* * * * *
The rules, Dr. Droon explained, laid down the type of equipment ...
weapons, spotting and tracking instruments, number of assistants, and
so forth ... a sportsman could legitimately use in the pursuit of any
specific type of game. "Before the end of the first year after their
discovery," he went on, "the Baluit crest cats had been placed in the
ultra-equipment class."
"What's ultra-equipment?" Telzey asked.
"Well," Dr. Droon said thoughtfully, "it doesn't quite involve the use
of full battle armor ... not quite! And, of course, even with that
classification the sporting principle of mutual accessibility must be
observed."
"Mutual ... oh, I see!" Telzey paused as another wave of silent
information rose into her awareness; went on, "So the game has to be
able to get at the sportsman too, eh?"
"That's correct. Except in the pursuit of various classes of flying
animals, a shikari would not, for example, be permitted the use of an
aircar other than as means of simple transportation. Under these
conditions, it was soon established that crest cats were being
obtained by sportsmen who went after them at a rather consistent
one-to-one ration."
Telzey's eyes widened. She'd gathered something similar from her other
information source but hadn't quite believed it. "One hunter killed
for each cat bagged?" she said. "That's pretty rough sport, isn't it?
"Extremely rough sport!" Dr. Droon agreed dryly. "In fact, when the
statistics were published, the sporting interest in winning a Baluit
cat trophy appears to have suffered a sudden and sharp decline. On the
other hand, a more scientific interest in these remarkable animals was
coincidingly created, and many permits for their acquisition by the
agents of museums, universities, public and private collections were
issued. Sporting rules, of course, do not apply to that activity."
Telzey nodded absently. "I see! _They_ used aircars, didn't they? A
sort of heavy knockout gun--"
"Aircars, long-range detectors and stunguns are standard equipment in
such work," Dr. Droon acknowledged. "Gas and poison are employed, of
course, as circumstances dictate. The collectors were relatively
successful for a while."
"And then a curious thing happened. Less than two years after their
existence became known, the crest cats of the Baluit range were
extinct! The inroads made on their numbers by man cannot begin to
account for this, so it must be assumed that a sudden plague wiped
them out. At any rate, not another living member of the species has
been seen on Jontarou until you landed here with your pet last night."
Telzey sat silent for some seconds. Not because of what he had said,
but because the other knowledge was still flowing into her mind. On
one very important point _that_ was at variance with what the
zoologist had stated; and from there a coldly logical pattern was
building up. Telzey didn't grasp the pattern in complete detail yet,
but what she saw of it stirred her with a half incredulous dread.
She asked, shaping the words carefully but with only a small part of
her attention on what she was really saying. "Just what does all that
have to do with Tick-Tock, Dr. Droon?"
Dr. Droon glanced at Halet, and returned his gaze to Telzey. Looking
very uncomfortable but quite determined, he told her, "Miss Amberdon,
there is a Federation law which states that when a species is
threatened with extinction, any available survivors must be
transferred to the Life Banks of the University League, to insure
their indefinite preservation. Under the circumstances, this law
applies to, ah, Tick-Tock!"
* * * * *
So that had been Halet's trick. She'd found out about the crest cats,
might have put in as much as a few months arranging to make the
discovery of TT's origin on Jontarou seem a regrettable
mischance--something no one could have foreseen or prevented. In the
Life Banks, from what Telzey had heard of them, TT would cease to
exist as an individual awareness while scientists tinkered around with
the possibilities of reconstructing her species.
Telzey studied her aunt's carefully sympathizing face for an instant,
asked Dr. Droon, "What about the other crest cats--you said were
collected before they became extinct here? Wouldn't they be enough for
what the Life Banks need?"
He shook his head. "Two immature male specimens are know to exist, and
they are at present in the Life Banks. The others that were taken
alive at the time have been destroyed ... often under nearly
disastrous circumstances. They are enormously cunning, enormously
savage creatures, Miss Amberdon! The additional fact that they can
conceal themselves to the point of being virtually indetectable except
by the use of instruments makes them one of the most dangerous animals
known. Since the young female which you raised as a pet has remained
docile ... so far ... you may not really be able to appreciate that."
"Perhaps I can," Telzey said. She nodded at the heavy-looking
instrument standing beside his chair. "And that's--?"
