*Customs House, at the port."
*And why there?"
*I have a key."
*How come you have a key?"
He grinned and waved his arm at the piles of stolen goods. *How do you think I came by all this?" Anneke"s lips twitched. *You know, Pagin, I think it"s going to be a real pleasure doing business with you."
Two shadows moved quickly and silently through the back ways of the sleeping city, the larger led by the smaller. It was the hour before dawn, a time when the human body is at its groggiest.
Anneke, however, was alert and wary, her sensors scanning the surrounding area, her deflector fields cloaking their biosigns as well as they could. Even so, she kept one hand near the blaster under her tunic, comfortably aware of the vibroblade inside her boot. Pagin seemed harmless, but he was small and, Anneke guessed, hard to catch.
The boy knew his city.
Not once did they come within sensor range of a main street or the towering fortifications that dotted the landscape. Nor did they meet anyone except a pair of drunks returning from revel. Pagin had explained that Qule, at the moment, did not have a curfew, but citizens were expected to be indoors by midnight or else give a good account of themselves.
Maybe drunkenness was self-explanatory, thought Anneke.
They reached Customs House by a circuitous route, which, as they drew closer, went underground, so that the last leg of the journey was along an old disused and rodent-infested sewer. Mter bashing her head several times against chunks of broken concrete hanging from the ceiling - the boy could walk upright, unlike Anneke - they detoured up a side tunnel and stopped at a metal door.
Here Pagin produced a bunch of antiquated waferkeys, unlocking the door and relocking it after they had pa.s.sed through. *Sometimes the old tech baffies newcomers," he said by way of apology at the delay.
Then there were stairs, ramps, corridors, and more doors, to each of which Pagin had the waferkey. Anneke marvelled at the boy"s ingenuity. It must have taken ages to ama.s.s the whole set.
*It"s in the family," he explained. *Granddad started it. He pa.s.sed it onto my dad and him to me. It"s the family business, you might say."
*Where are your parents now?"
*Dead," the boy said without feeling, as if he were mentioning the day"s weather.
After winding their way through the great mausoleum of Customs House, Pagin finally guided Anneke down the corridor leading to the head office.
*They got a receiver in there," he said. *But this is the only door I don"t have a key for."
Anneke looked at the locking device. It wasn"t complicated. Obviously, they did not expect anyone to be breaking into the main administrative office of Customs House. Probably because it held absolutely nothing of value to anyone but Anneke. *Shouldn"t be a problem," she said and went to work on the door. Within a minute she had it open.
Pagin was suitably impressed. *Do you think I could -"
*Have the sequence?" Anneke finished for him.
*Sure!" She gave it to him. *Watch my back," she instructed and went immediately to the receiver. Like most hi-tech devices, it was permanently powered up. She needed to run checks for b.o.o.by-traps, not wanting to set off alarms.
*What"s taking so long?" whispered the boy from the doorway.
Just making sure."
She deactivated a number of crude anti-intruder sub-routines, cracked the pa.s.sword, and logged on as the sub-Administrator, third cla.s.s.
She found herself staring at a visicast of Josh. Anneke always had trouble coping with the fact that her eyes were being projected across the light years, instead of the image being transmitted to her.
*Where have you been?" he demanded. *Everybody here is frantic with worry about you. Wait a minute. Here"s Deema." The girl appeared, looking angry and tearful and happy all at the same time. She immediately scolded Anneke for not contacting them. ThenJake Ferren did the same.
*Okay, enough," Anneke finally said. *I don"t have much time."
Jake shook his head. *Sorry. Should have known better than to worry. I"ll putJosh back on."
The young Enigma scientist reappeared. *Have you cracked it yet?" Anneke asked him.
*Not quite. But we"re close." Anneke sighed. *How close?"
*Within the next twenty-four hours. Tops."
*Okay. I need you to get the results to me. I may not be able to use an n-s.p.a.ce receiver again." She set up a commercial messenger system through the local network, agreeing - by using code words they were both familiar with - on an encryption system. It wouldn"t be unbreakable, but hopefully no one would even think to look in the commercial traffic for long-lost galactic secrets.
