M’Kenna Copper stood up to see me to the cell door.
“We’re grateful for what you’ve done already,” she said. “I’m sorry for the harsh things I said to you before. What you are doing is helping. We just have to hang on and hope they see we really are innocent.”
“I have faith that they will,” I said.
The guard waiting with my now empty sled let me out of the cell.
“I would like to meet the new prisoner,” I said.
“Allowed,” the guard said, a mature male with narrow shoulders and a long face. “But from outside. He is violent.”
“I understand,” I said. “Perhaps I can persuade him to calm down. You are not his enemy. Whoever put him here is.”
Almost afraid of what I might see, I peered in the cell door. A lanky figure in an ill-fitting green coverall sat hunched on his bunk, his face buried in his hands. The leg of the jumpsuit was split, revealing the man’s knee. Stains on the legs and shoulders spoke of the struggle that the guards had had getting him into the cell.
“Excuse me, sir. May I speak with you? My name is Lord Thomas Kinago. I am an emissary from the Imperium. I will give you all the help I can.”
Slowly, the human raised his head, revealing a long, narrow, unshaven face full of trepidation and anger. His thick black hair was disheveled. I was horrified and fascinated at the same time.
It was Parsons.
I swallowed, gathering my wits together and enjoining them to do the best that they had ever done in my life. There had to be a good reason why Parsons was occupying a cell in the Uctu holding facility. I must under no circumstances allow it to be assumed that we knew one another. Still, my sense of humor got the better of me. A smile spread across my lips. I could not have restrained it if I tried.
“Well, fellow,” I said. “It seems the authorities at last have you where you belong.”
To my surprise, Parsons seemed to approve this line of badinage.
“That’s not true, your lordship,” he said. I noticed that he spoke in a rough accent, and his voice had taken on a peculiar nasal tone I associated with those brought up in the Ramulthy system.
“Do you know this human?” the guard inquired.
“I do,” I said. “At least, I have seen his image on the tri-dee broadcasts. He is a famous shipper in the Imperium. I always wondered how he seemed to have grown so rich on such ordinary cargo.”
The man in the cell smirked at me. My jaw dropped. Parsons smirking! I did not know his face was capable of forming an expression so crass.
“You don’t know a lot,” Parsons fleered. “Most nobles don’t have a thought in their heads.”
“Careful, fellow,” I said, waggling a forefinger at him. “The single thought bumping around in my brain is that I was inclined to offer you my assistance, but you are fast driving it out with the thought that you are too annoying to live.”
Suddenly, he became sober. The flint-black eyes fixed upon me.
“I’m innocent,” he insisted. “Look, sir, you need to get me out of here. All I came to do was drop off cargo, and they threw me in here. I don’t want to die!”
I turned up my hands in a gesture of relative helplessness.
“I’ll do what I can, but that isn’t very much. My standing is purely symbolic. But I will try. And I can bring you a few home comforts, anything that the prison system will allow.”
Parsons bowed his head in abject apology.
“That’s all I ask, sir. And my friends over there, other side of the wall. They’re being pretty nice to me, a newcomer, you know. I just hate being accused of something I know I didn’t do!”
“Well, I suppose we are all in this together. I intend to do my very best to help you, captain.”
He sprang up off his bunk and came to prop his elbows up on the frame of the door. He moved with such feline grace and implied power that the guard pulled me a few meters away, out of reach.
I glanced into the Coppers’ door. From where I stood, I could see into several of the cells, though they could not see one another. Loneliness must have added to the feeling of helplessness. Ms. Copper’s dark eyes were always on me.
“You’re good to want to help, sir,” Parsons said. “No one else seems to give a crater. Will you come back again?”
“As often as I can.”
I had to hurry out of the corridor before I started asking awkward questions. Parsons would let me know his reasons in good time.
At the very least, I could inform Plet and the others that I had found him. It was a relief to know we had not just lost track of him. In fact, it was the most certain I had ever been as to his whereabouts that I had ever been.
