Timothy Zahn - Cobra Bargain

The pod's existence was bad enough; but its existence in the hands of Qasamans was even worse. The minute the Yithtra family realized what it was they'd found and turned it over to the authorities-

And she had maybe three minutes to figure out a way to stop that. Gritting her teeth, she dug her fingers under the access panel's edge and pried it open.

The contents were no surprise: packaged emergency rations, lightweight blankets, medical packs, a backpack and water carrier-all the things a castaway in hostile territory might need to survive. All of them clearly labeled with Anglic words.

Which meant obscuring the writing on the outside of the pod wouldn't gain her anything. Unless she could also completely destroy the pod's contents...

A trickle of sweat ran down her cheek. She jabbed and probed her fingers through the packages, trying desperately to think of something. Her lasers weren't designed for starting this kind of fire, but if they'd sent her some cooking fuel-

Her roving fingers struck something that rustled: a tightly folded piece of paper. Frowning, she dug it out and opened it. The message was short:

Can't get down to you. If you can hang on, we'll be back with help as quickly as we can. We'll listen for your call at local sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight-if you can't signal, we'll come down and find you.

Courage!

Captain Rivero Koja

Jin bit down hard on her lip. We'll come down and find you. In her mind's eye she saw a full Cobra assault force descend on Milika, shooting indiscriminately as they tried to find her... Swearing under her breath, she dug into the packages with renewed energy, searching now for the transmitter Koja's note implied had been packed in with the supplies. But either it was buried too deeply among the groceries...

Or else the Yithtra workers who'd found and opened the pod had already taken it out.

Damn. It was right there, a few meters away from her in the cab of the truck... and yet it might as well be in orbit. For one wild second she had the image of herself blasting through to the cab with her antiarmor laser, using her sonic to stun the cab's occupants and retrieve the transmitter-

And then taking what refuge she could in deep forest. While the Sammon family went up on treason charges.

Angrily, she shook the train of thought from her mind. The transmitter was gone, period. Crumpling Koja's note into her pocket, she jammed the access panel back in place and stepped to the rear doors, grabbing for balance as the truck made a sharp righthand turn. Between the doors, the Small Ring Road appeared.

Which meant the truck had left the spoke road and would be reaching the gate of the Yithtra house any moment now. Licking her lips, Jin peered through the gap, trying to find something she could use to create a diversion. But nothing obvious presented itself. There were as many pedestrians out there as usual, and once out of the truck she ought to have enough cover to blend into. But there was nothing she could do to cover the jump itself. Clenching her teeth, she got ready; and as the truck abruptly decelerated, she swung down out the rear and dropped to the pavement below. A couple of braking steps brought her to a halt; turning quickly, she started walking down the road away from the Yithtra house.

No shouts of discovery followed her. Behind her, she heard the truck come to a brief halt and then start up again, vanishing behind the background hum of closing gateway doors. Fighting a trembling in her hands, she kept walking.

Eventually, after a wandering route, she reached the Sammon house.

Kruin Sammon laid the crumpled paper down on his desk and looked up at her.

"So," he said. "It seems your anonymity is about to come to an end."

Jin nodded. "So it seems," she agreed tightly.

"I don't see why," Daulo objected from his usual place beside his father. "The

Yithtra family can't really make trouble for you unless they can offer the

Shahni some physical proof. Why can't you simply break into the Yithtra household tonight and destroy or steal the pod?"

Jin shook her head. "It wouldn't work. First of all, there's a fair chance they'll have odds and ends from the pod scattered around throughout the house by then, and there's no guarantee I'd be able to retrieve all of it. More importantly, the very fact that I got in and out of a guarded house without being caught will be pretty strong evidence that I'm not just an offworlder, but an offworld demon warrior. I don't think we want to cause that kind of panic just yet."

"So the Yithtra family informs the Shahni that an offworlder has landed secretly among us." Kruin's eyes were steady on Jin's face. "And for their patriotism and alertness the Yithtra family gains new prestige. Is this how you help us bring them down?"

A wisp of anger curled like smoke in Jin's throat. "I realize you have your own priorities, Kruin Sammon," she said as calmly as she could, "but it seems to me you'd do better to forget about the Yithtra family earning a pat on the head and concentrate instead on the problems this might cause Milika as a whole."

"The problems it might cause you, you mean," Kruin countered. "We of Milika are blameless, Jasmine Moreau, if we are duped by a cunning offworlder into extending our hospitality."

Jin looked hard at him. "Are you abrogating our bargain, then?" she asked softly.

He shook his head. "Not if it can be helped. But if it should become clear that your capture is certain, I will not allow my household to be destroyed in the process." He hesitated. "If that happens... I'll at least give you warning."

So that any major firefights will take place away from Sammon territory? Still, it was as much as she could expect under the circumstances... and probably more than she would have gotten elsewhere. "I thank you for being honest with me," she said.

"Which is more than you have been with us," the elder Sammon said.

Jin's stomach began to tighten into a knot. "What do you mean?"

"I mean your true name," he said evenly. "And the connection of that name to

Mangus."

Jin's eyes flicked to Daulo, feeling a sudden chill in the room. The younger man looked back at her steadily, his face as masked as Kruin's. "I never lied to you," she said, eyes still on Daulo. "To either of you."

"Is the withholding of truth not a lie?" Daulo asked quietly. "You understood the significance of the name mongoose, yet didn't share that knowledge."

"If I'd wanted to keep it to myself, why did I tell you at all that we were called Cobras?" she countered. "The fact is that I didn't think it was all that important."

"Not important?" Kruin spat. "Mongoose is hardly a name of a place seeking only to dominate Qasaman villages. And if Mangus is truly an attempt to fight back at our common enemies, how can the Sammon family help you destroy it?"

"I don't seek to destroy it-"

"More half-truths," Kruin shot back. "Perhaps you don't but others will surely follow you."

Jin took a deep breath. Steady, girl, she warned herself. Concentrate, and be rational. "I've already told you I don't know what my people will do with my report-and pointed out that a non-threatening Qasama is perfectly welcome to advance back into space. But if the Shahni are truly bent on attacking us, do you really think they'll do so without the full weight of Qasama behind them? Or to put it another way, won't they demand that both cities and villages supply their full shares of the resources and manpower-" her eyes flicked to Daulo

"-that a full-scale war requires? Whether you want to or not?"

For a moment Kruin sat in silence, gazing at Jin. She forced herself to return the gaze; and after a moment he shifted on his cushions. "You again try to prove that Mangus threatens us directly. Yet without any proof."