"We sabotage the barrier between this segment and the next. They"re bound to send out a repair team. With luck, we can hijack whatever vehicle they have."
She opened her eyes and gazed at him in wonderment.
"Never say die?"
He grinned. "Never say die."
She led the way down the nearest vine towards the ground. There was a heart-stopping moment halfway down when a moss-covered creature with a mouthful of needle-like teeth slid from a hole in the tree-trunk as she was pa.s.sing by, but it ignored her and moved off up the tree.
"Can I breathe now?" she whispered.
"I told you the leaves would work," he hissed back.
She shook her head. He was always so irritatingly sure of himself "You remember that restaurant on Feiss Haven?" she hissed.
"Yes. What about it."
"You told me that the spiny hairb.a.l.l.s in sour blood sauce were perfectly edible. I spent three days trying to bring up everything that I had ever eaten."
There was silence for a few moments.
"I think the sauce may have been slightly undercooked," he admitted finally.
It took ten minutes to get down to the ground. Bernice stood there for a moment, regaining her equilibrium. A dartlike predator flickered past her ear.
"How did you know about the leaves?" she said as the Doctor dropped lightly to the ground beside her.
"Experience," he said. "I"ve spent several lifetimes escaping through forests.
I"ve learned all the tricks."
"All of them?"
"Well, most of them." He walked off "Some of them, at least," he added.
Bernice shrugged, looked around, and followed.
His voice came floating back over his shoulder.
"All right then, one or two."
It took them half an hour of mind-numbing, bone-wearying slog to get to the next segment of Purgatory. By the time they pushed their way past the last fleshy purple leaf and found themselves in a defoliated zone some hundred metres wide, Bernice was soaked in condensation, perspiration and the foul-smelling sap of various types of leaf So tired was she that the sight before her failed to register for at least a minute. When it did, she suddenly forgot everything.93.
The defoliated zone ended in a straight line which continued in either direction for as far as she could see. Past the line, the translucent blue ground shone with reflected light. Deep within it, Bernice could just make out a web-work of curling white lines. Mountains rose in the distance: jagged mon-strosities that loomed over the barren landscape like a whole collection of Gothic castles. The sky was a greenish-black in colour, and the stars showed up as tiny haloed points of light.
"The acid ice-cap of Throssa?" she asked, awed.
The Doctor nodded. "Well," he said, "it"s not the ruined emerald cities of Dargol, that"s for sure."
"How do you know?"
"Who do you think ruined them?"
She looked sideways at him, only to find that he was smiling. "You didn"t didn"t?"
"No, I didn"t," he said.
"Good."
"But I know the man who did."
"Sometimes I don"t know whether you"re serious or not," she confided.
"Sometimes," he admitted, "neither do I."
A flurry of activity within the ice attracted their attention.
"The acid fish?"
He nodded. "The acid fish."
A shoal of thin, flexible creatures was moving rapidly through the hard ground: wheeling, rising and diving almost as one. They left white lines behind them, like the contour trails of jets. Bernice realized with a slight shock that the lines were the tunnels left in the ice after the creatures had pa.s.sed.
"And you want us to go in there?" she said.
"No." The Doctor picked up a branch and threw it towards the line where the ice started. The branch never made it: rebounding instead from an invisible barrier and landing a few feet away from the Doctor.
"Force wall," he said. "If we can find a way of deactivating it, we"ll attract quite a bit of fuss."
"You"ve created quite enough fuss already," a voice growled behind them.
Bernice turned, already knowing what she would find.
The four remaining Landsknechte stood behind them, guns raised. They didn"t look pleased.94.
Chapter 7.
