Web of Sand

Chapter Thirteen

The guide was a young man, furtive, taciturn. Santis frowned as, for the third time, he failed to answer. To Dumarest he said, "Why didn't Lowbar let us have the girl? And why keep us waiting so long? I don't like it, Earl. And I don't trust the man he gave us."

Neither did Dumarest. Twice now he had spotted a familiar patch of fungus, the second time he had marked it and now, seeing it again, decided that deceptive tactics had gone too far.

Calling a halt, he said, "All right, that's enough. We'll make our own way."

"You can't!" The guide came back to rejoin them. "You won't be able to find the way."

"And we won't be walking in circles." Dumarest looked at the man, his face hard. "Do you think we're fools not to know what you're doing? Who put you up to it? Lowbar? Doesn't he trust us?"

"You lied. You said you'd lived through a storm. No one can do that."

"So you think we must be spies." The logic made sense. "So you're leading us around to what? A trap? Isn't it ready yet? Or do you just want to confuse us?" Dumarest frowned as he gained no answer. Reaching out he gripped the man by the hair, the knife flashing as he lifted it to rest the needle point against the taut windpipe. "Now listen. You guide us correctly or I'll see to it you never guide anyone again. And if your friends are waiting lead us away from them because if you don't-" The pressure of the blade completed the sentence. "Now let's get moving!"

Shivering, the guide obeyed, leading them up a narrow ramp, through a fissure, along a ledge circling a vent from which foul odors gusted, into a labyrinth of passages, each looking like the other. A maze which confused all sense of direction. Dumarest tightened his grip.

"No tricks, now," he warned. "If anything happens you'll be the first to go."

"Nothing will-we've passed them, all you need to do is to keep going straight to the junction then-" He gasped as sound echoed from ahead. "The guards! Let me gol The guards!"

"No," said Kemmer. "Not guards! They've no uniforms. They must be workers."

They came from a narrow passage as the guide, with a desperate jerk, ripped himself free and raced into the maskings shadows. All were wearing thick coveralls and were armed with long clubs and carrying lanterns. Their leader halted as he saw the three men, club poised, lantern raised to bathe them in its light.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Three fools who got themselves lost." Dumarest threw aside the swath of hair and lifted empty hands, smiling, obviously pleased at the encounter. "We had a guide but he ran off when he heard you."

"A guide?"

"A young man who offered to lead us. We seem to have been walking for hours and getting nowhere. I guess he didn't know the way as well as he claimed."

"And he ran off? Which way?" The leader had a hard, craggy face. It grew ugly as he listened. "Harry! Sheel! Take men and go after him." He scowled as they ran off. "They won't find anything but it's worth the try. Keeps the scum wary if nothing else. You were lucky. He'd have led you into a trap if we hadn't happened along. You'd have been killed, stripped and eaten."

"Eaten?"

"That's right." The man glanced at Kemmer. The trader looked as if he wanted to vomit. "It's happened before which is why we always move around in groups. Lost, you say?"

"That's right." Dumarest shrugged. "We came down with a party but got separated somehow and have been wandering ever since."

"You come down after welchers?" The craggy man seemed to think he had the answer. "It's long past time they were exterminated. They come down here on the run or maybe they've been ordered to work in an installation and won't take the discipline. They lurk and steal anything that's going, attack anyone weaker than themselves and destroy what they can't use. Vermin!" His hand tightened on the club. "Filth!"

"You don't like them," said Kemmer.

"I hate their guts. I've never borrowed anything in my life and never owed a minim. I work hard and live within my means and don't try to get rich quick or crave luxuries I can't afford. If a man's too weak to control his greed then he has no right to whine at the consequences. No one forced them to borrow. They knew the rate. They knew what would happen if they didn't pay. I tell you, mister, the quicker they get rid of the scum the better off we'll all be. Parasites like that are useless to everyone."

Dumarest said, "Get rid of them? How do you suggest it should be done? The Cinque would like to know."

"You from the Cinque?" The man frowned, suspicious. "I thought you said you came with a party."

