“That’s Katie—Kati—all right,” Roxanna replied. “Always ready to share what she knows.”
“Did you know her on your world? Before being abducted by the slavers?” Rakil asked her.
Roxanna shook her head.
“None of us knew one another—no wait, three or four of the human children had been picked up as a bunch, and Murra, the oldest of his kind, had been snatched as a part of a group of four. Other than that, we were all new to one another, and Kati, the last one to come on board was the oldest. Outside of your cousin, of course, whom Ingrid and I judged to be somewhat older than Kati, and I suppose that we were right about that.
“By the way, is there something going on between Kati and your cousin? Something about the way she talks about him says that there is.”
Rakil let out a laugh.
“You’re sharp,” he said. “Yeah, you’re not wrong. I’m sure Mikal wants to marry her. As soon as she agrees to do so. But she wants to do what she promised to do, first; that is, she intends to find all the inhabitants of that room on the slave ship and free them. Fortunately for Mikal, chasing slavers is his job, so there’s a lot of opportunity for them to work together.”
“So where is he now? Is he helping to arrange that Official Investigation that Kati talked about? Glad-handling politicians?”
“No, he was sent to look into the Xeonsaur connection. He couldn’t join the Unofficial Investigative Team since he’s a known Peace Officer Corps operative.” Rakil decided that this was not the time or the place to go into the details of Kati and Mikal’s forced separation by the Lamanian Social Services. “Maryse r’ma Darien respects his diplomatic skills and it may well take all of them to deal with the Xeonsaurs. They don’t normally deal with humans, not even the Federation Government.”
“Hm. It sounds like there’s no shortage of political gamesmanship in the universe. Why am I not surprised?”
“I guess you wouldn’t be, when your introduction to the universe outside your home planet was a slave-ship, a slave-market, and a brothel staffed by bought bodies.”
There was a touch of anger in Rakil’s tone, Roxanna noted. But, of course, he was investigating allegations of slavery for an organization which was trying to end it. Naturally, he would detest it.
“Most of the people here, at the Base, have been really good to me,” she said. “It has made a difference to my outlook; it’s good to know that there are people on this world trying to improve it, and to put a stop to the exploitation.”
“I imagine that you’re also making yourself quite useful to them,” Rakil pointed out, smiling.
“True,” she agreed, readily enough. “Having one of these nodes in my neck really has expanded my mental powers, so I have been able to help Jorun in his investigations of what the Vultairian Central Government is up to.”
“Found out anything interesting?” Rakil kept his tone of voice casual.
“Oh, corruption, corruption, corruption!” Roxanna curled her lip. “The Oligarchs really do seem to believe that they are a law unto themselves—and, I guess, in effect, they are, since there is no requirement that they answer to the population in any way. How they ever managed to get themselves into a position that gives them a deal this sweet is beyond me! Why the rest of the people didn’t rise up and crush them ages ago, I can’t say that I understand!”
“There are a lot of reasons for that,” Rakil replied thoughtfully. “Some of them have to do with Star Federation history, I’m afraid. For one thing, the Federation has never called the Exalted Citizens to account for the fact that they have been keeping the translation nodes from the general population, even though, according to their own regulations, every Federation citizen is entitled to one. Being nodeless puts the common Vultairian at a distinct disadvantage.”
“And why has the Star Federation not enforced its own regulations on this world?” Roxanna asked.
Rakil smiled thinly.
“The usual reason,” he said. “Politics. The desire not to make waves. The official reason, if the research Joaley and I did was accurate, is that the Federation does not like to meddle in the internal affairs of the Member Planets unless there’s a compelling reason to do so.”
“And the exploitation of the majority of the planets’ population by an arrogant minority is not considered a compelling enough a reason,” Roxanna countered, her voice half incredulous, half cynical.
“Apparently not, at least not by the Federation Government that has been in power up until now.”
Rakil stared into the distance without really seeing anything. He was suddenly aware that the whole table was concentrating on the conversation.
