"Why? There's fifty more coming in on the liner tonight."
"We don't have the fifty yet. If someone louses up the detail--"
"Yawk!" Baldy said faintly. There was a crash of sound as his riot gun
went off. Quillan spun about, hair bristling, gun out. "What
happened?"
"I'll swear," Baldy said, white-faced, "I saw something moving along
that passage!"
Quillan looked, saw nothing, slowly replaced the gun. "Baldy," he
said, "if you think you see it again, just say so. That's an order! If
it comes at us, we get out of this level fast. But we don't shoot
before we have to. If we kill it, it's no good to us. Got that?"
"Yeah," Baldy said. "But I got an idea now, Bad News." He nodded at
the other cubicle. "Let's leave that meat box open."
"Why?"
"If it's hungry," Baldy explained simply, "I'd sooner it wrapped
itself around a few chunks of sea beef, an' not around me."
Quillan punched him encouragingly in the shoulder. "Baldy," he said,
"in your own way, you _have_ had an idea! But we won't leave the meat
box open. When Kinmarten wakes up, I want him to show me how to bait
this cubicle with a piece of sea beef, so it'll snap shut if the Hlat
goes inside. Meanwhile it won't hurt if it gets a little hungry."
"That," said Baldy, "isn't the way _I_ feel about it."
"There must be around a hundred and fifty people in the Executive
Block at present," Quillan said. "Look at it that way! Even if the
thing keeps stuffing away, your odds are pretty good, Baldy."
Baldy shuddered.
* * * * *
Aside from a dark bruise high on his forehead, Brock Kinmarten showed
no direct effects of having been knocked out. However, his face was
strained and his voice not entirely steady. It was obvious that the
young rest warden had never been in a similarly unnerving situation
before. But he was making a valiant effort not to appear frightened
and, at the same time, to indicate that he would co-operate to the
best of his ability with his captors.
He'd regained consciousness by the time Quillan and Perk returned to
the fourth level, and Quillan suggested bringing him to Marras Cooms'
private quarters for questioning. The Brotherhood chief agreed; he was
primarily interested in finding out how the Hlat-control device
functioned.
Kinmarten shook his head. He knew nothing about the instrument, he
said, except that it was called a Hlat-talker. It was very unfortunate
that Eltak had been shot, because Eltak undoubtedly could have told
them all they wanted to know about it. If what he had told Kinmarten
was true, Eltak had been directly involved in the development of the
device.
"Was he some Federation scientist?" Cooms asked, fiddling absently
with the mysterious cylindrical object.
"No, sir," the young man said. "But--again if what he told me was the
truth--he was the man who actually discovered these Hlats. At least,
he was the first man to discover them who wasn't immediately killed by
them."
Cooms glanced thoughtfully at Quillan, then asked, "And where was
that?"
Kinmarten shook his head again. "He didn't tell me. And I didn't
really want to know. I was anxious to get our convoy to its
destination, and then to be relieved of the assignment. I ... well,
I've been trained to act as Rest Warden to human beings, after all,
not to monstrosities!" He produced an uncertain smile, glancing from
one to the other of his interrogators. The smile promptly faded out
again.
"You've no idea at all then about the place they came from?" Cooms
asked expressionlessly.
"Oh, yes," Kinmarten said hastily. "Eltak talked a great deal about
the Hlats, and actually--except for its location--gave me a fairly
good picture of what the planet must be like. For one thing, it's an
uncolonized world, of course. It must be terratype or very nearly so,
because Eltak lived there for fifteen years with apparently only a
minimum of equipment. The Hlats are confined to a single large
island. He discovered them by accident and--"
"What was he doing there?"
"Well, sir, he came from Hyles-Frisian. He was a crim ... he'd been
engaged in some form of piracy, and when the authorities began looking
for him, he decided it would be best to get clean out of the Hub. He
cracked up his ship on this world and couldn't leave again. When he
discovered the Hlats and realized their peculiar ability, he kept out
of their way and observed them. He found out they had a means of
communicating with each other, and that he could duplicate it. That
stopped them from harming him, and eventually, he said, he was using
them like hunting dogs. They were accustomed to co-operating with one
another, because when there was some animal around that was too large
for one of them to handle, they would attack, it in a group...."
