Mainline (26 page)

"Shut up."

Silence fell, punctuated by the Dorleoni's gasping breath.

"Do you know what this means?" Adahn's voice was deceptively gentle. "It means your Holdout operations are of the very least importance to me anymore. We have just one interest of overriding importance on Selmun III. Do you know what that is?"

Karuu forced words out, an inarticulate mumble.

"What?"

"The shipping concerns," the Holdout repeated more clearly.

"Indeed. Or, more properly said, the shipping diversions." Harric rose to his feet, strolled slowly around his desk. "You knew borgbeasts were coming, and you didn't bother to find out why. You let the shipment land; you let yourself be set up. You've lost your smuggling operations, and endangered the real reason the Red Hand is present on Selmun III in the first place.
The shipping trade.''

Adahn's large hand flew out, caught Karuu heavily against the side of the head. The Dorleoni staggered to the side and back and sat down suddenly on the carpet. He lifted webbed fingers to a ringing ear and blinked up at Harric with liquid, frightened eyes.

"You were too busy trying to cut down one smuggler to see the big picture," the crime boss spoke down to him. "That's not what I was paying you for. You are a very big, very sad disappointment to me."

Harric returned to his seat behind the desk, motioned Karuu to his feet with a flick of his fingers. ' 'What should I do with you, my friend?"

The Dorleoni knew it was a trick question, that Adahn must have already decided what to do with the Holdout who had endangered his globe-spanning operations on the waterworld of R'debh. Was there any way out of this, any way at all? Karuu was suddenly conscious that time was running out. How to make himself so valuable that it would not make good business sense to kill him?

"Well?" Harric prompted.

Karuu swallowed. "Maybe I can be of help, sir."

"I doubt it."

"Please." He tried to control the urge to babble, though hasty words, beseeching in tone, slipped past his lips anyway. "Of help I can be. Lish. Let us start with her. She is your real problem, or one of them. She it is who brought the borgbeast hazard. She it is who is responsible for the gutting of our Holdout operations. A minor concern compared to the shipping, yet large enough in its own way—and the perfect way to manage the cargo diversions you rely on."

Adahn pursed his lips at that thought. He did not cut the smuggler off, and the Dorleoni continued while he had the chance.

"Then there are the political forces behind this foolish move to sink shipping. They are surely of great concern to you. You will be wanting the Gambru League destroyed, I am sure? I have the connections on R'debh to make that happen for you. And this unfortunate persecution by Internal Security. If we were to give them a sop, a fellow Dorleoni, for instance, whom they mistook for me, they will stop looking for me on R'debh and cargo movements will be able to continue as normal. You will need to rebuild the Customs connections that have helped us over the years, and I am the perfect one to help you there, too, I know so many—"

"You know so many ways to wriggle out of a net." Adahn motioned him to silence, and shook his head. Karuu was a fast talker, and he had almost been taken in by the smuggler's weave of offers. He did touch on a point or two of real value, but this was something to ponder later, when the irritating alien was out of his sight and he had Janus handy to discuss solutions with.

Harric drummed his fingers on the edge of his desk. No use letting Karuu be at ease when he might yet choose to kill him. It was better to keep him off his guard, to retain the psychological advantage.

"Tell me about this Yavobo."

The sudden change of tack took Karuu unprepared. He explained what he knew of the bounty hunter's history, his failed bodyguard missions on R'debh, and how the clever Holdout had lured the Aztrakhani into smuggling him offworld. "I did not want to speak for you, sir. I promised him nothing. I simply said you would acknowledge that he did a favor by bringing me off of Selmun...."

Adahn's lips turned down. Some favor. True, if Karuu had been caught and questioned on Selmun III, the Red Hand cartel would have far bigger troubles than a handful of borgbeasts to contend with. Yet to have the Holdout here, wheedling and whining for consideration, was no special service to the crime boss, either.

On the other hand, the Aztrakhani was a killer, and Adahn always had a use for killers.

