She made a wry face at the Paradisan.
It was Mikal’s turn to laugh.
“Helpless women!” he snorted. “I don’t know what the women are like where you come from, Joaley, but the last time I saw a helpless woman, I was looking at an ancient crone who was dying of old age! It seems that the women I associate with are generally as, or more capable than I am!”
“Which direction did the fellows head in?” Kati asked, somewhat chagrined that she had not paid enough attention to what was going on around her to have noticed their leaving.
Their going should have been obvious. Had she been too busy mooning after Mikal to follow the doings of her Team members, or was she simply reacting to an extended period of stress by losing some of her normal alertness, in spite of the fact that she had got a night’s sleep after the flyer had arrived on the island.
“If you’re thinking of going to fetch them, there’s no need.”
Malin had stood up to his considerable height and was looking in the direction of the open sea.
“They’re on their way back. I can see Jock’s head bobbing in this direction, although the shorter two are still invisible.” The Paradisan grinned. “That Vultairian height comes in handy, now and then. I bet Jock is a useful person to have around when you have to reach things.”
“He’s been a useful person to have on our team in a number of other ways, too,” Kati said. “He has been quite helpful in our investigations, gamely dragging around the Capital City sin bins with me, pretending to be my paramour.”
She giggled.
“No doubt totally ruining his reputation among the Exalted by such behaviour,” Joaley added. “Not that the Carmaks care about their reputation among the Oligarchs. They’re on the side of the Ordinary Citizens in this fight, and I salute them for that.”
“So far, I’ve met Jock and Kelt,” Mikal stated, caressing Kati’s hand. “If the rest of the Family is anything like those two, this world has at least a few well-born who can be counted on. But now that we’ve managed to get Xoraya and Canna out of the way of possible retaliation, my replacement as the head of the Official Investigative Team, Arya r’pa Dorral, is putting into effect her descent to the Capital City, with the Torrones Warriors. I think that we ought to go and join the fray.”
“Aah joy,” Joaley said, unwrapping herself from the cross-legged position in which she had been sitting. “Good food at Marku’s Bistro, and a real bed at Nelli’s Inn tonight. Sounds great, never mind the Arya and the Torrones show.”
“A bath, that’s what I want,” added Kati. “Nelli’s Inn has decent bathing facilities.”
Mikal burst out laughing.
“Trust you to be thinking of washing, Kati,” he crowed. “She measured our passage across the Drowned Planet in bath houses, I swear,” he added for the others’ benefit.
Kati was not in the least disturbed by the curious glances the others cast her way.
“There was a saying on my home world,” she intoned calmly. “’Cleanliness is next to Godliness.’”
“Actually, I could use some of that cleanliness, even before I dig into soup,” Canna said, climbing shakily up from her position on the ground with a little help from Malin. “I’m not sure how long it has been since I washed, but....”
“Well, Nelli’s Inn will have to be our first stop,” Joaley interjected. “Nelli has lovely bathing facilities at the back of her establishment, besides the little showers between the rooms.
“And Nelli will be hovering and offering assistance as soon as we arrive,” she added confidently. “Anyone want to bet that she’ll be sending one of her daughters into the Women’s Bathing Chamber with hot soup for Canna and Xoraya? She’ll go into a tizzy when she hears that they haven’t been fed properly for days.”
“Nobody’s going to bet on a sure thing, Joaley,” Kati laughed. “Not even in the gambling-crazy Capital City of Vultaire.”
“What’s going on folks?” Jock called out, as he, Rakil and Lank climbed onto the rock. “Are we about ready to fly home?”
“If home is the Capital City, yes,” Mikal said. “The Torrones are about to descend there.”
“Capital City is where we began this rescue mission,” Jock said with a nod. “And, at the moment, the most happening place on the planet. We can re-establish ourselves at Nelli’s Inn, bringing her a few more clients.”
“Great minds think alike,” crowed Joaley. “We’d already agreed to make Nelli’s Bathing Chambers our first stop back, and Mikal managed to make fun of Kati’s penchant for a clean body.”
