Troubot trundled on without pause. Agape would know how to get from Planet ConGlom to Planet Moeba. There was no chance for more detailed planning.
Then he walked with Tania on toward the spaceport, maintaining a circuit that emulated the recognition pattern of the pass, with more force than the original, so that any sensors would tune in on this one instead. “Once they be satisfied that it be thee, I will depart,” he said. “Thou canst reassure them that thy journey be routine.”
“Nuh-uh, metal man,” she said, taking his arm possessively. “I am now without my pass. If they think to check, they will know something’s up, and I’ll be in as much trouble as you. Stay with me, and see that I get out of this.”
“But—”
“The moment they realize that she is gone, and that I had a part in it, zap,” she continued, slicing her free hand across her throat. “And I think that will happen about one minute after that ship takes off. You will be on hand to get me out of it.”
“But I must return to see that Nepe—”
“If, on the other hand, all proceeds smoothly, you will be able to see to the child too. My help comes at a price, and saving my hide is part of it.”
Bane had no alternative but to go along with her. He suspected that she enjoyed asserting her position.
They came to the spaceport and approached the privacy booth 401. The two androids appeared, intercepting Tania exactly as directed. Both had the nondescript look of their kind; they were completely humanoid, including genitals, but somewhat slack-faced. “Tania,” one said. “We must ask why you make this trip.”
Tania glanced at the nearest wall clock. Takeoff was in just under half an hour, and boarding would occur in fifteen minutes. She had either to satisfy these androids, or keep them occupied so that they could not check the people actually boarding.
“I do not have to answer to you,” she snapped aloofly. “My excursions are my private business.”
“Citizen Tan sent us,” the android said. “We speak for him.”
“My brother knows my pleasures,” she said. “Now look, gunkheads: I have only about ten minutes before I have to board, and I have latched on to a man for some spot entertainment until then. Just tell my brother I am my usual willful self, and let me be.”
“Entertainment?” the android asked.
“Yes. In here.” She drew Bane in toward the booth. He tried to resist, wanting no part of this ploy, but could not do so openly. Dealing with this woman was like handling quicksilver!
“But you haven’t answered,” the android protested. “Why do you make this trip?”
Tania paused. Bane knew she was figuring out the best way to take advantage of this situation, knowing that he could not make any objection. “Well, I got bored with the local men,” she said. “I mean, look at this one: would you make love to him?”
The android turned to look at Mach directly. His dull eyes widened. “This is—”
Bane cut him off with a blow to the throat, utilizing reflexes that no living man, let alone an android, could match. Then he whirled on the other, catching him by the side of the neck and rendering him unconscious by a nerve block. He caught him as he tottered, and hauled him into the booth. Tania meanwhile manhandled the other android to follow. In a moment the four were crammed inside a booth intended for one to primp in comfort. One android was slumped on the toilet, and the other on the table before the wall-sized mirror.
“Well, robot, I seem to have misplayed it,” she said, not entirely displeased. “Now we shall have to keep them here, and stay out of sight ourselves, until that ship takes off, so that nobody sees anything suspicious. Whatever shall we do for twenty minutes, handsome?”
“We can leave them here,” he said, bothered. “They will recover not consciousness soon enough to report in time.”
“No. My brother may call in, and they must answer, or there will be mischief. See?” She pried at the closed hand of the android who had done the talking. Sure enough, there was a communication button set into the palm.
Bane gritted his teeth, figuratively. It was true; they could not gamble on the call coming in and receiving no answer, before the ship left. They had either to haul the unconscious android along with them, which would surely arouse suspicion, or wait with him here until the danger passed.
“That is what I thought,” she said, reaching up to catch hold of him around the neck. “You know. Bane, I have confined my attentions to Mach, because he is the one with no woman in Proton, but I think now those concerns are blurring. Phaze fascinates me, and if you are going to do it with my other self there anyway—”
“Thou dost push thy luck,” he muttered, not responding physically.