“I’m starting to understand why Maryse r’ma Darien, the woman who arranged this Unofficial Investigation, grits her teeth a lot when she talks about the Federation politicians. She is right; somebody has seriously failed in the performance of their duties.”
“Let’s hope that she lights a few fires under some deserving butts,” Joaley threw in. “And in the meantime, we have to do our job well enough that we don’t fail her. Or fail the cause of the Resistance against the Oligarchs.”
*****
“The only reason that I can come up with for the presence of that transmitter is that one of the other Resistance groups has persuaded itself that it’s a good idea to keeps tabs on our doings,” Jorun said with a sigh, after a few moments’ thought. “If the Exalted succeeded in getting them to accept one of their gadgets, I’m afraid that the Government is privy to any information that they are passing on.”
Kati echoed Jorun’s sigh.
“Yes,” she agreed. “None of the electronics sold by the Oligarchs should be trusted. You’ll have to get rid of the darn thing, but it certainly would be useful to know who has been using it. The image the Forest Spirit gave me wasn’t clear enough for me to make an identification, I’m afraid.”
“Do you think that this Spirit could let you know if someone tries to use it?” Jorun asked her. “If so, perhaps we can catch him or her in the act, and also confiscate the communicator.”
“Let’s see if I can reach the Spirit from here,” Kati suggested. “I don’t know if I can touch it while I’m inside—I may have to be outside among natural things to make contact. But I’ll try.”
While Jorun waited she closed her eyes and sent her mind questing, getting The Monk to help her. As soon as her psyche was outside, she became aware of the Forest Spirit; it reached for her.
“Someone’s going for the com,” The Monk subvocalized. He had ridden the Spirit’s energies ahead of her. “It’s that sour fellow who came to the eating area with Jorun and Roxanna. Keros was his name.”
“Shit!” Kati subvocalized. “Can the Forest Spirit slow him down somehow? I’ll have to get Jorun there!”
Almost immediately she heard a chittering sound within her mind.
“The Forest Spirit is sending one of those little clawed rodents to grab the communicator, and to climb up a tree with it,” the Granda told her and she could hear the chuckle in the subvocalization. “Clever plan!”
Kati returned to her body, her consciousness slamming back inside fast enough to cause a momentary disorientation. She shook it off, stood up, and headed for the door.
“That fellow Keros is approaching the communicator,” she told Jorun when he caught up with her. “The Forest Spirit is going to delay him by having a small animal snatch the com from its hiding place and carry it up into a tree. But if we want to catch him red-handed, we’ll have to intercept him before he realizes that there’s something funny going on!”
“Keros?” Jorun stared at Kati, but not with incredulity. “What the hell does he think that he’s doing?”
*****
“We have a problem outside,” Jorun told the group at the dining table.
“Did anyone notice Keros leaving?” he added after ascertaining the young man’s absence.
“He got up and left shortly after you two departed,” Roxanna
answered, studying Jorun’s expression. “I’m afraid I didn’t do more than register his going, since I was glad to see his backside. Does it matter?”
“Apparently, yes,” Jorun replied, turning towards the outer door.
He set a pace which had Roxanna running to keep up, and Kati hurrying. The crowd at the table followed them outside, but once they got that far Jorun turned to Kati:
“In which direction did he go?”
“Past the building, further along the trail heading into the forest,” Kati replied, sending The Monk again to scout and to communicate with the Forest Spirit.
Mycha met them when they reached the trail.
“Something the matter?” he asked Jorun, surprised.
“Yes,” Jorun replied. “Did Keros come this way?”
“Keros? Yes—nothing unusual about that.” Mycha raised his eyebrows. “He makes a habit of coming out for little walks; says he likes to get a bit of fresh air. I thought that was kind of surprising—never had him pegged as a nature-lover. Still, each to his own.”
“Come with us, Mycha,” Jorun invited. “See what you think of this.”
