The Fallen Goddess of Alpene_A Goddess_A Pirate_Kidnap!

by Paul Brandis

  Ray stared at the men in disbelief. "Sheriff? Who elected him? I didn't vote for him."

  The young man spoke as if reasoning with a child. "Well, of course you didn't vote for him. Only property owners can vote, and you aren't a property owner. With so much land now available to farming, Dynamine Corporation is acquiring deeds, and plans to turn the entire planet to food production. This camp will be a nice retreat for lower level executives and their wives." His smile faded to boredom.

  Twenty-four hours, then the sheriff and his deputies will use force." He nodded at the sheriff. "And you can see how much he'd hate to do that."

  The big man's expression didn't vary. It remained pitiless.

  Phil held his anger in check, and turned to his friends. "I think we'd better go on over to my place and discuss this."

  Outside there were more black-clad hoods standing around. As the four moved into the woods, Phil turned to Golden. "Can you get in touch with your father?"

  "Yes. I have a way of calling him."

  "Good. Ask him to please be at my place tonight."

  "You knew they were coming today, didn't you?"

  The two men sat alone in Phil's tiny cabin. Sighter did not answer.

  "Well, I've got to do something about this. And with your help, I will."

  "Are you sure you want to embark upon another adventure? We may not be able to help you if you get into trouble again. The main reason we did before was to gain information on your people's anatomy."

  "I don't care about that. Just give me the same deal you had with Slen."

  The minister smiled. "Dynamine Corporation traded three months of their corporation's production from their mines. What do you have that is equivalent to that?"

  "Do you know what lysidium-three is?"

  Sighter whispered in his own tongue, and a soft voice spoke in return. "Yes."

  "Suppose I could show you where there was a lot of it."

  The Trader's expression went blank. "How much of it?"

  Phil thought, then stood. "Come here."

  He strode out to his front porch and scanned the night sky. Pointing at the single, white moon that circled Terra. "About three quarters as much as that."

  Sighter moved next to Phil, stared, then turned to him. "You have that much of lysidium-three? You realize it is highly radioactive. With your technology, you couldn't have come very close to it and survived."

  "Man, I can vouch for that. Listen," he started back inside, "I can show you where it is. It isn't owned by anyone. For the reason that you said, no one has been able to get to it. You give me the deal you made with Slen, and I'll show you where it is."

  "For how long?"

  Phil shrugged. "I want to get Slen. However long that will take."

  The minister shook his head. "No. We must have a specific time."

  Phil thought. "Three months, or until I can get Slen, whichever comes first. Do we have a deal?"

  A voice spoke, and Sighter nodded. "We do, but I must first explain something about our deals, and then you may want to reconsider."

  "Now what?"

  Sighter paused. "Our world, the place you call our ship, is our only home. Unlike you, we have no place to return to if we fail, and we succeed, and survive, only through trade. Consequently, our dealings must be absolutely honest. Unfortunately, we have found that some of the peoples we deal with aren't quite so scrupulous. There have been occasions where they have tried to avoid fulfilling their side of a bargain, even to the point of trying to kill us rather than paying. Of course, since our survival is at stake, we can't let that happen. When we are confronted by aggressive action, it is automatically eradicated."

  "What does that mean?"

  "We are non-combative people. This puts us at a

  disadvantage when responding to aggression. By our laws, and our nature, we convene to debate any action that we must take. Considering the speed of destruction that an advanced culture has at its disposal, you can see how such a delay could be disastrous. Consequently all of our defense mechanisms are automatic, tied irrevocably into our computer system."

  "Fine, but what has that to do with our deal?"

  "If for some reason, you fail to comply with your side of the bargain, you, and anyone associated with you could be eliminated as being unworthy to do business."

  "Eliminated? Does that mean killed?"

  "It could. The decision is out of our hands. Our computer will make the decisions."

  Phil shrugged. "Sounds fair."

  "Good. Then we have a deal."

  "Sure. I have nothing to worry about. I've got the lysidium-three."

