14
They were out on a terrace near the top of an illusion mountainside, ina beautiful evening. Dinner had been old-style and delicious, served byits creators, two slim, brown-skinned, red-lipped girls who looked muchtoo young to have acquired such skills. They were natives of Tranest,Lyad said proudly, and two of the finest food technicians in the Hub.They were, at all events, the two finest food technicians Trigger hadrun into as yet.
The brandy which followed the dinner seemed to represent no let-down tothe connoisseurs around Trigger. She went at it cautiously, though shehad swallowed a couple of wake-up capsules just before they walked intothe Ermetyne suite. The capsules took effect in the middle of the firstcourse; and what she woke up to was a disconcerting awareness of beingthe center of much careful attention. The boys were all givingher-plus-Beldon the eye, intensively; even Lyad's giant-sized butler ormajordomo or whatever she'd called him, named Virod, ogled coldly out ofthe background. Trigger gave them the eye back, one after the other, inturn; and that stopped it. Lyad, beautifully wearing something whichwould have passed muster at the U-League's Annual Presidential Dinner inCeyce, looked amused.
It wasn't till the end of the second course that Trigger began to feelat ease again. After that she forgot, more or less, about the Beldon.The talk remained light during dinner. When they switched off theillusion background for a look at the goings-on during the Garthstopover, she took the occasion to study her companions in more detail.
There were three men at the table; Lyad and herself. Quillan satopposite her. Belchik Pluly's unseemly person, in a black silk robewhich left his plump arms bare from the elbows down, was on Quillan'sright.
The third man fascinated her. It was as if some strange cold creaturehad walked up out of a polar sea to come on board their ship.
It wasn't so much his appearance, though the green tip of a Vethi spongelying coiled lightly about his neck probably had something to do withthe impression. Trigger knew about Vethi sponges and their addicts,though she hadn't seen either before. It wasn't so serious an addiction,except perhaps in the fact that it was rarely given up again. Thesponges soothed jangled nerves, stabilized unstable emotions.
Balmordan didn't look like a man who needed one. He was big, not as tallas Quillan but probably heavier, with strong features, a boldly juttingnose. Bleak, pale eyes. He was about fifty and wore a richly ornamentedblue shirt and trousers. The shirt hung loose, perhaps to conceal theflattened contours of his odd companion's body. Lyad had introduced himas a Devagas scientist and in a manner which indicated he was a man ofconsiderable importance. That meant he was almost certainly a member ofthe Devagas hierarchy, which in itself would have made him veryinteresting.
Trigger had run into some of the odd-ball missionaries the Devagas keptsending about the Hub; and she'd sometimes speculated curiouslyregarding the leaders of that chronically angry, unpredictable nationwhich, on its twenty-eight restricted worlds, formed more than sixpercent of the population of the Hub. The Devagas seemed to like nobody;and certainly nobody liked them.
Balmordan didn't fit her picture of a Devagas leader too badly. Hismanner and talk were easygoing and agreeable. But his particular brandof ogle, when she first became aware of it, had been disquieting. Ratherlike a biologist planning the details of an interesting vivisection.
Of course he _was_ a biologist.
But Trigger kept wondering why Lyad had invited him to dinner. She waspositive, for one thing, that Belchik Pluly wasn't at all happy aboutBalmordan's presence.
Dinner was over before the Garth take-off, and they switched themselvesback to the mountainside and took other chairs. A red-haired,green-eyed, tanned, sinuous young woman called Flam appeared from timeto time to renew brandy glasses and pass iced fruits around. She gaveTrigger coolly speculative looks now and then.
Then Virod showed up again with a flat tray of what turned out to be avery special brand of tobacco. Trigger declined. The men madeconnoisseur-type sounds of high appreciation, and everybody, includingLyad, lit up small pipes of a very special brand of coral and puffedaway happily. Quillan looked up at Virod.
"Hi, big boy!" he said pleasantly. "How's everything been with you?"
Virod, in a wide-sleeved scarlet jacket and creased black trousers,bowed his shaved bullet head very slightly. "Everything's been fine,Major Quillan," he said. "Thank you." He turned and went out of theplace. Trigger glanced after him. Virod awed her a little--he was reallyhuge. Moving about among them, he had seemed like a softly paddingelephant. And there was an elephant's steady deftness in the way he heldout the tiny tobacco trays.
The Ermetyne winked at Quillan. "Quillan wrestled Virod to a pindownonce," she said to Trigger. "A fifty-seven minute round, wasn't it?"
"Thereabouts," Quillan said. He added, "Trigger doesn't know yet that Iwas a sports bum in my youth."
"Really?" Trigger said.
He nodded. "Come from a long line of sports bums, as a matter of fact.But I broke tradition--went into business for myself finally. NowadaysI'm old and soft. Eh, Belchy?" The two great pals, sitting side by side,dug elbows at each other and ha-ha-ha'd. Trigger winced.
"Still in the same line of business, on the side?" Lyad inquired.
Quillan looked steadily at her and grinned. "More or less," he said.
