“Maybe they changed my access code,” said Tach. She leaned back and chewed nervously on her lower lip.
All three of them were squeezed into a link booth that consisted of a keyboard and a concave desktop.
“Maybe you don’t have an account any longer,” suggested Jay. “It’s been over forty years.”
“It was my money.”
“Yeah, well, maybe they figured you didn’t need it any longer.”
Mark offered tentatively, “Will they accept a collect call?”
“Would you?” shot back Jay.
“No,” Mark admitted. The ace considered for a moment. “We could, like, cruise around until we spot someone from House Ilkazam.”
Tach was already shaking her head. “Won’t work. Juniors are always assigned to hub duty. These children probably wouldn’t know me in my own form, much less as I am now. No, I need someone who will recognize my mental signature.”
Jay glanced back through the doors of the booth. “Are there panhandlers on Takis?”
Tach ignored him and tried another combination of numbers. Suddenly an arm reached over her shoulder and deposited a black crystal on the keyboard. Silver and red lines crawled through the facets like sluggish lightning.
“Allow me to be of service, cousin,” Zabb drawled. Coolly Tach lifted the crystal and dropped it into the cradle. “Let’s hope no one’s raided your assets.”
Zabb smiled. “No one would dare. In my case the family knew I’d be back.”
The screen flashed once and went black. Tach typed in the link destination. Commandant, platform Ilkazam.
An instant later the six-inch-tall figure of a Takisian appeared in the concave bowl. He wore the gold and white of the Ilkazam officer corps, and there was a certain facial resemblance to Zabb, and to Tachyon as he had been.
“Bazzakra brant Kazz sek Najah sek Mimjal! Blood and Line, this is the first good fortune I’ve had.”
The hologram of the man smiled politely, but wary puzzlement hung about him. “Intaye, are we acquainted?”
Zabb leaned in, his hand resting lightly on Tach’s shoulder. “Surely you remember me, Baz.”
The reaction from Tachyon was instinctive. Teeth bared, Tach brushed Zabb’s hand from her shoulder.
The reaction from Bazzakra was equally instinctive. He rejoiced at the sight of his old commander. “Zabb! We thought you dead.”
“Thought Tis was dead too,” smiled back her cousin. “But here he, er rather she, is. In another predicament as usual.”
“You’re serious? This girlchild is the Heir?”
“Yes.”
Suspicion darkened the gray eyes as Tach frowned up at her cousin. “Why are you doing this? I should have thought you’d be delighted to destroy my chances.”
“No, dear cousin, someone must return home to lead our family.”
“Then you know,” Bazzakra said.
“Know what?” Tach demanded.
But the officer’s mind had jumped to a new consideration. Plucking at his lower lip, he frowned off into space. “I must consult Taj. If it truly is you, Tis, you haven’t lost your flare for a dramatic entrance at the final hour.”
Tach beat the palms of her hands on the desk. “What is happening to my home and House?”
“Not over a public link,” warned Zabb. “You have been among the mudcrawlers too long.”
A second later another figure flickered to life on the holostage. He was dressed in the more elaborate finery that the two humans associated with Tachyon at his flamboyant best. His face was heavily lined, gray streaked his temples, and one long brush of silver ran from a pronounced widow’s peak back over the top of his head.
“Finally, an old geezer,” Jay said. “Too bad he looks like a geriatric skunk.” Mark gave the detective an urgent nudge with his elbow.
Taj studied Zabb’s handsome and arrogant face, the thin lips curved in a slight, scornful smile, and ran a hand wearily over his face. “I know from long experience, Zabb brant Sabina sek Shaza sek Risala, that wherever you are, there dwells trouble. What is it this time?”
“Is this link secure?” asked the younger man.
“Yes. World Link is no doubt raving, but by the time they realize the scramble was deliberate, not technical failure, we will have concluded our business. Whatever that business might be.”
“Tisianne and her two servants require a shuttle.”
“Fascinating.” It was a gift to be able to fill a single word with so much disdain. Zabb flushed. “Are you drunk or insane?”
It was time Tach took a hand. She dreaded it – the look and then either shock or amusement. Sucking in a deep breath, she said, “No, uncle. I am Tisianne. And I need your help. Worse than I did the night I’d been out whoring in the city over the absolute prohibition by father, and he force-locked the entire compound just to catch me. You overrode and slipped me back into the palace.”
The old man seemed to shrink. “Ancestors! It can’t be.”
Tach leaned forward intently. “It is. I can tell you more. The day your sister – my mother – died. I had crawled under her arm, but she was so cold -”
“Stop! Baz, get these… travelers down here. Now.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And make inquiries. You understand?”
“Yes.”
“So he believes you?” Mark asked.
“He doesn’t know what to believe,” Tachyon replied. They were waiting outside one of the docking bays. “Any good telepath could have pulled those memories from the real Tachyon’s mind.”
“Zabb did vouch for you.”
“Given our family history, that could end up damning me more than helping me. After my father was… injured, Taj has served as regent to the House. Protecting my throne until my return. Protecting it most notably against Zabb.” She sighed. Her back was aching abominably, and indigestion set her stomach to roiling. “And it won’t take Baz long to discover that Zabb is captaining that Network ship.”
“So we’re really in a ‘have you stopped beating your wife yet?’ situation,” Jay said.
“Not that hopeless. Once me meets me, our bona fides will be established.”
“Yeah?” Jay asked aggressively. Tach simply tapped her temple. “Oh… yeah.” The ace walked a tight, nervous turn. Jay jammed his hands into his pockets. “Some kind of Takisian ordure is hitting whatever passes for the fan on this planet.”
“What makes you think that?”
Jay simply tapped his temple. Zabb, Nesfa, and several Viand arrived.
“I came to say farewell,” said Zabb as if in answer to a question Tachyon hadn’t posed.
“It can’t be soon enough.”
“And I to tell you… goodbye,” Nesfa twinkled at Jay.
Jay’s eyes widened in alarm, his Adam’s apple worked convulsively, and finally a single word emerged. “Great.” He took up a position safely behind Mark Meadows.
Tach returned to a contemplation of the amber lights running in complex patterns over the lintel of the air lock. A voice warned them softly in Takisian that a ship was arriving, and it was unsafe to open the inner door until docking was complete. There was a soft ringing like the chime of a glockenspiel, and the lights went blue.
The lock cycled open, and Bazzakra, flanked by five soldiers, stepped through. The guards quickly fanned out. Their weapons were still holstered, but tension vibrated in the silence. A couple of the Takisians eyed Zabb respectfully, and Tach realized that her rival had been gone only five years. Her absence spanned over forty. Who would remember Tisianne?
Baz was staring at her, mostly at her most obvious physical feature. Feeling as awkward and ungainly as a blimp, she stepped forward and made a quick, sweeping gesture across her forehead.
“Read.”
She felt the delicate probe like the brush of a feather across a fingertip. It fell away at the same moment Bazzakra took a step backward.