Universe Twister - Keith Laumer [128]
"Hey," Lafayette protested.
"It's an old trick," the security chief said. "Reverse cunning, we call it in the security game; indistinguishable from utter stupidity."
"Welcome to the club," Lafayette said. "Look, Krupkin gave the ring to Rodolpho; Rodolpho gave it to me. I came here by accident, and all I want now is to leave—"
"Impossible. You've been caught red-handed, fellow. Unauthorized possession is the worst crime on the books. You're going to spend the next three hundred years chained to a treadmill in level twelve—"
"I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you," Lafayette snapped. "I won't live three hundred years."
"Oh. Sorry, I didn't realize you were sick. We'll just make it a life sentence then; don't feel badly if you can't go the whole route."
"That's thoughtful of you. Say, just as a sort of intellectual exercise, why don't you spend thirty seconds or so considering the possibility that Rodolpho did have Krupkin's ring?"
"His Grace with his Highness's ring?" Flimbert put his fingertips together and looked grave. "Well, first, it would be a gross breach of the conditions of sale. Secondly, it would be quite unlike Krupkin, who never does anything without a good reason."
"So—he had a reason! Aren't you curious as to what the reason was?"
"I wonder." Sprawnroyal picked up the ring, held it to his nose, and studied it. "He couldn't've tinkered with it . . .?"
"Nonsense; only a man trained in our shops—" Flimbert broke off. "Now that you mention it, Krupkin was trained in our shops . . ."
"Yeah—and he's a top man, microengineeringwise," Sprawnroyal put in. "Cripes, but—could the guy have had a angle he was working?"
The security chief whipped out a jewelers' loupe, examined the ring.
"Just as I thought," he said crisply. "Tool marks." He laid the ring aside, poked a button on his desk. "Security to lab," he barked.
"Pinchcraft here," a testy voice responded. "What do you want, I'm in the midst of a delicate operation."
"Oh—the gnat-borne miniaturized-TV-camera project?"
"No, I was fishing the olive out of my martini with a paper straw. I almost had it when you made me jiggle it!"
"Forget the olive; I'm on my way down with a little item I want you to take a look at before I carry out the death sentence on a spy!"
The laboratory was a rough-hewn cavern crowded with apparatus as complex and incomprehensible to O'Leary as a Chinese joke book. They found the research boss perched on a high stool before a formica-topped bench poking at a glittering construction of coils and loops of glass tubing through which pink and green and yellow fluids bubbled, violet vapors curled.
Security Chief Flimbert handed over the ring. The research chief spun on his stool, snapped on a powerful light, flipped out a magnifying lens, bent over the ring.
"A-ha," he said. "Seal's broken." He pursed his lips, gave O'Leary a sharp look. With a needle-pointed instrument, he prodded the bezel of the ruby, flipped open a tiny cover, revealing an interior hollow packed with intricate components.
"Well, well," he said. "Haven't we been a busy boy?" He put the ring down and quickly placed an empty coffee cup over it.
"Find somethin'?" Roy asked anxiously.
"Nothing much—just that the entire device has been rewired," Pinchcraft snapped. "It's been rigged to act as a spy-eye." He glared at O'Leary. "What did you hope to learn? Our trade secrets? They're freely available to the public: hard work and common sense."
"Don't look at me," O'Leary said. "I haven't tampered with it."
"Uh—the ring was made up for Prince Krupkin," Roy pointed out.
"Krupkin, eh? Never did trust that jumped-up jack-in-office. Sneaky eyes."
"Yeah—but Slim here says he didn't get the bauble from Krupkin. He claims it was given to him by Duke Rodolpho."
"Nonsense. I remember this order now: I designed the circuits myself, in accordance