<h2>22</h2>
<p>The blackness in the room was complete. She spun
the Denton to kill. There was silence around her
and then a soft rustling at some distance. It might
have been the cautious shuffle of a heavy foot over
thick carpeting. It stopped again. Where was
Lyad?</p>
<p>Her eyes shifted about, trying to pierce the
darkness. Black-light, she thought. She said,
"Lyad?"</p>
<p>"Yes?" Lyad's voice came easily in the dark.
She might be standing about thirty feet away, at
the far end of the room.</p>
<p>"Call your animal off," Trigger said quietly. "I
don't want to kill it." She began moving in the
direction from which Lyad had spoken.</p>
<p>"Pilli won't hurt you, Trigger," the Ermetyne
said. "He's been sent in to disarm you, that's all.
Throw your gun away and he won't even touch
you." She laughed. "Don't bother shooting in my
direction either! I'm not in the room any more."</p>
<p>Trigger stopped. Not because of what that hateful,
laughing voice had said. But because in the
dark about her a fresh, pungent smell was growing.
The smell of ripe apples.</p>
<p>She moistened her lips. She whispered,
"Pilli—keep away!" Eyeless, the dark would
mean nothing to it. Seconds later, she heard the
thing breathing.</p>
<p>She faced the sound. It stopped for a moment,
then it came again. A slow animal breathing. It
seemed to circle slowly to her left. After a little it
stopped. Then it was coming toward her.</p>
<p>She said softly, almost pleadingly, "Pilli, stop!
Go back, Pilli!"</p>
<p>Silence. Pilli's odor lay heavily all around.
Trigger heard her blood drumming in her ears,
and, for a second then, she imagined she could
feel, like a tangible fog, the body warmth of the
monster standing in the dark before her.</p>
<p>It wasn't imagination. Something like a
smooth, heavy pad of rubber closed around her
right wrist and tightened terribly.</p>
<p>The Denton went off, two, three, four times
before she was jerked violently sideways, flung
away, sent stumbling backward against some low
piece of furniture and, sprawling, over it. The gun
was lost.</p>
<p>As she scrambled dizzily to her feet, Pilli
screamed. It was a thin, high, breathless sound
like the screaming of a terrified human child. It
stopped abruptly. And, as if that had been a signal,
the room came full of light again.</p>
<p>Trigger blinked dazedly against the light. Virod
stood before her, looking at her, a pair of opaque
yellow goggles shoved up on his forehead.
Black-light glasses. The golden-haired thing lay
in a great shapeless huddle on the floor twenty
feet to one side. She couldn't see her gun. But
Virod held one, pointing at her.</p>
<p>Virod's other hand moved suddenly. Its palm
caught the side of her face in a hefty slap. Trigger
staggered dumbly sideways, got her balance and
stood facing him again. She didn't even feel
anger. Her cheek began to burn.</p>
<p>"Stop amusing yourself, Virod!" It was Lyad's
voice. Trigger saw her then, standing in a small
half-opened door across the room, where a wall
hanging had been folded away.</p>
<p>"She appeared to be in shock, First Lady,"
Virod explained blandly.</p>
<p>"Is Pilli dead?"</p>
<p>"Yes. I have her gun. He got it from her." Virod
slapped a pocket of his jacket, and some part of
Trigger's mind noted the gesture and suddenly
came awake.</p>
<p>"So I saw. Well—too bad about Pilli. But it was
necessary. Bring her here then. And be reasonably
gentle." Lyad still sounded unruffled. "And put
that gun in a different pocket, fool, or she'll take it
away from you."</p>
<p>She looked at Trigger impersonally as Virod
brought her to the little door, his left hand
clamped on her arm just above the elbow.</p>
<p>She said, "Too bad you killed my expert, Trigger!
We'll have to use a chemical approach now.
Flam and Virod are quite good at that, but there
will be some pain. Not too much, because I'll be
watching them. But it will be rather undignified,
I'm afraid. And it will take a great deal
longer."</p>
<p>Tanned, tall, sinuous Flam stood in the small
room beyond the door. Trigger saw a long, low,
plastic-covered table, clamps and glittering
gadgetry. That would have been where cold-fish
Balmordan hadn't been able to make it against his
mind-blocks finally. There was still one thing she
could do. The yacht was orbiting.</p>
<p>"That sort of thing won't be at all necessary!"
she said shakily. Her voice shook with great ease,
as if it had been practicing it all along.</p>
<p>"No?" Lyad said.</p>
<p>"You've won," Trigger said resignedly. "I'll
play along now. I'll show you how to open that
handbag, to start with."</p>
<p>Lyad nodded. "How do you open it?"</p>
<p>"You have to press it in the right places. Have
them bring it here. I'll show you."</p>
<p>Lyad laughed. "You're a little too eager. And
much too docile, Trigger! Considering what's in
that handbag, it's not at all likely it will detonate if
we brightly hand it to you and let you start pressing.
