"Why, yes, he did." Paula Quinton looked surprised. "How did you guess it? You see, a dog started barking, behind the house, and he excused himself and...."
"A dog?" von Schlichten almost shouted. The other officers echoed him.
"Why, yes...." Paula Quinton"s eyes widened. "But there are no dogs on Ullr, except a few owned by Terrans. And wasn"t there something about ...?"
Von Schlichten had the radio-phone and was calling the command car at the scene of the riot. The sergeant-driver answered.
"Von Schlichten here; my compliments to Captain Pedolsky, and tell him he"s to make immediate and thorough search of the house in front of which the incident occurred, and adjoining houses. For his information, that"s Keeluk"s house. Tell him to look for traces of Governor-General Harrington"s collie, or any of the other terrestrial animals that have been disappearing--that goat, for instance, or those rabbits. And I want Keeluk brought in, alive and in condition to be interrogated."
"But, what ...?" the girl began, her voice puzzled.
"That"s why you were attacked," he told her. "Keeluk was afraid to let you get away from there alive to report hearing that dog, so he went out and had a gang of thugs rounded up to kill you."
"But he was only gone five minutes."
"In five minutes, I can put all the troops in Konkrook into action.
Keeluk doesn"t have radio or TV--we hope--but he has his forces concentrated, and he has a pretty good staff."
"But Mr. Keeluk"s a friend of ours. He knows what our a.s.sociation is trying to do for his people...."
"So he shows his appreciation by setting that mob on you. Look, he has a lot of influence in that section. When you were attacked, why wasn"t he out trying to quiet the mob?"
"When they jumped you, you tried to get back into the house," M"zangwe put in. "And you found the door barred against you."
"Yes, but...." The girl looked troubled; M"zangwe had guessed right.
"But what"s all the excitement about the dog? What is it, the sacred totem-animal of the Ullr Company?"
"It"s just a big brown collie named Stalin. But somebody stole it, and Keeluk was keeping it. We want to know why. We don"t like geek mysteries--not when they lead to murderous attacks on Terrans, at least."
It seemed to satisfy her, as the aircar let down on the hospital landing stage. But it didn"t satisfy von Schlichten. He could smell trouble brewing. Just what could the geeks do with a dog? Nothing, so far as he could tell--but they didn"t go in for such behaviour without what they considered good reason. Good for them, that is!
III
Governor-General Sidney Harrington had a ruddy outdoors-man"s face and a ragged gray mustache; in his old tweed coat spotted with pipe ashes, he might have been any of a dozen-odd country-gentlemen of von Schlichten"s boyhood in the Argentine. His face was composed enough for the part, too. But beyond him in the governor"s office, Lieutenant-Governor Eric Blount matched von Schlichten"s frown, his sandy-haired and younger face puckered in worry.
"We picked up a few of Keeluk"s goon-gang," von Schlichten was reporting. "But I doubt if they"ll tell us anything we don"t already know. The dog was gone, but we found where it had been kept; at least one of the rabbits had been there, too. No trace of the goat. Anyhow, the riot"s been put down. The Kragans and some of King Jaikark"s infantry are patrolling the section. Jaikark"s troops are busy making ma.s.s arrests. Either more slaves for the King"s court favorites or else our Prime Minister Gurgurk wants to use them for patronage."
Blount nodded. "Gurgurk"s building quite a political organization, lately. He must be about ready to shove Jaikark off the throne."
"Oh, Gurgurk wouldn"t dare try anything like that," Harrington said.
"He knows we wouldn"t let him get away with it."
"Then why"s he subsidizing this Mad Prophet Rakkeed?" Blount wanted to know. "Rakkeed is preaching a holy war against all Terrans and against Jaikark. Gurgurk subsidizes Rakkeed, and...."
"You haven"t any proof of that," the governor protested.
Blount shrugged, his face looking grim. Von Schlichten knew how he felt. They couldn"t prove it, but both knew that Rakkeed had been getting funds from the hands of Gurgurk. The prophet had been stepping up his crusade against the Terrans, and Gurgurk wasn"t the only one backing him. The Prime Minister probably figured on using Rakkeed to stir up an outbreak; then Gurgurk could step in, after Jaikark was killed, put down the revolt he helped incite, and claim to be the best friend of the Company. But the question was whether Rakkeed could be used that way. He was becoming more of a menace than Gurgurk could ever be. Everywhere they turned, Rakkeed was at the bottom of their trouble--just in this case, where Keeluk was one of Rakkeed"s followers.
