Orphan Star (5 page)

The minidrag hissed agreeably and fluttered down into the open case, burying itself quietly within the folded shreds of torn clothing. Flinx snapped the latch shut. At the first opportunity he would have to replace the ruined lock, or else chance some innocent bystander suffering the same fate as his three former captors.

No one challenged him as he continued on toward the lifts. The numbers alongside the doors were labeled 4-B, 3-B and so on to zero, where the count began again in normal fashion. Four levels above ground and four below, Flinx noted. Zero ought to take him to the surface, and that was the button he pressed when a car finally arrived.

The lift deposited him in an efficiently designed four-story glass antechamber. A steady stream of humans and thranx utilized the lifts around him. “Your pardon,” a triad of thranx trilled, as they made their way purposefully into the lift he had just vacated.

Although every eye seemed focused on him, in reality no one was paying him the least attention. No reason they should, he thought, relaxing. Only one man and a few of his minions would be hunting him.

A large desk conveniently labeled
Information
was set just inside the transparent facade of the vaulted chamber. A single thranx sat behind it. Flinx strolled over, trying to give the impression that he knew exactly what he was about.

“Excuse me,” he began, in fluent High Thranx, “can you tell me how to get to the executive pylon from here?”

The elderly, rather officious-looking insect turned to face him. He was painted black and yellow, Flinx noted, and was utterly devoid of the enamel chiton inlay the thranx were so fond of. A pure business type.

“Northeast quadrant,” the thranx said sharply, implying that the asker should know better. “You go out the main door there,” he continued, pointing with a truhand as a foothand supported his thorax on the table edge, “and turn left down H portal. The pylon is a full twelve floors with carport on top.”

“Blessings of the Hive on you,” Flinx said easily. The oldster eyed him sharply.

“Say, what do you want with . . .?”

But Flinx had already been swallowed up by the bustling crowd. The officer hunted for him a moment longer, then gave up and went back to his job.

Flinx made rapid progress across the factory grounds. A friendly worker gave him ready directions the one time he found himself lost. When he finally spied the unmistakable shape of the executive pylon, he slowed, suddenly aware that from this point on he had no idea how to proceed.

Challis’ reaction to his unexpected appearance was going to be something less than loving. And this time he, if not his underlings, would be prepared to deal with Pip. For all his lethal abilities, the minidrag was far from invulnerable.

Somehow, he was going to have to slip inside the tower and find out where Challis was. Even from here he could sense the powerful emanations of a smaller, darker presence. But he had no guarantee that he would find Mahnahmi and Challis together. Did the girl sense his presence as well? It was a sobering thought.

Deciding to move fast and purposefully, he strode boldly through the tower’s main entrance. But this was no factory annex. An efficient-looking thranx with three inlaid chevrons on his b-thorax was there to intercept him—politely, of course.

“Swarm be with your business,” the insect murmured. “You will state both it and your name, please.”

Flinx was about to answer when a door on one side burst open. A squad of heavily armed thranx gushed out, the leader pointing and shouting: “That’s the one—restrain him!”

Reacting swiftly, the officer who had confronted Flinx put a truhand on one arm. Flinx brought his leg up and kicked reluctantly. The armorlike chiton was practically invulnerable—except at the joints, where Flinx’s foot struck. The joint cracked audibly and the officer let out an agonized chirp as Flinx broke for the rank of lifts directly ahead.

Jumping inside, he swung clear and hit the topmost switch, noticing that it was for the eleventh floor. A key was required to reach the twelfth.

Several beamers pierced the lift doors even as the car began its ascent. Fortunately they didn’t strike any vital machinery and his ride wasn’t slowed, though the three molten-edged holes bored in the door provided plenty of food for thought.

An angry pounding and banging inside the carrybag attracted his attention. Once the latch was popped a furious Pip rocketed out. After a rapid inspection of the lift’s interior the minidrag settled nervously around Flinx’s right shoulder. It coiled tightly there, muscles tense with excitement.

There was no point in keeping the reptile concealed any longer, since they clearly knew who he was. But who/what had given him away?

