The icarus job, p.14
The Icarus Job, page 14
part #3 of The Icarus Series Series
“Oh?” I asked carefully as Muninn came up to join us. “That sounds like you were looking for us.”
“Yes, we were,” Huginn confirmed. “Our boss would like a brief word with you to discuss your current situation and activities.”
I felt my throat tighten. Cherno hadn’t said anything about requiring periodic reports, and given that all we had right now was a nicely balanced stack of nothing, I hadn’t thought that calling him was worth the StarrComm fees. Apparently, he thought differently. “Certainly,” I said. “Selene and I were heading to the StarrComm center anyway. Do you have a vehicle handy, or shall we find a runaround?”
“Actually, we’re not going to the StarrComm center.” Huginn looked around. “But we should probably continue this conversation elsewhere.” He gestured ahead toward the busy thoroughfare of Scrimshaw Avenue. “After you.”
“Thank you,” I said, frowning as the four of us started off. Did no StarrComm mean Cherno was already here on Niskea? I thought about asking as we walked, decided there were still too many ears around who didn’t need to know our business.
Three minutes and a wide pedestrian crossing later, we were finally and officially out of the Badlands. “Okay, here’s the deal,” I said as we paused. “As I said, we need to go to StarrComm and make a call. After that, we’ll be happy to accompany you wherever we need to go.”
“Sorry,” Muninn said harshly. “The boss wants to see you now.” His eyes shifted to Selene. “And only you.”
“I’m sorry, too,” I said. “Selene and I are a package deal. And we really need to make that call.”
Muninn shook his head again. “I just said—”
“Not a problem,” Huginn cut in calmly. “You and Muninn go see the boss. I’ll take Selene to the StarrComm center, wait while she makes her calls, then escort her back to the Ruth. Will that be acceptable?”
My first instinct was to ask him to choose between no and hell no. The absolute last thing I was willing to do was leave Selene with a total stranger, especially a stranger who’d demonstrated an ability to dispense the kind of near-lethal violence I’d seen from him. “And if I say no?”
Huginn gave me a microscopic smile. “Please don’t make me insist.”
I braced myself—
“It’s all right, Gregory,” Selene spoke up. “I’ll go with him.”
I stared at her, feeling my jaw drop a little. “Selene, what in—?”
“It’s all right,” she repeated. “Mr. Huginn won’t hurt me.” She looked at him. “Will you?”
“As long as you’re with me, you’ll be absolutely safe,” Huginn said. The words were calm and polite, but there was an undertone of steel in his tone that promised very bad things to anyone who tried to interfere with that promise.
Or maybe that was just wishful hearing on my part. With the two of them standing right there, and my plasmic back in concealment, there wasn’t a chance in hell I could prevent them from doing anything they wanted.
And frankly, if Cherno was going to be mad at me, it would probably be just as well if Selene wasn’t there.
As my father used to say, You can accept the inevitable with grace, or you can scream like a spoiled two-year-old. Screaming doesn’t gain you points with anyone.
“Fine,” I said, fixing Huginn with a hard look. “But if anything happens to her . . . ”
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Roarke,” Huginn said. “I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon.”
* * *
We found the runaround stand, grabbed ourselves a pair of vehicles, and headed off in our respective directions.
I’d expected Muninn to take me to some fancy restaurant for our meeting, or maybe for a longer drive out of the city to a secluded estate. To my surprise and mild concern, he drove instead to another spaceport inside the city limits, this one twice as big as the one in the Badlands but far more upscale. He parked us beside a ground-to-orbit shuttle, and we were barely aboard and strapped into our seats when the perimeter grav beams winked on, pulling us up off the pad, and the pilot took us up toward space.
I stared out the window as the planet receded beneath us, my nagging feeling of discomfort keying up a couple of levels. A shuttle parked in a premium field that was almost certainly reserved for high-end starfaring ships, and a launch slot that could apparently be moved instantly to the head of the line. Either of those would be a solid flag of money or power; the two of them together doubled that conclusion.
