by Timothy Zahn
A minute later the last of Caine’s requested maps was finished, and he and Braune began their withdrawal. Luck was with them; they saw no one as they made their way down the corridors, out to their car, and across the lot to the fence. The guard’s eyes held impotent rage as Caine opened the gate and rejoined Braune. Leaving the gate open, they drove off into the night.
The same woman as on the previous night was sitting in the coatcheck window when Lathe and Skyler came into the Shandygaff bar, her makeup still far too heavy for Lathe’s taste. “Good evening,” he nodded to her, gesturing toward the main room. “Mr. Charm in tonight?”
“Who?” she frowned.
“The short lad with the itchy palms and the mobile guardhouses,” Skyler amplified.
“Oh—Mr. Nash. The guardhouses’ names are Briller and Chong, if you’re interested.” She cocked her head. “What did you do to Chong last night, by the way?”
“Who, us?” Lathe asked innocently.
She studied him for a moment, then shrugged slightly. “It doesn’t matter, I guess. All three are here tonight, if you really care, wandering around inside somewhere. And, uh, Mr. Kanai is also here. Shall I have a waiter take you to him?”
“We’ll find him,” Lathe assured her. On his wrist, his tingler came to life as Skyler covertly tapped out a message: Kanai: Lathe and Skyler are here.
Kanai; Bernhard’s with me. Come back; booth four, seventy-five degrees from entry point.
“Talk to you later,” Lathe said to the girl. Skyler was already through the door; lengthening his stride, the comsquare caught up. Angling to the right, they headed through the tables until they spotted Kanai.
“Good evening,” Kanai said as they slid into the booth. “May I present Commando Jorgen Bernhard. Comsquare Damon Lathe; Commando Rafe Skyler.”
Bernhard nodded in turn, his eyes cool. “From…?”
“Most recently, Plinry,” Lathe told him.
The other’s eyebrows rose at that, but if he was overly impressed he hid it well. “I see. A long way from home, then. All the more reason why you need our help.”
“ ‘Need’ may be too strong a word,” Lathe said. “But we certainly could use it.”
“You’re pretty confident for a couple of strangers who don’t even know how this city operates,” Bernhard returned. “You need our help, all right. The only real question is whether or not you’re worth risking our position over.”
“Kanai said the same thing,” Lathe said. “If you’re trying to inflate your fee, consider the point made.”
A tight smile flicked across Bernhard’s face. “If you’re expecting me to take offense, you’re wasting your time. I’ve been insulted by people far more skilled at it than you.” He folded his hands into a double fist on the table in front of him, his dragonhead ring glinting as he did so. “Let’s get down to business. You want a list of high-ranking military people who were here during the war, correct?”
Lathe nodded. “More specifically, I’m interested in those people who were with the Aegis Mountain contingent.”
Bernhard’s face didn’t change, but for just a second his clenched hands seemed to tighten. “Why Aegis?” he asked carefully.
“Why not? It was the major installation in this part of the continent, so it’s reasonable to assume the top of the cut would have been assigned there.”
Bernhard snorted. “Don’t. We had as many dimbos at all levels as any other base I’ve seen.”
“Ah—so you were in Aegis, too,” Lathe said. “Good. You’ll know who the best people were, then.”
Bernhard’s face hardened. “Sure. They’re the ones who stayed behind to run the krijing machines when the gas attack began and the rest of us ran like geldings.”
“Gas attack?” Skyler frowned. “Aegis was supposed to be proof against that sort of thing.”
“It was,” Bernhard said quietly, eyes focused somewhere else. “We think a neutron warhead must have cracked a fault line and taken out the gas sensor and filtration system in one of the ventilation tunnels. By the time the interior environment sensors let us know the gas was coming in, it was too late.”
“Someone should have noticed the ventilation sensors weren’t registering—” Skyler began.
“I know that!” Bernhard snapped. “We were busy fighting an invasion at the time.”
