“I know.” But they both turned to look again out the window, identical suspicion on their faces.
Keylinn said, “Besides, any trouble would be likely to start gradually, and we haven’t heard anything. It’s been pretty much business as usual.”
“We’re probably letting our nerves affect us.”
“Probably.”
Nevertheless, Tal went into the bathroom to ask the maid if she knew of any faster transport to Baret Port. Keylinn heard him say, “What are you doing?” and she hurried in.
The sink was full of water. The girl was on her knees by the tub, the taps on full-force. She looked up at Tal and spoke for the first time, pitching her voice above the sound of the tub filling. ‘The water supply,” she said, “will be the first to go.”
Keylinn noted a brief pause while the universe rearranged itself. Then Tal said, “Wake Spider and pack whatever you need to keep. You bring the Crown. I’ll get a car and be out front in ten minutes.”
“Right.”
Getting a car was not as easy as it sounded. By the Duke’s policy there were no aircars kept in the Residence garage. It made sense for Baret Two: It kept visitors more or less confined to a certain radius of the capital, where they could be better watched and controlled. But an aircar would have gotten them to the port in fifteen minutes. As for the groundcars, they were swiftly disappearing, as employees took them to go wherever they felt it necessary to go in an emergency.
Fortunately Tal knew the code for the car he’d been assigned, and a blow to the head cut short the protests of his driver, who’d been trying to climb in when Tal interrupted.
People were running in and out of the garage, shouting at each other. Apparently tempers were not easy. Tal felt a touch on his arm as he reached to close the door and he prepared to strike.
He pulled himself short at the last second. The man was familiar—young, blond, wearing a Baret vest but Diamond breeches. One of Adrian’s knights, wasn’t he?
“Excuse me—you’re Adrian’s demon, aren’t you?” the young man asked.
“Yes, I am,” said Tal. “May I give you a lift?”
“Thanks.” He climbed in.
Tal powered up. “Do you know about the rest of the team?”
“Well, I was going to mention … Lord Canniff and Sir Thomas Netherall are waiting for me in the drive. I think most of the others were out in the city, sightseeing. I’m Sir Valentine Sondheim-Lubel, by the way.”
“We will be a crowded bunch.” Tal took the curve out of the garage at top speed, not braking at all for the man waving his arms in the tunnel exit. That person finally gasped the obvious and leaped to one side, hitting himself hard against the wall.
They burst into daylight. Tal didn’t see any likely looking candidates for knighthood standing in front of the Residence, and he didn’t intend to wait. “Where are they?”
“Not sure, friend Demon. I left them hiding in the shrubbery.”
Keylinn and Spider were on the steps. Tal opened the door and Sir Valentine Sondheim-Lubel stood up, hanging onto the side of the car, and yelled, “Tom! Ricky! Hurry up!”
Two men in Diamond clothing ran out from the bushes—young and strong-looking, Tal noted, like his first passenger. They might need to impress somebody with that along the way. “Sondy?” asked one of the knights. Sir Valentine Et Cetera grinned and said, “Look who I found, it’s Adrian’s demon. Get in, the forces of darkness are on our side.”
There were muttered apologies as their four new passengers piled into a car not designed for six. Keylinn found herself on the lap of the one they called “Sondy.” Not becoming the dignity of a Graykey—it would have been all right if he were on her lap.
Tal said pointedly, “Do we have everything?”
“Yes,” said Keylinn. Spider had the Crown in his pack.
The force of acceleration threw them all back.
Some of the streets had already been closed by state security. Whenever Tal saw barriers and guards, he turned and drove down other routes. “It’s no good,” he said finally, “we’re going to have to go through one of the bad areas.”
The bad areas could easily be identified by noise and smoke, and the occasional fleeing family.
“It’s the only way to get to the port,” he said.
Sondy asked, “What if we get there and there are no shuttles?”
“Is that a rhetorical question?” asked Tal.
They drove toward the smoke. Tal said, “May I ask how many of us are armed?”
One of the knights said, “We weren’t supposed to have weapons.”
“I’ve got a knife,” said Sondy.
“I’ve got a Wender-three pistol,” said Keylinn brightly. She felt Sondy’s start of surprise. “It’s accurate over fifty meters, and then it dissipates.”
“I knew we could count on you,” muttered Spider.
Sondy said, “My lady, but what if the Duke’s people had discovered it?”
“They wouldn’t have.”
Inspiration struck Spider. He said, “These cars are only supposed to be driven by government employees. And I bet half of them are really state security.”
“So?” asked a knight.
“So maybe the car is armed. I mean, times haven’t been good around here, have they?”
Tal said, “Very good, Spider, I’ve been looking. So far I haven’t found any likely buttons.”
As one, they all peered over at the controls. “How about that blue thing?” asked a knight.
Getting technical advice from a Redemptionist knight was really too much. Tal halted the car. “If one of you would like to take over—”
“No offense,” said the knight. “It’s just that, in a battle-capsule, that’s where the cannon controls are. It’s convenient for someone who doesn’t have a lot of room to move. I beg your pardon if I seemed importunate.” Tal started up the car again and his passengers resumed their postures. He flipped open the “blue thing” and saw
