“Oscar, it isn’t just your chagrined former bosses who’re concerned over your present whereabouts,” Smith said. “I was hired by people who are interested in you for entirely different reasons.”
“So you claim. I’ve heard, though, that you’ve been on the skids since Jenny came to her senses and ditched you.” Ruiz was ticking slowly back and forth. “For all I know, you’ve reached such a low peak in your seedy career that you’d even hire out to those bastards at the casin-”
“We weren’t especially close at Horizon House, but-”
“You were a loner, didn’t make many friends. Except for Jenny, and I was pretty sure you only played up to her so her father, Doctor Westerland, would give you extra little-”
“Oscar, I have to get you out of here quick.” Smith moved closer to him. “Before my mode of transportation gets blown up. Gather up your loot and we’ll depart.”
“No, I’m not interested in decamping. You haven’t even really explained why I should risk-”
“Okay, there’s one group that wants to get you, find out what you know and then kill you,” said Smith evenly. “The Trinidad Law Bureau wants you, too, but I’m not sure if they just mean to detain you or maybe knock you off. Myself, I was hired to bring you back to Horizon House.”
“Horizon House? Why the hell would anybody want-”
“Our client claims it’s for a reunion, but-”
“Jared, you must be goofy. You think I’d risk my neck, not to mention my hard-earned-”
“I didn’t say our client was being completely honest. The truth is you know part of an important secret.”
Ruiz blinked. “This doesn’t make any-”
“I don’t know what the secret is,” Smith told him, “and neither do you. It was planted in your sconce, by way of electrohypnosis, by Westerland. Ten Horizon Kids were used.”
Slowly Ruiz got to his feet. “What’s this client of yours willing to pay me for my part of whatever the hell this is?”
“That you’ll have to negotiate.”
“You weren’t supposed to tell me this part of it, were you, Jared? They’re going to be-”
“I’m telling you so you’ll realize how important it is to get your ass out of here.” Impatience was showing in Smith’s voice. “The other lads who want you are much less cordial than I am. When they caught up with Hal Larzon they gathered in his piece of the secret, then killed him.”
“Hal? But he and I were pretty close at Horizon House. Not big buddies, but we got along well and. he’s dead?”
“Yep, and that could happen to you, Oscar.”
“Suppose I come with you…how do you keep me any safer than-”
“I’ve got a couple places in mind to stash you,” Smith answered before the question was finished. “I’ll get you to one of them.”
“Doesn’t your client want me back as soon as-”
“Since our client hasn’t been completely open,” said Smith, “I’m using my own judgment until I have more details. The important thing is to keep you, and the other missing Horizon Kids, alive.”
“You sound like you really mean what-”
“Pack.”
Ruiz took a few deep breaths, glanced around the yellow room. “I never much liked you back then, but you weren’t a liar or a conman.”
“I’m not now. Let’s move.”
“All right, okay.” Ruiz headed for the door to the bedchamber. “I’ll get my gear.”
Then the living room door hissed open. “You’re not bad,” said Deac Constiner from the threshold. “You found this damn nitwit even quicker than I did.” He showed Smith the kilgun in his leathery right hand.
CHAPTER 15
Ruiz made a gulping sound. “Listen, Constiner,” he said, stopped still on the thermocarpet, “I haven’t actually committed any crime. What I mean is, taking money from a crook like MacQuarrie, a gambler who fleeced poor-”
“Oscar, Oscar,” said the Trinidad Law Bureau agent, “I don’t give a snerg’s ass about your halfwit dipping into that casino’s petty cash.”
“As I already mentioned,” reminded Smith.
“Nope, I want you for entirely different reasons,” said Constiner. He tugged a stungun from beneath his tunic with his left hand. “You, Smith, I don’t need, and so-”
“Are you the one, Deac, who caught up with Hal Larzon?”
Snorting, the lawman said, “Don’t talk like a schmuck. I don’t work that way and neither do you.”
Smith said, “If you want Larzon’s piece of the puzzle, you’ve got to find the folks who bumped him off.”
“I’ll tell you, Smith, this whole frumus is getting to be a pain in the toke,” admitted Constiner. “It was already too cute going in and it keeps getting trickier and trickier.”
“TLB figures the secret belongs to them and not to Westerland’s next of kin?”
“Westerland worked for the three-planet government when he cooked this particular notion up,” he replied. “All we’re talking about is a simple legal point here. Any invention you come up with while working for somebody is naturally the employer’s. Fact is, I’m the only one in this whole mess who has any real right to-”
“Jennifer Westerland doesn’t agree with-”
“Aren’t you cured of that broad yet? Don’t tell me you still believe the crap she-”
“What about me?” intruded Ruiz. “You two are squabbling and cutting up touches while I’m suffering a hell of a lot of anxiety and discom-”
“You’re coming with me,” Constiner explained, “and Smith’s going to stay here.” He aimed the stun-gun at Smith.
It was Constiner who stiffened and then fell to the floor.
“Forgive me, one and all.” Smiling, Cruz appeared in the doorway where the TLB lawman had been. “I find I sometimes can’t resist these melodramatic entrances.”
“Allowable under the circumstances,” said Smith, stooping to take both guns away from the fallen man.
Ruiz’ breath came sighing out. “I take it this guy’s on your side, Jared?”
“He is. Cruz, Oscar Ruiz.”
Cruz gave him a lazy salute with his metal hand. “Reason I dropped down was to urge one and all to speed things up. The battle is spilling ever closer to our position.”
Smith told Ruiz, “Grab your stuff.”
“Violence,” muttered Ruiz, trotting into his bedchamber, “my whole damn life has been ringed with violence.”
CHAPTER 16
Jack Saint frowned and his broad green nose wrinkled. He rose from his seat in the nearly empty shuttle ship, extracted his orange display handkerchief from his pocket and dusted the cracked plaz cushion he’d been sitting upon. He squinted down at it disapprovingly, then dusted it once again.
“You can’t get rid of the snull,” said a middle-aged catwoman two seats behind him.
“Beg pardon?”
“Oh, my.” She raised up a paw, gave herself a nudge in the temple. “The
“A what, Madam?”
“Darn, did it again.” Another fist to her head.
