Life Hunt

by Perry Rhodan

  Turning around, Marshall whispered: "I wouldn't shoot if I were you, Egmon."

  The Springer was suspicious but something about Marshall's voice seemed familiar to him. Even so, the mutant had to identify himself before Egmon would relax.

  "It isn't your beard that makes you hard to recognize," said Egmon in surprise, "but those broad shoulders! By the stars, Ixt! I've been waiting for you for hours! Our clan-leader heard some bad news and took off. He's out somewhere halfway between Tolimon and Hellgate, waiting to see how things develop."

  "How what things develop?" What could have happened now? Bad luck seemed to be crowding in from all sides.

  "A man in Estgal's clan was arrested and brainwashed."

  Marshall had never heard of any Springer patriarch named Estgal.

  "All of Estgal's clan was involved in smuggling Ara pharmaceuticals. The Aras knew it but could never catch Estgal in the act or infiltrate his organization—if only Estgal had never gotten himself involved so directly! He could have lived to a ripe old age."

  "Estgal is dead?" Marshall blurted. He had begun to feel an interest in this hitherto unknown Springer patriarch.

  "Three or four hours ago he and 18 of his ships were annihilated in space by an Ara battlefleet. That's why Ara spies are crawling all over down here."

  Marshall had known Egmon to be a reserved and taciturn agent for Rohun but now his verbosity was profuse as he gave his account. Only thanks to Rhodan's training was Marshall able to keep a grip on himself. "Please, Egmon—tell me only the important things? What was Estgal trying to get hold of?"

  "Trying?" the large, white-blond agent whispered back. "He got it! With the help of a bribed Ara he managed to make off with the formula for preservation of Immunity Serum X1076! He took it right out of Serum Works G-F 45..."

  That sounded familiar to Marshall. Then he remembered having read Huxul's mind when the spy had been puzzling over the formula and its disappearance.

  "Then what?"

  "Last night, Hduzz from Estgal's clan was arrested and brainwashed. The bribed Ara was arrested after that and given the same treatment. By that time it was morning and Estgal had been tipped off. He flew into space with his ships but the Ara battlefleet was waiting for him... Now do you understand, Ixt, why my master is 40 light-years away from here?"

  Marshall allowed the question to go unanswered. "Do you have very close contacts with Estgal's agents, Egmon?"

  "You'll have to talk to Otznam or Tulin about that," said the Springer, changing the color of his eyes again.

  Marshall quickly checked Egmon's thoughts to see if he were telling the truth but no lies were evident. He tersely asked: "I'd like to meet Tulin here tomorrow at this time. Can you tell him that, Egmon?"

  "He could be here in an hour," said Egmon, his eyes turning green.

  "Tomorrow!" said Marshall decisively. He nodded imperceptibly to Egmon and disappeared into the throngs of passers-by.

  He took an antigravity lift up to the elevated roadway on the fourth level and caught an express to the city. His thoughts centered around the assignment Perry Rhodan had given him and Laury Marten. He sighed. The mission now seemed virtually, impossible to carry out.

  • • •

  Man Regg shook his head for the third time but he did not interrupt the agent from his security force while giving his report. He listened attentively with the patience of the reserved and dignified man he was. Man Regg, the brilliant Ara physician, was not the only listener: three of his colleagues were sitting by but neither did they interrupt the speaker.

  "You may leave now!" Man Regg told the security chief of X-p when he was done, dismissing him. When he was alone with his colleagues, Man Regg asked: "Well?" The same conclusion was repeated three times. "Flawless but..." The three 'buts' meant Laury Marten. By means of the hypercom, the Ara Secret Service had traced Arga Silm's past even into the heart of

  Arkon's interstellar empire. Headquarters in Trulan had followed different lines of inquiry than the X-p security division but both had emerged with identical results.

