Appointment At Bloodstar Part 7

Her voice was filled with a thousand promises, and the view being offered was a glimpse of paradise itself. No healthy heteros.e.xual male could have resisted the opportunity to take an extra long glance in Yvette's direction, even if he had no serious thoughts about taking her up on her offer. The pirate guard fell prey to the trap, and it proved his undoing.

Pias took the chance when it was offered. As the Pirate diverted his gaze to Yvette, the Newforester brought up his small weapon and fired. The pirate dropped to the ground, the last thought in his mind being the sight of Yvette's plunging dcolletage.

"What took you so long?" Yvette asked as she b.u.t.toned up her blouse again. "I nearly had the whole thing off before you shot him."

"I'm a man too, mv love," Pias replied.. "Aren't I ent.i.tled to look? If I'm going to marry you, I should have the right to inspect the merchandise once in a while." He walked over and nudged the limp body with his foot. "What'll we do with him? He'll only be out for two hours."

"We'll need a longer head start than that. If _he doesn't report back to his boss he might not be missed for a long time; but if we just leave him bound and gagged somewhere, someone might discover him prematurely." She paused. "Much as I hate to do it to anyone, I think that may be our only answer." And she gestured with her head to indicate the airlock.

Pias nodded grimly. "I'm still pretty new to killing, but I'm afraid I have to agree. He was, after all, more than willing to do it to us. At least he'll have the benefit of being unconscious when it happens. And maybe his ghost will get satisfaction from knowing he'll haunt my conscience every once in a while."

He bent down to help Yvette drag the body across the floor and into the airlock, even though he knew his fiancee was quite strong enough to do it herself. "At least the last thing he saw in his life was a sight of incredible beauty," Pias said, but Yvette ignored the flattery.

They closed and dogged the inner door, then Pias turned the k.n.o.b that would open the outer one. Neither of them looked through the small window at what was happening to the body of the pirate who'd been about to kill them. Instead, they walked a few meters away from the door before saying another word.

"I suppose our next move," Pias said, his voice barely more than a whisper, "is to steal a s.h.i.+p and get out of here. Once we're back on an inhabited planet, we can report what's happened."

"Can you fly a s.h.i.+p?" Yvette asked. "Never had the time to learn."

"Same here. Jules always handled that department. I specialized in other things."

"We could always ask Ling and his men if they'd be so kind as to fly us home."

"Cynicism ill becomes you, mon cher. Things aren't that hopeless yet. With luck, we'll have between two and six hours before our escape is detected. That should be time to do a great number of things. Let's scout out the territory before we make any hasty plans."

They inspected the rest of the air recycling plant with a closer eye for detail. The dome was big and empty except for the greenery and its maintenance equipment, plus the mining and oxygen-separation machinery. "No one seems to come here very often," Pias observed. "It might be a good place to hide out."

"If they really get a search party organized, this is one of the first places they'd look," Yvette pointed out. "We couldn't hide from a systematic search, not in here."

Pias shook his head and looked at his feet. "Sometimes, darling, you make me feel very stupid and incompetent at this business."

She ran a hand through his curly brown hair. "Cheer up. You've only been at this a couple of months. I grew up on it, remember? Don't worry, you'll learn."

Against one wall of the dome they found the pumps that forced the rejuvenated air down into the labyrinth of underground tunnels that made up the base. "Oh, what I wouldn't do for a few liters of tirascaline right now," Yvette said. "Pouring that into the system would put everybody to sleep in minutes and we could go around tying them up at our leisure."

Pias was spending more of his time eyeing the ducts themselves. "These are enormous," he commented. "I guess they have to be, for workmen to get inside and repair them if anything goes wrong."

He and Yvette looked at one another simultaneously, smiles lighting up both their faces. "And they go all around the base," Yvette continued his thought. "They could take us anywhere we want to go. You see, mon amour, I have no monopoly on brilliant ideas."

Pias grimaced. "But the same problem applies. Once they know we're on the loose, they'll start looking, and the idea may occur to them, too. It wouldn't be too difficult to flush us out of the ventilating system if they really wanted to."

