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Authors: Timothy Zahn

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“Sure,” Jody said, a pang of guilt digging at her. She hadn’t meant to scramble everyone’s schedules this way. Briefly, she thought about backing out and trying to reset this private conversation for a different other time. But it was too late for that now. “I wouldn’t miss the annual Broom houseplant repotting festival for anything.”

“Great,” Jin said. “See you then.”

They left, the murmur of conversation following them down the twinkle-lit walkway toward the gate and the brighter street beyond it.

Jody gazed at their backs as they walked away from her, three shadowy silhouettes in the night. Her mother, who’d had a deadly brain tumor removed by Qasaman surgeons. Her father, who’d had a burned and useless leg regrown by those same doctors. Her brother, whose life had been inextricably intertwined with those of the Qasaman warriors he’d fought alongside in battle after battle.

Her family owed the Qasamans. She owed the Qasamans.

“Shall we go back inside?”

Jody shook away her thoughts. Corwin was standing beside her, but Thena had disappeared, probably to the kitchen to deal with the cleanup. “Sure,” she said, taking a step back and letting her great uncle close the door in front of her. “I’m just—I thought they’d put up more of a fight.”

Corwin chuckled as he took her arm and steered her back into the living room. “If you think we’re that easy to fool, you’re sadly mistaken. We all saw the look that settled across your face during the Qasaman part of the conversation. We were just waiting for you to make up your mind about what you were going to do next.”

“Sorry,” Jody apologized. “But I have to talk to someone. And—”

“There’s no need to apologize,” he chided her gently as he settled her onto the couch and sat down beside her. “We’re family. That means we’re here for each other. So. What’s the problem?”

Jody took a deep breath. Unfortunately, there was no way to ease into this. “I know where Qasama is.”

Corwin’s face went rigid. “How?”

“The Troft transport that Mom and the Qasamans took to Caelian,” she said. “It was wrecked in the crash, but Rashida Vil and I had to go back there to—well, it’s a long story. The point is that Kemp and Smitty realized there was too much food for the spine leopards they were supposed to be transporting here to Aventine, so I downloaded the course history to try to figure out later where the transport was supposed to go.”

“And since the transport had just come from Qasama,” Corwin murmured, “its coordinates are in there, too.”

“Exactly,” Jody said. “So what should I do? Erase the whole thing and keep it quiet? I could. Only—” She broke off, wondering suddenly if she should keep this particular strange thought to herself.

But Corwin was already ahead of her. “Only wherever the transport was supposed to take those spine leopards,” he said quietly, “might also be the place where they took Merrick.”

“Yes,” Jody said, feeling thoroughly miserable now. “But if I keep it, and Santores finds it—” She shook her head. “We owe the Qasamans our lives, Uncle Corwin.”

“I know,” he said. “Can you get into the file and edit out the Qasaman part?”

“Not anymore,” Jody said. “I multi-laced everything to protect it better, and I can’t edit without transferring it all onto a computer. But if I do that now, with the Dominion here—”

“They might be able to pull it out of the system,” Corwin said, nodding. “And they’ve surely tapped into the network by now.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Jody said. “I wish I’d done it before they came. But I never expected—” She lifted her hands helplessly. “What do I do?”

“You get out of here,” Thena’s voice came from the kitchen door.

Jody turned, her chest suddenly tight. The older woman was standing there, a dish and polishing cloth still clutched in her hands. “What?” Jody asked.

“You get out of here,” Thena repeated. “I don’t mean here, this house. I mean you get off Aventine, as quickly as possible.”

“She’s right,” Corwin said. “So far Santores seems to be focusing his attention here. If we can get you off Aventine, you may be able to bury yourself away for awhile.”

“At the very least, you can bury your recorder,” Thena added. “When the Dominion goes away, we can dig it back up.”

“If they ever do,” Jody said, her brain racing. Somehow, the thought of leaving Aventine had never occurred to her.

And, really, why would it? Her family was here, and they were in serious trouble. The last thing she would ever do was run off and desert them.

Unless there was a critical reason to do so. “You’re right,” she said reluctantly. “Okay. How do I do this?”