His power seemed to be growing, too. There were rumors that he had been entertained at the palace in Keegark, just as he was usually entertained by the big shipowning n.o.bles here at Konkrook; come to think of it, the last time here, he"d been guest of the Keegarkan amba.s.sador. He went all over Ullr, crusading, traveling coolie-cla.s.s in disguise on Company ships, according to their best information.
Blount sighed heavily. "This d.a.m.ned dog business worries me."
"Worries me, too," Harrington said. "I"m fond of that mutt, and G.o.d only knows what sort of stuff he"s been getting to eat."
"I"m a lot more worried about why Keeluk was hiding him, and why he was willing to murder the only two Terrans on Konkrook who trust him, to prevent our finding out he had Stalin," Blount struck in.
Von Schlichten chain-lit another cigarette and stubbed out the old one. "Maybe Keeluk turned him over to Rakkeed to kill before a congregation of his followers--killing us in effigy. Or maybe they figure we worship Stalin, and getting him would give them power over us. I wish I knew a little more about Ullran psychology."
"One thing," Blount said. "It doesn"t take any Ullran psychologist to know about eighty per cent of them hate us poisonously."
"Oh, rubbish!" Harrington blew the exclamation out around his pipe stem with a gush of smoke. "A few fanatics hate us, but nine-tenths of them have benefitted enormously from us."
"And hate us more deeply with each new benefit," Blount added. "They resent everything we"ve done for them."
"Yes, this s.p.a.ceport proposition of King Orgzild of Keegark looks like it, doesn"t it?" Harrington retorted. "He hates us so much he"s offered us a s.p.a.ceport at his city...."
"At what cost?" Blount asked. "He takes the land from some n.o.ble he executes for treason and gives it to us--together with forced labor.
We furnish everything else. We get a port we don"t need, and he gets all the business it"ll bring. In fact, considering that Rakkeed is a welcome guest there, I wonder if he isn"t fomenting trouble here at Konkrook to make us move our main base to Keegark. He"s so sure we"ll accept already that he"s started building two new power-reactors to handle the additional demand from increased business."
"Where"s he getting the plutonium?" von Schlichten asked, suspiciously.
"He just bought four tons of it from us, off the _City of Pretoria_,"
Harrington replied.
"A h.e.l.l of a lot of plutonium," Blount said. "I wonder if he has any idea of what else plutonium can be used for?"
"Oh, G.o.d, I hope not!" Harrington exclaimed. "Bosh! What about those letters Keeluk gave the Quinton girl?"
"All addressed to rabidly anti-Terran Rakkeed disciples," von Schlichten replied. "We couldn"t find any indication of a cipher, but the gossip about Keeluk"s friends might have had code-meanings. I"ll have to advise her to have nothing to do with any of the people Keeluk gave her letters to."
"Think she"ll listen to you? These Extraterrestrial Rights a.s.sociation people are a lot of blasted fanatics, themselves. They think we"re a gang of b.l.o.o.d.y-fisted, flint-hearted imperialists."
"Oh, they"re not as bad as all that. Old Mohammed Ferriera"s always been decent enough. And the a.s.sociation"s really done a lot of good in other places."
A calculating look came into Harrington"s eye. "She was going to Skilk, eh? And you"re going there yourself, to investigate some of this Rakkeed worry of Eric"s. Why not invite her along, and maybe you can plant a couple of ideas where they"ll do the most good. We all know there are a lot of things at the polar mines that would look bad to anybody who didn"t understand. And with all this trouble being stirred up now...."
It was his first admission that there _was_ trouble, but von Schlichten let it pa.s.s. "Her company wouldn"t be any heavy cross to bear," he replied. "I won"t guarantee anything, of course...."
The intercom-speaker on the table whistled, and Harrington flipped a switch and spoke into the box. "Governor," a voice replied out of it, "there"s a geek procession just landed from a water-barge in front, coming up the roadway to Company House. A platoon of Jaikark"s Household Guards with a royal litter, Spear of State, gift-litter, n.o.bles and such."
"Gurgurk with indemnity for the riot, eh? Let them in, give them an honor guard of Kragans, but keep their own gun-toters outside. Take them to Reception Hall until I signal from Audience Hall, then herd them in."
He flipped back the switch and turned back. "We"ll have to let them wait or they"ll think we"re worried. But you see--everything"s going along normal lines."
Blount nodded, but his face showed disbelief. And von Schlichten grumbled unhappily to himself, without knowing why, until they finally went out to the big Audience Hall to meet the delegation.