Yvette pondered that for a long moment, wondering what her brother would do under the circ.u.mstances. While she knew that she was, by a very slight margin, the more insightful of the pair, Jules was usually the one who came up with the better plans. I've gotten too used to letting him do certain things, she thought. I should develop my own talents independently.

"There's got to be a way around that," she said at last. "Let's give it a little chance to formulate in our minds. In the meantime, we're very exposed right now if any pirate should happen by here. Let's get into the ventilating ducts now and worry about escape while we're out of sight. How do we get this grating off?"

Pias studied the way the grate was fastened in place. "There look to be some hooks holding it from the inside." He reached his hand through the slot and extended his arm through as far as he could. After a couple of tries, the latch unhooked and Pias was able to pull one side of the grill away from the opening. After unhooking the latch on the other side, the entire grating came away and they were able to get inside the duct itself.

Because of their comparatively short height as natives of high-grav planets, they discovered that they were able to stand up straight within the duct. The interior of the tunnel was dark and the floor was quite smooth, making walking hazardous, but there were handholds placed at intervals in the walls for the convenience of workmen who might someday need to make interior repairs.

"This is a great system," Pias said as he pulled the grate back into place behind them. "We can travel anywhere we want throughout the base, open the grill from the inside and leave, then come back in when we want without anyone knowing it, if we're careful not to be seen. Let's go exploring, shall we?"

They began walking carefully and quietly through the large metal tunnel. The floor sloped downward toward the planetoid's interior, indicating that most of the base was located beneath ground level. Yvette had been expecting that; it was much easier to dig tunnels into the rock to make an underground village than to build a dome over a surface one. The native rock would insulate against the worst extremes of temperature, and all it would require was a little airproofing to make sure the atmosphere didn't leak slowly away.

"I hope we find their kitchen fairly soon," Pias whispered as they walked.

Yvette's stomach was insistently reminding her that it had been a long time since she, too, had eaten her last meal. But there were priorities to be established. "First things first. We have to plan for our eventual rescue. Since we can't leave this asteroid to get help, we'll have to ask the help to come to us. For that, I'll need to find their computer and the communications center."

Pias nodded, even though he knew Yvette wouldn't be able to see the gesture in the darkness. She was right-they'd have to send out a call for help before they could think of any more worldly requirements. But he was hungry.

Light seeped into the duct from various gratings ahead of them. Looking out, Pias and Yvette found a number of common rooms where the pirates could spend their leisure time. Smaller ducts branched out from the one in which the SOTE agents were walking, probably to individual sleeping quarters, they decided. They continued on their way.

They came to the large room where the crew and pa.s.sengers of the Querida were being held captive. There were only two guards armed with blasters stationed at the door to oversee better than forty people; with just the blaster they had taken from the pirate they'd killed, Yvette would have been able to eliminate those two guards without even leaving the duct, thereby freeing all their fellow captives. But at the moment that would be a foolish act; she would have to develop a definite plan before tipping her hand so conclusively-otherwise she would have to herd forty people around in enemy territory, with no one knowing what they were doing. She and Pias made a mental note of where this place was, then continued on their travels.

They came to one end of the duct; the corridor branched at right angles to either side of them. Making a decision at random, they took the right-hand tunnel. It was darker than before, with no side gratings to indicate separate rooms. They continued for a long while before they noticed the light at the far end growing brighter. By the time they reached it and gazed out, they were amazed at what they saw.

Just outside the grating was a domed enclosure like the air recycling plant, only smaller. Tools, construction equipment, and racks of s.p.a.cesuits were stacked around the interior, and there was an airlock on the farther side. Outside the transparent dome was a fleet of better than fifty s.h.i.+ps. They varied greatly in size and model-small luxury yachts, independent carriers, good-sized cargo vessels-but all looked ready to fly should the order be given.

The two agents backed a little way into the duct to ponder this development. They both knew that ordinary pirates -did not need a fleet that big to do their job. They were, for the most part, independent operators who did not work in fleets. One s.h.i.+p, or two at the most, was usually enough for them to accomplish their purpose. After they'd looted a s.h.i.+p, they usually left it floating in s.p.a.ce. But these pirates apparently took their catches back to their base and rebuilt them. For what purpose?

