Sunset in Silvana (Da'ark Nocturne Book 1) (18 page)

“Leave him be.  He must be a spy.”

“I don’t think it’s that simple.  If he’s working for the Major, why was he abducted – willingly – from the Opera House?”

RD shrugged.  “It’s nothing to do with us.  We have to escape, and we can’t take the risk of taking him with us.”

“What if he wakes up and raises the alarm when we’ve gone?”

“We’ll tie him up.”

“But what if he’s as much a victim as we are?”  It was Tanya, who had just climbed the ladder.

“What are you doing up here?” Bartes asked.

“I thought RD might try something like this,” she said wearily.  ”We’re taking the boy with us.”

She and RD stared at each other for several seconds before the latter dropped his eyes.  “Then he’ll be your responsibility,” he muttered.

Tanya sighed.  “Very well.  I’ll try to keep him asleep until we’re well away from here,” she said, “but I won’t be much good for anything by the morning.  John, would you help me carry him down to the vehicle?”

“No,” said John.  “I’m not coming with you.”

“What?” Anoushka asked, aghast.  “Why ever not?”

“We daren’t put all our eggs in one basket,” he said.  “If you’re honest with yourselves, you’ll see that you only have a slim chance of escaping this way.  If I can persuade them that I’m still conditioned, I may get an opportunity to steal a flitter and get to Telphania.  After all, I could have got away before, but I didn’t want to do it without you.  Now, from what you’ve told me, it’s become urgent that one of us raises the alarm.  I think that this is the best way to maximise the odds.”

“What if they don’t believe you’re still under their thrall?” Bartes asked.

John shrugged.  “They’ll just re-indoctrinate me.  Maybe you can rescue me later, if you get away.  Now, you must tie me up and leave me here.  I’ll claim that I’m loyal to the Republic, and you started spouting anti-revolutionary rubbish, and that you knocked me out when I threatened to inform on you – and if you do the job properly, they won’t suspect me.”  Anoushka nodded dumbly.  “I’ll try to rendezvous with you in Telphania, if I can.  All the attention of the security forces should be on you, so I should be able to ‘borrow’ a flitter.”

Anoushka kissed him.  “There’ll be more of that waiting for you in Telphania,” she promised.  “Please, please be careful.”  Then Bartes hit him over the head.

As he slumped into unconsciousness, Tanya psionically checked inside his skull.  “There’s no permanent damage – though he’ll be out for a while,” she said with relief in her voice.  “You’ve done that before.”

“I must have done,” Bartes replied, as they bound and gagged their unconscious companion and laid him as comfortably as possible on the sofa.

They made their way to the boys’ room, where Peter lay comatose.  “Can you keep him asleep – as well as the guard downstairs?” Bartes asked as he carefully lifted the boy.  “I could bind and gag him.”

Tanya shook her head.  “That would most certainly wake him, but keeping him asleep will minimise the noise – and lessen the chance of alerting the guards outside.  We can always tie him up once we’re safely away.”

Bartes passed the boy down through the hatch to Iain, and as they traversed the guardroom for the final time, Tanya’s control over the mind of the security private slipped, and he half roused.  He reached out and took hold of Bartes as he passed by.  “Oh, Talia,” he mumbled.

Tanya quickly slipped between them so that when the guard’s eyes opened, all he could see was her face.  To Bartes’ surprise, she gave the young man a long, lingering kiss.  :
For God’s sake do something,
: she sent to Bartes.  :
This is revolting!
:

Bartes looked around desperately, and noticed a bottle of water on the card-table.  He picked it up by the neck and sent, :
OK, you can stop now,
: and, as Tanya disengaged herself, Bartes clubbed the guard with the bottle.  The latter promptly collapsed.

Tanya grabbed the bottle, swilled her mouth out and spat the contents over the unconscious youth and slapped his face – hard.

“Why’d you do that?” Bartes asked, as he bound and gagged the young man.

“He was dreaming about...  No, I’m not going to tell you what he was dreaming about.”  Tanya blushed.  “Bleargh!  My mouth tastes horrible.  And I’m going to have to gargle with antiseptic.  Come on, let’s go.”

“It’s still some hours before dawn,” RD said as they folded the camouflage net from the mouth of the cave. “We should to be long gone by the time the re-programming team arrives.”

“I’m checking everything for bugs,” Tanya said.

“And I’ve disabled the truck’s tracking device,” Iain added.

