Gary Gygax - Dangerous Journeys 2 - Samarkand Solution

by Gary Gygax

  What the magister had to say to the head of Innu's police surprised Tuhorus completely. "You must know the Chief Inspector," he said to Ankh-ra when the prefect greeted them personally. "His superior is your counterpart just downriver in On."

  "Certainly. Chief Inspector Tuhorus is a solid detective," the man smiled. "Thinking of transferring to this city, Tuhorus? I could use a workhorse like you to—"

  "No, Prefect," Inhetep interrupted. "I brought him here to meet you personally so there would be no doubt about his position. You see, Inspector Tuhorus is now serving as my personal deputy and must be accorded status accordingly."

  "Status? You are retired, Magister—"

  "Not now. You may address me as Utchat-neb for the time, sir. I am formally announcing that Tuhorus is now an acting agent of the Utchatu. He has the authority of Pharaoh, and only the king or others of higher rank than he holds in the Utchatu may now question or hinder him."

  "What's this all about, Inhet—Utchatu-neb?"

  "We are here on official business, Prefect. Please call in all of the officers on duty and inform them accordingly."

  Pabar Ankh-ra stiffly complied, his face held rigidly expressionless. The intelligence service of Pharaoh was a powerful force in the kingdom, and he didn't dare object to what the magister demanded. However, it was evident he disliked having to do so and would make it as difficult as possible if given any opportunity. "I must congratulate you then, Agent Tuhorus, on attaining royal service," he said in a snide tone.

  "This is but a temporary assignment," Tuhorus said noncommittally. "I love On too much to be away from my regular work there for long."

  "How nice," drawled the prefect as he stared at them both. "And you, Utchatu-neb Inhetep? Are you planning on remaining on active duty now?"

  "As Pharaoh wishes," the magister said meaningfully. "Not even a True Prince can deny such a command, of course, so who am I to say?"

  Ankh-ra smiled thinly as he nodded agreement, then hastened out to round up his officers. "He is our enemy!" Tuhorus murmured as soon as they were alone. His homely countenance showed some degree of uncertainty.

  "In a matter of speaking, but there's worse to come. Sorry not to have told you first, Tuhorus, but I didn't wish to give anything away. I trust no one here or in On for that matter—nobody save yourself, that is. Now let's be still. Here they come."

  Seven officers accompanied the prefect on his return. Inhetep told the assembled policemen that both he and Tuhorus were in their city on royal business, and that no interference would be tolerated. "Interfere? We're not in the habit of obstructing any police, even Utchatu," quipped the prefect. "How can we assist?"

  He was sincere, even though there was bitterness in his voice. The chief inspector looked at Inhetep, but the magister shook his head slightly. Tuhorus replied, "I understand your words, sir, and thanks for offering, but the utchat-neb and I can manage by ourselves, thanks. That's why I was brought along you know," he added with a wink to the officers. "The royal boys need someone who knows real detective work." The two exited shortly thereafter, and all the police save the prefect were still chuckling and grinning. "Where now?" inquired Tuhorus when they had left the building.

  "To the sepat palace," said the magister. "It's time to pay our respects to Prince Harphosh."

  The governor of the city and district of Innu received them warmly, greeting the policeman in a fatherly fashion and asking the priest-mage, "Is it the Khazars, Setne? I thought you'd be the one to get to the bottom of that!"

  The magister laughed softly as if at a private joke. Then he sobered and looked at the grizzled prince. "In a way, Governor, perhaps it is so. There's a lot more to it than that, of course. I'm here because of assassination, treason, and a myriad of lesser crimes which I won't bother to detail now."

  "The Khazars are doing that?" Harphosh's face was a study in disbelief.

  "No, Prince. You are the guilty party!"

  The governor laughed loudly, looking from Inhetep to Tuhorus. "Our friend is quite a jester, isn't he?" he said to the policeman. "I wasn't expecting that...."

  "No. Not after you thought you'd murdered those able to link you to the dirty affair and destroyed all the written evidence. I should suppose you thought yourself free and clear. You're not, Prince Harphosh. You are under arrest."

  "This is impossible—you're an old friend, Inhetep!" said the prince as he sat down heavily behind his large desk. "Why do you accuse me of such terrible things?"

