CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The flicker of lightning-gun fire continued to send bursts of light across the city as Selene and I hurried across the greenery, dodging bushes and ground dips, watching for tenshes we might trip over, and—at least for me—waiting with a tingling back for the shot that would bring our journey to an abrupt and probably permanent end.
The shot never came. Whatever Muninn and his Iykams were doing for Huginn and the conciliators in there, they were definitely keeping the path clear for Selene and me.
We reached the inner ring of houses without incident. There we slowed, my helmet’s audios and opticals at full power, my stunner gripped ready in my hand. The Tower might be the ideal place for a sniper, but close-set buildings like this were prime real estate for ambushes.
But again, there was nothing. Had Huginn really managed to pull everyone in town in on his planned portal assault? If so, Muninn’s own situation was looking pretty bleak, and there would probably be an awkward conversation sometime in the two Expediters’ future.
Still, given that their overarching job was to provide Nask with whatever he wanted or needed, neither of them had much room to complain.
Which led to the sober reminder that if Nask was willing to sacrifice his own Expediters for the cause, he wasn’t likely to lose even a few minutes of sleep if Selene and I ended up as collateral damage.
“Any idea what you’re going to say when we get there?” Selene asked as we cleared the last group of houses.
“Not really,” I said. “Something suitably official-sounding, probably, to get us into their library or wherever else they’ve got this book stashed.”
“It might go better if I do the talking,” Selene suggested. “I’m the one who’s met First Dominant Yiuliob and heard him talking talking about the book.”
“Or whatever else he might have been talking about,” I warned. “That still isn’t entirely clear.”
“I know,” she said. “But there is definitely a second book of some sort.”
“So maybe you should just stick to asking for the second book without any descriptive detail,” I said, frowning suddenly as a new thought suddenly struck me. “You said Yiuliob wanted to keep the book on Juniper until the portal was ready. Could it be our long-lost RH half of the Meima directory?”
“I wondered about that, too,” Selene said. “But from the way he talked it sounded like this book would be needed before the portal could be used.”
“Whatever,” I growled. Way too much of what we thought we knew about the portals, the directories, and the Icari themselves was based on pure assumption, and I was getting tired of flailing in the dark. “And you’re right. You’re the one who talked to Yiuliob, so you’re the one who should handle this. I’ll stand off to the side as the muscle who was sent to escort you there and back again.”
We arrived at the portal to find it unguarded. I picked a convenient hatch and opened it, and we rolled inside, closing the hatch behind us. We crossed the receiver module to the interface, rolled into the launch module, and let the extension arm’s gravity float us upward. At Selene’s warning I holstered my stunner—we were supposed to be harmless visitors, after all—and a moment later we passed through the two seconds of darkness and arrived on Juniper.
I’d assumed there would be at least a small reception committee waiting. To my surprise, the module was empty. “You think everyone forgot to tell them what was going on back on Nexus Six?” I murmured as we floated toward the hull.
“That seems unlikely,” Selene said.
“Yeah.” Off to my left, about a quarter of the way around the receiver sphere from the launch module interface, one of the hatches was outlined in bright orange. Apparently, that was where visitors were supposed to exit. “On the other hand, if Yiuliob was Juniper’s delegate to the Nexus Six proceedings, and he was busy keeping tabs on you, it’s possible the people here never got the memo that there was trouble in paradise.”
“So we pretend everything’s all right?”
“Sounds like our best approach,” I agreed. “We’re just here to bring Yiuliob and the Third of Three the second book.”
“I don’t know,” Selene murmured, her pupils going wary. “It can’t be that easy.”
“I never is,” I said sourly. “But we can at least try to start it off that way.”
I eyed the big orange rectangle, trying to figure out my next move. If the hatch had been open, the obvious approach would be to creep over to it and use my thumbnail mirror to have a look outside. But there was nothing quiet, sneaky, or subtle about a portal hatch swinging open. It would likely catch the attention of everyone out there, and if paused at that point to assess the situation my hesitation might look suspicious.