Bartes looked dissatisfied.  “What about our auto-injectors?  Couldn’t they have locators inside them?  We shouldn’t be wearing them now, anyway.”

Tanya’s brow wrinkled.  “There’s nothing I can do at the moment.  I’m a bit busy.  Anoushka, you’ll have to remove them. But keep the blood plasma that’s in them – it might prove useful.”

Anoushka swiftly removed their devices, starting with her own, drained their contents into containers from Tanya’s medkit and discarded them.

Iain was the last to climb into the vehicle, but as he was about to clamber aboard, he suddenly stopped, turned, and ran back along the tunnel.  Bartes jumped down and followed him back to the monitor room, where he was busy unloading the videotape machines.  “We don’t want them to know what happened,” he explained as Bartes joined in the task.  “And if they saw these, they’d find out about John’s plans.”

When they carried the tapes back to the ATV, Tanya gave a look of chagrin.  “Well done, Iain,” she said.  “I should have thought of that.”

The path from the maintenance bay sloped gently down towards the road.  RD released the brake and they coasted down onto the highway like a ghost.  He engaged the gears and the vehicle’s diesel engine shuddered into life.

They held their collective breath in anticipation of shouts and a hail of bullets from the dacha, but nothing broke the silence of the night apart from the sound of their own progress.

“Would it be a good idea to get off the road?” Bartes asked.  “This is an all-terrain vehicle after all.”

“We don’t want to leave tracks yet,” RD said.  “Not this close to the dacha – it’d make it too easy to follow us.”

“Shouldn’t we have our lights on?” Anoushka asked.

“No.  There’s a chance we could give ourselves away.  I doubt there’ll be much traffic up here tonight, anyway – it’s pretty remote.  My night sight is good enough to see the edge of the tarmac, and if we see the lights of another vehicle, I’ll pull in and park, and hope that whoever it is ignores us.”

“Hold on – look what I’ve found.”  Bartes waved a map roughly in RD’s direction and fumbled for a torch.  “I’ve got a compass, too – they were in that pocket by the door.  We need to go...west – no, north-west.  That’ll take us round the side of the lake.”

The road away from the dacha led roughly north-west for several miles before veering gently northwards. At that point, however, RD continued straight on, taking the vehicle off the asphalt and through a gap in the trees.

“The ground’s soft enough here to take tyre tracks,” he said, and they followed a roughly northerly course.  “This should help fool those who come looking for us, and hopefully trick them into wasting time searching in the wrong direction.  It’s a good thing that this vehicle was built for rough ground.”

Although there was no longer any risk of something coming in the other direction, their new path brought different perils: hillocks, rocks and trees.  Bartes tried to feel ahead with his psionics in the hope of warning RD of potential obstacles, but he had very limited success, and Tanya couldn’t help him, as she was keeping Peter asleep with what little energy she had left.  It was a relief to discover that, as well as good night sight, RD seemed to have some sort of innate danger sense, and – though they careened off one or two trees and the odd large outcropping – they soon managed to reach deep enough into the pine forest to risk lights safely.

It was now that Tanya’s will finally gave out.  “Tie the boy up, would you, Iain?” she mumbled, “I’m going to –”  She was asleep in her seat before she could finish the sentence.  Iain did as he was asked while Bartes reached over to make Tanya as comfortable as he could.

“Leave her to me,” Anoushka said, as she guided Tanya’s drooping head into her lap.

They continued to travel north until an exposed rocky plateau ran across their path.  RD drove onto it and, once they were no longer leaving tracks, he turned the vehicle south-west.  Just before dawn, the ground fell away in front of them as they found themselves on the bank of a broad, fast flowing river, which they were forced to follow to the south.

Some miles further, RD stopped the vehicle and turned to Iain.  “Something worries me about the path in front of us,” he said.  “Could you scout ahead for a couple of hundred yards?”

“Sure.”  Iain dismounted and walked forward in the pre-dawn light to spy out the ground.  It wasn’t long before he returned.  “Good call,” he told RD.  “The bad news is that this plateau ends in a sheer drop about a hundred yards ahead, where this river forms a rather spectacular waterfall.  The good news is that there seems to be a sloping path down the face of the cliff about half a mile to the east.  I can’t be certain, but I think it’s wide enough for this beast.”

