Eros at Zenith: Book 2 of Tales of the Velvet Comet (19 page)

“And I won't play the scapegoat for it, either!”

“We all have our problems,” said Crane. “This one happens to be yours. “What would
you
have done?” demanded Bello.

“I don't know,” admitted Crane.

“Then how dare you condemn me!”

“I'm not condemning you” said Crane patiently. “But I sure as hell intend to arrest you.”

“I happen to know that you are not armed,” said Bello ominously.

“Are you threatening to kill an unarmed man?” asked Crane. “I thought that was how you got into this mess in the first place.”

Bello sighed and leaned back on the sofa.

“No,” he said, “I'm not threatening to kill you. But I tell you again, I will never go back to jail.”

“There are worse fates,” commented Crane. “I could tell Pagliacci you're here, and you'll face the biggest kangaroo court you ever saw.”

“Pagliacci?” repeated Bello. “Is he a clown or an opera singer?”

“Neither. He's a killer, and he's pretty good at his job.”

“He's the New Sumatran?”

Crane nodded. “You killed his wife and his daughters.”

“For all he knows, they were already dead,” said Bello.

“For all
you
know, the antidote would have cured them,” replied Crane.

“It wasn't that simple!” exploded Bello. “And I won't have you make it that simple! There was the rest of the colony to be considered. If I hadn't done what I did, there might not have been a person left alive three weeks later—not me, not this Pagliacci, not anyone!”

“
If
the ship hadn't arrived,” noted Crane.

“I made the right decision based on the facts at hand!” stormed Bello. “It was the
only
decision under the circumstances, and I'd do it again!”

“So you've said,” replied the detective.

Bello stared at him for a moment, then sighed. “I should have known better than to think you would understand,” he said at last.

“You'll forgive me if I cling to the assumption that any man who slaughters 11,000 people is more sinning than sinned against,” said Crane dryly.

Bello shook his head sadly. “Fool,” he said. Then he sighed again. “We're
both
fools, Mr. Crane,” he added wearily. “You for not comprehending what happened, and me for thinking that you might.”

“Mr. Crane has other things on his mind just now,” interjected the Black Pearl. “Parades through the streets, official commendations, promotions, pay raises...
so
many wonderful visions.”

Both men turned to her.

“Mr. Crane,” she continued, “is destined to be disappointed.”

“You think so?” said Crane.

She nodded. “Mr. Bello has already promised never to mention his brief excursion aboard the
Comet
if I let him go. Can you make the same promise if I let him stay?”

“I already told you —” began Crane.

“I know what you told me,” interrupted the Black Pearl. “But you haven't told me how you're going to shut him up once he gets into court—or did you plan to kill him right here on the
Comet
?”

“This is more important than the
Comet
,” said Crane.

“Don't you understand that we're talking about
Quintus Bello
?”

“
Nothing
is more important than the
Comet
,” she replied firmly. “You show me how you can arrest him without harming our reputation and you can have him. In the meantime, he stays with me.”

“And if he tries to escape?”

“May I point out that I don't have the means to escape?” interposed Bello. “I came here on the assumption that a ship would be waiting for me. It isn't.”

“Not good enough,” said Crane. “
I
could book passage on an outbound ship. Why can't you?—and please don't ask me to believe that you're traveling under your own name.”

“Of course not.”

“Well, then?”

“I give you my word,” said Bello.

“You've already given me your word that you'll never go back to prison,” noted Crane. “Which one should I believe?”

“The two are not necessarily incompatible,” replied Bello. “Simply let me go back to my headquarters on Deluros.”

“Not a chance,” said Crane.

“Then we're at an impasse,” said Bello.

“Until I get my gun, anyway.”

“I won't allow you in here again if you're carrying a weapon,” said the Black Pearl.

“And I won't allow him out of here unless he's under arrest,” replied Crane. “So Pagliacci and I will take turns sitting in the corridor watching your door. How long do you suppose it'll take before some of the patrons notice?” He could see concern on her face, and he pressed his advantage. “And while we're on the subject, what do you suppose it'll do for business if I announce that you're harboring a fugitive named Quintus Bello in your apartment and won't turn him over to me?”