Mycha fell into step beside Jorun and Kati while Roxanna dropped back to walk with Rakil and Joaley who were behind them.
“The rat’s got the gadget and is climbing up a tall tree with it,” The Monk subvocalized to Kati. “I think the human rodent just realized what’s happened to his com.”
The group heard Keros’ surprised, angry shout, and Jorun and Mycha speeded up their pace, outstripping the off-worlders’ ability to keep up with them.
“It doesn’t matter,” Kati said to those coming behind her, slowing her pace to an easier walk. “Things are being handled, and we don’t have to rush. It’s probably better, anyway, if Jorun and Mycha confront Keros first.”
“What is going on, Kati?” Roxanna asked her. Talking was easier when she was not putting one foot in front of the other as fast as she could.
“Keros had hidden a communicator of off-world manufacture in the forest,” Kati told her. “He’s been keeping someone posted about what’s happening here. We don’t know who.”
“Probably that splinter group of rebels in the Capital City that he’s affiliated with,” said Vic, who with his longer legs had moved to take the lead.
“What sort of a splinter group would this be?” Kati queried.
Vic shrugged.
“He’s never really talked about it,” he said. “But then, the way Keros is, nobody talks with him much.”
“He told Jorun and me that he had gotten into trouble with the Exalted, and the Resistance Group that he belonged to suggested that he make his way here to keep out of trouble, and to keep from causing them trouble,” Roxanna said. “It sounded like a plausible story; that kind of thing happens a lot, and he’s the sort of a person who’d have trouble getting along with his own mother, never mind the Exalted.”
“It may well be a portion of the truth—even most of it.” This was Jock who had joined the front of the pack. “The Resistance in the Capital City is very splintered. I got to watch the Oligarchs amuse themselves by setting the Rebels at one another’s throats, while I was there. Keros’ comrades may well have given him the com in good faith, and asked him to keep them informed of what’s happening here. If it’s a small group, the members may have no idea that the gadget that so fortuitously fell into their hands at the right time, is also broadcasting all the information that Keros relays, to a Government Lab.”
“Damn!” Vic said. “He may have seriously endangered our position! All we need is for our Governors to figure out where this Base is and to decide on a punitive raid! We rely on the fact that we’re hidden; we’re hardly in the position to withstand an assault!”
“Don’t lose your cool over that yet, Vic,” Jock advised him. “This place still was in the Dark Forest, the last I looked, and our so-called betters are still as lazy and arrogant as ever. For all we know, the messages Keros’ gadget has been broadcasting have been received by recording equipment which no-one has as yet bothered to listen to.”
“Nevertheless, it can’t be good for us to be exposed that way to Exalted snooping,” Roxanna protested. “Who knows when one or another of them will actually decide to do a spot of work?”
“You have a point,” Jock said, looking down at the short, dark girl from his Vultairian height. “The Oligarchs have been known to show some shrewdness occasionally, as I have reason to know first hand, being nominally one of them.”
He grinned wryly at Roxanna, and the others around them, and added:
“But I think that Jorun will put an end to Keros’ extracurricular activities. Let’s see what’s going on.”
They rounded a bend to confront an odd tableau.
Jorun and Mycha had Keros’ arms, while he craned his neck to glare up at a tall, rough-barked tree, branchless up to about the height of five meters. On the lowest branch sat a squirrelly-looking animal, with its back against the tree trunk and its hind feet anchored to the branch. It was looking down at the men below it, chittering and spitting furiously. In its front paws it held a manufactured object.
“You thieving little beast!” Keros screamed, as Kati, Roxanna, Vic and Jock arrived on the scene, closely followed by the others.
“Now, Keros, what is it that the creature stole from you?” Jorun asked, his tone firm.
Keros ignored his question.
“I need to get that back,” he wailed instead. “Cirazin said that it was worth a lot of money, and I wasn’t to lose it!”
“Who the heck is Cirazin?” Mycha, on his other side, asked.
