Read Cobra Outlaw - eARC Online
Authors: Timothy Zahn
Tags: #Fiction, #science fiction, #General, #Space Opera, #Action & Adventure
Cobra Outlaw - eARC (11 page)
“I hope you’re right.” Matavuli took a deep breath. “I have a message, and a request, from your great nephew Lorne.”
Long practice enabled Corwin to keep his face expressionless. As soon as he’d heard that Matavuli was from DeVegas, he’d hoped he was bringing word from either Jin or Lorne.
But that didn’t mean he was ready to take anything his visitor said at face value. Up to now, Commodore Santores’s people hadn’t shown much interest in subtlety or subterfuge. But there was a first time for everything. “I’m listening,” he said.
“First, the message,” Matavuli said. “He said he’s looking forward to eating drogfowl cacciatore with all of you. Don’t ask me what that means, ‘cause I haven’t the foggiest.”
Corwin looked at Thena, watching some of the tension fading from her face, as he knew she was seeing the same change in his own face. The last time the family had been together, on the eve of the Troft invasions of Qasama and the Cobra Worlds, they’d had drogfowl cacciatore.
Not only that, but the menu had been mentioned in the mysterious message they’d received from the Trofts after Merrick’s disappearance. Whoever Matavuli was and however he knew Lorne, Corwin knew now that his great nephew trusted the man.
Which wasn’t exactly the same as Matavuli being trustworthy. Corwin had played enough politics in his day to know that smiles and endorsements didn’t necessarily mean a dagger wasn’t hidden away somewhere. “Don’t worry, we know the context,” he assured their visitor. “What’s the request?”
Matavuli’s face screwed up in a scowl. “Well, that’s a little more complicated. You have time to talk?”
“The night is young,” Corwin assured him. With only a slight hesitation, he slid the handgun back into its concealed holster. “There’s a couch and a couple of chairs over there behind the kiln,” he added, pointing with his other hand. “Make yourself comfortable while I get us something to drink.”
“Better make it a stiff one,” Matavuli warned over his shoulder as he headed toward the conversation nook. “I got a feeling you’re going to need it.”
#
After Kjoic’s ordeal trapped in the cramped access compartment, Merrick had expected the Troft to make an early night of it. And in fact, the sun had barely set behind the forest when Kjoic headed off to the main bunk area. On the way he told Merrick and Anya that they would leave for Svipall as soon as it was light, and advised them to get some rest.
It was the second Troft order that Merrick was more than willing to accept. The arduous day’s travel, combined with the equally strenuous day before and the short night’s sleep in the middle, had left his own eyelids as heavy as Kjoic’s, if not more so. He and Anya found a pair of bunks in what appeared to be an off-duty sleeping area in the rear of the ship and settled down.
But before allowing himself to fall asleep, Merrick set his nanocomputer to wake him in three hours. First light, he knew, was about ten hours away, and he intended for the two of them to be long gone before Kjoic discovered his new slaves were missing.
He awoke three hours later to the silent alarm going off in his head, feeling more tired than when he’d first closed his eyes. For a few minutes he lay motionless, listening. They were close enough to the wrecked engine room for his enhanced hearing to pick up some of the forest noises filtering in through the broken hull, but he could hear nothing from the forward part of the ship.
Time to go.
He slipped out of bed as quietly as he could, leaving Anya still asleep in her own bunk. There was no point waking her until he had their escape route ready.
With the interior of the ship in near-total darkness, the soft starlight seeping in through the gaps in the hull and bulkheads was almost bright by comparison. More importantly, it was bright enough that with his light-amps at full power Merrick could keep an eye on the treacherous footing along the way.
His first stop, he decided, would be the wide crack he and Anya had entered by, the opening Kjoic had welded the bed frames into. If any of the welds had come loose, he might be able to get them out without having to use his lasers. He crossed the debris-strewn floor toward the bulkhead—
[Sleep, it eludes you?]
Merrick froze. The voice had come from almost directly in front of him, no more than a couple of meters back from the crack he was aiming for. [Sleep, it indeed eludes me,] he confirmed, trying to keep his voice calm. [Startlement, you have given it to me.]
[Startlement, it was not my intent,] Kjoic assured him.
