Assumption of risk

by Michael A. Stackpole

  The words hit Kai like a hammer blow. My son! He studied the picture and tried to deny what Tormano had said, but he could not. The boy looked so much like him that no one could doubt they were close kin. He wanted to deny the evidence before his eyes, but he could not.

  Tormano's voice cut through the emotional turmoil raging through Kai's mind and heart. "For the next ten days, Kai, you are going to do absolutely nothing. Just as you have people watching me, so I have people watching you. I will know your every move. If one of your DropShips leaves Solaris, I will know. Do not disappoint me and I will unite you with your son. Defy me and the holograph you now hold will be the last view you'll ever have of your son's face. You are dismissed."

  Kai felt a hand tugging on his elbow. Seeing it was Nancy Lee, he followed her without conscious thought, letting her lead him out of the room. As they passed through the long hall and then down the curving staircase to street level, Kai gradually came back to his senses, and it was the awareness of Nancy Lee crying that brought him out of it.

  Kai conquered the sympathetic impulse to join her. "Nancy?"

  "It's my fault. I didn't know."

  "What is?"

  "Doctor Lear. Your uncle knew nothing about her until I found an anomaly in some records. You'd helped all the other folks from Alyina, except her." She swiped at tears with her hands. "I thought he wanted to bring you two together, especially when I heard she had a son. He's a beautiful child, but I should have guessed."

  Kai grabbed her by the shoulders. "Nancy, do you know where she is? Do you know where they are?"

  "No, oh God, I wish I did. I'd tell you, I would." She reached out and hugged Kai and began to sob again. "I want to help, I do, but I don't know—"

  "Nancy, Nancy, get a hold of yourself." Kai held her out at arm's length. "Look, this isn't your fault. Tormano is a twisted, bitter man. I should have done something about him sooner. This is my fault. I do need your help."

  "Anything."

  "Keep your eyes and ears open. If he lets anything slip about Deirdre, let me know. Please."

  "I will. Promise."

  Kai gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Thanks."

  "What are you going to do?"

  "Anything I can, Nancy, and a hell of a lot of praying."

  "Bon giorno, Sergei." The assassin greeted the broker as he entered the back room of the Red Hart Tavern and Grill, "Come sta?"

  "Molto bene. I have what you wanted." Chou deposited a briefcase on the table, then added a small package wrapped in brown paper and tied with a string. "The rest of the reports are in the briefcase. I think you will be most pleased with the results. Everything was done to your specifications."

  "As always, your work makes mine much easier. Xiexie."

  "Bu xie." Chou bowed to the assassin and backed his way out of the room.

  The assassin made no move to touch any of the things the broker had delivered. He knew, from the few words they had exchanged, that Chou had gotten all the information he had secreted in the computer files. That meant his escape plan would go into effect immediately. The sooner the security people walked him out of the room and set him on his target, the sooner he would be free.

  Mandrinn's Estate, Solaris VII

  Tamarind March, Federated Commonwealth

  Deirdre did not like the portents offered by the smug expression on the Chief of Security's face. "I said I wanted to know when we would be leaving Solaris, Captain. The Mandrinn has made his presentation and you told me yesterday that the magnetic resonance imaging equipment is bought and ready to transport. When do we head back to Zurich?"

  The man did not bother to try to conceal the lie in his reply. "Forgive the Mandrinn's caution, Doctor, but there are rumors that a Zhanzheng de guang assassination team is present on Solaris. It is believed they have targeted the Mandrinn and may actually be watching this estate." He patted the pistol on his right hip. "That's why my people are armed and have orders to shoot to kill. The danger should be past in two weeks or so, but until then we cannot afford to move you from here in case they should try to ambush you."

  Deirdre shook her head. "I appreciate your caution, Captain. Is there nothing that you can do to get us out of here sooner?"

  "Nothing, I'm afraid. The Mandrinn has told the staff to do everything to make you feel completely at home on the estate. We are at your service."

  "But you won't get us on a DropShip and headed for Zurich?"

  "No."

