Night of Light

The Kareenan went through the door, and Abdu bolted it after him. There was silence for a while. Carmody studied her features. Suddenly, memory came swimming up from within.

She was the woman from whom he had gotten the layout of the fortress in which the Staronif Shootfire jewel was guarded.

He had gone to the colonial planet of Beulah to hide. Raspold and others had been hot on his trail on Springboard, but he had escaped. On Beulah, a planet settled largely by Englishmen and Scandinavians, he had played the part of a prospector. He had ignored the challenge of the Staronif jewel for a long time because he had been determined to stay out of trouble.

But when it looked as if Raspold had lost him, he established his assumed identity; he could no longer resist the temptation. His careful pla

But the demo who ruled one of the small states of Beulah had decided that things were too stagnant. He had discharged all the guards, hired new ones, and begun making alterations in the protective mechanisms and even in the internal construction of the building. Carmody had been afraid that the guard might start talking if he thought his usefulness was over and he would be cut out of his share. He had to be killed, and Carmody killed him.

The others in his group had wanted to give up the robbery, but Carmody had insisted they continue. Moreover, they were to stick to the schedule. After some investigation, he found that the demo’s secretary had not been discharged or transferred to another job. The rumor was that she was also the demo’s mistress; he could not bear to give her up. Carmody had entered the woman’s house the night before the robbery was to take place.

Mrs. Geraldine Fratt, as she called herself, was with a man—her son. He lived in another state and happened to be visiting his mother. When the mother proved resistant even to Carmody’s tortures, and when it looked as if she would die before revealing anything, he began to work on the son. She could not stand watching her son being cut apart, even though he had begged her not to talk because of him.

Mrs. Fratt had led the way into the fortress. Her son was carried along by Lieftin and another man to make sure that she did not betray them. After the Staronif had been removed from its vault, Carmody had shoved the mother and son into it. Then he had tossed in a grenade and closed the vault door.

It was the explosion that had set off an alarm and had forced Carmody and his men to run, instead of making the pla

During the flight, Carmody stole a gravplane. Forced down near the edge of the Big Thorn Forest, he had gone on foot. And it was in that forest that he had been compelled to shove the Staronif down the throat of the lugar. Later, he had made his escape from Beulah and eventually had gone to Dante’s Joy.

“I think I overlooked you, Mrs. Fratt,” he said, “because one, I thought a man had sent me that letter and, two, I thought that you and your son were dead.”

“My son protected me with his own body,” she said. “He died. My face was mangled, and my eyes were destroyed by flying fragments. I had my face repaired, but these...”

She removed her glasses, and Carmody could see the empty sockets.

“But you could have had new eyes!” he said.

“I swore I would never see again until you were paid back for what you did to me and Bart. I’ve spent a lot of time and money looking for you. I had a great deal of money, you know, because the demo willed me a fortune when he died. But it was almost all gone when I finally heard about your being a priest on Wildenwooly. By that time, I’d quit buying jerries because I wanted to reserve all my money for the search. That’s why I’m so old-looking now. I was afraid I’d die before you were found. But, thank God, I did find you.”

“You’ve taken all these years to find me?” he said. “Mrs. Fratt, what kind of men did you hire to look for me?”

“Raphael Abdu conducted the search for me. Don’t you say anything against him, you evil-tongued monster! He’s a good and faithful man; he’s been working tirelessly for me too long. I know him and trust him.”

“So that now, when he’s bled you of your money and there’s no more coming, he conveniently discovers me?” the priest said. “Well, give him credit for that. At least, he didn’t just drop the whole thing. He did give you something for keeping him in what I imagine was a good-paying job for twenty-eight or twenty-nine years. Ah, thou good and faithful servant!”

“Should I shut his mouth, Mrs. Fratt?” Abdu said. “I could knock his teeth out. It’d be a good starter.”

“No, let him talk. I don’t care what he says; he can’t change my mind.”

“Mrs. Fratt, Abdu could have found me easily any time after I left this planet. I was in Johns Hopkins for a year. The police knew where I was, and my Church had no reason to hide my identity or location. Abdu’s taken you for a sucker.”

“You’re a slippery one,” she said. “You escaped the first man Abdu sent after you, and you’ve made it difficult for us to catch you. But you’re here now, and nothing anyone can do is going to get you out of this.”

Carmody, despite the mausoleum coolness of the room, was sweating.

“Mrs. Fratt,” he said without any inflection of the desperation he felt, “I can understand why you want revenge on me. I partly understand, anyway, although after all these years and the fact that I am no longer the man you knew... Still, I ca

She clutched the arms of the chair.”What? What are you talking about?”

“You know damn well what I’m talking about!” he said harshly. “You had my A

“What do you mean?” she shrilled, turning her blind head toward Abdu and then back to Carmody. “What’s this about your wife? I didn’t even know you had a wife! Murdered, you say? Murdered?”

Abdu spoke smoothly and even managed a chuckle of amusement, but he glared at Carmody. “I told you you have to be careful of him, Mrs. Fratt. He’s slick as Satan himself. He’s just saying that about his wife to throw you off the track, to confuse you. And to implant suspicions about me in your mind. His wife’s all right. I saw her kiss him good-bye just before he left Wildenwooly.”

Mrs. Fratt’s expression was angry. “You liar, Carmody! Would you say anything to save your own skin?”

“I am telling the truth!” Carmody said. “My wife was killed by a bomb. And shortly after she died, I got a phone call from a man wearing a mask. He said that you were responsible for A

“You lie!”

“Then perhaps you can explain another thing. If you wanted me alive, why did your men try to kill me outside the house of an old friend of mine, here in Rak?”

She became even paler; her mouth worked soundlessly.

“In your hatred for me, you not only had my wife killed, you caused the death of an i