UrsNollf walked away, shoulders slumped over his oddly placed head.
Forlan leaned back and heaved a sigh. He looked like one for whom a totally unexpected reprieve had just arrived. "A billion billion solvency units," he said. "The finance council wanted my unequivocal endorsement that the safety of Vezpro and its population of five billion required that payment. All I could answer was that I didn't know. Either way the blame would have been mine - and deservedly so. The Mas of Science and Technology is supposed to know. It'll be a pleasure to go back and assure the council that its decision was the correct one."
Darzek nodded absently. He was thinking about Kernopplix. He understood Forlan's impulse - it would have been a pleasure to order the slimy creature to leave. But it would be a much greater pleasure to make use of him. There should be some way to bait a trap with him.
Suddenly the compartment was empty except for themselves. All of the scientists had transferred to the other ship. Darzek took his leave of Forlan, and, with a final glance at the no longer doomed world and its giant cavity, he went to his private compartment and sprawled on the thick sleeping mat without bothering to remove his clothes. It had been a long, suspenseful ordeal, and he felt exhausted.
Drifting off to sleep, he felt the vibration of their first jump through space.
Forlan shook him awake. His face was ashen, and he seemed incapable of speech. He gestured and vanished into the transmitter. Darzek leaped to his feet and followed.
In the control room, Forlan, the captain, and the ship's navigator stood looking at the large viewing screen. It showed a double star.
Darzek, not yet fully awake, gazed at it incomprehensibly. "What is it?" he asked.
"Vezpro," Forlan said hoarsely. "Vezpro? You mean - Vezpro is ... "
The navigator stammered an explanation. The system's eleventh planet, a small, unspeakably remote rock heap, had inexplicably turned into a sun. The world of Vezpro was now a part of a double star system.
Darzek rubbed his eyes and looked again. "So that's the demonstration. "
Forlan said nothing.
"For an operation that can't be done," Darzek said, "it looks highly effective."
13
It was night in Klinoz, the capital of Vezpro. Darzek, who had slept away his return journey, was wide awake. He settled himself in the room he and Miss Schlupe used as a combination living room and private study, parked his feet on a nearby chair, and - he'd had no tobacco for years - reflected that if he'd owned a cigar, this was the time to smoke it.
Miss Schlupe, wearing a brightly patterned robe over a long nightgown and with her hair down - one of the few times he'd ever seen her without the neat bun that had been the fashion with her since she was a girl - walked in and stood over him. "Did you see it?" she demanded.
Darzek nodded. "A most convincing demonstration. I wish I understood it."
"You mean - understood how it was done?"
"Why would I want to clutter my mind with that? I wish I understood our mad scientist's reasoning. The eleventh planet is an enormous distance from Vezpro even at its closest. Right now it's not too far from conjunction on the opposite side of the sun. In other words, it's almost as far away as it can get and the sun is obscuring it. How many Vezpronians are aware of what's happened?"
"I don't know. Wolndur told me about it."
"Every ship that arrives here will have seen it, and professional astronomers probably caught it at once. To the average layman, it's too small and far away to notice, and even when it comes closer it'll be more of a curiosity than a menace. It isn't likely to frighten anyone."
"Meaning what?"
"We're dealing with an extraordinarily considerate criminal. Instead of a demonstration with a nearby planet, which might cause riots and panic in the population, he makes it remote enough to alarm only those capable of understanding it, but close enough to scare the pants off them, if they're the kind that wears pants. In other words, he aims at frightening the government officials into paying off without alarming the world's population. I call that thoughtful of him. "
"It's also possible that these demonstrations are expensive, and the bigger planets cost more," Miss Schlupe observed. "Why invest in blowing up a large planet if a small one will have the same effect?"
Darzek grinned at her. "Always the cynic, aren't you. All right either he's considerate, or he's thrifty. Heard anything from Kernopplix?"
"Nary a whisper."
