There must be a visual monitor of the prison, so the Lord, Urthona, in this case, must know whom he held. Why hadn’t Urthona at once taken steps to question his captive? He must surely be burning to know how Kickaha had gotten in there.
He ran water into a glass and dashed it in the face of the man on the floor. Di Angelo started and rolled his head and his eyes opened. He jerked again when he saw Kickaha over him and felt the point of the knife at his throat.
“Where is your boss?” Kickaha said. Di Angelo said, “I don’t know.”
“Ignorance isn’t bliss in your case,” Kickaha said. He pushed the knife in so that blood trickled out from the side of the neck.
The man’s eyes widened, and he said, “Take it easy,” and then, “What difference does it make? You haven’t got a chance. Here’s what happened . . .”
Di Angelo was the cook, but he was also aware of what was going on in the lower echelons. He had been told long ago to inform the boss, whom he called Mr. Callister, if the alarms were activated in the kitchen. Until tonight, they had been dormant. When they did go off, startling him, he had called Mr. Callister, who was with his gang on business di Angelo knew nothing about. It must have something to do with the recent troubles, those that had come with the appearance of Kickaha and the others. Callister had told him what to do, which was only to prepare a meal, set it on the table in the closet, close the closet door, and press a button on the control panel.
Kickaha asked about Wolff, Chryseis, and Anana. Di Angelo said, “Some of the guys took them into the boss’ office and left them there and that’s the last anybody’s seen of them. Honest to God, I’m telling the truth! If anybody knows where they went, it’s Callister. Him and him only!”
Kickaha made di Angelo get up and lead him through the house. They went through some halls and large rooms, all luxuriously furnished, and then up a broad winding marble staircase to the second floor. On the way, di Angelo told him that this house was in a walled estate in Beverly Hills. The address was that which Red Orc had said was Ur-thona’s.
“Where are the servants?” he said.
“They’ve either gone home or to their quarters over the garage,” di Angelo said. “I’m not lying, mister, when I say I’m the only one in the house.”
The door to Callister’s office was of heavy steel and locked. Kickaha turned the beamer on it and sliced out the lock with a brief quick rotation of the barrel. Di Angelo’s eyes bulged, and he turned paler. Evidently he knew nothing of the weapons of the Lord.
Kickaha found some tape in a huge mahogany desk and taped di Angelo’s hands behind him and his ankles together. While di Angelo sat in a chair, Kickaha made a quick but efficient search of the office. The control panel for what he hoped were the gates popped out of a section of the big desk when a button in a corner of the desk was pressed. The pushbuttons, dials, and lights were identified by markings that would have mystified any Earthling but Kickaha. These were in the writing of the Lords.
However, he did not know the nature of Gates Number One through Ten nor what would happen if he pressed a button marked with the symbol for M. That could mean many thousands of things, but he suspected that it stood for miyrtso, meaning death.
The first difficulty in using the panel was that he did not know where the gates were even if he activated them. The second was that he probably could not activate them. The Lord was not foolish enough to leave an operable system which was also relatively accessible. He would carry on his person some device which had to be turned on before the control panel would be energized. But at least Kickaha knew where the panel was so that if he ever got hold of the activator, he could use the panel. That is, if he also located the gates.