Merrick bowed his head toward the Troft, thinking furiously. He knew from Anya’s coaching that slaves were supposed to watch out for the masters’ best interests. But were they permitted to take the initiative in such things, or simply wait for orders?
He didn’t know. But if he didn’t risk it, he might not ever find out what Kjoic was doing here. Or, more importantly, if and when he was planning to leave. [Sleep, does it also elude you?] he asked. [Refreshment, may I bring it to you?]
[Sleep, it does not elude me,] Kjoic said. [Our safety, I sought to confirm it.] He pointed at the gap with the welded bunks. [The barrier, it is holding.]
[Such news, it is welcome,] Merrick said, a sour taste in his mouth. So much for sneaking out. [My service, do you require it?]
[Your service, I do not require it,] Kjoic said, his voice suddenly distant. [Knowledge, speak it to me. Murder for profit, do humans engage in it?]
Merrick blinked. Where the hell had
that
come from? [Your question, I don’t understand it,] he stalled.
[Killings, they occurred here,] Kjoic said, his radiator membranes fluttering. [Profit, the captain sought it. Loyalty, the crew demanded instead.]
Merrick shook his head. [Forgiveness, I beg it. Understanding, I do not have it.]
Kjoic gestured toward the sky. [An unknown ship, it spoke to the captain upon our arrival,] he said. [Great profit, it promised in return for our cargo.]
An eerie feeling crept up Merrick’s back. So someone else out there wanted to get hold of Qasaman razorarms?
Was that someone another string to Commander Ukuthi’s bow, sent here either as backup or replacement for Merrick and Anya? Or were there other players in this game? [Obedience to the original contract, the others wished to maintain it?] he asked.
[Understanding, you have it,] Kjoic said, his membranes fluttering. [Defiance, they demonstrated. Combat, the captain began.]
Merrick winced. A sudden, violent free-for-all battle would certainly explain the blood residue in the corridor. [Your life, they yet spared it?]
Kjoic gave the Troft clacking-jaw equivalent of a bitter laugh. [My life,
I
yet spared it,] he said. [Cowardice, I demonstrated it. My comrades, I abandoned them. A sanctuary, I sought it.]
[A sanctuary, you found it,] Merrick said as he finally got it. He’d vaguely assumed that Kjoic had been in the access compartment trying to fix something when the ship crashed, though he’d recognized that the theory didn’t made much sense. Kjoic hiding from a running battle made a lot more sense. [Death, the others all succumbed to it?] he asked.
[The truth, I do not know it,] Kjoic said. [Movement, I could hear it after the crash. Voices, I could hear them. Survival, I know not if any achieved it.]
Merrick nodded. The movement and voices could have been survivors of the bloodbath, or they could have been the local Trofts’ rescue team. [Yet call out, you did not?]
Kjoic clacked his jaw again. [A fool, I am not one, Merrick Hopekeeper,] he bit out. [Life, I did not wish to give it up.]
Merrick winced. [Forgiveness, I beg it,] he said. Of course Kjoic hadn’t called for help. He’d had no idea who was out there, or whether or not they would want to leave witnesses behind. [Reason, I did not employ it.]
[Forgiveness, I grant it,] Kjoic said. [A slave, you are merely one.]
[Gratitude, I offer it,] Merrick said mechanically, his thoughts racing.
Because if some of the other crewmen had survived, one of them might know something about the mysterious ship lurking around out there trying to buy Qasaman razorarms.
And if the ship was from Commander Ukuthi, he and Anya were suddenly no longer alone in Ukuthi’s crazy scheme. With allies would come a whole list of options and possibilities. Especially if those allies came packaged inside their own warship.
Of course, they might have turned tail and run once their offer to Kjoic’s captain fell through. The attempted mutiny and subsequent crash would have drawn far more attention than they probably wanted.
Still, they might not have run far. If Merrick could get word to them, they might still have a chance of pulling this off.
But only if he could question the survivors, or else retrieve the data records the rescue team had pulled.
And for both of those, he needed Kjoic alive and well.
And even as he reached that conclusion, the last piece fell into place. Instead of demanding that Merrick and Anya bring them to the local Troft HQ— [Our village, that is the reason you wish to go to it,] he said. [A story, the survivors will have told one. That story, you wish to learn it.]
