Part 73 (1/2)

i ”Shhh. We hope the searchers don't know about the trapdoor.”

For the first time since trouble started, Sa.s.sinak had leisure to think about it and about her s.h.i.+p. She had .

(. been fooled by the original communication because it was in Fleet slang. That implied, but did not prove, * ^tfaat someone in Fleet was trying to get her killed. Whoever it was knew enough about Coromell to suspect that his name would lure her and that she would Jtnow only his general appearance. He was famous J/eoongh. It wouldn't be hard for anyone to know his ^'height, his age, and find someone reasonably close to ^impersonate him.

'i. But why all the complexity? Why not simply have ^4omeone a.s.sa.s.sinate her, or Aygar, or both, as they f <were on=”” their=”” way=”” out=”” of=”” the=”” shuttleport,=”” or=”” any=”” place=”” between?=”” and,=”” a.s.suming=”” those=”” orange=”” uniforms=”” were=”” i*r;ae=”” pohce,=”” why=”” were=”” the=”” authorities=”” on=”” the=”” side=”” of=”” the=”” v=””></were>< p=””>

She tried to think what someone might have said to ce the local police that she and Aygar were dan-criminals causing trouble. Fleeing a bar fight tooiy common sense. She'd originally thought to call (-to CoromelTs office as soon as she found a telecom 216.

booth. And what was happening to her s.h.i.+p, topside? She wanted to pull out the comunit and find out, but dared not with searchers after them.

Time waiting in the darkness had strange dimensions. Endless, seamless, compressed by fear and stretched by antic.i.p.ation, she had no idea how long it was before she dared extend a cautious foot to the next lower step. She edged down, drawing Aygar after her. Just in case they found the trapdoor, she'd rather be around a corner, behind something, under something. Another step, and another.

When the lights went on, her vision blanked for a moment. Aygar gasped Now she could see the long narrow room. She ran down the last few steps, Aygar behind her, and looked for a place to hide. There? An angle of wall, perhaps a support for something overhead? She ducked around it, out of sight of the stairs. Then a voice crackled from some hidden speaker.

”. . . know you have a bas.e.m.e.nt, Sera Vanlis, and you'd better cooperate. This is nothing to play games about.”

”I still don't see a warrant.” Not quite defiance, but not quite calm confidence, either. ”I've nothing to hide, but I'm not setting precedent by letting you search without one.” ”I'll call for one.”

tA pause, then the sound of speech Sa.s.sinak could not distinguish. Did the sound go both ways? She had to trust not, had to hope the woman had hit some hidden switch to give them both warning and a way out. But nothing looked like a way out. No doors, in the long opposite wall, or the far end. No door at either end. A fat column of cables and pipes came out of the ceiling, entered and exited a ma.s.sive meter box covered with dials, and disappeared into a grated opening in the floor.

Aygar nodded toward it. Sa.s.sinak looked closer. Not big enough for Aygar and she wasn't sure she could slither alongside the bundled utilities, but it gave her an idea. If this were a s.h.i.+p, there'd be some kind of repair access to the utility conduits She couldn't find .

217.

ft, and the conversation overhead could have only one ending.

Then Aygar picked up a filing cabinet, one of a row along the far wall, but in line with the path of the cables, and there it was. A flat circle of metal, with a pop-up handle, and under it a vertical shaft with a hdder fixed to one side. She would have had trouble getting the cover free, and up, but Aygar's powerful fingers lifted it as easily as a piece of toast on a tray.

Sa.s.sinak eeled into the hole, slipped easily down tile * hdder to give Aygar room, and murmured ”How're you going to cover it after us?” 1 ”Don't worry.”

Nonetheless, she did worry as he slipped the access cover behind the next file cabinet over, and backed down into the hole, dragging the file cabinet with him.

Sorely he couldn't possibly move it all the way into ; Jlbce, just with his hands? He could.

They were in the dark again, the top of the shaft waled with the file cabinet, but she could hear the proud grin in his voice when he said, ”Unless they beard mat, they won't know. And I think it's been used Aat way before. That cabinet's not as heavy as a full OttB would be.”

*^l” % ,*

_ _ _ - j ~ -.

She patted his leg and backed on down the ladder. y ought to come to a cross-shaft . . . and her foot nothing below, then something uneven. She ran foot over it in the dark, momentarily wondering ..__, she'd been stupid enough not to bring along a Jttndlight. Lumpy, long, slick . . . probably the bun-<hed utilities.=”” she=”” couldn't=”” quite=”” reach=”” them=”” with=”” her=”” *=”” while=”” clinging=”” to=”” the=”” ladder.=”” she'd=”” have=”” to=”” drop.=”” r's=”” foot=”” tapped=”” her=”” head,=”” and=”” she=”” touched=”” his=”” i,=”” a=”” slight=”” sideways=”” shove=”” that=”” she=”” hoped=”” he=”” would=”” understand=”” as=””></hed>< p=””>

Chapter Fourteen.

