Another look convinced him that Cambring was dead or close to death. His skin was the gray-blue of a corpse.
Anana said, “They’re both dead!”
Kickaha pulled the car over to the curb and stopped. He pointed frantically at her. She stared a moment, and then saw what he was trying to communicate. She quickly shed the receiver and Kleist’s wrist-watch as if she had discovered that she was wearing a leper’s clothing.
Kickaha reached over and pulled her close to him and whispered in her ear, “I’ll pick up the watch and receiver with a handkerchief and stick them in the trunk until we can get rid of them. I think you’d be able to hear Red Orc’s voice now, if you still had that receiver behind your ear. He’d be telling you he’d just killed Cambring and he was going to kill you unless we surrendered to him.”
He picked up Cambring’s wrist and with a pencil pried up the watch compartment. There was a slight discoloration under it on the skin.
With the pencil, he pried loose the disc from behind Cambring’s ear and exposed a brown-blue disc-shaped spot.
Kleist groaned. His eyelids fluttered, and he looked up. Kickaha started the car again and pulled away from the curb, and then turned north. As they drove slowly in the heavy traffic, Kleist managed to straighten himself. To do this, he had to push Cambring over against Kickaha. Anana gave a savage order, and Kleist got Cambring off the seat and onto the floor. Since the body took up so much space, Kleist had to sit with his knees almost up to his chin.
He groaned again and said, “You killed him.”
Kickaha explained what had happened. Kleist did not believe him. He said, “What kind of a fool do you think I am?”
Kickaha grinned and said, “Very well, so you don’t believe in the efficacy of the devices, the workings of which I’ve just explained to you. I could put them back on you and so prove the truth of what I’ve told you. You wouldn’t know it, because you’d be dead and your boss would’ve scored one on us.”
He drove on until he saw a sign which indicated a parking lot behind a business building. He drove down the alley and turned into it. The lot was a small one, enclosed on three sides by the building. There were no windows from which he could be seen, and, for the moment, there was no one in the lot or the alley. He parked, then got out and motioned to Kleist to get out. Anana held the pen against his side.
Kickaha dragged Cambring’s body out and rolled it under a panel truck. Then they got back into the car and drove off, toward the motel.
Kickaha was worried. He may have pushed Red Orc to the point where he would report the Rolls as stolen. Up to now he had kept the police out of it, but Kickaha did not doubt that the Lord would bring them in if he felt it necessary. The Lord must have great influence, both politically and financially, even if he remained an anonymous figure. With Kickaha and Anana picked up by the police, the Lord could then arrange for his men to seize them. All he had to do was to pay the bail and catch them after they’d gone a few blocks from the police station.
And if Kleist knew anything which might give Kickaha a lead to Red Orc, the Lord might act to make sure that Kleist could not do so.
Kleist, at this moment, was not cooperating. He would not even reply to Kickaha’s questions. Finally, he said, “Save your breath. You’ll get nothing from me.”
When they reached the motel, Kleist got out of the car slowly. He looked around as if he would like to run or shout, but Kickaha had warned him that if he tried anything, he would get enough power from the pen to knock his head off. He stepped into the motel room ahead of Kickaha, who did not even wait for Anana to shut the door before stun-ning bis prisoner with a minimum jolt from the pen.