Which unfortunately led to the conclusion that I needed to open the hatch and roll immediately outside as if I’d done it a hundred times, or at least had been properly briefed on the procedure and local protocol.
We landed on the hull with the usual thump. “Okay, here’s the plan,” I told Selene as we headed toward the orange hatch. “I’ll open up and roll out like I do this every day. You stay out of sight until I say Good day. If I say Is there a problem?, get back to Nexus Six as fast as you can.”
“I don’t know,” Selene said, the concern in her pupils deepening. “If I leave, what happens to you?”
“I’ll be fine,” I assured her. “If I can’t talk my way out, I’m still armed and armored, and I’ll be right behind you. Go find Ixil if that area near Four O’clock is clear enough. If it isn’t, see if our suits are still under the pier and get back to Alpha.”
I could tell by the flavor of her silence what she thought about the idea of facing Kinneman again. I didn’t like it much myself. But if the alternative was getting shot by some overeager Amme who didn’t bother to check his target against the list of people who were vital to First of Three’s grandiose scheme, Kinneman was hands down the better option.
We reached the hatch. I took off my helmet and set it on the deck, gave Selene a confident smile, and popped open the panel. Through the sudden blaze of sunlight that came flooding in I saw the opening was situated at the typical ninety-degree angle. I slid my legs through, letting the planet’s gravity swivel them toward the ground, then pushed myself the rest of the way out. I straightened up, let my inner ear adjust, then turned around.
Through my various travels I’d teleported into research labs, military encampments, forests, and solid walls of packed dirt. But up to now I’d never dropped into a scene that looked like a combination accounting office and import customs station. A half dozen long tables were set up near the hatchway, each with a computer, a multi-scan deep sensor, and a stack of packaging material. Four of the tables held stacks of colorful vegetables or small boxes containing dust or pellets in more muted shades of brown or dark green, with clusters of Ammei evaluating, counting, or otherwise processing the goods. Beyond the produce tables were two rows of smaller desks where other Ammei were working busily on computers. One of the aliens in each group, I noted, wore the same sort of status hats as the upper-class officials on Nexus Six. The whole operation, portal and all, was laid out beneath a massive tent whose top rippled in the breeze and whose open sides revealed a forest scene around us.
It was the sort of busy, buzzing place that could have visitors dropping in at any hour with goods for the exotic foodstuff markets. Unfortunately, whatever their usual clientele, it was instantly clear that I wasn’t it. The first casual glances from the workers quickly turned into surprised or rapidly unfriendly stares, accompanied a couple of times by mildly comical double takes. The computer operators were marginally slower on the uptake, being farther from the portal, but the sudden cessation of conversation from the sorting floor brought them snapping to the same confused attention.
The sorting floor’s Hat Man took a step toward me and said something in the Ammei language. “Sorry, I don’t understand,” I said in English as I took a quick survey of the crowd. There were no guards in here, at least not wearing anything like the outfits I’d seen on First of Three’s soldiers. For that matter, I didn’t see any weapons at all. “Does anyone here speak English?”
“Who are you?” the Hat Man from the computer group demanded as he strode toward me through the line of desks. Unlike most of the Ammei I’d met on Nexus Six, his English was nearly perfect.
“And good day to you, too,” I called back. “I’m Roarke of the humans. I’m here with Selene of the Kadolians.” I felt the brush of air on the back of my neck as Selene emerged and took up position on the ground beside me. “May I ask your name?”
Hat Man looked briefly at the sorting floor’s overseer, then turned back to me. “I am Overseer Quodli,” he said. “Why are you here?”
“We were sent by First Dominant Yiuliob to bring the second book to Nexus Six,” Selene said. “Please take us to it.”
“Were you sent by First Dominant Yiuliob?” Quodli asked, still coming toward us. “Or did the First of Three order him to send you for the book?”
A quiet warning bell went off in the back of my mind. I’d speculated there might be competing factions among the Ammei, but up to now I hadn’t seen anything to indicate that might be the case.
But of course, up to now I’d only dealt with the leadership on Nexus Six. If there were interplanetary rivalries going on, we could have a problem. Especially if First of Three held one half of the portal assembly manual and First Dominant Yiuliob held the other.
