The Road of Danger-ARC (40 page)

Of course Tovera’s case also contained blocks of plastic explosive. A very modest pinch of that would crack a hinge or shatter a lock mechanism.…

The corridor beyond the elevator was concrete cast in the form of a pointed arch. There were no embellishments or furnishings, unless the two soldiers at the end in parade uniforms fell into one category or the other: they wore polished knee-boots with silver helmets and breastplates.

Their sub-machine guns looked perfectly functional, however, and they glowered at the visitors as though they would like to open fire. Well, being confined in a bare concrete pit would sour the temper of the best-humored man.

“I’ve seen prisons that appeared to be more pleasant environments,” Daniel said in a normal, conversational tone as he started down the corridor. Echoes blurred his words into their footsteps, but he obviously wasn’t trying to conceal what he said from the guards.

Adele walked along with her friend, but she didn’t try to keep in step. She hadn’t been trained for it; and for that matter, Daniel had proven in the past that he wasn’t very good at drill and ceremony either.

“Captain Leary and aide to see Governor Blaskett by appointment!” Daniel said to the guard at the left of the door. They looked as similar as statues cast from the same mold; it was beyond her to see how Daniel had decided which soldier was senior.

There was a miniature camera mounted above the transom. A diode in its workings blinked; the door opened outward with a grinding noise. Neither of the guards had touched the latch or, for that matter, moved in any fashion.

Maybe they
are
statues
.

Daniel walked in; Adele followed, three feet behind and offset to the left. Behind them, the door closed with another groan.

Governor Blaskett’s office looked more like the bridge of a starship than the sybarite’s boudoir which Adele had imagined before she first entered the lowering fortress. Of course it would have had to be the bridge of an unusually orderly starship.

Base Saal had been built as the command center of a regional replenishing base, so the building’s forbidding exterior was a given. Inside, though—and especially for a man like Blaskett, who obviously felt no need to stint his appetites—one would have expected at least touches of luxury: rare woods, art glass; velvet paintings of naked women. The walls of Blaskett’s sanctum were covered with real-time displays showing—to Adele’s quick glance—every portion of the base, even those which were shut down under the present peacetime regimen.

Two more guards in parade armor stood in the back corners of the room. Again, their sub-machine guns were serious even if the men holding them looked like characters from a historical romance.

Blaskett sat in the hollow of a U-shaped desk with three holographic displays; the central one was damped for the moment to allow him to glare at his visitors. He was of average height, at least if his legs were of normal length; and though he was on the plump side, he didn’t give Adele the impression of being an inflated balloon. His clothes were tailored like a military uniform, but they were bright green and had the sheen of natural silk.

Daniel braced to attention and saluted. “Sir!” he said. “Captain Leary reporting, with the compliments of the Republic of Cinnabar!”

Instead of returning the salute, the governor said, “You can stop spouting nonsense, Leary. I was warned you were coming, and I know why you’re here: you plan to extract your agent now that I’m about to crush this Cinnabar provocation which masquerades as a revolt.”

“Sir?” said Daniel, obviously taken aback. “Sir, I can assure you that the Republic had nothing to do with the…that is, with anything happening here on Sunbright. I’ve been sent to offer the Republic’s help in ending the situation, that’s all.”

Adele considered the circumstances, then seated herself on one of the chairs against the wall. They were steel extrusions, much like those of a starship’s wardroom. She took out her personal data unit, which had been operating in passive mode since before she entered the fortress. It didn’t appear that anything she did was going to change the interview’s tone for the worse.

“I told you to stop the nonsense!” Blaskett said, half rising and leaning forward with his hands on the desktop. Adele was interested to see that light caught droplets of spittle spraying from the governor’s anger. “Well, I’m not going to give you the cheap salvation you’re looking for. I’m going to capture your Freedom and I’m going to hang him and I’m going to show the whole universe that the Cinnabar Senate is a gang of treacherous liars!”

Adele avoided a smile by effort of will. She and Daniel were the children of Cinnabar senators. They had known from infancy that the Senate was a gang of treacherous liars.

