Stranglers' Moon

Book 149: Gateway Essentials

by E.E. 'Doc' Smith, Stephen Goldin, Stephen Goldin

Genres: Science Fiction; Sci-fi Action & Adventure; Space Opera

Synopsis

Gone from the galaxy... A startling discovery has shaken Earth's galactic Empire: more than two hundred and fifty thousand people have vanished from the resort moon, Vesa, without a trace! Called to duty, SOTE's most daring secret agents, Jules and Yvette D'Alembert - the former aerialists from the triple-gravity planet Des Plaines, possessed of lightning-reflexes and super-strength - are faced with a lethal and baffling conspiracy. Together the D'Alemberts have conquered many of the Empire's most dangerous foes, but now the mighty pair must divide forces - each to challenge a deadly evil terror alone! Stranglers' Moon is the second book in the "Family D'Alembert" series.

Release date: September 29, 2011

Publisher: Gateway

Print pages: 159

Sample

The Golden Crater Casino was unquestionably among the largest and plushest gaming palaces in the Galaxy. Its reputation for the exotic and the exciting was fully earned, as but the briefest of walks down its crowded corridors and across its even more crowded rooms would reveal. People were jammed elbow-to-elbow in some places in their fanatical attempts to lose money to the House. Women in abbreviated costumes roamed the floor, ostensibly employed as photographers, waitresses and the like – though it was common knowledge that a fifty ruble bill would procure other services from them as well.

The great and the near-great mingled at the tables, amid throngs of those who were merely wealthy but had aspirations toward greatness. Here a sensable star brushed against a countess; there a corporation president bumped into a famous news commentator. Rank and social distinction were of little importance in the casino; the only questions of interest were how well could a person gamble and was luck on his side today?

Yet even as notorious and plush as it was, the Golden Crater was considered merely routine on Vesa, the moon that billed itself as the ‘Playground to the Galaxy’ – and which cynics called a variety of other names.

Nils Bjenden, a banker from the planet Lindstrom, stood to one side of a doorway looking with distaste across the crowded room. This chamber was so jammed with people that he had difficulty seeing the other side. The ceiling arched high above his head, and on it was projected a kaleidoscopic light show that continually changed colors with the changing noise level in the room. But he had not come here to look at the ceiling, he had come to gamble – and the mob on the floor was packed so densely that he could not see so much as a single gaming table.

‘I told you we should have gotten here earlier,’ he said to his wife Karen, who stood beside him and looked as bewildered as he felt. Nils found he had to yell to be heard above the room’s din, even though his wife was only centimeters away. ‘But you wanted to stop and eat first. We should have left when I wanted to.’

‘I didn’t know it would be this crowded,’ she apologized.

A stranger who’d been standing behind them came to the woman’s rescue. ‘Don’t blame her, gospodin. The Golden Crater is like this around the clock. Vesa is “the moon that never sleeps”, you know; these casinos are ample proof of that.’

Nils grunted noncommittally and would have walked away, but Karen struck up a conversation with the man who’d saved her from a tongue-lashing. ‘You seem to know a lot about it. Do you live here on Vesa?’

The stranger laughed. He was a tall, thin man with brooding eyes and a dark complexion. His clothing was almost as conservative as Nils’, comprising a lightweight brown jacket and flared pants, a stiff white shirt and a gold sash tied about his waist. ‘No, gospozha, I don’t think I’d care to. It’s all too hectic, too busy; I’d go crazy in two weeks. I do travel a lot, though, and I come here fairly often – every couple of months, at least.’

‘This is our first time,’ Karen gushed. ‘I’ve been wanting to come for years and years – it’s not as if we couldn’t afford it. But Nils – my husband – is a banker, and he’s always busy with one deal after another. You’d think the entire planet would fall apart without him there to look after it. I finally had to put my foot down and tell him that we were going to Vesa now or else.’

‘Hmpf,’ snorted her husband as he craned his neck to look over the throng of gamblers on the floor. ‘Some vacation it’s been too. I haven’t had a moment to relax since we got here. There’s always people, people, people. What did you say your name was again?’

‘Lessin,’ the stranger replied. ‘And if you think it’s crowded here you should see what it’s like down on Chandakha.’

It took a moment for Karen to realize what he was talking about. The moon Vesa was so famous that many people forgot there was a planet it circled. ‘Oh yes, I remember reading something about it on our trip out here. They’ve got an overpopulation problem, haven’t they?’

‘That’s putting it mildly.’ Lessin closed his eyes and shuddered, as though recalling some personal nightmare. ‘Things are so bad down there that the people are little more than animals sometimes.’

His tone made Karen shiver. ‘Then I’m just as glad I’m up here, among civilized people.’

‘I’m not,’ Nils grumbled. ‘I should never have left Lindstrom, not with that big deal about to go through. I don’t like the thought of having; to fight my way through that mob just to get near a table and do a little gambling.’

