Chapter 22.
It took another fifteen minutes for Kimmeron to get the agreement of the Purma officials who were holding Cerenkov and Rynstadt. The radio jamming wasn"t lifted for five minutes longer, but Pyre had already been allowed to send Link a message via the tower"s outside speakers, warning the other Cobra to lie low and hold off on any attack. Telek, when Pyre was finally allowed through to her, agreed to the arrangement and directed Link to wait in the tower with Winward until Pyre made it back. Then, with Kimmeron his reluctant companion, Pyre got into a car and headed down the broad avenues toward the airfield... and waited with lasers ready for the inevitable ambush.
It didn"t come. The car pa.s.sed through several sets of sentries, none of whom even raised a weapon; pa.s.sed beneath tall buildings without so much as a brick being thrown; pa.s.sed even among the grim ma.s.s of Qasamans at the base of the airfield tower. Nothing. They pulled up to the Dewdrop"s main hatch, and Pyre waited with Kimmeron close beside him until Winward and Link returned.
The two Cobras entered the ship, and Pyre turned to Kimmeron. "We"ve completed our part of the deal," he said, putting as much quiet steel as he could into the words. "You"ve done half of yours. I trust you won"t be tempted to back out."
"Your two companions will be waiting when you land at Purma," Kimmeron said coldly.
"Good. Now take the car and get clear before we lift." Pyre stepped into the hatchway, and the airlock door closed.
The inner door slid open, and in that same moment the Dewdrop lurched slightly and they were airborne.
Link was waiting as Pyre stepped into the ready room. "Looks like we might actually pull this off," the younger Cobra said quietly.
"Heavy emphasis on the might," Pyre nodded. "How"s Michael? He looked in pretty bad shape when you pa.s.sed me out there."
"I don"t know-the governor"s looking at him now. Probably in better shape than
Decker."
"Yes, what happened to him? I saw him carried away from the bus on a stretcher, but I couldn"t tell anything more."
Link"s lip twitched in a grimace. "He tried to break the contact team out of the bus at the beginning of all this. The mojos flayed his arm, practically down to the bone."
Pyre felt his neck muscles tighten. "Oh, G.o.d. Is he-?"
"Too soon to tell anything, except that he"ll probably live." Link licked his lips. "Listen... did Kimmeron say anything about Justin? He switched with Joshua when they brought Decker in and was taken off toward Purma."
For the unprovoked deaths in Purma, Kimmeron had said, sentencing the Dewdrop to death. Justin"s work? Undoubtedly. But Kimmeron hadn"t mentioned him in negotiating the other prisoners" release. Was he, then, free somewhere out in the Qasaman night?
Or was he dead?
"Kimmeron didn"t say," he told Link slowly. It had happened, his mind told him vaguely; the danger to Justin he"d worried about all the way back at the beginning of this mission. "Well. First things first, I suppose. We"ll land at
Purma, get Yuri and Marck safely aboard... and then try to find out what we can about him."
"Yeah." Link searched his face another moment, then nodded. "Yeah. Come on, let"s get back to the lounge, find out what"s happening."
"Sure." Back to the lounge, where Joshua would be waiting.... But Pyre wouldn"t have to tell him his brother might be dead. Not yet, anyway.
Strapped tightly into the highly uncomfortable interrogation chair, Rynstadt stared at the door through which his questioners had left, trying to keep his expression neutral for the cameras he could see focused on him.
It wasn"t an easy task. The questioning had been loud and brutal, and it"d been a relief when the four Qasamans abruptly switched off the painful strobe lights and left the room. But as the minutes had dragged on and he"d had time to pull himself together, their continued absence began to seem increasingly ominous.
What were they preparing for him that took a half hour to set up? Shock treatments? Sonics? Maybe even something as crude-and horrible-as slow dismemberment? His stomach churned at the thought. Death-fast death-he"d been willing to risk for the opportunity of coming to Qasama. Slow torture was something else entirely... and he knew far more about Aventinian technology than he really wanted to tell them.
