Knights Of The Black Earth

by Margaret Weis

  Behind him, Commander Drake called out, "Good hunting, Schwartz."

  CHAPTER 16

  When the speed of the hawk is such that it can strike and kill, this is precision.

  Sun Tzu, The Art of War

  Outside the work area, Xris and his escort entered a corridor with dim lighting, white walls that ended in a T-junction. The teeh turned left, punched an elevator button.

  "Deck Eight," Collins commanded when the lift arrived and he and Xris were inside.

  The doors opened onto another corridor that looked exactly like the first, except that this one had a large "8" stenciled on the wall and a sign reading: SECURE AREA. AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.

  "'Tll need to stay with you at all times, sir," said the tech.

  Yes, well, that was going to be a small problem.

  Xris smiled, nodded, said nothing.

  Collins took the first corridor they came to, which branched to the left. He stopped in front of the second door on the right. The computerized sign above the door read FCWlNG.

  Alarms on Xris's cybemetic arm started beeping, LEDs flashed red.

  The tech glanced at him in astonishment.

  Xris jerked up the sleeve of his coverails, made a quick adjustment of the fluid levels to the hydraulics. His heart was pumping like a photon combustion chamber. "All fine now," Xris said.

  The technician raised an eyebrow, but placed one hand on the security pad to the right of the door, held up a pass with the other. "Collins, Maintenance, Access Two Eight One Alpha Two."

  The door opened.

  The tech entered, Xris almost tripping on his heels.

  The room was softly lit, glowed with the eerie light of innumerable computer screens of various shapes and sizes. Xris's augmented hearing caught the soft hum of the machinery that was banked along a wall to his right.

  The center of the room contained several work desks. Xris recognized standard data- and commlink receivers and transmitters, digital state diagrams, and three-dimensional holographic data abstraction diagrams--all had been hastily shoved aside. A puddle of orangish, greenish liquid-dripping from the ceiling--had accumulated on the desk and was slowly starting to ooze to the floor.

  A man, standing beside the desk, was staring up at the ceiling in baffled astonishment. A woman was on the comm, yelling at security.

  Xris gave the woman a close scrutiny, comparing her to the picture of Darlene Mohini burned into his brain. It wasn't her.

  He glanced swiftly around the room.

  On the left-hand side was a wall with a single door. The wall was plastered with electronic scratch boards. Across them were drawn mathematical equations, bits of computer code, diagrams, and sketches of equipment. Perhaps it was wishful thinking, but Xris could have sworn he recognized the neat, precise handwriting. He looked again at the door.

  It was shut. But another computerized sign on the wall beside it flashed: CCA-2. Xris heard Wiedermann's reedy voice echo in his mind. Her job description reads: CCA-2. Clerical work, maybe. We have no idea what CCA stands for, but a level 2 employee ...

  "I'm from Olicien Pest Control," Xris began. The words came out a croak and he was forced to stop to cough, clear his throat. "It looks as if you've found our malfunctioning 'bot."

  "Is that what it is?" The man, stating at the ceiling, shook his head. "I never would have guessed."

  "Who would? One of those damn bug-'bots," said the woman, from her position next to the comm. "And you said it was the toilets backing up."

  "So? What do I know?" The man glared at Xris. "You gonna fix it or what?"

  The woman remained standing next to the comm. Xris discovered that his metal hand had clenched into a fist. He made a conscious effort to relax. He had to get rid of these two and the tech.

  Dalin Rowan was in that office. Xris knew it as surely as he knew he was trapped inside his damn metal body. And he wondered why, with all the commotion, Rowan hadn't come out to investigate. A thought chilled him. Maybe Rowan was on coffee break. Lunch break. Gone to powder her nose...

  Xris had a sudden memory of his friend--hunched over a computer, rapt, enthralled, completely oblivious to anything happening around him. Once they'd been caught in a firefight, forced to shoot it out with some goons. Rowan, breaking into the computer, had been negotiating a maze of security traps in an effort to crack the system. The goons attacked. Laser beams flashed around him. He kept working. He'd won a commendation for bravery. Only he and Xris and Ito knew--and often joked about it later--that Rowan hadn't even been aware a firefight was going on. "Who's in there?" Xris asked, pointing at the ccA-2 sign. The woman followed his gaze. "That's Major Mohini's office. We didn't want to interrupt her work. But perhaps I better tell her--" She started toward the door.

