by David Drake
The glowworms were softly attractive when he thought about them, but for the most part they were of no more interest than the curtains in a woman’s bedroom. He was smiling as he cupped his hands and said, “I’ve made a step.”
Miranda, facing him, put her left foot in the stirrup and raised her right onto his shoulder in the same motion. Daniel had expected her to steady herself by dabbing her hands against the wall behind him, but she hadn’t needed to do that.
Miranda brought her left foot up. For a moment Daniel was supporting her weight on both shoulders; then it was gone. The loose cuffs of her trousers brushed his ears as she lifted herself through the opening by her arms.
“The ladder’s still here,” she called. “I’m letting it down.”
Daniel stepped back with his hand up to catch the ladder when it dropped. Miranda let it down smoothly instead of just tossing it over to potentially whack him on the head. She was a girl in a thousand.
Daniel smiled. And I ought to know. Well, not a thousand.
Daniel pulled the ladder tight to be sure that it was still firmly attached, then mounted quickly. He didn’t like the way he swayed, but he wasn’t on the ladder long enough for that to matter.
When Daniel squirmed through the opening, he breathed a sigh of relief. “I kept thinking that daSaenz was really waiting up here and was going to clout me one as I put my head up,” he said. “Now all we have to worry about is a hike, and not so very long a hike either.”
“But Daniel?” Miranda said. “How will we find our way out?”
“The first thing Hogg taught me when we started going into the woods…” Daniel said. “Was how not to get lost. I was about three at the time.”
“But it’s dark?”
“Right,” Daniel said as he squirmed out of his tunic. “But it’s not pissing down rain, and we don’t have to worry about a million vine-wrapped trees which all look the same even in daylight. Which it usually wasn’t when we were checking the trap lines. Hogg being a poacher when he wasn’t giving me fatherly advice.”
He held out the tunic to her. “Here, take one sleeve and I’ll have the other,” he said. “That’s easier than holding hands.”
“I…” Miranda said. Then, obviously changing what she had intended to say, she said, “I’m very glad you can do that. I thought we were lost.”
“DaSaenz apparently didn’t expect it either,” Daniel said. “I suppose it’s not a skill which many Academy graduates share.”
He touched the rock wall with his outstretched hand. “I’ll wiggle through the hole here and take the tunic again on the other side,” he said. “There’s not much chance of you wandering off inside, is there?”
The passage through the rock was shorter and easier than Daniel remembered it being when he came the other way. Maybe he’d sweated off a few pounds. More likely it was just familiarity and the fact that going in this direction he had a clearly defined mission: to get out, and to settle accounts with Timothy daSaenz.
Daniel reached the end and waited in a hunching posture for Miranda to rejoin him. His fingers were spread at the edge of the opening to make contact.
Miranda’s fist came out, thrusting the tunic ahead. Daniel took the trailing sleeve and sidled down the passage, straightening as the height of the rock permitted him to.
“I’m not concerned about finding our way to the entrance,” Daniel said. “I haven’t figured out yet how we’ll open the door there, though. I didn’t see a way of opening it from the inside, but there must be one. DaSaenz didn’t intend to die here himself.”
He was talking so that Miranda wouldn’t be left with only her thoughts for company. He was used to moving in darkness—and a rainy night in the forest really was as dark as the interior of the caves—but she wasn’t. She trusted him, but chattering to her in positive fashion cost nothing.
“There was a call button at the elevator,” Miranda said. “DaSaenz told the guard that we’d be going up by that to the manor house.”
“We can try that,” Daniel said. “If that doesn’t work, we’ll go to the main entrance—careful here.”
His right little finger reached a branching; he was feeling his way along by very light contact with the wall, holding his hand high enough that a sudden dip in the ceiling wouldn’t take him by surprise.
They turned right and shortly turned left again. This put them in the great multi-lobed chamber Daniel remembered from when daSaenz brought them into the cave.