Luckily, Selene was on top of it. “The First of Three may suggest to First Dominant Yiuliob,” she said evenly. “He does not demand or order. First Dominant Yiuliob sent us himself.”
“So he may have said,” Quodli countered, stopping a couple of meters in front of us. “Who can tell if it is truly so?”
I winced. So it wasn’t just politics between Ammei enclaves. There were apparently some internal rivalries here on Juniper muddying the waters.
“Nonetheless, we were sent for the book,” Selene said. “Please take us to it.”
Quodli half turned to look again at the sorting floor’s Hat Man. “I will bring it,” he said, turning back to us. “Tell me First Dominant Yiuliob’s authorization words.”
I felt my stomach knot up. Hell. But of course there would be authorization words. Even with the Ammei in control of both ends of this Gemini portal they wouldn’t be naïve enough to just let some stranger wander in and walk off with their stuff. “Those words are for your ears only,” I spoke up before Selene could answer. “Take us to a private place near to the book. We’ll give you the code and you can then hand over the book.”
“This place is sufficiently private,” Quodli said. “Tell me now.”
Beside me, Selene gave a small little gasp. I looked at her.
My stomach knot tightened a couple more turns. Her pupils had suddenly gone tense, her eyes flicking behind us at the portal. Clearly, someone had just come through behind us from Nexus Six…and from the expression in her eyes it wasn’t a group of Iykams sent by Muninn as backup.
At the moment, the intruders were still floating toward the receiver module’s inner hull. We had until they landed to get the hell out of here.
“Let’s compromise,” I proposed to Quodli, stepping back to the portal hatchway. “We’ll all go inside and I’ll give you the code there.” Without waiting for an answer, I stuck my head and torso into the opening and swung my legs through.
The newcomers were four Ammei soldiers, lightning guns slung over their shoulders, hand weapons drawn and ready. They were still falling slowly toward different parts of the hull, but they were on the alert and had spotted me even before I was fully inside.
Unfortunately for them, none of them was in position to target me. I drew my stunner and fired a shot at each of them, turning them into a set of living rag dolls as they continued drifting toward the surface.
“Home?”
I looked back to see that Selene was inside and on her feet. “Home,” I confirmed, leveling my stunner at the opening. “Go.”
She nodded and took off running toward the interface. Quodli, clearly oblivious to what had just happened, poked his head into the sphere. He jerked to a halt as he saw the weapon leveled at his face. “What is this?” he demanded.
“Change of plans,” I told him. My first instinct was to shoot him where he stood, hoping the resulting confusion in the crowd outside the portal would slow any reaction. My second instinct was my natural hesitancy to shoot anyone in the face. “Get out of here,” I continued, gesturing him back. “We’ll talk later.”
For a moment I thought he was going to force the issue. Then, without a word, he dropped back out of sight.
And with that, the clock was ticking. Whether or not there were guards inside the sorting area, there were surely some standing on call nearby. Selene and I needed to be long gone before Quodli whistled them up, ideally without having them pop out onto Nexus Six behind us.
I scooped up my helmet from the deck and headed for the interface. I could hear a growing cacophony of shouting voices from the opening behind me as I jammed the helmet back on my head and keyed the audios. I knew several ways of closing off a portal or otherwise discouraging pursuit, but all of them required equipment I didn’t have. I would just have to come up with something new before Quodli got his response organized.
Selene was already out of sight through the interface. I slowed my approach, mentally preparing myself to lean over and dive in, when I heard a soft chuff from behind me. I spun around in mid-stride—
To see a small cannister arcing directly toward the interface.
I didn’t know what the cannister contained. All I knew was that Selene was on the other side of that opening, and that I was armored and she wasn’t. I turned what would have been my final leap through the interface into a belly flop on top of it, my arms and legs extended outward in a Da Vinci pose to hold me in place over the gap, my back to the missile. Half closing my eyes, feeling every muscle in my body tense up, I waited for the impact. The cannister slammed into the small of my back with a lot less force than I’d expected—
And the world around me exploded into thick, orange smoke.
