To Catch A Rat (You Need A Cat)
Chapter 39
XXXIX
Liz awoke in the morning to find Max sitting on the side of the bed, lost in his thoughts.
"Kyrin for your thoughts, Max."
Max smiled and leaned over to kiss Liz. "That's about all they're worth, I'm afraid, Liz. I've been thinking about this ever since last night, and I still don't have a clue who our intruders could be. I'm starting to think maybe Michael was right. We should just go in there and clean the place out, take the intruders into custody, and do whatever we need to do with them. You know, stage a sort of surprise raid."
Liz shrugged. "I guess you and Michael will have to decide that. I'll be glad to see them off the ship, though, whatever you do. I don't like them, Max. I don't even know who they are, but I don't like them. They're trespassing. Knowing that they're down there in the cargo bay… on our ship… is like… it's like having a burglar in the house. I feel violated."
Max nodded. "I'll talk to Michael… see if he still thinks that's the way to go. Maybe we can raid them and still find out who they're working for."
Max stood up and started to put his pants on, but he stopped with only one leg on. Liz noticed a funny look on his face, then Max shook his leg.
"Max, are you making fun of me? Hey, I'm sorry I put the baggie down your pants yesterday. It was just a spontaneous action, you know. There was nowhere else to get rid of it. And you seemed to deserve it… at the time."
Max shook his head then put his pants on the rest of the way. "I'm not holding anything against you, Liz… or making fun of you either. I just had a funny feeling for a moment there. It was weird."
"Yeah, you did look kind of freaked out for a moment there, Max. What were you thinking?"
Max shook his head. "It's crazy. You don't want to know."
Liz jumped up and placed herself in front of Max. "I want to know! I love you even if you are crazy, Max. Tell me."
"Gee, thanks, Liz… I think." Max pulled his pants back down and ran his hand over his legs slowly.
"They're still there, Max… the legs… and the hairs," Liz said smiling.
"Yeah…" Max nodded. "But feel this, Liz."
Liz smiled and ran her hand over Max's leg. Then she ran her hand back the other way. "If you were a girl, I'd say you really needed to shave those legs, Max. They feel rough."
"You notice it, too, huh?"
"Well… yeah, they do seem… I don't know… The hairs are just kind of… prickly… more than usual."
Max sighed and ran his hand over his leg again. "They feel like buffalo hairs… and they itch."
Max put his pants back on, stood up, zipped up the zipper and buckled his belt, then he put on his shirt, which he left hanging out.
"I'm going to talk to Michael. You want to come?"
Liz nodded, but before they could get to the door, there was a knock.
"Max! You in there?"
"It's Michael," Liz said.
"I'm here, Michael. Come on in," Max yelled back, scratching his leg and shaking it again.
Michael smiled as he walked in. "You still upset about that bag of desert dust, Max? I thought it was pretty funny myself."
"Yeah, I could tell," Max replied with a straight face.
"He's not thinking about that anymore," Liz said. "He's just got an itch."
Michael grinned. "Well, River Dog did say his people had a remedy for whatever you had, Max."
"Yeah, yeah… yuk it up, Michael. You're not the one with little trees growing out of your leg." Max rolled his pants leg up to show Michael.
"Looks like it always did to me," Michael grinned. "If it bothers you, though, Max, Liz could probably help you do a hot wax job."
Max scowled. "Michael, did you know you've got a sadistic streak?"
Liz ran her hand over Max's leg. "He's right, Max. In the light over here, your legs look normal… they even feel normal again now."
Max ran his hand over his leg then over his other leg, looked at Liz quizzically, then pulled his pants leg back down.
"Let's talk about something else besides my legs, okay? What'd you do to your face, Michael? You cut it shaving? I didn't think that was possible with the Antarian Lyyxtres Quad."
"It's nothing, Max. It wasn't the razor. I had a splinter in my chin. Maria pulled it out and it bled a little bit, so she stuck a band-aid on it. That's all."
"Maybe you need to move a little further away from your headboard when you're, uh, sleeping," Max said with a wry grin. "How'd you get a splinter in your chin anyway?"
"Damned if I know. I woke up and it was there. Looked like a frikkin' pinfeather… you know… the little stubbly stuff chickens get before their real feathers come in."
Max grinned. "A chicken, huh?"
