Robot Blues (52 page)

“Back to normal,
huh?” Xris took out a twist, fumbling at the box with one hand, his good hand.
He managed to get the twist out, but dropped the box onto the deck. Swearing,
he started to give it a kick.

Quong intercepted
him, picked up the box. He handed it back to Xris.

“I will give you a
sedative, too, my friend. Are you in pain?” He looked at the mangled hardware,
the frazzled wires sticking out of Xris’s left shoulder.

“Hell, no!” Xris
chomped down on the twist, almost bit it in two. “It doesn’t hurt, Doc. It’s
not real!”

“I wasn’t
referring to your arm,” Quong said quietly, he handed Xris a cup of coffee.

Xris shook his
head, accepted the coffee. “That kind of pain, no sedative in the world can
touch.”

Quong nodded his
head, returned to Jamil, who lay stretched out in a hammock, his leg bandaged.
He was now awake and alert.

“Boy, I can pick ‘em,
can’t I?” Xris said to Jamil, while sitting down on the bench beside the Little
One. “What are we down this job? One Claymore, one PRRS, one Lane-sucking
robot, one civilian, my arm, your leg, Raoul’s mind, and two friends.” Xris
leaned back against the bulkhead, closed his eyes. “Two friends.”

He raised his
coffee cup. “Here’s to Darlene Rowan and Tycho.” He sipped at the coffee, took
too big a mouthful, burned hell out of the inside of his mouth. He suffered in
silence.

“I dunno,” Jamil
said after a moment. “I think it was better Tycho went the way he did. When he
found out how much money we’ve lost on this job, the shock alone would have
killed him.”

“And we don’t know
for certain that Darlene is dead,” Quong said.

Xris shook his
head again, sat holding the cooling coffee. It tasted like mud.

Tess climbed the
ladder, came to join them. “How are you feeling?” she asked Jamil.

“Terrific. Nothing
like a little shrapnel tearing through your leg. Makes you appreciate life.
Grab me some coffee, will you, Doc?”

Quong moved over
to the small dispenser, poured coffee, brought a cup for himself and one for
Jamil. The Little One huddled into a ball, buffeted by waves of rough emotions.
Raoul fell asleep. Down in the cockpit, Harry could be heard, talking to the
King James II,
requesting clearance to land.

Tess stood, hands
on her hips. Her gaze swept all of them, halted when it came to Xris. “Look. I’ll
say it. I’m sorry. I’m damn sorry. About your friends, I mean.”

“Don’t apologize,”
Xris said. “You did your job. You did what you set out to do. At least, that’s
what I’m guessing.”

“I’m not
apologizing for doing my job,” Tess said. “You’re right. I
did
do what I
set out to do. I stopped Nick Harsch from selling technology to the Corasians.
I kept that robot out of his hands and out of the Corasian galaxy. Who knows
how many lives we saved?”

“I only know that
we lost quite a few on the way,” Xris said.

“Stop whining! So
the job didn’t turn out to be the easy, cushy chance to make a fortune that you
expected. The mercenary trade is a risky one. If you can’t take it, I suggest
you find another line of work!”

She was angry now,
too angry to talk. Small red dots burned in her cheeks, her eyes glinted. She
headed for the ladder, for the cockpit below.

“Tess,” Xris said.
“One question.”

She halted, not
looking around. “What?” Her voice was hard.

“Why didn’t you
tell us the truth?”

“We would have
helped you nail that bastard,” Jamil said.

“You only had to
ask politely,” Quong added.

Slowly, Tess
turned back, faced them. She glared around at them, truly exasperated. “Tell
you the truth! How the hell could I? How could I trust you?”

“Ah,” said Xris,
enlightened. “You couldn’t trust
us!
I get it now. This from a woman
with so many angles she would have made an honors class study for geometry.”

The corner of Tess’s
mouth twitched. She tried to stay mad, bill she couldn’t. She even managed a
small chuckle. “All right. I guess I earned that one. I’ll tell you everything,
okay? Then you can judge for yourselves.

“Navy Intelligence
has known about Nick Harsch and his dealings with the Corasians for years, but,
like I told you earlier, Xris, we could never catch him. He had a contact in
the top levels of the Navy, someone feeding him information. We found out who
the person was and took him out very quietly, no publicity. What we refer to as
‘early retirement.’ We figured Harsch would try to find someone else. NI chose
me for the job. I set myself up. Lost lots of money at the gaming tables, let
it be known that I needed credits and needed them bad or my career was down the
toilet.

