The Mandala Maneuver (16 page)

“Sending me to Gaia would be a waste of resources,” Alexa said calmly, refusing to allow any of her inner turmoil to bubble its way to the surface. “My next posting is Targus Station, and if you’re going to send me off-planet — which I understand is fully within your rights, as this is a secure facility — then that is the most logical place to send me.”

“We’ll send you where we decide to, and that’s the end of it,” Marquand put in, clearly wearying of the back and forth between the two women. “You can cool your heels in here for a while, Ambassador — Ms. Ono and I have a few things to discuss.”

Melinda Ono looked briefly displeased by this, but then she nodded and said, “We’ll follow up soon, Ambassador Craig,” before following Captain Marquand out of the room. The door shut behind them, and Alexa heard the faint tinny
beep
of the electronic lock being engaged.

She didn’t even bother to get up and test the door. The sound was final enough, and told her she was stuck in here until they came back and…did what? Shot her outright? Called in a transport to haul her back to Gaia, where her story would mesh so badly with whatever lies Ms. Ono and her cohorts could concoct that she’d be discredited before she even got started?

And then there was the question of Lirzhan. She could only pray that he’d had the sense to lie low, that he wasn’t going to play his world’s equivalent of the knight in shining armor, coming to rescue the princess. Because the story that never got told, but probably happened more often than not, was of the knight ending up in the dungeon, right next to the princess.

F
orty-five standard minutes
, and now he knew she must be in trouble. She’d told him not to come looking for her if anything happened, but he knew he could no more do that than stop breathing. Although they’d seen no obvious surveillance during their quick fly-by, it was clear it existed, and it had caught her.

She must be alive, though. Surely he would have felt it if they had killed her, even at this distance. Far more likely that they would be questioning her, probably to locate him so the final loose end could be wrapped up once and for all.

But he wouldn’t make it easy for them.

Coming in from the landing pad was clearly not the answer. Too exposed, too close to the barracks. He had no idea of the schedule at the facility, and so didn’t know when the people who worked the mines might be coming and going. But there was still the first approach, from behind the ridge. In the shadows of the rocks there he could slip in by the refining factory, and follow its pipes to the main building. From there he would have to improvise, but he thought it might be done.

He glanced at the chronometer on the tablet. Five hours until rescue at the very earliest. A great deal could happen between now and then. It was entirely possible that the rescuers might have no one to rescue by the time they got here.

No. He would not allow himself to think that way, for then he would be admitting defeat before he’d even begun. The universe could not be so cruel as to have brought Alexa to him, only to have them torn apart before they had barely even begun to explore a relationship.

After disconnecting the beacon from the tablet, he tucked the larger device into an inner pocket in his robes, and placed the beacon in the emergency bag, now resting on the floor of the skimmer. The beacon had either done its job or it hadn’t, but it was of no further use at the moment.

This would be the first time he had driven their borrowed vehicle, but he had watched Alexa, and the procedure did not seem terribly difficult. Push that button to engage the engine, and the other to set off the thrusters and tuck the wheels into the undercarriage. From there it was a simple matter of steering between the trees, and using the lever off to the left to adjust his altitude.

Even so, he felt the small craft dip a little as he pulled back on the lever, and hastily pushed forward instead, bringing the skimmer up to approximately two meters above the forest floor. That was high enough to avoid any underbrush and boulders, but not so high that he could be easily spotted.

Keeping his forward speed low, he maneuvered around the trees, retracing their first route, the one that would take him back to the ridge line, so he might dip below it and come up from behind the facility. A shadow passed over the sun, and he glanced up, seeing clouds begin to move in. The breeze somehow felt colder, as if the chilly air currents were bringing with them a shift in the weather.

He hoped not, for up until now they had been lucky enough to enjoy a prolonged dry spell. The skimmer was an open vehicle; perhaps it had some sort of retractable cover, but if it did, he could not find the controls to work it, and he didn’t have any time to waste.

Slowing to a crawl, the craft emerged from the trees, hanging below the ridge so the skimmer could not be seen by direct line of sight. If they had scanning equipment at the facility, then it would most likely pick up the vehicle’s heat signature, but he would have to take that chance.

