I let my eyes laugh at him, then turned away from them both with only a neutral glance for Ringer. The bossman was putting my knife in the monolon bag I’d been carrying, bracing it in and protecting the bag from it with the books I’d bought. Ringer had ignored the little speech I’d given Val, but Val couldn’t ignore it. It annoyed him that I’d suggested he was afraid of me, and whether it was trite or not had no bearing. Under the rules I’d forced on him, the only way he could prove it would be to return the knife.
I spent the rest of the waiting time for the liner shuttle moving calmly around the immediate area, enjoying my relaxation, but getting more impatient with every passing minute. There’s nothing like the feeling of starting a new assignment and despite my personal stake in this one, I’d make sure it was handled professionally all the way. Val and Ringer spent the time chatting, and when the lights started blinking to announce the approach of the shuttle, they left their seats and came over to join me, Val carrying both his bag and mine. If I’d expected him to hand over the bag then, I would have been disappointed. He was still determined to do things his way, not yet knowing that game time ended as soon as an assignment started. I nodded pleasantly at Ringer when he told us to enjoy ourselves, then went with Val to find a place on the line that was forming.
It didn’t take long to get to the liner, which was definitely a good thing. As soon as the shuttle reached the Station I’d forgotten all about the silliness that had gone on before, but our fellow passengers hadn’t.
The looks they gave Val were on the chilly side, and there was altogether too much whispering and sideways glances. That public notice I’d been trying to avoid hadn’t been avoided, and now we were surrounded by a bunch of narrow-eyed spectators. I didn’t much like the idea, but if we couldn’t avoid the small horde once we boarded the liner, we’d have to stay in our cabins until we . reached Xanadu.
Putting our reservation slips into the backs of the seats in front of us on the shuttle programmed the directional rods sitting in the slots to the right of each seat back. Once the shuttle had sealed into the liner we took the rods and left our jolly traveling companions without a backward look, which undoubtedly caused more comment but at least got us out of there. Ringer had reserved two single cabins for us, the sort that had a communicating door, and the corridor was empty when the directional rods blinked rapidly to show we’d reached our destination.
“If you’re ever outside a cabin and want to let whoever’s inside know you’re there, press that tab,” I told Val, indicating the door annunciator as I slid the key end of the rod into the door lock. “The key you’ll use for the rest of the trip is inside your cabin, next to the rod-return slot. You’d better use your rod key before it stops blinking, or you’ll need the purser to open the cabin for you.”
Val nodded and went to his own door, and once he got it open I went into my cabin, already working on a mental list of all the things he’d have to be shown how to use or do if he wasn’t going to draw unwanted curiosity. The reality of the project was well-nigh staggering, considering the number of things there were for him to learn, but somehow we’d have to get it done. It helped that he was intelligent, but we’d probably have to resort to a few dodges anyway to avoid notice.
“The cabin is open and the bags are inside,” said a voice from behind me, causing me to turn. “I only gave it a quick glance, but I didn’t see any keys or rod-return slot. ”
“They’re here, behind the door,” I answered, gesturing Val in before swinging the door shut. “Just remember always to look over your shoulder before saying something like that. There are people in this Federation who have never traveled, but you’re not supposed to be one of them. If you get caught in an awkward situation, shrug it off by saying you’re more used to traveling by private ship than liner, and can’t seem to get liner protocol straight. You may get laughed at, but that’s better than having a finger pointed at you. Take a few minutes to look around your cabin, and then we’ll start teaching you what it was you were looking at.”
I turned away from him and headed for my luggage, which was stacked to the right of the small double bed, in front of the cabin’s built-in drawers and closet. The cabin was relatively crowded, with only two soft chairs and a small square table to the left of the cabin door, the bed to the right, and the tiny bathroom also to the left, beyond the chairs and table. Val’s cabin was to the right of mine and was probably exactly the same, up to and including the dark gold and deep green of the decorations. Ringer was watching the pennies again by putting us in cabins like these, but once we got to Xanadu O.S. those pennies would be gone, along with lots of their brothers and sisters. No one with money took third-class accommodations, and no one went to Xanadu without money. On Xanadu O.S. and the planet itself we’d have roles to protect, and Ringer might grumble but he’d never be able to deny it.
