The Legend That Was Earth (24 page)

"Vrel?" A Terran voice.

Vrel switched to English. "Yes."

"It's Roland. No time to talk. I'm downloading the file. You have to get it to Chryse somehow."

File? It could only mean the file they had recorded with Luodine. Vrel was confused. "What—" he began.

"
Just do it!
"

Hudro was looking at him questioningly. Vrel waved a hand to indicate that he couldn't explain. "Some kind of trouble," he muttered, at the same time keying in the code to direct input to the phone's integral storage. "Ready," he said into it. He could make out noise at the other end: voices shouting; distant bangs and crashes. An indicator showed that the file was coming through. In a few seconds, it was done. "Hello?... Hello, Roland?" Vrel tried. But the connection was already gone.

"Roland? You mean it was Cade? What did he want?" Hudro demanded. "What kind of trouble?"

"I'm not sure. It sounded as if there was fighting going on there. Roland sent the file. It's here, in the phone. He wants me to get it to Chryse."

Hudro thought for a few seconds. "Security must have traced them there."

"How?"

"I don't know. There are all kinds of ways."

Vrel tried to think what it meant. If they had been traced to Tevlak's, Cade's and Marie's aliases were already blown. Vrel's association with them would be revealed by the Hyadean flight records from St. Louis to the base in Maryland and from there to Uyali. Thryase had used his diplomatic pull to keep the flyer's movements out of the system, but it was a safe bet that a reception party would be waiting at Vrel's room in the Hyadean sector of Uyali. "I can't go back," he told Hudro. "They'll be onto me as well."

"How can you be sure?"

"I came in with the two Americans yesterday. It will be in the flight log." Vrel looked at Hudro dubiously. "How sure can you be about you?"

"Impossible to say."

"You can't just report to the military desk at Uyali," Vrel said. Hudro's intention had been to find transportation back to his unit in Brazil. "They could be just waiting for you to show up. Maybe that's why you haven't had a recall. Why alert you that something's up? We don't want to land back there at all—not until we've found some way of checking the situation."

Hudro frowned, obviously not liking Vrel doing his thinking for him. But he couldn't argue. He interrogated the on-board system about other options and directed it to reroute the flyer to a construction area thirty miles north, where a power generating installation was being built. There, they could try to find some kind of ground transportation, which would be less conspicuous.

Since anything could happen after they landed, the file from Cade needed to be forwarded now. Vrel couldn't use the flyer's system to access the direct net link to Chryse, however. The message protocols would involve his personal ID codes, which were bound to have been watch-listed, and reveal his whereabouts. The only alternative was to use his Terran phone and hope that it was clean. That, of course, couldn't get the file to Chryse. The only way he could think of to do that would be to send it via the mission in Los Angeles. But communications into there were still likely to be subject to surveillance, as would any to his known contacts if he was being sought—which ruled out using Dee or anyone at Cade's house.

"You'd better come up with something soon. We've got less than five minutes," Hudro said.

There was a dealer that Dee used for work on her car. Vrel recalled that he was called Vince something. Something to do with ducks.... The service manager's name was Stan. He had wanted to introduce Vrel to golf. Vrel thought, tried to remember.... Beak? Drake? Bird? No... Walk, waddle?
Web!
That was what they called their funny feet. Vince Web! Vrel called information but didn't know enough Spanish to make himself understood. "Can you connect me to an English-speaking operator?" he pleaded. "Er...
Operador. Habla inglés
."

"Give it to me." Hudro took the phone. "What do you want?"

"United States directory information. California, Los Angeles area. An automobile dealer called Vince Web—somewhere around Venice."

While Hudro was waiting for the information, Vrel copied the file into the flyer's system and encrypted it into Hyadean Code along with a message to Wyvex for it to be forwarded to Chryse. He attached a plaintext note to "Stan, Service Department," asking him to pass it on urgently to "Wyvex, care of Dee Rainier, who drives the white Pontiac." Meanwhile, Hudro had obtained the number. Vrel loaded the package back into the phone and sent it off just as the flyer was touching down.

