Robot Blues (44 page)

“I’ll be right up,
my friend,” Quong said.

“No. I’m fine,
Doc. You stay there, make damn sure that the robot’s dead and that it’s going
to stay dead. Xris out.”

Xris sat for long
moments in silence. Jamil came in, then Tycho. They’d both caught part of his
conversation with Quong, wanted to know what was going on. Harry told them.
Xris felt their eyes, felt them looking at him. They were talking to him, too,
but he didn’t listen.

Raoul came in,
with the Little One. “Is it true? I just spoke to Dr. Quong. How very dreadful.
And Darlene?”

Everyone looked at
Xris, motioned for Raoul to keep quiet. After one more “How very dreadful,”
Raoul subsided.

Tess arrived. The
rest backed up against the bulkheads to make room for her. She leaned down. “Dr.
Quong told me you had a friend on that ship. Oh, Xris, I’m sorry. So very
sorry.”

He ignored her,
too. She obviously wanted to say something more, glanced around at the others.
They shook their heads. Eventually she, too, backed off.

Xris said, very
quietly, “Harry, change course.”

“What?” Harry
looked startled. “Change course? What about the robot? We’re supposed to
deliver it to the
King James II
ASAP.”

“The hell with the
robot,” Xris said savagely, glowering at Harry, at them all. “Take us to where
that Lane used to be. There might be survivors.”

The others
exchanged glances. Harry gnawed his lip, stared down at the console. Tess turned
her face away. The Little One made a whimpering sound. Raoul put his arm
comfortingly around his small friend. Jamil rested his hand on Xris’s shoulder.

“Xris, I know how
you’re feeling. But you have to face the facts.”

“I said, change
course,” Xris said softly. He had to speak softly or else he would start to
yell, and if he yelled they would think he was losing control—and he knew what
he was doing. By God, he knew what he was doing. There would be survivors.
There
would
be survivors. “We’re a medical ship. We have a doctor on
board. We can tow in life pods.”

No time. There
would have been no time to get the passengers into life pods. Ri-i-i-ppp. Half
the ship could be at the beginning of the Jump, half at the end.

“Change course,”
Xris said for the third time, and then he was on his feet, getting ready to
yank Harry out of the pilot’s chair.

“Hold it. Hold it
right there,” Tess ordered. She held a lasgun in her hand and that gun was
pressed against the side of Raoul’s head. “Hands in the air. Come on— you, too,
Xris.”

“Ugh!” Raoul
wrinkled his nose. His gaze slid sidelong at the lasgun that was pressing
against his temple. “She had that thing under her armpit!”

“I said, don’t
move, Loti!” Tess warned.

“She means it,
Raoul,” Xris said. “Hold still.”

He was starting to
figure things out. And if he was right, then he was in line for the Number One
Chump of All Time Award.

Raoul’s eyelashes
fluttered. He was in agony. “Is the gun mussing my hair?”

Xris tested his
theory. “Look, Captain Strauss, I don’t know what you’re in this for. Maybe it’s
your colonel’s bars or maybe the glory. I don’t much care. But—”

“It’s not the
glory, Xris,” Tess said. She shrugged, smiled. “It’s the money. Harry, back
off. The computer will be flying the plane.
I’ve
changed the course.”

“No need,” Harry
said. “The course is already laid in for the
King James.
Look, Xris, let’s
go to the
King James
first, drop off the robot, and then we can—”

“We’re not going
to the
King James,”
Xris said.

“Xris, she’s gonna
blow off Raoul’s head.”

“Look at your
instruments, Harry. What do they read? What’s our course?”

“It’s ...” Harry’s
voice ended in a strangled gargle.

“It’s ... Hell’s
Outpost!” He twisted around. “The
King James
II
isn’t at Hell’s
Outpost, Xris.”

“We know that,
Harry. Most of us do, at any rate.”

“The Navy thinks I
work for them, Harry,” Tess said. She continued to keep the gun pointed at
Raoul’s head. “But the Navy’s mistaken. In reality, I work for someone else.”

“Harsch,” said
Xris. “She works for Harsch.”

“But she’s wearing
a Navy uniform and everything.” Harry was a little slow on the uptake.

“Ever heard of a
double agent, my friend?”

“Oh.” Harry
blinked.

Xris, facing the
hatchway, caught a glimpse of movement.

