The Icarus Hunt

And pressing the corona gun against Brosh's left cheekbone, he pulled thetrigger.

There wasn't any flash—the current flow was far too low to produce a spark.

But from the effect on Brosh Ixil might have just put a thousand volts across hisface. He gasped sharply, his head jerking back with such violence that my ownhead injuries throbbed in sympathetic pain. Ixil didn't give him a chance torecover his balance, but simply leaned forward and delivered a second jolt tothe other cheekbone. Brosh gasped again, a sound that seemed to be on the edgeof panic or hysteria. "Just one more," Ixil soothed him, and delivered a thirdshock to his forehead just above his eyes.

Abruptly, Nask snarled something in the Patth language. About a step behindme, he'd suddenly figured out what Ixil was doing. "You sacundian alien frouzht—"

"—and then we move on to the hands," Ixil said, ignoring both Nask's cursesand Brosh's yelps and delivering a quick jolt to the backs of each of the pilot'shands. "And that," he added, letting go of Brosh's arm so quickly that theother nearly toppled over backward, "is that."

"Yes, indeed," I agreed. "And with all that lovely implanted circuitry now scrambled or fried, the Considerate is without a chief pilot."

"And will be also without its backup pilot in a moment," Ixil agreed, movingto where Enig was cringing.

Enig demonstrated himself capable of more dignity and self-control than hissuperior, leaving Nask's continuing stream of invective un-punctuated by gaspsor moans. "Now it should be safe to secure them to the desk," Ixil said, tossingthe weapon distastefully across the room and taking his plasmic back from me.

"Revs, if you'll do the honors?"

A minute later, the three Patth were trussed like a matched set ofThanksgivingturkeys. They maintained a stoic silence throughout the operation, even Naskapparently having run out of things to call us. But the ambassador stared atIxil the whole time, and there was something about the very deadness of hisexpression that sent a chill up my back.

"Looks good," I said after Nicabar had finished, giving his handiwork a quickexamination. Not that I didn't trust him to do a proper job, but it was toolate in the day to be taking u

"Straight through the club," Ixil said. He snapped his fingers and Paxabandoned his examination of one of the dead Iykams and scurried toward him. "Did youknow you were in the back rooms of a night-to-dawn club, by the way?"

"No, but I should have guessed from the music I was hearing," I said as Paxclimbed up and took his accustomed place on Ixil's other shoulder. It occurredto me that I hadn't actually heard the band for some time now; straining myears, I discovered I still couldn't hear it. Either Nicabar's gunshots hadaffected my hearing, or else the club had suddenly gone silent. An ominouspossibility, that one. "Let's go."

I headed for the door, scooping up one of the corona guns along the way justto have some kind of weapon in my hand. Nicabar and Ixil moved into supportpositions on either side of me, Nicabar easing the door open for a cautiouslook as Ixil kept an eye on our three Patth friends. "All clear," Nicabar murmured.

He started out—

"Kalix."

I turned around. Nask was still staring at Ixil, the look of death stillsmoldering in his eyes. "For what you did here you will pay dearly," theambassador said quietly. "You, and all your species with you. Remember thisnight as you watch your people starve to death."

For a moment Ixil looked back at him, his own face expressionless, and Iwondered uneasily if he was having second thoughts about the side he'd chosen.

If Nask wasn't just blowing off steam—and if he could persuade the PatthDirector General to back him up—the Patth certainly had it within theireconomic power to make life miserable for the Kalixiri.

"Ixil?" Nicabar prompted quietly.

His voice seemed to break the spell. "Yes," Ixil said, turning back. "Goahead.

I'll take the rear."

Seconds later, the three of us were moving along a well-lit but desertedcorridor. There was still no music; nor, as we moved along, could I hear anysounds at all other than our own. "What did you do, scare away all the patrons when you came in?" I murmured.

"Something like that," Nicabar murmured back.

"I hope you scared away the Iykams, too," I said. "Nask implied he had a wholetroop of them guarding the building."

"He did," Ixil said grimly. "Everett and I dealt rather more permanently withthem while the Patth were distracted with you and Nicabar."

"And where is Everett?"

"On guard in the main club area," Ixil said. "It's right up here on theright."

We rounded a corner, to find ourselves at the edge of a garishly decoratedwiggle floor, its flickerlights still playing to its departed clientele, ascattering of spilled drinks and a couple of lost scarves adding color to thefloor itself. Beyond the wiggle floor, surrounding it on all three sides otherthan the one we were on, were the drinking and conversation areas, consistingof a collection of close-packed tables. Most of them sported abandoned bottlesand glasses, with the disarrayed chairs around them evidence of just how rapidlythe club's clientele had departed. The arrangement of lights had put most of theconversation area into deep shadow, a fact I didn't care much for at all.

Especially given that there was no sign of Everett. On guard or otherwise.

Nicabar had made the same observation. "So where is he?" he murmured.

"I don't know," Ixil said as we hugged the corner. "Maybe he went outside forsome reason."

Or maybe the Patth or Iykams had spirited him away, I didn't bother to add. Ifso, the evening was still a long way from being over. "Where's the door?" Iasked.

"There's an emergency exit behind that cluster of orange lights in thecorner,"

Nicabar answered. "It opens onto an alleyway just off one of the majorstreets."

"Let's hope he's out there," I said. "After you."

Silently, Nicabar headed off, angling across the wiggle floor toward theorangelights he'd pointed out. We were about two-thirds of the way across the wigglefloor, pi

"Watch it!" I snapped, jabbing a finger that direction.

But my warning was too late. There was the muted flash of a plasma-boltignition, and with a gasped curse Nicabar dropped to one knee, his gun firingspasmodically toward the area where the shot had originated.

"Damn," I snarled, jumping to his side and pulling him flat onto the floor asIxil's plasmic opened up from behind me, laying down a spray of cover fire.

"Shoulder," Nicabar bit out from between clenched teeth, his voice almostinaudible over the rapid-fire hiss of Ixil's plasma fire and the louderthree-millimeter rounds from his own gun. "Not too bad. Can you see him?"

I couldn't, though I could make out vague movements back in the shadows as ourunseen assailant apparently repositioned himself for his next shot. Butwithout a weapon that could reach that far it didn't much matter whether I could seehim or not. Instead, I darted to the edge of the wiggle floor, grabbed the nearesttable, and half shoved, half threw it to where Nicabar was firing.

And then, even as the table skidded with a horrendous screech into a positionwhere he could use it for cover, there was another plasmic flash from just to the right of our attacker's direction, this one accompanied by a startlinglyforlorn sort of squeak. "I got him," a hoarse voice croaked. "Come on—I gothim!"

"Stay here," Ixil ordered quietly, pushing me unceremoniously into the coverof the table beside Nicabar. Before I could do more than flail around for balance he heaved himself up from his prone position on the floor and was gone, chargingin a broken run across the open area with a speed and agility that weresurprising in a being of his size and bulk. Pix and Pax had already made itacross the floor, and I caught a glimpse of them as they disappeared among themaze of tables and chairs on that side. I held my breath, watching Ixil run, waiting in helpless agony for the shot that would take him down.