She relaxed suddenly.

“You should have quit while you were ahead, Mr. Crane,” she replied calmly. “You won't do anything that will jeopardize your job. Having Mr. Bello's presence inadvertently discovered is one thing; announcing it to 500 patrons is another.”

“Don't be so sure of that,” he said. “The man who captures Bello can write his own ticket.”

“Not if you cost the
Velvet Comet
a few billion credits due to the publicity,” she answered. “Oh, you'll be able to latch on somewhere else, but you'll have a black mark on your record, and my reading of your character is that you have every intention of going through life without any black marks.”

“Sometimes they can't be helped.”

“True. But this isn't one of those times, so you'll have to excuse me if I don't take your threat very seriously.”

“You're not dealing just with me,” said Crane. “If the Dragon Lady and Pagliacci don't know he's on the ship yet, they soon will. She's just a few years from retirement, and he's fighting a holy war. How are you going to keep them quiet?”

“I'll worry about them when the time comes,” said the Black Pearl. “
You're
my problem at the moment.”

“You're sitting in a room with a mass murderer, and
I'm
your problem?” said Crane with a bitter laugh.

“He never harmed my ship. You might.”

“You've got a funny sense of values.”

“Perhaps—but I didn't fuck five thousand totally forgettable men and women and claw my way to the top of the heap just to let some egomaniacal detective's ambition bring the whole operation tumbling down.”

“Were getting nowhere,” announced Bello. “Mr. Crane, what do you propose do to?”

“Arrest you.”

“Like hell you will!” snapped the Black Pearl.

“Do you plan to arrest me right now?” persisted Bello.

“This minute?” asked Crane. “No.”

“Then,” said Bello, rising to his feet, “I think I'll take my leave of you. I don't like your company very much.”

He walked, proudly and erectly, to the door at the back of the office, ordered it to open, and passed through into the room that contained the Night Crystals.

“Confident son of a bitch, isn't he?” remarked Crane. He turned to the Black Pearl. “Doesn't it bother you that he killed all those people?”

“No more, I think, than it bothers you,” she replied “Besides, he has a legitimate justification.”

“So did Hitler and Caligula,” noted Crane ironically. “Of all the people who survived New Sumatra, perhaps a dozen are loyal to him and there are thousands who want to kill him. Has it occurred to you that you've just heard a very subjective account of the whole affair, that the facts may be totally different?”

“If you knew he was telling the truth, would it make a difference?” asked the Black Pearl.

He shook his head. “I've been waiting for an opportunity like this all my life.”

“Even if he's innocent?”

“He killed them, didn't he?”

“You know what I mean.”

“Like I said, it's just my job to arrest him. Someone else will pass judgment.”

“It won't work that way,” she pointed out. “No judge who wants to live out the day will release him.”

“That's not my problem, is it?” he said irritably.

“In a way, it is,” she replied. “If you arrest him, it will be the same as condemning him to death.”

“Perhaps—but if I arrest him, I'll be turning him over to the law. If I don't, I'll be taking it into my own hands. Besides,” he added, “you're no more concerned with whether or not he's guilty than I am. My job is to arrest him, and yours, it seems, is to try to stop me.”

“You make it sound very stark.”

“It is.”

She stared at him for a moment. “I could sweeten the pot.”

He arched an eyebrow. “How?”

“Let him go and you've got a free pass to my bedroom for as long as you want it. We'll do it whenever you want to, any way that you want to, as often as you want to.”

He smiled at her. “Who suggested that—Cupid?”

“Have we got a deal?” she said, grinning confidently.

He shook his head, still smiling. “Not a chance.”

“But —”

“You're asking me to trade the chance of a lifetime for something you give away every day,” said Crane. “That's not much of a deal from where I sit.”

“If you'd have Cupid show you some of the entertainments I've appeared in, you might feel differently about it.”

“There are more important things in life than a roll in the hay.”

“If everyone else aboard the
Comet
felt that way, I'd turn Bello over to you in a second,” she said seriously. “But they don't, and I can't let you bring us so much adverse publicity that it frightens them away.”

