Death Sentence (39 page)

They had both gone over the weapons and gear they carried a dozen times and were as sure as they could be that everything was all ready. The main item in the armory concealed in Jamie's dinner jacket consisted of a lightweight all-plastic slug-throwing gun, designed as much to get past detectors as it was to fire bullets. The rounds it fired were a special high-density shatterproof plastic, but even so they packed a lot less stopping power or penetration ability than a conventional gun. He also had a pocket laser cutter that could serve as a low-power laser pistol in a pinch, a single baby stun grenade, an even tinier smoke grenade, a set of night-vision goggles, an encrypted pocket comm, and a Swiss Army knife.

Hannah's equipment was even sparser, thanks to the limitations imposed by a lady's evening bag. She had an identical plastic slug-thrower, but not the laser cutter or grenades or goggles or knife. She did have a pocket comm matched to Jamie's and a small spool that held fifty meters of superthin, superstrong tapeline strong enough to hoist a piano, plus a pair of lethal little throwing knives, a tube of eyeliner, a lipstick, and a compact with a mirror.

Taranarak, needless to say, was carrying no weapons or useful gadgets of any sort, and her carton full of supplies didn't seem to contain anything that might prove helpful.

"All right, Jamie," Hannah said, speaking in Lesser Trade for Taranarak's benefit. "You're our tactical genius. How do we play this?"

"We have no idea at all what we're up against out there," said Jamie, "so it's a little hard to say. If it's sixty Order Guards in full battle gear, we don't have a chance, of course. But what we've got going for us is that it's probably a small conspiratorial group--and they probably think we're dead already. However, unless they're completely blind and deaf, they're going to notice this liftpod coming in for a landing, so we can't count much on surprise."

"Or we might get lucky and we might beat them there--or they might not be coming at all."

"Maybe. But tactics and optimism don't mix too well. So here's what we're going to do. I'm going out first, because I'm the junior team member and because I'm better with weapons--but mostly because I can move better in trousers than you can in that outfit. You and Taranarak stay put in the liftpod--and you stay as far from the door as you can until I say otherwise, just in case someone out there decides to take a few potshots at it or throw in a grenade.

"Hannah, you stand by, ready to move out when I tell you. You carry your gun in one hand, wear your pocket comm as a headphone, and carry everything else in the purse. I'm going to run like hell as soon as the door opens, find some cover, then see what I can see. I'm going to want to get to some sort of spot where I can provide covering fire for you, Hannah, when you come out. Taranarak, you're going to stay put in the liftpod until we know what's going on. Hannah and I are used to working together. My apologies for that. We don't have a weapon or a comm unit for you and you don't have the training."

Plus we really don't know if we can trust you,
thought Hannah. "That all seems clear enough," said Hannah. "Come on, Taranarak, let's get to the forward end, away from the hatch."

Jamie stood by the hatch, watching the status display. "The acceleration compensators are just
too
good on this planet," he said. "I would feel a lot better if there was some vibration or sense of speed or
something.
" He watched the display. "We're about two minutes out," he said. "Taranarak, again, my apologies but I'm going to switch to English now, just to make it harder if anyone's listening in."

Jamie pulled out his comm unit and unfolded it into headset mode, put the receiver in his ear, and positioned the mike in front of his mouth. Hannah did the same.

"Comm check, comm check," Jamie said in a low voice. "And what we do if the comm units don't work I have no idea."

"I hear you loud and clear, partner," said Hannah. "How do you hear me?"

"The same. Good. One less worry. We're about one minute out. Stand by."

There was a trio of low clunks and thuds. "Landing skids just came out," Jamie said in a near whisper. There was a squeak and a groan, but no shake or thud or sense of motion. "And we're down. Stand by. I think if I'm reading this right, the automatic systems are growing an atmosphere-zone around us."

"I don't know if it's possible to run through those pressure-containment fields or not," said Hannah. "Careful you don't go try the experiment when you start moving around."

