At this range I could see the Iykams hadn't gotten any further in theirdisassemblyof the device than merely pulling the back off, though why they'd even donethat I didn't know. Perhaps they were hoping to tease a latent phone number or twoout of the memory that they could use.
If so, they were out of luck. That was the phone I'd taken from JamesFulbrighton Dorscind's World, and there were no incriminating numbers connected with meanywhere in there, latent or otherwise.
Still, I was glad they'd kept the phone around long enough to try, since ithad now put communication with the outside world in my hands. Easing onto my sideon the floor within reach of the phone, I rolled the device onto its back. I wasstill in big trouble, but a quick call to Ixil would at least alert the othersthat the Patth were here and on the hunt. With one final glance at the door, Ikeyed it on and reached an outstretched finger toward the keypad. And paused.
There was something too easy about this. Something far too easy. Where werethe alert reinforcements rushing in to save the day? Why were these two Iykamsfiddling with my phone instead of someone in a properly equipped workroom? Forthat matter, why only two guards in the first place?
I keyed off the phone and turned it over again, angling it so that I could geta really good look at the exposed circuitry. And this time, knowing what to lookfor, it wasn't hard to spot.
My clever little playmates had wired a repeater chip into the transmitterline, on the upstream side of the encryption sticker. I couldn't read the fine printon the chip, but it almost didn't matter. With the simpler Mark VI chip theywould be able to eavesdrop on any conversation I might have. With the more advanced Mark IX version and a properly equipped phone elsewhere in the citythey'd not only be able to listen in but could also triangulate through thelocal phone system to get the location of the other end of the conversation.
I'd been wrong about the Voodoo pins; they intended to get hold of the Icarus theeasy way.
I was willing to help out guards who wanted me to make trouble, but mycooperation with the enemy only went so far. Rolling back up to my knees, Ileft the phone where it was and headed toward where my plasmic lay next to my IDfolder.
I was just leaning down to pick it up when the door slammed open.
I dropped the rest of the way to the floor, my outstretched hand snatching upthe weapon as I hit the ground hard enough to reignite the blazing pain in myhead. Ignoring the red haze that had suddenly dropped in front of my eyes, Iswiveled both my body and the plasmic to face the door.
It was, I had to admit, an impressive sight. Four Iykams stood in a semicirclejust inside the doorway, each holding one of those nasty coronal-dischargeweapons, their alert motionlessness giving them the appearance of transplantedgargoyles. Behind them, I could see a couple more of the ugly beasts outsidethe door, undoubtedly waiting eagerly for their chance at me.
And standing right in the middle of the doorway between the two groups was agray-robed Patth.
"Don't bother with the weapon, Mr. McKell," he said. His voice was typicalPatth, managing to mix sincere, contemptuous, and smarmy into a sound that wasas distinctive in its own way as Chort's Craean whistling. "You don'tseriouslybelieve we would leave you a functional weapon, do you?"
"After that rather heavy-handed trick you tried with my phone, not really," Iagreed. It was hard to aim properly with my gun hand cuffed to a chair arm, but insofar as I was able I pointed the plasmic squarely at the center of historso.
"At least, not on purpose. You ever hear of a three-pop?"
There was a slight but noticeable rustling among the gargoyles. "I don't thinkso," the Patth said, adding a bit more amusement into the smarmy part of hisvocal mix. "But I'm sure you're dying to tell me."
"An appropriate choice of words," I said approvingly. "A three-pop is ahigh-power capacitor wired internally into a plasmic's fire circuit, keptcharged by the main power pack but otherwise independent of it. It holdsenoughjuice for two to four shots." I squinted consideringly. "That means you and upto three of your toadies will die if any of you comes any closer. If you'dlike to point out your least favorites among them, I'll see what I can do to obligeyou."
The four front Iykams had stopped looking like friendly little gargoyles. Allfour corona guns were up and aimed, held in taut-looking grips at the fullextension of taut-looking arms. But for once I had the advantage, and they allknew it. Lying there four meters away from them, I was right on the edge oftheir kill zones, while they were well inside mine. Add to that the point thatthey couldn't afford to kill me—and the equally important point that none ofthem was especially eager to get killed, either—and we had the makings here ofa good old-fashioned standoff.
And for a minute it looked as if I might actually get away with it. Very little of the Patth's face was visible in the shadow of that hood, but what I could see seemed to be in the throes of serious indecision as he weighed the merits ofrisking his personal skin against the reality that the Icarus still had a longway to go before we were home free. This was no professional bounty hunter, oreven a standard flunky used to obeying orders without the luxury of being ableto factor personal preference into the equation. Odds were this was areasonablysenior Patth citizen, pressed by necessity and desperation into this hunt forus.
But even as he hesitated a new voice from the outer room joined thediscussion.
Another Patth voice, just as smarmy as the first, but carrying with it theunmistakable weight of authority. "Nonsense," he said. "He's bluffing. Enig, tell your fools to go get the weapon. We don't have time for this."
The Patth in the doorway grunted something and two of the Iykams steppedreluctantly forward, their corona guns rigidly pointed at me. I let them getwithin two steps, just in case someone decided to have second thoughts, thenlet my plasmic settle harmlessly to the floor. "You're right," I acknowledged.
"I'm bluffing."
"Bring him in here," the second voice ordered. There was no gloating in thetone that I could detect, nor any relief either. He'd made a decision, had issuedan order and had it obeyed, and was not surprised by either the obedience or thefact that his decision had turned out to be right. Clearly, we had suddenlyjumped a whole bunch of rungs upward on the Patth social ladder.
The Iykams hauled me to my feet and half pulled, half dragged me into theother room. This one was much nicer, nearly three times the size of my original celland furnished better, with a couple of chairs and lamps scattered around. Nearthe wall to my left was a desk with a handful of monitors arranged along itsfront edge, and the other Patth seated behind it. The room was also swarmingwith Iykams, but you couldn't have everything.
"Not bad," I said, looking around as they led me to another plain woodenarmchair that had been placed in front of the desk. Again, there seemed to beonly one door leading out of the place, directly across the room from the doorto my cell. Framed in the ceiling overhead was what at first glance lookedlike a skylight, but which on second glance proved to be only a standard lightfixture designed to look that way. There were a couple of ventilation vents atceiling and floor level, with decorative crosshatched gratings that lookedflimsy enough to tear right off the wall. But through the holes in those samegratings I could see that the ductwork beyond was far too narrow for evensomeone as thin as Chort to fit through. A quick count of the Iykams came upwith a total of eight. "Not bad at all," I added as my guards unfastened myhandcuffs from the broken chair, shoved me down into the new one, and secured mywrists to the arms again. This time, I took particular note of which of thempocketed the keys. "If you kept your prisoners in a place like this instead ofthat converted stockroom back there you'd probably get better cooperation."
There was no comment from the other side of the desk. I finished my survey ofthe room in a leisurely fashion, then finally turned my full attention to theother Patth.