"I"m Evan Claple and this is The Empire Today The Empire Today , on the spot, on and , on the spot, on and off the Earth. Today"s headlines: controversy as the Rim World Alliance applies to leave the Empire. In a statement last night, Viscount Henson Farlander, aide-in-chief to the Empress, said that n.o.body leaves the Empire. An Imperial Landsknecht flotilla is already off the Earth. Today"s headlines: controversy as the Rim World Alliance applies to leave the Empire. In a statement last night, Viscount Henson Farlander, aide-in-chief to the Empress, said that n.o.body leaves the Empire. An Imperial Landsknecht flotilla is already reported to be heading for the Rim. Also in the news today: the reported to be heading for the Rim. Also in the news today: the Tyled amba.s.sador is murdered during an official reception at the Imperial Palace in orbit around Saturn, and fresh outbreaks of fighting Tyled amba.s.sador is murdered during an official reception at the Imperial Palace in orbit around Saturn, and fresh outbreaks of fighting on Allis Five, Heaven, Murtaugh and Riggs Alpha. Details after the on Allis Five, Heaven, Murtaugh and Riggs Alpha. Details after the break . . . " break . . . "
"So," Cwej said with an unconvincing display of casualness, "what"s all this about hating the Falardi, then?"
They were standing at the end of the Goreki shuttle ramp, surrounded by Imperial Landsknechte whose weapons were, if not exactly trained on them, not exactly pointed harmlessly at the ground either. The shuttle itself sat forlornly upon Purgatory"s plasticrete landing surface, dwarfed by the Landsknechte ships around it. Its captain glared balefully at them from the c.o.c.kpit.
Being a Gorekian, and having that race"s characteristic three glowing eyes, he could glare balefully better than almost anybody Forrester had ever met. He also had good reason. His ship was primarily a supply vessel on a short milk run. He hadn"t banked on having two extra pa.s.sengers, and certainly hadn"t banked on being held up pending a refusal of entry.
As soon as they had landed the Adjudicators had asked to see the local security officer. The shuttle"s captain had been denied clearance to take off until Forrester and Cwej had been dealt with, and they had keen refused permission to leave the shuttle. They had pushed things as far as they could by standing on the edge of the disembarkation ramp, staring at the troops surrounding them. The sun glared down as balefully as the captain, so they had removed their robes and stood there, the light shining from their armour and into the Landsknechte"s eyes.
"Don"t know what you mean," Forrester retorted. They were close enough to the edge of the s.p.a.ceport segment that she could see the straight line separating it from the dusty red desert of whatever environment was next door.
Judging by the swirling atmosphere, it was fit only for bromine breathers.95.
Offhand, she couldn"t actually think of any races that breathed bromine, but she was sure that there must be some. Why train Landsknechte in a bromine environment otherwise?
A wry smile crossed her face. The Landsknechte didn"t need reasons for anything. If it was uncomfortable and unnecessary, that was reason enough.
Cwej had been speaking while she mused.
"Sorry?" she said.
"I was just pointing out that you refused to talk to any of the Falardi on the ship. You let me do all the communicating."
"You"re so much better at it than me."
He smiled in surprise. "Am I? Thanks!"
Rookies were so easy to please.
A formation of fighters roared high above their heads. Cwej turned to watch them pa.s.s, admiration shining in his eyes. With his golden fur, clear blue eyes and n.o.ble stance, he reminded Forrester of some of the Landsknechte recruit-ing posters from the war, although the moist black nose and erect, triangular ears spoiled the comparison somewhat. He"d have been too young to fight, of course, but she was sure that he wished he had. Unfulfilled dreams of glory: always a bad thing for a young man to have.
The fighters only reminded Forrester of the terror and the tedium of the occasional offworld raids on Earth during the Wars of Acquisition. She was still slightly claustrophobic as a result of too many nights in the deep shelters, and sometimes she woke up soaked in sweat, remembering the terror, and the people who had died.
The deep shelters. Her first taste of the real world that her family"s riches had managed to shield her from for all those years. Their money was old money, based on patents and stocks in the various corporations that had existed for centuries. Proud of their pure-bred African Xhosa heritage, they had refused to mix with "inferior" humans those whose genetic make-up was a melange of all the races of Earth. They had held themselves aloof, like G.o.ds.
Until the Wars came to Earth. Until they were forced to take refuge in the deep shelters. It was there that Forrester had made friends with other chil-dren, and learned by contrast with them how barren her own life had been.
Later, as she grew further apart from the lifestyle that her parents had chosen for her, Forrester had considered signing up for the Imperial Landsknechte.
