.
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: What does that bias if the Brotherhood's responsible for this,
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: I don't take much stock and coincidences, Rider said, neither
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: do I. But the Halot's an animal. It can't tell
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: them it's carried out the job. If they don't realize
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: we suspect them, it gives us some advantage for the moment.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: We just carry on as planned and get rid of
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: the Halot in one way or another. As the first step.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: The thing's three times as dangerous as anyone suspected, except
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: apparently the Brotherhood. Get the life detectors over here as
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: soon as you can, and slap a space armor guard
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: on the fifth level. Rider hesitated, nodded, All right, another thing,
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: Collin said. Coombs may have the old trick in mind
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: of working from the top down. If he can take
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: you out along with the few other key men, he
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: might have this outfit demoralized to the point of making
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: up for the difference in the number of guns, especially
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: if the Hallot's still on his team. You'd better keep
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: a handful of the best boys you have around here
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: glued to your back from now on. Rider smiled. Bleakly.
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: Don't worry, I intend to what about you. I don't
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: think they're planning on giving me any personal attention at
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: the moment. My organization is outside, not here, and it
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: would look odd to the Brotherhood if I started dragging
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: a few star guards around with me. At this point,
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: Rider shrugged, Suit yourself, it's your funeral if you've guessed wrong.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: There was nothing, Quillan told Mars Coombs that you could
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: have actually put a finger on. It was just that
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: the Commodore and Rider may have something up their sleeves.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: But Laden's looking too self satisfied to suit me. The
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: Brotherhood chief gnawed his lower lip reflectively. He seemed thoughtful,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: too disturbed. Coombs might be thoroughly afraid of the escaped Halot,
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: but he wouldn't have reached his present position and known
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: Lancion's organization if he had been easily frightened by what
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: other men were planning. He said, I warned Mouvain that
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: if Olayden learned we'd checked out the Halot, he wasn't
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: going to like it. He doesn't, Quillan said, he regards
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: it as something pretty close to an attempted double cross.
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: Coombs grinned briefly. It was, of course, the question is
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: what can he do about it. He's got you out
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: gunned two to one. But if he's thinking of jumping
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: you before Lancon gets here, he stands to lose more
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: men than he can afford to without endangering the entire
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: operation for himself. Coombs was silent a few seconds. There's
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: an unpleasant possibility which didn't occur to me until a
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: short while ago. He said, Then, the fact is that
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: Velden actually may have us out gunned here by something
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: like for to one. If that's the case, he can
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: afford to lose quite a few men. In fact, he'd
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: prefer to quillan frowned port one. How's that, Coombe said.
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: The commodore told us he intended to let only around
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: half of the seventh Star security force in on the
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: Halot deal. The other half was supposed to have been
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: dumped out of one of the subspace section's locks early
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: to day without benefit of suits. We had no reason
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: to disbelieve him, but Leyden naturally would want to cut
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: down the number of men who got in on the
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: split with him to as many as he actually needed.
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: But if he's been thinking about eliminating us from the game.
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: Those other men may be still alive and armed. Quillan grunted,
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: I see, you know that could explain something that looked
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: a little odd to me. What was that, Coombs asked.
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: Quillan said after they discovered down there that two of
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: their guards were missing and decided the lot must have
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: been on their level. I tried to get hold of
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: the commodore again. Writer told me Wolden wouldn't be available
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: for a while, that he's outside in the star taking
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: care of something there. I wonder what could be important
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: enough to get Veoladen to leave the executive block at present.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: But brother, I'm way ahead of you, Coombe said, his
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: expression hardened. That doesn't look good, But at least he
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: can't bring in reinforcements without tipping us off. We've got
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: our own guards down there with theirs at the entrance.
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: Quillan gave him a glance, then nodded at the wall
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: beyond them. That's a portal over there, Mars. How many
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: of them on this level? Three or four? Why the
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: out portals have been plugged? Man sealed off? Fluel checked
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: them over when we moved in. Sure they're sealed. Quillan
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: stood up, went to the portal, stood looking at the
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: panel beside it a moment, then pressed on it here
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: and there and removed it. Come over here, friend, I
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: suppose portal work's been out of your line. I'll show
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: you how fast a thing like that can get unplugged.
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: He slid a pocketbook sized toolkit out of his belt
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: snapped it open. About a minute later, the lifeless vacant
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: sign above the portal flickered twice, then acquired a steady
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: white glow portal in operation. Quillan announced, I'll seal it
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: off again now, but that should give you the idea.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: Coombe's tongue flipped over his lips. Could somebody portal through
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: to this level from the star while the exits are
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: sealed here? If the mechanisms have been set for that purpose,
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: the portals can be opened again at any time from
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: the star side. The dukes and engineer of sorts, isn't
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: he let him check it? He should have been thinking
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: of the point himself. As far as that goes anyway,
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: Blaine can bring in as many men as he likes
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: to his own level without using the main entrance. He considered,
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: I don't see anything to indicate that he started doing it.
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: Marris Coombe shrugged irritably. That means nothing. It would be
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: easy enough to keep half a hundred men hidden away
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: on any of the lower levels. I suppose that's right. Well,
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: if the Commodore intends to play rough, you should have
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: some warning anyway. What kind of warning there's Kinmartin and
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: that Hallot tucking gadget, for example, Quinlan pointed out. Layden
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: would want both of those in his possession and out
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: of the way where they can't get hurt before he
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: starts any shooting. Coombs looked at him for a few seconds. Rider,
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: he said, then sent half a dozen men up here
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: for Kinmartin. Just after you got back. Valayden's supposed to
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: deliver the Hallot's attendants to Yaka, so I let them
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: have Kinmartin, he paused. They asked for Helot talker too,
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: Quillan grunted, did you give him that? No, well, Glen said,
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: after a moment. That doesn't necessarily mean that we're in
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: for trouble with a star group, but it does mean
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: I think that we'd better stay ready for it. He
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: stood up. I'll get back down there and go on
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: with emotions of getting the hunt for the ha lot
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: organized well. Laden would sooner see the thing get caught too,
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: of course, so we shouldn't try to interfere with that.
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: If I spot anything it looks suspicious, I'll get the
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: word to you. I never said, Orca, unconsciously echoing Baldy Perk,
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: saw anything like it. The Commodore's chunky little gunman was
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: ashen faced. The circle of star men standing around him
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: hardly looked happier. Most of them were staring down at
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: the empty lower section of a suit of space armor,
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: which appeared to have been separated with a neat diagonal
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: slice from its upper part. Let's get this straight, Rider said,
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: a little unsteadily. You say this half of the suit
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: was lying against the wall like that. Not exactly, Gwenland
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: told him. When we got up to the fifth level,
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: the suit was stuck against the wall like that, about
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: eight feet above the floor. That was in the big
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: room where the cubicles are. When Kin Martin and Orcan
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: I finally got the suit worked away from the wall,
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: I expected, frankly that we'd find half the body of
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: the guards still inside, but he'd vanished. Rider cleared his throat. Apparently,
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: he said. The creature drew the upper section of the
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: suit into the wall by whatever means it uses, then
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: stopped applying the transforming process to the metal and simply
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: moved on with the upper part of the suit and
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: the man. Quillan nodded, that's what it looks like. But
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: he had two grenades. Orker burst out yet spree guns.
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: How could it get him that way? Brother, Quillan said,
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: Grenades won't help you much if you don't spot what's
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: moving up behind you. Orca glared speechlessly at him, said
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: all right, we've lost another man. We're not going to
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: lose any more. We'll station no more guards on the
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: fifth level. Now, get everyone who is none essential guard
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: duty to the main room and split him up into
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: life detector units. Five men to each detail, one to
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: handle the detector, four to stay with him. Guns out.
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: If the thing comes back to this level, we want
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: to have it spotted the instant it arrives. Orca, you
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: stay here and keep your gun out. The men filed
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: out hurriedly. Writer turned to Quillan, Were you able to
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: get the cubicle baited? Quillan nodded. Ken Martin figured out
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: how the things should be set for the purpose. If
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: the ha lot goes in after the sea beef, it's trapped.
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: Of course, if the hunting it's been doing was for food,
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: it mightn't be interested in the beef. We don't know.
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: Rider said that the hunting it's been doing was for food. No,
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: did you manage to get the control of ice from wombs?