The first thing Hudro did after they landed was get rid of his military-issue Hyadean communicator, which was traceable. Until he knew whether he was compromised or not, he didn't dare use it. If his name was hot, any message sent from it could trigger a surveillance computer.

* * *

They arrived at Uyali late in the afternoon in a Terran truck making a run from the construction area to pick up a piece of equipment that had been ferried from the spaceport at Xuchimbo. Hudro had found a friendly plant engineer, showed his military pass, and explained with a wink that he and his friend needed a ride back to town after a hot double date in one of the villages farther north. The flyer was "borrowed" and would make its own way back. In recognition, Hudro promised to send back a bottle of Terran "risky"—a Hyadean pun based on the English rhyme with "whisky"—with the truck driver from Uyali. "I'll take two," the engineer had said, which was the Hyadean way of asking who you think you're kidding. Hyadeans saw no point in fulfilling one-time obligations. But he had found them a place in the truck anyway.

Hudro had told Vrel that he had a friend he trusted in Hyadean Military Intelligence back in Brazil, who might be able to find out if Hudro was being watched for and what else was going on. Vrel wondered if it was Hudro's girlfriend, but Hudro didn't say. Whoever it was, Hudro would only be able to talk about such things over a secure link, which would mean going into the sprawling Hyadean military base at Uyali and getting access to the communications there. He was willing to gamble that even if Hyadean military police were checking the air terminal, the alert would not involve every guard and gate sentry in the area, and that his papers would get him in. Vrel couldn't offer any better idea. The only thing for Vrel to do in the meantime would be to lose himself, away from prying Hyadean eyes. The best place to do that promised to be the Terran sector. Accordingly, the truck dropped them off outside a store on the part of the road that ran nearest, and Hudro dutifully purchased a half bottle of pisco brandy for the Hyadean driver to take back for the engineer. The driver accepted it appreciatively and seemed amused. Whether or not it would get where it was supposed to go was beyond Hudro's control.

They had a meal of spicy meat and vegetables on rice in a café on the outskirts and then strolled around to familiarize themselves with the area. It seemed to have grown around three main streets, one crossing the other two like the lines of a Terran English
H.
The Terrans were happy to see Hyadeans in their sector because Hyadeans drew large paychecks. After further thought, Hudro bought a man's leather wallet—hand-sewn and richly decorated—some pieces of jewelry, and a mechanical, spring-powered Terran watch that had to be wound by hand every day, which Hyadeans found intriguing and prized even on Chryse, where the twelve-hour cycle meant nothing. "You never know. I might need to bribe somebody in there," he explained to Vrel as they came out of the store. "It never hurts to be prepared."

"I'm impressed," Vrel complimented. Coming from a Hyadean, it meant just that.

"Military training," Hudro said.

"Out of curiosity, just what
do
you do in the military?" Vrel asked.

"Counterinsurgency intelligence. Infiltration. The guys you don't hear about, who live on the other side of the lines."

The final item that Hudro bought was a regular Terran pocket phone with clean codes and a prepaid call quota that he could use without opening an account. So at least, he would be able to make calls over the Terran system that wouldn't attract attention. He left after arranging to meet up with Vrel again later. If there were an emergency, now they could call each other.

* * *

One thing about being on an alien planet was the guarantee of always getting a lift from one's own kind. Hudro waited no more than a few minutes on one of the approach roads to the base before a Hyadean military vehicle carrying both uniformed figures and others in regular dress pulled up in response to his wave. He would arouse less curiosity that way than if he arrived on foot, he had decided. The crew turned out to be surveyors and construction supervisors who had been out planning a water pipeline, and a detail of Army guards. There were no Terrans, and at the gate they were waved straight through, although the occupants of a bus taking Terran workers inside were being rigorously checked and searched. So obstacle number one was out of the way as easily as that.

