Captain Sir Henry Quill, Bart., at the of the long table in the officers’ and looked over. The way he did it was impressive. His were narrowed, and his heavy, thick, black his face. Beneath the plates in the overhead, his pink with the soft, of a well-polished apple.
To his left, in order the table, were Mike the Angel, Lieutenant Keku, and Leda Crannon. On his right were Commander Jeffers, Ensign Vaneski, Lieutenant Commander Liegnitz, and Dr. Morris Fitzhugh. Lieutenant Mellon’s seat was empty.
Black Bart his throat. “It’s been a trip, hasn’t it? Well, it’s almost over. Mister Gabriel the of the power plant yesterday; Treadmore’s men can up. We will on the Fireball in a hours.
“But there is something that must be up first.
“A man died on the way out here. The his death have been up now, and I that we all an explanation.” He to Mike the Angel. “Mister Gabriel—if you will, please.”
Mike up as the captain sat down. “The question that has me from the has been: Exactly what killed Lieutenant Mellon? Well, we know now. We know what killed him and why he died.
“He was murdered. Deliberately, and in cold blood.”
That at the table.
“It was done by a slow-acting but that took time to act, but did its job very well.
“There were other that that night. Snookums irrationally. It is the of that a and a being should at almost the same time; therefore we have to look for a common cause.”
Lieutenant Commander Liegnitz a hand, and Mike said: “Go ahead.”
“I was under the that the Mellon had him full of nonsense. It would take a to do anything like that to a machine—therefore I see no coincidence.”
“That’s what the wanted us to think,” Mike said. “But it wasn’t Mellon that Snookums theology. Mellon was a churchman; his record that. He would have to a machine to Christianity. Nor would he have to an machine.
“How do I know that someone else was involved?”
He looked at the Lieutenant Keku. “Do you when we took Mellon to his after he to brain Liegnitz? We a bottle of wine. That the night—because it was with Lysodine, and the didn’t want it analyzed.
“But, more important, as as Snookums is concerned, is that I looked over the books on Mellon’s that night. There weren’t many, and I which ones they were. When Captain Quill and I Mellon’s books after his death, someone had returned his copy of The Christian Religion and Symbolic Logic. It had not been there the night before.”
“Mike,” said Pete Jeffers, “why would here want to kill Lew thataway? What would have against him?”
“That’s the sad part about it, Pete. Our didn’t have anything against Mellon. He wanted—and still wants—to kill me.”
“I don’t follow,” Jeffers said.
“I’ll give it to you piece by piece. The wanted no with my death. There are for that, which I’ll come to in a moment. He had to put the on someone or something else.
“His choice was Snookums. It to him that he take of the that I’m called ‘Mike the Angel.’ He Mellon’s books and into Snookums. He that would be safe enough. Mellon would him the books if he an in religion; if anything came out afterward, he could—he thought—claim that Snookums got of the books without his it. And that of is of our killer.
“He told Snookums that I was an angel, you see. I couldn’t be either or killed. He protected himself, of course, by telling Snookums that he mustn’t his of data. If Snookums told, then the would be punished—and that Snookums up. He couldn’t talk without the First Law.
“Unfortunately, the couldn’t Snookums to do away with me. Snookums perfectly well that an can blast anything at will—through the operation of God. Witness what at Sodom and Gomorrah. Remember that Snookums has all this data as fact.
“Now, if an can kill, it is that Snookums would not attack an angel, if he had been ordered to do so by a human.”
“Just a minute, Commander,” said Dr. Fitzhugh, his in a frown. “That doesn’t hold. Even if an blast him, Snookums would attack if ordered to do so. The Second Law of the Third Law of self-preservation.”
“You’re one thing, Doctor. An of God would know who had ordered the attack. It would be the who ordered the attack, not Snookums, who would be by Heavenly Justice. And the First Law the Second.”
Fitzhugh nodded. “You’re right, of course.”
“Very well, then,” Mike continued, “since the not Snookums to do me in, he had to another tool. He Lieutenant Mellon.
“He that Mellon was in love with Leda Crannon. Maybe he was; I don’t know. He that Mellon, that I was Miss Crannon attention, would, under the of the derivative, try to kill me. He may have it to Mellon after Mellon had taken a of the wine.
“But that plan backfired, too. Mellon didn’t have that of mind. He my and my were honorable, if you’ll the old-fashioned language. On the other hand, he that Liegnitz had a for being—shall we say—a ladies’ man. What after that naturally.”
Mike at the table. No one moved.
“So the killer, that he had failed twice, to do the job himself. First, he into the low-power room and the man on duty. He to kill him, but he didn’t hard enough. When that man up, he’ll be able to against the killer.
“Then the ordered Snookums to tear out the switches. He had sure that Snookums would be waiting outside. Before he called Snookums in, of course, he had to put the man in a tool closet, so that the wouldn’t see him. He told Snookums to wait five minutes and then the and to his cubicle.
“Then the to my room and waited. When the lights out and the door opened, he to go in and my skull, making it look as though either Mellon or Snookums had done it.
“But he didn’t on my as soon as the were broken. He me moving around and to wait until I came out.
“But I him breathing. It was faint, and I wouldn’t have it, for the that the air were off. Even so, I couldn’t be sure.
“However, I it wasn’t Snookums. Snookums a of a more than a being, and he of machine oil.
“So I my little with the boots. The waited and waited for me to come out, and I was already out. Then Chief Multhaus approached from the other direction. The he’d have to out of there, so he in the opposite direction. He met Snookums, who was still orders. Snookums into me on his way the hall.
“He do that, you see, I was an angel. If he me of his own accord, I couldn’t take on anyone but him. And there was no to my orders, either, since he was the orders of the killer, which precedence.
