Brain World

Chapter Fourteen

Dorn Horsten bent over Ronny. He said, “Who are they?”

“I… don’t… know.”

“We better get out of here. Maybe more of them might show up, and it’s just possible some of them might be armed. Can you walk?”

“I… think… so.”

“Then get up and let’s get out of here.”

Under the Scop, Ronny couldn’t have disobeyed if he had wanted to. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and came erect, a bit woozily.

Dorn picked up a small packet from the side of the bed, scowled at it, then slipped it into his pocket.

Boy had been standing guard at the door. Now he looked over a shoulder and said, “Hello, Boss. You look like hell. This’ll teach you to run me out of the room and leave you alone with a bitch.”

Dorn scowled at the dog. “What do you mean?”

“Who else could have slipped the boss that dope?”

“She was drugged, too.”

“Sure. First she gave it to the Boss. Then she got rid of the bottle and glasses after taking a slug of the stuff herself, and climbed back into bed. She figured that’d make her free from suspicion. She was too high and mightily superior to think of me being able to point the paw of suspicion at her.”

“Hmmm,” Dorn said, taking Ronny by the arm to steady him. “We’ll see about it.”

They cautiously left the room, noted that the two kidnappers Dorn had slugged were still out cold, and crossed to the broken door of the patio, the big man still supporting the wobbly Ronny Bronston. The two men whose heads he had cracked together were also still not of this world.

They got down the entry way and outside and started back toward Rosemary’s house. There was simply no other place to go.

Dorn said, “We’ll make better time this way,” and took up the smaller agent and slung him over his shoulder and broke into a longer stride.

Boy began ranging, checking on possible pursuit, or possible ambush ahead or to the side. For a large dog, he was fast.

The effects of Scop don’t last very long,” Dorn said. “How long have you had it in you?”

“About… an… hour… ”

“It’ll be wearing off by the time we get back to the house. Did they ask you any other questions?”

“No.”

“That’s what they were after, all right,” Dorn said grimly. “And they got it. The location of the Dawnworlds. Why do they want it?”

“I… don’t… know.”

They arrived back at Rosemary’s house without pursuit or further incident. In the patio, Dorn Horsten put his fellow-agent back onto his feet. Ronny wasn’t nearly as groggy now, and his speech came more clearly.,

“Let’s go see Rosemary,” he said. “I got those knockout drops in some wine she gave me.”

They headed for his suite, initially.

Dorn said, “She was drugged too. Possibly someone else got to that wine.”

“Ha,” Boy said and was even able to get a tone of sarcasm into his voice.”

Ronny said grimly, “I saw her pop the cork. And she turned her back to me while she was pouring it.”

Somewhat to Dorn’s surprise, they found Rosemary still in bed. He had expected her to be up and around by now, and in some other part of the house.

Dorn entered the room first and blocked her seeing Ronny with his huge build.

She saw the look on his face and said, “I have a raging headache, evidently from that drug. I thought I’d stay… ” Then she saw Ronny Bronston and her eyes widened. “Ronny!” she said. “What happened?”

He looked at her thoughtfully.

Dorn Horsten brought the small packet from his side pocket and opened it. He brought something from it and then quickly bent over her, grabbed a resisting arm and slipped a syrette into it.

She tried to pull away. “What’s that!” she demanded, her eyes fearful.

“Scop,” Dorn said flatly. “I found it over at the house where the kidnappers had taken Ronny. He’d been injected with it. And now we want to know what this is all about.”

She was obviously aghast. “You can’t do this,” she gasped.

“But my dear, I just have.”

She tried to struggle out from under the bedsheet but Dorn shook his head and said, “I could restrain you, of course, until the Scop takes effect in about five minutes, but I would dislike to do it. Nor would there be much good in shouting for help. Barbara is the only other person in the house. And, besides, I could even gag you.”

“You… you… ”

He beamed at her. “Yes, my dear.”

The two men sat and looked at her silently for several minutes. Her eyes began to glaze slightly.

Ronny said at last. “Did you give me those knockout drops?”

There was desperation behind her eyes, even in spite of the truth serum, but there was no possible escape.

“Yes,” she said.

“Why?”

“So… that… my… accomplices… could… come… and… get… you.”

