Ethan of Athos (20 page)

“Excuse me,” said Ethan, “but out of where?”

“Odds are, Millisor's quarters. Where you were questioned. Their quiet room, the one I've never been able to bug.” She ran her hands through her hair wildly. “How the hell am I going to do this? A frontal assault on a defended cube in the middle of a pack of innocent civilians in the delicate mechanical environment of a space station... ? Doesn't sound too efficient.”

“How did you rescue Dr. Urquhart?” asked Cee.

“I waited -- patiently -- for him to come out. I waited a long time for the best opportunity.”

“Quite a long time, yes,” Ethan agreed cordially. They exchanged tight smiles.

She paced back and forth like a frenzied tigress. “I'm being stampeded. I know I am. I can feel it. Millisor is reaching out for me through Teki. And Millisor's a man with no inhibitions about applying leverage. Q. E. D. -- Quinn Eats Dirt. Gods. Don't panic, Quinn. What would Admiral Naismith do in the same situation?” She stood still, facing the wall.

Ethan envisioned diving Dendarii starfighters, waves of space-armored assault troops, ominous lumbering high-energy weapons platforms jockeying for position.

“Never do yourself,” muttered Quinn, “what you can con an expert into doing for you. That's what he'd say. Tactical judo from the space magician himself.” Her straight back held the dynamism of zen meditation. When she turned her face was radiant with jubilation. “Yes, that's exactly what he'd do! Sneaky little dwarf, I love you!” She saluted an invisible presence and dove for the comconsole.

Cee glanced dismayed inquiry at Ethan, who shrugged helplessly.

The image of an alert-looking clerk in pine green and sky blue materialized above the vid plate. “Ecobranch Epidemiology Hotline. May I help you?” the clerk intoned politely.

“I'd like to report a suspected disease vector,” said Quinn in her most brusque, no-nonsense manner.

The clerk arranged a report panel at her elbow, poised her fingers over it. “Human or animal?”

“Human.”

“Transient or Stationer?”

“Transient. But he may even now be transmitting it to a Stationer.”

The clerk looked even more seriously interested. “And the disease?”

“Alpha-S-D-plasmid-3.”

The clerk's tapping hand paused. “Alpha-S-D-plasmid-2 is a sexually transmitted soft tissue necrosis that originated on Varusa Tertius. Is that what you mean?”

Quinn shook her head. “This is a new and much more virulent mutant strain of Varusan Crotch-rot. They haven't even bioengineered the counter-virus last I heard. Hadn't you people heard of it yet? You're fortunate.”

The clerk's eyebrows rose. “No, ma'am.” She tapped furiously, and made several adjustments to her recording equipment. “And the name of the suspected vector?”

“Ghem-lord Harman Dal, a Cetagandan art and artifacts broker. He has a new agency in Transients' Lounge, just licensed a few weeks ago. He comes in contact with a lot of people.”

Harman Dal, Ethan gathered, was Millisor's alias.

“Oh, dear,” said the clerk. “We're certainly glad to get this report. Ah...” the clerk paused, groping for phrasing. “And how did you come to know about this individual's disease?”

Quinn's stern gaze broke from the clerk's face to her own feet, to distant corners of the room, to her twisting hands. She positively shuffled. She'd have blushed if she'd had a chance to hold her breath long enough. “How would you think?” she muttered to her belt buckle.

“Oh.” The clerk did blush. “Oh. Well, in that case we are extremely grateful that you chose to come forward. I assure you all such epidemiological matters are handled in the strictest confidence. You must see one of our own quarantine physicians at once --”

“Absolutely,” agreed Quinn, feigning nervous eagerness. “Can I come down now? But -- but I'm terribly afraid that if you don't hurry, Dal is going to put three patients on your hands instead of just two. '

“I assure you, ma'am, our department is adept at handling delicate situations. Please place your ID so the machine can read it --”

Quinn did so, promised again to report directly to Quarantine, was reassured of anonymity and gratitude, and broke off.

“There, Teki,” she sighed. “Help is on the way. I've signed my real name to a criminal act, but the price was right.”

