The Magnificent Wilf Page 21

  The Shark opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it again. He did this several times.

  “Be reasonable,” the great sea carnivore said at last. His voice was as harsh as ever, but now he was plainly trying to speak more agreeably. “There isn’t a Shark here who’s ever left the surface of this world.”

  The statement was undeniable. L’audace . . . Tom reminded himself once more. A happy inspiration came to his mind of a movie scene of a British barrister in an English court of law, pinning a cowering villain in the prisoner’s box relentlessly, with statement after statement, to the point where the guilty man had to admit his villainy. The barrister had used simple statements, prefaced by a certain short, but effective phrase. Tom had always liked that phrase; but he had never had a chance to use it until now.

  “I put it to you,” said Tom, grimly to the Shark. “You have been disgorging the jeweled buildings you swallowed, and your fellow Sharks from Cayahno have been coming and buying them from you.”

  “It’s a lie!” cried the Shark. “Why would they do that?”

  “I put it to you,” said Tom, relentlessly, “that where there are works of art, there will always be collectors of that art; and in a galaxy this size some of those collectors will be enormously rich, rich enough to sell a whole world to pay for a single Xxxytl building, which they would rebuild themselves, once they had all the parts—because such buildings were their hobby!”

  “It’s lies! All lies!” shouted the Shark.

  “Further,” went on Tom, hooking his hands in the upper straps of his harness, as if they were the lapels of a barrister’s robe—“I put it to you that your fellow Sharks on Cayahno have been taking enormous advantage of you. They have been paying you next to nothing for these things; and selling them for enormous prices—up to the worth of a whole world—to collectors who can afford to pay that price.”

  “No, no!” cried the Shark, with a touch of panic in its voice for the first time.

  “Yes, yes,” said Tom. “I also put it to you that you know your fellow Sharks; and therefore know that they would do such a thing, because it’s exactly what you would do if you were in their place. You, too, would cheat Beings who did not know the priceless worth of what they were selling; and were completely unaware of the tremendous amounts this could be sold for, interstellarly. Finally, I put it to you that they will leave you to take all the blame, as being the ones who stole the building fragments in the first place; and they will sit in their palatial homes on Cayahno and laugh at the thought of you as a simple, barbaric Race being stupid enough to find itself on trial for its existence!”

  There was a moment of utter silence from all the Sharks in front of Tom. Then the one Shark that had been doing all the talking burst into an explosion of words.

  “Those dirty—” the Shark broke off. “We never did trust them! I beg you, Sir Assassin, understand our situation. As yoxi say, we are poor, simple, barbaric Sharks, who know nothing about the great universe outside our own world. Dupes, no more, of evil members of our own Alien-born, but similar Race, who have contrived to get higher Sector status. Surely someone like you can understand how we might be led astray and talked into something of which we are now deeply ashamed.”

  There was an angry chitter from the air between the heads of Tom and Lucy.

  “Simple barbarians, hah!” Hmmm shouted. “You knew what you were doing! You’re no better than your more Civilized, but dastardly, Race-alikes who hang around the Stock Market, and other such low places, on Cayahno!”

  “A Xxxytl!” said the Shark, savagely, focusing down on the tiny figure of Hmmm. “So you did not come alone—” He quickly changed his voice back to attempting the same more pleasant tone he had just been using with Tom. “Please understand, Xxxytl. We Sharks have a rather aggressive nature—it’s true. We admit it. But we would never have ruined your beautiful buildings if we had realized it was only to pleasure some fat galactic collectors!”

  “I don’t believe you!” chittered Hmmm. “Besides, we want our buildings back.”

  “I’m afraid,” Tom interrupted, “that getting them back may be a problem, Hmmm. Galactic-wide detective work may eventually track them down; but it will probably take some hundreds of years. However, these Sharks here can be tried; and if found guilty—which I’m sure they will be—part of their sentence can be to hunt new jewels for you from the ocean floor— For a few weeks, that is,” he added, thoughtfully. “Before all these here are executed.”