“As quietly as possible,” Corwin said, pulling out his comm and punching keys. “The Southern Cross is currently at Creeksedge,” he said. “Due to leave for Esquiline…tomorrow afternoon at three. Perfect—you can go visit your Aunt Fay. They’re not showing any berths free, but maybe Chintawa can pull some strings and get you aboard.”

“And maybe keep your name out of it,” Thena added. “We don’t want Santores bumping into your name on a ship passenger list.”

“Chintawa will know how to do that,” Corwin said.

“If we can trust him,” Jody warned.

“I think we can,” Corwin said. “As long as we don’t tell him why you’re leaving, I don’t think he’ll be a problem.” He started to punch in a number on his comm, muttered something, and put the device away. “And of course we don’t want this on the comm system any more than we want it on a computer,” he continued, standing up. “Let’s wander over to the Dome, shall we, and see if he’s still there?”

“Okay, but I should probably go alone,” Jody said, standing up, too. “You’re in enough trouble just being related to me.”

“Technically, we’re in trouble being related to your father,” Corwin said with a wry smile. “He’s the one most prominently in Nissa Gendreves’s sights these days. On a more practical level, you need us along because I doubt Chintawa owes you nearly as many favors as he owes me.”

“So it’s settled,” Thena said, setting down the dish and cloth. “I’ll bring the car around.”

“Maybe you’d better stay here,” Corwin said, looking across at her. “If there’s fallout from this later, it would be safer if you weren’t on any of the Dome’s security records.”

“I used to work there, too, you know,” Thena reminded him. “We’re just a happy, innocent couple doing their grandniece a favor while taking the opportunity to catch up with old friends.”

Without waiting for a response, she turned and disappeared into the hallway leading to the garage. “I guess she’s going to bring the car around,” Corwin said dryly. “Let’s get your coat.”

Traffic was surprisingly thin tonight, Jody noticed as they headed through the glow of the overhead streetlights. It had been equally sparse earlier when her parents had driven them to the Island for dinner. Maybe everyone had simply gotten used to staying indoors, as they’d been forced to do during the Troft occupation.

Or maybe they didn’t like the Dominion presence any more than they had the Trofts’.

No one talked as Thena drove through her usual maze of back streets. As a child, Jody had fantasized that her great aunt was a secret operative, believing that she drove the city’s back streets as a way to evade capture by shadowy enemies. Only later did she realize that Thena took the slower route simply because she didn’t care for the crowds and higher speeds on the main thoroughfares.

Now, long after the fact, reality and her daydream were finally merging. Thena was, in fact, driving the back streets in an attempt to escape notice.

Only now it was their own government, not enemy operatives, whom she was trying to avoid.

They were out of the maze of backstreets and had just settled onto Appletree, one of the local roads paralleling the wide swath of Cavendish Boulevard, when a pair of headlights behind them suddenly surged forward. Before Jody could do more than glance over her shoulder the car roared past. Thena reflexively tapped the brakes, and Jody grabbed for her armrests as she rode out the car’s slight bucking. “Well,” Jody murmured. “He sure was in a big—”

She broke off as Thena hit the brakes again, this time hard enough to throw all three of them against their restraints. There was a stomach-churning second of fishtailing, and then the car came to a jolting halt behind the vehicle that had stopped abruptly right in front of them. “What in the Worlds?” Jody managed through suddenly chattering teeth.

“Stay put,” Corwin said, his voice tight. “Keep the door locked.”

Before Jody could find anything to say, a pair of figures suddenly appeared beside the car. There was the brief screech of a lockpop and one of the figures wrenched her door open. “Are you Jody Broom?” he demanded.

Jody shrank back against the seat, her mouth frozen, her heart thudding. In the glow of the overhead lights she could see now that the man was wearing the uniform of a Dominion Marine. “Are you Jody Broom?” he repeated.

“I’m Corwin Moreau,” Corwin said calmly from the front seat. “Stop yelling—you’re frightening her. What’s this about?”

“Something that doesn’t concern you,” the Marine growled, his eyes still on Jody. “We want your brother, Broom. Where is he?”

For that first frozen instant Jody thought he was asking about Merrick, that they knew about her recorder, and that it was all over. But a heartbeat later she realized that he had to be asking about Lorne. “You mean Lorne?” she managed. “I don’t—”

“Damn it, talk to me,” the Marine snarled, leaning halfway into the car.