“Told you so,” Boy said. He was seated on the floor, his tongue hanging out, and still panting a bit from his exertions while guarding the return.

“Why did you want the location of the Dawnworlds?”

“So… that… we… could… go… there… and… learn… the… secret… of… the… elixir… of… life… the… prolonging… of… life… indefinitely… and… other… discoveries… they … have… made… such… as… the… matter… converter.”

Both Ronny and Dorn were watching her in horror.

“You fools” Dorn snapped. “Wouldyou run the chance of bringing destruction to the whole human race?”

“No.”

“But how did you expect to get these secrets of theirs without antagonizing them? They destroy thieves, and even the sun systems from which the thieves come.”

“We… did… not… plan… to… steal… anything.

“We… are… more… intelligent… than… they… are.

“We… planned… to… reason… them… into… freely… granting… us… the… discoveri es.”

“I can see you don’t know, or understand, the Dawnmen,” Ronny said with bitterness.

Dorn was looking at her contemplatively. He said, “Were all of the committee in on this?”

“No.”

“Who was in on it besides you?”

“Barbara… and… Marvin.”

“They are the committee members who arranged making you our guide and hostess?”

“Yes.”

Ronny looked at the big man and chuckled. “So. It wasn’t your overwhelming masculine charm that got Barbara into your bed. She wanted to distract you so that you wouldn’t be around.”

Dorn grunted at him. “Look who’s talking. You didn’t exactly sweep our girl, here, off her feet either. She was setting you up as a patsy.” He turned back to Rosemary and said, “Why did you wish to gain admission into the United Planets?”

“Because… as… a… member… planet… we… would… come… under… Articles… On e… and… Two… and… United… Planets… would… not… be… able… to… interfere… wit h… our… plans… on… the… Dawnworlds.

“Otherwise… your… Space… Forces… might… have… interfered.”

Ronny looked unbelieving. “But how did you expect to get away with kidnapping me? Obviously, when that came out, you’d have no chance of gaining entry to UP.”

“We… didn’t… plan… for… it… to… come… out.

“You… were… to… be… memory… washed… and… then… returned… here… to… me … in… bed.

“In… the… morning… when… we… both… awakened… you… would… not… remem ber… that… you… had… been… abducted… and… revealed… the… location… of… the… Dawnworlds.”

Ronny was scowling at her in puzzlement. “But how could you possibly know that of all the Section G agents, Ross Metaxa would send me to Einstein?”

“We… guessed… he… would… send… agents… who… ranked… highest… in… intelli gence.

“So… we… infiltrated… a… man… into… a… job… in… the… Interplanetary… Data… Banks… on… Earth… to… change… the… records… so… that… you… would… appear… t o… be… highest… or… second… highest.

“The… plan… worked… out.”

Dorn laughed and Ronny looked over at him in disgust. “What’s so funny?”

“You’re not as smart as you thought you were.”

Ronny turned and headed for the door, saying, “We’d better report to Metaxa. This is bad.”

Dorn said, “He’s in London at some conference, but Sid Jakes is on hand.” He looked down at the girl. “What about her?”

“What about her?” Ronny said disgustedly. “There’s nothing further we can do with her. The Scop’ll wear off in an hour or so. And we’d best let her do something about her chum-pals over at the other house. We don’t want a killing on our hands on Einstein and, if I know you, some of those characters you creamed probably have at least a concussion.”

He led the way out into the patio and headed toward the living room, Boy bringing up the rear. But at that point Fredric and Darlene came through the entry. On seeing the two Section G agents, both smiled and said good morning.

Ronny grunted his opinion of that and led the way to the living room.

Dorn went into the dining room for coffee while Ronny told the story to the two committee members.

When he was through, Fredric groaned and, seated now, put his head in his hands.

“You know nothing about this?” Ronny said, though he had already been told by Rosemary under Scop that none of the committee were involved save Marvin and Barbara.

Fredric shook his head. “It’s well known that there is an element on Einstein that wants to secure the secrets of the Dawnworlds, especially their method of prolonging life indefinitely. In fact, I wouldn’t mind knowing myself. Extending life for however long one would wish is a dream held by almost everyone.”

“Then why weren’t you in with them?”

