The two men were still chasing her. Apparently unwilling to risk blasterfire in public, they probably hoped to wear her down and catch her before she could reach some place of safety.
At this hour of the night there was no one else on the street, and little motorized traffic. Even the front door to the hotel was security-locked by now; Beti would have to stop at the door and identify herself to the clerk on duty before she’d be let in, and she dared not pause that long for fear her pursuers would catch up with her.
Beti was running short of breath; her gasps grew louder and longer. Sensing this, the two men behind her quickened their pace. They were stronger and faster than she was and were not running in bare feet; they were confident they could catch her before much longer.
A car zoomed by on the darkened street. Beti stood in front of it waving her arms, trying to flag it down, but the driver refused to stop. Beti had to jump out of his way to avoid being run down, and then resumed her flight. She could tell her pursuers were gaining on her, but she couldn’t move any faster. Newforest’s gravity was two-and-a-half gees; DesPlaines’ measured closer to three. The difference was slight, but under such trying circumstances it was significant. With each step she took, Beti wore herself down further as she fought the slightly higher gravity.
Beti ducked into another alleyway, hoping to escape through it onto some other street or at least find someplace to hide. She ran down the darkened alley. Each breath was a fresh stabbing pain in her lungs.
Too late she realized she’d come to a dead end. She found herself facing a brick wall, with no way to climb over it. She looked from side to side for an open doorway, but there was none. It was too late to go back the way she’d come. She was trapped. Even as her spirits were sinking, she turned back to face her pursuers, knife at the ready. If her life was to end in some dead-end alley on a planet far from home, at least she would end it with a fight.
The two men chasing her had slowed their pace, realizing they had her trapped. The man with the blaster was still reluctant to use it, but they approached slowly out of respect for her talents with the knife. Beti stood in a fighting crouch, waiting for them to come within range so she could at least kill one before the other over powered her.
Suddenly bright lights appeared at the front of the alley and a loudspeaker blared, “This is the police. Drop your weapons immediately and put your hands in the air.”
The two men whirled around at this unexpected development, and the one with the blaster pointed it at the lights. He never had the chance to fire as the buzz of a stunner charged the air and he collapsed in a heap on the ground. His partner, realizing they’d lost, surrendered to the inevitable and put up his hands.
Beti flushed with sudden relief and she staggered, then leaned against the wall for support. She let the knife drop to the ground. She wouldn’t need it. Her ordeal was over for the moment – and maybe now she could convince the police to help her look for her brother.
CHAPTER 2 A Family Reunion
Felicité, the mansion of DesPlaines’ Duke Etienne d’Alembert, was a sprawling one-story complex surrounded by sturdy stone walls. The maze of hallways connecting the thirty major rooms and the hundred and ten bedrooms had been known to confuse even the sharpest minds – so much so that small computer terminals were located at intervals to calculate and pin point the shortest route from wherever one was at the moment to wherever one wanted to go.
This enormous edifice was usually barely occupied, as Duke Etienne and the majority of the d’Alembert clan toured the Empire in the Circus of the Galaxy for no less than ten months Out of the year. In those months the estate was inhabited by Duke Etienne’s eldest son Robert, Marquis of DesPlaines, Robert’s wife Gabrielle, their three children, and the host of servants and administrators it took to run both the household and the planet. Only when the Circus was on vacation was Felicité crowded to capacity, and then even the barracks behind the main mansion would be filled with d’Alemberts practicing new tricks and upgrading their acts.
The Circus was currently on tour, but nonetheless there were a few extra residents at Felicité. Yvonne d’Alembert and Pias Bavol were between assignments for the Service of the Empire and had nothing more crucial to do than tend their children, Maurice d’Alembert and Kari Bavol.
The d’Alembert family tradition was a rigorous one, and already the children were being taught the skills they’d use in later life. At one year of age, Maurice was learning the art of tumbling and how to fall properly – important lessons for anyone from a three-gee world, and particularly important for someone who would probably end up in the Galaxy’s foremost circus troupe. Yvonne also took her son for swings on a trapeze to help him overcome the fear of heights instinctive to every high-grav native. Yvonne d’Alembert had married into the circus clan and was not a performer herself, but she was a skilled athlete and could follow the strict Circus regimen for child training.
Kari Bavol, six months old, was still a bit young for such vigorous activities, but her father took her into the swimming pool every day and taught her enough swimming to “drownproof” her while she learned not to be afraid of the water. Pias, though in superb shape, was neither a performer nor an athlete, and while he loved his daughter, he looked forward to the day when he could hand her over to some of the Circus’s more skilled teachers, who’d give her a more complete education than he could ever hope to impart. In the meantime he did the best he could, and any skills he lacked as an instructor were more than compensated for by fatherly affection.
The days were spent quietly in childrearing, reading, and casual conversation, but the peace was deceptive. While Pias and Yvonne projected an image of cool serenity, both were torn with worry over the fate of their spouses. Yvonne’s husband Jules and Pias’s wife Yvette were currently on assignment for SOTE – an assignment that could be the most dangerous of their careers as secret agents. Jules and Yvette had gone to the planet Omicron in company with the Galaxy’s most nefarious traitor, Lady A, to investigate the possibility that the Empire was under attack from a hostile alien force. Pias and Yvonne had been unable to accompany their mates, and could only stay home and worry about what might be happening to them. Both knew they would have trouble sleeping until they knew the fate of their beloved partners.
Several days after Jules and Yvette had left for Omicron, Felicité received a midmorning vidicom call from Baron Ebert Roumenier of Nouveau Calais, Vonnie’s father. After inquiring about the health of his daughter and his precious grandson, the baron got down to business. “Actually,” he told Vonnie, “I’m calling to speak to your brother-in-law Pias. Does he have a sister named Beti?”
When Pias was brought to the vidiphone and the question was asked, he sat upright and his body tensed. “What’s happened?” he asked. “Is she there? Is everything smooth?”
“She had a bit. of a fright last night, but she’s recovered,” Ebert said, and went on to recount the police version of what had happened. “She refused to say why the men tried to kill her, and the men only know they were hired to do a job. Lady Bavol said she refused to discuss the matter with anyone except her lost brother Pias, whom she thought might be on DesPlaines. Since she’s a member of the nobility the police brought the matter to my attenion, and I’ve invited her to stay here as my guest until the business is settled. I thought I’d contact you so we could figure out what to do.”
“Thank you,” Pias said. “I’ll be over there as fast as I can. Tell her I’m coming, but don’t give her any details about … well, about my business or the family I’ve married into.”
The baron nodded. His family was also involved with the Service, and he knew the value of keeping secrets.
Yvonne offered to come with Pias, since she hadn’t visited her father in several weeks. The two agents and their children climbed into the personal copter and started the ninety-minute flight to Nouveau Calais.
Not much was said during the trip. As Vonnie looked across at Pias she could see conflicting emotions playing across his features. In all the years Vonnie had known him, she’d never heard Pias say a single word about his family – but she’d gotten enough of the story from Yvette to understand some of the pain behind his silence.