Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (86 page)

"We know
Drove," TR said. "Tab did a job there once. Security detail. Some
diplomats got murdered anyhow so I'm surprised they'd call us."

Kit input the experiences Tab had at Drove
(
The Castle
Drove Murders
), then shook his head. "Is the weather really always like
that?" he asked.

"Oh, no," Tab
replied quickly. "I was there in spring when the weather was at its
best. Sometimes it gets pretty rough. The winds weren't over a
hundred sixty kilometers per hour the whole time I was there and it
actually stopped raining for almost half a day!

"What's the
case, T Six?"

"I see through
the input you're familiar with Castle Drove," T6 said. "That might
help. It seems there's a party of Khronkhytes at Castle Drove. They
were invited by a wealthy businessman to have a vacation on the
world. The people are mostly actors who have roles in the sponsor's
plays or whatever and he wants them to get a feel for the sinister
or something. I see Castle Drove would be the perfect place for
that!

"Mort Bhar, the
sponsor, is planning to produce and direct a series of plays about
a period of Khronk's history that was filled with castles and
intrigues.

"They're a
mammalian people – Z could almost go there without disguise – and
their moods are affected by the dark and rain and the sound of the
sea and lightning and wind, I hear. Bhar feels that spending a
little time in a place that's always experiencing those phenomena
will add much to the actors and others involved in the plays. A
sense of reality.

"Castle Drove
is decorated in the style of their old castles on Khronk. It was
considered to be a wonderful idea until people started
disappearing.

"You can take
it from there."

"Oh, groan!" Tab cried. "This isn't one of those things
like in Z's novels, is it? Let me call....
Ten Little Indian's
was the name of one
and I believe
And Then There Were None
was another. Some woman named Agatha
Christie wrote them and they were really quite good.

"Z explained
what Indians were, but that was just the name of the play and
didn't have a thing to do with the plot except as a gimmick. There
were people murdered one at the time in those stories. Revenge of
some sort."

"They haven't
found any bodies," T6 pointed out. "Murder isn't yet proved, but
it's damned likely since they're sure the ones who're missing
aren't in the castle and couldn't survive outside for very long.
Whatever it is, it seems to be something a detective would
relish!"

"Who called
us?" Tab asked.

"Bhar," T6
replied. "He doesn't want to scare his people or anything and wants
us to find some Khronkhyte operatives to go there. He says their
world has plenty of detectives to choose from, but he thinks we
could better find the best."

"BETTER FIND
THE BEST?! And you bitch about MY phrasing?" Tab exclaimed. "Okay,
we'll be Khronkhytes. Actors?"

"I think set
designers," Kit suggested. "They'd have an excuse to be poking
around. I've input a lot about these things in the past few
seconds, mostly from Z's book collection. We'd have to criticize
whoever decorated the castle as a matter of form, but the actors
will be aloof from ... if these are like the ones in Z's
culture."

"I think we can
be a set designer and a script expert," Tab said. "The script man
could argue constantly about how difficult entrances and exits and
cues would be if the set designer's ideas are followed. The script
man would be expected to get advice from the directors and actors
both, I think. Both would be in and out of all the rooms to figure
the better camera angles and special effects. They'd both spend
time talking with the actors about timing and limits.

"I'll be script
and you be sets."

"And I'll be a
spaceship who brought you," T6 added. "Get in the shop and I'll
modify you two."

The two robot
detectives went into the shop where T6 changed them into two exact
copies of Khronkhytes.

"TR stayed on
EC so Maita could make some changes in nav and com equipment. Maita
didn't think two ships would be needed here for a thing that will
probably be confined to Castle Drove."

"Here?" Kit
said.

"Yep! We've
arrived in orbit while you were in the shop. We'll land on the
castle's pads. Tab is Hop Trull, script writer, and Kit is Cam
Rich, set technician. I've made arrangements with Bhar for you to
share a suite on the third floor, right in the middle of the
personal rooms. He's gonna tell the crew there to cooperate with
you or you might design some nasty little surprises into the sets
for revenge.

