by Timothy Zahn
But the guilt now twisting through his stomach was a cost he hadn't counted on.
Maybe a cost he wasn't willing to pay.
A small table and chair had been set up near the slaves' food locker, with a bowl full of steaming breakfast stew waiting. "There," Heetoorieef said, gesturing toward it. "Your meal. The Panjan Gazen commands that you eat."
Of course Gazen would command it. Jack was a slave, too, after all. Commands, hotboxes, and whippings were all part of the package. "Sure," he muttered.
He sat down. Whatever appetite he'd brought in with him this morning had vanished like Alice down the rabbit hole. Even if it hadn't, he would have felt awkward helping himself to a hearty meal with the rest of the slaves still hard at work around him.
Still, this might be the only decent meal on today's schedule. Maybe on the whole week's schedule, the way Gazen played things. Whether he had an appetite or not, he needed his strength.
Besides, the aroma rising with the steam had already set his stomach growling.
Giving up, he picked up the spoon and carved out a small bite.
"Wait," Draycos's voice whispered from his shoulder.
Jack froze, the spoon halfway to his mouth. "What?" he whispered back.
"Let me smell it more closely," Draycos said. He shifted lower on Jack's chest, and the end of his snout rose from the skin.
Jack moved the spoon to the protruding snout, pulling the edges of his unfastened shirt forward a little with his free hand to help hide the dragon from view. "Well?"
Draycos's only answer was to keep sniffing. "Come on, come on," Jack said impatiently. This had better not be something stupid, like the kettlespice balance not being quite right. "What, is it spoiled or something?"
"No," Draycos said. "It is poisoned."
Carefully, Jack lowered the spoon back into the bowl. "You sure?"
"I am positive," Draycos said. "I cannot identify the exact type. But I am certain it is a poison."
Jack took a deep breath. So that was how Gazen planned to do it. "A squatter poison," he said. "Bet you aces to deuces it's a squatter poison."
"I do not know that term."
"It's a type of poison that gets into a person's system and then just sort of sits there," Jack explained bitterly. "Sometimes for years. They're mostly used for big-animal control, like that touring show with the reconstructed dinosaurs."
"What do you mean, it sits there?" Draycos asked. "Where does it sit?" "All through the tissues," Jack said. "Muscle fibers, lungs, maybe the heart lining. And as long as you take a daily dose of the right antidote, you're fine."
"And if you do not?"
"Then you're dead."
For a moment Draycos was silent. "That is how Gazen plans to keep you under the control of your new buyer," he said. "But can you not find your own supply of the antidote?"
"Sure," Jack said. "Problem is, I don't know which squatter poison it is. The wrong antidote could kill me all by itself."
"What then do we do?"
"We start by going hungry," Jack said, picking up the glass of water beside the bowl and holding it close to his chest. "Take a sniff. Anything here?"
Again, the snout rose an inch out from his skin. "No," Draycos said after a couple of sniffs. "It is clear water."
"Okay," Jack said, taking a sip. It tasted a little funny, but that was probably his imagination. "I just hope there wasn't anything in those pancake things Lisssa gave us."
"There was not," Draycos assured him. "I would have smelled it."
"I hope so," Jack said, taking another sip of the water. It still tasted funny.
"The buyer will have to be told the proper poison and antidote," Draycos went on thoughtfully. "Perhaps we can overhear that information, or else learn it from him later on."
"That's the second time you've mentioned a buyer," Jack said. "You know something I don't?"
"We are expecting you to be sold, are we not?" Draycos reminded him. "These precautions would indicate that time is near. And of course, there are also those military transports to consider."
A sip of water tried to go down the wrong way. "Transports?" Jack demanded when he stopped coughing. "Where?"
"On the west end of the grounds," Draycos said, sounding surprised. "Near the vehicle parking area, between the mansion and the main gate. Did you not see them as we were being brought to the kitchen?"
"I missed it completely," Jack muttered, feeling thoroughly disgusted with himself. "How many were there?"
