II.
Rakkeed, Stalin, and the Rev. Keeluk
Von Schlichten, in a fresh uniform, sat at the end of the table inSidney Harrington's office; Harrington and Eric Blount, theLieutenant-Governor, faced each other across it, over the three-footdisc of an Ulleran chess-board. Harrington had the white, or center,position. Blount, sandy-haired and considerably younger, was playingblack, and his pieces were closing in relentlessly from the outer rim.
"Well, then what?" Harrington asked.
Von Schlichten dropped ash from his cigarette into the tray thatserved all three of them.
"Nothing much," he replied. "Keeluk bugged out as soon as he saw mycar let down. We picked up a few of his ragtag-and-bobtail, andthey're being questioned now, but I doubt if they'll tell us anythingwe don't know already. The dog had been kept in a lean-to back of thehouse; it had been removed, probably as soon as Keeluk called in hisgoon-gang. At least one of the rabbits had been kept on the premises,too, some time ago. No trace of the goat."
He watched Blount move one of his pieces and nodded approvingly. "Theriot's been put down," he continued, "but we're keeping two companiesof Kragans in the city, and about a dozen airjeeps patrolling thesection from Eightieth down to Sixty-fourth, and from the waterfrontback to Eighth Avenue. There is also the equivalent of a regiment ofKing Jaikark's infantry--spearmen, crossbowmen, and a fewriflemen--and two of those outsize cavalry companies of his, helpinghold the lid down. They're making mass arrests, indiscriminately. Moreslaves for Jaikark's court favorite, of course."
"Or else Gurgurk wants them to use for patronage," Blount added. "He'sbeen building quite a political organization, lately. Getting ready toshove Jaikark off the throne, I'd say."
Harrington pushed one of his pieces out along a radial line toward therim. Blount promptly took a pawn, which, under Ulleran rules, entitledhim to a second move. He shifted another piece, a sort of combinationknight and bishop, to threaten the piece Harrington had moved.
"Oh, Gurgurk wouldn't dare try anything like that," theGovernor-General said. "He knows we wouldn't let him get away with it.We have too much of an investment in King Jaikark."
"Then why's Gurgurk been supporting this damned Rakkeed?" Blountwanted to know, hastily interposing a piece. "Gurgurk can follow oneof two lines of policy. He can undertake to heave Jaikark off thethrone and seize power, or he has to support Jaikark on the throne.We're subsidizing Jaikark. Rakkeed has been preaching this crusadeagainst the Terrans, and against Jaikark, whom we control. Gurgurk hasbeen subsidizing Rakkeed...."
"You haven't any proof of that," Harrington protested.
"My Intelligence Section has," von Schlichten put in. "We can givesums of money, and dates, and the names of the intermediaries throughwhom they were paid to Rakkeed. Eric is absolutely correct in makingthat statement."
"Personally, I think Gurgurk's plan is something like this: Rakkeedwill stir up anti-Terran sentiment here in Konkrook, and direct itagainst our puppet, Jaikark, as well as against us," Blount said."When the outbreak comes, Jaikark will be killed, and then Gurgurkwill step in, seize the Palace, and use the Royal army to put down therevolt that he's incited in the first place. That will put him in theposition of the friend of the Company, and most of his dupes will berounded up and sold as slaves, and King Gurgurk'll pocket theproceeds. The only question is, will Rakkeed let himself be used thatway? I think Rakkeed's bigger than Gurgurk ever can be. And more of athreat to the Company. Everywhere we turn, Rakkeed's at the bottom ofwhatever happens to be wrong. This business, for instance; Keeluk'sone of Rakkeed's followers."
"Eric, you have Rakkeed on the brain!" Harrington exclaimedimpatiently, then moved the threatened piece counterclockwise on thecircle where he had placed it. "He's just a barbarian caravan-driver."
Eric Blount moved the piece that had taken Harrington's pawn.
"Your king's in danger," he warned. "And Hitler was just apaper-hanger."
"Rakkeed has no following, except among the rabble." Harrington puffedfuriously at his pipe, trying to figure the best protection for hisking.
