17
Holati Tate brought her the drink and went on with the details.
Trigger and he and a dozen or so of the first group of U-Leagueinvestigators had been in what was now designated as Section 52 ofHarvest Moon. The Commissioner was by himself, checking over someequipment which had been installed in one of the compartments. After awhile Doctor Azol joined him and told him Mantelish and the others hadgone on to another section. Holati and Azol finished the check-uptogether and were about to leave the area to catch up with the group,when Holati saw Trigger lying on the floor in an adjoining compartment.
"You seemed to be in some kind of coma," he said. "We picked you up andput you into a chair by one of the survey screens, and were trying toget out a call on Azol's suit communicator to the ambulance boat whenyou suddenly opened your eyes. You looked at me and said, 'Oh, there youare! I was just going to go looking for you.'"
"It was obvious that you didn't realize anything unusual had happened.Azol started to say something, but I stepped on his foot, and he caughton. In fact, he caught on so fast that I became a little suspicious ofhim."
"Poor Azol!" Trigger said.
"Poor nothing!" the Commissioner said cryptically. "I'll tell you aboutthat some other time. I cautioned Doctor Azol to say nothing to anybodyuntil the incident had been clarified, in view of the stringent securityprecautions being practiced ... supposedly being practiced," he amended.Then he'd returned to Manon Planet with Trigger immediately, where shewas checked over by Precol's medical staff. Physically there wasn't athing wrong with her.
"And that," said Trigger, feeling a little frightened, "is somethingelse I don't remember!"
"Well, you wouldn't," the Commissioner said. "You were fed a hypno-sprayfirst. You went out for three hours. When you woke up, you thought you'dbeen having a good nap. Since the medics were sure you hadn't picked upsome odd plasmoid infection, I wanted to know just what else hadhappened on Harvest Moon. One of those scientific big shots might alsohave used a hypno-spray on you, with the idea of turning you into aconditioned assistant for future shenanigans."
Trigger grinned faintly. "You do have a suspicious mind!" The grinfaded. "Was that what they were going to find out in that mind-searchinterview on Maccadon I skipped out on?"
"It's one of the things they might have looked for," he agreed.
Trigger gazed at him very thoughtfully for a moment. "Well, I lousedthat deal up!" she remarked. "But why is everybody--" She shook herhead. "Excuse me. Go on."
The Commissioner went on. "Old Doc Leeharvis was handling the hypnosisherself. She hit what she thought might be a mind-block when she triedto get you to remember what happened. We know now it wasn't amind-block. But she wouldn't monkey with you any farther, and told me toget in an expert. So I called the Psychology Service's headquarters onOrado."
Trigger looked startled, then laughed. "The eggheads? You went right tothe top there, didn't you?"
"Tried to," said Holati Tate. "It's a good idea when you want realservice. They told me to stay calm and to say nothing to you. An expertwould be shipped out promptly."
"Was he?"
"Yes."
Trigger's eyes narrowed a little. "Same old hypno-spray treatment?"
"Right," said Commissioner Tate. "He came, sprayed, investigated. Thenhe told me to stay calm, and went off looking puzzled."
"Puzzled?" she said.
"If I hadn't known before that experts come in all grades," theCommissioner said, "I'd know it now. That first one they sent was justsharp enough to realize there might be something involved in the case hewasn't getting. But that was all."
Trigger was silent a moment. "So there've been more of thoseinvestigations I don't know about!" she observed, her voice taking on anedge.
"Uh-huh," the Commissioner said cautiously.
"How many?"
"Seven."
Trigger flushed, straightened up, eyes blazing, and pronounced a veryunladylike word.
"Excuse me," she added a moment later. "I got carried away."
"Perfectly all right," said the Commissioner.
"I've been getting just a bit fed up anyway," Trigger went on, voice andcolor still high, "with people knocking me for a loop one way or anotherwhenever they happen to feel like it!"
"Don't blame you a bit," he said.
"And please don't think I don't appreciate your calling in all thoseexperts. I do. It's just their sneaky, underhanded, secretive methods Idon't go for!"
"Exactly how I feel about it," said the Commissioner.
Trigger stared at him suspiciously. "You're a pretty sneaky typeyourself!" she said. "Well, excuse the blowup, Holati. They probably hadsome reason for it. Have they found out anything at all with all thespraying and investigating?"
"Oh, yes. They seem to have made considerable progress. The last reportI had from them--about a month ago--shows that the original amnesia hasbeen completely resolved."
Trigger looked surprised. "If it's been resolved," she said reasonably,"why don't I remember what happened?"
