A Dark and Hungry God Arises (45 page)

ears as he thought about the damage Milos could do.

Thanks to his zone implants, however, he spoke with untroubled confidence. 'Don't worry about it. I can handle him.

'Succorso' - he turned sharply on Nick - 'it's time to make up your mind. Shit or get out of the head. ' For an instant the discrete operations taking place inside him came together. We're going after Morn. Are you in or out? The truth is, I need you. I need all the help I can get. But I'm not going to force you. It'll be too easy for you to give us away.

'Say yes or get off my ship. '

Davies tensed. He may not have understood Milos'

betrayals, but he knew too much about Nick's. Leaning forward despite the pain in his ribs, he protested quickly,

'Angus, don't let him go. He'll tell them we're coming.

That's the way his mind works. He'll think if he shows them his "good faith" they'll let him off the hook. '

Angus didn't hesitate. 'I'll take that chance. '

'But-!' Davies began.

'Shut up, ' Angus told the boy calmly. His datacore imposed calm. He kept his gaze on Nick. 'I said I'll take the chance. '

Cocking his fists on his hips, he showed Nick his teeth.

'Yes or no, Captain Sheepfucker. Pick one. Pick it now. '

Again Nick tried to laugh, but the attempt sounded hollow and beaten — as damaged as his eyes. 'You're crazy. I guess I have to keep saying that. You're crazy.

No, you stupid, suicidal sonofabitch. No. Is that clear enough? I'm not going to help you. I just hope I get to see you again someday - after the Amnion have had time to play with you for a while. '

'In that case' - Angus raised the fist gripping Morn's id tag - 'get the hell off my ship. '

'You're crazy, ' Nick repeated. 'Completely. '

Nevertheless he obeyed. His boots stamped loudly up the companionway treads and along the passage until he reached the midship lift. A moment later Angus heard the lift doors close; heard servos hum as the lift descended toward the airlock.

He turned back to Davies. Now he had to fight his way through half a dozen programs, all running simultaneously, in order to talk to his son. Obviously his datacore didn't care how frightened Davies felt.

'He won't warn the Amnion. He thinks that's what he's going to do, but he'll change his mind - as soon as he has time to think about what Milos might be doing. '

Davies studied him bleakly. What's that supposed to mean?'

Demands and instructions thronged in Angus' brain.

He was full of scenarios played out against the backdrop of his experience; of possibilities raised and discarded; of outcomes analyzed: simultaneous hope and despair.

Tight with stress, he retorted, 'I haven't got time for long explanations. We need to get ready. Whatever we decide to do, we need to do it and be done before the Bill figures out where you are. As soon as that happens, we're out of choices. '

But Davies couldn't let go of his fear. It came from too many different sources inside him: he'd remembered too many horrors. His hands made small, incomplete movements; his gaze pleaded for Angus' attention.

Surprised at his own tolerance - and at his ability to act on it - Angus watched his son and waited. Although he'd spent his life hiding it, he knew exactly how the boy felt.

'It's too much —' Davies murmured. Too many plots.

Too much to remember. I don't know who I can trust. '

He shook his head; swallowed roughly, as if he were fighting tears. 'Did I - ?' he asked like a scrape of pain.

'Did she really blow up Starmaster?

Angus had to resist inexorable machine pressure to continue facing his son. His datacore had other things for him to do. Nevertheless the men who'd designed his commands and compulsions valued his knowledge of illegals, his familiarity with Billingate, his training in extreme situations. On some occasions, to some extent, he was allowed to exercise a little discretion.

He gave Davies a sharp nod. That's the only reason I'm still alive. And it's the only reason I got her. She was too horrified to defend herself.

'You Hylands need to stop letting yourselves react like that. It makes you too vulnerable. '

Drying blood slowly crusted around Davies' eyes.

After a moment he said, 'Yes, ' as if he were accepting a legacy.

That was all the time Angus' zone implants let him have. Stiffly he pulled away.

Where the hell is Milos?' he growled. 'We've got to get you to sickbay. '

Too late he realized the truth. Like Nick, Milos had left the ship.

