Loo-Macklin shrugged and waved emptiness again. The floor obediently swallowed the cylinder.
"I was told you wanted to question me for some report you're preparing. Something on the psychological effects of human/Nuel commercial interaction, I believe. I've always been interested in stuff like that. Be glad to answer any questions I can."
Truly you will, thought Chaheel. He was examining the room for the location of the expected surveillance machinery. It was well-hidden and he couldn't locate so much as a spyeye.
Well, no matter. It would only take a second to slip all four tentacles around that fragile human neck. Then it wouldn't matter how many cameras or weapons were trained on him. Only an instant. A little pressure and he and Loo-Macklin would experience the last moment of life together.
All my work, he brooded. All the research, all the old desire to found a family of teachers, lost in the need to slay a single alien biped. How ironic are the workings of the universe.
If Loo-Macklin suspected Chaheel's intent he'd given no indication of it.
"Now, what is it you wish to know?" He turned from the ocean wall. "How may I help you?"
You can come just a little closer, Chaheel thought. What he said was, "There are certain aspects of trade in luxury goods which I find especially interesting. It's a question of perception on the part of both races. Neither seems certain what the other regards as luxury versus necessity."
"Which, do you think, my imagined plan to poison the food of your now-unborn falls under?" asked Loo-Macklin casually, hands folded behind his back.
Chaheel nearly jumped for him at that moment, except that the Nuel are not constructed for jumping. They move slowly and tirelessly on their hundreds of thick cilia, but always they move close to the ground. The Nuel record for the high jump was somewhere under ten inches.
"You know. A thousand curses on your family line, monster, if you know."
"Just found out recently," Loo-Macklin informed him. "Good thing, too. The man could have ruined everything. Fortunately, he drinks a lot. Alcoholic stimulants make humans voluble. But I'm sure you, as a student of our culture, are aware of that.
"Anyway, I found out about your little meeting. I don't expect you came here to chat about commercial interactions or psychology, did you?"
"No." Chaheel saw no reason to prolong a failed deception. "What I do not understand is how you managed to neutralize the lehl," he said, sorry only that he'd failed and certain now he didn't stand a chance of getting within grasping distance of the man before some hidden weapon cut him down.
Loo-Macklin grinned narrowly. An honest and rare grin. "Who said it had been neutralized?" He rubbed the back of his skull.
"It has to have been," muttered the psychologist, "or it would have killed you long before now, because you have contradicted the thought it was sensitized to."
"Who says I'm contradicting it?"
Chaheel's well-ordered mind was coming apart. He wanted to scream. This human's dealings were more complex than the maze of coming-of-age tunnels on Merenwha.
When he could not find a response, Loo-Macklin gently tried to help him form one.
"You met with this Lindsay, the programmer. He told you certain things, supplied you with certain stolen information."
"A great deal of information," Chaheel finally said. "I had it all checked prior to processing. Everything he gave me is truth." A glimmer of confused hope began to rise within him. "Can you deny that?"
"No. Not the meetings, the discussions. Those all took place. The only thing that's missing is the fact that I'm not going to do anything contrary to the best interests of the Nuel." He tapped his head again. "Wouldn't want to upset my little passenger."
"You say that poisoning the minds of our children is not contrary to our best interests?" the psychologist replied sarcastically.
"I have no intention of poisoning anyone. But my government thinks otherwise. I will supply you with some of the 'additive.' It does indeed seem to produce the gradual softening of competitiveness the stolen information talks about. But what the government scientists I've been working with do not know, because they have no access to Nuel patients, is that upon introduction into the Nuel system the chemical bonds holding the additive together are broken down in about ten months time by your body's enzymes. The resulting three components are harmless. They remain in the Nuel bloodstream for several years, but affect nothing. Certainly not the minds and motivations of your children."
Chaheel felt dizzy. A Nuel could faint, but it could not fall over. Nevertheless, he wished for some support.
"I . . . I understand this not, Kee-yes vain Lewmaklin. Why would you go to such elaborate lengths to prepare a false attack that can avail you nothing?"
"Who says it avails me nothing? Truly are you full of misconceptions, Chaheel Riens." He seemed to be enjoying his visitor's confusion.
"Here I am," he gestured widely with massive arms on which the hair had also turned white, "a single human being, working closely with mankind's most dangerous enemies. I visit the Nuel worlds, ostensibly on missions devoted only to commerce. I talk with the heads of families, Families, Great Families. I have tightly bound myself to the Nuel by business dealings.
"Don't you think, psychologist, observer of human culture, that among the Board of Operators who run the government of the eighty-three worlds there might be at least one as suspicious of my motives as you? Wouldn't it be sensible for one or two among them to wonder if I might not be doing more for the Nuel than merely facilitating their business activities within the UTW? Are they less observant than yourself?
"Come now, Chaheel. Exchange positions with me truly. How long did you think I could keep the intelligence agents of the UTW fooled? They are not stupid, as your own people of the family Si know. I had to do something to put their minds at ease.
"Now, as a psychologist, what method would you suggest? How might I relax them utterly?"
