Cobra Bargain

Chapter 26

For a long second her mind seemed to be on ice, skidding along without control.

The pod's existence was bad enough; but its existence in the hands of Qasamans was even worse. The minute the Yithtra family realized what it was they'd found and turned it over to the authorities-

And she had maybe three minutes to figure out a way to stop that. Gritting her teeth, she dug her fingers under the access panel's edge and pried it open.

The contents were no surprise: packaged emergency rations, lightweight blankets, medical packs, a backpack and water carrier-all the things a castaway in hostile territory might need to survive. All of them clearly labeled with Anglic words.

Which meant obscuring the writing on the outside of the pod wouldn't gain her anything. Unless she could also completely destroy the pod's contents...

A trickle of sweat ran down her cheek. She jabbed and probed her fingers through the packages, trying desperately to think of something. Her lasers weren't designed for starting this kind of fire, but if they'd sent her some cooking fuel-

Her roving fingers struck something that rustled: a tightly folded piece of paper. Frowning, she dug it out and opened it. The message was short:

Can't get down to you. If you can hang on, we'll be back with help as quickly as we can. We'll listen for your call at local sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight-if you can't signal, we'll come down and find you.

Courage!

Captain Rivero Koja

Jin bit down hard on her lip. We'll come down and find you. In her mind's eye she saw a full Cobra assault force descend on Milika, shooting indiscriminately as they tried to find her... Swearing under her breath, she dug into the packages with renewed energy, searching now for the transmitter Koja's note implied had been packed in with the supplies. But either it was buried too deeply among the groceries...

Or else the Yithtra workers who'd found and opened the pod had already taken it out.

Damn. It was right there, a few meters away from her in the cab of the truck... and yet it might as well be in orbit. For one wild second she had the image of herself blasting through to the cab with her antiarmor laser, using her sonic to stun the cab's occupants and retrieve the transmitter-

And then taking what refuge she could in deep forest. While the Sammon family went up on treason charges.

Angrily, she shook the train of thought from her mind. The transmitter was gone, period. Crumpling Koja's note into her pocket, she jammed the access panel back in place and stepped to the rear doors, grabbing for balance as the truck made a sharp righthand turn. Between the doors, the Small Ring Road appeared.

Which meant the truck had left the spoke road and would be reaching the gate of the Yithtra house any moment now. Licking her lips, Jin peered through the gap, trying to find something she could use to create a diversion. But nothing obvious presented itself. There were as many pedestrians out there as usual, and once out of the truck she ought to have enough cover to blend into. But there was nothing she could do to cover the jump itself. Clenching her teeth, she got ready; and as the truck abruptly decelerated, she swung down out the rear and dropped to the pavement below. A couple of braking steps brought her to a halt; turning quickly, she started walking down the road away from the Yithtra house.

No shouts of discovery followed her. Behind her, she heard the truck come to a brief halt and then start up again, vanishing behind the background hum of closing gateway doors. Fighting a trembling in her hands, she kept walking.

Eventually, after a wandering route, she reached the Sammon house.

Kruin Sammon laid the crumpled paper down on his desk and looked up at her.

"So," he said. "It seems your anonymity is about to come to an end."

Jin nodded. "So it seems," she agreed tightly.

"I don't see why," Daulo objected from his usual place beside his father. "The

Yithtra family can't really make trouble for you unless they can offer the

Shahni some physical proof. Why can't you simply break into the Yithtra household tonight and destroy or steal the pod?"

Jin shook her head. "It wouldn't work. First of all, there's a fair chance they'll have odds and ends from the pod scattered around throughout the house by then, and there's no guarantee I'd be able to retrieve all of it. More importantly, the very fact that I got in and out of a guarded house without being caught will be pretty strong evidence that I'm not just an offworlder, but an offworld demon warrior. I don't think we want to cause that kind of panic just yet."

"So the Yithtra family informs the Shahni that an offworlder has landed secretly among us." Kruin's eyes were steady on Jin's face. "And for their patriotism and alertness the Yithtra family gains new prestige. Is this how you help us bring them down?"

