Spy, slattern or not, Nina was efficient, as he realised when a bowing motley-clad waiter captain smilingly ushered him to a secluded table for two in a banquet niche of the Pelican. It was Lindsay"s first visit to an Earthly after-dark cafe and he instinctively compared it with certain of its imitations in the comparatively small cities of his native planet.
It was sleeker, better run, far more beautiful. Its general color scheme was darkly opalescent, subtly glowing, flattering to its clients. And, of course, most of them needed flattering, at least to Lindsay"s alien eyes. He noted here a pair of scimitar-shaped spectacles whose turquoise-studded rims caught the light like a pair of small lemon pies, there a harmopan-covered female face that glowed pale green in the darkness.
But even more numerous and decorative than at the stadium, the gladiators and courtesans were present, reinforced by a larding of vidar stars visiting or entertaining in the capital. And these, Lindsay admitted to himself with awed reluctance, outshone in sheer beauty and handsomeness any group of Martian humans.
They ought to, he thought. Direct descendants, figuratively if not actually, of the advertising-Hollywood beauty fetish of the previous century, they were selected almost from birth for their callings and trained rigorously from childhood on, the males to become athletes or actors, the females courtesans or actresses.
There was no race among them, for their only standards were beauty and physical fitness, no creed but achievement in their lines of individual entertainment. He caught sight of a lissome Euro-African, the cla.s.sic exoticism of her flower-petal face illumined by joyous laughter beneath a glossy neo-Watusi hairdo, as she glided gracefully over the dance-floor in the arms of a hunch-harnessed and bespectacled partner.
The gladiators and courtesans alone seemed to find joy in living.
Lindsay, who had seldom been unhappy in his active existence, felt his sympathies and heart go out to them. He followed the progress of a tiny Oriental model whose face was alive with good-humor as she swept past his table, her exquisite figure stressed by a glittering jeweled sheathe.
"You really should wear gla.s.ses--or else learn not to stare," said Maria, appearing from nowhere and sitting down at the table. She made amends by extending a warm soft hand to grip one of his. Though she wore her gla.s.ses and her hair was severely pulled back, he had no difficulty in recalling the fact that, unclothed, she was lovely.
"Why don"t you get in on the act?" he suggested, nodding toward a pair of models emerging from the harmopan room. "All you"d have to do would be to remove your specs and harness and let your hair down."
"You"re sweet, Zale," she said, pleased. Then, with a sigh, "But there"s a lot more to it than that."
"You do all right that way too," he told her boldly.
She slapped the back of his hand and then, growing quickly serious, said, "Zale, I didn"t ask you to meet me for that. I"ve got so much to ask you--so much to tell. Did you really find an a.s.sa.s.sin waiting for you when you got home last night? And did you kill him?"
"Yes and no," said Lindsay. "I did find one and I didn"t kill him. In fact we parted good friends."
"You Martians...." She sighed, then said, "And I understand you have already broken two computers--this afternoon at the psychiatrist"s and this evening at the Colosseum. It"s the most marvelous news, darling.
I"ve got to know how you did it."
"I"m d.a.m.ned if I know how I fouled up Dr. Craven"s computer," he told her, "I"m still trying to figure it out."
Her face fell. She said, "I was hoping you had something.... But never mind." Then, brightening, "But you"re driving them crazy. They ran Dr.
Craven"s results through Elsac late this afternoon and got the same answer. The records checked that you didn"t kill your mother and _I_ know you"re not an invert." She laughed softly.
Spurred by the erotic atmosphere, plus the dizzying speed of recent events and Maria"s nearness, he said, "Let"s get out of here and go to my place."
Her hand covered his again atop the table. "I wish we could," she said wistfully. "I like you _very_ much, Zale darling. But this is too important. We haven"t time. But what about the tennis tonight? There"s going to be an investigation, of course. Won"t you tell me how you did it?"
"Not until I"ve figured out both," he said. "I may be on the track of something or it may be sheer chance. Until I understand what happened at Dr. Craven"s I"m simply not sure of my facts."
"But there simply isn"t time, darling," Maria told him. "This is really what I must talk to you about. We got word today that President Giovannini is going to unveil Giac any day now."
"Decided against your sabotage plan?" he asked her.
