Phaze Doubt Part 9

"The Hectare do not employ incompetent agents," she said. "The longer you take to change your mind, the less advantageous it will be for you."

"I'll take that chance," he said, rising from the table.

Jod'e rose with him. "I think we had better vacate the premises quickly," she said.

"It will make no difference," Alyc said. "If the Hectare want either of you. they will find you and take you. But it will be better for those who volunteer."

Why was she so sure? She was correct that the first and most sincere volunteers would be treated best; she, as one of the very earliest, would have her pick of lovers, so she didn't need him. But she acted as if he himself would be rounded up immediately, when that was obviously impractical. Lysander didn't have time to ponder; he wanted to get well away from her and this region. Already the serfs were milling, as the majority sought to get out before they were mistaken for volunteers.

He did not look at Alyc again. He had been true to her, but in a devious fas.h.i.+on he felt she had not been true to him. This was a foolish sentimentality, for she had offered him a good position in the new order. He had evidently a.s.similated more of the local culture than he realized.

Lysander and Jod'e joined the throng crowding toward the nearest exit. "I don't like this," he muttered. "Suddenly there's an alien takeover, and we're supposed to cooperate?" He was saying what he knew was on the minds of most serfs, testing her for reaction. It had occurred to him that Jod'e had been conveniently close-indeed, had been close to him throughout. Had she known this was coming? If so, what was her purpose?

"She worked for Citizen Blue," Jod'e said. "It won't be safe for you to go there. I can help you get outside."

The jostling crowd gave them better privacy than could be had elsewhere. "Why? Why should you bother with me?"

"I've been trying to make a play for you throughout!" she said. "Now's my chance."

"I don't buy that. You're beautiful. You don't need me. You know I'm no changeling. I can't convert to bat form and fly away with you. If I go outside, I'll just be a liability to you. Make your own break; I doubt they'll want you. But Alyc may feel she has a score to settle with me."

"Women do not judge on appearance alone."

"You've been interested in me, but not because of any encouragement I gave you. I'm not messing with you at all unless I know your real interest. I've already been betrayed by one girlfriend!" This was not precisely the case, but his mission required him to say it.

She glanced at him sidelong. "Oho! You think I'm another foreign agent?"

"You could be. Exactly why did you come after me?" They had squeezed out the Annex gate and were now in the concourse. Lysander didn't want to be there, either, though he saw no Citizens.

"Crowd's thinning," Jod'e said. "Can't talk here."

"Yes we can," he said. He grabbed her arm and swung her into an alcove. He embraced her and put his mouth against her left ear. "Tell me."

"How clever," she murmured, her mouth beside his own ear. "You tell me you don't want my love by getting fresh with me. I remember a similar technique in that first Fox and Geese game."

"Never again, if you don't stop stalling!"

"Very well. Citizen Troal sent me."

"Troal! Your employer. Isn't he close to Blue?"

"Very. And we vamps are close to the Adept Trool."

"Does this have anything to do with the prophecy that Clef told me about?"

"Prophecy?"

She didn't know about that? "Never mind. So Troal sent you to me as a favor to Blue?"

"Yes, I believe so. You had better kiss me or do something with your hands; someone's looking."

He slid his hands down her back. He remembered their first encounter, of which she had mischievously reminded him, when he had explored her torso so intimately, thinking it was a mannequin. The memory excited him now; she did have a perfect body. "Why, when I was already dating Alyc?"

"Maybe they knew what she was." She s.h.i.+fted against him, bringing more of that body into play.

Suddenly it made sense. If Blue had known Alyc's mission, he would not have said so. He would have sought quiet ways to nullify it. If he really believed that Lysander had a key role to play in the support of the planet, he would have tried to protect him from subversion by an enemy agent. So he could have arranged to send an attractive counteragent in. Unfortunately, Lysander had misunderstood the ploy.

"You don't know why Blue might care about my corruption?" he asked, his hands stroking memory-familiar contours.

"No. My guess is that he really wanted the Game Computer fixed, and not for the aliens."

He decided she was to be trusted, partly because she didn't seem to know any more than a p.a.w.n in a chess game would know about the motives of the king. "Then let's get out of here."

"I know a way out," Jod'e said. "Then maybe we can get Phaze help. The aliens may not know much about magic."

Surely true, for he had been quite unprepared for it. He separated from her and started down the concourse-and stopped.

"Serves you right, lover," Jod'e said, laughing. For he had gotten too involved in their diversionary activity, and his masculine member had responded.

