Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (88 page)

"Call everyone
to the common meeting hall!" Tab shouted. "All of you! Fast! This
may be our little break!"

"Have you seen
something?" Kit asked.

"Oh, yes! I've
seen something major if it all checks out," Tab replied. "So have
you! Think about it!"

They went back
to the hall to wait for the others to arrive. Tab pushed T6 to get
certain information fast. T6 was working the fastcom with the
computers on Khronk and sending information as it came in. The
people were rounded up pretty quickly and Kit had them bring chairs
from the surrounding rooms. There were thirteen of them now, plus
the two robots.

Tab had to
waste some time until T6 found what he was sure it would find for
him.

"I want each of
you to stand and to give an exact account of what happened since
our last little meeting here," Tab lectured. "I want to know where
you've been and who you were with. I want not one minute to be
unaccounted for! Is that clear?

"Klo Vort!"

She stood,
looked around and stated, "I left with my buddy, Tham Lee, and Kor
and Birr Morn. We went to game room four where we played Star Fleet
with Sim Sim, Lot Xam and Khop Thu until perhaps twenty minutes ago
when Tar asked us to help search for Sar Vell. Tham and I went to
the third floor along with the Morn twins and searched it. Sar
wasn't there. We were called here."

"Anyone out of
sight in that party at any time for even a few seconds?"

"We stayed
pretty close together," Birr Morn answered. "I don't think anyone
left the game room and we sure as hell weren't going to stray away
from each other if somebody else was missing!"

"Good," Tab
said. "You said Nhop Thu didn't go on the search with you?"

"He came with
Gore, Lae and me," Tar Shat replied. "I stayed with Gore and Lae
the entire time. We searched the second floor along with Nhop, Sam
and Luh."

"Sam and Luh,
were you in the sight of anyone else before the search?" Tab
asked.

"We were in the
study den with Let and Ahl except when they came to talk with you,"
Sam said. "You can see the door to your, er, office from there. We
didn't get out of each other's sight."

"And you went
to your ship?" Tab asked Knar.

"My ship? No!" Knar said. "Whatever gave you ... I was in
the kitchens. I wanted to work out a way for that ridiculous scene
in the kitchen,
Terror At Cape Castle
, you know. Bloody bit in the kitchen when Marq
hacks Thor up and grinds him in the disposal. Didn't have disposals
back then. A scriptwriter should have seen that!"

"Is that what
you were doing with Sar Vell's body in there?" Tab asked
conversationally. "Grinding him up in the disposal? Is that how you
got rid of the others?"

"What?" Knar
asked, looking startled. "No, of course not. I don't think you
could actually get a whole body dispo ... ME?"

"Let's face a
few facts," Kit said, receiving the same things from T6 Tab was
getting. "You're the only one here who wasn't with anyone all the
time. You and Vell, who merely went to his room to get some
contracts. You're the only one without an alibi."

"Then I must be
innocent!" he cried. "Don't you read the crap you work on? The
guilty party is almost always the one with the unbreakable alibi.
This is obscene! Surely you aren't serious!"

"Oh, yes," Tab
said. "We're very serious. Let's face a few of those facts Cam
mentioned, shall we?

"First, you
came to Mort Bhar with a scheme to make a series of horror period
pictures which you had partial possession of the rights to. You
made a deal whereunder you would get a great deal of money for
those rights. Then your lawyers, not having been aware that you
were desperately in need of immediate cash, let the contract be
signed that deferred any monies to you until the pictures were
finished and distributed.

"We checked all
your finances. You're deeply in debt and your agency is no help, as
it is. You said you could use the publicity from the events here to
increase demand for the pictures.

"I think we'll
find it was really your idea to come here to Drove. You were going
to try to get defections of the top stars here so your commissions
on the prepayments THEY would get but that YOU wouldn't could help
to tide you over until at least one of the pictures started paying
off.

"I think we'll
find Kral Khap was in it with you. He was to get Kly May to
disappear somehow, the publicity would increase demand for the
pictures and you could then get some advance from Mort. It was a
good idea. It would've worked and everyone would've come out ahead,
but for the tiny fact that the first big star you approached with
your defection scam threatened to break your neck for you if you
made any such suggestions again.