"What exactly does he want of me? Do you know?"

Karuu nodded eagerly. "Reva."

"The assassin?"

The Dorleoni ducked his chin. "He is not telling me reasons. He has sworn an oath of some sort—"

"Did you tell Yavobo she works for me?"

There was a dangerous gleam in Adahn's eye, and Karuu was glad for his closemouthedness. He shook his head rapidly from side to side. "No, sir, I said merely that you knew who she was and how to find her. There was nothing else from my lips, not even your name, I said—"

Adahn's hand gesture caused him to bite off the words.

"Go, now." Harric ordered his underling. "I'll talk to you again later."

Nervous, yet glad of the respite, Karuu bobbed his head in the awkward Dorleoni half-bow, and waddled to the door. There two MazeRats escorted him down a hallway and out of Adahn's sight. Even before Karuu was locked into his room, Yavobo was called in to face Harric himself.

Heeding Karuu's warnings of the alien's nature, Adahn discreetly powered a shield unit that created a force field between his desk and the rest of the room. Only if the stranger came too close or fired a weapon would he discover the invisible protection that guarded a Tribune of the Red Hand. Adahn hoped it would not come to that, and awaited his guest with interest.

Yavobo strode purposefully into Harric's informal audience chamber. The crime boss leaned expansively back in his plush padded seat, and ordered a float-chair to his guest's side. The Aztrakhani ignored the furniture, standing with feet spread before Harric's desk. It was a stance neither confrontational nor relaxed, ready for action should it be needed.

The alien gave the seated human a meager nod.

"You are Yavobo," Adahn said; a statement, not a query.

"Yes. I do not know how you are called. Karuu would not tell me, because of his oath."

So the Holdout had said true. He was more discreet than Adahn gave him credit for. Oath, indeed.

"You may call me Mr. Harric," he said.

"Mr. Harric." Yavobo repeated his nod "I have returned to you your Holdout, who was in danger of his life on Selmun III."

"So you have."

"In reciprocation, I ask that you tell me how I can find this woman." The alien held out a flatpix. Adahn made no move to take the picture but studied the face across his desk. High cheekbones, brunette hair, hazel eyes, firm jaw. It did not strike him as the face of a killer, but that just added to her charm.

"I am told her name is Reva," Yavobo added, "and that you know of her."

Adahn suppressed a smile. Funny thing, that. He had hired Reva through Karuu's recommendation. He knew about her, and she knew about him, but they had never met. The flatpix was the first he had ever seen of the face of his prize assassin.

"I know of her, yes," he conceded.

"Tell me how I can get in touch with her. I have business with her."

"I'm sure you do. Would you mind telling me why you are interested in her?"

The alien drew himself up, his jaw clenching for a moment. "Is it not enough that I ask?" he responded.

Adahn licked his lips. No, that was not enough. Nor would he blithely admit that he used this assassin's services, not until he knew more about what was motivating Yavobo. He recalled Karuu's successful ruse of being oath-sworn, in order to stay silent on a subject, and that gave him an idea.

"You must understand," the crime boss improvised, "that I am under oaths to others. I am not free to share information about Reva, unless your case has superior merit...."

The alien took the bait. "She caused me to fail in my duty," he declaimed, "of guarding two persons who entrusted their lives to me. For this I have sworn Blood Oath. I must find her."

O ho! Adahn's eyes retained the same, serious gaze he had decided to cultivate for this meeting, but inside he smirked. The alien didn't explain Blood Oath, but he could pretty much guess what that meant. Yavobo was clearly referring to deaths on Sel-mun III. And Reva had gone there on Adahn's contract, to eliminate two gadflies he had wanted out of the way.

What would Yavobo do if he learned Adahn was behind the death warrants of his charges? Would it matter, or did he merely want the head of the assassin who had opposed him? Reva was Adahn's favorite killer. Harric had tried to hire her permanently just last year, but she liked to stay independent.