"At least five," Draycos said. "Possibly more. I was only able to see glimpses of them between the bushes and trees."
"That explains the nice clothes, anyway," Jack said, reaching down and fastening his shirt the rest of the way up. "Looks like Gazen's got a demonstration planned for this morning."
"But Uncle Virge said the auction would not be for three more days," Draycos objected.
"Maybe Gazen got bored," Jack said. "Or maybe all the interested buyers were able to get here early."
He grimaced. "In which case, he might end today's demo by calling for bids."
"What is our plan, then?"
Jack hissed between his teeth, trying to think. "Okay. Step one is to somehow shake ourselves loose long enough to get back to the conference room where we stashed the recorder. Assuming we were lucky enough to get a clear view of Gazen's startup sequence, the next step is to get into his office and copy the Chookoock family mercenary data."
"And then?"
"We run like rabbits," Jack said, draining the rest of the water glass. "I haven't quite got that part figured out yet."
Heetoorieef reappeared at the edge of Jack's vision. "What is this?" he snapped.
"You are not eating? You were ordered to eat."
"I'm not hungry," Jack told him. "I guess the sight of shredded Wistawki spoiled my appetite."
Heetoorieef's ears twitched. "I see," he said in a more subdued voice. "I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry, too," Jack said. How sorry, Heetoorieef would never know.
Or maybe he did. "Yes," Heetoorieef said, in a voice that seemed all too knowing. "It's time. Come with me."
CHAPTER 28
Gazen was alone in his office when Heetoorieef showed Jack in. "There you are," the slavemaster said. "All rested and fed, I trust?"
"I'm fine," Jack said.
Apparently the tone hadn't been slavelike enough. Gazen's expression didn't change, but in a single movement he scooped up the extendible slapstick from his desk and flicked it at Jack.
Reflexively, Jack flinched back, banging his left elbow against the wall in the process.
He needn't have bothered. With another wrist flick, Gazen stopped the tip of the weapon a foot in front of his face. "Nervous this morning, I see," he commented.
"Not too nervous to perform, I hope."
Jack felt his eyes narrowing. So this was it. The slave auction was indeed coming off early. "Perform?" he asked innocently.
"There are some men who have come to see what you can do," Gazen said. "I trust you'll make it worth their trouble."
"I think I can manage that," Jack said.
"Good," Gazen said. "Because I'd hate to see you embarrass yourself in front of such distinguished visitors."
"I understand," Jack said. "What are they, mercenaries? Other slaveowners?
Oversized rodents?"
Gazen smiled slightly. "Very good," he said. "Once again, you show how quickly you grasp the realities of a situation. You've realized that I can't twitch you the way I normally would at such a disrespectful tone. After all, we can't afford to upset those delicate finger muscles."
"Not if we want me to bring a good price," Jack agreed.
"Certainly not," Gazen said. "Still, it may be that no one wants you. Tell me, did you happen to notice a group of slaves come through the kitchen this morning?"
Someday, Jack promised himself darkly, he would find a way to sandblast that bland expression off Gazen's face. "Yes."
"Good,"
Gazen said. "Then we can both hope that you bring a good price. I trust I need say no more?" Jack swallowed. No, the implications were as clear as two feet of empty space.
He could impress the stuffing out of Gazen's prospective buyers, or he could end up with a shredded back himself. "No, sir."
"Good," Gazen said, standing up. "I do so like a quick learner."
Picking up his slapstick, he slid it into his belt pouch. "Come. Your audience awaits your performance."
He led the way to the banquet hall where they'd held Her Thumbleness's High Day celebration a few nights earlier. But the room had been so rearranged that Jack hardly recognized it. The center had been completely cleared out, with a rug laid down and the tables and chairs arranged in concentric circles around it.
Scattered through the empty center were a dozen different types of safes, door locks, and alarm systems. It was rather like a strange dinner theater set up to host a home security show.
