Revolution's Shore (33 page)

Kyosti shrugged eloquently.

“All right,” interposed Lily, not wishing to continue such speculation. She paused a moment to take stock of her team: Jenny, Yehoshua, and Kyosti; Pinto, Paisley, and the other three Ridani; the Mule, Finch, Nguyen, and Wei. Blue was still too valuable in engineering to risk, and Aliasing had agreed to stay with Gregori on board the
Forlorn Hope
. Lily suspected that Jenny did not, in any case, want Lia along on such a mission.

“Let's make some cautious assumptions,” continued Lily. “For instance, let's assume that Jehane accomplished exactly what he meant to do in getting Blessings to combine with him against Central's forces on the planet. Let's assume that he has something further planned that we don't know about. Let's assume that he in fact did
not
know that Central had garrisoned Blessings with five centuries of Immortals.”

Jenny whistled. “
Five
centuries?”

“Finally, let's assume that Kuan-yin really does want him back on the
Boukephalos
. Any arguments?”

“That's pretty general,” objected Yehoshua.

“Well, yes, but we haven't got much time. Now I'm going to make one final assumption: he's stuck in the capital, which is being patrolled by one or two centuries of Immortals who either don't know he's there or only suspect it. He's got to get to the countryside to get a shuttle off planet. He has to risk the Immortals to get out.”

“Risk the Immortals?” Yehoshua shook his head. “You don't
risk
Immortals. How can even Jehane hope to fight past them?”

Lily looked at Jenny.

Jenny smiled. “Doubtless comrade Jehane is full of surprises,” she said sardonically. “Where's your faith, Yehoshua?”

“Levity is all very well. I'm talking about the
Immortals
here.”

“Yes, I know you are,” replied Jenny. “I was one.”

His eyes widened. So did most everyone else's around the table. “But—I thought Immortals couldn't retire.”

“They can't.” Jenny said this in a tone that sounded tired of the subject. “So there you are. Listen, Lily.” She turned her attention back to the other woman. “I've a good idea how they'll post patrols. Especially if they're looking for one person.”

“Good.” Lily nodded. “I was hoping you might. Bach has a map of the capital and a précis of all current and recent comm-traffic out of that area. Finch, you'll assist Bach in trying to use that information to trace the most likely locations Jehane might be holed up in.”

Finch nodded.

“We'll need two shuttles. One will act purely as a decoy. Pinto, can you find me a volunteer who is willing to risk their life—”

“I'll do it,” said Kyosti casually.

“No, you won't. You're staying on board this ship, comrade. The work you're doing with the Formula—as a
physician
—is far more valuable to the citizens of the Reft right now. Don't you agree?”

At first he was too stunned by her fiery stare to retort, but after a moment he laughed.

“Lily, my heart,” he said softly. “Our old friend Robbie must have inoculated you with his idealism.” He smiled, gently mocking. “I bow to your superior charity.”

“Get your gear,” ordered Lily. “We leave in one half hour.”

The room cleared quickly, except Kyosti, who did not even bother to rise, and Paisley, who stood, but supported herself on her chair back as if she could not stand without aid.

“Paisley?” Lily went across to her and rested a hand on the Ridani girl's shoulder.

“I were sore ill,” whispered Paisley, looking fragile for a moment. “You know I bain't scared, min. You know it. But I fear I be ya right sore hindrance to you if I go.”

Lily glanced at Kyosti. He studied Paisley, measuring the girl, but said nothing. “Very well,” said Lily. “Then you're better off staying here.”

Paisley dipped a brief curtsey and left, head down.

“I wonder what that was all about,” said Kyosti. He stood up. “Lily.”

She went to the door, put her hand on the pad, but did not open it. “Why did you give me the Formula?”

“I can't imagine,” he said, sounding disgusted, “why you feel the need to ask that question. The answer
must
be obvious.”

“Only if you assume that I can possibly forgive you for murdering that man. He never threatened you.”

His face shuttered: lips drawing straight and tight, eyes half-closed, breath caught in; lifting his chin, for an instant he looked impossibly alien to her—framed all by the startling blue of his hair.

