Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (33 page)

Z was listed as
Tar With Fethrz, Maitan businessman on vacation, while Thing's
reason for traveling was shown as a question mark. What is a
perfectly logical reason for one type of being to do something
makes no sense whatever to another. If one prefers privacy or if
one simply sees the "Reason for visit" question as nobody's
business he leaves the space blank.

There were
three Zurn on the ship and one Jornian. Two of the Zurn were in
Section "B" and were supposedly a couple on what served as a
honeymoon to those people. The other was seated about as far from
the Jornian as possible. The Jornian was seated behind where Z and
thing were originally to sit. They selected their seats within one
minute of one another and four and five minutes after Z selected
the original seats.

There was a
Cordth in Section "C" who selected her seat one minute later. She
took a seat close to the center of the section. All seats were
placed around tables according to the number of passengers in an
individual party or by consent among those on the flight, the seats
were on swivels, and were of many designs. Many types of beings
would use them.

After the ship
entered TTH drive the passengers could move around and mingle as
they chose, but generally only within their own section. There were
bulkheads between the sections that were opened except in takeoff
and landing or in case of emergency, but mingling outside of the
section was discouraged. There were generally six hundred to eight
hundred people on a flight, so there must be a general way of
keeping track of them.

Z had
deliberately chosen this particular section because it had no
Jornians, Cordth, or Zurn in it. The only other races likely to be
involved in the more violent aspects of the crime syndicate were
Bentans and a few less-known races – and Bentans weren't very
likely at all, considering their psychology.

The floater
reported there were no evidences of any energy weapons in the
section, but one Trelot was carrying a heavy item concealed low on
the calf of its left front leg. Calculations were that it could be
an old- fashioned explosive shell projectile weapon or some form of
very high-pressure gas-driven projectile weapon – or it could be
perfectly innocent.

Thing called up
the information on Trelot, having never heard of the world before,
and discovered they were a four legged, two armed, unclassifiable
race who had never shown any predilection for violence, though
their early history was a very bloody one. The floater would keep
it carefully under observation, as it would keep everyone under
close scrutiny.

The trip went
without incident. The meals were fair, even to the very spoiled
tastes of Z and Thing. They made several new acquaintances among
the passengers. People tended to be curious about Thing, so it
circulated to put on various of the little acts it had developed
for various reasons over the years and did mathematical tricks for
awhile. It then played a short form of Stars and Comets against a
committee of seven people for points only. It was a standard one
thousand point game and Thing took nine hundred eight points.

[ You really
have some very good strategists among you! ] Thing complimented at
the end of the game.

"What do you
mean?" a Feach woman asked. "I do better against the machines!"

[ So do I. Far
better! Even the most sophisticated machine has never taken more
than twenty nine points against me. Mentans are natural
mathematicians, with the ability to change their strategy, while
machines play to programming. Once a strategy is determined by the
computers the machine will continue on that basic plan unless it is
a complete failure. If that happens it will then switch to another
strategy as rigid as the failure. Within six moves the program can
be discerned and thwarted. ]

"There's a
machine called Theron, a spaceship of the Zulians, who is
intelligent and could beat you!" a Bentan said.

"Tec played
against Theron," Z said. "Theron's the one who got the twenty nine
points. Tec is leaving out the fact it was a hundred point game.
It's still the best player in the empire, machines included. I
imagine there are other Mentans who could beat it. Maybe the
intelligent machine, Searcher, could beat it because Searcher would
take ten years between moves after figuring every conceivable
ending after each move."

[ I am good,
even as a Mentan. There are those who are better – far better. It's
rare for one of my people to leave Menta. We aren't particularly
comfortable in these low-pressure situations, though I am
personally well-adjusted now. I do prefer a world where I can go
into water several kilometers in depth to enjoy what is a natural
pressure for me. I can relax in that situation more than any other.
]

They got into a
discussion about Mentans and Z laid back to doze when he saw the
floater suddenly spin to face its weapons toward the Trelot, who
was taking something from a pouch on its leg. Fortunately, only
Thing and Z knew such was the case because the Trelot simply
removed a carry case containing a small fission generator,
perfectly shielded, and plugged its personal computer into it to
work some puzzles. Later in the trip Thing spoke with the being and
they played a very complicated game on the computer that wasn't
unlike the three dimensional chess Z enjoyed. The Trelot was very
good at the game and managed to play Thing to a draw the second
game and beat it soundly the first. Thing was fascinated with the
game. It was invited to copy the program into the floater's banks
so it could learn to play. Thing and the Trelot quickly became
fairly good friends through the shared interest. Thing wasn't lying
when it told people it preferred playing a game against someone who
could beat it because it learned from those times.

Much later when
Maita input the game it said there was simply no way a machine
could be programmed for it, so it was going to do a study of the
Trelot people. It found the people had a double brain much like
Thing's, but both brains were in constant use, unlike Thing's. They
could handle these puzzles easily, and were brilliant natural
theoretical mathematicians. That talent would eventually make their
race well-known and respected throughout the empire.

Z dozed much of
the time, but he also watched what was going on between naps. He
was just drifting off when he saw the Zurn slip through the
bulkhead door and take a seat in the far corner of the section. He
sent as strong a feeling of danger as he could muster at Thing.
Thing's empathic talent picked up the signal and it glanced at Z
with one eye. Z pointed at the corner as he yawned and stretched,
then felt the Bip! on the recorder that meant the message was
received and understood. The floater was instructed through Thing's
contact to locate the Zurn, identify it, and watch it carefully.
The floater reported back through the contact the Zurn was armed
with a high energy weapon.

