In Fire Forged: Worlds of Honor V-ARC (8 page)

“You don’t mean…” Todd said, swinging around to look at Michael.

“That’s right, Alice Ramsbottom.”

*
   
*
   
*

“Alice Ramsbottom,” Judith repeated. “So we have confirmation of your suspicions that one of her parents is involved in Ruth’s kidnapping. How can we use that? Kidnap her, perhaps? Arrange for an exchange?”

“Your Majesty…” Vincent Valless began, but Michael cut him off with a wave of one hand.

“Don’t worry, Vincent. We’re not going to do anything so very illegal.”

Michael reached out and took one of Judith’s hands, cradling it between his broad, brown hands.

“Judith, I can do a good many things, but I can’t do that. I’d rather go to a nightclub and dance naked on a table while making outrageous pronouncements about the stupidity of my sister’s public policy. That would only damage my reputation. Kidnapping, though, that’s nasty stuff—not only illegal, but flat out wrong.”

Despite her fear for Ruth, Judith felt herself smiling at the image of Michael dancing on a table. Instantly, she became serious again.
 

“Michael, I don’t want you to do anything that would hurt you or Queen Elizabeth. But I want my baby back.”

“So do I,” Michael said. “Let’s find Alice Ramsbottom. Let’s talk to her.”

“And then?” Judith asked.

“We improvise.”

*
   
*
   
*

They found Alice Ramsbottom over at
Banshee
’s berth.

The inboard end of the ship’s boarding tube was open when they arrived, and so was the hatch at its outboard end. Vincent Valless insisted on boarding first, and Judith saw Michael’s fist open and close in a gesture of concealed frustration, but he didn’t protest.

Poor man. He may be a prince, but in some ways his life is as restricted as that of any Masadan wife. Unlike me, he can’t run away and make a new life for himself without hurting those he loves and respects.

Michael boarded close behind Vincent. As they entered the vessel, Alice could be seen through the flight deck hatch, intent on the control panel, apparently running a pre-flight check. She was concentrating on her task too intently to notice their arrival until Michael spoke in a soft but firm voice.

“Alice, it’s me. Michael Winton. I need to talk to you.”

Judith was just a few paces behind Michael, almost treading on his heels, and she saw Alice’s expression. There was surprise there, mild shock when she saw the pulser on which Vincent’s hand rested, but no guilt.

What if she doesn’t know anything? What if we’re just wasting time? Oh, God—I’ll believe in you again—just give me back my baby. Alive. Happy. Unhurt.

“Mikey?” Alice looked at the prince. Her hands remained on the control panel, but she didn’t move. It wouldn’t have mattered if she had. Before they had come to
Banshee
’s berth, Michael had done some tech wizardry that cut the ship off from outside contact while creating a data loop to hide the fact.
 

Judith didn’t have the least idea how Michael had done it, but she took his word that for the moment at least Alice was isolated.

“Is anyone else aboard?” Michael asked.

The video images Vincent had been tracking even as they moved through the station had shown Alice alone, Judith knew, but it never hurt to check.

“No,” Alice replied, her voice puzzled. “Mikey? What’s going on? Who is that woman? Why does your guard have his hand on his weapon? What are you doing here?”

The three had all entered the ship’s roomy cabin by now.
Banshee
was a bit larger than
Ogapoge,
but otherwise, the two little runabouts were much alike. A few rows of comfortable seats stretched back from the flight deck, sandwiched between its hatch and the equally cramped engineering section aft. There was a small cargo area between the passenger seats and engineering, but its hatch was open and it was obviously empty. Judith glanced around anyway, looking for any sign Ruth had been here. There was nothing.

“The woman is my good friend, Judith Newland,” Michael said. “We’re here because her daughter, Ruth, is missing, and we have reason to believe Ruth left Manticore on this ship.”

“What? How…” Alice let her hands drop to her lap, and stared up at Michael, her momentary expression of incredulity fading, colored with something else. “Go on. Tell me. Fast.”

Michael did. Judith knew he had various holo files ready to show if Alice demanded evidence, but the young woman only listened, her intelligent eyes narrowing.