He stopped abruptly, and for a moment the only sound in the booth was the muffled background hum from the rest of the room. “Sorry,” he muttered at last. “It still hurts, sometimes.”
Lathe nodded. “We’ve all got memories like that. So…you ran interference for the evacuation?”
“Such as it was.” Bernhard shook his head. “I don’t know what the idiot in charge thought he was doing—if the gas was seeping into the base, he should’ve realized the air outside Would be rancid with the stuff. Even with the masks enough got into most people’s skin to affect them. I don’t think more than fifty out of the eight hundred we got out lived more than six months afterward.”
Skyler grunted. “Sounds like Denver itself was damn lucky.”
“It was a pretty heavy gas,” Kanai said. “Stayed in the valleys around Aegis for the most part. But you’re right—the Ryqril could easily have destroyed the city if they’d wanted to.”
Lathe shifted his eyes to the oriental. “Were you in the base, too?”
Kanai shook his head. “I was on bodyguard duty in Athena. They were using us a lot for guard and civilian-control work at the end.”
“Really?” Skyler asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Seems a waste of talent.”
“What else were they going to do with us?” Bernhard returned sourly. “The war was lost, pure and simple. Why save us for guerrilla activity that would never take place when they had the immediate problem of crowd control?” He snorted and swore under his breath.
Lathe felt his own jaw tighten in sympathetic response. The Plinry blackcollars had taken their own share of contempt after the war from a populace who understood neither their abilities nor their limitations. But the military people of Aegis and Denver ought to have had more sense. “I know how you feel,” he said to Bernhard. “You just have to keep remembering that it’s that selfsame underestimation that’s let us survive this long in enemy territory.”
Bernhard regarded him coolly. “Maybe that’s how you survived, Comsquare, but we got tired of being mistaken for sheep long ago. Everyone in Denver knows what blackcollars are and what we can do.”
“Including the government?” Skyler asked.
“Of course.”
“And they let you alone?”
Bernhard’s eyes dropped briefly to the table. “We have what you might call an unwritten nonaggression pact with them,” he said. “We don’t hit government targets, and they don’t bother us.”
Lathe stroked his dragonhead ring. “That includes Ryqril targets, too, I suppose?”
“Yes, though given that the base outside Aegis and the town a couple of klicks farther on are the only sizable ones in the area, that’s hardly a major consideration.”
“Interesting. I presume you remember the oath you took when you were given that ring?”
Bernhard looked back up, his eyes blazing into Lathe’s. “The war is over, Lathe. Over and done with, and we lost. What comes now is survival, by any means available. I don’t need your permission or your approval, and I damn well don’t want your quixotic preachments. My force can’t do anything against the Ryqril, and I’m not going to throw their lives away to satisfy some outdated notion of honor. Understood?”
“Understood,” Lathe said evenly. “So are you going to take my job or not?”
Bernhard inhaled deeply, the anger fading from his face as he did so. “You’ll get your list of names, sure. And then you’ll get out of Denver.”
Lathe raised his eyebrows. “Or else?”
“Consider it our fee. And I mean it.”
“I’m sure you do. Understand in turn that we’re not leaving until our
mission’s completed.”
“That mission being something that’ll get Security all stirred up, I suppose?” Bernhard said sourly.
Lathe smiled. “Join us and find out.”
Kanai stirred in his seat, and Bernhard sent a glance in his direction. “I’ll have the list for you tomorrow night,” he told Lathe. “Be here at eight.”
“How about a different meeting place?” Skyler suggested. “This one’s getting a bit stale.”
“You’re too easily jaded.” Bernhard snorted. “Aesthetics, apart, the Shandygaff’s the safest rendezvous around. Anywhere else in the city we’d be in someone’s territory, and there could be trouble. I’m sure you’d like to avoid that.”
“Doesn’t bother us—we’re leaving this town soon, remember?” Skyler said. “But if you’re worried about it, why don’t we go somewhere in Sartan’s territory?”
For a split second the corners of Bernhard’s mouth tightened. “What do you know about Sartan?” he asked carefully.
