Spybot!

by Perry Rhodan

  "Now lay off, fatnik! You can eat your heart out if you like but Muzzel and I have a perfect understanding and you're the last one who can separate us."

  Bell slowly sang a horrible rendition of an old bit song that was in mothballs by now. "We two will never part again...!" He grinned. "But frankly: that smell in the ventilators came from carrots. That has been established without any doubt. What do you have to say now?"

  "Huh? Carrots? And what else did they find out?"

  "Rhodan will fill you in on that when he gets a chance. At the present time things are pretty glum around the Drusus. The spy has stolen the Earth coordinates from the data bank. And incidentally you haven't answered my question yet: where is Muzzel?"

  "Down in the kitchen. He was hungry and wanted to stretch his legs. Why?"

  "Because. You say he wanted to stretch his legs? Those crooked little dachshund hocks?"

  Pucky again raised up indignantly. "I'll not permit you to insult my friend. Have you ever looked in a mirror when you're in a bathing suit?"

  "Well, no-o-o..." stammered Bell, caught off guard.

  "Then do it sometime! It'll make you think twice as to who has crooked legs and knobby old knees!"

  Without favoring Bell with so much as another glance, the mouse-beaver jumped onto his daybed and rolled himself into a ball in the farthest corner. Seconds later a series of evenly cadenced snores announced-presumably-that he had gone to sleep.

  Bell went to the door. "You'll lose that snooty air of yours before long, just wait! Before long you'll be begging me to play with you or scratch your back. But if you do, I'll..." He didn't say what he'd do but instead left the room.

  As fast as he could go, he went down to the kitchen. The chief cook appeared and hastened to answer the questions put to him by Rhodan's second-in-command. He shook his head decisively. "No, sir. There must be a mistake. That little Muzzel was not here asking for meat. Pucky always asks for it-and double portions," he added pointedly. "Besides, I stick to the rules: no dogs allowed in the kitchen!"

  "Rightly so!" agreed Bell approvingly and he thanked him.

  In a deeply pensive mood, he finally returned to his cabin in order to catch the planned half-hour of sleep.

  After all, it wasn't so easy to play the role of Sherlock Holmes.

  • • •

  "It could be," said Atlan to Rhodan. They both stood in the observation dome of the Drusus with the mighty panorama of the universe around them. They had retired to this location in order not to be disturbed. "Yes, that could of course also be true. We have to take every possibility into consideration-and I mean all of them!"

  Rhodan nodded gravely. "Good, then let's stay with this thought: the ventilator shaft incident is not conclusive evidence. Somebody, meaning the spy, is deliberately trying to cast suspicion on Pucky and Muzzel. The scratch made by a pocketknife was supposed to draw our attention to the ventilator and thereby make us suspect the two smallest passengers on board the Drusus. Unfortunately I haven't had time to question Pucky about the carrot mess. I'm sure he was the guilty one there and is ashamed to admit it."

  "Hm-m-m," was Atlan's only response as he declined to comment.

  For some moments Rhodan stared out into the endlessness of space. Somewhere out there, more than 1000 light-years away, the tiny Earth spun on its course. To discover it, somebody had smuggled an unusually clever spy on board the Drusus, probably a robot-and that somebody was undoubtedly the robot Brain of Arkon. But when had it occurred?

  The stars gave no answer. Motionless and unblinking they hung there in space and seemed to be waiting. They had already been waiting for millions of years.

  What for, actually. The end?

  Atlan appeared to divine Rhodan's thoughts. "They're waiting for the Beginning," he smiled sagely. "Who waits for the end?"

  Rhodan candidly returned the smile. "Do you know something, Arkonide?" he asked and he pointed outward toward the sea of stars. "Do you see those suns out there, radiating their heat away and giving life to the planets yet always retaining it?" As Atlan nodded hesitantly, he placed a hand in front of the other's eyes. "And what now? Do you still see those suns?"

  Atlan waited until Rhodan took his hand away. On his face was an expression of astonishment. He shook his head. "Naturally I didn't see them. What are you trying to say?"

  "Well, to simplify it: if we undertake another transition and make the jump-let's say for example toward the Earth-and if the Arkon spy is in our direct presence during that time... can he transmit then?"

