Hellstrom's Hive

“We lifted all of the prints we could en route and put everything on a chartered plane to Portland,” Janvert said over the laser transceiver. “The preliminary report says some of the prints match those of the dame’s that we lifted in your room. Have our boys picked her up yet?”

“She got away,” Peruge growled.

Clad only in a light robe, he sat in front of the window, looking out at the morning light on the mountain and trying to keep his mind focused on the report. It was becoming increasingly difficult. His chest ached with a demanding persistence, and every movement took so much energy he wondered each time if there would be any reserves left.

“What happened?” Janvert asked. “Did our team slip up?”

“No. I should’ve sent them to the cafe. We saw her come out and head back here, but three men drove up and intercepted her.”

“They grabbed her?”

“There was no struggle. Fancy just jumped into the car with them and they drove off. Our people just weren’t in place. The delay van that helped us get away with the bike wasn’t back yet. Sampson ran out when we saw what was happening, but it all happened too quickly.”

“Back at the farm, eh?”

“I’m sure of it,” said Peruge.

“Did you get a license number?”

“Too far away, but it makes little difference.”

“So she just went along with them?”

“That’s how it looked from here. Sampson thought she looked unhappy about it, but she didn’t argue.”

“Probably unhappy that she couldn’t come back and play with you some more,” Janvert said.

“Stuff that!” Peruge snapped, then put a hand to his head. His brain felt blocked off, not working at all the way it should. There were so many details, and he could feel things slipping away from him. He really needed to take a cold shower, snap out of this fog, and get ready to return to the farm.

“I’ve been referring to the files,” Janvert said. “This Fancy fits the description of the Fancy Kalotermi who’s an officer of Hellstrom’s corporation.”

“I know, I know,” Peruge sighed.

“You feeling all right?” Janvert asked. “You’re sounding a little off your feed. Maybe that shot she gave you—”

“I’m okay!”

“You don’t sound like it. We don’t know what was in that stuff she used to charge you up last night. Maybe you’d better go out for a physical and we send in the second team.”

“Meaning you,” Peruge growled.

“Why should you have all the fun?” Janvert asked.

“I told you to stuff that! I’m all right. I’ll take a shower and get ready to go pretty soon. We have to find out how she did that.”

“I want to be the first to know,” Janvert quipped.

That fool! Peruge raged, rubbing his head. God, how his head ached—and his chest. He had to go out on a job as touchy as this one, and nothing but that fool up there to back him! It was too late to change that now. Peruge felt his hand tremble against his forehead.

“You still there?” Janvert asked.

Peruge winced at the sound. “I’m here.”

“Wouldn’t it be a gas if this Project 40 turned out to be an aphrodisiac?”

Shorty was impossible! He was like some perfect antithesis of everything Peruge needed right now. There was no doubt of the malice in Janvert’s responses, no doubt of the man’s unreliability. What could be done to change that now, though? The teams were scattered all over the area. And he had to be up at that damned farm in a couple of hours. He didn’t know how he was going to do that, but it had to be done. For just a moment, he tried to consider whether Janvert’s cynical banter might contain a small seed of good sense. What had that shot contained? Christ! If he could get a corner on that, it’d make more than ten metallurgical processes! Make a fortune under the counter.

“You’re taking an awful long time between answers,” Janvert said. “I’m going to send Clovis down to have a look at you. She’s had some nursing experience and—”

“She stays right there with you! That’s an order.”

“That dame could’ve done a helluva lot more than just charge you up as a bed partner,” Janvert argued.

“That’s all it was, dammit!” But Shorty’s words carried the seeds of panic. The night with Fancy had distorted his perceptions of many things, including his idea of woman. The uninhibited little cunt!

“I don’t like the way you sound at all,” Janvert said. “Is Sampson still around?”

“I sent him back to you.”

“The backup van isn’t here yet. What if we—”

“You contact them the way I told you and you get them up there! You hear me, Shorty?”

“But that would leave you in town alone. They’d have a team there and we wouldn’t.”

“They don’t dare attack me!”

“I think you’re wrong. I think they may already have attacked you. That town could be completely in their hands. The deputy sure as hell is!”

“I’m ordering you to stay up there with all of your teams,” Peruge said.

“We could have you at a clinic in Portland within two hours,” Janvert said. “I’m going to call for—”

“I am ordering you not to contact headquarters,” Peruge said.

“I think you’re out of your mind. A clinic might be able to examine you and tell us what was in that shot.”

“Not likely. Christ! She said it was—a hormone or something.”

“You believe that?”

“It’s probably true. Sign off now and do what I told you.” He dropped a hand onto his own cutoff switch, heard the blip as the transceiver went dead.

Damn! Everything took so damned much energy.

Willing every movement, he put away the transceiver, went into the bathroom. A cold shower. That was what he needed. If he could get fully awake. The bathroom still showed the scattered wetness of Fancy’s ablutions. He stepped into the tub, supported himself with a hand on the showerhead while he groped for the faucet. Cold water. He turned it on full. At the first shock of the chilling stream, he felt a sharp band of pain tighten on his forehead and chest. He staggered from the tub, trying to breathe, left the water running. He stumbled from the bathroom, dripping, knocked the remains of his coffee making from the counter as he passed, but didn’t even hear it. The bed! He needed the bed. He flopped his wet body on the bed, rolled onto his back. His chest was on fire, his skin trembling with a deep chill. It was so cold! He arched his back, tried to pull the bedding around himself, but his fingers lost their grip and his suddenly outflung hand fell over the edge of the bed. He was dead before his relaxing fingers touched the floor.