"You just think he hasn't," Blount retorted. "Here in Konkrook, he'salways entertained by one or another of the big ship-owning nobles.They probably deprecate his table-manners, but they just love hispolitics. And the same thing at Keegark, and at the Free Cities alongthe Eastern Shore."
"The last time Rakkeed was in Konkrook, he was the guest of theKeegarkan Ambassador," von Schlichten stated. "Intelligence got thatfrom a spy we'd planted among the embassy servants."
"You sure this spy wasn't just romancing?" Harrington asked. "You getso confounded many wild stories about Rakkeed. Three days after he wasreported here at Konkrook, he was reported at Skilk, five thousandmiles away, said to be having an audience with King Firkked."
"No mystery to that," von Schlichten said. "He travels on our ships,in disguise, coolie-class, on the geek-deck."
"Be a good idea if he could be caught at it, some time," Blount said,making another move. "One of the lower-deck loading ports could beleft unlocked, by carelessness, and he could blunder overboard atabout five thousand feet." He watched Harrington make a deceptivelypointless-looking move. "Sid, this damn dog business worries me."
"Worries me, too. I'm fond of that mutt, and God only knows what sortof stuff he's been getting to eat. And I hate to think of why thosegeeks stole him, too."
"Well, at risk of seeming heartless, I'm not so much worried forStalin as I am about why Keeluk was hiding him, and why he was willingto murder the only two Terrans in Konkrook who trust him, to preventour finding out that he had him."
"A Mr. Keeluk, a clergyman," von Schlichten quoted. He chain-litanother cigarette and stubbed out the old one. "Maybe the Rev. Keelukwanted Stalin for sacramental purposes."
Blount looked up sharply. "Ritual killing?" he asked. "Or sympatheticmagic?"
Von Schlichten shrugged. "Take your choice. Maybe Rakkeed wanted thedog, to kill before a congregation of his followers, killing us byproxy, or in effigy. Or maybe they think we worship Stalin, andgetting control of him would give them power over us. I wish we knew alittle more about Ulleran psychology."
That wasn't the first time he'd made that wish. Even if sex weren'tthe paramount psychological factor the ancient Freudians believed, itwas an extremely important one, and on Uller most of the fundamentalterms of Terran psychology were meaningless. At the same time, theaverage Ulleran probably had complexes and neuroses that would havehad Freud talking to himself, and they certainly indulged in practicesthat would have even stood Krafft-Ebing's hair on end.
"One thing," Blount said. "It doesn't take any Ulleran psychologist toknow that about eighty percent of them hate us poisonously."
"Oh, rubbish!" Harrington blew the exclamation out around hispipe-stem with a gush of smoke. "A few fanatics hate us, and a fewmerchants who lost money when we replaced this primitive bartereconomy of theirs, but nine-tenths of them have benefited enormouslyfrom us, and continue to benefit...."
"And hate us more deeply with each new benefit," Blount added. "Theyresent everything we've done for them."
"Yes, this spaceport proposition of King Orgzild of Keegark looks likeit, now doesn't it?" Harrington retorted. "He hates and resents us somuch that he's offered us a spaceport at his city...."
"What's it going to cost him?" Blount asked. "He furnishes theland--sequestered from the estate of some noble he executed fortreason--and the labor--all forced. We furnish the structural steel,the machine-equipment, the engineering. We get a spaceport we don'treally need, and he gets all the business it'll bring to Keegark.Considering the fact that Rakkeed is a welcome guest at his embassyhere, and at the Royal Palace at Keegark, I'm beginning to wonder ifhe isn't fomenting trouble for us here at Konkrook to make us willingto move our main base to his city."
He made a move. Instantly, Harrington slashed out from the middle ofthe board with one of his heavy-duty, all-purpose pieces and took apiece, then moved again.
"Now look whose
king's threatened!" he crowed.
"Yes, I see." Blount brought a piece clockwise around the board andtook the threatening piece, then moved again. "I hope you see whoseking's threatened, now."
Harrington swore, reached out to move a piece, and then jerked hishand back as though the piece were radioactive. For a while, he satpuffing his pipe and staring at the board.
"In fact, Orgzild's so sure that we're going to accept his offer thathe's started building two new power-reactors, to handle the additionalpower-demand that'll result from the increased business," Blountcontinued.
"Where's he getting the plutonium?" von Schlichten asked.