“Being sick is against the law here?” asked Ethan in startlement.

“No, but lodging a false report of a disease vector definitely is. When you see all the machinery it sets in motion you'll realize why they discourage practical jokers. But I'd rather face criminal charges than plasma fire any day. I'll put the fine on my expense account.”

Cee's face bore awed delight. “Will Admiral Naismith approve?”

“He may give me a medal.” Quinn winked at him, cheerful again. “Now. Ecobranch may get more resistance from their new patient than they expect. Best they get a little low-profile back-up, eh? Can you handle a stunner, Mr. Cee?”

“Yes, Commander.”

Ethan waved a hesitant hand. “I had Athosian Army basic training,” he heard himself volunteering insanely.

In the event, it was Ethan and not Cee whom Quinn chose to accompany her person on what she dubbed “the second wave of this assault.” She left the telepath stationed by the lift tubes at the end of Millisor's transient hostel corridor, arming him with the second stunner of her matching pair.

“Stay out of sight and pick off anybody who bolts,” she instructed him, “and don't be shy about firing. With a stunner you can always apologize for mistakes later.”

Ethan lifted an eyebrow at this as he turned to pace her down the corridor.

“All right, almost always, “she muttered, glancing back over her shoulder to check Cee's concealment in the confusion of potted plants, mirrors, and angled conversation niches that formed the decor of the lift tube foyer. Millisor's chosen hostel was clearly meant for a class of traveler beyond Ethan's budget.

About this time Ethan realized a fatal flaw in the attack plan. “You didn't give me a stunner,” he whispered urgently to Quinn.

“I only had two,” she murmured back impatiently. “Here. Take my medkit. You can be the medic.”

“What am I supposed to do, hit Rau over the head with it?”

She grinned briefly. “If you get the chance, sure. Meantime Teki's going to be needing an antidote to whatever they've pumped him full of. You'll probably be wanting the fast-penta antagonist. It's right in there next to the fast-penta. Unless things have gone really ugly, in which case I leave it up to your medical expertise.”

“Oh,” said Ethan, mollified. It almost made sense.

He was just opening his mouth with a newly-marshalled objection when Quinn bundled him into the limited and inadequate concealment of a door niche. Coming down the corridor from the opposite end, toward the bulk freight lift, were three silhouettes leading a sealed passenger pallet with the Ecobranch logo of a stylized fern and water blazoned on the front. Passing into the soft, luxurious light -- Ethan sensed someone had done some careful psychological studies of the response of the human brain to selected optical wavelengths -- the three figures resolved into a burly Station Security man and two ecotechs, one male, one female.

One bony, angular female whose very walk -- stalk -- radiated all the personal warmth and charm of a hatchet...

“God the Father,” squeaked Ethan, “It's Horrible Helda --”

“Don't panic,” Quinn hissed at him, pushing him back into the niche. It was scarcely 20 centimeters deep, not enough to hide one person, let alone two. “Just turn your back and pretend to be doing something normal and they'll scarcely notice you. Here, turn around, put your hand on the wall beside my head,” she arranged him hastily, “lean in, keep your voice down --”

“What am I pretending to be doing?”

“Cuddling. Now shut up and let me listen. And don't look at me like that or I'll start giggling. Though a few well-placed giggles might add conviction...”

Doing something normal? Ethan had never felt more abnormal in his life. His shoulder blades crawled in expectation of some lethal outburst from Millisor's room, just across the hall. It didn't help that he couldn't see what was coming. Quinn, of course, had a fine view, with the added bonus that her face was partly concealed by Ethan's arm and her body shielded from stray shots by his.

“Only one Security troop for their back-up?” Quinn muttered, eyes glinting between fluttering eyelashes. “Glad we came.”

A muffled peeping sound broke from her jacket. Her hand dove to wring it to silence. She lifted her beeper just far enough out to eye the numeric readout. Her lip curled.

“What is it?” whispered Ethan in her ear.

