New Lensman Part 14

Larry introduced himself. The man invited him inside.

'I'm Sgt. George Fields, Officer in Charge,' the man said. 'Col. Hanovich instructed us to give you our complete cooperation and service. How can we help you?'

'I have reason to expect that you're going to have trouble from the people you're watching. I came to help.'

'I can't think of any possible trouble we could have with them,' Sgt. Fields said, gesturing toward the figures in the suite. 'It would take a nuclear device for them to get out of that suite, and they don't have one. It even held Gray Roger until he was released.'

Lt. McQueen's ears perked up at the casual mention of an incident involving Gray Roger, one of the most dangerous villains of his or any other era. Although Gray Roger was dead, the file on him was still open. It was considered both inadequate and incomplete.

'Why was he released?'

'I don't know. One of the previous mayors did it.'

Larry made a mental note to inquire further about it from Hanovich or Mayor Love, and returned to his original subject. 'All right. I doubt if they'll try to get out right now. One of their group just tried to turn off the travel tunnels, and for all they know, he's still trying. It's safer in there than out here. Who's the leader of the group?'

'From what we've seen, the doctor, Kalb, is the leader. He's the one over there looking at his watch. He's been looking at it quite a lot recently.'

'The travel tunnel attack was tied to time. The next Bergenholm would have been attacked in about five minutes, so we have at least that amount of time, probably more, before they move. Meanwhile I'd like to ask you some questions. They may sound like criticism but I a.s.sure you that they're 5152

pertinent.'

'Go on,' the Sergeant said.

'How do you expect to hold them in the suite?'

'What do you mean?'

'If one of them goes over and tries the door. Is it locked?' Larry asked.

'Yes, and the hallway up to it is closed with a plug of rock.'

'Then he goes to the phone and calls the manager?'

'No. We control the phone, and it's dead.'

'He can sue the hotel for being trapped in his suite.'

The Sergeant shrugged. 'Someone apologizes for his inconvenience.

'What if someone calls in?'

'The operator tells them that no one answers.'

'And if someone visits?'

'The clerk phones the room and then tells them the same thing.'

'If they insist on trying the door?'

'There's a door just like theirs at the other end of the plug.'

'That might work for a short time, until someone insists on going inside.'

'Why should they?' the Sergeant asked, puzzled.

'This outfit operates their own illegally registered s.p.a.cecraft out of New York s.p.a.ceport. They spot a crew in the safest spot in Copernicus outside of the Sanctuary during their try at destroying the city. Even though that spot's impregnability is not common knowledge. One would suspect that they have both extensive knowledge and resources. They can, and probably will, hire experts to play b.u.t.ton b.u.t.ton with you.'

'We could arrest them,' the Sergeant suggested.

'When we have to, we might, but what would you charge them with? Piracy? Treason? Attempted ma.s.s murder? All right, try and prove it. Using a false ident.i.ty? They'd be out on bail before you could book them. Judge Fox isn't a weak, sob-sister type, but he goes by the book. Anyway, all of this is speculation about what could happen in a day or so. What happens if in the next five minutes Dr. Kalb cues Geis to have another heart attack and they try to phone for help?'

'The phone is dead.'

'Can you detect if he is faking? If he really dies, it's possible manslaughter.'

'We could station a patrol in the hall and send in our own doctor.'

'And they could use the doctor as a hostage to get out,' Larry answered. 'If the patrol goes in with him, you'll have to either explain the patrol or arrest them.'

'How about anesthetizing them?'

Larry smiled. This sounded like more than he had hoped for. 'How?'

'We can either release a gas stored in a container in their air system or we can separate out their oxygen during recycling. Since we run at one atmosphere, they would go unconscious when the oxygen level is reduced by 10 to 15 per cent. That would take about five minutes.'

'Isn't hypoxia a rather slow and dangerous thing to use? It doesn't keep them under long after you return the oxygen level to normal, and it could cause a heart attack. Why use it?'

'It's a backup in case the gas isn't effective,' the Sergeant said.

'What gas do you use?'

'VXN. It's colorless, odorless ...'

'An anesthetic and tranquilizer with hypnogenic aftereffects,' Larry interrupted. 'It's ideal, and new enough that they may never have run into it.'

Sgt. Fields smiled. 'We were discussing using it earlier but when you and Hanovich left we figured we'd best wait.

On the stage in the center of the room the image of the doctor looked at his watch again.