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: Rider shook his head. He's refused to hand it over
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: if you tried to take it from him. Willan said,
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: you might have a showdown on your hands. And if
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: this keeps on, Rider said, I may prefer a showdown.
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: Another few rounds of trouble with a lot and the
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: entire operation could blow up in our faces. The men
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: aren't used to that kind of thing. It's shaking them up.
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: If we've got to take care of the brotherhood, I'd
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: rather do it while I still have an organized group.
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: Where did you leave Kinmartin? By the way, he's back
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: in the little room with his two guards. Quillan said, well,
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: he should be all right there. We can't spare Wrider's
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: body jerked violently. What's that? There had been a single
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: thudding crash somewhere in the level, then shouts and cursing
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: main Hall. Quillan said, come on. The main hall was
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: a jumble of excitedly jabbering Starman when they arrived there.
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: Guns waved about, and the various groups were showing a
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: marked tendant to stand with their backs toward one another
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: and their faces toward the walls. Ryder's voice rose in
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: a shout that momentarily shut off the hubbub. What's going
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: on here? Men turned, hands, pointed, voices babbled again. Someone
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: nearby said, sharply and distinctly saw it drop right out
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: of the ceiling. Farther down the hall, another group shifted
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: aside enough to disclose it had been clustered about something
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: that looked a little like an empty shell of a
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: gigantic black beetle. The missing section of the suit of
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: space armor had been returned, but not its occupant. Quillan
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: moved back a step, turned, went back down the passage
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: from which they had emerged, pulling the Meum Devil from
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: its holster behind him. The commotion continued. Ryder was shouting
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: something about getting the life detectorate into silver. There. Quillan
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: went left down the first intersecting corridor, right again on
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: the following one, keeping the guns slightly raised before him.
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: Around the next corner, he saw the man on guard
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: over the port connecting the building levels, facing him, gun pointed.
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: What happened, the guard asked shakily. Quillan shook his head,
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: coming up. That thing got another one. The guard breathed,
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: by God and lowered his gun a little. Quillan raised
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: his a little. The meum devil grunted, and the guard
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: sighed and went down. Quillan went past him along the hall,
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: stopped two doors beyond the portal, and rapped on the
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: locked door. Quillan here open up. The door opened a crack,
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: and one of kin Martin's guards looked out questioningly. Quillan
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: shot him through the head, slammed on into the room
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: across the collapsing body, saw the second guard wheeling toward him,
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: shot again, and slid the gun back into the holster.
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: Kin Martin, standing beside a table six feet away, right
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: hand gripping a heavy marble ashtray, was staring at him
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: in white faced shock. Take it easy, chum, Quillan said,
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: turning toward him. Aye. He ducked hurriedly as the ashtray
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: came whirling through the air toward his head. An instant later,
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: a large fist smacked the side of kin Martin's jaw.
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: The rest warden settled limply to the floor. Sorry to
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: do that, pal Quillan muttered, stooping over him. Things are
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: rough all over right now. He hauled Kinmartin upright, bent,
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: and had the unconscious young man across his shoulder. The
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: hall was still empty except for the body of the
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: portal guard. Quillan laid kin Martin on the carpet before
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: the portal, hauled the guard off into the room and
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: pulled the door to the room shut behind him. As
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: he came out, picking up Kinmartin, he stepped into the
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: portal with him and jabbed the fifth level button. A
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: moment later, he moved out into the small dim entry
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: hall on the fifth level, the gun in his right
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: hand again. He stood there silently for some seconds, looking
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: about him, listening. The baited cubicle yawned widely at him
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: from the center of the big room. Nothing seemed to
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: be stirring. Kin Martin went back to the floor. Quillan
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: moved over to the panel which concealed the other portal's mechanisms.
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: He had the out portal unsealed in considerably less than
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: a minute this time, and slapped the panel gently back
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: in place. He turned back to Kinmartin and started to
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: bend down for him, then straightened quietly again, turning his head.
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: Had there been a flicker of shadowy motion just then
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: at the edge of his vision behind the big black
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: cube of the lot's food locker, Quillan remained perfectly still,
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: the meum devil ready, and every sense straining for an
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: indication that the thing was there or approaching, stealthily now
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: gliding behind the surfaces of floor or ceiling or walls
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: like an underwater swimmer. But half a minute passed and
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: nothing else happened. He went down on one knee beside Kinmartin,
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: the gun still in his right hand. With his left
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: he carefully wrestled the rest warden back up across his shoulder,
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: came upright, moved three steps to the side, and disappeared
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: in the out portal. End of Part three, Part four
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: of Lion Loose by James H. Schmidtz. This LibriVox recording
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Retel Destone unlocked the entry
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: door to her suite and stepped hurriedly inside, letting the
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: door slide shut behind her. She crossed the room to
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: the comweb stand and switched on the playback. There was
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: a secession of tinkling tones, which indicated nothing had been recorded.
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: She shut the instrument off again, passing her tongue lightly
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: over her lips. No further messages from Hiraga and none
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: from Quillen. She shook her head, feeling a surge of
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: sharp anxiety, glanced at her watch, and told herself that,
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: after all, less than two hours had passed since Quillan
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: had gone into the executive block. Haraga reported there had
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: been no indications of a disturbance or excitement when he
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: passed through the big entrance hall on his way out,
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: so Quillan, at any rate, had succeeded in bluffing his
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: way into the upper levels. It remained a desperate play
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: at best. Retol went down the short passage to her bedroom.
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: As she came into the room, her arms were caught
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: from the side at the elbows pulled suddenly and painfully
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: together behind her. She stood still, frozen with shock. In
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: a hurry, sweetheart, Flol's flat voice said. Retol managed a
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: breathless giggle, duke, you startled me. How did you get in?
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: She felt one hand move up her arm to her shoulder.
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: Then she was swung around deftly and irresistibly, held pinned
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: back against the wall, still unable to move her arms.
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: He looked at her a moment asked, where are you
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: hiding at this time? Hiding? What, Duke, I've been told?
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: Sweet little Retol always carries sweet little gun around with
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: her in some shape or form or other. Retol shook
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: her head, her eyes widening. Do hook, what's the matter? I?
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: He let go over suddenly, and his slap exploded against
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: the side of her face. Retol cried out, dropping her
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: head between her hands. Immediately he had her wrists again,
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: and her fingers were jerked away from the jeweled ornament
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: at her hair. So that's where it is, Flul said,
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: thought it might be. Don't get funny again, now, sweetheart,
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: just stay quiet. She stayed quiet, wincing a little as
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: he plucked the glittering little device out of her hair.
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: He turned it around in his fingers, examining it, smiled,
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: and slid it into an inside pocket and took her
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: arm again. Let's go into the front room. Retall, he said,
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: almost pleasantly. We've got a few things to do. A
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: minute later, she was seated sideways on a lounger, her
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: wrists fastened right and left to its arm rests. The
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: Duke placed a pocket recorder on the floor beside her.
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: This is a crowded evening, sweetheart, he remarked, which is
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: lucky for you in a way. We'll have to rush
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: things along a little. I'll snap the recorder on in
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: a minute so you can answer questions. No, keep quiet,
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: Just listen very closely now, so that you'll know what
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: the right answers are. If you get rattled and gum
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: things up, the Duke's going to get annoyed with you.
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: He sat down a few feet away from her, hitched
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: his shoulders to straighten out the silver jacket, and lit
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: a cigarette. A little while after, bad news Quillin turned up.
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: Just now, he went on. A few things occurred to me.
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: One of them was that a couple of years ago,
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: you and he were operating abround Belden at the same time.
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: I thought, well, maybe you knew each other. Maybe not.
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: And then Duke Retol said, uncertainly, just what are you
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: talking about? I don't know. Shut up. He reached over
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: tapped her knee lightly with his finger tips. Of course,
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: if you want to get slapped around, all right. Otherwise,
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: don't interrupt again. Like I said, you're in luck. I
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: don't have much time to spend here. You're getting off
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: very easy now. Just listen. Bad News knew a lot
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: about our operation and had a story to explain that.
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: If the story was straight, we couldn't touch him. But
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: I was wondering about the two of you happening to
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: be here on the star again at the same time.
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: A team maybe, eh, But he didn't mention you as
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: being in on the deal, So what was the idea?
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: And then, sweetheart, I remembered something else, and that tied
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: it in. Know that little joke people sometimes get when
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: they're dropping off to sleep. Of course, no another time.
