Beneath the Eye of God (The Commodore Ardcasl Space Adventures Book 1) (23 page)

The guard took a step closer and the Commodore backed away, his hands in the air. "Fear not, my friend. I do not intend to threaten you with 500-year-old hand lasers."

"It wouldn't do any good anyway," Laral said ruefully. "They don't work. I've tried them both."

***

Blackman Nol joined them in the study. He was all smiles. "Here you are, Commodore. And Laral, how kind of you to entertain our guest in my absence. I've just been to the kitchen and have been informed that supper will be ready shortly."

"Your niece has been a very informative guide through this fascinating material. Some of these artifacts are quite valuable. That is, in fact, what brought me here. As I said before, I met your brother many years ago, he told me a little about his collection. Well, you can imagine my excitement. As scientists, of course, we prefer to do our own field work but we also rely on the research that has been done by others. But here, alas, there are only a handful of scholars with an interest in the past. That's what makes your brother's collection so . . ."

"Yes, yes." Nol interrupted impatiently. "Personally I am more interested in the future than in the past. I would rather build an empire of my own than read about those that fell to dust centuries ago. But you met my brother in the capital? When exactly was that?"

"Your niece asked me that same question. As I told her . . . "

"We think it must have been in '27," Laral said. "I remember father mentioning it. I believe I recall some correspondence in the files, though it would take a while to dig it out."

Nol seemed slightly surprised. "What? Oh, no. That's not necessary."

Was he disappointed, the Commodore wondered. He could read no expression at all in Laral's gray eyes.

"Let's join the others in the living room," Nol said heartily. "I've taken the liberty of having Em lay out your machinery there. You did promise to explain it all to me. These old things have their interest, I suppose." He waved his arm depreciatingly around the room. "But my mind works in the future and machinery, I am convinced, will be its key."

Leahn was seated as they had left her. Em had been replaced as her guard by two burly stone-faced individuals who stood on either side behind her. Em was at the other end of the spacious room where the twins' equipment had been laid out on a large table.

The twins and their guards were present as were all Leahn's sisters. Beautifully dressed in long gowns, they clustered nervously near her. Nol seemed to relish the role of genial host. Wading jovially into the tension-filled room, he introduced the Commodore and the twins to all his nieces. The two the Commodore had not yet met were slim pretty women, still red around the eyes and ill at ease.

Nol led his guests over to the bar where Caran was mixing a drink Nol called a colonist's revenge. She was clearly startled when Nol took one for himself. "Keep the glasses full, Caran," he called over his shoulder as he led the way to the equipment table.

"We have too few parties here," he confided to the Commodore. "I must work much of the time but still, it's just not a very jolly crowd around here. It's more fun to go into town. The girls there know how to have a good time."

"It's the same everywhere. The breadwinner is seldom appreciated in his own home."

"If I were doing it for myself, that would be one thing, but look at me. My needs are simple. I'm doing all this for the family. You'd think they would take an interest . . . Ah, here are the machines. Let's start with this big one."

While Em hovered anxiously nearby, the Commodore explained the workings of the computer, then had the twins hook it up to the sonar probes to produce a drawing of the wine cellar beneath them. The Commodore brought out the pyramid drawings but Nol's attention had already wandered on to the ultrasonic insect repeller.

"That is my pride and joy, worth its weight in credits. My associates seem immune to bugs. They probably don't taste very good. But that just leaves more for me. They love me. I itch, I turn red, I swell up like a balloon. But with this," he patted the compact device, "I survive."

"How does it work?" Nol demanded.

Blinking through his fish-eye glasses, Elor demonstrated. But with few bugs in the Nol living room, it was difficult to show its effect. Nol turned its single knob up to full power and held it to his ear. It hummed. He thumped it on the table and listened again. It still hummed. "Does it kill them?" he asked.

"Kill who?"

"The bugs."

"Oh no," Elor replied. "It sets up a sonic field, an instability in the air that is tuned at cross purposes to their own bodily rhythms. It merely disturbs them and they go away."

"It doesn't kill them?"

"No."

"Would it work on a man?"

"Only if it were very much larger and more powerful."

Nol had already lost interest in the insect repeller and picked up another small instrument. "What's this?"

"Ah," said the Commodore. "I'd forgotten about that."

"Oh?"

"It's the calldown box for the governor's aircar."

Nol was suddenly interested. "I've always wanted an aircar. How does it work?"

"It's like a homing device. We're scheduled to switch it on three days from now. It sends out a beam that will guide the car's driver right to us."

"The driver, eh?"

"And two of the governor's marines. I don't know if that's standard procedure but there were two of them aboard the car that brought us to the coast. And of course, they're in constant radio contact with the capital."

Nol's eyes went dark. "If the governor thinks he can send an assassin after me, he'll soon wish he hadn't." His face had started to go red but it suddenly cleared.

He smiled at Leahn. "There she sits, the dear little niece you so generously brought me."

The Commodore started to protest.

"All unknowing, on your part," Nol hastened to assure him. "Of that I am now convinced. Yet you have brought her to me like a present. A lovely present. And like a child with a lovely present, I cannot wait to remove the wrapping and learn what secrets lie hidden inside. If the governor and his cronies think they can just walk in and take all I've created here . . . "

He was beginning to go red again when Silane announced that dinner was served. Caran had kept their glasses filled as ordered and Nol was in a festive mood as he gallantly escorted Leahn into the dining room with the others. The long table was set with fine crystal and silver. There were eleven of them—the six sisters, Nol, Em, the Commodore and the twins. The guards placed themselves strategically around the room. Nol seated Leahn at one end of the table, himself at the other. "So I can keep an eye on my lovely present," he laughed.

