Viscenda frowned. “I don’t want to send Chase out there.”
“I know that. But if we don’t succeed, there may not be anything left here to rescue. Your alternative is to give Salyeva what she wants.”
“I do not like it.”
“Put all your chips on the table or fold your cards.”
“Whatever that means,” she said. She took a deep breath. “All right.”
Alex pressed an index finger against his lips. “And, Turam—?”
“Yes, Alex.”
“Is your rifle squad ready to go?”
FORTY-THREE
If you cannot swim, stay out of the water.
—Dellacondan proverb
Turam got out of his seat. “Have to get set up,” he said. “Chase, I’ll meet you at the front door in twenty minutes.”
Somebody brought me a green jacket. It didn’t fit very well, but it would provide a degree of camouflage. Viscenda insisted I promise not to expose myself unnecessarily. And she told Turam as he was going out the door that she would hold him responsible if anything happened to me.
Then she turned to other business. She sent a message around. Potentially hostile visitor expected in airborne vehicle. Could arrive at any time within the next three hours. Keep kids inside. Stay out of sight yourself. Keep away from windows. Assume emergency conditions until you are informed otherwise.
She sent two of the women to unlock the storeroom and make extra ammunition available.
Someone else came in to report that spotters were in place to watch for the incoming vehicle.
Alex tried to reassure Rikki that they would be okay. She nodded and walked over to a window. Her lips were moving soundlessly. She was, I thought, praying.
He watched her for a moment, then took me aside. “Chase,” he said, “in case this doesn’t work out, do what Viscenda says. Keep your head down. And tell Audree—”
“I know,” I said. “Tell her yourself.”
He nodded. “One more thing.”
“Yes?”
“I should tell you who’s behind this. Just in case.”
I’d expected Turam to show up with two or three guys. There were thirteen people, including four women, all dressed in hunting gear, all carrying rifles. Dex was there, one of the guys who’d come back to rescue Alex. He had two rifles. A woman told me not to worry, they’d take care of the bitch, and they wouldn’t let anything happen to me. Or to Rikki.
Barnas was also among them, trying to look as if he did this sort of thing every day. “Okay, Chase,” said Turam, “if we have to shoot at the aircraft, what are we aiming for?”
One of the farm animals yipped. Somewhere, a door opened and closed.
I described what antigrav pods would look like, and how they might be located fore and aft, or under the wings. “Just put a couple of bullets in them,” I said, “and that’ll do it.”
Dex handed me the extra rifle. “It’s all yours,” he said.
I think I stammered. “I don’t know how to use it.”
“We’ll practice on the way.” He grinned. I’d been too caught up with Alex’s problem when I first met him, but I’d seen enough of him since to know I liked him. Dex had a lovely wife and two kids.
I heard a few shouts and saw a child come running out of the woods with a woman in pursuit. She caught him and carried him screaming back into the forest.
“Okay, people,” Turam said, “let’s go.”
Four of them peeled off and disappeared into the trees near the front doors. “Just in case Alex is reading her wrong, and she tries to make the pickup here.”
The rest of us went down and commandeered three rowboats. It took twenty minutes to get across, and I was worried the whole time that she’d appear while we were in the middle of the river. We rowed slowly, letting the current carry us around the bend. “That’s where she’ll take us,” Alex had said. “She’ll want to get far enough away that she feels safe.”
Dex showed me how to fire the rifle. Load it like this, aim, pull the trigger. It seemed simple enough.
We landed without incident, dragged the boats into the woods, and hid there ourselves. We were near a beach that seemed like the perfect place for Salyeva. This was well out of sight, and there was plenty of room to bring Alex and Rikki ashore, if that’s the course she took, and demand their links before killing them.
Alex was back in the main building with Rikki. We’d set up our communications so that if he got a call, it would automatically be relayed to me. Once we were in place, there was nothing to do but wait.
I don’t think we talked much. I remember watching the sky, and I can still see Turam’s rifle leaning against a tree. I picked up my own rifle periodically and practiced aiming it. The thing was heavy.
A pair of furry tree-climbers chased each other up and down a nearby trunk. And I thought how old some of the trees looked. Vines clung to them, and the ground was disrupted by roots that stayed close to the surface. If you didn’t watch where you were walking, it wouldn’t take much to fall on your face.
Inevitably, it came. The first indication was from the woman who’d assured me they’d take care of the bitch. “Look,” she said, pointing out over the river, “there it is!”
Petra Salyeva was an hour and ten minutes ahead of schedule. At first she was only a distant speck moving across the clouds. But the speck grew larger, became a torpedo-shaped aircraft with narrow wings, and eventually mutated into a squat silver vehicle with VIPER in blue script on the starboard hull just above its numeric designator. It drifted down in the direction of the compound. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I could make out a set of proton guns on the prow.
Turam saw them, too. “They look pretty ugly,” he said.
“She’s not fooling around.”
He wiped the back of his hand against his lips. “Never thought I’d live to see anything like this.”
I doubted there’d been any aircraft operating on Echo III for centuries, although there were pictures of them in one of the books. But they hadn’t looked anything like the Viper. And I doubted they’d had antigravs.
My link clicked. Relayed traffic incoming. I turned it on and heard Alex’s voice. “You’re early.”
“Good headwinds, Alex.”
Turam’s eyes narrowed. It almost seemed he understood the language. “I’m glad to hear it.”
“I’d like you and your associate to come outside, please.”
“We can’t manage it at the moment. I’m in the bath. I didn’t expect you for another hour.”
“Make it happen, Alex. If the two of you aren’t out the front door in two minutes, I’ll start removing the cabins.”
“Okay. Hold on. We’re coming.”
The Viper was at about four hundred meters, slowly circling the area. As planned, nobody, either at our position or near the compound, took a shot at it. Turam asked me to point out the pods, which I did. “Take those out,” I told him, “and it goes right into the river.” They were under the fuselage, front and back, unlike on our lander, where they were installed under each wing.
“We’re coming out,” said Alex. I translated for Turam.
We heard the front doors open. And the sound of Alex’s crutches scraping the steps down off the porch. And Rikki’s voice, whispering, barely audibly, “Careful,” but saying it in the local language, and not in Standard.