"They must be building an army," Yvette concluded. She explained to Pias about the medallion she had seen around the neck of Ling, the pirate leader, and that she and Jules had learned it was the recognition symbol of important members within an Empire-wide conspiracy. She made no mention of Lady A, saying only that the conspiracy was masterminded by some pretty shrewd operators.

Pias nodded slowly. "There's no better way to get s.h.i.+ps than to steal them, I suppose," he agreed. "But where are they going to attack, and when?"

"I don't know, but it's our job to prevent it if at all possible. That's just one more reason why we have to find some way of getting out of this mess-and fast. Let's see what we can find back along the other corridor."

As they walked back in the other direction, the glimmering of a plan' began to form in Yvette's mind. It made beautiful use of everything they'd found so far-these air ducts, the other prisoners, the rebuilt s.h.i.+ps. But it was all contingent upon her being able to put in a call for help. They had to find the communications center.

They reached the point where the duct had branched off, and this time explored the-,left-hand tunnel. This led to a more populated portion of the pirate base, and they did indeed locate the kitchen and dining areas. Further on they found what they'd been looking for: a room filled with electronic gadgetry and banks of flas.h.i.+ng lights, together with a powerful subcom transmitter/receiver. Unfortunately there were two pirates stationed on duty here at the moment-and the grating separating Pias and Yvette from the outside room was only wide enough for one of them at a time to crawl through.

They conferred for a moment and decided on a plan. Pias waited at the grill with his ministunner all set. The instant one of the men came within range, he fired. The general hum of machines inside the room drowned out the faint buzzing of the stunner; to the other man, it would appear as though his friend had suddenly fainted in the middle of the floor. As he came over to help the fallen pirate, the second man also became a victim of Pias's small but effective weapon. With those two out of commission, Pias quickly slipped off the grate that covered the duct's outlet, and he and Yvette invaded the room.

"Stand guard for me," Yvette said. "I'll need about half an hour in here. First I have to take some astrogational measurements and figure out exactly where we are, and then I have to call the Circus for help."

"Why not SOTE or the navy? They might be closer than your family."

"No, the navy is fine when you need muscle, but we've got a situation here that requires a little finesse. Remember, there are forty-some innocent people down here that we'll want to get out alive-including ourselves. The navy's style would be to bomb this place into insensibility; it would work, but the cost would be high. My family is a little more flexible."

After stacking the two unconscious pirates in one corner and taking their weapons from them, Pias had nothing to do except watch Yvette go through. her complex calculations at the computer. Her exact procedure was a mystery to him. In the four months he had spent at the Service Academy, he had only had time to take the basic indoctrinational courses; he still had no knowledge of the more esoteric fields such as astrogation or s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p piloting. He made a silent vow, though, as he watched his fiance work, that he would learn everything he might possibly need to help him perform his job better; he did not enjoy feeling this helpless in a desperate situation.

At last Yvette received the answers she wanted and turned to the subcom unit. "Let's see," she said under her breath, "as I recall the schedule, the Circus should be on Carafla about now. That's not too far away." And she began the complicated dialing procedure that would allow her to send an instant message to her father's personal subcom receiver.

It took another five minutes before the screen lit up and a three-dimensional image of her father's head appeared. He looked tired and grumpy, as though he'd been awakened late at night-and the odds were good that he had been. "Who is... Yvette!" His face lit up as he saw her image on his own screen. "How are you?"

Yvette had to choose her words carefully. There was no scrambler on the subcom she was using, which meant there was always a risk of this call being intercepted. Whatever she said would have to sound innocuous. "Perfect, Papa. Just perfect."

Etienne d'Alembert's eyes narrowed just the tiniest crack. The d'Alemberts had a verbal code for communicating when there was a possibility of eavesdropping, and the word "perfect" meant that things were far from it. His daughter was in trouble and she was calling him for help. Any suggestion of fatigue left his face instantly.