"I thought he might have stopped by to gloat. But his instructions were to wait until we came to him, and obviously he obeys instructions to the last letter as long as there's going to be a profit."
"How did your experiment go?"
"It went ffft. A first-rate farce. Forlan thereupon concluded that it couldn't be done, and we happily hurried back here only to find that it had been done. Forlan is crushed. When his scientific committee, which is still at the scene trying to figure out what went wrong, hears about this latest development, the members may commit hara-kiri, if that's the practice in galactic scientific circles. UrsNollf will never be the same again."
"What'll happen now?"
Darzek thought for a moment and then announced meditatively, "I think you'd better get some female agents ready for a ride on that ransom ship."
"I've already started," Miss Schlupe said. "I've got three hundred females in training, which gives us plenty of leeway for rejects. They're all sturdy, healthy specimens, and my Vezpronian males screened them for good looks, just in case that turns out to be a criterion. I can't tell a pretty Vezpronian girl from an ugly one."
"Neither can I," Darzek said.
"Anyway, I've got three hundred, and I'm training them, and I'll tell you this - you don't know what judo is until you've seen the three-armed variety. If the villain approaches one of these gals, he'll be slammed good."
"Glad to hear it," Darzek said. "Sorry I won't be able to see it. Heard from Raf Lolln?"
"No."
"I'll have to go see him. Too bad I couldn't take him along, but I didn't think it'd be politic. He would have laughed himself silly over that experiment and gone into convulsions when we got back and found that demonstration waiting for us. I wonder why Forlan didn't put him on his committee. Probably no orthodox scientist would work with him. I also wonder if UrsNollf is right when he says Raf Lolln and the Zarstans couldn't possibly come up with the answer. He hasn't been right about anything else."
"What do you want me to do?" Miss Schlupe asked.
"Go back to bed. Keep training your three hundred females. We may need them soon.
She retired to her bedroom, and Darzek, after meditating for a few more minutes, woke up Gud Baxak, who was startled to see him. "Does the world of Vezpro have any enemies?" Darzek demanded.
Gud Baxak regarded him sleepily. "Sire?"
" I need to know about Vezpro's competitors," Darzek said.
"We've been so intent on our scientist complex that we've neglected the fact that a world is much more likely to be behind a conspiracy of these dimensions." He was mentally kicking himself - an exercise he had indulged in so frequently of late that it threatened to become habit-forming. "What world or worlds would profit most if Vezpro's industry failed?" he asked.
"Vezpro dominates twelve sectors of space," Gud Baxak said protestingly. "If its industry failed, worlds would be ruined throughout the twelve sectors and beyond. Vezpro is their market for raw materials, and it supplies them with fabricated goods."
"I see. I never thought of economics in ecological terms, but I suppose the comparison is apt. Couldn't those worlds sell their raw materials to someone else, or develop the industries to use them themselves?"
"No doubt they could, eventually. But a long period of adjustment would be required, shipping charges would be higher both on the raw materials and on the goods sent in payment for many worlds, and before all concerned could find new markets and suppliers and get their trade running smoothly a
gain, individuals, agricombines, factories, even worlds would be ruined."
"Then Vezpro has no one major rival, or group of rivals."
"None," Gud Baxak said firmly.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Darzek said. "First thing in the morning I want you to find me an expert in transmitters. I want this to be the ultimate expert, one who can make those things turn somersaults."
"Somersaults?" .
"Never mind. Just be sure it's the best expert available. Now go back to sleep."
Darzek returned to the living room and his meditating.
"The problem is," he muttered, "we don't know what this villain really wants. Does he actually expect to collect that impossible ransom, or is he trying to create as much mental anguish as he can before the world is destroyed? Has he intended from the beginning to make Vezpro a horrible example so other worlds will pay up instantly? In a society that has no criminals, a criminal mind is totally unfathomable. "
They would have to yield at once on the spaceship. It, plus passenger and freight compartments - which Kernopplix certainly would order custom-made or with expensive custom features - and with the outfitting and provisioning, would come to a tidy sum, but not one large enough to make the most conservative world finance committee blink. Properly managed, the preparation of ship and contents could be stalled at a number of points, giving them more time, and time was critically important if only Darzek knew what to do with it.