A wisp of anger curled like smoke in Jin's throat. "I realize you have your own priorities, Kruin Sammon," she said as calmly as she could, "but it seems to me you'd do better to forget about the Yithtra family earning a pat on the head and concentrate instead on the problems this might cause Milika as a whole."

"The problems it might cause you, you mean," Kruin countered. "We of Milika are blameless, Jasmine Moreau, if we are duped by a cunning offworlder into extending our hospitality."

Jin looked hard at him. "Are you abrogating our bargain, then?" she asked softly.

He shook his head. "Not if it can be helped. But if it should become clear that your capture is certain, I will not allow my household to be destroyed in the process." He hesitated. "If that happens... I'll at least give you warning."

So that any major firefights will take place away from Sammon territory? Still, it was as much as she could expect under the circumstances... and probably more than she would have gotten elsewhere. "I thank you for being honest with me," she said.

"Which is more than you have been with us," the elder Sammon said.

Jin's stomach began to tighten into a knot. "What do you mean?"

"I mean your true name," he said evenly. "And the connection of that name to

Mangus."

Jin's eyes flicked to Daulo, feeling a sudden chill in the room. The younger man looked back at her steadily, his face as masked as Kruin's. "I never lied to you," she said, eyes still on Daulo. "To either of you."

"Is the withholding of truth not a lie?" Daulo asked quietly. "You understood the significance of the name mongoose, yet didn't share that knowledge."

"If I'd wanted to keep it to myself, why did I tell you at all that we were called Cobras?" she countered. "The fact is that I didn't think it was all that important."

"Not important?" Kruin spat. "Mongoose is hardly a name of a place seeking only to dominate Qasaman villages. And if Mangus is truly an attempt to fight back at our common enemies, how can the Sammon family help you destroy it?"

"I don't seek to destroy it-"

"More half-truths," Kruin shot back. "Perhaps you don't but others will surely follow you."

Jin took a deep breath. Steady, girl, she warned herself. Concentrate, and be rational. "I've already told you I don't know what my people will do with my report-and pointed out that a non-threatening Qasama is perfectly welcome to advance back into space. But if the Shahni are truly bent on attacking us, do you really think they'll do so without the full weight of Qasama behind them? Or to put it another way, won't they demand that both cities and villages supply their full shares of the resources and manpower-" her eyes flicked to Daulo

"-that a full-scale war requires? Whether you want to or not?"

For a moment Kruin sat in silence, gazing at Jin. She forced herself to return the gaze; and after a moment he shifted on his cushions. "You again try to prove that Mangus threatens us directly. Yet without any proof."

"Whatever proof exists will only be found inside Mangus itself," Jin pointed out, feeling the knots in her stomach starting to unravel again. Whatever his apprehensions, it was clear that Kruin was smart enough to see that the scenario

Jin painted made too much sense to ignore. "The only way to find out for sure will be to get inside and take a look for ourselves."

"Ourselves?" A faint and slightly bitter smile touched Kruin's lips. "How quickly you change between offworlder and Qasaman, Jasmine Moreau. Or don't you think we know that once inside Mangus it will be your priorities, not ours, that you will address?"

Jin's hands curled into fists. "You insult me, Kruin Sammon," she bit out. "I don't play games with people's lives-not those of my own people, not those of yours. If Mangus threatens anyone-Aventinian or Qasaman-I want to know about it.

That's my priority."

For a moment Kruin didn't answer. Then, to her astonishment, he inclined his head toward her. "I had assumed you were a warrior, Jasmine Moreau," he said. "I see I was mistaken."

She blinked. "I don't understand."

"Warriors," he said softly, "don't care about the people they are told to kill."

