The air was suddenly electric. "Where is he?" Skyler and Novak asked together.
"A place called Millaire." Lathe filled them in on Dan's message. "What's the word on Cerbe?" he asked Skyler. "You and Hawking found a weakness yet?"
"Yes—their secure communications system." The two blackcollars and Caine, Lathe noted, had been looking through Radix's somewhat skimpy file on the old fortress, and Skyler shuffled out a telephoto picture. "Rotating comm laser turret here on the roof of the main building," he said, tapping it with a finger. "Hemispherical, twenty centimeters in diameter. Secure messages from Calarand are relayed through one or more hovering patrol boats. Theoretically, it's a tap-proof system, since the whole thing is up off the ground."
"You have a way to do it?"
"Hawking does. He's making a gadget he says worked perfectly the one time he got to use it on Plinry."
"Can it be ready in an hour?"
Skyler's eyebrows rose fractionally. "Are we in that much of a hurry?"
"Yes, because he's leaving with the group going to Millaire. It's the perfect way to get him out of the city without alerting the local collie spies. Once you're clear of any roadblocks he can fall back and head for Cerbe."
"Was that 'you' singular or plural?" Novak asked, his voice carefully neutral.
Lathe smiled. "Plural, of course. You and Skyler will both be going."
Skyler glanced at Caine, then back at Lathe. "Can you spare both of us?" he asked quietly.
"Mordecai and I can protect Caine," Lathe assured him. "I want you to go to Hawking right away. Tell him what's happening; if he can't be ready in an hour, get his best estimate and I'll do some stalling. Then go to the garage and make sure the cars they assign us aren't bugged or marked. Oh, and Hawking said he was going to put together a portable bug stomper, too—if it's ready you should take it along."
Skyler stood up and began fastening a civilian shirt over his flexarmor. "We traveling alone or with a native guide?"
Lathe grimaced. "The latter—Bakshi's giving us one of his blackcollars."
"Great. I'll warn Hawking." With a cheerful wave at the silent Mordecai, Skyler left the room.
"You don't like Bakshi and the others, do you?" Caine asked quietly. He was seated alone at the table now, Novak having vanished into the corner to begin collecting equipment.
"Bakshi I don't mind," Lathe said, pulling out one of the chairs and sitting down. It felt good; that workout had worn him out. "It's the other four that bother me."
"Why? Because they aren't as phlegmatic toward the Ryqril as you are?"
Lathe declined to take offense. "A good fighting spirit is fine. But so far they haven't shown anything but spirit. Tell me, what's your opinion of Lianna Rhodes?"
Caine blinked. "Why, I... in what way?"
"How do you think she would do under pressure, for instance? More importantly, what are the chances she's a Security spy?"
Caine frowned. "I don't think she's a spy," he said slowly. "That's only gut instinct, of course. She said she was leaving Radix soon, though, and I can't see a spy doing something like that."
Lathe nodded; Caine's information and instincts meshed with his own. "You think she could face down a group of collies?"
Surprisingly, Caine smiled. "She sure doesn't wilt in front of us." The smile faded into curiosity. "Why all the questions?"
"I want her to help us get into Cerbe Prison." Lathe told him.
Caine's expression hardly changed. "I won't waste my breath telling you you're crazy," the younger man said calmly. "Do I get to know anything about this one in advance?"
Lathe hesitated, but only for a second. He'd been cutting Caine out of a lot lately, and the other was clearly beginning to resent it. Telling Caine this part of the plan would be safe enough... and it might help divert his mind from Dodds for a while. "Sure," he said, glancing at the quietly humming bug stomper standing sentinel in the middle of the room. "Let's go sit by the stomper and I'll tell you all about it."
CHAPTER 21
The storm clouds had been rolling in from the north for half an hour, replacing the already overcast night sky. Occasional flickers of lightning lit up the landscape, emphasizing the implicit promise of a heavy rain. At the car's wheel, Dael Valentine risked a quick glance behind him. "I told you this would happen," he said. "Driving in convoy at night's just plain stupid."
"Just relax," Skyler advised him from the back seat. "They have maps, and we know they got out of Calarand all right. Maybe they decided to take a different route."
" 'Maybe'?" Valentine snorted. "In other words, they did. And naturally you didn't bother to tell me."
"You were having so much fun complaining about their incompetence it seemed a shame to enlighten you," Novak, next to Valentine, said tartly.
Valentine didn't reply. Novak was overstating the case a bit, in Skyler's opinion, but not by much. The Argentian had done a lot of bitching during the trip, almost as if he considered a chip on his shoulder to be standard equipment. Skyler had run into that kind before, back on Plinry, and considered the type to be a royal pain in the butt. They were dangerous to be around, too, usually getting themselves killed doing something stupid.
In the front seat a tiny penlight flicked on briefly as Novak checked his map. "Shouldn't we be seeing Millaire by now?" the black man asked.
"It's in a wide valley past these hills," Valentine said, pointing to the shadowy ridge that the car was approaching. "You'll see it in five minutes."
Novak grunted and fell silent. Skyler took a moment to look back along the road, and to study the territory on either side. Only occasional lights could be seen, most of them far back from the road. Not surprising, considering it was way past midnight and all good Argentians were asleep in their beds. Still, the darkness and lack of other traffic made the blackcollar uncomfortable. He'd learned long ago to dislike being conspicuous.
The car topped the ridge—and suddenly Millaire was in front of them, spreading across the valley like a two-dimensional star cluster. "Quite a town," Novak commented. "How's it compare to Calarand?"
"Larger in area; smaller in population," Valentine said. Half of Millaire's lights disappeared as they curved behind a hill, reappearing a moment later.
"Find a place where you can pull over," Skyler spoke up suddenly. "I want a clear view of the city."
"Why?" Valentine asked. "We're getting in late enough as it is."
"Just do it." Skyler's danger sense was tingling, and he was in no mood to argue.
"Yes, sir." Valentine ran the car onto the shoulder, raising clouds of dust as they bounced to a halt.
"Novak, give me that map," Skyler said, frowning out at Millaire. Novak handed over both the map and his penlight, and Skyler took a moment to refold the paper to the large-scale map of the city. "Valentine, show me again exactly where Radix HQ is," he ordered, cupping the penlight to block all but a faint glow.
The Argentian reached back over the seat. "It's right here," he said, tapping a spot a kilometer from the center of town. "Why?"
Skyler studied the map another moment, then flipped off the light. "You see it, Novak?"
"Yeah," the other said slowly. "I do now."
"What?" Valentine asked suspiciously, peering out the window.
"You see that patch of darkness, next to the big white building?" Skyler pointed it out. "Radix HQ is inside it."