“We are the same, she and I. I feel her emotion—and that emotion is for you rather than Mach. I never quite figured out what was wrong, until you told me of the situation in Phaze. I see now that I was trying for Mach only nominally; it was you I really wanted. Now I am helping you to save your lover, and I believe—”
“Sork,” the android’s hand said. “What report?”
Bane used his ability to activate the return connection. “She says she just wants a change from Proton men, sir,” he said in the android’s voice. “She says it is routine.”
“What else?”
“That it is none of my business, sir.”
There was a dry laugh. “All right, let her talk to me.”
Bane held up the android’s limp hand. “He wishes to talk to thee,” he said.
“All right, Tan sir,” she said, grimacing. “And what does my Citizen twin brother require of me now, sir?”
“A straight answer,” Tan’s voice snapped. “Why are you leaving the planet without notifying me?”
“I forgot. Citizen sir,” she said, not bothering to conceal the malice. She resented the fact that he had gotten the Citizenship instead of her. “Now are you going to let me board, sir?”
“I don’t think so. There’s something funny about—” He paused, evidently making a connection. “Thee? The android wouldn’t have said that!”
Oops! Bane had given himself away!
“You must have misheard,” Tania said. “Bane’s in with the amoeba wench, plumbing her protoplasm with his metal rod.”
“One moment,” Tan snapped. Bane knew he was putting in a priority call to the suite, to see who answered. He also knew that Nepe, in his likeness, would answer and cover for him.
Sure enough, soon Tan spoke again. “He’s there, all right, looking mad about being interrupted. But I distinctly heard a ‘thee.’ Who are you with?”
Tania covered for him again. “All right, if you must know: I managed to talk a man into going with me. I—you know, Phaze, the way I—I’ve got him made up like Bane, and told him to talk like—”
“I doubt it,” Tan said coldly. “More likely you found a way to coerce Bane into coming with you so you could seduce him, and Agape is emulating him at their suite. How the hell you got her to cooperate I can’t guess. I won’t have it; we need him here. Permission to depart the planet is denied; return immediately to the office, and bring him with you. We shall get to the bottom of this.”
Tania glanced at Bane. Her brother had leaped to an apt conclusion, with one key error!
“Damn!” she said. “I hear and obey, Citizen Tan sir! But this matter is not finished.”
“Agreed,” he said, with an inflection that made her wince.
They stepped out of the booth. “Methinks we need a distraction,” Bane said. “There be a few minutes yet till the ship launch. An he rethink the ploy—”
“And it is time for me to make my move,” Tania said. “This will quickly unravel. If I know my brother, he will not depend on my sense of sibling duty; he’ll send a competent force to arrest me—and you. Pull out your stops, robot; this is the time.”
“Aye, wench,” he agreed. “Follow!”
They ran to the nearest service exit to the takeoff ramp. Bane used his ability to make the do
or open for him as it would for a machine servitor. Beyond was a chamber in which the service machines were parked: huge forklifts, dozers and ramp cleaners. Bane went to one of the last: a machine taller than a man, with a scalable cockpit, and nozzles and brushes all around. “Climb in!” he told her, as he made the cockpit dome lift open.
“How?” she asked, halting before the monstrous caterpillar tread of the thing. It offered little purchase for a human being. Normally these machines were remote-controlled; the cockpit was there only in case a man should be assigned.
“I’ll boost thee!” He caught her by knee and upper thigh and lifted her up so that she could scramble onto the top of the tread.
“Goose me again, why don’t you,” she muttered as his hand fell away from her thigh. But she made it to the cockpit and climbed in.
Bane followed. He zeroed in on the machine’s control circuitry, and locked off the remote input. Now he alone controlled it. He studied its mechanisms.
“Get going!” Tania cried, jammed into the tiny cockpit beside him. “They’ll be here any minute!”
Bane knew that. But he wanted to be certain of the cleaner’s potential. He had chosen this machine because it most resembled an old-fashioned tank. Properly directed, it could defend itself, and could travel beyond the dome.