Trouble was, Cherno was a criminal lieutenant, and people in that position typically tried to keep a lower profile than that. Part of the goal was to avoid attention from the badgemen, but most of it was because they didn’t want to look like they had ambitions against their own bosses.
Had I been wrong about who Huginn and Muninn were working for, then? Could Gaheen himself be here? The one time I’d met the newly crowned big boss of the organization, we’d had a short but civil enough conversation. But if he’d traveled all the way from Huihuang to check on my progress, today’s meeting might not be nearly as friendly.
Especially since he knew now that I’d come to his mansion as part of an effort to assassinate him. An unwilling part, true, and I’d also been instrumental in keeping that murder from happening. But I’d dealt with enough crime bosses to know that sometimes important details like that got lost in the shuffle.
And then, even as I was mentally rehearsing what I was going to say, I caught sight of the vessel our shuttle was headed for and my whole scenario went straight off the cliff.
It was a Patth ship.
And not just any Patth ship. It was the Odinn, the private transport of Sub-Director Nask. The Patth who’d once kidnapped and threatened me, and whom I’d threatened in return.
He was also the Patth I’d last seen hurrying a Gemini portal off Fidelio, to the consternation of Jordan McKell and the rest of the Icarus Group. The portal that was now sitting in a private warehouse on Cherno’s estate.
And whether Nask was still alive or the Odinn was now the property of his successor, this meeting could very easily go badly. Very, very badly.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The shuttle docked, and Muninn led the way onto the Odinn.
I was expecting an escort, and for once today I was right. Six Iykams were waiting, their expressions the dark neutral of soldiers who’d been ordered to be polite but really, really didn’t want to. They formed a traveling box around me, and with Muninn again leading the way we headed forward. Two corridors later, he opened a hatch and motioned me inside.
And once again I came face-to-face with Sub-Director Nask.
As my father used to say, When the time comes when your worst enemy is down and out and near death, try not to gloat. I didn’t particularly like Nask, though he was hardly my worst enemy. But even if he had been, there was nothing about the setting facing me that even remotely encouraged gloating.
Nask was lying in a contour couch, a wraparound console with half a dozen glowing displays behind and above his head. Three monitor lines and two tubes led from the wraparound and disappeared beneath the temperature-regulating blanket that covered him from the neck on down. His mahogany-red face was drawn and a little pale, but his eyes were bright and alert. “Mr. Roarke,” he said. His voice was raspy, but the words were clear enough. “Thank you for accepting my invitation.”
“You’re welcome,” I said as Muninn stepped to Nask’s side and turned to face me, his expression a sort of stoic glower. Someone else who really didn’t want to be polite. “Though if you’d just asked me, your people wouldn’t have had to do any leaning. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you look terrible.”
Nask managed a decent impression of a Patth smile. “I also feel terrible,” he said. He looked sideways up at Muninn, who nodded acknowledgment and made a gesture to our escort. “But the pain and weakness are comforting reminders that I’m still alive.”
“I’m glad,” I said as the Iykams disappeared out into the corridor and the hatch closed behind them. “You may not believe that, but I genuinely am.”
“Perhaps,” Nask said. “I have a question.”
I nodded, wondering uneasily where exactly this was going. The Iykams might be out of position, but if my answer was the wrong one Muninn could certainly take me apart without any of their help. “Which is . . . ?”
“Recall first that you once asked me a similar question,” he said, “stating that I was the only Patthaaunuth you knew personally who wasn’t stupid. I preface mine with the similar qualifier that you are the only human I know who isn’t a wanton and bloodthirsty murderer. So answer me this: Did you or anyone else in the Icarus Group steal my portal and attempt to kill everyone aboard the freighter?”
I took a careful breath. That was indeed the question I’d expected. “No,” I said as calmly and firmly as I could. “I wasn’t involved, and neither was anyone with Icarus.”
“How do you know?” Muninn demanded suspiciously.
“A reasonable question,” Nask agreed. “You do not appear to me to be at the head of their rankings. Could they have done this act without you?”