“I would not mind at all knowing what I was looking at,” Val said slowly from his place near the door, sounding perplexed. “Are you the same female I’ve been traveling with for the last two months, or did somebody pull a switch while I wasn’t looking?”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, looking up at him from the place I’d plunked down on my knees on the deep green carpeting, in front of the big trunk Ringer had packed for me. That trunk took some opening, and I wanted to get as close as possible to it before starting.
“I’m talking about the way you’re suddenly treating me,” he answered, closing the few steps between us to crouch down next to me. “No sarcasm, no put-downs, no arguments, or fancy stories or looking right through me. You actually sound as though you might be dealing with another thinking being instead of a patsy. I’m certainly not complaining, but I’d like to know what brought on the change. ”
“Our being on assignment brought on the change,” I said, looking up into curious black eyes with none of the amusement I felt showing. “Once the flag goes down there’s no more game-playing, at least not between ourselves. Unless, of course, you don’t much care if you survive. If you find yourself falling into that kind of mood, let me know and I’ll take it alone from there on.”
“That’s better,” he said with a grin, reaching out to brush some hair out of my face. “With at least the sarcasm back in place, you’re recognizable again. Are you telling me that as long as we’re on assignment, I don’t have to keep looking around for the direction the next attack will be coming from?”
“Considering the assignment you might want to put that another way, but you’ve got the idea,” I agreed.
“Right now watch how I open this, and plan on memorizing the sequence. This luggage knows how to protect itself, and if you use the wrong sequence after I open it initially, it’ll feed you an electrical charge any time you try working on it after that until I can key it again. If I don’t happen to be around to do the keying, you’re permanently locked out. Now, watch.”
The main lock of the trunk was keyed to my brain wave pattern, and once I’d put it on passive alert I was able to open the secondary locks. The sequence wasn’t something Val would learn in five minutes, but seeing it done right would help him to learn to do it on his own. The end of the sequence left nothing to do but unfold all four quarters of the trunk, and Val had to help after the way Ringer had stuffed it. He found its weight surprising when he saw the relatively small amount of clothing, then stared with sudden understanding when I thumbed back the first of the false sides.
“That’s a Mark IV blaster, heavy enough to burn a hole through anything living as well as uncounted numbers of thick, inanimate surfaces,” I said, pulling the blaster out of its niche to check its charge level before pressing it back in place. “That small gun next to it is a stunner, adjustable beam and adjustable level, no charge leakage and automatic shielding against back-jumping. The empty space to the right used to hold a dart gun, but darters are unreliable and even the best of them will jam, usually at the worst possible time. I won’t carry one again, but some people swear by them. Your best bet would be to wait and try one, then make up your own mind. ”
“You seem prepared for anything up to and including a major war,” Val commented when I closed that compartment and opened and began explaining about the one with pinhead mines, fingernail grenades, blinding spot flashers and inward exploding stick-ons. “How much of this do you expect to be using on Xanadu?”
“If we’re lucky, we won’t be using any of it,” I said, closing that compartment and opening the next.
“Xanadu’s security is fairly tight, but any security system can be breached if you go about it in the right way and you know their blind spots. We’ll play it by ear until we see whether there have been any major changes since the last time the system was mapped.”
“Now, that I recognize,” Val said, pointing to one of the knives I’d just uncovered. “With all the rest of that stuff, you probably don’t even remember I have the mate to it.”
