Mission: Earth "Death Quest" (18 page)

"Good," said Biggs. "Now by th' powah invested in me as Notary Public of th' Sovereign State of Virginia, Justice of th' Peace an' County Clerk of Hamden County, ah do pronounce this document valid an' bindin' on all pahties, so he'p me God, Amen!" He got out a stamp

and put a notary form at the document end. He signed it and dated it. He got out a pocket embossing seal and crunched it over the signatures. He took out a little book and recorded the date and number of the paper and then had everybody sign his little book.

"Now that," said Biggs, handing it to Krak, "is th' mostes' legal document this county evah see!"

"Thank you, Miss," said Dr. Graves. "I feel so comfortable, now I can die in peace!"

The window shattered!

The boom of a rifle!

Everything went into a blur.

Something hit the Countess Krak!

She was down on the floor!

Bang-Bang let go of her.

He hit another set of legs. "Down! Down!" Bang-Bang was shouting. "Hit the dirt, you rookies!"

A fusillade of other shots!

More glass flying through the room!

I thought that Torpedo must be firing the dead motorcycle cop's gun now.

The shots stopped.

"Anybody hit?" shrilled Bang-Bang.

"I'm not hit," said Dr. Price, crawling further under the bed. "It just went through my coat."

One of the nurses raised up. She screamed!

The other nurse got on her knees and looked. She cried, "Dr. Graves is hit!"

A flick of movement on Heller's viewer caught my eye. He had glanced up. A hospital window! He was outside! He was creeping through the brush!

I raged! The dirty sneak had not been caught! He

must have decided to be cautious and had remained outside letting Biggs go in!

A nurse on her knees at the edge of the bed said, "Dr. Graves is dead!"

Biggs on the floor muttered, "Ah hope Junior is all raht."

The Countess Krak-eyes level with the planks-looked at Biggs. "Junior? You mean my darling is out there?"

"He saw some kin' of a French cah in th' bushes an' thought Hahvey Lee maht have come heah," said Biggs. "He sent me in."

The Countess Krak got up to her knees and started toward the door.

Bang-Bang grabbed her, pushed her down. "No you don't, Miss Joy. The terrain out there must be swarming with gooks and you ain't got no helmet."

"Holy smokes," wailed Stonewall Biggs, "aftah all this, ah hope they don' kill Junior! Ah ain't got mah new cohthouse yet!"

Out of the night, through the shattered window, the blast of a bullhorn blared. "Come out of there with your hands up!"

"Good God," said Stonewall Biggs. "Chief Fawg!" He raised his voice to an outraged shout. "You God (bleeped) fool! Quit shootin'!"

The bullhorn roared, "The place is surrounded.

Throw your guns out the window and come out quietly with your hands up!"

Biggs howled, "(Bleep) it, Fawg! This is Biggs! Theah ain't nobody in heah! You jus' killed Doctah Graves!"

A nurse screamed, "He's right!" I got Heller's viewer turned so I could see it better. He was in the brush. He was looking at the backs of three cops and Harvey Lee! Beyond them was the hospital. Heller had that big, fancy Llama.45 automatic pistol in his hand and it was trained right between the shoulder blades of Chief Fawg!

Biggs inside was yelling, "What th' hell ah you doin'?"

Chief Fawg shifted the rifle he held. He lifted the bullhorn. "We're doin' our duty. We're after that criminal that was with you!"

"Theah ain't no criminal in heah!" shouted Biggs. "You cain't fool us, Stonewall. We seen him right there with his back to the window!"

"You (bleeped) fool!" shouted Biggs. "That was Doctah Price an' you done ruined his coat! Cleah away Turn heah!"

"No you don't, Biggs. You're harboring a criminal an' a fugitive in there. Last year he beat up two cops. Tonight he done it again and he stole another car from Harvey Lee. We got witnesses and you c'd become a accessory! Send him out or we start firing again!"

Heller had been moving forward. I had no way to warn them. He was now within two feet of the back of Harvey Lee who was, himself, to the rear of the chief and two officers.

Suddenly Heller's hand lashed out and seized Lee. With a jerk, he had Lee standing in front of him as

cover. The used-car salesman yelped as some pressure point was pressed.

The cops whirled. They raised their guns.

Heller said, "Go ahead and shoot Lee. He's a thief, aren't you, Lee?"