  Atlan's timeless eyes suddenly narrowed. "And how will you arrange that?"

  "We will collect the suspects and have them with us when the transition takes place. The time of the transition will not be given out ahead of time so that his timer can't be set. If then the transition happens and our signal tracing crew fails to detect a bearing transmission, then the informer will have to be one of the suspects in our company. He wouldn't have had any opportunity to do anything without drawing suspicion on himself-which he'll be doing anyway without knowing it. Well, what do you think of it?"

  "Rhodan, you should have been a criminologist. I'd say OK but would make the suggestion that the transition be announced beforehand. So when do you want to do it?"

  "But then there's still the problem about the stolen coordinate data. I didn't want to make any transition until we caught the thief. Maybe it'd be wiser to revise my idea."

  Atlan changed the subject. "Have any results come through yet on Kulman?"

  "Unfortunately, no, Atlan. I'm afraid we'll have to be patient there."

  "Do you want me to tell you what I think happened?" As Rhodan gave him a receptive nod, Atlan looked up at the stars. "Good, then I'll lay out a theory for you that I think comes very close to the facts. On Swoofon, Kulman made a very important discovery, which brought him to the act of putting out a major alarm call. And that's when the, Arkon agent had to step into the picture. Kulman was given a new memory that made him forget what actually happened. He regards his being picked up by us as a routine situation. When he came on board he brought with him a well-prepared spy. The objective of the manoeuvre has been achieved and Kulman has been fixed so that he can't blab or reveal the perpetrator."

  Rhodan had listened attentively. "I'm afraid it's exactly the way you describe it. But even if we have the spy in our hands there's another question remaining: why did Kulman send out the alarm? What did he discover on Swoofon?"

  Atlan laughed mirthlessly. "Always one thing at a time. First let's put your plan into operation. Let's blindfold the informer so that he can't see the stars..."

  7/ REVELATION

  An order was issued to the Control Central to prepare for the next transition. The hypertransit was set for 5:30 ship's time and was to span a distance of about 1300 light-years directly to the Earth. At least it was so publicized and was even announced to the crew over the P.A. system.

  Rosita Perez and Chief Physician Skjoldson were very much astonished when Rhodan appeared in their department and ordered that their patient, Kulman, would have to be kept in the Control Central of the Drusus during the transition. They expressed their misgivings but Rhodan would not be dissuaded. Kulman smiled his gratitude after being released from his unenviable condition. He was convinced that the efforts of the doctors and psychologists had been futile, anyway. He was aware of what they had put him through. The assumption that he could have acquired a new and false memory was in his opinion based on nothing but a vague theory.

  Meanwhile, Atlan went to get Pucky and Muzzel.

  That is, it was his intention to do so but the two playmates could not be located. The only alternative was to announce over the P.A. that Pucky and Muzzel were wanted in the Command Central.

  Meanwhile the ship's chronometer moved forward inexorably.

  Instead of returning to the Command Central, Atlan disappeared in the direction of the analytical laboratory. From there he went on to the sickbay, asked a number of seemingly sense
less questions, took the conveyor to the kitchen and conversed with the chief cook. Finally he returned once more to Pucky's cabin and remained there for ten minutes. Only after that did he reappear in the Command Central, where he occupied his accustomed place without a word.

  Rhodan gave him a penetrating look but said nothing.

  The digital time indicator clicked to 5:20.

  As usual, Farrington stood ready with his vacuum cleaner detail. The portable signal tracers were strategically positioned. Kulman conversed quietly with Bell and inquired specifically of him what the findings had been concerning his dog. He was not too happy with the information he obtained.

  Rhodan checked the time, and was about to go to the P.A. broadcast board when suddenly the air shimmered in the room. Pucky materialized-and with him Muzzel. The dachshund wriggled out of the mouse-beaver's arms, looked about him in some surprise and then let out a little yelp of pleasure. He ran to Kulman, who greeted him happily.

  "What took you so long?" Rhodan asked the mouse-beaver gravely. "I announced that you..."

