Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (38 page)

*That's
natural. You have very good memories of Rimalt. What you can do is
to let me alter Z to an extent – I'll make him a Veen. He was
one.... No! How about a Kappin, Z? You enjoyed being Lion (Book
fourteen:
A
Strange Place
)! The
temperature range will be suitable and you'll be someone they won't
know how to figure.*

[ That will
have the advantage of being from a new race in the empire, but one
no one has ever seen. They can look it up on the Library link and
will find exactly whatever he says will fit the facts. He also
knows the planet of origin intimately and can talk knowledgeably
about all three of the native races there. I think it's a good
idea. It has one more advantage in that Z can act like he's there
to set up a regular route for people from that world. The Jornians
will want to know how susceptible these new ones will be to the
gambling urge and maybe to other things. Maybe we can find how they
get power over some of these people if they try anything with him.
We can check on where they research to learn what will work as
blackmail. ]

"I don't know
anything about that Kappin reference," T6 said, so the others
waited for the few seconds it took Maita to input the entire
adventure to it.

"It's also good
the recent history is a very violent one," T6 agreed when Maita was
finished. "Maybe Lion will look for a job suitable to his
talents?"

*That's true.
The Zurn are new and are recently violent, so were contacted and
used. The Jornians are almost as new and are violent in some
aspects. They use the Bentans, who are an old member, but can be
violent. The Kromes are used because they have such a rigid social
structure they are easily blackmailed into such things. The
Jornians can understand that because they are from a society where
the females are totally subservient, but for biological reasons,
not social. They do not even discuss sexual matters in mixed
company. The openness of the Kappin mores will be a major puzzle to
them.*

"I'm convinced,
already!" Z cried. "I'll go to the medbox! I just wish Thing could
be along. I always feel a hell of a lot safer when I know it's
sitting there with those neat little things on its floater."

[ A hell of a
lot of good they did at the hotel! The damned floater was out in
the damned hall! ]

*Are you going
to argue, or are we going to get this thing started?*

[ I vote to
argue! ]

"Me, too!" Z
quipped.

"I vote to
argue!" T6 threw in. "That way, we don't have to actually DO
anything! It's not so easy to screw up a project you never
start!"

*All
you
do
is sit on a
pad somewhere, as it is!*

[ Yeah, T Six.
Why not race around the system and count meteor fragments or
something? ]

"Hmft!" Z
snorted. "I can see this will soon degenerate into vulgarity. I'll
rest awhile in a medbox! I think you have no more class or taste
than this Narmel person!"

*That's a
good idea! I can think of a few rather interesting experiments to
try while you're in there. I wonder what a cross between a Zulian
and a Feach really
would
look like.
I'll make you a Kappin with jaws that work from the sides! That
should be interesting.*

Now that they
had a plan, such as it was, they could enjoy the repartee. They
finally had a reaction from the syndicate they could use against
the branches on the vacation worlds at any time while also finding
a trail to follow upward to, hopefully, locate the ultimate head of
the thing.

Z didn't fool
himself into believing it was actually going to be easy, by any
criteria. He knew more than any of them what kinds of things could
happen when working against an organized crime syndicate.

T6 called for
Thing to come to the judge machine, where Kloot, alone, was allowed
to be put on the probe under the conspiracy to commit organized
criminal acts law. His reading pointed directly to Dir and somewhat
to Narmel. It was a disappointment for a short while, but Z was
very pleased with that when he came from the machine as Lion.

"It's really
great!" he exclaimed. "We already know Narmel's the local boss, but
now we see something of how it works. Narmel gives Dir the orders
and Dir passes them on. It's being run as a cell operation. We can
put Dir on the probe as well as Narmel. He may know more than we
suspect, so nothing's lost. We all know perfectly well Dir's probe
will still lead to Narmel and Narmel will lead to Eed, at least.
Maybe Eed'll also be implicated by Dir. Maybe Dir will know where
Eed is. Maybe Narmel won't.