Sorus Chatelaine walked into the Bill's strongroom and found him fulminating like a vial of phos-phorus.

'Have you heard already?' he snapped as soon as he saw her. 'Does everybody on this bloody rock already know what those bastards did to me?'

Surrounded by computer stations, data terminals, and display screens, he prowled the tight circle of his command center. The rest of the room was as dark and empty as a cavern: every light focused on him and his equipment. In the intense illumination he looked like he was burning. Lean as an ascetic, he might have been a martyr splashed with tallow and set aflame.

She moved closer, stopped just outside his circle. 'How can I answer that?' she asked steadily. She had her own reasons for anger - even for fear - but as a matter of policy she never let the Bill see her vulnerabilities. 'You haven't said which bastards you're talking about. '

'This is your fault!' he barked, sounding more than ever like an outraged child. 'You were supposed to be interrogating him. ' For an instant he paused to glare at her. 'Hell, Sorus, I gave you permission to torture him.

What more did you need?'

'All right. ' She faced the Bill squarely. 'We're talking about Davies. ' Her rich contralto betrayed nothing. 'But I still don't understand. You said "bastards", plural. '

'And Davies Hyland himself is a bastard, I know, I know. ' Fluttering his hands, the Bill resumed his prowl.

His eyes hunted his screens and readouts for answers they didn't provide. 'Spare me your sense of humor at a time like this. Why weren't you with him, doing what I told you?'

Sorus permitted herself a small sigh. 'I needed time to think. I wasn't sure how to tackle him. And'—she skipped a beat or two in order to focus the Bill's attention on her

- 'I still wasn't sure what Succorso was up to. I've tried to tell you he might be plotting something more complex than we realize. I wanted to learn more about that, if I could. It would be worth knowing in any case — it might be crucial - but it would also help me decide how to approach Davies. '

Unnecessarily she concluded, 'I wasn't particularly interested in torturing him just for the fun of it. '

The Bill snarled through his teeth. 'Then why are you here, at this particular moment, if you haven't already heard?'

'Heard what? she countered. Her private anger and alarm took the form of exasperation. 'You aren't making much sense. '

'Sorus!' he retorted loudly, 'I need answers!' His long fingers pointed at screens and terminals all around him.

'I already have enough questions. '

'All right. All right. ' It was obvious that she would have to go along with him. She acceded because she wanted to know what had happened. 'I'll tell you what I've heard. The only thing I've heard. That's why I'm here.

'There's a rumor in circulation that I'm' - she needed more emphasis - 'that I am dealing in mutagen immunity drugs. Me!'

The Bill stared at her while she explained:

'Some of my crew overheard two spacers talking about it. In a bar-and-sleep on the cruise. I tried to get my hands on them, but they were gone.

'I want to know who they are. That's why I'm here. I want you to identify them for me, so I can find out what's going on. Is that enough, or do I need to act as upset as you?'

'Oh, spare me your histrionics. ' The Bill studied her with a seriousness which belied his sour tone. 'You're too emotional as it is. ' He was talking to give himself time to think. 'A mutagen immunity drug? Are you sure?'

She shrugged. 'That's what my people heard. '

'What a coincidence. ' The Bill raised his hands to his head like a man who meant to pull out his hair. What a fucking coincidence. '

'That's what I thought, ' she returned shortly.

'I mean, look at it, ' he went on as if she hadn't spoken.

'First Davies Hyland plants the idea of an immunity drug.

Well, he's a desperate kid. He might say anything he could think of, just to make me reluctant to sell him. But still the idea is a provocative one. Naturally I want to learn the truth, so I ask you to get it for me.

Then look what happens. A couple of spacers start talking about immunity drugs - and you. Entirely by accident, of course, ' he snorted, 'they do it where your people can hear them. Then they disappear.

'And then' - his teeth snapped at the air as if he wanted to tear it into hunks - 'Davies himself disappears!'

'What?' For an instant Sorus couldn't control her chagrin.