"I'm a thief!" screamed Lee. "Please let go my arm!"

"Go on," said Heller, apparently applying more pressure to the spot he was holding the used-car salesman with.

Lee babbled, "I sold him the car for three hundred dollars and didn't give him a bill of sale."

"Go on," said Heller.

Lee screamed, "I thought I could get the car back and keep the money!"

"Chief," said Heller, his automatic trained on Fawg from under Lee's armpit, "this is a Mexican standoff. Now, do we flip a coin to see whether I shoot you or you shoot Lee?"

Chief Fawg seemed to be shaking with indecision and rage. "You criminal! This won't do you any good! We always get our man!"

Suddenly Biggs was behind the chief. "You leave him alone, you hospital shootah! You know (bleeped) well th' man that done them crimes las' September was repoh-ted daid by the FBI! You nevah got a good look at him. You said so y'self!"

Chief Fawg had turned to meet this new onslaught. Biggs was stamping his foot he was so mad.

Biggs demanded, "Do you know who that boy is?"

Fawg sneered, "God, I suppose."

"Naw, suh!" cried Biggs. "Higher! That boy theah be Delbert John Rockecenter, Junior!"

The chief and the two cops glanced toward where Heller was holding Harvey Lee. Then the chief said to

Biggs, "Stonewall, you better not try foolin' me!"

The Countess Krak was suddenly on the scene. Right out in the open, an easy shot for Torpedo!

She shook her finger under the chieFs nose. "Oh, no, he's not fooling you. You come right around here, if you don't believe it!"

The shaking finger turned into a pointing finger, right between the chief's eyes. He suddenly started following her as she led him away.

The rest of the group followed and Heller, still holding Lee, brought up the rear.

The land yacht was sitting there. She darted into it and the viewer flared out. A moment later the viewer stabilized again and she was standing before them once more.

She had a card. She flashed it under the nose of the chief and then the two cops. They stared at it. Then suddenly they turned and went down on their knees before Heller.

The Countess Krak looked at the card and showed it to Biggs and I could see in Heller's viewer that she had a ghoulish grin.

It was the registration card of the land yacht. It said "Delbert John Rockecenter" on the owner line!

Biggs towered over the kneeling chief. "You idiot! You've been shootin' at th' son of th' man who rules th' world!" Biggs turned to Heller. "Junior, what shall we do abaht this murderin' (bleep) that killed po' Doctah

Graves?"

"What's customary heahabouts?" said Heller, lowering his gun and releasing Lee.

"Sentence an' lynchin' ever' time," said Biggs. "As Justice of th' Peace, ah have t'write up th' sentence, all

legal, an' with yo' he'p, Junior, we'll use that tree ovah theah. But only if you approve, of co'se."

Chief Fawg wailed, "Please, dear God, NO! Please, Mr. Junior."

Joe and the other cop grovelled on their knees. They raised their clasped and pleading hands to Heller. "Mercy!" pleaded one. "I have a wife and children," begged Joe. "Don't lynch me, Mr. Junior!"

Heller said, "Stonewall, my dear friend, let us be merciful. Let's let them contribute all their ill-gotten gains and part-time labor to the building of the new coht-house."

"All right, Junior," said Biggs. But he pointed to Harvey Lee. "What abaht him?"

"Oh, Jesus God," said Harvey Lee. "I just realized I tried to pull a cheap car deal on the son of the richest man in the world. Shoot me!"

Biggs looked down at the kneeling cops. "Fawg," he said, "git up offen yo' knees an' go home, but jus' remem-bah, ah got blackmail on you fo' th' rest of yo' days. Po' Doctah Graves."

I realized suddenly that all that shooting must have held Torpedo's hand. He was still around there. There was still a chance. If only now they'd leave the Countess Krak unguarded, Torpedo would still have his kill. This very night!

"Wheah you goin' now?" said Stonewall Biggs to Heller. " 'Cause ah got something else t'show you tonaht."

Heller moved an indicating hand toward the Countess Krak. "It do look lahk th' ordahs is comin' f urn th' High Command. What do we do now, dear?"

"We're leaving for the county poor farm right this minute," said the Countess Krak.

Biggs said, "Miss Captain, iPn ah c'd intrude, tha's now the County Agricultural Farm an' you won' find it on these back roads onless ah leads th' way."

