“I understand that you fellows are either politicians, or law-enforcers of a type,” he said. “We’re thinking of going inside, and getting some footage of the children working. I think that we’d be in a better position of doing so if we’re accompanied by some kind of an official presence.”
“And a little bit of extra muscle won’t hurt either,” his companion said with a grin, looking at Nabbish, and Mikal as well, obviously aware that the Federation Agent’s slighter frame concealed a wiry, capable body.
“Didn’t get any cooperation from our law-enforcers?” Mortacks asked, his eyebrows raised.
“Hah!” the first man to have spoken retorted. “I can never figure out those guys! Are they just lazy, or somehow compromised? They never agree to help us out!”
“Your top man Muggs is corrupt; that’s your problem, right there,” said Nabbish, and introduced himself and his male companions to the two reporters. “My task yesterday morning was to alert him to this situation we’re dealing with, but did not do so, because when I arrived at his office Yaroli was just leaving. From the bit of conversation I overheard, I gathered that the two of them had made a deal of some kind—I’m assuming, but maybe that’s just me, that money changed hands. I did talk to Muggs, and tried to pry some information out of him, but he was being pretty closed-mouthed. That surprised me, since the man obviously has a big ego, and is not the brightest light in town—that sort usually can’t stop talking if you flatter them a bit; I’ll admit that I lay on the flattery by the shovelful.”
The reporter named Jag chortled.
“You’re no doubt right about money changing hands,” he said. “So much money to make even Muggs careful enough to keep his thoughts to himself, even when flattered.”
“Maybe there’s a story for us there,” his companion, named Klenn, suggested. “After we’ve dealt with this one.”
“You people might want to talk to Sari about that, too,” said Mortacks. “She’s planning to expose him, and the fellow in charge of the Office of the Council of Manufacturers, for their corruption, as her next project.”
“Mortacks, I love your wife, if you don’t mind me putting it that way,” said Jag. “She and her group of dedicated women keep this city as close to honest as it can be kept. And they also keep us in really good vid-feed stories.”
The six men were heading for the front door of Yaroli’s establishment.
“I’ll keep you posted,” Mikal subvocalized to Kati, and The Monk added:
“He’s got the sonic cutter with him. He put it into his pocket from the flit where Lank had left it—he didn’t really know why he was taking it when he did, just had the sense that he might need it. That man of yours is getting very talented; he seems to be highly precognitive.”
The Granda was also aware that Mikal had a stunner in his other pocket, but he thought it wise to keep that to himself, so as to not alarm his host. However, had she been scrutinizing his Monk image, she would have seen a tiny smile of approval on his face at the knowledge that the Agent had armed himself, even if with only a non-lethal weapon.
“He always was,” Kati answered subvocally. “Even on Makros III, before any of his other talents had developed.”
“I wish I was going in with the guys,” Jaqui sighed, having settled to march beside Kati and Murra. “I’d really like to know what’s going on in there.”
“Mikal’s going to keep me informed, so stick with me, kiddo, and you will know,” Kati said with a grin. “Oh, and Murra, if you can keep an ESPy eye on the boys, do so. I want to know if anything is done to them, whether or not it seems threatening.”
Murra nodded, and the Suderian woman next to him smiled at them all.
“We’ll get those children out of there and into your hands,” she promised. “Sari and the rest of us, we’ll keep harassing Yaroli until he caves, count on that.”
*****
Yaroli’s front door was locked when the men reached it, but Taya opened it from the inside when Nabbish banged on it vigorously, while announcing the presence of the law.
Lara was screeching at her, but she was yelling back.
“You heard him, Lara!” she scolded her supervisor. “He’s a policeman! You can’t keep the police out when they think that there’s something unlawful going on! That’s obstruction!”
Lara shut her mouth, and stared at the arrivals with frightened eyes. Nabbish nodded his thanks to Taya, and behind him, Mikal gifted her with his most charming grin. Lara’s eyes fell on him, and an unintelligible sound came out of her throat. Taya giggled.