"Right. Okay. Good safety tip. The status display says we've got pressure out there now. I think the hatch is about to open. Here we go."

The hatch swung out and down to serve as an access ramp. Jamie was through it almost before it was finished opening.

Hannah tightened her grip on her pistol and swallowed hard.

Jamie resisted the temptation to do anything fancy like a tuck-and-roll dive. Not in a tuxedo without much give in it, or in a gravity field that was twenty-one percent too high. Instead he settled for a quick trot down the access ramp, then a quick turn to the aft end of the bullet-shaped vehicle, in hopes of getting himself away from the obvious target of the hatch. He got himself in under the liftpod between the aft landing skids. There was no other piece of cover anywhere nearby on the giant bowl-shaped landing field. He went to a kneel-down to make himself a smaller target and made a rapid sweep of the horizon.

It took a moment to get his bearings. He spotted Nexus Center, almost dead ahead as he faced in the direction that the ramp faced. But where was the
Sholto
? She seemed to be nowhere in sight. Maybe the bad guys had gotten there first, used their superduper Elder Race technology to defeat the locks and the self-destruct system, and launched her away.

But then Jamie turned around to look behind himself. There! Not a hundred meters away. "The
Sholto
is still there and intact," he whispered into his headphone mike.

"Any sign of company?"

"Not sure. The lighting's not so good." They had landed just before "dawn," as measured by Groundside Station, but as seen from the vantage point of a location tens of thousands of kilometers above that point on the ground, the sun was well up in the sky--directly behind the
Sholto
as seen from where Jamie was. Whatever trickery the Metrannans used to filter the red-tinted sunlight was working just fine, but it was tough seeing much of anything with the
Sholto
more or less in rose-colored silhouette. "Hold it. Yes! Movement for sure. But I can't see more than that." Jamie thought of the night-vision goggles, but decided against trying them out. More than likely they'd be just as dazzled by the full-in-the-face bright sunlight as his naked eyeballs. Better not to lose time getting them out and fumbling around to get them on and maybe knocking off his comm headset or dropping his gun.

"Can you at least tell how many?" Hannah asked.

"One that I can see for sure," Jamie said, "and I can't really see more than jerky movement in front of the main air lock. But the light's tricky as hell, and there could be twenty more of them around the back. The crazy thing is that whoever it is isn't paying any attention to the liftpod that just landed behind him."

"So what do we do?"

"Move now, before whoever that is gets his act together. Come out of the hatch and move to your left, toward the nose. Cover me from there. I'll move in and try and angle around enough to get the
Sholto
out of silhouette and see who's there before I start shooting. Come in behind me, but stay back far enough to give cover."

"Understood. Don't be shy about shooting at the ship. The plastic rounds won't penetrate the hull."

"What worries me is they won't penetrate anything else, either. Let me know when you're in position."

"Right," said Hannah.

Jamie kept his eye on the
Sholto
as he reached into his jacket pocket for his one and only stun grenade. He flipped the safety off by feel and glanced down at it to make sure it was primed and ready to go. He heard a flutter of movement off to his left, but didn't turn his head.

"Okay," said Hannah's whispered voice in the headphones. "Ready."

"I'm going on three," Jamie whispered back, trying not to notice his stomach tightening up. "One. Two.
Three!
"

Jamie straightened up and started jogging toward a point slightly to the right of the
Sholto
, pistol at the high-ready position in his right hand, grenade in the left, his eyes fixed on the ship as his movement made the lighting angle shift. Another few steps and the sun would be out of his eyes, and he'd be able to see.

A glint, a shimmer of fluid, metallic movement. Something or someone tall and thin was standing on a mobile ramp that was pushed up against the side of the
Sholto
. Then he understood what he was seeing. A Xenoatric, an Unseen Being, working intently with some sort of electronic control box that had leads attached to a ship access panel on the side of the
Sholto
.

Bulwark of Constancy.