Fredric looked up at him and said, “For the same reason that the majority of our people here on Einstein are not with them. We don’t think they have a feasible plan to get the Dawnmen to release their secrets. And we don’t want to see Einstein wake up one morning with a methane-ammonia-hydrogen atmosphere.”

Ronny said, “Well, now that they’ve been discovered, they can’t be allowed to go to the Dawnworlds. They’ve got to be stopped.”

Dorn came back with coffee and handed it around.

But Fredric and Darlene were staring at Ronny as though he had gone drivel-happy.

Darlene said very reasonably, “But there is no way of stopping them.”

Ronny scowled at her. “What do you mean? Fredric just said that the majority of the population of Einstein is against the attempt.”

Fredric put in, his voice equally reasonable, “But we have no means of coercion on Einstein.”

Ronny closed his eyes in momentary mute appeal to higher powers. He said to Dorn, “Holy Ultimate, get Sid Jakes on the communicator.”

He went over to the room’s desk and plunked himself down in despair.

Boy, who was stretched out on the floor, his muzzle on crossed paws, said, “Fouled up mess, eh Boss?”

“You have said it.” He looked down at the dog. “By the way, thanks for coming to the rescue.”

The Vizsla gave his stubby tail a quick couple of wags, but said, “All part of the job, Boss. I’d offer to bite Marvin for you when he comes in, but I’m conditioned not to bite anybody on this planet.”

Dorn brought his communicator over and propped it before Ronny. He said, his face unhappy, “You know Ronny, we could go back to that other house and knock those four funkers off.”

Fredric winced.

Ronny shook his head. “No, the word is spread by now. Besides, they’re probably not even still there. They will have summoned a car and taken off.”

Irene Kasansky’s face faded in on the screen and immediately took on an expression of relief. “Ronny!” she said. “You’re free!”

“Yeah,” he said glumly. “Put Sid on, will you, Irene? You can listen in, if you want, and get the whole sad story.”

“Will do.”

The face of the assistant to Ross Metaxa faded in, grinning as usual. “Free already, eh? That was a neat trick. What happened?”

Dorn Horsten and Boy found me—too late.”

“Who’s Boy?”

“The latest member of the Section G team.”

“Recruited a new potential agent, eh? Wizard. But what do you mean, too late?”

“They put me under Scop and dug the location of the Dawnworlds out of me.”

Sid Jakes hissed, his expression less happy now. “Holy Ultimate! But why’d they want it? As though I didn’t know.”

“They’re particularly interested in the prolongation of life. They wanted to get into UP so that Articles One and Two would apply to them and we wouldn’t be able to stand in the way. Sid, they’ll be heading for the Dawnworlds soonest, to get their business over before we can interfere.”

“Yeah.” Sid Jakes said, thinking about it. “It’d take a long time to get a Space Forces cruiser to you. Are there any spaceships available there?”

“There’re two space freighters on the field. They look like tramps.”

“Wizard. Hire one of them. Where would be a good planet to rendezvous with one of our cruisers? Some world partway there.”

“New Delos or Xanadu.”

“Just a minute.” Sid Jakes turned his head and said something into an order-box. In a short time he came back to Ronny and said, “We have a medium class space cruiser within two days of New Delos. Meet them there and they’ll take you to the Dawnworlds.”

Ronny said, “Just a minute, Sid. If I give the officers of that space cruiser the coordinates of the Dawnworlds, then they’ll know.”

“We’ll brainwash them later, like we did the men on the Pisa, who took you the first time.”

“Wizard, but that was a four man scout. You’re talking about a medium cruiser. And things worked out so that we could brainwash the Pisa crew. But suppose something falls apart on this expedition? The so-called Brahmins tolerated me on that first set-down on their planet, but they didn’t suggest that they wanted me back. Anything could happen.”

“I see what you mean,” Jakes chuckled. “All right, let’s do it this way. We’ll send Lee Chang in a small cruiser from here. She’ll get to New Delos as soon as you will. She’s a navigator. She’ll take over the navigating once you tell her where the Dawnworlds are, and the cruiser’s officers won’t know.”

Ronny said cautiously, “What happens to Lee Chang after the whole romp is over, assuming we pull it off satisfactorily? Then she’ll know where the Dawnworlds are.”

Sid Jakes grinned at him. “We’ll shoot her,” he said. “And maybe you too.”