“Hare, they’re gone,” Bael said. “There’s no one here.”
“The flyers?” I asked.
“They’re still here. But they’re empty. No sign of struggle; they’re just floating here, empty. The Willi frame is gone as well.”
“Kral? Kli?”
Nothing.
“Get back here, Bael, now. Ship, what did you see?”
Silence at first, then, “Sorry, Hare, I’m still pulling myself together. Both Willi and Johnny took a lot out of me. I can bring a spacecraft into jump without a second thought, but running Willi and doing witchcraft on Johnny….”
“Ship….”
“Oh, yea. Let me review the visuals. Here, I’ll attach you.”
I could see the flyers, suspended as they were in the dark void behind the big image screens. But just barely, and only because I knew they were there. Kli had been sending out obfuscations, and he was good at it. I could make out Bael and me leaving with the Captain and Elibel, climbing down the screen frames. Then, not much as ship speeded the display. Ship pulled back the view, and I could see two enforcer flyers coming up near the screens.
There was a flash, then the visuals went white. Kli or the enforcers had upped the obfuscation.
“Any other spectra, Ship?”
“No, Hare. I can’t read anything. Infrared, even neutrino trace. Nothing.”
“I don’t think that’s Kli’s work; he doesn’t have the generators.”
“I’m broadening my look at the neighborhood. Maybe I can see something.”
“Bael?” I asked.
“I’m in the alley, Hare. I’ll be there in a moment.”
“Hare! In the alley. I can use a little help. Now.”
“Coming,”
“Elibel, stay here and watch these two. Captain, come with me.”
We were out the back door to find the alley quiet and empty. I ran for the nearest large street. Then I heard it, coming from the blackness of a small courtyard that led off the alley.
“You’re an off-worlder, aren’t you? You look Benzal….”
“No, she doesn’t. You can tell she’s Trinn. But she doesn’t look….”
“Be quiet, you two!” came a third voice in a loud whisper. “I think she must have some lucre or some passes or some credit slips or something. Who wants to check her out?”
They had surrounded her, four of them. She stood tall in the center, relaxed but wary. I would have wagered a Tyrillian grinich on her ability to handle them, but each held a large flashgun pointed at her, and one, the fellow who had demanded quiet, held a very nasty looking audio burner.
“I’m going to see if I can talk us out,” I said. “But if not, watch for my signal.”
“Excuse me,” I said. “Excuse me. We seem to have lost our way. Can you tell us…oh.”
The audio burner guy turned and looked at us. He was the largest of the four, with a scar that cut into his lower lip and pushed his mouth into a snarl. He cocked an eyebrow, brought the burner around to face us, and came toward us, moving with a limping swagger. His left eye moved up and down as he took us in, seemingly independent of the other.
“And who do we have here?” he said. He brought up the burner’s fat cold tip, and held it under my chin.
“We’re….”
“Let’s cut to the chase, Trieste,” he said. “You probably have not noticed, but we have a friend on that rooftop over there, with a pinpoint covering us all.”
I could see the dark figure now, crouched on the roof’s edge behind him.
“I don’t want to stay out here too long. Your host’s obfuscators covering this alley are good, but you never know who will happen along for a close-up view.”
“Who…?”
“Enough time for that later. I didn’t want to have to invade the Trinn house; it’s too well defended. I knew you’d come out if your friend here were in trouble. And so you did. Now we’re all going in together.”
“Do as he says?” Bael asked.
“I suppose so. We’ll just have to see what develops.”
The pinpoint shooter dropped from the roof to join us, a young woman clad in light armor. The man with the burner motioned us down the alley. I unlocked Kindness’s back gate, and we went inside. Our captor’s companions sped around us to fan out into the house, and before we’d reached the top of the stair, they’d reappeared. One held Kindness by the arm. Kindness looked startled but calm. We all funneled into the guest suite. Weapons were everywhere.
“As you requested, Captain,” the fellow with the burner said. His demeanor had changed. The limp was gone, as was the snarl. His stance was more erect, and his eyes seemed coldly clear.
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” the Captain said. “You always come through. I will take over now. Please sit down.” She gestured to us.