A group of androids burst into the chamber. “Here they are!” Tania exclaimed. “They’ve got stunners!”
He had anticipated as much. “Get comfortable,” he said grimly. “It may be a hard ride.”
“I can’t get comfortable here! There’s a gearstick poking my bottom.”
“Lucky gearshift,” he murmured, as the machine lurched out to meet the androids.
One of them fired. The shot was invisible, and was evidently deflected by the metal and plastic framework of the machine, for there was no effect. Still, this luck would not hold; he had to eliminate the menace.
He aimed a nozzle and fired. Foam squirted out to blast the androids. The force of it was formidable; it knocked them off their feet. Bubbles enclosed them, and they gesticulated wildly as they fought for good air to breathe.
“What is that stuff?” Tania asked admiringly.
“Merely light detergent. But methinks it would sting if it got in the eyes.”
Indeed, several androids were rubbing their eyes. None were trying to use their stunners. This group had been effectively defeated.
But more would come, this time better prepared. Not enough time had passed to allow for the ship taking off. “Methinks we had better give them aught to ponder,” he said, guiding the vehicle to the service entrance.
“Robots!” she cried, pointing.
That was what he had feared. Detergent foam would not stop those!
So he charged them as they passed through the door. They were machines, but they were no match for the mass of the vehicle; they dived aside as he smashed into the door, and broke it in, along with a large segment of wall. Human and android people screamed. Tania grunted as she was bounced against the cockpit dome and back into Bane. Her knees were now jammed against his belly, and she clung to his neck for support. Her hair was in wild disarray, but she was smiling. This was her kind of mayhem!
But already the robots were righting themselves and orienting their weapons. Bane touched a lever, and water blasted out in a circular sheet, horizontally, sweeping them all off their feet again. “Rinse cycle,” he murmured to the top of Tania’s head, which was jammed against his right shoulder. “May short out some of those weapons.”
Then he maneuvered the vehicle around and away from the smashed wall, retreating. “Takeoff!” he said gladly.
“This thing flies?” she demanded, astonished.
“The ship be launched,” he explained. “Now it be safe to pass its ramp. I wanted to interfere not, before.”
“Figures,” she agreed.
Some robots were coming after them. Bane tried his third weapon, the sander. Powdery sand blasted out, and the big brushes extended, whipping it into a dust-storm frenzy, intended to scour away the worst runway buildup of grime or old paint.
“Those robots won’t like that,” Tania remarked, grinning.
But just to be sure, he aimed his foam nozzle and sent out a prolonged rearward jet of liquid detergent. He was rewarded by the sight of robots sliding helplessly back on a spreading wave of bubbles. They had finally been defeated.
They passed the main launch ramp. The ships did not take off vertically; they lay at an angle, and were catapulted up before their engines cut in, so as not to befoul the interior of the dome. Incoming ships landed outside, and were then hauled in on flatcars. It was an efficient system, but did not do much to abate the exterior pollution.
They passed through the dome wall, which was just a force field that served as a barrier between the clean inner air and the bad outer atmosphere. Here the view was murky; here the dust storms were natural.
“They’ll have aircraft after us,” Tania said. “We can’t dodge those long, or shoot them down with squirts of water.”
“Aye. Now we call for help.”
He set up a radio circuit on a special channel. Blue! Blue! Willst take me in?
Thought thou wouldst ne’er ask, the laconic reply came. Then, flying low on the horizon, came a winged craft, bright blue. It looped around them, then slowed and glided down for a landing.
“Don this,” Bane said, drawing from the back of the cockpit a helmet and breathing tank.
Tania wedged her head into it and made sure the seal was snug about her neck. Then Bane opened the canopy and let the atmosphere in. They clambered out and ran across to the airplane.
In a moment they were inside, and the plane was taking off. It was a remote-controlled unit, made to hold two.
“That’s Tania!” Citizen Blue’s voice came. “What of Agape?”