“Hey, no fair, Joaley r’ma Elise,” Mikal protested. “I wasn’t making fun of her; I was just commenting!”
Jock turned to stare at Mikal who was still caressing Kati’s hand.
“You take good care of that woman,” he said seriously. “She’s one hell of a Team Leader.”
“You don’t have to convince me,” Mikal answered softly. Then he grinned irrepressibly. “Did she save your life, too?” he asked.
“Among other things, she saved the life of a man who meant to kill her, and to abuse her before he did the killing,” Jock said. “He wasn’t the least bit grateful to her for keeping him alive, either.”
“Good gods.” Mikal shuddered, and wrapped both arms around Kati.
“I guess it proves that I’ve got The Old Monk a bit more under control,” Kati said, keeping her tone of voice very light. “But let’s climb into the vehicles and get this show airborne. Our work awaits.”
*****
The flight back into the City took several hours. By the time they landed near Nelli’s Inn, Canna was looking ghastly, in spite of Kati’s attempts to surreptitiously use her healing powers to help her. Xoraya, too, was looking worn. Kati and Joaley were intensely relieved to be able to hand their care into the capable hands of Nelli and her daughters, while they hurried to the food stall that they had patronized earlier to consult Mala, its proprietress, about suitable nourishment.
Mala was delighted to see the off-world women, and immediately began to assemble the requirements for “nine very hungry people—two of whom have been through a period of starvation” as Joaley put it to her.
“The pureed soup for the starved ones,” she said immediately. “And a restorative drink to be taken first. Don’t give them anything else today. Just soup, any time they ask for it, once they’ve downed the restorative drink.”
Kati got a bath, a meal, and not much more before it was already time to return to work. Mikal met her in their shared room, after their respective cleaning rituals, and informed her that he had asked Jock to flit them back to the centre of the city to see what the situation there was, while the rest of the combined Team helped to make the convalescents as comfortable as possible, and answered the questions that the locals were peppering them with. There was no time for more than a long kiss and passionate hug before they donned their working gear. Kati reluctantly set aside the flimsy nightgown that she had purchased on a whim one day while passing by a stall full of its like.
Mikal noticed what she was doing and reached to nuzzle her neck.
“We’ll get to undressing you from that, yet,” he promised with a leer. “The half-year separation is over, and we will celebrate.”
Once they were in the flit with Jock, Mikal passed to Kati and the Vultairian what news he had obtained.
“I talked again with Arya,” he said, “and she tells me that Chairwoman Sartose is still stonewalling. She’s distanced her government from the Margolises’ caper by claiming that the kidnappers acted purely on their own, without the knowledge of any of the other Oligarchs. That may even be true, for all we know. She is also claiming that there are no off-world slaves on Vultaire, and has invited ‘The Lamanian Lady and her black muscle-men’ to look around for themselves, if they won’t take her word for it. And the Klensers, apparently, are treated with enormous kindness.”
Both Kati and Jock scoffed.
“She’s lying outright,” Jo
ck said flatly. “But then, she would. I suppose that she doesn’t realize that the tricks her predecessors used to pull the wool over investigators eyes are not going to work this time.”
“What the Unofficial Investigative Team has uncovered, combined with the nodal records that Uncle Kelt made on the Klenser Farms, should be enough to allow Arya to scour the city for further evidence,” Kati added. “I can certainly certify Ingrid and the green girls as slaves. Roxanna’s presence is another obvious bit of proof.”
“I suspect, though,” sighed Jock, “that we won’t find your friend, Ingrid, or her protégées at Malaudin House. If Sartose is inviting the Lamanian Lady, to look around, she must have arranged to stash the slaves somewhere that she believes to be a secure hiding place. I wonder if Uncle Kelt might have any information, or ideas about that?”
*****
Jock landed the flit outside Uncle Kelt’s Parking Garage. He let Kati and Mikal out before entering the structure. Kati and Mikal were accosted by a member of a Torrones Patrol before the flit had made it inside, but when the tall, muscular Warrior realized who Mikal was, his frosty demeanour turned instantly to friendliness, and he offered to conduct the couple anywhere they wanted to go.
