Labyrinth of Night (30 page)

So you take this man—an undiagnosed xenophobe—and post him at the entrance of a labyrinth. You give him an open-ended mission, supply him with guns, soldiers, whatever else he needs…

And then you cut him loose.

‘You stupid bastards,’ he murmured to himself.

Kawakami raised his head. ‘Pardon me?’ he asked. Miho looked appalled.

‘No. Sorry.’ Nash took a deep breath. ‘I didn’t mean you.’

Now, more than before, he realized exactly what needed to be done and why. If his purpose, which he had never really admitted to himself, had been simple revenge, now there was a more urgent reason for bringing down L’Enfant. The mentally-ill son of a bitch was out of control, and he had to be shut down…

Nash shook his head, bringing himself back to the present. He remembered his last message from Control. ‘I was informed that a cargo pod was recently dropped to the base from a freighter,’ he said. ‘Can you tell me anything about it?’

Kawakami shook his head and drank from his lukewarm tea. ‘Very little, I’m afraid. It landed due west of the base several days ago, but only Marks and Akers have been out to visit it. They attached a trailer to the back of one of the rovers, and what they brought back was covered by a tarp. Tamara caught a glimpse of the trailer before it was brought into the garage module and believes that it contained a new combat armor suit…’

‘Like a Hoplite?’ Sasaki asked.

‘Yes, but she couldn’t be certain. Since then, L’Enfant has prevented anyone else except his men from entering Module One…that’s the garage. He changed the code on the main airlock, since that leads into Module One, and has forced us to use the auxiliary airlock in Module Ten instead.’

He stopped, then added, ‘I’m not certain if this has anything to do with it, but I’ve also seen them working on the Hornet.’

Miho took a deep breath. Nash shook his head. ‘Pardon me…the Hornet?’

‘The F-210 Hornet,’ Miho said. ‘The space-to-surface attack fighter which was used during the Steeple Chase operation. It was grounded after the mission. Waylon had been using it for a while for spare parts for the
Burroughs,
but otherwise it was useless junk.’ Her eyes narrowed as she considered the idea. ‘They might be trying to make it flight-ready again, but what good would that accomplish?’

‘And why a new CAS?’ Kawakami asked. ‘The ones which have been used in the past have been ineffectual in the tunnel and the Labyrinth. Why would they want to bring yet another one to this base? If Tamara wasn’t a good observer, I would question what she reported.’

‘Even then,’ Nash said, ‘why would they seal off the vehicle garage? If it’s just another combat suit…?’

‘No,’ Kawakami agreed, ‘it does not make sense.’ He gazed pensively out the window. ‘But I’ve also given up on making sense out of L’Enfant. It’s all I can do just to reason with the man. He still accepts my role as senior scientist, but with each confrontation we have, what little control I have over him is further diminished. Soon he will stop listening to me entirely.’ He sighed. ‘This matter with Paul and the MRV is only the latest example.’

‘He’s taking that thing down into the tunnel tomorrow morning?’ Nash asked. ‘Isn’t that risky?’

‘Extremely. Yet there’s nothing I can do about it now.’ Kawakami knitted his long fingers together on the table. ‘Several months ago, we sent another teleoperated spider-probe into Mama’s Back Door. Paul piloted it, and his goal was to attempt to penetrate the tunnel and find his way into the catacombs.’

He steepled his index fingers and tapped them against the table. ‘The probe was destroyed, of course, but from what very little he saw before the pseudo-Cooties tore it apart…and, judging from the tape of the encounter, I have to agree…Paul has become convinced that the pseudo-Cooties interact as a sort of hive mind, similar to that of terrestrial insects. The most appropriate analogy might be to driver ants. Given their past behavior, I have to agree with his assessment. If the original Cooties, as represented by their automechanical counterparts, are highly-evolved insects, then this would seem to make sense.’

He chuckled and shook his head. ‘The great entomologist, E. O. Wilson, would have been fascinated. I remember his guest lectures from my student days at the University of Osaka when he…’

‘Shin-ichi-san…’ Sasaki began.

‘Sorry. The woolgathering of an old man.’ The smile disappeared as Kawakami paused to discipline his train of thought. ‘Paul, however, is also familiar with Wilson’s theories. He has become convinced that, like ants, the pseudo-Cooties share some sort of common, central purpose, directed upon some activity deep within their lair and that the only way to be certain of this is to personally explore the catacombs. Unfortunately, L’Enfant has also become convinced that Paul is right…he helped Paul get the MRV shipped from Earth. I’m against Paul visiting the catacombs in the MRV to find out whether his theory is correct, but L’Enfant has made it a top priority and has overridden my objections.’

