Part 8 (2/2)
”What did I tell you, Lord Virzal? I knew that son of a _zortan_ had something on Jirzyn of Starpha!” Dirzed exclaimed. ”A nice family, this of Starpha!”
”Well, that's not the end of it,” Sarnax continued. ”This morning, Tarnov of Fastor, late Jirzid of Starpha, went before the High Court of Estates and entered suit to change his name to Jirzid of Starpha and laid claim to the t.i.tle of Starpha family-head. The case has just been entered, so there's been no hearing, but there's the blazes of an argument among all the n.o.bles about it--some are claiming that the individuality doesn't change from one reincarnation to the next, and others claiming that property and t.i.tles should pa.s.s along the line of physical descent, no matter what individuality has reincarnated into what body. They're the ones who want the Lady Dallona discarnated and her discoveries suppressed. And there's talk about revising the entire system of estate-owners.h.i.+p and estate-inheritance. Oh, it's an utter obscenity of a business!”
”This,” Verkan Vall told Dalla, ”is something we will not emphasize when we get home.” That was as close as he dared come to it, but she caught his meaning. The working of major changes in out-time social structures was not viewed with approval by the Paratime Commission on the First Level. ”_If_ we get home,” he added. Then an idea occurred to him.
”Dirzed, Sarnax; this place must have been used by the leaders of the Volitionalists for top-level conferences. Is there a secret pa.s.sage anywhere?”
Sarnax shook his head. ”Not from here. There is one, on the floor above, but they control it. And even if there were one down here, they would be guarding the outlet.”
”That's what I was counting on. I'd hoped to simulate an escape that way, and then make a rush up the regular tubes.” Verkan Vall shrugged.
”I suppose Marnik's our only chance. I hope he got away safely.”
”He was going for help? I was surprised that an a.s.sa.s.sin would desert his client; I should have thought of that,” Sarnax said. ”Well, even if he got down carnate, and if Girzad didn't catch him, he'd still be afoot ten miles from the nearest city unit. That gives us a little chance--about one in a thousand.”
”Is there any way they can get at us, except by those tubes?” Dalla asked.
”They could cut a hole in the floor, or burn one through,” Sarnax replied. ”They have plenty of thermite. They could detonate a charge of explosives over our heads, or clear out of the dome and drop one down the well. They could use lethal gas or radiodust, but their a.s.sa.s.sins wouldn't permit such illegal methods. Or they could shoot sleep-gas down at us, and then come down and cut our throats at their leisure.”
”We'll have to get out of this room, then,” Verkan Vall decided. ”They know we've barricaded ourselves in here; this is where they'll attack. So we'll patrol the perimeter of the well; we'll be out of danger from above if we keep close to the wall. And we'll inspect all the rooms on this floor for evidence of cutting through from above.”
Sarnax nodded. ”That's sense, Lord Virzal. How about the lifter tubes?”
”We'll have to barricade them. Sarnax, you and Dirzed know the layout of this place better than the Lady Dallona or I; suppose you two check the rooms, while we cover the tubes and the well,” Verkan Vall directed. ”Come on, now.”
They pushed the door wide-open and went out past the cabinet. Hugging the wall, they began a slow circuit of the well, Verkan Vall in the lead with the submachine-gun, then Sarnax and Dirzed, the former with a heavy boar-rifle and the latter with a hunting pistol in each hand, and Hadron Dalla brought up in the rear with her rifle. It was she who noticed a movement along the rim of the balcony above and snapped a shot at it; there was a crash above, and a shower of gla.s.s and plastic and metal fragments rattled on the pavement of the court. Somebody had been trying to lower a scanner or a visiplate-pickup, or something of the sort; the exact nature of the instrument was not evident from the wreckage Dalla's bullet had made of it.
The rooms Dirzed and Sarnax entered were all quiet; n.o.body seemed to be attempting to cut through the ceiling, fifteen feet above. They dragged furniture from a couple of rooms, blocking the openings of the lifter tubes, and continued around the well until they had reached the gun room again.
Dirzed suggested that they move some of the weapons and ammunition stored there to Prince Jirzyn's private apartment, halfway around to the lifter tubes, so that another place of refuge would be stocked with munitions in event of their being driven from the gun room.
Leaving him on guard outside, Verkan Vall, Dalla and Sarnax entered the gun room and began gathering weapons and boxes of ammunition.
Dalla finished packing her game bag with the recorded data and notes of her experiments. Verkan Vall selected four more of the heavy hunting pistols, more accurate than his shoulder-holster weapon or the dead Olirzon's belt arm, and capable of either full or semi-automatic fire. Sarnax chose a couple more boar rifles. Dalla slung her bag of recorded notes, and another bag of ammunition, and secured another deer rifle. They carried this acc.u.mulation of munitions to the private apartments of Prince Jirzyn, dumping everything in the middle of the drawing room, except the bag of notes, from which Dalla refused to separate herself.
”Maybe we'd better put some stuff over in one of the rooms on the other side of the well,” Dirzed suggested. ”They haven't really begun to come after us; when they do, we'll probably be attacked from two or three directions at once.”
They returned to the gun room, casting anxious glances at the edge of the balcony above and at the barricade they had erected across the openings to the lifter tubes. Verkan Vall was not satisfied with this last; it looked to him as though they had provided a breastwork for somebody to fire on them from, more than anything else.
He was about to step around the cabinet which partially blocked the gun-room door when he glanced up, and saw a six-foot circle on the ceiling turning slowly brown. There was a smell of scorched plastic.
He grabbed Sarnax by the arm and pointed.
”Thermite,” the a.s.sa.s.sin whispered. ”The ceiling's got six inches of s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p-insulation between it and the floor above; it'll take them a few minutes to burn through it.” He stooped and pushed on the barricade, shoving it into the room. ”Keep back; they'll probably drop a grenade or so through, first, before they jump down. If we're quick, we can get a couple of them.”
Dirzed and Sarnax crouched, one at either side of the door, with weapons ready. Verkan Vall and Dalla had been ordered, rather peremptorily, to stay behind them; in a place of danger, an a.s.sa.s.sin was obliged to s.h.i.+eld his client. Verkan Vall, unable to see what was going on inside the room, kept his eyes and his gun muzzle on the barricade across the openings to the lifter tubes, the erection of which he was now regretting as a major tactical error.
Inside the gun room, there was a sudden crash, as the circle of thermite burned through and a section of ceiling dropped out and hit the floor. Instantly, Dirzed flung himself back against Verkan Vall, and there was a tremendous explosion inside, followed by another and another. A second or so pa.s.sed, then Dirzed, leaning around the corner of the door, began firing rapidly into the room. From the other side of the door, Sarnax began blazing away with his rifle. Verkan Vall kept his position, covering the lifter tubes.
Suddenly, from behind the barricade, a blue-white gun flash leaped into being, and a pistol banged. He sprayed the opening between a couch and a section of bookcase from whence it had come, releasing his trigger as the gun rose with the recoil, squeezing and releasing and squeezing again. Then he jumped to his feet.
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