by Timothy Zahn
"Yes, I know the official story," Lathe interrupted him coldly. "I also know it's a load of cockroach slime. You were a blackcollar assigned to the base—whatever back doors there were in and out of it, you know about them. So scrap the sheep bleatings and tell us where they are."
For a long moment the two men remained frozen where they were, gazes locked. Caine licked his lips, without noticeable effect, as the tension in the room grew steadily more oppressive. He desperately wanted to look over at Skyler, to see how the other was reacting to the standoff, but was afraid to move even that much... and at long last Bernhard dropped his eyes.
"Give me a map of the area northwest of the mountain," he said with a tired sigh. "It won't do you any good... but I'll show you the only way in."
—
"It's one of the fifteen ventilation tunnels into the base," Bernhard said, tapping the map at a spot alongside an intermittent creek. "Two meters across at this end, but it gets bigger later on as a bunch of the intakes connect together. It cuts horizontally into the mountain for a dozen meters, then shifts to vertical, dropping a hundred meters or so before leveling out again and heading in toward the base, several klicks away. It's an intake tunnel, fortunately; if it was an exhaust tunnel you'd find your way blocked by the groundwater heat-exchange system."
"Seems straightforward enough," Skyler commented, peering over Bernhard's shoulder. "What's the catch?"
"The catch is that these are too obvious a back door for even military bureaucrats to miss," Bernhard told him sourly. "So they made sure no one could use them."
"Booby-trapped?" Caine hazarded.
Bernhard snorted. "That's a mild way of putting it. It's an extremely nasty three-stage defense system." Snaring a pencil and pad from the bookshelf, he began to sketch. "Stage one is in that first dozen meters at the mouth of the tunnel and a few meters of the vertical shaft. It's remote-operated, for the most part, though there are some pressure and proximity defenses there, too."
"At least the manual weaponry won't be any trouble," Caine remarked. "No one in there to fire them."
"Stage two," Bernhard continued, ignoring the comment, "is at the midpoint, where the smaller tunnels join into one large thirty-meter one. That part's more or less passive, with bulkheads that were supposed to seal down the tunnel when the base was abandoned."
"Were they activated?" Lathe asked.
"I don't know, but I'd guess so. And even if you've really got the time and equipment to cut or blow through all those, there's still stage three... and I guarantee you won't survive that one."
"Let me guess," Skyler said. "Automated defenses, right?"
"Automated, self-contained, and utterly pure poison," Bernhard said heavily. "Lasers, particle and flechette weapons, gas, explosives and scud grenades, and a microwave flamer that would lock the joints on battle armor while it cooked you. If you had any battle armor."
"In other words, an area of the tunnel to be crept through with caution," Lathe said. "How long is it?"
"About a hundred meters—and you're missing the point. You aren't going to creep through it; nor are you going to run, fly, or drive through it. You enter that section and you're dead. Period."
For a moment the room was silent. Then Lathe leaned over the table and made a small mark on the map, one valley away from and due north of the spot Bernhard had indicated. "I presume the entrance to the tunnel is camouflaged," he said. "You'll need to help us find it."
Bernhard stared up at him. "Haven't you been listening? I just told you the tunnel was lethal."
"Yes, you did," Lathe said. "But security systems decay with age, and it's possible even something this sophisticated has fallen apart sufficiently to let us get by it. Regardless, we need to check it out in person." He straightened up. "If you'll come with me, I'll take you to the room Reger's got set up for you. We'll lie low here a couple of days to let Security run themselves ragged out in Denver, then head out and see just what we've got to work with out there."
Caine cleared his throat as Bernhard got to his feet. "Lathe, I'd like to talk to you when you've got a moment."
"Of course." Lathe caught Skyler's eye, jerked his head toward the door.
"Sure," the big blackcollar said. "Come on, Bernhard, I'll show you to your quarters."
Bernhard looked as if he wanted to say something, but apparently changed his mind. Together, he and Skyler left the room.