They talked for another five minutes. Although their conversation sounded rambling and sometimes silly to Pias-as it was intended to sound to any outsider an enormous amount of information was exchanged. Yvette managed to tell her father that she was stranded on a pirate's asteroid, and that she was currently free to move about, but couldn't leave. She was able to encode the exact position of the asteroid, and she in- formed him that there was a fleet of s.h.i.+ps on the surface that could conceivably be launched against him. And she told him that there were more than forty people besides herself in need of rescuing.

For his part, Etienne acknowledged her information and replied that he could have a full d'Alembert attack force at the asteroid within four days, and that he would make sure the navy backed them up, though it would take no part in the actual a.s.sault. Yvette a.s.sured him she could hold out that long, and told him she loved him. That last part did not need to be encoded. Her father echoed the sentiment and they signed off.

Though Yvette had said she'd be all smooth, she was far from confident. She and Pias and the other prisoners would have to hold out against the pirates for four days on the latter's home territory. She hoped it could be done.

CHAPTER 10.

The Accident The man Howard had hired to arrange Jules's and Vonnie's accident was a professional Howard had used on similar occasions before. He knew that their deaths should occur far enough away from Howard's house that suspicion could not possibly fall on the criminal leader. He also knew it should take him long enough to drive to the proper location for Howard to establish a solid alibi. The car in which the accident would occur was a stolen one, so it would not be traceable to anyone connected with Howard's gang when it was found smashed at the bottom of a hillside. All the details had been worked out precisely.

This killer had a favorite spot for his work-an isolated mountain road twenty kilometers from Howard's house. Like many of the mountain roads in Southern California, it had its share of hairpin curves, each of which had a history of sending motorists to their deaths. The hillside below the road was thick with underbrush, so the car might remain unnoticed for hours or days, if all went well. And there was a nearby hiking trail that the killer could take to walk down the mountainside and be back within the limits of civilization in an hour and a half, from which point he could call a cab to get him home.

The man was concentrating so much on the details of this accident that he failed to notice Vonnie's slight stirring in the back seat. The shock she bad received from Howard's burglar deterrent system had been a strong one, and had kept her unconscious for a long time; but she was young and in perfect health, and her DesPlainian const.i.tution allowed her to overcome the effects of the shock slightly faster than might be expected of anyone else. She began to regain consciousness just as Howard's henchman was nearing the spot he had selected for the double murder.

At first her mind was clouded as it struggled back toward reality. She remembered the shock from the windowsill, and the consternation she had felt over committing such an amateurish mistake. Now she could tell that she was lying down in a moving vehicle. Someone else's unconscious body was lying beside hers, but at first she had trouble focusing her eyes to see who it was. She continued to lie very still, however. She realized that, whatever the situation, those around her expected her to still be unconscious; she would be able to learn more if they continued to believe that.

When her eyes began to work properly once more, she could see that the body beside her was Jules, and that he was either unconscious or pretending to be. This alarmed her considerably. She and Jules were working alone on this case; for them both to be captured at once meant they had no one to back them up or pull them out of trouble. The fact that they were bundled in the back seat of a car and were being driven some- where was an ominous sign.

At about the time she reached this conclusion, the car pulled to a stop. Vonnie quickly closed her eyes once more to feign unconsciousness. She could hear the front door opening as the driver got out and opened the back door. The man grabbed her under the arms and dragged her out, positioning her in the front seat on the pa.s.senger side. Vonnie "cooperated" by pretending to be a limp body, slumping forward obligingly when he let go of her until her forehead rested lightly against the dashboard.

As the man returned to the back seat for Jules, Vonnie was computing the odds for and against various plans. The driver's intentions were obvious by now placing her and Jules in the front seat unconscious could only be the setup for a groundcar accident in which their deaths would be untraceable to Howard. She obviously did not want it to succeed-but the exact method for foiling it was debatable.

There was only the one man to deal with, and he still thought she was out cold. She would have little trouble overpowering him and freeing herself and Jules if she chose to do so. But the man might be expected to report back to Howard; if he failed to check in, the criminal leader would know something had gone wrong. Being thus alerted might panic him into doing something rash.

It would be very convenient to have him think that she and Jules were dead. It would put him off his guard to the point where he might grow careless. In order to do that, she would have to let the killer carry out his attempt and think it had succeeded. This course of action would be much more difficult, and would require split-second timing and a little bit of luck on top of it-but the rewards would be well worth the gamble.

