Lion Loose

by James H. Schmitz

couldbe a convenient way to keeping him shut up, assuming he knows morethan he's told. He's one of the personnel you're to offer Yaco. Ithink you can insist on having Kinmarten handed over to youimmediately. It should be interesting again to see how Cooms reacts."

  Velladon's big head nodded vigorously. "Good idea!"

  "By the way," Quillan said, "Fluel mentioned you've been looking forKinmarten's wife, the second rest warden on the Pendrake convoy. Foundher yet?"

  "Not a trace, so far," Ryter said.

  "That's a little surprising, too, isn't it?"

  "Under the circumstances," the commodore said, "it might not besurprising at all!" He had regained his color, was beginning to lookangry. "If they--"

  "Well," Quillan said soothingly, "we don't _know_. It's just thatthings do seem to be adding up a little. Now, there's one other point.We should do something immediately about catching that Hlat."

  Velladon grunted and picked at his teeth with his thumbnail. "It wouldbe best to get it back in its cubicle, of course. But I'm not worryingabout it--just an animal, after all. Even the light hardware thoseBeldon fancy Dans carry should handle it. You use a man-sized gun, Isee. So do I. If it shows up around here, it gets smeared, that's all.There're fifty more of the beasts on the _Camelot_."

  Quillan nodded. "You're right on that. But there's the possibilitythat it is being controlled by the Brotherhood at present. If it is,it isn't just an animal any more. It could be turned into a thoroughlydangerous nuisance."

  The commodore thought a moment, nodded. "You're right, I suppose. Whatdo you want to do about it?"

  "Baiting the cubicle on the fifth level might work. Then there shouldbe life-detectors in the Star's security supplies--"

  Ryter nodded. "We have a couple of dozen of them, but not in theExecutive Block. They were left in the security building."

  The commodore stood up. "You stay here with Ryter," he told Quillan."There're a couple of other things I want to go over with you two.I'll order the life-detectors from the office here--second passagedown, isn't it, Ryter?... And, Ryter, I have another idea. I'm pullingthe man in space-armor off the subspace portal and detailing him toLevel Five." He grinned at Quillan. "That boy's got a brace ofgrenades and built-in spray guns! If Cooms is thinking of pulling anyfunny stunts up there, he'll think again."

  * * * * *

  The commodore headed briskly down the narrow passageway, his bigholstered gun slapping his thigh with every step. The two securityguards stationed at the door to the second level office came toattention as he approached, saluted smartly. He grunted, went inwithout returning the salutes, and started over toward the ComWeb on adesk at the far end of the big room, skirting the long, dusty-lookingblack rug beside one wall.

  Velladon unbuckled his gun belt, placed the gun on the desk, sat downand switched on the ComWeb.

  Behind him, the black rug stirred silently and rose up.

  * * * * *

  "You called that one," Ryter was saying seven or eight minutes later,"almost too well!"

  Quillan shook his head, poked at the commodore's gun on the desk withhis finger, looked about the silent office and back at the door wherea small group of security men stood staring in at them.

  "Three men gone without a sound!" he said. He indicated the glowingdisk of the ComWeb. "He had time enough to turn it on, not time enoughto make his call. Any chance of camouflaged portals in this section?"

  "No," Ryter said. "I know the location of every portal in theExecutive Block. No number of men could have taken Velladon and thetwo guards without a fight anyway. We'd have heard it. It didn'thappen that way."

  "Which leaves," Quillan said, "one way it could have happened." Hejerked his head toward the door. "Will those men keep quiet?"

  "If I tell them to."

  "Then play it like this. Two guards have vanished. The Hlat obviouslydid it. The thing's deadly. That'll keep every man in the group on thealert every instant from now on. But we don't say Velladon hasvanished. He's outside in the Star at the moment, taking care ofsomething."

  Ryter licked his lips. "What does that buy us?"

  "If the Brotherhood's responsible for this--"

  "I don't take much stock in coincidences," Ryter said.

  "Neither do I. But the Hlat's an animal; it can't tell them it'scarried out the job. If they don't realize we suspect them, it givesus some advantage. For the moment, we just carry on as planned, andget rid of the Hlat in one way or another as the first step. Thething's three times as dangerous as anyone suspected--except,apparently, the Brotherhood. Get the life-detectors over here as soonas you can, and slap a space-armor guard on the fifth level."

  Ryter hesitated, nodded. "All right."

  "Another thing," Quillan said, "Cooms may have the old trick in mindof working from the top down. If he can take you out along with a fewother key men, he might have this outfit demoralized to the point ofmaking up for the difference in the number of guns--especially if theHlat's still on his team. You'd better keep a handful of the best boysyou have around here glued to your back from now on."

  Ryter smiled bleakly. "Don't worry. I intend to. What about you?"

  "I don't think they're planning on giving me any personal attentionat the moment. My organization is outside, not here. And it would lookodd to the Brotherhood if I started dragging a few Star guards aroundwith me at this point."

  Ryter shrugged. "Suit yourself. It's your funeral if you've guessedwrong."

  * * * * *

  "There was nothing," Quillan told Marras Cooms, "that you couldactually put a finger on. It was just that the commodore and Ryter mayhave something up their sleeves. Velladon's looking too self-satisfiedto suit me."

  The Brotherhood chief gnawed his lower lip reflectively. He seemedthoughtful, not too disturbed. Cooms might be thoroughly afraid of theescaped Hlat, but he wouldn't have reached his present position inNome Lancion's organization if he had been easily frightened by whatother men were planning.

  He said, "I warned Movaine that if Velladon learned we'd checked outthe Hlat, he wasn't going to like it."

  "He doesn't," Quillan said. "He regards it as something pretty closeto an attempted double cross."

  Cooms grinned briefly. "It was."

  "Of course. The question is, what can he do about it? He's got yououtgunned two to one, but if he's thinking of jumping you beforeLancion gets here, he stands to lose more men than he can afford towithout endangering the entire operation for himself."

  Cooms was silent a few seconds. "There's an unpleasant possibilitywhich didn't occur to me until a short while ago," he said then. "Thefact is that Velladon actually may have us outgunned here by somethinglike four to one. If that's the case, he can afford to lose quite afew men. In fact, he'd prefer to."

  Quillan frowned. "_Four_ to one? How's that?"

  Cooms said, "The commodore told us he intended to let only around halfof the Seventh Star's security force in on the Hlat deal. The otherhalf was supposed to have been dumped out of one of the subspacesection's locks early today, without benefit of suits. We had noreason to disbelieve him. Velladon naturally would want to cut downthe number of men who got in on the split with him to as many as heactually needed. But if he's been thinking about eliminating us fromthe game, those other men may still be alive and armed."

  Quillan grunted. "I see. You know, that could explain something thatlooked a little odd to me."

  "What was that?" Cooms asked.

  Quillan said, "After they discovered down there that two of theirguards were missing and decided the Hlat must have been on theirlevel, I tried to get hold of the commodore again. Ryter told meVelladon won't be available for a while, that he's outside in theStar, taking care of something there. I wondered what could beimportant enough to get Velladon to leave the Executive Block atpresent, but--"

  "Brother, I'm way ahead of you!" Cooms said. His expression hardened."That doesn't look good. But
at least he can't bring in reinforcementswithout tipping us off. We've got our own guards down with theirs atthe entrance."

  Quillan gave him a glance, then nodded at the wall beyond them."That's a portal over there, Marras. How many of them on this level?"

  "Three or four. Why? The outportals have been plugged, man! Sealedoff.