‘And Paul…?’

‘Paul wants to go through with it,’ Kawakami said. ‘Despite my misgivings and Tamara’s, he insists upon making the sortie. He thinks the MRV will be sufficient protection against the Cooties.’ Kawakami shook his head again. ‘They’re both obsessed, but for different reasons. Paul sees it as a quest for scientific knowledge, however unsafe—it may be, but L’Enfant…’

‘Wants a recon mission against the enemy,’ Nash finished.

The exobiologist closed his eyes. ‘That is correct.’

There was a brief silence in the wardroom as Sasaki and Nash considered all that they had been told. Kawakami slowly let out his breath. ‘Regardless of the outcome,’ he continued, ‘we are all in great danger. This is why I have a request to make. Mr Nash, you plan to leave here tomorrow, is that correct?’

‘If my…’ Nash glanced at Miho. ‘If
our
objectives have been completed by then, yes. Tuesday morning at latest.’

Miho hesitated, then nodded her head in agreement. ‘Very well,’ Kawakami said. ‘Then I want to have you smuggle Tamara and Paul aboard this airship and take them with you, as soon as Paul has completed his excursion.’

He quickly lifted a hand before either of them could raise objections. ‘They’re unsafe as long as they remain here, and I do not want either of them to become…ah, permanent residents of this place, as I have. It will be tricky, but we can get them both in the airship and hide them. Yes?’

Nash could not honestly disagree. Two people could easily be hidden in the interior of the
Akron’s
envelope; it was large enough to conceal a platoon. At the very least, they could hide in the observation blister he had discovered earlier. ‘And you yourself?’

Kawakami grinned at him. ‘I will remain here, of course.’

Miho was aghast. ‘Shin-ichi-san, you can’t…!’

‘Hush, Miho.’ His voice was calm, almost self-sacrificial in its resolve. ‘After all, it is my cooperation which L’Enfant desires the most…and getting all three members of the team into this ship cannot be accomplished without arousing suspicions. When the proper time comes, I will make the necessary diversion…non-violently, of course, but enough for you to get Paul and Tamara aboard without being noticed.’

‘And if their absence
is
noticed…’ Nash began.

‘All you will need to do is get aloft with them aboard,’ Kawakami said. ‘L’Enfant has the capability to shoot down the
Akron,
certainly, but he won’t use it. Far too many questions would be raised if it was destroyed…especially since you two are aboard. Once you’re in the sky, they cannot touch you nor the others, who will help validate whatever you wish to tell your respective authorities back home. That alone is worth spiriting them away.’

Nash opened his mouth to speak, then closed it. He could see no flaws in Kawakami’s logic, and it was maddeningly clear that only logic could be used on this man; emotional arguments alone would be dismissed as simple sentiment. At the same time, he could not see Boggs raising an objection; he had been friends with Paul Verduin and Tamara Isralilova for too long for him to reject them as stowaways. Now that the MRV had been unloaded, the
Akron
certainly had the lift-capacity to ferry two more passengers back to Arsia Station.

‘If Boggs doesn’t have a problem with it…’ he tentatively began, when the inner airlock hatch abruptly gave its distinctive triple-buzz, signaling recompression.

‘We’ll discuss this later,’ Nash finished.

A second later Boggs shouldered the hatch open, followed closely by Paul Verduin. ‘Okay, gang, we’re all set to go.’ Boggs tossed his helmet and gloves on a bunk, but didn’t bother to clamber out of his skinsuit. ‘The Jackalope’s checked out, tarped up and lashed down. Not that any one of you were of great help, of course.’

‘Waylon…’ Miho began.

‘Miho…’ he replied, imitating her voice almost exactly. He suddenly bent over, ducked his head, grasped her shoulders with both hands, and planted a long, wet kiss on her lips. She was too shocked to fight it; however, Nash was surprised to note that her face held, for a fleeting instant, an expression of pleasure just before she shoved him away.