There was also a lot of open floor between the various stations, far more than would be needed for each of the audience members to have a clear view. That probably meant the rug was loaded with traps and alarms that Jack was supposed to identify and avoid or disarm.
Fortunately, he wasn't going to have to do it bare-handed. An assortment of tools had been spread out on one of the tables at the edge of the circle, tools that ranged from standard-workman to standard-burglar to extremely non-standard-burglar. Scattered in among them, he saw, were the tools he'd used to break into the gatekeeper's house.
And surrounding it all, seated silently at their tables, was the audience.
There were at least two hundred of them, Jack noted, most of them human but with a number of aliens scattered throughout their midst. There were quite a few Brummgas present as well, mostly lounging around the rear areas of the room chatting quietly to each other. Cynically, he wondered if the auction's invitations had been slanted toward groups who had already hired some of the Chookoock family's mercenaries. A few of the guests were in expensive civilian suits—criminal bosses, most likely, or else representatives of some of the Orion Arm's sleazier governments. But most of the potential bidders were wearing military uniforms.
All sorts of uniforms, too, running the range from very elegant to just barely above shabby. Mercenaries, privateers, maybe a few pirate gangs. All the various groups who might come into possession of other people's safes in their lines of work.
All of them, apparently, looking for a way to get into those safes without the risky use of high explosives.
"Good day to you all," Gazen said, waving Jack to a halt and stepping alone to the edge of the circle. "As you know, the reason for this auction..."
He launched into a glowing report of Jack's skills and history, every bit of the latter completely made up. He was going for a high price, all right.
"Jack!" Draycos murmured at Jack's ear.
"Shh," Jack hissed back, glancing at Gazen. The man might be busy spinning a castle out of cobwebs, but that didn't mean he'd gone deaf. And he was only five feet away.
"To your left," Draycos whispered, a note of urgency in his voice. "Four tables back, wearing green clothing."
Casually, Jack shifted his feet and turned leisurely to look that direction.
There were four tables' worth of soldiers in green combat fatigues back there.
"Which one?" he murmured.
"Behind the three in ordinary clothing," the dragon said.
Jack had already noticed that particular group of civilians. Two of the three men were young and alert and dangerous looking. Obvious bodyguard types. The third man, the one in the middle, was something quite different. He was late-middle-aged, with black-streaked silver hair, a nose like a hawk's beak, and a mouth set in tight and bitter lines. "Where?" Jack asked again, shifting his attention to the group of mercenaries behind the civilians, trying to figure out which one Draycos had found so interesting.
"Fourth from the left," Draycos murmured.
Jack focused on him. The man was reasonably big, strongly built, with dark hair and craggy features. There didn't seem to be anything special about him.
And then, suddenly, the face clicked.
It was Dumbarton. The man who'd grabbed Jack as he and Draycos had escaped from the wreckage of Draycos's ship on Iota Klestis. The man Draycos had zapped unconscious with his own slapstick, then insisted on propping up against a tree so that he wouldn't burn to death.
Jack turned away, faking a quiet cough into his right fist. His lungs were suddenly aching, his heart feeling like it was trying to batter its way out of his chest. It was over, then. Any minute now Dumbarton would recognize him, and blow the whistle—
"He attacked you from behind," Draycos murmured in his ear. "I do not believe he ever saw your face."
Jack frowned, running the memory through his mind. The dragon was right.
Dumbarton had hidden behind a tree, grabbing Jack as he ran past. Before he'd had a chance to turn his prisoner around, Draycos had knocked him out.
Of course, he must have seen Jack coming toward him before the grab. But that whole ridge had been thick with smoke from the crash and its aftermath, and the man had been careful to duck out of sight before his prey got too close.
Jack coughed again, just for show, then straightened up again and looked casually back at Dumbarton. There was indeed no sign of recognition in the man's face.
