Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition Page 73

  "Ah! How long ago did these two take over the route?" Kit asked, perking up at what could prove important.

  "Maybe a year ago," Lahst said. "I've seen them on one other trip and they make three or four trips a year – or Carzo and Emandette did. I've never spoken except to welcome them onto the flight."

  "Had you ever seen or heard anything previous to this trip or during the loading about Letuz?" Kit asked.

  "Same answer for me," Lahst replied and everyone else shook their heads.

  "Do you have any lists or recordings to show me when each passenger booked flight?" Kit asked.

  "They handle that through the booking desk," Koolish answered. "We get the complete list at loading time. It's the first we see of it. They'll give you any of it you want, I'm sure. I suppose you could get it even if they didn't want to cooperate, being an empire agent."

  "Oh, I work for the empire, but I'm not a regular agent," Kit said. "I could get it though. Maita sort of helps me out and I sort of help him out."

  "You know the emperor, personally?" Mirish asked. "What race is he?"

  Kit laughed and said he spoke with the emperor and even stayed on EC at times, but had seen him no more than anyone else – that he KNEW of. He'd spoken with him and only heard his voice – and wouldn't tell, no matter what. He might have spent some time with him, but could be sure to the exact extent that anyone else who spent time on EC could.

  "Z and Thing know him and spend time directly on his ship with him," Kit said. "I've been on the ship a few times and he's been aboard, but I've still seen no more than the ship. I'd be sworn to silence if I have seen him so it doesn't really matter."

  They spoke for awhile, then Kit headed for the offices. He could directly access the machines if he could get alone near a terminal.

  *

  Tab went first to the flight desk where he received the lists and positions of the passengers on the flight. He looked it over carefully and recorded it on his internals. He then determined where most of the passengers were staying and was pleased only four of them had gone off-planet, having made a connection for Narjn only two hours after arriving.

  He went to a hotel where two were staying, one he knew to not be involved because he was a Mome and they wouldn't do personal violence. The other would. He was a Jornian and those people were a real headache to even a machine like him.

  He met with Toon, the Mome, and found he stayed in his seat most of the trip on the second aisle and quite far back from the excitement. He hadn't known anything about it until he heard it announced there had been a "problem" and no one was to leave their seats.

  Tab checked the internal records and found it was probably totally true. Toon had seen or heard nothing out of the ordinary. He sat in one of the last seats where he was a bit isolated from the regular flight passengers who booked the same seats for the flights for a full year ahead as a general rule.

  Nacht, the Jornian, was a bit of a con man and was smooth and devious. Tab was immediately suspicious and became a lot more pointed in his questioning. He was very surprised when Nacht said he would take the probe so long as any information not related to this issue wasn't taken and so long as it was reviewed only by machine judges.

  As Tab was a machine he could easily and truthfully guarantee that.

  Nacht was running from some other Jornians he had bilked out of a lot of money, but he had no involvement whatever with this business.

  Czimminzk, the only Ternz aboard, knew nothing of it. The strange beings were perhaps capable of murder, but Tab doubted it. They wouldn't have been able to figure out how to do something like this. Violence wasn't familiar to them.

  By the time he'd finished with the list he was more and more certain he was going about it the wrong way. He'd learned almost nothing, though he narrowed the suspect list considerably. There were now only six names on it plus the four Bentans who were traveling on. He didn't want to have to go chasing after those four all over the galaxy. It was going to have to be done, though, unless he found some answers first.

  The Bentans were very unlikely to be involved. They had little contact with Inktans and were more petty thieves and nonviolent types by nature. They were capable of almost any type of crime, but a planned murder was usually a crime against someone of the same race and this one was definitely planned.

  It was becoming evident they were going to have to figure out how it had happened. How it was done.

  It was time to call on Letuz. First he wanted to see the Mome for a few minutes to ask him a very important – maybe – question.