"By concocting a plan," Chaheel said slowly, reluctantly, "that would make them believe you were working for the interests of humanity."
"I live in a universe of amoebas," Loo-Macklin murmured to himself. Then, to his guest, "You see it now. It was not meant to be easily seen. Of course that's what I did.
"This mysterious 'additive' that Lindsay told you about was truly created by my own chemists. The testing on it was done by a tiny staff working directly under my supervision and instructions. It was then turned over to Nuel bioengineers working for a firm I control, to make certain of its harmlessness. I will give you the name of that family firm if you wish, so you can check for yourself." He laughed. "If the Si functionaries guarding its privacy will admit you, that is.
"The Board of Operators is convinced that within fifty years they're going to face a race of pliable, drugged Nuel who'll do exactly as they're told."
"Fifty years, human scale," mumbled Chaheel. "Do you think that will hold back the Board of Operators' more warlike members long enough for you to deliver on your promises to the Council of Eight Families?"
"I don't know. I'm doing all I can. Push too hard and the entire effort will be uncovered. Patience is all that will make my efforts on behalf of the Families work. The Si, at least, understand that."
"I'd heard, but not believed, that they had finally made you an honorary family member. Such an honor is unprecedented."
"So I was told," said Loo-Macklin.
Chaheel Riens tried to unknot his thoughts. "Truly would you give me the name of the firm among the families which is aware of and has tested this supposedly subverting additive?"
"Truly, Chaheel."
"But could you not somehow . . ."
Loo-Macklin cut him off impatiently. "You forget the lehl, psychologist. It sits where it was placed, monitoring my thoughts, protecting the interests of the Nuel."
"Then this whole elaborate structure you've put in place, the entire plan to insert this additive in our food supplies, is simply a deception, a means to ensure the human go
vernment of your loyalty to them while in truth you are helping the Families?"
Loo-Macklin nodded, a gesture Chaheel recognized easily. "It should never have come out. That damn technician stumbled across it and then had the brains, and the guts, to get in touch with you."
"What would you have done if I had conveyed this knowledge to my superiors?"
"That could've meant trouble. Of course, the leaders of the Great Families are entirely aware of what I've been doing." He chuckled. "They would have been very upset by your actions.
"Since you are not privy to the decisions of the Great Family Heads, you are as unaware of the plan as most of your kind. The less who know of it, the better, even among the Nuel. You have your own dissatisfied, your own mentally unstable. Your own Thomas Lindsays."
Chaheel was too confused to think straight. He'd come to this place with the avowed intention of killing this man and then dying in a rain of fire. Now he was about to be shooed on his way, leaving behind a greater ally than the Nuel had ever had, along with much of his self-respect.
"Why should I believe you? How do we know that this additive you are going to put in our offspring's food, ostensibly to fool your own intelligence people, will not recombine at some later stage of growth to cause all the harm you say it cannot?"
"You should hear yourself." Loo-Macklin was still amused. "I told you that your own biologists checked it out." He touched a hidden floor switch. Another metal cylinder rose out of the floor. It was more massive than the simple drink dispenser. Chaheel recognized the shine of an impervious eutectic alloy.
The man ran his fingertips over one side of the safe and a single information storage chip slid out. He handed it to the psychologist. It was blank, of course, the information contained inside stored along lines of light.
"Here are the names and codes for some of your less widely publicized but most brilliant scientific research families. Contact them. This chip will serve as your entry. You'll be able to study the test procedures and results for yourself, thus saving yourself the embarrassment of going before some high Family official and insulting me to a friend."
"I suppose," Chaheel's bulging eyes both focused on the transparent chip, "I suppose I owe you an apology, Kee-yes vain Lewmaklin."
"Nonsense." The human touched him in a comradely fashion, trying to reassure him. "Your instincts were good. Based on what you knew, or rather what you didn't know, you acted like a true scion of a Great Family."
"I could have killed you before you had the chance to tell me all this. When I entered and we exchanged body fluids, for example."
"Perhaps." Loo-Macklin shrugged, indifferent to death as ever. "Physically you are stronger than I, yes. But I'm quite strong for a human. Quite strong. You would have had to finish me quickly. My own protection machines," and he gestured widely, encompassing the entire immense room, "would have had time to come to my assistance. Would've been a waste of a sharp mind, psychologist."
"But one that you would have been prepared to live with. Why let me come here in person and let me risk my life, when you could have informationed me thus on the mainland?"
"Because I felt it would carry more conviction if I told you in person," was the reply. "Considering your dedication and all the trouble you'd gone to, I thought I owed you that much. Besides," he flexed massive arms, "life grows stale for me. Small risks are really not risks at all, but spice."
Chaheel thought of something else. "What of the technician, Thomas Lindsay?"
"As soon as I was informed of what he'd done, I had him disposed of. Fortunately, you were the only one he'd gotten to. He could have ruined everything. No chance of that now. You might keep in mind the fact that his death was required to protect Nuel interests."
"I understand," whispered the now thoroughly numbed psychologist.