*Someone"s coming!" hissed Pagin.
*Gotta go, Josh. My love to everyone." She broke the connection, wiped the log, and reset the receiver to its default settings.
And got out of there, barely avoiding the head administrator arriving early to chat illicitly with his mistress garrisoned on one of Kantor"s many moons.
Except for a quick detour in which Pagin collected *freight" - *Pays for the trip!" he told her - the boy led Anneke back the way they came, though he used a different exit than the one they had entered.
Outside, it was already morning and the bright sunlight made them both blink. Then shouts arose behind them. *Hey, you two! Stop right there!"
Anneke glanced back. Three Kantorian police were hotfooting it towards them. She dragged Pagin into an alleyway, and they fled. For the next twenty minutes they ran down darkened laneways, scaled fences and walls, till they had lost their pursuers. Finally they emerged on a main street in a more respectable sector of town.
Here they split up. Pagin went east and Anneke north, the plan being to meet up again in the same plaza they"d rendezvoused in the day before.
Only it didn"t go quite like that.
Shortly after leaving Pagin, Anneke turned a corner and came face to face with Maximus Black.
BLACK stared at Anneke, speechless. Then he moved - but too late. Anneke launched a spinning sidekick, catching him in the chest and knocking him to the ground. Her gun was on him in a flash.
*We should stop meeting like this," she said.
*I couldn"t agree more," said Black. *Next time, let"s make it in the morgue."
*Suits me." Black saw her finger hovering over the tab, yet she hesitated. Killing an unarmed man sitting on the ground was a little tough for the morally minded. Black, of course, would not have baulked.
As though reading his mind, she said, *I can"t say it"s been nice knowing you, Mr Brown."
Even as her finger descended, pulse beams st.i.tched the wall beside her head. Her shot went wide.
Black scrambled aside.
Anneke barely had time to duck and return fire on the approaching group of Quesadans and Kantorians, stalling their attack.
She cursed. a.s.sisted by the ancient art form of parkour, she vaulted over a high retaining wall and dropped from sight.
I"m alive, Black thought as he regained his composure. He glanced at the towering wall and knew Anneke would be long gone. It was a shame she was loyal to RIM. What a team they would have made.
Black dusted off his coverall as Riktar instinctively placed himself between his boss and where Anneke had headed - the natural bodyguard. Oddly enough, the Envoy was nowhere to be seen. Black decided not to draw attention to his absence by reacting or by asking anyone about it. The Kantorians, and Roag in particular, had been acting strangely all morning, ever since they had started on the *Tour of the Great City". The Trade Amba.s.sador seemed to be fencing with Black. Why bring a security unit? Was that for Black"s protection or Roag"s? Or something else entirely?
*Are you all right, Olak?" Roag asked solicitously.
*Apart from injured pride, I am unhurt," Black replied.
*Do you know your a.s.sailant?"
*She is the rogue agent I spoke of"
*Ah. Our investigations appear to have flushed her out," said Roag, *though not in a judicious way, I might add."
I doubt your investigations had anything to do with it, thought Black, but he refrained from saying so.
Indeed, he was wondering just what had flushed Anneke out, or if they were all misreading the encounter. The look on her face when she rounded the corner had been surprise, even shock.
Black would have sworn it was genuine. Except he"d been fooled before by Anneke Longshadow. Even now, he burned at the thought.
*I see you are angry," said Roag, getting it wrong again. *I will have security scour the area. Roadblocks and other barriers will be in place in minutes. She will not escape."
*She is highly trained," said Black. *It will be difficult to apprehend her."
Roag sniffed indignantly. *You doubt the capabilities of our security forces?"
*No offence intended, Amba.s.sador, but where Anneke Longshadow is concerned, I doubt the capabilities of all the security forces in all the known worlds."
The amba.s.sador did not seem a.s.suaged by this. He issued his orders curtly then suggested they head back to the Trade Commission.
*Amba.s.sador, might I ask a favour?"
Roag pursed his lips, but all he said was, *Ask."
*Might my men and I join the hunt for this renegade?"
