In Fire Forged: Worlds of Honor V-ARC (4 page)

“The entire Masadan exile community here may suspect Miss Ruth is missing,” Vincent reminded the prince delicately.

“I know,” Michael said, “but other than Judith and Dinah, no one knows Ruth has been kidnapped.”

“Actually,” Judith said, “Dinah was suspicious before I was. Something she said made me very careful when I went down to check with my neighbors. When they said Ruth wasn’t with them, I said that I guessed that Ruth must have gone across to Dinah’s apartment, and I’d check there. When I came back up here to report to Dinah, that’s when the call came.”

Dinah smiled and pushed herself back from the table. “But I’ll wander downstairs with the excuse that you forgot to get milk for the tea. While I’m there, I’ll mention how excited Ruth was to see her ‘Uncle Michael.’ ”

When Dinah had left, Judith motioned everyone to seats around the round table that dominated one end of the room.

Michael returned his attention to Vincent Valless.

“Vincent, I know your job is to keep me out of physical danger. If I promise to duck if you say duck, retreat if you say retreat, will you work with me on this?”

“If I have your word,” Vincent said. “I would be more comfortable, however, if I could report the changed situation—especially one so charged with political implications—to my superiors.”

“I know,” Michael said. “So would I. There’s just one problem. Until we know who took Ruth, no avenue of communication is safe. For example, while I’m certain Elizabeth isn’t involved—”

“I should hope you would be certain, sir!” Vincent looked shocked at even the implication that the Queen might be so accused.

“Right. But I don’t know if someone close to her might be involved. Someone might have a tap on Mount Royal communications. Or it might be something simpler, someone near at hand, nearly omnipresent—a servant, say—paid to report if certain matters are discussed or even if I call Elizabeth within the next few hours.”

“I understand,” Vincent admitted. “I don’t like the implications, but I understand.”

“I thought you would,” Michael said. “I wouldn’t need you to be my second skin if people were honest and the world was a safe place. Very well. You have my word that I won’t put myself in physical danger or go against your direct command if you decide I’m in such danger.”

Todd, whose alert silence had reminded Michael that his friend was training in Tactics with every intention of winning a command of his own someday, now spoke directly to Judith. “Count me in. I’ve been security checked this way and that, I’ll bet, since I’ve been Michael’s roommate not once, but twice. You can trust me.”

“I do,” Michael said. “Even without the checks.”

“And I will,” Judith said, “if Michael says so.”

Vincent Valless cleared his throat and said, “I have seen those reports. You are wise where you trust.”

Todd flushed in pleased embarrassment, but Michael had returned his attention to Judith. “Thanks for your patience. I realize you must be aching to get a move on.”

“I would be,” she replied, “except that we don’t have the least idea where to make that move. Running about aimlessly would do neither Ruth nor our cause any good.”

Michael saw Vincent shake his head in admiration for this display of self-control.

You should see her on the bridge of a starship under fire,
Michael thought.

Judith, apparently unaware of these reactions, had continued speaking. “Obviously, the place to start is that woman from Human Services who came to talk to me. She gave me a name: Dulcis McKinley.”

“Probably an alias,” Todd said. “Still, it’s something.”

“What did this Dulcis McKinley look like?” Michael asked.

“She was about a handspan taller than I am,” Judith said, gesturing, “and very slim. Fair hair, pale skin, light eyes—blue or gray, I think. She wore her hair short, almost shaved at the back of her neck. In spite of this, there was nothing at all mannish about her appearance. Her lips were full, and I remember admiring her cheekbones. Very high and elegant.”

“Short hair isn’t exactly in fashion right now,” Todd said with the air of one who had been using his leave to make a detailed examination of women who were not Navy personnel. “The one set of professions where short hair remains perennially popular are those where you regularly don a vac suit or related gear. Hair gets in the way.”

Michael nodded, running a hand over his own tightly curled crop. “Okay. So possible space-side service.”

He’d carried in his minicomp, since he’d been planning to show Judith and Ruth pictures of some of the places he’d been since he sent his last letter. Now he pulled it out. “I’m going to check on that name,” he said.