  "Because you are as guilty as Set—or Aapep, I might better say. You're careless, too. What's in that glass box there, Harphosh?" the magister demanded, pointing at an aquariumlike object partially obscured from view by a carved wooden screen.

  "Madder still! That's merely a terrarium—a place to keep certain insects I happen to enjoy observing."

  "Insects? Or is it arachnids, Governor? I'll wager on the last!"

  Tuhorus saw the prince's ruddy face pale slightly at that. "Well, so I have some spiders— they're akin to insects. .. . What's criminal in having a few spiders? I think I shall have to demand that you leave now—both of you! This matter will be brought to Pharaoh's attention immediately." He arose threateningly from his chair.

  "Stay put, Harphosh, or else I'll have to use force. You are under arrest, and I am not joking! Come on, Prince! Give it up. I am onto your whole scheme. Those spiders are the Samarkand Solution, aren't they?"

  Prince Harphosh pretended to sink back at that. Suddenly, though, in a move unbelievably quick for one of his age and bulk, the governor jumped erect and hurled two crystal globes at Inhetep and Tuhorus, shouting "Yakeem, to me!"

  The ur-kheri-neb moved even more swiftly than Harphosh had, and with speed so great that it was hard to follow with the eye, plucked both spheres out of the air before they could impact and shatter. Chief Inspector Tuhorus turned instinctively, drawing forth his dagger and changing it to a sword as soon as it was clear of the sheath. He managed just in time to fend off a vicious stroke aimed by the lank assassin who had appeared as if by magick. Yakeem the Dahlikil had, however, merely stepped from the door behind the two men. His eyes were bloodshot, and murder was etched on his snarling features as he attacked.

  Yakeem wielded a pair of long knives, and although the policeman's sword parried one, he used the other with greater effect, drawing a long cut along Tuhorus's forearm. "A pleasure to butcher a policeman always," he said in a resonant baritone which was laden with malice. "I have a knife for you, too, Magister!"

  "Get away from him, Chief Inspector!" Inhetep cried. "There's poison on those blades!" The magister threw one of the globes back at the governor; the other he sent flying toward Yakeem's leering face. A gasp from Harphosh told him that the first sphere had struck home. The second glassy ball seemed to be traveling in slow motion as it flew toward the assassin. It was his own heightened perceptions which made it appear thus, the magister knew, yet at the same time it made him feel insecure in his aim.

  The Dahlikil slashed again at Tuhorus with one of the knives, his other weapon moving up and out toward Inhetep at the same instant. Then he caught sight of the crystalline missile and changed his thrust. The blade deflected the fragile sphere with such gentle precision that it was sent off intact on a tangential course past him. "My turn," he snarled at the priest-wizard, as he flipped the knife in his right hand over and hurled it suddenly at Inhetep.

  The magister dropped flat to avoid the flashing blade. Then Tuhorus began to cry thinly; a terrible keening sound from the pain of the venom which had begun to course through his body. The slam of the door sounded plainly, but Inhetep ignored its implications. "Hold on tight, Tuhorus," he called as he scrambled over to where the policeman lay writhing on the thick rug. "I'll have the toxin out of your bloodstream as quickly as Isis cured Ra!"

  True to his word, the ur-kheri-heb's heka neutralized the venom which had nearly slain Tuhorus. "The assassin ... ?" the chief inspector asked weakly when the pain had ebbed.

  "F
led. Yakeem understood there was no sense in remaining to aid Harphosh, not even if he somehow managed to kill us both. The governor's whole scheme has obviously been compromised— exposed."

  "You let him escape to save my life?"

  "More or less, my dear Tuhorus. You and I have been trading such favors recently. Besides, the Utchatu knows we're here, and there are agents posted around this palace. Somehow, though, I fear that the Dahlikil will elude them----"

  "He must be brought to justice!" the chief inspector said through gritted teeth. "He's a foul killer and—"

  "One likely to remain at large for a long time, my friend. Don't upset yourself now. He's slipped away from better detectives than you and I."