"Where can he get it?" Harrington replied. "He just bought four tonsof it from us, off the _City of Pretoria_."
"That's a hell of a lot of plutonium," Blount said. "I wonder if hemightn't have some idea of what else plutonium can be used for,beside generating power."
"Oh, God, I hope not!" Harrington exclaimed. "You're going to get mestarted seeing burglars under the bed, next...."
"Maybe there are burglars," Blount said, pointing with hiscigarette-holder to Harrington's threatened king. "Can't you dosomething about that, Sid?" Then he turned to von Schlichten. "Beforewe get off the subject, how about those letters the Rev. Keeluk gaveto the Quinton girl?"
"All addressed to Skilkans known to be Rakkeed disciples and rabidlyanti-Terran," von Schlichten replied. "We radioed the list to Skilk;Colonel Cheng-Li, our intelligence man there, teleprinted us back alot of material on them that looks like the Newgate Calendar. Weturned the letters themselves over to Doc Petrie, the Ulleranphilology sharp, who is a pretty fair cryptanalyst. He couldn't findany indications of cipher, but there was a lot of gossip aboutKeeluk's friends and parishioners which might have arbitrarycode-meanings. I'm going to explain the situation to Miss Quinton, andadvise her to have nothing to do with any of the people Keeluk gaveher letters to."
Harrington had gotten his king temporarily out of danger, losing apiece doing it.
"Think she'll listen to you?" he asked. "These Extraterrestrials'Rights Association people are a lot of blasted fanatics, themselves.We're a gang of bloody-handed, flint-hearted, imperialistic sons ofbitches in their book, and anything we say's sure to be a Hitler-sizedlie."
"Oh, they're not as bad as all that. I never met the girl beforetoday, but old Mohammed Ferriera's a decent bloke. And theirassociation's really done a lot of good. For one thing, they put anend to the peonage system on Yggdrasill, and I know what conditionswere like, there, before they did."
A calculating look came into Harrington's eye. He puffed slowly at hispipe and slid a piece from the center toward the sector of the boardnearest him. Blount whistled softly and made a quick re-arrangement.
"Carlos, did you say she told you she was going to Skilk, in the nearfuture?" Harrington asked. "Well, look here; you're going up that way,yourself, with that battalion of Kragans, on the _Aldebaran_. Whydon't you invite her to make the trip with you? You can be quiteattractive to young ladies, when you try, and she'll be grateful forthat rescue this afternoon, which is always a good foundation. Maybeyou can plant a couple of ideas where they'll do the most good. She'sonly been here for three months--since the _Canberra_ got in fromNiflheim. You know and I know and we all know that there are a lot ofthings up there at the polar mines that would look like hell toanybody who didn't understand local conditions...."
"Well, Miss Quinton's company won't be any particularly heavy crossfor me to bear," von Schlichten replied. "I won't guarantee anything,of course...."
The intercom-speaker on the table whistled several times. Harringtonswore, laid down his pipe, and got up, brushing ashes from the frontof his coat. He flipped a switch and spoke into the box.
"Governor," a voice replied out of it, "there's a geek procession justlanded from a water-barge in front, and is coming up the roadway toCompany House. A platoon of Jaikark's Household Guards, with rifles;the Spear of State; a royal litter; about thirty geek nobles, on foot;a gift-litter; another platoon of riflemen, if you say the lastsyllable quick enough."
"That'll be Gurgurk, coming to tell us how unhappy his Sodden andInebriated Geekship is about that fracas on Seventy-second Street,"Harrington said. "The gift-litter will contain the customaryindemnity, at the current market quotation. Have Gurgurk and partyadmitted, all but the rifle-platoons; give him an honor guard of ourKragans, and keep his own gun-toters outside. Take them to theReception Hall, and hold them there till I signal from the AudienceHall, and then herd them in."
He came back and made a move. Immediately, Blount took one of hispieces, moved again, took another, and made the third move to which hewas entitled.
"I'll mate you in four moves," he predicted. "Want to play it out,before we go down?"
"Sure; what's time to a geek? Gurgurk'd think we were worried aboutsomething if we didn't keep him waiting.... Good Lord! You do have meover a barrel, Eric!"