Mission: Earth Voyage of Vengeance Read online

  She put the helmet securely upon the black-haired head.

  "Sleep, sleep, pretty sleep," the Countess said into her microphone. "You will now tell me the truth, the

  whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help your Gods.

  "When did you first hear the name Wister?"

  Muffled words came in a dull monotone. "In the press. On TV when he was racing."

  "Have you ever met Wister?"

  "No."

  "Who put you up to this lawsuit business and these lies?"

  "I was hired by Dingaling, Chase and Ambo. They came to my town and said they were soliciting business and could forge papers and I would be rich if I did what they told me to do."

  "What were you?"

  "I was just a local whore."

  "Who pays you?"

  "Dingaling, Chase and Ambo."

  "Do you know anyone else connected with this forgery and swindle who is paying you or giving orders?"

  "No."

  "You will now do exactly as I tell you. You will go, first thing tomorrow morning, to Dingaling, Chase and Ambo and tell them they must let you confess to the court that this is a swindle, that you swore falsely and that they must dismiss the suits and charges they put on Wister. And you will threaten to expose them to the Bar Association if they do not, and if they do not you will in fact move Heavens and Hells to expose them. Is this understood?"

  "Yes."

  "You will forget I have been here and will not be able to recall that these are my suggestions. You will believe they are your ideas.

  "You will not awaken until you hear me snap my fingers three times."

  Rapidly, she went to Toots Switch and then to Maizie Spread and got the same answers and said the same things. The only difference was to the last one, Maizie Spread. To her she added, "You will take that blasted pillow and hold it up and say you were not pregnant and that you lied."

  Out of the corner of her eye, as she finished talking to Maizie, she saw the security guard was stirring. He was fumbling around for his gun.

  The Countess plopped the helmet on his head. "Sleep, sleep, pretty sleep. When you awake you will decide to do something about this orgy. You will tell your partners downstairs, if they ask you, that a policewoman came and talked to one of the boys about a pot bill, but you did not notice which one. You will have no recollection of what I looked like. You will not recall answering the phone. You will not awaken until I snap my fingers three times."

  She turned the hypnohelmet off and put it away.

  She looked around. She picked up the wad she had dropped on Dolores.

  She went to the outer door, opened it and looked out. Then she removed and dropped the surgical gloves in an ashtray, added the wad and touched a match to it. They went up in smoke.

  She snapped her fingers three times loudly.

  The Countess flinched with disgust as the cries of the three girls soared eagerly into the passionate snarls of the five young men. Bodies began to thud. The record started up.

  The security man stood, looked at the gathering pile of bodies on the rug.

  "Move over!" he ordered the Hispanic youth. "I got to do something about this!" And he began to unbuckle his pants.

  "I'll never understand these primitives," said the Countess Krak. "You tell them the simplest things and they still manage to get them wrong!"

  She stepped out of the apartment and closed the door behind her.

  She made her way down to the front entrance. "Any sign of the flower seller with the brass heels?" she said.

  "We're lucky so far," said the guard. "Did it all go all right?"

  "Just fine," said the Countess Krak. "I was able to put paid on it."

  She walked down the broken sidewalk and along the badly lit street. She came to a dark blot of shadow. (Bleep), I couldn't make the vehicle out!

  The sound of a door sliding. No light. The door slid shut.

  The rustle of clothes. She must be undressing. The rustle of more clothes. Was she dressing? It was all happening very fast.

  A click. On went the light.

  The cop was untied!

  She was lying there on the narrow bunk.

  Not a sign of rope or restraint.

  The policewoman had a beatific smile on her face, looking up, not even noticing the Countess Krak.

  The car started up. It got into motion.

  The cop reached out for her clothing and began to dress.

  By the time the policewoman was fully clothed, the car had stopped again.

  The woman reached out for the handle and slid the side door back and open. The lighted front of the build­ing of the Bronx Division Metropolitan Police Vice Squad was in view across the street.

  The woman was humming a little song to herself as she got out and walked toward her office.

