"By the way," Quillan said, "Fluel mentioned you've been looking for
Kinmarten's wife, the second rest warden on the Pendrake convoy. Found
her yet?"
"Not a trace, so far," Ryter said.
"That's a little surprising, too, isn't it?"
"Under the circumstances," the commodore said, "it might not be
surprising at all!" He had regained his color, was beginning to look
angry. "If they--"
"Well," Quillan said soothingly, "we don't _know_. It's just that
things do seem to be adding up a little. Now, there's one other point.
We should do something immediately about catching that Hlat."
Velladon grunted and picked at his teeth with his thumbnail. "It would
be best to get it back in its cubicle, of course. But I'm not worrying
about it--just an animal, after all. Even the light hardware those
Beldon fancy Dans carry should handle it. You use a man-sized gun, I
see. So do I. If it shows up around here, it gets smeared, that's all.
There're fifty more of the beasts on the _Camelot_."
Quillan nodded. "You're right on that. But there's the possibility
that it is being controlled by the Brotherhood at present. If it is,
it isn't just an animal any more. It could be turned into a thoroughly
dangerous nuisance."
The commodore thought a moment, nodded. "You're right, I suppose. What
do you want to do about it?"
"Baiting the cubicle on the fifth level might work. Then there should
be life-detectors in the Star's security supplies--"
Ryter nodded. "We have a couple of dozen of them, but not in the
Executive Block. They were left in the security building."
The commodore stood up. "You stay here with Ryter," he told Quillan.
"There're a couple of other things I want to go over with you two.
I'll order the life-detectors from the office here--second passage
down, isn't it, Ryter?... And, Ryter, I have another idea. I'm pulling
the man in space-armor off the subspace portal and detailing him to
Level Five." He grinned at Quillan. "That boy's got a brace of
grenades and built-in spray guns! If Cooms is thinking of pulling any
funny stunts up there, he'll think again."
* * * * *
The commodore headed briskly down the narrow passageway, his big
holstered gun slapping his thigh with every step. The two security
guards stationed at the door to the second level office came to
attention as he approached, saluted smartly. He grunted, went in
without returning the salutes, and started over toward the ComWeb on a
desk at the far end of the big room, skirting the long, dusty-looking
black rug beside one wall.
Velladon unbuckled his gun belt, placed the gun on the desk, sat down
and switched on the ComWeb.
Behind him, the black rug stirred silently and rose up.
* * * * *
"You called that one," Ryter was saying seven or eight minutes later,
"almost too well!"
Quillan shook his head, poked at the commodore's gun on the desk with
his finger, looked about the silent office and back at the door where
a small group of security men stood staring in at them.
"Three men gone without a sound!" he said. He indicated the glowing
disk of the ComWeb. "He had time enough to turn it on, not time enough
to make his call. Any chance of camouflaged portals in this section?"
"No," Ryter said. "I know the location of every portal in the
Executive Block. No number of men could have taken Velladon and the
two guards without a fight anyway. We'd have heard it. It didn't
happen that way."
"Which leaves," Quillan said, "one way it could have happened." He
jerked his head toward the door. "Will those men keep quiet?"
"If I tell them to."
"Then play it like this. Two guards have vanished. The Hlat obviously
did it. The thing's deadly. That'll keep every man in the group on the
alert every instant from now on. But we don't say Velladon has
vanished. He's outside in the Star at the moment, taking care of
something."