“How do you know it won't attract even more of them?” he replied. “People have always been fascinated by flirting with danger.”

“Not
these
people,” said the Black Pearl. “Even the poorest of them is a juicy target for kidnappers. The jewelry that's on the ship any given day would probably make a hefty down payment on the
Comet
itself. We guarantee security, and we don't allow weapons or bodyguards. Danger is just about the last thing our patrons are looking for—and if they
are
seeking it, they go to the fantasy rooms, where they can have all of the thrills of danger without any of the risks.”

“Maybe,” he acquiesced with a shrug. “But no matter what you and I decide, you're still not going to be able to keep a lid on this situation.”

“You're referring to the Dragon Lady and Pagliacci?” asked the Black Pearl.

“Yes.”

“She'll have enough brains to keep quiet—and as for
him
, why should he even know Bello is aboard the
Comet
?”

“He's not stupid,” said Crane. “He was there with me when I gave Morales the niathol. He saw him send the message.”

“So
that's
how you did it. Why wasn't I told?”

“Because it happened less than a day ago, and we've been keeping a round-the-clock watch on the airlock.”

“So he fooled you by entering the service deck as a cargo mover, walked down to this end of the ship, and climbed up a service stairwell,” she said mockingly. “Some detective!”

“Well, the plan did have a built-in handicap,” admitted Crane. “None of us knew what Bello would look like.”

“You mean you simply invited a mass murderer up to the
Comet
and hoped everything would work out all right?” she demanded.

“We had an opportunity to draw him out of hiding.

We might never have had another.”

“You deliberately endangered everyone on the
Comet
!”

“Nonsense. He's a fugitive. All he wants to do is get away.”

“And you think fugitives don't kill when they feel they're endangered?”

'Everyone has the capacity to kill, just as they have the capacity to screw. You make your living from the one, I make mine from the other.”

“You may be intelligent, and you may be as good at your job as you claim to be, Mr. Crane,” she said angrily, “but you're a pretty poor excuse for a human being! You gambled my patrons’ lives to advance your career, just as you're now gambling my ship and Bello's future.”

“Whereas
you
are perfectly willing to let a mass murderer go free rather than risk some financial loss,” he replied sardonically.

The Black Pearl got to her feet.

“I think it's time for you to leave, Mr. Crane,” she announced. “I have nothing further to say to you.”

He stood up and turned to the computer.

“Cupid?”

YES.

“Wait three minutes and then close the Priority File. Then instruct the Dragon Lady to access it on my authority.”

UNDERSTOOD.

He turned back to the Black Pearl.

“This isn't over yet, you know,” he said.

“I know.”

“I can't let Bello walk away from here.”

“Certainly you can—although my previous offer has been withdrawn,” she added, staring at him distastefully.

“Sooner or later you're going to have to turn him over to me,” said Crane.

“You're welcome to think so, Mr. Crane.”

“You could make it easier on everyone if you'd do it now and get it over with.”

"Everyone?"
she repeated sarcastically. “Since when did you start caring about anyone except yourself ?”

He stared at her, then walked to the door, which slid back into the wall.

“I'll be back,” he promised.

“I'll be waiting,” she replied in level tones.

Crane retrieved his weapon, returned to his suite, and immediately activated the computer.

“Open the Priority File.”

DONE.

“Is Bello still in the Black Pearl's apartment?”

YES.

“I'm ordering you to inform me the instant he tries to leave, either alone or in the Black Pearl's company.”

UNDERSTOOD.

Crane lowered his head in thought for a moment, then looked up at the screen.

“If he tried to make it to the tramway right now, could I stop him?”

ALLOWING FOR NORMAL TRAFFIC PATTERNS, HE WOULD ARRIVE THERE ALMOST TWO MINUTES AHEAD OF YOU.

“Then I can't stay here any longer. Is there a vacant store within 200 feet of the airlock?”

ALL OF THE STORES ARE RENTED.

Crane frowned. “All right,” he said. “The first thing we'd better do is shut down the tramway. Then I'll move over to the Home, which is a lot closer to the airlock than the Resort is.”