Again Jarlik kicked. More stone fell, and a gap opened in the grill. Sep chanced a flash of light from her torch. The wall was beginning to give, sure enough.
She aimed her laser and gave the spot a long blast. Hissing and spitting, the beam melted the rock into taffylike puddles that dripped down the sides of the hole. Another blast, and the hole caved in bodily, leaving a huge pit in the paving that floored the niche.
"I'll go," she said to Jarlik. "You just keep anyone from coming in after me."
Sep dismounted, leaving her WarHammerready for instant use when she returned. The stone was still hot, and she had to wait for a moment before she could spring down into the blackness below. But lights were coming on inside the house now. Voices cried out. They would have company long before she was ready for it.
She dropped through the hole and rolled with practiced ease, coming upright in darkness. Hitting the switch of her belt light, she looked about. It was a nasty sort of place, damp and chilly, and seemed to be a warren of tunnels and cells. She ran along toward the interior of the block. "Ardan!" she shouted.
There was a moment of silence. Then, muffled with stone and distance, came a welcome reply.
"Sep? By God! Sep!"
She homed on the sound and ran, watching closely as she set her feet If she tripped and knocked herself out, it wouldn't help any of them. Rats scuttered away in front of her, and she could hear their cluttering behind her. Her skin crawled.
"Ardan!" she called again, pausing at a three-way corner.
"Here!" His voice was nearer now. Down the right angle. As she rounded the bend, she could see a guttering torch in a socket on the wall. Before a door halfway down the rank stood a water can and a mess tray.
She pounded up to the door. There was a metal rod slipped through loops, holding it closed. In addition, the inset lock looked formidable.
"Stand back!" she yelled.
There came a grunt from inside that she took for assent. She aimed her sidearm laser and melted the lock out of its metal housing. As she kicked the rod back with a booted foot, the door swung open.
Two bearded faces blinked at her in the brilliant light of her torch. She saw at once that their eyes weren't accustomed to light, and so she quickly killed the beam. The torchlight seemed terribly dim by contrast.
Hanse and Ardan looked terrible. She stepped back and looked down at the rations outside the door. Moldy food, slimy-looking water. Untouched.
"They were starving you?" she asked, her tone furious.
"Trying to soften us up. Do you have any clean water? That dirty stuff is all they gave us, and precious little of that," Ardan croaked.
Sep reached for her hip canteen. No pilot ever mounted his 'Mech without a supply of rations, no matter how tame the occasion. She had on her uniform, because of the special nature of the mission, and so its hip flask was ready to hand.
"Here. But drink slowly. First rule in the Survival Manual."
While they talked, a clatter sounded in the distance. Footsteps on stone...They'd better get out fast.
"This way," she said. "We made a new door into your dungeons, Your Highness. I hope you don't mind."
Hanse grinned, his lips cracking. "Lead on," he told her.
They came to the hole well ahead of their pursuers. Jarlik had his hatch open, listening for them. Reaching his armored limb down into the hole, he lifted up first Hanse, then the other two.
Sep mounted her 'Mech. Ardan climbed into the tight cockpit behind her. Hanse had already done the same in Jarlik's.
"Better run. There's armor coming," Jarlik said over the com.
The metal feet of their 'Mechs pounded across the paved terraces, the grassy spaces, the flower beds and borders. When they came to the wall, Sep blasted a portion of it down, and then she and Jarlik hammered through the debris without slowing their strides.
Through her scanners, Sep could see that the Summer Palace was abuzz with activity. Lights were on all over the residence, and red bursts of laser fire spat against the night She suspected that the guard 'Mechs were mistakenly attacking each other. That was fine. Nobody had followed their rescue team, and their tracks wouldn't be immediately obvious until it got light.
She tore along beside Jarlik, heading for the port, where they were to rendezvous with Ref. If they were lucky, nobody would suspect it to be their destination until it was too late. Then she had a terrible thought.
"We haven't got our pilot!" she yelled into the com.
There was no answer for a moment, then she heard Jarlik's familiar gruff tone over the com.
"Never mind that," he said. "His Highness says he can pilot the thing. Just get him there in one piece!"
32
Katrina Steiner was no fool. As soon as her ambassador got word to her of his strange interview with Hanse Davion at the Summer Palace on Argyle, she put two and two together with computer-like speed. Then she called her daughter to her side.
"It looks as if you were right all along, Melissa. The Prince of the Federated Suns has just informed our ambassador that he is withdrawing from any treaties now in existence between our worlds, including the one signed on Sol several years ago. That man may have looked, talked, and walked like the real Hanse Davion, but he must have been the double Ardan saw all those months ago."
Melissa turned pale. "And Hanse? What of him?"
"All we know is that the Prince has left Argyle for New Avalon, which he has never done before at this time of year. That means that the real Prince is probably still on-planet."
"Mother, we mustsend help!" Melissa was regaining her color, and her chin was coming up into its fighting position.
"Not to Argyle. I have great faith in young Sortek. If he went to Argyle, he's smart enough to have the necessary back-up to do what he came for. By the time we got anyone into position there, it would be too late, given the many weeks of recharge it would require. But I do intend to send help...to New Avalon."
"New Avalon?" Melissa's tone was doubtful.
Her mother sat and drew her daughter beside her on the low couch. "If Ardan has found Hanse and freed him, they will follow the imposter back to the capital. I do not doubt that at all."
"But it's so chancy!" objected the girl.
"That is true," her mother agreed, "but Ardan and Hanse are two most ingenious and determined men. They have, as well, devoted friends in positions to help them. I am going to move on faith alone. If they have failed, we will be in no worse position. If they have not, our ambassador will be in position to force the issue and to give the real Hanse the backing he must have to regain his throne. Ambassador Efflinger is now on New Avalon. I can get word to him via ComStar in a few weeks. We must hope that it will be in time."
"But what will you instruct him to do?" Melissa was looking impatient and confused, both at once.
"To keep a sharp watch through all his information networks for any hint of a "Pretender' to the rulership of the Federated Suns. And if such a Pretender comes to light, to make certain he has the opportunity to confront the man now on the throne. To insist on exhaustive testing for both, using all the authority of House Steiner's position among the systems." Katrina wrinkled her forehead.