  "No, that won't be necessary," Xris intervened. "The problem's out here."

  Moving to the desk, he noticed a splotch of green on the sleeve of the man's uniform. "You didn't get any of this on your skin, did you?"

  The man glanced down. "Well, some of it splashed onto my hand and the back of my neck, but--" "Is it toxic?" The woman was alarmed.

  Xris had no idea whether it was or not, but this was too good to pass up.

  "Look, I don't want to frighten you," he began in a calm, soothing tone guaranteed to scare the hell out of everyone. "But you better get to the washroom. Scrub that stuff off. Use strong soap. Does it burn or itch? You're not dizzy, are you?"

  "Well ... maybe a little ..." The man was gulping, rubbing at his hand. "And it ... it is beginning to burn--" Xris turned to the other two. "Take him to the john. Washthat stuff off him. Then get him to sick bay. You both better go with him. He may feel faint."

  The woman hurried to help her friend.

  "I'm nauseous," he said in a quavering voice. "I'm not sure I can walk."

  "Lean on me," the woman told him.

  "You better go, too," Xris told the tech.

  "But I'm not supposed to leave you--"

  "If he keels over, she'll never be able to hold him up." Xris moved closer to the tech, spoke in low, urgent tones. "You've got to rinse the skin with water and soap within five minutes or that stuff can seep into the bloodstream. And then ..." He shrugged. The tech wavered.

  "I feel sick." The man rocked on his feet.

  Either the stuff was toxic or he was extremely susceptible to the power of suggestion. The woman struggled to support him, but she was short and he was tall.

  "Crewman! Give me some help here!"

  "Yes, ma'am." Obeying orders was deeply ingrained. The tech turned to Xris. "Please stay here until I can send someone to escort you, sir. It's for your own safety."

  "Sure thing," Xris promised. "Oh, if they don't see me at first, tell them not to panic. I may be up inside the air ducts."

  The tech waved his hand in acknowledgment and ran off.

  The door shut, sealed behind him.

  Xris climbed onto the desk, reached up, removed a couple of ceiling panels. If security entered the room, they'd spend the first few moments searching for him up there. Once the panels were gone leaving a gaping hole in the ceiling-Xris jumped down, turned to the door marked CCA-2.

  "Jamil," he said over the comm. "I'm in FCWing. I sent my escort off and I'm alone now, but I won't be for long. Everything okay with you down there? Still got company?"

  "Everything's quiet. Security reported you found the malfunctioning 'bot. The commander was thrilled. He went back into his hole."

  "Good. Listen, I've located Rowan. In an office off a main room up here. This is a secured area. My escort had to show a pass and use a palm print to enter. The door to the office is shut. I don't see any card slots or palm pads or code buttons, just a plain ordinary door control. Is it likely to be rigged?"

  "If it's like other military bases I've been on," Jamil returned, "the answer's no. Why bother? If you've got clearance that far up, you're not the type to go around snooping through other people's offices. My guess is the door won't even be locked."


  "I hope like hell you're right." Xris switched comm channels. "Harry, I've located Rowan and I'm going in."

  "Xris!" Harry was whispering, sounded tense. "Security's sending someone up--"

  "Take it easy, Harry. It's under control. I only need five minutes. Out."

  Xris had to pause a moment to stop shaking. The green ccn-2 flared bright, blurred around the edges. He started walking and it seemed to him that he had been making this walk, taking these steps, ever since that moment when he first woke up in the hospital and 'knew that his life was over.

  He checked the needle in his thumb, made sure the mechanism was working. He reached the door, hit the control.

  It slid silently open.

  A woman sat in a swivel chair at a desk. Her back was turned to Xris. All he could see was a tumbled mass of shoulder-length curly brown hair. Above her swirled a mathematical model. She was staring at it intently, using a computer holographic pointer to make changes in the algorithm.

  Xris cast a quick glance around, searching for electronic eyes, security cams.

