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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Ixil was already on his feet, his hand gripping his holstered plasmic, as Pix and Pax leaped onto the floor and made for a pair of cracks in opposite walls. Ixil caught my eye, gestured in silent command toward a half-collapsed doorway on my right. I nodded acknowledgment and slipped through the opening.

I found myself in another room, smaller than the one I’d just left, with a ceiling that was completely collapsed on the side facing the river. The ceiling of our building’s upper story was visible through the broken opening, that section also collapsed nearly flat. Across the warped floor was a gap that had probably once been a second-floor window but now opened just above ground level.

Ixil came up behind me. “Through the window,” he whispered. “Into the river. There’s a Barracuda tethered underwater to a rock at the edge of the riverbank about twenty meters upstream. Wait for me there.”

I nodded and picked my way across the debris to the window. I crouched in the gap a moment, doing a quick scan of the area, then slipped outside.

I’d heard the river when I first approached Ixil’s hideaway but hadn’t realized just how close it was. Now, I could see that the western bank was no more than ten meters away, just beyond a line of the reeds like the ones Selene and I had seen near the dock a few kilometers farther north. I could hear more footsteps, but none of them seemed to be coming from the stretch I needed to cross.

Which could just mean the crowd behind me with the big feet were making noise on purpose in hopes of flushing their quarry into the arms of a squad waiting quietly along the riverbank.

I huffed out a silent sigh. In which case, my best move here might be a sacrifice play. As my father used to say, Sometimes you need to sacrifice a good position in order to leave an ally in a better one. Circe knew I was out here but she didn’t know about Ixil. If I could play stupid into their trap before they spotted him, we would still have a wild card up our sleeve that no one knew about. I gathered my feet beneath me, picking out a promising spot in the reeds—

A movement to my right caught my eye. One of Ixil’s outriders had emerged from the reeds about five meters upstream from me. He raised himself up on his hind legs like he was trying for a better view, then turned and looked at me.

It was as good an invitation as I was likely to get. Shifting direction, I headed toward him, keeping hunched over and running as quietly as I could. He dropped back to all fours as I approached and disappeared into the stand of reeds.

With my focus on getting caught before anyone found Ixil I hadn’t worried about making an obvious exit point in the reeds. Now, though, I saw that Ixil already had that covered. What I’d assumed was a single solid line of the plants turned out to be actually two lines, with a small gap between them. The outrider ahead of me had gone down an angled lane that led across the gap. I eased down the lane, trying not to break or bend any of the reeds along the way, and found myself at the water’s edge.

The outrider—it was Pax, I saw now—was waiting with an air of impatience. I nodded and eased my way past him into the cold water. I reached for him, intending to set him on my shoulder for the upcoming swim, but he merely hopped past my extended hand into the water and started paddling his way upstream. Taking one last look along the river, still wondering if there was an ambush waiting, I followed.

I found the hidden gear right where Ixil had said it would be. With their combination of a three-hose scuba breathing setup, powered diving wings, and passive threat-sensor arrays, Barracudas were the tool of choice for EarthGuard’s elite SOLA units. In this case, Ixil had added two sealed hamster-ball carriers big enough to safely get his outriders back to Alpha.

Assuming he and Pix were able to get here before the searchers found them. I got Pax into his ball, watched with distracted interest as he triggered the compact scrubber/rebreather, then settled in to wait.

I’d been there about ten minutes, hanging onto the rock with one hand and Pax’s ball with the other, my eyes and nose just above water as I slowly froze to death, when a sudden swell sent a small wall up the back of my neck and nearly over the top of my head. I spun around as the flood subsided, blinking water out of my eyes, to see Ixil floating downstream toward me, Pix perched on his shoulder. “You all right?” he whispered as he came up to me.

“Fine,” I said. “I’ve got Pax in his ball. I wasn’t expecting you to come from that direction.”

“I thought it wise to decoy them a bit,” he said. “Grab one of the mouthpieces and one of the handgrips and we’ll be off.”