  "Toon, did you notice anyone who changed their seating arrangements during the flight?" he asked.

  "Changed their seats?" Toon asked.

  "If they wanted to kill him and waited until he booked they would have gotten seats in those sections where you were sitting. They would have had to change to a nearer seat, I think, to get close enough to kill him," Tab explained. "This isn't the type of thing that could be handled from any great distance. Certainly line of sight."

  "There were people milling about and going to the lounge all the time," Toon replied. "I'm very sorry. I didn't notice."

  Well, on to Letuz.

  * *

  Kit unplugged from the machine. The only really late bookings were a Ternz, a Jornian and an Elit. If it was done where the booking was made as soon as the killer determined Kile would be on the flight Kit's money was on the Jornian.

  He relayed all the information he had to T6 to relay on to TR. The seating arrangement could be important. If anyone changed seats to be closer to Kile – particularly that Jornian – it was as good a clue as they would need.

  Something was still being overlooked. Something pretty obvious. He could feel it. He had hunches and this one was strong. Maybe they'd better determine how it was done. That would be most important. It would probably eliminate some suspects.

  Kit went back to the ship to have Lahst show him where Kile had been sitting, then took the copies of the reports Koolish offered him.

  "We're going home for a few hours," she explained. "Come and go as you please. If there are any questions you can call me at this number. I’ll answer anything I can."

  Kit took the paper and thanked her, then went to the passenger section.

  Kile had been laying back, thought to have been asleep, in 3E. Letuz was in 3D. There was the compartment privacy wall there to his right, put up so he could sleep undisturbed. He had made no sudden movements or sounds. The wound would have been fatal within seconds. He may have snorted, but it would sound like a normal sleep sound.

  Letuz stayed in her seat most of the time, but had gone to the lounge for about half an hour, then had come to ask Kile if he wanted anything. He said "no" so she went to the restrooms, then returned to nap. She assumed Kile was asleep and hadn't disturbed him. When she awakened an hour or so later and tried to awaken Kile she found he was dead. The wound was on the left side and low against the seat and had come from an upward (Toward the head area) and slightly to the back angle. The knife was a thin, flat, almost all iron homemade thing cut with a laser from flat stock and filed to a moderate edge.

  Soft iron for a knife? It wouldn't hold an edge! That may be important even if it didn't make sense. It may be important BECAUSE it didn't make sense. Of course, it wasn't important it held an edge if it was to be used only once.

  Kit sat in the seat and looked to the open side. The privacy wall was still in place. He lowered the seat to about where he figured an Inktan would be comfortable (He checked with T6 on that. T6's owner had been an Inktan professor) and figured the angle, slightly upward and back. Close to the seat.

  Okay. He was definitely killed when Letuz was in the restroom. Had she been in the seat the knife would have had to go through her.

  He then checked the whole area the knife could have come from. It was either hand thrown – very unlikely unless someone had practiced one hell of a long time throwing a knife sidearm from a very low angle – or fired
by some mechanism.

  No mechanism had been found so it was still on the ship or didn't exist.

  It couldn't have been fired with an explosive in that room. Even a spring-loaded mechanism would have made some noise and compressed air was out for the same reason. Elastic cord, such as was called shock cord? Could the iron have been made not to scrape where it would be heard?

  It would depend on the handle.

  Kit checked the sketch and description to find it was a bare blade without a grip handle. It was flat along its whole length so it wasn't thrown. To be effective in throwing sidearm it would have to have a grip. It was fired – but, damn it! How?

  He would have to search the entire area the passengers had access to. He had to find that mechanism, but he didn't know anything about what he was looking for!

  *

  Tab received the input from TR and swore quietly. The Jornian had booked late, but had passed the probe. Letuz was the other probable killer and she had passed the probe. Now Kit was searching the ship for a mechanism. He figured the blade must have been fired by a mechanism through a process of elimination.