Vonnie continued her pretense of unconsciousness as the killer dumped Jules's body into the driver's seat beside her. Then, giving them a quick look to make sure they were both unconscious, the man closed the door and went to the back of the car. He gave it a strong push, and Vonnie could feel the car moving forward. Her right hand crept to the door handle while her left went over to grab Jules's clothing. If he really was still out, she wanted to take him with her when she jumped.

She could feel the car b.u.mp as it went over an embankment, and suddenly it was plunging downward through dense clumps of bushes. To someone born of Earth, the fall would have been at a dizzying speed, but to a person with DesPlainian reflexes it was almost slow motion. Vonnie waited two seconds, until she hoped she was far enough out of sight that the killer would not be able to see exactly what was happening to the car. Then she sprang into action.

Her right arm pushed against the car door. There was a moment when the heavy brush around the car resisted her attempt to open the door, but Vonnie was pressing with the strength of a DesPlainian-and a desperate DesPlainian, at that. The door opened. With her left hand she grabbed her fianc's jacket collar and pulled him over to her. Then, before the underbrush that was sliding past at an ever increasing rate could push the door shut again, she leaped out of the moving vehicle, taking Jules with her.

The two bodies rolled free in the overgrown vegetation. Vonnie felt herself banging into rocks and catching on branches and brambles, leaving her skin with a rich a.s.sortment of bruises and scratches. Jules's body tumbled beside her until the underbrush had provided enough resistance to stop their fall. Vonnie lay still for more than a minute, panting to regain her breath.

Below them, the car continued to charge down the hillside like a stampeding bull elephant, gathering momentum as it flew. A hundred meters beyond the point at which Vonnie and Jules had left it, the car encountered a tree stump that caused it to flip over without otherwise stopping the downhill charge. The car began bouncing crazily through the air; it landed upside-down on a large, outcropping boulder, causing the metal of the roof to buckle inward. Any bodies that had been seated in there would have been crushed to death at that point. And still the car bounced three more times before coming to rest, a battered hulk, near the bottom of the ravine.

Vonnie gave a small sigh of relief that she had managed to pull herself and Jules out in time. Even after she had completely regained her breath, however, she moved very carefully. Reorienting her body, she looked upward to the top of the hill, hoping for some sight of the man who'd tried to kill her. It was difficult to both see and remain hidden at the same time, and the angle of her view was working against her; she thought she could make out a face peering down from the road for a few seconds, but then it vanished. As the echoing sound of the car's crash died away, a bucolic stillness settled once more over the mountainside.

Vonnie crept slowly through the bushes and weeds to the spot where Jules lay, some three meters away. "Julie?" she whispered, but got no answer. Bending over him, she could tell that his breathing was light but irregular. She felt for his pulse; it was rea.s.suringly strong and steady. When she lifted his eyelids, she could see that his pupils were mere pinpoints and that the whites of his eyes were slightly bloodshot. All these were effects of a stun-gun hit; but how severely he had been jolted, she couldn't tell.

She debated what to do. The fact that the killer hadn't come down here after her proved that he was satisfied he'd done his job successfully; he wouldn't want to hang around the scene of this accident too long, or someone might come by and a.s.sociate him with it. The immediate threat from him was over. But the unknown damage to Jules worried her considerably. The stun he'd gotten must have been at least a four, which would put him out for two hours. But if it were any higher he could be out for days, or even permanently paralyzed-and in that case, she couldn't just let him lie here. She'd have to get some help. But she didn't want to leave him alone here, either, if she could avoid it.

She decided to wait with him for another hour or so. If it had only been a number four stun, he would start to snap out of it by that time; if it had been anything higher, he would be out for at least another four hours beyond that, which would give her time to bring back help before he awoke and needed her.

She stood up and stretched her stiff, sore body, walking around for a while to get the kinks out and trying to discover some way of getting back to the city. She noticed a hiking trail a short distance away, but she could also tell that it was late in the afternoon; she might not have the time to walk along the trail to civilization and still return for Jules before the sun went down-and she'd hate to have to try finding his body in the dark. Returning to him, she sat down beside him, cradling his head in her lap and smiling down at his handsome face. She waited for something to happen.