“Wait a minute,” I said as he retrieved the other hamster ball and scooted Pix into it. “We can’t leave without Selene.”

“You told me she was a VIP among the Ammei.”

“That was before I pulled my disappearing act,” I said. “And before Fearth and Circe spouted off whatever lies and poison they’ve spent the last few hours spreading.”

“I understand your concerns,” Ixil said, scooping up two of the scuba mouthpieces and handing one to me. “But there’s nothing the two of us can do alone. We need to get back to Icarus and work out a plan of action.”

“Ixil—”

“Unless you have a plan right now for freeing her,” he cut me off. “Not an intention or a desire, but an actual plan.”

I glared at him. But he was right. It was just him and me, with only a single weapon between us, and without any additional resources for either combat or evasion. Even the survival supplies he’d had back in the house were presumably gone by now. Silently, I plucked the mouthpiece from his hand and set it into my mouth.

“We’ll be back,” Ixil assured me. “Don’t worry. We’ll get her out.”

Twenty seconds later, with the air hissing through my mouth and the diving wing vibrating in my hands, we headed toward Alpha.

* * *

Barracuda diving wings, I’d heard, could crank up to impressive underwater speeds. In this case, though, Ixil kept the engines at low power, content to let the river carry us along toward Alpha at its own pace and maneuvering only when he felt it necessary to avoid compact schools of fish or tendrils of river weed that might telegraph our position to anyone watching from the bank.

I could appreciate Ixil’s desire for stealth. On the other hand, the river wasn’t getting any warmer, and I guessed Pix and Pax had limited air capacity. It was a relief when we finally came within sight of Shark Tooth Rock and the dark curve of Alpha’s receiver module beside it. Ixil anchored the Barracuda to one of a set of freshly attached rings beside a darkened but open hatch, motioned me to take a final breath, then popped out his own mouthpiece, collected the two hamster balls, and pushed himself into the opening. For a second his legs flailed as his head and torso adjusted to the new gravity direction inside the module, and then he was gone. I took my own last breath and followed.

The fact that there’d been no light showing through the open hatch as we approached had worried me a little, given that the only portals I’d ever seen without that omnipresent glow had been either dead or seriously unconscious. But as I pushed through the hatchway I saw that Kinneman’s people had simply gone the obvious route of rigging a blackout tent over the hatch.

Ixil was standing in the usual puddle that had collected around the hatch, waiting for me beside a flap in one of the walls. Pix and Pax were already out of their balls and back to their usual spots on his shoulders. “This way,” Ixil said, lifting the flap to show yet more black fabric beyond. “I imagine he’ll want to talk to you.”

I felt my lip twist. “I can hardly wait.”

“And keep your hands visible.” Turning around, Ixil headed through the flap. I ran my hands over my jacket and trousers to squeeze out as much of the water soaked into the fabric as I could and followed.

The black fabric turned out to be a short tunnel acting as a visual airlock. We passed through it and out another flap at the far end.

To find ourselves facing a semicircle of heavy laser muzzles. Five weapons in all, gripped in the hands of five armored EarthGuard Marines, none of whom looked especially glad to see either of us.

Or maybe that was my imagination. They probably were glad enough to see Ixil, at least.

“Vatican cameos,” Ixil said, lifting his hands to confirm their emptiness. I did likewise. In response, the laser muzzles lowered to point at the deck. “Is Colonel McKell here?” Ixil asked, taking a step forward.

“He’s at Icarus, sir,” one of the Marines said, eyeing me. “General Kinneman also left orders that if Roarke arrived we were to escort him directly there.”

“That’s all right, I’ll take him,” Ixil said, beckoning to me as he turned toward the launch module interface.

The Marine took a long sideways step into his path. “The general said we were to escort him there personally.

Ixil shot a look at me. “As you wish,” he said, resuming his walk.

This time, the Marine stepped out of his way. Ixil and I passed through the group, the five of them forming up behind us.

