Crown of Slaves

'Not to worry. Lara says her arm still hurts, even though the doctor swears the bone's healed.'

'I broke it pretty good. She irked me.'

Thandi was going out the hotel's front door now, waving over one of the jitneys lined up at the curb. The imperious hand gesture, coupled with the grin on her face, got her instant service.

The gesture was the product of her impatience. The grin, the product of Hanna's response.

'Great kaja, you are. Orders will be obeyed.'

That much, she had accomplished. Given their origins and the peculiar subculture they'd developed in the long centuries after the Final War, the Scrags had nothing resembling normal human families. Their social organizationwas more like that of certain pack predators. The term 'kaja' was slang, and hard to translate directly. It carried some of the connotations of 'mother,' though more those of 'big sister.' But Thandi thought the closest equivalent was probably the status of the biggest, toughest, meanest she-wolf in a pack.

Great Alpha Female, as it were.

'Orders will be obeyed,' she muttered.

She'd forgotten the pick-up mikes in the jitney. The driver gave her an aggrieved look in the rearview screen.

'I heard you the first time, lady. I'm pushing the express limit as it is. Any faster and we'll get shut down by central traffic.' He pointed a finger at the speed indicator. 'They'll do it in a heartbeat too, don't think they won't.'

'Sorry. Wasn't talking to you.'

Scowling a little, Thandi pondered one of the universe's small mysteries. How did it happen that a planet founded by gangsters had the inhabited galaxy's strictest traffic laws?

* * *

Halfway to the shuttle grounds, she remembered something.

Damn. I was looking forward to it, too.

She reached out and flicked off the cab's pick-up mikes, to give herself privacy. Then, quickly murmured the connection she needed. A moment later, a pleasant male voice came into her ear.

'Victor Cachat, here. I assume that's you, Thandi. Nobody else I know is twitchy enough about security to scramble an incoming number.'

'Sorry. I didn't even realize the scrambler was on. It's set for default. Look, Victor, I won't be able to make our lunch date. Something's come up.'

The pleasant tone in the voice faded a bit. 'So you spotted Templeton moving too, huh? I'd ask why that requires you to move quickly, but… never mind. I can make at least three guesses, and all of them lead me to the conclusion that I'll be meeting you on The Wages of Sin. Perhaps for dinner, eh?'

Cachat's quick thoughts had left Thandi behind. 'Why The Wages of Sin? All I know-' She hesitated, then decided that playing security games with Victor Cachat bore too close a resemblance to a mouse trying to play tag with a cat.

'Okay, screw it. Yes, I'm following Templeton. But all I know-and I'm still guessing about that-is that he and his crew are headed for the shuttle grounds. I've been assuming they're most likely heading for their own ship. Why would religious fanatics be heading for a place like The Wages of Sin?'

An obvious possibility occurred to her. 'Oh, Christ. You don't think-'

'No, I don't. Indiscriminate terrorism against random sinners isn't Templeton's style. He's looking for a specific target.'

'Who?'

'You know anything about the Manticoran royal family?'

Dumbfounded, Thandi stared out the window. They'd left the limits of Maytag, and the Erewhonese countryside was rushing past them below. Traveling as low as jitneys were required to by law, the landscape was a blur. So was her mind.

'Not much. It's a constitutional monarchy, and the current Queen is an Elizabeth, of one number or another.' Like most Solarians, Thandi tended to be oblivious to the political curlicues of the galaxy's multitude of miniature star nations. Only a specialist would try to keep track of such minutia as the royal family of a 'star kingdom' with no more than a handful of planets. There were well over two thousand star systems in the Solarian League, counting the hundreds who were effectively under SL dominion in the Protectorates.

Then, suddenly, she remembered the broadcast recording she'd watched a few days earlier. Anton Zilwicki and a certain-

'Are you talking about 'Princess Ruth'? What the hell would she mean to Templeton?'

'She's his sister. Half-sister, rather. And by his lights, a renegade and a traitor and a whore. And she and her companions-Anton Zilwicki's daughter and Professor Du Havel-just left for The Wages of Sin last night. Shortly after Zilwicki himself left Erewhon for parts unknown.'

'Oh. Shit.'

' 'Oh, shit' is right. As in: it's all about to hit the circulation system. I'll see you there, Thandi.'

'What are you going to be doing?'

'Playing it by ear, of course. What else? But this is a lucky break, I can smell it.'

He broke off the connection. Thandi sniffed. She couldn't smell anything, herself, beyond the scent of old upholstery kept freshly scrubbed by Erewhon's fanatically strict sanitation codes.

'Oh, great,' she grumbled. 'I'm about to get caught in a three-way shoot-out with a bunch of lunatics and the galaxy's number one Junior Superspy. All of it under the nose of gangsters-cum-saints, who've got the zeal of converts when it comes to lawbreaking.'

She flipped the mikes back on. 'Out of idle curiosity, do you have a death penalty here on Erewhon?'

The cabbie gave her a very aggrieved look. 'Of course not, lady! Erewhon's a civilized planet, y'know.'

She started to relax. Not much, though, as the cabbie expanded on the theme.

'Worst you can get is life without parole. In solitary confinement. For really nasty cases they tack on 'sensory deprivation,' too. That means your cell is maybe two meters by three meters, with no windows, and the only exercise you get is in a stimulation tank.'

He was apparently an enthusiast on the subject. 'Yup. No sunlight for your top felons. We don't go easy on criminals here on Erewhon, you betcha. Not one single day, for the rest of their stinking existence. Live like vampires. Not only that-'

Chapter 20

In the plush rear seat of her private runabout as it left atmosphere Naomi turned toward Victor, sitting next to her. He could see the earbug which she'd been using to talk to Walter Imbesi.

'My uncle wants to know if you think he should meet us once we arrive.'

'In public?' Victor shook his head. 'That'll run the risk of wrecking his plausible deniability. So I'd advise against it-unless he wants to bring Erewhon security down on Templeton and his crew, before they make their move. Which-'

Victor shrugged. 'It's his decision, of course, but I'd strongly urge him to let things unfold some more. If we stop Templeton before he strikes, we lose most of our political leverage. But if we don't, and people find out Walter Imbesi could have stopped Templeton before then-but didn't-there'll be all hell to pay.'

Naomi nodded and began muttering under her breath, in the easy manner of someone accustomed to using hidden throat mikes. Then she fell silent, listening to whatever her uncle was saying.