To Prime the Pump - A. Bertram Chandler [58]
"I can . . ." he muttered.
He did.
And then, only then, did Marlene give careful orders to the dim-witted machine, telling it to pick up the pistol with its tentacle, telling it how to set the weapon so that a pulse of radiation would cause the net to loose its hold. Neither of them could see what was happening, and Grimes feared that the stupid thing would well-meaningly pick up and fire the Minetti at them.
But it did not, and each of them felt a brief tingling sensation, and then they were free. Marlene wept again over her slaughtered dogs, stared at the purple-faced, contorted body of de Messigny without expression. She resumed her clothing. Grimes resumed his.
They clambered into the miniwagon, let it carry them in silence back to the Castle.
Chapter 26
They were waiting for Grimes and Marlene in the castle courtyard—Lobenga, the Lady Eulalia, and the Duchess of Leckhampton. They were an oddly assorted trio: the Negro in his leopard skin, with a necklace of bones (animal? human?) and with a hide bag, containing who knew what disgusting relics slung at his waist; his wife robed in spotless white, with a gold circlet about her dark hair; the| Duchess in gaudy finery, flounced skirt boldly striped in black and scarlet, sequined lemon-yellow blouse, a blue, polka dotted kerchief as a head covering. The clay pipe that she was smoking with obvious enjoyment should have been incongruous, but it suited her,;^
Before them was a large box, a three dimensional viewing screen. To one side was the grim effigy of Baron Samedi, the wooden cross in its scarecrow clothing. It should have looked absurd in broad daylight, in these surroundings, but it did not.
Witch doctor, priestess and fortune teller . . . thought Grimes bewilderedly.
"What is this?" demanded Marlene. "What are you doing here?"
"We had to come outside, Princess," Lobenga told her. "There is magic soaked into the very stones of your castle, but it is the wrong sort of magic."
"Magic!" her voice was contemptuous. "That?" She gestured to the extension of the Monitor, in the screen of which the dead man, the dead dogs and the crumpled wreckage of the rogue were still visible. "Or that?" Her arm pointed rigidly at the clothed cross.
"Or both? "asked the Duchess quietly.
"You watched?"
"We watched," confirmed Lobenga.
"Everything?"
"Everything."
"And you did nothing to help?"
"It was all in the cards," said the Duchess.
"And you watched, everything. And you felt a vicarious thrill, just as you do at those famous masked balls of yours, Your Grace. There is nothing more despicable than a voyeur, especially one who spies upon her friends."
"We were obliged to watch," said Lobenga.
"By whom? By what?"
"The bones were cast," almost sang Eulalia, "the cards were read. But still there was the possibility of the unforeseen, the unforeseeable, some malign malfunction of the plan. We had to be ready to intervene."
"There were quite a few times when you could have intervened," growled the spaceman. "When you should have intervened."
"No," said Lobenga. "No, Mr. Grimes. The entire operation went as planned."
"What a world!" snarled the Lieutenant. "What a bloody world! I'm sorry, Marlene, but I can't stay in this castle a second longer. I don't like your friends. Call me a taxi, or whatever you do on this planet, so that I can get back to the ship. Tell that tin butler of yours to pack my bags."
"John!"
"I mean it, Marlene."
"Let him go," said Eulalia. "He has played his part."
"As I have," whispered the princess.
"Yes."
"As Henri did."
"Yes."
She flared, "What sort of monsters are you? "
"Not monsters, Marlene," said Lobenga gently. "Just servants of a higher power."
"Of the Monitor?" she sneered. "Or of Baron Samedi?"
"Or both?" asked Eulalia.
"Things went a little too far," said the Duchess.
"You mean Henri's death?" queried Marlene. "But somebody had to die."
"I do not mean Henri's death. I mean what happened afterwards. But it does not matter. After all, the English aristocracy has always welcomed an occasional infusion of fresh blood.