like most of those bastards. I’ll be damned if I want to hand the keys to
Master System to him or even to the Emperor. I figure it’ll take five folks to
work the rings. That right?
I think so. Who knows for sure?
Yeah, well, suppose two out of five is you and me, and we pick the rest of ’em.
I’m no whiz brain, but I know I’d rather have some of my own with a clear sense
of honor and values in charge than somebody like Chen or any of the others. You
game for that kind of thing?
You know I am, Raven. You also know just what the odds are, and even if you’re
playing straight with me now, we’ll eventually have to come back to Chen for
his, and he knows it.
Yeah, well, I know what he knows. I know who’s got three out of four. They’re
pretty distinctive, and didn’t you say they had to be with humans with
authority?
Yes.
Then we’ll find the fourth. Hell, there’s only—what? A thousand worlds, give or
take. Now, listen close, ’cause we’re having our hands forced a little early.
They got this Chinese girl here. Genius but blind as a bat. Can’t see a thing,
and she’s pregnant to boot. Only thing is, she knows how to drive the
spaceships. She can take ’em over and fart at Master System control.
I suspect I know of her. Her two companions are neighbors of mine. They know a
little about the subject, too.
Huh. Might be useful, but I don’t know how big a crowd we can handle.
If you’re going to fool this security system, it’ll take some doing.
Can’t be done. Foolproof. This place is a hundred percent escapeproof, pal, in
all the ways you can think of.
Then how—
I got a way they didn’t think of. Nobody has, and nobody could because they
never had an inside man. This is going on too long. You don’t say anything to
anybody, not even your girls, until I tell you—understand? I know you got to
have them along, and they’re what’s causing the time problem. They been getting
some psychochemical treatments now, and pretty soon it’s off to the mind
laundry, if you know what I mean. You hang tight. I’ll move as quick as I can.
Okay. Just go out the way you came.
Aren’t you afraid they’ll come for me in the meantime?
Won’t be that long, Chief. That’s why I’m tipping you. I don’t want you
throwing fits or causing trouble if they start pulling stuff on your family and
friends. Adios!
It won’t be easy, and there are no guarantees, but I think I got the way. I even
got a couple of places to go…
Hawks wandered down to the first-level plaza and began to look around. There
were quite a number of rough characters here, but some with a great deal of
knowledge and even a space background. There were others that, in spite of the
virtual sealing of the prison, knew a lot of what was going on at the Institute,
although how he wasn’t really sure. One such was a big, bearded, hairy man named
Lychenko, a Russian who had been fairly important back home and had a good
working knowledge of even this place. Few were very close to the big man, but he
had a passion for Greco-Roman style wrestling. Hawks wasn’t much on form or
technique, but he knew balance and had picked up the rules fairly quickly. He
had also beaten the big man at least twice, which had earned him some respect.
You know this place, he said casually to the Russian. Anybody ever really
gotten out?
The Russian laughed. Without walking through solid rock, no.
Then if somebody on the inside said they could get you out, they would have to
be playing a game with the authorities.
You bet’cha. Why? You got a fix in?
I got a nibble, nothing more. I don’t believe it. I think I’m being had. They
like to play those games around here, as you know. I just wanted to make sure.
You heard anything about a blind girl who is a whiz at computers?
Huh! How did you know about her? Yah, they got her good. A slave of the
Institute. About the best you can hope for around here.
Hawks nodded. She wouldn’t be named Song Ching or Chu Li, would she? I got a
couple of neighbors who came in with somebody sounds just like that.
She’s called China, that’s all I know. She would have come in with those
others, though. They can play tricks. You know that. She would answer to Ivan if
they wanted.
Uh huh. Listen—my wives and the two Chinese newcomers have been getting trips
in. You know what it’s for?
Word is they’re opening up some kind of nursery at the Institute. They need wet
nurses and baby-sitters. Feed ’em chemicals so they get big breasts and full of
milk like mamas of new babies, then shift their minds so all they want to do is
change diapers and tend to kids. House mommies for some experiment. That it?
Hawks nodded. Could be. Any idea when they’re supposed to be changed over?
The big man shrugged. The slower the better in these things. Figure they’ll
want ’em complete and ready way in advance of the actual project, though. Check
’em out with staff babies, see if it all works. They don’t want variables in
their experiments if they can limit them first. Hey—if this turns out for real
as an escape, you remember old Gregor, hey?
He thanked the Russian and went to find Reba Koll. She had dark-brown skin, blue
eyes, and brown curly hair, and her features seemed a mixture of every race on
Earth, but Reba had never been on Earth. She had been a freebooter who’d gotten
a little greedy and a little sloppy. She was fine as long as one humored her.
Reba didn’t like to be touched, for example. She also didn’t like remarks about
her tail, and it was a tail, an actual extension of the spinal column, covered
with her own skin and muscle, that emerged from just above the rectum and went
out and down to the floor. The Institute had caused it, although for what reason
nobody, including Reba, knew. What Reba did know was space beyond the solar
system and ships that followed her own orders.