"That wasn't
terribly bad if you could get the publicity stunt going.

"What happened
then? Did Khap go too far? Was Kly May going to expose the whole
thing?

"I don't think
that's likely, really. She had sense enough to know how well a
publicity stunt of that type can work so would have gone along with
it.

"What happened?
Did Suh Plee find something in her search for Kly? Did you have to
get rid of her? Jorn? What did he find out by those cliffs? I know
a part of it, but you'll have to tell us what happened with Kly and
Kral."

He decided to
take a chance, so continued, "The hidden passage to Kly's rooms
opens out through the tower base toward the cliffs and pads. Jorn
found the evidence you drug the bodies out there and dumped them
over the cliff so you dumped him over the cliff. It's as simple as
that. The passage is full of evidence you were using it. This isn't
your first trip here. You've read about the place and arranged the
trip. Ahl knew that, as did others. I suppose the passage was meant
only to smuggle Kly and Kral out to a ship where they would leave.
You told me what the plan was when you said that 'Mort' would have
the strays reappear on the scene with a story about having taken
off on a side vacation and not knowing there had been 'all the
fuss' about it. It didn't work out quite that way, did it?"

Pli lounged
back in his chair, applauded and grinned at them. "Very good!" he
said. "You write a good script. Work it up and I'll add it to the
series."

"It won't
work," Kit said. "You can give it up. You've been caught."

"Well, if it
weren't for a few little things you've left out your story MIGHT
find a few of those who would very much like to see me, shall we
say, removed? as takers," Pli replied confidently. "I don't know of
any hidden passage to Kly's room or anywhere else. There are no
bodies and the whole bunch will show up after this is all over and
I'm certainly not in need of funds! There's no motive
whatever!"

"You are in due debt to Khronk Federal Bank for three
million credits and to Banker's Group for two," Kit said. "You are
living in a mortgaged palace, driving mortgaged vehicles and have
had your credit cards rescinded for nonpayment. There WERE no
bodies to be found where Kly, Kral, Suh or Jorn were concerned
because you disposed of them over the cliff, but you damned well
didn't dispose of Sar Vell! His body's in the vegetable cooler.
THAT'S what you were doing in the kitchen. There's no disposal
in
Terror At
Cape Castle
– do you think we wouldn't have even read the plays before
we came here?

"You were
right. We're detectives. When we pull Vell's body out you have no
way out.

"I'd still like
to know what went wrong with Kly. That was such a waste!"

"I don't have
to listen to this!" Pli cried. "Even if you are detectives you have
no authority here! This is a travesty! This is nothing more than
made-up stories! This is intolerable!"

"Oh, we're
empire detectives and we have full authority from Emperor Maita at
all times and in all places," Tab countered. "You might as well
tell us. Your only hope is that we're wrong about where Vell's body
is and we won't find it. If it's there you'll go on the probe when
convicted of a capital crime."

Pli didn't give
a millimeter, even when Kit dragged Vell's body from the vegetable
bin and when Tab showed him the blood in the passageway. They found
the passageway with their sonics, but couldn't find an entrance
into any of the rooms. Kit was afraid the case would be damaged,
but Tab went to the tower base, found the entrance, came up the
stairs in the wall and opened the hidden door into Kly's rooms. It
had to be operated from inside the passageway. The robot servants
used the passages in normal times.

The pictures were released beginning almost a year later
and many commented on how realistic the castle seemed and how well
the actors in all of them were able to project such an air of
sinister fear. The films were all shot in Castle Drove. The final
one was called "
The Castle Drove Legend
" – and was what Tab and Kit wrote up as a
script about the murders. “We might as well see if we really could
do it!" Tab quipped.

*I don't ever
let anything from the probe be known to anyone except for the
innocence or guilt.* Maita spoke through Thing's floater while Tab,
Kit, Z and Thing strolled around the terrace.

