Man Who Used the Universe by Alan Dean Foster Read Free Book Online

makes it equal." She waved the tip of a dopestick at him. "So you shouldn't mind dying now."
    "Why kill me?" he asked her. "My argument was with Lal, not any of you."
    "You're dangerous," said a slim younger man from the far side of the oval table they were seated around. "You managed to kill Gregor and Vascolin. You slaughtered at least a dozen other people, including a number of legals who had the misfortune to be attending Lal's soiree.
    "In addition, there are at least two dozen others scattered through the city hospitals suffering from severe pollution poisoning." He shook his head. "Reckless, crazy. Why'd you do it? Why couldn't you have stuck just to killing Lal?"
    "Couldn't see another clear way to do it," Loo-Macklin explained. Couldn't they see that, he wondered? Probably not. None of them looked especially imaginative. "He covered himself too well when he was alone. He only let his guard down slightly when he was in a crowd, in his own home. Besides, I had time against me. Not much time to plan. I had to move before his people got to me."
    The other man nodded. "Revenge isn't a logical emotion."
    Loo-Macklin turned blue eyes on the speaker. They were still only half-open, giving him that perpetually sleepy look. "Who said anything about emotion?"
    His casualness didn't relax any of them. In the past forty-eight hours, the muscular young man standing placidly before them had calmly and deliberately caused the deaths of fourteen citizens to get at the one individual who'd wronged him. They were not about to slumber in his presence.
    "He could be useful," said Amoleen. The man next to her shook his head doubtfully.
    "Too wild. Too unpredictable."
    "On the contrary," Loo-Macklin corrected him, "I'm the most predictable person in this room, if you know me." His gaze passed over them. "Of course, none of you have taken the time to get to know me. Neither did Lal."
    "And it looks like we're not going to take the time to get to know you, either," said Amoleen unpleasantly. She grinned at her three associates through bejeweled teeth. "We'll work that out between ourselves, as we'll handle the separation of power. You won't be around to see it.
    "You've rid us of Lal, for which we're mildly grateful. He was an average boss, no dumber than most, more generous than some. Knew his business, didn't get greedy like some and try stepping over the proscribed boundaries between the legal and the illegal. Especially the legal. He was a good diplomat, was Hyram. Knew how to deal with the legals."
    Music boomed from the direction of the club as Loo-Macklin smiled at her. "Hyram Lal was a pig."
    The woman tapped her fingers on the polished simulated wood-grain table. "You're entitled to your opinion. That's about all you're still entitled to. Tell me. If Lal was a pig, and we followed him willingly, what does that make us?"
    "Piglets," he told her unhesitatingly.
    She nodded as though this comment was no more than what she'd expected from a young fool, turned to regard her colleagues. "I fear Basright is correct."
    The older man looked appeased at having his opinion of Loo-Macklin confirmed.
    "See, there is no concern for his own safety, no instinct to survive. A person too unstable to protect himself is obviously not stable enough to entrust with anyone else's concerns."
    "I'm the stablest person in this room," Loo-Macklin told her. "Also the only truthful one."
    "I'm sure," said the slim younger man seated next to the pinched-faced Basright. His name was Nubra and he had an exaggerated opinion of himself. "I appreciate your name-calling. Naturally we have to kill you for reasons other than personal, and now you've given us those as well. Very convenient."
    "I'm glad you're pleased," said Loo-Macklin, "but you'll find it anything but convenient for you all if you have me killed."
    "And why is that?" asked Nubra.
    "Because if you vape me, every one of you will be broke within the week."
    That pronouncement was just unexpected and absurd