After forty-five minutes Jules began rolling his head slightly from side to side, and within another five he was coughing and trying to open his eyes. "Take it easy," Vonnie said, stroking his forehead with a light touch -of her fingertips. "You're just coming' out of stun. There's no immediate danger, so take your time."

"Howard... ambushed me," Jules explained a few moments later as he got his tongue back into operation. "He must be on to us."

"Not any more. He thinks we're dead now." She explained what had happened since she herself had regained consciousness.

By the time she finished, Jules was able to pull himself up weakly into a sitting position. He gave Vonnie a wobbly smile and said, "Thanks for saving my life."

She reached over and ruffed his already mussed brown hair. "Don't worry; I have some plans for you that don't include letting Howard kill you."

As soon as Jules was steady enough to stand, the two DesPlainians climbed up the hill to the road; Vonnie decided that there was more chance of their being able to hitch a ride there than there was of walking down the hiking trail before it got dark. As they climbed, they were already turning their minds back to the case on which they were working.

"The wedding is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon," Jules said, "and Howard is a.s.sembling his gang in the morning. We don't have to be as smart as the Head to figure out that the two events are connected. There isn't a h.e.l.l of a lot of time left between now and then. We'd be cutting it very fine, and I don't like taking chances like that with the lives of the imperial family. I'm almost tempted to arrest Howard now and to h.e.l.l with the consequences. It could very well be that his absence will be enough to wreck the conspiracy's plans."

"Except that you don't really believe that, do you?" Vonnie's eyes gleamed back at him in the late afternoon sunlight.

"No, I don't. They've shown themselves to be pretty resourceful so far. Either they have a contingency plan already in mind or else they'd know we were on to them and disappear into the woodwork for a while and Bozhe only knows what nasty little surprises they'd dream up for us next time. We have to try to stop them here and now."

They made it back up to the highway and, after a quarter of an hour, managed to hitch a ride with a young man driving into the city. Their benefactor took them to a vidicom booth where they were able to summon a cab. The taxi drove them first back to the area near Howard's house where Vonnie had left their car parked; it was still at the same spot, undiscovered by Howard. While she stayed there to continue her surveillance of Howard's house, Jules continued on in the cab back to their hotel, where he would prepare for his own action of the evening.

Howard's gang would be rea.s.sembling tomorrow morning to receive their instructions. Now that Howard thought his opposition was eliminated, he would be unlikely to alter those plans. If Jules was no longer going to be an invited guest at the gathering, he intended to be an uninvited one.

Gathering his gear together-including a small personal corn unit linked to the one in the car, so he could maintain constant communications with Vonnie-Jules grabbed a quick snack from the food machines in the hotel lobby and took a cab to the vicinity of Howard's gym. It was full night by the time he reached it, but the interior of the gym was brightly lit; if it kept standard hours, there would be customers inside there until close to midnight. Jules roamed the streets around the neighborhood until the gym was finally closed, then went to work.

The building next to the gym was an apartment house. Jules entered it and took the elevator tube to the top floor, then located the emergency stairway to the roof. From there it was a simple matter to jump the two-meter gap that separated the apartment building from the gym. On the roof of his objective, Jules fastened a st.u.r.dy canon line and lowered himself over the edge until he was standing on the ledge beside the' top row of windows. A quick check with his sophisticated sensors revealed that the alarms used here were of the simplest variety, and it was the work of less than a minute to bypa.s.s them altogether. One window wasn't even locked; Jules pried it open and slipped into the darkened building.

The room he'd entered was an auxiliary office, rarely used, to judge by the dust that lay thickly on the surfaces of the furniture. The rest of the building sounded quite still, and Jules slipped quietly out the office door and padded down the darkened hallway. The gym. itself contained little of value and Howard had seen no need to put a guard on it, so Jules was able to prowl unhindered throughout the large building until he came to the room that was marked as Howard's private office.