“I remember,” I answered shortly, then pointed to the thick, smoky blade in the third niche. “That one is completely non-metallic and won’t register on any alarm systems, and it takes and holds a better edge than steel. It’s only drawback is that it can’t be balanced as well as my other knives, so throwing it from farther away than six feet is a waste of effort. For six feet, you might as well keep it in your hand. That last knife there is a set-up, so don’t touch it unless you need its particular quirk. If you grab it hard, as you would if you were about to bury it in someone, the blade will come back into the hilt and spread out, slicing into whatever’s wrapped around the hilt. Since you want that to be someone else’s hand rather than your own, don’t get it mixed up with the rest of the hardware.”
“I think you can take my word that I’ll remember,” Val said, peering closely at the knife. “What’s in the last compartment?”
“Odds and ends and something you especially have to know about,” I answered, opening the last section.
“That little piece of metal is a magnetic lock pick, the dark strand next to it is a strangling cord, and that shielded coil is monomolecular ambush thread. Don’t ever touch it with your bare hands, or you won’t have any hands left. The rest of it I can show you some other time; over here is the device you have to learn how to use.”
I pulled the telelink out of its nest and handed it to Val, watching as he turned the thick black circle this way and that, trying to figure out what it was. He made no effort to touch either of the two contacts in the middle of the round face, which was commendable caution on his part.
“That device is called a telelink, and is currently used by no one but my department,” I told him, settling back on my heels. “It’s range under normal circumstances would be quite limited, but it doesn’t operate under normal circumstances and you’re not cleared for the circumstances it does operate under. The only thing you have to know is that it’s your direct line to departmental headquarters.”
“This?” he asked with a glance at me, a frown for the palm-sized device in his hand. “How can this possibly reach other star systems?”
“As I said, you’re not cleared to know that,” I said, not blaming him for not liking the answer. “Just take my word for the fact that it does. In order to open the link to headquarters, press one of the contacts; to cut the link, press the other contact. When you get through, your vid will form in the air just above the link’s rim. When Ringer’s on Hidemite, where our H.Q. is, the link will give you to him directly; when he’s not, someone there will relay you through to him. Right now we’re on our own, except in cases of extreme emergency.”
“Because of that leak they haven’t found yet.” He nodded, handing back the telelink. “The only question I have right now is, why are you showing me all this? It’s almost as though you’re getting me ready to be on my own.”
“In a manner of speaking, I am,” I agreed, putting the telelink back where it belonged. “This assignment should be no problem at all, but I’d hate to tell you how many agents have been finished off by no problem at all. I’m the one who brought you here, and I don’t want you suddenly abandoned in a strange neighborhood with no idea of which way to go. If anything slips, you’ll at least be able to reach Ringer.”
“If anything slips, I’ll be right there next to you to catch it,” he said with what was nearly an angry growl. “I appreciate the emergency training, Diana, but I don’t expect to be using it. Just make sure you don’t leave that trunk open, and all that stuff will be there for both of us to use. ”
“Under normal circumstances, it doesn’t matter whether I leave it open or not,” I said. “The outer security system is supposedly to protect the expensive jewelry I carry, and if a customs official wants to inspect the inside, there’s no reason to stop him. He won’t find anything.”
“How could people not find anything?” Val demanded, pointing to the trunk. “They couldn’t possibly miss all those things you just showed me.”
“Is that so?” I asked with a grin, shifting over on the carpeting. “If you think there’s something there besides clothes and jewelry, show it to me.”
The expression he sent ,me was ridiculing, as though he knew I was trying to put one over on him, only he wasn’t about to allow it. He moved his crouch closer to the trunk, put his hand on one of the compartment covers-and slid it back to show six lines of very expensive earrings.
“And every bit of it is real,” I told him. “It has to be, or I’d, have no real excuse for the elaborate security system I use. Would you like to try the other compartments?”
“Not really,” he said, matching the grin I’d shown earlier. “I’d probably find more of the same. There’s a special way of opening those compartments, I take it.”
“Like this,” I said, closing the one he’d opened, then placing my fingers with exaggerated care. “Your index finger goes on this little star first, then you catch the slide post with your thumb. Only then do you place your smallest finger on this snowflake, making sure your other fingers aren’t touching anything.