"It's a life detector combined with a stungun, Miss Amberdon. I have
no intention of harming your pet, but we can't take chances with an
animal of that type. The gun's charge will knock it unconscious for
several minutes--just long enough to let me secure it with paralysis
belts."
"You're a collector for the Life Banks, Dr. Droon?"
"That's correct."
"Dr. Droon," Halet remarked, "has obtained a permit from the Planetary
Moderator, authorizing him to claim Tick-Tock for the University
League and remove her from the planet, dear. So you see there is
simply nothing we can do about the matter! Your mother wouldn't like
us to attempt to obstruct the law, would she?" Halet paused. "The
permit should have your signature, Telzey, but I can sign in your
stead if necessary."
That was Halet's way of saying it would do no good to appeal to
Jontarou's Planetary Moderator. She'd taken the precaution of getting
his assent to the matter first.
"So now if you'll just call Tick-Tock, dear..." Halet went on.
Telzey barely heard the last words. She felt herself stiffening
slowly, while the living room almost faded from her sight. Perhaps, in
that instant, some additional new circuit had closed in her mind, or
some additional new channel had opened, for TT's purpose in tricking
her into contact with the reckless, mocking beings outside was
suddenly and numbingly clear.
And what it meant immediately was that she'd have to get out of the
house without being spotted at it, and go some place where she could
be undisturbed for half an hour.
She realized that Halet and the zoologist were both staring at her.
* * * * *
"Are you ill, dear?"
"No." Telzey stood up. It would be worse than useless to try to tell
these two anything! Her face must be pretty white at the moment--she
could feel it--but they assumed, of course, that the shock of losing
TT had just now sunk in on her.
"I'll have to check on that law you mentioned before I sign anything,"
she told Dr. Droon.
"Why, yes ..." He started to get out of his chair. "I'm sure that can
be arranged, Miss Amberdon!"
"Don't bother to call the Moderator's office," Telzey said. "I brought
my law library along. I'll look it up myself." She turned to leave the
room.
"My niece," Halet explained to Dr. Droon who was beginning to look puzzled,
"attends law school. She's always so absorbed in her studies ... Telzey?"
"Yes, Halet?" Telzey paused at the door.
"I'm very glad you've decided to be sensible about this, dear. But
don't take too long, will you? We don't want to waste Dr. Droon's
time."
"It shouldn't take more than five or ten minutes," Telzey told her
agreeably. She closed the door behind her, and went directly to her
bedroom on the second floor. One of her two valises was still
unpacked. She locked the door behind her, opened the unpacked valise,
took out a pocket edition law library and sat down at the table with
it.
She clicked on the library's view-screen, tapped the clearing and
index buttons. Behind the screen, one of the multiple rows of pinhead
tapes shifted slightly as the index was flicked into reading position.
Half a minute later, she was glancing over the legal section on which
Dr. Droon had based his claim. The library confirmed what he had said.
Very neat of Halet, Telzey thought, very nasty ... and pretty idiotic!
Even a second-year law student could think immediately of two or three
ways in which a case like that could have been dragged out in the
Federation's courts for a couple of decades before the question of
handing Tick-Tock over to the Life Banks became too acute.
Well, Halet simply wasn't really intelligent. And the plot to shanghai
TT was hardly even a side issue now.
Telzey snapped the tiny library shut, fastened it to the belt of her
sunsuit and went over to the open window. A two-foot ledge passed
beneath the window, leading to the roof of a patio on the right.
Fifty yards beyond the patio, the garden ended in a natural-stone
wall. Behind it lay one of the big wooded park areas which formed most
of the ground level of Port Nichay.
Tick-Tock wasn't in sight. A sound of voices came from ground-floor
windows on the left. Halet had brought her maid and chauffeur along;
and a chef had showed up in time to make breakfast this morning, as
part of the city's guest house service. Telzey took the empty valise
to the window, set it on end against the left side of the frame, and
let the window slide down until its lower edge rested on the valise.
She went back to the house guard-screen panel beside the door, put her
finger against the lock button, and pushed.
The sound of voices from the lower floor was cut off as outer doors
and windows slid silently shut all about the house. Telzey glanced
back at the window. The valise had creaked a little as the guard field
drove the frame down on it, but it was supporting the thrust. She
returned to the window, wriggled feet foremost through the opening,
twisted around and got a footing on the ledge.
