Still arrayed as the Khal of Tadzhikstan, Kieran arrived at the elevators on his way to the lower parking level, where they had arranged to meet. It was one of those rare times in life when everything seemed to be going smoothly, he reflected as he waited for the car to arrive. And that in itself was enough to keep him on guard. It had been his experience that events never continued in such a manner for long; such deceptive calms were inevitably the prelude to the sudden bursting of a storm.
The reaffirmation that little in life ever changed came as soon as the doors opened. Two of the three men inside were none other than “Mr. Brown” and “Mr. Black,” whom Kieran had last seen in the conference room at the Zodiac Commercial Bank. The third’s face was unfamiliar, but he was obviously with the others and of similar ilk. “Gentlemen,” Kieran acknowledged, stepping inside and smiling pleasantly. The button for the lower parking level was lit. Kieran pressed the main lobby button and turned to face the doors as they closed.
All the way down, he could feel Black’s eyes traveling over him like the beam for a body scan. He could read the thoughts from behind as if they were being transmitted telepathically: There’s something familiar about that guy. Where have I seen him? But obviously it didn’t click.
On the lobby level, Kieran got out and headed for the stairwell down, at the same time tearing his comset from his pocket and thumbing Leppo’s code. “Hel—” Leppo’s voice began, but Kieran cut him off.
“Sol, it’s the Knight. Watch out. There are bad guys here, and they’re heading your way. It could be a coincidence, but I don’t . . .”
The connection had gone dead.
As Kieran moved cautiously out from a stairwell door to a landing overlooking the parking level, he saw why. The three men from the elevator had joined two others, who were with Leppo and Casey in one of the rows between the vehicles, and from their positions and attitudes, Kieran guessed, holding them at gunpoint. Even as he watched, keeping well back in the doorway, the captives were bundled into a shiny black Metrosine. Two of the others squeezed in after them, the remaining three up front. The car backed out and left in swishing display of opulent engineering and luxury. Kieran could do nothing but watch as it disappeared down the exit ramp, heading for the tunnel onto Gorky.
20
Mahom Alazahad looked Kieran up and down with a wide, approving grin. It was getting late in the afternoon. “Well, I’ll be . . . It took me a second to be sure, but, yep, it’s you all right, Knight. So what’s going on? Looks like you decided to come over to the sophisticated side of the race.”
“Special effects, Mahom. I’ve taken it on as a new vocation to become the spiritual savior of the chief of Zorken Consolidated.”
Mahom looked appalled. “The big construction outfit? You’re kidding! But, no . . . you’re not kidding. Don’t tell me you’re thinking of taking on a Zorken army with those troops you asked me to rustle up. I thought they were supposed to be just standby protection for these friends of yours out at Tharsis.”
“Don’t worry,” Kieran told him. “I’m not into the interplanetary war business yet.”
“So what gives?”
As they walked to the office, Kieran added as much as was pertinent to what he had told Mahom when he called from the Oasis the previous evening. Mahom poured two coffees from the pot by the window while he listened. Kieran finished with a summary of the latest developments, including what had happened to Leppo and Casey.
“Sol has this way of rushing into things, like a lot of kids with ambitions,” Mahom said. “But he’s okay. Do I take it our first priority now is to find where he’s at and bust him out?”
Kieran nodded. “The light wasn’t too good, and I was at the wrong angle. I couldn’t get the car’s registration.”
“Probably fake, anyhow,” Mahom grunted. “But that shouldn’t be a problem. There aren’t that many snazzy black Metrosines in this city. And if these are guys from some off-planet syndicate looking for a wad of loot that went missing like you think, it’ll either be a rental, or registered with an owner on a pretty narrowed-down list. If we come up with a probable, we can find it if we get its locator code out of the security company’s database.” Mahom winked. “Otherwise it might depend on eyes out on the streets.”