A slight whine from the engines as he engaged the thrusters again, and settled the skimmer on the rocky ground between several boulders, where he hoped it would be more or less hidden. From there it was a climb of some twenty meters to get over the ridge and down behind the refining plant. With the day growing rapidly darker as the cloud cover thickened, he hoped that he, in his black robes, would appear to be just another shadow.

Pulse pistols tucked into his belt, and the emergency bag slung over one shoulder, he climbed out of the skimmer and hastened up the hillside. The wind caught at the edges of his cloak, whipping the heavy fabric. Grimly, he pulled the cowled hood over his head, glad of the weighted edges, which would keep the fabric from blowing back away from his face.

The ground underfoot was treacherous, loose rock breaking away under his heavy boots. More than once he had to stop and regain his balance, find a surer footing in the scree. But eventually he gained the ridge line, and took the briefest of pauses to scan the area and see if anything looked particularly out of place.

As far as he could tell, it did not, but he had only a scant second or two for that inspection, enough to tell him there were only a few guards about, and not the sort of expanded security presence that might indicate they were actively on the hunt for any intruders. For a second he wondered if he had made a foolish mistake, if he had left prematurely and abandoned Alexa to make her own way back to the rendezvous point.

But then he felt it — a pulse of worry and fear that could only have come from Alexa. There, in that tall gray building, which must be some kind of administrative offices. So they had caught her.

Although he wished nothing more than to go pounding down the hillside to her rescue, such a foolish gesture would only result in his being captured as well. He would have to go about this methodically. At least now he knew she was alive. Almost as important, he also knew where they were keeping her.

The refining plant hugged the hillside, casting a deep shadow behind it. Lirzhan used that shadow, working his way downward until he was at its base and could feel the very ground beneath his feet vibrating as it processed — well, whatever it was that they were mining here.

Now at last he could hear the voices of both men and women, and he held himself still, using a huge metal support column as cover as a group of miners walked down a ramp and toward one of the paths that cut through the installation. Two of them were arguing over whether their bonuses were going to be ten percent or fifteen percent, and another one expressed a hope that it wouldn’t be vindiloo —whatever that might be — again for lunch today. And then they were gone, disappearing into the very building where Alexa was being held.

He guessed they had no idea that a Consortium ambassador was being detained in that building. No, they had all sounded like regular working people. They must have some sort of clearance to be working here at all, although he assumed a great deal of the facility’s importance had been shielded from them.

Perhaps he was not exactly relieved, but it did gladden him a little to know that not everyone here was a cold-eyed mercenary too ready to commit murder to hide their secrets. Those barracks had not looked large enough to hold more than a hundred people at most, and if the majority of those here worked in the mines, that meant the actual security force might not be that large after all. It made sense in a way — if your facility was so secret that no one even knew it existed, most likely you would not have to expend too much effort defending it.

Well, besides pulling ships out of subspace that got too close. Somehow he knew that was the heart of the puzzle, although he did not have the time now to work at it. All of his focus must be kept on Alexa, on retrieving her from wherever she was being held. He wished now that his people truly were telepathic instead of empathic, for then perhaps he could have sent her a mental message telling her to keep heart, and to expect rescue at any moment. But since he did not possess such skills, all he could do was try to get to her as quickly as possible…and hope there weren’t too many people standing in the way.

He ghosted to another pillar and then paused, surveying the scene before him once again. It was clearly time for the noonday meal; more workers were emerging from the mines and heading to that same building, which must house the commissary. Unfortunate that he was so distinctive in appearance. There was no way he could blend in with them. He wondered then exactly how they’d caught Alexa, because she was right — her own disguise of black coveralls and messy hair and smudged face would have made her indistinguishable from the grubby men and women he glimpsed from his hiding place.

Not that it really mattered now. The worry and fear he’d sensed told him somehow she’d been found out. Obviously her disguise had not been enough to protect her. Had she revealed who she was, or did they already know? Most likely they knew she was one of the shuttle crash survivors right away; after all, every single worker here had to be accounted for, and they would have seen she was not one of them, even if they didn’t immediately recognize her face.

He had reached the last of the pillars supporting the refining structure, and after this he would have to venture out into the open. It was probably good that the day had turned gray and dark, a fine drizzle beginning to descend from the lowering clouds. His black robes would not stand out as much in this sort of weather as they would on a blazing-bright sunny day.

