"Why?"
"Well, you don't just go around casually Inspecting body parts! A person's remains should be—well, you know—treated with respect."
"Oh, I see," Newton said, discreetly slipping the fragment into an equipment pouch "Please forgive the offense of human custom. I was going to tell you who the bone fragment belonged to, but I see that such an announcement would be a breach of propriety."
"Whoa—hold on there," Vink said. "You say you know who the bone fragment belongs to?"
"Indeed.""
"Well?" "What?"
"Well, aren't you going to tell us?"
"Tell you what?"
"Who it is?"
"But I thought,..."
"Okay, Newton, you've made your point. Just tell us who it Is. Or was, I mean."
"Very well. The skeletal fragment almost certainly belonged to Captain 'Zero' Wolfowltz."
"That's Zero?" Bonzo asked, pointing at Newton's equipment pouch.
"More than likely, yes. Apparently, he was blown to bits."
"Well, I'll be damned, "Vink said. "At least that's something we got out of this ship,"
"It's disgusting Is what it is," Whiz Bang said.
"Well, all the same," Vink said, "maybe you ought to report It to your captain. That, and the (act that we haven't found anything suspicious aboard the lane,"
"Are yougiving up, then?" Bonzo asked.
"Well, obviously, I can't give you people orders, but I don't see that there's any point of looking any further, unless,,,."
"Unless—what?"
Suddenly, Vink slapped his own forehead.
"Gala," he said, slapping his forehead, "I can't believe how stupid I've been."
"Please clarify your meaning," Newton requested.
"Well, Zero was a pirate. We haven't thought about smuggling holds."
"Indeed," Newton said. "And where, as a pirate, would you locate such a hold?"
Vmk—who tended to think of himself as more of radical Federalist than a pirate—was inclined to take umorage at that remark, but then he remembered the emotionless quality of the Hiver Intellect and let It pass.
"WeH, you could start with the obvious places, like false compart-mentsinthefuelcetis and the deck, but if they were really adventurous they might nave hollowed out portions of the frame."
"Adventurous?"
"Well, I wouldn't try it withold Armn. The way Tom throws her around In high-G maneuvers, cutting sections out of the frame isn't a good idea."
"I comprehend. However, Crazy lane was not designed for hlgh-C maneuvers."
"No, she wasn't," Vink said, thoughtfully. "Come on, let's start looking again."
Sure enough, two hours later, Vmk's intuition came through. In a section of keel frame near the vaporUed drive section— accessed by prying up floor plates of the cargo hold—he and Newton found a hollow area cleverly contrived to appear untampered with. So cleverly was It crafted that Vink nearly missed Its slightly of ring under his rapping wrench, though he stopped long enough to Investigate and pry loose a thin cover of pressed steei perhaps 40 centimeters square. Another panel below this was secured with four heavy bolts, however, so a look underneath waited until Bonzo and Whiz Bang came over with power wrenches to unscrew them.
"So what's in there?" Bonzo asked afterward, while Vink shlned a light Into the hole.
"Hard to tell," Vink said, reaching his hand Into the deep well of the compartment;. "Looks like a bo* maybe. No, It's a book."
"A book?" Whiz Bang asxed, "Yep, Ifs a book all right," Vink said, pulling it up and out of the hole. Rather old, with heavy binding and gold Inlaid decoration, It was clearly nothing as simple as a personal log.
"Maybe Ifs a Bible or Koran," Bonzo suggested, observing the fine print and fancy gold Illumination when Vink thumbed through it.
"No, I don't think so," Vink said, closing the book and looking at its cover. "Look at this writing; La Patabrv Del Defensor. What do you suppose It means?"
"(believe (comprehend," Newton said, abruptly. "That Is the holy book of the Church of Grace and Light Literally, The Word of the Defender."
"Oh, yes," Bonzo said, "the Palabra. Brother Anthony has one,"
"I imagine a lot of people here have them. "Vink said, "bulwhy Zero? He never believed In anything but himself"
"If I may," Newton said, asking for the Palabra, "Oh, yes, here."
For several seconds, the Hiver examined the book closely, making no tell-tale humming as a human might—for it had no voice box—but fascinated all the same by something It found in the pages toward the end of the book.