“She be offplanet now,” Bane explained. “Tania and I be defecting to thy side, and Mach likewise in Phaze.”
“What about Nepe?”
Bane had known he could not rescue Nepe the moment Tan caught on to the ploy, but had been distracted by the need to act swiftly and effectively. Now the realization struck with full force. “She be captive o’ the Citizens. She covered for me, to get her mother out.”
Tania turned to him, shaking her head. “I’m sorry, Bane,” she said with genuine regret.
“I think we shall have to negotiate,” Citizen Blue said, as the airplane flew them to the safety of his power.
“Aye,” Bane agreed, depressed.
Chapter 9
Forel
Forel cut through the brush, heading for home. He had always been an explorer, and now with his oath-friend Barelmosi gone, he found surcease from his disquiet only by increasingly distant excursions. He claimed that he wanted to find and run down prey, so that he could make his first individual Kill and be eligible for adult status, and that was true, but it was mostly his foolish notion that if he only ranged far enough, he might find and bring back his lost friend. He knew that Barel had been captured by the Adepts, knew there was no chance they would let him go, and knew that if Barel somehow escaped, he would not dare come here, where they would first look for him. Yet Forel ranged, hoping on a level more fundamental than that of reason.
But now he had to return, as he had promised Sirel and Terel, who feared he would get himself killed by a hunting dragon, or by a goblin snare. If he stayed out too long, they would come looking for him, and so put themselves at similar risk. He wanted that not!
He scooted under an overhanging bush and picked up speed in the straightaway between several large trees. But there was a sinister trace of mist descending, forming a low cloud. He had seen what unnatural clouds could do! He slid to a halt, trying to avoid it, but it expanded to embrace him.
Suddenly he was lost in choking fog. He could not see his way clear, and indeed, had to put his nose down to the ground to breathe. This was certainly magical, and surely not the work of his friend Barel!
&nbs
p; “Wolf pup,” a human voice came. “Are you Flach’s friend?”
Flach: the human name of Barelmosi! Had he escaped after all? Were they casting another net for him?
“Aye, spook,” he growled. “And may thou catch him not!”
A manshape came out of the obscurity. “I helped catch him before, but now I am changing sides. Will you help me free my son—and my wife?”
Forel stared up at the figure. It was the Rovot Adept!
“There is little time, wolf,” the rovot continued. “Flach and Fleta are captive on an isle under the sea, and I can not go there now without arousing suspicion. But I can conjure you there, where you can verify that I am speaking the truth. Will you cooperate to that extent?”
It was obvious that the dread rovot had him captive, so could either kill him or compel him to do his bidding. It was better to go along, at least until his chances improved. “Aye,” he growled. “But I trust thee not, rovot!”
“Nor should you, wolf. Hold on; I am conjuring us to a safer place. This concealing cloud is too obvious, here.”
A concealing cloud: of course! Barel had used clouds as a device to hide things they had to hide, but only when no others except the oath-friends were present. They alone had known his nature, that he was the man-‘corn, no wolf at all, but a creature of far greater potential. But he had rewarded their support with the benefits of his growing power, and their friendship with his own. He was, at the root, a youngster like themselves, who had left his origin to come to this Pack as they had. He was one of them in the ways that counted, and it had been entirely fitting that he and Sirel had Promised when they made their first Kills together. Forel hoped to do the same with Terel, when the time came, and he would become Forelte, and she Terelfo, until they were granted their kill syllables.
So it was not surprising that Barel’s rovot father knew the uses of clouds. As Forel felt himself wrenched to somewhere distant, he was already gaining confidence. Maybe the rovot spoke truly, and was now on the right side. It would be wonderful if Barel no longer had to hide from his family! Barel had not spoken much of this, but they knew, as oath-friends did, what he was feeling. He loved his sire and his dam, and hated being apart from them, but knew he could not serve the side they served. His grandsire Stile, patron of all the better animals, had made that clear to him.