"Don't even go there, Maxwell. At least I don't have hairy buffalo legs!" Michael smiled at the mental image that this brought to his mind. "I like it, Max! "Buffalo legs! That could be your new nickname."
"You're not brave enough, Michael."
Michael grinned. "Yeah, well… I still like it."
"Do you still think we ought to raid the casino down on level one," Max asked, changing the subject.
"I've been thinking about it. We can take them, Max. That part doesn't concern me at all. But after we take them what do we do with them… and will they talk to us and tell us who's really behind it all? Yeah… I'm game for it, Max. I say let's round 'em up now. We can worry about getting information after we put 'em out of business… permanently."
Max nodded. "Let's go do it then. We'll get the kids on the way down."
Michael looked at Max for a moment then nodded. "You mean our doubles." Max smiled.
----------
"There are only five of them in there at any one time," Jim Valenti said, pointing at the corridor that led to the large room where the casino was hidden. "They work in shifts." Jim had been watching the comings and goings in the casino all night together with his local double from this dimension.
"We could wait until they change shifts," Max said… "then take them down as they're leaving."
"That'll be four more hours," Jim said.
"Or… we could go in and take 'em down right now," Michael said. "That would be my choice anyway."
Max nodded. "You're the general, Michael. Let's do it."
Max, Michael, Jim, and their doubles walked into the corridor that led to the casino and headed for the door that was hidden in the back. They opened the door and walked in as though they belonged there, which, actually, they did.
"Welcome to the Mesaliko Sky Casino," the dapper man said, flashing his megawatt smile. "What's your game?"
"I'm afraid you're not going to like it," Max replied. "It's not one that favors the house."
The man looked puzzled. "Well… if we have it here, we want you to play it."
"Good," Michael said, nodding to Jim. Jim slapped his handcuffs on the man.
"What's this?" the man asked, seeming genuinely surprised.
"It's called a raid," Jim said. "We're closing this illegal operation down."
"Illegal?" The man's megawatt smile dimmed considerably. "I don't know anything about that. I was hired to greet guests and guide them to the games. That's all I know… That's all I do."
"Over there," Jim said to Michael. "We need to arrest the guy at the poker table and those three big types standing by the back wall."
"What are they?" Max asked.
"Muscle, I think," Jim replied.
"Okay, let's get the muscle first," Michael said. "…Make sure they don't get in the way later."
Jim handcuffed the greeter to a bar near the entrance. "We'll be back in a minute. Just sit down and make yourself comfortable." The dapper man sat down on the floor by the entrance and looked at his manacled wrist.
Max, Michael, Jim, and their local counterparts walked purposely toward the three big men standing by the wall in the back. As they approached them, one of the three men held out his hand to stop them.
"You can't go past here. The games are all in this room."
"We're not playing games," Michael said. "We had other ideas. You're under arrest… for trespassing on the private property of the Royal House and Government of Antar without its permission. You can save yourselves a lot of trouble if you come peacefully and cooperate with us."
The three men looked at each other. "I don't think so," one of them said, shoving Michael backwards suddenly. Michael was forced to take several steps backward to keep his footing, but he stayed on his feet. Before the big man knew what had hit him, Michael had brought his hand up, and a blast of energy threw the big man across the room. The man did not immediately get up from where he fell. When this happened, the other two men reached inside their coats. Michael knew what they were reaching for, but he was quicker than both of them. So were Max and their doubles. Four blasts of energy converged on the two guns, turning them instantly into hot melted slag. The two men tried once to pull the triggers, but the triggers were already melted solid, and the men were forced to drop the super-heated weapons. The local Jim Valenti grabbed one of the two men, spun him around, and cuffed him, and Jim from Antar, not having handcuffs on him, flipped the other man onto the floor on his belly and tied his hands behind him. The whole thing took less than a minute. The younger Michael had already rounded up the house poker player, who offered little resistance.
"Okay, now what we want to know is who do you work for," Michael said.
"We work for ourselves," one of the big men said defiantly.
"No you don't," Michael said confidently. "You're too stupid to be the ones running this. But I'm betting you know who does. You can talk to us now or you can go with the sheriff and talk to his men at the sheriff's office in Roswell. What's it gonna be?"
"I got nuthin' to say," the first big man said defiantly. "I got nuthin' to say to anyone."
