“I’ll come with you,” Tess offered. “Where did you find a picture of the robot?”
“The encyclopedia,” Quong said.
“Told you!” Harry glanced around, triumphant.
Xris snorted. He followed Tess and the doctor out into the narrow corridor.
“You go on ahead, Doc. I want a word with Captain Strauss.”
“Certainly.” Quong chuckled.
Continuing on down the corridor, he ran into Raoul and the Little One on their way to the cockpit. Quong said something in a low voice to Raoul, jerked his thumb over his shoulder.
Seeing Xris and Tess, Raoul raised his eyebrows, smiled delightedly, and, catching hold of the Little One, yanked him out of the corridor with such rapidity that he took the Little One, but left the fedora behind. The hat fell to the deck. A bejeweled and manicured hand appeared, snatched up the fedora, waved it in Xris’s direction, and vanished.
Tess almost smiled.
Xris growled, took out a twist. “You want to go to the prom?” he asked her. “My dad gave me the keys to the hover.”
This time she did smile. “It’s all right. I understand. Your people think a lot of you, Xris. They’re not the only ones,” she added softly. Her hand twined in his, fingers locking.
Xris pulled her close. “This lousy excuse for a job is just about finished. We drop the ‘bot off at the King James, and it’s over. After that, well, we’re meeting a friend on the planet Moana. You know it? It’s a paradise.”
“The honeymoon planet?” Tess said. “I’ve heard of it. I’ve never been there.”
“I’d like to take you,” Xris said. “You said you had some leave coming....”
She looked up at him, her expression grave, thoughtful, unusually serious. Her hand in his tightened. A small, dark furrow drew her brows together. “I’m not sure ... You see ... the job’s not quite over yet, Xris. I ...” she paused, gazed at him intently. Her expression cleared; the furrow was gone. She smiled at him, a true smile. “I’d like that. I’d like that very much. I’ll meet you on any planet, any place, anytime. It doesn’t have to be a paradise. We can take care of that ourselves.”
Xris bent to kiss her, but, at that moment, Harry stuck his head out of the cockpit. “Xris!” he bellowed, as if Xris were at the other end of the ship. “Oh,” he said, grinning. “There you are. Sorry to interrupt, but we’ve got another message coming through from the Admiralty. For you, this time. Not Captain Strauss. I think it has something to do with ... um ... you know. That Adonian cruise liner.” He gave a wink and a nod, probably thought he was being subtle. “And I’ll be bringing our passengers on any moment now.”
“It sounds like a private conversation. I’ll go help Dr. Quong,” Tess offered. She slid her hand out of Xris’s grasp and was away, walking rapidly down the corridor, before he could stop her.
Xris turned to go back to the cockpit. What, he wondered, had she been about to say?
A hand plucked at his sleeve. Xris glanced to his left. Raoul was lurking in a hatchway.
“Well?” Raoul demanded.
“Well what?” Xris glared at the Adonian, silently advising him to keep his mouth shut.
The advice was completely lost on Raoul, who continued on. “Did you ... you know?” He accompanied the words with a salacious wiggle of his hips, making gestures that would have had him arrested on some of the more conservative worlds in the galaxy.
“Not that it’s any of your business,” Xris said through clenched teeth, “but I was with her for exactly three minutes in a narrow corridor.”
Raoul was clearly not impressed. “Unimaginative,” was his pronouncement, “and lacking in manual dexterity.”
“Xris!” Harry called urgently. His voice cracked.
Xris shouldered Raoul aside, walked into the cockpit.
“Yes, I’m here. What is it?”
Harry, seated in the pilot’s chair, peered over his shoulder. His ordinarily choleric and cheerful face was blotchy, patches of red mottled with white. He licked his lips.
Xris felt his stomach muscles tighten. “What the hell is it? What’s wrong?”
“It’s Darlene,” Harry began, and had to stop to clear his throat. “Before we caught it, the robot took out another Lane. Her ship. The cruise ship ...”
Xris was in the copilot’s chair. “Put me through to the admiral.”
“They don’t know anything for sure, Xris,” Harry said. “Darlene sent them her data on the Lanes the robot might take out next and that Lane was one of them. She knew, Xris. She knew in time to warn the captain.”
“Well, did she?” Xris demanded.
