Deserter (25 page)

Gluing on a sincere and flashy smile, Kris stepped forward. “I’m sorry. The police haven’t told me what happened out there.” That was true; she’d been telling the police. “You will have to ask them. However, I can tell you everyone at Nuu Enterprises is moving heaven and earth to get the people of Turantic what they need to beat this threatening epidemic. Remember, I can’t leave your beautiful planet until the quarantine is lifted. And I’m just as much at risk as any of you.” Kris let that sink in. Most of the newsies were nodding agreement.

One wasn’t. “But isn’t Wardhaven’s Navy, some of it paid for with our tax money, poised to invade us if we don’t accept membership in their new Society?”

Kris kept her face blank; Nelly was chasing rumors, but that one hadn’t shown up. This was probably the launch for it. Kris spoke carefully. “Wardhaven prospered in the last eighty years of peace. I don’t know anyone on Wardhaven who wants to throw that away. Our Navy is the minimum needed for defense.”

“But aren’t they drafting everyone? Even you, a Princess!”

“Lord no. I volunteered, much to my father’s dismay and my mother’s disappointment,” Kris said, trying to keep anger out of her voice and her pacing slow and friendly. She put on one of Tommy’s lopsided grins. “I could have those reactions confused. Mother’s dismay. Father’s disappointment. It was rather noisy around the house that evening.” That drew understanding laughs.

“But isn’t it true Wardhaven attacked Turantic in 2318, and King Raymond led that assault?” her inquisitor shouted. Heads turned toward the reporter; he had their attention now.

Kris allowed herself several blinks as if she was deep in thought. She’d read just about everything in print on her great-grandparents, including the obscure stuff before they started filling up the school’s history books. It was a minor part of Grampa Ray’s early life, but Kris remembered it.

“I think you have the date wrong,” she said. “It was over a hundred years ago. Those were the bad old days before the Society. Before even Unity. And as for my Grampa Ray leading the attack, you have to be kidding. Back then he was a brand-new Second Lieutenant. As a fresh-caught Ensign, I can tell you, we don’t lead anything. We go where we’re told. And I’m told I have to go now, so I hope you will excuse me.”

The assenting murmurs drowned out the next question from the gadfly, and Kris made good her escape to the limo.

One woman newsie managed to slip through the security screen. “I see you’re wearing a police department sweatsuit. Is it going to be the latest in fashion statements?”

“The cop who gave it to me said I’d earned it,” Kris said.

“Takes a lot to earn this crew’s respect.”

“Then you’ll have to ask them what they liked,” Kris said as she settled into her seat and Jack shut the door.

“Who was she?” Kris asked as Klaggath took his place. A bang on the limo’s roof, and the car pulled away.

“Her old lady’s a retired cop,” Klaggath said. “She brought Amy around to the station when she wasn’t a week old. I thought for sure she’d follow her mom onto the force, but she got bit by the writer’s bug and went bad.” That drew a laugh.

“But the stories she writes are good. She knows how to dig and doesn’t settle for the easy crap. And her editor has guts enough to publish what she brings in. I expect her story tomorrow will make interesting reading.”

A pouring rain started that caused the limo driver to slow. Kris rested her eyes out the window at a view that went from wealthy retreat to rural and then well-treed suburbia. She knew about as much as she was going to learn . . . without breaking a law. At her father’s knee she’d learned information was power. Somebody here wanted all that power. If Kris was to do anything but react to that power, she needed a lot more information than she had. Interesting do-loop she was caught in.

Kris came up for air just long enough to argue with Penny when she asked to be dropped off a few blocks from her apartment.

“We can drive you there.”

“Hey, Princess, it’s quit raining. It’s a beautiful evening. And I could use the exercise. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but chasing after you mainly required me to sit on my butt. Enough; let me walk.”

So Kris gave up and let her walk.

13

Kris paused a moment after Klaggath opened the limo door, her eyes resting on the loading dock across the parking lot from the public space elevator terminal. She could make out the names of a half dozen companies on the trucks backed up there. NELLY, YOU HAVE THOSE NAMES IN MEMORY?

YES, MA’AM.

“Thank you, Inspector. It’s been a long day. I’m ready to call it quits as soon as I get in. Why don’t you and your team save yourselves a run up and down the beanstalk?”

“No problem, Your Highness.”

“Then let me call it noblesse oblige and dismiss you to your families.”

The man chuckled. “You don’t want us around, huh?”