Without warning the door swung open, causing Rynstadt to jerk against his restraints. Two of the four interrogators entered and stepped over to him. For a moment they stared down at him, Rynstadt forcing himself to return their gaze.
Then, still wordlessly, they bent down and began unstrapping him.
Here it comes, Rynstadt thought, steeling himself. The torture chamber had been readied, and he was about to find out what they"d come up with.
The Qasamans finished their task; but even as Rynstadt uncramped his legs and got them under him the men turned and left. The door banged shut, and he was left standing there, alone.
It made no sense to his befuddled mind, but they didn"t give him time to wonder.
"Rynstadt," a hidden speaker boomed, "your companions have bargained for your release. You will be allowed to eat and drink and then be taken to city"s edge."
The speaker went off with a loud click, and simultaneously a slot in the base of the door opened and a steaming tray was pushed through.
None of this made any sense, either. What did the Dewdrop have to bargain with that the Qasamans would consider worth Rynstadt"s life? But at the sight of the food, one clear thought cut through the confusion in his mind.
Poison.
The stew and hot berry juice were poisoned... and he would soon tell them anything they wanted to know in exchange for the antidote. Or else he really was being released, in which case he"d be dead before the Dewdrop cleared the system, in a final act of Qasaman vengeance.
His stomach rumbled, reminding him he hadn"t eaten since lunch in Huriseem, a medium-sized eternity ago... and on closer examination, poisoning him did seem a little melodramatic.
Again his stomach growled. Suppose he simply refused to eat? If the food was indeed safe, probably nothing, except that he"d go hungry. If it was poisoned... presumably they"d come and hypospray the stuff into him.
Walking over to the tray, he picked it up and sniffed cautiously at the bowl and mug. He"d had the stew and juice several times before during the contact team"s tour, and both smelled just the way he remembered. For a long moment he was tempted... but if there was really a chance for freedom, he"d be foolish to take even slim risks. "Thanks," he called to the hidden mike as he set the tray back on the floor by the slot, "but I"m not hungry right now."
He held his breath. If the Qasaman voice sounded angry or annoyed... "Very well," the other said simply. The slot opened again, and Rynstadt glanced down to see a hand snare the tray and pull it back out of sight.
A shiny hand.
A hand encased in a surgeon"s glove.
The slot cover slid back in place, and Rynstadt walked back to the chair, feeling cold all over. Poison, for sure-but not in the food. On the tray. Mixed with a contact absorption enhancer and spread on the tray.
And now it was on his hands... and in his blood.
He sat down, legs trembling with reaction. He was, then, being released-there was no need for such an elaborate subterfuge if the poison was just part of his interrogation. Released-and simultaneously murdered. Melodramatic or not-barbaric or not-they had opted for vengeance.
Was there any chance at all of coming through this alive? Perhaps, but only if the Qasamans had timed their dosage so as to let the Dewdrop get a good distance away before their treachery became known. How long? One hour? Two? Twelve?
There was no way to know. But the fact that he knew he"d been poisoned gave
Telek and the medical a.n.a.lyzers aboard ship the maximum time to identify and counteract the specific toxin used on him.
Come on, he urged the Dewdrop silently. Get me the h.e.l.l out of here. In the meantime... letting his body slump in the chair, he consciously slowed his breathing. The slower the metabolism, in theory, the slower the poison would be absorbed into his tissues.
And he settled back to wait.
The distinctive whine of gravity lifts, faint even in his enhanced hearing, finally dragged Justin from his sleep. For a moment he lay quietly in the tall gra.s.s, reorienting himself, allowing the bitter memories to return. Then, carefully, he raised his head.
The motion drew an involuntary hiss between his teeth; he"d forgotten all the places his body ached. But the sight in the northern sky drove all such considerations into the background. Against the blazing stars of Qasama"s night a hazy reddish oval was drifting.