“Is that wise?” Judith asked. “Someone might have set telltales to warn them of just such an inquiry.”

“Actually,” Michael said, “given the situation, it would make less sense if you didn’t make just such a query. Let me use your comp. They may not bother to check registration numbers, but I would…”

The search did not lead them to their target, but it did turn up an interesting bit of trivia. Dulcis McKinley was the name of a secondary character in
Hearts Aloft,
a romantic comedy that had been popular about fifteen T-years before.

“That’s why the name sounded familiar!” Todd said. “My sister had a crush on the male lead and for weeks she kept downloading the damn thing and watching it on the biggest display we had. I think I knew every line.”

“Not useful now,” Michael said, “but it might turn out to be. Now…”

He turned to Judith. “Why don’t you and Todd see if you can generate a computer reconstruction of Dulcis McKinley?”

“And you?” Todd said.

“First, I’m going to set up some jamming fields so no one can tell what we’re doing here.”

“Won’t someone notice?” Judith said anxiously.

“Not if I’m careful,” Michael said. “The Navy has been training me to be extraordinarily good at getting information out of both people and machines without their being aware of my interest. The same goes for setting up diversions. If someone snoops here, they’ll find about the right level of jamming. Beneath that they’ll get traces of agitated talking, weeping, et cetera.”

“Vincent, I want you to see what you can do about tracking vehicles,” Michael went on, “the woman from Human Services got here somehow, and Ruth didn’t leave here by magic. I know you have access to satellite records of traffic patterns. Can you make an excuse to look at those that surround this area?”

Vincent was looking almost animated. “I can do better than that. I can get records for this entire tower and both of its neighbors. This entire neighborhood is under full-time surveillance.”

Michael cocked an eyebrow, and his bodyguard shook his head. “We didn’t have anything to do with it, Your Highness. I only know because it’s part of my job to check about things like that before I let you go somewhere, but they’re there, all right.”

Dinah was letting herself in as he spoke, a cup of milk in one hand. She shut the door carefully behind her and said, as if answering a question, “That’s right. When we first came here, many of the women were nervous about predatory males. That was foolishness, but we did have some problems with a few curiosity seekers. The cameras were set up then, and they’ve stayed.”

“Inertia,” Michael said, “can be useful.”

Vincent already had his minicomp out. “My request should go through without question. It’s pretty standard to check traffic patterns in an area before and during a sensitive transit situation.”

“Want to see who might have been hanging around for just a bit too long,” Michael said. “Good. Get on it.”

“What are you going to do when you’re done with the jamming field?” Todd asked.

“I’m going to take a look at the chip Judith made,” Michael said. “You recorded it, didn’t you, Judith?”

“I did, but what good will viewing it do?” Judith asked. “I told you, they used some sort of avatar program.”

“I know,” Michael said. “Trust me. I won’t be wasting our time.”

His stomach did a funny flipflop when Judith looked at him, those brown-rimmed green eyes steady. “Never doubt it, Michael. I trust you.”

*
   
*
   
*

Judith jumped when Vincent Valless broke the intense silence that had filled the room as each had turned to their assignment. True, she and Todd Liatt had talked a little as he helped her access and set up the right graphics program, but once that was done, and Judith focused on building up an image of Dulcis McKinley from Human Services, talk had hardly been necessary.

“Sir,” Vincent Valless said, “I have something I think you should inspect without further delay.”

He projected the data from his minicomp so everyone could see. “This is the scene immediately around this tower shortly before Ruth was taken.”

He zoomed in on a landing platform one floor below the Judith’s apartment. “This is the vehicle from Human Services. These…” He showed a line of mismatched air cars, “are all registered to residents of this complex. This one vehicle is the only anomalous one.”

He indicated a neat van bearing the logo of Anywhere Anytime, a well-known delivery company—a type of vehicle so ubiquitous that no one would give it a second glance.

“The A.A. van,” Valless went on, “arrived at approximately the same time as the air car from Human Services. The A.A. man went to a service entry. The woman from H.S. went to the public entry.”

