Space search v1, p.9
Space Search (v1.)), page 9
“But … but what has happened? Who are … ?
Whip Gunther, already heading for the door, snarled, “No time. Let’s go!’’ The thing he had beaten the two assassins with flicked back into his palm and he dropped it into his pocket. Venu could see it was some sort of chain, about two feet long, with weights on either end.
The Harappan hurried back to his bedroom and as quickly as possible stuffed the new clothing Ahmed Abdallah had provided into his bags. He took them up, along with his food hamper, which he’d had replenished by the kitchen servants. He was overburdened, in their clumsiness, but scurried back into the patio.
Whip Gunther was already there with his own two bags. To keep his right hand free, he had both of them under the other arm.
“Come on,” he snapped. “Out of here. This way. Thank God I scouted the route when we first arrived.”
Venu followed him on the trot.
He said, breathlessly, “Shouldn’t we inform Abdallah?”
His companion laughed bitterly, and didn’t bother to answer. “Down this corridor!” he ordered needlessly, since he was leading the way. “Up here,” he said, going up some stone steps.
They emerged on a roof with a parapet. Whip Gunther stared down over the side.
“Empty,” he said. “Leave your bags. You go first, on the off chance somebody is following us.”
Venu stared down at the alley below them. It seemed a long drop. He sucked in his breath.
Whip Gunther snarled, “Over the side and hang by your hands. Flex your knees when you drop. When you hit, roll out.”
Venu followed orders as best he could. For the briefest of moments, he hesitated before letting his hands go. He hadn’t known what the other had meant when he said roll out, but he did when he hit. He began to fall over forward, but relaxed his body and rolled.
Whip Gunther called from above, “All right. Here come the bags. Try to catch the hamper, or it’ll break open. In fact, try to grab them all as they come down. There are a few breakable things inside.”
He dropped them one by one, then vaulted over the side of the parapet, landing lithely on his feet. He grabbed up his things under his left arm and snapped, “All right, let’s go. Let’s get out of here.”
He seemed to know the way. Venu followed him clumsily down the alley, into another alley, up it. It was a repetition of the other day when they had come to the Kasbah for refuge. Now they were evidently escaping it.
“Where are we going?” Venu puffed.
Whip Gunther grunted. “Back to the El Minzah Hotel, along with our new identities. We’re going to have to hole up there until that spaceship leaves for Elysium.”
15
Back at the Minzah, they had no difficulty in registering. In fact, the two-bedroom suite they were given was on the same floor as where Venu had first stayed.
The reception clerk had looked only mild askance at Whip Gunther’s bandaged face. “Accident,” that worthy had said briefly.
There had been little time for conversation since they had escaped over the wall of the house in the kasbah but now Venu said, “Why did we return here? Whoever are enemies are, surely they will be able to find us again in this place.”
Whip Gunther sat down at the living room desk. “It’s as good a pad as any. The boys after us would be able to locate us wherever we went and at least El Minzah is well guarded.”
He flicked on the order screen and put a call through to the spaceport. In a few minutes he looked up at his younger companion. He said, “I’ll be darned. Abdallah put through those reservations for us on the spacecraft to Elysium.”
“He said that he would.”
“Yes, but what would the point have been if those two killers had succeeded in their job?”
“You think him responsible for them?” It hadn’t occurred to Venu.
Whip Gunther rubbed the back of his hand over his lips. “It doesn’t seem very likely that they could have gotten into his house without him knowing it, and, even if they had, how would they have known where to locate us without his being in cahoots with them?”
“But he fulfilled his bargain.”
The other nodded. “Yes. Ahmed has his code of ethics, in his own strange way. He has to have. This is a queer world, Tangier, but if the word went around that wheeler-dealer Ahmed Abdallah reneged on a bargain he had made, he’d get precious little in the way of deals in the future. But that doesn’t prevent him from looking up Hari Maroon and making another deal with him. A deal to have us both bumped off. Or possibly just a deal to let two of Maroon’s boys into the house where they could do us in.”
