At intervals they pa.s.sed access ports on either side, above, below. Each had a number stenciled on it. Each .

225.

looked much the same as the others. Had it not been for Aygar's mapper, Sa.s.sinak would have had no idea which way to go.

She had been hearing the faint whine for some moments before it registered, and then she jumped forward and tapped Aygar's shoulder. "Listen."

He shrugged. "This whole planet makes noise," he said. "No one can hear anything in a city. Nothing that means anything, that is."

"How far to where we go up?" asked Sa.s.sinak. The whine was marginally louder.

"Haifa kilometer, perhaps, if I'm reading this right."

"Too far." She looked around and saw an access hatch less than twenty meters ahead, on their side of the monorail, below the cable housing. "Well take that one."

"But why?"

The whine had sharpened and a soft brush of air touched his face. He whirled at once and raced for the batch. Sa.s.sinak caught up with him, helped wrestle it open. At once, an alarm rang out, and a flashing orange light, Sa.s.sinak bit back a curse. If she ever got off this planet, she would never, under any circ.u.mstances, go downside again! Aygar was dropping his legs through the hatch, but Sa.s.sinak spotted another, only five meters farther on.

"Ill open that one, too. Then they won't know which."

She could not hear the whine of the approaching monorail car over the clamoring alarm, but the air pressure shifts were clear enough. She ran as she had not had to run for years, scrabbled at the hatch cover, threw it back, and winced as another alarm siren and light came on. Then back to the first, and in. Aygar had wisely retreated down the ladder, giving her room. A quick yank and the hatch closed over them. They were in darkness again. She could still hear the siren whooping. From this one? From the other? Both?

All the way down that ladder, much longer than any they'd taken before, she scolded herself. She didn't even know the monorail car was manned. It might have no windows, no sensors. They might have been able to 226.

stand quietly, watch it go by, and then walk out following Aygar's mapper. Then again maybe not. Second-guessing didn't help deal with consequences. She took a long, calming breath, and reminded herself not to tighten up. Although one thing after another had gone wrong, they were alive, unwounded, and uncaught That had to be worth something. Her foot touched Aygar's head. He had reached the bottom of the ladder.

"I can't find a hatch," he said. His voice rang softly in the echoing dark chamber. "I'll try light."

Sa.s.sinak closed her eyes, and opened them when she saw pink against her lids. They were at the bottom of a slightly curving, near-vertical shaft, and nothing marked the sides at the bottom. Not so much as a roughly welded seam. Aygar's breath was loud and ragged.

"We . . . have to find a way out. There has to be a way outl"

"We will."

She felt almost comfortable in shafts and tunnels, but Aygar had had a wilderness to run in until he boarded the Zaid-Dayan. He'd done remarkably well for someone with no ship training, but this dead end in a narrow shaft was too much. She could smell his sudden nervous sweat; his hand on her leg trembled.

"It's all right," she said, the voice she might have used on a nervous youngster on his first cruise. "We pa.s.sed it, that's all. Follow me up but quietly."

It was not that far up, a circular hatch in the shaft across from the ladder, easily reached. Sa.s.sinak just had her hand firmly on the locking ring, ready to turn it, when it was yanked away from her, and she found herself pinned in a beam of brilliant light.

"Well." The voice was gruff, and only slightly surprised. "And what have we here? Not the Pollys, this time,"

Squinting against the brilliance, Sa.s.sinak could just see a dark form outlined by more light beyond, and the gleam of light down a narrow tube, a weapon, no doubt.

"How many?" demanded the voice.

Sa.s.sinak wondered if Aygar could hide below, but realized he couldn't, not in the grip of claustrophobia.

227.

"Two," she said crisply.

"Y'all come on outa there, then," said the voice.

The light withdrew just enough to give them room. Sa.s.sinak slid through feet-first, and found herself coming out of a waist-high hatch in a horizontal tunnel. Aygar followed her, his tanned face pale around mouth and eyes, and dripping with sweat. Carefully, as if she were doing this on her own ship, Sa.s.sinak closed the hatch and pushed the locking mechanism.

Facing them were five rough-looking figures in much-patched jumpsuits. Two held obvious weapons that looked like infantry a.s.sault rifles: one had a long knife spliced to a section of metal conduit and one held the light that still blinded them. The last lounged against the tunnel wall, eyeing them with something between greed and disgust.