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: They sometimes get it when they're snapping back out of
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: a moment of truth. Ah, I remembered, suddenly, I'd felt
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: a little jump like that when we were talking today.
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: Might have been a reflex of some kind of course,
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: it didn't occur to me at the time. You might
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: be pulling a lousy stunt like that on old duke.
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: Why take a chance on getting your neck broken. But sweetheart,
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: that's the tying. Quillan hasn't told it straight. He's got
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: no backing. He's on his own. There's no gang outside
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: somewhere that knows all about our little deal. He got
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: his information right here from you, and you got it
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: from dumb old duke. Eh Duke Retol said, quite calmly,
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: can I ask you just one question? He stared bleakly
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: out her a moment, then grinned, it's my night to
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: be big hearted. I guess go ahead. I'm not trying
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: to argue. But it simply doesn't make sense. If I
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: learned about this operation you're speaking of from you, what
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: reason could I have had to If you do truth
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: in the first place, there'd be an almost fifty to
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: fifty chance that you'd spotted immediately. Why should I take
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: such a risk? Don't you see? Fool shrugged dropped his
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: cigarette and ground it carefully into the carpet with a
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: tip of his shoe. You'll start answering those questions yourself
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: almost immediately, sweetheart. Let's not worry about that now. Let
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: me finish. Something happened to move the a couple of
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: hours ago. Nobody's fault and something else happened to Mars
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: Coombs just now. That puts me in charge of the
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: operation here. Nice, isn't it. When we found Coombs lying
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: in the hall with a hole through his stupid head,
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: I told Baldy Perk, it looked like bad News had
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: thrown in with the star boys and done it. No, Baldy,
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: he's Koombs's personal gun. Not what you'd call bright, and
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: he's mighty hot now about Coombs. I left him in
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: charge on our level, with orders to get Quillen the
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: next time he shows up there, well and good. The
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: boys know bad News is repped too well to try
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: asking him questions. They won't take chances with him. They'll
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: just gun him down together the instant they see him.
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: He paused to scuff his shoe over the mark the
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: cigarette left on the carpet went on. But there's no
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: melancon now. He kind of liked Coombs, and he might
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: get suspicious when there's a sudden vacancy in the organization
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: like that. Nome takes a good look at the man
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: next in line. He likes to be sure the facts
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: are as stated. So now you know the kind of
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: answers from you, I want to hear go down on
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: the recorder, sweetheart, be sure they sound right. I don't
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: want to waste time on replays. You and Quillen were
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: here on the star. You got some idea of what
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: was happening, realized you were due to be vaporized along
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: with the rest of them after we left. There was
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: no way out of the jam for you unless you
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: could the operation from being carried out. You don't, by
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: the way, mention getting any of that information from me.
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: I don't want lancy On to think I'm beginning to
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: get dopey. You and Quillan just cooked up this story
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: and he managed to get into the executive block, the
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: idea being to knock off as many of the leaders
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: as he could and mess things up. Flul picked up
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: the recorder, stood up, and placed it on the chair.
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: That's all you have to remember. You're a smart girl.
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: You can fill in the details anyway you like. Now,
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: let's get started. She stared at him silently for an instant,
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: a muscle beginning to twitch in her cheek. If I
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: do that, she said, if I give you a story,
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: no more like what happens next, just what you're thinking
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: happens next. You're a dead little girl right now. Rita
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: might as well get used to the idea. You'd be
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: dead anyway, four or five hours from now, so that
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: shouldn't make too much difference. What makes a lot of
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: difference is how unpleasant the thing can get. She drew
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: a long breath, teo, I, your starling sweetheart, do give
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: me a break. I really don't know a thing about this.
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: I He looked down at her for a moment. I
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: gave you a break, he said, you've wasted it. Now
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: we'll try it the other way. If we work a
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: few squeals into the recording, that'll make it more convincing
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: to lanceor he'll figure Little retlls the type who wouldn't
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: spill a thing like that without a little pressure. He
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: checked himself, grinned. And that reminds me, when you're talking
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: for the record, use your own voice, my own voice,
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: She half whispered, No one, we'll remember what you sound like.
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: And I've heard that voice imitations are part of your
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: stock in trade. You might think it was cute if
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: Nome got to wondering after you were dead whether that
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: really had been you talking. Don't try its sweetheart. He
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: brought a glove out of his jacket pocket, slipped it
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: over his left hand, flexing his fingers to work it
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: into position. Retall's eyes fastened on the rounded metal tips
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: capping thumb, forefinger and middle finger of the glove. Her
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: face went gray. Duke, She said, no, shut up. He
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: brought out a strip of transparent plastic, moved over to her.
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: The gloved hand went into her hair, gripped it, turned
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: her face up. He laid the plastic gag lengthwise over
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: her mouth, pressed it down, and released it. Retael closed
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: her eyes. That'll keep it shut, he said. Now his
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: right hand clamped around the back of her neck, forcing
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: her head down and forward, almost to her knees. The
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: gloved left hand brushed her hair forwards. Then its middle
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: finger touched the skin at a point above her shoulder
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: blades right fair, Fluel said. The finger stiffened, drove down.
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: Retol jerked violently, twisted, squirmed sideways, wrists straining against the
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: grip of the arm rests. Her breath burst out of
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: her nostrils, followed by squeeze, whining noises. The metal capped
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: finger continued to grind savagely against the nerve center and
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: had found thirty Flua said. Finally, he drew his hand back,
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: pulled her upright again, peeled the gag away from her lips.
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: Only thirty seconds, sweetheart, think you'd sooner play along now.
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: Retol's head nodded, Why give you a minute to steady up.
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: This doesn't really waste much time, you see. He took
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: up the recorder, sat down on the chair again, watching her.
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: She was breathing raggedly and shallowly, eyes wide and incredulous.
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: She didn't look at him. The Duke lit another cigarette. Incidentally,
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: he observed, if you were stalling because you hoped Old
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: Bad News might show up, forget it. If the boys
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: haven't gunned him now by now he's tied up on
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: a job the commodore gave him to do. He'll be
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: busy another hour or two. On that he he checked himself.
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: A central section of the wall paneling across the room
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: from him had just dilated open. Old Bad News stood
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: in the concealed sweet portal rest warden Kinmartin slung across
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: his shoulder. Both men moved instantly. Floola's long legs bounced
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: him sideways out of the chair. Right hand darting under
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: his coat, coming out with a gun. Quillan turned to
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: the left to get Kinmartin out of the way. The
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: big meum devil seemed to jump into his hand. Both
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: guns spoke together. Flula's gun thudded to the carpet. The
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: Duke said ah in a surprised voice, rolled up his eyes,
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: and followed the gun down. Quillan said, stunned, he was fast.
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: I felt that one parting my hair. He became very solicitous. Then,
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: after first ascertaining that Floel had left the executive block
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: unaccompanied on personal business, he located a pain killer spray
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: in Retoll's bedroom and applied it to the bruised point
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: below the back of her neck. She was just beginning
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: to relax gratefully as the warm glow of the spray
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: washed out the pain and the feeling of paralysis, when Kinmartin,
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: lying on the carpet nearby, began to stir and mutter.
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: Quillan hastily put down the spray. Watch him, he cautioned,
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: I'll be right back. If he sits up, yell, he's
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: a bit wild at a moment. If he wakes up
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: and sees the Duke lying there, he'll start climbing the walls.
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: What Retol began, But he was gone down the hall.
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: He returned immediately with a glass of water, went down
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: on one knee beside Kinmarten, slid an arm under the
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: rest Warden's shoulder and lifted him to a sitting position.
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: Wake up, old pal, he said, loudly, Come on, wake up,
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: got something good for you here. What are you giving him?
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: Retol asked, cautiously, massaging the back of her neck. Knockout drops.
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: I already had to lay him out once. We want
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: to lock him up with his wife now. And if
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: he comes too and tells her what's happened, they'll both
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: be out of their minds by the time we come
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: to get them out. He interrupted himself. Kin Martin's eyes
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: were fluttering. Quillan raised the glass to his lips. Here
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: you are, poll, he said, in a deep, soothing voice.
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: Drink it. It'll make you feel a lot better. Kin
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: Martin swallowed obediently, swallowed again. His eyelids stopped fluttering. Quillan
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: lowered into the floor. Don't do it, he said. What
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: Retol asked, did happen? The Duke? Tell you as much
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: as I can. After we get kid Martin out of
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: the way. I have to get back to the executive block.