"You got something there, Newton?"
"Possibly. May I keep this for further study?"
The three humans looked at each other and shrugged.
"Yeah," Vink said, "I suppose. But what Is It?"
"Observe," Newton said, holding open a page toward the end of the Palabra, marked In various places with circled letters and underlined words.
"I hadn't noticed that," Vink said. "It looks like some sort of code."
"Indeed it does," Newton said, closing the book and slipping It Into the equipment harness on its back. "(Jut what one mind conceives, another can discover, so I shall retire to the G-carrier and reflect on its meaning."
•»i During the assault on the Federal District, Hornet had followed Vi Et Armis in a very close orbit of Soledad, Just 190 kilometers above the equator, so their lasers could fire with maximum accuracy and Hornets drop troops would have as short a trip to the surface as practical. Of necessity, though, this put the ships over the city only three times an hour, so Hornet orbited out to a higher geosynchronous orbit after her troops were away, and there at 18,000 kilometers she would remain well after the battle was done.
Still wary of meson guns that might exist In otner parts of the planet, Coeur and Tom thought at first to return Vi Et Armis to the back face of Elojo, but at length the relative stability of Soledad after the battle inclined them to decide otherwise. Though a loyalist battalion still held out in Soled ad's Marina District, the old starport appeared secure enough, and Tom's starship was finally brought to Mexit's surface two nights after the battle so her repairs could be conducted in a safer environment than hard vacuum.
"How about you?" Coeur asked Deep Six, that same night, "You holding up?"
"Affirmative, sir," the Schalll answered, bobbing genUy In his roller-chair as he surveyed a myriad of false-color sensor Images of Mexit, pulled infromHomefs unfolded passive EMSsensorand Snapshot's probe, now rota led to anorblt opposite the freighter's, "All is well.*
"I imagine it must be lonely up there, though."
"Lonely, sir?"
"Well, with everybody down on the surface, I mean."
*Ah, yes. I would not say it is lonely, though. Rather, I would say it Is comforting'y quiet, paOO'ka, KoOOko kee'lR."
'What's That?"
"Oh, a phrase by SeeEEka Echo, one of our poets. It describes the sonic wall of silence sometimes heard as one swims between the rmoc lines."
*A-ha," Coeur said, pausing for a moment, "You haven't been drinking any of that fermented ee'kwat again, have you?"
"Negative, sir. You know that access to the liquor closet Is restricted to jump space."
"Sorry, Sixer. I didn't mean to offend."
"No offense perceived, sir. However, the crew will be Interested to know about The success of your research. Didn't you say the Palabra you discovered was stolen from a local church'/"
"Yes, but Vazquez has given us permission to study it, so long as we give it back when we're done with It."
"Indeed. And has Newton made any progress on the cipher he discovered?"
"He doesn't really show any emotion," Coeur said, "so Its hard to tell when he's making progress and when he isn't. We did find where Crazy jane's crew is buried, though, and some of their cffects-"
"Anything productive?"
"Thai depends on what you call productive. Now that Physic's had a look at Crazy lane, and
confirmed that Zero and one of his crew mates died there, we've got all the ship's crew accounted for, and that's something. What's bad is that they didn't leave behind many personal effects to tell what happened to them, just money, a few trinkets and some weapons."
"So, then, your knowledge of the time before their death must be limited."
"Well, more limited than I'd like. Most of what we've got is from the official records of Brak's regime. Apparently, Zero parked Crazy jone up in The Lomarica Hills above Soledad—just like we did—sometime after his people found the depot, but then he found out his contra-grav was busted and sent some people Into the Soledad starport to look for spare parts. Those people got captured and told enough about the depot to get Brak interested, and he sent his tanks off to shoot up the ship."
"I see," Deep Six said, "Then why didn't Brak find the depot?"
"Well, that's a lilllefuzzy. Apparently, Zero and his air-raft pilot were the only ones who knew the course and distance to fly to get there, butthey got blown up with the ship. As for the black globe itself. Zero probably left it at the depot and planned to pick it up later."
"Remarkable."