“As I said, we’ll go to the entrance and see what we find there,” he said. He was keeping to a normal walk—strolling, not trying to cover distance. The floor was smooth and clear of obstructions, and a purposeful pace would do as much to calm Miranda as his voice would.
Daniel wasn’t altogether comfortable either, to tell the truth. He’d seen his share of danger, but this was a new one.
“Worst case—here’s where we turn. It’s going to get narrow again, but we know where we’re going. Worst case, as I say, is that we’ll wait for a rescue party from the ship. In fact they may be waiting for us when we get to the anteroom.”
Daniel was being brightly cheerful, but it was true that he expected Hogg and the Sissies to come for them. That might not have helped if he and Miranda had been deep in the bowels of a labyrinth, though Daniel was pretty sure that if daSaenz’ mapping had been entrusted to a computer, Adele would eventually find it.
“We may get a little hungry, is all,” he added.
“I wonder if the glowworms are edible?” Miranda said. “At least gathering them will keep us busy.”
The sulfur will make our urine stink, Daniel thought. He didn’t say that aloud. Like eating asparagus.
“Of course we don’t have any water, so the sulfur won’t be much of a problem,” said Miranda in the same matter of fact voice as before.
“Are you reading my mind? Daniel said.
“Umm,” said Miranda. “We know each other pretty well, darling.”
Daniel reached the narrow crack which led to the elevator chamber and from there to the anteroom. He felt a rush of pleasure: they’re reached their goal, or almost. Though he’d never consciously doubted that he could lead them back, his present relief proved that his subconscious hadn’t been quite as certain.
“We’ve made it, love,” Daniel said. “I’m letting go of the tunic again.”
He got down on his belly and squirmed into the passage. The grit on the floor scraped him, and he was pretty sure that he’d rubbed through the skin on his right shoulder blade.
Cheap at the price. We’re getting out.
Daniel reached the square-cut section that acted as a foyer for the elevator and stood. He knew that was where he was, but for the first time he felt the darkness.
“I’m clear,” he called to Miranda, and he heard her rustle through the opening. He wondered how much blood from his shoulders was lubricating the rock by now.
Daniel found the elevator door and explored the smooth metal with the flat of his hands. He wondered in which direction it slid to open.
“It helps to remember it’s beige,” Miranda said from beside him. “It helps me.”
Then she said, “Here’s the call plate. There isn’t a button, that is, a mechanical one. I saw a black dot when we went by, but it must be painted.”
“Push the center,” Daniel said, leaning his ear against the door panel. “I’ll listen to see if I hear anything.”
“I’m pushing,” Miranda whispered.
The metal door gave no sign of anything. It was slightly cooler than the rock wall. Daniel couldn’t hear either mechanical noises or the possible sighing of air in the shaft beyond.
He straightened. “Well, I guess we’d better try the main entrance,” he said. “Nothing seems to be happening here. I’ll take the sleeve again.”
“I thought I heard something from that direction,” Miranda said. “A humming?”
“It could have been the hydraulic door,” Daniel said in sudden hope. �
��DaSaenz might not be very far ahead of us, you know.”
If daSaenz hadn’t closed the door behind him, this was going to end more quickly than Daniel had dared to hope. Regardless, it meant that there was some way of getting out by the way they had come in. DaSaenz’ aircar was parked at this level, after all.
“Daniel, why do you suppose he did it?” Miranda said quietly.
“He could be crazy,” Daniel said. “It might be that simple. But…Miranda, it might have something to do with your father.”
“Yes, I thought that,” Miranda said. “But Daniel, he really did love Jardin. I can’t believe that he, well…that he had anything on his conscience.”
“Well, daSaenz may tell us something himself in a little bit,” Daniel said as he sidled through the final narrow passage. “I certainly plan to have a discussion with him. Until then we don’t have enough information.”
