Alison felt cold all over. Was that the little problem on Semaline Neverlin had mentioned earlier?
And if so, did he know who Jack really was?
"Anyway, I think some of the residents of the area must have recognized him as the Palmers' son and taken him back there," Uncle Virge went on.
"Why?"
"Probably to judge their disputes for them," Uncle Virge said. "They're all alone out in the middle of nowhere—"
"Okay, okay—not important," Alison interrupted. "What's important is that we get Jack and Draycos out of there, and fast. How soon can you get back to Semaline?"
"I can do it in four days if I really run the fuel tanks," Uncle Virge said. "That'll get me there about the same time as Frost's ships. Maybe a couple of hours sooner."
"Sooner would be nice," Alison said.
"Tell me about it," Uncle Virge said with a grunt. "Problem is, pushing it that hard will drain our credit balance. We might end up stranded there."
"Don't worry about that," Alison assured him. "There are a bunch of fuel credits in my cabin. You and Jack can use those when you come back to pick me up."
"Wait a second," Uncle Virge warned. "If you're counting on Jack to get you out of there—"
"Don't worry, I'm not," Alison assured him. "But I'll need you to send an InterWorld message for me before you take off."
"Who to?"
"The nearest Malison Ring Class One base," Alison said. "I think the one on Tristram Four is the closest, but you can check."
There was a brief silence. "The Malison Ring," Uncle Virge said, his voice gone flat. "Frost's friends."
"Not exactly," Alison said. "You're going to send the message using the voice of General Aram Davi, the Malison Ring's commander in chief."
"What?" Uncle Virge demanded. "Who do you think I am, girl?"
"I think you're a computer," Alison said. "And the voice-print and tonal patterns you'll need are already installed in one of the files Jack set up for me to use."
There was another brief pause as Uncle Virge accessed the file. "You must be out of your apple-buttered mind," he said, sounding as flabbergasted as Alison had ever heard him. "Where in space did you get all these?"
"My dad's a collector, okay?" Alison said briefly. "You never know when someone else's voice might come in handy. So can you do it, or can't you?"
"I can do it," Uncle Virge said, still sounding a little floored. "What's the message?"
Alison grinned in the darkness. Frost was going to love this. "Tell them that Colonel Frost is being held prisoner at the Chookoock family estate on Brum-a-dum," she said. "Order them to scramble a force to rescue him."
"I was right the first time," Uncle Virge said. "You are insane."
"Not at all," Alison said. "They won't question an order coming from General Davi. Especially since you'll also be giving them one of his authorization codes."
"Where am I—oh," Uncle Virge said. "I will be dipped in butter. You have his security codes, too?"
"I had access to a Malison Ring computer system a •while back," Alison said. "I got in a little deeper than anyone thought."
"And then what?" Uncle Virge asked. "All Frost has to do is tell them he wasn't kidnapped and they'll go home."
"He can't, and that's the real beauty of this," Alison said, smiling again. "They won't accept any response while he's still inside the house—he could be talking with a gun to his head."
"Then he comes out and shows them he's all right."
"He can't do that, either," Alison said. "He's been using Malison Ring troops and equipment for his own private scheme, remember? For all he knows, this kidnapping story could be nothing but a ruse to lure him out into the open so that they can nab him."
"I like it," Uncle Virge said approvingly. "Anyone ever tell you you had the makings of a very devious person?"
"That's high praise, coming from you," Alison said dryly. "Send the message, do what you can to make sure they've bought it, then hightail it back to Semaline."
"All right," Uncle Virge said. "But look, even if they buy it, Tristram Four is a good three to four days away from here. Are you going to be all right that long?"
"If I say no, what are you going to do about it?" Alison countered. "Right; that's what I thought. Don't worry, I think I know a place where we can hide for a while. You just concentrate on Jack and Draycos."
"I'll get them out," Uncle Virge promised grimly. "You watch yourself, lass."
"I will," Alison promised. "Oh, one other thing. How did you even know I was here?"
"Through your comm clip, of course," Uncle Virge said. "Your kidnappers practically gave me the Chookoocks' address."
Alison thought back. "But the clip was off."
"Well . . . not exactly," Uncle Virge said, sounding a little embarrassed. "Jack rigged that clip to be permanently on. You know, as a precaution?"
Alison felt her lip twist. So much for Taneem's question about whether Jack trusted her. Just as well that he didn't. "Remind me to be mad about that later," she told Uncle Virge. "In the meantime, go get him out of there."
She clicked off the comm clip and slipped it into her pocket. "Do you really know a place where we can hide?" Taneem asked.
Alison shrugged. "Let's find out."
The landscape around them changed from grassy lawn to sculpted trees, and the path split three times before they reached Alison's objective.
The wall.
"I don't know," Taneem asked as they sat in the car looking up at the wall's wave-shaped overhang. "This seems very uncertain."
"In theory, it should work just fine," Alison said, studying the white ceramic gleaming in the starlight. The shadowed underside of the wave was much harder to see, but she was almost positive that the inward-curling edge of the wave curved upward a little right at the end. The big question was whether it curved up enough to form a trough where she and Taneem could lie hidden from view.
The even bigger question was whether they could get up there to find out.
"The entire wall's about thirty feet tall, which puts that wave trough between twenty and twenty-five," Alison went on. "First thing to do is see if you can jump that high."
"I'll try." Crouching down, Taneem gathered herself and leaped.
Alison held her breath. The K'da soared upward, and with a faint scrabbling of claw against ceramic she caught the edge of the wave. For a second she hung there, then stirred and pulled herself up and disappeared into the trough.
Alison looked around. There were no aircars or other ground vehicles visible. Apparently, her escape was still undiscovered.
Which wasn't surprising, actually. Frost was busy organizing the Semaline attack force, and Alison doubted that anyone else in the house knew about his order to kill her. Until the colonel started wondering why Dumbarton and Mrishpaw hadn't shown up to give him the good news about her death, she was unlikely to be missed.
There was a flicker of motion, and she looked over as Taneem dropped again to the ground. "I think there is enough room for us," she reported. "Though it is filthy with feathers and bird droppings."
"That's okay," Alison assured her. "Now the big question: can you carry me that high?"
"No," Taneem said, ducking her head apologetically. "I could lift you perhaps half that distance, but not the entire way."
Alison chewed at her lip. Desperate needs, the old saying whispered through her mind, called for desperate measures. "Halfway it is," she said. "Help me get Dumbarton and Mrishpaw out of the car."
It took some creative maneuvering, plus a lot of grunting, but within a few minutes Alison and Taneem had the two mercenaries out and settled under one of the nearby shrubs. "Here's the plan," Alison said, doing a quick search of the unconscious bodies. Neither was carrying a gun, but Mrishpaw had a slapstick belted at his side. Pulling it from its holster, she held it up. "We're going to back the car up a ways and get in. I'm going to wedge the accelerator with this, and we'll charge full-bore toward the wall."