“Wilson, be reasonable,” she said. “You’re in fine shape for a middle-aged man, but the fact remains that you
are
a middle-aged man, and half the crew of the
Teddy R
can beat you in a fair fight.”
“Then I guess it’s damned lucky for me that I don’t fight fair,” he responded. “Now, is there anything else?”
“Just that I’ve had two messages from the executive you’re impersonating,” said Sharon. “The Cartel is getting nervous. They’re wondering what’s to prevent Khan’s men from bombing them from space.”
“The
Teddy R
can stop anything they’ve got.”
“Not from where we’re hiding, Wilson.”
“You know it and I know it, but
they
don’t know where the hell the ship is, or where it plans to be when the bad guys show up. Also, and more to the point, the Apollo Cartel is a prime source of income for Khan’s organization; why the hell would he destroy it?”
“I don’t think they’re worried about his destroying the Cartel. They’re just afraid he might kill all the current officers who hired us.” She paused. “Maybe you’d better talk to them.”
“All right,” said Cole. “If you think it’s necessary.”
“It couldn’t hurt.”
“Okay. Anything else?”
“Just take care of yourself. I’d hate to go to the trouble of breaking in a new bedmate, like for instance that gorgeous, sexy, young Bull Pampas.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing that I left you to him in my will, isn’t it?” he said, breaking the connection. He hunted through the office for a source of coffee, couldn’t find any, finally settled for some whiskey that had been distilled on Pollux IV, and then contacted the president.
“Captain Cole! I’m so glad to speak to you! We’ve been wondering what steps you’ve taken to protect the Cartel’s executives now that Genghis Khan will have no doubt that we’ve hired someone to protect us from him.”
“We’re on round-the-clock alert,” answered Cole. “As soon as they enter the system, the
Theodore Roosevelt
will plot their course and then approach the planet from the far side, keeping it between us and them.”
“All they’ll have to do is fly above the plane of the ecliptic, and they’ll spot you.”
Damn!
thought Cole.
I’d have sworn you’d never think of that.
Aloud he said: “The
Theodore Roosevelt
is a Navy ship. Whatever the hell Khan’s got, our range is probably twice as great. If need be, we can monitor him from Bannister III. Besides, let’s be realistic; why would he kill a cash cow like the Apollo Cartel?”
“I’m not worried about the future of the Cartel, just its leaders,” came the acerbic reply. “After all, you’ve had your chance with five of his henchmen and you still don’t know any more about him than when you arrived.”
“I know one thing,” said Cole.
“Oh? What is it?”
“I know he can’t ignore or tolerate what we’ve done. A man in his line of business can’t show any weakness or his days are numbered. He’ll be back, and we’re ready for him.”
“
You’re
ready for him,” said the president unhappily. “But are
we
?”
“Look,” said Cole, starting to lose his patience. “We took this job to earn a million Far London pounds. If you want to call it off, that’s fine with us. Just pay us off and we’ll leave.”
“And leave us to bear the brunt of their reprisals?” demanded the president. “Never!”
“Then go do whatever you were doing, and let us do our job,” said Cole, breaking the connection.
He didn’t know how soon Khan’s men would arrive, and he hadn’t eaten all day, so he went to the executive restaurant on the building’s top floor, where he found Val, Bull Pampas, and Luthor Chadwick seated at a table and joined them.
“Where’s Jack-in-the-Box and Domak?” he asked.
“Domak’s still at the hospital,” said Val. “The police are there, of course, but she doesn’t trust them to stand their ground if there’s an attack. Personally, I’d rather be protected by one warrior-caste Polonoi than a dozen human cops. The last time I checked, Jaxtaboxl was off trying to find some Mollutei food, but it’s been half an hour now; he should be back any second.”
“Have we got any medical reports on the three survivors?”
“I stopped by the hospital on the way here,” said Pampas. “The woman’s going to lose her hand; Sharon Blacksmith told me to have them bill the Apollo Cartel for her prosthetic hand and for the two men’s treatment. Colonel Blacksmith also told Lieutenant Domak to have the hospital keep them sedated until we told them otherwise.”
“Good idea,” agreed Cole. “I should have thought of it myself.”
“Have you got any idea what we’re expecting, sir?” asked Chadwick.
“Not really,” said Cole. “But it’s got to be something a few levels of magnitude more powerful than the last group. Khan still has no idea who we are or how powerful we are, so he’s not going to increase the size of his force gradually. If we can kill or capture one man and four men, probably we can kill or capture six or ten or a dozen, and he’s got to have a limited number of men to spare, so I imagine this time we’ll see something a lot more impressive.”
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than Sharon’s image appeared above the table.
“I hate to disturb the Captain when he’s busy telling dirty jokes,” she announced, “but you’ve got company.”
“How big?”
“Eight laser and pulse cannons, crew of twenty-seven that we’ve been able to pick up with our sensors so far.”
Her image vanished, to be replaced by a ship only a bit smaller than the
Teddy R
, displaying no insignia. Even as it appeared, its bay opened and disgorged a shuttle, capable of holding fifteen armed men, which promptly headed down toward Bannister II.
“Well, Val,” said Cole, getting to his feet, “there’s your ship. Let’s get ready to take it.”
12
Cole watched the shuttle as it touched down at the nearby spaceport. Ten Men, three Lodinites, and two Mollutei emerged from it, all heavily armed. They approached the Apollo Building, then fanned out. Only two men actually entered.
“They’re getting smarter,” remarked Cole to Val, Pampas, Chadwick, and Jack-in-the-Box. “They’ve already figured out that their previous parties made it this far and none of them came back, so they’re not all going to walk into the same trap.”
“You want us to keep out of sight at the start, like the last two times?” asked Val.
