“I have seen the ring,” Takya told them. “It was not difficult to find, for it is mounted in a gold-and-shell charm that hangs from the neck of the high priest of the Temple. I did not even need my position to see it. We all saw it, during the celebration time. There is no question that it is the ring, although it is glued or embedded in the larger medallion and hardly looks like a ring. The design, however, faces outward—a smooth, black face with some sort of tiny gold design on it. It might be rings. We could not get that close.”
“All right, then, what’s the problem?” Raven asked her.
“None but a priest or a sacrifice can physically enter the Temple, and it is impossible to do so without being seen. When outside the Temple, the high priest generally wears it, but he never goes out without an entourage and always draws crowds. None of us can become a priest at this stage, and sacrifices are all young male virgins selected by the priests themselves, so getting someone in that way is also out. There is certainly no way to snatch it from him when he is out in the open and no easy way to get in to the Temple and find him in that labyrinthine collection of lava caves and tubes. The only way we can see to have any chance of getting it is to somehow get in with full weapons and instruments while most of the People sleep, knock out or perhaps kill any in our way, grab the thing from around his neck, and get out fast.”
Raven sighed. “I see. And if any alarm is sounded you’re damn well blocked in, and even the best personal weapons and equipment won’t stop a fanatical mob forever. Still, I agree.”
“Savaphoong is not much of a fighter, but he is a devious sort and he really wants that ring. No other entrance or exit to the Temple but the one behind the altar was known to anyone among the People, who have very few secrets, yet he refused to believe it. He noted that the Temple is built in the only geologically active region within kilometers of the city, and that there would never be a guarantee against quakes or other eruptions or disturbances. He was convinced that there had to be at least one and perhaps more exits in case of emergency. He believes he has located the general area where such exits must be, but there are too many possibilities and, needless to say, no markings or indicators. If I can be provided with markers, then a ship could be brought in to scan the entire undersea mountain into which the Temple is built. We will need as complete a geologic scan as is possible. Han Li has noted that there is an almost self-contained circulation system within the Temple due to the fumaroles. The water that comes out of all the possible exit sites is definitely warmer than normal. Use that and you might be able to give us an interior map of the place.”
Raven nodded. “All right. I’ll arrange it. But are you sure you can get markers into position without them or you being seen?”
“Yes, I am confident. I have assigned myself as captain of patrols for the next three weeks. This means I leave the city and make three-day round trips of the various main trails into and out of the city and check the patrols and guards. In six days I will be at receptor four. Have what is required ready then. By then I will tell you where we will meet six days after that. At that time I will need the map and all information you can give, and if you have some of the recommended weaponry, I can take that at the time, too. In eighteen days all else must be provided, and after that we will require a picket to be established capable of not only picking us up but supporting our life form. As soon as we have the ring we will make for a prearranged surface pickup, but it is possible we may be being chased by that point. When we signal for a pickup we will need it immediately, not in a few hours.”
“We’ll give you what cover we can,” Raven promised, “but if we can determine the pickup early we can rig it to give you more of a chance. All right. We’ll meet you at receptor four exactly six days from now with what you need and we’ll have run this problem by everyone. I know this one’s gonna be a bitch, Takya. We’ll do all we can.”
The agent nodded. “I know you will.
* * *
“The only problem I can foresee from our end is if Master System decides to show up and spoil the party,” Star Eagle noted. “But that society down there is all so open, so public. They are going to have a very difficult mission.”
“We’ve also got to assume that they will have some sort of tracer built into that medallion,” Vulture noted. “That’s what I would have done, anyway. That means that once that thing is off the planet, it’s gonna be picked up by every damned sensor in the system.”
“Not just out of the water? That’d buy ’em the most time for a response,” Raven said worriedly.
“Doubtful. Priests are the only males allowed in the birthing heiaus if I studied those prints right, and the high priest attends to the royals, so he’s out of the water at least now and then.”
Raven looked up. “Huh? Wait a minute. Okay, do what Takya wants, but let’s also work on an alternate plan. We’ve already blown almost eight months on this operation, so we can be a little more patient. Instead of sending our people into an unknown quagmire of caves and tubes blasting away and looking for a bedroom, let’s try to wait and take him when he’s topside. They’re damned near dormant in the daytime—we didn’t have any trouble gettin’ who we needed that first time, and this time we don’t give a damn if they get the hell knocked out of ’em. They got to come up to have kids! And Takya—Makoa—is high enough she or he can surely get royal guard duty.”
“A good plan,” Vulture agreed, “but I favor the direct approach that Takya outlined. It is just a feeling I have, I admit. Nothing to back it up, really, except experience in these things. If we were just dealing with Master System and the Vals, I’d say go your way, but Brigadier Chi— that’s something else again.”
“You got Chi on the brain,” Raven responded sourly.