  "Very well." Let's see just how much of a prisoner I am. "Please summon the local ComStar Precentor so I can send my family a message not to worry."

  The captain smiled. "That has already been done, Dr. Lear. The Mandrinn wished to save you the expense."

  "I see. Well, then, I would like to use a visiphone to call to Kai Allard-Liao."

  The man blinked in surprise, then shook his head. "I'm afraid no outside contact is possible. Our communications may not be secure, and Kai has been implicated in the terrorist organization."

  That is just flat not possible. Kai and Sun-Tzu would no sooner work together ... Pieces began to drop into place for Deirdre Lear. "I see."

  "Please, if there is anything else I can do for you." Light mocking tones underscored the words as he turned to leave the suite.

  Deirdre sat down on the edge of the couch. David and I are hostages, we're prisoners. Tormano is using us against Kai. She felt a sharp pang of regret as old emotions awakened in her. I knew Kai's nature would be the death of our relationship, and now it could kill my son.

  She looked over at David playing with wooden building blocks. Our son. Kai ... why are you doing this to us?

  Her mind flashed back to the six months she had spent with him, running from the Jade Falcons. Never would the old Kai have done anything to harm her. He'd even bargained with a Clansman, risking almost certain death, to win her freedom on Alyina. How had he gone from being a quiet warrior who accepted responsibility for all his actions to a money-grubbing play-warrior? The change must certainly have something to do with her rejection of him. If I hadn't been so harsh, David's life wouldn't be in jeopardy now.

  She tried to reconcile her old and new views of Kai, but they fought in her mind until only the old Kai, the one she had known on Alyina, remained. Her thinking had gotten so twisted. How could she have begun to think of him in any other way?

  I've been ignoring the evidence I didn't want to see. Cenotaph Charities, Inc., that's vintage Kai. And his uncle is the one who brought me here, obviously to use me against him. Tormano is the one pushing for a military conquest of the Capellan Confederation, and didn't he say he'd had a falling out with Kai? Kai must have opposed him and his plans. Oh god, Kai hasn't changed. He's still the man I knew, the man I loved. And now we're a knife being pressed to his throat.

  "What's wrong, Mommy?" David reached up and brushed some of her tears away.

  Deirdre snatched the boy up into her lap and hugged him tightly. "Oh, baby, I've been wrong about someone very special, and now he's in trouble because of it."

  "Can we help?"

  "I hope so, David." Deirdre's face hardened into an angry mask. Kai and I eluded ComStar and Clan hunting parties for six months on Alyina. There's no way a handful of Capellan ex-patriots are going to keep me here against my will. She kissed her son, then held him close. "We have to do some planning, but then we'll help a lot."

  Solaris City, Solaris VII

  Tamarind March, Federated Commonwealth

  It pleased the assassin that the security men brought him and his equipment directly back to the safe house. They gave it to him without checking it first, a mistake the ice-eyed man would never have made. The assassin didn't know where the ice man had gone, but it was a good thing he had. That man wouldn't be sitting back watching the monitors connected to the cameras that tracked the assassin constantly. He'd be here, probably sensing me getting ready to bolt.

  The assassin opened the case with the rifle first. The weapon had been broken down and car
efully placed in the foam rubber pockets of the interior. Everything looked just as it had when he'd first stored the rifle. The scent of fresh gun-oil told him that Sergei Chou had cleaned the weapon after the ammunition had been run through it.

  Pulling on a pair of white cotton gloves from within the case, the assassin looked up at the two security men in the room with him. "This is a Loftgren Supreme Model One-fifty. I modified it, did a trigger job on it and trimmed the interior of the stock so it balanced perfectly. It's a twelve point seven millimeter rifle and with the scope in place I can hit a target at two kilometers. Because I'm going to be shooting at a man who lives in a section of Silesia undergoing gentrification, I'll need that distance. I also need you to engage Room eight-oh-seven at the Armored Fist Hotel for me."

