For you have a gift for opening locks, and discovering hidden things.”
Giles Habibula inflated himself.
“Ah, so, Hal,” he wheezed.
“Old Giles had a spark of genius once —a precious glow of talent that has twice saved the System.
And little thanks he got for the saving of it.
Ah, once—but it’s rusted now.
It is dying.
Ah, Jay, you might better have left old Giles to his peaceful sleep on Phobos.”
His small eyes were blinking at them, swiftly.
“But we must seek the identity of this master of crime.
Have you no clue, Jay?
No precious clue at all?”
“Aye, Giles,” broke in Hal Samdu again.
“We’ve clues enough.
Or too many.
And they all tell the same story. The Basilisk is the convict, Derron.”
“Derron?” wheezed Giles Habibula.
“I’ve heard the name.”
“A captain in the Legion,” Jay Kalam told him,
“Chan Derron was convicted of the murder of Dr. Max Eleroid and suspected of the theft of a mysterious device invented as a weapon for use against the Cometeers. The model was never recovered.
Derron escaped from the prison on Ebron, two years ago.
The activities of the Basilisk began soon after.”
A green light blinked above the door.
“The orderly,” Jay Kalam said.
“We must go.
Caspar Hannas is expecting us, and we’ve only two hours.”
“Two hours!” gasped Giles Habibula.
“Jay, you speak as if we were condemned and wailing to die.”
“It’s two hours until midnight, New Moon time,” Jay Kalam explained.
“That is when this criminal has promised to appear—and we may have a chance to trap him.”
Giles Habibula squirmed uneasily.
“How do you hope to do that?”
“We are taking steps,” Jay Kalam answered.
“First, the ten cruisers of Hal’s fleet are on guard against the approach of any strange ship.
Second, within the New Moon, Gaspar Hannas has promised the full cooperation of his special police—they’ll be on duty everywhere.
Third, we will be waiting within the New Moon ourselves, with a score of Legion men in plain clothes.”
“It is this man Derron, that we must take,” grimly added Hal Samdu.
“There’s evidence enough that he’s the one we want.
Gaspar Hannas has raised the reward for him to a quarter of a million.
We’ve papered all the New Moon with his likeness.
The guards, and the players, too, will be alert.
If he comes here tonight, we’ll get him!”
“Ah, so, Hal!” wheezed Giles Habibula.
“But if all you’ve told me is true—if distance and walls mean nothing to this strange power with which the Basilisk is armed—then perhaps he can strike down the poor gambler without coming here himself.”
“Anyhow—” and Jay Kalam beckoned toward the door where the green light was blinking still—“we must go.
If he comes, we may take him.
If he doesn’t, we may still discover some clue.
Anything—”
His lean jaw set.
“Anything to tell us where he is, so that he can be destroyed.”