"Lead on, lead on, doughty Stonewall Biggs," said Krak. "Just so long as we can find the other son."

Stonewall Biggs gave a gallant bow and trotted to his car. Bang-Bang raced up and down telling drivers to get underway.

The Countess Krak pulled Heller toward the land yacht and their viewers flared out. I was quite resigned then to being blind and suddenly I was most amazed to see the reception come back on!

It wasn't very good and it was full of flutters and blurs but it was there. They must be at the extreme back end of the vehicle, a considerable distance away from that generator. As near as I could make out, it was a tiny surgery room.

They had evidently done their kissing and greeting right after they had stepped inside for Krak was all business now.

"Sit right there, dear," she said to Heller, pointing at the tiny operating table against the land yacht's outer skin. "Take off your right boot and sock."

The land yacht was speeding along. The Countess Krak, braced against the sways, was rummaging through the white-faced instrument drawers.

Heller obliged but he was looking at her. "What are you up to now, dear?"

She had what she wanted from the drawers and she

was now opening the Zanco Cellological Equipment and Supply case she had stuffed full at the base. "I am putting a dollar mark on the sole of your right foot. If it's not right, and doesn't compare exactly to the other one, I can remove it."

"What do I want with a dollar mark, dear?" he said.

She thrust the papers at him. "Read this and you'll see."

She got to work on his foot, using cosmetics and other things. Heller, bracing himself against the swaying of the land yacht, read what Dr. Graves had written. Then he sat there, watching her, evidently thinking.

She finished the job and, holding his foot up, admired it. She bent his leg and showed him. "Does that look old enough to you?"

"Dear," he said, "Bury is not an honorable man. He doesn't keep his word. I don't think he would have given me the Wister name and birth certificate. I think you must have gotten Graves to alter this some way."

"Me, Jettero?" she said.

The land yacht was stopped. Bang-Bang's voice, "Beachhead in sight! Hit the nets!"

Their viewers flared out but shortly came on again. They were walking from the vehicles up a flight of steps to an institutional sort of building, its bricks a shabby red in the vehicle lights.

Biggs was pounding on the door. "They go to bed wi' th' chickens heah. But ah c'n roust in aht." He pounded some more.

A sleepy man, still buckling his pants, came out. "Biggs? Wha's the fuss? Anothah cohthouse fiah?"

"Sweeney," said Biggs, "min" yo' tongue. You hahbor-in' a boy name Richard Roe heah?"

"Young Dick?" said Sweeney. "You heah to drag him

"Young Dick?" said Sweeney. "You heah to drag him back to the State Agriculture College? I c'n tell you now, Biggs, he won't go. He gets too lonesome fo' his pigs!"

"Wheah is he?" said Biggs.

"Why, he be down to the pig sheds, of co'se."

"Show th' way," said Biggs.

They went down a winding path to some concrete buildings. Sweeney turned on some floodlights and there were a lot of startled grunts and then complaints from the covered pens.

Sweeney took them up a flight of outside stairs and opened a door. He turned on an inside light. "Dick," he said, "they finally come to drag you back. Ah'm sorry, boy, but ah cain't go up ag'inst the law. It'd be man job."

Krak peeked in past Sweeney. It was a small room. The walls were plastered with cutout pictures of pigs, all colors and types. On a narrow mattress, fully clothed, except for shoes, a tall, blond boy had been asleep. He was trying to sit up now, defending his eyes against the light. He looked to be about an Earth eighteen. He looked amazingly like Delbert John.

"Ah won' go!" he said. "Ever' tahm ah leave heah, Sweeney, if only fo' one term, ah come back an' fin' man pigs ahl in neglec' an' pinin' away. You tell them fo'ks to jus' go away."

"They got guns, Dick," said Sweeney. "Guns!" cried the boy, leaping bolt upright. "Git away Pm heah with guns! You m'aht shoot a pig!"

The Countess Krak moved smoothly in. "I'd better handle this," she said. "Nobody is going to shoot your

Pigs."

"Whoosh!" said the boy, staring at her round-eyed. "Who be you? A angel or somethin'? Hey, who be this, Sweeney? Wow, she's pretty enough to be a pig!"

"I'm just a friend," said the Countess Krak. She pointed a finger at the boy's forehead. She said gently, "Just sit down on the mattress, please."