  Tuhorus thought the latter claim unlikely but let the matter drop. Instead he queried the magister on his assertion that Prince Harphosh was the mastermind of the plot. "Did the governor— Harphosh, that is, not Ram-f-amsu—hope to become a pharaoh?" The policeman struggled into a sitting position, adding, "And how in all the hells did you discover his involvement?"

  "The coincidence of seeing the assassin here in Innu seemed just that at first, but as things developed in regard to the business in your own city, Chief Inspector, I began to suspect that it was not chance at all. Let me go back over the circumstances, and you'll see what I mean.

  "When Ankh-ra," he related, indicating the unconscious prince, "called me here to talk about an inordinate number of Khazars studying magick in Egypt, I thought it a little more than a sign that the fellow was growing old and should retire

  "When Chemres hauled me off to the governor's palace in On, I knew that something was wrong there. The circle of conferees there, and Ram-f-amsu's reaction, were certainly telltale signs. However, I coupled that assassin with that incriminating gathering . . . until the prince was killed. At that point, it was clear that either the hem-neter-tepi, Matiseth Chemres, was responsible, or else there was a controlling figure remaining in the shadows."

  The police official nodded in agreement. "Chemres was a man of ambitions, Magister, but he lacked the crucial skills and ability to manage such a plot."

  " 'Such a plot' is an understatement, Tuhorus. Never was a wilder scheme concocted around so disparate a body of conspirators! No hope for success existed beyond the second or third addition to the cabal, of course. That was almost painfully evident in casual questioning. Ergo, the whole mess was never meant to actually achieve its expressed goals. Prince Ram-f-amsu was a fool and a bungler, but even he would have realized the hopelessness of the affair had not someone else been at his side to gloss over the inconsistencies and explain away contradictions. No doubt, the scheme was meant to be a failure.

  "Then the matter of the so-called uab priest, Absobek-khaibet, came to light. He had been assigned to Innu before coming to On. At last I had the connection which made me consider things in a different perspective. Then Yakeem's appearance in Innu, and his trip to On, made sense. He received instructions from Innu and carried them out in On."

  "That follows," Tuhorus said as the magister paused and glanced over at the governor to see if he was still under the effects of the narcotic gas which had been contained in the crystal globes. "But what made you link Prince Harphosh to Yakeem and the rest?"

  The priest-wizard smiled. "A host of little things," he replied. "The prince was reluctant to retire and wished for a more important position. He set me on the track of the Khazars. A sepat governor just doesn't concern himself with matters of that sort. Harphosh desired as much confusion as possible. He was going to expose the plot, and the more false threats read into the matter, the greater would seem the magnitude of lurking menace to /Egypt.

  "Then we have the rather prosaic matter of the two cities. Innu creeps northward, On edges south. Cities and districts must soon be joined. One or another of them will be subrogated to the other, and a single authority will then govern the combined entity. That was the lesser prospect for Harphosh, however."

  "How so?"

  "His detection of a 'threat' from the Khazars would make a bold statement to Pharaoh when the treasonous business in the sepat next to Prince Harphosh's own came to light. Ram-f-amsu plotted, Harphosh was vigilant for threats. Greater ambition still, however, certainly motivated the governor. Trouble in the Nubian Oversight, plots in Phillistia, and bankers and merchants with interests all over the kingdom surfaced as threats. Widespread treachery and criminal activity call for an authority to keep such matters in check. The viceroy of lower /Egypt would be compromised by such goings on. Prince Harphosh, with his lack of ties to the royal house, would be the perfect choice to replace him as viceroy of this semi-kingdom. After all, what claim could he have to the throne? None. Place an honest man of experience as a lion to watch Lower /Egypt and its untrustworthy sepat governors, and Egypt is secure."

  "Devious and cunning too, Magister. It could have succeeded."

  Inhetep snapped his fingers, green eyes flashing. "Indeed, my friend, indeed! In a flash, too, once the sordid details of the 'plot' by Ram-f-amsu were recounted to Pharaoh. Naturally, the 'guilty' parties would have to have died before that time—otherwise, they would have linked Prince Harphosh to the scheme."

  "You mentioned the Samarkand Solution."

  "A code name devised for those nasty spiders there," the ur-kheri-heb replied. "They provided the means to get rid of any who might reveal the Innu-On connection."