"Now that that's all finished with," Loo-Macklin clapped his hands together, his expression cheerful once again, "can I persuade you to take food with me? I have an extensive food supply system, which can conjure up the delicacies of many races, including your own. I would also enjoy showing you around my little home. There are a great many things within, which I think you would find of interest. I have a collection of primitive art, which is somewhat famous. It includes, you might be surprised to know, a modest section devoted to the Nuel."
"That's not pos . . ." Chaheel started to say, then shut up. For one as valued by the Great Families as this human, nothing was impossible.
"There are other entertainments also," Loo-Macklin added coaxingly.
"No . . . thank you, no. Feeling am I most awkward and uncomfortable. I would like mostly to return to my work as quickly as possible."
"If that's the way you feel." The human appeared genuinely disappointed. "I wish I could convince you to come and work for me. I have many Nuel working for me on the worlds of the Families, but not many in the UTW. Not many can cope with the shape-prejudice, which still lingers like a cancer among my people. I could use you, and you would learn much."
"No, no." Chaheel's cilia began backing him toward the door. He'd been fooled, badly fooled. That frightened him. This smiling, pleasant-voiced soulless human frightened him. Get away from him, his instincts screamed at him. Get out, get away, before he uses you the way he's used his own government.
What he said politely, was, "I'd rather pursue my own research. That has always been my dream. I desire election to the Family of Academissionaries. I have hopes of eventually maturing to medical research."
"I understand," murmured Loo-Macklin sympathetically, "though I won't try to hide my disappointment. You're a bright helmzin," he added, using the word for highly intelligent adult. "But I defer to your own desires, which clearly differ from my own. I wish you farewell and good luck with your work." He gestured toward the distant door, seemingly miles away across the polished matrix floor.
"And should you ever actually have any questions involving human/Nuel commercial interactions and their psychological effects, please don't hesitate to contact any of my company supervisors if I'm not available myself. I'm quite busy these days."
"Sure am I that you are." He hurried for the exit as rapidly as was decent.
And that's how he left Kees vaan Loo-Macklin, his mind adrift on a sea of confusion. Part of him admired the human and the intricacy of the plan he'd devised to fool his own intelligence service and government.
Fool, he admonished himself! You leapt to an assumption because it fit your private, preconceived notions. You should have checked out this Lindsay's information further before considering action, let alone murder.
Oh, he wouldn't take Lewmaklin's word, of course. He would take transport home, process the information chip the human had given him, check it with other sources. He would truly locate and talk with those Nuel who had worked on the development of the additive. Only then could he relax, safe in the knowledge that Kee-yes vain Lewmaklin was still a trusted ally of the Nuel, and Chaheel Riens a paranoid idiot.
The marcar cramped him unmercifully as it sped back across the emerald sea. It was fortunate Lewmaklin had agreed to assist the Families. Any mind, which could construct and then manipulate such an intricate framework of deception and lies would have made a terribly dangerous enemy.
Yes, Chaheel was frightened of him, and his fear did not embarrass him.
The commander of the transport ship, who was in truth a military officer incognito inside the UTW, greeted the psychologist as he boarded the shuttle, which was to take him into orbit. From there the ship would depart the UTW. Chaheel Riens was going home.
The commander's eyes, however, were nearly devoid of color. Chaheel knew instantly that something serious was troubling the commander.
Naturally the commander was troubled, he reminded himself. They knew that if he returned at all they would be greeting a murderer and a fugitive. The officers would be glued to their screens, frantically scanning orbital space around Evenwaith for the signs of pursuit they expected to arrive at any moment. H
e hastened to reassure the officer opposite him.
"All is at rest, Commander. I was in the wrong. There is no plot to poison our children. Our own government is aware of it. It is only minor functionaries like ourselves who have been kept ignorant of the details of this fine working, to protect it from accidental disclosure. They trust us not, truly.
"I did not have to kill the human Lewmaklin. The lehl remains within him. Both implant and host continue to function efficiently on family business."
"Truly," murmured the commander. He seemed distracted. "That is excellent news indeed." He moved to a communicator, absently called off the alert.
Chaheel frowned. "Did you not understand? There is no plot to poison our young. The additive that is to go into their food is harmless. It degrades within the bloodstream. All is part of a wider plot to fool the humans into believing that Lewmaklin is working for them." He held out the information chip the man had given him.
"Here is proof. Names and locations of our own scientists who have worked on this project. I would think you would be excited, Commander, by such news."
"I am greatly relieved," the commander admitted, trying to muster some enthusiasm.
"Then why do you look so virelsham?"
"We have a new puzzle."
"It cannot confuse or depress me as much as the one just unraveled," Chaheel assured him.
"I am certain it cannot, but it is a puzzle just the same and your opinion is urgently solicited. Come." He motioned with a tentacle tip and they started up the corridor.
In the same conference chamber where not so very long ago Chaheel had announced his intention to slay Loo-Macklin waited a cluster of silent officers.
The commander indicated Chaheel's cupouch, slid greasily into his own.
"Several days ago we picked up a transmission that originated from this Lewmaklin's personal residence, the one you have just returned from. We were monitoring all transmissions from that place because that was your destination and we hoped we might learn something useful to you. The residence conceals an extremely large and powerful deepspace broadcast array."