'Disappears!' the Bill repeated. 'I mean literally. Right out of his cell. Leaving behind two dead guards, both of them apparently killed by lasers, and a burned doorlock. '

Sorus couldn't help herself: she was too badly surprised. 'That's absurd, ' she protested stupidly. 'You're making it up. '

Full of vehemence, the Bill gestured for her to step inside his circle. 'Come see for yourself. '

He typed in commands, as fast as scattershot, while she moved to join him. The instant she reached his side, he pointed urgently at two screens.

'The guards were wired, of course. This is what they saw. '

Both screens showed an empty corridor from slightly different angles. Sorus recognized the short hall outside the rooms the Bill used as cells. The indicators on the opposite wall told her a lift was on its way down.

The lift arrived: the doors opened.

Like the corridor, the car was empty.

There seemed to be an area of slight distortion, maybe a smudge, in the center of the images: she couldn't be sure.

Abruptly a hand appeared in the air beside the smudge.

It disappeared again.

At the same time lines of coherent light ran from the vacant lift to the guards. Both recorded images fell until they pressed against the floor. From their divergent angles, what little they could see of the corridor remained empty.

'And that's not all, ' the Bill said tensely. 'I've got another dead guard. Outside that same lift on one of the upper levels. Apparently he was shot from behind.

Another laser. '

Sorus felt pressure building in her chest. 'What about the bugeye in the cell?' she asked tightly.

The Bill gave a disgusted snarl; keyed more commands.

The inside of the room appeared on one screen.

Davies stood there, poised and staring in shock. A voice said, 'Shit. Shit. Shit, ' but it obviously wasn't the boy's. His mouth was open, but he wasn't swearing: he was screaming. Wild as a tormented animal, he flung his fist at the blank air.

Then the bugeye itself went blank. The screen picked up nothing but distortion: electronic white noise.

After a moment the distortion crackled away, leaving the monitor clear to scrutinize a room with no one in it.

'That, ' Sorus breathed, 'is not possible. '

'Did you see the smudge?' the Bill demanded.

She nodded dumbly.

'Operations is working on it. Preliminary analysis suggests it might be caused by a refractive jamming field. If that's true, whoever did this had to carry their own power supply and emitter. And it must have been' - he gestured around him harshly - 'about the size of all this. Even if it fit in the lift, it would have been hell to move. And moving it would have attracted a hell of a lot of attention.

So that's not possible either. '

Sorus shook her head, trying to clear it. Automatically, simply saying the first words that occurred to her, she suggested, 'Unless the Amnion can do it. Their equipment has always been better than ours. '

'Do you suppose I haven't considered that?' the Bill bellowed. 'Do you think I'm so goddamn secure here I can afford to dismiss an idea like that?' Almost immediately, however, his voice frayed to softness. As if he were defeated, he muttered, 'I asked them. They say they haven't got him.

'They could lie, of course. But what would be the point? If they want him that badly, they didn't have to steal him. They didn't have to do me this kind of damage.

All they had to do was pay for him.

'Sorus' - now he sounded like he was pleading with her—'all they had to do was give me the money they took away from Captain Nick. They were willing to spend it in any case. What does it matter if I get it instead of him?

Stealing his merchandise doesn't improve their position with him. Assuming they have a position they want to improve. It just lets him off the hook.

Why would they do a thing like that? They've got him where they want him right now — they're squeezing his balls dry, and there's nothing he can do about it. '

'I don't know, ' Sorus murmured, chewing her lip; thinking hard. As far as she could see, the Amnion had nothing to gain by snatching Davies. 'Maybe there's more going on here than we know about. ' She didn't have a theory: she was merely groping. 'Maybe this story about an immunity drug is true. '

An intuitive frisson ran down her spine.

'I think, ' she continued tightly, 'we need to know who started that rumor about me. '

The Bill frowned at her, uncharacteristically puzzled.

But he didn't hesitate. 'Where? What time?'

'A place called Paunchys. ' She gave him her best estimate of the time.

At once he swung to another terminal and began running commands.

This kind of data retrieval was rapid. A heartbeat or two after he entered his instructions, the screens above the terminal flickered to life.

She recognized Paunchys easily: the bugeyes gave her several different angles on the room. Everyone sitting at the tables or leaning against the bar showed clearly.

Fortuitously the playback started just as her people left their table to head for Soar.