“Cameron is arresting her,” he told Rani.
“Lark? Arrested? Oh, this is cosmic! She’ll have stories to tell for years to come. What did this Cameron arrest her for? Something you two are responsible for? Oh, yes, yes!” Rani cried. “You’re a smuggler. How romantic. What did you smuggle, Barton?”
‘You make it sound as if they’ll let her go in an hour or so.”
“Why not? She hasn’t done anything. Not really. Smuggling is hardly enough of a crime to hold Lark Versalles!”
“What if they killed her? What if Cameron took her to the top of this building and shoved her off the roof?”
“But he couldn’t. It’s airless at the top. Lark wouldn’t be able to breathe.”
Kinsolving said nothing. The idea slowly penetrated that he meant what he said. Rani’s expression changed from confusion to outrage. “He wouldn’t dare harm her!”
“I saw him murder a Lorr on Deepdig. Cameron is capable of anything.”
“But an alien is, well, an alien. We’re talking about Lark!”
“A life’s a life to Cameron — an alien or human one is equally as cheap.”
“We’ll see about this. Who’s his superior?” Rani’s anger rose now. One of her friends had gotten into real trouble. Kinsolving admired her loyalty but not her proposed method.
How could he know which of the IM executives knew of the Plan? All? Some? Which? Glancing around the room he saw none of the highest level. No director or senior vice president was in attendance, even though dozens of the junior executives frolicked and politicked.
“Director Liu,” he said, realization coming to him. “That’s why Cameron took Lark.”
“Lark was with the director earlier,” said Rani. “She bragged about it. But why should this Cameron object? Unless he and Director Liu … ”
“No, not that,” said Kinsolving. He had drawn Lark deeper into this intrigue than he’d intended. Cameron had checked the elevator record to see which identicard had been used. Director Liu had found his card case missing. The conclusion: Lark Versalles had stolen the key cards.
“What should we do?” Rani duLong asked.
“I don’t know. I just don’t know.” Barton Kinsolving tried to hold back a rising tide of helplessness and failed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“I’m certain it’s all a misunderstanding. Lark will be able to talk her way out of it. Or maybe,” Rani duLong said, leering slightly, “have something of a new adventure getting away from this Cameron. After all, he’s only a man.”
Kinsolving wouldn’t have wagered on that. He had seen the demonic glee in Cameron’s eyes when he had killed. The robots accompanying him were also killers. No one commanded such dangerous machines unless their use aided a mission.
Cameron’s mission had to be killing. Nothing else fit. The foppish exterior hid a cold, cunning attitude.
“He’s a supporter of their Plan,” Kinsolving said. “He doesn’t dare release Lark, not if he thinks she knows anything about it.”
“Plan? What plan?” asked Rani. “Oh, I know.”
“What? You do?” asked Kinsolving, his mind light years from all that happened around him.
“I’ve got the perfect plan. Let Lark suffer for a while, then rescue her. Until then, let’s dance.” Rani smiled wickedly. “Unless you can think of something else you’d prefer to do — together.”
“Rescue,” mused Kinsolving. He had to help Lark Versalles. Because she had aided him she now found herself in serious danger. He owed her his life for getting him off the alien prison world, if nothing else. She hadn’t asked to be involved.
Rescue. How? No scheme surfaced. He allowed Rani to lead him to the dance floor. Mechanically moving his feet, hardly noticing the lovely woman in his arms, Kinsolving thought. Hard.
The card keys he’d stolen from Director Liu should be discarded. Their use would trigger alarms. Cameron would send a robot hunter to the spot of usage within minutes. Kinsolving didn’t even know where Lark had been taken. To the barren suite of rooms devoted to the Stellar Death Plan? Possibly, though he doubted it. Most of the headquarters building was deserted today, the employees at parties or taking a holiday. Interstellar Materials was nothing if not generous in this respect.
