was small, and uniformed as a pirate, but she’d never seen him before. “Who are you?”
she asked groggily. “What happened to me?”
“I’m keeping you here until the rest come back. We’ve had our fill of spies from SOTE.”
A cold chill went down Yvette’s spine, but she refused to let it show. “What do you
mean? Let me out of here. I demand to speak to Shen!”
“That’ll be a little hard, gospozha. He’s parsecs away by now, along with the rest of the
fleet.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Yvette saw a shape moving in the doorway toward her
captor. She kept talking, trying to distract him. “You’re overstepping your orders. When
Shen comes back, he’ll have your ears as bookends for daring to talk to me this way.”
“It was his orders that put you here. He. . .”
The pirate got no further in his speech, as he was cut down from behind by a sharp blow
to the base of his neck. Yvette lifted her head to see who her mysterious savior might
be, and saw to her amazement that it was Fortier. He’d disguised himself by shaving off
his mustache, letting his hair grow long and darkening his skin pigment, but it was
unquestionably the same man who had taken off in the ship with her husband. “I’m glad
to see you again,” Yvette said. “Did everything go smoothly? Why did you come back?”
Fortier cocked his head and eyed her curiously, as though he didn’t know her at all.
“State the nature of our business,” he said sharply.
It was Yvette’s turn to be suspicious. Could this somehow be an imposter? She decided
on a test. “I’m afraid the drug disoriented me. What does the timepiece say?” The word
“timepiece” was Fortier’s codename; the real Fortier should react to that, but an imposter
wouldn’t.
She could see Fortier relax visibly, and he stooped over her unconscious jailer to find the
key that would unlock her chains. “Are you from NIT’ he asked as he searched through
the pirate’s pockets.
That question did nothing to allay Yvette’s suspicions. “No, SOTE,” she said. “Which you
should remember perfectly well.”
Fortier had found the key and was freeing her of her bonds. “I’m sure that damnable
doppelganger does, but I’ve never had the honor of meeting you, gospozha.”
A chill of premonition ran down Yvette’s spine. “What do you mean, doppelganger?” she
asked, making the question sound much more casual than it really was.
Fortier took a deep breath and began his story. “Several months ago I was alone on the
surface when I was ambushed by that … double. I hid in a small cave behind a waterfall
and shot at him with my stun-gun, but nothing happened-he just kept coming at me. Then
he fired a blaster and hit me on the right side of my chest. It should have killed me, but it
didn’t; I think some of the beam’s energy must have gone into heating the water from the
waterfall before it reached me. My chest is badly scarred up, and I passed out from the
pain, but I lived.
“When I came to I was buried beneath a pile of rubble. I can only imagine that my
double, whoever he is, used his blaster to cause a rockslide and bury what he thought
was my dead body. Again, the rockslide should have killed me, but it didn’t; I suppose I
should thank my DesPlainian heritage for giving me such a tough body.
“I was alive, but I was in pretty wretched shape. I lay there in pain for a couple of days
before I could gather enough strength to push the rocks off me and crawl out. There was
plenty of water flowing past to wash my blaster wound and the cuts and bruises I got
from the rockslide-but it was another day and a half before I could stagger to my feet
and wander into the jungle to find something to eat.
“I spent a week in the jungle, living off whatever I could scavenge while I waited for my
strength to return. I had plenty of time to think. The only reason a duplicate of me would
want to kill me is to take my place-which means someone went to a great deal of trouble
to learn a lot about me. That someone thought I was dead now, and I saw no reason to
let him know otherwise; I might learn more this way. As soon as I felt well enough again,
I slipped back into the base.
“One of the best things about this place is that it’s so crowded that no one really knows
anyone else. I was able to darken my complexion with the juice from some berries from
the jungle, and I let my hair grow long and shaggy. I shaved my mustache at the first
chance I got, and just started mingling , with the ordinary men. Unfortunately I couldn’t
get too close to my double to see what he was up to; I was afraid he might spot me. I
saw him with you a couple of times, but that didn’t mean anything-I had no way of
knowing which side you were on. I spent months roaming around the base, but I haven’t
really learned anything I didn’t know before.
“Then, just a short while ago, the order came down that all ships would be sent into
battle. I didn’t want to get trapped on one of them, so I hid until they were all gone. I
figured the base would be practically deserted, and I could put in a subcom call to Luna
Base to warn them. I was on my way to the Communications Room when I heard the
voices in here and stopped to investigate. That’s about it so far.”
Yvette had been rubbing her wrists and ankles while he talked, massaging life back into
them. Fortier’s story had a ring of horrible truth to it-a truth she didn’t want to believe
because of what it implied. “It’s a nice story,” she said noncommittally.
Fortier smiled. “I see. You want some proof that I’m not the double, right?”
“Exactly.”
“Khorosho, what would it take?”
“I’ve worked against those doubles before. They’re carefully constructed robots. If you’re
the real thing, you’ll bleed; if you’re not, you won’t.”
Fortier thought for a moment, then looked around for some thing to use as an instrument.
Picking up the key to the chains again, he scratched one edge along the back of his left
hand. He squeezed the flesh and a satisfactory thin line of red appeared. “How’s that?”
he asked.
“I’m convinced,” Yvette said. “But I wish I weren’t.” Because that meant that her husband
had just gone off alone in a spaceship with the fourth of Lady A’s deadly robots-on a
mission that had suddenly twisted itself beyond her ability to understand.
Chapter 16
A New Empress
The d’Alembert%’ ship, traveling at top speed all the way from Gastonia, made it back to
Earth in time for the Coronation. Jules and Vonnie landed at the Vandenberg Spaceport
shortly after dawn on Friday morning, and the Head had a special jet waiting there to
take them into Angeles-Diego. The two agents were tired after their ordeal and long trip,
but exhilarated at the same time by the thought of actually attending this ceremony
normally reserved for the highest of the nobility.
They arrived at Bloodstar Hall three hours before activities were to start, and found
special admittance passes in their names waiting for them. They were escorted to the
backstage area and SOTE’s security control checkpoint, where conditions were chaos
incarnate. People were running around busily, giving orders right and left, seemingly at
random-yet the d’Alemberts knew that there was indeed a rationale behind every action,
no matter how hectic the scene looked.
The Head and his daughter were in the center of a mob, being bombarded with questions
of where to go and what particular assignment to carry out. Nevertheless, when he noted
the arrival of the DesPlainian team, the Head squeezed his way through the throng and
over to their side. “I’m glad to see you’ve made it,” he said. “We’ve acted on your
information, though I don’t have time to explain it all now. Do you think you would be able
to help our security contingent here? I’ll understand perfectly if you say you’re too tired.”
The thought of actually taking part in Edna’s Coronation, no matter how far behind the
scenes, overcame any feelings of fatigue. “We’d be delighted to help,” Jules said quickly,
and Yvonne added her own, “Only too happy.”
The Head smiled. “Good. I hope it’ll be an easy assignment. We’re not expecting any
trouble within the hall itself, and we’re making constant scans for weapons. So far we
haven’t found any. If C sticks to his plans, the attack won’t come until tomorrow, so