  "I hope, for your sake, you are right."

  CHAPTER 23

  The tiny ship, like a sleek, white sliver approached the black moon. Too close for Phil's comfort.

  "Are you sure we're not picking up radiation in here?" he said. "I want to have normal kids, you know."

  They sat in a lounge, an illusion of the whole black sky above them. Glowing dully, the black moon dominated one corner of the sky.

  "I can assure you, it's all right. We simply want to take some measurements."

  The ship circled Black Moon, then headed for the small, blue world, settling at the base of the path that ran up to the walls of Bazinville. Chloe Donn waited regally at the head of small crowd as Phil and Sighter rode down the ship's ramp. A gauze-white shawl hung from her shoulders and tucked into her golden girdle. Bazin stood beside her.

  Seeing Phil, a cheer rattled through the crowd. He smiled, and nodded to Bazin. "Since we were in the neighborhood, we thought we'd drop in. This is my friend, Minister Sighter. We have a lot to tell you."

  Chloe stepped forward. "I bet you do. And I have something to show you." She motioned to a woman who lovingly held a bundle wrapped in white. "Meet your daughter. Her name is Summer. Summer Donn."

  Chloe pulled aside the blanket, and Phil peeked in at the sleeping, square-faced little doll. He glanced up at Chloe, confusion wrinkling his brow. "She's very pretty, uh, but are you sure? Does she look like me?"

  Chloe's voice carried to the crowd. "No, dummy, she doesn't look like you, which is lucky for her. She looks like Engineer Horst, the man whose body you borrowed, and whose statue now stands in the square. But she's yours, all the same." Her voice dropped. "After all, it was your idea in the cave."

  He shrugged modestly. "Well, you helped."

  Bazin cleared his throat and addressed Minister Sighter. "On behalf of the citizens of Bazinville, we welcome you, and though we realize our accommodations are somewhat rustic, we hope you find them comfortable. So if you," he glanced at the two tall men standing a few paces behind the minister each holding small, black cylinders, "and your men would like to accompany us, we'll go inside. We don't like the baby to be out too much." He glanced automatically to the sky. "She is, after all, the first baby girl born on the planet, and we don't want anything to happen to her."

  Phil nodded. "Great speech, Bazin, but I think pretty soon, there's going to be some happenings around here that will eliminate your fear from Black Moon's radiation."

  Later Phil relaxed in his quarters aboard the minister's ship, when a gong softly rang. He knew by now how to answer. "Yes?"

  "Phil? May I speak to you?"

  "Sure."

  A hologram of the minister's upper body hovered in the middle of the room. "Phil, we've completed our measurements of the lysidium-three moon, and we find that it is somewhat larger than you estimated, about twelve percent larger. In keeping with the dictates of our agreement, the remainder rightfully belongs to you. In what form or manner would you like it paid?"

  Phil thought for a long moment. "Twelve percent of a moon of lysidium-three. That's more than most mines. Several mines, in fact."

  "True. You'll be a very rich man."

  Phil thought, then said, "All right, for now, could you deposit whatever money is mine in the name of Summer Donn in the city bank of Rupert. It's as honest bank as most. Check the recor
ds and create a contract giving the money to her when she's eighteen years old Terran time. Until then, her mother will get the interest from the deposit. Does that sound all right?"

  "Very generous. Are you sure you want to do it?"

  "Sure, why not?"

  "Well, you don't know what will come of this operation you are planning against Slen. You might need money if things don't work out the way you plan."

  "What do you mean, don't work out the way I plan? Do you know something I don't."

  "Why, yes. Quite a great deal."

  CHAPTER 24

  "So how'd you get away?"

  Phil and Dante relaxed in Phil's quarters aboard the Frisco Flyer.

  "Simple," said Dante, ensconced in an easy chair. "While you led the charge around the hill to glory and death, I turned and walked the other way."

  Phil lay back on his couch, stared in disbelief at his unblinking friend, then burst out laughing. "That's wonderful." He reached out slapped Dante's back. "My kind of guy."