"I think 'frustrating' is more the word I'd pick," Coeur said, "but we'll keep looking around. Red Sun out."
Chapter 17
Despite the considerable challenge of deciphering a code in the flowery prose of nonnative Anglic, Newton required Just one week to glean the meaning of the cipher hidden In the last chapter of the Palabra.
"Of course, I wouldn't have been able to decrypt the message without Brother Anthony's help," Newton told Coeur, in her temporary office in the former Defense Ministry building, "Actually, my contribution was minor, "Anthony said humbfy. "I simply helped Newton identify the symbolic meaning of certain passages."
"Well, whoever figured it out, come sit down and tell me about it. This is the first good news I've had In days."
"What do you mean. Captain?" Anthony asked, lollowing Newton to a bench at the side of the office. "Don't tell me the loyalists are gaining ground?"
"far from it," Coeur said, turning her Chair to face them, "President Vazquez seems to get more popular every day. But I've had to listen to envoys from every country on Mexit wanting to know if we've come here to take over the planet, or, if we didn't, if they could hire us to eliminate their own enemies."
"I take it your reply to those overtures is negative," Newton said, curling its unused limbs under its body.
"Yes," Coeur said, "but I suppose I shouldn't complain; at least they're talking to us. Now tell me about this code "
"Essentially, sir, ifs rather simple. In the last chapter of the Palabra, which describes the life of St. Kllalt and was purportedly written by one of his disciples, is a clue to his actual burial site."
Coeur was puzzled.
"Butl thought the tomb of St. Kllalt was In that country across the mountains—Callida Fornax. Isn't that where all the pilgrims go. Brother Anthony?"
"Oh yes. It's a very famous shrine. However, Newton has found a phrase in an ancient language indicating the true shrine's location."
"Yes," Newton said, "a phrase in Vilani."
"Vilani?"
"Affirmative," Newton went on, freeing twoof Its limbs to pull Zero's Palabra from its equlpmeht pack. It then laid the book on its back and bent its prime limb backward to read a passage spoken through the voder under its chest '"...and so the cardinal fell gravely III and retired to his bed, never to rise again. Yet, with his last breath, he wais heard to say, 'I see the sea! of the Defender rising gloriously in the easl, inviting my soul unto Heaven. Yet do not cry forme, but rather, rest easily in the knowledge that I have preceded you into Heaven, and bury me in the little chapel of St, Elena, In the shadow of Mt. Amar, mnoQd doanmik ga en muromrid khii, jen, deaad, ion.'"
'That's Vilani all right," Coeur said, leaning forward In her chair, "but I'm a little rusty. Weren't those last words numbers?"
"Indeed. The Vilani reads: 'but this Is not the true location, three, five, seven,' **
"Hmmm."
"Indeed The numbers, I therefore reasoned, might be acode key, although it was another matter todetermine whaicodeit was thekey to. Eventually, I resorted to scanning the entire text into my personal computer and writing a program to search for unusual groupings of words and letters in patterns of 3s, Ss and 7s."
"Co on."
"Alter the fact, I discovered that It wasn't that complicated. Taking the third, fifth and seventh letter at the beginning of each verse, and conlinuing that cycle, reveals another phrase written in Vilani—one that Zero appears to have identified, based on the marks in his text. It reads "Jnidige on kir iliru ethkjr minnigo, 'or, literally, 'go to the haven of angels.' "
"Is there such a place on Mexit?"
"Yes there is," Anthony said. "Angel's Haven is a valley In the Aguja Prieta Mountains. I once visited the villagers there as a missionary."
"Fancy that," Coeur said. "How far?"
"Approximately 1,100 kilometers," Newton said, "based on the survey map of Deep Six."
"Harsh?" Coeur asked.
"Exceedingly," Anthony replied. "The wind blows hard from the high peaks, and the only people up there are a handful of gaba herders."
"I take it that's some sort of animal," Coeur said.
"A bit like a goat, yes. The wild gabas are about the only things that can get Into the higher rocks, except, I suppose, for your flying craft."
Yeah, Coeur thought, how about that.
"In a word," Coeur said, "remote,"
"Yes, I suppose it is."
