Double Solitaire

Chapter Forty-Two

Air-raid sirens over House Vayawand. For an instant Kelly dithered -- run to Jay and Hastet and baby, or outside to investigate? Something drew him out.

The wall batteries had opened up and were laying down a withering fire across the night sky. There were seven ships playing quick tag with the ground-to-air fire and shooting at a lone Vayawand ship that was diving and weaving.

Kelly grabbed a running guard. "What is it?"

"Ilkazam."

That was very interesting. As Kelly watched, an Ilkazam ship blew a spine off the Vayawand ship, and the ground batteries blew it in turn to its ancestors. He tried a brief telepathic probe, but there was mentatic static filling the overmind. He knew it was a battlefield technique designed to disrupt telepathic communications, but it seemed awfully convenient in this situation.

Kelly turned and bolted back into the House.

"Ideal, Rowan," Tach said, talking to the captain of the pursuing Ilkazam ship. "You're not really supposed to shoot us down!" Tis gasped as the Vayawand ship bucked and shook under another hit.

Zabb didn't respond to her. His face was a mask of concentration as he tried to hold the captured ship on course. Cosmic Traveler/Durg sat before the holoscreen.

"Password," the defense officer was requesting.

The soul eater who had devoured the mind of the Vayawand captain supplied it. "Stalin." The deep male voice emerging from the woman's throat was horrifying.

Tis stared into the soul eater's empty eyes, shuddered, and looked away. It was a rare gift -- if such a term could be applied to a power so grotesque -- and trust Zabb to make certain his elite team contained one. Soul eaters didn't last very long. The toll on mind and body destroyed their mentatic ability in a very few years. Tisianne would refuse to train the gift if it surfaced. Which was probably a good indication of why Zabb was Raiyis of House Ilkazam, and she wasn't.

There was a silence that stretched for an eternity. Then the defense officer said, "Preparing to drop the field. Come in fast, Durg bo Blaise."

Traveler's powers, in addition to insubstantiality, included a remarkable impersonation ability, but it didn't include things like memories or voices. Tisianne stiffened with concern, but Traveler merely grunted; fortunately, it seemed a sufficiently Morakhian response. The ship dropped sickeningly, then abruptly leveled off, and they were down. Spies in the field had reported that the real Durg was traveling with only thirty soldiers, so the invaders had to scale back from their initial fifty.

Every one of the elite troop was a mentat. Zabb pulled them all into a TacNet, and they burned out the cortex of their captured ship. It was necessary to keep the ship from giving the alarm, but that didn't make it easier. The troops were quickly mustering, Tis slung her assault rifle and tried to ignore the itch caused by the jewels pasted on her face. It wouldn't bear close scrutiny, but hopefully they weren't going to stand still long enough or linger long enough for anyone to notice. And they did have a real Vayawand noble with them. Bat'tam had insisted on accompanying them.

"Can this possibly work?" Tis said softly as the outer door of the ship was slowly cycling open. "A force of twenty-nine men and women and one groundling to assault an entire House."

"Probably not." Zabb grinned down at her. "But what a tale it will make."

"Would you mind terribly much if we lived to hear it? I've always thought the concept of a dead hero was something of an oxymoron."

Zabb closed a hand around her throat and pushed back her head. "Second thoughts?"

She veiled her eyes with her lashes. "A few."

"It's not too late to back out." He ran the tip of his thumb across her lips.

"Yes, it is."

"One last time for luck," he said softly as he bent for a kiss.

Tis laid the tips of her fingers across his mouth. Held him at bay. "Better, I think, that we start weaning ourselves from this sort of behavior."

It hurt him. He hid the hurt with a shrug, and a cocky, "Don't trust your resolve. I understand I have that effect on women."

The door was open. "On cousins too," Tis said softly to his back as he descended the ramp.

"Let's go."

Jay looked up at Kelly. "Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?"

The man gaped, glanced down at the bulge, back to Jay. The detective set aside his ysan, pulled out the waistband of Kelly's trousers, and fished out the gun. He had gotten surprisingly deft with his stumps.

"Never." He shook the laser under Kelly's nose for emphasis. "Never stick a gun down the front of your pants. You'll shoot off something you'd rather not lose. Tachyon'll sure as hell be pissed if you shoot it off, and I don't know if even the Takisians can grow back a dick. Now, is there some reason you're running around like Rambo?"

"We're being rescued."

Jay glanced around. The sirens had fallen silent. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Truly?"

"Yes!"

"How'd you get the gun?"

"Knocked out a guard."

"Oh, good."

Kelly tapped his temple. "With this."

Jay sighed. "I could say something. You know how to use a gun?"