‘I quite agree,’ Lessin said amiably. ‘I much prefer the private clubs myself. If I hadn’t promised to meet a friend here, I’d be at one of them right now.’

‘I didn’t know there were any private clubs,’ Karen said.

‘Well, they certainly don’t advertise – that’s how they manage to stay private. They like to avoid crowd scenes like this one here.’

‘What are these private clubs like?’ Nils asked.

‘They’re much smaller, more intimate places. Couple dozen people at most, and the atmosphere is more relaxed. The stakes can vary from moderate to high, depending on where you go, of course.’

‘Would there be any chance of our going to one of those places?’ Nils asked. ‘There sure as hell isn’t going to be any action for us around here.’

The stranger hesitated. ‘Well, they are for members only …’

‘You’re a member, aren’t you?’

‘Nils! You have no right to impose on this man,’ Karen complained.

‘Oh, I don’t mind. I was about to continue that the clubs are for members and their guests. I was going to be taking my friend to one, but’ – he looked at his ringwatch – ‘he’s more than half an hour late right now. If I know him he’s probably picked up one of the floorgirls and has forgotten all about me. I hate going places by myself. In fact, I had just about decided to invite you two nice people to come along with me.’

‘Yes, that’s more the spirit,’ Nils said, rubbing his hands with gusto. It was obvious he preferred the thought of a quiet, dignified evening of gentlemanly gambling to the raucous atmosphere of the Golden Crater.

‘It sounds lovely,’ Karen added.

‘Fine, then it’s all settled. Just give me a moment to get my cape from the checkroom and I’ll be right back with you.’ Lessin smiled at them and moved off quickly toward one side of the chamber.

‘We were lucky to meet him,’ Karen whispered to her husband. Her low voice was just barely audible above the noise of the casino. ‘He certainly seems to know what he’s about.’

‘Very good sort,’ Nils agreed.

Their new-found friend was back three minutes later, a full-length brown zabriskan fur cape draped elegantly over his tall, handsome frame. ‘Shall we be off?’ he suggested.

As they left the casino and the door shut behind them, the drop in noise level was an immense relief. They faced one of the broad traffic corridors that carried the bulk of Vesa’s public transportation. Being an airless satellite, all life on Vesa existed underground in the vast hollowed-out chambers and tunnels that honeycombed the moon. This tunnel was one of the major arteries and dozens of electric vehicles went past them each minute.

‘Thank goodness,’ Karen said in the comparative quiet of the corridor. ‘I thought I’d burst an eardrum in there.’

‘It’s not too long a ride to the club,’ Lessin said. ‘Let me see if I can flag down a jit.’ He stood on the curb and waved at a likely looking vehicle.

A large shuttle lumbered in their direction. This was one of the buses, or ‘jits’, that were the universal method of transportation on Vesa. Jits were privately owned and operated, acting as combinations of cabs and buses; they could pick up passengers at will and take them anywhere on Vesa, without regard to fixed schedules. Tiny computers built into the driver’s controls calculated the fare from the point of pick-up to the destination.

This jit was obviously an old one, judging from all the paint peeling off its six meter length. The glass in four of its windows had large cracks. As it pulled to a stop beside them, the group on the curb could see the vehicle’s occupants – half a dozen seedy-looking men wearing dirty clothes. Most of them were in need of a shave. They leered out the windows at the well-dressed trio.

Lessin waved the jit away. That’s a problem you’d better be warned about if this is your first trip here,’ he explained. ‘Very few people have private cars; nearly everybody uses the jits because they allow for more flexibility in the traffic patterns. But there’s a certain outlaw element that takes advantage of that. They’d think nothing of picking up newcomers like you, beating you up and robbing you. Hardly a week goes by without some story in the newsrolls about some tourist getting mugged on a pirate jit.’

‘Oh dear,’ said Karen.

‘I have heard about them,’ Nils said slowly. That’s why I carry a small stunner in my pocket at all times.’

‘A wise precaution,’ Lessin nodded. ‘However, sometimes a little prudence in one’s choice of transportation can eliminate the need for that. Ah, there’s a more likely candidate.’ He waved at another jit that was coming down the street.

This one proved to be much more acceptable to all of them. Not only was it new and clean, but the six passengers already aboard were far more respectable types who paid no notice to the new arrivals. Lessin insisted on paying the fares for all three of them as he gave the driver an address. ‘It’ll only be a few minutes’ drive,’ he told the Bjendens. ‘Just relax.’

The couple from Lindstrom did so. There was little scenery to watch in these tunnels, but the shuttle’s novelty intrigued them. Since it did not go faster than thirty kilometers an hour – and since the climate was perfectly controlled within these corridors – the jit was an open air conveyance with no roof. The slight breeze was deliciously cool as they drove along.