“I’m sure they do a lot of things without me,” I said. “But this one I’m sure of.” I braced myself. “Because I know who has it.”
People talk about an atmosphere turning electric, but I’d rarely seen one actually do so. This was one of those times. Muninn straightened up to an even more intimidating height than he’d already been born with, and Nask actually sat up a little. “Who?” the Patth asked.
“His name is Cherno,” I said. “He’s a criminal, one of Gaheen’s top regional lieutenants. Sorry, but I don’t know either of their first names.”
“Muninn?” Nask invited.
Muninn’s eyes bored into me another moment as he pulled out an info pad and got to work. “Robertine,” he said. “Robertine Cherno.” He worked at the pad some more. “Mustam Gaheen.”
“And how do you know Cherno has our Janus portal?” Nask asked.
Again, I braced myself. “Because I’ve seen it.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “We were taken there aboard one of Cherno’s yachts, then moved to an opaqued aircar and van. I know it’s within a nine-day flight of Xathru, but it could be anywhere in that sphere.”
Nask looked up at Muninn. “You will seek out this Robertine Cherno,” he said in a graveyard voice. “When you find him, you will have him killed.”
“Whoa,” I said, holding up a hand. “Let’s see if we can find another way first, shall we?”
“Why?” Nask countered.
“For starters, because he has some heavy-hitters of his own on the payroll,” I said. “Not to mention at least one high-priced assassin. You try a frontal assault, and a lot of people will get killed, including a lot of your Iykams.”
“The Iykams’ job is to serve the Patth, wherever and however the Patth choose,” Muninn said stiffly.
“Very commendable,” I said. “Also very wasteful if there are better ways. Did I also mention that it’s a big Spiral and that we have no idea where Cherno and the portal are?”
“You said we,” Nask reminded me. “Was Selene also aboard?”
“Okay, maybe we have some idea,” I conceded. “The area around the hangar on Cherno’s planet included a mix of fir trees and Vyssiluyan pampas grass, with water and algae nearby, which we assume was a pond or lake and not a river. Nearby species included humans, Doolies, and Mastanni, plus other odors too faint to identify. Cherno’s mansion had scents of hyacinth and masala chai, and his garage had Craean lubricating oil for his cars.”
I’d been keeping an eye on Muninn while I rattled off the information, and was mildly amused to see the growing disbelief in his expression. Apparently Nask hadn’t gotten around to telling his minions about Selene’s remarkable abilities.
No, I realized suddenly. Not a minion. Given his position beside Nask, the dismissal of the Iykam guard, his competence at unarmed combat . . .
“By the way, I see you’ve picked up a new pair of Expediters,” I added, looking back at Nask. “I hope neither of them wants to kill me this time.”
“That depends,” Nask said coolly. “If you’re telling the truth about your involvement in the Janus theft, then no, you have nothing to fear. If you’re lying . . . ”
He stopped, leaving the rest of the threat unspoken. But it wasn’t like I couldn’t connect that particular pair of dots. “I’m not lying,” I assured him. “And while I won’t presume to tell you that I’m as upset as you are about the theft, I am on your side as far as getting it back is concerned.”
“Really,” Nask said, his tone saying he didn’t believe that for a minute. “Now you drift into untruth territory.”
“Actually, I don’t,” I said. “Back when I was a bounty hunter I watched a lot of targets being poached from one hunter by another. I lost a couple that way myself once or twice. It seldom seemed right, and it never seemed fair.”
Muninn gave a snort. “Even children over five know life isn’t fair.”
“Actually, children as young as two know it,” I said. “As my father used to say, A child’s first word is usually not Mama or Dada, but Mine. Don’t expect that priority to ever change.”
“Yet it changed for you,” Nask said.
I shrugged. “Having your arm shot off can do things to your view of life.”
“In my experience, it usually just makes you more bitter,” Muninn rumbled.
