The Dragon Never Sleeps

— 142 —

WarAvocat met Provik in an empty fighter nest. Klass and Midnight accompanied him. Blessed Tregesser and Provik's girlfriend completed the other party. Midnight bustled off to Tregesser. WarAvocat maintained a face of stone, his suspicion that she had visited him to soften his heart confirmed.

Provik said, "He didn't expect you to come to him."

"The political situation has devolved into the grotesque. I have to do something quickly."

Provik's girlfriend muttered, "How many times do we have to kill her before she stays dead?" She and Klass glowered at one another.

WarAvocat finally understood. The Tregessers had replication technology. Nothing else explained the mysteries so neatly. He had not seen the obvious because it was not supposed to be there.

The fleet desperately needed newer, more flexible minds. His own generation had brains set in concrete.

"Klass. Compose yourself. We're not animals. There's more at stake than your outrage. Provik, take me to him."He had come prepared to go outside, though he had not known what to do about Midnight. There were no EVA suits for winged people.

Provik solved that with a fighter pilot's blow bag, a poor man's escape pod. They closed her into one, inflated it, and Blessed Tregesser towed it like a child's balloon once they were outside.

WarAvocat's heartbeat rose. His blood coursed as it had not in millennia. Going to meet the enemy... This was not the same as standing in WarCentral moving pawns who actually did meet the enemy eyeball to eyeball.

"WarAvocat is coming himself."

Turtle was astonished. Then suspicious. Why would the man do that? "Watch him every second."

"The female soldier is with him, Kez Maefele."

"Watch her twice as close. She's twice as dangerous."

They came to the rider's bridge. WarAvocat glanced around. "Are we this much trouble?" He was a tired old man, moving slowly.

"You are."

"To be honored by the enemy is a greater accomplishment than to be honored by one's own, I suppose. It's been an interesting few years. I'm glad you didn't want it all."

"The alternatives were less appealing. Lupo says you had great success at S. Alisonica and T. Rogolica."

"Few got away."

"Excellent. I hope the blow to your pride wasn't insupportable."

"My pride is fine. It couldn't have been managed on a cooperative basis. But I have to live with the political consequences."

"I imagine Makarska Vis is exercised."

"You imagine right. And there are others after my blood. There have been changes since you left."

"Yes? So. I gather you see a way to break our deadlock."

"A basic approach. Providing you have a functional escape pod."

"I do." Turtle was intrigued. His gut feeling was that Strate did mean to let them go. Why? Some political angle?

"At fifteen hundred hours my chief of staff will open a port in the screen. You will shoot through and head for the strand. When you're convinced you'll make it, you'll eject me, the Colonel, and the data."

"And we're quits?"

Klass said, "No. I'll find you someday." She moved slightly. Provik's woman had the mouth of a weapon in her face almost before she started.

"How many times you have to die?"

"I only have to get through once."

"Colonel! No immunity, Kez Maefele. Just a head start. In exchange for that information."

Turtle nodded. "And if I don't come through?"

"Colonel Klass is carrying an explosive device. She won't hesitate to use it."

WarAvocat probably had his own, Turtle reflected. "I'll take a chance. It may be the only chance." He produced a cassette. "Everything I can give you is on this. You may review it if you like."

"I like."

The rider powered up cautiously, lifted off the Guardship, pointed its nose toward where WarAvocat claimed a port would open.

It opened on the mark, a black mouth in the pearly shimmer.

Turtle shoved it deep into the red. The rider plunged forward.

"Hellspinners, Kez Maefele."

"Raise screen."

"Miss. Another miss."

"Someone must not care if they get WarAvocat along with us."

"Missiles launching, Kez Maefele."

Turtle's human companions cursed and blustered. His Ku stuck to business. He put the rider through the port. It popped shut behind them. The missiles exploded against the inner face of the screen. "Politics," Turtle said. "They must be on the verge of civil war. Launch the pod as soon as they're ready. Let them chase that."

The sudden acceleration caught Strate unprepared. "Can't he do anything gently?"

Three minutes later there was a violent thrust at right angles to the first. The Ku had launched the pod.

It revolved. WarAvocat saw missiles banging off the inside of VII Gemina's screen, saw Hellspinners seeping through. He became so angry he almost had a stroke.

VII Gemina, operationally in control of OpsCrew rebels, accelerated toward the strand but arrived too late. Three days of hurtling back and forth produced no sign of the rider.

WarCrew backed by Gemina regained control, went back, collected WarAvocat. He was hale enough to vent his rage. Within an hour there was a new OpsAvocat, and a dozen Deified had gone to the electronic equivalent of purgatory. One was a Dictat. WarAvocat exceeded his legitimate powers dramatically. WarCrew who had cooperated, even unwittingly, he had recycled.

In hours living WarCrew were in control, totally and absolutely. Soon the Guardship was on the Web, headed Outside.

Strate formally informed crew of his intentions. "We will finalize the matter of the Godspeakers. Then we will visit Starbase Dengaida for what help may be available. Then we will travel to P. Benetonica to pick up our unfinished business there."

Privately, he told Colonel Klass, "I think the Ku will try to rejoin the original Lupo Provik, wherever he's gone. Somewhere on P. Benetonica 3 there'll be someone who knows some truth and someone who's in contact with Provik, however indirectly, who'll serve as the first stepping-stone in the chain."

The Valerena Tregesser heard the public announcement. From that she reasoned forward to WarAvocat's private thoughts.