“NI thought for a
while Harsch wasn’t going to bite, but then we intercepted one of his shipments
to Corasia, confiscated the weapons. Harsch lost big. Shortly after that, one
of his agents contacted me. After some negotiation, I agreed to work for him.

“I proved my
worth, warned him in advance of a couple of raids. Problem was, I never met the
man. He handled everything third- or fourth-hand. We needed something big to
lure him out.”

“Lasairion’s
sad-eyed robot,” said Quong.

“Exactly. It was
perfect. The Pandorans were kicking up a fuss about the robot. The Admiralty
promptly over reacted, made it all hush-hush, level-one security, lot
your-eyes-only, DNA-check-your-spit type of stuff. Of course, as you said. Dr.
Quong, these Lane-laying robots were programmed to respond only to Lasairion.
So we didn’t think there was much danger.”

“I can’t believe
Harsch didn’t know that,” Xris said.

“He was a deal
maker, an entrepreneur. He’s like a used vehic dealer, who wouldn’t know a
gravator from a generator. What he did know was his customers and what they
wanted and needed. When he told the Corasians about the robot, they were wild
to have it. They promised to set him up in luxury for life.”

Tess sighed, ran
her hand through her hair. “That’s when everything started falling apart.”

“Coffee?” Quong
asked, and went to get her a cup.

“Thanks. Everything
was going according to plan. I became Captain Strauss of the Army and managed
to get myself stationed on Pandor, which was easy, because most military
personnel are busy trying to get themselves transferred
off
Pandor. No
one on base knew I was working for NI, not even the colonel. That’s how secret
this operation was.

“I examined the
robot myself. I swear to God”—Tess gave Xris a wry grin—”that ‘bot was broken.
I couldn’t get it to function. Of course, I didn’t dare move it, not then, not
while we were trying to smooth things over with the Pandorans. But I scanned it
and it checked out as unworkable. What the devil did you do to it?”

“Bumped into it.
Jostled it. I don’t know.”

“A broken
connection,” Quong said. “A short in the wiring. Something that wouldn’t
necessarily show up on scans.”

“At any rate, I
reported to NI that the ‘bot was safe. Boy, was I wrong on that one!” Tess
sighed, sat nursing the coffee cup in her hands, as if trying to warm them. “We
figured Harsch would ask
me
to steal the robot. We had it all planned. I
was going to snatch it, put the bomb in it, hand it over to Harsch. I made sure
it would go to Harsch himself. That was part of the deal. I refused to deliver
it otherwise. He agreed.

“We wanted to
catch him alive, of course, to interrogate him, find out just what secrets he’d
passed on to the enemy. But if that didn’t work out, the bomb would see to it
that he never sold anything to the Corasians again. Unfortunately, Harsch had
other ideas. He didn’t want me to steal the ‘bot, he didn’t want to risk my
being caught. He said he would hire someone to steal the robot for him. He
asked me if I knew anyone.”

“You recommended
us,” Xris said, starting now to see the whole picture.

“The Lord Admiral
recommended you. I gave your name to Harsch. From that point on, you know what
happened. I arranged for Jamil to be transported to the
King James II
without causing suspicion, arranged for you, Xris, to sneak off base. If
everything had gone according to plan, you and Jamil would have put the bomb in
the robot yourselves, delivered it to Harsch at Hell’s Outpost—”

“He sells the ‘bot
and
us to the Corasians.” Xris shook his head. “Thank the Lord Admiral for
the recommendation, but tell him from now on we find our own jobs.”

“I don’t think Harsch
planned to double-cross you. Not at the beginning. He was a sharp businessman
and he knew when he had a good thing going. But nothing went according to plan.”

“I still don’t see
why you couldn’t have told us all the truth,” Jamil said. “You told us part of
it.”

“Well, I didn’t
want to blow my cover, for one thing. II this failed, NI would still need me to
spy on Harsch. And for another, what was I to think when the whole damned team
showed up? Maybe you’re going to try to double-cross Harsch. Maybe you’re
working for him. Maybe you’re in this up to your eyeballs. Maybe you’d help me
and maybe you’d sell me out. How could I know?”

