The Rings of Tantalus by Edmund Cooper Read Free Book Online Page B

task of observation?”
    Conrad met his gaze. “No, Khelad. They will be concerned with telemetry and the safety of the vessel. Also, we need to form our own impression of the world we are about to invade.”

 
     
    Phase Six
    ISRAELI LOGIC
     
    The Santa Maria had completed twenty-five orbits when Conrad decided that it was time to touch-down. During that time, he had worked the new Expendables hard. Apart from keeping watch and taking strenuous exercise in the workout chamber, then had to collate and interpret the data supplied by the magnetometric, infra-red and telephoto search systems. Deliberately and systematically, he irritated them by making them carry out tasks that could have been accomplished faster and more efficiently by the computer or even by the robots. When Uhlmann protested, he piled on the pressure, inventing useless routine checks and going through all the safety drill procedures that had been built in as conditioned reflexes in the basic training programme back on Terra.
    He did not spare himself or Lieutenant Smith or Kwango, since it was necessary to keep the others under continuous surveillance.
    At length, after poring for what seemed like endless hours over magnetometric print-out that the computer would have interpreted in minutes, Ruth Zonis, red-eyed, came to the nav deck while Conrad and Khelad were on watch.
    “May I have a private talk with you, Commander?”
    “Is it likely to take long?” Conrad glanced through the nav deck observation panel. The Santa Maria was passing over nightside. There was little to be seen with the naked eye except the faint glow of moonlight on great oceans, between the whorls of cloud formations. But the infra-red monitor showed a radically different picture.
    “I don’t think so.”
    Conrad turned to Khelad. “How about stretching your legs for five minutes, Ahmed. O.K.?”
    “O.K., Commander.” He smiled at Ruth Zonis. “I hope you are not breaking up, Ruth. It’s a tough programme the Commander has devised for us. Something tells me it may get even harder.”
    “Israelis do not break very easily,” she retorted. “You, of all people, should know that.”
    Expertly, he walked across the bond-fuzz carpeting. Khelad was proud of the fact that he was the best of the new recruits at operating in zero gravity. While the others sometimes trod too heavily on the hooked fibres and, as a result, bounced up to drift helplessly, Ahmed seemed to have the natural aptitude of the spaceman. The soles of his shoes engaged perfectly wherever he trod.
    When he had left the nav deck, Conrad said: “What is your problem, Zonis?”
    “You are working us very hard, Commander. Too hard. I have a theory that you are trying to break us—or, at least, to break one of us.”
    “Why should I do that?”
    “Because you are afraid that the team may contain a saboteur.”
    Conrad was silent for a few seconds. “Do you have any special reason for making that statement?”
    “It’s true, isn’t it?”
    “Zonis, you are answering a question with another question.”
    She shrugged. “I’m sorry. But I am not oblivious of Third World politics, Commander. I also know that you are making us carry out many needless and strenuous duties. You are driving us to the point of exhaustion. There has to be a reason. I think I know it.”
    “Assuming your hypothesis is correct, do you also know who the potential saboteur may be?”
    Ruth Zonis smiled. “I know it is not me—but. I can’t prove that to you, of course. I don’t think it is Alexei Pushkin, because you have left him in the cooler—for reasons that may or may not be valid—and he doesn’t have to take part in the obstacle race. So it has to be either Khelad or Uhlmann. It could be Lisa, but I am betting on Khelad.”
    “Ahmed has performed all his duties perfectly,” retorted Conrad. “I have no cause for complaint.”
    “He is pretty good,” conceded Zonis. “Also, he is the perfect diplomat. I have tried to