“You plan to spend ten men on the strength of that theory?”
“It’s a trivial price to pay for extra insurance.”
“And here you are, to correct my mistakes. How do you plan to square it with the Monitor Service? They take a dim view of unauthorized planetfalls.”
Illini gave me his I-just-ate-the-canary look. “I’m here quite legally. By great good fortune, my yacht happened to be cruising in the vicinity and picked up your U-beam. Ring Station accepted my offer of assistance.”
“I see. And what have you got in mind for me?”
“Just what was agreed on, of course. I have no intention of complicating the situation at this point. We’ll proceed with the plan precisely as conceived—with the single exception I’ve noted. I can rely on your discretion, for obvious reasons. Your fee is already on deposit at Credit Central.”
“You’ve got it all worked out, haven’t you?” I said, trying to sound sarcastic. “But you overlooked one thing: I’m temperamental. I don’t like people making changes in my plans.”
Illini lifted a lip. “I’m aware of your penchant for salving your conscience as a professional assassin by your nicety in other matters. But in this case I’m afraid my desires must prevail.” The hand of the man behind him strayed casually to the gun at his hip. So far, he hadn’t said a word. He didn’t have to. He’d be a good man with a sidearm. Illini wouldn’t have brought anything but the best. Or maybe the second best. It was a point I’d probably have to check soon.
“Our work here will require only a few hours,” Illini said. “After that . . .” he made an expansive gesture. “We’re all free to take up other matters.” He smiled as though everything had been cleared up. “By the way, where is the body? I’ll want to view it, just as a matter of routine.”
I folded my arms and leaned against the bulkhead. I did it carefully, just in case I was wrong about a few things. “What if I don’t feel like telling you?” I asked him.
“In that case, I’d be forced to insist.” Illini’s eyes were wary. The gunsel had tensed.
“Uh-uh,” I said. “This is a delicate setup; A charred corpse wouldn’t help the picture.”
“Podnac’s instructions are to disable, not to kill.”
“For a hired hand, you seem to be taking a lot of chances, Illini. It wouldn’t do for the public to get the idea that the selfless motive of eliminating a technicality so that progress could come to Vangard, as the Boss told it, is marred by some private consideration.”
Illini lifted his shoulders. “We own an interest in the planetary exploitation contract, yes. Someone was bound to profit. Why not those who made it possible?”
“That’s another one on me,” I said. “I should have held out for a percentage.”
“That’s enough gossip,” Illini said. “Don’t try to stall me, Ulrik. Speak up or suffer the consequences.”
I shook my head. “I’m calling your bluff, Illini. The whole thing is balanced on a knife’s edge. Any sign of trouble here—even a grease spot on the deck—and the whole thing is blown.”
Podnac made a quick move and his gun was in his hand. I grinned at it. “That’s supposed to scare me so I go outside where you can work a little better, eh?”
“I’m warning you, Ulrik—”
“Skip it. I’m not going anywhere. But you’re leaving, Illini. You’ve got your boat parked somewhere near here. Get in it and lift off. I’ll take it from there.”
“You fool! You’d risk the entire operation for the sake of a piece of mawkish sentiment?”
“It’s my operation, Illini. I’ll play it out my way or not at all. I’m like that. That’s why you hired me, remember?”
He drew a breath like a man getting ready for a deep dive, snorted it out. “You don’t have a chance, Ulrik! You’re throwing everything away—for what?”
“Not quite everything. You’ll still pay off for a finished job. It’s up to you. You can report you checked the pod and found everything normal. Try anything else and the bubble pops.”
“There are two of us. We could take you barehanded.”
“Not while I’ve got my hand on the gun under my arm.”
The little man’s eyes ate me raw. There were things he wanted to say, but instead he made a face like a man chewing glass and jerked his head at his hired hand. They walked sideways to the hatch and jumped down. I watched them back away.
“I’ll get you for this,” Illini told me when he finally decided I was bluffing. “I promise you that,” he added.
“No, you won’t,” I said. “You’ll just count those millions and keep your mouth shut. That’s the way the Boss would like it.”
They turned and I straightened and dropped my hands. Podnac spun and fired and the impact knocked me backward twenty feet across the hold.
The world was full of roaring lights and blazing sounds, but I held onto a slender thread of consciousness, built it into a rope, crawled back up it. I did it because I had to. I made it just in time. Podnac was coming through the hatch, Illini’s voice yapping behind him. I covered him and pressed the stud and blew him back out of sight.
27
I was numb all over, like a thumb that’s just been hit by a hammer. I felt hot fluid trickling down the inside of my suit, felt broken bones grate. I tried to move and almost blacked out. I knew then: this was one scrape I wouldn’t get out of. I’d had it. Illini had won.
His voice jarred me out of a daze.
“He fired against my order, Ulrik! You heard me tell him! I’m not responsible!”
I blinked a few times and could see the little man through the open port, standing in a half crouch on the spot where I’d last seen him, watching the dark hatchway for the flash that would finish him. He was holding the winning cards, and didn’t know it. He didn’t know how hard I’d been hit, that he could have strolled in and finished the job with no opposition. He thought tough, smart Baird Ulrik had rolled with another punch, was holding on him now, cool and deadly and in charge of everything.
OK. I’d do my best to keep him thinking that. I was done for, but so was he—if I could con him into leaving now. When the Monitors showed up and found my corpse and the note I’d manage to write before the final night closed down, Illini and Company would be out of the planet-stealing business and into a penal colony before you could say malfeasance in high office. I looked around for my voice, breathed on it a little, and called:
“We won’t count that one, Illini. Take your boy and lift off. I’ll be watching. So will the Monitor scopes. If you try to land again you’ll have them to explain to.”
“I’ll do as you say, Ulrik. It’s your show. I . . . I’ll have to use a lift harness on Podnac.”
I didn’t answer that one. I couldn’t. That worried Illini.
“Ulrik? I’m going to report that I found everything in order. Don’t do anything foolish. Remember your six million credits.”
“Get going,” I managed. I watched him back up a few steps, then turn and scramble up the slope. The lights kept fading and coming up again.
Quite suddenly Illini was there again, guiding the slack body of his protégé as it hung in the harness. When I looked again they were gone. Then I let go of whatever it was I had been hanging onto, and fell forever through endlessness.
When I woke up, Johnny Thunder was sitting beside me.
28
He gave me water. I drank it and said, “You big, dumb ox! What are you doing here?” I said that, but all that came out was a dry wheeze, like a collapsing lung. I lay with my head propped against the wall, the way he had laid me out, and looked at the big, gaunt face, the cracked and peeling lips, the matted hair caked with ice, the bright blue eyes fixed on mine.
“I woke and found you had gone, Carl Patton.” His voice had lost its resonance. He sounded like an old man. “Woola led me here.”
I thought that over—and then I saw it. It almost made me grin. A note written in blood might poke a hole in Illini’s plans—but a live giant would sink them with all hands.
I made another try and managed a passable whisper: “Listen to me, Johnny. Listen hard, because once is all you’re likely to get it. This whole thing was a fix—a trick to get you dead. Because as long as you were alive, they couldn’t touch your world. The men here were never in danger. At least they weren’t meant to be. But there was a change in plan. But that’s only after you’re taken care of. And if you’re alive . . .” It was getting too complicated.