"Y'all rang the doorbell, up there?" that one asked. The same husky voice, from a stocky frame that might be man or woman-impossible to tell, with layers of ragged clothes concealing its real shape.

"Didn't mean to," said Sa.s.sinak. "Got a little lost."

"More'n a little. Douse the light, Jemi."

The spotlight blinked off, and Sa.s.sinak closed her eyes a moment to let them adjust. When she opened them again, the woman who had held the spotlight was stuffing it in a backpack. The two rifles had not moved. Neither had Sa.s.sinak. Aygar made an indeterminate sound behind her, not quite a growl. She suspected that he liked the look of the homemade spear. The person who had spoken pushed off the wall and stood watching them.

"Can you give me one good reason why we shouldn't slit and strip you right now?"

Sa.s.sinak grinned; that had been bravado, not decision.

"It'd make a big mess next to the shaft we came out of," she said. "If someone does follow down here ..."

"They will," growled one of the rifle-bearers. The muzzle shifted a hair to one side. "Should be goin', Cor . . ."

"Wait. You're not the usual trash we get down here, and there's plenty of trouble up top. Who are you?"

228.

"Who are the Pollys?" Sa.s.sinak countered.

"You got the Insystem Federation Security Police after you, and you don't know who they are?"

A twin of the jolt she'd felt hearing Parchandri's name went down her spine. Insystem Security's active arm was supposed to confine itself to ensuring the safety of governmental functions. She'd a.s.sumed their pursuers were planet pirate hired guns, or (at worst) a section of city police.

"I didn't know that's who we had after us. Orange uniforms?"

"Riot squads. Special action teams. Sheee! All right. You tell us who you are or you're dead right here, mess and all."

The rifles were steady again, and Sa.s.sinak thought the one with the spear probably knew how to use it.

"Commander Sa.s.sinak," she said. "Fleet, captain of the heavy cruiser Zaid-Dayan, docked in orbit..."

"And I'm Luisa Paraden's hairdresser! You'll do better than that or . . ."

"She really is," Aygar broke in. The other's eyes narrowed as she heard his unfamiliar accent. "She brought me . . ."

Sa.s.sinak had a hand on the hatch rim; a distant vibration thrummed in her fingers.

"Silence," she said, not loudly but with command.

All movement ceased. The silence seemed to quiver.

"They're coming. I can feel a vibration." The one who'd spoken growled out a low curse, then said, "Come on, then! Hurry! We'll straighten you later."

They followed along the tunriel, a bare chill tube of gray-green metal floored with something resilient. Under that, Sa.s.sinak thought, must be whatever the tunnel was actually for. She was aware of the man behind her with a rifle, of Aygar's growing confusion and panic, of the ache in her own legs.

She quickly lost track of their backtrail. They moved too fast, through too many shafts and tunnels, with no time to stop and fix references. She wondered if Aygar was doing any better. His hunting experience might help. Her ears popped once, then again, by which she .

229.

judged they were now deep beneath the planet's sur-fece. Not where she wanted to be, at all. But alive. She reminded herself of that; they might easily have been dead.

Finally their captors halted. They had come to a JLwell-lit barnlike s.p.a.ce opening off one of the smaller i' tunnels. Crates and metal drums filled one end to the p, low ceiling. In the open s.p.a.ce, ragged blankets and I; piles of rags marked sleeping places on the floor; battered plastic carriers held water and food. Several huddled forms were asleep, others hunched in small groups, a few paced restlessly. The murmur of voices stopped and Sa.s.sinak saw pale faces turn toward them, stiff with fear and anger.

' "Brought us in some uptowners," said the leader of their group. "One of 'em claims to be a Fleet captain." Raucous laughter at that, more strained than humorous. "That big hunk?" asked someone. "Nah. The . . . lady." Sa.s.sinak had never heard the word used as an insult before, but the meaning was dear. "Got the Pollys after her, and didn't even know what an orange uniform meant."

A big-framed man carrying too little flesh for his > bones shrugged and stepped forward. "An oflworlder

wouldn't. Maybe she is . .

"Oflworlder? Could be. But Fleet? Fleet don't rum-i mage in the bas.e.m.e.nt. They don't come off their fancy f ships and get their feet dirty. Sit up in s.p.a.ce, clean and ifree, and let us rot in slavery, that's Fleet!" The leader spat juicily past Sa.s.sinak's foot, then smirked at her.