Lathe turned to Caine as the door closed behind the others. "Well? Bernhard's scare story getting to you?"
"A little, maybe," Caine admitted. "But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. Is it my imagination, or is everyone suddenly becoming very cooperative around here?"
Lathe pursed his lips. "You noticed that too, did you?"
"It's a little hard to miss. First Anne Silcox admits she knows at least a little more about Torch than she originally let on, then Bernhard does a complete one-eighty on helping us—to the extent that he doesn't even argue about your dragging him along into the mountains. And last but not least, Reger is willing to let him and Kanai stay here, despite the fact that they'd probably like to see him dead and vice versa. It seems to me just a little too good to be true, and I'm not sure I trust any of it."
"Hm. Well, as for Silcox, I don't think there's anything necessarily suspicious there—she wasn't going to trust us on our word alone until we basically proved we were on her side by getting her out of Athena."
Caine snorted gently. "On her side, sure. After basically dragging her into this mess just so there'd be someone for Bernhard to go after that we could rattle Security by saving—"
"Who told you that?" Lathe asked sharply.
"Oh, come on, Lathe—I may not be as good a tactician as you are, but I've got hindsight with the best of them. Your hope of getting to Torch through her fizzled, so you left her dangling in front of Bernhard so that you'd have an excuse to pull the Grand Athena Escape Stunt. You want to argue any of that?"
For a moment Lathe stared at him in silence. Then, ruefully, he shook his head. "You're better at this stuff than I thought," he admitted. "I always knew you had tactician talent. Would it help if I told you I was hoping Bernhard wouldn't take the bait and that I'd have to get my lever on him somehow else?"
Caine shrugged. "Actually, I don't feel as bad about her as I still do about the Dupres and Karen Lindsay. After all, Anne volunteered for duty here—why should she expect any different treatment than the rest of us get?"
Lathe shorted. "Thanks a lot."
"Don't mention it. You were talking about suspicious cooperation...?"
"Right. As for Bernhard..." Lathe hesitated. "I suspect he's using his change of heart as camouflage while he sets up a game of his own on the side. Add to that—" He broke off abruptly. "Never mind.
The point is—"
"Add to that Jensen's move in bringing Bernhard back here in the first place?" Caine suggested.
Lathe gave him a lopsided smile. "You're definitely better at this than I thought," he said. "Yes. On the surface that doesn't seem like a very smart move on his part... but there's something in his attitude that makes me think he also may have a plan of his own in the works, something that he needed Bernhard's presence here to accomplish."
"You going to ask him what it is?"
"No—at least not right now. When and if we get into Aegis, maybe it'll be time then. But not yet.
Some of Jensen's attitudes and perspectives may have changed since the Argent mission, but his basic skills and intellect haven't. You may not have noticed, but as we were escorting Bernhard here earlier, he and Reger were heading off into a huddle by themselves, so it's possible Jensen's cooked up something with him that'll help protect our flanks while we concentrate on the main mission."
"In other words," Caine said slowly, "you do have an idea of what he's up to. But don't want to tell me what it is."
Lathe gazed off into space. "Caine... if I'm right, it's something I don't really want to be involved in.
/>
And I'm pretty sure you won't want to know about it in advance, either."
"Or in other words, I should trust you. Just this once." Caine grimaced for a moment, then sighed. "I knew I shouldn't have agreed to let you take command."
Lathe chuckled. But the laugh lines stayed only briefly, and didn't reach his eyes. "Come on, let's go talk to the others," he said, folding up the map. "We need to discuss this, decide who'll be coming along to the mountain in a couple of days."
"Blackcollars only?"
Lathe eyed him, shook his head. "No, I don't think so. Your team's earned the right to be in on the kill."
"I agree." Caine grimaced. "I just hope you're not being literal about it being a kill."
The comsquare nodded grimly. "So do I."