A director’s office? Kinsolving doubted that, too, unless Kenneth Humbolt personally conducted the woman’s interrogation. From all that Kinsolving had seen of Cameron, the gaudy manhunter wouldn’t want to share the task. He’d consider it a pleasure, even a thrill in some sexual way.
Kinsolving shuddered. His mind refused to grasp the fact that these people were capable of any atrocity. Any group able to contemplate the extinction of entire races wouldn’t hesitate at the rape and torture of a single woman if they thought she had information they needed.
“Are you cold, Barton, or just anticipating?” Rani asked. He stared at the beautiful woman in wonder. She seemed oblivious to all that he’d said. She couldn’t believe that Lark Versalles was in danger.
“Do you know the headquarters building well?”
“Not really. I’ve only been here a few times for parties. Dinky has a small place on the other side of the city, though. He spends a good part of his time on GT 4. He does. Why?”
Kinsolving already guided Rani off the dance floor. He scanned the crowd and found Dinky propped against a wall, leaning over a chair and trying not to collapse totally. Kinsolving dragged Rani after him. By the time they arrived at Dinky’s side, the man had slumped over the chair and snored loudly.
“He’s not much help.” Rani stared at the man in contempt. “This isn’t the only time he falls asleep, either.”
Kinsolving sat down beside the unconscious man and shook him hard. Dinky groaned and mumbled something incoherent. Kinsolving steeled himself. He had been raised to avoid harming others. He took Dinky’s earlobe and pinched down hard enough to cause a tiny crescent of blood to form. The pain lanced directly into the man’s brain past the haze of the drugs he’d taken.
“Whatsit?” he demanded.
“Conference rooms. Where?” demanded Kinsolving.
“Director’s rooms?” Dinky said, eyes still not focused.
“What level?”
“One-eighty, one-eighty-one.”
Kinsolving sucked in a deep breath and held it for a long minute before slowly releasing it. This building was too immense to search floor by floor. He had to hope that Cameron had taken Lark to one of those levels.
“Do you want to play a new game?” he asked Dinky, talking to the young man as if he were a small child.
“Photonic!” cried Rani. “To hell with him. I’d like to play!”
“Great. The two of you can try it.” Kinsolving fumbled out the stolen identicard and the card keys. “Here’s how you play. Go to the lobby and wait for five minutes. Then try to see how many different places these cards will take you. Elevators, secured areas, everywhere.”
“And?” prompted Rani.
“The one who gets into the most places, uh,” Kinsolving stumbled here. What would be adequate prize for these jaded sybarites? “The one who gets into the most places wins and the other has to do anything the winner wants for one hour.”
“Anything?”
“Anything,” Kinsolving agreed solemnly.
Kinsolving fanned through the cards. He had five. He held them up for her to see. “You choose a card. And you, too, Dinky. And find three others to join in.”
‘You’re not playing?” asked Rani, obviously disappointed. Her interest in this “game” extended only to winning Kinsolving for the promised hour. He looked at the card keys, then slipped the blank one into his pocket. It would be very dangerous to allow those besotted revellers to blunder into that special level — it might mean their instant death.
Kinsolving wanted confusion, not death.
“I’ll play using the blank card. I’m not sure what it’s good for, anyway,” he lied.
“Morganna and Chakki will want to p
lay. Come along, Dinky. Let’s find them.” She turned dark, blazing eyes on Kinsolving. “We start in the lobby in five minutes?”
He nodded, smiling now. Rani thought it was for her. She need not know that Kinsolving had no intention of playing and that there would never be a winner in this mad, dangerous game.
Except Lark, if he could find her.
Kinsolving watched Rani help Dinky to the elevator. Two others followed closely, engaged in animated conversation. The man — Kinsolving had already forgotten his name — seemed reluctant.
Morganna urged him along, and this was enough to get him to play.
They vanished into the elevator and Kinsolving went into action. Dinky had mentioned two possible levels where Lark might be. Kinsolving didn’t dare spend the time searching those floors. He entered an empty elevator and ordered it to take him to the one hundred-eightieth floor. Kinsolving held his breath as the doors slid back silently. He expected to see a smiling Cameron waiting for him, both robot hunters hovering at his side.