“Perhaps, but I know her. If she has a weakness, it is an abiding faith in her religion, which is technology. With what she’s been told of the culture and layout below, and with the tracer and the hypnocasters, she’s probably satisfied that a frontal assault without giving her plenty of warning is unlikely and far too risky. She would put herself in our place. No Vulture, so the setup below should be adequate. Where they would be vulnerable in her eyes is just exactly where you say and when you say. If I were gonna lay out a lot of sophisticated technological traps I’d put them right there, on that birthing island. They had nine days—and they took a shuttle craft down, not a mere fighter or scout. She’s got some sort of trap covering the easy way, of that I’m sure, and she’ll take into account our superiority over the natives. No, I’m for going with those on the planet, as it were. They know the situation best.”
“You really think this Chi’s that good?”
“I think she and her computers are at least the equal of us and our computers. Besides, she’s military security, trained to play this sort of game, and while she’s been stung once, she got in her licks and knows us much better now—and with far greater support and resources. I, however, understand her, too. A crude direct assault is against our character, our pattern of behavior. We play the probabilities where we can. Let’s change our method this time. It’s ten to one she’s prepared least for the direct approach for all the reasons you name.”
“What Vulture says is logical and consistent,” Star Eagle put in. “You have noted the weak point. That is the logical reinforcement, and Takya’s way seems best, all things considered.”
Takya, too, on the second rendezvous, agreed with Vulture. “I have already scouted the birthing island for just such reasons,” the leader below told Raven, “and I smell the worst kind of trap. At the entrance to the heiau are two new tikis, a bit wider and bulkier than the usual, and highly polished, as if made of neither stone nor wood, although those are the only two materials we ever use. I think, and the others agree, that our friend Chi borrowed, unknowingly, a trick from our own book. I think both of those tikis are Vals in monitor mode, without much power and with the infinite patience of a machine. That’s her big trap. No, we go in quick, dirty, and armed to the teeth and to hell with subtlety.”
Takya, or all of them, got the markers placed well enough within a few days, and Star Eagle was able to maneuver an orbital fighter to take full scans of the entire complex. It was a horror, possibly chosen for that reason but certainly not constructed by anyone but nature. It resembled a plate of worms inside, and there were no large chambers that obviously were used either for high ceremony or for a high priest’s comforts. Not that it might not be nice in there, but it wasn’t going to be easy to find anything. There were also tunnels that led not to rooms or other tunnels but rather to active volcanic areas within the mountain, the source of the warmer waters.
Adapting the weapons was easier. The laser pistols could be sealed where needed, and were rigged with small destruct systems that could be activated as needed, overloading the pistol and causing it to explode or melt. Other devices—small torpedoes, bombs, visual aids, and the like—were also not difficult to fabricate. None of the equipment required a great deal of training; all were based on existing devices that the four below would have at least encountered before becoming Alititians.
Demonstrating the devices and checking them out proved relatively easy, although Takya knew that he would have to find some way of training the other three or at least giving them a little practice. They were experienced with the pistols, of course, but the rest required a bit more knowledge, and even the pistols reacted differently underwater.
“If you surface within a twenty-square-kilometer perimeter of the Temple center, you’ll be covered by two automated fighters until we can get to you,” Raven assured him. “If you need immediate assistance, the hand signal will bring them in close enough for you to latch on to the webbing we’ll have on them and transport you to pickup one. Lightning will be on station no matter what before you reach pickup one if you’re pursued. If not, it’ll be mere minutes since I’m gonna stay close anyway. As soon as you can, transmit up. I’ll activate the destruct signals when everybody’s aboard. Understand?”
The agent nodded. “I understand. You just had better be there, Raven. There is much to like about this world and these people, but that sentiment will not be returned by them when we do what we must.”
Raven stared at the Alititian. “I let you all down once. I will never do that again.” It was said with such certainty that Takya did not for a moment doubt its truth and sincerity.
“Nine days hence,” the Alititian told him. “We will commence precisely three hours after the common sleep time. Getting around the guards and day personnel will be no problem, but there is no way of knowing when we shall be away from there. But by nightfall we shall have the ring and be away, or we shall be dead.”
There were, in fact, four man-made additions to the Temple complex, all of them short tunnels connecting natural ones. Two came out fairly high up, perhaps only three or four meters from the surface, while the other two provided opposite end exits from almost the level of the sea floor. These, then, were the emergency exits planned just in case the rather passive volcanic activity grew suddenly more active. It seemed that the priests might be very good at telling their people that such things were divine punishments, but as far as priests were concerned, they reserved the right to run like hell.
