“They were counting on the slowness of response time of Dominion forces this far out,” Jack agreed.
Amber tossed her head, throwing her hair back off her shoulders. “Who sabotaged the tunnels when we flew in?”
“That, I don’t know. We’ll probably never know.”
“And I don’t understand what K’rok was doing.”
“K’rok’s the one who gave me the sense of this whole thing. You’re too young to know about the Sand Wars, Amber, but I think Colin here remembers them.” Jack gave Amber a warning look before he smiled mildly at the Walker.
“Remember them? I was damn near in them. Ah, Amber. See what you’ve done to my vocabulary.”
“The most peculiar thing about the Sand Wars was that the Thrakian aggression was unprovoked. They just swept into our regions and took over planets, turning them into uninhabitable nests for their young. We thought it was their typical militaristic aggression. The Dominion fought, but couldn’t stop them. They stopped when they wanted to, and signed treaties. But it was K’rok who made sense of it. He felt that a bigger, better warrior had driven the Thraks out of their own territory. I tend to agree.”
“Was it one of those creatures we saw in the wall?”
“A race of them, perhaps. Or something different. The Thraks didn’t have a chance to excavate and find out. But rather than give up the secret to us, they eventually destroyed it.”
Amber had been sitting stubbornly silent. She said, “What wall?”
“The bluff of the site. Just as it was destroyed, we got a look at what it was that everyone wanted a look at.”
“And?”
Jack shook his head. “Indescribable.”
Her lips pouted. Colin shook himself. He patted Jack’s knee again. “Well, my boy. The machinations astound me. All the wheels within wheels. Not to mention your being here.”
Jack shrugged. “That was totally an accident. I’m supposed to be dead. I have enemies who paid a good deal to see that happened. But the terminator got greedy and sold me as a contract laborer for a bit more money. So I was chilled down and ended up here where it just so happened I could do a lot of damage.”
“No accident,” Colin told him. “Believe me. Little of that much consequence is accidental. Good luck to both of you. Amber, look me up if you ever wish to become a Walker. I could use someone with your intelligence and guts.” With that, the man left the hospital cubicle.
Amber sat quietly with her head tilted to one side, as if listening to his departure, before she pounced.
Jack winced. “Not there. That hurts.”
“You ass. There isn’t anything that doesn’t hurt on you. But what about Bogie? You should be dead, but the medics pried you out and found you healing before their very eyes. And don’t you give me that look. We had the room swept electronically before they installed you in here.”
But Amber’s words had warmed him. Jack grasped her hand. “Then he’s not gone. Not completely.”
“Not if he healed you. But I can’t touch him anywhere.
“Shell-shock, I’d say.”
“What about that man Stash? The one-handed guy a couple of rooms over. Colin told me he was an assassin.” She suppressed a shudder.
“Yes. He’s the one I told you was after Colin.”
“What did he have to do with you?”
“Well, like most street types with unsavory backgrounds, he had tapped into the underground… in this case, Winton.”
Amber sucked in her breath. “Winton!”
“Yes. And Winton, when he found out I was sold instead of killed, was putting out feelers anywhere he could, including Lasertown. Stash was going to sell me out as soon as he’d done the other job.”
“Oh, Jack.” She sat very still on the edge of his bed. “He won’t quit.”
“No,” Jack answered quietly. “And neither will I. He owes me Milos and Claron and a lifetime. That Dominion needier the Thraks fired upon didn’t get their orders from just anybody. It had to have been en route weeks ago.”
“Winton?”
“Or Pepys himself.”
Amber stiffened. “Jack! He’s sent for you. There’s an honor guard waiting at the hotel to take us home.”
“And we’ll go with them, but with our eyes open this time. I can’t act just for myself. K’rok showed me that. Just as he was a commander for the Thraks, he’s also one of the last of his race. He didn’t hesitate to put the one destiny before the other. I won’t either.”
“What about Bogie?”
“He’ll come with me, too. Before the site was destroyed, I saw—and Bogie through me—this beast, mummified in the rock. It called out to Bogie and he called back to it. It… shocked him. Amber, I don’t know what Bogie is, but I don’t think he’s a berserker. I think he’s something different and something more.”
She leaned forward and carefully threw her arms about his neck. “Like the warriors K’rok thinks went after the Thraks.”
“Maybe.” He enjoyed her embrace despite the sore spots.
“What’s ahead of us?”
“First we get Bogie. Where is he?”
“In the shop. The grateful citizens of Lasertown are revamping him absolutely free and—get this—the Flexalinks are getting a norcite plating. You’re going to be unstoppable.”
Jack smiled, a little lopsidedly. “I’ll have to be.”
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Lasertown Blues Page 20