Quong was in the
corridor. He had heard what was going on over Xris’s commlink. The doctor was
padding, soft-footed, toward the cockpit, a lasgun in his hand. He would sneak
up on Tess from behind.

Xris saw the Doc,
understood the plan, looked away, shifted his gaze so as not to draw Tess’s
attention that direction.

“That’s how Harsch
knew about the robot,” he said, hoping to distract her. “And that’s how Tess
knew we were coming to Pandor. Harsch hires us to steal the robot. His agent
Captain Strauss is posted on Pandor to keep watch on us and the Navy at the
same time. Meanwhile, she plays both ends against the middle, reports on Harsch
to the Admiralty.

“Everything goes
according to plan. Tess manages Jamil and me. Hell, we fell for her story like
a metric ton of bullshit. We were supposed to take the robot to Harsch. The
robot has the bomb in it and the transmitter, but my guess is that those ‘malfunction.’
You see to that, of course. Harsch gets the robot. The Navy gets squat. You
roll those pretty blue eyes at the Lord Admiral and say you can’t imagine what
went wrong.

“Or, hey, here’s
an idea. Maybe you blame it on us. Make us the fall guys.... Yeah, that’s the
deal, isn’t it? Even now. You come out of this smelling sweet and squeaky
clean. Who will the Navy believe, after all? One of their own agents? Or us? We’re
already in trouble with the Admiralty.”

Quong, gun aimed,
was drawing nearer and nearer. He didn’t dare shoot, for fear of hitting Raoul.
Or maybe missing completely and putting a lethal hole through the spaceplane’s
viewscreen.

“She had it
planned out well,” Xris continued. “But then things started to fall apart. You
guys showed up. That really scares her. Captain Strauss here figures that we’re
about to double-cross her. Double-cross the double-crosser, as it were. And
then Jeffrey Grant arrives. The robot takes off. And that leaves you in a
pickle, doesn’t it, sister? Who was it ordered you to commandeer that plane and
take off after the robot? Harsch— of course you reported in to him. Or was it
the Admiralty?”

“For once, they
were in agreement. I have to admit, things got pretty interesting there for a
while,” Tess conceded. “Oh, and speaking of that bomb—the one the admiral gave
to Jamil. Have you checked, lately, to see if you still have it?”

Xris shot a swift
questioning glance at Jamil.

Jamil shrugged,
looked helpless.

“Because you won’t
find it,” Tess continued calmly. “I planted it somewhere in this spaceship. It’s
set to detonate in twelve hours, which is when we’re due to arrive at Hell’s
Outpost. I’m the only one who can stop the detonation. I’m the only one who
knows where the bomb is. So I wouldn’t try any heroics, Dr. Quong,” she added,
glancing over her shoulder. “I suggest you put away the lasgun.”

The disconcerted
Quong looked at Xris.

“She’s the boss
now,” Xris said. “Do as she says.”

“Do you believe
her?” Quong continued to hold his lasgun, aimed at Tess.

“Believe her!”
Raoul said fervently. “Is there grease on the barrel?”

“I don’t think we’ve
got much choice,” Xris said dryly. “Harry, what would happen if a bomb went off
inside this spaceplane?”

“Before or after
we decompressed?” Harry growled.

Quong shrugged,
tossed the lasgun onto the deck at Tess’s feet. “She fooled me completely.”

“You aren’t the
only one, Doc,” Xris said. “You aren’t the only one.”

Tess lowered the
gun from Raoul’s head. “Okay, Adonian. You’re free to go touch up your
lipstick.”

Jamil was still
squirming. “Uh, excuse me, Captain. Rut I gotta go to the head. Real bad.”

“Sure.” Tess waved
her hand. “Go on. Check the case for the bomb. You won’t find it.”

Jamil gave Xris a look.

Xris took out a
twist. “Go ahead.”

Glowering at Tess
as he passed her, Jamil left the cockpit.

“Well, you didn’t
think I was going to spend twelve hours sitting here holding a gun on the
Adonian, did you?” Tess asked, amused. “I need my beauty sleep.”

“I don’t know what
for,” Raoul said caustically. He cast a reproachful glance at Xris. “And after
all the trouble we went to.”

The Little One
kicked Raoul in the shins.

Raoul groaned,
rubbed his leg.

Xris put the twist
in his mouth, began to chew it. “I’m beginning to lose sight of what I saw in
her myself.”

