Trigger and Friends by James H. Schmitz

A minute or two later, he heard the laboratory ComWeb buzzing shrilly. Mantelish glanced around from the elaborate open-face sandwiches he was preparing. He frowned. Among the very few people who knew the number of that ComWeb, only two were at all likely to be calling him at this moment. One was Commissioner Tate, the other was Trigger Argee. If either of them—Trigger, in particular—had caught the newscast at the spaceport just now they were going to give him hell.

His frown deepened. Should he ignore the call? No, he decided; however unnecessarily, the caller was no doubt concerned about his safety. He must let them know he was all right.

Mantelish lumbered hurriedly back into the laboratory, came to a sudden stop just beyond the door. There were two men there. One was seated at the table where he had put down the Tang container; the other leaned against the wall beside the hall door. Both held guns, which at the moment were pointed at him.

Mantelish looked from one to the other, lifting his eyebrows. This, he told himself, was a most unfortunate situation. He knew the pair from a previous meeting, the conclusion of which had been marked by a certain amount of physical violence. He didn’t like the look of the guns but perhaps he could bluff it out.

“Fiam,” he said with stern dignity to the man at the table, “I am not at all pleased by your intrusion. I thought I had made it clear to you last year when I threw you out of my laboratory that there was no possibility of our doing business. If I failed, I shall make the point very clear indeed immediately after I have answered this call!”

He turned toward the clamoring ComWeb. Suddenly he felt an excruciating pain in his left leg, centered on the kneecap. He grunted, stopped.

“That’s enough for now, Welk,” Paes Fiam said lazily from the table. “He’s got the idea . . .”

The pain faded away. The man standing by the door grinned and lowered his gun. Fiam went on, “Sit down over there, professor—across from me. Forget the ComWeb. This shouldn’t take long. These guns of ours, as you’ve noticed, can be very painful. They can also kill very quickly. So let’s not have any unpleasantness.”

Mantelish scowled at him but sat down. “Why have you come here?” he demanded.

Fiam smiled. “To ask you for a small favor. And a little information.” He picked up the chemical gun lying on the table beside the Tang container, looked at it a moment. “This device,” he said, “appears to be something you’ve developed. ”

“It is,” Mantelish said.

“What is so remarkable about it?”

Mantelish snorted. “It kills the intended victim immediately on spray contact while placing the user in no danger whatsoever, even when carelessly handled.”

“So the label says,” Paes Fiam agreed. “A one to four foot range. Very interesting!” He laid the gun back on the table. “I find it a little strange, professor, that a man holding the high ethical principles you outlined to me in our previous conversation should devote his time to creating such a murderous little weapon!”

Mantelish snorted again. “What I am willing to create depends on the clients with whom I am dealing. I would not place such weapons in the hands of common crooks like yourselves.”

The ComWeb’s noise stopped. Fiam smiled briefly, said, “Not common crooks, Professor Mantelish. We happen to be exceptionally talented and efficient crooks. As the present situation demonstrates.”

“What do you mean?” Mantelish asked coldly.

“I happened to be at the Ceyce spaceport,” Fiam said, “while you were bragging about your Tang immortality drug on the newscast. I took steps immediately to make sure I knew where you went. Welk and I followed you here without very much trouble. We made sure in the process that nobody else was tailing you.” He patted the Tang container. “This is what we’re after, professor! And we’ve got it.”

“You are being very foolish,” Mantelish said. “As I indicated during the newscast, it remains questionable whether the Tang drug can be produced under laboratory conditions. If it is possible, it will involve years of research at the highest level. I—”

“Hold it, professor!” Fiam raised his hand, nodded at Welk. “Your statements are very interesting, but let’s make sure you’re not attempting to mislead us.”

“Mislead you?” Mantelish rumbled indignantly.

“You might, you know. But Welk will now place the pickup of a lie detector at your feet. Sit very still while he’s doing it—you know I can’t miss at this range.” Fiam brought a small instrument out of his pocket, placed it on the table before him. “This is the detector’s indicator,” he went on. “A very dependable device, every time it shows me you’re being less than truthful you’ll get an admonishing jolt from Welk’s gun. Welk’s never really forgiven you for not opening the lab door before you ejected him last year. Better stick to the truth, professor!”

“I have no intention of lying,” Mantelish said with dignity.

Paes Fiam waited until Welk had positioned the pickup and stepped back, went on. “Now, professor, you were suggesting that at present the Tang drug has no commercial value . . .”

Mantelish nodded. “Exactly! The quantity on the table here—and it’s every drop of the drug to be found off the Tang world now—is not nearly enough to be worth the risk you’d be taking in stealing and trying to market it. It might extend the life of one human being by a very considerable extent, and that is all. And what potential client would take your word for it that it would do that—or that it wouldn’t, for that matter, harm him instead, perhaps kill him within a few months?”

“A large number of potential clients would, if they were desperate enough for life,” Fiam said, watching the detector indicator. “You were skirting the fringes of deception with that question, professor. But that’s not the point. Does the drug have harmful physical or mental effects?”

Mantelish said, “A calculated quantity was given to six members of our expedition, including myself. During the past four months, no harmful physical or mental effects have been observed, and the overall effect has worn off again. That’s all I can say.”

“And the Tang drug did have a rejuvenating effect on these human subjects?”

Mantelish hesitated, admitted, “A slight but measurable one. That was in accordance with our expectations.”

Fiam smiled. “I see. What other expectations did you have in connection with the use of the drug on human beings?”

Mantelish said reluctantly, “That the dosage given human subjects would wear out of the system in about four months—as it did. And that if the rejuvenation effect were to continue the treatment would therefore have to be repeated regularly at four-month intervals.”

“What do you believe will happen if that is done?”

“Within a ten-year period,” Mantelish said, “the subject should find that his biological age has not advanced but has been reduced by about five years. The Tang rejuvenation process is a slow, steady one. The Tang themselves select the biological age they prefer, and remain within a few years of it by a judicious use of the drug. It is, of course, impossible to reduce the biological age beyond late adolescence.”

“I understand,” Fiam said. “And how is the drug administered?”

“The Tang drink the extract,” Mantelish said. “On human beings it has a violently nauseating effect when administered in that form. We found it more practical to administer a subcutaneous injection.”

“There’s nothing essentially different between that and any other subcutaneous injection?”

“No, none at all.”

Paes Fiam patted the container again, smiled, said, “The drug extract in here is ready to be used exactly as it is?”

“Yes.”

“Are there any special measures required to preserve its usefulness and harmlessness indefinitely?”

“It’s self-preserving,” Mantelish said. “There should be no significant difference in its properties whether it’s used today or after a century. But as I have pointed out, I cannot and will not say that it is harmless. A test on six subjects is by no means definitive. The seventh one might show very undesirable physical reactions. Or undesirable reactions might develop in the six who have been tested five, or ten, or fifteen years from now . . .”

“No doubt,” Fiam said. He smacked his lips lightly. “Be careful how you answer my next question. You said the drug in this container should extend the life of one human being very considerably. What does that mean in standard years?”

Mantelish hesitated, said grudgingly, “My estimate would be about three hundred years. That is an approximation.”

Fiam grinned happily at Welk. “Three hundred years, eh? That’s good enough for us, professor! As you may have begun to surmise, we’re the clients for whom the drug is intended. We have no intention of trying to sell it. And we’ll take a chance on undesirable reactions showing up in five or ten years against the probability of another hundred and fifty years of interesting and profitable living!”

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *