Part 95 (1/2)

They brought the boxes on a flatbed truck and put them in his bedroom.

They gave Terl his copies of the contract and he signed a receipt for those and the money. They all left, and the moment they were out the door, his first act was to shred, burn, and destroy the ashes of his copies. If Psychlo ever got word of it-!

He felt soothed then and he sat and petted the money for a while. Then he realized he couldn't go to bed amid all these boxes.

He got the guards to let him go out to the morgue and get three coffins. It seemed to him that there were fewer coffins there than there used to be. However, he brought the coffins in and put them in the bedroom and got to work putting the money into them, counting it by bundles.

It was late and he still hadn't finished the job so he spread some blankets on one of the coffins and went to sleep.

The next day, still working on packing the money- he had never realized before what an enormous lot of money two billion credits was- he found he was short one coffin. It was going to take four.

Accordingly, he got the guards to let him out and he went to the morgue to get another coffin. On his last visit, there had been one quite close to the door. Now it was no longer there. Somebody was doing something with these coffins.

Only a security chief of Terl's talents and training ever could have gotten to the bottom of it. That he was sure of.

First he questioned guards. Then he questioned a Captunk Arf Moiphy. And he found these Brigantes, these allegedly reliable, trained mercenaries, had been trafficking in coffins with the cadets.

The night duty commando had been selling coffins to the cadets for whiskey. Whiskey was some drink made in Scotland. Intoxicating.

Oh, Terl got the whole story. Late of an evening, some cadet, different ones, would come to the compound with an open pail of whiskey and trade it for a coffin. The guard would simply open the morgue and hand one over and take the whiskey.

It did no good for Captunk Arf Moiphy to show him that the cadets used the lead to make little cast-model s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps and soldiers. Moiphy even had a couple. Terl knew those. They were for a game called klepp. Those cadets were selling game pieces and game boards made out of melted-down lead coffins. Company coffins!

Terl had demanded to see Snith. He ordered him to put a stop to it.

Three days later, Terl had gotten himself escorted down to the metal supply storeroom to get some needed sheets of material when he noticed that the hangar was nearly empty. There were a few ore carriers and a half-dozen battle planes and that was all that was left in those vast hangars. He had promptly gone to the garage, and that, too, was nearly empty. There were just a dozen flatbeds and a couple of Basher tanks left in there.

The place was being stolen blind! He got hold of Lars and raged at him.

Lars said there had been a lot of crashes and the cadets were simply replacing the lost machines from the hangar.

Just as he was about to rip Lars to bits, it suddenly occurred to Terl that company property was no longer his responsibility. So he let it go.

Three days later there was a tearing argument with Ker.

Sometime since, they had begun to clear away the wreckage and fused wires of the old transs.h.i.+pment rig and now that it was gone, Terl wanted to be sure that the points would be at the correct distances on the poles. He went out and he found...

Ker using the most sloppy, inexperienced machine operator trainees he had to dig the trench for the atmosphere armor ionization cable! There was the trench half-dug. But these trainees had been digging all over the place!

And more! There was equipment scattered everywhere. Cranes, blade sc.r.a.pers, you name it. Whenever one of these stupid animal trainees had dug something, he had simply left the machine there. Whenever he lifted something, he left the magnetic crane right there.

What a mess!

Standing on the platform, hating the bright winter sun, half-sick from the rotten-quality breathe-gas that was available, Terl had felt like clawing the midget to bits.

”You know better than this!” raged Terl.

”Can I help it if these animals break machines?” shouted Ker.

”Can't you follow a straight, plain plan?” shouted Terl.

”Can I help it if these animals can't follow a straight, plain line?” shouted Ker.

Terl realized Ker had a point. They weren't going to get anywhere standing here shouting. ”Look,” said Terl, ”it is in your own best interest that I get safely to Psychlo.”

”Is it?” said Ker.

Leverage, leverage, Terl told himself.

”I'll tell you what I will do,” said Terl. ”I will put ten thousand credits to your account in the Galactic Bank. You have a numbered account there with quite a bit in it already. But I will add-'

”Brown Limper Staffor paid me a hundred thousand Earth credits just to dig up that cable for you, that cable right over there. It was no easy job and I considered the pay cut-rate!”

Terl thought fast. ”All right, I'll pay you a hundred thousand Galactic credits to help install this firing rig and cooperate.”

”I can get double that from this Brown Limper not to do it,” said Ker.

”You can?” said Terl, suddenly alert. He thought hard. Yes, that Brown Limper had been acting furtively lately, like he was hiding something.

”He wants a certain party!” said Ker.

”He doesn't care if you get to Psychlo or not!”

”But doesn't he know I have to record the deeds?”

”He's only interested in getting one man!” said Ker.

”Look,” said Terl, ”I will put half a million credits in your account if you cooperate in getting me to Psychlo.”

Ker thought about it. Then he said, ”If you will get me new papers and destroy my old company records and deposit seven hundred fifty thousand credits to my account, I'll see all goes smoothly.”

Terl was about to say he agreed when Ker spoke again: ”You will have to make it all right with this Brown Limper Staffor also. Tell me how you intend to trap this man so I can rea.s.sure this Staffor. He controls these workers. So add that, and it's a deal.”

Terl looked at Ker. He knew how money-hungry he was. ”All right. I'm going to string five hundred Brigantes around outside that atmosphere armor, armed with poisoned arrows. Arrows won't make a concussion if fired and they can shoot that animal to bits if he comes! You whisper that to Staffor and he'll also cooperate with you. It 's a deal then?”

Ker smiled.

Terl went back inside, glad to get his breathe-mask off. He got some kerbango to soothe his nerves.

He reviewed this strange scene. It Staffor. That was the one who was going to mess this plan up. Terl would take care of the animal: he hadn't told Ker he also intended to have Snith and a squad on the platform armed with poisoned arrows or that he had a beautiful beryllium box to hand Staffor. The box would destroy all the evidence, the contract copies, everything.

And Ker, too!