“Only that you’ve done a lot of work for him.” Skyler shrugged. “I assumed you’d have free rein in his part of town.”
“Um. Well, as it happens, Sartan hasn’t got any real territory of his own. Yet. You have any real objections against the Shandygaff?”
Kanai cleared his throat. “I believe a possible objection has just arrived.”
Lathe knew better than to turn and look; but Skyler would have a view of the anteroom area. “Skyler?”
“One of the mobile guardhouses,” the other reported. “Probably Chong—the way he’s favoring his right arm suggests he’s the one Mordecai took out last night. The other one, Briller, seems to be hovering back in the anteroom.”
“Both will be armed,” Kanai said. “You wearing flex-armor?”
Lathe nodded. “So much for neutral territory.”
“I saw Chong when he limped back in last night,” Kanai said. “One of the rules here is that you don’t pick on the bar’s enforcers.” He slid his legs out from under the table and stood up. “Let me see if I can placate them—the last thing you want is to draw attention to yourselves with a fight.”
“Remind him we can get rougher than last night if we have to,” Lathe told him.
Kanai nodded and headed across the room. Lathe watched him stop in front of Chong, took a quick reading of the bigger man’s body language, and reached two fingers under his right sleeve. Mordecai: Report.
Man loitering near entrance; suggest lookout. No evidence of massive Security presence.
So charming Mr. Nash had decided to handle this without official involvement. That was one plus, anyway. “How many men besides Briller and Chong does Nash have?” he asked Bernhard.
“Half a dozen regulars, more on short call,” the other said, eyes starting to darken.
“You look perturbed,” Skyler said.
Bernhard’s gaze stayed on Chong and Kanai. “You assume Nash is after you. He could just as easily be after me.
Lathe thought about that for a moment. Unlikely, but not impossible. “You have any backup men outside?”
“Unfortunately, no,” Bernhard said grimly. “I didn’t expect it to be necessary. You have anybody besides the one?”
“No, but don’t let that worry you.” Mordecai: Possible encirclement in progress. Scan for outside troops.
Troops identified, was the prompt response. Four, including doorway lookout. Inadequate visual support.
In other words, Nash’s men weren’t in solid visual contact with each other, which meant they could be taken out quietly one by one. “Amateurs,” Skyler said and snorted.
“That’s fine with me,” Lathe said. Mordecai: Clear gauntlet quietly. Minimal force.
Acknowledged.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve heard the old tingler codes,” Bernhard mused. “Brings back memories.…You think he’ll be able to do the job alone?”
“If they don’t spot him, easily. If they do, we’ll just have to start punching from this side without him. Chong’s wearing an earphone—if he twitches, we move.”
“But no killing,” Bernhard warned. “You kill someone here and the whole city’ll be after you.”
“If we weren’t worried about killing,” Lathe said patiently, “we’d have been out of here three minutes ago.”
“Just wanted to remind you.” Bernhard grunted. “Looks like Kanai’s not getting through.”
Lathe focused on the distant conversation. Chong hadn’t budged, but his expression now resembled a thundercloud and his right hand had taken up residence in a side pocket. “Negotiations do seem to be breaking down,” he agreed. “No back door, I suppose?”
“If there were, I’d have suggested it three minutes ago,” Bernhard retorted. “There’s nothing we can use. No windows, either.”
“Your basic firetrap,” Skyler said. “Can we assume that there are a lot of important people in here tonight? People Nash and company would hesitate to damage?”
“Chong’ll roast over a slow fire if he shoots anyone but us,” Bernhard said flatly. “But he’s a damn good shot, and this table is fastened pretty solidly to the floor. We’ll never even get our legs out from under it before he gets one or more of us.”
“Only if he can see what he’s shooting at. Lathe?”
“Probably our best approach,” Lathe agreed. “Main switches are to the right of the door; emergency lights high on the wall behind you, Bernhard, and near the back of the room on my side.”
“There’s one over the main switches, too,” Skyler pointed out.
