"Perhaps," Siraj said, his voice neutral. "You will again take spearhead—" he looked at Merrick "—and you will carry His Excellency." He started toward the laundry room door.
"Wait a minute," Jin said with a surge of sudden guilt. In the excitement of the past few minutes, she'd completely forgotten about Daulo and Fadil. "We first have to go get our friends."
"No," Siraj said flatly. "We must go now."
Jin braced herself. "I understand," she said. "Merrick, you go with them."
Merrick's jaw dropped. "
What
? Mom—"
"Help them get him to safety," she cut him off, working hard to filter her apprehension out of her voice. "I'll catch up with you later."
"Mom, this is
crazy,
" he growled.
"You want me to just leave Daulo and Fadil to the Trofts?" Jin countered.
Merrick clamped his mouth shut. "Of course not. Fine—I'll come with you."
Jin looked at Siraj. There was a watchful look in his eye, the same look she'd seen there earlier when he'd asked who else she knew on Qasama. "No," she said. "I can get Daulo and Fadil out myself. You help Siraj Akim and Carsh Zoshak."
"But—"
"They're our allies now," Jin said firmly. "This is war, Merrick. Follow your orders."
He took a deep breath. "Where do we meet?"
"Two blocks south of the gate where we came in," she said. "Show yourself for two minutes at fifteen and forty after each hour until we make contact."
He nodded, still clearly unhappy with the arrangement but knowing it was useless to argue further. "Good luck," he said.
"God be with you," Zoshak added.
"Thank you." Jin nodded to Siraj. "And with you." She turned toward the door.
"Wait," Siraj said; and to Jin's surprise he stepped to her side. "I will accompany you."
"I appreciate your offer, Siraj Akim," Jin said, frowning at him. "But I thought we just decided it would be safer if His Excellency had a three-man escort."
"Djinni Zoshak knows the route," Siraj said. "He and your son can follow it without significant danger." He smiled humorlessly. "Allow me to put it more bluntly: I trust them with His Excellency more than I trust you alone in Sollas."
Jin suppressed a grimace. So much for being allies. "As you wish," she said. "Merrick, I'll see you later."
The hallway outside the laundry room was deserted. Zoshak turned to the right; with a final nod at his mother, Merrick followed, the old man balanced across his forearms. "Stairs are this way," Siraj said, pointing to the left.
"Just a second," Jin said as a rack of freshly washed white medical coats caught her eye. "A little camouflage might not be a bad idea."
They each took a coat and slipped it on. "You might want to take off those gloves, too," Jin added. "They don't exactly look hospital-issue."
"This will do," Siraj said, taking three more coats and folding them into a bundle that would hide his hands. "Take spearhead."
Jin's enhanced hearing was picking up sounds of hurrying feet and rapid cattertalk well before she and Siraj reached the top of the stairs. It was thus no surprise when she stepped out into the corridor to find it full of Trofts. Two of them stopped abruptly at the sight of the humans, leveling their lasers as one of them moved his beak in inaudible cattertalk. "What are you doing here?" the Qasaman translation came.
"Don't shoot," Siraj gasped, his eyes wide, his face taut with astonishment and fear. Whatever else the man might be, he was a competent actor. "My name is Rajeem Tommarno. Lanara Summel and I are laboratory technicians. We were asked to bring some spare coats to the doctor's station on this floor."
"Why?" the Troft asked.
"I don't know," Siraj said. "Three coats—that was all they said."
For a moment the Troft eyed him. Then, taking one hand from his laser, he gestured Siraj over. Siraj hesitated, then stepped gingerly up to him and held out his bundle for inspection. The Troft pawed systematically through the coats, clearly searching for anything that might be hidden inside the folds of cloth. Finding nothing, he stepped back, shifting his laser back into a two-handed grip "This soldier will take you," he said. "You will stay there until other notice is given."
"Yes, of course," Siraj assured him, backing hastily away. The other Troft took a step down the corridor and paused expectantly. "Yes, of course," Siraj said again, and started off. Jin joined him, the Troft soldier falling into step a cautious couple of paces behind them.
"They seem upset," Siraj murmured to Jin.