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: Things are sort of teetering on the edge there. He
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: jerked his head at Fleul's body. I don't know about
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: him too, of course. Think you can walk now, Retol groaned,
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: I can try, She said. They found Solvey Kinmartin dissolved
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: in tears once more. She flung herself on her husband's
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: body when Quillan placed him on the bed. What of
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: these beasts domb to brock, she demanded, fiercely, Nothing very bad,
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: Quillan said, soothingly. He's under sedation at the moment, that's all.
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: We got him away from them now, and he's safe.
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: Look at it that way. You stay here and take
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: care of him. We'll have the whole deal cleared up
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: before morning, doll. Then you can both come out of
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: hiding again. He gave her an encouraging wink. I'm so
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: very grateful to both of you. No trouble, really, but
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: we better get back to work on the thing. Heck,
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: Quillan said a few seconds later, as he and Retol
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: came out on the other side of the portal. I
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: feel like hell about those two nice little characters. Well,
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: if the works blow up, they'll never know it, we know,
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: Retol said, meaningly. Start talking. He rattled through a brief
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 1: account of events in the executive block, listened to her
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: report on the Duke's visit, scratched his jaw reflectively. That
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: might help, he observed. They're about ready to jump down
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: each other's throats over there, right now. A couple more pushes.
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: He stood, staring down at the Duke's body for a moment.
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: Blood soiled the back of the silver jacket, seeping out
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: from a tear above the heart area. Quillan bent down,
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: got his hands under Fleuel's armpits, hauled the body upright.
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: Retol asked, startled, what are you going to do with it?
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: Something useful? I think, And wouldn't that shock the Duke
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: the first time he's been of any use to anybody.
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: Zip through the Star's comweb directory, doll and give me
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: the call symbol for level four of the Executive Block.
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 1: Solve Kinmartin dimmed the lights a trifle in the bedroom,
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: went back to Brock, rearranged the pillows under his head,
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: and bent down to place her lips tenderly to the
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: large bruis on his forehead and the side of his jaw.
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: Then she brought a chair up beside the bed and
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: sat down to watch him. Perhaps a minute later, there
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: was a slight noise behind her. Startled, she glanced around
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: saw something huge, black and shapeless, moving swiftly across the
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: carpet of the room toward her. Sulvy quietly fainted. Sure
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: you know what to say, Quillan asked. Retol moistened her lips.
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 1: Just let me go over in my mind once more.
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: She was sitting on the floor on the right side
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: of the comweb stand, her face pale and intent. You know,
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: she said, This makes me feel a little queasy somehow, Quillan,
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: I suppose they don't fall for it. They'll fall for it.
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: Quillan was on his knees in front of the stand,
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: supporting Fleol's body, which was sprawled half across it, directly
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: before the lit vision screen. An outflung arm hid the
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: Duke's face from the screen. You almost had me thinking
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: I was listening to Fleol when you did the take
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: off of him this evening. A dying man could be
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: expected to sound a little odd anyway, he smiled at her, encouragingly.
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: Ready now. Retol nodded, nervously, cleared her throat. Quillan reached across.
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: Fluel tapped out level four's call symbol on the instrument
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: duck down below the stand. After a moment, there was
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: a click. Retol produced a quavering, agonized groan. Somebody else gasped.
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: Duke Baldy Perk's voice shouted, What's happened, Baldy Perk. Quillan
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: whispered quickly. Retol stammered hoarsely, ere Ca, Comodore Baldi shot
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: me shut mars thereafter. Quillan, now, I thought bad news.
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: Baldy sounds stunned. Was wrong? Baldy. Retoll croaked bad news
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: with us, bad news. Pal the come beneath the comweb stand.
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: The palm OF's right hand thrust abruptly up and forward.
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: The stand tilted, went crashing back to the floor. Flu's
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: body lurched over with it. The vision screen shattered. Baldy's
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: roaring question was cut off abruptly, Great stuffed Doll. Quillan beamed,
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: helping Retol to her feet. You sent shutters down my back,
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: don't mine too. I'll get him out of here now.
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: Ditchim in one of the shut off sections. Then I'll
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: get back to the executive block. If writers thought to
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: look into kin Martin's room, they'll really be raving on
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: both sides there. Now, it's not necessary, Retoll asked for
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: you to go back. I mean, somebody besides Flul might
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: have become suspicious of you by now, writer might Quillan agreed.
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: He's looked like the sharpest of the lot right from
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: the start. But we'll have to risk that. We've got
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: all the making of a shooting war there now, but
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: we've got to make sure it gets set off before
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: somebody thinks of comparing notes. If I'm around, I'll keep
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: jolting at their nerves. I suppose you're right now our group,
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: Quillan nodded. No need to hold off on that any longer.
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: The way things are moving, Get on another calmweb and
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: start putting out those may Day messages right now. As
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: soon as you've rounded the boys up that might, Retol said,
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: take a little less than an hour, fine, then move
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: them right into the executive block. With just a bit
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: of luck, one hour from now should land them in
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: the final stages of a beautiful battle on the upper levels.
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: Give them my description and writers, so we don't have accidents.
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: Why writers found out he was the boy who took
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: care of the bomb planting detail. We want him alive.
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 1: The others mightn't know where it's been tucked away, Haraga says.
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: The clerical staff and technicians in there are all wearing
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: the white star uniforms. Anyone else who isn't in one
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: of those uniforms is fair game, he paused, Oh, and
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: tip them off about the halt. God only knows what
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: that thing will be doing when the ruckus starts. How
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: about sending a few men in through the fifth level portal,
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: the one you've unplugged, Quillen considered, shook his head. No,
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: down on the ground level is where we want them.
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: They'd have the portal there again from the fifth and
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: a portal is too easy to seal off and defend. Now,
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: let's get a blanket or something to tuck Fluel into.
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: I don't want to feel conspicuous if I run into
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: somebody on the way end of Part four, Section five
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: of Lion Loose by James H. Schmidtz. This LibriVox recording
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Quillen emerged cautiously from the
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: fifth portal in the executive block A short while later
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: came to a sudden stop just outside it. In the
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: big room beyond the entry hall, the door of the
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: baited cubicle was closed, and the life indicator on the
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: door showed a bright, steady green glow. Quillan stared at
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 1: it a moment, looking somewhat surprised, then went quietly into
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: the room and bent to study the cubicle's instruments. A
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: grin spread slowly over his face. The trap had been sprung.
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 1: He glanced at the deep rest setting and turned it
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: several notches farther down. Happy dreams, Lady Pendrake, He murmured,
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 1: that takes care of you. What an appetite, naw. As
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: the level four portal dilated open before him, a gun
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: blazed from across the hall. Quillan flung himself out and
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 1: down rolled to the side, briefly aware of a litter
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: of bodies, and tumbled furniture farther up the hall. Then
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 1: he was flat on the carpet, gun out before him.
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: Pointing back at the overturned ripped couch against the far
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: wall from which the fire had come, A hoarse voice bawled,
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: bad news. Hold it Quillan hesitated, darting a glance right
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: and left men lying about everywhere the furnishings of shambles.
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: That you, Baldy, he asked, Yeah, Baldy, half sobbed. I'm hurt.
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: What happened? Star gang jumped us portled in here, spitballs
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: and riot guns, bad news were clean wiped out everything
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: it was on this level. Quillan stood up, holstering the gun,
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: went over to the couch and moved it carefully away
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: from the wall. Baldy was crouched behind it, kneeling on
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: the blood soaked carpet. Gun in his right hand. He
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 1: lifted a white face, staring eyes to Quillan, waiting for
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: him to come back. He muttered, Man, I'm not for long.
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 1: Got hit twice here, passed out a couple of times already.
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: What about your boys on guard downstairs? Same thing there,
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: I guess, or they'd have showed up. They got combs
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: and the duke too. Man, it all happened fast, and
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: the crew on the freighter don't know about them. You
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: know the freighter's called number huh oh, yeah, sure, never
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: thought of that, Baldy said wearily. He seemed dazed. Let's
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: see if you can stand. Quillen helped the big man
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: to his feet. Baldy hadn't bled too much outwardly, but
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: he seemed to have estimated his own condition correctly. He
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: wasn't for long. Quillan slid an arm under his shoulders.