“That’s just it, Xris.” Harry looked sick. “The Navy’s lost contact with the ship ... and with Darlene.”
“Damn! Fuck it! Damn!” Xris wanted to hit something, wanted to hit himself.
The “ifs” began their tormenting litany in Xris’s mind. If he’d never trusted Sakuta. If he’d never taken this rotten, lousy, fucking job. If he’d kept better track of the goddamned robot. If ... if ... if ...
Not one of them any damn good to him now.
“Xris,” Quong’s voice came over the comm. “I have recovered Mr. Grant and the robot. Mr. Grant is suffering from shock but is otherwise unharmed. I have given him a mild sedative and put him to bed. As for the robot—”
“Disable it!” Xris said, his voice thick.
“I—”
“Disable the blasted thing!” Xris swore viciously. “If you can’t or won’t, I’ll come down there and crack it apart myself!”
“That will not be necessary.” Quong’s voice was deliberate, cool. “As I was about to say, the robot is not functional. I’m not certain why; it may have something to do with the ejection. According to Grant, the ride was a rough one. I will, of course, examine it thoroughly.”
“Fine. Good. You do that, Doc,” Xris said bitterly.
“What is the matter, my friend? You sound—”
“The damn robot took out one more Lane before we stopped it. This time there was a ship in it. An Adonian cruise liner—”
“Oh, dear God,” he heard Tess say softly in the background.
“An Adonian cruise ship.” Quong was silent a moment, then said, “Have you—has anyone—heard from Darlene?”
“They’ve lost contact,” Xris said quietly. “But it was her ship. The one she was aboard.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Harry argued stubbornly.
“I’ll be right up, my friend,” Quong said.
“No. I’m fine, Doc. You stay there, make damn sure that the robot’s dead and that it’s going to stay dead. Xris out.”
Xris sat for long moments in silence. Jamil came in, then Tycho. They’d both caught part of his conversation with Quong, wanted to know what was going on. Harry told them. Xris felt their eyes, felt them looking at him. They were talking to him, too, but he didn’t listen.
Raoul came in, with the Little One. “Is it true? I just spoke to Dr. Quong. How very dreadful. And Darlene?”
Everyone looked at Xris, motioned for Raoul to keep quiet. After one more “How very dreadful,” Raoul subsided.
Tess arrived. The rest backed up against the bulkheads to make room for her. She leaned down. “Dr. Quong told me you had a friend on that ship. Oh, Xris, I’m sorry. So very sorry.”
He ignored her, too. She obviously wanted to say something more, glanced around at the others. They shook their heads. Eventually she, too, backed off.
Xris said, very quietly, “Harry, change course.”
“What?” Harry looked startled. “Change course? What about the robot? We’re supposed to deliver it to the King James II ASAP.”
“The hell with the robot,” Xris said savagely, glowering at Harry, at them all. “Take us to where that Lane used to be. There might be survivors.”
The others exchanged glances. Harry gnawed his lip, stared down at the console. Tess turned her face away. The Little One made a whimpering sound. Raoul
put his arm comfortingly around his small friend. Jamil rested his hand on Xris’s shoulder.
“Xris, I know how you’re feeling. But you have to face the facts.”
“I said, change course,” Xris said softly. He had to speak softly or else he would start to yell, and if he yelled they would think he was losing control—and he knew what he was doing. By God, he knew what he was doing. There would be survivors. There would be survivors. “We’re a medical ship. We have a doctor on board. We can tow in life pods.”
No time. There would have been no time to get the passengers into life pods. Ri-i-i-ppp. Half the ship could be at the beginning of the Jump, half at the end.
“Change course,” Xris said for the third time, and then he was on his feet, getting ready to yank Harry out of the pilot’s chair.
“Hold it. Hold it right there,” Tess ordered. She held a lasgun in her hand and that gun was pressed against the side of Raoul’s head. “Hands in the air. Come on— you, too, Xris.”
“Ugh!” Raoul wrinkled his nose. His gaze slid sidelong at the lasgun that was pressing against his temple. “She had that thing under her armpit!”
“I said, don’t move, Loti!” Tess warned.
“She means it, Raoul,” Xris said. “Hold still.”
He was starting to figure things out. And if he was right, then he was in line for the Number One Chump of All Time Award.