“She doesn’t know,” Corwin said, putting some steel into his tone. “Why don’t you just call him and ask where he is?”

The Marine muttered something under his breath. “Fine,” he said.

And to Jody’s horror he reached in and grabbed her arm. “Come on—unbelt. You’re coming with us.”

“She’ll do no such thing,” Thena snapped.

“Absolutely not,” Corwin seconded, opening his door. “Who do you think—?”

He broke off as the second Marine slammed the door closed again right in his face. “I said she’s coming with us,” the first Marine said. The fury that had been in his voice was gone, leaving a quiet coldness behind. “You want to appeal it, you’re welcome to come to the Dome and talk to Colonel Reivaro. But until her brother comes out of hiding, she’s ours.”

“Okay, okay,” Jody said, her brain finally coming unstuck. She had no idea what might have happened to Lorne, but she had no particular problem with them taking her to the Dome for a few hours. That’s where she’d been headed anyway, and the Southern Cross wasn’t leaving Aventine until tomorrow.

But at all costs she had to make sure they didn’t get hold of her recorder. “Fine. Let go a second, will you?”

Silently, he released his grip on her arm. She turned halfway around in her seat, putting her back to him, and reached one hand down to the restraint release. As she did so, she slipped her other hand into her jacket, pulled out her recorder, and pushed it beneath the armrest. The restraints popped free, and she turned again and climbed out of the car. “But I really don’t know where he is,” she added, starting to close the door.

But it was too late. Before the door could shut the Marine reached past her, caught the edge, and pulled it open again. “In that case, you’ve got nothing to worry about,” he said. Taking her arm again, he pulled her away from the car.

And then reached in and retrieved the recorder from under the armrest. “Unless this is something you aren’t supposed to have,” he continued, holding it up to the streetlight and peering at it. “What is it?”

“It’s mine,” Corwin said, again trying to open his door. “And unless you have a search and seizure order—”

Once again, the other Marine simply shoved the door closed. “Come on,” the first said, dropping the reader into his pocket and pulling Jody toward their car. “The colonel will sort it out.”

A minute later, they were back on the road, the two Marines in the front seat, Jody in the back.

Her pulse thudding in her neck.

There had to be a way out of this. She couldn’t let the Dominion get into her recorder and find the Qasama data.

Blinking back tears of anger and frustration, she gazed out at the cityscape rolling past. They were fifteen minutes from the Dome, she estimated, maybe twenty if the Marines weren’t familiar with the tangle of streets and the ramps that fed into Cavendish Boulevard.

She had that long to figure out what she was going to do.

CHAPTER THREE

They had just taken the ramp onto Cavendish Boulevard and were heading for central Capitalia when Lorne first realized they’d picked up a tail. “Dad?” he said into his parents’ quiet front-seat conversation. “Don’t look now, but we’re being followed.”

“I know,” his father said calmly. “The blue Savron two cars back with the overheating left headlight.”

Lorne keyed his infrareds and eased a look over his shoulder. Sure enough, the Savron back there was showing extra heat around its left headlight.

“Probably a couple of Gendreves’s people making sure I don’t leave town,” Paul added. “Just ignore them.”

“I’d love to,” Lorne said. “Problem is, that’s not the car I was talking about.”

Paul half turned, his forehead wrinkled in a frown. “It isn’t?”

“Nope,” Lorne said. “Mine’s three cars back from it, a green Max-7.”

“You’re sure they’re following us, too?” Jin asked.

“Positive,” Lorne told her. “He was parked around the corner when we first got to the Island. He, or they,” he amended. “I never saw who was in it.”

“Perhaps we should try to get another look,” Paul said, his voice going a little darker. “How’s your slingfrog technique these days?”

“Haven’t done one in years,” Lorne said, frowning as he looked around them. Out here in the open in the middle of a wide street, a slingfrog would be next to useless.

An instant later he grabbed at his restraints as his father abruptly veered off the boulevard onto an exit ramp. “Where are we going?” he managed.

“Aunt Thena’s old neighborhood,” Jin said. “She’s been driving through the area every time she goes to the Dome for the past twenty years. I’m guessing I know it a lot better than either of our friends back there.”

BOOK: Cobra Slave-eARC
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