It was as if suddenly Keros had become aware of the two holding him. He turned his face back down from staring at the rodent above, a look of different kind of panic filling his face. He glanced about him, as if looking for help, and saw the group approaching along the trail. His already pasty features paled further, and he licked his lower lip nervously, not speaking.
“Keros, I think that you better answer Mycha’s question,” Jorun said steadily. “Who is Cirazin?”
“Not an Exalted,” Keros replied rapidly. “Don’t think that I was spying on you for the Exalted.”
A look of horror had replaced the panic on his face. He drew a dragged breath.
“But you have been spying?” Jorun’s tone was ice-cold.
Keros swallowed.
“Not really,” he protested, but it sounded half-hearted.
He gave his shoulders a slight shake but did not attempt to release himself from Jorun and Mycha’s hold. Jorun waited.
“Cirazin—he was the head of the group I belonged to in the Capital City—gave me the communicator when I left to come here,” Keros finally explained, in a monotone. “He said that I should use it to keep him posted on the doings at the Base. He said that it was hard to get information about what the other Resistance Groups were doing because everybody mistrusted everyone else. He also told me to keep the com hidden, because everyone at the Base would mistrust me if they saw it.”
“We have good reason to mistrust off-world gadgets, Keros. And anyone caught using them. Did you know that?” Kati could tell that Jorun was tightening his hold on Keros’ arm as he spoke, but that was the only visible indication of the anger that she sensed in him.
“Since I came here I’ve heard people talk about how the Exalted can set the things they import from off-planet to report to them, or to reveal their locations to operators far away,” Keros admitted. “But Cirazin is devoted to the Resistance, even if his group is a small one. He would not have given me a com that was an Exalted plant!”
“He may well have done so, if he didn’t know that what he had given you was a plant,” Jock said, staring at Keros coldly. “Do you have any idea from where Cirazin got that communicator?”
Keros shook his head.
“He said that there were a few of them around, being passed around by some Resistance members. Some Resistance people won’t touch them with a ten fo
ot pole, but Cirazin said that he couldn’t see a reason not to make use of something handy.”
“Your Cirazin is an idiot,” Jock snapped. “Unless a person knows for certain that an off-world gadget was brought to Vultaire by a visitor and not imported by the government, it’s not safe to make use of one. The Exalted make sure that all such equipment that they allow to fall into the hands of Ordinary Citizens can be traced, any time they want to. And a communicator, certainly, will have been modified to send its messages to the government labs in the Capital City, as well as to the receivers that the messages are intended to reach.”
“Has it not occurred to you to wonder why we stick with the old-fashioned methods of communication, Keros?” Vic asked with a shake of his head.
“I thought that you were just being idiots,” Keros admitted sullenly.
“Well, if anyone knows anything about off-world gadgets, and if Kati who can communicate with the Forest Spirit can persuade the rodent to return the communicator, perhaps we can convince the young man of the need to be careful,” Jock said. “What do you think, Jorun?”
“It depends on whether or not we have someone who can deal with the com,” Jorun replied. “Vic, Mycha, you two have been looking after the generator. Does that give you any possible expertise with this object?”
Vic shook his head.
“I very much doubt it,” he replied. “The hydro generator is primitive compared to stuff like an off-world communicator. I could look at it, I guess, but I doubt that I could make much sense out of it.”
“That goes for me too, Jorun. I’m sorry,” Mycha added.
Lank pushed his way to the front of the group on the trail.
“If you want, I’ll take a look at it.”
Everyone stared at the skinny youth from Tarangay. Then Rakil chuckled.
“Oh, yes, I had forgotten already,” he said with a shake of his head. “Silly of me. Lank here worked with the space tub’s engineer on our way to Vultaire, and if the engineer had had his druthers, Lank would still be there. He said that Lank’s a mechanical genius, besides being a fantastic musician. Yes, he’s the one to examine the com, and to defang it.”
On Assignment to the Planet of the Exalted Page 37
