“Presuming that it’s possible to pinpoint it before they open up those testicle sacs and release their power.” Jaime grinned in spite of the seriousness of the situation.
“Testicle sacs?” muttered Roge. “What the hell...?”
Jillian giggled.
“Did no-one explain to you how the Witches of Kordea isolate amartos?” she asked him. At his head shake, and Stu’s blank look, she added: “Apparently, a long time ago, a Witch discovered that, for some reason, the skin which encases the testicles of an animal called the browhorn has interesting insulating properties. When properly tanned and prepared, the sacs keep amartos undetectable, but also unusable. Thus, our two Witchy women are presently wearing their amartos as they normally do, on chains around their necks, but for now the Stones are also inside browhorn testicle sacs. When the time comes for them to use them, they’ll have to unlace the sacs, and release the Stones. However when that happens, The Organization’s detectors will be able to zero in on them. So we don’t want either Sarah or Dian to act too soon; that could ruin everything.”
“It sure could,” muttered Stu. “What are our chances of finding what the women need to destroy before we actually go into this place?”
Jillian shrugged.
“We’re relying pretty heavily on Jaime when it comes to that. He and Texi took apart one of the amarto-detectors that we captured, and he used what he learned from it to help Dian and Sarah figure out how the Witches could undo the Lina-trap which was threatening the integrity of Kordea.”
“Oh yeah. The Lina-trap. Lina’s a weird moon, isn’t it, and helps to keep Kordea inhabitable,” said Stu. “Those Organization bastards were threatening a whole world with destruction. The higher ups in The Agency sure started taking notice of the so-called amarto-angle when that happened.”
“Yeah. Suddenly it was no longer a curious side line in the never-ending battle to keep The Organization bottled. It’s now the thing that is threatening to break the bottle, and let the poison spill into the whole galaxy,” added Roge. “And without the cooperation of the Kordean Witches we’re totally helpless to face it.”
“Which is why Coryn is doing his diplomatic thing on Kordea,” Jillian said drily. “And getting his head kicked in by the Hounds.
“But let’s go and see if Jeb has got his pictures into the computer, and what Jaime’s made out of them. Besides, everyone of us who is going in will have to study the layout of the place—I’m assuming that the guys are creating a computer map, as detailed as Jeb’s information allows.”
CHAPTER TEN
“I sent a message to Roland that we’re going in this morning,” Jeb said as he refused the stunner Jillian offered him, displaying the one he already had. “I asked him to cover for the people who were supposed to be on work details in the Settlement.”
“I sure hope that he doesn’t have a fit because we’re going in without consulting him first,” muttered Stu.
“He took it upon himself to keep the Settlement Elders sweet,” Roge said with a shrug. “I think that he trusts the Kordean contingent of this operation to know what they’re doing, and understands that it’s better if they make the decisions concerning direct action. That’s why he took the role that he did, is the way I see it. Roland and Elli are both canny operators. They don’t do anything without a reason, but they also know when it’s best to stand back and let someone else take control.”
“Interesting,” said Jillian. “I wondered why he was content to make himself scarce. I had expected him to be bossing us every minute.”
“Nah. He was watching you guys on Hera’s Hope when we travelled here. I think that he decided that Coryn Leigh had done a good job of picking the people for The Mission; that he could leave well enough alone.”
It was a nine-person crew that piled into Hera’s Hope’s flyer to, presumably, make the first trip to pick up the traded-for equipment. A lot of people for the job, but Jillian figured that once the gate was open to admit Texi, he could hold it open for the rest of them, even if he encountered suspicion. They could not hope to make it through to the laboratory without doing some fighting, and they were all packing stunners.
Nance had been fingered to stay inside Hera’s Hope to monitor communications, and to deflect anyone who might come around from the Settlement to ask questions, or to find one or another of the workers who had gone AWOL. Jillian explained that the people most likely to arrive would be Roland and Elli, in response to Jeb’s message. Because of the pretence that the group was a religious sect, Roland, though Jeb’s implanted equipment could reach him at any time, had cut himself off from the ship. It had seemed like a good idea to forgo modern communications for the sake of verisimilitude, when they had arrived at the Settlement, but now it had abruptly become a nuisance.
Not that Nance minded having been assigned a minor role. Somebody had to do it, obviously, and she was the most disposable of the women, when it came to putting together what amounted to a fighting force. Jillian was the Agent leading the operation, and Sarah and Dian were the Witches who would have to destroy the Neotsarians’ installation. As for the men—well, she couldn’t expect to substitute for any of them. Texi had to go, since he was the one who had traded for the parts in the first place. Roge and Stu were experienced Agents, as was Jeb, who also, apparently, had a built-in communications array. (Nance shook her head as she thought about that, although, if she was serious about becoming an Agent, she was going to have to get used to such miracles.) Jaime would help the Witches, and Joe was a proven, tough fighter, and had been doing Agency work during his spare time for as long as he had been married to Jillian.