Thoughtful, Coeur fell back in her seat "Thisdoesraisea whole lot of questions," she said. "Like for one thing, why does the Palabra have a Vilani phrase in it? Nobody here speaks Vilani, do they?"
"Not that I know of," Anthony said. "I'd never even heard of the language until Newton told me about it."
"And besides," Coeur went on, "what in the world could It possibly have to do with the depot?"
"It 'is true that Captain Zero was an acquisitive Individual," Newton said, "so perhaps this is the clue to another treasure's location, other than the depot."
"Possibly," Coeur said.
"More curious is the fact that Zero deciphered the code at all. It is rather esoteric for a man of Zero's avocation."
"Well, I'd be tempted to agree with you theie," Coeur said, "but we've found some Interrogation records that verify the cardinal's recollection that Jane blew through here before a couple of yean back. That might have been enough lime for Zero to puzzle out the riddle."
Newton, who preferred to avoid groundless speculation, remained silent.
"Oh well," Coeur said, "who knows how he came across the code—maybe we'll never know. What matters is its data, and It might be significant, so I'll have Hornet zoom in on the area. If there's anything up there to see, she'll see it."
Not an hour later. Snapshot—who happened to be standing the bridge watch—delivered the report on the Angel's Haven.
"Pay dirt, skipper. There's something up there all right"
"Any Idea what it is?"
"Looks like a structure of some kind—Iget spectroscopic traces of type C superdense armor In a high mountain gorge. Damned if I'd try to fly anything in there, though. The cliff walls are almost vertical, and there's a wind blowing through there like you would not believe—gusts to 100 kph."
"Sounds nasty all right. Why don't you go ahead and download that to my computer so I can have a look at IT."
'Thinking of going up there, skipper?"
"Unless we get a better lead, we might have to. Snapper. Red Sun out."
Although the late Emperor Brak and several of his autocratic forebears had persecuted the Churchof Grace and Light and even destroyed many of its churches, the Church of the Holy Sacristy was a notable exception to that rampage. A stone pyramid with one wad made all of thick stained glass, capped by a thin steeple. It was such a center of public devotion that even Brak didn't dare raze It, though it s
at at the corner of a block not far from his residence.
Now, a week after Brak's death, the church was beginning to regain a measure of its former glory. After the boards nailing the doors shut were pried loose, the CCL began moving hidden treasures back Inside, and President Vazquez even found time to celebrate a midnight mass there—a mass that filled the 100 available pews and then spilled out onto the street.
Catching part of the mass by radio In her office, Coeur— planning the detallsof thecoming expedition with Drop Kick and Tom—was impressed by the even-handed tone of Vazquez' sermon, the way the president urged the faithful to "have tolerance for other opinions" and steel themselves for the hardships of democracy. "A democracy," she observed, "must necessarily entertain unpopular minority views, or It is not a democracy."
"Mighty progressive," Coeur said, "for the matriarch of an ancient religion."
"Yeah," Drop Kick replied, "maybe too progressive."
"What do you mean?" Tom asked.
"Well, I don't know if I should repeat this," the sergeant major said, "but earlier today Ceneral Lemos told me he had concerns about Vazquez and whether she could be trusted as a religious and a political leader"
"Ah, that's just a rebel talking," Tom said. "Some people are Just so used to fighting they can't ever stop, even when they've won."
Coeur smiled. "Funny," she said, "sounds like you're describing somebody I know."
"Ah," Tom answered, "but I never won my fight."
"Well, anyway," Coeur said, lurning off her radio, "maybe we should get back to business. We know something's In that mountain gorge, so now It's just a matter of how we get there."
"The wind's a problem," Drop Kick noted, "but the C-carrler should make it all right, I figure the best plan's to park It in Pest^, because the people there know Brother Anthony, and walk In from there. It doesn't look like more than 10 kilometers."
Coeur nodded. "Ail right," she said, "but now the question of who to take. You game, Tom?"
"I didn't know if you'd ask. I am a 'wanted pirate,' after all."
"Putting that aside for the moment, you and V-Max are pretty resourceful; I'd like to have you along."
"What the hell," Tom said, "V-Max and I can't fly Amis while Vink's taking her apart"
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