That means I don't owe her a lot of loyalty, he thought. It also means she's good, and I want to use her again. No, my colorful alien, I am not giving my best assassin to you to kill.

In that case, how to keep Yavobo on a leash? A flat "no" would send him away, to seek the woman out by other avenues. A "yes" was out of the question. According to Karuu, the alien thought of nothing outside of his self-appointed mission since leaving R'debh. Maybe there was a way to turn this to some benefit.....

Adahn nodded gravely to the red and black mottled figure before him. "I understand your needs. Perhaps I can help. Please." He gestured to the chair again, and this time the alien took it.

"Reva is an assassin of great power," Adahn said. That much was true; how she carried off some of the seemingly impossible hits assigned to her was beyond imagining. "She is not contacted lightly. No one can reach her who is not trustworthy."

Yavobo bridled. "I am Aztrakhani. My trustworthiness is not to be questioned."

Adahn held up a hand while thinking furiously. "That is not in question, my friend. I mean, only warriors of proven merit are allowed this sort of knowledge. You are a warrior, although I have not yet seen proof of your merit."

Yavobo's back stiffened. To question a warrior's prowess must push the limits; the bounty hunter looked like he wanted to launch himself over the desk and throttle Adahn right there. Yet he controlled himself with no more sign than a flaring of nostrils, and asked, ' 'What sort of proof do you require? Let me confront your best fighters; you will see my merit soon enough."

"Let me think on this thing," Harric replied. "I'm sure there is a way whereby you can show your mettle, and I can grant you what you want. Will, you give me time to consider?"

The alien stared flatly across the desk. "How much time?"

"I do not know. This will require serious thought, and an appropriate measure of your skills."

Yavobo stood once more and selected his words with care. "Apparently a debt of honor does not run as deeply with you as it does among my kind. You have one week in which to gauge my merit. After that, I will find Reva with or without your help."

Unaccustomed to such speech, Adahn watched in amazement as the alien turned on his heel and walked from the room. Or to the door, anyway—the portal did not open until Adahn depressed a locktab on his desk console. Yavobo waited stiff-necked before the blast-insulated door swung inward, then passed into the antechamber beyond.

"Janus," Adahn murmured into the com link, "see that our Aztrakhani friend is made comfortable for the next several days. Make sure he's shown the gym and weapons rooms."

He switched off the force screen as the door sealed shut, closing him into one of the many command centers of his diverse organization.

This was evolving into a revealing day. Very revealing. He plugged into the rigger jack on his desk and sent a mental call out to his lieutenant. Janus joined him shortly on a virtual veranda, overlooking the simulated pleasure gardens of the Emperor's Palace on Calyx.

"What do you think?" the crime boss asked his associate.

The slender red-haired man leaned against a broad marble balustrade, surveying red-orange sunset skies and the rippling firewater splashing in fountains below. "Think? About which?"

"Yavobo."

"Dangerous. Don't string him along; he could turn. He'll bite like a snake if he learns you're playing with him."

"So who's playing?" Adahn flashed a smile, a cold expression that left his eyes untouched. "Funny he should give me an ultimatum, isn't it? One week. You know, though, I bet you I can hook him in that week, get him to work for me. I could use a straightforward terror like that."

"You aren't going to give him Reva, are you?"

"She's never crossed me before." It was one of Adahn's constant concerns, and one of his highest endorsements. "No, I'm not giving him Reva. So what's your opinion about Karuu?"

"Our old friend?" Janus traced patterns in the marble with one finger. "I still think Tion, let him run nanotech."

"You don't think he can help back on Selmun?"

"Maybe. Maybe it's safer to keep him far away from there."

"If he can rebuild a Customs net, he's almost earned his life right there."

"True," Janus agreed. "Our warehouses are filling up on R'debh—there've been no cargo lifts since the Security crackdown. This can't go on; it's hurting us too badly."