Captain Dorst may well not have had anything on his conscience, but Daniel had known enough RCN officers—and been an RCN officer—to know that things that bothered civilians might well slide off an officer’s conscience. The Academy taught many things to cadets, but the absolutely necessary attribute for an RCN officer was one that wasn’t taught: you had to be willing to kill. Once you’ve overcome that basic human inhibition, there’s really nothing that you might not be willing to consider.
Except perhaps for cheating at cards. A cheater would not go undetected for three years and would not remain in the RCN for an hour after detection.
“The glowworms look brighter to me now,” Miranda said. “I guess after being in the dark so long.”
Daniel tured his head as they crossed the antechamber. His first view of the cave, only a few hours earlier, felt like something remembered from his childhood. The blurred patches in the uncertain distance of the walls and on the floor did seem sharper than they had initially. The glowworms here seemed scattered after the wall-to-wall splendor of the pit in the interior of the mountain.
“You know,” Daniel said, “I haven’t seen any of the glowworms move. Though they must, there was the one on my foot after—”
Movement.
Daniel dropped the tunic and was lifting his left hand when a blow stunned his forearm and cracked him on the head. He hit the stone floor. His right side was numb but his left forearm felt as though it had been dipped in molten lead.
Light flooded the antechamber. The lantern wobbled on daSaenz’ chest as he raised the guard’s long baton over his head in both hands for a finishing blow. There was someone behind him. Daniel kicked with his left leg, the only limb which was working at the moment.
DaSaenz gave a startled bleat and lurched forward. He no longer held the baton. He turned, lantern light sweeping across the chamber.
Miranda stepped into her blow. The baton flickered like black lightning, catching daSaenz on the top of the skull with a sound like that of a dropped melon.
DaSaenz sagged liquidly, falling on top of the lantern and plunging the chamber into darkness again.
* * *
Adele was on the passenger side of the cab, clinging to the frame of the open window with both hands; her left arm was across her body. With her feet braced against the firewall, her buttocks only touched the seat when the vehicle jolted over a particularly violent bump.
The seat had slapped her repeatedly.
“We don’t know that there’s a problem, Hogg,” Adele said, raising her voice more than she cared to do in order to be heard over the road noise. “Until I have a chance to look at the situation, neither you nor Tovera are to do anything.”
Hogg grunted. That might not have been a response to her words: the truck had bounced badly again. His hands were mottled with his grip on the steering yoke.
Tovera stood in the open truck bed, somehow staying attached to the vehicle. There were lugs for tie-downs along the sides. Perhaps Tovera had tied herself in with a length of cable from her attaché case.
Adele didn’t turn to look. Hanging on was as much as she could handle. Tovera had known what the ride was going to be like with Hogg driving. She had still insisted on being in the back where she had a better view of their environment and a quicker shot at any hostile portion of that environment.
They came around the corner between a rock wall and a drop-off. “We’re here!” Hogg said.
In the glare of their single working headlight appeared a squat building and beside it the three-place aircar in which Daniel and Miranda had ridden off six hours before. No one was visible in the vehicle or nearby.
They skidded to a halt on the gravel apron, throwing a cloud of dust ahead of them. Pebbles bounced against the gleaming aircar, but Hogg might not have done that deliberately.
Adele got out. Tovera swung to the ground beside her, the attaché case in her left hand and her miniaturized sub-machine gun openly in her right.
“Hogg, watch the back!” Tovera called.
“Right,” said Hogg, drawing the stocked impeller from behind the seats. “Get on with it.”
He and Tovera had a working relationship, much like that between Daniel and Adele. Each led when it was appropriate; each listened to the other’s advice. A task which required long-range firepower was Hogg’s responsibility, however much he might want to shake his master’s whereabouts out of somebody close at hand.
The attendant watched Adele through the armored glass as she approached the kiosk. “We’re looking for Captain Leary and his lady,” she said to the speaker plate under the window. “Where are they, please?”
