Night of Light

He had only one doubt. What if things were not going to be as bad as Tand and so many others thought? Yess, a being superior to ordinary mortals, might know much more than they.

Tand let him off at the hotel entrance. Three Kareenans in civilian clothes hastened to the car to escort Carmody. Tand said,”I’ll send a car around to pick you up tonight. I’ll meet you outside Yess’ quarters in the Temple and brief you before you have your audience.”

Carmody thanked him and returned to his room, now on the fourteenth floor. Tand’s men stationed themselves in the hallway. He phoned Gilson’s room but got no reply. He called the desk clerk and asked if Gilson had left any message for him. The clerk replied that Mr. Gilson had not checked in since he left last night.

Carmody was worried. After making several calls and being unable to get into touch with Tand, he asked to speak to the largh, the lieutenant, in charge of the police who had previously guarded him. These had been ordered to other duties. But a largh had been detailed to continue the investigation.

Largh Piinal was in the lobby. He came up immediately, however, to talk to Carmody in his room. Piinal was a young Kareenan, very tall, thin, and solemn.

“You suspect foul play?” he said.

“There’s a chance of it,” Carmody said. He had not told Piinal all about the previous night’s incident. His story was that Gilson had located Lieftin at Tiiwit’s tavern. Carmody had come after being phoned and had watched Lieftin for a while. He did not mention his suspicions about Abog. Gilson had then followed Lieftin from the tavern, but Carmody had been unable to go with him. He had been due at the hotel to answer a call from Tand. He did not mention the incident with the policeman in the alley, either.

“I can try to put some men on the case,” Piinal said. “But you must understand that the festival strains our capacities. Also, that the streets are filled with masked people the clock around. People dance and drink and make love until they drop, then sleep a few hours and continue. So, it will be very difficult to identify anybody, even an Earthman.”

“I understand,” the priest replied. “I think I should make the search myself. I might recognize Gilson’s walk and gestures even when he has a mask on.”

“I have orders to secure your safety,” the largh said. “I can’t do that if you’re out in the crowd. I’m sorry, Father, but that’s the way it has to be.”

“The Father Tand has given me three men to watch over me,” Carmody said.

“I apologize, Father, but you can’t go out now. Father Tand’s men can guard you, but I have authority over them.”

The phone rang, Piinal, closer to it, answered. A policeman’s face appeared. He said, “Windru reporting, sir. It’s about the Earthman, Gilson. He’s been found; he’s dead. In an alley near the Thrudhu Block. About ten minutes ago. Stabbed twice in the back and his throat cut.”

Carmody groaned, and he said,”Windru, has positive identification been made?”

Windru looked at his superior, and the largh said, “It’s all right. Speak.”

“Yes, Father. His papers were in his beltbag. His prints and photo checked.”

Piinal excused himself, saying that he had to make arrangements to deliver the body. Apparently, the ETS had an agreement with the Kareenan authorities to ship any of their dead agents back to Earth for burial. Carmody thought that Piinal was eager to use this as an excuse to keep from talking to him.

Angry, he put in another call to Tand, only to be told that he could not be reached. He began pacing back and forth across the room. It was very frustrating to have to remain closeted up; he wanted to do something.

He was certain that Lieftin was co

Carmody became furious enough to curse the group of Earthmen, his own religionists, who had hired Lieftin. How strange that the disciples of Algul and the disciples of Christ had banded together!

The door-knocker clanged, muffled by the thick iron. Carmody shot the bolt and pushed one side of the door to let it swing out and so notify the policemen that they could enter. The door continued swinging, and two Kareenans stepped through. They had guns in their hands. Behind them, out in the hall, were two other males. They were begi

Carmody, his arms raised, backed up. While one man held a gun on him, the other went back into the hall to help the rest bring in the policemen. These were not dead, as Carmody had first thought. They were unconscious, sleeping as if drugged.

A Kareenan handed the priest a costume and mask. “Put them on.” Carmody obeyed.

“Are you working for Fratt?” he asked, but none of the five answered him.

After he had dressed himself and put on the mask, an antlered Ardour head, he was told to come with the others. They would be behind him. If he tried to run or call for help, he would be shot in the leg.

The Kareenans, also masked now, looking like any other group of merrymakers, took him to the end of the hall. There, they told him to walk up the steps. At the fifteenth floor, he was taken back down the hall to a room exactly above his. One of the group beat the knocker twice rapidly, and after a five-second pause, three times.

The door swung open, and a gun was stuck in Carmody’s back. There was nothing he could do but enter. He had not seen another guest or hotel employee in either hall.

The door was closed behind him, and the bolt shot home with a thud. The mask taken from his face, he could examine the room. It was furnished like his; the doors to the two other rooms of the suite were open.

By the stone table in the middle of the room stood Raphael Abdu. An aged Earthwoman sat beside the table. She wore clothes which had been in style thirty years ago, but there were certain features about them that had a colonial look. Carmody could not place their origin. The woman had long white hair plaited and coiled into a huge pile on top of her head. Her wrinkled face looked as if it had once been beautiful. Her eyes were concealed behind large hexagonal sunglasses.

“Are you absolutely sure it’s John Carmody?” she said to Abdu in non-Terrestrial English.

Impatiently, Abdu said, “Don’t be ridiculous! Do you want him to speak so you can recognize his voice?”

“Yes!”

“Speak up, Carmody,” Abdu growled. “Give us a few phrases from some of your sermons. The lady wants to hear you.”

“Ah, Fratt. I made a natural mistake,” Carmody said. “I assumed that you were a man. Obviously, you had a man dictate the letter for you.”

“That’s him!” she cried. “I haven’t forgotten that voice! Even after all these years!”

She placed a thick veined hand on Abdu’s.

“Pay the others off. Tell them to get lost.”

“Glad to,” Abdu said. He went into the room on Carmody’s right and returned immediately with a large bundle of Kareenan paper currency. He counted out each man’s share and waited while they checked the amount. Four left the suite, but one stayed behind. He stripped Carmody and taped his arms behind him. He sat Carmody down in one of the huge chairs and taped his ankles together. A rope from underneath his cloak was then used to bind the priest’s waist to the chair. Two more strips of tape went over Carmody’s shoulders and under his armpits to secure him to the back of the chair.

“His mouth?” the Kareenan said. Abdu translated into English for her.

“No,” the woman replied. “I can always shut him up if I want to. Just leave the tape on the table here.”

“I still don’t know who you are,” Carmody said.

“Your memory is too clogged with evil deeds,” she said. “But I haven’t forgotten. That’s the important thing.”