"You aren't supposed to become conscious of it before the finalinterview--I don't know the reason for that. But the memory is availablenow. On tap, so to speak. They'll give you a cue, and then you'llremember it."
"Just like that, eh?" She paused. "So the Psychology Service isWhatzzit."
"Whatzzit?" said the Commissioner.
She explained about Whatzzit. He grinned.
"Yes," he said. "They're the ones who've been giving the instructions,as far as you're concerned."
Trigger was silent a moment. "I've heard," she said, "the eggheads haveterrific pull when they want to use it. You don't hear much about themotherwise. Let me think just a little."
"Go ahead," said Holati.
A minute ticked away.
"What it boils down to so far," Trigger said then, "is still pretty muchwhat you told me on Maccadon. The Psychology Service thinks I knowsomething that might help clean up the plasmoid problem. Or at leasthelp explain it."
He nodded.
"And the people who've been trying to grab me very probably are doing itfor exactly the same reason."
He nodded again. "That's almost certain."
"Do you think the eggheads might already have figured out what theconnection is?"
The Commissioner shook his head. "If they had, we'd be doing somethingabout it. The Federation Council is very nervous!"
"Well...." Trigger said. She pursed her lips. "That Lyad...." she said.
"What about her?"
"She tried to hire me," said Trigger. "Major Quillan reported it, Isuppose?"
"Sure."
"And it wouldn't be just to steal some stupid plasmoid. Especially sinceyou say a number of small ones are already available. Then there're theones that raiders picked up in the Hub. She probably has a collection bynow."
He nodded. "Probably."
"She seems to know quite a bit about what's been going on...."
"Very likely she does."
"Let's grab her!" said Trigger. "We can do it quietly. And she's too bigto be mind-blocked. We'd get part of the answer. Perhaps all of it!"
Something flared briefly in the Commissioner's small gray eyes. Hereached over and patted her knee.
"You're a girl after my own heart, Trigger girl," he said. "I'm for it.But half the Council would have fainted dead away if they'd heard youmake that suggestion!"
"They're as touchy as that?" she asked, disappointed.
"Yes--and you can't quite blame them. Fumbles could be pretty bad. Whenit comes to someone around Lyad's level, our own group is restricted todefensive counteraction. If we get evidence against her, it'll be up tothe diplomats to decide what's to be done about it. Tactfully. Wewouldn't be further involved."
Trigger nodded, watching him. "Go on."
"Well, defensive counteraction can cover a lot of things, of course. Ifwe actually run into the First Lady while we're engaged in it, we'llhold her--as long as we can. And from all accounts, n
ow that she'sshowed up to take personal charge of things around here, we can expectsome very fast, very direct action from Lyad."
"How fast?"
"My own guess," said the Commissioner, "would be around a week. If shehasn't moved by then, we might help things along a little."
"Make a few of those openings for her, eh? Well, that doesn't sound toobad." Trigger reflected. "Then there's Point Number Two," she said.
"What's that?"
She grimaced. "I'm not real keen on it," she confessed, "but I thinkwe'd better do something about that interview with Whatzzit I ducked outof. If they still want to talk to me--"
"They do. Very much so."
"What's that business about their saying it was okay now for me to go onto Manon?"
Commissioner Tate tugged gently at his left ear lobe. "Frankly," hesaid, "that's something that shook me a little."
"Shook you? Why?"
"It's that matter of experts coming in grades. The upper ranks in thePsychology Service are extremely busy people, I understand. After yourfirst interview we were shifted upward promptly. A couple of middlinghigh-bracket investigators took over for a while. But after the fourthinterview I was told I'd have to bring you to the Hub to let somebodyreally competent handle the next stage of whatever they've been doing.They said they couldn't spare anybody of that caliber for a trip toManon."
"Was _that_ the real reason we went to Maccadon?" Trigger asked,startled.
"Sure. But we still hadn't got anywhere near the Service's top levelthen. As I get it, their topnotchers don't spend much time on individualcases. They keep busy with things on the scale of our more bothersomeplanetary cultures--and there are supposed to be only a hundred or so ofthem in that category. So I was more than a little surprised when theService informed me finally one of those people was coming to Maccadonto conduct your ninth interview."
"One of the real eggheads!" Trigger smiled nervously. "And then I justtook off! They can't have too good an opinion of me at the moment, youknow."
"Apparently that didn't upset them in the least," the Commissionersaid. "They told me to stay calm and make sure you got to Manon allright. Then they said they had a ship operating in this area, and they'droute it over to Manon after you arrived here."
"A ship?" Trigger asked.
"I've seen a few of their ships--they looked like oversized flyingmountains. Camouflage jobs. What they actually are is spacegoingsuperlaboratories, from what I've heard. This one has a couple of thosetopnotchers on board, and one of them will take you on. It's due here ina day or so."
Trigger had paled somewhat. "You know," she said, "I feel a littleshaken myself now."
"I'm not surprised," said the Commissioner.
She shook her head. "Well if they're topnotchers, they must know whatthey're doing." She gave him a smile. "Looks like I'm somethingextremely unusual! Like a bothersome planetary culture.... Weak joke,"she added.
The Commissioner ignored the weak joke. "There's another thing," he saidthoughtfully.
"What's that?"
"When I mentioned your reluctance about being interviewed, they told menot to worry about it--that you wouldn't try to duck out again. That'swhy I was surprised when you brought up the matter of the interviewyourself just now."
"Now that is odd," Trigger admitted after a pause. "How would theyknow?"
"Right," he said. He sighed. "Guess we're both a little out of our depththere. I've come close to getting impatient with them a few times--hadthe feeling they were stalling me off and holding back information. Butpresumably they do know what they're doing." He glanced at his watch."That hour's about up now, by the way."
"Well, if there's something else that should be discussed I can break mydinner date," Trigger said, somewhat reluctantly. "I had a chance totalk with Brule at the spaceport for a while, when we came in thismorning."
"I wasn't suggesting that," said Holati. "There still are things to bediscussed, but a few hours one way or the other won't make anydifference. We'll get together again around lunch tomorrow. Then you'llbe filled in pretty well on all the main points of this business."
Trigger nodded. "Fine."
"What I had in mind right now was that the Service people suggestedhaving you look over their last report on you after your arrival. You'dhave just enough time for that before going to keep your date. Care todo it?"
"I certainly would!" Trigger said.
The transmitter signaled for attention while she was studying thereport. Holati Tate went off to answer it. The report was ratherlengthy, and Trigger was still going over it when he got back. He satdown again and waited.
When she looked up finally, he asked, "Can you make much sense of it?"
"Not very much," Trigger admitted. "It just states what seems to havehappened. Not how or why. Apparently they did get me to develop a totalrecall of that knocked-out period in the last interview--I even reportedhearing you and Doctor Azol moving around and talking in the nextcompartment."
He nodded. "I remember enough of my conversation with Azol to be able toverify that part of it."
"Then, some time before I actually fell down," said Trigger, "I wasapparently already in that mysterious coma. Getting deeper into it. Itstarted when I walked away from Mantelish's group, without having anyparticular reason for doing it. I just walked. Then I was in anothercompartment by myself and still walking, and the stuff kept gettingdeeper, until I lost physical control of myself and fell down. Then Ilay there a while until you came down that aisle and saw me. And afteryou'd picked me up and put me in that chair--just like that, everythingclears up! Except that I don't remember what happened and think I'vejust left Mantelish to go looking for you. I don't even wonder how Ihappen to be sitting there in a chair!"
The Commissioner smiled briefly. "That's right. You didn't."
Her slim fingers tapped the pages of the report, the green stone in thering he'd given her to wear reflecting little flashes of light. "Theyseem quite positive that nobody else came near me during that period.And that nobody had used a hypno-spray on me or shot a hypodermic pelletinto me--anything like that--before the seizure or whatever it was cameon. How do you suppose they could be so sure of that?"
"I wouldn't know," Holati said. "But I think we might as well assumethey're right."
"I suppose so. What it seems to boil down to is they're saying I wasundergoing something like a very much slowed-down, very profoundemotional shock--source still undetermined, but profound enough to knockme completely out for a while. Only they also say that--for a whole listof reasons--it couldn't possibly have been an emotional shock after all!And when the effect left, it went instantaneously. That would be justthe reverse to the pattern of an emotional shock, wouldn't it?"
"Yes," he said. "That occurred to me too, but it didn't explain anythingto me. Possibly it's explained something to the Psychology Service."
"Well," Trigger said, "it's certainly all very odd. Very disagreeable,too!" She laid the report down on the arm of her chair and looked at theCommissioner. "Guess I'd better run now," she said. "But there wassomething you said before that made me wonder. There was really verylittle of Doctor Azol left after that plasmoid got through with him."
He nodded. "True."
"It wasn't Azol, was it?"
"No."
"Man, oh, man!" Trigger jumped up, bent over his chair and gave him aquick peck on an ear tip. "If I ask one more question, we'll be sittinghere the next two hours. I'll run instead! See you around lunchtime,Commissioner!"
"Right, Trigger," he said, getting up.
He closed the door behind her and went back to the transmitter. Helooked rather unhappy.
"Yes?" said a voice in the transmitter.
"She just left," Commissioner Tate said. "Get on the beam and staythere!"