Part Ten, Chapter Five - "Stiffen" Isn't a Command I Could Shout With a Straight Face

The Eyes and Ears of Voltar (no caps or italics this time) is owned by a man named Spurk, who greets a twice-disguised Gris and Stinkens from Supply when they come by after hours for a late-night, high-figure deal. Spurk is naturally the only one in the store, which Gris is quietly grateful for.

He offers his guests a tour of his inventory, particularly some cutting-edge overstocked goodies they're waiting for the Army to place an order for. I'm wondering why such sensitive espionage tools would be allowed to sit around in a downtown store, rather than made to order and hurried off to a secure Army facility, but maybe that's how things happen in the real world. Maybe there's a warehouse somewhere full of Predator drones that Uncle Sam hasn't purchased yet, just waiting for a wealthy Air Force clerk to snap up during his off hours.

Gris makes a show of inspecting product ID numbers for Stinkens' benefit, as Spurk presents a "respondo-mitter" that works by induction (through bone, no less) so long as it's implanted within two inches of an optic nerve. It picks up the... signal, or electrons, or something, and transmits the data up to two hundred miles (ten thousand with the 831 Relayer) into a receiver that renders an image of what the subject is seeing. And nobody can tap into this signal because it's:

"Undetectable! Nonobstructable. No known means will register it. Actually, it is a very long wave acting as a carrier and a conduit for a side band."

Ah, magic.

Gris is disappointed the Super Bug won't transmit the subject's emotions or allow him to send "hypnopulsars" or electrical jolts back the other way, but he has Spurk bundle up both of the kits in stock, along with all the spare parts and power packs, and their equivalents for the audial nerves. Then he shoots the storeowner in the throat with his bladegun.

And things immediately go wrong. Colonel Stinkens, who hasn't done anything besides follow Gris around and occasionally ask questions, doesn't conclude that "Snahp" is executing the guilty party like Gris had hoped, but goes for his gun, shouting "What the Hells are you doing?" And since a blastgun's "magnetic shock waves" could endanger all the sensitive equipment, Gris shoots the Colonel too. And then the Colonel's driver comes running, sees his officer down and Gris splattered with blood, and reaches for his gun. But by some miracle the weapon doesn't fire, so he grabs a bayonet and charges Gris, who shoots him.

So there's blood everywhere, three corpses on the ground, but Gris has finally gotten the surveillance equipment that the Army can routinely order but the Apparatus can't even blackmail someone into delivering. But then:

"Stiffen, Gris!"

It came from the door to the next room! A blastgun pointing.

And so we end the chapter on a cliffhanger doubling as a sentence fragment.


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