  “Wait a minute—” The tone of the Shark’s voice suddenly changed and became triumphant. “Got you! The Xxxytl would never execute anyone!”

  “What makes you think the Xxxytl will be the ones making the decision?” said Tom. “I explained—this has now become an Interstellar crime because of your trafficking with this Sector’s illegal jewel-sellers. Interstellar laws, as you probably know, are devastating— but fair. The decision will be by Interstellar Court, which as everyone knows cannot be swayed from doing justice.”

  “Oh, no!” chittered Hmmm behind Tom, as neatly as if they had rehearsed the moment. “Poor Sharks! If we Xxxytl plead for them and ask they be given mercy, won’t that save them?”

  Tom had not meant to take Hmmm in, as well, with his “I put it to you …” speeches. But since he could hardly admit that now with all these Sharks listening, he might as well make the most of the situation while he had the chance.

  “Well …” he said, slowly. “The court might instead agree to sow your oceans with invisible spy-eyes to record any illegal activity by any Shark. And you Xxxytl possibly would want to notify Sector police of any more attempts to steal your jewels …”

  “Oh, we could do that, easily!” said Hmmm.

  “Well, that might help,” said Tom. He looked severely at the Shark he had been talking to. “But you Sharks would naturally have to give up every jewel you now hold. And never attack any Xxxytl city or individual again.”

  “Yes, yes!” said the Shark. He half turned toward the Sharks behind him and lifted his voice to an astonishing volume to make it carry as far back as it could. “We’ll be glad to do all that, won’t we, Sharks?”

  All the other Sharks within the sound of the leading one’s voice, roared agreement; the roar spread back down through the ranks away and away along the shore, as those back there heard the ones in front of them roaring. The ones toward the back did not know, of course, what they were roaring approval for; but with typical Shark instinct, they were not going to be left out of whatever was going on.

  “Very well, then,” said Tom. “Back to the sea with you Sharks; and return as quickly as you can with the jewels you haven’t yet sold to your Cayahno friends. Pile them up here—and we’ll know if you hold back a single one. But bring them all and I’ll release every one of you temporarily in the custody of the Xxxytl Race.”

  The Sharks did not wait to hear any more. In a moment each group of six had turned and charged back into the surf. In less than a minute there was nothing to be seen but open sea and the empty shoreline.

  Tom turned back and got on the platform.

  “Take us back to the city,” he said to Hmmm.

  “Wait a minute!” said Lucy. “—At ‘least, until I’m aboard!”

  She finished scrambling up onto the platform herself. Hmmm lifted it off into the air and sent it swooping up toward the city. Lucy dusted her hands and looked at Torp who was staring off into the distance. It was a little thing, his not offering to help her back up onto the platform; but it was irritating, particularly after he’d been acting almost as if she hadn’t been there, all through his dialogue with the lead Shark. Of course he knew things about the Interstellar Police and things like that that she didn’t know, but it still annoyed her. If he hadn’t done such a marvelous job just now with the Sharks—

  As she looked, he suddenly collapsed in a heap on the platform.

  “Tom!” cried Lucy, diving for him.

  Chapter 19

  Tom o
pened his eyes. He was lying on some soft surface. High above him he could see an arched, jeweled ceiling of many colors.

  “What is this?” he said.

  “Oh, Tom!” said a woman, hugging and kissing him. “Tom, are you all right? You’re awake again!”

  “Is my name Tom?” he said. “Who are you?”

  “I’m Lucy, Tom!” cried the woman, and Tom, looking at her, saw that she was right. She was Lucy. He was Tom. Everything came back with a rush.

  “I made it all up …” croaked Tom.

  “Come, come,” a Xxxytl voice chittered in English, “I happen to know that most of what you told the Sharks is exactly correct. Interstellar law, though, is not that severe.”

  “Correct?” rasped Tom, blinking about him unsuccessfully to see who had just spoken.

  “There, now,” said Lucy. “It doesn’t matter. Don’t try to talk. You were magnificent. Just lie back and rest.”

  “No, really, I’m all right—just a momentary creative overload. But where am I?” he asked.