"If you don't untie her hands, she cannot eat," Silane protested.

"With all these knives and forks around? You forget how unstable the poor child is. She might injure herself. Besides, she hasn't been here with her family for . . . what? Three years now. I'm sure it will be pleasure enough for her just to sit and watch us eat. Isn't that so, Leahn? This is, after all, the last time we shall all be together."

Leahn glared at him but said nothing. The rest of the guests looked unhappy. Nol took no notice. He was charming. The food was excellent and the wine flowed freely. Of the sisters, only Laral seemed to have an appetite. The Commodore told a number of carefully selected stories, a couple of which even got a smile from the grim guards.

***

"Delightful evening, Commodore." Blackman Nol sighed happily as Caran poured a round of after-dinner drinks. "Can't remember when I've had a more pleasant one. But you are here on business and it's time we got to it."

He smiled at Leahn. "I have one more appointment this evening. But let's get your business attended to first. We'll retire to my study and you can tell me how many of my brother's priceless heirlooms you wish to buy. I fear I have you at a disadvantage in that I've seen the inside of your purse. I know you've brought 63 credits and I wouldn't be surprised if whatever it is you want to buy comes to very nearly that exact amount." He roared with laughter as he guided the Commodore and the twins toward the study.

He turned at the hallway and called back to Em. "Do escort the ladies back into the living room. They weren't at all talkative during dinner but they might want to say farewell to their sister."

He led them down the hall and opened the study door. "After you, gentlemen."

The Commodore stepped inside, stopped, turned and stepped out again, closing the door behind him. Elor, following close behind, collided and bounced away.

"Your hospitality has been more than generous," the Commodore rumbled. "But I cannot in good conscience begin our business dealings without laying all our cards on the table, so to speak . . . Ah, yes, the table. Gentlemen, if you will accompany me back to the table in the living room where our map case is, this will take but a moment. Erol you might go on ahead and take out our aerial surveys. I believe we owe our host a full and complete explanation of our visit here."

As he herded the puzzled group back toward the living room, the Commodore reflected on the astonishing tableau he had just witnessed in the study. A dirty young boy stood in front of the fireplace, Leahn's sword on one hand, a familiar basket in the other. An equally scruffy lad was on top of the mantle while Malie, on his shoulders, was attempting to unfasten the top of the skin that hung there. Frozen in place, he left them staring at him as he had backed out and closed the door.

It was a scene, he had no doubt, forever engraved on his memory, one he would carry with him to the grave.

He entered the living room where the others were waiting for an explanation of his odd behavior. He started talking. "Everything we have told you, my dear Blackman, has, of course, been the absolute truth. But not, I fear, the entire truth." He spread his hand wide in resignation. "Alas, you and I are men of principle in a world woefully short of that commodity."

He unrolled the survey maps. "My associates and I have travelled through the lowlands on a survey expedition and we did come here by aircar to view your brother's collection. That much is the absolute truth. But there is more, and of this, it grieves me to say, we have been less than candid." He gestured toward Leahn just being led to her chair by Hossen Em. "It concerns that unfortunate young woman."

Nol's hand was on his dagger and his eyes were sparkling in fascination as the Commodore continued. "At the beginning of our expedition we naturally visited the capital to obtain the assistance of the authorities. While they had no objection to our research, they hired us to carry out a secret investigation on their behalf.

"We then had two assignments, the original one which brought us here, the one you know about. And a second mission about which we were sworn to secrecy."

He paused, for dramatic effect and to think of what to say next. He shuffled his maps around as if searching for the right one. "When I say that my two associates are scientists, I understate the case. They possess, without a doubt, the two most highly trained scientific minds on this planet. When your governor discovered this, he asked us to undertake an aerial reconnaissance of his realm. We were to search for . . . petroleum. Do you know what petroleum is, Blackman?"

"Of course. It's a combustible fuel rather like coal but in liquid form. Our world is woefully short of it."

"You are short of it no longer." The Commodore pointed triumphantly to one of the radar maps. "We found structural indications of its presence right here." He pointed to the map. "And here." He pointed to Blackman Nol's floor. Nol's eyes went wide with surprise.

The Commodore held up a sonic probe. "These devices read the insides of pyramids. They read the inside of your wine cellar. They also read the secrets locked deep within the earth. Our second, secret mission was to come here and, with this machine, verify our findings. But someone who knew of our mission apparently became greedy. they sent an assassin, an assassin disguised as a Cirian bodyguard. Your niece."

All eyes turned to Leahn who stared back uncomfortably.

"You can see the position I was in, my dear Blackman. Secret assignments are nothing new for men like us, but this," he pointed to Leahn. "This clumsy attempt to conceal an assassin in our midst is an unconscionable breach of faith on the part of the governor or those around him. As far as I am concerned it cancels the pledge of secrecy that I, as an honorable man, gave all unsuspecting to those blackguards. Our debt to those who would use us in their perfidious scheme is cancelled."

He faced Blackman Nol and placed both hands firmly on the smaller man's shoulders. "Our knowledge and our skills are at your service, sir. Do you realize the power that will come to the man who controls the largest oil deposit on this planet? But we must work fast. Even now your enemies may be dispatching other assassins, possibly even an armed invasion. We must discover their identities immediately if we are to foil them and preserve these riches for you."

"Yes. Yes!" Blackman Nol's eyes were glazed. The sudden realization that the entire planet was about to drop like a ripe fruit into his hand had left him somewhat disoriented. He quickly came back to himself. "We must question Leahn," he said.