“I was surprised, Sahib Whip, that you did not use your laser pistol upon the two assassins.”
Whip Gunther grunted. “I couldn’t afford to. It’s practically impossible to only wound a man with a laser beam. You’re almost sure to kill him.”
“But they were attempting to murder us.”
“Ummm. But the Tangier police still take a dim view of aliens killing local citizens. It might have taken us a time to clear ourselves, and that spaceship leaves in two days. We have no time for local hassles. No, all I could do was bang them up a bit.”
Venu looked at him curiously. “That was a very strange device you used, Sahib Whip. I have never seen such a thing before.”
Whip Gunther dipped into his side pocket and brought it forth. “Few people have,” he said, “which is one of its advantages. It comes as a surprise. It’s a manrikigusari. It was invented a long time ago in a country named Japan, on Earth.”
He handed the thing over to his companion, who examined it carefully, though with a touch of distaste on his face. It was made of a Number 3, straight welded link machine chain, on each end of which was a hexagonal weight attached with a swivel.
The big man was saying, “It takes a lot of practice, but once you’re onto the manriki-gusari it becomes one of the most vicious hand-to-hand combat weapons that has ever been invented. You can take a man with a knife, a sword, or a club in split seconds. That first attack you saw me make is called the kasumi. Very basic. With the manriki-gusari concealed in the right hand, you step forward with the right foot and throw it straight forward, extending the right arm in a snapping movement to the front, as though you were thrusting with a short knife. You, of course, hold on to one of the weights, so you can bring it back again. The object is to strike the guy in the eyes and face with the other weight. It puts them out of action quickly.”
Venu shuddered and handed the thing back. “Why did you ever learn to use such a terrible thing, Sahib Whip?”
Whip Gunther returned the chain to his pocket and said, wryly, “So others wouldn’t use some equally terrible things on me. You can kill with it by hitting various vital spots, such as the temple, or use it to strangle with, but largely it’s a defensive weapon.”
Venu turned and went to the window and looked down into the garden, thinking it out. Earlier, he’d had a faint suspicion that Whip Gunther and Abdallah had been working together to extract large sums of interplanetary credits from a young Harappan youth who was not up to their Tangier standards. But now it was obvious that his doubts had been unfounded. The big adventurer, this shikari of men, had proven himself worthy of his hire. Twice now he had defended Venu’s life at risk of his own.
Venu turned to him and said, “Sahib Whip, do you think there will be other attempts upon us before this is through?”
“Yes.” The word came out bluntly.
“Is this why you hesitated to take the assignment when I first offered it to you?”
Yes.
“Do you think we will succeed?”
“No. It’s like I told you, Sonny. Hari Maroon is the most dangerous man in the federation. How he learned about you and what you’re up to, I haven’t the vaguest idea. But he did, and now he’s out to stop you.”
“Then I release you from your pledge to assist me, Sahib Whip. If I had known how difficult was the road I follow, I would not have exposed you to the dangers. It is more than a man should be asked.”
“Oh? You do, eh? And how about yourself?”
“I shall continue, to either find my father, or take vengeance on whoever destroyed him.”
“I see. Well, a deal’s a deal, Venu, and you promised to adopt me into Harappan citizenship and to make a wealthy man out of me to boot. And I’m going to hold you to it. It’s the best offer I’ve had for years.“ “But …”
“No buts about it.”
16
Somewhat to Whip Gunther’s surprise, no further attempts were made upon them while they remained on Tangier. He took every precaution, but so far as he could see they were unnecessary. They remained in their rooms for the whole two days, ordering their meals from the highly automated kitchens below and having them delivered through the automatic table. They allowed the maids to enter to clean up, but only after carefully checking them.
They left the hotel two hours before the spaceship John Shepherd was scheduled to blast off. It couldn’t have been easier. The hotel’s hover limousine took them and Whip Gunther had the driver approach to within a few feet of the vessel’s gangplank.
