Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11 (43 page)

She
eyed
him
for
a
long
moment.

"And
you
don't
think
Kaj
will
do
it,"
she
said
at
last.

He
nodded.

"Can
you
locate
someone
like
that?"
he
said.

"No,"
she
said,
"I
don't
think
I
can.
At
least,
not
quickly.
But
a couple
of
the
Soldiers
are
originally
from
this
planet
...
I'll
ask." She
paused.

"Quietly,"
she
added.

CHAPTER
17

Three
days
later
another
delivery
of
supplies,
packed
into
several container
shells,
was
loaded
onto
the
conveyor
belt
that
slanted
up from
the
spaceport
pad
into
the
depths
of
the
ship
known
as
the
Konrad Mackl
in.
Within
minutes
after
they
had
vanished
into
the ship,
the
belt
began
to
move
in
the
opposite
direction,
and
shortly thereafter
a
sealed
utility
bin,
of
the
kind
used
to
hold
waste
and construction
debris,
rode
down
the
belt.
Even
before
it
reached bottom
a
pair
of
mechanical
arms
had
risen
from
the
cargo
vehicle that
had
delivered
the
supplies;
less
than
a
minute
later
the
vehicle was
moving
off
in
the
direction
of
the
Customs
Office,
where
the contents
of
the
bin
would
be
reviewed
before
it
was
allowed
to
proceed
into
the
Cetan
economy
through
the
commercial
exit
gates.

The
containers
that
had
entered
the
Konrad Macklin
had
not been
so
inspected;
most
planets
worried
more
about
what
might come
onto
their
surface
than
about
what
might
be
leaving.

By
that
time
the
second
of
the
newly
arrived
containers
had
been opened
in
a
small
room
just
off
the
ship's
cargo
hold.
A
layer
of sound-deadening
adhesive
flooring,
each
section
in
its
individual carton
and
all
of
them
stacked
on
end,
was
removed,
revealing,
under
a
false
bottom,
the
still
form
of
a
blond
woman
dressed
in
a loose,
off-white
shift—Pallas
Salvador.
She
was
removed
to
a
bed
in a
stateroom,
where
she
was
left
to
waken
naturally,
monitored
by medical
sensors
and
a
video
port.

Her
waking
was
slow,
a
ragged
alternation
of
approaches
to
consciousness
and
relapses
into
darkness;
but
eventually
her
mind
responded
to
the
urge
to
push
through
the
blackness,
and
shortly thereafter
her
eyes
opened
to
a
dimly
lit,
utilitarian
room
that
she fuzzily
recognized,
from
its
architecture,
as
being
in
a
spaceship.

Even
dim,
the
light
caused
the
headache
with
which
she
had awakened
to
bloom
with
an
increased
intensity.
She
closed
her
eyelids,
hoping
the
pain
would
ease
enough
that
she
could
think,
at least
a
little;
and
after
a
few
minutes,
it
did—a
little.

She
tried
to
sit
up,
knowing
she
would
have
to
pay
for
the
effort with
pain.
On
her
second
attempt
she
managed
to
push
herself
back enough
that
she
could
sit
upright,
propped
against
the
coated
wall at
the
head
of
the
bed;
and
she
sat
there
for
some
minutes,
her
head down
on
raised
knees
while
her
hands
massaged
her
temples.
She attempted
to
think
about
her
situation,
but
it
was
hard
to
stay
on any
line
of
thought
when
she
hurt
so
much.

A
few
minutes
later
the
door
opened,
and
she
looked
up
to
see Antonia
Lu
looking
in
at
her.

"Are
you
all
right?"
Toni
asked,
stepping
in
from
the
corridor
and letting
the
door
close
behind
her.

Grateful
that
the
light
from
the
corridor—a
glare
in
comparison
to the
room's
subdued
lighting—had
been
shut
off,
Pallas
Salvador started
to
nod;
but
hastily
aborted
the
movement
as
her
head
threatened
to
split
open
from
temple
to
temple.