The door to the suite opened and a man and woman with weapons came in, followed by Basto, Rosalind, Kli, and Kral. Kral was carrying Johnny and Melissa, and the Willi frame. Two more of O’Flaherty’s men followed. She gestured for the newcomers to sit on nearby couches, while the guards arrayed themselves behind. Basto looked at me blankly; Kral seemed somewhere far away. The room was getting crowded.
She crossed the room to look at Johnny and Melissa. Both were bound; both were still out but seemed on the verge of coming around. O’Flaherty stood tall over the two slouching figures, her flimsy dress now worn and a little tattered. She rubbed her hand back across her shaved pate, and then put her finger to her mouth, as if in deep thought. She reached down and cupped her hand around Dermatt’s chin.
“Oh, Enrique, you look so peaceful and so handsome. I wanted to wait, but these people have forced my hand. I guess that’s for the best.” She dropped his head with such vigor that it nearly bounced against the wall. Then she stroked Melissa’s chin. “And my dear Melissa. I’ve been waiting to give you what you deserve.” She cuffed the side of Melissa’s head so that it bounced against Johnny’s. Then she turned to us.
“I have nothing against you and your people, Trieste. But you were taking too damned long, running around Forest battling enforcers. It became apparent to me that you all were in over your heads, so I called in some of my people. The Court of Chance, what’s left of it, has a lot of good people on Forest.”
“Plans?” Bael asked.
“None at this point. Let’s hear what she has to say.”
“Hare!” It was Ship. “Barnacles are attaching themselves to Largo’s hull. They’re not trying to get in, but they’ll be laying down a blanket soon. I’m trying to….”
Just then, Willi groaned. Her eyes fluttered open. Kral, who’d been holding the lifeless figure, put her gently on the couch.
“I’m glad you’ve rejoined us, Ship,” O’Flaherty said. “Have no fear. The Court of Chance has no designs on your Largo. But we want her immobilized and isolated until this little adventure is over.”
“What little adventure is that, exactly, Captain?” Bael asked.
The Captain walked over to a cupboard and picked up a bottle of pear brandy and a few glasses. She brought them to the low table in front of us. I poured a glass for Bael and one for myself. The Captain poured one for herself. No one else touched the bottle. O’Flaherty folded herself into a big chair.
“I could have killed this guy several times,” she said. “I’ve wondered if he half expected his Empress Emanuelle to try. But I wanted to wait. He and his people destroyed the Royal Court of Chance. For centuries, Chance had a mature, stable, and exciting culture. The whole planet was a garden filled with art, poetry, science, and the best technology. It was a wonderful place to be a part of, and to just be. Now the planet can barely feed its people, and chaos rules. The Court is scattered, its members in exile or dead.
“I know that Dermatt’s crowd has been destabilizing worlds across human space for some time now. But from what I can tell, they’ve been doing so for profit and power. On Chance, they did it for sport.
“So I could have killed this guy, but I didn’t. I needed to find out who he was working with. And I needed to find his relationship with Bresslaft. Yes, Bael, we know that your father is Bresslaft. But we’re still not sure about Bresslaft’s role in all this.
“But I want to know what you know about our Enrique. Tell me.” She sipped her brandy.
I gave her a summary of what the Schoolmaster and Linda had told us. I figured it couldn’t hurt.
“Do you know what he’s doing on Forest?”
“We think he has a hand in Melissa Bean’s fudge trade, but we also have word that he’s into something a lot bigger.”
“What?”
“We don’t know. Something dangerous and huge. That’s about it.”
“Hare,” Kli said, “there’s something I need to tell you about Johnny. I discovered it working for Linda. She’s been having me research her, but it turns out that I’ve been really researching Johnny. I….”
The room’s door opened with a bang. Two of the Captain’s men stumbled in, followed hard on their heels by a half-dozen heavily armed and armored fighters. These quickly spread into the room. One of them demanded that we surrender any weapons, and the rest prodded us with the tips of their flashguns. O’Flahery’s group slowly dropped their weapons. The rest of us had none, at least, none that we could produce and drop on the floor.
A large, heavyset woman appeared at the door. It was Linda Aphrodite Jones.
To Be Continued