"We might," Lyad said thoughtfully, "come back to that later. As forthat match with Virod," she went on to Trigger, "it was really aterrific event! Virod was a Tranest arena professional before I took himinto my personal employ, and he's very, very rarely been beaten in anysuch contest." She laughed. "And before such a large group of peopletoo! I'm afraid he's never quite forgiven you for that, Quillan."
"I'll keep out of his way," Quillan said easily.
"Did you people know," Lyad said, "that the trouble on the way betweenMaccadon and Evalee was caused by a catassin killing?" There was a touchof mischief in the question, Trigger thought.
There were assorted startled responses. The Ermetyne went briefly oversome of the details Quillan had told; essentially it was the same story."And do you know, Belchik, what the creature was trying to do? It wastrying to get into the rest cubicle vaults. Just think, it might havebeen sent after you!"
It was rather cruel. Pluly's head jerked, and he blinked rapidly atLyad, saying nothing. He was a badly scared little man at that moment.Trigger felt a little sorry for him, but not too sorry. Belchy's oglehad been of the straightforward, loose-lipped, drooling variety.
"You're safe when you're in one of those things, Belchik!" Quillan saidreassuringly. "Wouldn't you feel a little safer there yourself, Lyad? Ifyou say they're not even sure they've killed the creature...."
"I probably shall have a cubicle set up here," Lyad said. "But not asprotection against a catassin. It would never get past Pilli, for onething." She looked at Trigger. "Oh, I forgot. You haven't met Pilli.Virod!" she called.
Virod appeared at the far end of the terrace.
"Yes, First Lady?"
"Bring in Pilli," she told him.
Virod bowed. "Pilli is in the room, First Lady." He glanced about, wentover to a massive easy chair a few feet way, and swung it aside.Something like a huge ball of golden fur behind it moved and sat up.
It was an animal of some sort. Its head seemed turned toward the group,but whatever features it had remained hidden under the fur. Then an armlike the arm of a bear reached out and Trigger saw a great furred handthat in shape seemed completely human clutch the chair's edge.
"He was resting," Lyad said. "Not sleeping. Pilli doesn't sleep. He's aperfect guardian. Come here, Pilli--meet Trigger Argee."
Pilli swung up on his feet. It was an impressively effortless motion.There was a thick wide torso on short thick legs under the golden fur.The structure was gorilla-like. Pilli might weigh around four hundredpounds.
He started silently forward and Trigger felt a tingle of alarm. But hestopped six feet away. She looked at him. "Do I say something to Pilli?"
Lyad looked pleased. "No. H
e's a biostructure. A very intelligent one,but speech isn't included in his pattern."
Trigger kept looking at the golden-furred nightmare. "How can he see toguard you through all that hair?"
"He doesn't see," Lyad said. "At least not as we do. Pilli's part of oneof our Tranest experiments--the original stock came from the Maccadonlife banks, a small golden-haired Earth monkey. The present level of theexperiment is on the fancy side--it has four hearts, for example, andwhat amounts to a second brain at the lower half of its spine. But itdoesn't come equipped with visual organs. Pilli is one of twenty-threeof the type. They have compensatory perception of a kind that is stillquite mysterious. We hope to breed them past the speech barrier so theycan tell us what they do instead of seeing.... All right, Pilli. Runalong!" She said to Balmordan, "I believe he doesn't like that Vethithing of yours very much."
Balmordan nodded. "I had the same impression."
Perhaps, Trigger thought, that was why Pilli had been lurking so closeto them. She watched the biostructure move off down the terrace,grotesque and huge. She had got its scent as it went past her, a fresh,rather pleasant whiff, like the smell of ripe apples. An almost amiablesort of nightmare figure, Pilli was; the apple smell went with that,seemed to fit it. But nightmare was there too. She found herself feelingrather sorry for Pilli.
"In a way," Lyad said, "Pilli brings us to that matter of business Imentioned this afternoon."
The group's eyes shifted over to her. She smiled.
"We have good scientists on Tranest," she said, "as Pilli, I think,demonstrates." She nodded at Balmordan. "There are good scientists inthe Devagas Union. And everyone here is aware that the Treaties ofRestriction imposed on both our governments have made it impossible forour citizens to engage seriously in plasmoid research."
Trigger nodded briefly as the light-amber eyes paused on her for amoment. Quillan had cautioned her not to show surprise at anything theErmetyne might say or do. If Trigger didn't know what to say herself,she was merely to look inscrutable. "I'll scrut," he explained. "Theothers won't. I'll take over then and you just follow my lead. Get it?"
"Balmordan," Lyad said, "I understand you are going to Manon to attendthe seminars and demonstrations on the plasmoid station?"
"That is true, First Lady," said Balmordan.
"Now I," Lyad told the company, "shall be more honest. The informationreleased in those seminars is of no value whatever. He"--she nodded atthe Devagas scientist--"and I are going to Manon with the same goal inmind. That is to obtain plasmoids for our government laboratories."
Balmordan smiled amiably.
Trigger asked. "How do you intend to obtain them?"
