Blackcollar

by Timothy Zahn

  Hamner Lodge lay nestled in the western slopes of the Greenheart Mountain Range sixteen kilometers northeast of Capstone. Once a prestigious hunting lodge, it had been a favorite retreat of Plinry’s rich and influential, even having its own station on the underground tube that linked Capstone with the city of New Karachi on the far side of the mountains.

  The war had changed all that. New Karachi was now a shallow depression in the blackened ground, the tube was out of use and in disrepair, and the lodge was abandoned…most of the time.

  “We’ve been coming up here two to four times a year since about 2440,” a spry oldster named Frank Dodds explained to Caine as they walked through the wooded area surrounding the lodge. Dodds had taken over as tour guide for Caine shortly after the latter’s arrival with Mordecai and was filling him in on history as well as geography. Caine was grateful for the change in babysitters; while Dodds wasn’t welcoming Caine with open arms, he at least was marginally friendly.

  “I’m surprised the owners didn’t repair the place after the war,” he commented to the blackcollar, shivering slightly in the chilly mountain air. “It’s not in bad shape.”

  “As I recall, the owners lived in New Karachi,” Dodds said quietly.

  “Oh.” Caine felt foolish.

  Dodds looked at him. “Those clothes aren’t really suited for the temperature up here, are they?”

  “I’m okay.”

  “Yeah. Well, Skyler brought some extra clothing for you in case you didn’t have anything proper. You ought to go and change.”

  “That was very kind of him. I think I will.” A motion through the trees to his left caught Caine’s attention. “Who’s that over there?”

  “Hunting party, probably,” Dodds said, craning his neck. “Let’s go see.”

  They walked through the undergrowth and dead leaves for about twenty meters to a small clearing where three men were waiting for them. “Heard you coming,” one of them, a lanky man with pure white hair, commented. Under their jackets, Caine noted, all three wore the same black turtleneck shirt that he’d seen on Lathe at their first meeting; and each wore a dragonhead ring with slitted metal eyes. Brave enough to wear the hated rings, Caine thought cynically,” as long as no one else was around.

  Dodds made the introductions. “Alain Rienzi, this is Dawis Hawking; that’s Kelly O’Hara, and this is Charles Kwon.”

  “Pleased to meet you,” Caine said. With their large arms and shoulders, O’Hara and Kwon both looked like former wrestlers, despite their age. Kwon’s eyes held just a touch of Oriental slant.

  Hawking nodded with cool politeness. “Heard about you,” he said. “Writing a book about the war.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Maybe Rienzi would like to see how we hunt,” Dodds suggested.

  Hawking shrugged. “Just keep him out of the way.” Reaching into a pouch attached to his belt, the blackcollar pulled out a larger silvery object. “Ever seen one of these, boy?” he asked.

  Caine stepped forward, curious. It was an eight-pointed metal star about fifteen centimeters across. Though tarnished in places, the star’s points were still sharp.

  “It’s called a throwing star, or shuriken,” Hawking explained. “It’s used like—well, like this. Watch that squirk over there.”

  Caine glanced in the indicated direction in time to see a gray, flat-tailed creature the size of a small monkey hop up onto a dead log. Planting his feet carefully, Hawking gripped the star in its center and cocked his arm inward, toward his chest. For just a second he held the pose; then, leaning forward, he whipped his arm, sending the star spinning through the air. The squirk’s reflexes were fast, though, and the animal leaped for a nearby tree even as the star flew past it. With an outraged yip, the squirk scampered up the trunk and vanished from sight.

  “Damn,” Hawking muttered. He retrieved the star and returned to the group. “Doesn’t always work,” he shrugged. “But I’ll nail one in a couple more tries, if you want to come along and watch.”

  “Uh, no thanks.” Caine shivered again, and not entirely from the cold. Just playing soldier, all of them; reliving past glories that were long gone. “I’m going to need warmer clothes, I think.”

  “Yeah, don’t want you catching pneumonia or something—the collies would probably take it out of our pensions,” O’Hara commented dryly.