'The last attack would have come about now,' Larry said, noting the action. 'When he doesn't feel the shocks, he'll wait a little while to be certain it isn't just going to be late, maybe five minutes, or maybe an hour. Eventually he'll be certain and they'll try and get out. When they do, anesthetize them. Make certain they're all down and out before you pull the hallway plug. How long does it take for the gas to decompose?'

'Ten minutes after the first contact with oxygen.'

'OK, that gives me between 15 minutes and an hour to get people together and get to the suite. Can you handle the details or should I go through the control center?'

'The control center. I can't authorize the use of personnel, I only request them for my own specific tasks.'

'Good. You can contact me through my belt communicator. Central Files have the sel call number.'

'You'll be waiting outside the suite?' Sgt. Fields asked.

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'Right.'

'We can watch you there. If you want anything, just say it out loud. We'll hear you. When you get inside, if we want to talk to you we'll phone in. Oh, and we'll also unlock the door.'

'Good. Thanks. Where's your visiphone?'

Larry contacted Hanovich back at the control center. He agreed to the interrogation and promised to take care of the details.

Fifteen minutes later Larry met a five-man security patrol in the hallway outside the outer doorway to the Consular Suite. He quickly briefed them, explaining in detail what they were supposed to do and that they were expected to provide muscle in case anything went wrong, either due to the activities of the people in the suite or due to outside intervention. He also warned them that anything they saw or knew about Security's facilities in the suite was to remain secret.

About a minute after he finished, a doctor, four nurses and an ambulance driver arrived from the hospital staff.

'We decided to bring an ambulance in case of trouble,' the doctor announced.

'I'm Lt. McQueen,' Larry said, and was introduced to Dr. Eichnor and the nurses. He recognized one of the nurses as having fallen into his arms when he was in the hospital. He smiled at her, 'Recovered from the V2?'

She nodded, blushed and smiled back at him.

'Good,' Larry said, and turned to the rest of the group.

'There are four people in the Consular Suite. They are suspected of being members of the group who attacked the travel tunnels,' he told them. 'The suite is behind an airtight door. In a few moments, when my communicator beeps, a gas bomb will go off in there. The gas is VXN. Ten to 12 minutes later we can go in and check the group. They should be in a semi-conscious state somewhere between hypnosis and euphoria. Keep silent. After the doctor checks them, I'll ask them questions and try to establish reasons for the recent attacks, and what they plan to do next.'

'That isn't ethical,' the doctor protested.

Lt. McQueen at first was a little surprised, then annoyed at the comment. 'About an hour ago a member of this group tried to destroy the travel tunnel system,' he answered the doctor. 'You, and all of the people of Copernicus, including women and children, would have died. Instead, three men gave their lives and two were injured stopping that man. There may be another attack planned. I have every reason to believe that these people know about it. I plan to go in there and question them, while they're under the influence of this mild hypnotic, about what is planned next. What new violence may be imposed on this city. Now, which is more ethical, to violate the privacy of these people, whom we have good reason to believe guilty of a murderous plot, or to allow innocent victims to die because we didn't know how to protect them?

'Try and comfort a child dying from lack of air by telling him you couldn't protect him without due process of law. Explain to a mother, protecting her baby from fire by interposing her body that it wasn't ethical for you to do everything in your power to make her sacrifice unneeded.

There are ethics and there are ethics. I suggest you, and any of the rest of you who have doubts, make a decision on which is more important right now. If necessary, I will replace you. Which is more important, their privacy or to save Copernicus and the people here?'

Larry waited, and watched the group until the doctor finally looked away. Larry's communicator beeped.

'You're right,' the doctor confessed.

'Thank you,' Larry answered 'That beep marked the beginning of the 10 minute period.' He consulted his watch. 'I suggest that we wait until 20:30 and then go in. As I was saying, I'll question them. If they know anything, we'll find out, otherwise we'll wait until they've recovered, and then release them.'

'Fleet Command has just issued General Order No. 6,' the Communications Officer announced.

'Change the helm to our final vector. The navigator will then destroy all navigation data!' Capt.

Corander commanded. 'Switch on the public address system; I wish to speak to the crew.'

His orders were executed and in a few moments his voice was heard throughout the s.p.a.ce cruiser.

'Gentlemen,' he called them. 'In a few short hours we will be joined in battle with a rapacious foe, a scourge to all intelligent life in our galaxy. We may not survive that conflict, so I am taking this opportunity to thank you for the devotion you have put forth in the past and the herculean efforts I know you will soon exert.