Lara rushed to a simple communicator set up at a back desk and spoke into it. Mikal, his hearing enhanced caught the words “They’re in. Implement Plan B.”
So Yaroli had made contingency plans!
“What’s she doing?” Jag was asking Taya, his cam aimed at Lara.
Taya shook her head.
“Not anything that I know about,” she answered, “though there’s been a lot going on at the back of this building since the demonstrators started arriving. Or so one of the machine operators told me, when she came to fetch something from here, a few minutes ago.”
Mikal blessed the curiosity of human beings. That particular worker had probably manufactured an errand in order to take a look at what was going on in the front of the building, and to report on it to her fellow employees. At the same time she had filled Taya in on what had struck the workers as odd goings-on at the back.
“What’s at the back of the building?” Nabbish asked Taya.
Obviously his thoughts were following paths similar to those of Mikal.
Nabbish hurried behind the counter, and to the door which led into the rest of the building. The door was locked.
Klenn had trained his cam on Nabbish and the locked door which he was rattling.
“I can’t believe the amount of obstructionism we’re running into,” Nabbish said into the cam. “What is it with these characters? Don’t children’s well-being mean anything at all to them?”
Mikal turned to Jag’s cam, and spoke to it even as that reporter aimed it at him:
“I’m a Star Federation Peace Officer, Mikal r’ma Trodden, looking for a crew of children who were snatched from their homes by the Slaver Gorsh, and are believed to be in this building, working as slave labour, knotting carpets. I intend to get in and find those children, and take them away from here.”
He turned to look at Nabbish, and pulled out the sonic cutter.
“Shall I open that door?” he asked.
Nabbish grinned, obviously remembering the implement from having handled it in the Citadel cellars, freeing the prisoners in the dungeon. He made room for Mikal at the door.
Mikal had barely turned the cutter on when Lara came screeching to his side.
“What are you doing?” she shouted. “You can’t break down the door!”
Mikal raised his brows at her.
“I told you, Lara, these people are the police,” Taya interjected. “We have to do what they say.”
“None of them have local authority,” Lara spat. “One’s a Nordlander and the other’s a friggin’ off-worlder. Only a Sudlander like Master Law Enforcer Muggs can order us around.”
“It so happens that I can,” Mikal replied coldly. He knew he might be on shaky ground legally, but an Agent had to take risks. “Wayward is still on the books as a Federation World, and as such, subject to Federation law.”
Lara looked at him uncertainly. She didn’t know what to think, obviously. His bluff seemed to be working.
“If you don’t want me to cut open the doors in this building, then unlock them for me,” Mikal continued assertively. “And while you’re at it, tell me where your Boss is planning on taking the children?”
Lara gaped at him, wide eyed.
“Yes,” he added, “I do know that he’s moving the children. If Yaroli and Tarig think that they can hide them, they better think again. Unhappy, confused children are as noisy to an ESPer as firewo
rks are bright to a reveller. I know exactly where the boys are, and I’m going to where Yaroli, Tarig, and whoever else are herding them, even if I have to break down every door between here and the back of the building.”
Lara swallowed.
“I’ll get the keys,” she whispered.
Meanwhile, at the front of the building:
“Mikal says that they’re taking the boys away through the back of the building!” Kati shouted suddenly. “They must have some vehicles out there!”
“Yes!” Murra agreed. “The boys are on the move!”
“There’s probably a covered loading dock back there,” the reporter, Minna said. “If they have large flyers stashed there, they can quickly fill them with the carpet makings and the knotter boys, and be ready to take off within minutes! Heck, they must have a place for stashing them figured out—probably some rural hideout!”
“Minna, you better take our flyer and try to follow them!” the other woman reporter said. “I’ll stay here to keep abreast of the demonstration, since I’m not much of a pilot!”
Minna made a face.
“Unfortunately I’m not much of one, either, and we don’t want to lose them. Shit!” she said, sounding frustrated.
“I can come and keep you on the right path,” Murra offered. “I can feel those boys, so I’ll know the right direction to head for.”