Chapter 33
They stayed at Reger's mansion for the next two days, recovering from the Athena escape and waiting for a reasonable lull in Security activity. Caine found the delay almost intolerable; but he had to admit they would have been foolish to try moving any sooner. Spotters and fighter aircraft literally swarmed over Denver and the nearby mountains, obviously watching for any even remotely suspicious activity. The reports coming in from Reger's informant net showed the situation inside the city was even worse, with heavily armed Security troops patrolling the streets and poking into any place they could think of where the blackcollars might be hiding. For a while Caine worried that they might go so far as to begin a house-to-house search of the entire region, but Skyler pointed out that even if they did, Reger's high-priced neighborhood was likely to be low on the list of probable hideouts.
Still, he was relieved when Lathe decided on their second evening of idleness that the overhead patrols had thinned sufficiently to risk a short sortie the next morning. "We don't have to actually do anything out there tomorrow," the comsquare reminded them. "Just locate the place and maybe loosen whatever grating is closing it down. We've got another six days or so before I want us out of the area entirely."
"Why six?" Colvin asked.
"Because that'll make it eight days since we sent the message out to the scout ship," the comsquare told him. "That's round-trip time between here and Plinry for the Corsair Quinn should have sent right after our break."
Caine glanced at Pittman's carefully controlled expression, noticing as he did so other surreptitious looks that were headed that way. So far Pittman hadn't shown any willingness to talk about his involvement with Galway, and up till now no one had felt the need to press him on the subject. But now Braune cleared his throat. "Round trip to Plinry... with bad news aboard?"
"You could say that," Lathe acknowledged. "Project Christmas will be bad news for someone—and if it's the Ryqril who get the hot end, they may go a little berserk here trying to find us."
"Does Bernhard know about this?" Colvin asked.
"No. Why? You think he might stall in hopes Quinn will drop the roof in before he has to do anything concrete to help us?"
"The thought had crossed my mind."
Lathe shook his head. "Actually, I think Bernhard's lost his last chance to betray us directly to Security. Remember, he presumably doesn't want Ryqril in Aegis Mountain any more than we do—else he could have told them about the back door years ago when he was making his tacit peace with them. After tomorrow, though, if he turns us over to Security the secret will be out—and if Quinn can't get the back door's location from us, he'll chase Bernhard down for it. No, Bernhard's much more likely to try killing us himself if he still wants us dead."
Hawking grunted. "Cheerful thought. On the way to or from the soft probe tomorrow, you think?"
"He'll wait until the main expedition," Jensen said quietly. "Tomorrow he'll be surrounded almost entirely by blackcollars. He'd know enough to wait until the rest of Caine's team is along, in hopes they'd get in our way in a fight."
Alamzad snorted. "Thanks a lot."
"He's right, though." Lathe nodded thoughtfully. "And it leaves us with only one practical approach—which I was going to recommend anyway. Suppose we do the following...."
The sounds of soft conversation filtered through the heavy door: Jensen and Alamzad, presumably.
"I hope," Pittman murmured as Caine reached for the doorknob, "you know what you're doing."
"Me, too," Caine answered frankly. "But this is our mission, remember. We have a right to know what's going on."
The room was considerably smaller than Caine had realized, more like a vertical crawlspace than a room per se. Alamzad and Jensen were indeed there, crouched over some sort of mechanism at the far end but looking back at the newcomers. "You should have announced yourselves," Jensen growled, sliding a shuriken back into his pouch.
Caine swallowed the automatic apology that came to mind. "We had other things on our minds," he said instead. "Your private scheme, to be specific."
Jensen cocked an eyebrow. "So Lathe's caught on, eh? Knew he would, eventually. Is he really so worried about me that he sent you to snake out the details?"
"He doesn't know we're here," Caine said. "This is on my authority as head of the mission."
For a long moment Jensen gazed at the two of them in silence. Then, slowly, he nodded his head.
"All right," he said. "But not for you personally, and not because you're my titular commander on this. I'll tell you because Pittman's earned it."
"Pittman?" Caine frowned, shooting a look at the other.
"That's right. Pittman stayed loyal to you and all the rest of us, no matter what it might cost him."