The corridor stretching to a panorama of crystal windows at the far side of the building loomed silent and ominously deserted. Kinsolving listened for the slightest sound and heard nothing, but he had hardly expected to. All rooms in EM’s headquarters were soundproofed. Lark might be screaming in a room only a few paces away and he would never hear.
He dashed to a receptionist’s desk and scanned the control console. The complex array of indicators daunted him. It took a trained operator to use it to its fullest. But all Kinsolving needed was a moment’s worth of information.
He seated himself and held the blank card key over the identi-slot. A sudden thought hit him. He smiled slowly and put the card back into his pocket and drew out the duplicate of his original identicard given him at the Landing Authority. Cameron hadn’t had time to enter a lock on this card — he might not have learned Kinsolving had reactivated his employee card.
Kinsolving paused, then boldly acted. His personal identicard slid into the acceptor.
“How may I serve you, Supervisor Kinsolving?” the computer asked.
“I need to know the location of at least two directors. They must be in the headquarters building and they must be together.”
“Three directors are present in room 18117.” Kinsolving wobbled a little in the seat. “Are two of the directors Humbolt and Liu?”
“Yes.”
Kinsolving wondered who the third might be. He hesitated to ask for this information, fearing that the computer would alert them.
“Cancel all request.”
“Thank you, Supervisor.” The screen went dark again. Kinsolving fought down real fear as he reinserted the card and once more was greeted by the computer.
“Monitor restricted elevator usage from level one-eighty-one,” he ordered. Kinsolving waited anxiously. Rani and the others ought to be using Liu’s stolen cards all over the building by now. That would alert Cameron; Kinsolving hoped the man would personally see to this new problem and go chasing off in four different directions.
A minute. Two. Kinsolving thought he would die of frustration waiting. He jumped when the computer said, “Directors Humbolt and Villalobos, accompanied by one assistant and three robot servants are descending to level thirty-two.”
“Cancel,” Kinsolving snapped. He grabbed his identicard. It might never be useful again, but he could only hope. Slowness in cancellation thus far had been a boon to him. It might continue.
He took the elevator to the floor above. If Humbolt and the others had taken the director’s private elevator, he need not fear discovery; that elevator lay on the far side of the building. Kinsolving entered the deserted corridor, a duplicate of the floor below. Slowly, carefully, he looked around each comer as he made his way to 18117. In front of the door, he paused.
Lark wouldn’t be unguarded. Kinsolving guessed that the “human assistant” with Humbolt and Villalobos was Cameron. If that supposition proved wrong, he would be in serious trouble.
If he didn’t act quickly, he would be in even more serious danger — and Lark’s life would be forfeit.
Kinsolving touched the door frame and the panel slid open silently. Lark was held against a far wall by a single band circling her waist and fastened into the wall. Her blue eyes widened when she saw him, but Kinsolving didn’t have to warn her to silence. She realized her only hope of rescue lay with him.
“But, Director,” she said too loudly, “why are you doing this? I don’t know anything. My daddy is going to be extremely upset with you. With Interstellar Materials!”
“I’m sorry for this, my dear,” Liu said. “But even your father won’t be able to solve your problem. Where is your companion? Where is Kinsolving?”
Kinsolving didn’t give the man a fair chance. He folded his hands together in a double fist and swung as hard as he could. The impact on the back of Liu’s head sent the director forward onto his face. He groaned once, jerked, then lay still.
“Did you kill him?” asked Lark.
“Don’t think so. How do you open this?” Kinsolving searched for the release. Only a card acceptor looked promising.
“That. They used a card. The one with Director Humbolt. Cameron.”
The steel band tightly held her to the wall. Noting less than a cutting torch would free Lark — or Cameron’s card key.
“Here goes nothing,” Kinsolving said, pulling out the blank card key. He inserted it. A soft click sounded and Lark Versalles tumbled free.