*****
Texi jumped out of the flyer which he had parked as close to the gate as he had dared. He stood by the gate, and waved his arms to the invisible security camera, without touching the metal of the fence. Jillian had pointed out to him that it was most likely electrified; the current would have to be turned off before he dared to place a hand on it. That had not been an issue the first trip; Sevi had certainly been able to turn off the field from his flyer. But this time Texi was not following Sevi, or any Neotsarian. For a moment, while waiting for some signal, his mind wandered to the two Settlement girls who had enabled The Mission to get where they were. When had Rolf and Sevi taken them back, to make their way home? Did their parents have any idea of what Mimi and Suse were up to? It seemed unbelievable to him that the two girls could make a habit of sneaking out in the evening, and stay away for hours, without someone other than the grouchy, gossipy Zuzu noticing. Maybe there was more crap going on in the Settlement than the members of his group realized.
He breathed a sigh of relief when only a single man came out the door, towards the gate, leaving the door to the building gaping behind him. But he was brandishing a laser pistol, and Texi fingered the stunner he had in his pocket, his relief evaporating. However, the fellow—not either one of the two that had met the flit the night before—did something with a remote that he held in his other hand. Texi heard a crackle, and the man reached for the locking mechanism of the gate. Texi waited until the other man had touched the metal before putting his own hand on the heavy mesh. Then he helped to push the gate open.
“I brought troops to help me load the flier,” he said, hanging on to the gate.
“Oh. Did you bring the lovely woman along—Sarah isn’t it?” the Neotsarian asked.
“You mean Nance?”
Alarm bells rang inside Texi’s head.
Jillian was at the hatch.
“Come on troops,” he shouted to her, adding in a prearranged signal: “We’ll see how much we can take, this load.”
That was the code for “have your stunners in your hands”.
“She should be in the flyer somewhere,” he added to the Neotsarian, to gain a moment or two of precious time.
Were there more men waiting inside the open door? Gratifyingly, the man in front of him watched carefully each of the people as they exited the flyer and da
shed through the gate, and into the compound. The last person through was Stu; Texi nodded at him—again a prearranged signal—and Stu pulled out, very quickly, his stunner from a pocket, and stunned the man who had the laser pistol.
At the same time, Jeb pointed his stunner—it must have been a special model—at a camera the location of which was clear only to him. He repeated the gesture two more times in quick succession.
“We’ll fight our way in!” Jillian shouted, running for the gaping door, her weapon out.
Joe, Stu and Roge were right behind her, and Texi joined them, his stunner in his hand. Jaime was left to guard Sarah and Dian; they had to make it to the laboratory alive, no matter what.
Jillian expected to be faced with a well-armed guard unit inside the hallway, but to her shock saw only one man, retreating, already out of stunner range.
“What the hell!” she cried. “Aren’t these people capable of defending themselves? Or have they got something really devious up their sleeve?”
Jeb slid by her, taking out another hidden camera from the ceiling.
“I’ll lead you to the laboratory,” he said, “and darken their security system as we go.”
“All right, we’ll follow!” Jillian agreed. “On the alert everybody! I don’t believe that they’re just gonna let us go there without trying to stop us!”
*****
Jaime had made certain that Hera’s Hope would warn Nance of anything happening in its vicinity. So, when one of the sleek ships landed beside the two that were still in Port, the computer voice let her know of its arrival, and she ran to the bridge to watch it on the screens.
“I don’t think it should be here yet,” she muttered to herself, and pressed the contact button on the tiny communicator which Jeb had given her, telling her that it would get in touch with him through his implants.
“Jeb, one of their ships just landed here,” she whispered into the thing, then pressed the button again to close the connection. Jaime had told her to not expect an answer from Jeb. The troops, would be busy, and it was not a good idea to distract them.
“Just say what needs to be said, and leave it at that,” Jaime had stressed.
She settled herself to watch what, if anything, would happen around the newly arrived ship.
Within minutes, a ramp extruded from it. Then the hatch opened up above it. Nance thought that, most likely, a flyer full of soldiers would emerge, and head for the Facility. But that was not the case; instead, four uniformed men came out on foot, and headed towards Hera’s Hope.
Nance’s stomach did a somersault.
Just at the same time, the ship announced the arrival of Roland and Elli at her door. Nance jumped; she had forgotten to monitor what was going on at that side of the ship, she had been so busy staring at The Organization vessel. She did not have to open the door for Elli and Roland; the ship was programmed to let them in.
Instead, she activated the little communicator again.
“Roland and Elli just arrived. And four uniformed men are coming towards our ship from The Organization one.” She cut the connection with Jeb again.
Nance ran to the door to meet Elli and Roland. They had just entered the ship; the hatch had shut automatically behind them.
“Did you see the men heading here from the other ship?” she asked them. “The one that just set down beside the other two?”
“What?” Roland asked.
“We came from the direction of the Settlement, of course,” added Elli. “I guess the way the ships are parked... we never even noticed that there was a new one there. There’s men coming here from it?”
“Jaime set all the security stuff so that I’d know what was going on around me, before he and the others left,” Nance explained. “I saw them walking this way on the screens.”
“Then they should be at the door any moment,” added Roland. “Shit, I wonder what they want. I would have thought that they’d be hurrying off to the Facility, if they have found out that The Agency has made its move.”