The billion billion solvency units was another matter. Darzek had no doubt that even a wealthy world would have to mortgage its future for generations to accumulate such an amount; and there was nothing at all to prevent the blackmailer from returning next cycle, or next term, with a similar demand. Forlan had mentioned that the Mas of Finance thought they could create an illusion of solvency with phony certificates. This was not a solution; it was merely a way of buying more time.
"But the problem," Darzek said, still muttering, "is not the ransom. The problem is to catch him - and that's my specialty. So why am I worrying about solvency?"
He meditated further, and then he went out to send a message.
To E-Wusk, galactic trader of legendary fame and close friend of Darzek's, who also was TWO, the second member of the Council of Supreme.
No one could assemble a fleet of spaceships more deftly than E-Wusk. Sometimes Darzek thought the old trader maintained a mental chart upon which was positioned every trading ship in the Galactic Synthesis, along with its cargo manifests. The only method Darzek could devise for tracking a ship through its space jumps was to arrange an enormous fleet so that a ship would be waiting for it no matter where it jumped. No one but E-Wusk had the know-how to do that.
And if, sooner or later, they had to consider the logistics of evacuating a world of five billion inhabitants, plus their prized possessions, that, too, was a problem that only E-Wusk could cope with.
Kernopplix greeted Darzek with his usual excessive, oily cordiality. Darzek could imagine his faceless sensory organs contorted in a triumphant grin. "Ah!" he exclaimed. "You return. I've been expecting you."
"It was a most interesting demonstration," Darzek told him.
"Please give your employer our congratulations."
"But I have no communications with my employer!" Kernopplix protested. "I have never met him. I have only his written instructions."
"Which you intend to carry out precisely."
"But of course!"
"You have lists and estimates, I believe."
"But of course!"
Kernopplix handed over a sheaf of indited sheets, and Darzek sat down to study them. He ran a practiced eye over the figures, occasionally raising his eyebrows and notching one. Then he returned the sheets.
"The finance committee will want to audit these," he said.
"The committee's caution does it credit."
"Not necessarily. That happens to be the law on Vezpro. And would you provide detailed cost appraisals for the items I've marked? If you will bring these to me as soon as the additional information is ready, I'll pass them along to the committee - through proper channels, of course. Like you, I'm only a messenger, though I have no written instructions to follow. Just a stern order to use my common sense.
"Which is highly uncommon," Kernopplix observed. "But I respectfully point out -"
Darzek raised a hand. "I have no doubt that those apparently excessive figures are there for sound reasons. We will save time if you provide the reasons along with the estimates."
"Of course."
When Darzek returned to the Trans-Star office, Gud Baxak was waiting for him with a transmitter engineer, an elderly Vezpronian. Darzek took the engineer aside and told him tersely what was needed, adding that the fate of his world might depend on his performance. Thoroughly shaken, that worthy individual listened carefully to Darzek's instructions three times, and then, sworn to secrecy, his objections casually waved aside, he left.
Darzek called after him, "If it was easy, we wouldn't need an expert."
Kernopplix delivered his estimates later that day, with the questionable items and everything else broken down into almost excessive detail. Darzek thanked him gravely and took the estimates to Wolndur, who was to pass them to Forlan, who was to pass them to the finance council. The solvency to purchase the ship was transferred to Darzek's account almost at once, and Darzek immediately transferred it to Kernopplix, promising the remainder as soon as the audit was completed and approved.
Kernopplix's spidery features were incapable of expressing elation, but when he came to thank Darzek, there was a distinct note of rapture in his voice. Darzek suspected that Kernopplix was a shoestring operator on the verge of running out of solvency.
