Heller slid down a rope and dropped lightly to the pavement. He beckoned and five Apparatus hangar people came over to him swiftly. They listened to him interestedly and laughed a couple of times and then sped off, quite unlike Apparatus personnel, to do what Heller had asked.
I glanced at Lombar. He had his upper lip raised in an expression of the purest hate. His eyes began to smolder. Under his breath he was muttering about "athletes" and "Royal officers" and "snobs," a stream of profanity mixed in. There was no doubt that he hated Heller and all his kind.
Lombar suddenly turned to me. "You are going to have crew trouble. That (bleepard) will get around them. He'll breed loyalty. He'll undermine your control of any crew unless I handle it." He thought for a moment. "Yes, yes, that will do it. I'llput the captain and crew aboard that tug the day she leaves." For the first time, I found courage to speak. I squeaked, "She has Will-be Was main drives. She is very quick and sudden. She is a dangerous ship!"
"All the better," said Lombar. He had heard me! "Will-be Was main drives. That will be a little harder but I will find and fix up a crew!" I was still gripping the newssheet. He snatched it back from me and put it in his pocket. "That's another thing. Have you heard any clues as to who leaked that original story about Heller and the mission? I thought not. I'm looking. I'm looking. I have to do everything myself but I'll find whoever it was!" Heller was guiding down a piece of plating. Lombar looked through the crack at him. He swore again. It made him savage.
Lombar turned and seized my tunic lapels. He snapped me very close to him. From nowhere the stinger had appeared and he cut painfully at my leg to punctuate his speech.
"You are going to get this mission out of here by my deadline! If you don't we really could have Crown inspectors all over this hangar and there would be Hells for everyone! The whole Blito-P3 project is threatened by this mission! Twenty-four hours before departure, you and I will have another meeting! So you get this moving. You get Heller going! You get him off this planet! And if you don't make it by deadline, I will kill you very slowly with my bare hands!" The stinger struck again. "And one more last thing: As a punishment for attempting to privately short-circuit this rake-off to yourself, you are not going to get a single credit of the additional allocation! You are a thief!" He dropped me and I staggered. I stood there for a little while, numb and hurting. Finally I realized Lom-bar had left: an old disguised airtruck was flying away.
Once more I started breathing. I got my legs working and made it over to the pile of rusty plates. I sank down. I was surprised to still be alive, to still have four paychecks. I had almost begun to cheer up when a horrible realization hit me.
He had said "deadline." That we had to be gone by his deadline. But he had not said when that deadline was!
I tried to make some estimate. Twenty-seven million had been added to the allocation. That meant it would take a couple days for him and Endow to dream up some fake companies and register them, maybe a couple days more, for appearances' sake, to date their billings and get them stamped. I knew they would not be careless about these details. Only the chance for a rake-off, personally, of twenty-seven million credits had saved my life: I had no illusions about that. But when was this deadline?
Then another horrible thought hit me. I doubted very, very much that I could prevail upon Heller to wind up his refit, finish the tug and get going. That was the main problem! That is what I had to work on.
And the very thought of pushing him made me feel ill!
PART NINE
Chapter 1
Probably I should have waited until I was less in shock from Lombar's visit. But I knew I had to act while spurred with anxiety, newly freshened, to get off this planet.
To get Heller really going I had to pry him apart from Krak!
My screaming necessity was so great that it thrust into my mind a vital fact about Heller I had not used. He had been disciplined early in his career for refusing to let his crew be electric-shock trained. He had been quite violent about it, he detested electric-shock training. He had even said he wouldn't use a crew with "fried brains." Yet here he was all involved with a female trainer who must use nothing else!
I saw Heller go into the tug.
Now was the time!
I straightened up my tunic. I made sure my stungun was loose in its holster in case I had to draw.
With determination, I entered the airlock.
Heller was in the flight deck. Workmen had more or less reassembled the panels and controls and Heller was checking the size of the base mount on the maneuvering sight in front of the astropilot's chair. He had a little rule out and was measuring away.
My back was to the passageway. There was no one else about. I had to get this over with.
"Heller," I said, "there is something you do not know."
"Probably a whole universe full," he said, going on with his measuring.
"Do you remember," I said, "coming within a hair of being court-martialled because you refused to let a training officer electric-shock train your crew?" I had his attention now. He was turned slightly toward me, a frown of curiosity on his face.
"There is something you must know. You hate electric-shock training. Krak has you fooled! She uses nothing else! She is just a dirty cheat that is . . ." The back of his hand moved so fast I did not even see it coming!
It cracked against my mouth!
I went backwards as though I had been hit by a zipbus, skidding down the passageway.
He was stepping quickly in my direction. From the expression on his face, I was certain he was going to kill me!
I grabbed the butt of my holstered gun.
My arm would not pull it!
I tried again. I could notget the muscles of that arm to function!
It was as though I had abruptly become totally paralyzed from the shoulder to the fingertips!
I was still certain he was going to kill me. He knelt down in front of me.
"There is something youdon't know!" he said. "That very first day I went into the training room, I saw those brutal, shock-training machines. I went around to them one after the other. I checked their connections and control panels.
"Not one of those machines had been used for years! They were totally inoperational!"His voice went very hard. "You had better be very careful of spreading lies about the Countess Krak!" I was more certain than ever that he was going to kill me. I strenuously tried to pull my gun. My arm just plain wouldn't work!
Those eyes, blue as gas flames, felt like they were scorching holes in my skull.
His hand moved toward one of his inside breast pockets.
I was certain he was going to take out a blastick or knife and finish me off.
I made a frantic effort to pull my gun. My hand and arm just plain wouldn't obey me!
He had a paper in his hand. No, a copy of a clipping from a newssheet.
"I had this case looked up in the newssheet files. It concerns the deathbed confession of the former Assistant Lord of Education for Manco. See for yourself." He turned it to me. I saw it. That's what it was. But my eyes switched back at him in terror.
Once more I tried to pull my gun. My muscles again would not work!
Heller was looking at the sheet. "It clearly states here that the Manco Domestic Police interrupted a burglary and shot someone when he fled. That someone turned out to be the Assistant Lord of Education for Manco!