M’Kenna sat with her heels against her bottom and her wrists balanced on her knees on the floor with her back to the edge of the bunk. She was taking first watch while Rafe slept.
After Lord Thomas left, the new guy spent the whole time until lights out alternately bellowing about being locked up and whining that he was innocent. She heard banging and the rending of cloth coming from the cell next door. The guards must have seen something they didn’t like on the surveillance monitors, because at one point a full half-dozen of them and the medic went past her. Their appearance set off another round of yelling from the man. The doctor returned, shaking her head, her white smock stained with red blood.
The shouting had really frightened her babies. Dorna refused to let her mother out of her sight. After a while, Rafe had wedged himself as close to the next cell as possible and struck up a conversation with the man, who called himself Steve. The talk went on for some time, but Steve’s voice lowered from a shout down to a whisper. Rafe had detached himself and shot M’Kenna a look of triumph. Their new neighbor was quiet after that, apart from a snore or two.
She checked the tablet on the floor beside her. Half an hour until she could wake Rafe up to take over. The kids were breathing softly. It was the most soothing sound in the galaxy. It made her want to lie down and just listen. She would have been asleep in no time. In fact, she was already yawning.
Something plastic made a soft clicking noise. She thought it was probably a beer container nudged by the foot of one of the Wichus next door. But instead of rolling noises, she heard a slithering sound. She listened more closely. It wasn’t coming from the side near the Wichus. Maybe the newcomer was moving around his cell. It was never really dark in the cells. Dull orange security lights and yellow pinpoints indicating where the video pickups were embedded made a constellation if she squinted and really pretended. Unlike the stars, though, they never moved.
Until that moment. A shadow momentarily eclipsed the pinpoint at the far end of the corridor. M’Kenna rose softly to her feet and moved to the front of her cell. She stood with her back to the wall just beside the door and tried to look out. She knew she had not imagined the flicker. If it had been one of the guards, he or she would have been carrying a greenish handlight. The LAIs were covered in their own lights. Instead, whoever or whatever was out there was working in the dark. Her eyes were accustomed to the dimness. She scanned the arc of the corridor visible from the door. She saw nothing, but it didn’t mean there was nothing to see.
She sidled back to the bunk and put her hand over Rafe’s mouth. She could just glimpse the gleam of his eyes as they sprang open. He started to sit up, then recognized her silhouette. She uncovered his mouth but put a fingertip to his lips. She felt his head nod. They had already discussed what to do if there was another attack. This time they would catch the guy. No matter what he tried, he wasn’t leaving their cell until the guards saw him. M’Kenna thought of waking Nona, but she had had very little martial arts training. Better to have all four of her babies out of the way.
Rafe turned on his side so he could see the door, but pretended to be asleep. Under the uncomfortable blanket, M’Kenna knew he had his slipper wound over his knuckles. She slipped back to stand beside the door, ready to jump on the intruder.
Her heart pounded so hard
she had to strain to listen over the thudding in her ears. The chlorine in the air caught at her throat. She wanted badly to cough, but swallowed again and again until the feeling passed.
Outside, the shadow shifted one more time. She was sure the intruder was going to take them out first, then move on to the other prisoners. After all, she was the one making the most noise about getting them released. From what Lord Thomas had said, the people who had set her up couldn’t risk having her and Rafe testify in court. The Uctu judicial system required live testimony to convict, and dead humans told no tales.
It took so long before something happened that her attention was beginning to waver. The shadow changed again, and the door of their cell began to slide into its recess. M’Kenna tensed her muscles, ready to spring on the male. She wanted to beat his scaly head into the floor. She leaned forward, hands ready to strike.
A black mass rose up almost against her. Startled, M’Kenna stumbled backward. The mass seemed to be her assailant, draped in dark-colored cloth to prevent the cameras from seeing him. He grabbed her around the shoulders with one arm and closed his other hand on her throat.
“Rafe!” she shrieked.