  "Yes, I entered the city by another way and caught the first ship to Rupert."

  "Sighter says you were working as a clerk in a small trading company."

  "Well, yes. Actually, I own the company. No one in the company knows it, not even its president. I bought it when I found it had a license for access to the intersystem computer. I can keep track, and make investments in any stock in the system."

  Phil became serious. "What do you think of what Slen's doing?."

  Dante's lips tightened. "Yes. Well, that's one of the reasons I came out here now. There wasn't much reason for staying on Rupert. He's pretty much wiped me, and all the little companies out, as well as most of the big ones."

  "Yeah, did you hear what happened to some of the clan who didn't want to get out of the camp? They just disappeared, gone. Those hoods are as bad as Cult priests."

  Dante nodded. "I've always felt that, if it weren't for the competition among themselves, corps could get to be just as arrogant as the Cult. They're only deterrent would be bad publicity which equates to poor sales and that means lower stock prices. But if a corp, like Dynamine, has no competition, it would be every bit as bad as the Cult."

  Phil grinned his evil grin. "So now we're going to take on Dynamine."

  "Uh huh. Do we get to win this time?"

  "You got no faith, kid. What I need from you is to tell me the best way to get started."

  "Well, what do you want to do, ruin him, or kill him?"

  "Both. I have a little money. I was thinking about joining with a couple of the smaller corps, and using the inside information provided by the Traders to ruin him. Then maybe he'd blow his brains out."

  Dante eyed at him closely. "And what about Thea? Have you thought about her?"

  Phil glanced down. "Yeah; quite a lot, as a matter of fact. I want to get her away from that freak."

  Dante spoke slowly. "Okay, which is more important to you, getting her back, or the ruination of Garve Slen?"

  The two men stared at each other for a moment, then Phil stood and began pacing. Finally he paused. "I guess I'd like to get her back first," he grinned, "and then ruin him."

  Dante nodded decisively. "Good. I'm glad you said that, because while I whiled away the hours watching Dynamine Corp destroy my company, I did a little investigating. I found that Slen doesn't just have controlling interest in the Dynamine conglomerate, he owns it all, everything in it, and all it owns. That's why Dynamine isn't listed on the stock exchange. It's companies are rarely in his name, of course, and I had to break a lot of codes to find the information, but there it is."

  "So?"

  Dante's eyes narrowed to cunning. "So if he dies, what happens to Dynamine Corp.?"

  "You tell me."

  "It's simple. He has no heirs, there are no stockholders, the entire corporation, and all the corporations it owns will go to System's probate court. By the time the lawyers get done with it, the remainder will be sold to pay legal fees. In other words, the other corporations will divide it up among themselves. The vultures will descend on it like to a corpse in the desert. Ironic, no?"

  "So what you're saying is, the best way to ruin him, is to kill him."

  "It's usually the most efficient way, yes."

  Phil laughed gleefully. "See, didn't I tell you you were my kind of guy?"

  Dante remained serious. "But it won't be easy. If he was protected before, he will be even more protected now. Even that figurehead of his, what was his name, Jeffrey hasn't made any appearances since Dynamine announced their agreement with the Trader's. I don't think anyone really knows where Slen is. Locating him will be the first problem. Killing him will be the next. And finding Thea, and getting her out will be the next."

  "And finding a nice quiet hole to hide in until Dynamine is broken up will be the next."

  "Right."

  "Well, I think it's time I started calling in my debt." He pulled a small cylinder out of his pocket, and smiled. "You'll like this." He fingered the cylinder and pointed it to the middle of the room.

  Sighter's face appeared. "Yes, Phil?"

  "Minister, we're trying to locate Garve Slen. Do you have any ideas?"

  "Yes, I thought you might want to know, so I've made some investigations. Since our agreement with him has run out, he has recorded no more direct investments. He has turned over operations to managers and supervisors. It seems to be a period of reassessment for him."

  "Well, do you know where he is, or don't you?"

