Part 9 (2/2)
A long silence. ”You don't trust me,” said Feragga at last.
”Not enough to leave everything in your hands,” said Blade. ”I learned that early, in a hard school. Come on, Feragga. It won't do you any good if I tell Detcharn about this conversation, will it?” He saw her swallow and knew he was right.
However; she wasn't going to give up without a fight. ”What good would that do you, Blade? Your secret would be out anyway, and Detcharn isn't given to grat.i.tude. You'd have as much to fear from him as ever.”
”Not if he thought he had to conduct a purge of your friends before he could move. That would also keep him busy.”
”You would be signing Moshra's death warrant as well as mine, Blade. Do you care so little for your daughter?”
Before Blade had to pretend that he didn't, Moshra slammed her hand down on the table angrily. ”Mother Feragga, enough of this! If you go on asking for what my father will not give, we will get nothing. I am certain he would see us both die rather than do less than what he thinks is his duty. So if you will not talk sense, I will give him the formula myself.”
”How did you come to know it?” said Feragga, startled.
Moshra blushed and bowed her head. ”I could not help learning it from Detcharn's mind once when-when I was lying with him?”
”Your own brother?” said Blade.
”Half-brother,” she corrected him in a flat voice. ”He--he is proud of being bound by no Law-except-his own will. He- Father, why are you looking like that?”
Feragga gave a bawdy chuckle. ”I'll wager his daughter Baliza tried to bed him in Kaldak. There's a l.u.s.ty wench, by all reports. She wouldn't have known who he was, of course. Just seen a fine piece of man's flesh and wanted to grab.”
”Mother Feragga, do you read thoughts, too?”
”No, I just know more about the ways of men and women than you do.” She sighed. ”Blade, since it's doing things your way or not at all-so be it.”
Over the last of the wine they worked out the details. Blade would make his planned trip to the new tracking station. Moshra would go with him. So would a soldier in Feragga's pay. Halfway to the station, the soldier would ”hijack” the lifter by killing the pilot. Then Blade would take over.
”You can handle one of our lifters, I hope?” Feragga asked Blade.
”Well enough to get it and us down in one piece.”
”Good.”
Blade would then fly the lifter to a place free of Tribesmen, near the border with Kaldak. They would abandon the lifter and destroy it, then march overland into Kaldakan territory. After that it would be up to Blade. He would still need some luck, but with the serum formula to bargain with he thought he could manage.
”Make sure you destroy the lifter so thoroughly that no one will suspect it wasn't an accident,” Feragga insisted.
”Why?” said Blade. He thought he knew, but wanted to draw her out anyway.
”It will be my neck otherwise,” she said. ”And while it's an old stiff neck, I'd like to keep it in one piece a little longer if I can. Also, I don't want civil war in Doimar.”
She explained. The regular army of Doimar hadn't really forgiven the Seekers for their retreat in the great battle against Kaldak. Only Feragga herself had kept them from destroying the Seekers after the battle. Now only Detcharn kept the two factions working together. He was as good a soldier as he was a scientist, even though he had become a brutal tyrant, obsessed with the destruction of Kaldak.
”If it is learned, however, that the lifter was sent in order to warn Kaldak of Detcharn's plans, the soldiers will probably rise up against the Seekers. The Seekers will fight back. Neither side will win, but there will be many dead, and Doimar will not recover. I want peace not only between the soldiers and Seekers, but also between two strong cities. I do not want the Doimari to be slaves of Kaldak.”
”I wouldn't ask it,” said Blade. Also, the Seekers of Doimar were still the best and most advanced scientists in this Dimension. If they survived until peace broke out between the two big cities, the whole Dimension would benefit.
He still wasn't entirely happy with the thought of leaving Detcharn alive. No victory would be complete and no peace secure without his death. Even if his scheme for germ warfare was defeated, he might have a few other cards up his sleeve. What about hydrogen bombs, with the fusion reaction started by lasers instead of by a nuclear explosion?
