Part 13 (1/2)
The #des as you know are complex, not easy to duplicate.”
”As I told you, Emma, Ken began, his anger building, ”someone's gone to a lot of trouble to make it convincing ”For a researcher like myself, there's just too much corroborative detail available to be coincidence or accident,' Emma went on, and although Ken started to protest, Pat touched his arm, her eyes watching Emma's face. For Pat was beginning to see what Emma was driving at. ”So far we have thefts committed by two young males who lack for nothing. They're psychologically normal, without any history of kleptomania or harmful pranks.
Healthy in every way.” Todd blushed at her frankness and she smiled gently at him. ”It was necessary to take a glance at your medical profile,' she said. ”There's nothing in it to be ashamed of.
To continue, they're respected by their community, and their future is bright if only they continue to behave as they have. This series of crimes requires a motivation.”
”I know the motivation,' Todd said in a flat voice that showed he was controlling his anger. ”This issue would make a terrific fulcrum for the lever to pry Doona apart.”
”I'm inclined to agree,' Hrrestan said, nodding his head in agreement with Todd's opinion, ”but if we have the motivation, can we also discover the perpetrator?”
”Landreau has to be involved in this somewhere, Todd said angrily, his eyes flas.h.i.+ng blue fire.
”Rogitel's presence at the Hrrethan affair was unnecessary. Both.
. .” Todd halted then plunged, ”I felt he was nearly splitting with antic.i.p.ation and it couldn't have been for the inauguration of another grid facility! He was there, keeping track of... of us... on Landreau's orders. The Admiral would do anything to discredif Doona this year and to disrupt the crucial talks that are going on. A scandal like two notable citizens of Doona turning out to be pirates and smugglers could tear everything apart. Only how did it get done?”
”The opinion of the Ssspeakrrrs, Hrrestan added, ”favors the idea of a conspiracy, aimed at you and our son, to discredit the Rralan Experiment. They have informed me that they are conducting their own investigations into these charges as they know that never have you or my son behaved in a dishonorable fas.h.i.+on. As Emma Sumitral has ssaid, there is far to6 much evidence against them. There are elements on Rrala who also wish this Experiment to end in disarray. These are being scrutinized. True guilt lies elsewhere but it will be discovered.
”And I,' Kelly said, looking inordinately pleased with her contribution, ”am handling the unofficial Terran Investigative Group.
You didn't know you had one, did you, Todd?” She grinned at him.
While she had admired Emma's clear-minded statements, she hadn't quite liked her tone, nor the way she had smiled at Todd. Sort of, well, proprietary and perhaps a little patronizing. Whoa!
Kelly thought, yanking hard on her own mental reins. Who was acting proprietary now?
”May I remind all of you,' Emma put in, ”that it is essential that all investigations be done as circ.u.mspectly as possible so as not to prejudice the official one?” Ken leaned forward toward Emma. ”We must all be wary of how we proceed. But, in spite of the need for caution, I've started some inquiries through the Alreldep office, and I discover, to my relief,' and he grinned at his son, ”that the memory of Todd as he was has been replaced by the record of a hardworking young man.”
”Which reminds me, Dad, this hardworking young man did some rounding up today with Lon.
And we found out something I like even less than I like my present anomalous position. We're minus seventeen horses, mostly yearlings and two-year-olds.”
”Seventeen horses gone since the last count?” Ken repeated, staring at his son in disbelief. As if he didn't need this, too, on his plate.
”One was dead of ssersa poisoning and I hlped Ion clear that field myself. There were other ssersa plants where there shouldn't be a one.” ”Ssersa does not have legs to walk,' Hrrestan said, shaking his head as he knew how careful the Reeves were about hand-pulling the toxic weed from all grazing areas.
”There was also this burned-out patch on the one flat s.p.a.ce in the field,' Todd went on. ”Shuttlesized, I'd say.”
”Rustlers!” Ken nearly bounced from his chair with indignation.
Hrrestan hissed. ”That is a most serious crime.
There have been no instances of animal theft in years.
”Lon reported to Poldep. We sent a list of the brands to Michael,' and Todd turned to Kelly, who was as surprised and angry as any stock rancher would be. ”One or two of ”em may have jumped the fence.”
”But not seventeen,' Ken said, still absorbing the shock.
”We'll have to hang on to some of the breeding stock, then, Todd.”
”Dad, I'd ask around to see if there's anyone new here who's had a sudden embarra.s.sment of credit.
I'll just put it about that there'll be no charges pressed at Poldep if that little herd wanders home, wagging tails behind em.”
”Could snakes have caught them?” Pat asked.
”You had that breakout at the Boncyks'. What if a Mommy or two got past you?”
”None did,' Todd replied flatly, frankly upset that his mother even asked such a question.
”Well, it was a possibility,' she said apologetically.
”What else could go wrong?” Kelly asked, more rhetorically than expecting any answer.
”What else?” Emma asked, her expression clearly reflecting her dislike of adding to the current problems. ”I think I'd better be the one to tell you.
Admiral Landreau has arrived. He gridded in just before I left Treaty Island.”
CHAPTER 5.
ADMIRAL AL LANDREAU HAThD DOONA.
Initially, when the bright blue pebble with its light cloud coverage had swum into his viewscreen, he thought it looked peaceful and pleasant. When he had been a.s.signed to explore it for a preliminary search, it had seemed the perfect Earthlike world, cla.s.s M in the old parlance, atmosphere, nearnormal gravity and all, the very epitome of what s.p.a.cedep was searching for. It was full of possibilities, and the key to fame and better departmental financing for him.
Ever since the first colonists landed there, though, it had been one long headache for s.p.a.cedep and Landreau. He lay the source of all his troubles squarely upon the backs of the Reeves. A family of malcontents, by all accounts from Aisle and Corridor monitors, always disturbing civilized people with their noise and antisocial behavior.
They had made a public fool of him. They, or specifically, Ken Reeve, had blamed him for not noticing their mythical cat people or the nightmarish giant snakes in time to prevent the colonization.
As if there was any way he could have known about them, in spite of that ape Sumitral's-insistence that the clues were all there. Reeve had made a fool of him, claimed he jeopardized the colony.
Well, the colonists had been in the wrong. They had violated the Siwannese protocol, had resisted being removed from the planet in spite of their feigned horror over that violation, and had been compounding that transgression anathema for a quarter of a century. Now was the moment to eradicate that mistake, put it behind him. He fully intended to do so. His opportunity had been handed to him, calligraphed, signed, sealed, and set under a gla.s.s bell. To make it the sweetest possible revenge, Todd Reeve, the hysterical, bilingual boy child of Ken Reeve, was to be the key to ending this quarter century of humiliation. The Treaty Council was buzzing: rumors of resignation threats already abounded. Landreau was looking forward to hearing Rogitel's full report.
There were cat people all over the building where he gridded in.
Their hairy, fang-toothed faces made him shudder. The Hrrubans were an abomination against nature's plan. Cats shouldn't walk like Humans.
They should go on all four legs like the basically feral animals they imitated.
When the mist of transfer cleared, he was facing one of the very creatures he abhorred. The animal operating the grid center opened its mouth at him and showed its teeth, casually displaying its b.e.s.t.i.a.lity.
The horror was that it thought it was smiling.
He nodded curtly and stepped down.
It was outrageous that these Hrrubans should have stumbled on any technology as powerful as the transportation grid. While the grid was convenient, having to use it frightened him: he preferred to be in control of the mechanisms used in travel. What if the operator hadn't been well enough trained, and Landreau was trapped in the grid, neither one place nor another? Supposing someone with a grievance against him took a bribe and sent him to the wrong destination, even a fatal one?