Takya was able to deduce the purpose of many of the tunnels and the regions within the Temple based on the location of the main entrance and the exits. There would be a formal dressing area for the priests near the main entrance, which would be very ornamental and contain something like a makeup table. A separate area nearby had to be where the sacrifices would be more or less wined and dined until it was time to fulfill their bloody destiny. Other than that, there had to be some sort of a headquarters complex where the priests, acolytes, and high priest lived, and it was almost certainly arranged in some sort of hierarchical order. The best guess was from bottom to top. The largest tubes were up there, and the easiest access to exits. That meant going in near the top.
Sneaking out of their various homes and gathering at the point where the weapons and gear had been hidden hadn’t been easy for all of them, but now they were all there, strapping on carrying harnesses, checking the equipment out, and getting the heft and feel of the pistols in Alititian webbed hands. Transmuters were very handy for customization of standard equipment.
Takya looked at them. “We have gone through this as much as possible and talked and talked about it. Is there any objection to going now?”
“It is—difficult—to leave,” Han Li responded. “After so many years of wandering and being a humble second, I have become very fond of heading a family and of the family I head. Still, my honor demands sacrifice. I shall go.”
“The sooner I am free of this place the better,” Savaphoong grumbled. “I sacrificed my form for this, but not to spend my life as a worker gnawing on fish. This is what we came to do.”
Dura nodded. “I share both sentiments, but we do it now or we might never do it. Let’s begin.”
And, with that, they headed up into the dark upper reaches of the sea to the man-made exit they’d chosen.
If anyone had ever wandered up here, they, too, would probably have spotted the exit but would not have entered. Dimly carved into the black rock but plainly recognizable were several of the most severe taboo signs in Alititian culture. To go further risked not only death but eternal damnation. Floating there, and after living for so long in this culture, the four felt a certain involuntary hesitation at the sight of them, showing the power of the symbols, but it was only for a moment. Takya drew a pistol with her right hand and removed a sensing device with the other and moved in.
Only two meters inside there was a small net stretched across the tunnel and fastened there, obviously to keep out any denizens of the deep that might not comprehend taboo symbols. Takya decided not to tear it out; it might well contain some kind of alarm on the other side. Instead, she used her needier to cut out the center portion and then pull it in and away. Then she entered, followed by the others.
The first section of tunnel was a chamber of horrors, a dark tube that had been painted with multicolor secretions with every evil taboo symbol, threat, and vicious god and spirit known to the Alititians. Clearly the priests wanted a last psychological and cultural jab at anyone who just might believe the signs outside didn’t apply to them.
The tube widened out, as the artificial section merged with the natural structure. There they encountered a second security net, which Takya dealt with as she had the first one in the outer passage, and then the horrors were behind them. Now the secretions were of a more standard type, illuminating the passage and showing, apparently, just where someone who knew the code to the floor plan was and how to get to anywhere else. The pirates didn’t know the plan, however, so Savaphoong removed a small locator beacon and attached it to the cave roof. He was the tail man and had several dozen beacons; his job was to place the locators so that they would clearly mark the route, and when it was time to leave, he had a device that could tell the numeric order in which any one of them was placed. They would thus provide a clear but conveniently invisible trail to follow out of here when it was over.
They reached a roomlike side chamber and found several sleeping forms there. They had already agreed to take no chances; everyone and everything that looked like it might move was hit with deep stun. Takya’s own pistol was set to kill.
It was remarkably, almost disappointingly easy. These people had no concept of modern weapons or what they could do, and they were helpless even when awake or awakened by the interlopers until far too late to do anything but fall over.
It took a bit over an hour to locate the high priest, asleep in his quarters, and stun him senseless. He had the necklace on, as he always did, and for the first time they were able to examine the medallion closely. It was certainly the ring, unless Chi had taken a leaf from Vulture at Chanchuk and somehow replaced it with a ringer. It didn’t look fake, though; it looked as if it had been embedded in that medallion for a very long time. Dura held the old man while Takya pulled the whole thing off him and stuffed it in her backpack. Even so, they took the time to check his chest of personal belongings just in case there was another ring or medallion there. There was not.
“My turn to lead,” Savaphoong whispered, and activated his tracker. They encountered a few more awake or awakened acolytes on the way back, but Dura and Han Li’s quick pistols took them out. Takya covered the rear, and if anything was coming that way it would not be stunned but quickly dead.
Twist, turn, up, right… Savaphoong moved with grace and certainty toward the exit. There was the inner net, then the cave of terrors that no longer seemed quite so intimidating, then the second net. He was going very quickly now, but they didn’t need him to show them the way any more, and he was back out of there before Dura had cleared the outer net.
They emerged into open water once more, and looked around. “Where is Savaphoong?” Takya asked, more puzzled than concerned.
“Here,” responded a voice behind and slightly above them. They turned and saw the old trader perched on a rocky outcrop above the exit with two pistols trained on them. “Now drop your weapons! All of you! I mean it!” He fired very close to Takya’s arm to illustrate his point.