RD turned their transport away from the onrushing flood and they soon breached the slope that Iain had identified.  The route they needed to take led down the face of the cliff toward the waterfall.  The incline was quite steep, and rather narrow in places, but by common consent looked to be their only option.  Twice they scraped against the rocky wall, and once one of the back drive wheels spun over the precipice and it took all RD’s strength to keep them on the path.  About three-quarters of the way to the floor of the valley below, as they neared the cascading cataract, the ramp opened out onto a scree slope.  RD was about to turn towards the valley floor when Iain put a hand on his arm.

“Look,” he said, pointing at the curtain of spray.  “I think that ledge might lead to a cave behind the waterfall, which might be large enough to hide in.  Let me go check it out.”

“Good idea,” RD said.  “I don’t fancy being caught in the open in broad daylight, and the land down here looks a little too domesticated to hide in.”  Indeed, in the growing light they could see below them a cultivated valley, complete with a village.

Iain again dismounted, and soon returned.  “There’s plenty of room under there, but the entrance is a bit cramped.”

“It’s our best choice,” RD said, “Batten down the hatches.”

They made the vehicle as watertight as possible as he gunned the motor and moved slowly forward.  Spray hammered on the roof as he managed to negotiate his way along the ledge and into the cavern successfully.  He parked the vehicle as close as he could to the back wall.

Anoushka settled Tanya on their bench seat while RD and Bartes, with help from Iain and Joseph, spread the camouflage net over the entrance around the vehicle.  They could only start a small fire, for fear of it or its smoke being visible from the valley floor, but it was enough to make some hot drinks.  By common consent, RD, who had done all the driving, was assigned the other bench seat in the ATV, while the rest of them spread the mattresses they’d liberated from the dacha on the flattest part of the cave floor.  Bartes was grateful when Iain volunteered to take the first watch, and fell asleep as soon as he lay down.

Tanya woke with a demolition team working in her head and a black hole in her stomach.  She sat up and groaned, and someone put a hot mug in her hand.  “Thank you, Anoushka,” she said without opening her eyes, as she recognised her friend’s scent and felt her calming presence.

“You’re welcome, Tanya,” Anoushka said in her gentle contralto.  “How are you feeling?”

“Pretty bloody – and starving.”  Tanya opened her eyes a little and was relieved to find herself in semi-darkness.  “What time is it?”  She raised herself on her elbows, slowly and gingerly swung herself into a sitting position, and sipped the blessed liquid fire.

“Late morning.  You were exhausted, and I didn’t want to wake you.  Here.”  Anoushka sat down beside her and handed her a tin of warm soup and a spoon.  “Sorry, but we’re having to rough it for the moment.  We could only light a small fire, not enough to cook properly on, for fear of being seen.”

“Who by?  And where are we?”

“We’re concealed under a rocky overhang behind a waterfall, which Bartes says is pretty much south-west of the lake.  There’s a village in the valley below, and despite our camouflage net, RD says a large fire would be visible.”

“He’s right.  How did we get here?”

“You’ll have to ask Bartes – he tracked our route, and maps and I have only a nodding acquaintance.”  She grinned, and Tanya suddenly felt much better.

“So we’re on our way home.”

“Looks like you kept your promises, Tanya.”  Anoushka squeezed her friend’s arm.

Tanya finished her meal and climbed down onto the floor of the cave.  “There’s still a long way to go, though.  Is there anything I can wash with?” she asked.  “I feel really grubby.”

Anoushka held out a plastic bottle of water.  “Don’t use too much of it – we haven’t got a vast supply.” She poured a little into Tanya’s hands and the latter rubbed it over her face and into her eyes.

As Tanya took the cloth that Anoushka proffered and dried herself off, she glanced up and became aware of a small cat looking back at her from just beyond the camouflage net.  “Don’t I know you?” she asked the animal.  “Weren’t you at the dacha at Plune?”

Anoushka followed her eyes and gasped.  “You know, I do believe you’re right,” she said.  “Her markings are very distinctive.”

:
And I’ll bet you were the one who saved Bartes last night,
: Tanya sent.

:
That’s right.  I’m Slimmest,
: the cat announced smugly.  :
My mistress sent me to help you.
:

:
And your mistress would be Sophie.  I’d guess that she’s a Beastmistress, and you’re one of her team.
:

:
Of course – her team prime, actually.
:  Slimmest preened herself.  :
You’d remember me if you didn’t have amnesia.  We’ve met before.
:

“It
is
the same cat,” Tanya told Anoushka.  “She belongs to Sophie, who sent her to help us.”