“Search,” she said, waving her hand back, “but you won’t find anything.”

“Do you believe me?” Michael asked.

Judith listened as she moved among the rows of seats.

“I do,” Alice said. “My parents have been behaving strangely lately. My dad insisted that I come to Mount Royal with him today. He sent me into the corridor, flat out telling me he’d seen my old schoolmate the prince in the hall, and wouldn’t it be nice if I made myself really friendly. He even reminded me you didn’t go by ‘Mikey’ anymore. Then he sent me off in
Cormorant,
only to tell me to leave her in dock and get
Banshee
down to Choire Ghlais. No reason, no explanation—just do it. It was pretty obvious he was busy with some scheme, but I never expected something like this.”

“So you believe he’d plan a kidnapping?”

“If he could make himself believe it was for the greater good, yes,” Alice said. “Helping get the Star Kingdom back on track. Reuniting a daughter with her father. Yes, I do. It’s obvious they’ve managed to misread the Grayson mindset badly, if they expect this to have the effect they obviously want, but that doesn’t really surprise me. They’re very good at maneuvering within their own political and power circles, but outside that, they both tend to see what they want to see. I don’t doubt that they could convince themselves to believe this would all work out ‘for the best,’ and Daddy is particularly good at distancing himself from the human aspect… Look at his relationship with my mother.”

Michael nodded. “Yes. Married enemies. That can’t be easy on anyone, but…”

Alice shook her head. “There’s more to it than that, but now’s not the time to talk. You say the people who took
Banshee
here to Aslan Station transferred to
Cormorant
. Any idea of their course?”

Vincent cut in. “Lieutenant Liatt just commed me. He’s been tracing various out-system vessels. He thinks he has
Cormorant
. It took him a while to sort her transponder out from all the surrounding traffic.”

“And?” Michael said.

“She’s heading out-system, but since she’s not hyper-capable, she’s probably heading for a rendezvous of some sort.”

Alice nodded sharply. “
Kwahe’e
. I’ll bet anything she’s going to meet
Kwahe’e
.”

“
Kwahe’e
?” Judith asked.

Alice swivelled her chair so she could look directly at Judith. “Parents never think their kids notice things. I’ve noticed a lot of things—like
Kwahe’e
. It’s a hyper-capable vessel, not large. Technically, she’s a small, fast interstellar transport for corporate VIPs, but she’s large enough to transport small, valuable cargos, too. In fact, that’s what she spends most of her time doing. Those cargos aren’t precisely illegal—at least I don’t think so—but they aren’t exactly the sort you want other people to connect to a prominent politician and business executive.”

“So they’ll transfer Ruth to
Kwahe’e,
” Judith said. “And
Kwahe’e
will be the ship that meets with Ephraim.”

“That’s how I see it,” Alice said. “Now what do you plan to do? You can’t chase them down and shoot at them—for one thing, there’s too much chance the little girl will get hurt. What was your plan once you located them?”

*
   
*
   
*

Michael was momentarily stunned, especially when he saw the confident look Judith turned toward him. He’d never expected a chase out-system. He’d thought the kidnappers would go to another planet—probably Sphinx—and once downside he and Vincent would be able to recruit help from the local Palace Security detachments. They would have helped and kept their silence afterwards. Now, this…

Alice came to his rescue. “I have an idea. Let me in on this. We’ll do a two-ship approach. I’ll com
Cormorant,
make some excuse for us meeting up: additional supplies probably. That should slow them. Then I’ll take
Banshee
out to intercept.”

“What if they contact whoever hired them?” Judith asked, “and find out there are no such supplies.”

Alice smiled sadly. “I’m willing to bet that they were never given a contact number. Too dangerous.”

“I agree,” Michael said. “Why use a cutting edge avatar program and then create such an easy avenue for tracing? Okay. But I’m not sure I like the idea of your taking
Banshee
out.”

Alice flared. “Don’t you trust me, Mikey? Do you think I’d condone kidnapping a small child? Or do you think I’m not capable of handling my own company’s ship?”

Michael held up both hands in a gesture half-surrender, half-self-defense.