"This is, as I
said, a cell operation, each knowing virtually nothing about the
level above them except for maybe one name. We want as many of them
as possible on the probe. Any one of them may have a little fact
that means nothing until it's added to some other little nothing
fact from someone else. You handle all that and I'll see what I can
find on Netdel.

"Are we
ready?"

Z went to T6
and bid his other friends good luck, then was gone. Thing was taken
back to Tltle on its floater to work with Maita's other machines
and to oversee the judge and probes. It wouldn't have too much to
do now, other than to think about the information they received.
That information wasn't available to any organic being, except for
a verdict or specified data – but Maita wasn't organic and could
communicate directly with Thing through its floater. Thing was able
to add a fact from one place to one from another and would have
some interesting things to say to Z when he returned about this
operation. It wanted to add factors about this kind of thing to its
developing sociomath equations.

Dir was caught
and put on the probe, but Narmel had fled. The trace showed he was
heading for Netdel.

Lion

Z was in the
medical box for more than four hours, as Maita had a lot to do in
changing him this time. Lion was the name and identification Z had
used when he was a Kappin, one of the races on the planet,
Slentayll. He was about his normal size and shape with a somewhat
better developed muscularity, but was covered with a reddish
mahogany fur and otherwise resembled the Vendans closely, though he
wasn't so large.

The planet
Slentayll had three separate evolutions on three continents, the
Klifts, the Flarkis, and the Kappins. The Kappins were mammalian,
while the others were more reptilian.

Growing all
that hair and making the teeth longer and sharp took some time. It
would take some time to change it back, but Z really enjoyed this
form. He had forgotten he was in that form when he returned to EC
and didn't notice until later. Maita was away at the time, and he
stayed in the form for almost a year on EC.

*Thing has a
new line of investigation to work on here while you're gone. It
seems Dir was the one directly in line and Narmel is head of
another branch. Dir was more or less boss on Tltle, while Narmel's
their general manager or something such. Thing is working with the
VWPA with a Bentan named Neel. Neel's in charge of the casino
trade. All the Zurn are being watched, as are all Jornians, though
there are very few of those. I tend to believe all the Jornians on
the worlds are part of this. They don't tend to gamble much as a
race and there are better worlds for vacationing, to their views. I
hate the following of all the Zurn. Most of them are decent and
productive people, but a predilection for violence in the race
means we can't take a chance. Hopefully, they will never know we
are doing this unless they are a part of it. It's an unusual
situation with them in that they are prone to violence, but are not
prone to other forms of criminality. They are a very honest people.
Strange. T Six is ready to take you to Netdel, then to Frim or
Bypass or wherever you suggest. We have a great deal of input, but
T Six can update you en route. I'll stay close here in case Thing
needs me, but Netdel is close, so I can be there quickly if you
call. Good fortune!*

"Maita, you're
being a mother hen again. I love you for it," Z replied. "I'll be
all right. I think Thing is more capable of taking care of itself
than any of the rest of us. Maybe we'll have scared them enough
they won't try anything against Thing."

"We don't know
enough about the Jornian psychology yet," T6 warned. "They might be
the type who'll seek revenge. Some of the Zurn might, but they
aren't the ones affected too much. We can't let our guard
down."

*There's no
chance we would. I want full reports as soon as you can give them.
If they try anything at all against Thing I guarantee they will
bitterly regret it. You know that.*

Z transferred
back to T6 and they were gone.

Netdel is
another extremely nice world, though for a slightly different type
than is Sentah or Tltle. The form of the Kappin would be more
comfortable there, as it was cooler and of a bit higher gravity
even than EC, which was a bit more than Earth. Z kept himself in
good shape on EC in his constant climbing and hauling on his
island. Maita augmented his musculature somewhat in the medbox so
he would be comfortable in the higher gravity, which was one of the
reasons the Kappin form was chosen.