  Nothing. The room was essentially baren, devoid of life. No photographs of family, a lover, not even a pet. No green .plants to relieve the gray sterility of her surroundings. Nothing except computer equipment. But all of it was impressive. Expensive state-of-the-art machines, the very latest in technology.

  A little warning went off in Xris's mind. This was some fancy setup for a mere clerk.

  He stepped inside the room. A touch of the control and the door slid shut behind him. The woman never moved, didn't appear to have noticed his entry.

  The way she was sitting, the tilt of the head, the very movement of the hand--all familiar. So very familiar.

  Tiny alarm beeps went off in Xris's arm. He ignored them.

  "Rowan." He t?ied to say it twice, but his voice failed. The third time it came out strong. "Rowan. Dalin Rowan."

  The hand holding the pen froze in midair. The woman didn't move for a long moment, the space of a thudding heartbeat. Then, slowly, taking care to make no sudden motions, she put the pen down on the desk.

  "Hello, Xris," she said quietly, and turned around.

  Her face contorted in pain when she saw him. Xris kept tight control of his own face, determined to show no emotion, not even the fury that was suddenly engulfing him like white-hot flame.

  He looked for Dalin Rowan in the woman's features and he found him. Rowan was there, although it looked as if someone had taken an eraser and rubbed off all the sharp, masculine edges, made them rounded, blurred. But the eyes were the same: intelligent, a bit red from overuse, and-oddly--sad and resigned.

  "You know me," Xris said and his voice grated harshly. "And I know you. So I guess we both know why I'm here."

  Rowan nodded, sighed. Her hands were folded calmly in her lap. "I've been expecting you. Or them. The Hung." She shrugged. "I didn't know which would find me first."

  She smiled, lopsided. "Ironic. All these years, I've listened for the footstep behind my back. When it finally comes, I don't hear it." Rowan looked up at him steadily. "I'm glad it was you, Xris. Glad and ... strangely enough ... relieved." She glanced around. "It's all over at last."

  Xris was at a loss. This was certainly not what he'd expected. He'd been imagining the fear. The look of guilt. The frantic plea for understanding, for life--which he would take grim pleasure in denying. He hadn't expected resignation, sadness. It was starting to unnerve him.

  He brought up the mental picture of Ito.

  "You're going to die, Rowan." Xris held up his metal hand, wiggled the thumb. "There's a needle here. When I touch you, it'll inject poison into you. It's a pity," he added, working himself back into his comfortable anger, "but you won't feel any pain. Not like Ito. Not like me. You'll be unconscious for about an hour--long enough for me to leave-and then you'll die. Of unknown causes. This leaves no trace, and there's no antidote."

  Rowan listened to all this gravely, as she once used to listen to Xris outlining a plan for a bust. When Xris was finished, she sat motionless, looking up at him. She said nothing, no word in her own defense.

  Xris was becoming exasperated. "Why? Just tell me why. If you needed money that bad, you could have come to me. I didn't have much, but what was mine was yours. You knew that! Damn it, Rowan, we were friends! Why didn't you talk to me?"

  And now her gaze lowered. Her hands trembled. She shook her head. The long brown hair fell forward, hiding her features. Still, she said nothing.

  "I see. Maybe you needed more than we had. So you set me and Ito up." Xris grunted. "I guess I should be glad--"

  "Xris!" It was Harry's voice. "Security's in FCWing! They're looking for you!"

  "Hey! Olicien Pest Control!" The shout came from outside the closed CCA-2 door. "Are you up inside the ducts there? Come down here a minute."

  Xris didn't bother to respond. He was cold, brisk, efficient. He took a step toward Rowan, metal hand reaching for the woman's ann.

  "You can scream for help," he said, "but it won't do you a damn bit of good. Sorry it has to end this way between us, Rowan--"

  If she had screamed, jumped up, rushed him, she would have been dead. Rowan remained seated, watching him with those calm, sad eyes. She held perfectly still, and that probably saved her.

  That and her next words.

  "Joker's wild, Xris. For God's sake, get out of there. Joker's wild."