Inside, he went straight to the vidicom set and installed the same sort of bug that Vonnie had attempted to place on Howard's home phone earlier. He also stuck a tiny transmitter on the underside of Howard's desk, so that any conversations taking place within this office could be monitored. Then he went down the hall to the other meeting rooms, such as the one in which he'd had his briefing, and made sure that they were all bugged as well. He was going to take no chances on missing the plan that Howard described to his men. He even planted transmitters in the 'freshers, just to be on the safe side.

When he was absolutely certain that not even a sneeze would escape without detection, he set about to find himself a suitable hiding place. He found a janitor's closet on the upper floor that fitted his specifications admirably, and, tucking himself in among the mops and pails, he sat down to await results. On his private corn unit, he called Vonnie and learned that all was quiet at Howard's house. She would let him know the instant anything happened.

Thus a.s.sured, Jules settled himself down to rest before the big showdown. His sleep was far from peaceful, though, as he realized exactly how slender was the margin within which he and Vonnie were operating.

Vonnie woke him early to let him know that Howard had left the house and was on his way into town, presumably to the gym. She would follow him at a discreet distance and when he came to the gym, she would wait outside to give Jules any help he might re- quire. Jules checked his microphones one final time to make sure they were all working and prepared himself for the ordeal he knew today would prove to be.

Vonnie informed him, finally, that Howard had just entered the. gym, and that she was parked across the street. A few minutes later, Jules could pick out the sounds of Howard entering the office and sitting at the desk, going through papers. At precisely 9:30, the vidicom buzzed and Howard quickly picked it up. Jules switched on his recording device and listened in at the same time.

"Phase One is now accomplished," said the feminine voice at the other end without preamble. With a chill down his spine, Jules recognized that voice as belonging to Lady A. "Bloodstar Hall is now ours. We control all access to it, and no communication can get through our interference pattern, not even SOTE's. Once we start moving we can seal the entire place off until we're ready to announce the outcome ourselves."

Howard gave a low whistle of appreciation. "How did you manage that?"

Jules could not intercept the video transmission on his device, but he could imagine Lady A giving Howard one of her coldly superior smiles. "We have a... shall we say, a cooperative double of Lady Bloodstar-a perfect lookalike who has moved in and a.s.sumed the role... at the expense of the real one, of course. Have you memorized the guard positions and the different strike points I gave you?"

"Yes, Your Ladys.h.i.+p."

"Good. At precisely one minute past noon, our double will make her move. It will cause confusion within the hall sufficient for our purposes. At the same time, ten small canisters of TCN-14 will be exploding outside the hall, eliminating the guards there. Your men, in gas masks, will move in effortlessly and take up the positions of the fallen SOTS guards; they will therefore be in a perfect position to control the immediate area. SOTS picked those spots very carefully for their maximum effectiveness, and we'll make them work to our advantage. If all goes well, we'll have effected a complete coup in just under ten minutes. And I a.s.sure you, my dear Gospodin Howard, that your part in it will not go unrewarded." Without waiting for further acknowledgment, Lady A cut off the call.

Jules was horror-struck as he listened to the plans. Although Lady A had been most circ.u.mspect in telling Howard about the double she had for Lady Bloodstar, Jules could guess instantly the double's true nature-a robot. He and Vonnie had already faced a sample of this particular kind of menace once before, on the planet Ansegria. There, a robot that looked and acted exactly like a specific person had been set as a trap to ensnare the Crown Princess Edna. SOTE had learned that there were at least three more such robots loose somewhere in the Empire, though their appearances and their missions had remained a mystery. Now, in at least one case, that mystery was solved. One robot was a duplicate of Lady Bloodstar: The fact that Lady A's organization would be using canisters of TCN-14 outside the hall was an ominous sign, too. Trichloronoluene was a deadly nerve gas developed in pre-Empire times, when individual planets could-and did, with astonis.h.i.+ng frequency-make war upon each other. The TCN spread out from its source in a noxious green cloud, and a single whiff was lethal; whole cities had been known to succ.u.mb to it as it rained down in explosive canisters from s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps...o...b..ting a hostile world. One historian had even gone so far as to say that it was TCN-14, rather than economic or political causes, that had made the Empire necessary; there had to be peace between the planets, because the alternative was simply too unthinkable.