”What about a light?” asked Aygar softly.

Sa.s.sinak counted to ten, reminding herself that he was not, despite his talents, a trained soldier. He would not have thought to tell her before that he had a light.

”Fine.”

Above her, a dim light came on, bright enough to dark-adapted eyes. Shadows danced crazily as he pa.s.sed it down. Below, the cross tunnel was twice the diameter of theirs, its center full of pipes, with a narrow catwalk along one side Sa.s.sinak eased down, swung her legs onto the catwalk, and guided Aygar's feet. She had to crouch a little; he was bent uncomfortably. She touched his arm and jerked her head to one side. They would move some distance before they dared talk much.

Twenty meters down the tunnel, Sa.s.sinak paused and doused the handlight. No sound or sight of pursuit. She closed her eyes, letting them adapt to darkness again, and wis.h.i.+ng she had even the helmet to her armor. Even without the link to the cruiser's big computers, the helmet onboard with sensors could have told her exactly what lay ahead, line-of-sight.

She opened her eyes to darkness. Complete . . . no. Not complete. Ahead, so dim she could hardly make it 218.

219.

out, a distant red-orange point. She squinted, then remembered to s.h.i.+ft her gaze off-center and back across. Two red-orange points. She leaned out to peer back past Aygar. Another, and another beyond that.

Marker lights for maintenance workers. That would be the most harmless. Alternatives included automatic cameras that could send their images straight to some police station without ever giving them enough light to see. Or automatic lasers, linked to heat and motion sensors, designed to rid the tunnels of vermin.

She hated planets. There might even be vermin in these tunnels. But when there were no choices, only fools refused chances ... so Abe had said. She edged sideways along the catwalk, moving with s.h.i.+p-trained neatness in that unhandy s.p.a.ce. Aygar had more trouble. She could hear him thumping and stumbling, and had to hope that there were no sound sensors down here. She used the handlight as seldom as she could.

Moving past the first dim light in the tunnel's roof set off no alarms she could sense, but then a good system wouldn't tell her. She was sweating now in the tunnel's unmoving air, and wondering just how good that air was. Between the first and second lights, she felt a sodden draft along her side, and turned the light on die tunnel wall. Waist high, another grill, this one rectangular. A silent, slightly cooler breath came from it. She could hear no fan, not even the hiss of air movement. Then for an instant it changed, sucking against die back of her hand, then stilled, then returned as before.

Nothing but a pressure-equalizing connector, probably from die subway system, she thought. Nice to know they were connected to something else with air, though shed rather have found a route to the surface. She tapped Aygar's arm, and they crouched beneath the vent to rest briefly.

”I'm not sure who's after us,” she said. ”That wasn't die man I was supposed to meet, back there, just someone the right age and size, but not the same.”

Aygar ignored this. ”Do you know where we are? Can we get back?”

”Not die right questions. To get back, we have to 220.

figure out who's trying to kill us. At this point we don't know if they're after you, me, or both. And why.”

She could think of reasons both ways. All three ways, and even a few more. Why send her to meet a fake CoromeU and then kill him? It could hardly have been a mistake; the difference between a white-haired old man and a dark-haired woman was clear to the stupidest a.s.sa.s.sin. It couldn't have been bad marksmans.h.i.+p, not with the cl.u.s.ter that had destroyed the man's face. Had there been two different sets of conspirators whose plots intersected in wild confusion?

”You said that wasn't Coromell.” Aygar's voice was quiet, his tone alert but not anxious. ”Did the one who killed him know that?”

”I'm not sure.” She was not sure of a lot, except that she wished she'd stayed on her s.h.i.+p. So much for confronting old fears. ”If that had been Coromell, and if I'd also been killed, perhaps the next round of fire, you'd have been the ranking witness for Tanegli's trial. And, as you've said often enough, you don't know anything about the dealings Tanegli had with the other conspirators. All you could do is testify that he lied to you, led you to believe that Ireta was yours. If there were some way Coromell's death could be blamed on me . . .”

”And why were all those other people waiting for us outside?” Aygar asked.

Clearly his mind ran on a different track. Natural, with his background. But it was still a good question.

”Hmm. Suppose they plan to kill Coromell in the bar. They expect me to run, with you, just as I did. The only smart thing to do in something like that is get out. So they've got others outside, to kill us. Or me. Then they could pin Coromell's death on me, discredit Fleet, and any testimony I bring to the trial.”

”What would happen to the Zaid-Dayan? Who is your heir?”