Authors: The Plot Against Earth
"You think so?"
"I'm sure of it. Doveril frightens
easily. And news moves rapidly here."
"Where would he be likely to run
to?" the Earthman asked.
Nuuri
said, "There are many worlds in the universe. He could be anywhere."
Catton
frowned for a moment. "I'm planning to make a trip to Skorg shortly. Do
you think there's any chance he might be there?"
"Skorg?
Why do you go to Skorg?"
"The reason doesn't concern you, Nuuri.
I'm going on official business."
"Hypnojewel
business?" she asked curiously.
"Of course.
And if I could find Doveril there—"
"Skorg is a crowded world. You'd have
trouble finding anyone there."
Carton nodded. "I'm aware of that. But
there are ways of finding people."
"I
hope you find Doveril," she said with venom in her voice. "I want to
see him on Pouin Beryaal's rack, coughing out his life as they comb his
mind."
"You hated him enough to betray five of
his friends," Carton said.
"All because he crossed
you in love.
It's a strong revenge, Nuuri."
Her eyes fixed on him beadily. They were
silent for a moment; then Nuuri said, "I have nothing further to say now.
I will leave you."
"Will you keep in
touch with me?" he asked.
"Why should
ir
"I'm interested in wiping out the
hypnojewel traffic," Cat-ton said. "You've helped me once. Possibly
you can help me again."
She shook her head. "I'm not a
professional informer. I did you a service to satisfy my own desires. But I
feel no yearning to betray others to you."
"You
realize that I could have you taken downstairs and put under deep probe?"
he asked. "You've as much as admitted that you're concealing important
information that could be useful to us."
She
stared at him unwaveringly. "I realize that. Would you take me to
interrogation after my service to you? Is this your reward?"
"You claimed you
didn't want a reward."
"I
want a safe-conduct out of this building as my reward. I've helped you once.
Now let me go."
"In a moment," he said quietly. He
glanced around the room, looking for traces of any hidden detector equipment.
In a low voice he said, "I'm an Earthman, Nuuri. I'm interested in the
safety and welfare of Earth."
"So?"
"There are stories circulating in the
galaxy that imply that some worlds plan an attack on Earth. I'm trying to find
out if anything lies behind those stories. Will you work for me?"
"In what way?"
"Help me investigate these rumors."
She
smiled bitterly. "You aren't satisfied with my betrayal of friends. Now
you'd have me betray my world as well."
"No
betrayal is involved. I'm acting in the interests of galactic peace."
"What do I care
about galactic peace?"
'
"What
do you care about being hauled downstairs to the interrogation room?"
Catton said levelly.
She
laughed. "You'll never gain allies with threats, Catton. I won't work for
you. I'm only interested in seeing Doveril Halligon punished. Nothing else
matters to me."
"Ill look for him on Skorg.
And I apologize for seeming to threaten you.
It was a mistake."
"A man in your position isn't permitted
many mistakes," Nuuri remarked. "But 111 condescend to bargain with
you, anyway. Let me out of this building untouched and I'll promise to forget
this entire conversation."
"Fair enough,"
Catton agreed. "You can go."
She
rose without another word and left. Catton walked to the window of the office
and stared out, frowning troubledly. He realized he had probably said too much.
But the girl had proven herself to be useful, and he had hoped to win her
services. He needed an ally to help him uncover the facts Earth had sent him
here to find; there was little hope of his finding anything alone.
The
trip to Skorg was his best bet at the moment, he thought. He wondered whether
anything useful had been mined out of the hapless unfortunates in the
interrogation chamber.
A hint as to the whereabouts of
Doveril Halligon, perhaps.
Doveril's disappearance was bound to be
linked to the vanishing of Ambassador Seeman's daughter before long.
Catton returned to Beryaal's office. The
Arenaddin had now been joined by Merikh eMerikh, the Skorg delegate to the
Commission. Catton and the Skorg nodded coldly at each other in formal
greeting.
Catton said, "How's the interrogation
going?"
"It
is all but over. Two of the prisoners have unfortunately succumbed. Beryaal is
questioning the remaining three
right
now."
"And what's been learned?"
"Beryaal will tell you when he returns
from the interrogation. But one fact appears certain. It will not be necessary
to place the prisoners on trial after the interrogation. It is too bad, but we
do not expect them to live."
VII.
Catton
said nothing. These were alien worlds, where
alien ideas of justice prevailed. It was not proper for him to object if the
Morilaru preferred questioning their prisoners to death rather than bothering
to try them. But it did indicate the sort of beings Earth was dealing with.
Shrugging, Catton sat back to await the arrival of Pouin Beryaal. The Morilaru
entered the Crime Commission's office ten minutes later. There was a glint of
satisfaction in his eyes.
