Part 74 (1/2)
They were walking across the great entry hall. Even though it was still early in the evening, there were few people about.
Only the patient grey-torc soldiers of the palace guard were ubiquitous, still standing station in their gleaming bronze halfarmour and violet cloaks, but bearing Milieu-style weapons instead of the traditional gla.s.s blades.
”Marc is at Black Crag,” said Elizabeth. ”I'm here at his behest.”
”So!” exclaimed the King. ”Is he feeling more peaceable now that the scales are tipping my way? It must have been quite a blow to his plans, losing those X-lasers.”
Elizabeth said, ”Aiken, Marc brought Basil Wimborne to us from the top of Monte Rosa. Via d-jump.”
The King stopped dead in his tracks. ”Christ!”
Elizabeth regarded him in silence. The flippant insouciance had vanished.
”Is that what you came here to tell me?” Aiken demanded of her. ”That Marc's ready to close in, and we should abandon the Guderian Project?”
”No,” she said.
”What then?”
”Marc has a proposal for you and Hagen and Cloud. I'd like to discuss it with the three of you together.”
Minanonn said, ”I think you'll be as safe with the King as with me, Elizabeth. If you'll excuse me, I shall visit with the Fa.r.s.ensing Lady Sibel Longtress. In times long gone she and I shared many a diverting hour-debating the merits of peace.”
He went off, leaving Elizabeth smiling.
”Quite the protector, isn't he?” Aiken's tone was sour.
”He approves of you and your reign thus far.”
”Well, hoo-rah,” the King drawled. ”Pity he's not willing to fight for his high principles! I need every stalwart mind I can get these days. You know about my having to give Sharn and Ayfa the Sword-and what that could mean.”
She nodded. ”The Firvulag couldn't initiate the Nightfall War without their sacred weapon-and now they have it. You've taken a big gamble.”
His black eyes were snapping. ”Maybe not.” They stood at the entry corridor to the castle's west wing, which was barred by a great bronze grille and guarded by elite gold troopers holding the leashes of spike-collared amphicyons. ”I could call Hagen and Cloud up to the royal presence chamber to meet with us, but perhaps you'd fancy going down to them. I'll take you on a fifty-pence tour of the Guderian Project laboratories-and I wouldn't mind one bit if you told Marc just how we were progressing.”
She said, ”I'd be very glad to take your tour. To tell you the truth, I've been curious.”
With a certain swagger, Aiken commanded the guards to unbar the gate. Then he led the way, pointing out the various security measures protecting the installation. Sensor systems ringed the entire wing where the young North Americans and the technical personnel resided. Elites were on duty inside, and the parapets were patrolled by heavily armed greys and silvers, programmed to report to their Tanu overlords any attempts to break out or in. The precincts about the single stairwell giving access to the modified dungeons, which had once held the ”general store” of contraband, and now housed the laboratories, were guarded by Tanu stalwarts under the command of Celadeyr of Afaliah. The foyer was hedged with b.o.o.by traps, both mechanical and metapsychic, in addition to electromagnetic barriers of increasingly lethal potential. If one managed to negotiate these hazards, there still remained the last bastion: the great SR-35 sigma-field, with its airlock that would only pa.s.s those whose mental signatures were on file in the royal computer.
”You are on file now, sweets,” Aiken told Elizabeth with a wink. ”But just for today.”
The mirrorlike wall at the end of the airlock dissolved before them at the King's gesture, and they entered the laboratory anteroom. Elizabeth watched the dynamic field re-form behind them and tapped the pseudoslippery interface with one fingernail. ”So this is the impregnable sigma that Marc hoped to breach with his X-lasers.”
The King's jovial mien shaded off into grimness. ”It is. The kids brought it from Ocala. As long as we keep the project under it, we'll be safe. Hagen says it's proof against a psychoenergetic attack to the five-hundreth degree of magnitude. Felice might have been able to mind-blast her way in here-but Abaddon hasn't a prayer. Not with the handful of minds he can muster in metaconcert these days.”
”You can't use the Guderian device here in Goriah,” Elizabeth pointed out.
”No,” the King conceded. ”Bit of bad planning on my part, that. I should have set up the labs at the Castle Gateway site in the first place, and devil take the inconvenience. But it's no use crying over spilt milk. The SR-35's no good for aerial operation, but we'll work out something when the time comes to move.
You can tell that to Marc, as well as all the rest of it.”