Thing ordered
the floater to take no chances whatever with this one. It was to
keep a weapon trained on it at all times. If it made any move with
the weapon at all it was to be stunned, at the very least, and
killed if there was no option. No more innocent bystanders were to
be harmed in this.

When Thing
finally begged that it needed rest and the others drifted away it
came to the seat next to Z.

[ This is the
last time we take a commercial flight until this thing is settled!
It isn't worth the potential dangers to others. I fervently hope
the floater can protect these other passengers if that Zurn tries
to use the weapon. I can't condone our placing innocent people in
danger. Not under any circumstances. ]

"I agree
wholeheartedly!" Z replied. "I think that one is only supposed to
keep us in sight and to follow us, but I'm going to be very
nervous, all the same.

"Floater, if
anyone at all speaks to or otherwise contacts the Zurn, please keep
careful watch on them, too. If they're carrying any kind of
detectable weapons, follow the same procedures as you are with it.
Keep weapons at the ready and aimed. If there are any
electromagnetic or photonic communications with anyone you are to
identify them, if possible, and watch them."

Soon the
admonition to stay in the seats and away from the bulkheads, which
would now be closed, was given, then they were aground. Nothing was
done by the Zurn except that it followed them at a distance until
they entered their hotel.

Now to locate
Narmel.

Concentrate on
Jornians

The first thing
Z did when they were in the hotel was to go to a public booth to
fastcom to Maita. They knew there was no way the message could be
breached, but the fact they fastcommed to an unlisted channel WAS
traced, as the charges were automatically added to their bill. It
would be suspicious at best, and they already knew Narmel or his
boss had control of the people at some of the hotels. The public
booth wouldn't have any record to be found of those channels, as
the call was paid at the destination or by personal credit card. No
one was involved other than the parties using the set and the
machines at central. The public booths didn't go through the hotel
switchboard. The calls on the special channels the crew used were
not recorded at all.

Maita said T6
had placed the passive sensors on Sentah and would soon be padding
on Tltle. It agreed there could be no more commercial flights so
long as the presence of Thing or Z could place others in danger.
That was unacceptable. It involved innocent bystanders.

T6 reported
they could use Thing's floater to access a lot of machines on the
worlds through processes Tab had perfected and it now was
programmed with. It figured the TTH14 fairly well, but needed
practice. A lot of it had to be self-taught.

Thing explained
about the Zurn “hit man” and about the probability they had been
followed by no less than four people from Sentah.

*The Jornian, I
think, is the important one. They will hold all the higher
positions in these things if Z's information is correct about the
old Earth syndicates. I'm afraid he may be prejudiced.*

"Uh-uh!
Different races had different syndicates. The Italians used others,
but the mafia wasn't restricted only to Italians, it was Sicilian –
a much smaller geographical area. The tongs were strictly Chinese,
each generally from a specific area in China. Other races had their
own things, but usually one race controlled one sector of the crime
business.

"I'm not saying
the Italians had it all – like many seemed to think at the time –
I'm saying the Italians had all of the mafia, like the Chinese had
all of the tongs, and the Spanish had the Cosa Nostra. There were
as many stories about German syndicates and Greek syndicates and
Jewish syndicates and even a Polish syndicate, but none of them
mixed up the races in their own organization except for a few very
smart cookies like Lansky, who became a boss in the mafia.

"Maita's right.
If the Jornians have a syndicate here all the top people will be
Jornian and the lower ones will be a few other races. They won't
mix in the upper echelons – IF the same rules hold here. We don't
know they do yet, but my personal opinion is that the rule will
hold."

[ We can
concentrate on Jornians then. When T Six gets here it can give us
access to the records we need. Maita can make a unit for reading
the machines for me to carry on my floater if we are going to do
many of these things. I'll also want T Six to add several other
protective weapons I can point in different directions. If the
floater is instructed to watch several people in a group like on
that commercial carrier I'll want it to be able to have weapons
pointed at every damned one of them! No more chances with innocent
people. Period! Case closed! T Six can learn to do the detecting,
too. It can use floaters to access various machines and can do
general surveillance when we need it. It can do the 'legwork' and
'stakeouts,' like in Z's novels. ]

*I am planning
a surprise for you there, but it will have to wait. You will do the
detective thing from time to time, as Tab will do some of the
things you generally do. It keeps everyone up to date on things, I
think. Be careful.*

"I'll be there
in about six hours," T6 replied. "I can build the unit for your
floater. I know how. It'll be ready when I get there because you're
going to need it, apparently. I've got a lot of data to correlate,
so I'll enjoy sitting on that pad without other duties for
awhile."

Thing was
riding Z's shoulder while the floater stayed above them to
translate. It used English in their private conversations because
there was less than one chance in ten billion or so that anyone
would understand it. Earth was only recently a member of the
empire. None from that planet had ever yet come to the vacation
worlds except for Z, who was one of the original party who
established the pleasure planets (Book three:
Pirates
).

They spent the
rest of the afternoon in getting the feel of the place. It wasn't
necessary to get attention here because they already had more than
they really wanted.

The floater
told them they were now being followed by an armed Bentan, which
surprised them only slightly. They expected the syndicate to use as
many different kinds of beings as possible so they wouldn't suspect
being tailed. Bentans were a good choice here because most of the
"natives" were Bentans, as well as more than half of the transient
population. Z had already spotted the follower, though. He was
really inept and was obvious. They kept losing him, then letting
him "find" them again just before he gave up.

At one point, Z
suddenly turned around in a doorway and walked directly toward him.
He didn't know whether to run or hold his ground, so Z asked him
where the Sunset Casino was. The fellow stammered a moment, then
pointed to the building only two blocks farther along the road. He
hung back a bit more after that.