I got just a whiff of something odd before automatic air scrubbers I hadn’t been told about kicked into action, sealing the helmet around my neck and expelling the bits of gas that had made it inside. “Selene—gas!” I shouted a warning. Spinning around, I looked back across the receiver module.
The Amme who’d fired the first grenade had a second missile on the way. I braced myself, noting peripherally that the orange gas was settling quickly against the hull, and as the grenade reached me I slapped at it with my stunner. It exploded into another burst of gas with the impact.
But this time my counterblow sent the cannister arcing and bouncing back the way it had come, trailing smoke behind it like some child’s rendering of a comet. The shooter saw it coming and ducked out of the opening.
He would be back, though, probably with a bunch of friends. Pulling in my arms and legs, I rolled into the launch module.
Selene was standing beside the extension arm, her pupils cringing as she looked at the orange smoke swirling around her ankles. “You all right?” I called.
“For the moment,” she said. “This smells like a knockout gas, not poison.”
“Not surprised,” I grunted as I pulled out my knife. “Counterproductive to kill the intruders before you interrogate them.” At least the stuff was heavier than air, which would buy us a bit more time. “Here—catch.” I lobbed her the knife. “Can you find the controls or power line to the extension arm’s grav field?”
“I think so,” she said, a frown in her pupils as she caught the knife. “Why?”
“I want you to isolate and knock out the grav that takes us up the arm without affecting the rest of the arm’s functions. Can you do that?”
She looked down at the extension arm’s base. “Yes,” she said. “Why?”
“Because we don’t want them following us,” I said, popping open my stunner’s access panel. The capacitor that delivered the knockout juice…there it was. “Find it but don’t do anything until I tell you.”
I pulled out the capacitor and stuck it into my belt, then rolled over to look through the interface. A couple of Ammei had appeared across the way, this pair sporting gas masks. I lifted the stunner, aimed, and fired.
I wasn’t sure the weapon had enough range to deliver its electrodes across the receiver module’s thirty meters. To my mild surprise, it did, though the leads’ path was fascinatingly twisty as they crossed the radial gravitational field. The Ammei saw the leads coming and ducked back out of sight.
With the capacitor removed, of course, there was no blast of current for them to hide from. But that wasn’t why I’d fired. What I needed to know was how strong the leads were, and how well they were connected to the gun.
It was a standing joke around the Spiral that if you wanted something overengineered you should give the job to a Patth. In this case, that derision was going to work in my favor. Holding the gun in one hand and the leads in the other, I pulled as hard as I could.
Nothing. The leads stayed intact and connected to the gun against my best efforts.
Perfect.
I pulled out my push knife, cut off the leads, and rolled back over. Selene was leaning gingerly over the extension arm’s base, keeping her face well above the drifting gas, a slender cable in one hand and my knife in the other. “Ready?” I called.
“Yes.”
“Good. Catch.” I tossed the gun across the sphere to her. The twisty path it followed was even more pronounced than the one the leads had mapped out, but she caught it without difficulty. “Here’s what we’re going to do.”
It took me three short sentences to explain it. “Are you sure?” she asked.
“As sure as I can be,” I said. I thought about keying the helmet’s optics to get a better look at her pupils, decided I really didn’t want to know what she thought about the plan. “Regardless, I think it’s our only shot.”
“All right.” She paused, took a deep breath, and sliced the wire. Then, raising her eyes and the stunner, she fired.
The electrodes slammed into my chest, the armor absorbing most of the impact. I caught the leads, wrapping the slender wires around my hand for extra grip, and started pulling.
And as the wires between us steadily shortened, we began rising toward each other.
Selene and I were nearly the same weight, and the physics of the situation said we would reach the business end of the arm together. Unfortunately, I hadn’t considered the weight of my combat suit when I’d done my mental calculation. Even as I continued pulling hand over hand, I saw she would reach the luminescent gray trigger section before I did.
