Crown of Slaves

Which, she reflected as she plugged her personal com into one of them, means a bit more here than it might somewhere else, doesn't it?

Not that it prevented her from bringing her own encryption software on line.

'Horatius, Lieutenant Carlson speaking,' the voice of the duty com officer said into her earbug. 'What can I do for you, Lieutenant Palane?'

Her personal encrypt had identified her, just as it had automatically routed her to the watch officer instead of one of the duty ratings. But it was still reassuring-and satisfying-to be part of an operation where Navy senior- grade lieutenants (the equivalent of a Marine captain) not only knew which end was up but actually sounded like they wanted to help her do her own job.

'Mainly, I'm just checking in, Ma'am,' Thandi informed her, speaking very quietly into her privacy mike. 'My unit and I are about to make rendezvous with Wages of Sin-we're aboard their shuttle Diamond.'

'Half a sec, Lieutenant,' Carlson replied. Thandi could hear her saying something to someone else, then she came back on the line. 'Tracking has you, Lieutenant. We make your ETA about eighteen minutes.'

'Confirm, Ma'am. As far as I can tell at this point, everything's under control, but I'm declaring Code Maguire.'

'Acknowledged,' Carlson said. The Navy officer had no idea in the universe what Code Maguire was all about, but it was on her priority list as an operational ID. 'I'll inform the captain. Anything else we can do for you at this point, Lieutenant?'

'Just one other thing,' Thandi said. 'Do we have any idea what that big freighter is doing riding in orbit so close to the space station?'

'Hold on, and I'll check.' After half a minute or so, Carlson's voice came back in her ear. 'It's the Felicia III, a combined freighter and personnel transport. Registered as an independent carrier out of Yarrow-that's a system in Grafton Sector-but our records show it's really owned by the Jessyk Combine. According to the manifest they filed with Erewhon's orbital monitors, they're carrying about three thousand economy-rate passengers and are making a short stop-four days-to let their customers enjoy the resort.'

Thandi stared at the space station. It was gigantic, now, filling the entire viewport.

She didn't believe it for an instant. True, there were freighters who provided comfortable if slow passage for people who couldn't afford the top rates charged by cruise liners. But Jessyk Combine's hybrid freighters specialized in transporting the galaxy's poorest residents. People who'd barely been able to scrape up the money to afford a single trip, almost always a voyage to settle as colonists in a new world somewhere. The one thing they wouldn't have was extra money to splurge on a four-day stop at a pleasure resort. Certainly not on a Jessyk vessel-the Combine was notorious for being able to squeeze blood out of a stone.

But there was no point in asking anything further from Lieutenant Carlson. A Solarian destroyer wouldn't have access to the records she needed.

'Thank you, Ma'am,' she murmured. 'Lieutenant Palane, out.'

Again, she hesitated. Then she pulled her personal com out of the shuttle's communications systems and switched to a dedicated channel it hadn't had when she first arrived in Erewhon.

'Victor, can you hear me?'

His voice came into her earbug immediately. Still, the same pleasant tenor; but, this time, with the slightly detached flavor which Thandi recognized as the tone of an experienced fighter heading into combat.

'I'm here, Thandi. We just docked a few minutes ago.'

'Can you talk to anyone in a position of authority on that space station?'

There was a moment's pause. Then: 'Yes. But I've got to be careful about it. Cutout.'

She understood the meaning of the last terse phrase. Thandi wasn't positive, but she suspected Victor was in communication with Walter Imbesi. Quickly, she considered the parameters of the situation, and came to the conclusion that Victor had decided it would be best to let Templeton's scheme unfold a bit before taking action. If so, it was obvious why he'd be chary of involving Imbesi unless it was absolutely necessary. The political repercussions if it became publicly known that Imbesi had delayed informing the Erewhon authorities would be fairly catastrophic.

'I think it's important, Victor.'

Immediately the tenor voice came back. Calm, relaxed, detached-supremely self-confident without making any effort to show it. Thandi felt some primitive part of herself heating up-and another part of herself, that self- analytical faculty she'd had as long as she could remember, almost jeering.

Oh good, Thandi. You and your fixation on alpha males. Kinky, kinky, kinky. When are you going to learn?

She drove the thought away. This was no time for another morose self-examination of the fact that the only men who ever really excited her were precisely the ones she trusted the least. Or the irony that a woman who could break most men in half without working up a sweat had such a wide submissive streak running deep under the surface-which she never let out because she trusted it even less.

'Good enough, Thandi. What is it?'

She explained quickly. As soon as she was done, the assured tenor told her he'd get back to her as soon as possible. She had no doubt he would. When they broke contact, she was feeling a bit flushed.

Damn you, Victor Cachat. I don't need this!

His voice was back within five minutes. By now, her shuttle was nearing the boat bay, and most of the space station had spread out of sight beyond the viewport's edges. The sight reminded her of a small fish on the verge of being swallowed by one of the enormous sea beasts native to her home planet. As was common on heavy gravity worlds, Ndebele's surface was largely covered by oceans.

'I think you're on to something. According to their records, the only people from the Felicia III who've come across to The Wages are a dozen or so officers and crew. They've been splurging in the ritzier casinos.'

'That's what I suspected. Jessyk's crews are notorious for slack discipline. They're making an unauthorized stop for their own entertainment. Which means that whatever passengers might be on that ship are being kept quarantined. There's no way to know without boarding them, but I think that ship is a slaver on its way to Congo masquerading as a combined freighter and cheap transport vessel.'

'That would fit the facts, certainly. Do you think this is tied in with Templeton?'

'No way to tell yet. But I think… I think they're tied in because Templeton's planning to tie them in somehow. I don't think it's prearranged. You say they've been here two days? That would be just about right for Templeton to find out and launch whatever scheme he's had in mind.'

She'd lost track of the two smaller groups detached from Templeton's main group. The members of her team who'd been tracking the half dozen men apparently headed for Templeton's own ship had broken off once the Masadan pilots had entered the spaceport. They'd rejoined Thandi and were accompanying her on the shuttle. And, unfortunately, the low-powered transmitters she was using were no longer able to stay in touch with her two women tracking Templeton's lieutenant, Flairty.

And why had Flairty and two others remained behind on the planet?

Victor's voice came into her ear. 'Anything else, Thandi?'

It was a little hard to believe that that relaxed and supremely self-confident voice belonged to a man no older than she was. Two or three years younger, in fact. As usual, Thandi felt herself shying away from the attraction- and then brought herself up sharply.

Grow up! Forget your damn Hormone Anxieties. The man's good at this, girl, he's not putting on an act to impress you.

She felt herself relax. Captain Rozsak had given her the authority to make her own decisions, after all. Bringing Cachat into her full confidence was within her parameters.

'Yes, there is.' Quickly, she filled Cachat in on the situation with Flairty. 'Do you have any idea why he'd have been left behind?'

'Give me a moment to think about it.'

There was silence for perhaps ten seconds. When Victor's voice came back, there was for the first time a slight trace of excitement in it.

'Yes. It all fits, now. This is a kidnaping attempt, Thandi, not an assassination. Templeton's