Hudro was back in the Hyadean world now. Already, it felt different. The surroundings were functional, businesslike, designed for getting things done. Time seemed to snap along at a Hyadean pace. People moved briskly, with purpose. They wore uniforms and working clothes that he recognized, giving them roles that were familiar—like a picture that had suddenly come into focus. There were weapons emplacements inside the perimeter fence, a transportation depot with a landing area inside the gate, where an officer was supervising a fatigue detail unloading an air-truck, and other figures crossed to and fro on various errands. A Military Police post stood on the other side, with signs indicating directions to such locations as 12TH CLOSE SUPPORT BATTALION; 76TH AIR ASSAULT HQ; TAC COM CMD OPS; QMSUP OFF. 19TH INFTRY REC GRP. Hudro followed a path of fused rock chippings painted white to a multistory configuration of office and service modules designated the Administration Center, which was where Headquarters Command was indicated to be situated. He found it after checking with the desk sergeant inside the door, taking an elevator up two levels from the lobby, and following a corridor into the next riser. Inside the door was a waiting area consisting of seats set around three sides of a low table, with the fourth open to a desk-counter at which sat a female Officer of the Day—a captain. Hudro took a seat, picked up one of the reformattable, universal-book folios from the table, loaded a journal at random, and for maybe fifteen minutes scanned it idly while getting a feel for the place and watching the routine. Then he went back down to the entrance. Just as he was about to leave the building, he turned back as if struck by an afterthought, and went over to desk.

"Excuse me, Sergeant." Although not wearing uniform, he had presented his pass showing his rank when he entered earlier.

"Sir?"

"Can you bring up the Forces Directory for me there?" He indicated the desk terminal. "I need this base's address for somebody to send something to me here."

The sergeant called up the file giving publicly posted information on Hyadean military installations and units, on Earth, Chryse, other worlds, orbiting stations, and elsewhere. He located the entry for Uyali, giving permanent offices, units currently stationed there with addresses, mail codes, commanding officers, and other details. "There. That's us here."

Hudro studied the screen. "So for the HQ Command office upstairs I'd use... that one?" He pointed.

"You've got it."

Hudro asked for something to write the details on. The sergeant raised his eyebrows as he passed across a slip of paper. The normal thing would have been to copy it into one's personal communicator. Hudro had thrown his away after landing at the construction site. "In my jacket," Hudro said. The sergeant frowned. Hudro sighed. "I know, I know." He cited the regulation: "...to be kept on the person at all times. If it were you I could give you a citation." He noticed that the sergeant was wearing a Terran windup watch. "Nice piece of work," he said.

"You like it? It's got elegance, hasn't it?" The sergeant turned his wrist to show the band.

"It's amazing what these people can do." Hudro produced the watch he had just bought in the Terran sector. "What do you think of that?"

"Wow! Pretty nice."

"I just got it—for someone when I get back home."

The sergeant held it admiringly alongside his own. "Do you know something?" he confessed. "I don't even know how to read what they say."

"Me neither," Hudro whispered as he took it back. There was a rapport. So at least he had a friend here already if the need arose. Infiltration training. Think and prepare.

Outside the building, he found a quiet spot and used his phone to call the Terran number of the Hyadean intelligence unit at the Brazilian police facility in Acre province that Yassem worked with. A clerk located her and transferred the call.

"Who is this?" her voice asked.

"The guy who questions."

"Yes?" Since he hadn't used his name, she knew the subject was sensitive.

"We need to talk privately. Here's where I'll be to take it." He read out the code he had copied for Uyali Headquarters Command. "Make it thirty minutes. There's something slightly wrong that'll need straightening out. That's important. Okay?"

"Okay...." There was anxiety in her tone. "Is there—"

"Later."

Yassem would know what to do. The remark about something being slightly wrong was a code they had agreed previously for emergencies.

Hudro went back into the Administration Center, sent a cheerful nod to the desk sergeant, and made his way up to the Headquarters Command office. The female captain was still at the desk. Hudro approached her.

"Yes?" she inquired.

"My name is Hudro." He showed his identification.

"Sir!"

"I was here earlier. I'm expecting a call on a secure channel. Did it come through yet?"

"I haven't heard anything." The captain called a log onto a screen and consulted it. "I'm sorry, there's no sign yet."