“Thank you, Barton darling. I knew you’d come. This has been ever so much fun. But Director Liu did make me mad. How dare he chain me like this!”
“Come on,” Kinsolving said. He had a bad feeling about using the special card key. The use of the stolen cards had triggered alarms to alert Cameron. This one would, also. This card of all those taken would be most likely to draw attention.
“Where are we going?”
“To the directors’ private elevator,” he said. Something alerted Kinsolving just before they turned the corner to the elevator. He shoved Lark into an office and clamped a hand over her mouth. She struggled for a moment, then settled down, her arms around him and her head on his shoulder. He left a finger between door and jamb, giving a restricted field of view into the hallway.
Cameron and a robot hunter glided by silently. Kinsolving counted to ten, then slid two more fingers into the slit and tugged the door open. Cameron had just turned the corner. Kinsolving motioned for Lark to hurry. They went to the directors’ elevator. Again Kinsolving dared to use the blank card key — for the last time. Any more usage carried too great a risk.
The door slid open and the pleasant voice asked, “Floor?”
“Lobby,” he said.
“Thank you, sir.”
The elevator sank swiftly to the lobby. He feared the worst when the door opened, but no platoon of security guards descended like vultures on carrion. If anything, the lobby seemed more deserted now than it had been earlier.
“This is so exciting,” Lark cooed. “Picking you off that silly alien world has been such an adventure.” Lark kissed Kinsolving soundly.
“No time for that. We’ve got to get away, get off Gamma Tertius 4. Cameron and the others will be looking for us. And this time they won’t be so gentle if they catch you.”
“I’m really very vexed with them,” Lark said. “Director Liu acted so rudely. And I must say that the dark woman — the one pretty in a dark sort of way, if you like the type — insulted me. Imagine!”
“Villalobos?” he asked. Kinsolving had seen the director only at the opening ceremony.
“Yes, she’s the one.”
“They’ve locked the lobby doors,” he said suddenly. “There’s no other reason not to have guards patrolling everywhere.”
His fears proved accurate. “Sorry, sir, access is denied,” said the mechanical voice. “Only Class four and higher passed allowed.”
“I’m a Class five,” he said. “Supervisor level.” Kinsolving put
his identicard into the acceptor slot. He thought a thunderbolt had sounded; the door lock had opened.
“Come on,” he said, dragging Lark behind him. He retrieved his identicard but knew it would be of no use to him again. Cameron still hadn’t learned of the duplicate card being issued by the LA. But he would. Each of the stolen card keys would be tracked down now, no matter how much Rani and the others dodged and ran, trying to win the “game” Kinsolving had set up for them.
“Where are we going?” asked Lark.
Barton Kinsolving stopped and stared up into the starlit dome of atmosphere over the city.
“I don’t know,” he said.
All escape seemed cut off now. He had done well to this point, but luck had run out.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“It’s cold,” complained Lark Versalles. “The wind is killing me.” She pulled the skirt of the blue dress up and tried to hide behind it like a little girl might. Kinsolving had no sympathy for her. She was worried about trivial matters; he sought a way for them to survive.
“There’s a small rocky alcove I know in a park,” he said. Kinsolving cursed his lack of knowledge of Interstellar Materials’ corporate city. He had been lucky to stay alive by doubling back, returning to the spots where Cameron wouldn’t think to look. Did he try that tactic once too often? Would Cameron find Director Liu unconscious and Lark freed and immediately guess that Kinsolving returned to the park?
Kinsolving had no way of knowing what a true predator would think. But he would have to learn or die.
He shielded Lark from the wind as much as he could as they followed the hard-packed trail into the cul-de-sac. The view of the city surprised him. The lights shone clear, pure and distinct. No pollution marred an exquisite view. He wished that he and Lark had come to this spot under different circumstances.
“This is better,” she said. “But it’s even nicer when you put your arm around me.” She burrowed close, her face almost hidden in the front of his battered coat.
The Stellar Death Plan (Masters of Space Book 1) Page 17