“How can
she
help
us
?” Anoushka asked incredulously,

“Oh, she has a lot of hidden talents – you’ll see.  Let’s give her some rations.  She must have travelled hard and fast to keep up with us.”

“Why not?” Anoushka replied.  “Here, puss,” she called as she selected a tin of fish from their food supply to feed the new arrival.

:
I’ll catch my own,
: Slimmest informed Tanya, her tail lashing slightly.  The cat pointedly turned her back on them and stalked away.

“What’s wrong?” Anoushka asked.

:
Please come back,
: Tanya sent, and told Anoushka, “You shouldn’t call her ‘puss’.  Cats like her have a very strong sense of dignity.”

“Then what should I call her?” Anoushka asked, dismayed.

“Just call her ‘Slimmest’ – it is her name – and try not to patronise her – she’s pretty sensitive.”

:
I am
not
,
: the cat stated imperiously, but at least she was now walking back towards them – in her most stately manner, tail held high.

“Pour the food into a bowl,” Tanya continued.  “She’s not in the mood to eat out of the tin.”

“As you wish.”  Anoushka located a china dish and tipped the provisions onto it.  “Would you like some fish, Slimmest?” she asked the approaching feline, who gave a ‘mrowp’ and condescended to bury her nose in the pile of pluny pieces.  “It’s a rather odd name.”

Tanya shrugged.  “It has to do with the way telepathy works.  You’ve had a little acquaintance with it now; how would you describe it?”

Anoushka wrinkled her nose.  “It’s a bit odd.  Some of it is like pictures in my mind, and some is like spoken words.”

“Exactly.  And it varies depending on the ‘sender’.  Some people think almost exclusively visually, some verbally, and most somewhere in between.  What does seem common is the visual representations of people and places.  When I saw John D’Arcy in your mind, I knew who it was because I know him, and though your perception of him differs somewhat from mine, there was enough commonality for me to recognise him.  But think what it would have been like if I hadn’t met him – how would I have tried to work out who he was?”

Light dawned in Anoushka’s face.  “From what he looked like.  So ‘Slimmest’ isn’t a name…”

“…it’s a description.  Yes.  I don’t know her true name – at least not at the moment, and I suspect that I wouldn’t, even if I had all my memories back.  Eranians are careful about names.  By the way, we’d better keep her away from RD as much as possible.  You know how he feels about cats – and about psionics – and I want to avoid a serious confrontation between him and Slimmest’s mistress at all costs.  I don’t think we can afford to lose him – yet.”

Anoushka laughed, and frowned when Tanya didn’t reciprocate.  “You’re serious.”

“Deathly.”

Once the newcomer was satisfied, she permitted Tanya to pick her up and introduce her to the rest of the party.  She purred and nuzzled most of them and accepted their attentions in return, but, as Tanya suspected, RD simply grimaced and avoided all contact.  “That animal is your responsibility,” he told her.  “Just keep it out of my way.”  He stamped off, muttering under his breath.

Tanya set the cat down and walked to the mouth of the cave, where she peered through the camouflage net to view the valley beneath.   She drew in her breath, shook her head slightly and went to look for RD, whom she found sitting by himself in the cab of the ATV.

“It’s a pretty big village down there – it’s almost a town.”

“Yes,” he said.  “The top of the valley’s pretty wild, so we’re unlikely to have any visitors, but if we try to move on before nightfall, we’ll be seen.  We’ll have to hole up here, and hope none of the villagers are insomniacs.”

“One of us should make a scouting expedition.”

“And who would you suggest?”  His eyes glinted in the darkness.

“Me.”

“You are the best qualified,” he replied grudgingly, “but I don’t think you ought to go on your own.”

“Why not?” she asked.  “I can move more quickly by myself, and it’s easier for one person to conceal themselves than for two.”

“No, I won’t have you going by yourself – Iain will go with you.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but realised it was no use arguing – RD was, at least for the moment, in charge – so she closed it again and went to find her designated partner.

“We’ll need a cover story, in case we’re spotted,” Iain said.  “I know – when I was rooting in the back of our stolen vehicle, I found several sets of overalls.  If we wear those, we could claim that we belong to a logging team that’s working up country, and we’ve been sent to the village for supplies.”

It seemed as good a plan as any, so they changed into their costumes and set out.  Tanya asked Slimmest to scout ahead of them and give her a preview ‘picture’ of the layout of the settlement.  It was, in fact, half village, half way-station, centred around a large hall which obviously functioned as a meeting place and held the office of the local security officer.  Apart from several houses, there was an inn and a general store, plus a trading post which clearly dealt with hunters, prospectors and loggers.  The latter had a large tank in a yard at the back, which appeared to contain diesel fuel.

