Chapter 3

Arvin Allhigh was the next criminal higher-up on our list. His specialty was armed robbery and his phobia was music. Well, not actually music as such, but rhythmic noises. I suppose he could tolerate rock-and-roll, but swing would have killed him!

Allhigh was a sphere with arms and legs, 3 of each. He also had 3 eyes and 3 ears, equally spaced around his equator. His nose and mouth were at his north pole and his waste elimination system was at his south pole. Don't ask about his genitalia, because I don't know, but everybody I talked to insisted that he was male. He was a glossy black with a large white disc on his bottom. All he needed was a big "8" on it to look like an 8-ball. Shish!

Allhigh lived in the usual penthouse on the poshest section of Capital; in fact, he lived in a building only a short distance from Aha Jorse's place. His dwelling was laid out very much like Jorse's, but was decked out in the latest in electronic surveillance and detection devices. I think he was afraid of being robbed.

He also kept an army of security people on hand. Some of them were his species, but green instead of black. I have no idea of the significance of the color difference. However, most of the security people were sort of humanoid, but had a prehensile tail. They were reported to be very quick and agile.

We couldn't figure out a way into Allhigh's abode that wasn't going to telegraph our arrival. Our weapons, this time, would be the same stun guns we had used against Aha Jorse, but, for defense, we had our body suits covered with electrical discharge cells which would shock the bejesus out of anybody who touched us. Cicero carried an all-spectrum electronic jamming device with enough power to blanket any electronic device within a 100-yard radius. Julia had her usual array of explosive charges and the rest of us were armed with an extra supply of righteous indignation.

Rik had our rapelling outfits recovered from Jorse's place, so we donned them and had ourselves transferred to the roof of Allhigh's penthouse. This time, we went in at night. We used our light amplifying vision and had no trouble finding an empty room to enter. Julia blew in the window and Arthur led the way into the room.

Alarms when off all over the place as soon as we entered. Our electronic jamming device didn't work as advertised, so Cicero dropped it and became another warrior. We had a few moments of respite before the security detail arrived and we used the time to survey the situation. The room was completely empty of furniture from its green felt floor to its gray ceiling. The walls appeared to be cushioned against impact damage and the sole exit was shaped like an arch with extra cushioning around the edge.

We expected an attack from security any moment, so we positioned ourselves to either side of the doorway so that a person would have to enter the room to see us. Unfortunately, this didn't do us much good, as the surveillance gear had us in sight the whole time. Nevertheless, we were in position when an arm snaked around the door opening wielding a weapon of undoubted fatal capabilities. We all shot at it and there was a howl of protest as the weapon dropped from limp fingers. At least, chalk up one paralyzed arm for our side!

It looked to me like we had only one option for tactics. We would jump through the doorway with our stun gun set for continuous fire and hope that we could shoot the bad guys before they could shoot us. I figured that our impenetrable skin would save us from all but painful bruises if we were quick and lucky enough. Since it was my idea, I went first.

There were two of the green balls and four of the humanoids covering the door and I was able to get three of the defenders before I was laid out when I bumped my head too hard against the ceiling. I was followed by Jim, who got one, and Arthur, who got the last two.

Amy applied a little smelling salts to wake me up and we were ready to attack the next strong point. We had to fight our way from room to room, using pretty much the same tactics as we had at the first doorway. Three more rooms and we had to take a break. Here we were, still on the lower level and we had been fighting for nearly an hour. This was ridiculous! Something had to be done, and done now!

We discussed the situation and decided that we had been too gentle in trying to protect Arvin Allhigh's property. This situation called for drastic measures, so I asked Julia to break her charges into pieces small enough to act as concussion grenades. She fiddled around for a few minutes and produced a baseball-sized wad of explosive that she thought would be the right size to knock out our opponents, but not kill us in the backlash. We gave it a try on our next attack on a strong point and it worked like a charm! We were now able to advance to the up-ramp with a minimum of effort. It was hell learning on the job!

Our delays in getting to the foot of the ramp had given the defenders time to put up a barricade and they were prepared for us. Or, at least, that's what they thought. Julia prepared a bowling ball sized charge and Cicero rolled it toward the barricade. Julia had done a very good job of timing the fuse; the ball hit the barricade and got stuck on something that projected a little bit. The ball had just settled into place when the fuse set it off. The explosion blew the barricade to hell and gone and generally made a mess of the defenders!

We scrambled up the ramp and found ourselves in a fairly large room that was devoid of conventional furniture. Other than a few tables scattered about over the green felt floor, the room was empty. The room was reminiscent of a snooker table!

Shooting started and we dove behind tables to get a little protection from all of the flying bullets. We were now back to the same sort of impasse we had experienced on the floor, below. Now I was pissed! I contacted Rik and asked to have our regular guns/grenade launchers transported to us. They arrived in short order and we proceeded to make one hell of a mess of Arvin Allhigh's penthouse (somehow, one of Julia's charges had disabled the transporter field dampener).

Ach!!! I'm being a dunderhead, again. If the transporter field dampener is not functioning, we should be able to capture Allhigh just by transporting him away from here to the cell we have prepared for him along side Aha Jores and Blossie Gowitz. Rik reported success at that maneuver so I had us transported, too.

I said to Allhigh, who was thrashing about in his cell, "OK, Arvin, calm down. You have retired from the crime business, so you might as well get used to it."

"Bugger off, you copper! What makes you think that I have retired from anything?"

"Ve haf vays!" I said in my best Nazi accent (which, I admit, is not all that great) as I turned on the audio system in his cell. A marching beat played on a drum was heard over Arvin's screech.

"TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!" he begged.

I cut it off and said, "OK, I'll leave the sound off as long as you cooperate. And you can start cooperating by calming down. We'll get back to you, pretty soon."

We had two more crooks to pick up from Jorse's little cartel, so we started planning our next mission. After some discussion, we decided to go after Jak-Jak Orion, who specialized in blackmail. Let's face it: Jak-Jak was an IT! Jak-Jak was neither a male nor a female, but a kind of incubator for the embryo produced by the male and female members of its species. Don't ask, I don't want to know any more details than that. Jak-Jak resembled an armadillo, but without the charm. It was about 4 feet tall; it had normal(?) hind legs and forelegs that also functioned as arms and hands. I guess you could call it a manipulative quadraped.

Its phobia was certain smells which would send it into a fit of retching and nauseated agony; the primary smell it hated was bananas, but some other fruit odors produced similar results. Therefore, as a last ditch defense, we all carried vials of banana oil.

Jak-Jak lived on what passed for a country estate on Capital. A number of buildings had been fused together at the roofs and Jak-Jak had acquired the "living" rights to several acres of roof-top property. It had the roofs reinforced and covered with dirt brought in at great expense from its home world. On this was constructed a typical house such as an affluent armadillo might desire, but, to us, it looked like a hole in the ground!