“What is wrong?” Nik turned to stand before Leeds, making that demand with a fear all the keener because of his exhilaration of moments earlier.
“We had months to do a job that might have taken more than a year,” Leeds said slowly, “three months lacking a few days. Gyna is not sure it will last unless” – now he did meet Nik’s gaze.”unless you can get back into her hands within another two months, Korwar-planet time.”
“But, you mean it will be the old story – no growth flesh – ?” Nik dared not face his reflection again. That first blasting failure had occurred years ago, and he had been too young then to grasp the horror of what was happening. But now – now he would know!
“No,” Leeds replied quickly, “this was done by another technique altogether. Gyna is sure it would have succeeded with the right time element; now she cannot be sure. You may need a tightening process to recover any slip. But it will hold long enough for you to do the job. Then you’ll come back here for the checkup.”
“You’ll swear to that?” Nik’s rising fear was like a shaking sickness.
Leeds’ hands held onto his shoulders. He stood tense and taut in that grip. “Nik, I’ll swear by anything you want to name that we’ll keep this promise – providing you deliver. The Guild takes care of its own.”
There was enough truth in that to allay the icy fear a little. Nik knew the reputation of the organization – it was loyal to its own.
“All right. But in two months.”
“You’ll have plenty of time. You start today, and you have all that you need right here.” The captain lifted one hand from Nik’s shoulder and tapped him in the middle of his forehead.
That was true. During the time he was being turned into Hacon outwardly, all the information gathered by snoopers had been fed into his mind by hypo-induction. Everything Vandy had created in Hacon and about Hacon was in Nik’s mind, including the approach that would best entice Vandy into the needed adventure.
“When?”
“Right now,” Leeds answered.
Nik had not been out of the suite of rooms for days, probably weeks, but the captain took him now with a sense of hurry that Nik’s own need built. How long would Hacon last? Would he fail in his task and so lose everything? Yet the meeting with Vandy could not be too hurried; the boy’s suspicions must not be aroused. Nik knew everything about Vandy that the snooper tapes could tell, but that did not mean he knew Vandy.
“You have all any induction can give you.” Leeds did not sound in the least worried as they went down one of the long corridors that Nik knew were underground. “It’s been so well planted in your mind that you can’t make a wrong move, even if you wanted to. Just get him into the LB.”
“But when we get there – on that other planet?”
“No need to worry about that. The setup on Dis has been in order for months. You’ll have all the help you need there.”
They came out not on the roof of the gray-green house this time but on a hillside, where a cluster of rocks and a fringe of bushes had concealed the opening. There was a small glade in which a flitter waited, another man already aboard. That flier had an odd shimmer about its outline, a light that made Nik’s eyes smart and forced him to look away quickly. Some other trick device for its concealment, he decided. Leeds climbed in and took the controls, proving that the flier was not on a set flight pattern. “Set?” Leeds asked of the other passenger. The man consulted the timekeeper on his wrist. His lips moved as if he counted; then he snapped his fingers, and on that signal the flitter bounced into the air under a full spurt of power. They were out of the masking greenery and flying into the wilderness beyond the fringe of the city.
“Correct course and speed,” the man behind Leeds ordered. “Two – four – hold it!”
The flier bore on. They lifted over the first range of hills, and Nik looked down into a tangled mass of vegetation. Then he caught a glimpse of red stone walls surrounding a solid-looking building.
The flitter came about in order to approach the building from another direction.
“What about the LB?” Nik dared to ask. How could they have planted any craft as large as a space lifeboat undetected by the guards below?
“It’s ready.” Leeds appeared to have full confidence in that.
“When, Jaj?”
“Now!”
The flitter gave a forward leap like the spring of a stalking beast upon its prey, coming down between trees. Leeds signalled Nik out through the hatch Jaj held open. He landed with a roll on thick and cushioning turf. As he scrambled to his feet, he looked up.
There was no sign of the flitter at all, nor could he hear a motor hum. So far Leeds was right. Nik was past the safeguards of the HS villa, only a few yards from the very point where the snooper had been planted in the beginning. Well, the captain had also said that the Guild Forecast Com had given 73 per cent odds on the success of this part of the plan.
Nik brushed down the fantastic spacer’s uniform Vandy had created for Hacon and walked quietly forward. He stood between two drooping limbed bushes to look into a small hidden glade.
Someone was there before him, sitting down with knees hunched against his chest, his attention all for a hopping creature making erratic progress across the sod.
Nik came into the open. “Vandy?” he called.
Chapter IV
NIK WAS CRAWLING down a tunnel of cold dark, but ahead was an encouraging spark of light, a promise of warmth. The light closed in about him as he lay looking up at a rounding curve of blue, which held the hard, sleek sheen of metal. He blinked and tried to think clearly.
There was a chime ringing in his ears, growing more strident. He raised himself on one elbow, and the wink of a flashing light dazzled his eyes. This – this was the LB! And he was coming out of stass.
The chime – that meant they were nearing the end of the voyage. They! Nik sat up abruptly to look at the other bunk. Vandy lay there, still curled in sleep, his dark lashes shadows on his cheeks, the netting of take-off straps holding him in safety.
Nik’s own straps were taut across his thighs. And the wink, the chime, were warning enough to stay where he was. He wriggled down and fastened the second belt. Coming in for a landing – but where?
Korwar was one of a six-planet system and the only inhabitable world in that system. And Leeds, while being evasive over their destination, had insisted that they need not fear pursuit. Probably their voyage had removed them not only from Korwar but from its sun as well. And to Nik, ignorant as he was of galactic courses, they could be anywhere, even on Vandy’s Veever.
Vandy’s Veever, Vandy’s Hacon, Vandy’s dream – Nik lay flat, waiting for the landing controls to take over, and thought about how right Leeds had been so far. From that moment when Vandy had looked up in the garden to see Nik standing in the open sunlight, he had accepted Nik unquestioningly. Nik squirmed now on the plasta-foam filled bunk. Too easy – this whole operation had begun. His hand twitched, but the straps prevented his raising it to his face, to feel tangible evidence of the change he accepted as a small part of truth, the one thing he clung to fiercely. And now long could he continue to cling? Leeds had said perhaps two months -.
LB’s were fashioned to rove wide courses in space. The very nature of those escape craft meant that they had to be almost equal to the fastest cruisers as they took the “jumps” in and out of hyper-space to carry out their rescue missions. But how much time had passed now? Nik had no idea of how long it had been since they had taken off from Korwar. Any minute the change in him might start –
His smooth lips twisted on a sound that was close to a moan. Leeds – surely Leeds would be waiting for their landing. Nik believed that Leeds was the leader in this Guild operation. But what if he wasn’t there or if he did not have power enough to make good on his promise? And how long would it take to learn from Vandy the information they wanted? Even if the boy had accepted Nik easily as an adventure companion, would he share something he had been taught to keep secret? The holes in the future became bigger and blacker all the time!