“I’m a good pilot,” Jaqui piped up. “If you’re willing to entrust your machine to me, and Murra directs me, we won’t lose those bastards. You want to come, too, Kati?”
Kati shook her head.
“You two go with Minna. I have a feeling that there’s shit still going on inside,” she said. “I think that I’m heading in there, but I’ll be following you guys later, in one of our flyers—maybe I’ll even have to pilot it.”
“Yes, from the confusion of threats, fear, anger and hatred which, on top of the sadness of the boys, is creating quite the unpleasant miasma of emotions emanating from that building, I’d guess that our healing talents might soon be needed, my girl,” subvocalized the Granda. “Maybe Yaroli or Tarig is planning to chuck a bomb into the office before they fly off.”
That thought got Kati moving. Mikal, among others, was in that office!
As Minna, Jaqui and Murra headed towards the vid-feed people’s flyer, she handed her placard to Cassi, and started to sprint towards Yaroli’s door.
“Nobody else come in!” she quickly admonished Cassi, Sari, and the other women around them. “I’m an ESPer and a healer, so I’ll be able to make it through whatever, but I can’t be responsible for anyone else!”
“Brave words,” The Monk subvocalized sarcastically, and, for once, Kati agreed with him. What she was hoping to accomplish, she had no idea, but she could not march with a placard if her beloved Mikal was in danger. She would have to succeed in doing something!
She tried to reach for Mikal as she sprinted, but either her need to stay abreast of her surroundings was distracting her, or else Mikal was ignoring her. What could have happened in the moments since he had let her know that their quarry was on the move?
*****
Lara had rushed over to a desk, opened a drawer, and pulled out a ring of the odd-looking sticks which passed for keys on this world. With shaking fingers she chose one; then shoved the whole ring into Taya’s hands.
“You unlock that door,” she said, running to the corner of the room farthest from the said door.
Mikal took the keys from Taya before she had a chance to obey Lara. As he picked out the key Lara had chosen, he looked at her, and then at all the others in the room speculatively.
“Everyone other than Nabbish and myself to the other side of the room,” he said. “I smell a booby trap. Anyone who wants to get out, get out now. Nabbish, you have a stunner, I presume?”
At Nabbish’s nod he turned to the door.
“Cover me,” Mikal added curtly as he turned to the lock.
Nabbish had his stunner cocked before Mikal had unlocked the door. Lara, Taya, and the four other men were crowding the corner where the opposite wall met the one with the door leading outside. Mortacks and Karn seemed to be in slight shock, while Jag and Klenn had both their cams aimed at Mikal, Nabbish and the inner door.
Mikal pushed the door ajar, pulling out his stunner at the same time. Then someone on the other side pulled it wide open, and an arm threw something into the room. Lara shouted “Tarig!” at the same time as Nabbish shot at the arm with his stunner—not a good shot, but nevertheless likely to cause numbness in the arm for a couple of hours.
The egg-shaped item thrown in broke on contact with the floor, emitting a flash. For one sickening moment Mikal thought that Tarig had stooped to killing them all and totally destroying Yaroli’s premises with a flash bomb, the kind of bomb with which Gorsh’s son Joakim had attacked Kati and some natives of Makros III, some time ago. Then he saw that what the broken egg was emitting was not direct death, but black smoke—toxic gas, no doubt.
“Out! Everybody out!” he shouted. “Nabbish, go around that thing! Do not breathe in any of that stuff!”
He pulled up the hem of his tunic to cover his nose and mouth while pushing the Continent Nord Law Enforcer ahead of him towards the exit with his other arm. As he passed the lethal device, he gave it a deft kick which sent it to the far side of the room, earning everyone a few more seconds of clear air. The others scrambled to reach the door, and to pour outdoors. Their escape was made easier when the door was suddenly opened from the outside.
“What’s happening?” Kati cried as she got out of the way of the exodus. “Is everyone all right?”
“Do not come in!” Mikal shouted to her, as he and Nabbish hurried to the door, crouching down to avoid the smoke which had already begun to spread from the far side, into the whole room.
Moments later he was pulling her away from the building while hugging her hard at the same time.