A minute later, she was scrambling quietly down a vine-covered patio
trellis to the ground. Even after they discovered she was gone, the
guard screen would keep everybody in the house for some little while.
They'd either have to disengage the screen's main mechanisms and start
poking around in them, or force open the door to her bedroom and get
the lock unset. Either approach would involve confusion, upset
tempers, and generally delay any organized pursuit.
Telzey edged around the patio and started towards the wall, keeping
close to the side of the house so she couldn't be seen from the
windows. The shrubbery made minor rustling noises as she threaded her
way through it ... and then there was a different stirring which might
have been no more than a slow, steady current of air moving among the
bushes behind her. She shivered involuntarily but didn't look back.
She came to the wall, stood still, measuring its height, jumped and
got an arm across it, swung up a knee and squirmed up and over. She
came down on her feet with a small thump in the grass on the other
side, glanced back once at the guest house, crossed a path and went on
among the park trees.
* * * * *
Within a few hundred yards, it became apparent that she had an escort.
She didn't look around for them, but spread out to right and left like
a skirmish line, keeping abreast with her, occasional shadows slid
silently through patches of open, sunlit ground, disappeared again
under the trees. Otherwise, there was hardly anyone in sight. Port
Nichay's human residents appeared to make almost no personal use of
the vast parkland spread out beneath their tower apartments; and its
traffic moved over the airways, visible from the ground only as
rainbow-hued ribbons which bisected the sky between the upper tower
levels. An occasional private aircar went by overhead.
Wisps of thought which were not her own thoughts flicked through
Telzey's mind from moment to moment as the silent line of shadows
moved deeper into the park with her. She realized she was being sized
up, judged, evaluated again. No more information was coming through;
they had given her as much information as she needed. In the main
perhaps, they were simply curious now. This was the first human mind
they'd been able to make heads or tails of, and that hadn't seemed
deaf and silent to their form of communication. They were taking time
out to study it. They'd been assured she would have something of
genuine importance to tell them; and there was some derision about
that. But they were willing to wait a little, and find out. They were
curious and they liked games. At the moment, Telzey and what she might
try to do to change their plans was the game on which their attention
was fixed.
Twelve minutes passed before the talker on Telzey's wrist began to
buzz. It continued to signal off and on for another few minutes, then
stopped. Back in the guest house they couldn't be sure yet whether she
wasn't simply locked inside her room and refusing to answer them. But
Telzey quickened her pace.
The park's trees gradually became more massive, reached higher above
her, stood spaced more widely apart. She passed through the morning
shadow of the residential tower nearest the guest house, and emerged
from it presently on the shore of a small lake. On the other side of
the lake, a number of dappled grazing animals like long-necked, tall
horses lifted their heads to watch her. For some seconds they seemed
only mildly interested, but then a breeze moved across the lake,
crinkling the surface of the water, and as it touched the opposite
shore, abrupt panic exploded among the grazers. They wheeled, went
flashing away in effortless twenty-foot strides, and were gone among
the trees.
Telzey felt a crawling along her spine. It was the first objective
indication she'd had of the nature of the company she had brought to
the lake, and while it hardly came as a surprise, for a moment her
urge was to follow the example of the grazers.
"Tick-Tock?" she whispered, suddenly a little short of breath.
A single up-and-down purring note replied from the bushes on her
right. TT was still around, for whatever good that might do. Not too
much, Telzey thought, if it came to serious trouble. But the knowledge
was somewhat reassuring ... and this, meanwhile, appeared to be as far
as she needed to get from the guest house. They'd be looking for her
by aircar presently, but there was nothing to tell them in which
direction to turn first.
She climbed the bank of the lake to a point where she was screened
both by thick, green shrubbery and the top of a single immense tree
from the sky, sat down on some dry, mossy growth, took the law library
from her belt, opened it and placed it in her lap. Vague stirrings
indicated that her escort was also settling down in an irregular
circle about her; and apprehension shivered on Telzey's skin again. It
wasn't that their attitude was hostile; they were simply overawing.
And no one could predict what they might do next. Without looking up,
she asked a question in her mind.
"Ready?"