"There were
seventy seven people originally brought. At last count four have
disappeared. Most of them are just secondary and bit-part prospects
and won't really figure into it.

"I'll be in
touch. Call if you need me."

Tab and Kit
made their way to the castle. The rain was intense and in sheets,
the wind was howling at over a hundred kilometers per hour, the
lightning and thunder were blinding and deafening and it would be
unpleasantly cold outside if they had actually been
Khronkhytes.

"Well, at least
we have a nice day to arrive!" Tab said with a sneer. "It's almost
like a balmy spring day! Welcome to Drove!"

They went into
the main entrance hall where they were greeted by several people
who wanted to know what they "did" before they offered to introduce
themselves.

Tab, as a
script expert, was tolerated by the actors, but Kit was as much as
ignored so he mumbled just loud enough for them to hear that he
could think of a lot of things to do with a set like this one –
even if it would make the actors look like the clumsy idiots they
were as they tried to find their way around it!

They found
their rooms, then went back downstairs to one of the large
congregation halls. Kit poked around, looking into the adjoining
dining rooms, common meeting rooms, music rooms and kitchens. He
loudly decried the lack of imagination of whatever amateur designed
the decorations.

"It's only for
atmosphere!" a woman protested. "Whatever could Mort have been
thinking to have sent some grip here?"

"He wanted
someone who knew what it takes to set a mood to get the feel of the
place," Kit sneered. "He feels actors don't have enough
intelligence to create images without a proper backdrop and a good
set can make the fact that the characters can't act a lot less
obvious.

"That shows he
knows the business, wouldn't you say?"

"Mort began as
an actor!" the woman snapped.

"Thus he knows
exactly what he's doing!" Kit snapped back. "You'll notice he
didn't STAY an actor!"

"I'm Hop
Trull," Tab said, stepping between them. "Bhar sent us here to work
together. We're all to be part of the show. You won't make it any
easier on anyone if you alienate the man who's going to design the
area you're supposed to move around in. In front of cameras,
yet!

"It's nothing
to me. I can write in things that make it easier on Cam or easier
on you or both – or neither! I've heard there's some kind of curse
on this place as it is. I didn't want to come here at all and
you'll find me a bit hard to get along with, for starters. We can
work together or we can make our personal little wars – and I'll
guarantee you won't win this one!

"This place
gives me the leaping creeps! Does it always shake like this?"

Several people
had been close to hear the lecture and one male stepped forward. He
was in period costume.

"I'm Gore Ell
and this one you're telling her business, I'm sure you recognize,
is Lae Mar," he introduced. "What did you mean about a curse?"

"He means
there's a story that more people come to this castle than ever
leave," Kit said carelessly. "WHERE EVER did they find those
HORRIBLE excuses for tapestries? Were they abandoned here for the
garbage collector or something?"

"This is Cam
Rich," Tab continued. "As he pointed out, he can react to the way
he's treated by you and can make it pure hell for you to move
around on the sets or he can make it simple.

"The
tapestries, if I'm correct, are scenes from a world known as Kroon.
The indigenous people aren't tattooed. They have naturally colorful
skins. I've been there.

"I imagine the
decorations were done with whatever was handy, Cam. They're to set
a mood. They aren't a suggestion of how to do it yourself. If Bhar
wanted this kind of thing he wouldn't have you here.

"The curse
isn't all that well-known, but I scripted a stage play about it
once. It was a story concerning the murder of some diplomats that
took place here nearly a hundred years ago. Since then the place
has gotten a worse reputation, but that's probably meant to draw
people exactly like this little clutch. I'm not superstitious about
such things. I don't believe a place can be cursed and I don't
think there's any maniac here who'll kill us off one at the time
and I don't believe we'd have anything to worry about from spirits
of murdered people from other races – if there WAS anything to that
kind of nonsense!