  "We were playing," pouted Pucky as he sat down on his broad hindquarters. He pleaded so soulfully with his big brown eyes that it was hard for Rhodan to keep a frown on his face. "Before going to the Earth, Muzzel insisted on romping about a little while through the ship."

  Atlan took an interest in this remark. "Aha-so Muzzel suddenly had an urge to play as soon as it was announced that we were definitely flying to Earth?"

  Pucky nodded wonderingly. "We were asleep when the announcement woke us up. We had just eaten."

  "Meat and carrots as usual?"

  Pucky nodded again but said nothing.

  The chronometer registered five minutes before transition time.

  Atlan took a few lithe steps into a far corner of the Command Central and beckoned Pucky to him. The mouse-beaver responded hesitantly. Out of hearing range of the others, the immortal whispered a few words to him while screening his mind so that no one including Rhodan could detect his thoughts.

  Pucky gave Kulman a quick glance. Then he nodded slowly and returned to his place.

  One minute to go.

  At this particular moment there were only four persons aboard the Drusus who knew that the forthcoming transition would not be back to Earth but simply another 100 light-years away into the starry ocean of the Milky Way. These four individuals were: Rhodan, Atlan, Bell and Sikermann.

  Time-05:30...

  It was just a short transit but everyone in the Control Central experienced the pulling pains of distortion although they didn't last more than three or four seconds. The reaction manifested itself in definite contractions of the face and body.

  Atlan opened his eyes and noted a curious fact which seemed to confirm his suspicions: Kulman didn't notice him. He continued stroking the pelt of his possonkal as though there were no other concerns at all on board the Drusus.

  Rhodan continued to wait. At any moment the signal-tracing team could be reporting in, in case the spy had succeeded in dropping another transmitter somewhere.

  "Pucky," asked Atlan-and it appeared that he was giving a prearranged signal- "where were you with Muzzel, actually, before you came here?"

  "Down in the hangars. To be specific, in hangar K-37."

  Atlan merely nodded but he waited.

  Suddenly Pucky waddled determinedly over to Kulman. He drew himself up before the agent and then swung out. The powerful blow struck Muzzel on his furry hindquarters and knocked him out of Kulman's lap. Kulman sat there in frozen astonishment as the unbelievable action registered on him.

  Bell understood even less of the action and he stared at Pucky almost stupidly.

  Pucky raised a hue and cry: "You dirty little devil, you miserable-!"

  He swung again in an attempt to hit Muzzel but this time the dachshund was alerted. He eluded Pucky's striking paw by making an incredible jump clear over his playmate, a leap which brought him close to the ceiling.

  At this moment nobody other than Rhodan noticed Atlan who had brought to light a small weapon which was a powerful thermo-gun. When the possonkal came down to the deck from his mighty jump, the immortal fired.

  The highly concentrated energy beam struck Muzzel's skull and reduced it to smoke and steam. A hideous odor pervaded the Command Central where the corpse of the funny little dachshund lay, lifeless and still.

  At the same moment, Pucky disappeared. He had done precisely what Atlan had requested of him. He had placed a blind trust in what the immortal had told him, even though it was almost beyond his power to do so. Now that he had seen the disfigured form of his little dachshund friend lying there shattered on the deck before him, he had preferred to simply teleport himself from the terrible scene-presumably to his cabin.

  With a cry of horror, Kulman had jumped to his feet. He stared down incredulously at what was left of Muzzel. His mouth opened and he commenced to stammer but finally everybody could make out what he was blubbering: "Muzzel!... My poor little Muzzel! Atlan killed him! What am I doing here? three-alarm alert! That's right, the Earth is in danger! Rhodan! I have to speak to Rhodan at once!"

  Atlan nodded to Rhodan and replaced his weapon in his belt. "Kulman has suffered a shock. I believe that a proper scare can often do more than the best psychological approaches. I'll wager that Kulman has gotten his memory back. Kulman do you know now why you put out a three-alarm alert?"

  The agent nodded hesitantly. "Yes... Do you mean to say I didn't know before? Besides: why did you shoot Muzzel? What did he do to you?"