  Chief Inspector Tuhorus went over and looked at the glass terrarium. There were six nasty-looking arachnids inside—each spider purple-black, hairy, and nearly as large as a child's hand. "Ugly bastards," he murmured, suppressing a shudder. "I don't see their connection, or how they could actually kill someone as they did."

  "The alchemist wasn't aware of it, but he was the instrument which enabled Harphosh to perfect his murder scheme. Do you recall Jobo Lasuti mentioning his work in what might be termed anti-magick or non-heka power?" When Tuhorus nodded, the magister continued. "I realized suddenly that such an alchemical discovery might be used to screen magickal energy—much the same as a leafy branch might be used to obliterate footprints left in the dust. Close examination of the spot will reveal that something wiped away the tracks, but no amount of scrutiny will reveal what those tracks were.

  "That brought me to consider what had occurred. Ram-f-amsu left the council room to speak with Matiseth Chemres, and then he was slain. The attack upon the governor had to have come when he was outside the council chamber. How? That stumped me. The rigidity and odd gyrations tokened either magick or some unknown and horrible poison. Magick seemed out of the question, so only a toxin was left."

  Tuhorus held up a hand. "But the levitation! That had to be magickal."

  The tall wizard-priest began to pace back and forth. "The mention of a 'whirlwind' and the 'Samarkand Solution' made me think dweomers were at work. They were, but as a part of the spider's venom. Those nasty creatures are nurtured on a mixture of human blood and the alchemical discovery of Imprimus Lasuti. The latter not only negates heka but affects natural laws as it reacts with the victim's body. Weird things occur then—as the poison kills the one bitten. The two work to completely destroy the victim—a true reflection of the Samarkand Solution, by the way. Wipe the offending place away entirely, leave nothing alive there, and no trace of what occurred save the rubble."

  "In this case, the husk of the corpse."

  "Exactly, Inspector. Yakeem came, placed a spider upon the victim, and the vile thing bit instinctively—warmth and the blood it craved triggering its attack. In seconds, the one bitten is beyond saving."

  "He used the secret ways, of course. I don't doubt your word, Inhetep, but what made you think of such a thing as spiders?"

  The magister shrugged. "I had the advantage of having recently been here in Prince Harphosh's office, Inspector Tuhorus. I saw his little cage of arachnids then, although he wasn't aware of it. However, there was another clue. There was an aura of blackness remaining after the killing, the sense of something dark an
d horrible, a thing which manipulated the victim as might a puppeteer. A puppet master ... or a spider in a web! I thought of the spider I had seen in Ram-f-amsu's study—dead and dried up almost beyond recognition."

  "So the creature dies when it bites!"

  "Perfect instrument of death, isn't it? The reaction with vital blood serums lacking the alchemical potion kills the arachnid almost as soon as its own victim dies. That way there's no embarrassing evidence left, no spider running around biting anyone else, just a dead little 'insect' husk, a dried spider somewhere on the floor. Who would find that notable?"

  "Who indeed, Inhetep. But if so, what made you note it?"

  "I had the impression of the dark monstrosity behind the assassination. When I happened to spot another dead spider in Chemres' apartments, I finally put the whole thing together. I had known the Dahlikil was the killer, but with that clue I knew the means he used to do his foul work. It was not difficult to confirm the supposition, for I took the remains of the arachnid from the Temple of Set and used heka to examine it.

  The aural impressions matched those surrounding Ram-f-amsu. The remainder was simply a matter of filling in the missing pieces of the puzzle."

  "Blast you, Inhetep," the policeman said without animosity. "You kept all that to yourself, and I had no real chance to arrive at a proper solution myself."

  The ur-kheri-heb grinned. "Quite right, Tuhorus, but no! I've told all, as it were, so the next time you have a murder on your hands you'll know how to go about solving it!"

  "As I'll know how to dally with young girls and then be rid of them, eh, Magister? That business with Lady Xonaapi was a masterful piece of work, I think. ..."

  "Most unfair, Tuhorus, and misleading to any who might hear you speak of it."

  "Just desserts, Magister, only that."

  "Perhaps, but with your coming leave and course of study, you'll be much too busy to discuss anything of that nature, won't you? Afterwards, as a member of the Utchatu, you'll not wish to compromise a fellow officer."