  Krak closed the door. The vehicle began to roll.

  The Countess looked down. The Eyes and Ears of Voltar envelope was lying on the floor. The item that was Unit B was in it.

  "Bang-Bang," the Countess called. "Didn't you take the black patch?"

  "Well, no, I didn't," was Bang-Bang's reply from up front. "I don't entirely trust gadgets from the toy store."

  "And that woman from the Vice Squad followed you?"

  "Yes."

  "But what could you have said to her?"

  Bang-Bang's reply was muffled. "Nothing much."

  "Bang-Bang, have you been up to something?"

  "Me, Miss Joy?"

  Chapter 6

  Whenever the treacherously optimistic thought occurs to you that things can't get any worse, watch out!

  The next morning I slept late, recovering from the excessive drain of adrenaline precipitated by the shock of actually being spoken to by the Countess Krak.

  I was counting on being able to review the viewer by means of recorded strips. But when I rose around 1:00 P. M., I made a dreadful discovery: I was entirely out of recording strips. Unless I kept my face continually glued to the viewer, I would miss data vitally necessary to trapping this criminal in the midst of her blood-spattered deeds.

  But if this had been the only event which that after­noon and evening held for me, it would have been of little moment. However, this was not the case, as the events of that ghastly day were to prove.

  The Countess Krak had spent the night in some upper class hotel. I had no way of finding the name, as it was not marked on anything she looked at.

  She was finishing lunch in her room. The silver dishes on the white linen and their luscious contents were getting scant attention. Beside her she had open an enormous book of law and was reading two pages per forkful.

  There was a knock on her door and at her call Bang-Bang came in, hat in hand. "I've got the wheels at the back entrance," he said. "We better get along or we'll be late, Miss Joy."

  There was a flurry of wraps and, carrying the book and a briefcase, the Countess Krak left.

  Here was my chance!

  She exited through a back stairway into an alley. Broadside to her was a WHITE VAN!

  Bang-Bang had the side door slid open. She stepped inside. The van drove away.

  Aha! A white van! A commercial-type vehicle with no side windows, converted to recreation use!

  If I could get it spotted, I could advise Dingaling, Chase and Ambo and they could serve that injunction and commitment order and the Countess Krak would be in Bellevue-zip, zip-and that would be the end of her!

  For I knew a firm like Dingaling would not give up! To Hells with the clients, the case was everything!

  I called the motor vehicle department. I told them I was a Fed and wanted full particulars on a white van.

  "Make?" he said.

  I did not know.

  "License number?"

  I did not know.

  "Well, (bleep), Mister Fed, there are tens of thousands of white vans in New York. Get me more particulars next time." He hung up.

  I wasn't daunted. I would keep watch. But meanwhile I had be
tter talk with Dingaling, Chase and Ambo. I phoned.

  "They're in court," a girl in their office said.

  "You've got to contact them!" I said.

  "I'm sorry, Mac. I don't work here. I'm just a client that's suing a millionaire for not properly buttoning up my dress when he spotted me swimming bare-(bleep) two miles away at Coney Island three years ago. It's a juicy case. You want to drop over and be a witness? I may have a couple hours' wait. We can knock off a couple of (bleeps) and discuss the details."

  I hung up.

  Court!

  That would be the Superior Court, Judge Hammer Twist!

  I quickly got information and got the number. Then I got on to a switchboard which called another switchboard in the courthouse and that operator called another switchboard, and it went on and on and around and around. Very tangled. After half an hour of trying, some clerk in another department said he thought Judge Twist was in court.

  Gods, couldn't you get anywhere at all in this legal system? Not even on a phone?

  Aha! I had not run out of chances. I looked up and phoned Eagle Eye Security.

  "You guys got conned last night," I told the chief.

  "How so?" a cigar-husky voice came back.

  "The foul fiend went right in and had her will with the poor girls you had in your charge. The Dingaling clients."

  "Oh, those," he said. "My men there said they had a particularly satisfactory evening at the apartment."