"We did. One sent by the Cinque. Yunus Ambalo, Jhol Barrocca, Elmay Tinyah-but you know those interested in the problem. They are as concerned as you are. You seem to be a man of firm ideas and I'd like to mention you in my report. If a program is devised we'll need to find a strong man to put in charge. Would you be willing to accept the responsibility? There'll be adequate compensation, of course." Dumarest smiled as the man nodded. "Good. You've an office? I'd like to take your name and maybe we could talk a little. You have a phone? Better still. And, naturally, you can guide us after I make a few calls. I want to let the others know we're safe. Yunus would be amused but others are a little more serious and aware of the problems you people have to face. They would have eaten us, you say?"

He nodded at the affirmation, keeping the man talking, giving him no time to think as they made their way toward the installation, the office, the phone it contained.

Alejandro Jwani said, "Coffee, Earl? Wine? Tisane? Or would you prefer something stronger? We have reason to celebrate!"

"Coffee."

"One of my specials?" Jwani busied himself at the table with his pots and bottles. "You know, Earl, even now I find it incredible that you are still alive. The ventilation shaft, of course. Once we have the facts the answer becomes obvious. I should have guessed when the technician made his report."

"Report?" Dumarest met his eyes as he took the proffered cup. "Was one made?"

"To me, yes. A routine statement that there had been trouble with the catch of shaft 62. It seems that it had been bent then hammered back into place. The technician owed me a small favor and came to me before handing the report to the cyber." Jwani sipped then added, casually, "I suppose I should have passed on the information but, somehow, it slipped my mind. Then Tosya left and it was too late."

Dumarest looked at his cup and saw the rainbows shimmering on the oily cream. He drank to still the betrayal of his agitation. A cyber had come as he'd expected and had left-why?

"The reason for his visit is something of a mystery," said Jwani. He almost seemed to be reading Dumarest's thoughts. "He consulted with the Cinque and made some promises but the only one who was really close to him is now dead. Yunus Ambalo-a distressing case. An infection of the brain which struck him down without warning. At first murder was suspected and Ellain was questioned but an autopsy cleared her. My own conclusion is that he was searching for someone and left when it became obvious he could no longer be found." He drank then, frowning, said, "Is the coffee not to your liking, Earl?"

"It is delicious." Dumarest drank and held out the empty cup. "Could I have more?"

He moved about the room as Jwani obliged, looking at the maps, the models with their spinning wheels, the smooth bearings which cost so much to find. Yet the finding of them had saved his life.

They had broken the web of sand in which he had been trapped.

How much did Jwani know?

Dumarest studied him as he stood at the table. A seeming dilettante but that was a facade. As was his claim to drunkenness and loss of memory. The workroom betrayed him-no man with such weaknesses could have constructed such items of mechanical delicacy. And he had witheld information from the cyber. Had Tosya received it, he would have known what had happened. The Burrows would have been sealed, searched and he would have been taken. A single clue would have given the cyber all the information he needed.

And Jwani had withheld it.

Why?

He had traveled and had mentioned Earth. An accident or a deliberate stimulus so as to study the reaction? Was he, despite his denial, somehow connected with the Original People? Did he work to provide low-energy machines in order to maintain isolated colonies?

Possibilities which must remain mere speculations. It was enough that, for reasons of his own, he had done what he had.

"Alejandro Jwani," said Dumarest. "I thank you."

"And I you, Earl." Jwani's cup lifted in a toast. A casual gesture but his eyes told that he knew what Dumarest had meant. "You have gained a fortune in which I shall share. The largest find ever made. I shall have to dispose of the tranneks with care to avoid the necessity of having to answer awkward questions, but that is a matter of detail. They are within the city and one stone looks much like another."

Dumarest said, "The money?"

"Is yours. You have no need to wait. I've done as you requested; money for Hine's family, Ellain's debt purchased from Yunus's heir-she owed a high sum, Earl."

"She staked us. She earned it." As had Jwanl. "One thing-was a clearance found among Yunus's papers from the hospital? One for recent payment?"

"Yes. You expected it?"

"I thought it might be found." Dumarest finished his coffee. "Does Ellain know she is free?"

"She had to be told, Earl. The cancellation of her debt needed to be witnessed." Jwani added, with a smile, "She is waiting for you."