But something or other of a very undesirable
nature would certainly happen! Flam—"</p>
<p>The tall redhead nodded and smiled. She went
over to a wall cabinet, unlocked it and took out
Repulsive's container.</p>
<p>Lyad said<ins class="typo" title="Transcriber's Note: comma was a period in the original text.">,</ins> "Put it on that shelf for the moment.
Then bring me Virod's gun, and hers."</p>
<p>"I'm afraid you'll have to go up on that table
now, Trigger," she said. "If you've really decided
to cooperate, it won't be too bad. And, by and by,
you'll start telling us very exactly what should be
done with that handbag. And a few other things."</p>
<p>She might have caught Trigger's expression
then. She added drily, "I was informed a few
nights ago that you're quite an artist in rough-and-tumble
tactics. So are Virod and Flam. So if
you want to give Virod an opportunity to amuse
himself a little, go right ahead!"</p>
<p>At that point, the graceful thing undoubtedly
would have been to just smile and get up on the
table. Trigger discovered she couldn't do it. She
gave them a fast, silent, vicious tussle, mouth
clenched, breathing hard through her nose. It was
quite insanely useless. They weren't letting her
get anywhere near Lyad. After Virod had amused
himself a little, he picked her up and plunked her
down on the table. A minute later, she was
stretched out on it, face down, wrists and ankles
secured with padded clamps to its surface.</p>
<p>Flam took a small knife and neatly slit the back
of the Precol uniform open along the line of her
spine. She folded the cloth away. Then Trigger
felt the thin icy touches of some vanilla-smelling
spray walk up her, ending at the base of her skull.</p>
<p>It wasn't so very painful; Lyad had told the truth
about that. But presently it became extremely undignified.
Then her thoughts were speeding up
and slowing down and swirling around in an odd,
confusing fashion. And at last her voice began to
say things she didn't want it to say.</p>
<p>After this, there might have been a pause. She
seemed to be floating up out of a small pool of
sleep when Lyad's voice said somewhere, with
cold fury in it: "There's <i>nothing</i> inside?"</p>
<p>A whole little series of memory-pictures
popped up suddenly then, like a chain of firecrackers
somebody had set off. They formed
themselves into a pattern; and there the pattern
was in Trigger's mind. She looked at it. Her eyes
flew open in surprise. She began to laugh weakly.</p>
<p>Light footsteps came quickly over to her.
"Where is that plasmoid, Trigger?"</p>
<p>The Ermetyne was in a fine, towering rage.
She'd better say something.</p>
<p>"Ask the Commissioner," she said, mumbling a
little.</p>
<p>"It's wearing off, First Lady," said Flam. "Shall
I?"</p>
<p>Trigger's thoughts went eddying away for a
moment, and she didn't hear Lyad's reply. But
then the vanilla smell was there <ins class="typo" title="Transcriber's Note: 'agin' in the original text.">again</ins>, and the thin
icy touches. This time, they stopped abruptly,
halfway.</p>
<p>And then there was a very odd stillness all
around Trigger. As if everybody and everything
had stopped moving together.</p>
<p>A deep, savage voice said, "I hope there'll be no
trouble, folks. I just want her a lot worse than you
do."</p>
<p>Trigger frowned in puzzlement. Next came an
angry roar, some thumping sounds, a sudden
crack.</p>
<p>"Oops!" the deep voice said happily. "A little
too hard, I'm afraid!"</p>
<p>Why, of course, Trigger thought. She opened
her eyes and twisted her head around.</p>
<p>"Still awake, Trigger?" Quillan asked from
the door of the room. He looked pleasantly surprised.