  Arga Silm was a 23-year-old Arkonide, female, from the planet Devin. She was a student of zoology and about to undergo her final examinations. Her professors spoke highly of her faculty for medicine. Her entire file was flawless! Even the portrait of Arga Silm sent from Devin more or less looked like her; any differences could easily be attributed to the distortion and unclarity of a photograph transmitted by hypercom. In spite of the double conclusion, Man Regg was still not satisfied. He made a suggestion and since he was chief he heard only agreement.

  Gelte, the Ara zoologist, would test Arga Silm in the presence of his two colleagues, Kelise and Azza, while Man Regg followed the proceedings over closed-circuit video from the next room.

  Man Regg disappeared into the adjacent chamber and Arga. Silm-Laury Marten was called to the chief's office. The three Ara scientists believed they had an unsuspecting Arkonide girl before them and Laury did nothing to dispel their illusion. But she knew what was going on.

  She entered with a friendly smile upon her lips and pretended to be astounded to see three strange Aras instead of Man Regg. She sat down and shortly found herself in the middle of a grueling examination.

  She had need of all her energy and concentration not to lean toward the one extreme of being an Arkonide girl prodigy or toward the other of being extraordinarily stupid.

  Just as the knowledge of Arkon medicine imparted to her by hypno-training would have been insufficient had she not been able to draw on Man Regg's own mind, so here too she had to pick the brains of her three interrogators to avoid the traps and pitfalls they set for her. Even though she was a telepath and able to read minds, it was still a Herculean effort for her to keep tabs, on three different minds at once, concentrate on the answer itself and still remain the self-confident and calm Arkonide girl.

  Suddenly a stronger impulse from the next room disturbed her. At the same time, an important question was asked.

  Laury Marten escaped by saying she had not understood the question, an excuse usable on any planet. In that way she won the time to learn just who was in the next room concentrating so strongly on her and to formulate her answer to the question.

  She suddenly grew playful. The three interrogators began to see her as a medical phenomena—and she began using Man Regg's thoughts in answering their questions. Only she put forth as an incorrect observation something which Man Regg knew to be correct and offered arguments which represented the weakest links in Man Regg's chain of research.

  "Yes," said Azza in some surprise, "but does this mean that Arkon is so far along in the field of genetic research that these genetic irritations, unknown to all doctors until now, are henceforth to be regarded as generally advantageous?"

  Laury Marten answered pleasantly. "You'll find in my records the notation that I was Moguld's assistant for a year. I'm sure that Moguld has a good reputation on Tolimon."

  "We were not aware that Moguld had concerned himself with hereditary biology, Arga Silm!"

  She remained pleasant. "Is the Arkonide Imperium aware of everything already discovered on the Ara worlds?"

  "That's not an argument!" hissed Azza angrily.

  "Is Moguld's theory an argument, then, when he claims that the secret of eternal life lies hidden in the chromosomes?"

  "Nonsense!" growled Azza.

  "Is it still nonsense when one takes the number of chromosomes common to a species and artificially increases their number, forcing the extra chromosomes to cease their indirect cell division?"

  Laury Marten smiled while seething internally. Meanwhile, Kelise, Azza and Gelte were lumps of living fear they saw their greatest secret had been uncovered. They had thought the problem through to this point and Laury Marten prayed to the gods that one of the Ara scientists would carry it the rest of the way in his mind and thus reveal to her whatever entangled and complicated method was used to manufacture the life-prolonging serum. If one did... Then her job was do
ne. Perry Rhodan would be freed from the unbearable torment of watching his beloved wife Thora age perceptibly by the day and his friend Khrest sink into senility.

  She read new thoughts: fragments, but enough to tell her that the three Aras sitting across from her wanted to achieve endless prolongation of life without the serum. And they were apparently not far from that goal!

  And just as she began her attempt to hypnotically influence the Aras into revealing more to her, Man Regg came out of the next room to congratulate her!

  She regretted his entrance for the Aras had almost given her the secrets she needed to know.

  While she mustered a blush in response to Man Regg's glowing words of praise, she innerly saluted the Solar Defense back on Terra. Its men had performed a miracle in so accurately forging the information in her file as Arga Silm. Yet, even as Laury Marten praised the staff in Terrania—and as John Marshall cursed it for its carelessness—neither knew that without the help of several Galactic Traders, the Solar Defense would never have been able to produce such exact data.