  No passengers had changed seats during the flight, either. That was checked and was definite. That could mean the killing was by some psycho who wanted to see if he could get away with murder or that the killer was targeting Kile specifically and knew his schedule for some time.

  Okay.

  He rang the caller at Letuz's rooms and was invited in. She didn't have anything to add to what was known about the murder. "We took over from Carzo almost a year ago," she said. "We've never had any trouble at all. We sell educational materials to all the worlds in a very large area, you know. It's the kind of thing Inkta is known for."

  "Did this Carzo retire?" Tab asked.

  "No, he took a job at the printers, doing the editing," Letuz replied. "He and his partner had the route for a long time and he was getting tired of never being with his family so decided the time was good to change his patterns.

  "He was sort of a hero, discovering that theft ring on Zuni, you know."

  "Hero?" Tab asked. "Theft ring?"

  "Oh, yes," she replied. "He went through his purchase orders in a hotel to compare what changes would be to advantage to suggest to his customers there and found laboratory supplies and scientific books were far from their normal proportions for the past two years or more and alerted the educational system's administration machines. They instituted a careful search that resulted in indictments of more than twenty people who were selling the things to restricted worlds. Even the emperor gave Carzo a special commendation and bonus."

  "Twenty people?" Tab asked. "What kind of people? What was done to them?"

  "Oh, there were Jornians, Bentans, Eacherons and an Elit or two, Zurn, and a few I don't know about, I imagine," she replied. "Four of them were executed for interfering with restricted and protected peoples. One was a Bentan and three Jornians. The rest were exiled or imprisoned for a year in rehab.

  "No. That's right. The Zurn were exonerated. They had merely been used by one or two of the others and didn't know what was happening. I believe Emperor Maita made comment about it.

  "It was the Jornians. I remember. They were using the Zurns in some strange scheme."

  That seating chart was suddenly very important. Tab made excuses and left, heading for TR.

  "Narjn – fast!" he sent as he entered. "Call T Six. Tell Kit to find that mechanism and meet me there. We may finally have our break!"

  "How do you figure?" TR asked.

  "All Inktans look alike!" Tab replied.

  "Oh, crap! They do not!" TR replied.

  "They do if you're not an Inktan!" Tab pointed out happily. "I just want to know if they were all in it. Tell Kit to bring anything that doesn't seem to belong in that ship. Maybe in kitchen utensils or spare parts of some sort that are in an area where the passengers could have gotten to them. It has to be! It's them or ... nah! He couldn't have beaten the probe."

  "You don't make any damned sense, as usual!" TR snapped, but Tab could tell by the tone of excitement it saw what he had seen.

  * *

  Kit went through all bins and drawers and closets, checked under in and around the seats, checked the restrooms and baggage areas. He collected a few things that seemed out of place for one reason or another and picked up some parts that showed signs of having been used from a bin. No used parts on a spaceship! Period!

  He looked at the box of junk and shrugged as T6 sent he was to be most careful and was to bring any little thing back aboard, then they were headed for Narjn. Tab had figured it out. It had something to do with Zuni. T6 input all the information TR sent about the theft ring.

  "Then why Narjn?" Kit asked.

  "Apparently Tab has tied those Bentans to it," T6 answered. "They're the only ones who went there."

  "They were booked on that flight thirty or forty days ago!" Kit protested. "They were sitting in the general area the knife came from, but that's not enough. Someone could have walked along the aisle and fired the thing.

  He sat on a bench to think, nodded and went through the rest of the ship, then went to T6.

  "Head for Zuni," he said.

  "Zuni?" T6 asked.

  "Zuni," he repeated.

  *

  Tab came into the commercial field and sat close to the big liner. Narjn is a bright tropical world with lush foliage, colorful – if raucous – birds and myriad flowers of many descriptions. It was an artificial, planoformed world. It was delightful.