"Suit yourself," Michael said, lifting the man up from the floor and shoving him toward the local Jim, who took him into custody along with the one who had been hit by Michael's power surge earlier and was still lying on the floor, too stunned to get up. "What were you guys guarding in this room back here?"
The first big man looked at his companion, and Michael thought that for a moment… just for a moment… he saw a flicker of panic in their eyes. The men recovered quickly, however.
"Nuthin'. We were just telling you that all the games are in here. That's all."
Michael looked at the door to the mysterious back room and smiled. "Then you won't have any objection if I check that room out." The men remained silent. Michael opened the door cautiously. The room inside was dark. Michael turned the light on and looked around. On the surface of it, everything looked okay. There was a large room and a desk… and some boxes… probably supplies needed for running the casino. Michael looked around again. It looked okay, but if he had been Spiderman, his "Spidey senses" would have been tingling all over the place. Michael walked cautiously across the floor, looking around as he moved further and further into the room. Nothing looked amiss. There was no one hiding behind the desk. There were no closets to hide in. Michael turned around and scratched his head then shrugged at Max and Jim, who were standing in the door watching. He started to walk back to the door, but on a sudden impulse, he stopped and opened the top of one of the large boxes. As he did, the box turned over, and a pudgy figure leapt out of it and darted toward the door… and straight into Jim Valenti's waiting arms.
It was hard to tell which one was more surprised…
"Jim!"
"Judge?"
For a moment, there was total silence, as both men gathered their wits. Jim was the first to speak.
"What in blazes are you doing here, Judge? I thought you were steering clear of trouble now… I thought you'd learned your lesson. You've still got a lot to answer for from before. You're not even off the hook for that and now we find you hiding in here… trespassing… running an illegal casino… and who knows what else!"
"I was just looking around, Jim. I just wanted to see what was up here. You startled me, and I… I hid. I was afraid you might be one of those mob-types out there. I didn't have anything to do with anything that might be illegal… whatever might be going on."
Jim groaned. "Judge, there's probably a total of maybe 121 IQ points between you and all three of those 'muscle-bags' out there, … and 120 of them are yours. Those guys out there couldn't pee straight if someone wasn't there to tell them how to aim. There are rocks on Antar with higher IQ's than those guys have! They couldn't run this place. I'm not buying your 'totally innocent' routine. What are you up to?"
"I told you… nothing, Jim. If you don't want to believe me, then fine. You can't prove anything."
Max motioned to Jim. "Jim, do you think Amy would be willing to 'interrogate' him for us?"
Jim smiled, and Judge Lewis turned pale then began to shake.
"I think she would," Jim said. "In fact, I think she might enjoy it." He pushed the Judge toward the door, but Judge Lewis dug his heels in.
"You can't do this, Jim. It's cruel and unusual. It's… sadistic."
"You're on a sovereign ship of the Royal House of Antar, Judge. You're not in your own back yard anymore. American laws won't protect you here. But then you don't seem to pay much attention to them anyway, do you?"
"This ship is on American soil, Jim."
"Actually, it's not," Max said. "It's about twelve hundred feet above it."
"And you wouldn't believe what the Antarians can do to you," Jim added. "Let's go, Judge."
"Wait! Wait… You're not going to torture me are you?"
"Not me," Jim said. "That's the royal torturer's job."
Judge Lewis closed his eyes and swallowed. "I'll talk. Just don't let her know I'm here."
"Her?" Jim asked.
"Your wife… Amy DeLuca… Valenti. Don't let her near me again."
"What about the royal torturer?"
Judge Lewis frowned but somehow managed to eke out a touch of sarcasm… "I thought they might be one and the same."
"They are," Jim said. Judge Lewis glanced at Jim for a moment, and the look in his eyes suggested that he did not discount that possibility at all.
"I'll tell you whatever you want to know, Jim. Just don't hurt me. I don't suppose you'd be willing to… let me go afterward… would you?"
Jim shook his head. Judge Lewis winced but it was the answer he had expected.
"Talk, Judge, or face Amy," Jim said, seeming to enjoy himself a bit more than he probably should.
Judge Lewis shook his head. "I'm not the one behind this, Jim. I'm just supposed to keep it running."
"For who?" Michael asked. "Who's behind it?"
"General Hawkins… and General Hawthorn."