And as we walked, I gave the sphere a careful look.

Most of the tangled equipment heaps that had been created by Alpha’s loss of gravity during our landing were still where Selene and I had left them. Elsewhere, though, the module had become an armed camp. The place was buzzing with men and women in EarthGuard uniforms, most of them sporting the shoulder patches of the elite SOLA combat specialists. On one side of the blackout tent were three new weapons racks, one holding half a dozen Pashnian over/under plasmic/10mms, one with the simpler EarthGuard standard-issue Sigurd plasmics, and one with four especially nasty-looking Parabel 9mm rocket-load sniper rifles. On the other side of the tent, beside the spare Barracudas, was a hanging rack of combat drysuits. Whatever Kinneman was planning, it looked like he was almost ready to go.

I felt my throat tighten. For Selene’s sake—and probably for Kinneman’s—I needed to persuade him otherwise.

We reached the interface and, one by one, rolled over into the launch module. Three minutes and a floating trip up the extension arm later, we all popped into the Icarus receiver module.

The first time I’d traveled here to the heart of the Icarus Group I’d been greeted by a squad of Kalixiri soldiers resting comfortably on their backs along the inner hull, heavy lasers pointed at the spot every visitor to the portal had to pass through. Now, as had been the case when Selene and I were brought in at the beginning of this current mess, those aliens had been replaced by humans wearing the same SOLA shoulder patches as the soldiers in the Alpha module.

Not only had Kinneman turned the Icarus Group into a humans-only club, he’d populated it with EarthGuard’s most elite troops.

Someone must have radioed ahead, because I rolled out of the portal into the main base to find six more SOLA soldiers waiting for us. “Mr. Roarke,” one of them said, his voice briskly formal. “In accordance with Section Twenty-Eight of the Unified EarthGuard Articles, General Kinneman has ordered that you be placed under arrest, pending a trial on the charge of treason. We have orders to escort you to a holding cell until then.

“Your trial will begin in one hour.”

* * *

As my father used to say, You never know how mad someone is until he threatens you with something he can’t possibly pull off.

But as he also said, When someone’s too mad to think straight, walk very carefully. There’s no satisfaction in making him sweat about where to dump your body.

So I didn’t protest or complain as the soldiers quick-marched me down the corridor. I didn’t even breathe loudly.

Still, I had to admit at how impressively he’d choreographed our procession. Between me, Ixil, the five soldiers from the Icarus portal, and the six new ones we’d now picked up, we had to look like either a dangerous prisoner transfer or the changing of the guard at someone’s palace.

I’d had a private bet with myself that Kinneman would have gone old-school on his brig, with cells made of metal bar crosshatches and doors opened with physical keys. But we arrived at our destination to find just the standard unbreakable plastic walls perforated by clusters of two-centimeter-diameter gerbil-cage-style air holes. The furnishings were also EarthGuard standard: a cot, a blanket, a pillow, a chair, and a sink/toilet combo.

This particular brig consisted of only three cells. I wondered if the Alien Portal Agency’s troop discipline was really that good, or if this was just the VIP section and there were other spots for employees who didn’t live up to the general’s standards.

The center cell was waiting for me, the sergeant acting as jailer standing ready beside the open door. At his direction I emptied my pockets onto a table a meter from the cell door and stepped inside. The sergeant closed and locked the door behind me, and my escort marched out. Ixil stayed long enough to assure me he would talk to Kinneman—though considering his standing in the general’s eyes probably wasn’t any better than mine was I doubted that would do much good—then followed. The sergeant gave me a final look, then retreated to a duty office on the opposite side of the room.

Leaving me standing there, alone, cold, and facing court-martial, with water oozing from my wet clothes into a small puddle around my feet.

And even at that, the bitter thought clouded my soul, I was likely in a better situation than Selene.