Reba, if you suddenly found yourself out of here and on a ship, where would you
go?
She smiled. Wishful thinking was a major pastime here. That’s the big question,
isn’t it? I couldn’t go back to my own people. I’m kinda obvious even there.
She flicked her tail. Couldn’t go to any of the Community worlds, either. The
ones you could live on, you’d still stand out like a sore thumb. Even you. Bush
wild would be the only way to go.
Huh? What’s that mean?
There’s a few places out there barely fit for human habitation with no people
on ’em. Surplus worlds from the old days, ones that didn’t quite work, stuff
like that. Some got total nonhumans on ’em. Real, live alien creatures, but not
like we think of ’em. So different, not even Master System can figure them out
or worry about ’em. Some might be livable. You’d have to check ’em out, but they
might. A Val might check ’em out, but if you dodged it, you could live there.
Not even Master System would care or check close. It’s a big place out there,
and it don’t monitor much. A few of the worst ones are used by the free traders
as depots. Real basic stuff. Some would be real dangerous and not exactly easy
living, but it could be done.
Indefinitely?
Yeah, if you survived at all. Some are totally off the charts, since the old
survey and seeding ships sent out hundreds and hundreds of years ago didn’t all
report back. Master System had enough so it never looked for the rest. They were
expendable. Why?
Could you navigate a ship to a place like that? I might. Again, why? You
dreamin’ big again? I’m dreaming impossible, Reba. Thanks. His mind started
spinning with the possibilities that hope, no matter how feeble, generated. He
saw the Chow sisters down by the food box and decided he needed something to eat
himself. They were easily recognized, even in this place. In addition to
whatever else was being done to them, their terrible scars were being
eliminated—had been, in fact. The trouble was, they’d been treating them in
small stages, and the new skin was a patchwork quilt of skin tones. They almost
looked as if they had been painted for camouflage work, including browns,
purples, tans, yellows, and creams, but he knew that in the end they would both
be given a uniform skin tone that would last.
When they’d first met, Chow Dai had been perky and extroverted and her twin
quiet and somewhat shy, but now the two seemed identically quiet and moody. They
were still friendly, perhaps almost too friendly. They both seemed to have
embarked on a project to have a romantic liaison with every man and woman in
this place.
After talking to Lychenko, he noticed that the sisters were putting on weight,
mostly in the breasts and thighs, and in spite of normal-looking rations and
lots of exercise, if nothing else. He had noticed the same thing happening in
Cloud Dancer, and it was even more pronounced in Silent Woman, who had already
been larger than the others.
He sat down next to the Chow sisters and nodded. Hello. I’ve heard something
about your friend.
They were interested. She is here?
No, she’s working at the Institute. She’s still blind, and it’s said she’s
pregnant.
Pregnant! Chow Mai breathed. How wonderful it would be to have a child.
Chow Dai was still more pragmatic. They changed her a lot, then. Either that or
it’s Sabatini’s child. I, too, would love a child, but not one by that man.
You two still have that gift for locks?
Sure. I suppose. Not much chance to use it, though. We could go through the
doors, but they would catch us quickly. We’ve taken showers whenever we felt
like it, though. That one’s easy.
He nodded to himself, thinking. It would be just like Raven to be toying with
him, and he suspected that was exactly what was being done, but the Crow was
playing it very devious. His rough, nasty-looking exterior and unpleasant voice
were accompanied by a harsh, uneducated slang dialect, making it easy to
underestimate him, but nobody who had come this far or who knew some of the
vocabulary Raven knew was a low-level hack. He wanted to be underestimated by
everyone. It gave him an added edge. Hawks could well believe Chen had ordered
them to break him out with the purpose of going after the rings, but Raven
saying so straight out was disarming. Then, Raven was a friend and confederate
against the evil Chen. In whose service, though, was he in the end? The trouble
was, there was no way of penetrating the Crow’s guise until the showdown.
Well, no matter what, Raven’s task was to get Hawks out and enlisted in a
campaign to get the rings. Hawks and probably many others. Why Chen wanted Hawks
in particular was still a mystery, but men like Chen did nothing without a
reason. And now Raven was under the time gun, for he’d know that Hawks would not
leave without his family, and essentially intact or easily restorable. It was
still Raven’s script for now, but maybe it could stand a little rewriting.
* * *
I ain’t really ready, but we got to go quick, Raven told him in their third
meeting in the green reception room. So far they been mostly experimenting with
your gals, but they’re about to remove ’em from the prison and go full tilt.
Now, you listen up. Within a few days you’ll get another call. This time it’ll
be one-way. Just to here. Then the two women, one at a time. I got to call them
Chows as well, since our blind genius insists on it, but that’s pushing it.
Don’t call the Chows, Hawks told him. I’ll tip them. They can walk in here
any time, or so they say. Why have a registry call that might flag somebody if
they can get here without one?
Fair enough. I heard they were whizzes with computer locks and regular ones,