  He heard, once again, a frantic and unrecognizable voice:

  All Deltas! Jokers wild! For God's sake, get out of there! Joker's wild/Joker's wild!

  Xris paused, his hand not four centimeters from the woman's arm. "Yeah? The abort code for the mission. What's that supposed to prove. You knew it. Armstrong would have given it to you."

  But Armstrong wouldn't have given Rowan that little added cry of panic that had echoed in Xris's mind during the terrible days of pain that followed. That wasn't part of the abort code.

  For God's sake ...

  Rowan stood up, moved nearer, courting death. "They told you I killed the crew, stole the shuttle, left you and Ito to die. If I had betrayed you, why would I have transmitted the abort code? And I was the one to transmit it that day."

  "Bug man!" The voice outside the door was starting to sound impatient, suspicious. "Are you up there? Harrison, go on up and check."

  Xris stared at this woman who was Rowan and who wasn't Rowan. Something inside him gave way--a dam bursting, a seething cauldron boiling over, a festering sore draining. He wanted to believe. Dear God, he wanted to believe!

  But Rowan was smart, creative. He--she'd had all these years to think up a clever lie.

  "We have to talk, Xris!" Rowan put her hand on his arm, the deadly arm. "You have to hear what I found out. You have to let me explain!"

  "He's not up here, Captain," came the report from outside the door.

  "Security! Intruder alert. Unauthorized personnel at large in FCWing."

  Alarms sounded.

  The cyborg's metal hand twitched. He moved it back, away from Rowan. Then he nodded once, abruptly.

  She touched the control. The door slid open.

  "Captain. Call off the alert. The gentleman's here--"

  "Jamill" Harry was shouting into the comm. "I can't raise

  Xris! All hell's breaking loose! You guys head for the plane.

  I'm going after him."

  "Harry, don't--" Xris began, then stopped.

  All he could hear over the commlink was Harry shouting, someone else sweating, glass breaking, and lasgun fire.

  And then Harry's comm went dead.

  CHAPTER 17

  The prayer of the chicken hawk does not get him the chicken.

  Proverb, Swahili

  Xris's hand--his good hand, flesh-and-blood--closed over Rowan s arm. He jerked her back into the room, hit the door controls. The door slid shut.

  "Is there another way out of here?"

  "Yes," Rowan answered, short and sweet, not wasting time for explanations. Just l
ike the old days.

  Could he trust her like the old days?

  He'd soon find out.

  His leg compartment flipped out. He pulled out his lasgun, fired, effectively soldered the door control.

  "Where's the other door?"

  "At the opposite end of the room, to your left."

  "I see it. Does it lock?"

  "Yes, but the guards could override it."

  "I'm sure you could fix it if you wanted to. And believe me, you want to." Xris aimed his lasgun at her.

  Rowan smiled, shrugged, and sat down at the computer. "There," she said after a moment's work. "We can get out. No one else can get in. Not without plastic explosives," she added.

  "Funny." Xris snorted.

  Outside, he could hear voices: "Security, I've found the intruder. He's in FCWing, Major Mohini's office. The door controls have been frozen. We can't get inside."

  A phone on Rowan's desk began to buzz insistently. She looked at Xris.

  He picked it up.

  "What we have now," Xris told whoever was on the other end, "is a hostage situation. I've captured your major. I'm armed. One move to break in here and your major's dead."

  He hung up, tipped the phone off the desk, tossed it-wires dangling--into a comer. "Derek Sagan was right," Xris muttered to himself. "Shoot--don't talk. I'd have saved myself a hell of a lot of trouble if I'd just gone ahead and shot her!"

  He heard the captain repeatedly calling, "Security!"; then, "I can't raise anyone. Something's wrong. One of you men go check central security ops."

  Harry must be doing something constructive. Xris hoped his pilot was not getting himself killed at the same time.

  "Jamil." Xris was back on the comm. "What's going on down there?"

  "Xris!" Jamil sounded relieved. "Where--"

  "Answer the question!" Xris snapped.

  "We made it to the spaceplane two jumps ahead of Commander Drake and a squad of Marines. We're okay, but they're sure as hell not going to let us fly out of here."

  "Hang tight," Xris growled. "I'm working on it."