—
It took some fancy talking on Talmoor’s part, but eventually he, Arihnda, and Gudry were allowed through the mine’s outer perimeter. There were no personal transports in sight, but Talmoor assured them the central part of the complex was only another kilometer inward, and they set off on foot.
And as they did, as Arihnda had expected him to, her father launched into a monologue of Creekpath’s recent history.
“…the irony is that the governor has himself to blame for the fact we’ve got a shield at all,” he said as they stepped out of the way of a speeder truck heading inward, its cargo bay loaded with boxes. Arihnda squinted as the vehicle went past, caught the words MAKRID STRING on the sides. “When the trouble started on Denash, Creekpath’s owner pleaded with him for some protection. All he really wanted was a couple hundred troops to beef up his checkpoints, but the governor wanted to save all the soldiers for his own protection. So instead he found a used DSS-02 regional shield and had it set up.”
“Nice,” Arihnda said, glancing behind him at Gudry walking on her father’s other side. The sun was long since gone, but as she’d predicted the complex’s lights more than made up for it, and in their glow she could see a small smile playing around the agent’s lips.
Small wonder. DSS shields were used all across the Empire, and somewhere in Gudry’s ISB training he’d undoubtedly learned how to take them down.
Yularen had suggested they eliminate the shield, but in the kind of offhanded way that had implied he was mostly joking. Before the evening was over, he might find himself surprised.
“I’d have thought the operators would have tried to sabotage it before you kicked them out,” Gudry commented.
“Before the insurgents kicked them out,” Talmoor corrected, a bit stiffly. “I might agree with some of their grievances, but I’m not one of them. Anyway, from what I understand they were rounded up and escorted off the premises before they even knew what was happening.”
“And then Nightswan came in?” Arihnda asked.
Talmoor frowned at her. “Who’s Nightswan?”
“The group’s leader,” Arihnda said. “Didn’t you know?”
“I told you, I’m not with these people,” he said shortly. “You said your friend was a tech, Mattai?”
“Mostly a tech, but he dabbled in a lot of things,” Gudry said. “He might even have been brought in to keep the shield running. You know where the generator is?”
“Over there somewhere,” Talmoor said, pointing. “I guess we might as well head in that direction as any other.”
Arihnda let them get a couple of steps ahead. Then, picking her moment, she slipped behind a parked speeder truck and angled off. She passed that truck, slipped around another one, and dropped to one knee where she’d be out of sight if Gudry or her father looked in her direction. She pulled out her mother’s comm and punched her father’s frequency.
He answered on the second signal. “Elainye? Is something wrong?”
“I don’t feel well,” Arihnda said, wheezing as if she were having some sort of reaction. “I think it was—I think it’s something in the air.”
“Hang on, I’ll call the hospital,” Talmoor said, his voice anxious.
“No, it’s not that bad,” Arihnda said, wheezing a little more. She had no idea how good her impression was, but the strain and wheezing would hopefully cover up any deficiencies. “Can you come home? I need you and Arihnda to come home.”
“Yes, of course,” Talmoor said. “Arihnda—”
He broke off, undoubtedly wondering where she’d disappeared to. “Please hurry,” Arihnda said. She turned off the comm, slipped it into her shoulder bag, and stood up.
Just in time. Even as she turned back, her father and Gudry appeared around the end of the speeder truck. “Arihnda!” Talmoor called.
“Here,” Arihnda called back, hurrying to them. “Sorry—I saw a group of men and wanted to check them out.”
“What did they look like?” Gudry asked.
“Nothing like the description you gave me, I’m afraid,” Arihnda said. “Is something wrong?”
“Your mother’s been taken ill,” Talmoor said, taking her arm. “We have to go home right away.”
“Is it serious?”
“She says no,” Talmoor said. “But we’re going anyway. Come on, Mattai.”
“Wait a minute—I need to find my friend,” Gudry objected. “Can’t I stay? I promise I won’t get in anyone’s way.”
“I don’t think—” Talmoor began.
“That’s a good idea,” Arihnda interrupted him. “You can find your way back to the house, right?”
“Sure,” Gudry said. “You two go on. I’ll be fine.”
“I can’t let you stay without me,” Talmoor said. But the words were mechanical. His thoughts were clearly with his wife. “I promised—”
“Let me talk to him,” Arihnda offered. Without waiting for a response, she took Gudry’s arm and pulled him a few steps away.
“Well, this is damn awkward,” Gudry whispered. “The old cow gets sick now?”
“You can do this alone, right?” Arihnda asked, trying hard to ignore the fact he’d just insulted her mother.
“Of course,” he growled. “Trouble is, your old man won’t let me.”
“I’ll change his mind,” Arihnda said. “That last speeder truck, the one with the Makrid String crates? You’ll want to find out where it went. Makrid String is a—”
“Is a wire explosive,” he interrupted. “Thanks, I know. I’m more worried about Nightswan’s collection of police gunships and skim fighters.”
Arihnda felt her jaw drop. “You saw gunships? How many?”
“I didn’t see them,” Gudry said patiently. “I saw a spare parts dump, with enough material to patch up a couple dozen of them.”
Arihnda winced. Air combat vehicles. Just what they needed. “You need to find and tag them,” she said. “And—”
“Yeah, thanks, I know my job,” he said. “You just get your old man off my back and out of here, okay?”
“Okay.” Still holding his arm, she turned back to her father. “Okay, we’ve made a deal,” she told him. “You and I will go home and see to Mother. He’ll stay for one hour—one hour—and look for his friend. If he hasn’t found him by then, he’ll come out. Okay?”
Talmoor hesitated, his face screwed up with indecision. “Arihnda—”
“It’ll be all right, Father,” Arihnda said, letting go of Gudry’s arm and taking her father’s. “He’ll be fine, and Mother needs us. Come on. Come on.”
“All right,” Talmoor said reluctantly as he allowed her to pull him back toward the perimeter. “Just be careful, Mattai. And don’t mess with anything.”
With her father distracted by worry, it was easy to guide him back out through a different checkpoint, one where the guards didn’t know that three had gone in but only two were coming out. Fortunately, the men and women at this point, too, knew Foreman Talmoor Pryce, and didn’t search or even question him.
How many of them, Arihnda wondered, would still be alive when morning came?
But that wasn’t her problem. These people were in the center of a combat zone, they’d willingly placed themselves here, and what happened next was on their own heads. That went for Gudry, too.
As for Arihnda, she had a more important task before her. The job she’d planned from the very beginning of this standoff. The one only she could pull off.
Time to get started.
An enemy will almost never be anything except an enemy. All one can do with an enemy is defeat him.
But an adversary can sometimes become an ally.
There is a cost, of course. In all things in life there is a cost. In dealing with an adversary, sometimes the cost is paid in power or position. Sometimes it is paid in pride or prestige.
Sometimes the cost is greater. Sometimes the risk is one’s future, or even one’s life.
But in all such situations, the calculation is straightforward: whether or not the potential gain is worth the potential loss.
And the warrior must never forget that he and his adversary are not the only ones in that equation. Sometimes, all the universe may hang in the balance.