They hurried up it, Whip Gunther wanting to get into the safety of the interior as quickly as possible. There could always be a long-range sniper waiting for them to expose themselves.
At the top of the steel gangplank was one of the ship’s officers, clipboard in hand. He looked at Whip Gunther’s bandaged face somewhat in surprise.
“Accident,” Whip Gunther said. “I’m Warren Beattie and this is Venu Jhabvola. We have reservations for Elysium.”
“Of course. Your compartments are 25 and 26, which are adjoining. You will eat at the Chief Engineer’s table.” He snapped fingers and two stewards materialized. He said to them, “Mr. Beattie and Mr. Jhabvola, Compartments 25 and 26.”
The stewards took up the luggage and led the way down metallic corridors. Whip Gunther gave a sigh of relief once they were inside.
The SS John Shepherd was considerably more elegant and comfortable than had been the Hammerfest IV, but it was just as boring a trip, Venu found. Although there were possibly a hundred passengers with whom to talk and play games, he rather missed the informal company of First Officer Tryggvason and the others on the space freighter.
Largely, he associated with Whip Gunther and the interplanetary adventurer regaled him with tales of other worlds. Somehow, most of the stories had a humorous twist. He seldom mentioned his more dubious actions. Possibly, Venu thought, it was because he knew that Harappans abhor violence. He didn’t know that few real men of action like to talk about combat and death. It is sufficient to have to live through it.
Whip Gunther insisted that they continue to practice with the laser pistol. The power cell removed, he trained Venu in the quick draw. He taught him how to use a sweeping beam when more than one opponent was involved. Above all, he drilled home the fact that before the trigger could be pulled it was necessary to flick the range stud to approximately the correct distance of the target. Otherwise, all else beyond could become a shambles. The laser pistol was no toy.
He at first also tried to teach him the elements of the deadly fighting chain he carried in his pocket, but soon gave up. Since they only had one chain between them, and it was unlikely that Whip Gunther would ever give his up, it wasn’t of too much importance.
He gave the Harappan a brief course in karate, but Venu simply couldn’t bring himself to deal a blow of sufficient force to make any difference. The professional soldier of fortune was disgusted.
“What would happen on your world,” he demanded, “if somebody socked another on the nose?”
“Socked?”
“Hit him.”
“Why … why the one who was hit would be amazed, and concerned for the other.”
“Concerned for the other! How about his concern for his bloody nose?”
“Why, surely that would be of minor importance, in view of the fact that his assailant must be mentally deranged.”
Whip Gunther rolled his eyes upward. “And we’re out after Hari Maroon,” he groaned.
Of all the passengers, only eight others were embarked for Elysium. Venu’s first instincts were to avoid them because of their obvious hedonistic tendencies, their sensuousness. To him they were objectionably gross in their appetites. They were going to Elysium for the reason practically all other-worlders went to Elysium, to revel in the pleasures that resort planet offered.
However, Whip Gunther told him that it would be best to cultivate these others, to seemingly become part of their party. Then when they landed, they would go through customs and immigration as though they were a group, and the two of them would be less conspicuous.
Arrival in Elysium couldn’t have been simpler. If there were any Interplanpol agents present at the luxurious spaceport, they remained inconspicuously out of the way. The examination of luggage and identification papers was cursory, except that their interplanetary credit cards were checked on a credit screen.
Whip Gunther said dryly, “They want to be sure you have sufficient on hand to be able to afford the pleasures of Elysium.“ His bandages had been removed, and Venu had been surprised at what the Tangier plastic surgeon had accomplished. Dark red hair was now brown. The broken nose was considerably straighter. The faint scar was gone and the craggy face seemed more full. The color of the eyes had been changed with contact lenses.
There was no difficulty about the interplanetary credit standing. Venu had transferred fifty thousand credits to Whip Gunther’s account.
