Eros at Zenith: Book 2 of Tales of the Velvet Comet (23 page)

He walked down the long corridor, took an elevator to the top level of the Resort, got off, turned to his left, stopped at the fifth door, and ordered it to open.

He stepped through into a splendidly-appointed hunting lodge. The floor was made of some polished hardwood and was covered by half a dozen animal skins, while the walls housed the mounted heads of some twenty animals: there were Baffledivers from Pinnipes II, Devilowls from Alimond, a tiger from Earth itself, even a representation of the supposedly mythical Dreamwish Beast.

The furniture was all made of tufted leather, the bar possessed a matching leather trim, and there was a floor-to-ceiling free-standing stone fireplace in the middle of the room. An oversized wooden bed dominated one corner, and off to one side was a circular whirlpool bath with a cloud of steam rising from the surface.

The back wall of the lodge was composed entirely of interlocking glass doors which led to a sturdy wooden balcony. He slid one of the doors open, and suddenly his ears and nostrils were assailed by an array of strange and exotic sounds and scents. The terrain seemed to extend for miles, the flat grasslands leading to a series of foothills off in the distance. Herds of elephantine herbivores grazed within 50 yards of him, while somewhat farther away he could see a pride of red-tinted catlike carnivores gathered around a kill. He looked up, shading his eyes from the bright yellow sun, and saw a trio of hawklike creatures circling lazily over the carnivores, waiting for their opportunity to swoop down and scavenge the leftovers.

Despite the fact that he knew the fantasy room was no more than 30 by 40 feet, he had to fight the urge to believe utterly in the reality of his surroundings.

He could even feel the lodge shake when a group of the herbivores trotted past.

Suddenly he heard the door to the corridor slide open, and he walked back into the lodge. The Black Pearl and the Dragon Lady entered the room and walked over to the grouping of chairs by the roaring but heatless fire.

“This is some room,” said Crane, joining them.

“Actually, it's one of our less popular ones,” replied the Black Pearl. “Not romantic enough.”

“How much of it is real?”

“Everything from the bed to the wet bar. The rest of it comes from about 50 holographic projectors.”

He maneuvered an oversized leather chair until it faced both of theirs and then sat down.

“It seems pretty romantic to me,” he noted.

“There are too many things to see through the window,” answered the Black Pearl. “It tends to take the attention away from where it belongs. However,” she added, “we didn't come here to talk about romance.”

“No, we didn't,” he agreed.

“In fact, we came to talk about a situation that is largely of your own devising,” she continued.

“What are you talking about?
I'm
not the one who's planning on breaking into your apartment at midnight.”

“But you're the one who lured Quintus Bello here in the first place,” said the Black Pearl.

“I think we're getting away from the point,” interjected the Dragon Lady. “We have a potentially explosive situation here, and we want to come up with some method of defusing it.”

“Simple,” said Crane firmly. “Turn Bello over to me and let us leave the
Comet
before midnight.”

“That's out of the question,” said the Black Pearl.

“It's no longer a case of letting him walk,” persisted Crane. “You've really just got two choices: either I take him peacefully, or else Pagliacci takes him forcibly and a bunch of people die in the process. There's no third way.”

“There are
always
alternatives,” said the Dragon Lady.

“For instance?”

“That's what we're here to discuss,” she said.

“For example, does Pagliacci plan to enlist your aid at midnight?”

“I suppose so.”

“Then he'll make contact with you before he starts to apply force?”

“Probably.”

“Well, there's
one
alternative,” said the Dragon Lady. “Arrest him when he shows up.”

“For how long?” asked Crane. “Sooner or later you've got to release him or turn him over to the authorities, and you can bet that the first two words out of his mouth are going to be ‘Quintus Bello'.”

“First things first,” said the Dragon Lady. “Once we've got him, we'll worry about what to do with him.”

“And what do
I
get out of it?”

“I don't understand the question,” said the Security Chief. “You will be helping us to make sure no blood is shed.”

He shook his head. “Not enough. If I'm going to put my life on the line—and make no mistake about it, that's exactly what you're asking me to do—then I need something more in remuneration than the satisfaction of a job well done.”