“You want something less naïvely altruistic?” I asked, feeling a stirring of annoyance. I’d never yet met an Expediter who I really got along with, and Muninn and his buddy were falling right into that pattern. “Fine. Sub-Director Nask had the perfect opportunity to sabotage the Icarus Group’s portal on Fidelio and he didn’t. As far as I’m concerned, that earned him the right to the one he took.”
“Aside from the fact there was little you could do to stop us?” Nask asked with a faint smile.
“We have the chance now,” I said bluntly. “Cherno’s already offered us the portal.”
For a moment both of them were silent. “Yet you tell me where it is,” Nask said at last.
“The description I gave you is hardly definitive,” I said. “Oh, and I also have a sketch of the mountains visible through his office window, which I can give you before I leave. But that’s not going to help you much, either.”
“Yes,” Nask murmured. His brief surge of energy had passed, and he again sagged in his bed. “Let us leave that aside for the moment. Why are you traveling with a hired assassin?”
“That was Cherno’s price for giving us the portal,” I said. “Piper came aboard on Xathru—”
“Who?” Muninn cut in.
“Right,” I said, scowling to myself. “I keep forgetting. A woman named Piper was brought to the Ruth, but before we lifted she was quietly swapped out for a woman calling herself Nikki.”
“Interesting,” Nask said. “Muninn, I take it you know Roarke’s current passenger?”
“I’ve never met her, but I know her reputation,” he said. “Her name is Nicole Schlichting, and she’s—”
“Nicole Schlichting?” I echoed, a sudden knot forming in the pit of my stomach. “We have Nicole Schlichting aboard our ship?”
“I take it you know her, too?” Nask asked.
I swallowed hard. Nicole Schlichting was half legend and half watchword among both criminals and bounty hunters. Virtually nothing was known of her: not her face, her voice, her origins, her associates, or where she currently made her home. She was a ghost, able to find and get to her target through even the tightest security. She’d killed dozens or hundreds or thousands, depending on which rumors you believed. She was smart, dependable, ruthless, and she never, ever—
“And she never misses,” I murmured. “She told me that herself. Damn it all. And I never put it together.” I focused again on Muninn. “You’re absolutely sure it’s her? I thought no one knew what she looks like.”
“We do,” Muninn said, “Rather, the Patthaaunuth do. And yes, you were seen with her after her near-miss on Vesperin,” He was eyeing me curiously, I noted, as if wondering at my reaction to her name.
Maybe he didn’t put as much stock in the rumors as the rest of us. Or maybe the Patth had come to an agreement with her, and as one of their agents Muninn had that same immunity.
Immunity . . .
“Your part of the bargain was to bring her to Niskea?” Nask asked.
With an effort I dragged my mind away from Nicole Schlichting and her unerring eye. “Our part was to take her wherever she or Cherno wanted,” I said. “So far our travels all seem pretty random, or at least unfocused.”
“Not to the Yellowdune ruins in Niskea’s northern continent?” he pressed.
“Actually—” I broke off as a minor mystery suddenly came clear. “That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” I said. “You’re overseeing the Patth search of Yellowdune for the other end of your portal.”
“It seemed to me that finding that end of our Janus would be the quickest way to retrieve our stolen property,” Nask said.
“Definitely worth trying,” I agreed. “That explains all the tension at Lucias Four, too. You’re hitting as many planets on your list as you have resources for.”
“Indeed.” Nask offered a faint smile. “I should perhaps mention that your recent visit there has damaged Arbitor Uvif’s standing considerably.”
“That was not my intent,” I assured him. “All I wanted was the StarrComm facility. If I’d known you had such a tight lock on the planet I’d have chosen somewhere else.”
“No apologies needed,” he said. “Uvif has always had a higher opinion of himself than he merits. But you speak of our list. I assume the Icarus Group has a similar list of their own?”
“I’m sure they do,” I said. “So far they haven’t shared it with us. Our current list came from some fast research by Gaheen’s people after we told Cherno the same thing. Mostly the same thing, anyway.”
“Mostly?”
“He wanted us to activate the portal. I told him it could only be activated from the other half of the dyad.”