Adele browsed selectively, ignored in her corner. There was plenty to occupy her. Blachett’s electronic security was no more effective than his glittering bodyguards.

The governor had told the truth when he said he had been warned to expect Captain Leary’s arrival to withdraw Freedom: a courier ship had brought the information from Madison three days earlier. The sender was the chief of the Fleet Intelligence Detachment for the Forty Stars Sector, Commander Doerries.

“Sir,” said Daniel. He had broken his formal posture, but he still stood very straight. “All I ask is that we be allowed to search for this rebel leader and, to take him off planet if we find him. The Republic will sequester him where he won’t do any more harm. The whole business can be taken care of very quietly.”

“Now I’m going to tell you, Leary…” said Blaskett, relaxing back into his chair again. “
Exactly
what’s going to happen. Your ship is going to lift from here within seventy-two hours. I am not required to extend hospitality to foreign warships for any longer than that, and I do not choose to go beyond my obligation.”

“As you wish, sir,” Daniel said in a tone of quiet restraint. “With luck that should be long enough—”

“I’ll tell you when to speak, Captain,” Blaskett said. “Furthermore, before you lift, you will either hand over the Cinnabar agent calling himself Freedom or my customs inspectors will search your ship until they find him. And if that means unscrewing every panel and dumping the bulk storage out on the dock, that’s what they’ll do.”

“The
Princess Cecile
is an RCN warship—” said Daniel.

“Be silent! Your bloody warship
will
submit to a search or there’ll be a tragic accident when a missile guts it on liftoff, do you understand?” the governor shouted. He was on his feet and knuckles again; Adele thought of a great ape bellowing as it nerved itself to charge. “Because I think you’ve already sneaked this bastard aboard, Leary! You thought you’d fooled me, didn’t you, but we saw the two men pretending to be from the Water Department go onto your ship as soon as you landed!”

“Sir,” said Daniel calmly, “as a courtesy to the representatives of a friendly nation, your inspectors are welcome to search the RCS
Princess Cecile
if they care to. As for the water business…”

He spread his hands, palms upward.

“…Chief Engineer Pasternak had been having leakage problems in the forward reaction mass tank. As we were landing, my signals officer contacted the Saal Water Department and requested caulking compound, which your officials very kindly delivered. But nobody came aboard at that time.”

Daniel coughed into his hand and added, “I’m sure you can check our signals log in case your own people didn’t record the call. And as I said, you may go aboard right now and search as thoroughly as you like. You won’t find anyone who isn’t a member of the crew.”

“I suppose you think I won’t!” the governor said, but by now he seemed a little doubtful. “Well, you’re wrong. The inspectors are already standing by—and the missile batteries are on high alert too.”

“I see,” said Daniel. “Sir, I’m sorry that you have misinterpreted my motives and those of my Republic. If there’s no possibility that you’ll relent so that our nations can work together—”

“Listen!” said Blaskett. “Your agent has killed thousands, tens of thousands! There’s no compromise with a mad dog. Just turn him over now and save yourself a lot of trouble.”

“I’m afraid that’s impossible, sir,” Daniel said. “Ah—I trust that I’ll be permitted to give my crew liberty?”

“They’ll be DNA-typed as they leave,” said Blanchet. “And checked back in individually. Anybody, who doesn’t have a match in the outgoing file will be detained. And hanged, I shouldn’t wonder!”

Daniel shrugged. “Liberty is always granted subject to local regulations,” he said. “This is an unusual regulation, but it won’t interfere with drinking, so there’ll be no complaints beyond the usual grousing. Thank you, sir.”

He suddenly smiled. “My normal problem is to get the whole crew back from the bars and knocking shops, you know,” he said. “There’s often a few who don’t make liftoff. But if you want to make sure that I don’t sign on extra personnel here, that’s your right.”

He turned; Adele pocketed her data unit and rose as the door opened to an unseen command. They started down the corridor toward the elevator, ignoring the motionless guards.

“We won’t speak until we’re outside,” Daniel said.

“Yes,” said Adele, though she was sure that there were no listening devices in the corridor or the elevator cage.

