"Everything we have is there."
"You think you can hold on long enough?"
"I hope so."
"So do I," Shaeffer said dispassionately. He gestured towards the island coming into existence ahead and below. "When we land there will be an agent of Verrick's waiting for you."
"Already?"
"Not an assassin. There's been no Challenge convention yet. This man is under fief to Verrick. A personal staff member named Herb Moore. He's been searched for weapons and passed. He just wants to talk to you."
"How do you know this?"
"During the last few minutes I've been getting the Corps headquarters. You have nothing to worry about: at least two of us will be with you when you talk to him."
"Suppose I don't want to talk?"
"That's your privilege."
Cartwright snapped off the television as the ship lowered over the magnetic grapples. "What do you recommend?"
"Hear what he has to say. It'll give you an idea what you're up against."
Herbert Moore was a handsome blond man in his early thirties. He rose gracefully as Cartwright, Shaeffer and two other Corpsmen entered the main lounge of the Directorate building.
"Greetings," Moore said to Shaeffer.
Shaeffer pushed open the doors to the inner offices and stood aside as Cartwright entered. This was the first time the new Quizmaster had seen his inheritance. He stood in the doorway, completely entranced by the sight.
He wandered over to the desk and touched the polished mahogany surface. "I had all the abstract significance figured out. Power to do this, power to do that. I had it all down in symbolized form, but the sight of this big desk——"
"This isn't your desk," Major Shaeffer said "This is your secretary's desk. Eleanor Stevens."
"Then where is she?"
"She left with Verrick." Shaeffer slammed the door, leaving Herb Moore in the lounge outside. "She came to the Corps after Verrick was Quizmaster. She was seventeen and Verrick was the only person she ever served. After a couple of years she changed her oath from what we call a positional oath to a personal oath. When Verrick left she packed up her stuff and went with him. Interesting that such personal loyalty could be built up. As far as I know, there's no romantic relationship. In fact, she's been the mistress of Moore, the young man waiting outside."
Cartwright roamed round the luxurious office, examining file cabinets, the massive ipvic sets, the chairs, the desk, the paintings. "Where's my office?"
Shaeffer kicked open a heavy door. He and the other Corpsmen followed Cartwright past a series of check-points into a bleak chamber. "Big, but not as lush," Shaeffer said. "Verrick was a realist. When he came this was a sort of Arabian erotic house: girls, couches, drink, music, colours. Verrick sent the girls to the Martian work-camps, tore down the fixtures and gingerbread, and built this." Shaeffer rapped on the wall; it echoed dully. "Bomb-proof, shielded from radiation, has its own air-pumping system, its own temperature and humidity controls, its own food supply." He opened a cupboard.
The cupboard was a small arsenal.
"Verrick could handle every kind of gun known. Nobody can get into this room except through the regular door. Or——" He ran his hands over one of the walls. "Verrick designed this. When it was finished all the workmen were sent off to the camps. During the final hours the Corps was excluded."
"Why?"
"Verrick had equipment installed that he didn't intend to use while Quizmaster. However, we dealt with some of the workmen." He slid a section of wall aside. "This is Verrick's special passage. Ostensibly, it leads out; in reality, it leads in."
The passage opened up behind the desk; it wasn't hard to picture the wall sliding back and an assassin emerging directly behind the new Quizmaster. "Should I have it sealed up?"
"We'll sow gas capsules under the flooring, the length of the passage, and forget about it. The assassin will be dead before he reaches here."
Shaeffer shrugged.
Cartwright managed to ask: "Is there anything else I ought to know at this point?"
"You ought to hear Moore. He's a top-flight biochemist, a genius. He controls the Chemie research labs; this is the first time he's been here for years. We've been trying to scan something on his work but, frankly, the information is too technical for us."
One of the Corpsmen, a dapper man with moustache and thinning hair, spoke up: "It would be interesting to know how much of that stuff Moore formulates in technical jargon just to throw us off."
"This is Peter Wakeman," Shaeffer said.
Cartwright and Wakeman shook hands. The Corpsman's fingers were dainty, fragile, diffident fingers. It was hard to believe that this was the man who headed the Corps. who had swung it away from Verrick at the critical moment.
The guard showed equal interest in the tall old man.
"How does one become a Prestonite? Preston was an astronomer who got the observatories to watch for his planet—right? They found nothing. Preston went out after it and died in his ship. Yes, I once thumbed through Flame Disc. The man who owned it was a crackpot. I tried to analyse him; a chaotic jumble of passions."
"How do I analyse?" Cartwright asked tightly.
There was absolute silence. The guards were all at work on him; he forced his attention on the elaborate television set and ignored them.
"About the same," Wakeman said presently. "You've got everything tied up in your ship. If it goes down that's the end of you."
"It won't go down," Cartwright said.
"After you've talked to Moore," Wakeman said, "it'll be interesting to see if you still predict success."
Herb Moore rose as Cartwright and Wakeman entered the lounge.
"What do you want?" Cartwright demanded.
"Let's put it this way. You're in. Verrick is out. You hold the supreme position in the system. Right?"
Moore began pacing about, cheeks flushed with excitement, gesturing vividly, highly animated by the flow of words beginning to pour out of his mouth.
"Reese Verrick was Quizmaster for ten years. He was Challenged daily and he met every Challenge. Essentially, Verrick is a skilled leader. He operated this job with more knowledge and ability than all the Quizmasters before him put together."
"Except McRae," Shaeffer pointed out, as he entered the lounge.
Cartwright felt sick. He threw himself into one of the chairs and lay wearily back as it adjusted itself to his posture. The argument continued without him; the words that flowed between the Corpsmen and Verrick's bright young man were remote, dreamlike.
In many ways Herb Moore was right. He had blundered into somebody else's office, position and problems. He wondered vaguely where the ship was. Unless something had gone wrong it would soon be heading out towards Mars and the asteroid belt.
Who wanted him dead?
Moore's sharp voice brought him back. He sat up and opened his eyes.
"All right!" Moore was saying excitedly. "The word's gone out on the ipvic. The Convention will probably be held at the Westinghouse Hill; there's more hotel space there."
"Yes," Wakeman was saying tightly, "that's the usual place for the murderers to collect."
The Challenge Convention.
Cartwright got unsteadily to his feet. "I want to talk to Moore. You two clear out of here."
The men conferred silently, then moved towards the door.
"Be careful," Wakeman warned him. "You've had a lot of emotional shocks today. Your thalamic index is too high."