He turned back to Gazen, his heartbeat beginning to calm down again. So if Dumbarton wasn't a threat, why had Draycos bothered to point him out? Merely to show that, despite Jack's earlier prediction, they had indeed bumped into him again? And then it hit him. Dumbarton hadn't been wearing any insignia during the looting of the K'da ship. Neither had the Brummga they'd also tangled with.
Neither, for that matter, had the Djinn-90 fighters they'd had to fight their way past. Whoever had set up that attack had taken pains to make sure any potential witnesses couldn't identify them.
But here, there was no need for such caution.
And there was indeed a small red-and-yellow insignia attached to the top left of Dumbarton's green shirt. Squinting slightly, Jack could just make out the two words circling around it.
Malison Ring.
He took a deep breath. Finally. After two months of trying to dig through spacecraft records, mercenary records, and now even slave records, they had finally done it. They had found the mercenary group who had joined with the Valahgua.
And after all that work and sweat, the answer had practically dropped into their laps. All because Dumbarton had come to Gazen's slave auction.
Because he hadn't burned to death on Iota Klestis. Because Draycos had taken the time to perform a very minor act of mercy.
Mentally, Jack shook his head. Uncle Virge, he knew, wasn't going to believe this.
Gazen finished his presentation and gestured Jack toward the tool table. "All right, Jack," he said, smiling as always. But Jack could see a hint of the earlier warning in his eyes. "There are the locks. Open them."
Jack smiled back. The first smile he'd really felt since arriving on Brum-a-dum.
And it felt good. It felt really good. "Certainly," he said. Four hours later, Gazen called a break for lunch. By that time, Jack had managed to open three of the door lock systems and four of the safes. He had also, just for good measure, disarmed three hidden floor alarms without a peep out of any of them.
He had hoped he might be able to con Gazen into allowing him to eat with the rest of the group. Mingling with them would increase the risk that Dumbarton would suddenly recognize him, but it would also give him a chance for a decent and unpoisoned meal.
But no such luck. The minute the Wistawki waiters appeared, Jack was whisked off under Brummgan guard back to the kitchen.
There, Heetoorieef had another meal ready for him. It contained the same poison as the breakfast stew.
Jack spent part of the lunch break moving the food around on his plate and pretending to eat. Occasionally, when
no one was looking, he forked a few bites down behind one of the cabinets. If he could convince them that he'd swallowed enough of the poison, they might quit spiking his food.
On the other hand, at that point they would presumably also start feeding him the antidote. That could be just as dangerous; and there was no guarantee that his resident K'da could sniff it out the way he could a straight poison. All the more reason to wrap this up and get off this planet. An hour later, with the buyers well fed and Jack's own stomach still growling unhappily, he was taken back into the banquet hall.
The afternoon session went as well as the morning one had. Jack finished opening the safes, popped the rest of the door locks, and disarmed the security alarms.
He also avoided two more booby-traps that Gazen had added to areas of the rug Jack had already cleared. A rather cheap trick, in his opinion, but one he'd sort of expected the slavemaster to pull.
As near as he could read his audience, that success alone made as much of an impression as all the rest of it put together.
The sky was beginning to darken outside the windows by the time Gazen called a
halt. "Thank you all for coming," he said as Jack returned his tools to the table. "You have until nine o'clock tomorrow morning to submit your bids. In the meantime, the hospitality of the Chookoock family is at your disposal."
There was a general murmuring and creaking of chairs as the buyers started to gather their notes and other items. "You—come with me," Gazen said to Jack.
"You—" he added to one of the Brummgan guards, pointing to the equipment table
"—put those away. And make sure he didn't steal anything."
He set off across the banquet room floor. Jack followed, the inevitable Brummgan guards thudding stolidly along behind him.
Midway to the door, he managed to quietly lose the lockpick he'd palmed.
He'd expected Gazen to take him back to the kitchen for a third try at stuffing squatter poison down his throat. Instead, the slavemaster led the way toward his office.
Toward it, but not to it. Circling past the door, he went into the small conference room around the corner from it.
The same conference room where Jack and Draycos had hidden their stolen recorder.
