Laldasa (47 page)

The Commander's eyebrows shot upward and lodged in his curly hair. “A dascree of the House Sarojin?”

“A dascree with my personal seal. Ana was yevetha. I managed to get to her before the Sarngin did, but only by a matter of seconds.”

“Then they must surely return her to you, since you're her legal owner. To do otherwise would only give you more reason to pry at their affairs. Unless, Nathu Rai, there is another revelation you have yet to make about the young memsa?”

Jaya came all the way into the room and sat heavily on the corner of his desk.

“Yes. Yes, there is. And I'm afraid it's a revelation I should have made earlier. Ana is Rokh Nadim's daughter.” He watched Gar react to that, then continued. “Judging from what Hadas said about Ana suspecting a trap, I would assume that there is someone connected with the dalali who knows who she is. Someone who would very much like to get their hands on her.”

“Then her death is not the object.”

“I would say that the death of AGIM is the object, Commander.”

“Rokh Nadim will be asked to choose, then, between his daughter's life and the life of his organization?”

“Between his daughter's life and the life's blood of his people and his world,” Jaya amended. “The Consortium is interested only in a return on their investment.”

“I must disagree with you, Nathu Rai,” Gar observed. “Judging from your father's discoveries, I would say they are interested in a good deal more than that. Has it not occurred to you that the person or persons who pursue Anala Nadim might be the same persons who arranged your father's untimely accident?”

Jaya felt as if he stood on a high, Avasan snow-plain surveying an uncompromisingly bleak landscape.

“It had occurred to me,” he said and shivered.

oOo

Hadas shook with a cold that had nothing to do with the temperature of the black box he stood in. He peered out of the square access and wished he was any place but here—prayed unsuccessfully for the courage to go back up into the dalali and free Ana.

His eyes snapped into sudden focus. A diffuse beam of light skidded down the alley from the direction of the gate. He strained his ears and caught the whine of airjets braking to a stop. The illumined face of his timepiece told him this was not the airwagon he was expecting, unless it was seven minutes early.

He stood on tiptoe and tried to see around the sill of the access. The vehicle was a long, low, dark luxury car not unlike the one he'd seen the Rani Sarojin drive out in. Its lightbar scraped the alley slab, leaving darkness in its wake; its rear running-lights glowed dull amber.

Hadas watched it glide past, hesitated, then levered himself up and out of the sub-level into the aircar's warm rear exhaust. It was easy to keep up with it at this speed and he padded along, bent over, one hand riding lightly on the aircar's rear deck. He slowed as the car slowed, doubling over further as it reached the dalali's service entrance. He stopped and settled with it into a full crouch, his eyes straining for a chance to see and recognize the passengers.

The guards had disappeared within the building. It seemed peculiar that the entrance should be completely unguarded in the presence of an obviously important guest. The driver of the car got out first and opened one of the rear doors. The man who exited was tall, imposing and thick-looking in a full, heavy coat. His face was first in profile, then averted, and Hadas was disappointed that he couldn't see more of it.

He watched a second man get out, then a third. Like the first, they wore furs and tall hats that covered all but just a fringe of hair. Both were smaller than the first man—one short and slight, the other tall but slender. They were also vaguely familiar, but Hadas couldn't remember where he had seen them.

The men turned their backs to the rear of the car as a short, fat fellow Hadas recognized from the Mesha celebration came out to meet them. A Vadin, Hadas remembered.

“You've got her?” asked the tall one. His voice was deep, rough, and dry, like rocks rolling down a slope.

“We have.”

“You're sure she's Nadim's daughter?”

“Positive. Please, come in and meet the young lady. I would recommend that you wear these.” The Vadin held out something to the three, which they accepted. They removed their hats, then pulled on velvet hoods, making any further scrutiny on Hadas's part futile. They disappeared into the dalali after the Vadin. The door closed.

Before Hadas could decide what to do next, he heard the approach of another aircar from behind and knew he would be exposed if he didn't move quickly.

The guards had returned to their posts, the driver to his seat in the front of his grand vehicle. There was only one direction Hadas could flee—down the right flank of the luxury aircar to its nose. Barely shielded by the car's bulk, he watched a catering van advance until it lay practically nose to tail with the big aircar. The driver shut down his lights and disembarked from his cabin, entering into an earnest discussion with the guards and the other driver. The thrust of the conversation was clear: The catering draymen wanted the car moved so they could unload their perishables.

Hadas glanced up at the cabin of the airvan. It was empty. Hadas took a deep breath and began a swift creep down the flank of the car toward the catering van. He reached the haunch of the car and rolled across the irregular gap between the two vehicles. Pausing only a moment, Hadas reached up and pushed gently on the airvan's passenger door latch. It clicked, hummed, and the door slid open, disappearing into the rear wall of the van. The smell of food wafted out of the gap.

Hadas stuck his head inside and peered back between the seats. He praised Ram-ji silently. There was a walk-through to the storage area. Quickly, he climbed into the cabin and closed the door behind, then slid through into the van's fragrant interior to seek a place of concealment.

oOo

“My men will approach the front of the building and cover all exits.” Mall Gar pointed to three separate spots on the vicom's holographic extrusion of the Badan-Devaki dalali. “There will be two men on each exit, plus the team of four who will enter the main foyer and initiate the search.”

He gave a terse verbal command and the vicom rotated the image until the small audience was looking down into the building as children through the open roof of a doll house.