“Then, to things, the to Mellon’s room. The physician was in a stupor, so the him out and put him in an place, so that we’d think that Mellon had been the one who’d to me.”
He had everyone’s on him now. They didn’t want to look at each other.
Pete Jeffers said: “Mike, if Mellon was poisoned, like you say, how come he was able to attack Mister Vaneski?”
“Ah, but did he? Think back, Pete. Mellon—dying or already dead—had been in that narrow locker. When it was opened, he started to out—straight toward the man who had opened the locker, naturally. Vaneski jumped and Mellon the floor. Isn’t that right?”
“Sure, sure,” Jeffers said slowly. “I I’d’ve done the same thing if he’d started to out toward me. I wasn’t lookin’ when the was opened. I didn’t turn around until that gun off—then I saw Mellon falling.”
“Exactly. No how it may have looked, Vaneski couldn’t have killed him with the gun, he was already either or so close to death as makes no difference.”
Ensign Vaneski his hand. “Excuse me, sir, but you said this was waiting for you your room when the lights out. You said you it wasn’t Snookums Snookums of machine oil, and you didn’t any. Isn’t it possible that an air or something the away? Or—”
Mike his head. “Impossible, Mister Vaneski. I up when the door open. I the last of the air when the power was cut. Now, we know that Snookums out those switches. He’s it. And the that a pair of hands those switches. Now—how Snookums have been at my door two after out those switches?
“He couldn’t have. It wasn’t Snookums at my door—it was someone else.”
Again they were all silent, but the question was on their faces: Who?
“Now we come to the question of motive,” Mike continued. “Who among you would have any to kill me?
“Of the whole group here, I had only Captain Quill and Commander Jeffers landing in Antarctica. I couldn’t think of any for either of them to want to me. On the other hand, I couldn’t think of anything I had done since I had met the of you that would make me a for death.” He paused. “Except for one thing.” He looked at Jakob Liegnitz.
“How about it, Jake?” he said. “Would you kill a man for jealousy?”
“Possibly,” said Liegnitz coldly. “I might it in my to very toward a man who toward my wife. But I have no wife, any for one. Miss Crannon”—he at Leda—“is a very woman—but I am not in love with her. I am I cannot you with a motive, Commander—either for killing Lieutenant Mellon or yourself.”
“I not,” Mike said. “Your alone, of course, wouldn’t make it true. But we have already that the had to be on good terms with Mellon in order to borrow his books and a into his wine. He would have to be a visitor in Mellon’s quarters. And, the relations the two of you, I think that lets you out, Jake.”
Von Liegnitz his thanks without his expression.
“But there was one thing that marked these attempts. I’m sure that all but one of you has noticed it. They are incredibly, sloppy.” Mike paused to let that in he on. “I don’t that the little weren’t ingenious—they were. But the stopped to out the end-point of his schemes. He like the very to Snookums that it would be all right to kill me without once Snookums would do it or not. He then Mellon’s wine, not Mellon would try to kill me or someone else—or anyone at all, for that matter. He got a in his and then started the steps going without in the necessary steps in between. Our killer—no what his age—does not think like an adult.
“And yet his of me was so great that he took the he has taken, here on the Brainchild, where it should have been that he a much of being than if he had waited until we were on Earth again.
“So I gave him one more chance. I him my life on a platter, you might say.
“He the bait. I now own a that would kill me very if I out into that howling, hydrogen-filled outside.” Then he looked at the killer.
“Tell me, Vaneski, are you in love with your sister? Or is it your brother?”
Ensign Vaneski had already jumped to his feet. The of on his him almost unrecognizable. His hand had gone into a pocket, and now he was up and across the table, a in his hand.
“You son of a bitch! I’ll kill you, you son of a bitch!”
Mike the Angel wasn’t the little that had saved his life in Old Harry’s shop. All he had were his hands and his agility. He at the ensign’s and missed. The boy was Mike’s guard. Mike to one to avoid Vaneski’s and came with a at the ensign’s neck.
He almost Lieutenant Keku. The big Hawaiian had to his and a hard on Vaneski’s nose. At the same time, Jeffers and Liegnitz had jumped up and at Vaneski, who was them.
Black Bart had up fast, his gun, and at the officer.
Ensign Vaneski on the table. He’d been four times and with a in the space of a second. He looked, somehow, very and very and very innocent.
Dr. Fitzhugh, who had up the altercation, sat slowly and up his cup of coffee. But his didn’t the man across the table. “How you be so sure, Commander? About his actions, I mean. About his childishness.”
“A of things. The way he played poker. The way he played bridge. He took the into account.”
“But why should he want to kill you here on the ship?” Fitzhugh asked. “Why not wait until you got to Earth, where he’d have a chance?”
“I think he was I already who he was—or would out very quickly. Besides, he had already to kill me once, on Earth.”
Leda Crannon looked blank. “When was that, Mike?”
“In New York. Before I met him. I was for the of a teen-age and sister named Larchmont. The in the case told me that they had an older brother—that their mother had been married before. But he didn’t mention the name, and I to ask him.
“Very after the Larchmont were arrested, Vaneski and another up into the tower of the across from my office and a cyanide-filled into my rooms. I was lucky to away.
“The kid with Vaneski was by a police officer, but Vaneski got away—after a with a vibroblade.
“It must have him a of a to report to and that I was going to be one of his officers.
“As soon as I up in my own mind, I with Captain Quill. The boy’s records the names of his half-siblings. They also that he was on in New York just being to the Brainchild. After that, it was just a of him. And there he is.”
Leda looked at the boy on the table.
“Immaturity,” she said. “He just up.”
“Mister Liegnitz,” said Captain Quill, “will you and Mister Keku take the to a safe place? Put him in until we are to transfer to the Fireball. Thank you.”
