The Dueling Machine

that they had no windows, and the walls were often blood-spattered.

“The Minister will see you now,” said a feminine voice from the view screen. But the screen remained blank. Odal realized that he had probably been under observation every minute since he had entered Kor’s headquarters.

He stood up as the room’s only door opened automatically. With a measured military briskness, Odal strode down the hallway toward the other door at its end, his boots clicking on the stone flooring. He knocked once at the heavy wooden door. No answer. He knocked again, and the door opened by itself.

Kor was sitting at the far end of the office, behind a mammoth desk. The room was dimly lit, except for a single lamp over the desk that made the Intelligence Minister’s bald head glisten. Odal carefully shut the door, took a few steps into the carpeted room, and waited for Kor to look up. The Intelligence chief was busily signing papers, ignoring his visitor.

Finally Kor glanced up. “Sit,” he commanded.

Odal walked to the desk and sat at the single straightbacked chair before it. Kor signed a few more documents, then pushed the stack of papers off to the side of his desk.

“I spent the morning with the Leader,” he said in his irritatingly shrill voice. “Needless to say, he was unhappy about your duel with the Watchman.”

Odal could picture Kanus’ angry tirade. “My only desire is to meet the Watchman again and rectify that error.”

Kor’s emotionless eyes fixed on Odal’s. “Personal motives are of no interest. The Watchman is only a bumbling fool, but he has succeeded in destroying our primary plan for the defeat of Acquatainia. He succeeded because of this meddler, Leoh. He is our target. He is the one who must be put out of the way.”

“I see…”

“No, you do not see,” Kor snapped. “You have no concept of the plan I have in mind, because I have told it to no one except the Leader himself. And I will tell it to no one, until it is necessary.”

Odal didn’t move a muscle. He refused to show any emotion, any fear, any weakness to his superior.

“For the time being you are assigned to my personal staff. You will remain at this headquarters building at all times. Your duties will be given to you daily by my assistants.”

“Very well.”

“And consider this,” Kor said, hunching forward in his chair. “Your failure with the Watchman made the Leader accuse me of failure. He will not tolerate excuses. If you fail the next time I call on you, it will be necessary to destroy you.”

“I understand perfectly.”

“Good. Return to your quarters until summoned. And remember, either we destroy Leoh, or he destroys us.”

Odal nodded, rose from his chair, and walked out of the office. Us, he thought. Kor is beginning to feel the terror he uses on others. If he could have been sure that he wasn’t being watched by hidden cameras, Odal would have smiled.

2

Professor Leoh eased his bulky body into the softness of an air couch. It looked as though he was sitting on nothingness, with the glistening metal curve of the couch several centimeters from his body.

“This is what I’ve needed for a long time,” he said to Hector. “A real vacation, with all the luxuries. It makes an old man happy.”

The Star Watchman was standing by the window wall across the room from Leoh, anxiously peering down at the bustling city far below. “It’s a nice apartment they’ve given you, all right.”

The room was long and spacious, with one whole side devoted to the window wall. The decorations were color—and scent—coded to change slowly through the day. At the moment the walls were in shades of brown and gold, and the air hinted faintly of spices.

“The best part of it,” Leoh said, stretching slowly on the couch, “is that the dueling machine is fixed so that a telepath can’t bring in outside helpers without setting off a warning alarm, and I’ve got nothing to do until the new school year begins at Cannae. I might not even go back then; as long as the Acquatainians want to treat me so royally, why shouldn’t I spend a year or so here? There’s plenty of research I can do… perhaps even lecture occasionally at the university here…”

Hector tried to smile at the old man’s musings, but looked worried instead. “Maybe you shouldn’t stay in Acquatainia too long. I mean, well… the Kerak people might still be after you. Odal was going to challenge you before I… that is.…”

“Before you saved me.”

The Watchman’s face colored. “Well, I didn’t really mean… that is, it wasn’t…”

Leoh chuckled. “Don’t be so flustered, my boy. You’re a hero. Surely Geri regards you as such.”

“Urn, yes, I guess so.”

Changing the subject, Leoh asked, “And how are your quarters? Comfortable, I hope.”

“Sure.” Hector nodded. “The Terran embassy’s almost as plush as this apartment.”

“Not bad for a junior lieutenant.”

Hector fidgeted from the window waif to the couch, then sat on the edge of a web chair.

“Are you nervous about Sir Harold’s visit?” Leoh asked.

“N… nervous? No, sir. Terrified!”

Laughing, Leoh said, “Don’t worry. Harold’s a pleasant enough old grouse… although he tries his best to hide it.”

Nodding without looking convinced, Hector got to his feet again and went back to the window wall. Then he gasped, “He… he’s here!”

Leoh heaved himself up from the couch and hurried to see. A sleek ground car with Star Watch markings was pulled up at the building’s entrance. Official Acquatainian escort cars flanked it.

“He must be on his way up,” Leoh said. “Now try to relax and act…”

The simple-minded door computer announced in a tinny monotone, “Your expected guests are here.”

“Then open up,” Leoh commanded.

The door slid open to reveal a pair of sturdy, steel-eyed Watchmen, a half-dozen Acquatainian honor guards, and—in their midst—the paunchy, jowly figure of Sir Harold Spencer, dressed in a shapeless gray jumpsuit.

The Star Watch Commander in Chief broke into one of his rare smiles. “Albert, you old scoundrel, how are you?”

Leoh rushed to the doorway and grasped Spencer’s outstretched hand. “Harold… I thought we’d never see each other again, in the flesh.”

“Considering the amount of flesh between the two of us, perhaps we’re violating some basic law of the universe by being in the same room together.”

They laughed and walked into the room. The door slid shut, leaving the guards outside. Hector stood transfixed beside the window wall.

“Harold, you look wonderful.…”

“Nonsense. I’m a walking geriatrics experiment. But you, you ancient schemer, you must have transferred to another body since I saw you last.”

“No, merely careful living.…”

“Ahah. My downfall. Too many worries and too much wine. It must be pleasant to live the university life, free of care…”

“Of course. Of course. Oh… Harold, I’d like to introduce Junior Lieutenant Hector.”

Hector snapped to attention and saluted.

“Stand easy, Lieutenant. No need for formality. So, you’re the man who beat Kerak’s assassin, are you?”