Part 15 (1/2)

officer and two nurses took her to another bedroom.

The doctor examined the bodyguard and then the other doctor. Both were unconscious but otherwise in good health. They were removed to other bedrooms under guard.

The doctor and Larry adjourned to the main room of the suite. Larry could see the hallway as they stood there.

'What did you find?' Larry asked.

'Well, first as you heard, the patient had a coronary. The computer finally pegged it at about 56 hours ago, based on supplementary information. No other problems of note.'

'That would be at least a day before he arrived here,' Larry commented for the benefit of the listeners in the surveillance room.

'Rest. Good food. Small amounts of exercise are about all we can do for him,' the doctor said.

'The woman has syphilis. No one else does.'

'How can you tell? Aren't lab tests required to determine that?'

'Not really. Lab tests confirm it. One of the symptoms is a dark area in the area across from the optic nerve of the eye. It's extremely reliable, almost infallible. She'll have to remain in quarantine here until cured. I'll check her for reaction to the usual specific, P-86.'

The ambulance driver had come out of the main bedroom and after a little hesitation gone into the bedroom containing Dr. Kalb. The man had left to go back to the ambulance while the group was waiting for the gas to decompose. Apparently he had followed them into the suite during the doctor's examination of the group. This was the first time Larry had seriously considered the man and for some reason he didn't like him. He realized that there was no conscious reason for it but he had followed his instincts before with success.

Larry frowned and the doctor mistook it for something else. 'I've wondered at the name too,' he said.

'Let's question the doctor first” Larry said. 'Let's go see how he's doing.'

They walked back into the bedroom. Larry hesitated in front of the door. Behind them the visiphone chimed. The doctor started to reach for the door but Larry stopped him. He put his hand on the door k.n.o.b, turned it and pushed it open with a quick gesture. As the door opened he was in a crouch, his right hand by his holster.

There was the sharp report of a gun.

Inside the ambulance driver had quietly drawn a gun from under his whites and, while the security officer and nurse were intent on the unconscious man, had shot the doctor in the head. Larry saw the ambulance driver, smoking revolver in hand, turning toward the security officer, who was trying to draw his weapon.

With a reaction built in from hundreds of hours of practice, Lt Larry McQueen thought the gun into his hand.

To one practiced in the fast draw, this is enough to trigger the reflexes needed. The holster used by the Solarian Patrol finished functionally evolving hundreds of years previously. It was a hard piece of leather, rigidly attached to the wide belt So it would not bend, twist or flop when the gun was drawn; of hard leather so the gun to which it was fitted would not bind or stick. Across the top of the holster was a strap of leather connected to the side of the holster with a snap.

The strap prevented the gun from falling out of the holster or being removed without the owner's knowledge. The end of the strap being curved out instead of flat against the side, indicated to those who knew the difference between an officer familiar with his weapon and one who was not. In the fast draw the heel of the hand comes up along the side of the holster, striking the curved arc of leather, releasing the snap and moving it out of the way. The fingers take hold of the b.u.t.t of the gun, moving it clear of the holster and turning it ready for firing. As the gun points, the thumb snaps off the safety and the gun fires. The whole operation takes considerably less than 200 miliseconds from intent to execution. The sequence of movements is automatic, since there is no time to think out any one of them. More than one person has, under pressure, shot a hole in his foot because he didn't have the sequence under control. Others, thinking themselves able to draw like lightening, were dead because they tried to outdraw someone who had them covered. Such would probably have been the case with the security officer, except for Larry's intervention.

The first shot got the ambulance driver in the chest, the second in the head, as Larry's gun climbed slightly in reaction to the first shot. The driver's shot went wild, missing the security officer. Both the driver and Dr. Kalb were dead when the doctor examined them moments later.

'I didn't realize he had a gun until he fired it,' the security officer said.

Lt. Larry McQueen looked at the man for a long moment and then shook his head. 'You were here to guard him. You didn't. He's dead! That's your responsibility! My job is 'to get information.

Instead, I saved you. The doctor and his murderer are dead and the fate of Copernicus may be in jeopardy. You'll have to bear a small part of that responsibility, too. Remember that! Now go try 5556

to help guard someone else,' he said angrily and dismissed the man.

When the security officer was gone Larry commented to the doctor, 'With our luck Kalb was the only one in the group who knew anything.'

He was right. When questioned, the others revealed that they had been hired on Tellus to play the parts. Larry couldn't even get a good description of the second man in the vacuum suit, other than the woman's wistful comment, 'He was sort of tall ...' The second alien was the only remaining source of information left.

With a quick call to the Security control centre, Larry made arrangements that the group be held in protective custody in the hospital until they could be returned to Tellus.

Lt Larry McQueen returned to the Security Division to question the team hunting the alien. They had no further success finding the missing prospector who had brought his rig into Copernicus.

Having some second thoughts on the matter, Larry asked, 'What if you turn up this prospector and he hasn't seen the alien, where are you?'

'What do you mean?'

'The alien's not with the entrance team. Right?'

'True.'

'And if he isn't inside Copernicus?'

There was a moment of silence and then the man started looking for a list on his desk.

'The only traffic outbound was a mooncar, going out to Mayer A.'

'OK,' Larry said. 'Let's talk to Copernicus Control about it.

Larry called Copernicus Control. A familiar face looked back out of the plate at him. 'Howdy, Mr.

Lt. 'McQueen, sir,' it said. Its owner had been told who Larry was.

'Howdy, Mr. Holt,' Larry said. It was said in all seriousness. One of the first things an agent of the Service learns is to deal with people on their own terms and on their own level. Especially the little people who wield the power. When you want cooperation, make it easy to provide. Larry had made it a point to find out the controller's name when he had visited Copernicus Control.

Someone else had clued in the controller.

'Sure, anything I can do for you?'

'I'm interested in the mooncar that's going out to Mayer A. Who's handling it?' Larry asked.

'I'm handling the surface traffic tonight. You sure pick a bunch of characters to ask about.

Whatcha want to know about him?'

'What's he done?'

'Well, he showed up at l0-5-22 last s.h.i.+ft and claimed his computer didn't work.'

'What's 10-5-22?'