Kernopplix handed over a solvency certificate made out to Darzek personally. "Your commission," he explained. Darzek thanked him. Kernopplix performed a sweeping gesture of generosity . "You're entitled to it. As I said before, there'll be profit enough for both of us."
"I'm sure there will be."
"Which is why some of those estimates looked high. If the council shaves them, the cut will have to come out of your share."
"Since you've provided such convincing details, I doubt that the council will alter them," Darzek said soothingly.
Kernopplix departed with a grin in his voice.
Miss Schlupe, who had watched this transaction, asked, "What are you going to do with that certificate? I'm running short - paying and training those three hundred females costs something, not to mention my other investigators - and since I'm supposed to be a nobody, it might cause comment if I start transferring solvency here. And I don't think Trans-Star's accounts should be used for my nefarious activities. "
"I'll deposit this to your account," Darzek said. "Since it was extorted from Vezpro, it's entirely appropriate to use it for Vezpro. Sit down for a moment."
She dropped into her rocking chair, and Darzek made himself comfortable nearby, feet up, and kicked his shoes off. "Tell me this. What are the odds that our villain is on Forlan's blue-ribbon nuclear committee?"
"It's an interesting thought," Miss Schlupe conceded. "He'd be in an ideal position to sabotage any experiments the committee sponsored."
"They were so certain they'd figured the thing out. Then it went ffft."
"Did they really have it figured out?" Miss Schlupe asked.
"That's the rub. Only a nuclear expert could say, and - since all of them were wrong - maybe not even one of those. Forlan, who is no fool but also no nuclear specialist, said he understood what they were doing only up to a point, after which their equations became the scientist's equivalent of indecipherable hieroglyphics. Is it conceivable that our villain could be so much more knowledgeable than his most expert colleagues?"
"A scientist can discover something by accident," Miss Schlupe said.
"It's been known to happen," Darzek agreed. "Since Forlan picked the best scientists available, he may have put the villain on
his committee. If he did, how could we identify him?"
"I wouldn't know. As for the 'best scientists,' you probably mean the best known. I seem to recall that great scientific discoveries can happen to obscure nonentities just as easily, and they have a devil of a time getting them accepted or even noticed, They become famous generations after they die when someone accidentally discovers that something has already been accidentally discovered. If you really think he's on the committee, why don't you put Melris Angoz to work on it? Computers are good at gulping up a million details and spitting out the one or two that don't fit."
"Good idea," Darzek said. "Go spend some solvency, and I'll have a chat with Melris."
The computer that ran the galaxy, Supreme, was the size of a world. The computer that ran the world of Vezpro was merely the size of a building, though a large one. Melris Angoz, who had unlimited access to it, was doing nothing behind her terraced banks of controls when Darzek called. She had exhausted her imagination, and she welcomed any kind of assignment. Darzek seated himself and described two projects for her.
She seemed doubtful about investigating the members of the mas's committee. They came from many worlds, and she did not know how much information the Vezpro computer might have on them. What it had, she would glean. She would ask Wolndur for the list of names and worlds of origin.
But the second assignment, while extremely complicated, obviously delighted her. What Darzek wanted was a computer study of the economics of the surrounding dozen sectors - more if she could manage it - if Vezpro suddenly ceased to exist. This was a challenge any competent computer tech could enjoy, and he left her enthusiastically laying out a program.
Darzek went to Naz Forlan's office and asked the Mas of Science and Technology for a copy of the plans and any related materials used in the ill-fated experiment. Forlan did not have an extra one, but he promised to have a copy made for Darzek and send it to him. The scientists, he said, were on their way back to Vezpro to study the phenomenon of the eleventh planet.
"You aren't planning on making yourself a nuclear specialist, are you?" Forlan asked. "If so, I can suggest better texts - ones with experiments that work." He was smiling, but there was bitterness in his voice. He told Darzek that the solvency requested by Kernopplix for outfitting and supplying the spaceship had now been approved and transferred to Darzek's account.
[Jan Darzek 05] - The Whirligig of Time Page 13