And then Farl Baak stopped talking because he saw Jason and Hop behind the woman.
"Take your hand away from the call button," Jazz said.
"Good morning, Starpilot," Baak said. "I must say, Arran, when you mess up an assignment it isn't necessary to bring the target back with you."
"Just a word of warning, Mr. Baak. I'm not very heavily armed —" not armed at all, Hop refrained from saying " — but the computer on my ship is watching us, and the full record of this conversation will be recorded in four different places. You don't pull the right strings to stop an investigation from finding you."
Baak pulled his hand away from the side of the bed he was lying on.
"The poison was rather direct," Jazz said. "And the duel was stupid."
"What duel?" Baak asked. He looked at Arran for an answer.
"Fritz Kapock," she said.
"That damned hero. And here I thought he was a honk." Baak laughed slightly. "What can I do for you, Mr. Worthing, since you're unfortunately still alive?"
Jason walked over to him, dragged him to an upright position, and slapped him three times. Blood ran from Farl's nose. Then the pilot slammed him against the wall. Farl slid down the wall to the floor.
Hop noticed that Arran seemed distressed by this turn of events, and so he took her hands and held them rather forcefully. "Don't strain any ribs trying to help your friend," Hop said. He didn't mention that he didn't know why the hell Jazz was hitting Baak right now. Was he beginning to believe his own image — tough guy and brawler? (I've created a monster.)
Arran didn't try to break away from him. She merely spat in his face. Because he was holding her hands, he couldn't wipe it away. "Jazz," he said. "I want a new contract for twenty–five percent. Twenty isn't enough for these special services."
Farl Baak was tipping his head backward to try to stop the nosebleed. "If you've broken my nose, you bastard, I'll see to it you're shredded."
Jazz laughed. "Baak, you've got a reputation as a jackass and a pervert. No need to try to maintain that reputation right now. Why did you want me killed, and who are you working for?"
"I'm a Cabinet minister, Worthing, and I don't work for anyone."
Jason took a step toward him. Farl slid away. "I meant it, Worthing. Until my last waking before this I was controlled, but I didn't know it. Now that I know it, I'm not controlled."
"By whom?" Jazz asked.
"I don't know," Farl Baak insisted, and Hop tended to believe him. "That's what I'm trying to find out. But you work for him, I know that. You're part of the plot."
"And how do you know that?"
Baak was silent.
Jason again menaced the man, but this time Baak didn't try to retreat. "If you touch me, Worthing, I'll have a civil suit on you, and criminal complaints for assault and battery, and you know I can make it stick, I'm a Cabinet minister, dammit."
Suddenly Arran spoke up. "Don't be stupid, Farl. Tell him. He doesn't give a damn about your silly office."
Farl looked at her angrily, but it was hard to take him very seriously with his nose bleeding down to his chin. "There are some things I'm willing to endure a lot of pain for, Worthing," Baak said.
Jason studied the man, then nodded. "All right, Baak. You're not what I thought you were. Not a jackass, anyway." Jazz reached for the man, and Baak flinched. But this time Jason only helped him to the bed. Baak sighed in relief, and lay down, tipping his head back to stop the bleeding. "Once my nose starts bleeding it goes off and on for a week," Farl complained.
"Baak, it was stupid to try to kill me. I'm on your side."
"And what side is that, Worthing?"
"Somebody's trying to take over the government, all right. Well, I don't like it any better than you do."
Suddenly Noyock felt lost. What the hell was going on? Jazz hadn't been on Capitol in decades, hadn't talked to anyone out of Hop's earshot since he got back, and suddenly he seemed deeply into plots and counterplots in the top levels of government.
Baak sniffed, then sputtered blood. "Dammit, why did you have to be so rough?"
"Sorry."
"It isn't a plot to take over the government, Jazz, and you know it. Somebody's already taken over. For eight hundred years or so, I'm pretty sure. Some bastard has been giving orders to the Cabinet."
Jason looked at the man intently. "Who?" he asked.
"Like I told you, my friend, I don't know. Until recently I didn't even know I was controlled. But I was. The man works through intermediaries. Blackmail, bribery, playing off old friendships and enmities —"
"You're being blackmailed?" Jazz asked.
"Hardly. Everybody knows every possible scandal about me. Actually I was controlled more subtly. Through an intermediary."
"Who?"
"Arran, of course," Farl answered.
Hop had let go of her when Jazz let Farl lie down. Now she cursed softly and walked toward the bed. "‘How can you say that, Farl, I've been with you since —"
"I didn't say you knew it, did I?" Baak waved her away. "Somebody keep the woman from interrupting. You know how it is, Jazz. You were born on Capitol. I came here from — well, it doesn't matter. Nowhere. There are certain social circles. Certain groups that dominate the lifeloops, that go to the same parties, that share all the interesting gossip. When I got to this somec level I began to think I belonged in those groups. But I was provincial, a boor. Utterly without manners. It was quite a coup when Arran let me into her life — the unlooped life — and started bringing me to parties, helping me learn what to do, what to say. For fifty wakings, now, I've listened to that group debate the great questions of the day — which is a laugh, since the great questions rarely come more than once in a century — and there was definitely an ‘in' opinion and an ‘out' opinion. I admit to you that I invariably voted with the ins. It got me a reputation for wisdom. Arran, here — she decides what the in opinion is to be."
"Ridiculous," Arran said. "I just think what I think."
"I traced it. I wish I could trace it further, but you were so obviously innocent of the plot that I didn't want to discover any —"
"Damn right I'm innocent," Arran interrupted.
"Jason, every single Cabinet minister is controlled some way or another. I didn't even discover it on my own. I was told. By a friend who shall remain nameless."
"You mean Shimon Rapth," Jazz said.
Forgetting his nose, Baak sat upright. "If you already know so damn much why did you come in and break my nose!"
"What did Rapth tell you, Farl?"
"Just what I told you. That the Cabinet is being controlled."
"And you nobly decided to try to put a stop to it by killing me."
"No, Worthing, not at all. I don't give a damn who controls the government. What I care about is who controls the somec —"
And then the conversation ended, because a half–dozen guards broke into the room, armed with lasers and ready to kill. Three of them took Jason and held him. Only one of them bothered to restrain Hop. Hop was a little offended at how little they feared him. Oh well.
"If you men worked for me," Jazz said, "I'd fire you all. He pushed the button ten minutes ago, and had to stall me this long."
Farl only set his lips and got up to get something to stanch the nosebleed. Arran also moved. She headed straight for Jason, who knew what was coming but couldn't do anything about it. She brought her knee up sharply into his groin. Jason cried out and went slack for a moment in the guard's arms. Then he pulled himself upright and she did it again, even harder. This time Hop cried out, too, and Farl said from the kitchen, where he was dampening a cloth, "That's enough, Arran." The Cabinet minister came back into the room with the cloth pressed to his nose. "Too bad you came along with Worthing on this one, Hop," he said. "We've had some pleasant dealings in the past, but this time Jazz is going to die, and I'm really not very afraid of the record on your ship, if there is one, Worthing."