“That bastard Millisor's room comconsole number,” she murmured back sweetly, -curling her other hand realistically around the back of Ethan's neck. “So, he squeezed my code out of Teki. Probably wants me to call him up so he can make threats at me. Let him sweat.”

Ethan, growing desperate, pressed artistically close to her, oozing around to one side and winning himself a better view.

Ecotech Helda stabbed the door buzzer to Millisor's room and checked a report panel in her hand. “Ghem-lord Harman Dal? Transient Dal?”

There was no response.

“Is he home?” asked the other ecotech.

For answer Helda pointed to a sealed panel in the wall. Ethan guessed its colored lights must encode some sort of life-support usage reading, for the other ecotech said, “Ah. And with company, too. Maybe this is for real.”

Helda buzzed again. “Transient Dal, this is Kline Station Biocontrol Warden Helda. I require you to open this door at once or find yourself in violation of Biocontrol Regulations 176b and 2a.”

“At least give him time to get his pants on,” the other ecotech said. “I mean, this has gotta be embarrassing.”

“Let him be embarrassed,” said Helda shortly. “The dirtsucker deserves it, bringing his filthy --” she struck the buzzer again.

At the third no-response she pulled a device from her jacket and held it over the door locking mechanism. The device's lights twinkled; nothing happened.

“Gods,” said the other ecotech, startled, “they've blocked the emergency override circuits!”

“Now that's a violation of fire-safety regulations,” said the burly Security man happily, and tapped out a quick note on his report panel. At a look of inquiry from the other ecotech he explained his sudden good cheer. “You Biocontrol guys may be able to barge over every Transient civil rights guarantee on hearsay evidence but / gotta have documented justification or my tail goes on the line.” He sighed envy.

“Dal, unblock this door at once!” Helda yelled furiously into the intercom.

“We could cut off his food service from down below,” suggested the other ecotech. “He'd have to come out eventually.”

Helda ground her teeth. “I'm not waiting that long for some infected dirt-sucker to decide to get cooperative with me.” She moved to a sealed locked panel a little farther down the wall marked FIRE CONTROL: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY and stuck her ID card in its read-slot. Its transparent doors hissed obediently apart. They wouldn't have dared do otherwise, Ethan thought. She pressed a complex series of bright keypads.

A muffled hissing roar, and feint cries, penetrated from the sealed door to Millisor's room. Helda smiled satisfaction.

“What's she doing?” Ethan whispered in Quinn's shell-like ear.

Quinn was grinning ferociously. “Fire control. Downside, you have automatic sprinkler systems that fling water on fires. Very inefficient. Here we seal the room and pump out the air. Real fast. No oxygen, no oxidation. Millisor either wasn't smart enough or wasn't stupid enough to sabotage the fire control vents...”

“Er... isn't that rather hard on anyone trapped inside?”

“Normally there's an alarm to evacuate the room first. Helda overrode it.”

The unlocking device pressed over the door mechanism by the other ecotech twinkled and beeped. Frantic pounding came from the interior.

“Now Millisor wants to open it, and can't, because of the pressure differential, ' Quinn whispered.

After a good long pause Helda reversed the airflow. The doorseals parted with an audible pop and whoosh. Millisor and Rau, noses bleeding, stumbled gasping into the corridor, swallowing and working their jaws in an effort to equalize inner-ear pressure.

“Helda didn't even give the poor fellows a chance to tell her about their hostage,” Quinn smirked. “Efficient lady...”

Millisor finally got his breath. “Are you insane?” he snarled at the three Stationer officials. He focused on the Security man. “My diplomatic immunity --”

The Security man jerked his thumb at Helda. “She's in charge here.”

“Where is your warrant?” cried Millisor angrily. I “This space is legally paid for and possessed, and I
           
furthermore I hold a Class IV diplomatic waiver. You have no right to restrict or impede my movements for anything except a major felony charge --”

Ethan could not tell if the bluster was feigned or real, Harman Dal or Ghem-colonel Millisor talking.

“The rights you cite are for transients versus Security,” said Helda sharply. “A biocontrol emergency abrogates them all. Now step into the float pallet.”