"I mean,
nobody's been murdered yet and there are, what, about seventy –
eighty people here? It's a lot of superstitious silliness designed
to set a mood! Save that for the show!

"It IS good for
setting the mood, though.

"Cam, don't you
think the dungeon stairway door in 'Castle of Evil' should be in a
place like that dark doorway over there?"

"Maybe with a
dark tapestry like the one there hanging above it," Kit said.
"Maybe the tapestry could be held with spears that look like they
could fall and impale anyone using the door. It could possibly be
shown in close-up to have a loose holder meaning the audience would
be expecting it to drop. Secondary influence. Maybe show the holder
could do something dangerous when the door is opened from the other
side – here I am suggesting scripting! Sorry! You could script in a
bit about Eeli having one almost get her. I can rig a release
gimmick."

"I LIKE it!"
Tab exclaimed. "It could have a...!

"But there HAVE
been disappearances!" Lae Mar cried. "Didn't you know?"

"Very
mysterious ones, too," Gore agreed. "It's probably some kind of
trick Mort thought up to scare us into the mood he wants, but I
didn't know about any curse here. I'll tell you actors are
generally superstitious. Very much so – but you would know
that."

"But I'm quite
sure Mort would have mentioned something if ... what kind of
disappearances?" Tab asked.

"First it was
Kly Mat, you know, the star of Dangerous Relic' and those kinds of
semi-porn B-grade things that depend on a lot of sexual innuendo,
small brains and big mams," Lae answered. "She simply didn't come
down to the dawnmeal so we figured she was in one of her snits,
though she had seemed in a good enough mood the night before.

"Then her
latest sleep-in, Kral K. Khap, the supporting actor – if you could
call what he does acting – went to find her when she didn't come
downstairs after a couple of hours. He said she was still asleep
when he got up at dawn. He never came back. When neither of them
were seen by the following midmeal we went to find them, but they
weren't anywhere in the castle or on the ships. We sent the
stronger back-up people out to search the immediate area while
those not disposed to the outdoors searched the castle again.

"Suh Plee, star of
Night of Terror
and
Storm Overhead
and those cheap eeky things never returned
from searching through the kitchens and pantries and Jorn Fhat,
star of that
Fear House
series where I did the cameo role that saved the silly
thing from being canned long before it was shown didn't come back
from searching the cliffs. That was three days ago. We've all
stayed very close together since then – those in our little group.
All of the ones who have disappeared are from Khronk International
Studios. There are just fourteen of us left and we stay close!
Believe me!"

"You say they
weren't in any of the ships?" Tab asked. "Have any ships come or
gone since the first one came up missing?"

"Oh, holy
hell!" Lae cried. "I was hoping no one would mention that little
item! Your ship is the only one to come and none have left."

"No one mention
it? Why not?" Kit asked.

"Because if
they didn't leave on a ship they...." Gore said. "Uh, that is,
there's nowhere else anywhere in this whole end of this peninsula.
This castle is IT! And if they aren't here and aren't aboard a
ship, they, well.... It doesn't leave a whole hell of a lot of
places...."

"You say you've
studied the castle's history?" another of the group asked. "I'm Sam
Ketch. This is my latest, Luh Stern, and that's our agent, Tar
Shat.

"What was
discovered in the other cases?"

"Oh, some
famous empire detective solved the diplomats' murders," Tab replied
flippantly, waving a hand in dismissal. "I don't think, uh, the
others were ever ... resolved," he finished a little more
nervously. (Why not ham it up a little? THIS bunch wouldn't see
through it!)

"Oh, no!" Lae
cried. "I want to get out of here! This isn't funny and it's way
too much for just setting a mood! If this is some kind of joke it's
over!"

"Do you think
your research could help us find what happened?" Tar Shat asked.
"If there's some weird mystery here we should have enough people
around to solve it and be reasonably safe. If it's something from
Bhar and we figure it out it'll be points up for us!"

"Like Suh and
Jorn?" Lae asked acidly. "Is that how safe we'll be?"