Tess picked up the
gun from the deck, shoved it into her belt. “I’m sorry about all this, Xris. I
really am. Things were supposed to have worked out differently. You would have
never known the truth about me. But first Grant shows up with his machine. We
had no idea one of those was still in existence! Then the robot takes off on
its own. All of which turned out to be good, in a way.”

“Increased the
robot’s value for your boss,” Xris said.

“Yes. And then the
robot proved that it was still functional—”

“By taking out
Lanes. Boy, I’ll bet Harsch pays you a bonus for this one. Of course, that’s
not going to mean much to the thousand or so people who died on that cruise
ship.”

“I’m sorry, Xris,”
Tess repeated earnestly. “I’m sorry about your friend. I know you’re not going
to believe this, but I wasn’t lying about everything. I do really like you,
Xris, and maybe, when this is all finished, we can ...”

Xris said nothing.
He stared at her and eventually her voice trailed off. Her eyes lowered.

Jamil returned. “The
bomb’s gone,” he reported.

“Sure it’s gone,”
Xris said. “Even if she’s bluffing, the bomb’s gone. You don’t get in the NI by
making stupid mistakes.” He rounded suddenly on Raoul and the Little One, who
were both slipping quietly out the door. “Wait just a goddamn minute!”

He caught hold of
the Little One by the collar of the raincoat, dragged him backward.

“What do you
mean—all the trouble you went to? I asked the two of you what was going on with
Tess. You knew the truth! Damn it! You two knew and you didn’t tell me!”

“Do not shake him,
Xris Cyborg!” Raoul said worriedly, coming to the rescue of his small friend. “You’ll
ruin his digestion!”

“Like hell they
knew!” Tess said sharply. “I told Harsch that using the telepathic scrambler
was a waste of time and money. The little fart’s no more a telepath than that
girder there. I tested him two or three times and he never once caught on. They’ve
been conning you, Xris. It’s all a trick. I’ve seen better shows in a Laskar
nightclub.”

Raoul glanced at
Xris from beneath lowered lashes. The Little One tilted back his head, peered
up at Xris from beneath the brim of the fedora.

No, Xris thought,
whoever has been conned, it wasn’t me. These two knew the truth about Tess.
They’ve known it all along. And they hadn’t said a word, because ... because
...

It’s been a long
time since I’ve had sex.

You have to give
Raoul credit. He has his priorities in order. They don’t happen to be the
priorities of anyone else in the known universe, but ... that’s an Adonian for
you.

“We’re going to be
making the Jump to hyperspace in about twenty minutes,” Tess was saying. “Fortunately,
the Lane we need is still there. I’m going to go lie down, get some rest. I
suggest that you gentlemen do the same. I’m sure you’ll want to be at your best
when you meet Mr. Harsch. Unless, of course, you want to spend your time
searching for the bomb. If that keeps you happy and occupied, be my guests.”

“I’ll stay here
with Harry, monitor the Jump,” Xris offered. “The rest of you—go lie down. Like
the lady says, we’ll want to be at our best when we meet Mr. Harsch.”

Xris shoved past
Tess.

She caught hold of
his arm, his phony arm. “Xris, I wish ...” Her eyes were pleading. For what?
Sympathy? Understanding?

As Tycho would
say,
Obese chance.

Xris turned away.

Behind him, he
heard Raoul wail plaintively, “I can’t think
where
we went wrong.”

You must be
generous to double agents.

Sun-tzu,
The Art of War

The journey
through hyperspace to the frontier was long, tedious, and tense. The only
compensation was, as Jamil said, that everyone had a chance to catch up on
their sleep.

Those who could
sleep.

Xris was not among
that number and, from the ragged-edged looks of her, Tess—for all her talk—wasn’t
slumbering soundly, either.

Good! thought
Xris. Being in a Macbeth-like mood, he hoped she turned into an insomniac.

If she was worried
that they were going to attack her in her sleep, she needn’t have been. Xris
could have told her as much. Not that the team was idle. Each had his
assignment and at least one had come up with something, apparently.

“I need to talk to
you,” Harry said in a low voice, bumping into Xris in a corridor.

Xris nodded. “Where’s
Tess?”

“Back with the
robot.”

“What’s she doing?”
he asked.

“Running an
analysis on that machine of Grant’s. I asked her and she said that she wants to
know how it works before she presents it to her boss.”

“Fine. Get the
others. Meet in the galley.”

Harry’s face
brightened. “Lunch,” he said, and hurried off.