  The surprised look on the men's faces told the assassin that they did not even know the name of his target. He knew he had gone too far, but without the ice-eyed man to direct them, someone had to take the lead. Determining his target had been simple: Katrina had departed the world and Victor was showing support for Tormano by appointing his brother Peter as his liaison officer. That left Ryan Steiner from his list of possibles. Ryan's complicity in the explosion that killed Galen Cox was nearly transparent. And so Ryan it would be.

  The assassin pulled the report on ballistics from the case and set it on the table. He then pulled the clip from the case and shut it. One by one he thumbed the bullets from the clip and set them on the table. The first had a thick black stripe on the case and the second had a green stripe. A bullet with gold and pink stripes came next, followed by a brown and black striped shell and one with silver, red, and scarlet stripes. The last had blue and white stripes on it.

  The assassin wanted to smile, for the bullets told him everything he wanted to know, but he kept up his act for the security men. He turned to the ballistics report. "The bullets I ordered for this job are boat-tailed, sabot-loaded, armor-piercing bullets. The target will be in an office, behind a window that your information claims is made of bullet-proof glass. Many people actually believe glass can stop a bullet, but that is not true."

  He picked up the black bullet. "A bullet this heavy, accelerated in the rifle, will contain enough kinetic energy to deal with the glass problem and still be able to take our target out."

  The assassin pointed to the graph on the first page of the report. "See here, the black bullets have a mid-range trajectory of plus one point twenty-four centimeters at a range of two hundred fifty meters. That's as close to flat as one could hope, but the accuracy tails off at five hundred meters. Which is not good." Page by page he continued through the report, impressing the men with facts and figures that they obviously did not understand. All that was important to him was to check that the charts had been bound into the report in the same order as the bullets had been placed in the clip.

  "Because the gunsmith made up four of each configuration, I have four of whichever bullet I want." The assassin looked up and smiled. "I think the silver-red-scarlet bullet is the one I want to use, don't you?"

  He held it up and one of the men went to take it from him, but the assassin pulled it back. "No, no, gentlemen, you don't have gloves on. I doubt your prince would like Intelligence Secretariat agent fingerprints on the shells that killed Ryan Steiner. Very bad idea."

  The one man blushed while the other one laughed, and that brought a smile to the assassin's face. It occurred to him that this was the first time he had ever allowed victims to see him preparing to cause their deaths. "Yes, the tri-color it will be."

  A third man entered the room. "Get your gear together. We have the room you want."

  The assassin looked up expectantly. "It's on?"

  "Yes," the new man said with a nod. "Tonight Duke Ryan Steiner dies."

  31

  Solaris City, Solaris VII

  Tamarind March, Federated Commonwealth

  24 April 3056

  Kai nodded as Keith Smith severed the visiphone connection with Kristina. "Sorry to ask you to break a date, Keith, but this is very important." He looked over at Larry Acuff and Fuh Teng to acknowledge their presence as well. "Right now you're the only people I can trust with this, and I'm going to need your help. After I lay it out, floor's open and we bring in anyone else we need, provided we can keep a lid on this stuff."

  All three men looked sufficiently intrigued and cautioned that Kai knew he had their undivided attention. "Peter Davion has left Solaris in the company of Khorsakov's Cossacks. That unit was infamous for being virulently anti-Romano and they have no love for Sun-Tzu either. They've jumped out of this system on a mission somewhere. I understand it will take approximately ten days for results to be reported back to Solaris."

  Larry frowned. "Ten days is a long time. A JumpShip can go quite a distance in that time, and with a good pirate point, troops could be on a planet almost as soon as they arrive."

  Keith reached out and turned Kai's computer console around, then pulled the keyboard into his lap. "Keeping track of JumpShips for those damned Jade Falcons has got me a database full of stuff. Do you know the ship the Cossacks are using?"

  Kai shook his head. "Sorry."

  "Not that much of a problem, really." Keith hit a few keys and a screen full of information scrolled into place. "Peter was here yesterday, which means we need a JumpShip on station within the last twelve hours. Only three here: the Remagen, the Darlington, and the DMCS Shojo, which is here to get Lady Omi and carry her home. The only one that wouldn't be limited to a one-jump range or the need to recharge in another system is the Shojo, which has lithium-fusion batteries."