  Atlan looked at Rhodan "You ought to see that Kulman gets a good rest. When he has slept a few hours he will be able to give us his report." He waited until the medical personnel came and took Kulman away. Then he continued while he bent over to observe Muzzel's remains. "Too bad about everything that was in his skull. I don't believe that we'll find anything in his body. Skjoldson managed to sneak a Q-ray of him. Muzzel has a valid skeletal structure, nerves, blood-quite everything that a natural form of life possesses. But inside the skull there was a small capsule. Since Muzzel came from Swoofon I presume that this capsule was the actual robot. Everything else about him was a normal biological development. So you couldn't call Muzzel either a robot or an android-actually he was both." He straightened up again. "Rhodan, do you know what he did that definitely betrayed him?"

  "No."

  "In former years there was a time when I'll have to admit I was wealthy. Since I wasn't burdened by honorary positions and heavy duties of any kind, I often went hunting and I used possonkals. They are the best tracking animals in the galaxy. They can pick up any scent or trail-even when only ten days old. They are extremely versatile but there is one thing they cannot do-jump! Under normal gravity, a possonkal can't jump more than a foot high. But this one almost hit the ceiling. I had asked Pucky to cause him to do it. So Pucky had to betray his best friend because he would have soon placed the Earth in the greatest danger. You see, even robots make mistakes."

  At this moment, Farrington called in: "Hello, Command Central! The position transmitter has been found and demolished."

  Rhodan looked at Atlan. "So this time he had it placed beforehand. There was time enough then and now I see why he insisted on romping about the ship." He spoke into the intercom to Farrington. "Where did you find the transmitter?"

  The answer eliminated any last doubts: "In hangar K-37, sir."

  Atlan walked to the other side of the room and sat down. "I believe I probably owe all of you a full explanation."

  Everybody agreed.

  • • •

  Since Rhodan felt that everybody on board the Drusus had a right to be kept abreast of events, the main video P.A. system was turned on. So it was the same as before when Atlan had told them the story of Atlantis. Everybody could join in with the recounting because they could both see and hear what was going on in the Command Central.

  Atlan turned toward the hidden cameras and grid microphone. "You probably haven't gone to sleep yet,
Mr. Kulman, and so I'd like to ask you to participate in the resolution of this case through this means. It involves you principally since your return on board the Drusus brought about the appearance of the mysterious spy. Other than the opening or closing of the batches of the Drusus for the Gazelle, nothing else left or entered the ship. There was no other possibility: either you or Muzzel had to be the spy! Or to put it another way: the unknown agent would have had to come on board when you and Muzzel did.

  "You were the first one I suspected, Kulman. Then we discovered you had a mental block, though that didn't exclude the possibility that you could still be setting out the micro-transmitters. However, once under the care of the psychology department you didn't have a chance to do anything. Ms. Perez was able to confirm that you didn't leave the operating table, although during the time you were there more position-transmitters showed up and were physically located. With such facts before us, that left you out as the perpetrator, Kulman. So it left Muzzel.

  "But how could one possibly suspect a possonkal of playing such a treacherous role? Such an animal is not intelligent enough to respond with such precision to hypnotic direction. That was completely out of the question. Unless one was to entertain the crazy notion that Muzzel was a robot. Yet there were a number of things which undermined even that idea. You yourself had seen Muzzel bleed, shelving for the moment the question of whether or not such an observation could be attributed to your actual memory or to a post-hypnotic suggestion. We'll be able to determine that well enough later. At any rate, I also saw Muzzel bleed and I had the blood examined in the laboratory. There could be no doubt about it: Muzzel's blood was genuine blood from a possonkal.

  "In addition to this was the fact that Pucky was constantly with Muzzel. We are all aware of the telepathic faculties of the mouse-beaver. If Muzzel had been a robot, undoubtedly Pucky would have noticed it immediately. But Muzzel's thought processes turned out to be those of an organic, semi-intelligent creature. And he even thought about microorganisms swimming in water. Whatever the explanation of that small aberration might be, I was able to deduce that Muzzel could not possibly be a robot because a robot has no brain, at least not one with which a telepath could be en rapport. So Muzzel was also excluded-until we discovered the strange carrot mess in the ventilators.