  "I'll bet they did," I said. "But that is neither here nor there. The woman is still on the loose."

  "That's right," he said. "And furthermore, we get ten big ones if we nail her. Any information leading to her apprehension and commitment to Bellevue will find us very generous with you."

  "I'll keep in touch," I said.

  I turned back to the viewer.

  I went into shock!

  I had a view of the courtroom! She was amongst the spectators! Exactly where I could not tell, for all I saw was heads and the judge on his bench. Judge Hammer Twist!

  I grabbed the phone back. "She's right in the courtroom of Judge Twist! This very minute! NAIL HER!"

  He banged down the phone.

  Aha! They were on to it! Ten thousand dollars bounty money was talking!

  What was going on in the court caught my attention.

  Dolores, Toots and Maizie were seated at a table in front of the bench. Dingaling, Chase and Ambo, all three, were standing before the judge.

  "But this is very irregular," said Judge Hammer Twist. "You mean you are dismissing cases? You'll disrupt the whole legal system! The livelihood of everyone connected with the law depends utterly upon ADDING cases to the calendar, NOT taking them off! Oh, I can tell you, this is VERY irregular!" He was looking very mean, frightfully put out. "You could get disbarred for this! I'll have to hear it from the clients themselves before I will believe it! Clerk, swear in Toots Switch Wister."

  Toots was pushed forward to the stand and sworn in. She said, "Yes, it is true I wish all the previous suits against Wister dismissed. There never was a marriage. The true facts of the case are that I was a passenger on the train. He stole my clothes and sunbonnet to make his escape, but all the time he was stripping me, I lay there sobbing and pleading with him to (bleep) me and he refused. Therefore I am filing a new suit on the grounds of abandonment after unbreeching me."

  The judge gave a happy rap with his gavel. "Another suit. That's better. Step down, Miss Switch. I now want to hear from Miss Maizie Spread Wister."

  The clerk swore her in and she took the stand. She said, "All evidence previously given concerning my relations with Wister was nonfactual. I am dismissing my previous suits." She held up the pillow. "I was just wearing this in order to look pregnant when in fact I am not, as you can now see." She hoisted up her skirt and showed Twist a lot more than her flat belly.

  "Looks like an open-and-shut case to me," said Judge Twist.

  "Actually," said Maizie, "the fact that he did NOT touch me and that I am NOT pregnant is the source of my new complaint and suit. I am filing a two-billion-dollar class action suit on behalf of all the women and wives of Kansas who have NOT been (bleeped) nor impregnated by Wister. This is an assault on their natural women's rights, making them underprivileged. We assert we are being neglected by the greatest and most notorious outlaw of all time and demand punitive damages and redress of wrongs."

  "Now we're getting somewhere," said the judge. "Step down. I shall now hear Dolores Pubiano de Copula Wister."

  The clerk swore her in. The Mexican beauty took the stand, crossed her legs and pulled up her skirt. She smiled at the judge. In college English she said, "Although I am but a poor waif from a minuscule pueblo south of the border, I am depriving myself by dismissing all previous suits against Wister. I was never married to him. However, when he was on the run in Mexico, he stopped by our hacienda. I was just a child at the time, scarcely twelve. I stood there in the hot desert sun, black-haired, my skin as white as milk, gazing with rapture as he raced up one jump ahead of the rurales. His horse fell dead at my feet.

  "I said, 'Caballero, with your hair like sun and your eyes like the sky, pray take my burro as a gift so that you can fly to freedom before the onslaught of your foes.'" She hesitated, looked toward Dingaling. That worthy pointed urgently at the scraps of paper she held.

  She looked at the notes. "Oh, yes," she said, looking back at the judge. "This is the best part. Although the rurales were spraying the area with rifle fire, Wister swung down from his horse, his silver conchos flashing in the sun." She looked at her notes again, then up. "He said, 'Ah, my proud beauty, at last you are in my pos­session.' He seized me and dragged me into the shade of the cactus, lifted my skirts and (bleeped) hell out of me. Then he took my burro and rode off, and even though I jumped on his horse in pursuit, I could not catch him." Judge Twist's eyes were bright. He licked his lips. "Go on," he said.