Jin grimaced. Twenty Trofts in this corridor alone, plus who knew how many dozens more elsewhere in the hospital. "Having their soldiers beaten into the sand does that to military types," she murmured back. "I guess I should have insisted you get out with the others while you could. This isn't going to be easy."
"It may turn out to be not quite the challenge you believe," Siraj said calmly. "In here."
He led the way under an archway into what appeared to be a patient receiving and processing area. The alcove was deserted except for a pair of Trofts flanking a door at the rear of the area. Jin eyed the various desks and computer stations as they maneuvered their way through, noting that the chairs were all facing different directions, without a single one being tucked neatly beneath its desk. When everyone had left, they'd left in a hurry.
"Go to the door in the rear," the Troft behind them ordered.
The two guards eyed the group as they approached. One of them started to speak, and Jin notched up her audio enhancers. [These humans, why are they here?] the guard demanded.
[The two civilians inside, to them they bring disguises,] the Troft behind Jin said. [The enemy combatants we seek, perhaps these are the ones.]
The door guards' expressions went a little harder. [Yet these disguises, they bring
three
of them,] the spokesman pointed out.
[An additional and unknown enemy, such may lurk nearby,] the escort agreed. [Watchfulness, we will maintain it.]
[The humans, we will watch them closely,] the guard assured the escort grimly.
The Troft behind Siraj nudged the Qasaman with the muzzle of his laser. [The door, go through it.] "Go inside."
"Yes, of course," Siraj said. He reached the door, pushed it open with his forearm, and went through. Jin followed, once again lowering her enhancers.
The room beyond the door was a lounge of sorts, with computer monitors scattered among the couches and cushions to allow the doctors and staffers to keep an eye on what was happening with their patients. There were about a dozen men and women in the room, some pacing nervously, the rest sitting alone or in quietly conversing pairs. Flanking the inside of the door were another pair of watchful Troft soldiers.
And seated on a couch at the rear of the room, painfully conspicuous in their non-medical garb, were Daulo and Fadil.
Siraj nudged Jin to their right, away from the door. "I will take Daulo Sammon the coats," he said. "As the soldiers watch me, you will move behind you to the fire alarm."
"
If
they watch you," Jin warned, glancing casually over her shoulder at the Trofts. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted the alarm Siraj had mentioned: a small red plate set into the wall with a thumb-sized lever set into it.
"They will," Siraj assured her. "There are two civilians, yet I have
three
coats. They will watch closely to see what I do with the third."
"If you say so," Jin said frowning. Either Siraj was making a monumental leap of logic, or else he'd eavesdropped on the conversation outside and understood enough cattertalk to know the Trofts were already thinking in that direction. "When do you want me to set off the alarm?"
"You do not set off the alarm," Siraj said. "The alarm is activated by pushing the lever downward. You will, instead, push the lever in—it will resist, so push firmly—and once it is in you will pull it
upward.
"
"Which will do what?"
"It will help us," Siraj said. "Go now."
Jin looked around the room, pretended to notice someone she recognized and started over toward him. Halfway there, she pretended she'd changed her mind and drifted instead to the side, coming to a halt a pace away from the wall and the fire alarm. Siraj had meanwhile crossed to Daulo and Fadil and was whispering urgently to them. From the two villagers' expressions, it was clear they had no idea who this man was and weren't particularly happy at having extra attention being drawn their way.
So far, so good,
Jin thought, and looked over at the two Trofts by the door.
To find that Siraj's plan had worked exactly halfway. One of the Trofts was indeed thoroughly engrossed in Siraj's inaudible conversation. Unfortunately, the other was gazing just as intently at Jin.
She shifted her attention back to Siraj. He was gazing sideways at her, his eyebrows cocked in silent question. She gave him a tiny shrug, followed by an equally microscopic tilt of her head toward the Trofts. Siraj inclined his head slightly in reply and turned back to Daulo. There was another short conversation, and this time it was Daulo who looked a question at Jin. She gave him a small nod, wondering uneasily what Siraj's new plan was and what the Trofts were thinking about all this. She was hardly an expert on alien body language, but she'd seen enough annoyed Trofts to have the unpleasant feeling that the one focused on her was looking for an excuse to shoot something.