Her tone was less polite than the words; but then, nobody who knew Adele expected warmth from her.
“Look, you’ll have to talk to the manor,” the attendant said, his voice tinny through the speaker. “I don’t have authority to talk to you.”
“I can open the cave up!” Tovera whispered urgently.
“No,” said Adele. She looked at the entrance, closed by what appeared to be a vault door.
I doubt Tovera could get through that, she thought. The hinges are internal.
But there was no need of that anyway. To the speaker plate she said, “You. Open the cave at once. Otherwise I’ll come in and do it.”
The attendant vanished beneath the level of the window without responding.
“Tovera, get me into this bunker,” Adele said. “Don’t damage the electronics if you can help. I’ll want them to open the door.”
“I can shoot through the wall!” said Hogg, which was probably true. A single osmium slug from his impeller might not do the job, but two or three pecking at the same point certainly would. It would be a waste of time.
“No,” said Adele without turning to look at him. “Watch your sector.”
Tovera had been readying the charges since Adele told her not to try to open the cave. If she wasn’t to blow open the cave, they had to get into the guardhouse. Tovera had reasonably assumed that the attendant wouldn’t be any more willing to let them into his control room than he had been to open the cave for them.
Now she scampered back to Adele, facing the long side of the building; the door was on the short side to their left. “Ready!” Tovera said; she had a small control mechanism in her hand.
“All right,” said Adele, covering her ears. “Hogg?”
“Blow it!” Hogg said.
The crack! was a single sound even though Adele knew that there were charges on both door hinges. A shard of metal struck the aircar’s body and ricocheted off, humming. Adele and Tovera walked to the side of the building.
“My turn!” said Hogg as he pushed past them, his impeller slung. Neither woman was in a mood to waste her breath arguing with him.
Hogg wrenched the door free—it hung askew by its bolt—and went in, the knife open in his left hand. Hogg knew not to kill the attendant, though other than the mess that wouldn’t have bothered Adele very much.
Hogg reappeared, dragging the attendant by the throat, Adele stepped into the building. The bitter haze of explosive made the fugg
even more unpleasant. The attendant must have voided his bowels in fear.
She sat at the chair and explored the control system through her data unit; her holographic display was better than the building’s cheap flat-plate screen. The installation was really a terminal of the manor system rather than an independent computer. It had a recording function which Adele would examine later, but for now—
She threw an electronic switch. “This should open—” she called to the doorway.
The cave’s massive door began to whirr open. Miranda staggered out with Daniel. She was supporting him in a fireman’s carry, his right arm hanging across her shoulders so that she could grip his wrist. Blood had trickled down his cheek.
Hogg stopped kicking the attendant and with Tovera ran to the freed couple; Adele entered the system of daSaenz Manor. To each her specialty. Hogg had a great deal of experience with the cuts and breaks that you got in agricultural work and field sports; he would do anything first aid could accomplish. Adele, however—
“Mistress, we gotta get him to the ship!” Hogg shouted.
“I’m just dizzy,” Daniel said, his voice almost too weak to hear. “I’ll be fine in a bit.”
“There’s a Medicomp in the house,” Adele said, using the guardhouse microphone although the speaker plate wasn’t aligned well for the purpose. “We’ll use that. Can we take him in the aircar?”
“There’s an elevator in the cave,” Miranda said. “It goes right into the house, but it wasn’t working when we tried before.”
Daniel was sitting down. Miranda held him by the shoulders. His face was ashen except where blood from his scalp had leaked over it. He was mumbling something, probably that he was all right.
Adele found the control and turned it back on. “It’s working now,” she said. “But don’t use it until we’ve made sure that the other end is clear. Tovera, you can drive the aircar?”
“Yes,” said Tovera. She had clipped the sub-machine gun into a holster built into her tunic. She started for the vehicle.
“There’s room for three, Hogg,” Adele said. “Are you coming or staying with your master?”