Adele was pleased despite her lack of expression. There wasn’t much information to exchange, after all. She believed she had already solved the problem.

***

Daniel waited at the tram stop, averting his eyes from the fierce glare as a gunboat landed with the usual thunder and lightning from her plasma thrusters. Commodore Pyne had sent the
Flink
into orbit while a tram was shuttling Daniel to his meeting with Governor Blaskett; now the
Sicher
was landing to replenish her air and reaction mass, and to give her crew liberty.

Daniel could have watched the
Sicher
land through the pair of UV-filtering RCN goggles he’d given Hogg to carry; his Whites didn’t have pockets. It had been a long time since Daniel had needed more than sound to understand what a starship was doing, however; and he had more important matters to attend to.

He turned his head. “Adele,” he said, “I believe it’s safe to speak here. I want you to locate a ship, ideally a small one, that can be made ready for liftoff within forty-eight hours; and preferably within twenty-four.”

“It is safe, yes,” said Adele. “And I believe the best ship for the purpose would be the
Commune
, a former blockade runner. It has been used to insert commandos three times already.”

Her eyes had been on the tram trundling in their general direction; it was still half a mile away. It might not be responding to their call for transportation.

Daniel didn’t think Adele was particularly concerned with when she would get back to the
Princess Cecile
; rather, she just preferred not to have face-to-face conversations. Circumstances forced her into propinquity with him, but that didn’t mean she actually had to look at her friend as they spoke.

“You knew what I was planning before I said anything about it, didn’t you?” Daniel said. “Saints and angels, Adele, I
still
haven’t said anything about it.”

“I’m sorry, Daniel,” she said—and she
did
turn to face him with a troubled, contrite expression. “I was showing off, I suppose. But I was present when the Governor spoke to you, so it shouldn’t surprise you that we came to the same conclusions.”

She grimaced. “My mother would be ashamed of me,” she said. “And rightly so in this instance, I’m afraid.”

The tram was continuing around the circuit instead of pulling into the stop in the center where Daniel and his companions waited. The flatbed portion was equipped with hydraulic lifting apparatus and carried a fusion bottle. There was only one person visible in the cab.

“Wonder if he’d stop if I put one through his windshield?” Hogg said thoughtfully. “Well, I probably couldn’t hit it at this range. With a pistol, I mean.”

“They won’t lift ship without us, Hogg,” Daniel said. Secretly, though, he wondered if Blaskett, at the heart of his electronic spider’s web, had disconnected the call plate at this stop as a provocation.

Though the truth was that the base was operating at less than ten percent of its designed capacity, so large portions of its infrastructure had been shut down. Indeed, there was another tram approaching the circuit now, this one apparently empty.

Daniel considered again the practicality of carrying ground transport on the
Sissie
the way the
Milton
had done under his command. The
Milton
had been a heavy cruiser, however. Even taken down to its components for stowing, a four-place vehicle was simply too bulky for the interior of a corvette.

“Daniel,” said Adele. “Did you know that Governor Blaskett would search the
Sissie
before he allowed us to lift off? I had wondered why you didn’t bring Grant along with you when you and Hogg boarded, though I see now that it would have been a disaster if you had.”

Daniel laughed. “You give me far too much credit,” he said. “I didn’t expect anything of the sort. Searching us is an act of war, you realize. Though I’m sure that everyone in the External Bureau on Xenos—and most of the Senate—would be at pains to hush things up, even if Blaskett really did put a missile into us.”

He sobered, trying to put in order the series of choices which he had made without slowing for conscious consideration. He had done what he thought was right; pretty much as he always did.

“I hadn’t heard a great deal to the governor’s credit, even before we met him,” Daniel said, choosing his words. “Nevertheless our nations are friendly now, even if not allies. I decided to assume that the governor would see our common interest in resolving the matter efficiently. I felt that was the right way to behave, as a gentleman and an officer of the RCN.”

The tram
was
turning into the short loop that served the fortress. There wasn’t as much traffic as Daniel would have expected to a headquarters, but he supposed the personnel were billeted on lower levels of the structure, so the process of going on and off duty didn’t require leaving the building.