Kris swallowed.
Am I that transparent?
“I’m glad for all the hard work today, and I expect a lot of hard work in the coming days. Why take more from a limited resource?”

“Then we’ll do it your way. I will, however, see you safe to your ferry and have someone waiting topside for you.”

“That should be fine.”

Once the car began its climb, Jack leaned close to Kris. “What was that all about?”

“Tell me, Jack, you’re my Security Agent. What would you do if you heard me planning a crime?”

“I doubt if I’d change what I’ve always done when you do: try to keep you safe and unconvicted.”

“That’s nice of you, but do you think Klaggath would have the same doting attitude?”

“He has my sense of humor. Why not?”

“Then let’s just say, I don’t choose to include him, okay?”

“Spoilsport. What do you have in mind?”

“Why don’t you leave that to me and Nelly.”

“You girls have all the fun,” Jack said, but he leaned back in his chair and went into his usual practice of looking in 360 directions at once.

YOU HAVE SOMETHING ON YOUR MIND? Nelly put in.

THAT TIARA MOTHER BOUGHT ME: HOW MUCH SMART METAL DO YOU THINK IS IN IT?

FOUR HUNDRED TWELVE GRAMS.

HOW MANY ARMED RECONNAISSANCE BUGS DO YOU THINK YOU COULD MAKE FROM IT?

THAT WOULD DEPEND ON THE CAPABILITIES YOU WANTED IN EACH.

SNAPSHOT VIDEO, FULL SPECTRUM MESSAGE INTERCEPT. AND THE ABILITY TO DEFEND THEMSELVES IF ATTACKED BY ANY OF THE BUGS WE’VE RUN INTO.

INDOOR OR OUTDOOR?

OUTDOOR.

I AM ACCESSING TOMORROW’S FORECAST. WINDS WILL BE FIVE TO TEN METERS PER SECOND, FROM THE WEST. FIGHTING THAT WIND COULD TAKE A LOT OF FUEL. THAT ENLARGES THE BASIC STRUCTURE.

WHAT IF I RELEASED THEM UPWIND AND LET THEM RIDE ACROSS THEIR TARGET?

THAT WOULD CUT DOWN ON THAT REQUIREMENT. LET’S ASSUME I COULD GIVE YOU BETWEEN TWO HUNDRED AND THREE HUNDRED BUGS. WHAT WOULD WE TARGET?

LAY OUT THE MANUFACTURERS’ PLANTS FEEDING PRODUCT UP TO THE YARDS. ESPECIALLY THE ONES SENDING THE BIG STUFF.

THEY ARE ALL WITHIN THIRTY KLICKS OF THE ELEVATOR.

“You’re mighty quiet,” Tom said. “Cat got your tongue?”

“Sometimes, after a long, hard day, a girl just wants a bit of peace and quiet,” Kris said as Nelly named off a route that would cover all the major targets.

THAT SHOULD DO IT, Kris thought and sighed. Tomorrow looked like another busy day.

Kris had no sooner walked into the suite than Abby took her by storm. The woman was kind enough not to strip Kris of her wet underwear until she was out of public viewing. Not that Kris put up much of a fight as Abby maneuvered her into a warm tub. Settling into the suds with the jets already pulsing water against her, Kris let out a contented sigh. Happily, Abby did not chatter at Kris about the day but quietly bustled about the room, lighting candles and laying out clothes. Aromatherapy, she called it.

Kris enjoyed it. She let the warmth of the water flow into all her cold places, the pulsing jets massage tight muscles. Bad day, nice ending. Hopefully, tomorrow would end as well.

When Nelly announced all strange bugs in the rooms were destroyed or suborned, Kris called for a towel. Dry and wrapped in a fluffy robe, she hunted up Jack. “Dear, I need a favor.”

He looked up wearily from where he and Tom were trying their skills at chess. “If I’ve been promoted to
dear,
I guess I’m in deep trouble. Okay,
honey,
what do you want?”

Kris made a face at his familiarity. Honey was Mother and Father’s choice word and as empty as the space between them. “I expect that Klaggath has a woman or two passing as maids on this floor. Could you arrange through one of them for an extra uniform? I need a maid’s dress.”

“For what?”

“Invisibility. Either Penny or I are going out tomorrow, and we don’t want to be noticed when we do.” Kris intended to be the one going out, but Jack would be more cooperative if the final decision was delayed a few hours.

Jack stood, going into his “I know better” mode, but Tom looked up from the game and got the first word in. “What do you have on your mind?”