Either that or the Order of Adjudicators. Anything to get away from home.
She had read the brochures, visited the Landsknecht information centre on Earth, even attended a week-long induction course on Purgatory itself. In the end, she had been put off by the calibre of the people she had met. Brainless morons in love with their weapons, the lot of them. The Adjudicators were a much more impressive bunch: intelligent people who cared about justice as 96an abstract concept. That she liked. After two years training on Ponten IV, and another five acting as squire to a roving offworld Adjudicator, she had been recalled to Earth and paired with Martle. And that"s where it had all started to go wrong.
"Nice here, isn"t it?" she muttered, just for something to say.
A hovercar sped towards them, kicking up a plume of dust. It stopped close to the bottom of the ramp, and a man got out: a major, judging by the discreet insignia on his battle armour. He was big in all directions, and he had been beppled to resemble a four-armed blue elephant standing on its hind legs. As he approached, Forrester tried to work out what place he held in the Landsknechte. He didn"t harbour the usual uncaring, seen-it-all att.i.tude that she had seen in Landsknechte personnel before. Instead, his expression was calm, benign and lazy. How had somebody so obviously an individual made it to the rank of colonel?
As he came to a stop before them, she re-evaluated him. Those eyes weren"t calm, benign and lazy. They were shrewd. Dangerous, even.
"I am Provost-Major Beltempest," he said, "local security officer. Welcome to Purgatory."
"Adjudicators Forrester and Cwej," she said. "And we haven"t actually arrived yet."
He smiled, and gestured them off the ramp.
"Forgive me. My underlings can sometimes be slightly too literal in their interpretation of regulations. Now, all I was told was that you are here on official business. What can we do for you?"
Forrester took a sheet of plastic from her pocket and handed it to him. He glanced at the two faces upon it. It was impossible to tell from his expression whether he recognized them or not.
"We are in pursuit of two suspects in connection with a murder on Earth,"
she said, and paused, hoping that he would say something. He just handed the plastic sheet back. "We have traced them to a craft which left Earth, bound for Purgatory," she continued.
He didn"t react. She tried again. "There is no evidence that they left this planet."
Still nothing. His eyes twinkled merrily, his mouth went through all the motions of smiling, but it was all faked for her benefit.
She waited. Eventually, he spoke. "You realize," he said, "that the Order of Adjudicators has no jurisdiction over Landsknecht territory or property. We make and enforce our own laws."
"We are here," she said carefully, "in a spirit of cooperation and mutual regard."97.
"Ah," he said. "Of course. Two very important-sounding and completely meaningless phrases."
"Protocol . . . " Forrester said, smiling slightly.
He smiled back. "Might I ask what you intend doing with these suspects, should they have actually arrived?" he asked.
Forrester"s heart quickened slightly at the implication that they had indeed landed on the planet. Beltempest caught her slight change of expression, and nodded slightly. There was a subtext to this conversation that would need careful monitoring.
"They will be returned to Earth for mind probing," she said. "If, as a result of the information retrieved, centcomp finds them guilty, they will be sentenced accordingly."
He nodded. "But if they have already been sentenced in accordance with Imperial Landsknechte law, then they have already been punished. Does that not satisfy your need for justice?"
"That," Forrester said cautiously, "would depend upon the punishment."
He smiled. "Rest a.s.sured," he said, "that it would be . . . apt."
Cwej frowned. He was completely missing the words beneath the words.
"Look," he said impatiently, "are they here or not?"
Beltempest"s face took on a slightly pained expression. "If they were here,"
he said, "then I would quite happily hand them over to you so long as the Imperial Landsknechte did not have a prior claim. If I don"t hand them over, it is either because they aren"t here., or because we do have a prior claim."
Cwej frowned. "Was that a yes or a no?" he said, baffled.
Time to put on a bit of pressure.
"You mentioned jurisdiction," Forrester said.
"Yes?"
"According to interstellar fastline records, a call was placed to you from Earth while the Arachnae Arachnae was still in flight, following which you placed a fastline call to s.p.a.ceport Five on Earth." was still in flight, following which you placed a fastline call to s.p.a.ceport Five on Earth."