* * * * *
[Illustration]
Sense of multiple acknowledgment, variously tinged--sardonic;
interestingly amused; attentive; doubtful. Impatience quivered through
it too, only tentatively held in restraint, and Telzey's forehead was
suddenly wet. Some of them seemed on the verge of expressing
disapproval with what was being done here--
Her fingers quickly flicked in the index tape, and the stir of feeling
about her subsided, their attention captured again for the moment. Her
thoughts became to some degree detached, ready to dissect another
problem in the familiar ways and present the answers to it. Not a very
involved problem essentially, but this time it wasn't a school
exercise. Her company waited, withdrawn, silent, aloof once more,
while the index blurred, checked, blurred and checked. Within a minute
and a half, she had noted a dozen reference symbols. She tapped in
another of the pinhead tapes, glanced over a few paragraphs, licked
salty sweat from her lip, and said in her thoughts, emphasizing the
meaning of each detail of the sentence so that there would be no
misunderstanding, "This is the Federation law that applies to the
situation which existed originally on this planet...."
There were no interruptions, no commenting thoughts, no intrusions of
any kind, as she went step by step through the section, turned to
another one, and another. In perhaps twelve minutes she came to the
end of the last one, and stopped. Instantly, argument exploded about
her.
Telzey was not involved in the argument; in fact, she could grasp only
scraps of it. Either they were excluding her deliberately, or the
exchange was too swift, practiced and varied to allow her to keep up.
But their vehemence was not encouraging. And was it reasonable to
assume that the Federation's laws would have any meaning for minds
like these? Telzey snapped the library shut with fingers that had
begun to tremble, and placed it on the ground. Then she stiffened. In
the sensations washing about her, a special excitement rose suddenly,
a surge of almost gleeful wildness that choked away her breath.
Awareness followed of a pair of malignant crimson eyes fastened on
her, moving steadily closer. A kind of nightmare paralysis seized
Telzey--they'd turned her over to that red-eyed horror! She sat still,
feeling mouse-sized.
Something came out with a crash from a thicket behind her. Her muscles
went tight. But it was TT who rubbed a hard head against her shoulder,
took another three stiff-legged steps forward and stopped between
Telzey and the bushes on their right, back rigid, neck fur erect, tail
twisting.
Expectant silence closed in about them. The circle was waiting. In the
greenery on the right something made a slow, heavy stir.
TT's lips peeled back from her teeth. Her head swung towards the
motion, ears flattening, transformed to a split, snarling demon-mask.
A long shriek ripped from her lungs, raw with fury, blood lust and
challenge.
The sound died away. For some seconds the tension about them held;
then came a sense of gradual relaxation mingled with a partly amused
approval. Telzey was shaking violently. It had been, she was telling
herself, a deliberate test ... not of herself, of course, but of TT.
And Tick-Tock had passed with honors. That _her_ nerves had been half
ruined in the process would seem a matter of no consequence to this
rugged crew....
She realized next that someone here was addressing her personally.
It took a few moments to steady her jittering thoughts enough to gain
a more definite impression than that. This speaker, she discovered
then, was a member of the circle of whom she hadn't been aware before.
The thought-impressions came hard and cold as iron--a personage who
was very evidently in the habit of making major decisions and seeing
them carried out. The circle, its moment of sport over, was listening
with more than a suggestion of deference. Tick-Tock, far from
conciliated, green eyes still blazing, nevertheless was settling down
to listen, too.
Telzey began to understand.
Her suggestions, Iron Thoughts informed her, might appear without
value to a number of foolish minds here, but _he_ intended to see they
were given a fair trial. Did he perhaps hear, he inquired next of the
circle, throwing in a casual but horridly vivid impression of snapping
spines and slashed shaggy throats spouting blood, any objection to
that?
Dead stillness all around. There was, definitely, no objection.
Tick-Tock began to grin like a pleased kitten.
That point having been settled in an orderly manner now, Iron Thoughts
went on coldly to Telzey, what specifically did she propose they
should do?
* * * * *
Halet's long, pearl-gray sportscar showed up above the park trees
twenty minutes later. Telzey, face turned down towards the open law
library in her lap, watched the car from the corner of her eyes. She
was in plain view, sitting beside the lake, apparently absorbed in
legal research. Tick-Tock, camouflaged among the bushes thirty feet
higher up the bank, had spotted the car an instant before she did and
announced the fact with a three-second break in her purring. Neither
of them made any other move.
