Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (49 page)

"I don't need
any lectures about the syndicate!" Bast snapped. "Do you know where
Moodad is?"

"I told you we
only have the name!" Z snapped back. "Really, Wordt! I'm trying to
get along with you, but I've had more than enough of this one."

"Go outside,
Bast!" Wordt ordered. "You aren't helping with that!"

Z almost let a
sound escape, but controlled it. If Bast went outside the floater
would note it and where he came from.

"He'll answer
my questions or I'll fry him where he sits!" Bast yelled.

"Oh,
really?!" Z cried. "In case it hasn't occurred to you, the whole
VWPA Special Forces Department knows where I am and who I'm after.
Do something that stupid and
you’ll
end up frying, too!"

"They'd have to
find me first!" Bast snapped (He snapped a lot).

"In case you
didn't notice we found you here in a matter of hours. You can be
sure we'd find you within hours anywhere in the galaxy."

"Get out of
here, Bast!" Wordt ordered. "Things are bad enough without your
stupid temper making them worse!"

Bast slammed
out of the room. Z could only hope they weren't playing the old
"good cop – bad cop" routine on him and that Bast wouldn't be in
another room listening. It was important Bast went outside of the
ship.

"What are we
going to do with you?" Wordt asked. "This is a terrible spot to be
in. I hate this kind of thing."

"Can we just
drop the acts?" Z suggested. "You blasted Eed on that...."

Uh-oh! Now he
let Wordt know they knew Eed was supposedly shot by Wordt. Wordt
thought he had killed Eed on that autocar and that no one could
know it.

"I wish you
hadn't thought of that," Wordt said with a very sinister look. "We
were getting along so well!

"Bast, get the
files from my ship and let's get out of here. I'm afraid you won't
be leaving with us, Liahr."

That would get
Bast out of the ship, at least. Now Z must stay alive long enough
for T6 to do something!

"The facts are
still the facts. Kill me and the emperor will find you. The trade
of talents is his idea. He's perfectly aware of me as an
individual. You know how he is. He'll feel responsible for my
death. He'll turn the whole galaxy backward on its axis to find
you."

"Yes, that's a
problem. We'll find a way to buy a bit of time with you. Maybe I'll
lock you in my ship after draining the power so you can't call out.
If I can get two hours I can be free of you."

"Why not just
let me take you on in? So you'll be exiled on Jorn. It's better
than ending up dead."

"I'm candidate
for execution. You know that."

"You now know
full well you didn't kill Eed. We have him."

"I also know
full well about the conspiracy law. Our VWPA operative told us
about that. We can be put on the probe. We're already under
warrant.

"Liahr, we have
absolutely nothing to lose except for getting the emperor
personally involved. That would happen if we kill you,
automatically. Please don't make that necessary. I would,
personally, enjoy slow-frying you, but that would be
counter-productive."

There was a
sharp high scream from outside, then an amplified voice announcing,
"This is the Empire Ship 'Scammer' above you! You are surrounded!
Place your weapons into the hands of operative Liahr and come
outside! Now!"

Scammer? T6 was
... doing what? It hadn't had time to get here yet! What was going
on?

Wordt looked
shocked, then grabbed the laser.

"Outside,
Liahr! Now! I won't kill you, but I'll damned well show you more
pain than you ever thought possible! Out!"

Z wasn't about
to argue. He headed for the door. There was a strange tingling
along his spine as he knew terror. It wasn't a foreign thing to
him, but it wasn't that frequent, either. Wordt was capable of
anything. He was capable of shooting a person in the back, then
killing himself in revenge.

Z hit the ramp
and dropped solidly and hard onto the sand to one side. He rolled
under the ship, then heard the lock closing. He ran toward the
other ship as Wordt rose on gravitics, then blasted out through the
atmosphere. The floater was sitting above the other ship. Bast was
unconscious on the sand with a box of papers strewn about. He was
very close to where his ship had taken off. Z didn't really need
the blood running from his mouth and nose to tell him that the
gravitics lifting the ship had crushed him.

The floater
came down to him.

"T Six will
meet him before he gets far enough out to use the drive. I placed a
tracer on the ship as it rose. We will wait here for T Six to
return."

"It's too bad
Bast was crushed. I would like to have put him on the probe. Maybe
Wordt will have all the information we need.

"Why did you do
this?"

"Was I
miscomputing?"

"No. I just
want to know the methods you used."

