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His fear of the Devagas was due to the fact that he and an associate had provided the hierarchy with a very large quantity of contraband materials. The nature of the materials indicated the Devagas were constructing a major fortified outpost on a world either airless or with poisonous atmosphere. Pluly's associate had since been murdered. Pluly believed he was next in line to be silenced.
But how did you know where I was?" "No problem there. We knew Lyad had strings on Pluly. Quillan knew about that sealed level on Pluly's yacht and got Pluly to invite him over to admire the harem right after the Dawn City arrived. While he was admiring, he was also recording floor patterns for a subtub jump.
She gave Doctor Veetonia a quick glance. He did look very unpleasantly dead. "We'll go over to that ComWeb in a moment," she told Lyad. "I imagine you wouldn't have left it on open circuit?" Lyad shook her head. "Calls go through the ship's communication office." "Your own people on duty there?" "No. Pluly's." "Will they take your orders?" "Certainly!" "Can they listen in?" Trigger asked.
As the final outrage, she had instructed him to lug her crated cohorts, preserved like Pluly's harem ladies, into the Precol dome to care for them tenderly there and at the proper cued moment to release them for action all under the illusion that they were priceless biological specimens!
So Balmordan and a select group of his gunmen had attended Pluly's party on Pluly's yacht. They had been allowed to force their way into the sealed level and were there caught in a black-light trap. The gunmen had been killed. Balmordan had been questioned. The questioning revealed that the Devagas had found Doctor Fayle and the 112-113 unit, almost immediately after Fayle's disappearance.
"I'd like to know," Quillan said. "The Ermetyne's a lady of many interests. Now see the plump elderly man just behind her?" "The ugly one with the big head who sort of keeps blinking?" "That one. He's Belchik Pluly and " "Pluly?" Trigger interrupted. "The Pluly Lines?" "Yes. Why?" "Oh nothing really. I heard a friend of mine Pluly's got a yacht out in the Manon System. And a daughter."
When they switched off the illusion background for a look at the goings-on during the Garth stopover, she took the occasion to study her companions in more detail. There were three men at the table; Lyad and herself. Quillan sat opposite her. Belchik Pluly's unseemly person, in a black silk robe which left his plump arms bare from the elbows down, was on Quillan's right.
Being a slob suits him fine. He's just likely to be more cautious about it in future. So we'll let him go his happy way. Now let's get down to business. How does Pluly's yacht harem stack up?" A reminiscent smile spread slowly over Quillan's face. He shook his head. "Awesome, brother!" he said. "Plain awesome!" "Pick up anything useful?" "Nothing definite.
"We are, as it happens, on the Griffin, which is Belchik Pluly's outsize yacht, and which is orbiting Manon at present. This room is on a sealed level of the yacht, where Belchik's private life normally goes on undisturbed. I persuaded him two days ago to clear out this section of it for my own use.
It was trying to get into the rest cubicle vaults. Just think, it might have been sent after you!" It was rather cruel. Pluly's head jerked, and he blinked rapidly at Lyad, saying nothing. He was a badly scared little man at that moment. Trigger felt a little sorry for him, but not too sorry. Belchy's ogle had been of the straightforward, loose-lipped, drooling variety.
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