She wrinkled her pert little nose. "What"s the use? They"d simply repair it. Besides, it"s much too well guarded. Zale, you"re our only hope now."
He said "If I"m right, and I"m beginning to hope I am, it won"t matter whether Giac is unveiled or not. In fact, it might be more effective if it were."
Maria drummed on the table with nervous knuckles. "But you _don"t_ understand, Zale. You don"t think for a minute that the Ministry of Computation is taking this lying down. I got word less than half an hour ago that they are preparing to force your recall as an unsuitable plenipotentiary."
"They can try." Lindsay spoke grimly. This was a move he had failed to foresee, though he supposed he should have. Inadvertently he was becoming a major threat to the crockery in the china shop that was Earth.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"They can do it," Maria said simply. "Zale, these people have become absolutely dependent upon their computers. They aren"t going to let their entire creed be wrecked by one Martian."
"What do you want me to do?" he asked simply.
"Come with me--now," she said, once more gripping his hand. "A group of us want to talk to you, to find out _how_ you have done it."
He looked at her, found her adorable in her earnestness. He said, "And if I play guinea pig with your friends, then you and I...?"
"Of course--as soon as there"s time," she told him.
"You _are_ a little bundle of fanaticism, as well as of s.e.x," he told her. "I should think at least, since you seem to have such an inside track, you could manage to get my recall deferred."
"That"s just _it_!" she exclaimed bitterly. "I see everything, I hear everything--yet I can _do_ nothing. Papa thinks I"m merely a foolish female creature and his att.i.tude blocks me at every turn." Lindsay realized again how fundamentally frustrated she was, wondered if she would ever find a completely satisfactory release.
Lindsay decided to play along. "All right," he said. "Shall we go?"
"Thanks, darling," she promised. "We"d better go separately. There will be a blue copter-cab waiting outside when you leave." She leaned across the table to brush his lips briefly with hers, squeezed his hand and glided off.
He wondered, while he waited for the check, just how foolhardly he was being, allowing himself to be summoned to a meeting of palace conspirators. It could very easily be a trap, whether Maria knew it or not. It could be a ruse to add fuel to the fire being lit under him for his recall as a _legate persona non grata_ on Earth.
"You _haven"t_ forgotten our date, have you darling?" The voice was throatily reproachful above him and he looked up in surprise at a glittering female figure, who seemed to be clad entirely in blazing brilliants.
She was tall and blonde, her hair an ocean helmet of gold, sprinkled with gems. Her face was beautifully boned, with broad cheeks and forehead pierced by a decided widow"s peak. Light green eyes slanted upward beneath brows like the wings of some tiny graceful bird. Nose, lips and chin gained fascination from the perfection they skirted but just escaped. Face, arms, upper bosom and shoulders wore the even tawny golden tan that only some blondes can achieve.
Her figure, ashimmer with gems, was lithe of waist, firmly full of breast and pelvis, moved with the enticing grace of an Indonesian temple dancer as she slipped into the seat Maria had so recently vacated.
"Sorry, your highness," he said with a look of honest admiration. "I didn"t know we _had_ a date."
"We have now," she stated. She laid a handbag solidly encrusted with diamonds, emeralds and rubies on the table, said to the dwarf waiter, "Bring me the usual, Joe--and give Amba.s.sador Lindsay another of whatever he"s drinking."
_At any other time_, Lindsay thought. He said, "I regret this more than you"ll ever know, my dear, but I"ve got a copter-cab waiting for me outside."
"It will keep." The girl pouted prettily, then leaned toward him and said huskily, "We"ll have just one here. Then we can go to my place.
It"s just outside of Biloxi, almost on the Gulf. We can watch the dawn come up over the water. We can--"
"Stop twisting my arm," said Lindsay, trying to keep his thoughts in focus. Who had sent _this_ girl and why? And what, he wondered, awaited him in Biloxi.
He got up, tossed a twenty-credit note on the table. "This will pay the check," he informed her.
"Not so fast," said the houri, rising with him. Trying to ignore her, he headed toward the door as fast as he could.
She kept after him and his ears burned as he plunged out into the night, saw the blue copter-cab waiting with its door open at the curb. But when he tried to plunge toward it he was halted by an arm whose sharp-faceted jeweled adornments cut his adam"s apple. He gasped but the girl got in front of him, waving her bag.