[Wisdom, you have it,] Kjoic said, his radiator membranes fluttering again. [Logic, you also have it. The rulers, I cannot yet approach them. Information, I must first obtain it.]
[Understanding, I have it,] Merrick said, feeling his own pulse speeding up. And of course, none of the humans in Svipall were likely to have the information Kjoic wanted.
But if the Troft base Anya remembered was still there, it might be possible for them to break in and find the relevant records. Which was, in fact, the same thing Merrick needed to do.
Which meant that from now on he and Kjoic were going to have to work together.
[Intelligence, you have it,] Kjoic said, and with his enhanced vision Merrick saw that the Troft was gazing intently at him. [Surprise, I have it.]
Merrick felt his throat tighten. Only they would have to work together as master and slave.
And he had better not forget that.
[Kindness, you show it,] he said, ducking his head humbly. [Ideas, I sometimes have them. Worthless, they most often are.]
[Ideas, do not disparage them,] Kjoic said severely. [Worthless, they may be. Worthless, they may
not
be.] He waved a hand. [Travel, we undertake it at first light. Your sleep, return to it.]
[The order, I obey it.] Merrick hesitated. [Your sleep, you also need it.]
[My sleep, I return to it soon,] Kjoic promised.
Anya was lying quietly in her bunk when Merrick returned, her eyes intent on him. “Is all ready?” she whispered.
“I couldn’t get to the opening,” Merrick whispered back as he lay down on the bunk beside her. “But it doesn’t matter. We’re not leaving. Not yet.”
Anya stirred. “I don’t understand.”
Quietly, Merrick gave her a summary of his conversation with Kjoic. “I know it’s dangerous,” he said. “But for the moment, our goals are running parallel. So for the moment, anyway, I think it’s best we stick together.”
For a long moment she was silent. “Perhaps you do not fully understand the situation,” she said. “We cannot simply walk into Svipall. The people there do not know us.”
“Which is good,” Merrick said. “If they don’t recognize us, they can’t turn us in to the Trofts.”
“But how can we claim the village as our own if they do not recognize us?”
Merrick winced. He hadn’t thought about that part. “I see what you mean. I guess we’ll have to play it a bit more circumspect.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I need to think about it,” Merrick conceded. “If worse comes to worse, though, we can make up an excuse to pick a different village. Maybe we’ll run into a nest of something nasty along the way and have to divert.”
“Some predators, you mean?”
“Exactly,” Merrick said. “I’m sure we can find
something
big and toothy enough to scare away a couple of timid slaves. Or we could even invent some superstition that prevents us from going into Svipall on this particular day.”
“
Invent
a superstition?” Anya seemed stunned. “Merrick, the masters have been here for many generations. They know everything about us.”
“The Drim Trofts might,” Merrick said. “But Kjoic won’t. He’s not a local—his accent alone shows that much. Besides that, I think he’s probably young, and he certainly hasn’t had much experience with slaves.”
“Why do you conclude that?”
“Because he knows the basic rules, but none of it comes naturally,” Merrick said. “It’s like he’s reading off a script that he knows pretty well, but has never actually performed. I think any slips we make—by which I mean any slips
I
make—will probably go unnoticed.”
“And if you’re wrong?” Anya countered. “If he realizes who we really are?”
“He won’t,” Merrick said. “If we’re careful—”
“If he learns the truth, you will have to kill him,” Anya whispered harshly. “Are you prepared to do that?”
Merrick felt his stomach tighten. It was a valid question. A darkly unpleasant question.
Still, it wasn’t like he hadn’t killed Trofts before. He had. Far too many of them.
But those killings had all been in battle, where he’d been fighting for his life and the lives of his comrades around him. Taking out Kjoic, especially without warning, would be little more than murder.
No. Not
little more than
. It would
be
murder.
Anya was still waiting. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll do whatever’s necessary to keep us safe.”
Which, he realized, was not exactly an answer to her question. But it was the best he could do. “Anyway, we need to get some sleep. We’ve got a busy day ahead.”
And really, there was a good chance that if Kjoic learned the truth he would try to kill or capture them.
