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"Because—hell, I don't know why."
"In other words, because you trust him to get the job done right, with the least hazard to your own skin... and you're smart enough to prefer getting bruises on your pride to watching your teammates die around you."
Pittman broke off abruptly. Caine studied his face for a long moment, then snorted. "Yeah, I guess you're right. We both trust him... and we both hate it."
Pittman shrugged fractionally. "It beats getting killed with dignity. I guess. The hell with it." He nodded toward the alley mouth. "Who do you suppose he's calling? Qui
"I sure hope not. This town's going to heat up enough as it is without him waving red gloves under someone's nose."
"Yeah. Well... maybe he's just calling Reger. Someone safe, anyway. That would be a change."
"It would be nice," Caine agreed heavily. "But somehow, I doubt it."
—
Kanai had just finished his di
He paused, turning to look at it, his hand falling to his shuriken pouch. There were perhaps a dozen people who might be calling him, most of them mad at him, none of them anyone he really wanted to talk to. Glaring at the phone, he willed it to shut up.
But the person on the other end was persistent... and Kanai had been the blackcollars' contact man too long to easily ignore a phone call. With a sigh, he picked up the handset. "Yes?"
"Kanai?"
The blackcollar squeezed the handset with sudden pressure. "Lathe?"
"Right. Your line being tapped?"
"Certainly not," Kanai answered, automatically giving the old blackcollar code response for yes.
"Okay. I want to talk to Bernhard—let him know how things went tonight. Can you arrange that?"
"Probably," Kanai said cautiously. How things went tonight? A smokescreen for Security's benefit, or was Bernhard working some sort of game behind his back? "When do you want to talk to him?" he asked Lathe, forcing his voice to remain casual.
"There's a street six blocks north of last night's popbox—we'll be at a house two blocks west of that intersection. Got that?"
"I think so." Popbox—that had to be the place they'd popped up out of A
Visualizing a map of Denver... "Yes, I know where it is. You want me to bring Bernhard there tonight?"
"Affirmative. Alone, of course."
"Of course." Translation: no Security tails. Possible, but only if he worked fast. "We'll be there shortly."
"Good. Oh, and you might tell Bernhard that A
"Right," Kanai said, stomach tightening with sudden uncertainty.
The line went dead, and for a couple of heartbeats Kanai stared unseeing at the instrument. A
"Damn," Kanai hissed between his teeth. Something strange was happening here, and whatever it was, he already didn't like it. Gathering up his gear, he grabbed a coat and slipped out the door.
—
The Security man at the monitor bank shrugged helplessly. "I'm sorry, Prefect Galway, but there's nothing more I can tell you. There were four high-power comm-frequency laser pulses in each of these three directions, each pulse consisting of the single word 'Christmas.' We've got the source pinpointed to an area a short way out into the mountains, but until and unless General Qui
Galway clenched his jaw with frustration. "And if the damn thing is mobile, it could be packed up and back in someone's garage before we find it."
"I'm afraid that's about right," the officer agreed.
"Damn." Galway stared at the star images displayed on the monitors, his eyes shifting among the three superimposed circles. At the end of one of those vectors was the mysterious spacecraft that had been skulking out there ever since Lathe's team had landed on Earth. Clearly, it was the intended recipient for the unauthorized message; just as clearly, at least to Galway's thinking, the message itself had come from Lathe. A prearranged signal to action... but action of what sort? One way or another, it'll all be over soon, Lathe had said, referring to the consequences of Pittman's actions.
What could he have meant by that?
"Oh, hell," Galway muttered as a sudden thought struck him. Crazy—utterly crazy—but it was exactly the sort of thing Lathe would do—
"Galway!"
The prefect jerked around, startled, to see Qui
"Galway, pending a full investigation through the Ryqril officials on Plinry, you're confined to quarters," Qui
"What?" Galway stared, unable to believe his ears, as the two Security men stepped to his side.
"You're not serious. All right, so Lathe and Pittman pulled the sheets over our heads. We haven't lost the whole—"
"What do you mean, our heads?" Qui
"Me and the Ryqril on Plinry," Galway shot back. "Let's not forget they were the ones who initiated the whole project."
"We've got only your word and some possibly forged papers for that," Qui
Galway felt his stomach tighten up. This couldn't be happening—it just couldn't. Had Qui
"To hell with Pittman!" Qui
Hands curled into impotent fists at his side, Galway let them lead him from the situation room. It'll be all right, he told himself, trying with only limited success to believe it. It'll be all right. He's sending word to Plinry—that's the important thing. Maybe it'll get there in time. Until then—
Until then he would just have to sit quietly by and hope Qui