“Or else Aronobal is just imagining things,” I offered.
“I don’t think so,” Wandek said. “Regardless, I’m sure Bayta will be a most interesting test subject.” His blaze mottled a bit. “Who knows? If it turns out she is one of the beings controlling the Spiders, I may decide to leave Earth in someone else’s control and—what is the term? Trade something?”
“Trade up,” I supplied. “But in all honesty, I really think Bayta’s going to be a big disappointment for you.”
“We shall see.” Wandek snorted. “Now that we’ll actually have a chance to find out.”
“Oh?” I asked. Behind Wandek, Jagged Nose was still fiddling with Hchchu’s computer, and I wondered uneasily what exactly he was doing. “What’s been stopping you?”
“Not you, certainly,” Wandek said. “The fact is that pure happenstance has thwarted our every move. First, we arranged to put the two of you in separate quarters, so that she would eventually be forced to travel the hallways of Kuzyatru Station alone. But then he”—he jabbed a finger contemptuously at the unconscious Minnario—“somehow was assigned one of those same rooms. Our next thought was that you would attend the preliminary hearings alone, which would again leave her vulnerable. But again, the Nemut brought her in as a witness.”
“Lawyers are often pests on our worlds, too,” I said. Suddenly, a lot of the strange things that had been happening aboard Proteus were starting to make sense. “And the reason you killed Tech Yleli instead of just trying to clobber me was so I’d be arrested for the murder and locked up, which would again leave Bayta alone. Only she spent the night with me in the security nexus, where you couldn’t get at her without going through a whole wall of patrollers first.”
“Indeed,” Wandek said, scowling at the memories. “Still, we knew you wouldn’t be under suspicion for long, not with that msikai-dorosli tagging along wherever you went. So we maneuvered Chinzro Hchchu into assigning you to investigate Tech Yleli’s murder, knowing it would take you far across the station.”
I grimaced. “That one nearly worked, too.”
“Yes,” Wandek agreed. “We even chose to risk our investment in Ms. German and her child by making her ill, hoping Bayta would stay by her side, out in the open where we could get to her, while you carried out your investigation.” He snarled an evil-sounding Fili phrase. “Only yet again this stupid Nemut spoiled it, coming in to prepare her to testify at your trial.”
“And then Isantra Kordiss tried to take me out and failed, and you chased everyone out of the subsector with a fake evacuation drill and sent two more of your goons after me, who also failed,” I offered helpfully. “And Ms. German’s disappearance was presumably again designed to split us up, with me handling the investigation while Bayta went off hunting for her.”
“Correct,” Wandek confirmed sourly. “Only this time it was Chinzro Hchchu who intervened by restarting the trial.”
“Which again kept Bayta and me together,” I said. “You’re really not batting very well on this one, are you?”
“Perhaps,” Wandek said. “But as with all games, it’s only necessary for us to win once. And now we have.” He half turned. “Asantra Prllolim?” he invited.
“It is done,” Jagged Nose announced, tapping one final key on the computer and standing up.
“Excellent.” Wandek turned back to me. “Let me explain to you what is about to happen. In two minutes’ time my companions and I will depart, leaving the door locked. You have no comm, we have all the Nemut’s equipment, and Chinzro Hchchu’s computer and intercom are both frozen. Approximately ten minutes after that, the receptionist will return from the errand I sent her on and resume her position as guardian of Chinzro Hchchu’s office. I should mention that the office door is completely soundproof, so you won’t be able to call out to attract her attention. But you’re welcome to try.”
“Let me guess,” I said. “Eventually, she starts wondering why she hasn’t been called in to water the plants, and comes in to find Minnario and me all alone with Hchchu’s body.”
“Not at all,” Wandek said calmly. “Approximately ten minutes after she returns, the computer will send out an emergency signal, which will be received by both her and the nearby patroller office. One minute after that, to allow for their response time, the door will unlock. Then they will all enter to find you and the Nemut and the body.”
“Nice,” I complimented him. “There might be a couple of problems, though.”
“How so?” Wandek asked politely.
“First of all, the coagulation curve on Chinzro Hchchu’s blood will prove he was dead long before he supposedly sent out his distress call,” I said. A small part of me was screaming that warning him about potentially fatal errors wasn’t a particularly smart thing to do. But Wandek had such obvious contempt for Humans that I needed to let him know that, in my field of expertise at least, I was smarter than he was. “And second, it’ll be obvious to anyone with half a brain that my hands couldn’t possibly have made the wound that killed him.”
“How foolish of us to have forgotten such things,” Kordiss said sardonically.
“How foolish, indeed,” Wandek agreed. “Asantra Prllolim?”
“The coagulation curve in Chinzro Hchchu’s records has been reset,” Prllolim said. “It will now show his death to have occurred less than a minute after the emergency call is made.”
“And as to your second point, the capabilities of Human hands are not nearly as obvious to untrained Filiaelians as you might think,” Wandek continued. “Director Usantra Nstroo and the patrollers will have to turn to an expert in Human physiology to determine that.”
I felt my brief flicker of professional pride fade away. “You?”
“Who else?” Wandek said. “And I will naturally need several days of study before I can come to a conclusion. I will certainly want Logra Emikai to be standing by during that time in case you try to escape.”
“Of course,” I said, feeling my heart sink even lower. And with Minnario injured and probably needing medical attention himself, Bayta would be completely alone. Every direction I tried, every turn I made, the Shonkla-raa had already closed it off.
Maybe Wandek could see the growing despair in my face, or else he simply knew Human psychology as well as he knew our anatomy. “Please don’t assume that I’m telling you all this in order to gloat in your presence,” he said. “As I’m sure you long ago deduced, the Modhran strategy for slipping through mental defenses is to insert suggestions along lines of respect, familiarity, and trust. For us, the preferred strategy is to break down resistance through the creation of fear and hopelessness.”
He stood up and leaned over me. “Do you feel fear and hopelessness, Mr. Compton?”
“Fear is a biochemical response that can be controlled or ignored,” I said as firmly as I could. “And hopelessness is a lie and an illusion. There’s always hope.” I locked eyes with him. “Always.”
Wandek shook his head. “You Humans are remarkable beings indeed,” he said as he straightened up. “I shall look forward to having all of you under my authority. Until later, Mr. Compton.”
He started toward the door, then paused and turned around again. “One other thing,” he said. “Up to now, our plan has included only the modification of unborn Humans. But since you’ll be our guest anyway, I think it will be worth examining whether or not the same techniques will work on a fully developed Human brain.”
“Sure, why not?” I said, fighting down a surge of horror at the thought of Wandek and the other Shonkla-raa poking around inside my skull. “You might as well be efficient about this.”