He did not reply.

“Wish me luck,” she murmured as she pressed the pad. The door slipped open behind her.

Still, he did not reply.

Only after the door slid shut behind her, leaving him alone in the dimming room, did he sigh, echoing the door's soft hushing close: “Luck.”

Lily was in no mood to discover an argument at the shuttle, but she did so anyway.

“—and who is going to take care of Gregori, pray tell?” Jenny stood on the ramp, effectively blocking Aliasing from boarding the shuttle.

Lily halted in the boarding walk, staring at Lia. The two women remained unaware of her. The rest of the corridor was empty.

Somehow, somewhere, Lia had cobbled together a white Jehanish soldier's uniform that really fit her: she had always been too petite to meet any standard soldier's issue. Most of the splendid dark fall of her hair still hung loose, but in the front it had been cunningly braided to keep away from her face.

“Paisley,” Lia replied, hands clenched tight as she stared stubbornly up at Jenny. “It's true enough she was sick later than the rest of us, so she said she'd plead sick and stay here with him.”

“You idiot!” hissed Jenny. Lily had never seen her so angry. “Whatever training you've had in the past year hasn't begun to prepare you for this kind of action. You can't go.”

Lia sucked in an obvious, big breath of air, like resolve. “It's not your choice. I'm taking Paisley's place.”

“You can't go,” repeated Jenny.

Lily was shocked by the violence of Jenny's tone, especially directed at Lia, whose frailness under this attack, enhanced by the cleverly ornamented lines of the white uniform—like, yet unlike, Jehane's people's uniforms—was beginning to dissolve away to reveal something unyielding underneath.

“You don't want me to meet Jehane,” said Lia, shifting her ground so abruptly that the expression on Jenny's face immediately betrayed the accuracy of the hit.

“You're afraid,” Lia continued, sounding anything but fragile now, “that I'll leave you for him when I find out who he really is. But I knew all along, Jenny. After all those years as a Senator's only daughter, do you think I don't watch every face that pretends to power? Do you think I don't measure them, and wonder, and predict? I grew up with politics. I can't ignore it like you can.”

She paused, but Jenny merely stood, hands motionless at her side, stiff with an emotion Lily could not name.

“I don't know how long you think you've been protecting me. I thought you knew me better than that, that just because I'm so small you didn't treat me like everyone else does: something to be protected. Void bless, how my mother and aunt laughed when I said I wanted to join the Immortals. Size requirements, you know.” Her voice held a bitterness that Lily would never have guessed existed there, under the cloud of soft hair and the sweet piquancy of her face.

“I've known who Jehane was ever since his revolt really began to threaten Central's government. Yes, he's changed the timbre and pitch of his voice a lot, and he looks a little different—it's mostly his carriage, I think—but still.
Still
, Jenny.”

She stopped. Paused, and turned her head to see Lily standing some twenty paces behind her in the empty corridor. Turned back. “Let me by,” she said softly.

Jenny moved to one side and let her board the shuttle. Just stood there, as Lily came up to her.

“Jenny.”

A single tear snaked down one ebony cheek. “She loves him,” Jenny whispered. “Void and Hells. You saw him. How can I compete against
him
?”

“By not competing,” replied Lily softly. “Anyway, do you think Jehane wants the burden of her love?”

“Do I think I care if he wants it or not?” Jenny demanded in a low, harsh voice. “I care that I've lost her. I care that she never once told me what it was she did to break the fabled chastity of the man who was Mendi once. Don't you think she can do it again? That she doesn't have some power over him? That even if he doesn't want her love, he'll be able to resist it?”

Lily could think of nothing to say. She did not dare attempt to touch Jenny, standing there taut and tense as a strung cable.

“She even made a uniform,” said Jenny at last, almost inaudible.

“The uniform?”

“Yes. Oh.” Jenny glanced at Lily, a spark of irony showing in her expression. “You probably didn't notice. The differences are subtle. That's not a Jehanist uniform—Jehanish whites, like ours. Look at the ornamentation, and the cut. That's an Immortals uniform.”