“Information is kind of short around here. Now I know why. Still, we need to know a whole lot more than we do. On the drive home, I passed a few ideas around with Nelly. She thinks she can convert that ridiculous tiara into several hundred microspies. Short-range little beggars, but still very effective. I figure one of us girls should make the rounds tomorrow of a couple of industrial plants. With luck, by this time tomorrow, we’ll know a whole lot more about what’s going on here.”

“And be subject to a whole lot of indictments for industrial espionage,” Jack said dryly.

“You have to be caught to be indicted, as my dear Father has said many times.” Kris smiled as if she’d never had a care.

“This is a bad idea.”

“Jack, that’s what you say about all my ideas.”

“No surprise, Kris, they usually are,” Tommy pointed out.

Kris kept a chair between her and Jack. “Enough silliness. We need info. You have any better idea, I’m listening.”

Jack studied her with a scowl. “Problem is, Tom, there’s nothing wrong with her logic.” Now that was a surprise.

“There never is, Jack. It’s just that she comes up with the most logical ways to get herself killed and anyone too close.”

Kris swung around the chair and sat. “We’re in a trap. There is no visible way out. We’re not going to find a way out by doing nothing. Information is power. Let’s get some power.”

“I hate it when you do that,” Tom said. “Totally right, but no thought to cost. Jack, you going to get her that uniform?”

“He won’t have to,” Abby called from the bedroom. “I picked one up yesterday.”

“You care to explain why you just happened to have your fair hands on a bit of stolen property?” Jack said.

Abby came to the door, brown uniform in hand. “I’m a working girl, gentlemen. I have a right to a few nights off. If I want to get away without a lot of fuss, it’s my own business. I came to an amicable understanding with one of the maids. We working girls understand each other,” she said with a sniff.

“I don’t like this,” Jack said.

“Call coming in,” Nelly said.

“On-screen,” Kris said.

“Is Tommy Lien available at this number?” a man in medical whites asked.

“Yes,” Tommy said, jumping to stand in front of the screen.

“A Miss Penelope Pasley asked me to call you. She’s fine, but she’s kind of beat up and won’t be able to make it tomorrow.”

“What do you mean, she’s beat up?” Kris and Tommy demanded.

“We admitted her to Heidelburg Central Hospital a half hour ago with a possible concussion and multiple lacerations and contusions. Possibly assaulted in other ways. The police are taking a deposition. She will need lots of rest.”

“Tell Penny I’ll be right there,” Tommy said.

Kris was already moving. “Nelly, raise Klaggath. Tell him the day’s not over, and he’s needed at Central Hospital.”

 
At first glance it was hard to spot any area of Penny’s body not black or blue. Yet the woman’s first reaction was to pull the sheet over herself to block her pain from view as Kris led the crew into her hospital room.

“Who did this?” from Kris was overrun by Tom’s dash for the bedside and a shout of “Holy Mother of God.” He reached out a consoling hand, then yanked it back, afraid any touch would only add to Penny’s pain. She let the sheet fall and rested a bandaged hand in Tom’s.

“I guess I ran into a bad crowd,” Penny said through barely moving lips. A cut above her mouth cracked open and began to bleed. Kris took a cotton ball from the bedside table and dabbed at the blood, anger making her hand tremble.

“Hey, Tommy, don’t look so pale. I don’t feel nearly as bad as I look,” sounded good, but the wince as she said it robbed the words of consolation.

“Don’t talk, honey,” Tom whispered. “You don’t have to say a word. We’re here for you. You just rest.”

As the Lieutenant followed the JG’s orders and relaxed against the pillow, her gown fell open, revealing a bruised and stitched breast. Kris pulled the sheet up to cover Penny and turned to face a tight-lipped Jack just as Klaggath entered.

“Who did this?” she demanded of the cop.

“We can talk better outside,” the Inspector said.

Kris and Jack left Tom clinging gently to Penny’s hand. The door hadn’t closed before Kris demanded, “Talk to us.”

“She was set upon by five or six assailants less than a block from her apartment and dragged into an alley. There were no witnesses other than Penny. She was found unconscious when a man came out to empty his trash. Based on the time lapse between when we dropped her off and her being discovered, I suspect she was unconscious about an hour.”

“How bad is she?” Jack asked.

“The concussion is the main worry. Her skull is intact, but we don’t know how badly scrambled the brain is. She was beat up over most of her body.”