"I suspect I know as much about slavery as most of

s you," Sa.s.sinak said quietly.

"From claiming to chase slavers while taking Par-chandri bribes?" This was someone else, a skinny hunched little man whose face was seamed with old 'scars.

"From being one," said Sa.s.sinak. Silence, amazement on those tense faces. Now they were all listening; she had one chance, she reckoned. She met each pair of

*yes in turn, nodding slowly, holding their attention. "Yes, it's true. When I was a child, the colony I lived in 230.

McCajfrey and Moon was raided. I saw my parents die. I held my sister's body, I never saw my little brother again. They left him behind. He was too young ..." Her voice trembled, even now, even here. She forced steadiness into it "And so I was a slave." She paused, scanning those faces again. No hostility now, less certainty. "For some years, I'm not sure how many. Then the ship I'd been sold to was captured by Fleet and I had a chance to finish school, go to the Academy, and chase pirates myself. That's why."

"//that's true, that's why the Pollys are after you," said the group's leader.

"But how can we know?"

"Because she's telling the truth," said Aygar. Everyone looked at him, and Sa.s.sinak was surprised to see him blush. "She came to my world, Ireta. She brought me here on cruiser for the trial."

"And you were born incapable of lying?" asked the leader.

Aygar seemed to swell with rage at such sarcasm Sa.s.sinak held up her hand and hoped he'd obey the signal.

"This is my Academy ring," she said, stripping it from her finger and holding it out. "My name's engraved inside, and the graduation date's on the outside."

"Sas-sin-ak," the leader said, reading it slowly. "Well, it's evidence, though I'm not sure of what."

Sa.s.sinak took the ring back, and the leader might have said more, but a newcomer jogged into the room from the tunnel, carrying a flat black case that looked like a wide-band communications tap. Without preamble, he came up to the leader and started talking.

"The Pollys have an all-stations out for a renegade Fleet captain, name of Sa.s.sinak, and a big guy, civilian. They've murdered an Admiral Coromell ..."

The leader turned to Sa.s.sinak. The messenger seemed to notice them for the first time, and his eyes widened.

"Is that true?"

"No."

"No which? You didn't murder anyone, or you didn't murder Coromell?"

231.

"We didn't murder anyone and the dead man isn't Admiral Coromell."

"How do you-oh."

Sa.s.sinak smiled. "We were there, supposedly meeting Admiral Coromell, when someone of his age and general appearance sat down with us and promptly got fades in the head. We left in a hurry, and trouble followed us. Whoever killed him may think that was Coromell. It'll take a careful autopsy to prove it's not Or the real Coromell showing up. I don't know who lent us a fake Coromell, or why, or who killed the fake CoromeU, or why. Unless they just wanted to get us into trouble. Aygar's testimony, and mine, could be crucial in the trial coming up."

Blank looks indicated that no one had heard of, or cared about, any trial coming up.

"His name Aygar?" asked the messenger. " 'Cause that's who they're after, besides Sa.s.sinak."

Now a buzz of conversation rose from the others, no one would meet Sa.s.sinak's eyes. She could feel their fear p.r.i.c.kling the air.

"You mentioned Parchandri," she said, regaining their attention. "Who is this Parchandri?"

To her surprise, the leader relaxed with a bark of laughter. "Good questionl Who is this Parchandri? Who Is which Parchandri would do as well. If you're Fleet, and have never been touched ..."

"Well, she wouldn't, if she'd been a slave," said the r big man. "They'd know better." He turned to Sa.s.sinak. "Parchandri's a family, got rich in civil service and 'Fleet just like the Paradens did in commerce. Just like talon' bribes and giving 'em, blackmailing, kidnapping, hem' the law as thin as they could, and pilin' the profits on thick."

know there was a Parchandri Inspector General," ^Sa.s.sinak said slowly.

Oh, that one. Yeah, but that's not all. Not even in You got three Parchandris in the IG's staff alone, two in Procurement, and five in Personnel. That's family: using the surname openly. Doesn't count cousins and all who use other names. There's a nest 232.

of Parchandri in the EEC, controls all the colony applications, that sort of thing. There's a Parchandri in Insystem Security, for that matter. And the head of the family is right here on FedCentral, making sure that what goes on in Council doesn't cause the family any trouble."

His casual delivery made it more real. Sa.s.sinak asked the first question that popped into her head.

"Are they connected to the Paradens?"