“And meanwhile we’ll have failed, and be done for.” Once more Kenmuir had a sense of fingers closing on him.
Aleka struck them aside. “But you have a way, senor. You must, or you wouldn’t have spoken.”
“Yes,” Matthias answered, and abruptly his voice sounded almost young. “A mad way, a wild hunt, but it might work, it barely might work.”
Understanding flashed into Kenmuir. “Kestrel!” he yelled.
Aleka stared at him, “What?”
He could not stay seated, he leaped up and paced, to and fro, arousal going through him in surges like the sea waves out beyond the mists. “The spacecraft, the relic, Kyra Davis’s ship. We keep it always ready to lift—”
She gasped.
Matthias’s tones quickened: “Including spacesuits, modern self-adjusting ones, EV\ drive packs, and everything else.” Otherwise the symbolism would have been hollow. Suddenly Kenmuir realized, fully, why the Trothdom had fought, and paid a high price in things yielded during negotiations, for the right to maintain an antimatter-powered vessel on Earth. Kestrel was not the first sacred object in human history. Of course, any launch was forbidden. He heard through his blood: “A short flight, if you can pilot her, Captain Kenmuir.”
“I can study it up,” he said, faintly amazed at the levelness of his voice. “You have vivifer material about that model, so we won’t have to tap the public database, don’t you?”
“But the whole world will see!” Aleka exclaimed.
Matthias grinned. “Right. Something that spectacular can’t be kept entirely off the news, and the Teramind itself will be hard put to explain it away.”
Sobriety slid into Kenmuir’s passion. “Unless Venator’s service heads me off in time.”
“They have craft with far greater capabilities, true, and they’ll react fast,” Matthias said. “But you’ll take them by surprise, and they won’t know where you’re. bound till you’ve landed. Then you’ll have to be quick, oh, yes.”
In for a penny, in for a pound. Kenmuir laughed aloud. “We’ll plan the operation. You can get data on what Authority units are currently stationed where or in which orbits, can’t you? That’s public information. And I’ve got an idea about how ta. keep them from silencing me once they’ve caught me. Come, let’s get busy!” < “ ‘Auwe no ho’i e,” Aleka murmured. “You surprise me, you do. I didn’t expect I’d ever see you in a state like this.” “I’ve work ahead of me,” was all Kemnuir could find to say. She rose and regarded him closely. “One thing, ami go. What’s this T? You’re not going alone.” ‘ His pacing jarred to a halt. “What? You? Untrained and—and vulnerable—No, ridiculous.” “I’m a quick study,” Aleka said. “I can learn_what I’ll need to be of some help.” She addressed Matthias. “Can’t I, senor?” The Rydberg smiled. “I believe you had better have a partner, Captain Kenmuir. I’m too decrepit. This lass strikes me as being potentially the most competent person we have on hand.” “Besides,” Aleka told them, “it’s my mission too. And, and, Pele’s teeth, lan, I won’t let you go without me!” Ijod speed you.” The ancient words seemed to follow Kenmuir and Aleka out of Guthrie House. Matthias did not, nor anyone else. Alone, they crossed the lawn toward the forest. Light streamed from a sun close to the sea. It set grass and the massed needles of trees aglow. The Moon stood in deepening blue nearly as high as it was going to mount. Though the day’s mildness lingered, Kenmuir pulled his hooded cloak tighter about him. He would have wished for clouds to veil this freehold a little from the seeing, unseen orbiting robots. But for the quickest passage today, launch must be now; and to wait would be to run a worse risk. Into the past fifty-odd hours, less a few for sleep, had been crammed as much preparation as was possible, study, simulation practice, planning. What was to come of it, that could never be foreseeable. Beneath the alertness that took hold of him in any crisis, tension pulsed and shivered. The rugged bark of a fir, its fragrance, the scuff of his feet on duff, its crackly yielding to his weight, were vivid as lightning. More than biochemical stimulant upbore him. He was bound on a mission, perhaps his last but surely his greatest.