“Hypno spray?” the young woman asked.
“A chemical which induces an instantaneous hypnotic trance in people. Leaves them wide open to suggestion. Medical hypnotists make a lot of use of it. So do criminals.”
She turned away from the control console to look at him. “Why would your partner want to hypnotize you?”
“I don’t know,” Dasinger said. “He hasn’t admitted that he intended to do it.”
“Is he a criminal?”
“I wouldn’t say he isn’t,” Dasinger observed judiciously, “but I couldn’t prove it.”
Duomart puckered her lips, staring at him thoughtfully. “What about yourself?” she asked.
“No, Miss Mines, I have a very high regard for the law. I’m a simple businessman.”
“A simple businessman who flies his own cruiser four weeks out from the Hub into I-Fleet territory?”
“That’s the kind of business I’m in,” Dasinger explained. “I own a charter ship company.”
“I see,” she said. “Well, you two make an odd pair of partners. . . .”
“I suppose we do. Incidentally, has there been any occasion when you and Dr. Egavine—or you and Dr. Egavine and his servant—were alone somewhere in the ship together? For example, except when we came up here to give you further flight instructions, did he ever enter the control room?”
She shook her blond head. “No. Those are the only times I’ve seen him.”
“Certain of that?” he asked.
Duomart nodded without hesitation. “Quite certain!”
Dasinger took an ointment tube from his pocket, removed its cap, squeezed a drop of black, oily substance out on a fingertip. “Mind rolling up your sleeve a moment?” he asked. “Just above the elbow . . .”
“What for?”
“It’s because of the way those hypno sprays work,” Dasinger said. “Give your victim a dose of the stuff, tell him what to do, and it usually gets done. And if you’re being illegal about it, one of the first things you tell him to do is to forget he’s ever been sprayed. This goop is designed for the specific purpose of knocking out hypnotic commands. Just roll up your sleeve like a good girl now, and I’ll rub a little of it on your arm.”
“You’re not rubbing anything on my arm, mister!” Duomart told him coldly.
Dasinger shrugged resignedly, recapped the tube, and dropped it in his pocket. “Have it your way then,” he remarked. “I was only . . .”
He lunged suddenly towards her.
Duomart gave him quite a struggle. A minute or two later, he had her down on the floor, her body and one arm clamped between his knees, while he unzipped the cuff on the sleeve of the other arm and pulled the sleeve up. He brought out the tube of antihypno ointment and rubbed a few drops of the ointment into the hollow of Duomart’s elbow, put the tube back in his pocket, then went on holding her down for nearly another minute. She was gasping for breath, blue eyes furious, muscles tensed.
* * *
Suddenly he felt her relax. An expression of stunned surprise appeared on her face. “Why,” she began incredulously, “he did . . .”
“Gave you the spray treatment, eh?” Dasinger said, satisfied. “I was pretty sure he had.”
“Why, that— At his beck and call, he says! Well, we’ll just see about . . . let me up, Dasinger! Just wait till I get my hands on that bony partner of yours!”
“Now take it easy.”
“Take it easy! Why should I? I . . .”
“It would be better,” Dasinger explained, “if Egavine believes you’re still under the influence.”
She scowled up at him; then her face turned thoughtful. “Ho! You feel it isn’t that he’s a depraved old goat, that he’s got something more sinister in mind?”
“It’s a definite possibility. Why not wait and find out? The ointment will immunize you against further tricks.”
Miss Mines regarded him consideringly for a few seconds, then nodded. “All right! You can let me up now. What do you think he’s planning?”
“Not easy to say with Dr. Egavine. He’s a devious man.” Dasinger got himself disentangled, came to his feet, and reached down to help her scramble up.
“They certainly wrap you up with that hypno stuff, don’t they?” she observed wonderingly.
Dasinger nodded. “They certainly do.” Then he added, “I’m keeping the doctor and his little sidekick locked up, too, until we get to the planet. That leaves you and me with the run of the ship.”
Duomart looked at him. “So it does,” she agreed.
“Know how to use a gun?”
“Of course. But I’m not allow—don’t have one with me on this trip.”
* * *
He reached into his coat, took out a small gun in a fabric holster. Duomart glanced at it, then her eyes went back to his face.
“Might clip it to your belt,” Dasinger said. “It’s a good little shocker, fifty-foot range, safe for shipboard use. It’s got a full load, eighty shots. We may or may not run into emergencies. If we don’t, you’ll still be more comfortable carrying it.”
Duomart holstered the gun and attached the holster to her belt. She slid the tip of her tongue reflectively out between her lips, drew it back, blinked at the flight screens for a few seconds, then looked across at Dasinger and tapped the holster at her side.
“That sort of changes things, too,” she said.
“Changes what?”
“Tell you in a minute. Sit down, Dasinger. Manual course corrections coming up . . .” She slid into the pilot seat, moved her hands out over the controls, and appeared to forget about him.
Dasinger settled into a chair to her left and watched her, glancing occasionally at the screens. She was jockeying the Mooncat deftly in and out of the fringes of a gravitic stress knot, presently brought it into the clear, slapped over a direction lever and slid the palm of her right hand along a row of speed control buttons depressing them in turn.
* * *
“Nice piece of piloting,” Dasinger observed.
Duomart lifted one shoulder in a slight shrug. “That’s my job.” Her face remained serious. “Are you wondering why I edged us through that thing instead of going around it?”
“Uh-huh, a little,” Dasinger admitted.
“It knocked half an hour off the time it should take us to get to your planet,” she said. “That is, if you’ll still want to go there. We’re being followed, you see.”
“By whom?”
“They call her the Spy. After the Mooncat she’s the fastest job in the Fleet. She’s got guns, and her normal complement is twenty armed men.”
“The idea being to have us lead them to what we’re after, and then take it away from us?” Dasinger asked.
“That’s right. I’m not supposed to know about it. You know what a Gray Fleet is?”
Dasinger nodded. “An Independent that’s turned criminal.”
“Yes. Willata’s Fleet was a legitimate outfit up to four years ago. Then Liu Taunus and Calat and their gang took over. That happened to be the two Fleet bosses you slapped handcuffs on, Dasinger. We’re a Gray Fleet now. So I had some plans of my own for this trip. If I can get to some other I-Fleet or to the Hub I might be able to do something about Taunus. After we were down on the planet, I was going to steal the Mooncat and take off by myself.”
“Why are you telling me?”
Miss Mines colored a little. “Well, you gave me the gun,” she said. “And you clobbered Taunus, and got me out of that hypno thing . . . I mean, I’d have to be pretty much of a jerk to ditch you now, wouldn’t I? Anyway, now that I’ve told you, you won’t be going back to Willata’s Fleet, whatever you do. I’ll still get to the Hub.” She paused. “So what do you want to do now? Beat it until the coast’s clear, or make a quick try for your loot before the Spy gets there?”
“How far is she behind us?” Dasinger asked.
Duomart said, “I don’t know exactly. Here’s what happened. When we started out, Taunus told me not to let the Mooncat travel at more than three-quarters speed for any reason. I figured then the Spy was involved in whatever he was planning; she can keep up with us at that rate, and she has considerably better detector reach than the Cat. She’s stayed far enough back not to register on our plates throughout the trip.
“Late yesterday we hit some extensive turbulence areas, and I started playing games. There was this little cluster of three sun systems ahead. One of them was our target, though Dr. Egavine hadn’t yet said which. I ducked around a few twisters, doubled back, and there was the Spy coming the other way. I beat it then—top velocity. The Spy dropped off our detectors two hours later, and she can’t have kept us on for more than another hour herself.