“You and I, Nathu Rai, will bring the second team in through the back. An armored unit will cover each end of the alley. We will make the surprise complete by coming in through these previously blocked doorways.” He indicated two points on the abandoned facing building where his teams had been obliged to pull apart the debris and hasty hammer-work put in by the building's latest owners—Badan and Devaki. “We will not move until the street side units are in place.”

“How long will it take us to get there?” asked Jaya.

“Not long. Ten minutes.” Gar glanced at the assembled forces. “Are we ready, then?”

There were nods, grunts of assent. The vicom had sucked up its holograph and Gar had opened his mouth to give moving orders when his comlink demanded immediate attention. He thumbed it on.

“Voice link,” he said.

“Reporting as ordered, Commander.” It was Srestha. “The dalali has some special visitors. Three men in a luxury car.”

“Who?”

“Can't tell, sir. They put on hoods right away. But I think ...
 
Well, sir, the man that met them looked like the Vadin Adivaram. I don't suppose it could have been.”

“Anything else?” asked Gar, only half seeing the intent faces that peered at him across Jaya's study.

“Yes, sama. At the same time this car showed up, we thought we saw someone sneaking around in the alley beside the vehicles.”

“Vehicles, Srestha?”

“The, uh, the catering van showed up right on schedule, Commander. It's parked behind the aircar at the moment. I think our skulker climbed aboard.”

“Aboard the airvan?”

“Yes, sir.”

Gar glanced at Jaya. “You only saw one person concealed in the alley, then? Male or female?”

“Just one, sir. We couldn't tell what sex from here. Too dark.”

“Hold your position. We're on our way.” Gar signed off and passed Jaya a significant look. “Perhaps our raid will net some very big fish, Nathu Rai. Shall we go?”

oOo

Ana winced and tried to pull away from the pressure of the fingers gripping her jaw. It was futile. The couch she lay upon offered no escape. The thick ring on the man's hand only bit further into her skin, forcing her to gasp.

“Ah, sorry, dear.” He spoke in a voice that might have been soothing under any other circumstances. “But you would resist my admiration.”

One of his companions moved to stand at his shoulder. He seemed towering, alien—the only thing human about him the eyes that pierced his hood's black velvet fabric. They pierced Ana's courage, as well.

“She's very beautiful for a Snowflake,” he said and his voice was like cold stone. “I wonder, is that the pallor of the cave, or is she Genda Sita?”

The first man made a clucking sound through his teeth, turning Ana's face into the light. “She has eyes the color of a three moon sky. The eyes of the Jadu.” His finger traced the line of Ana's jaw, making her shiver.

The remaining two men hovered in the background. Now one of them stepped forward and asked, “Sama, what do we do with her?”

“You don't do anything with her, Vadin,” said the tall one. “She is now ours. You may go back to your business concerns ... but do try to be more discreet.”

A Vadin! Ana nearly gasped at the enormity of it.

“Will being more discreet save me from exposure, do you think?” the hooded Vadin asked.

“Ah, you mean, of course, your insidious dabbling in illegal enslavement. Well, I seem to recall that if you'd had any discretion to begin with, you wouldn't be in this position. But I don't think you need to worry about exposure just now, old man. With this young woman in our hands, we can stop the overeager Sarojin dead in his tracks and Rokh Nadim and his rabble of yevetha with him.”

“And if Sarojin won't stop? Then what? Am I to be sacrificed to the ... to your interests?”

“What—after we've worked so hard at winning your loyalty? You have too much work to do, Vadin—you and that little toad who calls himself a Lord. You are our strong and steady voices on the Inner Circle. We need you. If anyone is to be sacrificed to our best interests, I think it will have to be Jaya Sarojin.”

Ana gasped and nearly stopped breathing. The hand on her jaw tightened.

The Vadin made a strange sound in his throat. “He is much like his father.”

“I had noticed. You seem reluctant to see him disposed of. In fact, you've resisted the idea of killing him since the subject first came up. Do you have some political reason for that, or just a soft spot in your heart?”

“Bhaktasu Sarojin was my friend,” said the Vadin almost petulantly. “And yes, I have what amounts to a ‘soft spot' for the young Nathu Rai.”

“Ah, so of course you would rather sacrifice yourself than the son of your friend.”

There was a pause of some weight. The silent man near the door fidgeted, his attention shifting between the other players in the scene.

“I didn't say that,” murmured the Vadin at last.

Ana's anger overcame her sense of judgment. “Worm,” she said before she could stop herself.

The tall one chuckled. “A woman of strong opinions. I think I'll enjoy her company.”

The man beside her turned his hooded head and his fingers left her chin. “When she has served your purpose ... ”

The tall one shrugged. “Then she may serve yours.”

oOo

Jaya picked his way through the dusty, dank interior of the shuttered building behind Mall Gar, wishing teleportation was a technological fact instead of a theoretical abstraction, or that they could simply make time stand still. There was too much of that precious commodity being spent just getting into position. Any moment Gar's watchers could hail him and say the big, midnight blue aircar was gone.

They reached the barricaded doors in a matter of seconds and Gar stopped to check in with his street-side forces. That done, he turned to the men behind him in the abandoned building.

“The others are in place. Are we ready?”

“Dammit, yes,” said Jaya and tightened his grip on the stunfuzzy in his hand. He heard Ravi and Kena give their assent.

“Then, we go.”

The remaining barricade, held lightly in place by several propped beams, folded to Gar's wiry strength and the Commander led his force of four into the alley. They emerged several meters behind the catering van. Up-alley, another quartet of men appeared from a second doorway. This group was led by a trusted Lieutenant and included Aridas and two of Jaya's private security men. At Gar's signal both groups converged on the service entrance.