Chapter 12

Zeus, Venus, Diana and Forrester sat in the Court of the Gods, listening to a large, blue-skinned individual with bright red eyes and two long white fangs coming from a lipless mouth. The eyes were like a cat’s, with slitted pupils, and the general expression on the individual’s face was one of feral hatred and bestial madness. However, as he had explained, he was not responsible for the arrangement of his features. He was, he kept saying, only interested in the general welfare. What was more, it was his business to be interested. He was, as a matter of fact, a cop: Bor Mellistos, of the Interstellar Police.

“My rank,” he had told them mildly, “is about the equivalent of your Detective Inspector.”

“Technically,” he was saying now, “you are all four guilty of being accessories--as I understand your local law phrases it. However--”

He smiled. It made him look unbelievably horrible. Forrester tried not to pay any attention to it.

“However,” he went on, “in view of the fact that none of you could possibly have known that you were, in fact, accessories--that is, that you were dealing with a criminal group, if you understand me--plus the fact that Mr. Forrester, as soon as he did discover the facts, called us at once through the power machine--I feel that we can overlook your part in the matter.”

Venus frowned. “Wait a minute. I’m not sure I understand this at all. What crime are the Gods supposed to have committed?”

“Not crime, miss,” Bor Mellistos said. His eyes twinkled. Forrester gulped and turned away. “Crimes. Misuse of a neural power machine, for one--and the domination and enslavement of a less advanced intelligent culture for another. Both those are very serious crimes.”

“Less advanced culture?” Forrester said. “You mean us?”

“I’m afraid so, sir,” Bor Mellistos said. “You see, all the members of my culture are attuned to the power nodes of one neural machine or another, but this power is not meant to be misused. We have been searching for this group for a long time now.”

“And you first got wind of them on Earth about three thousand years ago?”

“A little more than that, actually,” Bor Mellistos said, “if you don’t mind the correction.”

“Not at all,” Forrester said, looking at the fangs of the Detective Inspector.

“We were alerted after the radiations had been coming in for some time. The search for this group wasn’t nearly as urgent then.”

“And that’s why they had to go into hiding?” Diana asked.

“Correct, miss,” Bor Mellistos said. “The only one we managed to catch was the woman calling herself Aphrodite, or Venus.” He looked at the substitute Venus. “That’s the one you replaced, miss.”

“How did you catch her?” Forrester pursued.

“Well,” Bor Mellistos said, turning a faint shade of orange with embarrassment, “she was--ah--engaged in a secret liaison with a mortal at the time. Knowing that two of the other gentlemen would be furious with her if they discovered this fact--”

“Mars and Vulcan,” Forrester supplied.

“Quite correct, sir,” Bor Mellistos said. “Knowing, as I say, that they would be furious, she had taken special pains to hide herself. When the alarm reached the others that we were coming, they could not warn her. As a result, when she returned to Mount Olympus, we were waiting for her.”

“Serves her right!” Zeus said with indignation.

Bor Mellistos said: “Quite,” very politely.

“And then,” Forrester said, “you patrolled this place for a while.”

Bor Mellistos nodded. “We left about three hundred years ago, finally deciding that they had gone elsewhere. By the way, do you know where they were hiding all this time?”

“My guess,” Diana said, “is that they were here on Earth, of course.”