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Duke, Reetal said uncertainly, just what are you talking about? I don t
know
Shut up. He reached over, tapped her knee lightly with his fingertips. Of
course, if you want to get slapped around, all right. Otherwise, don t
interrupt again. Like I said, you re in luck; I don t have much time to spend
here. You re getting off very easy. Now just listen.
Bad News knew a lot about our operation and had a story to explain that. If
the story was straight, we couldn t touch him. But I was wondering about the
two of you happening to be here on the Star again at the same time. A team
maybe, eh? But he didn t mention you as being in on the deal. So what was the
idea?
And then, sweetheart, I remembered something else and that tied it in. Know
that little jolt people sometimes get when they re dropping off to sleep? Of
course. Know another time they sometimes get it? When they re snapping back
out of a Moment of Truth, eh? I remembered suddenly I d felt a little jump
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like that while we were talking today. Might have
been a reflex of some kind. Of course, it didn t occur to me at the time you
could be pulling a lousy stunt like that on old
Duke. Why take a chance on getting your neck broken?
But, sweetheart, that s the tie-in! Quillan hasn t told it straight. He s got
no backing. He s on his own. There s no gang outside somewhere that knows all
about our little deal. He got his information right here, from you. And you
got it from dumb old Duke, eh?
Duke, Reetal said quite calmly. can I ask just one question?
He stared bleakly at her a moment, then grinned. It s my night to be
big-hearted, I guess. Go ahead.
I m not trying to argue. But it simply doesn t make sense. If I learned about
this operation you re speaking of from you, what reason could I have to feed
you Truth in the first place? There d be almost a fifty-fifty chance that
you d spot it immediately. Why should I take such a risk? Don t you see?
Fluel shrugged, dropped his cigarette and ground it carefully into the carpet
with the tip of his shoe.
You ll start answering those questions yourself almost immediately,
sweetheart! Let s not worry about that now. Let me finish. Something happened
to Movaine couple of hours ago. Nobody s fault. And something else happened to
Marras
Cooms just now. That puts me in charge of the operation here. Nice! isn t it?
When we found Cooms lying in the hall with a hole through his stupid head, I
told Baldy Perk it looked like Bad News had thrown in with the Star boys and
done it.
Know Baldy? He s Cooms personal gun. Not what you d call bright, and he s
mighty hot now about Cooms. I left him in charge on our level, with orders to
get Quillan the next time he shows up there. Well and good. The boys know Bad
News
rep too well to try asking him questions. They won t take chances with him.
They ll just gun him down together the instant they see him.
He paused to scuff his shoe over the mark the cigarette had left on the
carpet, went on, But there s Nome Lancion now.
He kind of liked Cooms, and he might get suspicious. When there s a sudden
vacancy in the organization like that, Nome takes a good look first at the man
next in line. He likes to be sure the facts are as stated.
So now you know the kind of answers from you I want to hear go down on the
recorder, sweetheart. And be sure they sound right. I don t want to waste time
on replays. You and Quillan were here on the Star. You got some idea of what
was happening, realized you were due to be vaporized along with the rest of
them after we left. There was no way out of the jam for you unless you could
keep the operation from being carried out. You don t, by the way, mention
getting any of that information from me. I don t want Lancion to think I m
beginning to get dopey. You and Quillan just cooked up this story, and he
managed to get into the Executive Block. The idea being to knock off as many
of the leaders as he could, and mess things up.
Fluel picked up the recorder, stood up, and placed it on the chair. That s
all you have to remember. You re a smart girl;
you can fill in the detail any way you like. Now let s get started
She stared at him silently for instant, a muscle beginning to twitch in her
cheek. If I do that, she said, if I give you a story Nome will like, what
happens next?
Fluel shrugged. Just what you re thinking happens next. You re a dead little
girl right now, Reetal. Might as well get used to the idea. You d be dead
anyhow four, five hours from now, so that shouldn t make too much difference.
What makes a lot of difference is just how unpleasant the thing can get.
She drew a long breath. Duke, I
You re stalling, sweetheart.
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Duke, give me a break. I really didn t know a thing about this. I
He looked down at her for a moment. I gave you a break, he said. You ve
wasted it. Now we ll try it the other way.
If we work a few squeals into the recording, that ll make it more convincing
to Lancion. He ll figure little Reetal s the type who wouldn t spill a thing
like that without a little pressure. He checked himself, grinned. And that
reminds me. When you re talking for the record, use your own voice.
My own voice? she half whispered.
Nome will remember what you sound like and I ve heard that voice imitations
are part of your stock in trade. You might think it was cute if Nome got to
wondering after you were dead whether that really had been you talking. Don t
try it, sweetheart.
He brought a glove out of his jacket pocket, slipped it over his left hand,
flexing his fingers to work it into position.
Reetal s eyes fastened on the rounded metal tips capping thumb, forefinger and
middle finger of the glove. Her face went gray.
Duke, she said. No
Shut up. He brought out a strip of transparent plastic, moved over to her.
The gloved hand went into her hair, gripped it, turned her face up. He laid
the plastic gag lengthwise over her mouth, pressed it down and released it.
Reetal closed her eyes.
That ll keep it shut, he said. Now His right hand clamped about the back
of her neck, forcing her head down and
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