Raoul’s eyelashes fluttered. He was in agony. “Is the gun mussing my hair?”
Xris tested his theory. “Look, Captain Strauss, I don’t know what you’re in this for. Maybe it’s your colonel’s bars or maybe the glory. I don’t much care. But—”
“It’s not the glory, Xris,” Tess said. She shrugged, smiled. “It’s the money. Harry, back off. The computer will be flying the plane. I’ve changed the course.”
“No need,” Harry said. “The course is already laid in for the King James. Look, Xris, let’s go to the King James first, drop off the robot, and then we can—”
“We’re not going to the King James,” Xris said.
“Xris, she’s gonna blow off Raoul’s head.”
“Look at your instruments, Harry. What do they read? What’s our course?”
“It’s ...” Harry’s voice ended in a strangled gargle.
“It’s ... Hell’s Outpost!” He twisted around. “The King James II isn’t at Hell’s Outpost, Xris.”
“We know that, Harry. Most of us do, at any rate.”
“The Navy thinks I work for them, Harry,” Tess said. She continued to keep the gun pointed at Raoul’s head. “But the Navy’s mistaken. In reality, I work for someone else.”
“Harsch,” said Xris. “She works for Harsch.”
“But she’s wearing a Navy uniform and everything.” Harry was a little slow on the uptake.
“Ever heard of a double agent, my friend?”
“Oh.” Harry blinked.
Xris, facing the hatchway, caught a glimpse of movement.
Quong was in the corridor. He had heard what was going on over Xris’s commlink. The doctor was padding, soft-footed, toward the cockpit, a lasgun in his hand. He would sneak up on Tess from behind.
Xris saw the Doc, understood the plan, looked away, shifted his gaze so as not to draw Tess’s attention that direction.
“That’s how Harsch knew about the robot,” he said, hoping to distract her. “And that’s how Tess knew we were coming to Pandor. Harsch hires us to steal the robot. His agent Captain Strauss is posted on Pandor to keep watch on us and the Navy at the same time. Meanwhile, she plays both ends against the middle, reports on Harsch to the Admiralty.
“Everything goes according to plan. Tess manages Jamil and me. Hell, we fell for her story like a metric ton of bullshit. We were supposed to take the robot to Harsch. The robot has the bomb in it and the transmitter, but my guess is that those ‘malfunction.’ You see to that, of course. Harsch gets the robot. The Navy gets squat. You roll those pretty blue eyes at the Lord Admiral and say you can’t imagine what went wrong.
“Or, hey, here’s an idea. Maybe you blame it on us. Make us the fall guys.... Yeah, that’s the deal, isn’t it? Even now. You come out of this smelling sweet and squeaky clean. Who will the Navy believe, after all? One of their own agents? Or us? We’re already in trouble with the Admiralty.”
Quong, gun aimed, was drawing nearer and nearer. He didn’t dare shoot, for fear of hitting Raoul. Or maybe missing completely and putting a lethal hole through the spaceplane’s viewscreen.
“She had it planned out well,” Xris continued. “But then things started to fall apart. You guys showed up. That really scares her. Captain Strauss here figures that we’re about to double-cross her. Double-cross the double-crosser, as it were. And then Jeffrey Grant arrives. The robot takes off. And that leaves you in a pickle, doesn’t it, sister? Who was it ordered you to commandeer that plane and take off after the robot? Harsch— of course you reported in to him. Or was it the Admiralty?”
“For once, they were in agreement. I have to admit, things got pretty interesting there for a while,” Tess conceded. “Oh, and speaking of that bomb—the one the admiral gave to Jamil. Have you checked, lately, to see if you still have it?”
Xris shot a swift questioning glance at Jamil.
Jamil shrugged, looked helpless.
“Because you won’t find it,” Tess continued calmly. “I planted it somewhere in this spaceship. It’s set to detonate in twelve hours, which is when we’re due to arrive at Hell’s Outpost. I’m the only one who can stop the detonation. I’m the only one who knows where the bomb is. So I wouldn’t try any heroics, Dr. Quong,” she added, glancing over her shoulder. “I suggest you put away the lasgun.”
The disconcerted Quong looked at Xris.
“She’s the boss now,” Xris said. “Do as she says.”