As they neared the village, Bartes contacted Tanya from the cave.  :
Hide yourselves,
: he sent, :
We can hear vehicles coming.
:

:
From where?
:

:
The plateau.  No more ‘talking’ – they might have ‘sniffers’ aboard.
:

Tanya informed Iain, and they found some heavy undergrowth, lay down flat within it and waited.  Almost immediately, a couple of hoverbikes were outlined against the sky next to the waterfall.  They halted and both riders began to frantically wave their arms as a large troop carrier shot between them and over the edge of the cliff.  In a magnificent feat of control, the vehicle’s driver managed to use its hover fans to keep it level.  There was, however, a sickening crunch as it met the floor of the valley.  It bounced several times like a stone skipping across a pond and shuddered to a halt about twenty yards from where Iain and Tanya were hiding.

The riders of the hoverbikes drove along the edge of the cliff until they reached the path the fugitives had taken down into the valley.  They rode their vehicles down it and, to Tanya’s chagrin, one of them turned off and continued along the ledge towards where the others were hiding.  She held her breath as he approached the camouflage net, but relaxed as he dismounted and faced the cliff wall to relieve himself.

Meanwhile, amidst a lot of vehemence and the shouting of obscenities, the troops in the vehicle had vacated it and were jacking it up so that the damage could be inspected.  While the transporter’s mechanic checked it over, the lieutenant in charge addressed a soldier who must have been the navigator.  “Were you asleep, Private?  The cliff is clearly marked.”  He waved a large map under the navigator’s nose.

“No, sir!”  The navigator stood at attention, but was shaking visibly.  “And it’s Sergeant, sir.”

“Not any more, Private.  It was only the driving of Sergeant Karlovitch that saved our lives.”

“Thank you, sir.”  Another trooper, who was – for the moment – still wearing corporal’s stripes, saluted smartly.

“Now take care of this Private, Sergeant, and make sure he doesn’t make any more mistakes.”  He thrust the map into the navigator’s quivering hands.

“Yes, sir!”  The newly-promoted Sergeant gave his ex-superior an evil smirk.  Tanya could see that their relationship had a history, and had just taken a turn for the worse as far as the new Private was concerned.

The Lieutenant strode over to the vehicle and addressed the mechanic’s legs.  “What’s the damage, Corporal?” he asked.

The mechanic looked out from under the craft’s skirt.  “Not too bad, considering, sir.  She’s a sturdy old lady, aren’t you, girl?”  He slapped the side of the vehicle in an affectionate manner.  “I’ll have to unship one of the fans and straighten several blades, and replace a couple of bearings, but we’ll be under way in a couple of hours – three at the most.”

“Good – be as quick as you can, please.”  He strode over to where another trooper was fiddling with a radio.  “How are you doing, Sparks?”

“The radio’s fine, sir.  I’ve informed HQ of our situation, as you ordered.”

“Warn them that we won’t reach Kije in time to join the President’s bodyguard, will you?”  He blew out his cheeks.  “I just hope nothing happens.”

As Tanya lay in her place of concealment, she became aware of a vibration at her side.  She slowly moved her head so that she could see the purring cat and raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

:
Lucky for them,
: the cat sent.

:
What do you mean?
: Tanya asked, but the animal just gave her a smug look which said plainly, ‘Wait and see’.  Tanya shrugged slightly and gently stroked the cat, which served to increase the reverberation.

“Right,” the Lieutenant said.  “All those not involved in fixing the vehicle form up and follow me – we’ve got a job to do.”

He led his squad down into the village square.  The accident had not gone unnoticed, and most of the village had turned out to greet them, including a rather overweight security sergeant, who was red-faced and flustered.  The squad checked everyone’s papers, including the sergeant’s.  They went from building to building, ordering any occupants out and checking their papers too.  Tanya could guess what – or rather who – they were after, and her suspicions were confirmed when each of the villagers was checked for the nose-filters that would have given any one of the fugitives away.  As each person’s identity was confirmed, they were directed into the village hall.

Once everyone had been checked, the Lieutenant and two of his men entered the hall while the rest of the detail searched the other buildings.  From the time they took, the check must have been pretty thorough.  They still hadn’t finished by the time the Lieutenant and his team left the hall about an hour later.