Max and Michael both looked at each other in surprise.
"Why?" Max from Antar asked. "Why would they want to run a small-time casino… on our ship? They're still wanted by the army for desertion. This casino can't be making that much money… and the danger level for them has to be very high. What do they expect to get from it?"
"I don't know." Judge Lewis shook his head again. "They just said that they needed to be exonerated… in order to get back in the army's good graces. They said if I played along with them, they could restore my power once they were back in power themselves."
Michael nodded. "And how would this exonerate them, Judge?"
Judge Lewis shook his head and shrugged. "I don't know. I asked the same thing. Every time I ask something they don't want to answer, they just throw a little more cash down on my desk. I know when to shut up."
"I'll bet you do," Max said sarcastically.
Michael looked troubled. "Max… we both know that this casino can't possibly get them their reputation or their former positions back. And it won't make them rich either. It might allow them to live higher for a while, but that's not what they want. They want something that's more important to them. What is it?"
Max shook his head. He thought about it for several moments then closed his eyes in frustration. Then, suddenly, it dawned on him…
"This is all a diversion, Michael! This whole casino was merely a diversion from the start! It was reopened to distract us… keep us looking around down here while something else is happening somewhere else. We fell for it!"
Michael's face became pale then, moments later, flushed with anger.
"What do they want on our ship, Judge?"
"I… I don't know! Honest I don't! They don't tell me those things."
Michael glared at Judge Lewis, and the judge cringed and swallowed. "Hawkins might have said something about proving that you guys were dangerous… and doing something big that everyone would blame on you."
Michael grabbed Judge Lewis by the collar, almost lifting him off the floor. "What else?"
"I don't know! Well… Hawthorn might have said something about them becoming heroes for uncovering the real plot against earth… or something like that… and they might have mentioned looking for alien weapons on your ship… that they could use… so you would get the blame… and then they would be exonerated for using the tactics they used on the Mesaliko Reservation to try to find the aliens."
"I thought you said they never tell you anything."
"They don't. But that doesn't mean I don't… uh… hear things. I keep my ears open."
"Knowledge is power, huh, Judge?" Max shook his head. "Michael, where would they go on our ship to find something that could be dangerous to people on a massive scale?"
Michael shrugged. "We don't carry weapons. But some of our systems could be used as weapons… if someone knew how." Michael paused a moment and his eyes grew wide… "Varec's lab! Varec is always working on different things. Not weapons… but some of them could be used as weapons by a determined person with a little ingenuity. And to the general population, some of Varec's inventions might seem to be phenomenal weapons if they were used… on the people on earth."
"Would those two hurt Varec… to get what they wanted," Max asked.
Judge Lewis looked away. "What do you think?"
Max and Michael and their younger doubles raced from the room, leaving Judge Lewis and the other prisoners in Jim Valenti's hands. Jim rounded them all up, with help from his double from Antar, and locked them all in another room in the cargo bay together, one they could not escape from. Then Jim and his double headed quickly for Varec's lab to assist the others.
Max raced headlong into Varec's lab. It didn't occur to him, in his state of concern for Varec's safety, that rushing right in might be a little reckless, and Michael didn't have time to stop him. But it was done. Michael walked in behind Max, quickly but somewhat more cautiously. Varec was sitting at his worktable, and he looked up as Max and Michael came in followed closely by their doubles then by the two Jims.
Varec lifted a protective covering from over his eyes and smiled. "You must be looking for those two over there." He pointed to the other side of the lab. Everyone turned to look. General Hawthorn and General Hawkins were standing against the wall, terrified. Ten feet in front of them sat a very, very, very large cat. The cat turned its head calmly and looked at the ones who had just come in.
"Jung-Jo!" Jim of Antar shouted in sheer glee and amazement.
The cat actually seemed to smile at Jim through the two-foot-long tusks that protruded from the front of its mouth. It narrowed its eyes in a satisfied cat way and sounded like it was purring. Jim rushed to the Antarian pawgor, a distant relative of saber-tooth tigers that stood over five feet high at the shoulders and even higher to the top of the head, and threw his arms around the huge cat's neck. As the local Jim from earth watched in utter dumbfounded amazement, the pawgor purred and licked the Antarian Jim's face with a tongue that looked like it was large enough to wrap oneself up in… with a good amount left over.