  “Come on, Rienzi, we’ll go see Skyler,” Dodds said. “You guys better hustle—we’ll need some meat by thirteen o’clock if we’re going to eat by noon.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Hawking growled.

  Unbidden, tears came to Caine’s eyes as he and Dodds headed back toward the lodge. He did not look back.

  The three hunters remained silent until they heard the distant sound of the lodge door closing behind Dodds and Caine. Then Hawking returned the big silvery star to his belt pouch. “Seemed a bit dejected, didn’t he?” he remarked to the others.

  Kwon nodded. “It could be an act, of course.”

  “Pretty good acting, in my book,” O’Hara said.

  Hawking shrugged. “Well, we’ll find out this afternoon. Let’s wrap this up while Dodds has him out of the way, shall we?”

  All three men froze, listening. From the multitude of chirps, buzzes, and clicks coming from the leafy canopy overhead, Hawking picked out the faint noise of squirk claws on tree bark. Locating it by the sound, he was watching the proper spot when the creature cautiously moved into sight.

  Hawking reached to his belt—but not to the pouch holding the silvery stars. His fingers dipped instead into a smaller pouch, hidden behind the first, and emerged with another throwing star. It, too, had eight points—but there the resemblance ended. This star was half the diameter of the other; heavier, sharper, and colored a jet black. A wolf, to the silvery star’s Saint Bernard. His eyes on the squirk, Hawking permitted himself a smile at Caine’s naïveté—imagine thinking blackcollars used demonstration shuriken for hunting!

  The star flashed across the clearing, burying itself deeply into the squirk’s body before the animal could react. The squirk dropped like a stone; and its noisy passage through the branches triggered sudden activity above the clearing. In a single smooth motion O’Hara snatched a star from his own pouch and snapped it skyward. A second squirk, killed in mid-leap, slammed into its target tree and slid to the ground.

  “Show-off,” Hawking muttered as he moved off to retrieve his star and squirk. O’Hara just grinned and went to get his own.

  “I’ll take them in,” Kwon volunteered. “Better get at least four more; we’ve got a full house today.”

  “No problem,” Hawking assured him. Gesturing to O’Hara, he set off deeper into the woods.

  Considering the trouble Hawking and the others had been having, Caine was mildly surprised when dinner was indeed ready by noon. The food was good enough—roast squirk reminded him of very tough shrimp, somehow—but he paid only token attention to the meal. His real interest lay in the group of men gathered around the large wooden table. What he saw wasn’t encouraging.

  There were thirty-one blackcollars present, all proudly wearing black turtlenecks and dragonhead rings. Only one other man had the red-eyed ring that signified a comsquare: Trevor Dhonau, the wizened old man at the head of the table. Lathe, sitting next to Caine, identified Dhonau as the doyen, or senior member, of the Plinry blackcollars. Whether the title held any real power Caine didn’t know; but it almost didn’t matter anymore. Looking at the faces around him and listening to the conversations, he knew there was no help here for him. The blackcollars hated the Ryqril and their domination; that much he was sure of. But equally clear was the fact that all of them had resigned themselves to it. In hindsight, Caine knew he should have expected nothing more—the Ryqril would hardly have allowed them to live had they been otherwise. But it was still a crushing disappointment.

  Blackcollars, even old ones, were evidently not the kind to linger over their meals, and soon the plates were empty. At the he
ad of the table Trevor Dhonau got awkwardly to his feet, favoring a game right leg. Tapping his knife on his plate until conversation ceased, he raised his glass. “Blackcollar commandos, once more we are met together,” he said, his voice slightly slurred. “Let us dedicate our time here to those our comrades who have gone before us, and pledge that their sacrifice should not be in vain.”

  The others picked up their glasses and drank. Caine, conscious of his role as a collie, left his untouched. Lathe nudged him. “It’s good stuff,” he said. “Tardy Spadafora makes it himself. Aren’t you going to try it?”

  Caine shook his head. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have come—I don’t belong here.” He looked across the table, where Mordecai was sitting. “I heard you mention you were going back to Capstone tonight. Could I possibly ride with you?”

  Mordecai’s eyes burned into him. “I suppose so.”