“You're referring to Bello, of course?” said the Dragon Lady.

“Of course.”

“No deal,” said the Black Pearl.

“You don't even like him,” noted Crane.

“Liking him has nothing to do with it,” she replied.

“I've explained over and over again: I won't have him apprehended aboard the
Comet
.”

“And
I've
explained over and over again that you can't keep this thing quiet,” replied Crane in frustration. “If you arrest Bello, he's going to talk; and if you let him go, Pagliacci is going to talk.” Suddenly he jumped up. “
Shit
!”

“What's the matter?” asked the Dragon Lady.

“Cupid?” he yelled.

A screen behind the bar flickered to life.

YES?

“Have I been monitored since I arrived here?”

NO.

“Open the Priority File, and make it retroactive to the moment I opened the door to this room.”

WORKING ... DONE.

He turned back to the two women.

“Even if Bello and Pagliacci both turned into saints, gave themselves up, and never said a word about the
Comet
, you'd still have to remember never to mention them again. That's twice I've almost blown it in two days—and
you're
up here full time.”

“That is the least of our problems,” said the Dragon Lady.

“Right,” agreed the Black Pearl. She paused, then said thoughtfully: “Would Pagliacci be open to a deal?”

“Not the one you offered me,” said Crane harshly.

“Don't be crude, Mr. Crane,” she replied.

“What kind of deal?”

“What if we agreed to drop the murder charge against him, in exchange for his allowing Bello to leave?”

“Not a chance,” said Crane. “He doesn't even think there
is
a murder charge against him.”

“We could set him straight on the matter.”

“It wouldn't make a bit of difference,” said Crane. “You're not dealing with a rational man here.”

“He seems rational enough to me.”

“Not on the subject of Bello. He's fighting a holy war, and he's got the religious fervor of a fanatic. Don't forget: he's not just some hit man hired by an impersonal organization. Bello killed his wife and daughters. He's spent more than a decade trying to track him down.” Crane paused. “From his point of view, he's showing remarkable restraint by giving me until midnight to get Bello peacefully.”

“As I said, he's much more of a threat to the
Comet
's security than Bello,” noted the Dragon Lady. “He's killed once, and he's quite willing to kill again. All Bello wants to do is escape.”

“I agree,” said the Black Pearl. “Pagliacci is our immediate problem, not Bello.”

Crane checked his chronometer.

“You've got a little over two hours to solve that particular problem before he goes into action.”

“What can he do, really?” asked the Dragon Lady.

“I can put 20 guards around the Black Pearl's office.”

“I don't know exactly what his capabilities are,” admitted Crane. “But that's a pretty wide corridor, with no place to hide. He can probably mow half of them down before they know what hit them.”

“I can post them
inside
the office,” suggested the Dragon Lady.

“No!” snapped the Black Pearl. “How can we keep news of Bello's presence a secret if 20 security guards are rubbing shoulders with him?”

“Look,” said Crane. “There's no question that you'll be able to stop him. He may be good, but he's not
that
good. I'm just operating on the assumption than none of our careers will benefit from a bloodbath.”

“Correct,” said the Black Pearl.

“Tell me, Mr. Crane,” said the Dragon Lady. “If you were Pagliacci, how would
you
plan to extricate Bello from the Black Pearl's office?”

“I wouldn't.”

“That was a serious question, Mr. Crane.”

“I'm giving you a serious answer,” replied the detective.

“You've got to remember that while Pagliacci is willing to sacrifice his own life, he's not willing to kill Bello. He wants him to stand trial with all the attendant publicity that will ensue. Now if I were Pagliacci, I'd figure that the likelihood of reaching Bello at all is pretty small, and the likelihood of taking him alive is almost nil. So I'd threaten to break in, just to make you concentrate your effort there, and then I'd find a very public place where you couldn't grab me immediately, wait until it was packed with patrons, and then tell them that Bello is aboard the ship and that the madam is protecting him. Sooner or later someone would believe me, and the moment that happened, you'd
have
to turn him over, if not to me then to the authorities on Deluros VIII.”

The Dragon Lady stared unhappily at him.

