Another man, apparently from inside the house, came around the corner—and fell face down with a smoking hole in his back. The Centrist Strength woman swung her weapon around, looking for another target, then retreated before a hail of thistledarts.
The Fabri who had fired gestured to Morgan and her friends, waving them forward. Morgan launched herself down through the brush, and out onto the lawn.
Maris was crawling along the ground now. The ferrcat was leading her straight toward Morgan. “Maris!” Morgan gasped, sliding to her knees on the wet grass beside the woman. “We’re here to help. To take you to safety.”
“Who are you?” whispered Maris fiercely, struggling to rise. “Are you—”
“Friends of Legroeder. Friends of Legroeder. Come with us now, quickly.”
Maris gasped and forced herself up. “How do I know you’re—”
“You’ve got to trust us. Come on. Just a little farther.” Pew and Georgio were at her side now. Pew lifted Maris effortlessly and carried her up into the forest at a run.
Glancing back, Morgan saw one of the two Fabri standing watch, thistlegun at the ready. The closer one whistled in a shrill tone, and the ferrcat ran back to him, a streak of white through the brush. Morgan gasped her thanks to the Fabri. He merely nodded, catching the ferrcat. Georgio kept his weapon raised, covering her retreat.
Morgan beat a fast path up through the woods to Pew and Maris, then fled with them across the ridge toward the waiting car.
Chapter 36
Return to Ivan
“What the hell happened to you?” Glenswarg demanded.
Legroeder was standing in front of a mirror, wondering the same thing. The face that looked back at him was thin, dark-haired, and olive-skinned. The eyes were blue. It was his face, the face he’d had all his life, until the Narseil surgeons ran their camouflage job on him. There was no hint at all of the pale skin or the umbrella-cut white hair. Which probably explained why half the bridge crew had stared at him as he’d left the rigger-station after the battle.
Something happened during the quantum passage. Had a part of him gone back in time?
// Our internal records are incomplete for that period. But there may have been spontaneous activity by the residual plastic-surgical agents in your bloodstream… //
Legroeder grunted to himself and turned to the captain. “This is what I look like. What I’m supposed to look like.” The three Narseil were standing behind the captain, and they appeared to be suppressing laughter—Cantha and Palagren, anyway. Ker’sell merely looked perplexed, his vertical eyes slightly crossed.
Glenswarg was scowling, though. “Do you intend to explain?”
Legroeder sighed. (You really don’t know what happened?) he asked the implants.
// Negative. Internal recordkeeping failed during the passage. Or rather, was crowded out by a massive influx of data concerning the structure of the flaw—which, by the way, you will find very interesting. //
(Yeah? What kind of data?) He was aware of Glenswarg staring at him, still waiting for an answer.
// We’re still analyzing. But you saw more during that passage than you might have realized. We must consider very carefully how to use it… //
Thoughts spinning, Legroeder forced a grin at Glenswarg and began stammering out an explanation. “What I looked like before… was a form of camouflage, you might say. It was before we were all working together…”
Glenswarg’s frown only deepened.
During the flight back, Legroeder thought often about what the implants had said about the quantum flaw data. He could never quite get them to elaborate clearly; they were always still analyzing. But his own memories were beginning to come back in flickering bursts. Splinters of light fracturing off in all directions, like the needles of a new-born ice crystal… quantum flaws entwined through the Flux… The visions gave him shivers of awe and fear. Just how closely had his implants traced the positions of those flaws, anyway?
He debriefed with Glenswarg, and discussed the passage with his rigger-mates. The Narseil were absorbed in their own detailed studies of the instrumentation data. They weren’t sure what to make of Legroeder’s observations—they had caught intimations of the sprawling proliferation of the flaw, but few details; but then each of them had seen features no one else had seen. Legroeder found himself wondering how long it would take his implants to complete their own analysis. He missed Deutsch, who was still aboard Impris, flying in formation with the fleet. They spoke on flux-com from time to time, but that wasn’t the same thing as sitting down together. Legroeder wanted to know what Deutsch had really gone though during the passage.
He also wondered what kind of reception they were going to receive from Yankee-Zulu/Ivan. YZ/I, of course, should be delighted to see them pull in with Impris; but would he be as happy to keep his end of the bargain once Impris was parked in his dock? And what about Tracy-Ace/Alfa? His thoughts veered one way and then another as he thought about her: remembering her eyes, her touch, the flowing connection between them… and then thinking, what if she had only been used to set him up? Would she still be there for him, now that the job was done?
And what of Maris, and Harriet—and Harriet’s grandson? And now that he’d found Impris, would he succeed in clearing his name at last?
No wonder he felt so damned anxious.
Watching from the bridge as Phoenix docked at Outpost Ivan, Legroeder struggled with a new set of mixed emotions. He could not believe, watching as the Kyber riggers brought the ship in to the outer docks of the Kyber fortress, how much like home Outpost Ivan looked to him. The last thing he wanted was to feel at home here. With luck, that wouldn’t be a problem for long.
Cantha appeared at his side. “Troubled?” the Narseil asked. Legroeder nodded. “Well, if you’re thinking what I’m thinking… we are not entirely without resources.”
Legroeder turned and gazed at the stocky Narseil.
Cantha scratched under the neck of his Narseil khakis; he hadn’t had a decent soak in a pool since leaving H’zzarrelik, and the thick crest on the back of his neck was looking pretty flaky. “I was just thinking,” Cantha said as he turned to view the fleet movement in the monitors, “that we learned an awful lot of new rigging science out there, and we haven’t really even sorted it all out among ourselves.” His slitted, vertical eyes shifted to catch Legroeder’s gaze. “But it could be very useful—to many people. If you know what I mean.”
Legroeder glanced around at the Kyber crewmen on the bridge. Useful, indeed. “I think I do, yes,” he said, drawing a deep breath. “I think I do.”
The escort ships fell back to allow tugs to bring Impris into dock; Phoenix docked alongside the passenger liner. The procedure seemed to take forever, but eventually Captain Glenswarg called, “Shut down engines.” Nodding in satisfaction, he turned to Legroeder and the Narseil. “Gentlemen, you’ve discharged your duties well. You may collect your things and go stationside.” He shook each of their hands. “Good work, riggers. It’s been one hell of an experience having you aboard, that’s for sure.” It was the closest thing to levity Legroeder had ever heard from Glenswarg.