  Her claim of having worked with Moguld could be confirmed. In fact, there really was a girl Arkonide zoology student named Arga Silm, although the genuine one had been on a Springer ship for over eight months, studying xeno-zoology on location on an extended field trip. However, that was known only to Rhodan and the Springer captain concerned.

  In spite of Azza's distrust, Laury still had one more master performance of telepathic skill to bring off. She carried on a fluent, professional and precise technical discussion with the Aras, giving them the impression of a body of scientific knowledge in her mind so vast in scope it took their breath away.

  Had John Marshall taken part in the conversation, he would have found some way to end it before Laury's overconfidence gave the whole game away.

  "I suggest," said Man Regg, ending the conference, "that Arga Silm go to work in the Geromorphism section—or do you have differing opinions?"

  Young intelligence was set to work in the Geromorphism section studying the effects of atrophy on facial skin and those working there often suffered from advanced symptoms of old age even despite their own youth and the use of life-prolonging serums.

  None of the three Ara physicians had any objection to the director's suggestion—not even Azza.

  5/ HALL OF DREAMS, HELL OF DREAMS

  The hypercom in Ixt's luxuriously furnished office was nothing out of the ordinary. As a major dealer in rare animals, Ixt depended upon the tools of his trade and this was one of them; he had often in the last four months arranged via hycom to buy scarce breeds even while the Springer ship with the creatures on board was still thousands of light-years away in space, often landing on Tolimon only weeks later.

  This morning, John Marshall let his hypercom warm up with Futgris sitting across from him, waiting in case his expertise should be required.

  Thanks to Tulin, one of Rohun's agents, Marshall had learned the day before that the Springer, Bet, was on the way to Tolimon with a shipload of extremely unusual animals. Marshall was now calling the BET-765 over the hypercom. He wanted to throw all his energy into the deal: his meeting the previous day with the redheaded daredevil Tulin had inspired him. An innocent observation on Tulin's part had suddenly become a powerful incentive: the closer you work with the Aras, the more they'll trust you...

  And Marshall knew from his 8-month experience on Tolimon that the quickest way to a galactic physician's heart was to show him an exotic species of animal he had never heard of before.

  The BET-765 replied. Bet's face, which fit well. The body of a young and strongly built Springer, appeared on the screen.

  Bet grinned faintly when he heard the reason the animal dealer Ixt of Trulan had called him. "All I had to do," Bet said, "was land on a planet where everything stank to high heaven and load up the animals I could catch. I'll wager that not one of these beasts is known in the Arkonide realm. I was wanting to deliver the whole cargo to the Aras but if you're buying and the offer is good, I'm selling! Wait a minute—I'll show you my ship's zoo!"

  His image disappeared from the screen, replaced by one of the animals in the cargo hold. Though by now quite accustomed to the most hideous and improbable looking creatures, thanks to his missions on many different worlds, John Marshall still had to hold his breath.

  Bet had on board his ship a collection of the most horrible animals imaginable! Along with many others impossible to classify, there could be seen lizards, giant bats and amphibians.

  Ixt looked questioningly at Futgris. Futgris offered no advice but the enthusiasm blazing in his eyes was plain to see. That was enough for John Marshall.

  The dickering required half an hour before the deal was closed. Futgris had to whistle when his chief confirmed the final buying price once more—1.3 million!

  The hypercom remained in operation. Even with the BET-765 still 8529 light-years out from the Ara planet Tolimon, John Marshall and Futgris cataloged from the office the stock of animals on board Bet's cylindrical ship.

  When the last animal had been recorded on film, Marshall told his best salesclerk to have 30 copies of the catalog ready by noon.

  And two hours later, 30 copies lay atop John Marshall's desk. Futgris received a bonus for his quick work and after that the Ara was ready to give everything he had in service to his boss if he had to. He congratulated himself again and again for having signed on with the then newly founded firm eight months before.

