Jeffrey Carver - Eternity's End

Legroeder glanced at her, surprised. “You get around, don’t you? And so does Centrist Strength, it sounds like.”

Harriet shrugged, frowning. “There’s a lot that goes on that you wouldn’t suspect—even if you were here for more than just the occasional port of call.” Before he could react, she waved him around a corner. “Would you like to look in on your friend in the hospital? I’ll see what I can learn about Mr. McGinnis, and we can meet in that lovely coffee shop around the corner from the hospital…”

Legroeder sat motionless, his hand resting near Maris’s arm. He watched her sleep in the hydrobed, thinking, Sleep. She’s asleep. Better to think that than the other. That she’s in a coma. Being slowly suffocated by those damned implants. The burns on her face and neck leered at him from under the clear bandages. She got me out of the raider outpost alive. She slowed up the guards for us—even with the shots she took herself. He shook his head grimly.

He wished he could give her a chance to escape now. Escape from this hospital room. From the shadow of death. He rested his head back against the hospital room wall and closed his eyes, willing away the feeling of helplessness—not just about Maris, but about whatever was behind his own troubles. How many enemies can one guy have, anyway? He hated to think.

“Mr. Legroeder?”

He opened his eyes. “Yes?”

It was an attending robot. “I’m sorry, but your visiting time is up.”

He rose with a sigh. “You’ll send word if there’s any change?”

“Of course, sir.”

Legroeder uttered a silent prayer in the direction of his companion, and walked off in search of Harriet.

He found her at a back table in the coffee shop, her compad plugged into the wall. “Ah, there you are,” she said. “I was starting to worry. Don’t sit down, we’re leaving.”

“Huh? Where are we going?” He’d been looking forward to a good strong Eridani coffee with marsotz cream.

“To the aircar rental.”

Legroeder blinked in confusion.

Harriet rose, packing her compad. “I’ve rented a flyer to take us for a visit to our Mr. McGinnis.”

“That was fast. Have you talked to him?”

Harriet shook her head. “Mr. McGinnis doesn’t have a listed com number. But I’ve made a few inquiries. Very reclusive man, it seems—but respected by those who know of him. He’s a former space-marine.” She urged Legroeder toward the door. “He also has the planet’s most complete set of archives from the War of a Thousand Suns. Besides which, he has a special interest in rigging history.” Harriet smiled grimly. “Let’s just hope he doesn’t mind surprise visitors.”

The McGinnis estate was located four hundred and thirty kilometers northwest of the Elmira spaceport, a little over an hour’s flight at the speed of a rental flyer. The countryside flowing beneath them was wooded and green. The autopilot seemed confident of finding the address, so Legroeder and Harriet didn’t have much to do except drink their coffee and worry.

Legroeder asked Harriet why, if she had been so obsessed (her word) with this case for the last seven years, she had never researched the history of Impris before.

Harriet looked at Legroeder with amusement. “You aren’t accustomed to solving puzzles, are you, dear?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, think about it. How would I have known, until you came back, that Impris was even involved? I’m almost as interested in knowing why that information was taken from the library as I am in knowing about the ship itself. Was it innocent, or was someone deliberately hiding it? And if the latter, why? Once we know that , I think we’ll be closer to understanding why you were framed.”

Legroeder shrugged. “The librarian said if the documents weren’t being used—”

Harriet laughed. “If you don’t mind my saying so, you must have made a very poor pirate.”

Legroeder felt his face redden.

“Oh, don’t take it as an insult. It’s a compliment. You don’t seem to have a duplicitous bone in your body. But I’m reasonably sure those papers were removed because someone wanted them gone. Now we just have to find out if someone else wanted them preserved.”

“Someone like Mr. McGinnis?”

“Let us hope so.” With that, Harriet closed her eyes to rest, and Legroeder drank his coffee in silence. He gazed out the window, watching a winding river snake to and fro beneath them. Scanning for traffic, he saw another craft, higher in altitude, following a parallel course, and a couple of others crossing their path like fast-moving bugs against the sky.

It wasn’t much longer before he felt the flyer begin its descent. He searched for their destination, nestled somewhere in the wooded land below. The flyer began to bank and turn for its approach. There was the glint of the river again, a smaller stream to the west of it, and the occasional rocky bluff poking up out of the woods. The flyer seemed to know what it was doing, but Legroeder kept checking the console map to verify the course. The position readings seemed right. As he sat back, he realized that Harriet was watching him with amusement. He tried to feign unconcern.

Out the window on Harriet’s side, he saw another flyer, a little higher, apparently also circling to land. “Look,” he said, pointing to the other craft, which was trailing a little behind now, and falling back out of his view. He couldn’t tell if it was the same one he’d seen before, but he felt a prickle of unease. “They look like they’re headed to the same place.”

Harriet craned her neck to see. “What’s that puff of smoke?”

“What puff of smoke?” Legroeder leaned over Harriet to look out the far window. The other craft had dropped even further back, and something was shooting forward from it, leaving a contrail of smoke. It was arcing directly toward them. “ Jesus Christ, Harriet!”

“What?”

“Hang on!” Legroeder shouted, groping for the autopilot release. The flyer lurched and nosed down abruptly as he grabbed the yoke. He wasn’t used to this kind of craft, and it dove alarmingly as he struggled to regain control. Legroeder banked hard to the left, then started to bring up the nose. The missile streaked past and exploded with a whump! The flyer slipped sideways, bucking. Legroeder cursed, fighting with the damaged controls. They were in a steep left bank and spiraling steeper.

He fought to level it out of the bank, then gradually pulled up the nose. He didn’t want to crash, but didn’t want to stay an easy target, either. “Look for a clearing!” he shouted. “Any clearing! And see if you can find that other ship!” They were dropping like a stone now, the power inductors losing strength. In less than a minute, they were going to plow into the forest.

“There!” cried Harriet, pointing to the right. “There’s a clearing! No, you’re turning away from it!”

He didn’t answer. He was too busy trying to bring them around. As he glanced up, he saw the other flyer circling.

“There it is again!”

Their turn had brought the clearing back into view. A large house stood in the middle of it—probably the McGinnis estate. “Good—good—” Legroeder muttered. He fought to control the descent. They had too much airspeed and were in danger of overshooting.

“Legroeder, I think that flyer’s attacking again!”

He shoved the nose down to drop them fast and hot toward the clearing. The other craft was coming around…