The car was approaching the lake but still a good distance off. Its
canopy was down, and Telzey could just make out the heads of three
people inside. Delquos, Halet's chauffeur, would be flying the
vehicle, while Halet and Dr. Droon looked around for her from the
sides. Three hundred yards away, the aircar began a turn to the right.
Delquos didn't like his employer much; at a guess, he had just spotted
Telzey and was trying to warn her off.
Telzey closed the library and put it down, picked up a handful of
pebbles and began flicking them idly, one at a time, into the water.
The aircar vanished to her left.
Three minutes later, she watched its shadow glide across the surface
of the lake towards her. Her heart began to thump almost audibly, but
she didn't look up. Tick-Tock's purring continued, on its regular,
unhurried note. The car came to a stop almost directly overhead. After
a couple of seconds, there was a clicking noise. The purring ended
abruptly.
Telzey climbed to her feet as Delquos brought the car down to the bank
of the lake. The chauffeur grinned ruefully at her. A side door had
been opened, and Halet and Dr. Droon stood behind it. Halet watched
Telzey with a small smile while the naturalist put the heavy
life-detector-and-stungun device carefully down on the floorboards.
"If you're looking for Tick-Tock," Telzey said, "she isn't here."
Halet just shook her head sorrowfully.
"There's no use lying to us, dear. Dr Droon just stunned her."
* * * * *
They found TT collapsed on her side among the shrubs, wearing her
natural color. Her eyes were shut, her chest rose and fell in a slow
breathing motion. Dr. Droon, looking rather apologetic, pointed out to
Telzey that her pet was in no pain, that the stungun had simply put
her comfortably to sleep. He also explained the use of the two sets of
webbed paralysis belts which he fastened about TT's legs. The effect
of the stun charge would wear off in a few minutes, and contact with
the inner surfaces of the energized belts would then keep TT
anesthetized and unable to move until the belts were removed. She
would, he repeated, be suffering no pain throughout the process.
Telzey didn't comment. She watched Delquos raise TT's limp body above
the level of the bushes with a gravity hoist belonging to Dr. Droon,
and maneuver her back to the car, the others following. Delquos
climbed into the car first, opened the big trunk compartment in the
rear. TT was slid inside and the trunk compartment locked.
"Where are you taking her?" Telzey asked sullenly as Delquos lifted
the car into the air.
"To the spaceport, dear," Halet said. "Dr. Droon and I both felt it
would be better to spare your feelings by not prolonging the matter
unnecessarily."
Telzey wrinkled her nose disdainfully, and walked up the aircar to
stand behind Delquos' seat. She leaned against the back of the seat
for an instant. Her legs felt shaky.
The chauffeur gave her a sober wink from the side.
"That's a dirty trick she's played on you, Miss Telzey!" he murmured.
"I tried to warn you."
"I know." Telzey took a deep breath. "Look, Delquos, in just a minute
something's going to happen! It'll look dangerous, but it won't be.
Don't let it get you nervous ... right?"
"Huh?" Delquos appeared startled, but kept his voice low. "Just
_what's_ going to happen?"
"No time to tell you. Remember what I said."
* * * * *
Telzey moved back a few steps from the driver's seat, turned around,
said unsteadily, "Halet ... Dr. Droon--"
Halet had been speaking quietly to Dr. Droon; they both looked up.
"If you don't move, and don't do anything stupid," Telzey said
rapidly, "you won't get hurt. If you do ... well, I don't know! You
see, there's another crest cat in the car...." In her mind she added,
"Now!"
It was impossible to tell in just what section of the car Iron
Thoughts had been lurking. The carpeting near the rear passenger seats
seemed to blur for an instant. Then he was there, camouflage dropped,
sitting on the floorboards five feet from the naturalist and Halet.
Halet's mouth opened wide; she tried to scream but fainted instead.
Dr. Droon's right hand started out quickly towards the big stungun
device beside his seat. Then he checked himself and sat still,
ashen-faced.