“We’ll wait for our Vultairian friend to deposit his relative’s vehicle and to join us,” Mikal told the man, who had introduced himself as Warrior A-Class Foll. “Jock Carmaks is one of the good guys, even though he belongs to the Exalted Class. He has been helping Kati of Terra here with her Unofficial Investigation into those Oligarchic practises which contravene Federation Law.”
“Ah, a Carmaks. That’s one of the Four Hundred Families which Lady Arya cited as those to which we’re to give all the help that we can. There’s a handful of others; I have their names in my node memory somewhere.” Warrior Foll squinted, but made no recitation. Instead: “We were also asked to be helpful to the un-noded, the so-called Ordinary Citizens, who seem to be the majority of the population. And any off-worlders, although the fact that you were travelling by flit threw me there for a moment; apparently only the Exalted are permitted the use of flying machines.”
“Which is one of the reasons we’re glad to have the Carmaks on our side,” Mikal said with a smile. “And which reminds me that I would like you to pass the word to your colleagues that a flyer with a contingent of off-worlders will be arriving here—well, I’m not quite sure when. We’re hoping that the Xeonsaur VIP, Xoraya Hsiss will be on that flyer, with a handful of others.”
He went on to give the names in the group still at Nelli’s Inn, hopeful that even Canna would be able to travel to the centre of the city by flyer, within the next day or so. Malin would not want to leave her, but he was anxious to discover anything he could about the suspected Grenie quatrad.
“Is the Master Healer Vorlund anywhere about?” Kati asked. “I heard that he had made his way into the City, and was helping with the ill and the hurt among the Ordinary Citizens.”
“Oh yes,” Warrior Foll replied, looming over Kati with a sudden grin. “He would have been wearing himself out, helping any and all who asked for his aid, but some of those interesting Vultairians called Klensers have stepped in to help him. They seem to be able to augment his healing powers somehow, and they are almost tireless.”
“I’m glad that the Klensers and the Master Healer have discovered each other,” Kati commented. “I think that they can teach each other a lot.”
Just then Jock arrived. Kati watched Mikal introduce the Torrones and the Vultairian to one another; the two of them were of approximately equal height although Jock was a pale bean-pole compared to the Warrior’s dark bulk. Jock studied Foll curiously but did not comment on the Torrones’ appearance; obviously this was his introduction to the Warrior race. Foll, on the other hand, took the Vultairian in stride; he had seen a lot of them by now, and the Exalted did not look any different from the Ordinary Citizens except for the Family colours that they wore splashed across their tunics. Besides, he had no doubt been briefed about the inhabitants of the planet before he got near it.
“The question is,” Mikal said, “should we get Warrior Foll take us to Arya r’pa Dorral first, or should we try to find Kelt Carmaks? Have you, or the people you’re in contact with, the locations for those two persons, Warrior Foll?”
“I believe that Lady Arya is meeting with the Senate Chairwoman Sartose at present,” the Torrones replied. “Lady Arya is trying to persuade the Chairwoman to co-operate with the Federation, but apparently she is being very difficult. Insisting that her actions are beyond the pale, and that the Federation has no business messing about in Vultairian internal affairs, since Vultaire has not contravened any Federation law, not now, nor ever. Fortunately Lady Arya is not a fool, and she took two Warriors along with her as bodyguards, so we can be sure of her safety.”
Mikal chuckled.
“If I was Sartose, I’d worry about my own safety. Arya is not to be underestimated.”
“Oh, Chair Sartose has her own bodyguards—what the locals rather rudely call ‘goons’,” Foll explained. “No match for any of us, however; I could snap any ‘goon’ into several pieces in unarmed combat without even trying. And we’re not unarmed.”
He was not, indeed. No Torrones Warrior ever went unarmed when on duty, and, for all Kati knew, they even slept with at least a stunner under their pillows. But this bunch were supposed to be the ones who didn’t use their weapons except in the most dire of circumstances; all threat, and no action, so to say. And apparently Arya and Mikal, both of whom were sworn to not countenance killing in the pursuit of duty, trusted these assurances enough to have them here, as part of their operation.