The area seemed more or less deserted, the last of the workers having disappeared inside the building in search of their noonday meal. Lirzhan scanned the area, paying particular attention to the eaves of the buildings, as they were natural mounting points for surveillance cameras, but he saw nothing. That didn’t mean much, as most types of security equipment were designed to be small and discreet, difficult to see with the naked eye. For all he knew, they were watching him now as he hung back in the shadow of the refining plant, deciding on his next course of action.

Then he saw an automated cart trundling away from the plant, heading toward a low building connected to the tall one where he believed Alexa was being held. The cart was covered with a flat sheet of plastic, most likely to protect it from the elements.

Figuring this was his best chance to get inside without being detected, Lirzhan slipped in behind the cart, crouching low so that it would provide some cover. Then he unfastened the pressure tape holding it down on one end, lifted it, and heaved himself over the side.

He landed in some sort of glinting bluish powdery substance. Frowning, he gathered up a handful of it. The substance felt like very fine sand, but he could not understand what it could possibly be, or why the Gaians would think it so very valuable. Something about the color seemed oddly familiar, though, as if he had seen it before.

Dark rock walls rising around them, with the lanterns picking out a sudden glitter of blue crystals on all sides….

That was it. The crystals he and Alexa had seen in the caves on their journey here. This powder must be those crystals after being pulverized in the refinery he was now leaving behind. But what the Gaians were doing with that material, he couldn’t begin to imagine.

The cart rode over a bump, and through the loose flap of the protective plastic he could see that it had passed inside the facility, was now moving through a large open area with bins on either side. A man’s voice called out, “Another load just came in.”

“We haven’t finished processing the last batch. How fast do they think we can work?”

“Not fast enough, I guess. What should I do with it?”

“Just leave it up against that wall for now. We’ll come back for it after we’re done performing the last crystallization tests.”

A thud, and Lirzhan felt the cart being steered off to one side, followed by a final thump as it was apparently pushed up against a wall. He held his breath for a moment, wondering if either of the two men who had been speaking would come to look inside, but they seemed to have more important things on their minds, for he heard nothing further from them. After another moment, Lirzhan pushed the plastic up and risked a quick look around.

He appeared to be in some sort of holding area; in addition to the bins he’d spotted earlier, there was another cart similar to the one in which he now hid pushed up against the opposite wall. To his left was a metal door, and it was from that direction he thought the men’s voices had come.

The door suddenly opened, and two Gaians wearing white knee-length coats over their coveralls emerged. At once Lirzhan ducked back down into the cart and dropped the plastic.

The first man said, “Break for lunch? This stuff isn’t going anywhere.”

“Good idea. I can’t work on an empty stomach anyway.”

Their footsteps echoed on the concrete floor and eventually disappeared. After waiting another minute, Lirzhan once again pushed up the plastic and peered out. The holding area appeared to be deserted, so he judged this the best time to get away.

After sliding out of the cart, he paused for a moment to brush as much of the crystalline blue sand out of his robes as he could, then glanced around. No one seemed to have come to replace the two men, so it appeared that perhaps they were the only ones assigned to this part of the facility. They had gone out the way he had come in, which meant he should go through the door, which clearly led deeper into the building. It seemed the best way to get to Alexa.

Besides, he had to confess a certain amount of curiosity about what they were using all that blue sand for.

He pushed the button to open the door, thankful that it did not have a biometric lock or some other security device. On the other side was a long corridor with closed doors on either side. Not much helpful there. And these doors did all have card locks on them, which meant there was no way he could get inside.

Very well, then he would just have to continue deeper into the facility, and hope that everyone else had gone to lunch as well.

“You! What the hell — ”

Lirzhan didn’t even stop to think. He pulled the pulse pistol from his belt, wishing the weapon was the type with a paralyze setting. Apparently the mercenaries hadn’t bothered with such niceties, and so all he could do was aim for the man’s leg. A pale green bolt flew down the corridor and hit the man in the knee. He crumpled to the floor, dropping the cup of hot liquid he’d been carrying. Some of that acrid drink the Gaians called “coffee”; Lirzhan could smell it as it splashed over the gray laminate floor.

Moving quickly, Lirzhan ran to the stranger, clapping a gloved hand over his mouth before he could let out anything more than a startled howl. A strip torn from the hem of man’s white coat served well enough to gag him, keeping him from making any more noise, and two more strips secured his hands and then his feet. Pain pulsed from him, but the wound was not life-threatening.