"I
don't
know,"
she
said,
trying
to
keep
her
voice
down
so
as
to minimize
the
pain.
"I
guess
so."
Beneath
the
pain
a
tide
of
irritation was
rising:
she
had
always
hated
appearing
weak,
and
she
was
certain
the
tears
in
her
eyes
would
be
interpreted
in
that
fashion.

"I
know
your
head
is
hurting
quite
a
lot,"
Toni
said,
her
voice soft
and
sympathetic.
"It's
an
unavoidable
side
effect
of
the
drugs used
on
you."

"Drugs?"
Pallas
asked,
unthinkingly
throwing
her
head
back;
she winced
and
clamped
her
eyes
shut.

"I'm
afraid
so,"
Toni
said.
She
was
smiling
in
sympathy
when Pallas
opened
her
eyes
again
"We
think
we
know
which
drugs
you were
given,
and
we
believe
we
have
something
to
counteract
the
aftereffects
you're
feeling."
She
held
up
a
slim
silvery
tube.

"May
I
inject
you
with
this?"

"Yes,"
Pallas
Salvador
said.
"No!
Wait—"
She
shook
her
head; and
then
hissed
an
intake
of
air
through
clenched
teeth,
clutching at
her
head
as
her
eyes
snapped
shut,
tears
pooling
at
the
bases
of her
lashes.

"It
hurts
even
to
look
at
you,"
Toni
said.
"You
don't
have
to
take this
if
you
don't
want
to,
of
course.
Would
you
prefer
I
left
you
alone for
a
while,
to
sort
things
out?"

The
blond
woman
lowered
an
arm
and
forced
her
eyes
open, looking
upward
at
Toni
through
the
blur
of
the
moisture
beaded
on her
lashes.

"No,"
she
said,
keeping
her
voice
low.
"Give
it
to
me."

Toni
held
the
end
of
the
tube
to
the
inside
of
the
other's
wrist; and
for
the
briefest
of
instants
Pallas
heard
a
tiny
hissing
sound, while
her
wrist
seemed
to
feel
a
cool
breath.

"You
should
feel
better
quickly,"
Toni
said
as
she
pulled
her
hand back.

"Thank
you,"
Pallas
said
in
a
low
voice.
"Where
are
we?"

"On
one
of
our
ships,"
Toni
said.
"But
don't
speak
for
a
few minutes—just
close
your
eyes
and
try
to
relax;
it'll
speed
your
recovery."

"But—"

"Don't
speak,"
Toni
said.
"Please.
I'm
going
to
get
you
something
to
eat—we
think
you've
been
unconscious
for
quite
a
while, so
as
you
start
to
feel
more
like
your
usual
self
you'll
probably
begin to
think
you're
starving.
I'll
be
back
in
a
couple
of
minutes."

And
she
was
gone.

Already
Pallas
could
feel
the
headache
easing,
and
with
it
the muscle
tenseness
that
had
been
making
her
grimace
and
clench her
teeth.
She
eased
herself
back
against
the
wall,
grateful
for
the change—and
also
grateful
to
find
herself
able
to
think
more
clearly.

How
had
she
gotten
on
a
ship?
Antonia
Lu's
words
suggested that
she,
Pallas,
had
been
drugged
by
someone
before
she
arrived here.
What
had
happened?
She
instinctively
began
inventorying the
sensations
of
her
body,
a
little
afraid
of
what
she
might
find.
She was
wearing
one
of
her
nightgowns,
with
no
underwear
beneath
it, which
suggested
that
whatever
had
happened
had
occurred
while she
was
sleeping;
but
she
could
find
nothing
unusual
in
how
her body
felt
to
itself—at
least,
nothing
that
could
not
be
attributed
to the
drugs
she
had
been
dosed
with.
But
she
needed
to
use
the
bathroom.