[ But you're
going to make an exception so you might as well get on with it.
]

*You know me
too well, but I'm only going to tell one thing. I think Tab and Kit
have a right to know. They asked the question of Pli, but never got
an answer. What went wrong was that Kly and Kral had a fight after
which she refused to go along with Pli's plan without a hell of a
big bonus – in advance. Kral saw his fee going down the drain, hit
her and she rolled down those steep stone stairs. They were at the
top of the hidden passageway at the time. Pli didn't know anything
about it until Kral showed him the body during the search. Pli
decided that since she was dead already she might as well disappear
for good. The publicity stunt would work even better!*

[ So what? He
still killed the others. Why? ]

*All Tab asked
was what went wrong with Kly!*

"Maita, I have
ten seconds before I run amok!" T6 demanded. "What the hell
happened? Why the other murders?"

*That one was
an accident, not murder. You see, no one intended to kill anyone at
that point so....*

"Maita! Tell
us!" TR inserted.

*Well, Pli and
Kral drug Kly's body to the cliff and threw it over, then Kral
simply told Pli he was going to pay big money for this little
secret. Up until the time the body was thrown over the cliff no one
could be held responsible, but since that was done Kral could claim
Pli had killed her and dumped the body. He would be exonerated, of
course, but it would all come out and he would be ruined. Kral made
the mistake of discussing that on the cliff edge where they
wouldn't be overheard so he ended up with a knife in his gut and
getting pushed over himself. Suh Plee had discussed the stunt with
Kly and knew she was going to try some blackmail so she had to go.
Jorn found blood on the cliff top and almost caught Pli killing
Kral so he went. Vell was added later because Pli was now an
experienced murderer and he hated Vell's guts. Ahl was to be next.
It seems hard to stop once you get started.*

"I think Pli
was right about one thing," Tab said.

[ What's that?
]

"It did make a
great script!" Tab replied. "I wonder if Mort Bhar would have
bought it if he hadn't been there."

"Too far out,"
Kit protested. "No one would waste time making any such picture.
It's not believable. Those things don't happen. I designed the
sets. That was what sold it!"

"I think the
whole bunch of you need help," Z said. "Pass the wine and some of
that amaranth bread. You claim you had to put up with that bunch of
overdone hams? What the hell do I have to put up with?" That
started it. It went on until ... it's still going on.

Fourth Case

"It's a long
way from most of what we do to what most people think we do," Tab
explained. "Ninety percent of it's reading computers or sitting
around waiting for someone to do something. If people would learn
to keep their mouths shut and to stop when they're ahead we'd never
catch most of them."

His fellow
robot detective, Kit, replied, "That's certainly true. Remember how
I felt after our first couple of cases? I was ready to chuck this
stupid business, as Z here would say."

The group was
sitting on Z's terrace watching the green sun rise. The red one was
behind them just at the peak of the gently sloping mountain that
was most of Z's island. They had come to Empire Center for Z's
three hundredth (Give or take a couple) birthday. Everyone else had
gone back to their own worlds the day before except the Maitan
girl, Owanda, who had taken quickly to the Terran, Z. The Terrans
were of original Maitan stock and hadn't diverged very much so they
got along very well – for mammals.

Now there was
only Z, Kit (In his original design now, that of a Kheth), Tab (In
his original design of a Swaz), the tug floater from Maita with
Thing sitting on it and Owanda.

Maita is a
spaceship. It is independently intelligent and, through a long
process of strange events, has become emperor of a galaxy-wide
empire. The people for the most part don't know the emperor is a
machine. Some wouldn't accept that fact among the six thousand
seven hundred twenty two worlds now members of the Maitan Empire.
The empire functions mainly as a huge trading guild so a machine is
far the best and most efficient ruler, though Maita could be as
stubborn as any organic.

Both Z and
Thing, the small squarish rubbery tentacled being from the most
intelligent race known in the galaxy, the Mentans, who was riding
the special floater, were kept in a state of virtual immortality by
Maita and the group often adventured together. They constantly
played together, childish kinds of things that were really great
fun for all of them. They had been together for the entire three
hundred years (Minus the twenty four that was Z's actual age when
he was abducted from Earth) and were very close.