Jin licked her lips, a cold shiver replacing the fading indignation in her muscles. She hadn't meant to blast Kruin that strongly-certainly hadn't meant to imply that Milika's welfare was truly any of her concern. She was here for only one purpose, she reminded herself firmly: to find out if the Cobra Worlds were being threatened. If it was merely one group of Qasamans preparing to slaughter another, that was none of her business.

Except that it was.

And for the first time her conscious mind was forced to acknowledge that fact.

She'd lived with these people; lived with them, eaten their food, accepted their help and hospitality... and there was no way she could simply turn her back on them and walk away. Kruin was right; she was no warrior.

Which was to say, no Cobra.

A sudden moisture obscured her vision; furiously, she blinked it away. It didn't really matter-she'd already fouled things up so badly that one more failure wouldn't make much of a difference. "Never mind what I am or am not," she growled. "The only issue here is whether you're still going to help me get into

Mangus, or whether I'm going to have to do it all myself."

"I've given you my pledge once," Kruin said coldly. "You insult me to ask again."

"Yes, well, it seems to be a day for insults," Jin said tiredly. All the fight was draining away, leaving nothing but emotional fatigue behind. "Daulo spoke of work parties hired from Azras. Can you ask your friend the mayor to get me into one of them?"

Kruin glanced at his son. "It may be possible," he said. "It could take a week to make the arrangements, though."

"We can't afford that much time," Jin sighed. "I've got to be in and out of

Mangus within the next six days."

"Why?" Kruin frowned.

Jin nodded toward Koja's letter on the low desk. "Because that note changes everything. There won't be any six-month debate now as to whether or not another mission should be sent here. Koja will have burned space getting back, and there'll be a rescue team on its way just as soon as it can be scrambled together."

Kruin's lips compressed slightly. "Arriving when?"

"I don't know exactly. I'd guess no more than a week."

Daulo hissed between his teeth. "A week?"

"Bad," Kruin agreed calmly. "But not as bad as it might be. With a new supply of metals on its way to Mangus, they should be needing to call in extra workers soon."

"How soon?" Jin asked.

"Within your six-day limit, I'd guess," Kruin said. "I'll send a message to

Mayor Capparis this afternoon and ask if a member of my household can be worked into one of the parties."

"Please ask if he can make it two members," Daulo said quietly.

Kruin cocked an eyebrow at his son. "A noble offer, my son, but not well thought out. For what reason-besides curiosity-should I allow you to accompany Jasmine

Moreau on this trip?"

"For the reason that she still knows so very little about Qasama," Daulo said.

"She could betray herself as an offworlder in a thousand different ways. Or worse, she could fail to understand or even to notice something of vital importance once inside."

Kruin cocked an eye at Jin. "Have you a response?"

"I'll be fine," Jin said stiffly. "I thank you for your offer, Daulo, but I don't need an escort."

"Are his arguments invalid?" Kruin persisted.

"Not necessarily," she admitted. "But the risks outbalance the benefits. Your family is well known here, and probably at least slightly known in Azras. Even with the disguise kit I've got in my pack, there's a good chance he'll be recognized by someone in the work party, or even by Radig Nardin or someone in

Mangus itself. At least as much chance, I'd guess, as that I'll be caught in an error." She hesitated; no, better not say it.

But Kruin saw through the hesitation. "And...?" he prompted.

Jin clenched her teeth. "And if there is trouble... I stand a much better chance of getting out alone than if Daulo is with me."

An instant later she wished she'd kept her mouth shut. Daulo sat up stiffly on his cushion, face darkening. "I don't need the protection of a woman," he bit out. "And I will go with you into Mangus."

And there was no longer any room for argument, Jin realized with a sinking heart. Logic was fine in its place; but when set against the emotions of threatened manhood, there was only one possible outcome. "In that case," she sighed, "I would be honored to have your company and protection."

It was only much later that it occurred to her that perhaps she'd been guilty of the same kind of nonrational thinking... that perhaps the very fact she'd forgotten something as basic to Qasama as the expanded male ego meant that she really did know too little about Qasama to tackle Mangus alone.

It wasn't a particularly encouraging thought.