Jim smiled. "How in Heaven's name did you get Jung-Jo here, Varec?"
"Varec can bring things to him from across the galaxy, Jim… remember?" Max reminded him.
"I'm getting pretty good, too," Varec said, without a trace of modesty. "I had to bring him across seven galaxies and countless dimensions to get him here this time. I've never done that before!"
Max looked at the terrified generals standing against the wall. "I guess he gave them a pretty good scare."
Varec smiled. "They walked in unannounced and tried to take over my lab with some primitive weapons that appear to use a kind of exploding powder to propel a little piece of metal. The weapons are not unlike the ones we confronted in the mountains on earth before."
Max looked at Varec's desk. He had taken the guns apart, piece by piece, carefully laying each piece out and numbering and labeling it. Even the bullets had been disassembled into casings, lead tips, and little piles of gunpowder.
"They overpowered me," Varec said ruefully. "But I concentrated, and a couple of minutes later, I had a fine ally." He motioned toward the pawgor. "The pawgor surprised them."
"I can imagine," Max said with a grin.
At that moment, Liz and Maria, their doubles from earth, and Amy, the younger Jim's wife, came running into the lab, having learned that something was going on there.
Liz and Maria of Antar saw Jung-Jo, and their mouths dropped open then turned into huge smiles. The faces of the younger Liz, Maria, and Amy, who had never seen a pawgor before, may have looked a bit different.
"What… what is that," Amy asked her new husband quietly. It was uncertain whether she was being discreetly quiet or whether that was all the voice she could muster at the moment. But to the credit of all the girls, not one of them turned and ran. If generals Hawkins and Hawthorn had had that option… well, it was too late now.
The younger Jim stepped over beside Amy protectively. "He called it a 'jungjo.' It looks like a saber-tooth tiger to me, though."
"Jung-Jo's his name," Jim of Antar said. He's a pawgor."
"He's got a name?" the local Jim asked, amazed.
"He's just a big puddy tat," Jim from Antar said, caressing the purring animal. "Come here and pet him. He won't hurt you."
The local Jim stepped forward cautiously, and Amy stepped forward with him, holding onto her husband's arm.
"You can pet him. He likes to be stroked," Jim of Antar said.
The local Jim reached out and ran his hand over the pawgor's head and down its back. The cat purred and looked contented. Unable to resist, Amy stroked the huge cat, too.
"He likes you," Jim of Antar said. "He's contented. See the look on his face?"
"Has he eaten yet… today," the younger Maria asked, watching from behind her Michael.
"Why don't you make friends with him," Jim said. Maria's eyes appeared to open wider than saucers, but she stepped forward and cautiously touched the large cat on top of the head…
"Nice, n-n-nice kitty. I'm your friend. Don't eat me, okay?"
The younger Michael smiled then stroked the huge cat, too, followed by Max and Liz. Isabel, who had come in with Alex moments after the others, reached out and stroked the cat then took Alex's hand and put it on the cat's head with hers. Their doubles, Isabel and Alex of Antar, watched with smiles on their faces as the younger local gang became acquainted with the amazing pawgor that they all had come to know so well.
Apparently finding a bit of ill-advised courage after seeing everyone else touching the pawgor without any harm coming to them, General Hawthorn reached one hand out cautiously toward the huge cat. The pawgor instantly turned its head toward the general with its huge mouth wide open and let out a deafening bellow that could only be described as part ear-splitting roar, part terrifying shriek. The sound seemed to echo throughout the ship for the longest time before fading. When the cat screamed, the general had immediately jerked his hand back and turned ghostly white. Beside him, Hawkins, who was almost colorless, looked at the floor and moved his right foot carefully away from his companion's feet. "Great," he said in a shaky voice. "Judge Lewis, and now you."
tbc
Coming up: Though the casino is gone and generals Hawkins and Hawthorn, along with Judge Lewis, are turned over to the authorities, finally and permanently ending their quests for power… and their freedom… there is one other uninvited "guest" onboard the New Granolith. But this one is different… very different… and not so easy to catch. In fact, they don't even know he's there. And other problems face the "alien" gang and their friends, too. Will earth be a place where the younger doubles can go back to living in peace with their families… or has that possibility ended forever? And can they live with the consequences of being who they are and everyone knowing who they are? Some decisions will have to be made.