The Transport area was deserted save for two lone figures who performed a sort of ballet. Each held a long silver rod with a cone at one end. The person on the left swept the air, up and down, to a full hundred and eighty degrees, while the person on the right copied this in mirrored symmetry. Every few feet they exchanged places and did this silver dance on the territory their partner had just covered.
Keylinn’s sweep would locate any bombs made of that favorite explosive substance, ambrite, while the sweep of Ennis Severeth Gilleys would find any made of that almost-as-popular material, fleshique. Either could be molded to fit in a one-centimeter area, so precision was necessary.
They worked in silence, muscles aching from the same continuous movements. Ennis finally said, “Probably just a scare.”
“Probably,” agreed Keylinn.
They waltzed on. At the border of Bay Orange Keylinn got a flash on her sweeper; she ran it past again, and got another. “Wait.”
Ennis put down his sweeper, cone downward, carefully deactivating it first. They both examined the wall. It appeared to be a small panel, like any of a million power chargers scattered all over the Diamond. Just pull back the casing and recharge whatever needs it… Keylinn did not touch the panel. “What do you want to bet,” she said, “that there was no charger here yesterday?”
“Ambrite,” said Ennis. “You ever play with this stuff?”
“Of course. I got a nice mark for blowing up a target building back home with ambrite. I used the classical setup; the hard part was getting inside.” She continued to look at the panel, not touching it. “Better let them know,” she said, and looking around, saw a link-station at the Bay Orange passage desk. She walked over to it and called court deck. “Adrian Mercati, please. He’s expecting my call.” She checked the time. “Sir, we’ve found one. I’m at the border of Orange and Blue.”
Adrian’s voice said clearly, “Thank you, Tech Gray. Security’s on its way; they should be there in five minutes. I’ve sent Tal as well—if they’re Outsider-made, maybe he can advise us. I appreciate your being on the spot.”
She said slowly, “Just how much experience do your Security people have with Outsider bombs?”
She heard a laugh, but it was not a happy sound. He said, “There’ve only been two bombs in the last sixty years—each time Security solved the problem by setting them off after the area was cleared.”
“Setting them off? Deliberately?”
“Well, not really deliberately. But they knew what the odds were when they tried to disarm them.”
She exchanged an involuntary glance with Ennis at that. “I have some experience in this, Adrian, and so does the Outsider I’m with. If you want us to proceed, we will.”
There was a brief pause. “Actually, I was hoping you would volunteer.”
On the edges of fatality, this nonetheless intrigued her. “You didn’t wait for Tal to volunteer—he wouldn’t. You must have ordered him down.”
“Yes, but you’re a lady.”
She felt the edges of her lips turning up and squelched it. This was no time for her unfortunate sense-of-humor- problem-under-stress. “I see. Well, thank you, Adrian. I’ll remember your courtesy. If at all possible.”
She turned off the link. “I have some equipment in my quarters. Can you fetch it? I’ll start with the tools here.” Ennis hesitated, and she said, “Excuse me, I hope I haven’t presumed, brother. Do you have much experience with ambrite?”
“Not a lot.”
Whatever his problem, she dismissed it. This was not the time. ‘Then please hurry.”
Four minutes later Tal found her. He stood silently, waiting until she placed a section of wall on the floor and wiped her face, then said, “I’m here.”
“I heard you.” She stepped back and looked at her handiwork. There were two holes, one above and one to the side of the panel.
“Care to bring me up to date?”
“I’m coming in from behind—Ennis has gone to get me some round-the-comer tools. … I’m assuming the panel is set to go off if anyone fools with it.”
“That sounds like a reasonable assumption. Do you need anything from me?”
“Can you use a sweeper? The one over there is set for ambrite. Keep going in that direction, and when I need you to hold something for me, I’ll shout.”
Tal spoke no further, but did as directed. He saw Ennis return a little later. No flashes came from the sweeper.
Soon he looked back and saw an incredible amount of things lying on the deck; apparently Keylinn was taking out most of the wall. And a few minutes after that there came the sounds of argument. He put down the sweeper and joined them.
“What is it?”
Keylinn cast a resentful glance toward her companion. “He’s lost his mind.”
Tal turned to him, eliciting further enlightenment. “I’ve worked a little with ambrite bombs,” Ennis said, “at home.”
“So have I!” said Keylinn.
“I don’t think we should be approaching it this way. She’s deactivating the points in the wrong sequence.”
“It’s a textbook setup!” she said. “It doesn’t need creative thought, it just needs following the rules. And that’s what I’m doing. It’s the right sequence, Tal, it’s child’s play. I couldn’t possibly be wrong.”
From a Graykey that was a strong statement. Bordering on heresy, and Tal put it down to the stress of the moment. He said to her, “Come here.”
They moved to the other side of the passage deck. She said, “I know what I’m doing. You’ve got to trust me—
“You think Ennis is giving you bad advice?”
She paused. She frowned. “Yes. He is.”
“Any chance that it’s deliberate?” When she hesitated, he said, “I know it would mean blowing himself up, but Graykey have never struck me as being particularly sane in that area.”
“It’s a textbook case,” she said slowly. “He ought to know it.”
“Maybe he’s under contract.”
She remembered the proverbs she’d always hated: Trusting a Graykey is like picking up an alleycat. When a Graykey swears, cover your ears. She said, “But he took an oath.”
“Well?”
“But he didn’t even