Jensen's mouth was tight. "That's the mark of a true blackcollar, Caine: loyalty. Loyalty to your teammates, to other blackcollars... and sometimes even to allies you don't approve of."
A shiver went up Caine's spine. "You're talking about Reger, aren't you?"
"Lathe's the one who makes our deals and alliances," Jensen said, his eyes focused elsewhere.
"That's the doyen's job, and commandos don't expect to have much voice in those decisions. Fine.
But there are other ways I can influence events."
"Such as by building a death-house gauntlet in Reger's mansion?" Pittman asked quietly.
"You've got it," the blackcollar said grimly. "Think of it as a loyalty test... with death as the punishment for failure."
Caine focused on Alamzad. "Did you know what he was planning?"
Alamzad shook his head. "I still don't," he added. "But I think I should."
"It'll cost you," Jensen warned. "All of you. If I tell you, I'll want your assistance in carrying out what'll essentially be an execution."
Caine took a deep breath. Far back in his mind, the thought occurred to him that this, too, was part of what it meant to be a leader. "You'll have it."
—
They set off before dawn the next morning: Lathe, Caine, Skyler, Bernhard, Kanai. and one of Reger's drivers, riding in tight discomfort in a car that had been designed for at least two fewer passengers.
"Why the hell didn't Reger give us a decent vehicle?" Bernhard growled as they headed out into the mountains. "Even a van would've been better than this."
"True," Lathe agreed. "But we've been using vans a lot lately, and I thought it might be a good idea to throw Security a minor curve in that area. They know how many of us there are and so will probably be watching most carefully for vans or large cars."
Bernhard snorted and fell silent.
Whether Lathe was right or whether the Security spotters were simply not watching the right place at the right time, they made it to the jump-off spot the comsquare had chosen without incident.
"Everyone out," Lathe ordered, heading back to the trunk. "Get your kits and let's get started—we've got a long hike ahead of us."
Caine glanced around in the predawn glow, a strange sense of deja vu tickling the back of his mind.
The creek trickling quietly alongside the road, a particularly striking bluff rising above the hills to the south... and he caught his breath as the landscape clicked. "Lathe,
do you know where we are?"
"A couple of klicks northwest of the Aegis Mountain entrance," the comsquare said. "As good a spot as any to strike out overland from. Why?"
"Oh... no particular reason, I guess. Only that we're just a ridge or two northwest of the spot we headed out from when we checked out the base."
"Ah. Well, at least this time you won't have to worry about your car being stolen."
The words were barely out of his mouth when the car beside them pulled away, making a U-turn and heading down the road in the direction it had come. Caine swallowed as he watched it disappear around a curve, knowing it was the best way but still not really liking the arrangement. A vehicle parked here would be horribly conspicuous, true; but on the other hand they had only Reger's promise that the car would indeed come by twice a day until they rendezvoused with it.
If the others were worried, though, they didn't show it. "Which way?" Skyler asked as he tightened the straps of his pack and hunched his shoulders a couple of times to settle it.
"Through there," Lathe told him, pointing along a rock-strewn cut between two steep hills. "Singlefile, and keep an eye out for aircraft overhead."
They'd been hiking for just over an hour when a Security man stepped out of the undergrowth fifty meters ahead directly onto their path.
All six men froze into statues as Lathe, in the lead, flashed the appropriate hand signal back to them.
The Security man, Caine noted uneasily, was heavily armed, with both a holstered paral-dart pistol and a shoulder-slung laser assault rifle. Radio headphones peeked out from under his mountain cap, and infrared-enhancement goggles were slung around his neck.
Caine gnawed at his lip. The soldier wasn't looking their way at the moment—was, in fact, facing ninety degrees away from their line of approach. But balancing that was the fact that the terrain and sparse foliage near him precluded any kind of quiet approach. They'd have to take him out from where they stood.
But Lathe was making no move to draw either his slingshot or a shuriken—was making no move at all, in fact. "When are we going to take him?" he whispered to Skyler as the seconds crept by.