  • • •

  "Central Purchasing Administration!"

  It was there that John Marshall now found himself. After meeting with 18 different commissions with the robot carrying 30 catalogs in tow, he was at last sitting across from Kolex, an elderly Ara bent with age—but nonetheless still a sly old phoks. His eyes clung to John Marshall while the mutant spoke but his fingers never stopped moving across a control panel.

  After reading Kolex' thoughts, John Marshall knew what the canny official was doing with the switchboard: he was alerting everyone in the enormous complex who would be interested in acquiring previously unknown animals.

  The parley between Marshall and Kolex was watched and listened to from over 20 different places. Only the catalog remained to be seen and Ixt's robot held the copies in its steel arms, standing unmoving behind its master.

  Again Kolex pressed a button and established a new connection. John Marshall learned telepathically who the new listener was and had to summon up all his strength to keep his triumph from showing: bio-physician Man Regg was now on the line!

  "A catalog!" demanded John Marshall from his robot.

  He laid it directly before the field projector's crystal lens and at the same time the room darkened automatically. The image of the first animal, blown up to some 15 feet, was projected against the wall.

  John Marshall remained patient, interested only in Kolex' thoughts. He read them while sitting back in his seat, eyes half-closed.

  Kolex' thoughts revealed what he outwardly tried to hide. He had to struggle to prevent his enthusiasm from breaking out. Again and again he had to stifle the urge to spring up and give voice to his astonishment. He had been head of the Purchasing Administration for over 800 years and in all those centuries he had never seen anything so hideous, so novel, so unusual as this menagerie.

  The projection of the catalog lasted an entire hour. Then the light of the sun was allowed to stream into the room again.

  Perry Rhodan's mutant named his price, demanding 2.1 million! He was not at all embarrassed for demanding so much—he had been reading Kolex' mind and the old Ara was willing to pay at least that much!

  Yet, instead of agreeing to Marshall's figure, Kolex chose to make a veiled threat: "But Ixt, you don't have the creatures here yet. According to what you say, the deal was made over hypercom. What's to prevent me, from finding out which Springer has this cargo on board and then deal with him myself? Letting him know amidst all the pleasantries, of course, that he would have some 'difficulties' if he did not clos
e the deal with us..."

  And Kolex' thoughts showed he intended to do that very thing.

  Marshall smiled at him sympathetically through his perfect Springer disguise. "Please, Kolex!" he said, saying nothing more.

  The impatience in Kolex' eyes grew noticeably. He hastily ordered a connection with the Hypercom Monitoring Service to find out which Springer ship an animal dealer named Ixt had contacted that morning. The connection made, an Ara at the other end promised to deliver the requested information in a minute.

  The minute never came!

  John Marshall's sympathetic smile grew broader. "Kolex, I'm a Springer! " he emphasized. "My hypercom is a Springer invention!"

  His meaning was clear: the Hypercom Monitoring Service would never find out to whom he had spoken or what about.

  A moment later, a meek-sounding voice from the Monitoring Service reported that the requested data was unavailable.

  Kolex still had the composure to inquire: "Are hypercoms of this sort permitted on Tolimon, Ixt?"

  John Marshall brought his best argument into play. "Am I here for a trial or what? Kolex, we Galactic Traders do business with everyone in the Imperium and there are others besides Aras who would be interested in my offer. Shall we consider our discussion at an end?"

  The noon heat wave in Trulan measured 110° in the shade when the contract for two million was signed between Ixt, the galactic animal dealer, and the Ara Purchasing Administration.

  And when John Marshall left Kolex, they had become the best of friends!

  • • •

  The BET-765 landed at the Trulan spaceport two days later. The arrival of the cylinder-ship caused a sensation; such a large number of transport cages was not to be seen everyday.

  Curious sightseers were plentiful enough in Trulan but a large crowd of people could be seen fleeing to all sides when the great hatch to Cargo Hold F was opened. Anyone born with a human nose held it, desperately trying to squelch the nausea induced by the incredible stench emitting from the open hold.