  “You’re in one of our stadiums,” the Xxxytl voice went on. Tom looked toward the other side of the bed, or whatever it was, on which he was lying. Focusing in that direction, he saw a small seahorse-like character bobbing up and down in mid-air.

  “Hmmm?” he asked.

  “You recognize me, too!” said the seahorse, fanning up a pair of miniature whirlwinds with his fins. “Yes, it’s me. And you’re here in the quarters that we had set up for you. We had to use one of our stadiums because you’re so big.”

  “But Tom,” said Lucy, “are you really all right?”

  “I’m sure I am,” he said. He tried sitting up and swung his legs over the edge of the surface he was on. He had no trouble doing it. “Yes, I’m all right,” he said.

  “You scared us all to death!” said Lucy. “What made you collapse like that?”

  “Did I collapse?” Tom looked around him. “Where are the Sharks? What happened to them?”

  “Don’t you remember?” demanded Lucy.

  Bits and pieces of memory began to come back to Tom, but they did not make a coherent shape. “I think I’m beginning to,” he said, “but help me out. What happened?”

  “Why, you stopped them and sent them back to the sea, never to attack the Xxxytl buildings again,” said Lucy. “Don’t you remember any of that?”

  “I’m afraid not,” said Tom. “It’s beginning to come back, but it’ll take a little time. You see, it was a desperate situation.”

  “Yes, indeed!” chittered Hmmm.

  “We know that,” said Lucy. “But what I don’t know is what happened to you, or what you’ve done to yourself. You were magnificent, dealing with the Sharks. But now you say you don’t remember any of it?”

  “I remember bits and pieces, as I said,” said Tom. “But they don’t quite hook up. You said I sent the Sharks back to the sea and everything is all right now?”

  “Why yes,” said Lucy. “You scared them half to death and they’re never going to attack anything Xxxytl ever again.”

  “Well, I’m glad for that,” said Tom. He felt his own forehead. It was cool. “No, I don’t think I did myself any harm—nothing permanent, anyway. But the situation called for everything I had so naturally, I went into Assassin’s Emergency Concentration State One. It’s like the mental tunnel vision you talk about. It focused my attention completely upon the problem of the moment; and with the whole of my mind concentrating like that, I was able to bring together all sorts of available information. It gave me a tremendous advantage over my normal state of mind.”

  “I should think so!” said Lucy. “All that business about your being a Reserve member of the Interstellar Police, and invisible spy eyes to watch the Sharks so that they don’t do anything illegal. But the most marvelous bit was your showing them you knew about the fact that they were selling the jeweled parts of the buildings they took back into the sea to Shark Interstellar Traders, who sold them illegally to Galactic Collectors.”

  “Did I tell them that?” asked Tom.

  “Don’t you remember these things now that I’ve mentioned them?” Lucy asked.

  “No,” said Tom. “I thought I made it all up. When you’re in Concentration One, evidently, anything is possible. I remember something about the Interstellar Police, and Assassins being Reserve members of it,” said Tom. “But that’s all.”

  “You surely didn’t make up the business about the illegal Interstellar Traders?”

  “Oh, no,” said Tom. “That was simply my hyperactive mind putting together all sorts of little bits of knowledge. One bit was something Madam Poet said about a possible connection between the Sharks of Xxxytl and the Shark traders on Cayalmo. That tied in with the Shark who talked to me saying he knew I was just a learning Assassin. He couldn’t have known that, unless he’d learned it from someone from off this world. That confirmed the fact that they were in contact with other Sector Sharks; and the mention of collectors was just an inescapable deduction from the total set of circumstances.”

  “Very good,” said Lucy.

  “I suppose so,” said Tom, “but what was that about spy-eyes—oh, I remember now. That’s the problem!”

  “Why?” asked Lucy.

  “Because neither in the briefing I got back home on Earth, nor in my Assassin’s briefing, is there any mention of uncounted numbers of spy-eyes that could keep track of every Shark in the ocean of a world this size. I must have actually made that part up—in Concentration One nothing would matter to me but getting results. Maybe I flat out lied to the Sharks.”