Telzey didn't blame him for changing his mind. She felt he must be a
remarkably brave man to have moved at all. Iron Thoughts, twice as
broad across the back as Tick-Tock, twice as massively muscled, looked
like a devil-beast even to her. His dark-green marbled hide was
criss-crossed with old scar patterns; half his tossing crimson crest
appeared to have been ripped away. He reached out now in a fluid,
silent motion, hooked a paw under the stungun and flicked upwards. The
big instrument rose in an incredibly swift, steep arc eighty feet
into the air, various parts flying away from it, before it started
curving down towards the treetops below the car. Iron Thoughts lazily
swung his head around and looked at Telzey with yellow fire-eyes.
"Miss Telzey! Miss Telzey!" Delquos was muttering behind her. "You're
_sure_ it won't...."
Telzey swallowed. At the moment, she felt barely mouse-sized again.
"Just relax!" she told Delquos in a shaky voice. "He's really quite
t-t-t-tame."
Iron Thoughts produced a harsh but not unamiable chuckle in her mind.
* * * * *
The pearl-gray sportscar, covered now by its streamlining canopy,
drifted down presently to a parking platform outside the suite of
offices on Jontarou's Planetary Moderator, on the fourteenth floor of
the Shikaris' Club Tower. An attendant waved it on into a vacant slot.
Inside the car, Delquos set the brakes, switched off the engine,
asked, "Now what?"
"I think," Telzey said reflectively, "we'd better lock you in the
trunk compartment with my aunt and Dr. Droon while I talk to the
Moderator."
The chauffeur shrugged. He'd regained most of his aplomb during the
unhurried trip across the parklands. Iron Thoughts had done nothing
but sit in the center of the car, eyes half shut, looking like instant
death enjoying a dignified nap and occasionally emitting a ripsawing
noise which might have been either his style of purring or a snore.
And Tick-Tock, when Delquos peeled the paralysis belts off her legs at
Telzey's direction, had greeted him with her usual reserved
affability. What the chauffeur was suffering from at the moment was
intense curiosity, which Telzey had done nothing to relieve.
"Just as you say, Miss Telzey," he agreed. "I hate to miss whatever
you're going to be doing here, but if you _don't_ lock me up now, Miss
Halet will figure I was helping you and fire me as soon as you let her
out."
Telzey nodded, then cocked her head in the direction of the rear
compartment. Faint sounds coming through the door indicated that Halet
had regained consciousness and was having hysterics.
"You might tell her," Telzey suggested, "that there'll be a grown-up
crest cat sitting outside the compartment door." This wasn't true, but
neither Delquos nor Halet could know it. "If there's too much racket
before I get back, it's likely to irritate him...."
A minute later, she set both car doors on lock and went outside,
wishing she were less informally clothed. Sunbriefs and sandals tended
to make her look juvenile.
* * * * *
The parking attendant appeared startled when she approached him with
Tick-Tock striding alongside.
"They'll never let you into the offices with that thing, miss," he
informed her. "Why, it doesn't even have a collar!"
"Don't worry about it." Telzey told him aloofly.
She dropped a two-credit piece she'd taken from Halet's purse into his
hand, and continued on towards the building entrance. The attendant
squinted after her, trying unsuccessfully to dispel an odd impression
that the big catlike animal with the girl was throwing a double
shadow.
The Moderator's chief receptionist also had some doubts about TT, and
possibly about the sunbriefs, though she seemed impressed when
Telzey's identification tag informed her she was speaking to the
daughter of Federation Councilwoman Jessamine Amberdon.
"You feel you can discuss this ... emergency ... only with the
Moderator himself, Miss Amberdon?" she repeated.
"Exactly," Telzey said firmly. A buzzer sounded as she spoke. The
receptionist excused herself and picked up an earphone. She listened a
moment, said blandly, "Yes.... Of course.... Yes, I understand,"
replaced the earphone and stood up, smiling at Telzey.
"Would you come with me, Miss Amberdon?" she said. "I think the
Moderator will see you immediately...."
Telzey followed her, chewing thoughtfully at her lip. This was easier
than she'd expected--in fact, too easy! Halet's work? Probably. A few
comments to the effect of "A highly imaginative child ...
overexcitable," while Halet was arranging to have the Moderator's
office authorize Tick-Tock's transfer to the life Banks, along with
the implication that Jessamine Amberdon would appreciate a discreet
handling of any disturbance Telzey might create as a result.