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reached over the back of the seat and eased her over on her side.
 Got to her finally! he said. He sat down again. He brooded a moment.  She
shouldn t get so disturbed about that Pilli thing, he remarked then.  It
couldn t have lived anyway.
 Eh? the Commissioner said absently, watching the screens.  Why not?
 Its brains, Quillan explained,  were too far apart.
The Commissioner blinked.  It s getting to you too, son! he said.
23
Trigger came out of the ceridim trance hours before Lyad awoke from the
stunner blast she d absorbed. The
Commissioner was sitting in a chair beside her bunk, napping.
She looked around a moment, feeling very comfortable and secure. This was her
personal cabin on Commissioner
Tate s ship, the one he referred to as the Big Job, modeled after the
long-range patrol ships of the Space Scouts. It wasn t actually very big, but
six or seven people could go traveling around in it very comfortably. At the
moment it appeared to be howling through subspace at its hellish rate again,
going somewhere.
Well, that could keep.
Trigger reached out and poked the Commissioner s knee.  Hey, Holati! she
whispered.  Wake up.
His eyes opened. He looked at her and smiled.  Back again, eh? he said.
Trigger motioned at the door.  Close it, she whispered.  Got something to
tell you.
 Talk away, he said.  Quillan s piloting, the First Lady s out cold, and
Mantelish got dive-sick and I doped him.
Nobody else on board.
Trigger lay back and looked at him.  This is going to sound pretty odd! she
warned him. Then she told him what
Repulsive had done and what he was trying to do.
The Commissioner looked badly shaken.
 You sure of that, Trigger?
 Sure, I m sure.
 Trying to talk to you?
 That s it.
He blinked at her.  I looked in the bag, he said,  and the thing was gone.
 Lyad knows it was gone, Trigger said.  So in case she gets a chance to blab
to someone, we ll say you had it.
He nodded and stood up.  You stay here, he said.  Prescription for the kind
of treatment you ve had is a day of bed rest.
 Where are you going?
 I m going to go talk to that Psychology ship, he said.  And just let  em try
to stall me this time!
He went off up the passage toward the transmitter cabinet in the forward part
of the ship. Some minutes passed. Then
Trigger suddenly heard Commissioner Tate s voice raised in great wrath. She
listened. It appeared the Psychology Service had got off on the wrong foot by
advising him once more to stay calm.
He came back presently and sat down beside the bunk, still a little red in the
face.  They re going to follow us, he said.
 If they hadn t, I would have turned back and gunned our way on board that
lopsided disgrace of theirs.
 Follow us? Where?
He grunted.  A place called Luscious. We ll be there in under a week. It ll
take them about three. But they re starting immediately.
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Trigger blinked.  Looks like the plasmoids have made it to the head of the
problem list!
 I wouldn t be surprised, said the Commissioner.  I was put through to that
Pilch after a while. She said to remind you to listen to your thinking
whenever you can get around to it. Know what she meant?
 I m not sure I do, Trigger said hesitantly.  But she s mentioned it. I ll
give it a whirl. Why are we going to
Luscious?
 Selan s Fleet found plasmoids on it. It s in the Vishni area.
 What kind of plasmoids?
He shrugged.  They don t amount to much, from what I heard. Small stuff. But
definitely plasmoid. It looks like somebody might have done some experimenting
there for a while. And not long ago.
 Did they find the big one?
 Not yet. No trace of any people on Luscious either. He chewed his lip
thoughtfully for a moment.  About an hour after we picked you and Lyad up, he
said,  we had a Council Order transmitted to the ship. Told us to swing off
course a bit and rendezvous with a fast courier boat of theirs.
 What for?
 The order said the courier was to take Lyad on board and head for the Hub
with her. Some diplomatic business. He scratched his chin.  It also
instructed us to treat the First Lady of Tranest with the courtesy due to her
station meanwhile.
 Brother! Trigger said, outraged.
 Just too bad I couldn t read that message, said Holati Tate.  Some gravitic
disturbance! Rendezvous point s hours behind us. They ll never catch up.
 Ho-ho! said Trigger.  But that s being pretty insubordinate, Holati!
 It was till just now, he said.  I mentioned that we had Lyad on board to
that Pilch person. She said she d speak to the
Council. We re to hang on to Lyad, and when Pilch gets to Luscious she ll
interview her.
Trigger grinned.  Now that, she remarked,  gives me a feeling of great
satisfaction, somehow. When Pilch gets her little mitts on someone, there
isn t much left out.
 I had that impression. Meanwhile, we ll put the Ermetyne through a routine
questioning ourselves when she gets over being groggy. Courtesy will be on the
moderate side. She ll probably spill part of what she knows, especially if you
sit there and hand her the beady stare from time to time.
 That, Trigger assured him,  will be hardly any effort at all!
 I can imagine. You re pretty sure that thing will show up again?
Trigger nodded.  Just leave the handbag with me.
 All right. He stood up.  I ve got a hot lunch prepared for you. I ll bring
the bag along. Then you can tell me what happened after they grabbed you.
 How did you find out I was gone? Trigger asked.
 Your fac, he said.  The girl was darn good actually. I talked to you her on
office transmitter once and didn t spot a sour note. Mostly she just kept out
of everybody s way. Very slick at it! We would have got her fairly fast
because we were preparing for take-off to Luscious by then. But she spilled it
herself.
 How?
 I located her finally again, on transmitter screen. There was no one on her
side to impress. She took a sniff of porgee.
Trigger laughed delightedly.  Good old porgee pouch! It beat them twice. But
how did you know where I was?
 No problem there. We knew Lyad had strings on Pluly. Quillan knew about that
sealed level on Pluly s yacht and got [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]