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 1: Where's a comweb, he asked. Baldy blinked about pass it there,
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: His voice was beginning to thicken. The comweb was in
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: the second room up the passage. Quillen eased Perk into
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: the seat before it. Baldy's head lolled heavily forward like
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: a drunken Man's what's the number, Quillan asked. Baldy reflected
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: a few seconds, blinking owlishly at the instrument, then told him.
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: Quillen tapped out the number, flicked on the vision screen,
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: then stood aside and back beyond the screen's range. Yep, Perk,
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 1: a voice said. Some seconds later, Hey, Perk, Perk, what's
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: with you? Baldy spat blood, grinned shot. He said, what yeah?
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 1: Baldy scowled, blinking. Now let's oh yeah, star Gang's gonna
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: jump you watch it? What yeah? Watch? Baldy coughed, laid
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: his big head slowly down face forward on the comweb
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: stand and stopped moving. Perk Man wake up. Perk pulling quietly,
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 1: took out the gun, reached behind the stand, and blew
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 1: the comweb apart. He wasn't certain what the freighter's crew
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 1: would make of the sudden break in the connection, but
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: they could hardly regard it as reassuring. He made a
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 1: brief prowl then through the main sections of the level.
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: Evidence everywhere was of a short and furious struggle, a
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: struggle between men panicked and enraged, almost beyond any regard
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: for self preservation. It must have been over in minutes.
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: He found that the big hall portal to the ground
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: level had been sealed. Whether before or after the shooting,
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 1: you couldn't know. There would have been about twenty members
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 1: of the Brotherhood on the level, none of them had
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: lived as long as Baldy Perk, but they seemed to
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: have accounted for approximately an equal number of the Stars
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: Security force. First five Star men came piling out of
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: the fifth level portal behind him. A minute or two later,
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: Rider in the lead orca behind Rider. All five held
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: leveled guns. You won't need the hardware, Quillan assured them.
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 1: It's harmless enough. Now, come on in. They followed him
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: silently up to the cubicle, stared comprehendingly at dials and indicators.
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: The thing's back inside there, all right, Rider said. He
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: looked at Quillan. Is this where you've been all the time?
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 1: Sure where else? The others were forming a half circle
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: about him a few paces back, taking quite a chance
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: with that lot, weren't you, Rider remarked, not too much.
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: I thought of something. Quillan indicated the out portal in
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: the hall. I had my back against that. A portal's
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: space break not solid matter. It couldn't come at me
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 1: from behind, and if it attacked me from any other angle.
• 1:49:55
  Speaker 1: He tapped the holstered Meum devil lightly, and the gun
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 1: in Orca's hand jerked up with a fraction of an inch.
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 1: There aren't many animals that can swallow more than a
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: bolt or two from that baby and keep coming. There
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: was a moment's silence, then Orcas said, thoughtfully, that would work.
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: Did it see you? Rider asked. It shouldn't have. First
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: I saw that it was sailing out of that corner
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: over there. It slammed in after that chunk of sea
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: beefs so fast it chook the cubicle, and that was that.
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 1: He grinned. Well, most of our troubles should be over now.
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: One of the men gave a brief, nervous laugh. Quillan
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: looked at him curiously something chum. Rider shook his head.
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: Something is right. Come on downstairs again, bad news. This
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: time we have news for you. The Brotherhood guards on
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 1: the ground level had been taken by surprise and shot down,
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: almost without losses for the star Men, but the battle
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 1: on the fourth level had cost more than the dead
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: left up there. An additional number had returned with injuries
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: that were serious enough to make them useless for further work.
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: It's been Rider admitted, but one more attack by the
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: Halt would have left me with a panic mob on
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: my hands if we'd realized it was going to trap itself.
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: I wasn't so sure that would work either, Quillan said,
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: Did you get Ken Martin Beck? Not yet. The chances
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 1: are he's locked up somewhere on the fourth level now
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: that the Halot's out of the way. Some of the
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 1: men have gone back up there to look for him.
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 1: If Coombs thought he was important enough to start a
• 1:51:24
  Speaker 1: fight over, I want him back, how about the crew
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: on the Belding ship. Quillan asked, have they eve cleaned up? No?
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: Rider said, we'd have to do that now. Of course.
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: How many of them supposedly twelve, and that's probably what
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 1: it is if they know or suspect what's happened. Quillan said,
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 1: twelve men can give a boarding party in a lock
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: a remarkable amount of trouble. Riders shrugged irritably. I know,
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: but there isn't much choice. Lancion's bringing in the other
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: group on the camelot. We don't want to have to
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: handle both of them at the same time. How are
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 1: you planning to take the freighter when the search party
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 1: comes back down. We'll put every man we can spare
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 1: from guard duty here on the job. They'll be instructed
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 1: to be careful about it. If they can wind up
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 1: the matter within the next several hours, that will be
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: early enough. We can't afford too many additional losses now,
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 1: but we should come out with enough men to take
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: care of lancyon and handle a shipment of lots. And
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 1: that's what counts like me to take charge of the
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: boarding party. Quillan inquired, that sort of thing's been a
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: kind of specialty of mine. Writer looked at him, without
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: much expression on his face. I understand that, he said,
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 1: but perhaps it would be better if you stayed up
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: here with us. The search party came back down ten
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: minutes later. They'd looked through every corner of the fourth level.
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: Kin Martin wasn't there, either dead or alive, But one
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 1: observant member of the group had discovered first that the
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: Duke of Fluel was also not among those present, and
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: next that one of the four out portals on the
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 1: level had been unsealed. The exit on which the portal
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: was found to be set was in a currently unus
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 1: used hall in the general office building on the other
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: side of the Star. From that hall, almost every other
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 1: section of the Star was within convenient portal range. None
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: of the forty odd people working in the main control
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 1: office on the ground level had actually witnessed any shooting,
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: but it was apparent that a number of them were
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 1: uncomfortably aware that something quite extraordinary must be going on.
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 1: They were a well disciplined group. However, an occasional uneasy
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: glance toward one of the armed men lounging along the walls,
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: some anxious faces were the only noticeable indications of tension.
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 1: Now and then there was a brief, low pitched conversation
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 1: at one of the desks. Quillan stood near the center
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 1: of the office, Writer in orca a dozen feet from him.
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: On either side, four star guards were stationed along the walls.
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 1: From the office, one could see through a large door
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 1: space cut through both sides of a hall directly into
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: the adjoining transmitter room. Four more guards were in there.
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: Aside from the men in the entrance hall and at
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 1: the subspace portal, what was available at the moment of
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: Wrider's security force was concentrated. At this point. The arrangement
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: made considerable sense, and Quillan gave no sign of being
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 1: aware that the eyes of the guard shifted to him
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: a little bit more frequently than to any other point
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 1: in the office, or that none of them had moved
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: his hand very far away from his gun since they
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 1: had come in here. But that also made sense. In
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 1: the general tension area of the executive block's ground level,
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 1: a specific point of tension, highly charged though undetected by
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: the non involved personnel, was the one provided by the
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 1: presence of bad news. Quillan here, Writer was more than
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 1: suspicious by now the open portal on the fourth level.
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 1: The disappearance of Kinmartin and the Duke left room for
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 1: a wide variety of speculations. Few of these speculations could
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 1: be very favorable to bad News. Writer obviously preferred to
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 1: let things stand as they were until the Belden freighter
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 1: was taken and the major part of his group had
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: returned from the subspace sections of the Star. At that time,
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: bad News could expect to come in for some very
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: direct questioning by the security chief the minutes dragged on.
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 1: Under the circumstances, a glance at his watch could be
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 1: enough to bring Writer's uncertainties up to the explosion point,
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 1: and Quillan also preferred to let things stand as they
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 1: were for the moment, but he felt reasonably certain that
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 1: over an hour had passed since he left Retall, and
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: so far there had been no hint of anything unusual occurring.
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: In the front part of the building. The murmur of
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 1: voices in the main control office continued to eddy about him.
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: There were indications that in the transmitter room across the hall,
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 1: messages had begun to be exchanged between the Star and
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: the approaching liner. A man sitting at a desk near
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 1: Quillan stood up presently, went out into the hall and disappeared.
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 1: A short while later, the white suited figure returned and
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 1: picked up the interrupted work. Quillan's glance went over the
• 1:55:52
  Speaker 1: clerk shifted on. He felt something tighten up swiftly inside him.
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 1: There was a considerable overall resemblance, but that wasn't the
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 1: man who had left the office. Another minute or two
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 1: went by, then two other uniformed figures appeared at the
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 1: opening to the hall, A sparse elderly man a blond girl.
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 1: They stood there, talking earnestly together for some seconds, then
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 1: came slowly down the aisle toward Quillan. It appeared to
• 1:56:16
  Speaker 1: be an argument about some detail of her work. The
• 1:56:19
  Speaker 1: girl frowned, stubbornly, shaking her head near Quillan. They separated
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: started off into different sections of the office. The girl,
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 1: glancing back, still frowning, brushed against Rider. She looked at him, startled,
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, she said. Rider scowled irritably, started to say something.
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 1: Suddenly appeared surprised. Then his eyes went blank and his
• 1:56:40
  Speaker 1: knees buckled under him. The clerk sitting at the nearby
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 1: desk whistled shrilly Quillan wheeled gun out and up toward
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: the wall behind him. The two guards there were still
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 1: lifting their guns. The Miium devil grunted disapprovingly twice, and
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 1: the guards went down. Noise crashed from the hall, heavy
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: sporting rifles. He turned again saw the other two guards
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 1: stumbling backward along the far wall. Feminine screaming erupted around
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: the office as the staff dove out of sight behind desks, instruments,
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 1: stands in filing cabinets. The elderly man stood above Orca
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: a sap in his hand and a pleased smile on
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: his face. In the hallway, four white uniformed men had
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 1: swung about and were pointing blazing rifles into the transmitter room.
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 1: The racketing of the gun fire ended abruptly, and the
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 1: rifles were lowered again. The human din in the office
• 1:57:28
  Speaker 1: began to diminish, turned suddenly into a shocked, strained silence.
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 1: Quillan realized the blond girl was standing at his elbow.
• 1:57:36
  Speaker 1: Did you get the rest of em? He asked quickly
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: in a low voice. Everyone who was on this level
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: retol told him. There weren't many of them, I know,
• 1:57:44
  Speaker 1: but there's a sizeable batch still in the subspace section.
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 1: If we can get the bomb disarmed, we'll just leave
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 1: them sealed up there. How long before you can bring
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 1: rider around? He'll be able to talk in five minutes
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 1: and of Part five, Part six of Lion Loose by
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 1: James H. Schmidtz. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: Quillan had been sitting for some little while in a
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 1: very comfortable chair in what had been the commodore's personal
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 1: suite on the Seventh Star, broodingly regarding the image of
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 1: the camelot in a huge wall screen. The liner was
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 1: still over two hours flight away, but would arrive on schedule.
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 1: On the Star, at least in the arm space section,
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 1: everything was quiet, and in the main control offices and
• 1:58:42
  Speaker 1: in the transmitter room normal working conditions had been restored.
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 1: A room portal twenty feet away opened suddenly, and retold
• 1:58:50
  Speaker 1: Stone stepped out. So there you are, she observed. Quillan
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 1: looked mildly surprised, then grinned. I hate to have to
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: try to hide from you, he said, Hm said Retoll.
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: She smiled, What are you drinking? He nodded. An open
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 1: liquor cabinet near the screen laden was leaving some excellent
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 1: stuff behind. Join me. Mm. She went to the cabinet,
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 1: looked over the bottles, made her selection, and filled a glass.
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 1: One has the impression, she remarked, that you were hiding
• 1:59:25
  Speaker 1: from me. One does, I'd have to be losing my
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 1: cotton bick in mind, not necessarily. Retov brought the drink
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 1: over to his chair, sat down on the armrest with it.
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 1: You might just have a rather embarrassing problem to get
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: worked out before you give little Retol a chance to
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 1: start asking questions about it. Billin looked, surprised. Boy gave
• 1:59:47
  Speaker 1: you that notion, oh, Retol said, hiding things up? Gave
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 1: me that notion. Can't hear what the things were? Go ahead,
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: doll first said, RETA, I understand it. A while ago,
• 2:00:02
  Speaker 1: after you had first sent me off to do some
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 1: little job for you, you were in the transmitter room
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: having a highly private, shielded and scrambled conversation with somebody
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 1: on board the Camelot. Why yes, Colin said, I was
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 1: talking to the ship's security office. They're arranging to have
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 1: a Federation police boat pick up what's left of the
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 1: Commodore's boys in the Brotherhood in the subspace section and
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 1: that said, Retol, is why that embarrassing little problem begins. Next,
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 1: I noticed, as I say, that you were showing this
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 1: tendency to avoid a chance for a private talk between us.
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 1: And after thinking about that for a little, and also
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 1: about a few other things which came to mind at
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 1: around that time, I went to see Rider. Now why
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 1: Retoll ran her fingers soothingly through his hair? Let me finish,
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 1: big boy. I found Writer and Orca in a highly
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 1: nervous condition. And you know why they're nervous. They're convinced
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 1: that some time before the camelot gets here, you're going
• 2:01:02
  Speaker 1: to do them both in hm, said quallan writer. She
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 1: went on, besides being nervous, is also very bitter in retrospect,
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: he says, It's all very plain what you've done here.
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 1: You and your associates. A couple of tough boys named
• 2:01:20
  Speaker 1: Hagready and Bolton, and others not identified are also after
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 1: these halots. The Duke made some mention of that too.
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 1: You remember the commodore and Writer bought the story you
• 2:01:31
  Speaker 1: told them because a transmitter check produced the information that
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 1: Hagready and Bolton had in fact left their usual work
• 2:01:38
  Speaker 1: areas and gone off on some highly secret business about
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: a month ago. Writer feels that your proposition to let
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 1: your gang in on the deal for twenty percent or
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 1: else was made in something less than good faith. He's
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: concluded that when you learned of the operation being planned
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 1: by Valden and the Brotherhood, you and your pals decided
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 1: to obstruct them, take the lots for delivery to yako
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 1: yourselves without cutting anybody in. He fears that somebody like
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 1: Hagready or Bolton is coming in on the camelot with
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 1: a flock of sturdy henchmen to do just that. You
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: personally rushed to the Seventh Star to interfere as much
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 1: as you could. Here, Writer admits reluctantly that you did
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 1: an extremely good job of interfering. He says, it's now
• 2:02:24
  Speaker 1: obvious that every move you made since you showed up
• 2:02:27
  Speaker 1: had the one purpose of setting the Star Group and
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 1: the Brotherhood at each other's throats, and now that they
• 2:02:33
  Speaker 1: practically wiped each other out, you and your associates can
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: go on happily with your original plans. But of course
• 2:02:40
  Speaker 1: you can't do that if Writer and Orca are picked
• 2:02:43
  Speaker 1: up alive by the Federation cops. The boys done in
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 1: the subspace section don't matter their ordinary gun hands, and
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 1: all they know is that you were somebody who showed
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: up on the scene. But Ryder could and certainly would talk. Ah,
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 1: he's too imaginative, Quillan said, taking a swallow of his drink.
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 1: I never heard of the Lots before I came here.
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 1: As I told you, I'm on an entirely different kind
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 1: of job at the moment. I had to make up
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 1: some kind of story to get in with the boys,
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 1: that's all. So you're not going to knock those two
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: weasels off, No such intentions. I don't mind them sweating
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 1: about it until the FEDS arrived, But that's it. What
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 1: about Bolton and Hogready? What about them? I did happen
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 1: to know that if anyone started asking questions about those two,
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 1: he learned that neither had been near his regular beat
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 1: for close to a month. I'll bet Retol said, cryptically,
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 1: what do you mean by that? Hm? She said, bad news.
• 2:03:42
  Speaker 1: Quilling a really tough boy, for sure. You know I
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 1: didn't believe for an instant that you were after the Lots.
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 1: Why not? Retol said, I've been on a couple of
• 2:03:54
  Speaker 1: operations with you, and you'd be surprised how much I've
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 1: picked up about you from time to time on this
• 2:03:59
  Speaker 1: sh Swiping a shipment of odd animals and selling them
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 1: to Yako that could be bad news in character. Selling
• 2:04:10
  Speaker 1: a couple of hundred human beings like Proc and Sol
• 2:04:13
  Speaker 1: the Kinmartin to go along with the animals to an
• 2:04:15
  Speaker 1: outfit like Yako would not be in character. So I
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 1: have a heart of gold, Quillan said, So you fell
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 1: all over your big feet about half a minute ago.