But Alyc had shown him how to handle that. "Run; I'll chase."

She took off, and he pursued her with evident amorous intent. But such was the distraction of the other serfs that they paid no attention, this time. By the time Jod'e brought him to the exit she knew, his ardor had subsided.

They crouched by a machine service entrance. "Must wait for a robot," she said. "Then walk out in its shadow, so the scanner doesn't catch the human form. I'll turn bat and perch on you."

"Just don't do anything on my shoulder," he muttered.

She laughed again. "Speaking of which-did Alyc scratch you, when?"

"When what?"

"Some women get very excited, when. They can claw a man's back."

"No, she's not that type. No scratches. Why should you care?"

"I felt a bandage on your back, when I was stroking you."

"A bandage? I have no bandage!"

"Yes you do. A flesh-colored tape. Effectively invisible; if I hadn't been touching you, I wouldn't have known. Here, feel." She took his hand, twisted his arm behind his back, and brought his fingers to the place. It was at the most difficult part for him to reach alone.

Now he felt it: a smooth section that was not his own skin. "She must have put it on me, when-I mean, there was a lot of physical activity, and she liked to touch me in the night."

"I suspect she had some reason to touch you," she remarked with the hint of a smirk. "Want me to take it off"?"

"Yes. No. It could be-" He was abruptly angry, as the realization came. "An identifier. Something an enemy agent would use to mark someone."

"Then you had better get it off!"

"No. These things-I understand they can be used as beacons. To show where a person is. I don't want her to know I've caught on."

"But how can I sneak you out, then?"

He sighed. "You can't. Maybe you had better leave me; I think I'm dangerous for you."

"But if the aliens want you that bad, you shouldn't be allowed to fall into their hands."

"It's probably just Alyc who wants me that badly. I doubt the aliens care."

She nodded. "She wants to hold on to you. Maybe she antic.i.p.ated your reaction to the invasion, so made sure she could find you. If she's truly their agent, they may give her what she wants. It would be a perquisite of the office."

"Yes. I liked her, and I didn't like you trying to cut in. But now-" Again the irony: he was a spy for the Hectare himself, but had to argue the case of the opposition-and found himself believing it. His respect for Alyc had plummeted the moment he learned her nature. Now Jod'e was far more intriguing, and not merely because she represented a prospective route to the core of the true resistance that would be forming. She had been sent at the behest of Citizen Blue, so even if she didn't know why, she would be able to make contact with the organization he needed to infiltrate. But she was also a true patriot for her culture, and that integrity of motive was appealing. Her beauty hardly diminished the effect.

"Me too," she said. "You were just an a.s.signment, but you are becoming a person."

"Thanks." He regretted that the loyalty she saw in him wasn't genuine. "But we're in a bind. If she claims me, she'll make sure that you are in no position to get near me, now that we have declared ourselves united in opposition to this invasion. Now that I have taken notice of you. You can't afford to a.s.sociate with me." This was a deeper truth than she could know at this point.

"But I can't let you be taken by the enemy!" she protested. "If the Citizens knew the invasion was coming, and wanted to protect you from it, then it's my job to do that."

"But you can't help me. You might as well save yourself-by disa.s.sociating with me."

"And betray my employer? My culture?" She turned to face him, putting her arms around him. "Lysander, you took some liberties with me, when I was pretending to be a mannequin. Now I'm going to take one with you." She drew him into her, her arms reaching around him.

He yielded to her, because he expected to send her on her way in a moment. It was true: he had handled her about as intimately as it was possible to do, short of all-out s.e.xual engagement. If she wanted a kiss in return- Her fingernails sc.r.a.ped across his back. They caught in the tape. They ripped it off. "Now we make our break!" she said. "The tape stays here; we go to Phaze!" She threw the bit of tape away.

"You b.i.t.c.h!" he said, half admiringly.

"Nay, I be no wereb.i.t.c.h," she said. "I be a vamp. Now tread in the shadow o' yon rovot, Lysan, and I will guide thee out." She became a bat, and leaped to perch on his hand.

Lysander found himself committed. He could not say it was wrong. He had simply wanted to spare her from being implicated in his break, and from being subsequently betrayed by him. But he had also known that she would not desert him, because she was as committed to her mission as he was to his.

The machine she had indicated was a walk-brusher, evidently going out to clean the walk to a garden at the edge of the dome. He ducked down and ran beside it, letting it s.h.i.+eld him from the lens-eye that covered this exit. The machine ignored him; it was equipped only to do its job, not to inspect its surroundings.