Whatever, whoever, he had expected to see, that wasn't it.

Jamie leveled his gun at Bulwark of Constancy and moved in, uncertain what to do. There didn't seem to be anyone else around. Constancy was alone. And he wasn't the least bit sure a plastic bullet would do anything more to Constancy's carapace than it would to the ship. Maybe--maybe--he could end this without finding out.

"Get away from the ship!" he shouted out in Lesser Trade, in the loudest, most belligerent and authoritative voice he could muster. "Move all your limbs away from the ship and come down the ramp NOW!"

Constancy jerked upright, apparently aware of him for the first time. It swiveled toward him, and Jamie remembered the words it had spoken to him.
You should be killed
. "Down the ramp NOW!" he shouted again. "Let's go!"

Constancy lifted its legs, one after another, and moved its wicked, metal-taloned feet. It moved, slowly, carefully, down the ramp. It had something in one of its manipulator mandibles. It raised the mandible, and pointed the object at Jamie.

He was half a heartbeat away from firing at Constancy when he saw what it was, or at least what it appeared to be.

A spray gun.
It looked like the sort of thing a gardener might use as a plant mister. He lowered his weapon just a trifle--and suddenly Constancy was moving faster than he thought it could down that ramp, raising the sprayer toward him, aiming it at his face.

BLAM! BLAM BLAM BLAM! Hannah was firing, emptying her four-shot gun at Constancy. At least three of the rounds struck it, smashing and shattering on its carapace, rocking Constancy back, nearly toppling the Xenoatric. But it regained its balance and started moving again, if more slowly. "Shoot!" she shouted at him. "Stay back from it, do
not
hit the spray gun, but
shoot
!"

Jamie raised his own gun and fired four times, BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM, as fast as he could, straight at Constancy's head. Its sensory cluster jerked backwards with each shot, stunning it a little bit more each time, but still it kept on coming. It was at the base of the ramp, turning toward him, shifting into a running stance--

He backpedaled to keep away from the nightmare creature as he threw the stun grenade at its feet.

There was a boom and a thudding echo off the surrounding force field that held in the atmosphere, and the air was full of smoke--and Bulwark of Constancy was down, twitching and shaking, the spray gun falling out of its mandible.

"Don't touch that spray gun!" Hannah shouted as she ran up. "Let it roll clear! Don't even breathe near it!"

She came up to Jamie, dug in her purse and pulled out the spool of tapeline. She tossed it to Jamie. "I'd like to kill Constancy where it lies," she said, "but not only is it against the rules, I don't think we've got anything that could crack through that carapace and do the job for sure, anyway. So tie Constancy up with this. I've got to get the
Sholto
open fast and pull out the Hazmat handling kit. I want to use long tongs to get that spray gun in a hermetically sealed evidence bag--then seal that bag up in two or three more bags. And it would be very, very helpful to get it done before Taranarak gets tired of waiting in the liftpod and wanders out. If we can get away with it, I don't want her to know the first thing about that spray gun. Now or ever. We spotted Constancy trying to get into the ship. It moved as if to attack us. We knocked it out and tied it up. End of story. No spray gun."

"What--what is the spray gun? What's in it?"

"Death," said Hannah. "Old age. The antidote to the longlife treatment. I'm guessing--but I'm right. I'd bet a year's pay that was what Constancy used to kill Hallaben. And I'd bet
ten
years' pay that spray gun was the murder weapon used to kill BSI Special Agent Trevor Wilcox III."

"
That's
what killed Trevor?"

"That's my very confident guess," said Hannah. "And if we play this smart, and fast, and careful--we can keep the Metrannans from ever knowing it works on humans, too." She stood next to Jamie and looked down at the Xenoatric. "But I have this figured right. Bulwark of Constancy used it on Wilcox--but was never able to confirm that it had any effect on him. Maybe we can even keep Bulwark of Constancy from knowing for sure that it works on humans. Don't you think
that
would be a good idea?"