“That one goes last—it’ll be shining right into Chong’s eyes when it comes on.” Lathe tapped at his trigger: Mordecai: Stand by for fast break. Kanai: three-count, then distract Chong to right. Sliding two shuriken into his hands, Lathe set his feet…and as Kanai’s left hand twitched toward the anteroom he moved.
His first star spun across the room to bury itself in the wall just above the light switches. There was a sputtering flash of shorted circuits, and the room’s soft glow was abruptly replaced by the harsh floodlights of the emergency system. Shouts of surprise and anger, Chong’s bellow louder than any of them—and Lathe was out of the booth, diving flat to open up Skyler’s line of fire, then rolling up on one knee to send his second shuriken over the booths toward the emergency light box in the rear. Peripherally, he caught a glimpse of Bernhard swinging out his side of the booth; a second later the light back that way winked out in a tinkle of glass. Even as he spun around to the door the last of the backups yielded to Skyler’s shuriken and the room was plunged into darkness.
Almost. From the anteroom a pool of light was spilling through the doorway, silhouetting Chong neatly against the opening. Possibly the big man’s mind was still trying to catch up; if so, it never had sufficient time to do so. Skyler’s knife flickered just once as it bounced hilt-first off Chong’s forehead, dropping the man where he stood. One down, one—or more—to go. Lathe sprinted forward, skirting the pool of light and flattening himself by the doorway.
He needn’t have bothered. Briller, folded up fetal-style on the floor, had already lost all interest in the proceedings. Across the room Kanai, shuriken at the ready, was easing the outer door open for a quick look. Sidling around the doorframe into the anteroom, Lathe looked for the coatcheck girl.
If she was, indeed, the Shandygaff’s backup gun, she wasn’t doing her job. She stood upright at her window, empty hands folded almost primly on the sill; her expression behind all the makeup showed simple interest, with no anger or fear accompanying it. She looked at Lathe as he entered, nodded toward Chong. “Is he dead?” she asked.
“Not if I know Skyler,” he replied, squatting to retrieve his teammate’s knife. “He avoids killing even more than the rest of us. Ryqril excepted, of course.”
“They’ll get you before you take five steps outside, you know.”
“I doubt it.” Bernhard and Skyler slipped into the anteroom; Lathe tossed the latter his knife and reached f
or his tingler. Mordecai: Report.
Lookout approaching door. Others neutralized.
Lathe cocked an eyebrow at Skyler, who nodded and stepped to the door. He exchanged low words with Kanai—and abruptly flung the door wide, hurled his knife, and slammed the panel shut. A single splintering impact shook the thick wood, followed by silence. Skyler eased the door open a crack just as Mordecai’s message came: All clear.
“I suggest you two fade while you can,” Lathe told Bernhard as he stepped to Skyler’s side. “But first give me a way to contact you tomorrow.”
“Just call in a message for me here,” Kanai spoke up. “We can discuss a rendezvous point then.”
Halfway out the door, Lathe looked back at him. “Call you here?”
Kanai met his gaze evenly. “I’m the contact man. It’s my job to be here.”
“What about Nash?”
“I can handle him. Just go.”
Lathe flicked a glance over Kanai’s shoulder at the coatcheck girl, then nodded. “Tomorrow night,” he said, and ducked out the door.
Skyler was waiting for him a short way down the sidewalk. “Let’s get moving,” he urged as Lathe joined him. “The other customers might eventually take exception to being left in the dark.”
They set off quickly across the mall toward the sidestreet where they’d parked their car. “A fairly profitable evening, as these things go,” Skyler remarked as they walked. “If nothing else, we at least found out that Bernhard’s team can still fight.”
“We learned a lot more than that,” Lathe said. “We know the Ryqril have a center outside Aegis Mountain—which suggests that they at least, are still locked out.”
“Hmm. So the gas-attack survivors locked the place down before they died. Maybe that’s why the commander sent so many of his people out—didn’t want anyone around who might consider opening up in exchange for an antidote.”