If he did, whatever happened afterward wouldn’t be murder. Not really.
CHAPTER NINE
“He’s back,” Jin announced from the front of the cave.
“Who, Matavuli?” Lorne’s voice wafted from the rear. “That was quick.”
“No, it’s your fisherman,” Jin said. “Jake Sedgley.”
“Okay, that’s good too,” Lorne said. “Hopefully, he’s brought word from Matavuli. Or Uncle Corwin. Or both.”
“Maybe,” Jin said, wincing as she looked back at her son, sitting at the table in front of the cave’s collection of blasting caps, detonators, and all the rest of the ingredients necessary for building concussion, fragmentation, fireblast, and smoke grenades.
Her tension-fogged brain still wasn’t completely clear on how Lorne had ended up with that particular job. She could remember comparing notes with him last night, and reaching the conclusion that the Qasamans had given him fractionally more explosives training than they’d given her.
But she also remembered that on a purely practical level the difference wasn’t all that significant. In fact, the disparity really just boiled down to the difference between miniscule and ridiculously miniscule. Neither of them had any serious expertise or experience with things that go boom, and both were promising candidates for accidental self-mutilation.
Which meant that the main reason Lorne had taken this task upon himself was that he’d gotten to the Cobras’ stash of explosives first. And had then flatly forbidden his mother to interfere.
Jin should have argued the point. She could do so now, in fact. Lorne was younger, smarter, and far more capable than she was of taking this fight back to the Dominion. If she blew her hands off, it wouldn’t be nearly as devastating to the people of the Cobra Worlds as it would be if he did.
Besides, she had so much less to live for.
She turned back to the fiber-optic display.
Stop that
, she ordered herself. Paul would be all right. He’d defeated way stations’ worth of spine leopards during his tour of duty in Aventine’s expansion regions. He’d made it through a war and back. He’d survived getting half his leg blown away. Whatever evil the Dominion had built into their MindsEye machine, he would get through that, too.
“Any sign of our new lords and masters?” Lorne asked.
“The Dominion?” Jin asked. “Not yet.” There was a sudden dark movement at the top of the display— “Wait a second,” she corrected. “We’ve got another incoming.”
“Figures,” Lorne muttered, coming up beside her. Jin felt a small flicker of relief—at least while he was here watching Sedgley settling down to fish he couldn’t also be back there juggling blasting caps. “I just hope he and Matavuli have been clever. Getting caught with a note on him would
not
be a good thing.”
“Even a coded note,” Jin agreed, frowning. There was something about this whole thing tickling at the back of her mind…
“And there they go,” Lorne said as the newly arrived aircar settled to the riverbank beside Sedgley’s vehicle. Two uniformed Marines got out and crossed to where Sedgley was sitting on his stool. “And there
he
goes,” he added as Sedgley jabbed the end of his pole between the stool’s legs and supports and stood up, facing the incoming Marines with his fists on his hips. “I’d give a month’s salary to listen in on this one.”
“He’ll be lucky if he doesn’t get hauled away to detention,” Jin said.
Lorne shrugged. “There’s that.”
But if the Marines had come to arrest Sedgley, they were taking their time about it. For nearly half a minute they just stood there, watching Sedgley’s increasingly animated gesturing without any visible reaction. Even without their helmets the vagueness of the display would have made it impossible to tell whether they were responding to any of Sedgley’s diatribe or merely listening to it.
And then, all at once, one of the Marines stepped past Sedgley and picked up the pole.
Sedgley made a grab for it. The other Marine was ready for the move and caught his arm as he turned, hauling him back out of range. Sedgley tried pulling away, but the Marine deftly transferred his grip to a wrist lock. After that, Sedgley had no option but to just stand there, clearly seething but unable to do anything without getting his wrist broken.
The first Marine looked carefully over the pole, then began slowly reeling in the line, studying every centimeter as it slid into the spool. The hook and sinker came out of the water and were reeled in, and the Marine shifted his grip on the pole and took them carefully in hand. Jin held her breath…
And with a contemptuous gesture, he thrust the pole back into Sedgley’s hand. The second Marine released the fisherman’s other arm, and together the Marines returned to their aircar. A moment later it lifted and headed south, toward Archway.