Cole shook his head. “Don’t bother. They have to know I’m not alone. We’ll handle the ones who come in here, and I’ve asked the police to help us round up the rest of them. They won’t have any idea what’s happened up here or how many of us there are, which should certainly put them at a disadvantage.”
“Weapons out or in?” asked Pampas.
“If you’re holding weapons in your hands, it’ll just encourage them to do the same,” said Cole. “And if that happens, someone’s going to start shooting.”
“That’s what we’re here for,” said Pampas. “We’ll win, sir.”
“I don’t doubt it,” said Cole. “But they can’t tell me what I want to know if they’re dead.”
“They’re not going to tell you, period,” said Val.
Cole shrugged. “You never know.”
“You’ve got something up your sleeve, don’t you, sir?” said Chadwick.
“Just his arm,” said Val. “I say kill them the second they walk in, and then go after the others.”
“Then what?” said Cole. “If we destroy their ship, you’re still without a vessel and we haven’t earned our money, since he’ll probably send his whole fleet here, guns blazing.”
“We have to face them sooner or later,” said Val. “I prefer sooner.”
“Oh, we’ll face them, all right,” agreed Cole. “But let’s see if we can reduce their firepower first.”
“One at a time or all at once, it makes no difference to me,” said Val.
Suddenly Chadwick chuckled and Cole turned to him. “What’s so funny?”
“It reminds me of something Commander Forrice is always saying after he and you discuss some problem,” answered Chadwick. “Something to the effect that the problem was a whole lot simpler when it only had him thinking about it.”
“That’s Four Eyes, all right,” said Cole.
“They’re coming, sir,” said Jack-in-the-Box softly.
“Whatever happens,” said Cole, “no one shoots or does anything else until I give the signal.” He stared directly at Val. “That’s an order.”
A few seconds later two leather-clad men, one bearded, one clean-shaven, entered the office. Both were heavily armed. The smooth-faced one had a pulse gun in his hand, and immediately trained it on Val, Pampas, Chadwick, and the Mollutei.
The bearded one stared at Cole for a moment. “I should have known those spineless cowards would hire help.”
“I’m pleased to make your acquaintance too,” said Cole.
“I know who you are, Wilson Cole,” said the man. “I’ve seen your face on enough Wanted posters and holocasts. Why is the most decorated officer in the Republic hiring out as a mercenary?”
“Because I’m not in the Republic, in case you hadn’t noticed,” said Cole. “But there’s no need for us to be enemies. Possibly Genghis Khan is looking for an ally.”
“Why should he want to deal with the notorious Wilson Cole?”
“There’s no reason why we can’t be allies.”
“We need no allies.”
“Why not fly me up to the shuttle and let me send a subspace message to him?” persisted Cole. “I’d do it from here, but I don’t have the necessary access codes.”
“You don’t need the codes,” said the man. “Besides, they only respond to my voiceprint. And you’re not going to live long enough to contact him.”
“It’s a pity,” said Cole. “We could have been friends.”
“We don’t want any friends.”
“What can I offer you as a show of good faith?”
“Keep your good faith,” said the man.
“We’re wasting time,” said the smooth-shaven man. “Let’s take care of business and get the hell back to home base.”
The bearded man stared at Cole. “I’m only going to ask once: Do you have the money?”
“Yeah, I’ve got it. I don’t suppose you’d care to split it down the middle? You take half, we take half, nobody shoots anybody, and we all walk away a little richer.”
“Nobody shoots anybody,” said the man sarcastically. “I think we’d rather have the money and take our chances.”
“Don’t do it, Bull,” said Cole to Pampas, who had been standing absolutely still. “This man you’re facing is Demon Jack Devereaux. He’s killed twenty men. Maybe twenty-five. You don’t want to go up against him.”
“You sure as hell don’t,” agreed the bearded man. “But I’m Blackbeard Strahan. Never heard of this Devereaux.”
“He’s a pirate,” said Cole. “Weapons or freehand, you’ll never find anyone tougher. And he’s got a little eight-man ship that could probably blow that big vessel of yours right out of the ether.”
“The eight-man ship’s never been created that could harm the
South Star
in battle.”
“It’s
that
formidable a ship?” asked Cole.
“If we don’t come back with the money, it’s got orders to blow this whole city away. We could demolish it in ten minutes’ time.”
“What would it take
not
to blow it up?”
“Just pay us our money and we’ll leave the city alone,” said Strahan. “Until the next time. Now, are you going to pay up or not?”
“Not, I think. And this conversation has gone on just about long enough.” He nodded almost imperceptibly to Val. She edged over to Chadwick and gave him a sudden shove with her hip. He wasn’t expecting it, and careered into Jaxtaboxl, who grunted and spread his arms for balance. The unbearded man immediately trained his weapon on the Mollutei, and as he did so Val’s long leg lashed out and kicked the pulse gun from his hand as Pampas launched himself at Strahan. Within seconds both men were on the floor, Pampas sitting atop one, Val with her boot in the middle of the other’s back.
“One last chance,” said Cole. “Will you tell me where I can find Genghis Khan?”
“Do your worst!” rasped Strahan. “We’re not talking!”
“I can
make
them talk,” said Val.
“Forget it,” said Cole. “We’ve got thirteen men and aliens to disable. Put these two out of commission—that does
not
mean kill them —and get to work on the others. If you need help, Domak’s over at the hospital. Probably you won’t; you may be outnumbered, but you know who they are, and they have no idea who you are—except maybe for Val; people don’t forget nine-foot-tall redheaded giants.”
“I’m not even seven feet tall,” she said, putting both men to sleep with a pair of karate chops to the backs of their necks. “If I was nine feet, I’d own the universe.”