There was a very large bellmouthed gun in
his hand.</p>
<p>That was an odd-looking little group in the
doorway, Trigger felt. On his knees before Quillan
was a fat, elderly man, blinking dazedly at her. He
wore a brilliantly purple bath towel knotted about
his loins and nothing else. It was a moment before
she recognized Belchik Pluly. Old Belchy! And
on the floor before Belchy, motionless as if in
devout prostration, Virod lay on his face. Dead, no
doubt. He shouldn't have got gay with Quillan.</p>
<p>"Yes," Trigger said then, remembering Quillan's
question. "I've got a very fast snap-back—but
they fed me a fresh load of dope just a moment
ago."</p>
<p>"So I saw," said Quillan. His glance shifted
beyond Trigger.</p>
<p>"Lyad," he said, almost gently.</p>
<p>"Yes, Quillan?" Lyad's voice came from the
other side of Trigger. Trigger turned her head
toward it. Lyad and Flam both stood at the far side
of the room. Their expressions were unhappy.</p>
<p>"I don't like at all," Quillan said, "what's
been going on here. Not one bit! Which is why Big
Boy got the neck broken finally. Can the rest of us
take a hint?"</p>
<p>"Certainly," the Ermetyne said.</p>
<p>"So the Flam girl quits ogling those guns on the
shelf and stays put, or they'll amputate a leg. First
Lady, you come up to the table and get Trigger
unclamped."</p>
<p>Trigger realized her eyes had fallen shut again.
She left them that way for a moment. There was
motion near her, and the wrist clamps came off in
turn. Lyad moved down to her feet.</p>
<p>"The fancy-looking gun is Trigger's?" Quillan
inquired.</p>
<p>"Yes," said Lyad<ins class="typo" title="Transcriber's Note: period missing in the original text.">.</ins></p>
<p>"Is that what happened to Pilli and the other
gent out there?"</p>
<p>"Yes."</p>
<p>"Imagine!" said Quillan thoughtfully. "Uh—got
something to seal up the clothes?"</p>
<p>"Yes," Lyad said. "Bring it here, Flam."</p>
<p>"Toss it, Flam!" cautioned Quillan. "Remember
the leg."</p>
<p>Lyad's hands did things to the clothes at her
back. Then they went away.</p>
<p>"You can sit up now, Trigger!" Quillan's voice
informed her loudly. "Sort of slide down easy off
the table and see if you can stand."</p>
<p>Trigger opened her eyes, twisted about, slid her
legs over the edge of the table, came down on her
feet, stood.</p>
<p>"I want my gun and the handbag," she announced.
She saw them again then, on the shelf,
walked over and picked up the plasmoid container.
She looked inside, snapped it shut and
slung the strap over her shoulder. She picked up
the Denton, looked at its setting, spun it and
turned.</p>
<p>"First Lady—" she said.</p>
<p>Lyad went white around the lips. Quillan
made some kind of startled sound. Trigger shot.</p>
<p>Flam ran at her then, screaming, arms waving,
eyes wild and green like an animal's. Trigger half
turned and shot again.</p>
<p>She looked at Quillan. "Just stunned," she
explained. She waited.</p>
<p>Quillan let his breath out slowly. "Glad to hear
it!" He glanced down at Pluly. "Purse was open,"
he remarked significantly.</p>
<p>"Uh-huh," Trigger agreed.</p>
<p>"How's the doohinkus?"</p>
<p>She laughed. "Safe and sound! Believe me."</p>
<p>"Good," he said. He still looked somewhat puzzled.
"Put the eye on Belchy for a few seconds
then. We're taking Lyad along. I'll have to carry
her now."</p>
<p>"Right," Trigger said. She felt rather jaunty at
the moment. She put the eye on Belchik. Belchik
moaned.</p>
<p>They started out of the little room, Pluly in the
van, clutching his towel. The Ermetyne, dangling
loosely over Quillan's left shoulder, looked fairly
gruesomely dead. "You walk this side of me,
Trigger," Quillan said. "Still all right?"</p>
<p>She nodded. "Yes." Actually she wasn't quite.
It was mainly a problem with her thoughts, which
showed a tendency to move along in odd little
leaps and bounds, with short stops in between, as
if something were trying to freeze them up. But if
it was going to be like the first time, she should
last till they got to wherever they were going.</p>
<p>Halfway across the room, she saw the golden
thing like a huge furry sack on the carpet and
shivered. "Poor Pilli!" she said.</p>
<p>"Alas!" Quillan said politely. "I gather you
didn't just stun Pilli?"</p>
<p>She shook her head. "Couldn't," she said. "Too
big. Too fast."</p>
<p>"How about the other one?"</p>
<p>"Oh, him. Stunned. He's an investigator. They
thought he was dead, though. That's what scared
Lyad and Flam."</p>
<p>"Yeah," Quillan said thoughtfully. "It
would."</p>
<p>Another section of wall hanging had folded
aside, and a wide door stood open behind it. They
went through the door and turned into a mirrored
passageway, Pluly still tottering rapidly ahead.