“Four unknowns requesting admittance at the main hatch,” intoned the ship computer abruptly.
“I would like to talk to them,” said Roland.
“Facilitating communications,” said the computer, and added a moment later: “Roland Harmiss; please speak to the visitors outside. Voice communications are operable.”
“Please identify yourselves,” Roland said, switching on the screen in the area just inside the door which The Mission members had dubbed Hera’s Porch.
The three of them stared at the four figures outside the hatch.
“Pretty high level Neotsarians,” Elli muttered. “I don’t like this.”
“You don’t need to know our names,” came the answer. “You only need to let us in. If you refuse to do that we’ll force our way in.”
“Could you at least tell us what it is you want, before we open the door?” Roland said. “Maybe there’s a way for us to deal with one another.”
The man speaking laughed, ominously.
“We want the girl,” he said. “The pretty Kordean-looking woman who really is Sarah Mackenzie from Earth, whatever she is calling herself. If you won’t give her up to us, we’ll blast the door down, and take her by force. And don’t think for even a second that we won’t do it. We will.”
“They can’t break down the door,” Nance whispered. “If they do that, how can we fix the ship up again? We all will be stuck here.”
She drew a deep breath.
“Tell them that I’ll come peacefully but that I’m not Sarah. I’m just Nance and I can’t do anything with any Witches’ Stones.”
She pulled the Hera’s talisman out from her shirt, and slid the little com which could connect her to Jeb into the space between her breasts where she had hidden a lipstick-sized stunner on Kordea, not that long ago. Did she expect the com to help her somehow? She had no idea; she was acting on instinct. It’s presence made her feel a tiny bit safer—exactly the way the little stunner had.
“There is no Sarah Mackenzie here,” said Roland. “There are only myself, my wife, and a young Kordean woman by the name of Nance, who says that she is not in the least amarto-sensitive.”
“I don’t care what she’s calling herself these days, and if she’s claiming to not be amarto-sensitive, well, I’ll believe that when I’ve examined what she’s got on that chain that she wears around her neck. I’m willing to bet a lot that it’s an amarto, shielded from our sensors through some Kordean witchery.
“I’m going to count to ten; if the hatch isn’t opening by then, we’ll start blasting.”
He brandished an industrial-sized laser cutter to the ship’s security camera, then aimed it at the hatch.
“One, two, three....”
“I’ll go peacefully,” Nance said, forcing herself to sound calm even though her heart was sinking.
She had no choice, she knew. She would just have to keep on insisting that she was who she said she was. Maybe they’d believe her when it became clear that the stone inside the little sack on her chain was merely a cheap bauble.
Roland nodded and activated the door.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, keeping his voice out of the computer sensors’ range. “We’ll come to get you, of course. Though things could get difficult for you before then.”
Elli leaned over to wrap her into a fierce hug. “Try to endure,” she whispered. “We’ll come for you.”
*****
Jeb, leading the way towards the lab, and shooting down cameras with his modified stunner, was the first one to bang into the invisible barrier.
“Ouch!” he cried. “What the hell?”
Jillian was beside him, right away, her hands on the contours of what was holding them back.
“This is why they’ve been so lackadaisical about defending themselves!” she said. “We need our experts here!”
She turned to beckon to Sarah, Dian, and Jaime. They had been the tail of the rushing snake heading for the lab; now
the men who had been running in Jillian’s wake made room for them to approach the invisible wall.
“Those shits must figure that they can pick us up at their leisure while we bang our heads against something that shouldn’t exist,” Jillian snarled. “We must be close to the lab.”
“That’s the door, right there, the one on our left,” Jeb told her, pointing to it on the other side of the barrier. “Tantalizingly close, isn’t it?”
Jaime was the first of the three “experts” to reach Jillian. He set his hands on the barrier, and moved them around in circles.
“It definitely feels like there’s something solid there,” he said, sounding curious, in spite of the precarious situation.
Dian and Sarah were quickly beside him, and repeated his gesture.
“I can’t do anything without my Stone,” Dian said with a grimace. “Do we break out the power?”
She directed her question to Sarah, not Jillian, but Jillian was the one who answered:
“I don’t see what else we can do. We don’t know how long we have before they descend on us with laser pistols.”
“I can tell that it’s not completely solid, even without my Stone,” Sarah said then, and the others could see that her fingers were pushing into something, just a little bit.
“Not good enough,” she then said with a shake of her head. “Jeb, send a message to Coryn. Marlyss must gather her Circle as quickly as she possibly can. We’ll need the back-up. I’ll contact her astrally myself, the moment things get sticky here, or Dian will.”
Jeb dug into a pocket and brought out a tiny communicator.
“Is there any way that one of you three could make use of this?” he asked. “It’s tuned to my implants, in case you need to send a message Terran fashion. I’ll pass the word on to whoever, wherever....”
“Maybe Jaime,” said Dian, looking thoughtful. “If they have a trap for us amarto-sensitives, it may be possible for me to send his mind back to his body long enough to contact you.”
Jaime took the gadget, palmed it, and slid the fisted hand into a pocket.
Love and Intrigue Under the Seven Moons of Kordea Page 20