"Vaguely."

"Well, point it vaguely in the direction vaguely away from me. So what's the plan?"

"We get out of here. Keep moving until they find us.

"Moving is going to make us harder to find."

"Harder for Blaise too."

The mention of the sociopathic young man galvanized Jay into action. "It's a wonderful plan. I'm in love with this plan." Jay moved to the door of the bedroom. "Hasti, we're blowing this scene."

She emerged with Illyana over her shoulder. "Does that mean we're leaving?"

Jay cocked a thumb over his shoulder. "Rambo here seems to think so. Says the marines have landed."

"Are they part of the Network?" Hastet asked.

"No, they're... never mind."

"It's clear," Kelly called softly from the door.

They slipped into the corridor.

The plan was simple. Taj and the bulk of the force were designated to take out the defense center and open the way for a quick rescue by ships of House Ilkazam. Zabb and Tisianne, with Traveler impersonating Durg, would go directly to the office of the Raiyis and seize Blaise. So far they were doing great. They were into the House proper, and no one had spared them so much as a glance. Bat'tam was leading the way to the Raiyis's office.

And then Durg vanished.

Mark Meadows stood blinking owlishly in the center of the corridor. Now they were getting looks. The four passersby in the hall went down to the combined assault of twenty-eight minds.

"Oh, bummer, man," Mark moaned. "I short-sleeved Traveler so he couldn't, like, lock me in a closet or something. Guess I got a little short." The tall ace had pulled out another vial of the blue-and-silver powder.

"No good," Zabb said. "One of them got off the alarm. Our little ruse is over."

Mark dropped the vial back into his pouch and fished out Moonchild. Downed the powder, and the Korean ace appeared.

"Lovely," Zabb said. "But does she do anything other than look attractive?" Moonchild stepped into a shadow and vanished. "Useful."

"Well, troops," Taj sang out. "To the fight. Pity, I had discovered in myself a great desire to live long enough to become an Ajayiz'et." He shook his head and sighed.

"House Tandeh's on an island, isn't it? I want to drown them like rats." Blaise unclasped his hands from behind his back. Turned back to face the holoscreen. "There's got to be a way to do that. Make a tidal wave." He waved a hand vaguely. "Do something."

Durg, five hundred miles out from House Vayawand, his heart and mind heavy with the knowledge of the alliance arrayed against them, forced his mind to work, his mouth to speak. "Perhaps, my lord, such wholesale destruction is not warranted."

"They betrayed me, Durg. They're going to pay for it."

"Your scorched-earth policy backlashed against us in Alaa. Besides, House Tandeh is a wealthy one. Conquest of a mud flat is not in your best interests.'

"I'm rich. I don't care."

Durg took a grip on his fast-vanishing patience. "Others will, however."

"And they don't mean shit. I'm all that matters. I'm the man who conquered Takis."

"A slight exaggeration." He had gone too far. Durg could see it in the whitening of Blaise's nostrils. He knew he would be returning home to pain.

Someone entered the room out of holo range. Blaise looked to his left. Durg heard a voice reporting, "My lord, intruders have penetrated the House. Troops are assaulting defense central."

Blaise whirled back to face the holoscreen. His jaw was working. "Durg, get your ass back here now. Kick it."

So the monster had not forgotten that Durg was essential to his security. He hadn't lost sight of that -- yet. Durg began to bow, only to find himself addressing an empty stage. Blaise had cut him off.

Durg issued a command to the Zal'hma at' Irg captain, and the ship leapt ahead. How much longer could he control his creation? Prince Tisianne and Durg's farmer master, Raiyis Zabb, had proved cleverer than expected, Blaise more erratic. From the jaws of victory we snatched defeat. An Earth expression he'd heard from a student dining in the Cosmic Pumpkin.

An edge of pain etched its way into his psyche. Memories of a man who had treated him with the most kindness Durg had ever met in his life. A woman who had defeated him, returned his life, and given him respect.

"Looks like the cavalry is riding toward Little Bighorn," Jay remarked as the throbbing howl of an alarm sounded and armed troops double-timed through the corridors. "So what now, General?"

Kelly had been swinging his head back and forth like an agitated horse. Now he froze, his eyes going blank. "This way," he said, snapping out of it.

One good thing. Nobody paid the slightest bit of attention to them as they rushed through the House. Then it struck Jay. They were going back to their suite.

"Oh, gosh, this was pleasant, wasn't it, honey? Just a little late-night jog around the House."

"Don't be such a smartass." The human word dropped like a turd. Jay had been teaching Hastet English -- it was a real shame she was such a good student.