A face in the shuttle door: Finch. “Oh,” he said, relieved. “There you are. We're three minutes late.”

Jenny whirled and went inside the shuttle.

“Oh, Hells,” said Lily under her breath, and followed her.

“Bach and I are picking up some new comm,” said Finch as Lily strapped into the seat directly behind him and Pinto. “There's troop movement in the capital—the Immortals are setting up some kind of ring around the very center of the city. I think, from what we can piece together, that they've isolated one of the ‘Independence' movements' strongholds, or meeting places, in one of the downtown buildings.”

Lily looked at Pinto. “Let's move. Whether or not it's Jehane, there's somebody down there worth saving—if only because they might know where Jehane is. Is the decoy ready?”

“Affirmative.” Pinto flipped through his controls. “We have engines, detach sequence counting down.”

Finch handed Lily a headset as the shuttle detached and, after separation, canted with a flash of engine to begin the descent.

“How many centuries are we up against?” she asked. “Can you give me an estimate?”

“Two, Bach guesses. Do I transmit to the
Boukephalos
?”

“No. For now we maintain silence. If we locate Jehane, Kuan-yin will send in backup, probably on our tail, to pick him up. We've got to find him without alerting Central's people that we're looking.”

Finch glared at Pinto, who sat intent at his controls, then leaned back in his chair. “We're not really going in twenty meters up, with that decoy riding in two hundred meters above us, are we? Even Pinto—”

“Finch. We've got to get in undetected. We don't have time to go overland. By this time, you ought to know that if anyone can do it, Pinto can.”

Finch's lips twitched as if he felt he had to say something, but could not bring himself to. “I suppose,” he said at last, grudgingly.

Lily chuckled. “I'll bet that hurt.”

His lips tightened, and he turned stiffly back to his console. Lily listened in.

“—we have achieved complete command of the ten-block circumference. All civilians are now being evacuated through our points of entry. Acknowledge.”

“Accepted. Lieutenant, give me an estimate of time remaining to clear the area before your troops can move in. Acknowledge.”

“Accepted. Due to the necessity of careful search procedures and the opportunity to close the ring as each building is cleared, we estimate the operation will take over six hours. Acknowledge.”

“Accepted. Commodore Byrd wishes a complete disposition sent by courier before—”

Lily plugged her screen into Bach and plotted out what she could deduce of the Immortals' positions around the central hub of Blessings's capital. Behind and to either side of her, Jenny and Yehoshua leaned forward as she showed them her map.

“They've trapped some people in here,” she said. “We'll have to send ourselves in if we get no clue before that whether Jehane is among those trapped.”

They discussed alternatives as the shuttles streaked downward through the atmosphere. From the main cabin behind, she could hear only a bit of desultory talk between the Ridanis.

“Two minutes to split,” said Pinto. “Hold on to your seats.”

Lily, glancing up, thought she caught him smiling. Then the shuttle banked hard and the green fields of Blessings screamed past a seeming hand's breath beneath them. She could just make out the decoy shuttle above, running slightly before them.

Jenny, Yehoshua, and Finch all shut their eyes. Lily forced herself to watch as the far suggestion of hills transmogrified into a distant city, approaching fast.

Antiship fire exploded out of distant emplacements still hidden from her eye.

Bach whistled, and she turned up her headset.

“—inform Commodore Byrd that we have
vende patria
confirmation that the traitor calling himself Jehane
is
among those still within the ring. Advise. Acknowledge.”

“Accepted. Absolute imperative. Jehane must not escape. You know your orders. I want all civilians out of there and a full assault to—”

“All stations. All stations. This is post A-seven. We have a breakout assault in progress. Repeat—”

“Finch! Get me their exact position and feed it directly into Pinto's grid. Pinto. Can you get there—through the city?”

Pinto paused long enough to cast a quick, controlled glance across at the fire peppering the decoy above. The city grew, doubled, quadrupled in size as they raced toward it.

A sudden explosion from above, and a spray of light and fire.

“Braking,” said Pinto tersely as he glanced at the grid that now showed the intricate lines of the capital's layout, and the winking light that pinpointed post A-7's position. “We're going in.”