He jumped up from the bunk to help her, but more shadows poured into the cell. At least three of the dark figures threw themselves at him, bearing him down.
“Nona, run!” he bellowed. “Take the babies. The door’s open! Go get help!”
Their elder daughter appeared in an instant, Dorna on her hip. The two small boys stumbled behind her. They made for the door, but more black-clad assailants came in. Nona grabbed for the only thing she could, the tablet computer. She struck at the nearest assassin. It brought its hand up under the drape and knocked the light rectangle flying. The tablet clattered to the floor. The assailant pushed Nona against the wall with one hand. The cell door slid shut. The Coppers were trapped with a half-dozen killers. Where were the guards?
“Help!” M’Kenna gasped.
“Mama!” Akela shouted. Two more Uctus picked the boys up. Akela and Lerin squirmed and kicked, trying to get down.
“Mama!” Lerin called. “Papa!”
M’Kenna choked, trying to drag air into her lungs. She stepped on her attacker’s feet and kneed him in the belly. He was much stronger than she was. His face was covered, but he must have been able to see through the cloth. She tried to ram her forehead into his nose, but he tilted his head back out of her way.
“What’s happening?” Nuro bellowed from the other side of the wall. “Hey! Who the hell are you?”
They weren’t the only ones being attacked! M’Kenna grabbed for her attacker’s hand and tried to drag it from her neck.
From under the black robes, his hand, pale gray in the security lights, rose up. Something was clenched in his hand. It looked like the kind of orange bulb the first assassin had tried to use on her. He brought it to her face. M’Kenna strained back, doing her best to avoid its touch. Her head hit the wall behind her.
A long, pale hand pushed in between them. Suddenly, the attacker wasn’t touching her any longer. The draped figure went flying backwards, followed by a lanky figure in a prison jumpsuit. The Uctu met the newcomer with four limbs up, but it wasn’t quick enough. The newcomer brought a solid foot down in the middle of its stomach. It went limp long enough for the human to leap over its body and bring his foot down just below the outlined head. M’Kenna heard a terrible crunch, and the attacker went still. She felt her gorge rise. She swallowed it. Her babies were still in danger.
In a flurry of limbs, the man spun from one attacker to another, delivering blow after blow with hands and feet. She had never seen a human being move so fast. The three figures holding Rafe dropped and didn’t rise again. The attackers holding Lerin and Akela dropped the boys and threw themselves at him. He went into a crouch, a fearsome scowl on his face. M’Kenna suddenly realized it was their new neighbor, Steve. The Uctu had not taken two steps before he spun, lifting one foot in the air. He caught them both across their masked faces, knocking them back. M’Kenna ran to the boys and pulled them away into a corner with her. Rafe lowered his shoulder and cannoned into the figure holding Nona. When it tried to hit him with its tail, Rafe caught it by that appendage and flung it staggering out into the middle of the cell. Steve grabbed it around the neck with one arm and twisted its head with the other. Another horrifying crunch, and it fell.
Only one assassin was left standing. As if they had rehearsed it, M’Kenna, Rafe and Steve moved toward it. It shifted from foot to foot, then made for the door. The portal slid open, but Steve was on top of the masked figure before it could run out. He grabbed it by both arms, then reached down to a place near its tail. It let out a terrible scream and fell to its knees. Steve heaved it upright and it back toward Rafe.
“Keep him here. We need one alive.”
He slapped the door with his open hand, and it rolled open. He dashed out, leaving M’Kenna goggling. Rafe grabbed the blanket off the bunk and rolled the writhing attacker in it. Then he sat down on it.
In a moment, they heard more horrible sounds. M’Kenna embraced her children and kept a fierce hold on them. Dorna sobbed against her chest. The other three were wide-eyed with shock.
Suddenly, all of the lights went on. Dozens of guards poured into the corridor. M’Kenna blinked at the pulse rifles pointing at her. She looked past them, and saw a rectangle of black at the end of the hall.