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 1: Retall told him bad news. Quillan, with no interest whatsoever
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: in the loots, still couldn't afford to let Rider live
• 2:04:34
  Speaker 1: to talk about him to the FEDS. Big boy, Quillan
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 1: looked reflective for a moment. Dirty trick, he observed. For that,
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 1: you might freshen up my glass. Retoll took both glasses
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 1: over to the liquor cabinet, freshened them up, and settled
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 1: down on the arm rest of the chair again. So
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 1: here we are back to the embarrassing little problem, she said, writer,
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: No idiot, we both know that Rider is headed for
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 1: rehabilitation fifteen years or so of it. As a guess.
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 1: The problem is little Retoll, who has now learned a
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 1: good deal more than she was ever intended to learn?
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: Does she head for rehabilitation too? Quillan took a swallow
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: of his drink and set the glass down again. Are
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 1: you suggesting? He inquired that I might be excuse expression
• 2:05:26
  Speaker 1: a cop. Retol patted his head. Bad news, Quillan, Let's
• 2:05:32
  Speaker 1: look back at his record. What do we find? A
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 1: shamble's mainly smashed up organizations, outfits, gangs, top level crooks
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 1: with suddenly vacant expressions and unexplained holes in their heads.
• 2:05:46
  Speaker 1: Why go on? The name is awfully well earned and
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 1: nobody realizing anything because the ones who do realize it
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 1: suddenly well, where are Bolton and hag Ready at the moment,
• 2:06:00
  Speaker 1: Quillyan sighed, Since you keep bringing it up. Hag Ready
• 2:06:05
  Speaker 1: played it smart, so he's in rehabilitation. Be cute if
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 1: Rider ran into him there some day. Pappy Bolton didn't
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 1: want to play it smart. I'm not enough of a
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 1: philosopher to make a guess of where he might be
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 1: at present, but I knew he wouldn't be talking all right.
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: Retel said, we've got that straight. Bad news is intelligence
• 2:06:28
  Speaker 1: of some kind, veneration maybe, or maybe one of the services.
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter, really, I suppose. Now, what about me?
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 1: He reached out and tapped his glass with a finger tip.
• 2:06:41
  Speaker 1: That about you, do, doll? You filled it, I'm drinking it.
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 1: I might not think quite as fast as you do,
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 1: but I still think. Would I take a drink from
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 1: a somewhat lawless and very clever lady who really believed
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 1: I had her lined up for rehabilitation, or who'd be
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: at all likely to about something that would ruin our
• 2:07:01
  Speaker 1: old pal's reputation. Retol ran her fingers through his hair again.
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 1: I noticed the deal with the drink, she said. I
• 2:07:10
  Speaker 1: guess I just wanted to hear you say it. You
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 1: don't tell on me, I don't tell on you. Is
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: that it? That's it, Quillan said, What writer and Arca
• 2:07:21
  Speaker 1: want to tell the Feds doesn't matter. It stops there.
• 2:07:25
  Speaker 1: The Feds will have the word on me before they arrive.
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 1: By the way, did you go wake up the Ken Martins? Yet?
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 1: Not yet, Retel said, too busy getting the office, help
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 1: soothe down and back to work. Well, let's finish these
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 1: drinks and go do that. Then the little dolls almost
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 1: bound to be asleep by now. But you might still
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 1: be sitting there, biting nervously at her pretty knuckles. Major
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 1: Hester Quillen of Space Scout Intelligence was looking unhappy. We're
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 1: still searching for them everywhere, he explained to Clayon, but
• 2:07:58
  Speaker 1: it's a virtual certainty that the lot got them shortly
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 1: before it was trapped. Claying, a stringy, white haired old gentleman,
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 1: was an operator of the Psychology Service, in charge of
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 1: the ship and of lots the camelot had brought in.
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 1: He and Quillen were waiting in the vestibule of the
• 2:08:13
  Speaker 1: seven Stars Rest Cubicle Waultz for Lady Pendrake's cubicle to
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 1: be brought over from the executive block. Claying said reflectively,
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 1: couldn't the criminals with whom you were dealing here have
• 2:08:25
  Speaker 1: hidden the couple away somewhere? Quillan shook his head. There's
• 2:08:29
  Speaker 1: no way they could have located them so quickly. I
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 1: made half a dozen portal switches when I was taking
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 1: kin Martin to the suite. It would have taken something
• 2:08:37
  Speaker 1: with the hallot's abilities to follow me over that route
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 1: and stay undetected. And it must be an unusually cunning
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 1: animal to decide to stay out of sight until I'd
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 1: let it where it wanted to go. Oh, they're intelligent enough,
• 2:08:50
  Speaker 1: Clang agreed absently. Their average basic GUYQ is probably higher
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 1: than that of human beings, a somewhat different type of mentality.
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 1: Of course, Well, when the cubicle arrives, I'll question her
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 1: lot and we'll find out Gulan looked at him. Let
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 1: as control devices make it possible to hold two way
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 1: conversations with the things. Not exactly, Clang said, You see,
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 1: major the government authorities who were concerned with the discovery
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 1: of the Lots realized it would be almost impossible to
• 2:09:22
  Speaker 1: keep some information about them from getting out. The specimen,
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 1: which was here on the star has been stationed at
• 2:09:28
  Speaker 1: various scientific institutions for the past year. A rather large
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 1: number of people were involved in investigating it and experimenting
• 2:09:36
  Speaker 1: with it. In consequence, several little legends about them have
• 2:09:40
  Speaker 1: been deliberately built up. The legends aren't entirely truthful, so
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 1: they helped to kick the actual facts about the Lots
• 2:09:47
  Speaker 1: satisfactorily vague. The Halt Talker is such a legend. Actually,
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 1: the device does nothing. The Lots respond to telepathic stimuli,
• 2:09:58
  Speaker 1: both among themselves and from other beings. Eventually, began to
• 2:10:02
  Speaker 1: correlate such stimuli with the meanings of human speech. Then you,
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 1: Quillan began, Yes, El tacta discoverer was a fairly good
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 1: natural telepath. If he hadn't been abysmally lazy, he might
• 2:10:17
  Speaker 1: have been very good at it. I carry a variety
• 2:10:21
  Speaker 1: of the service's psionic knick knacks about with me, which
• 2:10:24
  Speaker 1: gets me somewhat comparable results. He broke off. As the
• 2:10:28
  Speaker 1: vestibule portal dilated widely. Lady Pendrake's cubicle floated through, directed
• 2:10:33
  Speaker 1: by two gravity crane operators behind it. Cleyon stood up.
• 2:10:38
  Speaker 1: Set it there for the present, Please, he directed the operators.
• 2:10:42
  Speaker 1: We may call for you later if it needs to
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 1: be moved again. He waited until the portal had closed
• 2:10:47
  Speaker 1: behind the man before walking over to the cubicle. He
• 2:10:50
  Speaker 1: examined the settings and readings at some length. Hum yes,
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 1: he said, straightening. Finally, his expression became absent for a
• 2:10:59
  Speaker 1: few seconds. Anyone on, I'm beginning to grasp the situations,
• 2:11:04
  Speaker 1: I believe. Let me tell you a few things about
• 2:11:07
  Speaker 1: the lots major. For one, they formed quite pronounced likes
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 1: and dislikes. Eltoc, for example, would have been described by
• 2:11:15
  Speaker 1: most of his fellow men as a rather offensive person,
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 1: but her Lots actually became rather fond of him during
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 1: the fifteen or so years he lived on their island.
• 2:11:24
  Speaker 1: That's one point. The other has to do with their
• 2:11:27
  Speaker 1: level of intelligence. We discovered on the way out here
• 2:11:30
  Speaker 1: that our charges had gained quite as comprehensive an understanding
• 2:11:34
  Speaker 1: of the functioning of the cubicles that had been constructed
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 1: for them as any human who was not a technical
• 2:11:40
  Speaker 1: specialist might do. And he interrupted himself, stood rubbing his
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 1: chin for a moment. Well, actually, he said, that should
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 1: be enough to prepare you for a look inside the
• 2:11:51
  Speaker 1: Lot's cubicle. Quillan gave him a somewhat surprised glance. I've
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 1: been tall. It's ugly as sin, he remarked. I've seen
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 1: some fairly revolting looking monsters before this. Clayon coughed, That's
• 2:12:06
  Speaker 1: not exactly what I meant, he said. I Well, let's
• 2:12:10
  Speaker 1: just open the thing up, would you mind? Major not
• 2:12:13
  Speaker 1: at all. Quillan stepped over to the side of the cubicle,
• 2:12:16
  Speaker 1: unlocked the door switch, and pulled it over. They both
• 2:12:19
  Speaker 1: moved back a few feet before the front of the cubicle.