The bat in his hand peered to the right. Lysander went that way, finding an offshoot from the main path. He ran through dwarf palms down to a tiny artificial stream that originated in a fountain. Then on into the channel of the stream, which turned out to be stone, not mud. Then he waded through a small pool and scrambled over a decorative wall.

Beyond was the wild vegetation of Phaze; they were now beyond the dome environment. The bat flew up, evidently searching for something. Lysander ducked down beside a tree whose leaves were in the shape of floppy stars, waiting for Jod'e to complete her reconnaissance.

Then he heard hoof beats. He looked-and spied an old horse trotting toward him. The bat was on its back.

Clear enough! He stepped out as the horse arrived. It was a mare with a dark, almost reddish coat. He got on her back, and she turned and headed directly away from the dome.

The problem with this was that they were exposed. Anyone who looked would be able to see them. But maybe n.o.body would care about a man riding a horse.

Then the horse changed. Now a s.h.i.+ning spiraled horn projected from her forehead, and her mane was iridescent. Her coat had deepened into a deep purplish red.

"Belle!" he exclaimed.

There was a tinkle of a.s.sent. Then she picked up speed.

He hung on. Bareback riding was not his favorite mode, and the unicorn had more power than a horse might. They were zooming through the high gra.s.s at a dizzying pace.

He discovered something as the run continued. Belle was getting hot, but she wasn't sweating. Instead she was dissipating the heat in her breath, which was turning fiery, and her hooves, which were throwing off sparks. So that was how unicorns cooled themselves!

Something caught his eye. It was a shadow in the shape of a disk. Oh-oh. He craned his neck and saw the origin: a small Proton flyer. The pursuit was on, already!

Belle dodged to the side, seeking the cover of a copse. But the flyer angled to intercept them, and it was much faster than any animal could be.

"They'll use stun rays!" Lysander cried. "Change and scatter! They'll only go after me!" He flung himself off the unicorn, taking a trained fall and rolling through the brush.

They changed and scattered, but not the way he had intended. While he ran for the cover of the trees, the bat headed straight for the flyer. The unicorn became a heron and also flew for the flyer.

The bat lighted on the top of the flyer. Then it was the woman again, her weight bearing the machine down. But it wasn't enough; the flyer remained aloft.

Until the heron landed on it-and returned to unicorn form. Now the flyer crunched down to the ground.

Lysander was amazed, but not rea.s.sured. "Get away from that thing!" he cried. "It can send the rays in any direction, or detonate a stun bomb-"

Too late. There was a dull explosion, and a burst of radiation from the machine. Jod'e and Belle collapsed, and then Lysander, who was farther out and hit with less intensity, but still unable to escape it. He saw the ground advancing toward his head.

It seemed only an instant, but the sun had moved; it had been about an hour. Lysander woke to find a second, much larger flyer beside the first. A trainer robot was before him, its treads flattening the gra.s.s. "Ident.i.ty?" it demanded.

Lysander knew that his retinal patterns would give him away soon enough anyway; there was no point in trying to give a false name. "Lysander. I work for Citizen Blue."

"Confirmed. The ident.i.ties of your companions?"

Were their patterns on file? Jod'e's yes, but maybe not Belle's. He might be able to help the unicorn go free. "Jod'e, employee of Citizen Troal. The mare has no human ident.i.ty; she's just a steed."

"A unicorn steed," the machine said. "They will be registered too." It turned its lenses on Belle. "Stand, mare." A beam touched her.

Belle, freed from the effect of the stun beam, climbed to her feet. She stood, uncertain what more to do.

The machine ground toward her. Suddenly another beam speared out. There was a sizzle, and a puff of smoke.

Belle screamed almost in the manner of a woman. She leaped up, but could not escape the pain. She had been burned on the flank. It was evident that though her hooves were adapted to heat, her hide was not.

She hit the ground running. In a moment she was far across the field.

"Why did you do that?" Jod'e demanded of the machine. "There was no call for-"

"All human forms will be registered by retinal pattern," the machine said. "All animals will be branded. None will escape identification."

"Branded!" Lysander exclaimed. But there was no more he could say; the deed was done, and he didn't want to get Belle into any more trouble. It was better if they thought of her as only an animal.

"Enter the craft," the machine said.

Jod'e hesitated. "Do it," Lysander said. "We have seen that the invaders-or whoever is giving the orders now-have no compa.s.sion. They will stun us again if we don't obey."

She nodded. She knew it was true. They climbed into the flyer. There was barely room for the two of them, and none for the robot it had brought.