Arriving at the pilothouse, Burton had to wait a few minutes before the busy king could speak to him. Burton reported what had happened to him. John wasn't at all sympathetic; he was beside himself with rage, cursing, giving orders, stomping around.
Finally, he said, "Go to sick bay, Gwalchgwynn. If the doctor says you're unfit for duty, Demugts will take over. There isn't much the marines can do now, anyway."
Burton said, "Yes, Sire," and he went to the C deck hospital.
Doctor Doyle x-rayed his skull, cleansed the wound on his head, bandaged it, and ordered him to lie down for a while.
"There's neither concussion or fracture. All you need is some rest."
Burton did so. Shortly thereafter, Strubewell's voice came over the loudspeaker. Twelve people were missing, seven men, five women.
John took over then, apparently too enraged to allow his first mate to call out the names of the missing. His voice shaking, he denounced the twelve as "treacherous dogs, mutinous swine, scurvy stinking polecats, cowardly jackals, yellow-bellied hyenas."
"Quite a menagerie," Burton said to Alice.
He listened to the roll call. All were suspected agents, all having claimed to have lived past 1983.
John thought they had deserted because they were afraid to fight.
If he weren't too furious to think straight, John would have remembered that the twelve had shown their courage in many battles.
Burton knew why they had fled. They wanted to get to the tower as quickly as possible, and they didn't want to be in~ a fight which they regarded as totally unnecessary. So they had stolen the launch and were now racing up-River as fast as possible. Undoubtedly, they were hoping that John wouldn't go after them, that he'd be too concerned with Clemens.
In fact, John had been worried that the Not For Hire might come up through the strait while the Rex was chasing after the launch. However, the guards on the path above the strait had a transceiver, and they would report instantly if the Hire moved toward the channel. Still, if the Rex was too far up The River, it couldn't get back in time to block the Hire.
Despite this, John was taking his chances. He was not going to allow the deserters to get away with the launch. He needed it for the coming battle. And he wanted desperately to catch and punish the twelve.
In the old days on Earth, he would have tortured them. He probably would like to put them to rack and wheel and fire now, but he knew that his crew, most of them anyway, wouldn't tolerate such barbarisms. They would permit the twelve to be shot, though they wouldn't relish the deed, because discipline did have to be maintained. Moreover, stealing the launch had compounded the felony.
Suddenly, Burton groaned. Alice said. "What's the matter, dear?"
"Nothing," he said. "Just a twinge."
Since there were other nurses around, he couldn't tell her that it had just occurred to him that Strubewell had stayed aboard. Why? Why hadn't he gone with the other agents?
And Podebrad! Podebrad, the Czech engineer, the chief suspect. His name wasn't on the list.
One more question to add to the dozens he would ask an agent someday. Perhaps he should not wait until someday. Why not go to John now and tell him the truth? John would have Strubewell and Podebrad into the brig and put them to the question with a speed unhampered by legalities and red tape.
No. It couldn't be done now. John wouldn't have the time to do this. He'd have to wait until after the battle. Besides, the two would just commit suicide.
Or would they?
Now that there were no resurrections, would an agent kill himself?
He might, Burton thought. Just because the Valleydwellers weren't resurrected was no proof that agents weren't. They could rise again somewhere else, in the vast underground chambers or in the tower.
Burton didn't believe this. If the agents were resurrected elsewhere, they wouldn't have hesitated to board the suicide express. They wouldn't now be traveling via paddlewheeler to get to the tower.
If he and Strubewell and Podebrad survived the battle, he was going to catch them unawares, knock them out before they could transmit the mental code which would release the poison in the little black balls in their forebrains, and then hypnotize them as they came out of unconsciousness.
That was satisfying to visualize. But in the meantime, why had the twelve taken off and the two stayed?
Had Strubewell and Podebrad remained on the boat so they could sabotage it if it looked as if John were going to catch the twelve?
That seemed the only explanation. In which case, Burton must go to John to expose them.
But would John believe him? Wouldn't he think that the blow on Burton's head had deranged him?
He might, but he'd have to be convinced when Burton brought in Alice, Kazz, Loghu, Frigate, Nur, Mix, London, and Umslopogaas as witnesses.
By then, however, Strubewell and Podebrad might find out about what was going on and flee. Worse, they might blow up the boat or whatever they were planning on doing.
Burton wiggled his finger at Alice. When she came, he told her softly to take a message to Nur el-Musafir. Nur was to station one or more of their group with Podebrad in the boiler room and Strubewell in the pilothouse. If either did something suspicious, something which could threaten the boat, he was to be clubbed on the head at once. If that wasn't possible, he was to be shot or stabbed. Alice's eyes widened. "Why?"
"I'll explain later!" he said fiercely. "Go while there's still time!"
Nur would figure out what the orders meant. And he'd see that they were somehow carried out. It wasn't going to be easy to get someone into the boiler room and the pilothouse. At the moment, everybody had his or her station. To leave it for any reason without authorization was a serious crime. Nur would have to think fast and cleverly to send somebody to watch the two.
And then Burton said, "I've got it!"
He picked up the sick-bay phone and called the pilothouse. The phone operator there was going to call Strubewell, but Burton insisted that he speak to the king instead. John was very annoyed, but he did as Burton requested and went down to the observation room. There he flicked a switch which made it impossible for their conversation to be listened to on the pilothouse line unless the line had been bugged.
"Sire," Burton said, "I've been thinking. How do we know that the deserters haven't planted a bomb on the boat? Then, if it looks as if we're going to catch them, they transmit a coded message to the receiver, and the explosives are set off."
After a short silence, John said, his voice a trifle high, "Do you think that's a possibility?"
"If I can think of it, then why shouldn't the deserters?"
"I'll start a search at once. If you're up to it, you join it."
John hung up. A minute later, Strubewell's voice bellowed over the loudspeakers. He gave orders that every inch of the vessel was to be examined for bombs. The officers were to organize parties at once. Strubewell laid out who was responsible for which area and told them to get going.
Burton smiled. It hadn't been necessary to reveal anything to John, and Podebrad and Strubewell would find themselves directing a search for the very bombs they may have hidden.
26
BURTON STARTED OUT THE DOOR. SINCE HE HADN-T BEEN ORdered to any area, he considered himself a free agent. He'd go to the boiler or A deck and inspect the engine room and the ammunition rooms.
Just as he started down the steps to B deck, he heard pistol shots and shouting. They seemed to come from below, so he hurried down, wincing with pain every time his foot hit a step. When he got to A deck he saw a crowd halfway down the boat by the railing. He walked to it, made his way through the people, and looked down at the object of attention.