Mahnahmi—it had to be! He almost felt as if he could sense a girlish, mocking laughter. Her capacity for mischief remained an unknown quantity. It was possible that her mental talents exceeded his own, both in strength and lack of discipline. Of course, no one would believe that if he had the chance to tell of it. Mahnahmi had her role of goggle-eyed, innocent infant perfected.

The question, though, was whether her maliciousness was grounded in calculation or merely in a desire for undisciplined destruction. He sensed that she could change from hate to love, each equally intense, at a moment’s thought. If only she would realize that he meant her no harm . . . then it came to him that she probably did.

He was a source of potential amusement to her, nothing more.

Some simple manipulations sufficed to jimmy the door mechanism. When the car passed the tenth floor he jumped clear, then turned to watch it continue past him. Frantically, he began to hunt around the room that appeared to be a combination of offices and living quarters, probably belonging to one of Challis’ principal assistants. Or maybe the plant manager.

If there were no stairways he would be trapped here. He didn’t think Challis’ bodyguard was so stupid as to allow him to descend and escape.

At least these quarters were deserted. As he considered his situation, a violent explosion sounded above. Looking up, he saw shredded metal and plastic alloy fall smoking back down the lift shaft.

He suddenly realized that there was only one way to deal with Mahnahmi’s mischief. Consciously, he fought to blank his mind, to suppress every consideration of subsequent action, every hint of preconception. The dark cloud which had hovered nearby slowly faded. He could no longer detect Mahnahmi’s presence—and she should be equally blind to his whereabouts. There was a chance she, like everyone else, would momentarily think that he had died in the ambush of the lift car.

A quick patrol revealed that these quarters had only one entrance—the single, now useless lift. No other lift opened on this level. That left one way in to the floor above—the roof carport. Gradually his gaze came to rest on the curving window that looked out across the plant and to the Plateau beyond.

Flinx moved to the window, found it opened easily. The side of the pylon was marked with decorative ripples and thranx pebbling. He looked upward, considered one additional possibility.

At least they wouldn’t be expecting him anymore.

His mind briefly registered the magnificent panorama of the Mediterranea Plateau, dotted with factories and human settlements. In the distance the mist-filled lowlands stretched to the horizon.

The footing on the rippled metal exterior of the building was not as sure as he would have liked, but he would manage. At least he had to climb only one floor. Moving through the apartment-office, he located the bathroom, opened the window there, and started up.

Unless the floor plan upstairs was radically different, he should encounter another bathroom, perhaps larger but hopefully unoccupied, above the one he had just exited from. That would be the best place from which to make an unobtrusive entrance.

Moving hands and feet methodically, he made slow but steady progress upward, never looking back. In Drallar he had climbed greater heights on wet, less certain surfaces—and at a younger age at that. Still, he moved cautiously here.

The absence of wind was a blessing. In good time he encountered a ledge. There was a window above it. Reaching, he pulled himself up so that he was staring through the transparent pane, and observed with satisfaction that the window was open a few centimeters. Then he noticed the two figures standing at the back of the room. One was fat and sweating, a condition not due to recent exercise. The other was small, blond, and wide-eyed.

Suddenly they saw him.

“Don’t let him get me, Daddy,” she said in mock-fright. Opening his mind, Flinx sensed the excitement racing through hers and he felt sick.

“I don’t know why you persist in tormenting me,” Challis said in confusion, his beamer now focused on Flinx’s shoulder. “I didn’t hurt you badly. You’ve turned into something of a pest. Good-bye.” His finger started to tighten on the trigger.

Pip was off Flinx’s shoulder instantly. Challis saw the snake move, shifted his aim, and fired. Remembrance of what the minidrag was capable of shook the merchant, and his shot went wild. It struck the wooden molding above the window, missing Pip and Flinx completely. Whatever the molding was made of, it burned with a satisfying fury. In seconds the gap between window and Challis was filled with flame and smoke.