Two minutes later, the jit entered a solitary tunnel slightly darker than the main passageways. Lessin looked up and suddenly an expression of horror crossed his face. ‘Oh no!’ he exclaimed.

‘What’s the problem?’ Nils demanded.

‘The ceiling’s going to cave in! There’s a crack in the roof right up there. See?’ Both Nils and Karen craned their necks to see where the stranger was pointing.

At that precise moment, the other six men on the jit exploded into action. Two of them grabbed the Bjendens’ feet, holding them tightly together so that they could not run. Two more grabbed their arms, pinning them to the sides to prevent struggling. The remaining two whipped yellow scarves off from around their necks and, in one lightning-fast gesture, twisted them around the throats of the married couple. The upward-tilted necks were well exposed – an easy target.

The two tourists were taken so much by surprise that they had no opportunity to struggle, even if the men holding their bodies had allowed such a thing. Their eyes bugged out of their sockets as the scarves tightened around their throats, squeezing shut the windpipes and cutting off their air supply. The only sound was the faintest gurgling as Nils and Karen fought vainly to breathe.

The last sight either of them ever saw was Lessin’s imperturbable face staring at them with neither pity nor regret in his eyes.

When both were quite dead, Lessin – as leader of the stranglers – had the duty of combing their bodies for loot. He did this efficiently and, within a minute, both bodies had yielded all that they had of value – wallets, jewelry and keys to a hotel room where more of their goods would be stored.

The shuttle driver’s timing was impeccable – just as the leader finished his search, the jit pulled up to a large white building. Driving into a private accessway, the driver tooted his horn sharply twice, and a side door opened. Four men dressed in white coveralls emerged from the building and boarded the jit. They looked down at the two dead bodies and, without comment, lifted them up and carried them back outside. Lessin gave them a curt nod as they disappeared inside the building with their burdens and the door slid shut once more.

As the jit backed out onto the main thoroughfare again, the leader of the strangler band sat down in a seat behind the driver. The Bjendens’ hotel keys jingled idly in his hand. Tomorrow, after their rooms had been thoroughly picked over, the Bjendens would be ‘checked out’ of their hotel and would simply vanish from the face of the Universe, as many thousands had done before them. Very simple, very routine.

Lessin gave an involuntary yawn. The banker and his wife brought his daily total to six. He decided to see whether he could bring that number up to eight before calling it quits. Stifling a second yawn, he told the driver to head back to the Golden Crater; the pickings there seemed exceptionally good today.

The man known as Garst was fuming silently as he strode down the marble-floored hallway. He made no effort to quiet the clacking sound his boots made with each impatient step he took; he was angry, and he wanted his anger to show.

Her timing is lousy, he griped silently. Just when I finally had a chance to talk with the emissary of the Countess von Sternberg. It would have been my big opportunity to break out of my dependence on one little moon, a chance to reach for bigger things.

But maybe that was precisely why she had called him. Maybe she didn’t want him branching out beyond her grasp. Marchioness Gindri was a very possessive person, and the thought that her own personal lackey might have ambitions to something higher than her would be a very deep sting. But I’d tried so hard to keep this meeting secret.

He stopped as he came to the giant doors that marked the entrance to her boudoir. These doors stood nearly three meters high, and were elaborately carved out of solid whitewood and gilded in ornate designs. The knobs were solid gold, sculpted in the shape of miniature birds flying with wings outstretched. The doors were meant to impress the visitor, but Garst had been here too many times before and they seemed just like doors to him.

He paused outside the portals to catch his breath and curb his temper. Maybe her summoning him now was just a coincidence. She’d called for him before at odd times, this could be just another one. She was, after all, none too bright; it would do him no good to allow his guilty conscience – or what passed for a conscience in him – to ascribe to her a cunning she did not possess. Probably the biddy was just suffering from another of her incessant loneliness jags and needed his services.

Garst shuddered. That was perhaps the most distasteful aspect of his entire operation – making love to her gross, overindulged body. Someday, he was afraid, his sensibilities would overcome his logical mind.

He sighed. The truth of the matter was that he needed her to make his strangling operation work. The Marchioness controlled the entire moon, at least nominally. It was she who gave orders to the police force, the hotel employees and the casinos. True, he was the one telling her what orders to give, but without her authority and her title to back up those orders, he was lost.

Once again, the delightful thought of killing her flashed through his mind. Many were the times he had fantasized the simple act of reaching his hands out to surround her fat, multi-chinned neck and squeeze the life out of her. But, though the personal satisfaction that act would give him would be enormous, the consequences would be disastrous. Gindri had no direct heirs to inherit her title, and at her death Vesa would revert back to the Throne, allowing the Emperor to choose whomever he wished as the new Marquis. Knowing Stanley Ten’s reputation for incorruptibility, the appointee would be someone Garst would never get a hold over.

He sighed again. His success lay in keeping Gindri. . .