"They're meeting us there," Kelly said tersely.

Illyana woke up and began making a fanny little sound halfway between a cry and a laugh. The trio raced back through the door of the suite. Tisianne and Bat'tam were waiting.

Tis flew to Hastet. She laid the baby in Tisianne's arms. Illyana's tiny fist batted her mother firmly on the chin, and she gurgled. Kelly was in Bat'tam's arms being affectionately patted. Since hugs seemed indicated all around, Jay hugged Hastet. When he lifted his head, Kelly and Tisianne were twined in an embrace with the baby between them.

"That kid is going to be so disturbed," Jay said to Hastet. To the others. "Hate to interrupt this love fest, but did you have some idea about how you're going to get us out of here?"

They had managed to take out the main power line feeding electricity from Vaya to the House. Then the backup generators had kicked in, filling the rooms and corridors with a sickly red emergency light. Taj, Zabb, Moonchild, and the Ilkazam troops were pinned down at the intersection of three corridors. A sharp ninety-degree turn, and ten meters down the left hall, was the last remaining entrance into the basement complex and the defense center. The Vayawand troops had blown the other two stairways and the six elevators, forcing the attackers to run down a bare corridor and then descend a staircase under withering fire from the defending Morakh soldiers.

Taj fed a grenade into his launcher and sent it down the hall. It armed in time to blow a large hole out of the right wall, and destroyed a priceless tapestry. Zabb cocked an eyebrow at the older man.

"Feel better?"

"A little. They burned my Rameer seascape when they invaded Ilkazam."

Baz called from the rear of the platoon. "My ass is becoming decidedly chilly as I wait for the arrival of the enveloping troops."

"Cover it, Baz," Zabb said cheerfully.

"I haven't anything or anyone to hand, sir."

Taj looked at Zabb. "You shouldn't be wasting time with us. Better that you locate Blaise and leave us to fight. Take Blaise, and they may see us as liberators. Decide to stop shooting at us."

Baz sang out from the rear, "Just thought I'd mention... a blanket of withering firepower is about to descend upon us."

"The Doctor is wandering without defense. Since I will not take life, it is best that I find and guard her," Moonchild offered.

Zabb hesitated. "We're in a pretty mess," Taj nudged. "I think an orderly retreat in the midst of complete disaster is indicated."

"We must take the defense center," Zabb caviled.

"And I would be charmed to do it for you, sir," said Taj in a tone of abject humbleness. "But there are fifteen of the Morakh monsters at the bottom of those stairs. Also, the finest armor can be breached, and unlike an ace, I am not bullet proof --"

"All right, Uncle, I get the point." With more haste than grace they regrouped and went charging across one corridor, and down the left branch of another. Laser fire snapped and snarled from the stairwell, licking at their heels.

Durg led his men at a quick trot. After landing at the compound, Durg had received the reports -- the arrival of a Vayawand ship carrying him. Ah, Cosmic Traveler, the Morakh correctly identified -- the sudden assault on the defense center which thus far the Vayawand were repelling. Sifting through the reports of actual contact with the intruders and readings by the menspies, it seemed that Ilkazam had not come in force, and the defenders had already accounted for eleven of them.

Durg had rushed to Blaise's office prepared to guard the young man and had received the inexplicable and dangerous order to take the remaining invaders alive. The boy was seized with the notion that his grandfather was among the invaders. Durg thought it unlikely. Who was present among the attackers was Durg's former master. The very boldness and audacity of the strike screamed of Zabb. Which left Durg with an interesting problem of how to effect this capture. Anything obvious like sleep gas Zabb would have already addressed.

Then Blaise had tossed his final bombshell. "Go to Kelly's suite. Get my brat. Bring her here." So with one of the finest military minds on Takis roaming at large through the House, Blaise had sent Durg and a squad to the human's chambers to take custody of a three-month-old infant.

They had almost reached the door to Ackroyd's suite when a slender figure disengaged from the shadows. A hand closed down hard on Durg's chest, stopping his breath and filling him with pain.

"I always seem to be protecting the Doctor from you," said Isis Moonchild in her delicate wind-chime voice.

From the corner of his eye, Durg caught sight of a gun being raised. His hand lashed out, gripped the barrel, bore it down. The beam cut a ten-inch hole in the parqueted marble floor.

"You abandoned me," Durg said in a voice so ragged he didn't recognize it as his own.

"I never meant to." Soft and sad. "It is probably far too little, and far too late, but I am sorry." They continued to stand and regard one another for several more moments.

Behind Durg the squad shifted nervously. There was not a telepath among them, so Moonchild was safe from an attack so subtle that even Durg could not sense it. Confusion rippled through his nerves and muscles, fluttered deep in the gut. Protect her? Kill her?