  Fuh Teng frowned. "It would not seem to me that mere arrival in a system would produce sufficient results for a report."

  "I agree. I think we also have to look at hostile worlds." Kai looked at his computer expert. "What have we got for hostile worlds within thirty light years of Solaris?"

  "Well, now, that depends on how you define hostile."

  "What do you mean?"

  Keith typed a command into the computer. "New Kyoto, Rahne, Algorab, Zaniah, and Fianna are all within range."

  "But those are Federated Commonwealth worlds, Keith." Larry shook his head. "They wouldn't be heading out to a FedCom, would they?"

  "A couple of those worlds do lean toward Skye in terms of politics." Keith shrugged. "Peter's got no love for Ryan Steiner."

  "True, but the Cossacks have no beef with Steiner. Besides, my uncle had a hand in this."

  "You should have said so." The information on the computer screen changed, bringing a frown to Keith's face. He hit another command, but the screen remained unchanged. "Not that I doubt the machine, but there isn't a single Capellan Confederation world within striking distance."

  Kai's eyes narrowed. "Could my uncle have set up a command circuit?"

  "I honestly doubt it, Kai. I've been tracking JumpShip traffic and I have the computer set up to recognize patterns that could improvise a circuit." Keith adjusted his glasses. "I knew you wanted to get the Jade Falcons here without having to pay JumpShip masters to wait around for ComStar and everyone else to approve the trip. So I've been looking for patterns of ships. We had one seven weeks ago that looked real good, but it fell apart before we could use it. We're close again now, but the title match is over so it doesn't matter. Anyway, I don't show anything like a command circuit going toward the Capellan Confederation."

  "Can't rule it out entirely, but let's assume it has a low probability." Kai leaned forward on his desk, pressing his palms flat against the sheet of glass covering the mahogany top. "If it's not Capellan, what is it? Free Worlds League?"

  "No offense, Kai, but your uncle could easily have planned something just about that crazy." Larry's face darkened. "I'd have thought Duke Peter would be too smart to go along with it, but reading Chinese is easier than reading him."

  "Eight worlds in range in the Free Worlds League. Want a list?"

  Kai was about to answer when the intercom buzzed. He hit a button on
the control console. "Yes?"

  "Gatehouse, sir. Perkins here."

  "Yes, Mr. Perkins?"

  "Sir, Mr. Wu Deng Tang is here. He wants to see you."

  Kai shook his head. "I'm very busy right now, Mr. Perkins. Please tell Mr. Wu I will call him when I'm able."

  "Yes, sir, but he says its urgent. He says he has to return the favor you did him before your fight. Return it in kind, he says."

  Before the fight? I had people watch over his wife so she wouldn't be hurt. Kai felt a cold chill work its way down his spine. "Please, Mr. Perkins, send Mr. Wu up."

  "On our way, sir."

  Fuh Teng got up and headed toward the office door. "What do you think it is, Kai?"

  Kai's head came up slowly. "I don't know." Dare I guess he knows something about Deirdre and David? Kai slipped his hand into the pocket of his jacket. The holograph felt cool to his touch.

  Fuh Teng opened the door and Wu walked in. He looked tired, and perspiration dotted his brow. He looked around at the other men in the room, then at Kai. "I've had a message from my father."

  "He was pleased to hear of the birth of your son?"

  "Yes, he was, but that's not what brought me here." Wu paused to catch his breath, then began to speak slowly. "First, he asked to be remembered to you and said he hoped you served Prince Victor as well as your father had served Hanse Davion."

  "I've never met your father and for a Capellan officer to mention my father ..."

  "If it's not a curse, it could get him killed, I know." Wu shook his head. "He said that our fight and the honor you showed me would have to suffice for honor in the Wu family this year. He had hoped otherwise because he has been told enemies are inbound and his Harloc Raiders are ready for them. However he has been ordered to pull his people into the fortifications they have created there, and is to leave the defense of the planet to the local forces."

  Kai's jaw shot open, then snapped shut again. "Did your father say who the enemies were? Did he mention Khorsakov's Cossacks?"