Lorne huffed out a breath. “Well,” he said. “That went better than I was expecting. Keep an eye out while I go get the scuba gear.”
“Wait a minute,” Jin said, frowning again as she watched the aircar fade away into the distance.
“No, it’s okay,” Lorne said over his shoulder as he headed across the cave. “They checked his pole and line, but not his stool, tackle box, or creel. I’m betting the message is in one of those.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Jin said, trying to think. Thinking was much easier since the Qasamans cut that tumor out of her head. But there was something here that still eluded her.
And then, suddenly, she had it. “The Dominion aircar,” she said. “It didn’t come from the same direction it did the last time.”
Lorne turned back, frowning. “Maybe it was on patrol,” he said slowly.
“Or maybe there was another reason.”
“Okay, let’s think it through,” Lorne said. “What direction
did
it come from?”
“Basically, from straight above us,” Jin told him, replaying the memory. “Like it had been following the river.”
“Maybe like it had been lying in wait for him?” Lorne asked, coming back to her side. “There are lots of trees about half a klick upstream of the falls. Plenty of room for an aircar to hunker down out of sight.” He shook his head. “No, wait, that doesn’t make sense. If they wanted to watch him, all they’d have to do is go to high altitude—Marine aircars are bound to have higher ceilings than our civilian versions. They could just hover and watch.”
“So they weren’t just watching,” Jin said slowly. “Could they have been up there dropping someone off?”
For a moment Lorne was silent. Then, he took a deep breath. “Oh, hell,” he murmured.
Jin’s throat tightened as the full implications of her suggestion seemed to slam into her. If the Marines had dropped off a commando team to hit the cave— “That doesn’t mean they’ve found us,” she said quickly. “Not necessarily. It could be a duck blind sort of thing.”
“A what?”
“Something I read a long time ago,” Jin said. “If birds see a person go into a duck blind, they’ll be nervous. But if
two
people go in, then one leaves, they relax, thinking they’re alone again.”
“So Reivaro sends an aircar and a couple of Marines to poke Sedgley with a stick,” Lorne said slowly. “Figuring that we’re someplace where we can see the confrontation. While we’re busy watching Sedgley, someone else gets into position to watch and see if we contact him after the aircar leaves.”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” Jin said. “So what do we do?”
Lorne gazed thoughtfully at the display. “Well, obviously, I can’t go out until we’re sure it’s clear,” he said. “I was just thinking…there’s really no cover right up at the edge of the falls. Nothing that would hide a couple of Marines, anyway. You could put them under a camouflage blanket, I suppose, but getting into position without being spotted would be tricky.”
“Unless they thought we’d be so busy watching Sedgley that we wouldn’t notice them.”
“I’d like to think Reivaro has more respect for us by now than
that
,” Lorne said. “But if you
really
want to watch Sedgley without coming out into the open, your best bet is right there.” He gestured toward the display. “The ledge.”
“Assuming they know it’s there.”
“Easy enough to map the cliff face through the water,” Lorne pointed out. “The aircar that came by two days ago probably had the equipment to do that.”
Jin thought it over. On one level, it was insane. On another, it was not only likely but practically inevitable. “How would they get there? I haven’t seen what the terrain looks like up top. Can the cliff even be climbed?”
“There are one or two of places where it can be done,” Lorne said. “It’s easier starting from the bottom than from the top, though neither is exactly a stroll on the terrace. The top-down approach is the trickiest—we lose one or two daredevil kids a year out here that way. But getting to the ledge from either direction gives Reivaro the same problem as just planting someone on top: the approaches are mostly outside the water and way too visible.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “But what he
could
do is have an aircar drop the watchers into the river somewhere upstream and have them work their way underwater to the falls.”
“Securely anchored, I assume?”
“
Very
securely anchored,” Lorne confirmed grimly. “The river runs a lot faster above the falls before it widens out down below. It’d probably wind up being a sort of sideways rappelling maneuver.”
Jin felt her stomach tighten. “And once they got to the ledge, the only place they could see through the water…?”
“Would be right here,” Lorne finished for her, again pointing at the display. “Right in front of the fibers.”