However, this made it even more important to keep Blade's escape a secret. As long as Detcharn didn't know his plans were exposed, he would not use some other weapon against which Kaldak might have no defenses.
Blade would be buying time, no more. But if he bought enough, perhaps he could safely leave to others the job of killing Detcharn.
Chapter 18.
The lifter whined through the night sky. The interior was dark, except for the lights on the instrument panel. Blade could barely make out Moshra's face beside him. The soldier squatting aft by the open door was only a dim shape.
”Yeeep?” It was a question from Cheeky. He'd learned to communicate with Blade mostly by sound when Moshra was around. He didn't entirely trust her even if Blade thought he should. He definitely didn't like his thoughts being overheard by anyone except Blade or another Feathered One. This made communication between him and Blade a little slow and vague when Moshra was around.
”Not long now,” said Blade. ”We must be at least halfway.” The pilot overheard him and nodded. ”More like two-thirds,” he said. ”But this is the difficult part. We're over Tribal lands, and the Tribes don't like us much anymore, since . . .” He let his voice trail off. The regular armed forces of Doimar had been proud of winning the friends.h.i.+p of the Tribes, and didn't approve of Detcharn's bloodthirsty raid. However, they also couldn't speak out against Detcharn as long as he was Doimar's chief hope of victory.
”The Kaldakans have helped us, then,” said Blade. ”They took out a lot of the Newtec weapons the Tribes had, while I was in Kaldak. I doubt if they have anything which can hit you up here.”
”I hope not,” said the pilot. He made a minute adjustment of the controls. The lifter tilted slightly and swung onto a new course.
The soldier hadn't said anything during this exchange. But then, he hadn't spoken five words since the lifter took off. Blade wondered if the man was just naturally close-mouthed, or whether he was getting nervous. A nervous man would be a bad choice for this little job. Of course he'd been handpicked by Feragga, but Feragga wasn't a professional at intelligence work; and Blade didn't really trust anyone who wasn't Come on, Richard, he told himself. You're starting to jump at shadows. That's no way to go, even with this much at stake.
The trouble was, he couldn't quite forget how much was at stake.
Slowly, to keep both the soldier and the pilot from noticing it, Blade s.h.i.+fted his seat. Now he was no longer in the direct line of fire between the soldier and the pilot. He also unb.u.t.toned the flap of his holster.
Suddenly the soldier let out a wild scream. The pilot jumped and turned in his seat, just in time to receive a laser blast in the face. His face became a ghastly charred mask but somehow he didn't die. Blade started to rise but Moshra was on her feet first. He reached for her hand, to pull her down.
”No. I've sworn an oath to use my mind-speaking for help at times like this.” She jerked free and stepped toward the dying pilot. This brought her directly into the path of the soldier. Like a striking snake, one arm of the soldier looped around her throat, while the other hand rammed his pistol into her back. She started to struggle, then stopped at his growl.
”You be still, or I shoot your friend. Same goes the other way, too.” He pointed the gun at Blade. ”Now you go and take the controls. Then fly us where I tell you?”
”To Detcharn?”
The arm tightened around Moshra's neck. ”Just fly. Don't talk.”
Blade decided this was the wrong time to try anything to subdue the disloyal soldier. He'd wait and find his opportunity when Moshra would have a better chance. Keeping his hands in clear view, he put his pistol on the seat. Then he started toward the empty copilot's seat.
”Soldier,” said Moshra. ”If Feragga isn't paying you enough-ehhhkkkk!” as the arm tightened around her throat.
”She can't pay enough to bring back my father. The d.a.m.ned Kaldakans killed him. She can't keep Detcharn's hands off my wife and baby, either.”
”If it's Detcharn worrying you-” began Blade, but the soldier's reply was snarled.
”Fly, curse you, or she dies slow. Guts burned out, b.r.e.a.s.t.s burned off. Fly!”
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