The chair was metal and looked extremely uncomfortable. But sitting on the cot in my wet clothing would soak the mattress, and despite Kinneman’s promise of an imminent trial I figured I’d likely be here long enough to sleep. But I was also damned if I would strip in front of my jailer or whoever Kinneman had watching via the cluster of cameras on the opposite wall.

Which left me only the chair. Easing myself onto it, wincing as the cold water and colder metal pressed against my skin, I looked around in hopes of inspiration.

It wasn’t promising. The chair, cot, and toilet were bolted to the metal floor, and none of them could be disassembled without specialized tools. Without tools or privacy, there wasn’t a single thing I could do but wait.

Apparently not for long. I was still examining my new quarters when the brig door opened. I shifted my gaze in that direction, expecting to see Kinneman here to threaten me in person—

“Hello, son.”

I sighed. “Hello, Dad,” I said. “Excuse me for not getting up. It’s just so very comfortable here.”

“Yes, I can see that,” he said with a hint of amusement. “Sergeant?”

The jailer poked his head out of his office. “Yes, Sir Nicholas?”

“I have dry clothes for the prisoner,” he said, hefting the satchel he was carrying. “Will you open the door, please?”

“Yes, sir.” The sergeant stepped briskly into the room, crossed to my cell, and keyed it open. “I have to examine everything first,” he said, almost apologetically.

“Understood.” My father stepped close to him and opened the satchel.

If it had been McKell or Ixil, this would have been the moment when knockout gas puffed out, or a flash-bang went off, or the sergeant would collect a paralyzing stomach jab under the satchel’s cover.

But this wasn’t either of them. This was my dad. The jailer peered into the case, poked around a bit, then nodded. “Clear, sir,” he said, stepping back.

“And you can turn those off,” my father added, nodding toward the cameras. “A bit of privacy would be appreciated.”

The sergeant hesitated, then nodded. “Of course, Sir Nicholas. But they have to go back on once he’s dressed.”

“Understood.” My father stepped into my cell. “You can lock me in if you want.”

The sergeant nodded again, closed the door and locked it, then retreated again to his office. “Here,” my father said, watching the cameras as he handed me the satchel. “You can start…now.”

I nodded. The little lights that supposedly showed when cameras were active were easy to gimmick, a simple trick that had brought many a prisoner to grief after being lured into blabbing something incriminating. But there were other, more subtle indications that cameras were off, and I knew all of them. These cameras were definitely off.

So, presumably, were the directional microphones inevitably associated with them.

“So we’re not doing a prison escape?” I asked as I pulled off my jacket.

“No point to it,” my father said, frowning. “You didn’t really think he was serious about putting you on trial, did you?”

“Shouldn’t I have been?”

My father shook his head. “He’s mad, Gregory. Mad at you, mad at your friends, mad at the situation you’ve forced him into on Nexus Six. And you never know how mad someone is until he threatens you with something he can’t pull off.”

“Can’t possibly pull off,” I corrected him absently as I studied his face. “So why are you here?”

My father’s mouth puckered. “To give you a heads-up,” he said. “Obviously, there’s nothing General Kinneman can do to you within the time frame he specified. Even martial law has strict guidelines to prevent those in power from going all Attila the Hun on people.”

“So violent threats are just his idea of a bargaining chip?” I asked, dropping my trousers and leaving myself clad only in underwear.

“Basically,” my father said, turning turned his back to me. “What he wants is for you to go back to Nexus Six ahead of the SOLA team he’s prepping. You’ll gather as much intel on the situation as you can: Ammei deployment, defenses, key locations, and so on. Once you’ve gotten everything you can and the fighting starts, you can retreat back to Alpha.”

“Sounds reasonable enough,” I said, dropping my underwear and starting to towel myself off. “Does that mean I’ll be getting my own Barracuda and combat suit?”

“Of course,” he said. “Plus any weapons you want, plus possibly some support personnel. You’ll have to negotiate that latter part with the general.”

“I’ll at least need Ixil,” I said. I finished with the towel and pulled the fresh underwear from the satchel. “You think Kinneman will go for that?”