There was a moment of silence. “Well, at least we’ll know when they get here,” Jin said. “I hope they keep their eyes outward. How visible are the other ends of the optics?”
“Hopefully, not very,” Lorne said. “I didn’t really look all that closely.”
“Nothing we can do about it now, I suppose.”
“Nope,” Lorne agreed. “If we can’t get out to go for a swim, we can’t go out to fiddle with camouflage, either. Looks like there’s nothing we can do until we figure out whether we’re being duck-blinded or giving Reivaro more credit for cleverness than he deserves.”
“I suppose,” Jin said. “By the way, just for the record, I don’t know if the bird thing is actually true.”
“Doesn’t matter—the principle’s still valid,” Lorne said. “Anyway, I kind of like the term
duck-blinded
. We should use it more in conversation.”
He hunched his shoulders once, then turned and headed toward the rear of the cave. “Guess I’ll get back to work,” he said. “Keep an eye out, will you? Let me know when they show up.”
They showed up exactly twelve minutes and forty-three seconds later: two shadows that passed across the display, one of them disappearing for another fifty-two seconds as the man apparently continued on to the far end of the ledge and then rejoined his companion. The shadows settled down on opposite sides of the gap, a slice of their shoulders and arms just visible at the edges of the display.
“Well, that tears it,” Lorne growled as he stood beside Jin, arms folded across his chest. “Damn. I was supposed to meet Pierce tonight at Smith’s Forge.”
“That’s pretty far from here, isn’t it?” Jin asked, trying to visualize the map of the area. She probably knew more about the expansion regions than most Capitalians, given that her son was stationed here. But there were a lot of details and distances, not to mention a fair number of small towns, that were still a bit hazy in her mind.
“About fifty kilometers,” Lorne said. “Not too bad. I could run it if I had to.”
“A bit obvious if they’re watching from aircars.”
“Which is why running would be a last resort,” Lorne agreed. “Plan A was to go downstream in the scuba gear, then head cross-country to Matavuli’s ranch and borrow one of his cars or bikes. He usually has a vehicle or two stashed in one of the storage barns near the Pashington River near where we met two nights ago.”
Jin gazed past the two newcomers at the fisherman down the river. “I wonder if Sedgley’s brought new instructions.”
“I was wondering that, too,” Lorne said sourly. “But whether he did or didn’t, there’s nothing I can do until they give up and leave.”
“Which probably won’t be until Sedgley leaves,” Jin murmured, her thoughts suddenly racing in an unpleasant direction. She hadn’t had a really good look at the area behind the falls after Lorne’s rescue of her from Archway three nights ago. But what she
had
seen, if she was remembering it correctly, was that there was a slight curve to the cliff face at the height of the ledge, plus a couple of stone outcroppings that blocked the view from one side of the falls to the other.
Which meant that if Lorne was careful, he might be able to pull out the plug that sealed the cave’s entrance, slip down the side of the cliff, and get into the river without the two watchers spotting him.
If
he was careful.
If
he was feeling desperate or reckless.
And
if
Reivaro hadn’t sent more Marines than just the two they could see flanking the display.
She looked sideways at her son. Lorne was gazing at the display, a hard look on his face. He was serious about all this, she knew. Serious enough that he might decide to be desperate
and
reckless.
There was a good chance he’d already thought of that angle. If he hadn’t, the last thing Jin wanted to do was suggest it to him.
“Sedgley won’t be fishing all day,” she pointed out. “Once he’s gone, you should have enough time to find any note he’s left and still make it to your meeting.”
“Unless, as you say, the meeting’s been changed,” Lorne said. “Besides, if I were those Marines, I’d stick around long after Sedgley himself takes off on the chance that one of us will would come out of hiding to look for a message. No, one way or other, I figure the meeting’s pretty much off.”
“Maybe that’s a good thing,” Jin said. “If Reivaro’s suspicious enough to be watching Pierce, maybe watching him do nothing tonight will convince him that he’s not worth the effort and manpower to tail.”
“Maybe,” Lorne said. But he didn’t sound convinced.
“Besides, you can use the extra time to work on your bombs,” Jin added. “Maybe now you can go a little slower and more carefully.”