  Lathe plucked at Caine’s sleeve. “Hear, you can’t leave today. You’ll miss the shuriken and nunchaku contests and—”

  “I’m sorry.” Caine got to his feet, abruptly sickened by the whole pathetic farce. “Excuse me, please.”

  Back in the room Skyler had assigned him Caine began pulling together the clothes and other things he had brought. But he had barely started when a sudden dizziness swept over him, sending him to a sitting position on the floor. For several seconds he tried to fight it as strength flowed out of him like sweat. By the time he realized what was happening, it was too late to call out.

  He was asleep before his head hit the floor.

  CHAPTER 5

  CAINE WAS FLOATING IN a dark mist shot through with firefly bursts of light. He had no idea where he was, but lacked the alertness to wonder about it. He got the impression that something had awakened him, but he didn’t really know what. It was sort of—ah, there it came again: a voice.

  “Who are you?” it said, with a tone of insistence impossible to resist.

  Allen Caine, his mind said promptly, pleased that he had remembered it so well. But his tongue had other ideas. “Al-Alain Rienzi.”

  “Who are you?” the voice asked again.

  “Alain Rienzi,” his tongue repeated. Caine watched its performance with interest, as he would any other magic act.

  “Who do you work for?”

  That was a tricky one. Technically, Caine was a free agent, far away from those people whose names he couldn’t remember. While he was mulling it over his tongue gave its own answer. “Senator Auriol of the TDE.”

  This was becoming boring. Caine decided to go back to sleep. “Wake up!” the voice demanded. Resentfully, Caine did so.

  It went on and on.…

  “Well?” Trevor Dhonau asked.

  Freeman Vale turned off the microphone link to the next room before answering. “He’s definitely not Alain Rienzi—that much I’m sure of. There’s just a little too much hesitation before his answers. I’d guess the rest of his story is phony, too, which implies either thorough conditioning or some very excellent psychor training.”

  Dhonau nodded and looked around the windowless room at the silent group of blackcollars. “Comments?”

  “How about increasing the verifin dose?” Kelly O’Hara suggested.

  Vale shook his head. “Won’t help. We’re already at the maximum level. More than this and he just goes to sleep faster.”

  “His fingerprints match the ones on his ID,” another blackcollar reported. “If he’s a collie spy why didn’t they at least set him up with his real name? It’s not like we can fly to Earth and check him out.”

  “Good point,” Dhonau agreed. “On the other hand, if he’s an agent for some sort of underground—on who knows what mission—how did he get here? He would have had to get by both Earth’s security setup and Galway; and Galway, at least, is nobody’s fool.”

  “Let’s ask him,” Lathe’s cool voice broke the short silence. “We’re not getting anywhere this way.”

  Dhonau pursed his lips. “I suppose you’re right. Vale, Haven—bring him here.”

  Caine’s head was aching fiercely and his legs were none too steady as the two blackcollars who’d awakened him half led, half carried him into the room where the silent group of old men waited. It was not a total surprise—he already knew he’d been drugged—but he hadn’t expected so many of the blackcollars to be involved. Fourteen of them—almost half the total—were crowded into the cramped space, including Dhonau, Skyler, Mordecai, and Lathe. Why Lathe had been included he couldn’t guess.

  “Sit down,” Dhonau said, and Caine found that a chair had been moved into position behind him. He sank into it gratefully as his two escorts stepped back to stand by the room’s only visible exit.

  “Let’s start with your name,” Dhonau suggested. “We know you’re not Alain Rienzi; we also know you’ve had some pretty esoteric psychological training. I don’t know whether or not that training would protect your secrets under physical torture, but if necessary we can find out.”

  A chill went up Caine’s spine. He looked around the room, wondering what would happen if he made a break for the door. Two old men were all that blocked his way, and his own combat training was considerably fresher than theirs. But he was still weak from the aftereffects of the drugs they’d used on him. Besides, these men were theoretically on his side…and there was something in Dhonau’s voice he hadn’t heard there before.

  “All right,” he said slowly. “But I must have your word of secrecy. My life’s on the line here.”