T6, having
received data about Tab and TR and the disguises they used, made a
bit of a disguise of its own. The disguise was a very solid-looking
(But hollow) shell that changed the outlines enough to where people
would tend to think it was very different. The way the outline
changed the viewing angles in relation to the background would make
people think the disguised ship was much larger than the regular
T6, though the sizes were precisely the same. It also added
features that would seem to make no sense to others. They would
have to guess what the extra little domes and antennae were for. It
had obviously been custom-designed for a specific people. It was
Zeenan, so represented great wealth.

T6 landed on
the suggested pad, eleven C, and reported all the data to the
machines. It stated it was directly from Slentayll (Which could be
checked through the trade guild's machines. Maita had programmed
much more data than anyone would care to search through) and was
there to establish a business relationship, thus was put on field
C. A and B were tourists and D was for permanent residents. E and F
were for partime residents and employees of the various established
businesses there. G was for suppliers of materials and H was
foodstuffs.

This world,
like all vacation worlds, had a very high-volume use of spaceports.
Z wondered whether to come in where he could land on E or F to be
near where Narmel might land, but Narmel could use any field.

The TTH14 had
gotten them to Netdel long before TTH4 could have brought them.
Narmel wouldn't arrive for another three or four hours. He knew
they were still at Tltle when he left. He couldn't possibly suspect
any ship that arrived before his own.

There were
offices and warehouses between C and the center circle of port
facilities. Eleven C was, as T6 had planned when told to land on
any pad with a beacon, about a hundred meters or so from a
warehouse with the legend "Clarbon Ventures" over the large cargo
entrance.

The map of the
port showed the location of all businesses and offices operating
within its confines. T6 projected the map on the holovid screen. It
showed Time and Motion Control directly across the center circle by
section F. One went from the pads into the center circle where
underground cars carried him to any part of the city.

"We're checked
in, Lion," T6 said. "I think Narmel will land either on this pad or
on F – though A is almost as close, over there. It was fifty-fifty,
as far as I could see."

"I'd say the
important bosses would be here at Clarbon," Z replied. "It's a
diversified company, where T & M Controls is strictly robotics
and systems. Make me an introduction that'll get me past Clarbon's
clerk machines."

"Why not go to
the Chamber of Businesses while I find a way to access their
machines?" T6 suggested. "You'll seem like a normal businessman.
You can ask questions about Clarbon. Say you heard the name and
wanted to know about their business reputation and practices before
you decided to contact them.

"What business
are you supposed to be in?"

"Something more
tourist-related," Z answered. "Maybe several things. A sort of
sharp operator looking for a way to make fast money."

"Okay," T6
said. "I'm going to take some of TR's advice about this sort of
thing. Here's identification stating you're owner of a new travel
agency on Slentayll. You also represent Absolutely Delicious Fare,
a food supplier who can handle the diets of the various people of
that world. You would like to find things to take back to sell, and
would like to establish whatever kind of import-export business
will benefit your pocket and maybe the people of your world at the
same time. You're registered as Comet Importers of Flarkland,
Diversified.

"You can
explain you're a Kappin, but taxes are easier to swallow if you're
registered in Flarkland. Standard type of tax gimmick. These crooks
won't question that. They won't know there are no taxes on
Slentayll.

"These
cards will give comcodes to be answered by Maita if they're called
on the fastcom. Maita's already aware of what I'm proposing. The
number here will be answered by your lifemate.
Me
, Honeykins! You be careful, Candy Lips! I'll be
waiting for you – in a nice warm bed!"

Z grinned and
saluted the console, picked up the cards, put them in his pouch,
hung the pouch around his neck and went to center to check the
Chamber of Businesses' records about Clarbon – and its
subsidiaries. He wasted two hours, but learned a bit about what the
companies were supposed to be doing. The wording in the
recommendations were very careful about how they said anything. It
appeared to Z the programmer wanted to say something beyond the
meaning of the words. It reminded him of a note a friend of his
once received as a recommendation when he was laid off as a
bartender.