“Your Arya may not be a fool,” Jock said, “but Sartose certainly is. The Lamanian will get nothing useful from the Senate Chair; Sartose will dig in her heels, and insist that black is white, until the world begins to turn backwards on its axis. We’ll have to find those slaves and parade them for all to see, and Uncle Kelt will have to make a deputation about the treatment of the Klensers. Ordinary Citizens will have to complain about their lack of nodes, now that at least some of them understand that they have a right to them. And we’ll need Federation help to keep the Oligarchs from trying to hang onto power and privilege by turning their goons into killers.”
“You make it sound like we Torrones might be here a while, keeping the peace,” Foll stated, sounding not unhappy at the prospect.
Perhaps, Kati thought, it was a pleasant change for the Warriors to be doing something useful, rather than spending all their time in drill exercises for eventualities which were not supposed to ever happen.
“As for Senator Kelt Carmaks, he has asked to meet with you, Mikal r’ma Trodden, and Kati of Terra, at your earliest convenience,” Foll said, returning to the issue at hand. “I believe that he is at present at an establishment known as Marku’s Bistro, which is a short walking distance from here.”
“Oh, Jock and I know where that is,” Kati said airily. “If you have duties to perform, we won’t have to take you away from them. We can make our way to Marku’s easily enough—unless you think that there’s some danger to the three of us from the Oligarchs and their goons?”
The Warrior dug out a communicator which was an exact match to Mikal’s—except for the colour—and grinned.
“I’ll let the troops know of your presence and where you’re headed,” he said before turning the com on. “All of us will be ensuring your safety. We’re already keeping tabs on the Exalted and their bodyguards, so if they try something we’ll be right on it.”
With nods of thanks to the Torrones, the three began to walk towards Marku’s Bistro.
“Whew,” Kati said when they had gone for about a block. “I’m kind of glad he didn’t accompany us. The Warriors A-Class do sort of loom, even though they are on our side.”
Mikal laughed.
“That’s kind of the point,” he said.
“Yeah,” Jock added. “I imagine the two accompanying Arya r’p
a Dorral are making Sartose sweat, just with their presence. Her own bodyguards no doubt seem puny in comparison.”
“Mind you, they’re armed too, and probably don’t have any compunction about using their weapons—to kill if necessary,” Mikal pointed out. “But Arya’s smart enough to tread carefully. She’ll be certain to not provoke them.”
“And like it or not, Sartose will at least have to appear to be playing by Federation rules,” Kati added. “Otherwise her game’s over.”
“Don’t depend on her to have the brains to understand that,” Jock said grumpily. “Arrogant people can behave in an incredibly foolish fashion.”
“We’ll have to leave Sartose for Arya to deal with,” Mikal said, dismissing the topic. “However, I’m wondering if Kelt doesn’t have something on his mind, since he wants to see us. I really enjoyed his company when he met us in the Port City, and flew us here to the Capital before lending us his flit.”
“He may just want to hear the details of how it went, although the word that Xoraya Hsiss is in town should have already reached him, what with all the communicating that seems to be going on,” Jock said. “However, he may have some ideas as to where we ought to start looking for the off-world slaves. Being a member of the Government—however ostracized—does give him some access to inside information.”
That was the next item on the agenda. They had to find the slaves. Surely it could not be that difficult to find a large group of people—although, Kati realized, she did not know how many slaves there were on Vultaire. Nevertheless, where could they have been stashed? Perhaps they had been taken out of the city; but if that was the case, someone must have seen something!
*****
The walkers’ route took them by the Legislative Grounds which seemed to have become a hive of activity. The Klensers apparently were waking up to the world which they inhabited, aided and abetted by the Ordinary Citizens who had come to see to their needs.
“Many people have family among the Klensers,” Jock said when Kati commented on this. “We Carmaks have the odd Klenser in our family history, too, although we never allowed them to end up on the Farms. None of the Ithcar ones presently are Carmaks; there’s been a dearth of Klensers in the family lately. I’m not certain why; perhaps it’s simply a normal variation. Or else something in the air or the water, as some claim.”
On Assignment to the Planet of the Exalted Page 78