  Someone off to the side snorted. “Ours aren’t?”

  “I only meant—”

  “We’re well aware of the danger,” Dhonau said. “There’s a bug stomper going behind you.”

  Caine turned his head. Sure enough, off in the corner sat the squat mushroom shape he’d seen so often at furtive Resistance meetings on Earth. Turning back to face Dhonau, he steeled himself. “All right. My name is Allen Caine. I’m a member of Earth’s Resistance…and I need your help.”

  No excited murmur ran through the group; only here and there was there so much as a thoughtful nod. Dhonau’s face remained impassive. “Can you prove it?”

  “I don’t know. I was hoping to find General Avril Lepkowski here—one of our leaders, General Morris Kratochvil, was going to give me a letter of introduction for him. I don’t suppose Galway lied about his being dead?”

  Dhonau shook his head. “Sorry. Lepkowski fried with his senior staff under New Karachi during the Groundfire attack. Do you have that letter with you?”

  “Unfortunately, things went sour.” Caine described the raid on the Resistance hideaway and his own escape to Plinry. “Without the proper papers I can’t get into the Plinry archives. I was hoping the underground here could help me.”

  “Uh-huh.” Dhonau looked thoughtful. “I notice you’ve carefully avoided mentioning why you want in the archives. What’s in there that’s so important?”

  Caine took a deep breath. The culmination of years of preparation, the knife-edge on which the freedom of Earth balanced—he’d been told often enough how important the secret was. But he had no choice now but to tell them. “Out there, somewhere,” he said, nodding skyward, “there’s a great treasure hidden. Five Nova-class starships. Fueled, armed, and ready to fly.”

  Again there were no murmurs; but this time the silence was due to shock. Dhonau recovered first. “You must be joking,” he said, his voice strangely tight.

  Caine shook his head. “I agree, it sounds impossible. Here’s what happened.

  “The TDE was turning out vast numbers of warships in the early years of the war. In early 2424 someone in the High Command had the bright idea of hiding some fully armed and crewed warships in one of the systems near the battle front. The plan was to let the Ryqril sweep past—they were going to, anyway—and then suddenly pop up with this assault force right in the middle of their supply vectors.”

  “Wouldn’t have helped much,” someone muttered.

  “Nothing would have,” Dodds, sitting ne
xt to Lathe, countered.

  “Well, we’ll never know for sure,” Caine said. “The five ships were delivered on schedule by special skeleton crews, who hid them and then returned to Earth. The convoy that was carrying the regular crews ran into a Ryqril ambush and was completely destroyed, though we’re sure the Ryqril never knew just what they’d done. Anyway, with the incredibly tight secrecy around the project the report of the incident didn’t get to the right people until it was too late. The Ryqril had already passed and it would have been nearly impossible to get crews through the front. All records on Earth were destroyed before the Ryqril victory, and everybody who knew where the ships were hidden is dead now, so the handful of officers who knew about the project gave up on it…until about seven years ago.”

  “Duplicate records exist on Plinry?” Skyler asked.

  Caine nodded. “General Kratochvil located a former Rear Admiral who’d been based on Plinry. The ships’ location is hidden in one of the mundane, non-military records in the archives. It’s in a special code, overlaid on the wording of the record.”

  “Go on,” Dhonau prompted.

  “No. The rest has to remain secret.”

  “I see.” Dhonau scratched his chin. “What were your plans once you had the information?”

  “The original plan was for me to return to Earth, still as Alain Rienzi. The Resistance was supposed to recruit all the old starmen that they could find, steal some ships, and try to get to the Novas before the Ryqril figured out what they were doing. Now—” he shrugged uncomfortably—“I’m not sure what I’ll do.”

  “Speaking of Alain Rienzi,” Dhonau said, abruptly changing the subject, “how come you’re able to masquerade as him?”

  “Oh, he really exists—aide to a TDE Senator, son of a well-connected government family—all of that’s true. I apparently look enough like him to pass. The Resistance kidnapped him and changed his ID and the computer banks to fit my fingerprints and retinal patterns.”

  “That’s impossible.”