*My people are more than capable -"
Black held up his hands placatingly. *Amba.s.sador, you misunderstand me. I know your security forces are excellent, but we both work at a disadvantage. Your people do not know this agent or her training well. We do not know this city and its ways. Together, we might solve this problem with a minimum of fuss." Black"s face was one of subordinate pleading and he made sure his body language reinforced the image, without going too far. He must not appear weak, but boyishly enthusiastic. To a man of Roag"s age, Black must appear childlike, despite the false age his renovation projected. He tried appealing to the man"s vanity, to his need to mentor the young, if only to demonstrate his own superiority.
Roag mulled over Black"s words, and then nodded, breaking out in a grin. *I find myself intrigued by the notion, and especially by your use of the word "hunt". So I agree to your request."
Black held out his hand and they shook in the way of the old Roman greeting, clasping each other"s wrist, a martial handshake.
Black signalled Riktar to take point and begin a sweep of the area. Black then gave Anneke"s biosign to the Kantorian head of security, a woman named Avula, who transmitted it to the mult.i.tudinous towers and Ais that networked the city.
*Let us begin," said Roag, rubbing his hands together in glee. *What will she do first?"
*She will circle back to a spot from where she can observe us. We should a.s.sume that she is already watching us."
*So quickly?"
*This agent was born on Normansk - a planet with nearly twice-normal gravity. Her speed and strength are exceptional, as are her skills. We should not underestimate her."
*So you think she is observing us right now?" Black nodded.
*Then how may we use this?"
*We must outguess her. At the same time we can run a probability scan to identify the likeliest observation points."
Roag spoke quietly to Avula, who patted her utility belt and nodded a response. *Let us proceed with all haste," Roag said to Maximus.
Black did the scans himself He identified three spots. Two high and one low. He fed these to Avula"s e-pad and she uploaded them to the towers which, linked to satellite sweeps, ran infrared and bio signature scans of the locations.
To Black"s surprise, Anneke was indeed in one of the spots. He could only conclude that it was a double feint. That being in a likely location, Anneke had a.s.sumed, rightly in normal circ.u.mstances, that Black would dismiss them as too obvious.
But her feint within a feint had failed.
*Well done," said the amba.s.sador, making sure his lips could not be read from where Anneke was hiding. He nodded to his head of security who spoke in sign language to her squad. *And now what?" Roag asked.
*We could blast the location, with your permission of course, or we could attempt a capture." Black knew, having sized up the man in subtle ways, which way Roag would go. For his own purposes, Black preferred they did not make contact with Anneke at all. He could see to that once she was apprehended.
*Let us try to take this Anneke Longshadow. I confess that all you have said intrigues me. She sounds like a super woman. Perhaps we should indebt her, use her for training purposes."
*Unwise, Amba.s.sador. Some people cannot be indebted or domesticated. Anneke Longshadow is one such creature."
*We shall see. Our forces have already surrounded her. We may move in."
Black followed the amba.s.sador. There was a commotion across the square. Black could see ten troopers swarm across the rooftop. There was the flash of a pulse rifle and a scream.
*Perhaps there will be nothing left to indebt," mused the amba.s.sador.
Black curtailed a smile. *I suspect that might be one of your people," he said.
By the time they reached the rooftop, all was quiet. The troopers parted to let the amba.s.sador and his retinue through. Lying on the ground in front of them was a Kantorian trooper with third degree burns to half of his body. A medic was applying first aid.
*What happened here? Where is the woman?" demanded Roag, frowning in puzzlement.
Avula stepped forward. *M"lord, we were fooled by this." She held a small device in the palm of her hand. *It appears to create a false infrared and bio signature. I do not know how it works."
Black took it, turned it over, and then handed it back. *A standard high-end product. I can sell you hundreds. It not only recreates a heat and body signature, but will produce an optical shadow if necessary, as well as heart beat, halitosis, voice replication, and - if necessary - it will leave traces of DNA."
Roag looked at Black incredulously. *This is appalling. This woman could set up false signatures wherever she chooses, as many as she chooses!"
Black was bemused. *She can and probably will."
*Can you neutralise them?"