Takya sighed. “Drop them, all of you. He has his on lethal.” They did what they were told, the pistols dropping down as if in slow motion into the darkness below. “Now, what treachery is this?”
“I want the ring,” Savaphoong replied. “Isn’t that obvious? There will be no vote on who gets it. I did not do this to be fourth in line. Just hand the medallion over and I’ll flick this to wide stun. You’ll all go out like a light and float to the surface from here, but you’ll be all right. I, however, shall sadly report how heroically you died in getting the ring when I alone am picked up.”
“You’ll never get away with it. They’ll never believe you,” Dura retorted angrily.
“They don’t have to. They will mourn you, yes, and perhaps doubt me, but they will have the rings and time will be pressing. I seriously doubt if they will launch a major search. Now—quickly! The ring! An alarm is certain in the Temple at any moment, and they’ll find those cut nets in no time!”
“You are a turd, Savaphoong,” Takya responded, and activated something in his hand that Savaphoong had not seen him palm.
The pistol in the trader’s hand suddenly shimmered and began to whine. He pulled the trigger but nothing happened. The pistol suddenly grew very hot, and he was forced to drop it. It shimmered, then vanished with a loud pop and a hissing sound. Similar sounds came from far below.
When Savaphoong looked back up, he was facing two expert harpoonlike crossbows aimed right at him. “What?…” he managed.
“Automatic destruct. We couldn’t have weapons like these falling into the hands of the Alititians, could we? All right—I agree with you on one thing, that time is running out. Get down here quickly and back inside the cave!”
He looked stricken. “You—you can’t! They’ll kill me! Or worse!”
“Tough. We’ll kill you right now. In! No more time! Dura—give him a sample shot in the tail to motivate him!”
“No, no! I’m moving!” He came down to the cave opening, but turned. “I wouldn’t really have left you here! I swear on my mother’s grave!”
“You probably did away with your mother for the value of her body chemicals,” Takya responded. “In! And as far in as possible as fast as possible, because in ten seconds from right now I am going to toss a small bomb in that cave! You made your gamble and you lost! Now you must pay the bet.”
Savaphoong vanished into the darkness of the cave.
Takya removed a small device and sent it into the cave after him, then turned and signaled. They were going up and fast.
Savaphoong, however, was not finished yet, at least as far as his own future was concerned. Betting that as soon as the bomb was thrown they would leave, he watched it come in, swam to it and caught it, then threw it back out the cave opening and waited.
In a few anxious seconds there was a brilliant flash of light and a slight rumbling all around, but it quickly died away. He shot out of the cave, his first thought to get away from there and fast. They had hit quick and dirty and most of those they’d shot with stunners had been acolytes. It was pretty good odds that he, at least, bringing up the rear most of the time, hadn’t been recognized, but that did him little good. He thought about his alternatives.
He could, of course, give chase to them, but they were good and still had advanced weapons on them. The odds of being able to do more than get shot or killed were slim, nor would Hawks treat him with any respect should he somehow manage to get picked up anyway. The odds were almost certain he’d simply be thrown back in.
To remain and take a chance that he was not recognized would present the best odds of long-term survival, but to live down here, like this, forever—it was unthinkable. Death was preferable.
There was, however, a third alternative that came to him almost in a flash of desperation. His chances weren’t very good doing this, either, but it offered the only real hope for some long-term gain, no matter how slim that hope was. He had gambled once and lost; he’d been too sloppy, the result of letting other people do his dirty work for so long and of sitting sedentary in his pleasure yacht with little or nothing to do. That was over. It was time to roll the dice and see if, perhaps, against all odds, he could come up a real winner this time. At the very least he would satisfy his honor.
He whirled and began to swim away from the rendezvous point and away from the city as well, toward a certain island a couple of hours off. Even as he did so, he could hear the war drums and deep shell-horn alarms going off, awakening the city to give chase. He hoped they chased in the right direction, which was well away from him.
Dura looked back and saw a living sea of black shapes well below but coming toward them. “I am really missing those pistols now!” she shouted to them. “That is the whole damned legion down there and maybe more!”
“Break surface and give the signal, then start swimming like hell toward the rendezvous point!” Takya shouted back. “I am going to start dropping bombs at intervals on twenty-second delays!”
They broke the surface, certain that they were still well within the surveillance perimeters, raised their right arms three times, then began to swim. Although it was late in the day and overcast, the brightness blinded them and the ultraviolet felt less than comfortable coming invisibly through those clouds. The sea was choppy, slowing them a bit as well, and each of them worried that they might not be visible among the rough seas.
The first of a series of giant bubbles broke the surface behind them, urging them on no matter what. That was the force left from the first of the bombs dropped on the pursuers, and Takya had dropped three more by now.