Across the room, the quiet conversation ceased and Daulo and Fadil stood up. Siraj handed a lab coat to each of them, and the two villagers headed toward opposite rear corners of the room.
And with that, the two Trofts now had
four
humans they needed to keep a close eye on. Jin held her breath, waiting for her personal watchdog to shift some of his attention to one of the others. Half a second's worth of inattention, maybe less, and she would be able to get to the fire alarm without being shot.
She was still waiting for that half-second window when the door opened and the two Trofts who'd been standing guard outside strode in.
Jin grimaced. So much for that approach.
So much, too, she decided suddenly, for letting Siraj call the shots here. The Trofts were probably still a little off-balance after the brief battle upstairs, but that confusion wouldn't last long. She and the others had to get out of here before the invaders got their balance back. Focusing on each of the Trofts in turn, she set up targeting locks on their heads, starting with the one watching her. It was risky—if her watchdog decided she was making suspicious movements he could probably get off a shot before she could take him down. But if she didn't do something—
And then, Siraj raised his hands and pointed both of them at Jin. "Now!" he shouted.
Jin froze in disbelief as all four of the Trofts spun around, their lasers tracking toward her. With that single barked word, Siraj had just quadrupled the odds she was already facing. Was he
trying
to get her killed?
Maybe he was. Maybe that was why he'd insisted on accompanying her up here in the first place.
And then, to Jin's astonishment, all four lasers changed direction in midtrack as the Trofts turned their attention back to Siraj.
All
of the Trofts, including Jin's own guard.
Jin didn't waste time wondering why they would do something so foolish. Stepping to the wall, she pushed in the lever and pulled it up.
Nothing happened.
For a fraction of a second she just stood there, staring at the alarm. She'd expected something instantly lethal or at least instantly dramatic: targeted lasers or machine guns, flash-bang grenades, or at least stun-strobe lights. But nothing.
Nothing, that is, except that her sudden movement hadn't gone unnoticed. The four Troft lasers changed direction again in mid-turn, this time tracking back toward Jin. She turned toward them, bringing up her own hands, consciously relaxing her muscles to let her nanocomputer and its programmed evasion reflexes to take over the instant it became necessary.
Her hands were halfway to firing position, and the first Troft's laser was nearly lined up on her torso, when a pair of brilliant blue flashes lanced out from Siraj's hands and blew off the side of one of the other Trofts' helmets.
Jin's fired her own lasers even as she turned to look more closely at Siraj's hands. So those slender tubes, which she'd earlier pegged as dart guns, were in fact real Cobra-style lasers.
But there was no time to consider the ramifications of that now. She turned back to her own target.
To find to her dismay that his laser was now pointed directly at her chest.
Unlike Siraj's lasers, hers hadn't even penetrated the Troft's helmet.
Reflexively, she fired again, cursing under her breath as her arms swung of their own accord to send another ineffective shot at the second Troft she'd targeted instead of the Troft she really wanted to shoot at. She threw herself to the side, canceling the rest of the targeting locks as she did so.
The Troft in front of her fired, the shot burning past her shoulder. Desperately, she flashed a new targeting lock on him, slamming to the floor just as Siraj took out another of the aliens with a second pair of shots. Wincing as the jolt of her landing drove spikes of pain through her arthritic joints, she fired her antiarmor laser, her nanocomputer wrenching her joints still further as it twisted her body around to bring her left leg to bear on the designated target. She half closed her eyes, watching the Troft swinging his own weapon toward her, wondering who would win the race.
She did, but just barely. This time, her more powerful antiarmor laser blasted with gratifying speed though the armor her fingertip lasers had failed to penetrate. She targeted the last remaining Troft as the first collapsed to the floor, firing again as her swinging leg continued its arc.
Her shot and Siraj's got there at the same time. The alien went down, his head effectively vaporized.
Jin rolled back to her feet, her joints still throbbing from her barely controlled fall. Siraj's hands, she noted uneasily as she straightened up, were still curled in firing positions, his face unreadable as he gazed across the room at her. "Nice job," she said as conversationally as she could into the room's sudden deathly silence. "What now?"