  "We can only surmise. Studying the way he invests and the way he handles people, we have made a psychological profile of him."

  Phil raised his hand. "Please, Minister, just tell me where he is."

  "His home would probably be a fortress undoubtedly in a range of mountains. He would want to be able to look down on the world. He would also want a place that would be deeply embedded in rock. There are several places like this in the system, but one seems unusually appropriate."

  "Why is that?"

  "It was once the mountain fortress of a Germanic dictator, impregnable to the technology of the time. Thinking it would be the most logical place, I ran checks on its records of purchases. Your System's computer has no records of purchases by the fortress, but there is a religious monastery at the base of the mountains which has purchased a great amount of defensive weaponry."

  Phil stared at the hologram in amazement. "A Cult monastery?"

  "You mean Cult Corporation? No. This sect claims their religious practices are based on physical prowess. From the records, we know how many members live there, and we've analyzed their purchases of supplies. They are buying twice as many daily supplies as they need. Their checks are drawn on a bank owned by Dynamine Corporation. Probability is high that Garve Slen and his staff is living in the fortress above the monastery and getting its supplies from the monastery."

  Phil glanced at Dante. "Sounds more like the priests, or whatever they claim to be are a security force." He returned to the hologram. "What can you tell me about the fortress?"

  "It is located in a small, but rugged range of mountains on Terra."

  Phil started. "Terra? You mean right here?"

  Sighter continued patiently. "Yes. Dynamine Corporation registered the deed to the property several Terran months ago, and immediately began bolstering the fortress's defenses. We were able to locate transmissions of plans and progress reports, and the request of new equipment between the monastery and Dynamine headquarters. The fortress now has enough automatic artillery to eradicate a large air-strike force. It is also tied into a guard satellite at medium height above the fortress."

  Phil winced. "Automatic artillery tied to a guard satellite; terrific."

  Dante nodded toward the hologram. "Ask him about power sources."

  Sighter began reciting. "Power sources: primary is a light-charged batteries; first backup is nuclear, second, fossil fuel."

  "Access?" continued Dante.

  The Sighter image turned to face him. "Origi
nal access was a road that twisted through the mountains and terminated at the base of cliff. A long tunnel runs from the cliff, up through the rock, to the fortress, which is also cut out of the mountain's rock. According to maps, the road commences in the walled monastery, and is heavily protected by automatic tracking artillery along the way. However most supplies are flown up and unloaded in a small landing area outside the tunnel."

  "Any pictures of this place?" Phil asked.

  "From our search of Terran nuclear ruins, we have found ancient moving photographs from the time of the dictator. Over this we can superimpose the modern plans. One moment, please."

  A monochromatic scene formed showing a terrace with men in bulky uniforms posturing in front of women wearing simple print dresses. All attention turned as one man stepped out from the house. He wore a square black mustache and hair combed severely to one side. He smiled complacently and moved to stand next to a solidly built, blond woman in slacks sitting on the balustrade. Behind the couple the cliff fell away to a steep-sided valley far below.

  A diagram of the top of the mountain appeared displaying the floor plans and long tunnel to the loading area.

  Phil squinted at the tunnel. "Are those thick things doors? And look at the armament. Man, we'd be annihilated before we could burn through them."

  Dante stood and stepped to the diagram. "True. And notice these explosive devices. The tunnel has enough mines to collapse the whole mountain onto it. Assuming they keep it closed, we could never penetrate the place that way."

  Sighter's voice was heard. "Yes. Our profile on Slen shows that he constantly suffers from feelings of vulnerability, which is understandable considering his physical condition. The percentage is high that, other than the few moments that supplies are brought in, the tunnel doors are closed at all times."

  Dante examined the diagram more closely. "The only other way in is from the terrace." He turned to Phil. "You know, we could use a copy of this diagram."

  Sighter's voice spoke. "Please grasp one edge."

  Dante reached for the hologram, but before he could grab it, the incandescent picture sharpened and slipped to the floor, to be immediately replaced by the same projection.