Chapter V

The way the situation added up reminded me of the old historical thrillers I'd read as a kid, most of them written in the days when our rough-and-ready ancestors bought contraband skohl from underground talk-gentlies and rival groups of uglies hijinked each other with torpedoes. It was something like a present-day telemovie gripper in a sense, only there wasn't any Colonel Super in this plot to lend me a hand.

Not that I wasted time looking for help. I wasn't used to it.

Outside the Solar Shipping building I lifted the air-scooter and swooped up to the balcony outside Shanig's office windows. There wasn't time to set it down. I needed every second to get inside before Shanig could give the alarm.

I jumped, and the air-scooter went on without me into the night. It wouldn't have worked on Earth, but under Mars' .38 gravity an athletic homo has all the breaks. I landed just inside the guard-rail and dived through the balcony windows with a great crashing of glass before Shanig could clap a hand to the buzzer on his desk.

"Don't touch it," I said, and turned my Quantrell on him.

"You!" Shanig barked. His face went sallower than ever, but his hot black eyes didn't waver. "What do you want here?"

Down the corridor rose a sudden babel of voices--Shanig's crew returning with their prize.

"They got Acree," I said, heading for the phonovision unit beside Shanig's desk. "But if you make a sound before they get here you won't be able to use him. Clear?"

The screen lit up when I touched the switch. I punched the code Cheryl had given me, and drew the first deep breath I'd had for an hour when she looked out at me.

"Bring Cora over to Shanig's office on the double," I said. "I'm going to need her but quick!"

I cut her off without waiting for an answer and punched another number. Captain Giles stared out at me this time, his weathered hatched face clownish with astonishment.

"Get a crew of patrolies up to Shanig's offices," I said. "And make it fast or there's going to be more excitement here than you can write off your records in a month."

For the first time Shanig looked worried. He saw no threat in Cheryl's coming, not knowing about my second smiley. But if Captain Giles should arrive before Perry could be moved--

The crew of uglies outside crossed me up by buzzing Shanig's audiphone. "We got the little homo, Chief. Shall we bring him in?"

Shanig, knowing that I couldn't afford to beam him at this stage of the game, tipped them before I could stop him. "Take him away. Bailey's here!"

I jumped for the door, hoping to grab Perry before they got him away. I was too late. They were already out of the reception office. All I saw of Perry Acree was his heels.

That left us at stalemate. Shanig couldn't get away, and I couldn't leave him unguarded to go after Perry. I was racking my brain for the next move when it was taken out of my hands.

The phonovision screen beside Shanig's desk lighted up and one of his uglies looked out. "We got him where he won't be found, Chief. What next?"

And I let Shanig beat me to the jump again. "The girl is coming here. Intercept her!"

I made sure it wouldn't happen again by raying the phonovision unit to a heap of smoking junk. Reflected heat from the flash curled Shanig's eyebrows, but he didn't flinch.

"That finishes you, Bailey," he said. "My men have Acree safe. They'll have the girl the instant she appears. Under the circumstances it should be quite entertaining to watch you prove your position to the police."

He had me cold. Shanig could afford to wait but I couldn't.

* * * * *

It turned out that Shanig's handymen didn't share his confidence in the police. I heard them getting set in the reception-room corridor to block any dash I might make. When I sneaked a look through the balcony windows I caught a glimpse of another group working like beavers in the building across the alley. They were setting up a tripod affair which I recognized at a glance as a sleep-bomb catapult.

They had it charged to fire when Captain Giles and his patrolies arrived. A babble of confusion rose in the corridor again, and the Captain's harsh bellow silenced it like a hand across the mouth. A moment later he called through the doorway: "Stand fast, Bailey. We're coming in, and God help you if you give us trouble!"

I stood fast, giving up any hope of Cheryl's showing up in time. Having Cora along should make it easy enough for her to get into the building, but even Cora couldn't help if Captain Giles had already dragged me away.

Giles came around Shanig's desk toward me, his hatchet face thunderous. "I've warned you often enough, Bailey. This time you've gone too far."

Shanig treated himself to one of his sandpaper chuckles. "He'll probably give you some wild story designed to clear himself, Captain. Don't believe a word of it. I trusted him, and you can see what it led to!"

The Captain was taking my Quantrell blaster when my reprieve came. One of Shanig's uglies burst into the office with disaster written all over him.

"Chief, the girl's coming up in the lift with another smiley! The whole lower floor is hypnotized. She'd have got me too if the lift hadn't carried me out of reach!"

I'll give Shanig credit for this--he thought fast. He added up the score in a flash and lunged across the desk, yelling for his startled uglies to follow up. If Cheryl got to us with the smiley the jig was up, and he knew it.

He ripped the Quantrell blaster out of Captain Giles' hand and turned it on us. He meant to wipe out the lot and clear himself by laying the carnage to a battle between me and the patrol.

It was close, but not close enough.

A sudden serenity wiped the tension off his face like chalk marks off a blackboard. Captain Giles and his patrolies slacked off with him, caught in the same euphoric spell.

They stood smiling and docile while Cheryl Trayne strode in with Cora's little tungsten cage under her arm. If she had looked good to me before, right then she looked like a red-haired angel.

"Good girl," I said, and took over from there.

Shanig confessed on the spot to the slimy deal he had pulled over me, and signed a statement to that effect. He got on the reception-room phonovision and ordered his crew in the adjoining building to drop everything and return Perry Acree at once. He destroyed the bogus contract and took back the elastic check he had given me, and he enjoyed doing it. Cora, sensing Joey so close in the Argonaut Bar across the street, was working her mating call overtime.

"It was really inconsiderate of you to swindle our young friend William," the Captain said to Shanig. "Of course you won't object to serving a light sentence--say five years--to make amends?"

"Certainly not," Shanig said brightly, beaming back at him. "My only regret is that I must be separated from this adorable creature. I love smileys."

He went over to the desk where Cheryl had left Cora's cage and fondled the little brute through the wires. He played the very devil in doing it, too. Somehow or other the cage door had worked loose during the time it had been banged about, and Shanig's fumbling hands slid it open.

Cora was out of the cage and through the broken balcony windows in a smoky bluish flash, whizzing like a bullet toward the Argonaut Club and Joey.