“Starling here,” the voice of Darlanna Starling replied.
“How are those repairs coming along?”
“We’ll be done in a hour, Major.”
“Good. We’ll get the passengers ready to board.” She turned to the men at her side.
“Zaleski, go fetch our two Habber guests. Achmed and Jeyaraj, get all these people to the hub. I’ll let you know if this woman will be joining them or not by the time they’re ready to leave.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Sameh was silent during the walk to the infirmary. Tom would stall for a while, doing another med-scan and taking his samples, and then Alonza would give the young woman the word. “You won’t be going to Venus; I have to detain you. Those are my orders. No, I don’t know why; all they told me was to hold you until my commanding officer returns.”
Maybe it would be better to simply put her under restraint without explaining anything, but something in Alonza rebelled against that; an operative working for Guardian Commanders deserved more consideration, and it might count against Alonza if the woman complained that she had been badly treated.
Again her doubts nagged at her. Why all this trouble that risked attracting unwanted attention? Why hadn’t Sameh’s superiors found a simpler way of aborting the woman’s mission? Surely they had some way to alert Sameh that her mission had been canceled.
They might have given Alonza a password or some other coded message over a private channel. She would not have to be told what the operative’s original assignment was in order to pass such a message along.
They entered the infirmary. The beds in the ward were empty; the two paramedics on duty greeted Tom with quick nods of their heads. They walked through the ward and continued down a narrow hall with five doors on either side, then stopped in front of one room. The door slid open and the ceiling light brightened to a soft glow, revealing a small room with a wide bed and a wall screen with a holo image of a forest clearing.
“Kind of luxurious quarters,” Sameh said, “for somebody like me.”
“Normally we put Linkers and other dignitaries in the private rooms,” Tom said.
“I guessed that.” Sameh sounded unimpressed.
“We want you to be comfortable,” Alonza added, “and if we should have to isolate you—”
“Can’t think why you should have to do that.” Sameh went to the bed, dropped her duffel on it, and sat down. “If you really thought it was catching, you’d have everybody else in here with me being checked.”
“Not necessarily,” Tom said. “I’ll have to get some more equipment to run the tests, so just rest here until I get back.” He shot Alonza a dubious look before the door slid shut behind him.
Sameh began to rummage in her duffel. Alonza leaned against the wall, resting her hand on her wand. “How long is this going to take?” the young woman asked.
“I don’t know. That’s up to the chief physician.”
“I better be on my way with the rest of them.”
“We’ll do our best to see that you are.”
The comm on the table next to the bed chimed. “Alonza,” Tom’s voice said, “one of the Habber pilots is here. Calls himself Benzi, and he wants to talk to you.”
“Bring him here, then.” Alonza closed the comm’s channel and turned to Sameh. She had known that this might happen, that the Habber would have questions about his passenger. She hoped that he would be satisfied with whatever answers Tom was probably already giving him.
“Dr. Ruden-Nodell and Habitat-dweller Benzi,” the door’s voice announced.
“Let them in,” Alonza said.
The door opened and Tom entered, followed by Benzi. “I think you know why I’m here,”
Benzi said. “I came here with thirty people to transport. I expected to leave the Wheel with thirty.”
“The doctor said—” Alonza began.
“I know what he said, Major Lemaris. If you will provide me with a record of this woman’s med-scan, I can determine what might be done for her aboard our vessel before she’s put in suspension. In any case, it will probably be more than you can do for her here.”
“I don’t care for the implications of that remark,” Tom muttered.
“The Associated Habitats have an agreement with the Council of Mukhtars to transport people from Earth to Venus,” Benzi said. “We don’t interfere with whomever you choose to be our passengers, and we save you the trouble and expense of transporting them. In return, we expect you to allow us to get them to their destination quickly and efficiently.
I’ll admit that there were many among my people who wondered if we should perform this job at all, but we decided to do what we could for those people willing to sacrifice everything they had for the chance at a new life.”
“You just wanted to do the right thing,” Alonza said, “with no ulterior purpose in mind.”
“Believe that or not, as you like. In any case, unless you abide by the agreement we have with your Mukhtars, there will be some of us who will argue that our agreement with you has lapsed, and that we no longer should perform this service for you.”
Tom leaned against the wall, hands in his pockets. Alonza wondered if this Habber could interpret a med-scan record properly. It did not matter; he was Linked to his people’s cybers, and they could interpret the data for him. He would soon find out that Tom was lying.
“I’m glad somebody’s sticking up for me,” Sameh Tryolla said as she got to her feet. She came toward them and gazed at Benzi. “I knew you would come. I want to get out of here.”
Benzi said, “I’d like to see that scan now.”
“Be easier for me to access it from my office,” Tom responded, still stalling for time.
Good old Tom, Alonza thought, grateful for that even if it wouldn’t do them any good in the end. She folded her arms, trying to think of what to say next.
“I’ll come with you, then,” Benzi said as he turned toward the door.
Sameh was standing just behind Benzi as the door opened and Tom stepped into the hall.
Alonza saw the woman’s arm rise in an oddly familiar gesture. In an instant, realizing that there was no time to pull out her wand, she slashed at Sameh with her right arm, chopping her hard on the wrist with the edge of her hand.
Sameh’s arm fell and slapped against her upper thigh. She stumbled back and stared at Alonza, her eyes wide, and suddenly her face contorted, becoming red and then purple.
A harsh gurgling sound came from her throat; her eyes seemed to bulge from her head, and then she fell forward and crumpled to the floor.
Tom was still standing in the open entrance. He pushed past Benzi as the door slid shut, then knelt next to Sameh. His fingers found her neck, then clasped her by one wrist.
“She’s dead,” the physician said. “And I don’t need a scan to tell me that.”
Benzi’s light brown skin had turned yellow. He closed his eyes for a moment, clearly struggling to compose himself, then turned to Alonza. “What happened to her?” he asked.
“Think this happened to her,” Tom replied as he lifted Sameh’s right arm by the edge of her sleeve, revealing a tiny device no larger than an implant or a gem. “Better not touch it. I’m guessing it’s deactivated now, but no sense taking a chance.”
“What is it?” Benzi asked.
“Probably a disrupter of some kind,” Tom said. “Activate the thing, slap it onto somebody, and it disrupts the body’s blood vessels or neurons. Gives somebody a stroke or shuts down their brain, and—”
“You have such things?” Benzi asked.
“Well, there’s one of them right there,” Tom said. “Always knew they were a distinct possibility. We’ve got implants for medical purposes. It wouldn’t take much to make them for other uses.”
“I never heard of such a thing before,” Alonza said softly, although she had heard plenty of rumors and had long harbored the same suspicions as Tom.