Boggs straightened and, with scarcely a look back at her, tromped through the passageway toward the gondola, ignoring Verduin’s laughter and Kawakami’s diplomatic cough into his hand. ‘After all these years, the same bitching and whining,’ he grumbled. ‘Okay, Nash…I mean, Andy…get out there and untie us. We’re outta here in five minutes.’

He glanced back once before he stepped down the gangway. ‘We’ve got a rendezvous to keep with the head dude, if y’know what I mean.’

R
IGGING THE OPPOSITION
for electronic surveillance is a fairly routine part of the espionage trade. If telephones are to be miked, then all it takes is a few minutes to plant infinity bugs or induction taps, thereby transforming the phones themselves into eavesdropping devices even when they are on the hook. Concealing electret mikes, such as the ones supplied to Nash for this assignment, under or inside furniture, is mainly a matter of penetrating the target area and having a few unobserved moments to do the dirty work. This can be accomplished by posing as a repairman, bribing a custodian or watchman, or (in the worst case) breaking and entering.

In his career as a private spy, Nash had done all of the above at one time or another, to listen in on everyone from corporate research assistants to multinational CEOs to the crown prince of a certain Middle Eastern sheikdom. Yet bugging Cydonia Base was much more difficult than miking a home or office on Earth. Not counting Module Eleven—the Ambient Environment Lab, which was permanently unpressurised and thereby unbuggable by the voice-activated electret mikes—there were ten modules in the habitat, evenly arranged along a central access tunnel, including Module One, the main airlock and vehicle garage, located on the opposite side of the habitat from the Module Ten auxiliary airlock and the AEL.

Module One was a principal target; the payload which had been dropped from orbit was stored in the base garage, and Nash supposed that the garage would be depressurized when secret work was being done in there, if only for the convenience of working in a shirtsleeve environment. In view of what Kawakami had told him about its being sealed off by L’Enfant, however, it was unlikely that Nash would be able to get into the main airlock from inside the habitat. He was forced to improvise.

After the arrival of the
Akron
at the base, where they were met by L’Enfant’s three ‘observers,’ Lieutenant Akers escorted Nash, Sasaki, Verduin and Kawakami from the landing pad to the habitat; Marks and Swigart, who had made their first appearance at the pad, stayed behind to shepherd Boggs and unload the remaining cargo from the airship. Like a guard marching prisoners into a POW compound, Akers strode behind the four of them as they walked toward the habitat. Just before they reached the auxiliary airlock, Nash contrived to pause by a rover which was parked nearby. After dropping his duffel bag on the vehicle’s seat and while pretending to adjust the boot lining on his skinsuit’s outergarment, he furtively slid one of the wireless mikes under the chassis.

There were fresh tire-tracks leading to and from Module One’s large double-doors. With any luck, the rover would be moved inside before nightfall as standard procedure; barring misfortune, the bug’s adhesive backing would not be scoured by the dust and the tiny mike would not drop into the sand, where it would not only be useless but also a possible giveaway. It was risky, but it was the best he could manage. It was important that he had a way of knowing what was going on in Module One.

Unforeseen good fortune, though, came a couple of minutes later when they reached the auxiliary airlock. Despite its label, Module Ten was not a full-sized Skycorp Type-B module, but rather a small geodesic dome not much larger than the
Akron’s
airlock. It had been intended mainly as an interconnect between the AEL and the rest of the habitat, and therefore could only accommodate two persons at a time. Once they had arrived at the auxiliary airlock, Akers unwittingly made a miscalculation: he allowed Sasaki and Nash to enter the airlock by themselves, leaving him outside with Kawakami and Verduin.

As soon as the airlock was sealed and the repressurization sequence initiated, Nash carefully examined the ceiling and walls. No TV cameras were visible, but since he was still using an open comlink frequency, he dared not say anything conspicuous. Even after recompression, when their helmets would be off, there was no guarantee that the airlock itself wasn’t bugged; Kawakami had already cautioned them to that effect.

‘How long does this usually take?’ he casually asked Sasaki.

She glanced at him through her helmet faceplate.
‘About five minutes, including decontamination.’
Her eyes followed him as Nash quickly opened his right thigh pocket.
‘It will be hard for us to talk once the electromagnetic scrub begins. We better talk now.’

Nash winced. Not good; if someone was indeed listening to them over the comlink, then that remark could arouse suspicion. He scowled at her and shook his head. ‘Look, Miho, I didn’t mean to get…y’know, frisky last night, but it’s been a long time since I’ve had anything.’