Android at Arms by Andre Norton Read Free Book Online Page B

Naul might also have delivered us here. But it would be of some value to know where ‘here’ is.”
    He worked an arm out of the protective belting of his pilot’s seat and thumbed a button on the control board. Moments later the unaccented reply of the vocalizer reported atmosphere and gravity near to normal for at least two of them.
    â€œWe can survive. And we aren’t going to take off again until we know more about where our choices will land us.”
    â€œThey could all be for here—those tapes.” Andas voiced his suspicion.
    â€œIngenious.” Yolyos unlatched the protect-straps. “Worthy of a master of trade.” There was honest admiration in his voice. “If that is true, we can look forward to being collected—by someone—sometime. I would suggest we make that collection as difficult as possible. Have you noticed one thing—”
    â€œThat there are no recent ship-burns? No one has been here—for years maybe.”
    â€œBut at one time this field had been steadily visited. Yet”—Yolyos’s extended claw indicated the visa-screen—“if this was a regular port, where are the buildings? Beyond the burns, that looks like deep vegetation which has never been penetrated.”
    â€œFast growing, maybe.” But even fast-growing vegetation would have taken some years to swallow up all port buildings. In the first place, even at a small way station, the buildings were generally made of resistant-to-vegetation materials. Such a precaution was standard when they had to have buildings that could be erected with a minimum of effort on worlds differing greatly. Either the time since this port had been in use was so far in the past that the vegetation had finally conquered or there had never been any standard equipment here to begin with.
    A semi-secret landing place—only one type of ship would use that. Jacks!
    He said that and heard an answering rumble from Yolyos.
    â€œAnd”—the Salariki put the finishing touch on danger—“the Guild has been known to make common cause with the Jacks.”
    Normally the Jacks were the “peasants” of the crime confederation. They raided frontier worlds, selling the best of their loot to Guild fences. Now and then they were used by some Veep of the Guild for a project in which he needed easily discarded help.
    â€œA Veep of the Guild!” Again Yolyos’s thoughts matched his. “Turpyn” growled the Salariki.
    â€œThen he knew—about the tapes!”
    They could handle Turpyn among them. Why, Andas could take him alone probably. Somehow they must choke some information out of him. Andas got to his feet, ready to seek out the Veep and begin the job at once. His furious disappointment was chilling to that cold rage notorious in the House of Kastor.
    â€œThe tapes—” As if unconsciously, the Salariki moved between Andas and the ladder that would lead to his prey. “I am wondering about those tapes, Prince. A Veep of the Guild is a master at his craft. And I have seen Guild men who could lift a jeweled ring from a man’s thumb without his knowing it. It could be that your Inyanga tape landed somewhere else than in the autopilot—that Turpyn was able to substitute another.”
    â€œHe couldn’t have! I was watching while he did it.”
    â€œAs was I,” Yolyos agreed, “but I do not say that I can better any master in his own trade. And how many encounters with Guild experts have you had in the past, Prince?”
    â€œNone. But if he could do that—” Andas drew a deep breath. If Turpyn could so cheat while they watched him!
    All those tales about the legendary exploits of the Guild! It was said that they bought up, or took by darker means, new inventions that even the Patrol could not counter. But Turpyn had been a prisoner, possessing nothing but his garments. He could not have worked any hallucinatory