Universe Twister - Keith Laumer [203]
"I don't know what you're talking about," O'Leary snapped. "I just—"
"All right, you've got me over a barrel! You know how badly we want to get our hands on Jorlemagne! I won't hassle! Immunity, a million in cash, and the Locus of your choice. Is it a deal?"
O'Leary frowned in puzzlement. "Maybe you've been wearing tight hats," he said. "You don't seem to grasp the idea—"
"Raunchini—I'll have the full story out of you if it's the last thing I do!"
"O'Leary!" Lafayette matched the other's shout.
"O'Leary. Got it right here, Chief," the intercom blatted suddenly.
"Well, thank heaven," Lafayette sighed.
"Would that be Lorenzo, Lafcadio, Lothario, Lancelot, Leopold, or Ludwig?" the voice came back, businesslike.
"Lafayette," he supplied.
"Uh-huh. Here it is. Reserve appointment to classified Locus. Inactive."
"Physical description?" Belarius snapped.
"Six feet, one-seventy, light-brown hair, blue eyes, harmless appearance—"
"Hey," Lafayette protested.
Belarius swiveled to face him. "Ready to come clean now?"
"Look, I can explain," Lafayette said, feeling the sweat start on his forehead. "You see, I accidentally activated the Focal Referent. It was unintentional, you understand—"
"And—"
"And—well, I . . . I changed shape! Apparently I turned into this Tazlo Haz person, and—"
"You were transformed from O'Leary into Haz, is that it?" Belarius said wearily, passing a hand over his face. "Your story grows steadily more remarkable."
"Not exactly," Lafayette demurred. "Before I was Haz I was a fellow named Zorro."
Belarius sighed. "Doesn't this sound a trifle idiotic—even to your fevered brain?"
"All right! I can't help how it sounds; what matters is that there's a truckload of stolen Probability Lab gear lying there in the cave waiting for anybody who happens along, and—"
"And where might this alleged cave be located?"
"In Artesia—just outside the city of the same name!"
"Never heard of it." Belarius turned and snapped a question at the intercom, glared at O'Leary as he waited for an answer.
"Right, chief," the voice at the other end came back. "Here it is: Plane V-87, Fox 22 1-b, Alpha Nine-three."
"Are we carrying out any operations there?"
"No, sir. We closed the file out last year."
There was a short pause. "Well, I'll be graunched, sir. The classified Locus this Agent O'Leary was assigned to checks out as this same V-87, Fox 22 1-b, Alpha Nine-three. I'll have to post that to the file—" the voice broke off. "Odd, sir—it seems we have a new recruit on the roster, from the Locus in question, just arrived yesterday."
"Name?"
"O'Leary. Say, that's funny; O'Leary is coded inactive in the main bank—"
"You say O'Leary is here at Central Casting—now?"
"Affirmative, sir."
"Send O'Leary up to Trog 87 immediately." Belarius frowned bleakly at O'Leary. "We'll get to the bottom of this matter," he muttered.
"I don't get it," Lafayette said. "I'm down in your records as having arrived here yesterday?"
"Not you, Raunchini: O'Leary." Belarius drummed on the desk. There was a brief buzz from the door and four uniformed men entered with drawn handguns.
"Stand by, men," Belarius ordered, waving them back.
"I'll bet it's Lorenzo," Lafayette said. "Or possibly Lothario. But how could they have gotten to Artesia? They belong in completely different loci . . ."
A harassed-looking junior official entered, turned to usher in a second new arrival—a small, trim, feminine figure, neatly dressed in a plain white tunic and white knee-boots; she scanned the room with immense, dark eyes, a slight, anxious smile on her delicately modeled lips.
"Good lord," Lafayette blurted, jumping to his feet. "Daphne!"
Chapter Seven
1
For a moment there was total silence. Belarius looked from Lafayette to the girl and back again. She stared at Lafayette; he grinned a vast and foolish grin and started toward her.
"How in the world did you get here, girl? When they told me they had an O'Leary here, it never occurred to me it might be—"
"How do you know my name?" Daphne cut in with surprising sharpness. She