  It had not too long ago been a huge rock in exactly the right place where the Mords used the systems Maita had used when it moved them from a world whose sun was prepared to nova. They are a strange people of an unclassifiable type who use subtle colors as well as sounds to communicate.

  The Bentans were staying at a luxury hotel by a lake in the mountains. Tab called a floater and was getting aboard when TR told him to stop. Kit was doing something and would be a little late. Tab was to wait.

  "Why?" Tab asked.

  "Because you're going in there knowing full well you're right, but you don't have anything a judge would accept," TR replied. "You don't know if it's all of them or one of them. You don't have one single fact to question them about that can tie them to the murder with any credence. You're acting like Z!"

  "I can find out who's part of it damned fast!" Tab returned. "What's wrong with acting like Z?"

  "Even he admits he, as he says, goes off half cocked," TR said. "He usually makes up for it in luck which, as he also says, you ain't got much of the better variety of."

  Tab grinned and went to the pilot's dome to wait. Kit was right, of course. He had jumped ahead of reality. He didn't have enough.

  "Why is Kit going to be late?" he asked.

  "He's going to Zuni," TR replied. "The Bentans live there. The trouble was there that started all of this. The police records are there. The answers are probably there. This was very premeditated. It took time to make that knife and Kit thinks he's found how it was done. They booked that flight long ago, knowing the schedule the Inktans followed. If you go in there and let the guilty party say the wrong thing he gets away with claiming he recognized him on the flight and lost control. He gets a minor sentence relative to his crime."

  "I agree. You're right," Tab said. "I'm going to study this. Call me when Kit arrives and we'll go after them together. I'll be interested to know how it was done."

  "So will I!" TR retorted. "So would T Six! Kit wants to get dramatic, I think. He read all those stupid murder mysteries Z has at his place and wants to try some of the methods to see if they work."

  Tab grinned at that. He liked to show off a bit himself! How very unrobotic!

  * * *

  Kit and Tab took the floater and four local police out to the small cabin the Bentans were sharing to face them. Kit introduced himself and Tab, then the police and told them blankly what they were there for. The Bentans were almost sneering at them as they immediately in
vited them inside. They seemed very sure of themselves.

  "I'm Boost," a male said. "This is Nicht, my wife, Lahs and Sarn, my brothers. Come on in and entertain us with your theories!"

  Kit grinned and took his box from the floater and they went to sit around a comfortable room. Kit went into the center of the room, bowed slightly to the Bentans and began: "I hope you'll be entertained as much as I was," he said. "When we were called into this I was sure there was some simple thing that tied it together – and I was right. It was simply a matter of mistaken identity. The Inktan you killed wasn't the Inktan who brought about the investigation that brought about your father's execution and your own incarceration in a rehab center for one year. Carzo was retired from the sales force. Kile had nothing whatever to do with any of that."

  Nicht looked scared. Tab was sure the males knew by now Kile wasn't the one they planned to kill, but this was probably the first she knew about it.

  "You will all be executed for murdering the wrong person," Tab continued. "It was sort of ingenious in method. If you spent half the time and effort in designing and building something useful you wouldn't spend nearly so much of your sordid lives in these sorts of untenable situations."

  "Well," Boost said with a smirk, "There's one little problem with that. If we did have anything to do with killing some stranger on a spaceship in plain view of thirty people you'd have to find the one who actually did it before you could talk about executions. You have a body and the fact our father was executed because of something that was done by a member of the Inktan race. You have the weapon.

  "There's no way you can show any of us stuck that knife in him. No one from our party went anywhere near him."

  Tab smiled pleasantly at him (As pleasantly as a mouthful of sharp teeth could smile in any case) and took several items from his box.

  "You delivered the knife from your seat," he said. "This is a package conveyor. Two of them. They're used in all mail rooms. They're basically small plastic wheels on plastic rails. The only thing that caught my attention about them was that they were in the food preparation parts bin – which are all of metal because of the extreme heat used to sterilize them. In themselves they are nothing.