"Might keep that gun ready, Trigger," Quillan
warned. "We just could get jumped here. Don't
think so, though. They'd have to get past the
Commissioner."</p>
<p>"Oh, he's here, too?"</p>
<p>She didn't hear what Quillan answered, because
things faded out around then. When they
faded in again, the passageway with the mirrors
had disappeared, and they were coming to the top
of a short flight of low, wide stairs and into a very
beautiful room. This room was high and long, not
very wide. In the center was a small square
swimming pool, and against the walls on either
side was a long row of tall square crystal pillars
through which strange lights undulated slowly.
Trigger glanced curiously at the nearest pillar.
She stopped short.</p>
<p>"Galaxy!" she said, startled.</p>
<p>Quillan reached back and grabbed her arm with
his gun hand. "Keep moving, girl! That's just how
Belchik keeps his harem grouped around him
when he's working. Not too bad an idea—it does
cut down the chatter. This is his office."</p>
<p>"Office!" Then she saw the large business desk
with prosaic standard equipment which stood on
the carpet on the other side of the pool. They
moved rapidly past the pool, Quillan still hauling
at her arm. Trigger kept staring at the pillars they
passed. Long-limbed, supple and languid, they
floated in their crystal cages, in tinted, shifting
lights, eyes closed, hair drifting about their faces.</p>
<p>"Awesome, isn't it?" Quillan's voice said.</p>
<p>"Yes," said Trigger. "Awesome. One in each—he is a pig!
They look drowned."</p>
<p>"He is and they aren't," said Quillan. "Very
lively girls when he lets them out. Now around
this turn and ... oops!"</p>
<p>Pluly had reached the turn at the end of the row
of pillars, moaned again and fallen forwards.</p>
<p>"Fainted!" Quillan said. "Well, we don't need
him any more. Watch your step, Trigger—dead
one just behind Pluly."</p>
<p>Trigger stretched her stride and cleared the
dead one behind Pluly neatly. There were three
more dead ones lying inside the entrance to the
next big room. She went past them, feeling rather
dreamy. The sight of a squat, black subtub parked
squarely on the thick purple carpeting ahead of
her, with its canopy up, didn't strike her as unusual.
Then she saw that the man leaning against
the canopy, a gun in one hand, was Commissioner
Tate. She smiled.</p>
<p>She waved her hand at him as they came up.
"Hi, Holati!"</p>
<p>"Hi, yourself," said the Commissioner. He
asked Quillan, "How's she doing?"</p>
<p>"Not bad," Quillan said. "A bit ta-ta at the moment.
Double dose of ceridim, by the smell of it.
Had a little trouble here, I see."</p>
<p>"A little," the Commissioner acknowledged.
"They went for their guns."</p>
<p>"Very uninformed gentlemen," said Quillan.
He let Lyad's limp form slide off his shoulder, and
bent forward to lower her into the subtub's back
seat. Trigger had been waiting for a chance to get
into the conversation.</p>
<p>"Just who," she demanded now, frowning, "is a
bit ta-ta at the moment?"</p>
<p>"You," said Quillan. "You're doped, remember?
You'll ride up front with the Commissioner.
Here." He picked her up, plasmoid purse
and all, and set her down on the front seat. Holati
Tate, she discovered then, was already inside.
Quillan swung down into the seat behind her. The
canopy snapped shut above.</p>
<p>The Commissioner shifted the tub's controls. In
the screens, the room outside vanished. A darkness
went rushing downwards past them.</p>
<p>A thought suddenly popped to mind again, and
Trigger burst into tears. The Commissioner
glanced over at her.</p>
<p>"What's the matter, Trigger girl?"</p>
<p>"I'm so s-sorry I killed Pilli. He s-screamed."</p>
<p>Then her mind froze up with a jolt, and thinking
stopped completely. Quillan reached over
the back of the seat and eased her over on her side.</p>
<p>"Got to her finally!" he said. He sat down again.
He brooded a moment. "She shouldn't get so disturbed
about that Pilli thing," he remarked then.
"It couldn't have lived anyway."</p>
<p>"Eh?" the Commissioner said absently, watching
the screens. "Why not?"</p>
<p>"Its brains," Quillan explained, "were too far
apart."</p>
<p>The Commissioner blinked. "It's getting to you
too, son!" he said.</p>
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