Moonchild flexed her knees, shook back her midnight fall of hair. "If we must fight, let us get to it." And then she waited. Challenging him to bring the fight to her. Refusing to harm him except in self-defense.

The memory was so strong, it replaced reality. Shone like a waking dream across the shadowed corners of his mind and heart. The Cosmic Pumpkin Head Shop and Organic Deli. Durg wiping down tables. Sprout riding his shoulders, shrieking with delight. Mark struggling to assemble a tofu burger for the lone customer in the restaurant. But what overrode the memory was the emotion it raised. He had been happy there.

The barrel of the laser rifle was still gripped in his hand. Durg ripped it out of the soldier's hands, swung it up. Firing from the hip, he mowed down the troops clogging the hall behind him. Screams of pain and terror ripped the air. Those left standing put their feet to good use and fled down the corridor. Durg pursued them, sobbing and shooting. Behind him came her quick steps, like a shadow's dance. He tried to outdistance her... and memory.

"What's happening?" Jay asked.

"I don't know." Tis was peering cautiously into the hail. "There are a number of dead Vayawand soldiers out here."

"A promising sign," said Bat'tam.

"I would feel better if I knew who killed them."

"Any enemy of theirs is a friend of ours. Right?" Jay pushed the door shut again with the stumps of his fingers.

"Far too simplistic an attitude for Takis," Bat'tam said.

Hastet snapped the flap on a self-heating bottle and handed it to Tisianne, who was pacing and rocking her child. "Personally," Hastet said, "I'm beginning to feel rather like left luggage. I hope someone comes and claims us soon."

"But it may be Blaise," Kelly said.

"We can't just keep waiting here. If we can get through a gate, we can take our chances in the open country," Tis said.

"How did you all intend to get out of here had the plan gone as planned?" Hastet asked.

"Take out the defense center. Call in our ships." Tis slipped the nipple into Illyana's tiny mouth. Despite the graveness of their situation, she couldn't help smiling. The baby's eyes snapped open. There was a very wise expression in those beautiful aquamarine eyes.

"Why can't you do that anyway?" Kelly asked.

"The defensive equipment is designed to detect genetic markers that are unique to enemy ships. They'll be destroyed on entry."

Kelly paced, nervously plaiting a small strand of red hair. "What about captured ships? What do they do to them?"

"Rebreak them and implant an artificial gene marker."

"So they read like a Vayawand ship?"

"Yes."

"So let's call Baby." For a stunned moment all they could do was stare. Kelly shifted selfconsciously. "I can't do it alone, but you can coach me, and when she hears you, Doctor, she'll come running."

"Can you override her retraining?" Bat'tam asked.

Tis removed the bottle to push back a hanging strand of hair. Illyana registered disapproval with a sharp yelp. "We can but try," Tis said, and shoved the bottle back into her demanding daughter's mouth.

It hurt so bad. He had looked back once, realized his leg ended in a charred and ragged stump two inches above the knee. He crawled across the blood-slick floor in search of the missing limb. Maybe if he found it, they could sew it back on. He realized he was delirious. Then he realized he was dying. He wanted to find her before the end. To see if he'd done well. Durg began dragging himself up the stairs. The smell of blood and cooked flesh lay in his throat and threatened to choke him. He laid his head down on the edge of a step. He'd rest just for a minute.

The rattle of boot heels. Durg heaved himself up with a snarl, braced on his knuckles. He stared into the barrel of a rifle.

"No!" Her voice.

Men ran past, thundering down the stairs.

Another voice sang out, "Defense center secured, sir." Then he added, in a little boy's voice, "They're all dead."

Hands soft and gentle on his face. Durg's arms were trembling with strain. Moonchild caught him as he collapsed. Blood from the wounds in his back smeared across her jumpsuit.

The perfume of her hair almost blotted the scent of death. "I turned... for you... I turned."

"I know. Hush, now." Tears clogged her voice.

"No one... weeps for a... Morakh." He looked up into that beautiful face. "Grant me... your forgiveness."

Moonchild nodded, bent, and softly kissed his lips.

How something as big and inflexible as a Takisian ship could wriggle with delight was a mystery to Jay, but Baby was managing. Light flared and coruscated across the whorls and folds of her outer skin. The lavender and amber running lights mounted on the spines of her back were bright enough to throw shadows.

"Go," Tisianne was saying. "Baby has her orders. She will carry all of you to the neutral station." Tisianne tenderly kissed the top of her child's head and laid Illyana in Hastet's arms. "Let her never forget I loved her."