• 2:12:22
  Speaker 1: A soft humming came for some seconds from the door's mechanisms,
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 1: then it suddenly swung open. Quillan stooped to glance inside,
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 1: straightened instantly again, hair bristling. Where is it, he demanded,
• 2:12:35
  Speaker 1: the meium devil out in his hand. Clayon looked at
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 1: him thoughtfully. Not very far away, I believe, But I
• 2:12:43
  Speaker 1: can assure you Major that it hasn't the slightest intention
• 2:12:46
  Speaker 1: of attacking us or anyone else at present. Quillan grunted,
• 2:12:50
  Speaker 1: looked back into the cubicle. At the far end, the
• 2:12:52
  Speaker 1: kin Martins lay side by side, their faces composed. They
• 2:12:56
  Speaker 1: appeared to be breathing regularly. Yes, clay Young said, they
• 2:13:00
  Speaker 1: are alive and unharmed. He rubbed his chin again, and
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 1: I think it would be best if we simply closed
• 2:13:06
  Speaker 1: the cubicle now. Later we can call a doctor over
• 2:13:09
  Speaker 1: from the hospital to put them under sedation before they're
• 2:13:12
  Speaker 1: taken out. They both had thoroughly unnerving experiences, and it
• 2:13:17
  Speaker 1: would be advisable to awaken them gradually to avoid emotional shock.
• 2:13:21
  Speaker 1: He moved over to the side of the cubicle, turned
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 1: the door switched back again. And now for the rest
• 2:13:27
  Speaker 1: of it, he said, we may as well. Sit down, major,
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 1: This may take a little time. Let's look at the
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 1: thing for a moment from the viewpoint of the lot.
• 2:13:37
  Speaker 1: He resumed when he was once more comfortably seated. Eltoc's
• 2:13:40
  Speaker 1: death took it by surprise. It hadn't it That moment
• 2:13:44
  Speaker 1: grasped what the situation and the executive block was like.
• 2:13:47
  Speaker 1: It took itself out of sight for the moment, killing
• 2:13:50
  Speaker 1: one of the gang leaders in the process. Then began
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 1: prowling about the various levels of the building, picking up
• 2:13:56
  Speaker 1: information from the minds and conversations of the men at encounter.
• 2:14:00
  Speaker 1: In a fairly short time, it learned enough to understand
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 1: what was planned by the criminals, and it arrived at
• 2:14:06
  Speaker 1: precisely your own conclusion that it might be possible to
• 2:14:09
  Speaker 1: reduce and demoralize the gangs to the extent that they
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 1: would no longer be able to carry out their plan.
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 1: It began a systematic series of attacks on them with
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 1: that end in mind. But meanwhile you had come into
• 2:14:22
  Speaker 1: the picture. The loot was rather puzzled by your motive
• 2:14:25
  Speaker 1: at first, because there appeared to be an extraordinary degree
• 2:14:29
  Speaker 1: of discrepancy between what you were saying and what you
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 1: were thinking. But After observing your activities for a while,
• 2:14:35
  Speaker 1: it began to comprehend what you were trying to do.
• 2:14:39
  Speaker 1: It realized that your approach was more likely to succeed
• 2:14:42
  Speaker 1: than its own, and that further action on its side
• 2:14:44
  Speaker 1: might interfere with your plans. But there remained one thing
• 2:14:48
  Speaker 1: for it to do. I may tell you in confidence, Major,
• 2:14:52
  Speaker 1: that another legend which has been spread about these lots
• 2:14:55
  Speaker 1: is their supposed inability to escape from the cubicles. Even
• 2:14:58
  Speaker 1: the attendants of supplied with this particular bit of misinformation. Actually,
• 2:15:03
  Speaker 1: the various force fields in the cubicles don't have with
• 2:15:06
  Speaker 1: them in the least, But the cubicles are designed simply
• 2:15:09
  Speaker 1: to protect the helots and keep them from being seen
• 2:15:12
  Speaker 1: and rest. Cubicles, of course, can be taken anywhere without
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 1: arousing undue curiosity. You mentioned that the Kinmartins are very
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 1: likable young people. The ha Lot had the same feeling
• 2:15:23
  Speaker 1: about them. They were the only human beings aside from Eltoc,
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 1: with whose minds it had become quite familiar. There was
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 1: no assurance at this point that the plans to prevent
• 2:15:32
  Speaker 1: a bomb from being exploded and the star would be successful,
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 1: and the one place where human beings could hope to
• 2:15:38
  Speaker 1: survive such an explosion was precisely the interior of the
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 1: Lot's cubicle, which had been constructed to safeguard its occupant
• 2:15:46
  Speaker 1: against any kind of foreseeable accident. So the Lot sprang
• 2:15:50
  Speaker 1: your cubicle trap, removed the bait, carried the Kinmartins inside,
• 2:15:55
  Speaker 1: and whipped out of the cubicle again before the rest
• 2:15:57
  Speaker 1: current could take effect on it. It concluded correctly that
• 2:16:01
  Speaker 1: every one would decide it had been recaptured. After that,
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 1: it moved about the executive block, observing events there, and
• 2:16:08
  Speaker 1: prepared to take action again if that appeared to be advisable.
• 2:16:12
  Speaker 1: When you had concluded your operations successfully, it remained near
• 2:16:16
  Speaker 1: the cubicle, waiting for me to arrive. Quillan shook his head.
• 2:16:21
  Speaker 1: That's quite an animal, he observed. After some seconds, you
• 2:16:25
  Speaker 1: say it's in our general vicinity now, yes, Clayung said,
• 2:16:29
  Speaker 1: It followed the cubicle down here and has been drifting
• 2:16:32
  Speaker 1: about the walls of the vestibule while we well, while
• 2:16:35
  Speaker 1: I talked, why doesn't it show itself? Cleon cleared his throat.
• 2:16:41
  Speaker 1: For two reasons, he said, One is that rather large
• 2:16:44
  Speaker 1: gun you're holding on your knees. It saw you use
• 2:16:47
  Speaker 1: it several times, and after all the shooting in the
• 2:16:50
  Speaker 1: executive block, you see Quillan slid the meum devil into
• 2:16:54
  Speaker 1: its holster. Sorry, he said, course of habit. I guess. Actually,
• 2:16:58
  Speaker 1: of course, I've understood for some minutes now that I wasn't. Well,
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 1: what's the other reason. I'm afraid Clayung said that you
• 2:17:08
  Speaker 1: offended it with your remark about its appearance. The lots
• 2:17:12
  Speaker 1: may have their share of vanity. At any rate. It
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 1: seems to be sulking, Oh, said Quillan. Well, I'm sure,
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 1: he went on, rather loudly, that it understands I received
• 2:17:23
  Speaker 1: the description from a prejudiced source. I'm quite willing to
• 2:17:27
  Speaker 1: believe it was highly inaccurate. Hm, said Clayon. That seems
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 1: to have done it. Major the wall directly across from us,
• 2:17:37
  Speaker 1: something like a ripple passed along the south wall of
• 2:17:40
  Speaker 1: the vestibule. Then the wall darkened, suddenly turned black. Quillan blinked,
• 2:17:45
  Speaker 1: and the lot came into view. It hung spread out
• 2:17:48
  Speaker 1: like a spider along half the length of the vestibule wall,
• 2:17:52
  Speaker 1: something like a huge, hairy amiba in overall appearance, though
• 2:17:56
  Speaker 1: the physical structures under the coarse black pelt must be very,
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 1: very unamble like complexity. No eyes were in sight, but
• 2:18:04
  Speaker 1: Quillan had the impression of being regarded steadily. Here and there,
• 2:18:08
  Speaker 1: along the edges and over the surface of the body
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 1: were a variety of flexible extensions. Quillan stood up, hitched
• 2:18:16
  Speaker 1: his gun belt into position, and started over toward the wall.
• 2:18:19
  Speaker 1: Lady Pendrake, he said, honored to meet you. Could we
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 1: shake hands? End of Part six and of Lion Loose
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 1: by James H. Schmitz, read by Winston Tharp.