“Considering how far Ixil is into your same doghouse, I think he’d be amenable to that,” my father said dryly. “You decent again?”

“Yes,” I said, getting my feet into my new trousers. “Nicely done, by the way.”

He turned back to face me, frowning. “Come again?”

“Picking the moment you were turned away from me to offload all the questionable stuff,” I said. “You figured I knew your tells, and hoped you could slide all that past me.”

“I just turned around for modesty’s sake,” he insisted.

“Oh, come on, Dad,” I chided. “Did you really not know you have vocal tells, too?”

He pursed his lips. “Actually, I didn’t,” he admitted. “All right, you caught me. What do you want to know?”

“I think I can guess,” I said. “Everything’s supposed to go exactly the way you laid it out…except that I’m not gathering intel, I’m providing the diversion. Kinneman’s sending me in to get caught, and while the Ammei and Patth are all fussing over me the SOLA team hits the place. Tell me I’m wrong.”

He sighed. “No, that’s pretty much it,” he said. “But if you look at it from Kinneman’s perspective—”

“You don’t need to sell it,” I interrupted him. “I’m in.”

“—it’s a matter—” He broke off. “What?”

“I said I’m on board with being the sacrificial goat.” I lifted a finger. “On one condition. The first thing the SOLA team does once they get to the Tower is pull Selene out.”

“Oh,” my father said, looking a little taken aback. “Well…” He sighed. “No use lying, is it? I’m sorry, Gregory, but the team’s first job will be to secure the Gemini portals. Kinneman’s not going to budge on that one.”

“And Selene?”

“A distant second.”

I felt my stomach tighten. Down deep, I’d known that would be how Kinneman’s priorities would shake out. “Then let me sweeten the pot,” I offered. “I know where RH is.”

His expression twitched. “You know?”

“Yes,” I said.

Because I could play fast and loose with the truth as well as he could. And really, I did know the other half of the portal directory was in the Tower library. Somewhere. Probably. “Once Selene is safely out, I’ll get it.”

For half a dozen heartbeats he just stared at me. I probably had tells, too, but at this point I didn’t really care whether or not he suspected me of fudging things. If there was even the slightest possibility that I was telling the truth he would have to tell Kinneman, and Kinneman would have no choice but to play those odds.

“All right, I’ll tell him,” my father said. “No promises, but—”

“And there’s a time limit on this offer,” I said. “I don’t know what they might be doing to Selene in there, but I’m not going to stretch this out while Kinneman dithers or consults or asks his prognosticator or whatever. He said he was bringing me to trial in one hour? Fine. He’s got that same hour to send Ixil and me back to Nexus Six.”

* * *

I never found out how that conversation went. All I knew was that, forty minutes after my father headed back to Kinneman I was hauled out of my cell, sent back through Icarus to Alpha, and poured into a SOLA drysuit. Ixil, similarly garbed, was already waiting by the blackout tunnel when I arrived, Pix and Pax back in their hamster balls on his shoulders. “We ready?” I asked as I walked up to him.

“Yes.” His eyes flicked over my shoulder. “You sure you want to do this? There’s no telling how the Ammei will react when you reappear.”

“Sure there’s telling,” I said as casually as I could. “Depending on what Circe and Fearth told them, they’ll be either angry or lethal. But it’ll all be on me. You and the outriders are going to go to ground the minute we’re ashore.”

The outriders gave a simultaneous twitch. “Interesting plan,” Ixil said. “We won’t, of course.”

“You won’t?”

“I’m told you specifically asked for us,” Ixil said. “Therefore, you have a plan that requires us.”

“I do have a Plan B,” I admitted. “But the current Plan A is still for you to sit tight and wait for the cavalry.”

“Plan B it is, then,” Ixil said, securing his helmet and tapping the radio key. “You can tell me all about it on the trip over,” he added, his voice now coming through my helmet speaker.

“Sure,” I said, sliding on my own helmet. “Really, you’re going to love it.”



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