MacKinnie spoke from behind him. “No sudden moves. Please.”
“I regret that the colonel is armed,” Dougal said. “As am I. And of course this office is under observation by several of my agents. Believe me, Lieutenant, you are not being kidnapped. No demands will be made on you, and your weapon will be returned to you shortly. But I must insist that you surrender it. You see, we have a silly law that only the king’s officers may be armed in his presence, and His Majesty is waiting to come in.”
And Colonel MacKinnie is behind me, Jeff thought. These blithering idiots are going to get themselves in trouble. Already have. He could imagine what was happening at headquarters. The duty officer listening would have sent for Greenaugh — if Greenaugh weren’t already there. Jeff hoped he was. He didn’t really need to be rescued.
“No problem,” Jeff said. “You didn’t have to be so dramatic. A simple request—”
“Which is all we have done,” Dougal said.
Jeff carefully drew his pistol and held it out. MacKinnie stepped forward and took it.
Dougal lifted the speaking tube again. “All clear,” he said pleasantly.
The door opened and King David came in.
Dougal stood when the king entered, so Jeff did also. And what’s the protocol for a disarmed Imperial officer meeting a colonial king? Jeff wondered. Can’t hurt to be polite. “Your Majesty,"Jeff acknowledged, and bowed.
“This is not an official audience,” David said. “Please be seated.”
Jeff waited until both the king and Dougal were seated before he resumed his chair. As King David took his seat, Jeff studied him. Not a bad looking fellow, he thought. And not an idiot, from everything Greenaugh says. This is a pretty stupid move, but they’ll never know just how stupid. By now Greenaugh himself is certainly listening—
As if he were reading Jeff’s thoughts, King David said, “My lord, you are convinced we are not being overheard?”
“Nearly certain,” Dougal said. “All through lunch the technicians detected some kind of radio wave. After the lieutenant came in here and the door was closed they couldn’t detect it any longer. I suppose it’s possible they have some other kind of secret communication we can’t stop, but I doubt it.”
“How long have we?” King David asked.
Dougal shrugged. “As best we know, we’re duplicating that signal exactly. At this moment, three actors who sound very much like myself, MacKinnie, and the lieutenant are exchanging meaningless pleasantries.”
“What the devil does this mean?” Jeff demanded.
“Please,” King David said. “Lieutenant, you have my word that no harm will come to you and that you will shortly be given your weapon and taken to a place where you can communicate with your superiors. Indeed, we will insist that you communicate. All we want is to be certain you will not interfere with our test.”
“Then may I suggest that Your Majesty conduct his test and not interfere with an Imperial officer on duty?” Jeff said.
“Please,” Dougal said. “If you’ll listen for a moment all will be clear. We have one question we need answered.” He looked sourly at MacKinnie. “The colonel insisted we find this out before we allow the flight. Lieutenant, we know your spaceship is in orbit around this planet. We’ve been tracking her.”
Jeff stood abruptly. “If you damned fools fire some kind of rocket at Tombaugh you really are stupid—”
“Sit down.” Colonel MacKinnie stood close to Jeff. “Now you’ve been blunt, let me. We’re not trying to hurt your goddam warship. What we want to know is, if we launch someone into orbit can your ship rescue her?”
“Rescue? What — Your Majesty, just what do you contemplate doing here today?”
“Surely that is obvious from the question,” King David said. “We are launching a spaceship. Our only problem is that it cannot return to Prince Samual’s World. Thus we need to know how long it will take your ship to rescue our helmsman.”
“Helmswoman,” MacKinnie said.
“The colonel’s fiancee,” King David said. “He is understandably worried about her.”
“I see. “Jeff sat down. “May I take out my computer?”
“Please do,” Dougal said.
Jeff scrawled numbers across the screen. “You’re launching due east?”
Dougal nodded. “They tell me that’s best, although I confess I don’t know why.”
“I do.” Due east from this latitude … what orbit was Tombaugh in just now? Not true polar, but highly inclined. No problem to intercept a ship coming up from Prince Samual’s World, but to match orbits … “Your Majesty, you must not do this. Tombaugh’s defenses will be on automatic, and they might shoot down your ship—”
“We’ve timed our launch pretty carefully,” Dougal said. “Your ship will be on the other side of Prince Samual’s World precisely because we supposed something like that. Once our ship is up you can warn your people.”
“I see.” Jeff scrawled more numbers. “Assuming your craft actually makes orbit — which I doubt, that’s tougher than you can possibly know — then Tombaugh should be able to match orbits in a bit more than three hours.”
“You see,” Dougal said. Jeff noted the cabinet officer was speaking to MacKinnie. “Plenty of margin.”
“I suppose,” MacKinnie said.
“If Your Majesty will forgive a blunt question,” Jeff said, “I really would like to know why you’re doing this.”
“But surely that, too, is obvious,” King David said. “As of last week I am in effective control of this planet. Presumably we will now be admitted to the Empire. Since we are about to demonstrate that we can construct a spaceship, we wish to apply for a status somewhat higher than that of a colony.”
“Jesus Christ on a crutch.” Jeff said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
LONG PAST THUNDER
There were a dozen officials waiting on a platform behind the office building. It had been too hot inside the office, but at least there had been air motion provided by fans. Outside there was not a breath of wind, and Prince Samual’s bright sun stood high overhead. Instantly, Jeff felt sweat running down his chest inside his tunic.
He fingered his sidearm to be sure it was still there. As soon as he was outside the building he spoke. “Whoever’s on duty, get Captain Greenaugh at once.”
The acknowledge symbol appeared on the screen of his pocket computer. Moments later the computer spoke to him. “Greenaugh here.”
“Captain, there’s a lot happening. First thing is that they’re about to launch a one-way spaceship.”
“Lieutenant, what have you been drinking?”
Jeff patiently explained. “And they’re about to launch it now,” he finished. “I haven’t seen the ship yet, but any moment now—”
“I don’t suppose you could delay this launch?” Greenaugh asked.
“There are about five hundred of their troops here, and the three of us,” Jeff said.
“Yeah.” Greenaugh was silent for a moment. “And their king is there,” Greenaugh said. “I’d better get His Excellency brought up to speed. What the hell kind of spaceship have they got, anyway?”
“They haven’t told me, sir. I assume it’s some kind of primitive rocket. I don’t see any ship, but everyone’s acting expectant. They’re coming back now; they went off to give me privacy — although nothing’s private about it; they know what kind of communications I’ve been using. They’re probably listening.”
There was another long silence from the other end. Then, “We didn’t even know they suspected. What else don’t we know?”
Jeff was tempted to say they hadn’t known anything about a spaceship, but decided not to.
“Look just over there,” Dougal told Jeff. “Just at that hillside.”