“Poison gas,” he explained, breathing hard. And:
“We have to follow the bastards. Yaroli is relocating his hand-knotting enterprise. I don’t think that he realizes that we can trace the boys with our psi-powers.
“Where’s Murra? He’s the best one to be tracking those boys?”
“The women are way ahead of you, Agent,” Sari said with a grin, while leaning over to give her white-faced husband a comforting pat. “Minna, and Jaqui took the vid-feed group’s flyer, and Murra, to follow Yaroli’s flyers as they emerged from the covered loading docks.
“See, there are two big flyers emerging from behind the building, now.”
She pointed at an incongruous sight. Two large flyers, of the type Mikal knew to be usually used for transporting merchandise, were climbing up into the air. They were not flying high, as if they were trying to hide their bulk among the city streets and buildings. Above, and somewhat behind them, a smaller flyer was following, carefully matching the first two in speed.
“Kati, you and I will have to take one of our flyers and follow them, too, just in case Yaroli’s people think to divide their forces. We can contact Murra and tell him to follow the flyer without Lume, if that happens. I’m sure that you can follow Lume, Kati, since you two have an emotional connection.”
“Jag and I would like to join you,” Klenn said. “Or at least one of us ought to come along. We seem to be without a flyer at the moment.”
“Fine, we’ll take one or the other of you guys,” Mikal agreed readily enough. “But the other one probably ought to stay here. I suspect that there are going to be wild events happening here yet. Tarig is still in the building, unless there’s a third flyer waiting to pick him up. And I wouldn’t put it past that crooked Law Enforcer Muggs to show up with a contingent of cops, to demand that the women cease and desist from demonstrating.
“If that happens, Nabbish, can you, Karn and Mortacks do a little bit of strutting and shouting on behalf of the ladies?”
“We’ll do our best,” Nabbish replied with a grin. “And I intend to a
ccuse him of corruption in front of the vid-cams. And believe me, Karn and I know corruption. We both saw the Council of the Families operate on Continent Nord.”
“Hey, we can always tell them to go and take a whiff of the poison in the office,” Taya suggested. “If they don’t want to believe that there’s quite the stench of rot hanging about this place.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Klenn came with Kati and Mikal in the flyer. He explained that his rather primitive, by Mikal’s Lamanian standards, cam did not allow him to report live from the flyer, so he would have to record whatever the three of them found, and upload it to the vid-feed providers once he was back in Suderie. Minna, however, in the media flyer, could send off her reports on the spot, since she had the use of the equipment built into that vehicle.
“It’s not a problem,” Mikal told Klenn. “For legal purposes, anything Kati and I witness has the weight of evidence, since we’re both noded, and capable of making nodal records. Kati’s node, especially, is an old hand at doing so, and can be relied on to make excellent records.”
Once they were up in the air, he suggested that Kati concentrate on reaching Murra, and finding out what was going on in the other flyer, and the larger vehicles which it was tailing.
“Murra, Mikal and I are following you,” Kati subvocalized to Murra, once she had a part of his attention. (The part that was not concentrating on keeping track of the chattels.) “Are there boys in both of the big flyers?”
“Oh yes. And I’m quite sure that they’re all inside them; none were left behind, in the factory. I swept mentally through that building when the flyers took off, and there were no mind sparks of my kind left there. They’re all in the flyers.”
“Mikal thinks that I might be able to recognize Lume’s mental signature, since I know him. If the flyers separate, I’m to follow the one with Lume in it, and you stay with the other. That way we won’t lose either of them.”
“We may not have to do that, though we can if we need to.” Kati could sense the smile behind the boy’s thought. “Jaqui’s a good pilot, and a canny one. She’s planning to stay far enough behind the big machines that their pilots will think that they’ve lost us, but close enough that I can keep track of them. And the reporter, Minna, says that she knows where most of the abandoned buildings big enough to house a small factory are, in this area, and will be able to make a good guess as to where Yaroli is heading once she knows which direction the flyers are going.”
Showdown on the Planet of the Slavers Page 74