Fresh air – the refuge! He was back in the refuge, and with that guess he unlocked memory. But, the refuge was in the hands of the enemy – which meant he was now a prisoner.
For the first time, Nik willed his hand to move, only to panic when no muscle obeyed. This was not like the sapped exhaustion of his last confused recollection – this was a new helplessness. And once before he had been so frozen – when Leeds had take him captive in the Dipple! He was a prisoner all right!
Now, as at that previous time, Nik tried to make his ears serve to give him some idea of his surroundings. The swish-swish of the air was easy to identify. But there were other sounds, too, some close, some distant. He heard a clicking in regular pattern, and he thought it marked the action of some machine or installation. Then there was another sound, followed by the snap of space boot plate soles hitting the floor.
Someone was walking, not toward him, however. That snapping drew father away. Was he alone now or were there others in the room? The swish of air covered any sound of breathing.
So, he was a prisoner in stass – which meant his body was pinned here helplessly – but his mind was no longer blanked out. How much of the immediate past was illusion and how much truth? He had certainly reached the reef and then been drawn out of that poor safety by the light. And the Disians had done that.
Then – what had happened? The blackout of his Disian attacker – did Nik owe that to his present captors? Had they witnessed that battle and saved him for their own purposes? There was logic in that.
So, the Patrol had him. But they wanted Vandy, and there was a time limit on Vandy, giving Nik a talking point – unless they had already backtracked on him and made their own deal with Leeds. Nik’s mouth was very dry; he tried to flex his lips, to move his tongue, without success. This stass was complete.
There – more footfalls, and now the murmur of voices, voices speaking Basic, one with an accent.
This time the steps came up to where he lay – two people, Nik was sure.
There was silence for a long moment. They must be studying him – trying to learn if he had aroused to consciousness yet.
“Amazing.” That was the accented voice. “The one thing we did not foresee.”
There was a sharp answering sound, which might have been an exclamation of anger or even a laugh without much humor.
“We long ago discovered, Commander, that there is so often something unforeseen. Perfection is an ending very far in the future, if we ever reach that state. No, this was hardly to be foreseen, but it worked – very well, if we are to judge by the results we have had to face so far. You’ve seen the tape we discovered. And that was probably only one of many; it would have to be under the circumstances. You can’t cut off a small boy from all companionship on his own age level. If you don’t provide a friend, he will have one, even in his own mind. So, we have Hacon here.”
“Yes, we have him!”
Nik’s bonds would not allow any physical reaction to the menace in that voice, the promise of ill to come in the emphasis on him.
“Remember, Commander, he’s our route to your young charge. He took the boy out of here before our attack, some time before it. You recall the testimony?”
“But you found him out there alone!”
“We found him coming back.”
“Which means?”
“Probably that he was returning to set up a deal. There may have been more than one of these rats who took to the open before the end. If any of them were on Veep level or even had brains enough to do some moderate thinking, they’d want a deal. And they have only one thing to bargain with – the boy. So to send this bait of theirs back would be the logical move in opening negotiations.”
“To bargain with such filth!”
“Commander, this is a big planet and an unknown one as far as we are concerned. You say the boy was fully conditioned, which means he’ll need off-world food. They can’t have too much of it out there. And they can be hiding anywhere. We have one radiation tracker, and that won’t work – you saw it fail. This Dis is too far off our norm. Adjustments to the machine can be made, but that all takes time. With a conditioned boy held by desperate men, how much time do we have?”
“Then you say to bargain?”
“I say that the first consideration is the boy’s safety. If that can be obtained by a bargain – we had better bargain.”
“And afterwards?”
“Afterwards – we shall keep to the strict letter of any bargain, Commander, but the strict letter will not deter future action against those responsible for this. After all, this prisoner here was only a tool. Do you want just the hands? Is it not better to wait and take the brain behind them?”
“To bargain.” The disgust was plain. “But you are right, of course. How soon do we get to it – this bargaining?”
“At once!”
The stiff shell that had encased Nik was gone. They had loosed the stass. He opened his eyes and lay staring up at the two men.
One wore the black tunic of the Patrol, the diamond double star of a squadron leader on his collar. The other was brown of skin, and his hair was as dark as Vandy’s. He was plainly of the same race as the boy. He too wore a uniform, more colorful than the Patrol officer’s, and there was the glitter of decoration links on the breast of his dark red tunic. He stared back at Nik with a hatred and contempt that was hot and bitter, expressed in his eyes and the twist of his lips. The Patrolman had a calm detachment about the prisoner that was in a way just as forbidding. Nik was very glad he had had those moments to think ahead. The man in red spoke first.
“Where is the boy?”
Nik wet his dry lips with his tongue. His mouth felt cottony, so dry that he was not sure he could answer audibly. But matters were moving just as Leeds had foreseen. Vandy was their bargaining point, and both these men were ready to accept that. He swallowed and found a whisper of voice.
“Safe – so far.”
“I asked – where?”
Nik was too close yet to stass stiffness to avoid that blow. It cracked against his face, almost battering him back into dizzy half consciousness. When he was able to focus again, he saw that the Patrolman had a grip on that red clothed arm and had pinned it to the other’s side.
“That won’t do any good.” Nik was battling for more than Leeds’ bargain now. He had no doubt that this commander, whoever he was, would try to beat the information out of him. He had to appeal to logic on the part of the Patrolman. “I’m not the one giving the orders out there.”
“But you do know where he is? You were sent here to bargain.” said the Patrolman.
“No, came for food.” Nik rubbed a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. “Vandy has to have food.”
“You – !” The commander lunged at him, and the Patrol officer twisted between them.
“i’Inad! Calm down, man. So you have no off-world supplies?”
“Not enough – and the boy can’t eat native food.”
“Then, by the Three Names,” the commander exploded, “bring him back!”
He would like nothing better, Nik wanted to say. But there was the bargain – Vandy for a ship, a clear start – safety for Leeds and for Nik Kolherne.
“Why did you run with the boy in the – first place?”
That question was so unexpected that Nik answered the Patrolman with the truth. “They wanted to kill him.”
“Who did?”
There was no point in not telling the rest of it.
“A Veep called Orkhad. He was in command here.”
“What did you expect to accomplish by running? There was no place to run to – or was there?” The Patrolman made that a question. “Another nest waiting?”
“Not that I know of,” Nik returned promptly. To tell all the truth that did not apply to Leeds and their present precarious position was, he believed, his best move. For all he knew, they could have him, probably did have him, under a scanner now. If he supplied the truth in most things, they would be more likely to listen to him.
“So you just went out on the surface with the boy to hide out. What did you hope to gain?’