"I saw Bast
come from the ship and enter this one. I computed there had been
some kind of trap waiting for you. As Bast was moving in what
seemed unnecessary haste I computed there was some kind of
emergency from their point of view. You were inside of that ship
and there was an emergency. It was most likely that you WERE that
emergency.

"Wordt was
shown to be a conscionless killer on Netdel. He would destroy
anything he perceived to be a threat to himself – and you were a
definite threat.

"You would have
the intelligence to note you are a friend of the emperor and that
killing you would result inevitably in the deaths of those
responsible for your death. Wordt would tend probably to
hesitate.

"Bast came from
the ship with a box of papers, but there was a power pack hidden
inside of the box.

"Bast is an
unknown factor, but that power supply meant an energy weapon. It
was hidden. It was to be used on either you or Wordt. Probably
both.

"I contacted T
Six and stunned Bast. He managed a scream. I was forced to
improvise. I could hope Wordt would be off balance somewhat and
there was a better than even chance you would be able to
escape."

"Very well
done! I hope T Six can capture Wordt alive. I've determined this
Moodad we've heard about is the big boss, but we don't know where
he is or anything about him."

Z picked up all
the papers and used a portable scanner on any he had missed before
on Netdel. He hoped T6 had been able to break the code.

The floater
sent spy sensors in and Z personally searched the entire ship, then
adjusted the pilot's chair and slept while the floater kept watch
in the hold. The floater suggested using the fastcom set to contact
T6, but Z said he wanted the unit read where it was set. The
knowledge shown by Wordt about Netdel and Sentah tended to show
there was something there, some form of communication worked out by
the syndicate that wasn't tapped yet by T6. It could be important.
Four hours later the floater sent a servo to wake him up.

"I have sealed
the ship and we are prepared for liftoff," the floater instructed.
"You are an experienced pilot. Take this ship to Tltle. We will
meet T Six there. Don't use the com at all, as you were probably
correct about it and T Six will want to check it carefully. Thing
will meet you and you will go after Moodad."

That meant had
T6 caught Wordt and had used the probe on him. Maita would be mad
as hell about it, but would have to admit T6 had no choice. It
would forget it. Maybe T6 had been in contact with Maita and had
received permission. T6 is a machine. much of the law doesn't
apply.

"Wordt
destroyed his ship and himself when he found he was cornered," the
floater reported. "T Six says to tell you it was unavoidable, but
it thought at the time we had Bast. T Six was most distressed that
Bast is also dead, but Thing and somebody else is waiting and maybe
there isn't too very much lost.

"T Six is
anxious about this. It wants to know what you and Maita have done
and who this other person is. T Six says there have been hints
about a surprise and wants to know if that person is part of the
surprise. It says Maita is acting very strangely."

"I think it's
the surprise, yes," Z answered. "Don't inform T Six about it in any
way. I'm as excited as Maita about it. The surprise is for T Six. I
have no idea if the person we are to meet has anything to do with
it."

"You can use
the time en route to figure where Moodad is," the floater
suggested. "We will be on Tltle in seven hours and six
minutes."

Z leaned back
to relax and to think. He was sure the person they were to take
along was the new member of the crew. It could well be a Swaz, like
Tab, or it could be something else.

Would Maita
insert it into the middle of this investigation? That wasn't very
likely, to say the very least, but Maita did things like that.

Where was
Moodad hiding? Thing seemed to think they knew?

That slip,
talking about Eed when they were supposed to think he was dead was
a blunder that was unforgivably stupid! To let Wordt sit there and
manipulate him on such an obvious point!

Well, when he
mentioned Moodad he had make a few good points, himself! The more
he thought about it the more sure he was Eed wasn't supposed to
know anything at all about Moodad. The fact he knew was the shock
to those two, not the fact the VWPA had gotten it out of him.

Why was it such
an extreme shock?

Suddenly
everything fit. Everything that hadn't quite seemed reasonable from
the first fell into place. The way things he and Thing had said and
done were accepted. The way these people were acting, plotting and
planning among themselves. The willingness of Wordt, who had some
nagging suspicions in the back of his mind, to kill Eed. The real
reason there was a weapon hidden in that box by Bast.

The cleaning
job on the Sentah six was to be thorough. Bast and Wordt were to go
along with the others – and Eed was to take their place. All of
them!