“Easy! I wasn’t thinking either. I was thinking about you. You’re going to be in serious trouble with your parents as it is. If you don’t participate any further, you’ll be able to cover yourself: say we put pressure on you; say we lied and told you that we were authorized to take
Banshee
.”

Unspoken in this was what they all knew. Even if—when—Ruth was recovered, the Ramsbottoms would go unpunished. The kidnappers themselves might stand trial, but they would know nothing about their principles. Even if they did, actually proving the connection to the Ramsbottoms would probably be difficult…not to mention providing the very scandal they were trying to prevent occur. Therefore, Alice would have to deal with the wrath of whichever parent was behind this plot.

Alice shook her head, anger gone, a curious sadness taking its place.

“Michael, if either of my parents is involved in this, I don’t care how much trouble I get into with them. Let me help. Let me prove to you that not all the Ramsbottoms are so given to ambition as to forget basic human decency.”

Judith spoke before Michael could frame an appropriate reply. “I’ll trust you. Now, we’re wasting time. I’ll go with you, since
Banshee
is likely to be the ship to make actual physical contact with
Cormorant
.”

Vincent Valless turned to Michael. “I’m sorry, Your Highness, but I cannot permit you to make contact with the kidnappers’ vessel. It would be too dangerous. However, if you will agree to go back to
Ogapoge
without protest, then I will join
Banshee
’s crew and provide some protection.”

Michael wanted to scream, to protest: “It’s
my
job to protect her!” But he knew he didn’t have that choice. He tried to keep his voice level as he replied.

“Very well, Vincent. I’d like someone else to go with them, as well.”

“I have already arranged for that,” Vincent said, a ghost of a smile touching his lips. “Todd Liatt and another member of your security force will be joining us momentarily. That will provide firepower and back-up piloting, should they be needed.”

Michael nodded. “Thank you for your foresight and initiative, Vincent.”

He tried to make his words gracious, but he knew his tone failed to keep up the illusion. Fine. He would accept his exile, but there was nothing in the rules of etiquette that said he had to be happy about it.

Michael turned to Judith and forced a smile. “At least those of us on
Ogapoge
can trail you and provide pressure to cooperate if that becomes necessary. Even if they spotted us on the way out from Manticore, they’ve ony got civilian instruments. They won’t be able to identify us without our transponder code, and I can disable that once we’re out of the press of near-planet traffic.”

Vincent Valless coughed softly. “We can even do one better, sir. Ships carrying members of the royal family have some flexibility in regard to supplying precisely accurate identification.”

“Brilliant!” Michael said. “We’ll do that then. Reset the transponder to show us as an ore freighter or a tourist barge, whichever is more appropriate for the area.”

At that moment, Todd and the female security officer came around the corner into
Banshee
’s berth. Michael knew without being told that another of the operatives waited in the corridor to escort him back to
Ogapoge
.

Behind him, Michael could hear Alice making contact with
Cormorant
. She’d refused visual contact, and was telling whoever had answered the call she had added supplies they were to take with them. Something in how she inflected her words implied a reward or bonus. Michael was impressed.

Todd and his companion needed no additional instructions. Further chat would only slow their mission. Since neither
Banshee
nor
Ogapoge
was hyper-capable, it was crucial that they intercept
Cormorant
before she met
Kwahe’e
.

As Todd passed Michael, he reached out and clasped his friend firmly on one shoulder. “Don’t worry, roomie. I’ll look out for her.”

His words were almost inaudible. Michael was grateful. He knew Todd meant what he said, and he knew, too, that Todd was admitting what Michael himself had hardly dared acknowledge.

He loved Judith Newland. If anything happened to her, the universe would go dark and all the suns at the interstellar core could not shed enough light to brighten it once more.

*
   
*
   
*

Judith watched Michael leave
Cormorant,
eagerness to find Ruth warring with a sinking sensation in her breast. Resolutely she turned away and strapped herself into one of the front row of passenger seats.

At Alice’s suggestion, Todd was taking over as pilot.

“I want to keep an eye on
Cormorant
’s movements. I also want to scan for
Kwahe’e
. Hopefully, she’s well out-system, but we can’t count on that.”