By the time she had finished, my thoughts had congealed into something roughly resembling their normal shape and I was weak but ready. I was out of the car before she had finished talking and standing in front of her, blocking her way, holding her most gently by the arms.
“Angelina, I will tell you this but once and probably never again the rest of my life. So listen well and remember. At one time I was the best crook in the galaxy, before I was conned into the Special Corps to help catch other erodes. And I caught you. Not only were you a crook but a mastermind criminal as well and a cheerfully sadistic murderess. “ I felt her body shiver in my hands and held her tighter. “It has to be said, because that is what you were. You aren’t any more. You had reasons to be that way and the reasons have been removed and some unhappy quirks in your otherwise pristine cortex have been straightened out. And now I love you. But I want to remember that I loved you even then during your unreconstructed days, which is saying a lot. So if I buck at the harness now, or am difficult to deal with in the mornings, just remember that and make allowances. Is it a deal?”
It apparently was. She dropped the bag—on my toe, but I dared not flinch—and wrapped her arms around me and was kissing me and knocked me over into the deep grass and I had a jolly time kissing her right back. The newlywed effect I suppose you would call it, great fun…
We froze, rigid, as a pair of flywheel cycles moaned and skidded to a stop by our car. Only the police used these since they move a good deal faster than the peat-powered steamers. They are tricycle affairs with a great heavy flywheel encased between the rear wheels. They plugged them in at night so their motor-generators could run the flywheel up to top speed. During the day the flywheel generated electricity to drive the motors in each wheel. Very efficient and smog-free. Very dangerous.
“This is the car, Fodder!” one of the police shouted out over the constant moan of the flywheels.
“I’ll call it in. They can’t have gone far. We sure have them trapped now!”
Nothing infuriates me like the bland assurances of petty officials. Oh yes, really trapped now. I growled deep in my throat as the other uniformed incompetent poked his nose around the car and gaped at our cozy cuddle in the grass. He was still gaping when I lunged an arm up and around his neck with a tight squeeze on his throat and pulled him down to join us. It was fun to watch his tongue come out and his eyes pop and his head turn red but Angelina spoiled it. She whipped off his helmet and rapped him smartly—and accurately—on the temple with the heel of her shoe. He turned off and I let him drop.
“And you talk about me,” my bride whispered. “You’ve got more than a touch of the old sadist in your own makeup.”
“I called it in. Everybody knows. We’ve sure got than now…” the enthusiastic remaining officer said, but his voice rattled to a stop when he looked down the muzzle of his associate’s riot gun. Angelina dug a sleep capsule out of her bag and snapped it under his nose.
“And now what, boss?” she asked, smiling happily at the two black-uniformed, brass-buttoned figures by the side of the road.
“I have been thinking,” I said, and rubbed my jaw and frowned with deep concentration to prove it. “We have had over four months of worry-less holiday, but all good things must end. We could extend our leave. But it would be hectic to say the least and people would get hurt and you—while that is a fine shape—it is not quite the shape for flight aid pursuit and general nastiness. Shall we return to the service from which we fled?”
“I was hoping you would say that. Morning sickness and bank robbery just don’t seem to mix. It will be fun to get back.”
“Particularly since they will be so glad to see us. Considering that they turned down our request for leave and we had to steal that mail ship.”
“Not to mention all the expense money we have stolen because we couldn’t touch our bank accounts.”
“Right. Follow me and we’ll do this with style.”
We stripped off their uniforms and gently laid the snoring peace officers in the rear of the car. One had pink polk-a-dot underwear while the other’s was utilitarian black—but trimmed with lace. Which might have been local custom of dress but gave me second thoughts about the police on Kamata and I was glad we were leaving. Uniformed, helmeted, and goggled we hummed merrily down the road on our flywheel cycles waving to all the tanks and trucks that roared by the other way. Before there were too many screams and shouts of discovery I braked in the center of the road and signaled an armored car to a stop. Angelina swung her cycle behind them so that they would not find the sight of a pregnant police officer too distracting.
“Got them cornered!” I shouted. “But they have a radio so keep this off the net. Follow me.”
“Lead on!” the driver shouted, his mate nodding agreement while thoughts of rewards, fame, medals danced dazzlingly before their eyes. I led them to a deserted track into the woods that ended at a small lake complete with ramshackle boathouse and dock.
I braked, waved them to a stop, touched my finger to my lips and tiptoed back to their car. The driver lowered the side window and looked out expectantly.
“Breathe this,” I said and flipped a gas grenade through the opening.
There was a cloud of smoke followed by gasps followed by two more silent uniformed figures snoring in the grass.
“Going to take a quick peek at their underwear?” Angelina asked.
“No. I want to maintain some illusions, even if they are false.”
The cycles rolled merrily down the dock and off into the water where they steamed and short-circuited and made a lot of bubbles. As soon as the armored car had aired out we boarded and drove away. Angelina found the driver’s untouched lunch and cheerfully consumed it. I avoided most of the main roads and headed back to the city where the command post was located at the central police station. I wanted to go where the big action was.
We parked in the underground garage, deserted now, and took the elevator to the tower. The building was almost empty, except for the command center, and I found an unoccupied office nearby and left Angelina there. Innocently amusing herself with the sealed—but easily opened—confidential files, I lowered my goggles into place and staged a dusty, exhausted entrance to control. I was ignored. The man I wanted to see was pacing the floor sucking on a long dead pipe. I rushed up and saluted.
“Sir, are you Mr. Inskipp?”
“Yar,” he muttered, his attention still on the great wall chart that theoretically showed the condition of the chase.
“Someone to see you, sir.”
“What? What?” be said, still distracted. Harold Peters Inskipp, director and mastermind of the Special Corps, not quite with it this day. He followed me out easily enough and I closed the door and slipped off the heavy goggles.
“We’re ready to come home now,” I told him. “If you can find a quiet way of getting us off this planet without the locals getting their greedy hands on us.”
His jaw clenched with anger and fractured the mouthpiece of the pipe into innumerable fragments. I led him, spitting out pieces of plastic, to the room where Angelina was waiting.
Chapter 3
“ARRGH!” Inskipp snarled, and shook the sheaf of papers in his hand so that they rattled like dry skeletal bones.
“Very expressive,” I said, sliding a cigar from my pocket humidor and holding it to my ear. “But with a very minimal content of information. Could you be more explicit?” I pinched the cigar’s small end and there was not the slightest crackle. Perfection.
“Do you know how many millions your crime wave has cost? The economy of Kamata…”
“Will not suffer an iota. The government will reimburse the institutions that suffered the losses and will then in turn deduct the same amount from its annual payment to the Special Corps. Which has more money than it can possibly use in any case. And look at the benefits bestowed in return. Plenty of excitement for the populace, increased sales of newspapers, exercise for the sedentary law enforcement officers—and that is an interesting story in itself—as well as field maneuvers that were a pleasure for everyone involved. Far from being annoyed they should pay us a fee for making all these exciting things possible. “ I lit the cigar and blew out a great cloud of fragrant smoke.