  The girl looked at Dingaling, who pointed urgently at the notes. She read further. "So therefore, I am placing suit against Wister for the theft of my burro. But this is not the main thing. I am filing criminal charges against him of rape. I was only twelve at the time and this was many years ago, but as I was a minor the statute of limitations does not apply. Therefore I am demanding a criminal warrant be issued against Wister for RAPE OF A MINOR!"

  "Well, well," said Judge Twist, with a rap of his gavel. "I knew we would get somewhere with this case."

  A man in a three-piece suit approached the bench and whispered urgently.

  The judge rapped with his gavel. "The prosecuting attorney has reminded me that he can add statistics to his conviction records here. Therefore will all three of these plaintiff-defendants stand before the bench."

  Dingaling, Chase and Ambo had evidently had words with the judge before this court session, for they had it all worked out. They pushed the three girls before the judge.

  The judge said, "Each of you is charged with false swearing, criminal libel, perjury, etc., etc. How do you plead?"

  "Guilty," chorused Dingaling, Chase and Ambo, for their clients.

  "Found guilty as charged," said the judge. He gave a rap of his gavel. "You three are hereby sentenced to ten minutes in jail for each count, sentences to run concurrently." He looked to the prosecuting attorney who nod­ded. The judge rapped with his gavel.

  "Now," said Judge Hammer Twist, "the court will accept, of course, these new civil suits and trust that they will run on and on comfortably. However, this criminal charge presents difficulty. The rape of a minor occurred in Mexico. I will require that charges be filed there, mailed here. It will be five days at least before the court can issue the arrest warrant. Is that satisfactory to you, Dingaling?"

  "Quite," said Dingaling.

  "And to the prosecution?"

  "Quite acceptable," said the prosecuting attorney. "Remember that we have an appointment to play in the Miami Golf Classic day after tomorrow. And the day after that we have to be home to attend the Surf and S
un Handicap at the Aqueduct race track."

  "Yes, indeed," said the judge. He addressed the court. "The crime of the rape of a minor is very serious indeed, carrying with it, as it does, long prison terms up to life. But the newly passed law that also requires the offender to be sterilized must be taken into account, as sterilizing a male adult often results in his death. So therefore this court must not seem neglectful of its duties, and within five days the warrant against Wister will be issued with the serious charge, Rape of a Minor. I think we can safely waive any Grand Jury formality, as I saw early today it is an open-and-shut case. Court adjourned." He rapped his gavel and stood up. The whole courtroom stood up. The judge swept grandly to his chambers.

  The Countess Krak, amongst the spectators, was muttering with subdued rage. "Oh, the sluts! The hussies! They added to what I told them to say!"

  Ten minutes later, inside the white van, she was recounting it to Bang-Bang as they drove. "Somebody coached them!" she concluded. "Somebody is behind this!"

  "Could be that bucktoothed nut that impersonates Jet," Bang-Bang said over his shoulder through the driver-compartment door as he caromed off a truck. "Maybe he done them things."

  The Countess Krak said, "Bang-Bang, I think you've got it. But where do we find him?"

  "Legwork," said Bang-Bang. "I may not be very big but I can kick hell out of people. You leave that up to me. We'll get Jet clear of this legal tangle yet!"

  Chapter 7

  I called Eagle Eye Security. "They've left," I said. "How did you miss?"

  "We weren't set up for it," the cigar-husky voice came back. "The last place you'd look for a criminal is in the court system, unless of course you mean the judges. And the place is pretty hard to get around in. By the time my men found what room, the court was adjourned. But never mind. Dingaling, Chase and Ambo suspect hanky-panky in this case. They told me this morning they'd never had a client suddenly back out before and they really had to twist their wits to work out how to keep the suits going. They come up with this new angle, rape of a minor, and that makes everybody trying to interfere accessories and all that. They upped the head money to fifty G's if we can land that woman in Bellevue."