“You knew,” Xris
said softly. He stared at the cold coffee.

Tess sat down
beside him, put her hand on his knee. “All right.
I
knew. And if it had
just been me—my life— on the line, I would have told you. But there were more.
Countless more. Everything was falling apart, all around me. First the robot
works when it isn’t supposed to.

Then Grant shows
up with the professor’s unit. Then the robot escapes and takes Grant with it.
Then the blasted robot begins taking out Lanes. Then Harsch hears that the
robot’s taking out Lanes—”

“From you.”

“Not from me.
Apparently he’s got more than one spy in the Navy. Anyway, he passes the news to
the Corasians, raises the price.

“The Corasians are
so excited that they send one of their motherships over here to pick up the ‘bot
in person. They tell him to bring the ‘bot to the ship directly.

“Harsch wasn’t
pleased about that, but he didn’t have much choice. The Corasians let Harsch
know that they would be very unhappy if he didn’t deliver, might start
attacking a few of our outposts.

“And so now what
do I do?” Tess appealed to them. “If the Navy flies in to take out the
Corasians, we lose Harsch. If we lost the robot, we lose Harsch. Harsch loses
the Corasians. The Corasians attack our outposts. God! I got lost myself trying
to solve that one.

“But then,
suddenly, everything’s all right!” Tess spread her hands. “We recover the
robot. I think, fine, we can carry out the mission as planned. Everything’s on
track. And then you”—she looked at Xris—”want to chuck the whole thing and run
off on some godforsaken rescue mission!”

Xris sat silent,
sucking the flavor out of the wad of the twist in his mouth.

“All right, so I
have a suspicious nature,” Tess said. “In my business, that’s what keeps you
alive. I wondered: Were you really ready to chuck the job and go off on a
mission you knew was hopeless? Or did
you
intend to steal the robot, now
that you knew how valuable it was? All my doubts came back. I had to do one
thing: Get the robot to Harsch. And I had to do it fast. Maybe I made a
mistake, threatening to blow up the plane. Maybe I should have just told you
the truth, but even now, looking back on it, I don’t see where I could have
reasonably made any other decision.”

“She’s got a
point, Xris,” Jamil said. “A lot of what we did wasn’t real bright.”

“All’s well that
ends well,” Quong observed with a shrug. “Harsch will never again sell
technology to the enemy. And the Corasians will not be able to build space
Lanes or take them out. Tycho died for a worthy cause. He deserves a
commendation.”

“I’m not sure the
rest of us do. One thing.” Xris lifted It is head, looked at Tess. “Why did you
gas us when we landed on the Corasian ship?”

“Because you were
going to fight to the death. I knew that. I couldn’t allow that to happen. I
knew then that you were on the level. It was my responsibility to see that you
came out of this alive, if I could. I figured that once we were on board, we’d
at least stand a chance. As it turned out, I made yet another mistake.”

“You lost Jeffrey
Grant.”

“That was a
last-minute thing. I don’t know quite why I did it or what I hoped would
happen. It’s just ... I felt so sorry for him. He was the innocent bystander.
He didn’t ask for any of this. I knew Harsch and the Corasians would come on
board the PRRS to pick up the robot. I figured that once they found it, they’d
leave without bothering to search the rest of the spaceplane.”

“What did you plan
to do with him then?” Quong asked.

“When I boarded
the Corasian mothership, I sent a secret signal to the
King James II,
giving them our location. I knew the Navy was on its way. I figured Grant would
stay hidden until I could come back for him. What I didn’t count on was the
fact that Jeffrey Grant not only hid himself, he hid the robot, too.”

“So that’s what
happened to it,” Xris said.

“That’s all I can
think of. Harsch was furious when he couldn’t find it. Furious and scared. He
knew what the Corasians would do to him if he came up empty-handed. At least it
gave me a chance to keep you alive, Xris. The Corasians wanted to dissect you
on the spot. I told Harsch that you had hidden the robot. He ordered the
Corasians to keep you alive until he found out where.”

“We owe you our
lives. Captain,” Quong said formally, and made a little bow. “I, for one,
extend my thanks.”

“Me, too,” said
Jamil. “And if Xris there doesn’t offer to take you someplace romantic and
treat you to champagne and a chance to watch the moon rise over the ocean, you
let me know.”