Андрэ Нортон - Beast Master's Circus

Anders nodded at him with respect. "They will if I make it clear that if our duo aren't alive I'll assume someone had something to hide and look even longer and harder." He straightened, stretching. "It's likely to take time though. Are you hosting your friends here, Officer?"

Versha glanced at her companions. "I think so. The patrol do have a suite for visiting VIPs. They can stay there until you want to talk again or there's news."

"It may not take long." His look was grim. "On Trastor it isn't easy to hide when I'm the one who hunts. We should have Baris and Ideena in a few hours, a couple of days at the most."

It was as well he'd taken no bets on that. Ten days later Baris and Ideena might as well have vanished tracelessly into a black hole and Under-governor Larash-Ti-Andresson was not a happy man.

Nor was Baris. He'd returned abruptly from a card game in which he'd been winning. His boots clattered up the ship's ramp and he'd yelled his partner's name in tones which could peel paint at ten paces.

"Ideena? Ideena!"

"For Ghesh's sake. What is it?"

"We're wanted."

Ideena raised an eyebrow. "That's so unusual?"

"Not what, who," Baris snapped, confusing her.

She stared. "Who? What? What the Crats are you talking about, you idiot? Make sense."

"That cursed Andresson has every peaceman out asking for us. We're wanted for questioning on interplanetary charges. If his people take us they can legally use deep-probe on charges like that. I'm getting out and I'm getting out right now! You can please yourself." He dived for the control room and Ideena followed.

"They have an injunction..."

"They can stick their injunction."

"That's the patrol you're talking about. They may have it backed by something," Ideena warned. She moved into the seat next to his, strapping down swiftly.

"I'll take my chances. I want out of here." Since that applied to Ideena as well, she said no more. Baris's hands raced across the controls, programming the navcomp and firing up the engines. Then he applied thrust. By now the port control office was uttering a string of threats and warnings. The chant grew louder and more indignant as the small ship began to rise.

"...subject to penalties under law of not less than half the value of any cargo, and pending decision on value to be levied against the offending ship..." Baris slammed a hand down and the indignant voice faded as the ship rose.

"We did it," Ideena yelped. The ship shivered. The navcomp emitted an almost human groan and every light it had began to flash. From the panel behind it a voice alarm sounded.

"WARNING. WARNING. SET-DOWN ACTIVATED. NAVCOMP UNCALIBRATED. WARNING. WARNING. SET-DOWN ACTIVATED."

"What?..."

Baris was working furiously. He spared her a glance, his eyes half crazed with fury and terror. "A Ghesh-damned scramble-laser. They used a scramble-laser on us."

"Can they do that?"

"They just did. Shut up. I programmed something into the system they won't be expecting. I'm pushing the boundaries on that as hard as I can." He peered into a viewer. "We're landing about twenty klicks from the port. In some park. There're a lot of ornamental bushes dotted around. Grab what you want and as soon as we're down and the ramp drops, run like hell. The bushes will help to hide which way we go. With luck the probies will be caught on their heels for a few minutes. If we move fast enough we can get clear." The ship was sitting on her tail, descending in a controlled emergency landing and steering with the small side jets. Ideena leapt across the control room, grabbing for emergency stashes of her loot.

"We can go to the circus. Dedran will take us in. If he doesn't and we're probed there's too much we could tell security about him."

Baris showed his teeth. "I know. Get the other two sets of fake ID. And anything light that's worth credits."

"Teach your grandmother to suck eggs. You get every weapon we can carry. Dedran may have other ideas about helping." By now both were stuffing pockets, shoulder bags, and the front of tunics. The ship's alarm was announcing that it was thirty seconds to emergency set-down. Baris hit the drop-ramp button, then, when it refused to obey, the override. The ramp dropped just as the ship settled. There was a grating sound as the ramp hit the ground and buckled. Both ignored it to race for the exit.

Ideena fumbled hovercab tokens from her pocket as they reached a line of the small robot-controlled vehicles on the far side of the park. Credits could be used but those who wished to use the cabs extensively during a visit often bought the tokens. They were in clearplas and weighed almost nothing. Nor could you spend them by mistake and find the cab refusing to accept larger amounts in notes. Thanking fortune she'd still a number of the tokens left, Ideena dug them from her pocket in readiness. They fell into the backseat and the door hissed shut. The hovercab spoke in a flat polite voice. "Where to, noble visitors?"

"To the Algona building."

"Two credits."

She pushed the token through the slot and leaned back. Baris started to question her choice of destination but she waved him to silence. They arrived at the building. Ideena cleared her throat and stayed put. The cab spoke again.

"This is your destination as requested. Do you have another?"

"Yes. Go to the Sharme intersection. Wait one half-hour for us. If we do not meet you in that time you are no longer required."

"That will be six credits, noble visitors." Ideena fed in the last of the tokens and hauled a bewildered Baris out the door. They watched the hovercab glide away as Ideena held her partner on the sidewalk. She spoke quietly.

"Those cabs are probably fitted with cameras. Andresson will be able to trace us here but not yet. The only way he can speed up getting that cab back is an emergency recall. And by the time he decides on that the cab's likely to be at Sharme. I packed disguises. We change here, walk several miles, and take another hover to Dedran."

Baris's look was sour. "They'll have cameras all over this building too, won't they?"

"Oh, yes." For the first time since Baris had burst into their ship, Ideena grinned. "I have an answer for those." She produced two small gadgets from her bag and turned, staring at the crowd. "I picked this up on Yohal a while back." She focused her gaze on two people moving toward them. "That pair look suitable."

The pair noticed were a tall thin male with an equally thin woman by his side. They were rapt in contemplation of each other and clearly unnoticing anything else. Ideena raised the first gadget and within it, there was a tiny humming. She opened it, removed the cassette, and placed it in the second small flat box. A tiny red light glowed momentarily. Ideena lifted the box to fit under a strap on her shoulder.

"Walk right beside me. Don't move away. The machine projects a holographic picture over us of the two I imaged. So long as we're within a couple of feet of each other all the cameras will see in here are those two." Baris eyed her with admiration. Trust Ideena to come up with something like that, it was one of the reasons he stayed with her, dominating as she was.

He took her arm and walked with her to the public bathrooms many large public buildings had on Trastor. There she entered, giggling wordlessly, with him in tow. She dropped a credit in the slot, dropped a towel over the camera, and signaled him to remain silent. Mutely she laid out disguises and they donned them with the quick ease of long practice. Baris produced a tiny pocket scriber and wrote swiftly.

"Won't they wonder why we blinded the camera?"

In reply she let out a yelp then a squeal. She opened her mouth and panted in a series of ascending gasps of apparent excited pleasure. Baris laughed and joined in. It was the perfect cover. Of course. They were merely two citizens in love and with no time to waste returning to wherever they lived. They kept up the pretense for long enough to be convincing. Then they exited using Ideena's box to foil the lobby cameras. Once in the street she shut off the box and they walked...