“Surveillance cameras don’t extend beyond the entryways into the building,” Valless continued, “but those on the exterior captured the following sequence.”

The delivery man had entered the building carrying a bundle, easily recognizable as one of the unassembled shipping boxes A.A. supplied for their customer’s convenience. When he exited just a few minutes later, he was carrying a similar box, but assembled. Judith imagined Ruth tucked inside, body bent in a fetal position. She pressed her fist to her lips to keep from screaming.

The man from A.A. loaded the box into the back of the van, made certain the back was locked, got into the driver’s side, and a moment later, the vehicle pulled away from the building and left the complex.

“Judith,” Michael asked, “is there another entry into this apartment?”

“Only the windows,” she began, but Dinah interrupted.

“There is,” she said. “There’s a conduit from which pipes and other such things can be serviced without the need to cut holes in the walls. Technically, the conduit doesn’t ‘enter’ the apartment as such, but if someone entered the conduit and knew the layout of the building, they could get into any apartment.”

Todd was nodding. “They’d need to remove a couple of wall or ceiling panels, but if they had the right tools, it would be easy. I worked summers for a company that did repairs, and I always felt a bit like a burglar. Of course, entering that way without permission is highly illegal…”

“But so is kidnapping,” Judith said sharply. “Lieutenant Valless, where did that A.A. van go?”

Valless snapped his head in a curt, military nod. “I tracked it, and I believe you’ll find the following sequence quite informative.”

In her impatience, Judith appreciated that Valless had set his record to run slightly faster than real-time, but seeing the van speed away made her heart beat faster, as if Valless was causing Ruth to vanish more quickly.

Valless had highlighted the A.A. van in pale turquoise, so it was quite easy to track. He pulled back the perspective, and directed their attention back to the tower.

“Less than thirty seconds later, the ostensible Human Service’s representative also took her leave.”

This vehicle was highlighted in a bright violet. Although air traffic did not follow roads as such, traffic patterns created the illusion of them in the trackless sky. It became rapidly evident that the two vehicles were following the same route.

“Where do they end up, Vincent?” Michael said. “I’m assuming they end up at the same place?”

“Yes, sir. At the Colonial Memorial Spaceport.”

“No!” Judith gasped, but she was already on her feet, heading for the door.

Dinah grabbed her. “Judith, this was twenty minutes ago. Nothing can be gained by blindly following them.”

Reluctantly, Judith slowed. She looked at Michael. He was looking at Valless.

“Yes, sir,” Valless said in answer to an unasked question. “I’ve accessed the records from the cameras inside the spaceport. However, no one matching our two alleged kidnappers has left the parking facility and entered the port.”

“Aren’t there cameras in the garage?” Todd asked indignantly.

“There are, Lieutenant Liatt,” Valless said, “but they don’t provide a hundred percent coverage. My assessment of the situation is that the kidnappers had located one or more of these blind spots in advance, and made their arrangements accordingly.”

“Reasonable,” Todd said, “but where did they go? Did they go into the port, or did they merely use the garage as somewhere to change vehicles?”

Judith felt that urge to scream again, to remind them all that this was no intellectual puzzle, but her living breathing daughter they were discussing. Dinah’s hand tightened on her arm, and Judith nodded. Screaming would not help, any more than tears and protests had stopped Ephraim Templeton from raping his twelve-year-old “wife.”
 

I must think,
she thought.
I must put aside that this is Ruth, and think.

“Lieutenant Valless,” she said, “did you get a good image of the woman from Human Services?”

“Not a very good one,” he admitted. “I believe she’d studied where the cameras were, and did her best to assure that her hand or hair would ‘accidentally’ block her face from view. You will note that the man from A.A. managed something similar between his uniform cap and the boxes he was carrying.”

“Not a trick,” Michael said, “that would work at Mount Royal, but perfectly fine for an apartment building. Still, Vincent, pull me what you can. Judith, how did your image come out?”

“Fairly well,” she said. “I think.”

“Feed it to me as well,” Michael said, “and I’ll combine it with what Vincent has. I have some video feed of Ruth in here already.”