"By offering very large sums of money, or equivalent inducements, topeople who are in a position to get them for me," said Lyad.
Quillan tut-tutted disapprovingly. "The First Lady's mind," he toldTrigger, "turns readily to illegal methods."
"When necessary," Lyad said undisturbed, "as it is here."
"How about you, sir?" Quillan asked Balmordan. "Are we to understandthat you also would be interested in the purchase of a middling plasmoidor two?"
"I would be, naturally," Balmordan said. "But not at the risk of causingtrouble for my government."
"Of course not," Quillan said. He thought a moment. "You, Belchy?" heasked.
Pluly looked alarmed. "No! No! No!" he said hastily. He blinked wildly."I'll stick to the shipping business. It's safer."
Quillan patted him fondly on the shoulder. "That's one law-abidingcitizen in this group!" He winked at Trigger. "Trigger's wondering," hetold Lyad, "why she and I are being told these things."
"Well, obviously," Lyad said, "Trigger and you are in an excellentposition--or will be, very soon--to act as middlemen in the matter."
"Wha...." Trigger began, astounded. Then, as all eyes swiveled over toher, she checked herself. "Did you really think," she asked Lyad, "thatwe'd agree to such a thing?"
"Certainly not," said Lyad. "I don't expect anyone to agree to anythingtonight--though it's a safe assumption I'm not the only one here who hasmade sure this conversation is not being recorded, and will not beavailable for reconstruction. Well, Quillan?" She smiled.
"How right you are, First Lady!" Quillan said. He tapped a breastpocket. "Scrambler and distorter present and in action."
"And you, Balmordan?"
"I must admit," Balmordan said pleasantly, "that I thought it wise totake certain precautions."
"Very wise!" said Lyad. Her glance shifted, with some amusement in it,to Pluly. "Belchik?"
"You're a nerve-wracking woman, Lyad," Belchik said unhappily. "Yes. I'mscrambling, of course." He shuddered. "I can't afford to take chances.Not when you're around."
"Of course not, and even so," said Lyad, "there are still reasons whyan unconsidered word might be embarrassing in this company. So, no,Trigger, I'm not expecting anybody to agree to anything tonight. I'mmerely mentioning that I'm interested in the purchase of plasmoids.Incidentally, I'd be very much more interested even in seeing you, andQuillan, enter my employ directly. Yes, Belchik?"
Pluly had begun giggling wildly.
"I was--ha-ha--having the same idea!" he gasped. "About oneof--ha-ha--of 'em anyway! I--"
He jerked and came to an abrupt stop, transfixed by Trigger's stare.Then he reached for his glass, blinking at top speed. "Excuse me," hemuttered.
"Hardly, Belchik!" said Lyad. She gave Trigger a small wink. "But I canassure you, Trigger Argee, that you'd find my pay and working conditionsvery attractive indeed."
It seemed a good moment to look inscrutable. Trigger did.
"Serious about that, Lyad?" asked Quillan.
The Ermetyne said, "Certainly I'm serious. Both of you could be of greatvalue to me at present." She looked at him a moment. "Did you everhappen to tell Trigger about the manner in which you re-established thefamily fortune?"
"Not in any great detail," Quillan said.
"A very good hijacker and smuggler went to waste when you signed up withthe Engineers," Lyad said. "But perhaps not entirely to waste."
"Perhaps not," acknowledged Quillan. He grinned. "But I'm a modest man.One fortune's enough for me."
"There was a time, you know," Lyad said, "when I was rather afraid itwould be necessary to have you killed."
Quillan laughed. "There was a time," he admitted, "when I suspected youmight be thinking along those lines, First Lady! Didn't lose too much,did you?"
"I lost enough!" Lyad said. She wrinkled her nose at him. "But that'sall over and done with. And now--no more business tonight. I promise."She turned her head a little. "Flam!" she called.
"Yes, First Lady?" said the voice of the red-headed girl.
"Bring us Miss Argee's property, please."
Flam brought in a small package of flat disks taped together. Lyad tookthem.
"Sometimes," she told Quillan, "the Askab becomes a little independent.He's been spoken to. Here--you keep them for Trigger."
She tossed the package lightly over to them. Quillan put out a hand andcaught it.
"Thanks," he said. He put the package in a pocket. "I'll call off mybeagles."
"Suit yourself as to that," said the Ermetyne. "It won't hurt the Askabto stay frightened a little longer."
She checked herself. The room's ComWeb was signaling. Virod went over toit. A voice came through.
"... The Garth-Manon subspace run begins in one hour. Rest cubicleshave been prepared...."
"That means me," Belchik Pluly said. He climbed hastily to his feet."Can't stand dives! Get hallucinations. Nasty ones." He staggered alittle then, and Trigger realized for the first time that Belchy had gotpretty thoroughly drunk.
"Better give our guest a hand, Virod," Lyad called over her shoulder."Happy dreams, Belchik! Are you going by Rest, Trigger? No? You're not,of course, Quillan. Balmordan?"
The Devagas scientist also shook his head.
"Then by all means," Lyad said, "let's stay together a little whilelonger."