Used the machine. There was a fragment of an idea there. Something nebulous that must be approached carefully or it will fade away. Used the machine… used it.… Leoh toyed with the phrase for a few moments, then gave it up with a sigh of resignation.
He focused his attention on his surroundings and scanned the busy dining room. It was a beautiful place, really, decorated with crystal and genuine woods and fabric draperies. Not a synthetic in sight. The odors of delicious food, the hushed murmur of polite conversation. The waiters and cooks and bus boys were humans, not the autocookers and servers that most restaurants employed. Leoh suddenly felt touched at Hector’s attempt to restore his spirits—and at a junior lieutenant’s salary.
He saw the young Watchman approaching the table, coming back from the phone. Hector bumped two waiters and stumbled over a chair before reaching the relative safety of his own seat.
“What’s the verdict?” Leoh asked.
Hector’s lean face was bleak. “They couldn’t revive him. Cerebral hemorrhage, the meditechs said… brought on by shock.”
“Shock?”
“That’s what they said. Something must’ve, um, overloaded his nervous system… I guess.”
Leoh shook his head. “I just don’t understand any of this. I might as well admit it. I’m no closer to an answer now than when I arrived here. Perhaps I should have retired years ago, before the dueling machine was invented.”
“No…”
“I mean it,” said Leoh. “This is the first real intellectual problem I’ve had to contend with in years. Tinkering with machinery, that’s easy. You know what you want and all you need is to make the machinery perform properly. But this… I’m afraid I’m too old to handle a puzzle like this.”
Hector scratched his nose thoughtfully. Then he answered, “If you can’t handle the problem, sir, then we’re going to have a war on our hands in a matter of months… or maybe just weeks. I mean, Kanus won’t be satisfied with swallowing the Szarno group. The Acquataine Cluster is next… and he’ll have to fight to get it.”
“Then the Star Watch will step in,” Leoh said.
Hunching forward in his chair in eagerness to make his point, Hector said, “But… look, it’ll take time to mobilize the Star Watch. Kanus can move a lot faster than we can. Sure, we could throw in a task force, I mean, a token group. Kerak’s army will chew them up pretty quick, though. I… I’m no politician, but I think what’ll happen is… well, Kerak will gobble up the Acquataine Cluster and wipe out a Star Watch force in the process. Then we’ll end up with the Commonwealth at war with Kerak. And that’ll be a big war, because Kanus’ll have Acquatainia’s, uh, resources to draw on.”
Leoh began to answer, then stopped. His eyes were fixed on the far entrance of the dining room. Suddenly every murmur in the busy restaurant stopped dead. Waiters stood frozen between tables. Eating, drinking, conversation hung suspended.
Hector turned in his chair and saw at the far entrance the slim, stiff, blue-uniformed figure of Odal.
The moment of silence passed. Everyone turned to his own business and avoided looking at the Kerak major. Odal, with a faint smile on his thin face, made his way slowly to the table where Hector and Leoh were sitting.
They rose to greet him and exchanged perfunctory salutations. Odal pulled up a chair and sat with them, unasked.
“What do you want?” Leoh asked curtly.
Before Odal could reply, the waiter assigned to the table walked up, took a position where his back would be to the Kerak major, and asked firmly, “Your dinner is ready, gentlemen. Shall I serve it now?”
“Yes,” Hector said before Leoh could speak. “The major will he leaving shortly.”
Again the tight grin pulled across Odal’s face. The waiter bowed and left.
“I’ve been thinking about our conversation of last night,” Odal said to Leoh.
“Yes?”
“You accused me of cheating in my duels.”
Leoh’s eyebrows arched. “I said someone was cheating…”
“An accusation is an accusation.”
Leoh said nothing.
“Do you withdraw your words, or do you still accuse me of deliberate murder? I’m willing to allow you to apologize and leave Acquatainia in peace.”
Hector cleared his throat noisily. “This is no place for an argument… besides, here comes our dinner.”
Odal ignored the Watchman, kept his ice-blue eyes fastened on Leoh. “You heard me, Professor. Will you leave? Or do you.…”
Hector banged his fist on the table and jerked up out of his chair—just as the waiter arrived with a heavy tray of appetizers and soups. There was a loud crash. A tureen of soup, two bowls of salad, glasses, assorted rolls, cheeses, and other delicacies cascaded over Odal.
The Kerak major leaped to his feet, swearing violently in his own language. The restaurant exploded with laughter.
Sputtering back into basic Terran, Odal shouted, “You clumsy, stupid oaf! You maggot-brained misbegotten peasant-faced.…”
Hector calmly picked a salad leaf from the sleeve of his tunic, while Odal’s voice choked with rage.
“I guess I am clumsy,” Hector said, grinning. “As for being stupid, and the rest of it, I resent that. In fact, I’m highly insulted.”
A flash of recognition lighted Odal’s eyes. “I see. Of course. My quarrel is not with you. I apologize.” He turned back to Leoh, who was also standing now.
“Not good enough,” Hector said. “I don’t, uh, like the tone of your apology… I mean.…”
Leoh raised a hand as if to warn Hector to be silent.
“I apologized,” Odal said, his face red with anger. “That is enough.”
Hector took a step toward Odal. “I guess I could call you names, or insult your glorious Leader, or something like that… but this seems more direct.” He took the water pitcher from the table and carefully poured it over Odal’s head.
The people in the restaurant roared. Odal went absolutely white. “You are determined to die.” He wiped the dripping water from his eyes. “I’ll meet you before the week is out. And you’ve saved no one.” He turned and stalked out.
Everyone else in the room stood up and applauded. Hector bobbed his head and grinned.
Aghast, Leoh asked, “Do you realize what you’ve done?”
“He was going to challenge you…”
“He’ll still challenge me, after you’re dead.”
Shrugging, Hector said, “Well, yes, maybe so. I guess you’re right. But at least we’ve gained a little more time.”
“Four days.” Leoh shook his head. “Four days to the end of this week. All right, come on, we have work to do.”
Hector was grinning broadly as they left the restaurant. He began to whistle.
“What are you so happy about?” Leoh grumbled.
“About you, sir. When we came in here, you were, well… almost beaten. Now you’re right back in the game again.”
Leoh stared at him. “In your own odd way, my boy, you’re quite something… I think.”
12
Their ground car glided from the parking building to the restaurant’s entrance ramp, at the radio call of the doorman. Within minutes, Hector and Leoh were cruising through the city in the deepening shadows of night.
“There’s only one man,” Leoh mused, “who’s faced Odal and lived through it.”
“Dulaq,” Hector said. “But… he might as well be dead, for all the information anybody can get from