  “What of it?” said Lucy. “The results would have been the same in the long run. You already had them scared enough to back off. Anyway, how’s anyone to know? The Sharks can’t tell anyone but the other Sharks they’ve been trading with. And if the trader Sharks say there’s no such thing as spy-eyes, the Sharks here will think they’re just trying to talk them into risking their lives to get the trader Sharks more jewel pieces to make fortunes on. I won’t tell anyone.” They both looked at Hmmm.

  “What?” said Hmmm. “Were you saying something? I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening.”

  “You didn’t hear anything.” Lucy looked hard at him.

  “Hear? Oh, I hear very well,” said Hmmm, “but I don’t know why it is, somehow when the subject is Sharks or anything to do with them I just tune out and forget about it right away.”

  Lucy looked back at Tom.

  “See?” she said.

  “I suppose so,” said Tom. “But my conscience—”

  “Don’t be ridiculous!” said Lucy. “Haven’t our astronomy people even back on Earth already figured out before we even knew anything about the other intelligent aliens, that there are billions of billions of stars in our galaxy?”

  “Well, yes,” said Tom.

  “—And,” went on Lucy, “that some billions, or something like that, of them have to have at least one Earth-like planet circling around them? And of those billions of Earth-like worlds, some thousands of millions, anyway, have to have life on them; and at least some millions of those must have life that’s developed a technology even better than ours?”

  “I suppose,” said Tom.

  “So can you really tell me there’s nobody in the galaxy that would have the technology to produce spy-eyes like the ones you talked about?”

  “No,” said Tom. “There could be not one but lots of intelligent races capable of producing spy-eyes that could check on every individual Shark in the oceans, here on Xxxytl. But—”

  “So how does anyone know that the Sector Police in this Sector don’t know about those spy-eyes, and use them?”

  “I guess you’re right,” said Tom. “I think I’d better tell Mr. Valhinda, anyway, when we get back to Cayahno.”

  “I think he’ll laugh,” said Lucy. “But what’s this about going back to Cayahno?”

  “I’ll have to tell him, so he can tell the Sector Council about the Shark trade in jewels stolen fro
m Xxxytl. While I’m there I can talk to him and maybe get him to give us a clearer idea of what we ought to be doing.”

  “Couldn’t we just send him a message?” said Lucy. “After all, he had to send a message to Xxxytl to tell them we were coming, or else they wouldn’t have known it; and none of them, including Hmmm here, would have been ready for us when we came.”

  “Yes,” said Tom, “but I want to talk to him privately.”

  He emphasized the last word a little, looking at her meaningly.

  “Oh. Well, I think it’s a good idea, then,” said Lucy.

  “You’re not leaving right away?” chittered Hmmm. “You’ll stay for the celebration? This will be declared a world holiday and we’ll all want to commemorate your tremendous victory over the Sharks and an end to the fear of destruction of our Xxxytl civilization, with all it stands for!”

  “No,” said Tom, “I’m sorry. But we travel the slow way—by spaceship, you remember. Lucy and I will be with you in spirit while you’re celebrating.”

  “You are so good!” said Hmmm.

  “So that’s what happened,” said Tom to Mr. Valhinda some ship-days later, when they had landed at last in Cayahno and were talking privately with him. “Lucy suggested I might have simply deduced the fact that the police in our Sector here have and use something like the spy-eyes I told the Sharks about—since I was in Concentration One. But I don’t know—”

  “Oh, it’s entirely possible,” said Mr. Valhinda. “If the Sector Police had such a tool, it would be top secret, of course, and they wouldn’t be telling anyone about it. In any case, as Lucy said, the results are the important thing; and you did stop the Sharks from attacking Xxxytl cities. But you’re also quite right. This Sector will as well have a responsibility for any illegal trading of collector’s items, taking place from here to other Sectors of the galaxy. That would involve us in problems with other Sectors. This isn’t something for an open Sector Council meeting. I’ll talk to certain responsible people here first, including the Xxxytl representative and other Council Members. What’s done about the trading by the Sharks needn’t be any of your concern from now on.”