“Do you believe her?” Quong continued to hold his lasgun, aimed at Tess.
“Believe her!” Raoul said fervently. “Is there grease on the barrel?”
“I don’t think we’ve got much choice,” Xris said dryly. “Harry, what would happen if a bomb went off inside this spaceplane?”
“Before or after we decompressed?” Harry growled.
Quong shrugged, tossed the lasgun onto the deck at Tess’s feet. “She fooled me completely.”
“You aren’t the only one, Doc,” Xris said. “You aren’t the only one.”
Tess lowered the gun from Raoul’s head. “Okay, Adonian. You’re free to go touch up your lipstick.”
Jamil was still squirming. “Uh, excuse me, Captain. Rut I gotta go to the head. Real bad.”
“Sure.” Tess waved her hand. “Go on. Check the case for the bomb. You won’t find it.”
Jamil gave Xris a look.
Xris took out a twist. “Go ahead.”
Glowering at Tess as he passed her, Jamil left the cockpit.
“Well, you didn’t think I was going to spend twelve hours sitting here holding a gun on the Adonian, did you?” Tess asked, amused. “I need my beauty sleep.”
“I don’t know what for,” Raoul said caustically. He cast a reproachful glance at Xris. “And after all the trouble we went to.”
The Little One kicked Raoul in the shins.
Raoul groaned, rubbed his leg.
Xris put the twist in his mouth, began to chew it. “I’m beginning to lose sight of what I saw in her myself.”
Tess picked up the gun from the deck, shoved it into her belt. “I’m sorry about all this, Xris. I really am. Things were supposed to have worked out differently. You would have never known the truth about me. But first Grant shows up with his machine. We had no idea one of those was still in existence! Then the robot takes off on its own. All of which turned out to be good, in a way.”
“Increased the robot’s value for your boss,” Xris said.
“Yes. And then the robot proved that it was still functional—”
“By taking out Lanes. Boy, I’ll bet Harsch pays you a bonus fo
r this one. Of course, that’s not going to mean much to the thousand or so people who died on that cruise ship.”
“I’m sorry, Xris,” Tess repeated earnestly. “I’m sorry about your friend. I know you’re not going to believe this, but I wasn’t lying about everything. I do really like you, Xris, and maybe, when this is all finished, we can ...”
Xris said nothing. He stared at her and eventually her voice trailed off. Her eyes lowered.
Jamil returned. “The bomb’s gone,” he reported.
“Sure it’s gone,” Xris said. “Even if she’s bluffing, the bomb’s gone. You don’t get in the NI by making stupid mistakes.” He rounded suddenly on Raoul and the Little One, who were both slipping quietly out the door. “Wait just a goddamn minute!”
He caught hold of the Little One by the collar of the raincoat, dragged him backward.
“What do you mean—all the trouble you went to? I asked the two of you what was going on with Tess. You knew the truth! Damn it! You two knew and you didn’t tell me!”
“Do not shake him, Xris Cyborg!” Raoul said worriedly, coming to the rescue of his small friend. “You’ll ruin his digestion!”
“Like hell they knew!” Tess said sharply. “I told Harsch that using the telepathic scrambler was a waste of time and money. The little fart’s no more a telepath than that girder there. I tested him two or three times and he never once caught on. They’ve been conning you, Xris. It’s all a trick. I’ve seen better shows in a Laskar nightclub.”
Raoul glanced at Xris from beneath lowered lashes. The Little One tilted back his head, peered up at Xris from beneath the brim of the fedora.
No, Xris thought, whoever has been conned, it wasn’t me. These two knew the truth about Tess. They’ve known it all along. And they hadn’t said a word, because ... because ...
It’s been a long time since I’ve had sex.
You have to give Raoul credit. He has his priorities in order. They don’t happen to be the priorities of anyone else in the known universe, but ... that’s an Adonian for you.
“We’re going to be making the Jump to hyperspace in about twenty minutes,” Tess was saying. “Fortunately, the Lane we need is still there. I’m going to go lie down, get some rest. I suggest that you gentlemen do the same. I’m sure you’ll want to be at your best when you meet Mr. Harsch. Unless, of course, you want to spend your time searching for the bomb. If that keeps you happy and occupied, be my guests.”
Robot Blues Page 33