'You have seen, as I have, the stereos of the wholesale slaughter these monsters deliberately wrought without provocation or consideration for any of the essentials of humanity. You know that the very fate of the loved ones we have left behind depends upon our victory, or if not that, our quick and silent death without revelation of their whereabouts, for to do less would doom them to 5354

reprisal from these merciless creatures.

'However, remember that we are fighting not a race but a portion of a race. A ruling and controlling hierarchy whose depravity is so great that it dare not reveal the extent of its evil even to its own people. The populace of their empire, which they so grotesquely misnamed "Civilization", have little or no knowledge of the heinous crimes which have been committed, supposedly in their behalf. Consequently, we are striking at a limited objective, the upper echelon and military might of that hierarchy. Once we have destroyed the Solarian Patrol, and reduced their headquarters in the Hill on Tellus, we can safely leave neutralization of the remainder of their armed forces and the mobilization of the forces of justice and humanity to the "teachers" who have skillfully infiltrated their culture and now lead the people.

'We are committed to victory !' he concluded. 'And we shall have it, in the name of right and justice and those ideals we hold dear!'

The captain then returned to his normal duties, not yet realizing the extent of the outrageous deception being played on him and his fellow beings by those 'teachers' whom he trusted. He was to survive the battle and one day discover just how evil and corrupt those 'forces of justice and humanity' were' that the teachers lead.

'Ready?' Lt. Larry McQueen asked.

Everyone agreed. Larry opened the door and strode down the corridor. The security patrol followed him and the medical personnel brought up the rear. There was no indication that the s.p.a.ce that was now a corridor had, a minute before, been filled with solid rock. Hydraulics had moved the plug silently in and out of its concealed storage place, the floor.

When he reached the second doorway, Larry hesitated a moment to be certain that the men in the patrol were ready. He knocked, hesitated for an answer and then opened the door. The waiting room was empty. Persons of prestige or importance usually armed it with a receptionist or secretary to separate out undesirables. Lesser personages merely used its voluminous closets as a cloakroom, Larry waited while a security man checked behind the doors. The closets were empty.

They entered the main room of the suite and spread out. Three men swept through the kitchen, dining area and back into the main room. All empty. That left the bedrooms on both sides of the corridor at the far end of the main room.

Larry and the security men entered the corridor. Two men entered opposing bedrooms simultaneously as two men backed them up. Larry covered the rest of the corridor. Empty. They proceeded to the next opposing set of bedrooms. Also empty.

That left the main bedroom at the end of the corridor. They regrouped and went through the double doors. All four occupants of the suite were slumped about the bed at the far end of the room.

Larry waited as the patrol spread out in the room. They approached the bed somewhat as a group of men might approach a sleeping lion. After checking that the people were really unconscious, Larry searched each of them. He methodically turned each pocket inside out, after removing the contents, and checking their clothing for weapons. They had a minimum of identification, a large amount of money and almost nothing else. He examined each item and returned it. He beckoned the doctor over and indicated without speaking that the group was his to check. The doctor produced a biological telemetry set from his bag and started connecting electrodes and sensors to Geis, the man on the bed.

The visiphone chimed. Larry picked up the receiver and listened. The plate remained blank. Sgt.

Field's voice asked, 'Shall we relay his telemetry signals out of the suite to the hospital's computer?'

Larry nodded.

'QX,' the Sergeant said, and hung up.

Larry hung up. He got a puzzled look from a couple of nurses in the doorway watching but didn't comment, The doctor was listening to his set on an earpiece. He beckoned Larry over and handed him the earpiece. After Larry put it in his ear, the doctor pressed a b.u.t.ton marked Repeat.

A computer's flat voice gave a series of biological measurements ending with '... the patient is currently unconscious or asleep. He is in poor physical condition and has had a myocardial infarction within the last 60 hours. Please install the curette.'

While Larry listened, the doctor finished putting a needle connected to a long thin plastic tube in an artery and was about to begin examination of the eyes with his ophthalmoscope. Larry returned the earpiece.

The examination was completed in a couple of minutes. The doctor turned to the woman. He put electrodes across the temples, on her chest, and then examined her eyes. He smiled 'wryly to himself, keeping his own counsel for the moment. After he finished, Larry gestured, and a security 5455