He went on for another minute or two on the subject. The Hlats--the
word meant "rock lion" in one of the Hyles-Frisian dialects,
describing a carnivorous animal which had some superficial resemblance
to the creatures Eltak had happened on--frequented the seacoast and
submerged themselves in sand, rocks and debris, whipping up out of it
to seize some food animal, and taking it down with them again to
devour it at leisure.
Quillan interrupted, "You heard what happened to the man it attacked
on the fifth level?"
"Yes, sir."
"Why would the thing have left him half outside the wall as it did?"
Kinmarten said that it must simply have been moving too fast. It could
slip into and out of solid substances without a pause itself, but it
needed a little time to restructure an object it was carrying in the same
manner. No more time, however, than two or three seconds--depending more
on the nature of the object than on its size, according to Eltak.
"It can restructure _anything_ in that manner?" Quillan asked.
Kinmarten hesitated. "Well, sir, I don't know. I suppose there might
be limitations on its ability. Eltak told me the one we were escorting
had been the subject of extensive experimentation during the past
year, and that the results are very satisfactory."
"Suppose it carries a living man through a wall. Will the man still be
alive when he comes out on the other side, assuming the Hlat doesn't
kill him deliberately?"
"Yes, sir. The process itself wouldn't hurt him."
* * * * *
Quillan glanced at Cooms. "You know," he said, "we might be letting
Yaco off too cheaply!"
Cooms raised an eyebrow warningly, and Quillan grinned. "Our friend
will be learning about Yaco soon enough. Why did Eltak tell the
creature to attack, Kinmarten?"
"Sir, I don't know," Kinmarten said. "He was a man of rather violent
habits. My impression, however, was that he was simply attempting to
obtain a hostage."
"How did he get off that island with the Hlat?"
"A University League explorer was investigating the planet. Eltak
contacted them and obtained the guarantee of a full pardon and a large
cash settlement in return for what he could tell them about the Hlats.
They took him and this one specimen along for experimentation."
"What about the Hlats on the _Camelot_?"
"Eltak said those had been quite recently trapped on the island."
Cooms ran his fingers over the cylinder, producing a rapid series of
squeaks and whistles. "That's one thing Yaco may not like," he
observed. "They won't have a monopoly on the thing."
Quillan shook his head. "Their scientists don't have to work through
red tape like the U-League. By the time the news breaks--if the
Federation ever intends to break it--Yaco will have at least a
five-year start on everyone else. That's all an outfit like that
needs." He looked at Kinmarten. "Any little thing you haven't thought
to tell us, friend?" he inquired pleasantly.
A thin film of sweat showed suddenly on Kinmarten's forehead.
"No, sir," he said. "I've really told you everything I know. I--"
"Might try him under dope," Cooms said absently.
"Uh-uh!" Quillan said, "I want him wide awake to help me bait the
cubicle for the thing. Has Velladon shown any indication of becoming
willing to co-operate in hunting it?"
Cooms gestured with his head. "Ask Fluel! I sent him down to try to
patch things up with the commodore. He just showed up again."
Quillan glanced around. The Duke was lounging in the doorway. He
grinned slightly, said, "Velladon's still sore at us. But he'll talk
to Quillan. Kinmarten here ... did he tell you his wife's on the
Star?"
Brock Kinmarten went utterly white. Cooms looked at him, said softly,
"No, that must have slipped his mind."
Fluel said, "Yeah, Well, she is. And Ryter says they'll have her
picked up inside half an hour. When they bring her in, we really
should check on how candid Kinmarten's been about everything."
The rest warden said in a voice that shook uncontrollably, "Gentlemen,
my wife knows absolutely nothing about these matters! I swear it!
She--"
Quillan stood up. "Well, I'll go see if I can't get Velladon in a
better mood. Are you keeping that Hlat-talker, Cooms?"