“'You know, it makes sense,” she said grimly.

“I reluctantly agree,” said the Black Pearl. She turned to Crane. “Is he capable of thinking that clearly?”

“I don't know,” admitted Crane honestly. “He's not stupid—but he
is
fanatical on the subject of Bello, and I don't know how much that colors his judgment.”

“Well, those seem to be our two most likely scenarios,” said the Dragon Lady with a sigh. “Either he makes Bello's presence a matter of common knowledge to our patrons, or else a number of people—possibly including some patrons—have to die to prevent it.”

“There's a third scenario,” Crane reminded them. “Turn Bello over to me right now.”

The Black Pearl shook her head. “Even if I did that it wouldn't stop Pagliacci from talking.
He's
the problem, not Bello. He's the one we have to stop.”

“That's why I called this little meeting,” said Crane. “To warn you that he's got the bit between his teeth.”

“That's not enough,” said the Black Pearl.

“What more do you expect me to do?” said Crane caustically. “Kill him and let Bello go?”

“There are worse ideas,” said the Dragon Lady, walking over to the bar and pouring herself a creme de cacao.

Crane laughed derisively. “
I
haven't heard any.”

“Mr. Crane,” continued the Dragon Lady, “I think it's about time that you stopped and reassessed your position. Luring Bello up here may have been a good idea in the beginning, but the situation has gotten out of control. The one thing Vainmill has in common with all governments and major corporations is that it abhors scandals—and it is no longer possible for you to arrest him without causing one. Whether he talks or Pagliacci talks, word is going to get out you allowed one the freedom of the ship and enticed the other to come aboard. I submit to you that this not really the way to advance your career or your reputation. They pay you to
control
damage, not cause it. I think capturing Bello aboard the
Comet
will make them very unhappy with you.”

He stared at her thoughtfully, but made no reply.

“She's right, you know,” said the Black Pearl. “You were sent up here to solve a relatively simple problem, and instead you've managed to create truly complex one. You probably couldn't have foreseen the consequences when you started on this course of action, but now that they're in clearer focus, you'll bear the brunt of the blame if you refuse to help resolve the problem.”

He was silent a moment longer, stroking his chin with his right forefinger.

“I can't just let him walk,” he said at last. “I mean, hell, he's Quintus Bello!”

“As I find myself pointing out with monotone regularity, Pagliacci is our immediate problem, not Bello,” said the Black Pearl.

“All right,” said Crane warily. “Let's say that I go along with you. Suppose I—ah—
neutralize
Pagliacci,” he continued, aware that his words were going into Cupid's Priority File. “What then?”

“Then we've bought ourselves some breathing room,” replied the Black Pearl.

“Don't play dumb with me!” he snapped. “You know exactly what I mean.”

“You still can't arrest him aboard the ship.”

“I know,” said Crane. “The Dragon Lady has just convinced me of that. But what about off the ship?”

“It's an interesting notion,” said the Black Pearl.

“How would you arrange it?”

“Link Cupid to his escape ship's computer so I can pinpoint where he lands.”

“I think I can live with that,” said the Black Pearl.

“How about you?” Crane asked the Dragon Lady.

“I have my doubts.” She poured herself another glass of liqueur and returned to her chair with it.

“A kangaroo court is a lot better than having Pagliacci kill him,” Crane pointed out.

“It's not that,” she replied. “I will certainly sacrifice Mr. Bello's right to a fair trial in exchange for the
Comet'
s security.”

“Then what's the problem?”

“What's to stop him from talking?” asked the Dragon Lady.

“Let him talk from now til doomsday,” replied Crane. “Passing through the
Comet
on his escape route is a hell of a lot different from being captured there while the madam is defending him. Besides, he'll have no reason to go into it in detail; he's got quite enough enemies so that I won't have to take the stand against him.”

“Well,” said the Dragon Lady with a shrug, “it looks like the best deal we can make.”

“I know,” he agreed glumly. “I was a lot happier when I didn't think I had to make it.”

“You've got about two hours in which to solve our problem,” noted the Black Pearl.

“I'm aware of that,” replied Crane, getting to his feet.