"What about you?" Jay asked.

"I must find Blaise."

"I'm going with you," Kelly piped up.

Bat'tam cleared his throat. "I have a rather tenuous claim to the heirship of House Vayawand. This seems like a good time to present it. So carry on without me."

"Maybe you haven't noticed, but inside that masonry pile people are shooting at each other," Jay said "I don't think it's a real good time to launch a political campaign." Bat'tam just shrugged apologetically. "Why do you all want to be a bunch of heroes?" Jay concluded on a whine.

"Injured as you are, there is nothing you can do, Jay. Go!" Tis ordered.

Jay hesitated for an instant longer, then Hastet grabbed his arm and dragged him up the ramp. The lock cycled shut and the ship shot skyward.

Jay tottered onto a bench. "Aw, hell," he burst out suddenly. "They're all gonna get killed, and we'll get stuck with the kid."

There was an air of arrogant insouciance to the wide-open door that rather appealed to Zabb. However insane he might be, Blaise possessed virtu to an extraordinary degree. Single-handedly he had warped the face of Takisian society. Tisianne believed forever; Zabb was hopeful such was not the case.

Then it struck Zabb: the door was an enticement, a spider's lure, and the trap set for Tisianne. Well, he's in for a surprise, he thought with satisfaction. Zabb had been surprised at the ease with which he deflected Tis from her pursuit of Blaise, but biology had worked to Zabb's advantage. The lure of Illyana was too great. And realistically Tis couldn't stand against Blaise. Zabb believed he could.

Nothing could quell Zabb's hatred of the man who waited beyond that threshold. Twice Zabb had held his cousin as she slept her unquiet sleep, and read in her dreams the horrors that Blaise had visited upon her. Now the monster was going to pay.

Zabb stepped through the door.

Blaise turned, and the dark purple eyes widened briefly in surprise. He lunged for the archaic Earth weapon that rested on the desk. Zabb lashed out with his mentatic power -- felt it strike, hold briefly, then slip, under the onslaught of Blaise's own mental strength. It had been enough to get Zabb across the room, his hand gripping Blaise's wrist. Killing Blaise would have been easy. Capturing him another matter. Blaise was battering not only at Zabb's body, but at his mind. The Takisian had no strength for a counterattack; every bit of his mentatic power was given over to defense.

Blaise's breath puffed hot in Zabb's face. Their minds were knotted, everything that either one had ever done or known was shared. Tisianne lay between them. Memories of love and memories of rape coiled and shattered against each other.

Blaise's lips skinned back in a grimacing smile. "Didn't I teach her great for you?" he whispered.

Rage exploded in Zabb, and for an instant his concentration broke. Blaise was in his mind. Desperately Zabb threw up a death lock and forced the abomination back out. Blaise would have to kill him to pierce these shields, and the fight on the physical plane was going to end far earlier than their mentatic duel.

Grimly, the silence punctuated only by their harsh gasps, they fought for control of the gun.

An eerie silence had settled across the House.

Kelly and Tis had tried Blaise's private quarters and found only the naked body of a murdered La'b sprawled in the blood-soaked bed. The long, curly red wig askew over her eyes left both of them a little queasy.

Their footsteps rang off the marble walls. Almost to the door, and they heard the boom of a gun being fired and wood splintering. A yell of pain. Tis grabbed the jamb for support and spun around the corner and through the door.

Blaise and Zabb were locked in a bizarre waltz of death, grappling between them a .44 Magnum. Blood was pouring from an ugly, ragged hole in Zabb's thigh. If the round had struck bone, it would have shattered it. That he was still on his feet was a testament either to his reflexes or to Blaise's lack of marksmanship.

Back and forth they staggered, the barrel of the gun angling first one direction, then the other. Tis was bringing up her rifle when, with a grunt of effort, Zabb bent Blaise's wrist almost backward and squeezed. With an earsplitting explosion of sound, blood and brains exploded out the back of Blaise's skull. In his forehead gaped a round black hole.

Kelly's shrill screams ripped through air still echoing with the aftermath of the gun's blast. Zabb dropped Blaise's body. Tis fell on it in a bizarre parody of grief. Gripping the corpse by the shoulders, she shook it, beating the shattered head on the floor.

"No! You can't die! You can't die! You can't die!" Kelly knelt at her side, gathered the weeping Takisian into his arms. His tears were hot against her neck. Tis stared up at Zabb with a Medusa's face. "You betrayed me," she said softly, but each word was edged with ground glass.

"I had no choice."

There was a telepathic call like a clarion bell. Council summons. All their minds were filled with an offer to negotiate with the Ajayiz of House Vayawand.