Moodad had
discovered that the Sentah six were plotting among themselves – and
they were! That was why all the preparations, such as the meeting
of Bast and Wordt way out here. That was why the Rock House and
Long Toe places, both on Netdel. Plots within plots. Now the Sentah
six were all gone and Eed was effectively out of the picture. All
the empire had was one name; Moodad.

WAS there a
Moodad or was that just another clever subterfuge? Had Z been used
all along to be the agent of this whole purge? Was the report that
started it a plant?

No! Moodad was
real. The reactions of Bast and Wordt made that much certain. The
whole thing had fallen apart because Eed heard or learned through
some detective work of his own that someone named Moodad was the
boss. Bast and Wordt were supposed to come to that world, where
they would be convinced somehow to fight, then Moodad would only
have the survivor to eliminate.

No! Eed was to
have gotten rid of Wordt on Netdel, Bast was to come here and to
wait for Wordt, who would never show up. He was then to go
somewhere in the ship and was to punch a destination code for a
certain field. That code would activate a detonator. Wordt didn't
commit suicide. He had taken Bast's ship. Maybe this ship had a
bomb that would go off if that place were to be coded in – just in
case.

"We are
aground," the floater said. "T Six is on the adjoining pad. Thing
and the passenger will soon arrive."

"T Six!" Z
ordered. "Check this ship for a bomb that will go off if a
destination is coded!"

"I sort of
figured that way, too," T6 replied. "Come on over! Thing will be
here in a couple of minutes."

Z went to T6
aboard the floater, which folded itself in and stored itself.

"You can get in
the medbox as soon as we’ve decided where to go," T6 said. "Your
recorder needs a new cartridge soon and I'm sure the Kappin
disguise isn't needed anymore.

"Here comes
Thing!"

Z was excited
as he went to the port to see what the new robot – he was convinced
that's what it was – looked like, but it was a Kheth. From the
patch on the chest it was a member of Kwarn's family.

[ This is Kit.
It's so good to see you again, Z! ]

Thing lept from
its floater to Z's shoulder and wrapped the tentacles around his
neck and head.

[ Kit, Z. T
Six, Kit. Kit, T Six. Shall we go after Moodad? ]

"Do you know
where he is?" Z asked.

[ Certainly!
You told us where he was before we ever started all of this! Don't
you remember? ]

"I did? Where?"
Z asked.

"Of course!" T6
cried. "Frim! You told us he had to be there because it was the
only one of these worlds that didn't have any subsidiaries of the
Sentah six and their companies!"

Kit had been
waiting patiently through all of this and finally suggested, "Maita
is expecting us. Might I suggest we go there promptly? I've never
seen the emperor that I know of and admit to some curiosity."

Z knew he had
been right! "That I know of" was exactly what Tab had gone through!
Kit was T6's robot partner!

The History of the
Deal

*T Six and Kit
are linked now and can't hear this. I won't record it. It is for us
only. You have both, shall we say, grown up with Tab and TR.*

Kit was on T6
and Maita had a large servo installing things aboard T6 while Thing
and Z sat in the pilot's chair on Maita to catch up on what each
had done since they separated on Netdel. Z had been to the medical
box and was his old self again.

*I recorded
Rimalt's personality and habits and such before he died. I
explained what I was planning to do to him and he agreed. He truly
loved T Six, as T Six truly loved him. I have given Kit certain
turns of expression and gestures and such directly from Rimalt and
I have given it some of Rimalt's sense of humor. You will find it
quite dry, but definitely with content and to the point. I have
given Kit Rimalt's sense of adventure, but also the conservative
and careful streak and Rimalt's somewhat pedantic approach to
problems and his scholar's attention to detail. I want them to work
together on this case to get the feel of each other's minds and the
feel of the combined mind in an actual situation where they are
called upon to interact. That's why I didn't wait to introduce them
until after we were through with this. Kit wasn't manufactured
along with T Six. There are problems that must be resolved in a
situation, not sitting in our hangar on EC with little or nothing
to do. I had planned an immediate expedition to explore when Kit
was ready, because we always find plenty of new experiences when we
do that. The main problem there was that it WAS all new! This
situation here isn't new, only the details. That's why I feel it's
better. We will finish this, then we'll wait on EC for Tab and TR
to return. We have a few cases waiting for the detective agency to
allow them to interact with one another – the four of them. We can
then go exploring together. I'll want the three of us to go
exploring in the meanwhile, if you will. I'm not doing much here
and could use some personal action.*