“I told you they came through the wall!”
She sat in Captain Oren’s office with Dorna on her lap. The rest of the Imperium prisoners were jammed into the small room as the senior guard ran the video recordings back and forth.
“It is as you said it was,” Captain Oren said. “The video does not show anything from the moment you say it began, but the cells are full of bodies.”
“I told you so,” M’Kenna kept saying. She couldn’t stop herself, and saw no real reason to. She glared at him. “I told you so. I told you so!”
“Yes, yes,” the Uctu said, impatiently. “I apologize.”
“It would seem that the assailants had access not only to the video system, but also the physical plant of the prison,” Steve was saying. M’Kenna stared at him. He might still be bruised, stubbled and wearing a torn green jumpsuit, but his manner had changed from a petulant, hard-bitten trader to someone who talked to people from a position of infinite authority. She peered at him, picturing him with a shave and a haircut.
“I know you,” she said. “You’re Lord Thomas’s . . . what did he call you? Aide-de-camp. I forget your name.”
“Commander Parsons,” ‘Steve’ replied. “Lord Thomas has insisted all of you were in danger, as has my ongoing surveillance of you.”
“You were spying on us?”
“Steve” lifted an eyebrow, and it stopped her dead.
“If I had not, I wouldn’t have been here this evening,” he said. “To be honest, we did not believe the attack would come as soon as this. I expected it to be the night before your trial.”
“You were willing to spend that much time locked up because he asked you to?” M’Kenna asked.
“That and because there was no other way to ensure I would be here at the necessary moment,” he said. He nodded to the Uctu guard. “Captain Oren cooperated most fully with our plans.”
“Happy to,” Oren said. “Thought it was lies. I apologize again.”
“Well,” M’Kenna said. The words came to her lips grudgingly. She was still mad that they hadn’t believed her to begin with. “Thank you for saving my babies.”
Commander Parsons looked deeply into her eyes.
“We will save all of you,” he said. “This is not hyperbole. More proof has just been added to the balance on your side.”
“The High Protector will get information from the survivors,” Oren said, his expression bleak.
“I hope they have some,” Parsons said.
M’Kenna was all too glad to go back to their cell, accompanied by a guard who stood at th
eir door the rest of the night. Not that she could fall asleep, but she finally felt as if she was safe to do so.
CHAPTER 43
I was delighted to greet Parsons when the crew met to confer the next morning. He had sustained a small bruise on the temple. I also spotted some discoloration on his wrist that his cuff did not quite conceal. His description of his exploits after I had left him, however sparing of detail, was as exciting as a blockbuster digitavid. I could imagine the cool efficiency with which he had disposed of all but a few of the attackers.
“I accompanied the two surviving assassins to the High Protector’s station,” he said. “The fruits of the interviews with them were few. As I feared, they were rogues for hire, admitted to the premises by means of electronic keys supplied to them at a dead drop along with an initial deposit on their fee. They do not know the source of either. After the interrogation, I spent a few hours with the High Protector discussing the potential for an attack.”
“But upon whom are they planning this coup?” I asked. “Surely not the Autocrat herself. She is a child. Her people love her. Everyone who stopped to chat with her in the shopping precinct was thrilled to have her there.”
Parsons visited a look upon me that was patient and even kindly.
“Her policies are not popular with all of the Autocracy,” he reminded me. “But her removal does seem unlikely. The next in line for the throne is just as amiable and inexperienced and as likely to continue the rules left in place by Visoltia’s late father.”
“Then who?” Plet asked. “Why would an attack be made? Who would benefit? What change could possibly come out of a coup?”
“Well, if I could change anything,” I said, “it would be the annoying holdup at the borders. Everyone is affected by that.”
“Has the High Protector said why such an irregular trickle of ships is being allowed in?” Plet asked Parsons.
“The numbers are on direct orders from the Autocrat,” Parsons said. “He feels that it is based upon her superstitions. He cannot persuade her to change the quantity even by a single digit.”
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