While the smoke chased the merchant from the room and prevented him from getting a clear shot, it also left Flinx pinned outside the window. He started downward as rapidly as he dared, Pip thrumming angrily around his head and looking for something to kill. Flinx doubted he could make the ground safely before Challis got word to the guards below. Slowly he descended past one floor, a second, a third. On the fourth floor down he noticed that the reflective one-way paneling had broken and been repaired with transparent film.

Two sharp kicks enlarged the opening and he jumped through—to find himself confronting a single startled woman.

She screamed.

“Please,” he begged, making calming sounds and moving toward her. “Don’t do that. I don’t mean you any harm.”

She screamed again.

Flinx made violent shushing motions with his hands. “Be quiet . . . they’ll find me.”

She continued to scream.

Flinx halted and thought furiously what to do. Someone was bound to hear the noise any second.

Pip solved the immediate problem. He lurched speculatively at the woman. She saw the long, sinuous, quick-moving reptilian form, mouth agape, rushing toward her on broad membranous wings.

She fainted.

That stopped the screaming, but Flinx was still trapped in a now alerted building with next to no prospect of slipping out unseen. His gaze traveled frantically around the room, searching for a large carton to hide in or a weapon or . . . anything useful. Eventually his attention returned to the woman. She had fallen awkwardly and he moved to shift her into a more natural resting position. As he propped her up, Flinx noticed a bathroom nearby. His gaze shot back to the girl. . . .

A minute later several heavily armed guards burst into the unlocked room. It seemed to be deserted. They fanned out, made a quick inspection of every possible hiding place. One guard entered the bathroom, noticed feminine legs beneath the privacy shield, and hastily withdrew, apologizing. With his comrades he left and moved on to inspect the next office.

Three offices later it occurred to him that the woman hadn’t responded to his apology—not with a thank-you, not with a frosty acknowledgment, not with a curse. Nothing, That struck him as being strange and he mentioned the fact to his superior.

Together they dashed back to the office in question, entered the bathroom. The legs were still in the same position. Cautiously, the officer knocked on the shield, cleared his throat appraisingly. When there was no response, he directed the other two men to stand back and cover the shield exitway, which he then opened from the outside.

The woman was just opening her eyes. She found herself sitting stark naked on the convenience, staring into the muzzles of two energy weapons held in the steady grip of a pair of resolute-looking, uniformed men.

She fainted again.

By the time the badly shaken woman had been revived once more, Flinx was well clear of the tower. No one had noticed the lithe, short-haired woman leaving the building. Flinx had made excellent use of the cosmetics found in the woman’s desk—in Drallar it was useful to have knowledge of abilities others might find absurd or even disreputable. Only one clerk had noticed anything unusual. But he wasn’t about to mention to his fellows that the double leather belt encircling the woman’s waist had moved independently of her walk.

Finally away from both the tower and the Challis plant, Flinx discarded the woman’s clothing and let Pip slip free from around his belly. Disdaining normal transportation channels as too dangerous now, he made his way to the edge of the escarpment.

The two-thousand-meter drop was breathtaking, but he couldn’t risk waiting around the Plateau for some of Challis’ armed servants to challenge him in the street. Nor did he want to risk awkward questions from the authorities. So he took a deep breath, selected what looked like the least sheer cliff, and began his descent.

The basalt was nearly vertical, but crumbling and weathered, so he encountered an abundance of hand-holds. Even so, he doubted that Challis would imagine that anyone would consider descending the escarpment by hand and foot.

Flinx came upon some bad places, but the overgrowth of dangling vines and creepers enabled him to bypass these successfully. His arms began to ache, and once, when a foot momentarily became numb, he was left clinging precariously by fingers and one set of toes to tiny cracks in the rock.

At the thousand-meter mark, the cliff started to angle slightly away from him, making climbing much easier. He increased his pace. Finally, bruised, scratched, and utterly exhausted, Flinx reached the jungle at the bottom. Pausing a moment to orient himself, he headed immediately in what he hoped was the direction of the port. He had chosen his place of descent with care, so he didn’t have far to go through the dense vegetation.