Fortunately, she’d also spotted the problem. Her solution was to wrap her legs loosely around the extension arm, the friction adding just enough braking to compensate for my extra weight. I kept pulling, trying to ignore the voices and scrambling footsteps I could now hear coming from the receiver module. We reached the gray trigger, both of us let go with one hand and reached for it—
Just in time for one of our pursuers to appear in the interface and stick a gas grenade gun through the opening.
Fortunately, he was too late, a point I emphasized by hurling my push knife at his face. There was just enough time for me to see him flinch back, his weapon momentarily forgotten, before the world around Selene and me vanished.
I huffed out a sigh of relief in the darkness. Two seconds later, we were back on Nexus Six.
“That was interesting,” Selene said as we floated downward.
“One of my goals in life is to keep your life interesting,” I said. “Toss me that, will you?”
“It really doesn’t have to be this interesting,” she assured me as she lobbed me the stunner, the leads trailing behind it.
“I’ll make a note,” I said. “Did you happen to bring my knife along?”
“Sorry,” she said. “I needed to hold onto the gun with both hands.”
“Not a problem,” I said, scowling at the weapon. With both knives gone, I had no way to get rid of the dangling leads.
But I could at least get them out of my way. Coiling them up, I pressed them against the grip where they’d be tucked up under my palm. It felt awkward, but it should keep me from tripping over them. I popped the rear compartment and returned the capacitor to its place, then loaded my last magazine. As long as we didn’t run into more than six Ammei, we should be fine. “So much for getting the book. Any ideas for what we should do next?”
“You said earlier I should find Ixil,” Selene reminded me.
“That was if we got split up,” I said. “The question is whether we head to the Tower and try to find the first book or go back to Nask and tell him we struck out.”
“Do we really need to deliver that news in person?”
“Technically, probably not,” I said. “But I wouldn’t want him thinking I found the book he and I made a deal for and then handed it over to Kinneman.”
“You should be able to give him those assurances through a StarrComm message.”
“Agreed,” I said. “It also occurs to me that we need to get off this rock, and that Kinneman’s still mad at us. Nask may be the lesser of the two evils right now.”
For a moment, Selene seemed to digest that. “You just said we have no bargaining leverage with him.”
“Actually, we do,” I said. “We have you.”
“He has Tirano,” she pointed out.
“Who’s young and inexperienced,” I said. “No, he needs you, all right. More important, he doesn’t want First of Three to have you.”
We reached the end of our gentle fall and dropped the usual final meter to the deck. “That’s all well and good,” Selene said as we made our way around the sphere toward the hatch we’d come in by. “But it seems to me that the best way to assure no one else has me is to drop me into a box somewhere. The same thing Kinneman is threatening.”
“True,” I conceded, looking around the empty sphere. Given that First of Three had sent a four-pack of soldiers chasing us to Juniper I’d assumed he would at least have a backup force standing ready here on Nexus Six in case we came back. Apparently, Muninn and his Iykams were keeping his forces too busy to bother with loose ends like us. “But Kinneman doesn’t have any other pieces of the Ammei/Patth/Kadolian puzzle, so all he’s got is a game of dog-in-the-manger. The Patth, on the other hand, do have a piece. With you in hand, they have two of them.”
“So it boils down to going with either Nask or Kinneman.”
“I’m not crazy about the choices either,” I admitted as I popped the hatch. “Let’s see what we can do about finding a different one.”
Morning was still a couple of hours away, and the stars over the eastern mountains were blazing with the universe’s usual indifference toward the affairs of men. I looked over at Imistio Tower, searching for lightning-gun flickers, but I didn’t see any. “Looks like the battle’s over,” I told Selene. “I wonder who won.”
“Maybe we should go find out,” a familiar voice came from behind us.
Slowly, carefully, I turned around.
Jordan McKell was standing there, a pair of camo-suited Marines flanking him. “Hello, McKell,” I said as calmly as I could. “Here to sample the Nexus Six nightlife?”
“More likely to count the bodies,” he said. “But first things first.”
He seemed to brace himself. “Gregory Roarke, under authority of General Josiah Leland Kinneman, I’m placing you under EarthGuard military arrest.”