They had gone through the spaceport routine as though they were part of the group of eight Whip Gunther had insisted they chum up to on the Shepherd, although that turned out to be a needless precaution. Once through the routine, the adventurer dropped the others without even the bother of saying goodbye. He and Venu took a hovercab into town.
“This is the capital city,” he told the younger man, “and the largest one on the planet.”
“Where are we going, Sahib Whip? How will we attempt to find Hari Maroon?”
“I know his favorite hotel and casino. I’ve seen him in the gambling rooms there two or three times. I think he probably owns the place. It’s the swankest on Elysium. We can start there. If he’s not there, we’ll have to think of something else.”
“Perhaps he has already left this world.”
Whip Gunther shook his head. “I doubt it. I saw his yacht at the spaceport. He seldom travels any other way. At least, so I hear. I’m no authority on the man.”
The Baccarat Hotel-Casino was quite the most luxurious establishment Venu Jhabvola had ever marvelled at. It made El Minzah, on Tangier, pale in comparison, and Venu had thought that hostelry quite magnificent. There seemed to be at least two servants for every guest and they were trained to the zenith of perfection.
Three -trimly uniformed bellhops and a captain took them to their suite, which was the size of a large apartment and included even an automated kitchen.
When the hotel employees were gone, Whip Gunther put his hands on his hips and whistled silently, appreciatively. “I won-
der what the poor people are doing today,” he said.
Venu looked about too. “It seems a bit ostentatious,” he said. “Couldn’t we have taken smaller and less expensive accommodations?”
“This is the cheapest they had,” Whip Gunther said. He walked to the automated bar. “Well, we’ve made it thus far. That calls for a small amount of celebration.”
But even as he began to dial, two men sauntered in from one of the other rooms. They were so nearly identical that they could have been twins. Both were approximately Whip Gunther’s size, both were expressionless of face, both looked very competent. And both carried guns in their hands.
The first one said, his voice as empty as his face, “Okay, Gunther, lean up against the wall with your legs spread.” He looked at Venu. “You too, boy.”
“What’s the big idea?” Whip Gunther demanded.
The second of the two gestured with his pistol. “We’ve been checked out on you, Gunther. Get up against the wall for a frisk. Don’t try any of your famous tricks. Our orders are not to kill you—unless necessary. But we wouldn’t mind. All in a day’s work.”
Whip Gunther leaned against the wall, saying, “This is a big mistake. My name’s not Gunther. It’s Warren Beattie.”
The newcomers didn’t even bother to laugh. While one stood alertly to the rear covering, the other thoroughly searched the interplanetary adventurer. He brought forth the laser pistol and dropped it into a side pocket, and then came across the manriki-gusari. He looked at it with mild interest, then dropped it, too, into his pocket.
“Your turn,” he said to Venu, who was also leaning against the wall, his legs spread. It was an efficient manner in which to search a person. The position was such that even a man capable of as fast a motion as Whip Gunther could not get into action quickly, certainly not quickly enough to avoid getting shot.
The searcher found Venu’s laser pistol.
“Kind of young to be carrying something like this, aren’t you?” he said.
Whip Gunther said, “What’s all this about?”
“Come along with us,” the first one said. “Somebody wants to see you.” He motioned with his gun at the door.
They paraded down the hall, the two men with the guns keeping them in their side pockets, but with their hands on them.
At the end of the hall a door opened upon their approach.
“In there,” one of them said.
Whip Gunther and Venu entered a large reception room, very efficiently, very luxuriously done. There were three desks. The girls behind them didn’t look up at the four newcomers.
Another door, at the far end of the room, opened up.
“In there,” the gunman said again.
Whip Gunther and Venu filed through.
The room beyond was a very large office done in the most expensive decor. Behind the largest desk Venu had ever seen was seated a man in his late middle-years, who obviously went to the utmost trouble to keep himself in the best of physical shape. His tanned face was firm. His mustache was so neatly trimmed as to seem artificial.