"The interrogation is over,"
Beryaal commented briskly as he took his seat at the head of the table.
"Were there any
survivors?" Catton asked sardonically.
Beryaal
took no notice of the Earthman's sarcasm. "I regret to say that the
prisoners died during interrogation. But we obtained much useful information
from them before they succumbed."
"I
think," said the Arenaddin slowly, "that our new colleague from
Earth has done a fine job in apprehending these five. I suggest a note of
commendation be forwarded to the Terran World Government."
"The
Earthman," said eMerikh of Skorg in his hollow voice, "has far
exceeded the call of duty. Members of this Commission are not required to
disguise themselves and search out the hypnojewel traders themselves."
"I wasn't
required
to do it, no," Catton agreed. "But
it seemed a good way of getting something done. How long has this Commission
been in existence—and how much has it accomplished?"
The
Skorg glowered balefully at him. "We have been laying the groundwork
for—"
"Please," Beryaal snapped. "We
are wasting time in futile argument."
"Suppose you tell us, then," Catton
said, "the results of the interrogation?"
"Transcripts
are being prepared and will be made available to you shortly."
Catton
shook his head. "Can't you summarize the findings without making us wait
for the transcript? Was anything learned about sources of supply, ringleaders,
methods of transportation,
other
smugglers?"
"You will see the transcript,"
Beryaal replied.
The door
opened and a clerk entered, bearing a sheaf of vocotyped papers. The clerk
moved obsequiously around the meeting-room, placing one booklet in front of
each of the Commission members.
Carton picked his up. It consisted of three
or four sheets stapled together. The front page bore the date and the heading,
TRANSCRIPT OF INTERROGATION CONDUCTED BY THE INTERWORLD COMMISSION OF CRIME,
Pouin Beryaal, Chairman.
The Earthman flipped rapidly through the
document. It said remarkably little. The names of the five prisoners were
given, and the text of a series of questions-and-answers with Beryaal as
interrogator.
The questions-and-answers went like this:
Q.
Do you admit attempting to sell a hypnojewel to a visiting Dargonid?
A.
You have proof of that.
Q.
Why do you sell hypnojewels?
A.
To make money.
Q.
Who is the leader of your group?
A.
We were all equals.
Q.
But wasn't
there someone who served as contact man,
as
go-between, as spokesman? A.
We shared
all responsibilities. Q.
And how did
you obtain the jewels you sold? A.
We
bought them.
O.
From whom?
A.
From those who sell such things.
The
entire transcript read that way. The five captives had played their torturers
for fools; not once had a concrete fact been elicited. It was pathetic. The
replies of the prisoners had been couched in evasions, half-truths, and truths
that conveyed nothing. Nowhere in the document was there a hint as to the
source of the hypnojewels, nor was there a mention of Doveril Halligon. Nuuri,
Catton thought, would be fiercely angry if she ever found out that Doveril had
not been implicated.
Because
of his relative unfamiliarity with the printed Morilaru language, Carton was the
last one to finish reading the transcript. When he had done with the final
page, he looked up sharply at Beryaal.
"For
this
you killed five men?" Catton asked.
"They were stubborn. They would not
answer."
Catton
chuckled grimly. "It doesn't speak well for the skill of the Morilaru
interrogators, in that case. Any idiot can kill a man under torture; skill is
needed to extract information."
"The
Earthman is right," protested the Arenaddin mildly. "There is remarkably
little solid information in this transcript. It would seem that the prisoners
led you a merry chase."
Catton
sat back, frowning. The transcript was a little
too
devoid of fact to suit him. It was impossible to believe that the
Morilaru interrogation system was as incompetent as this report indicated.
Catton knew better than to take it at face value. Certainly truth serums and
deep hypnosis might have been used to draw out the name of the group's supplier,
the method used for getting the hypnojewels onto Morilar, the source from which
they originated. What did they use in the interrogation, he wondered—the rack
and the thumb-screw?
He
could not believe that the interrogation had been as fruitless as this
transcript implied.
Which meant that the important data was
being suppressed by Beryaal.
But that made little sense. Why would the
Crime Commission chairman be interested in holding back vital information from
his fellow members, Catton wondered?
"It
seems to me," Catton said, "that you've taken five choice sources of
information and wasted them, Pouin Beryaal."
The Morilaru inclined his head amiably.
"You are not satisfied with the results of our interrogation?"
"Satisfied with
this?"
Catton asked, tapping the skimpy transcript.
"Of course I'm not satisfied. We've run ourselves right into a dead end.
You yourself pointed out that our job is not to track down petty jewel-runners
like the ones that died today, but to cut off the hypnojewel pipeline at its
source. How does this set of questions and answers help us do that?"