Dumarest heard the song as he approached the door; a thin, rippling melody of dancing notes and unashamed gaiety. It ceased as he pressed the chime then the door opened and she was facing him.

"Earl! When Alejandro told me-Earl!"

He felt the impact of her body, the locking pressure of her arms, the soft, warm, demanding pressure of her lips as they found his own. A moment in which time halted and the universe shrank to the place where they stood. One which held all joy, all culmination, all happiness.

"My darling!" She stepped back and allowed him to enter the apartment, slamming the door shut after him, moving over the carpet like a young and nubile girl. "Earl, my darling! My love!"

She had bathed and was scented; a perfumed and eager participant in an ancient rite, but for now it was enough to embrace him, to feel his masculine hardness, his strength, to know that he was with her and not dead as she had feared.

He had saved her and that should have been enough but, being a woman, she was curious.

"How, Earl? How did you manage to survive?"

"Luck."

"Luck?" She turned and crossed to the window and cleared the pane. It was night, the scene one of animated beauty, long lines of mounded dunes running across the desert now streaming as if on fire, fretted summits yielding to adopt new configurations, the whole silvered by the glow of stars. A low wind, the herald of another storm, one which would break before dawn. Until then the dust would stay low to drift like glittering snow over the rippled plain. "It takes more than luck to live in a storm, Earl."

She was hurt and he knew it, stung by what she thought to be his reluctance to take her into his confidence. And yet what more could he tell? Luck had saved him from the storm as it had saved him from the trap laid by the Cyclan. Luck which had enabled him to break free of planned intent. Luck-how long would it last?

"Earl?"

"I had help," he said. "Without it I would have been lost."

The truth but not in the way she took it. "The guide," she said. "That poor man. And your other companions. What are they going to do now, my darling?"

"Kemmer may stay. He's an entrepreneur and, with money, can see a way to use the system to his advantage. Santis will remain with him for a while-both need medical attention." The mercenary more than the trader; old, he had strained himself to the limit and beyond.

"And you, Earl?"

"I'm here, Ellain. With you."

The answer she had wanted to hear and she smiled her pleasure as she crossed the room to pour them both wine.

"Remember when you first visited me, darling? How cautious you were? Did you really think I might want to poison you?"

"Such things have been known." He added dryly, "As Yunus should know."

"You think I killed him?"

"No."

"At first the Guard thought I had. I wanted to but I lacked the courage. When it happened it was horrible. I was with him and, suddenly, he groaned and fell. He was dead when I tried to lift him."

Killed by the cyber because he had failed-Dumarest was certain of it. Yunus had paid for his hospital treatment and it was easy to guess why. He must have been acting on orders relayed by Frome or some earlier communication but he had been careless. Besotted with Ellain he had failed to safeguard his charge and for that, together with other reasons, he had been disposed of.

Luck again-if he had kept his mind on the job, if Tosya had arrived before the Urusha-such little things to alter the direction of a life.

"Earl?" She mistook his introspection. "Are you jealous?"

"Of Yunus? Should I be?"

"It would be nice if you were."

"It would be nice if we could all be born again," he said. "To know all that we know now so as never to make the same mistakes. How can I be jealous of things which happened before I met you?"

"And since?" Her eyes held his own. "Do you blame me?"

"For doing what you had to do?" His shrug was impatient. "The past is dead-forget it. Only the present is important."

"And the future?"

"That has yet to come. It may never come. All we can be sure of is the present moment."

The fact that he was free and safe and able to travel as he wished. The fact that he was alive. That he was with a woman with hair a scarlet glory and eyes of limpid emerald. One with the voice of an angel and a body made for passion. One with her own fears.

"A ship may land after the storm," whispered Ellain. "Within a day or a week. When it leaves?"

"I'll be on it."

"And me?"

She might be on it too, traveling with him, loving him, wanting him as now he wanted her. But not for long. A journey, maybe two, and her art would draw her as his quest drew him. They would drift apart, she to the stage and he to other worlds. Moving, always moving in his endless search for the planet of his birth. But, for now, they had each other.

And, for now, that was enough.