[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

his military serial number."
Definitely the pool. "Colonel Millisor is under arrest by Kline Station
Page 208
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Security. You want to get a message to him, go see them."
"Ah." The man smiled. "Perhaps I shall. Still, who can say what chances the
turning of the great wheel may bring us? Take it anyway. If no opportunity
arises to deliver it, throw it away." He tried to press the little oblong on
Ethan, who foiled him by backing up. Rather than chase Ethan skipping
backwards down the mall, the man paused, shaking his head. He laid the message
capsule down on a bench Ethan had put between them. "I leave it to your
discretion, sir." He bowed with a flourish of his hand reminiscent of a
genuflection, and turned to go.
"I'm not touching it," Ethan stated flatly. The man smiled over his shoulder
as he stepped into a nearby lift tube. "I'll take it to Security!' Ethan
shouted. The man cupped his hand to his ear and shook his head, rising up the
crystal tube. "I'll I'll " Ethan swore under his breath as the pink
apparition ascended out of sight.
Ethan circled the bench, watching the little oblong from the corner of his
eye. With a wordless growl, he finally pocketed it. He would take it to
Captain Arata, then, at the first opportunity, and let him worry about it. He
glanced at his chronometer, and hurried on.
He had to take a tube-car to the docking bay, which was in a freight section
on the opposite side of the Station from Transients' Lounge. This time he had
a map ready to hand, and made no wrong turns.
The docking bay was extremely quiet. A single flex tube was activated,
indicating a small ship on the other side, perhaps a fast courier hired
especially for the occasion. In any case, not a commercial run lading other
cargo. Quinn's expense account must be elastic indeed, Ethan reflected.
Terrence Cee, dressed in his green Stationer coveralls, sat wanly on a packing
case, alone in the middle of the bay. He looked up as Ethan stepped out of a
ramp corridor. "You came quickly, Dr. Urquhart."
Ethan glanced at the flex tube. "I figured you were catching a scheduled run
of some sort. I didn't realize you'd be traveling in this much style."
"I thought perhaps you wouldn't come at all."
"Because why? Because I'd found out the whole truth about that shipment?"
Ethan shrugged. "I can't say I approve of what you tried to do. But given the
obvious problems your your race, I guess would suffer as a minority anywhere
else, I think I can understand why."
A melancholy smile lit Cee's face, then was gone. "You do? But of course. You
would." He shook his head. "I should have said, I hoped you would not come."
Ethan followed the direction of his nod.
Quinn stood in the shadows by a girder. But she was an unusually
frazzled-looking Quinn. Her crisp jacket was gone, and she wore only a black
T-shirt and her uniform trousers. Her boots were gone, too. And, Ethan
realized as she moved into the light, her stunner holster was empty.
She moved because she was prodded by a man in the orange and black uniform of
Kline Station Security. So they'd caught up with her at last. Ethan nearly
chuckled. Watching her wriggle out of this one ought to be just fascinating. .
. .
His humor drained away as he caught a better look at the weapon with which the
compact, bland-faced man was poking her spine. A lethal nerve disruptor.
Altogether non-regulation for Security.
At the ring of footsteps Ethan turned his head the other way, to find Millisor
and Rau walking toward them.
Chapter Thirteen
Ethan and Quinn were shoved together within the potential radius of fire from
the bell-muzzle of the nerve disruptor, held in the tense hand of the man in
the Security uniform. Cee was segregated from them under Rau's stunner. It
needed nothing more than that to give Ethan a silent appreciation of their
relative status.
Quinn looked even worse close up, with a split swollen lip, and white and
Page 209
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
shaking from either pain or the aftereffects of low stun. She seemed shorter
without her boots. Cee stumbled like a corpse looking only for a place to lie
down; congealed, cold, the blue light of his eyes extinguished.
"What happened?" Ethan whispered to Quinn. "How did they ever find you when
Security couldn't?"
"I forgot the damned beeper," she hissed back through clenched teeth.
"Should've shoved it down the first trash vent we passed. I knew it was
compromised! But Cee was arguing with me, and I was in a hurry, and oh, hell,
what's the use . . ." She bit her lip in frustration, winced, and licked it
tenderly. Her eyes returned again and again to their opponents, adding up the
unfavorable odds, rejecting the sum and trying again with no better luck.
Millisor walked around them, smooth and smug. "So glad you could make it, Dr.
Urquhart. We could have arranged accidents for you and the commander
separately, but having you both together allows us a rather exquisite
opportunity for efficiency."
"Vengeance?" quavered Ethan. "But we never tried to kill you."
"Oh, no," Millisor protested. "Vengeance has nothing to do with it. You both
simply know too much to live."
Rau grinned nastily. "Tell them the rest, Colonel," he urged.
"Ah, yes. With your sense of humor, Commander, you will particularly like this
one. Observe, if you will, all those unused flex tubes on the outer wall.
Sealed at both ends, they make a very private little compartment. Just the
spot for a couple with rather odd tastes in adventure to arrange a tryst. How
unfortunate that, in the sound sleep following their exertions "
Rau waved his stunner cheerfully, by way of indicating just how that sound
sleep was to be achieved.
" the flex tube is vented into space in preparation for locking in the
auto-conveyer from a freighter hold. Said freighter being due in this docking
bay immediately after my courier departs. Shall we leave you two entirely [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]