Джеффри Лорд - Return To Kaldak

The telepath went over to the dying guard and laid her hands on his forehead. After a moment his eyes closed and he stopped moaning. Had she simply blocked the pain, or actually willed him to death?

«Even for you, Detcharn, was this not more than what was needed?» asked the telepath. Her face was a mask and her voice toneless.

Detcharn started. «No! Never! Such will always be needed, with fools who stand between me and what I must do! Has your wish to cleanse our blood and avenge the great defeat weakened so much? If it has, you should fear me, Moshra.»

«I am past fearing you, Detcharn,» said Moshra. «And my desire to prove the worth of our blood is as strong as yours. Does that mean I can have no opinion of my own, as to the best way of proving it? If you think so, you are the only man in Doimar who does?»

After a moment, Detcharn shrugged. «Very well, sister. I will be less quick with the guards and other weapons-bearers. I cannot guard my back against all of them, and with the Day so close. .» His fingers writhed like snakes. «Then everyone will know that the blood of the Sky Master Blade has finally given the victory to Doimar.»

Blade looked quickly from one face to another. There was a family resemblance. And now that he looked more closely, both of them had something else in common ….

«The Sky Master Blade?» Blade chose his words and controlled his voice carefully. He also hoped Moshra could only read his mind while touching him!

«Yes. He was father to both of us,» snapped Detcharn. «Us and four others. The Kaldakans think they got the best from Blade, because he betrayed us. But they will learn otherwise, when a son of their precious Sky Master brings them down. Oh, yes, they will learn, and soon.» The lustful look was back on his face. Moshra turned away and looked firmly out over the plain.

After a moment, Blade joined her. This Dimension seemed to be producing weird family reunions! First Baliza with her attempted seduction, and now Moshra with her telepathy and Detcharn with his mad drive to prove that her father's blood did not taint him.

Blade gripped the railing hard, until his knuckles turned white. The urge to kill Detcharn was back again, even stronger than before. So was sheer nausea, that this homicidal maniac-there was no other word for it-was his son.

My son, thought Blade. What have I unleashed on this Dimension, by playing stud with the women of Doimar the first time I was here?

And another thought: What can I do to get it back on the leash?

Stating the problem he had to solve calmed him and got his mind working again. The next time Detcharn spoke to him, Blade was even able to reply normally. At least Detcharn didn't notice anything wrong, and Moshra still stood with her back to the two men.

Blade quickly realized the missile base was the key to defeating Detcharn's plans and ending any immediate threat to Kaldak. Detcharn was so proud of the missiles that he hadn't bothered to develop any other way of spreading the fever germs. If the missile silos were wrecked and Kaldak warned of what they might be facing, there would be no quick war ending in an easy victory for Doimar. Blade could hope that Detcharn wouldn't persuade the Doimari to follow him in a long war. He seemed the type to make enemies who would take advantage of his first defeat to get rid of him for good.

Blade wished he could be sure of this, but quickly learned he wasn't going to know this or a lot of other things about the new Doimar. He was no longer a prisoner, but he was still something less than a guest. He was seldom allowed outside the research complex, and neither the guards nor the Seekers would answer his questions.

Detcharn talked freely, but Blade didn't learn much from him. Most of what Detcharn said was boasting about his past achievements or his future plans. He seemed to have vague notions about ruling not only Doimar but the whole Dimension as a dictator, after the fall of Kaldak. It didn't seem to bother him that he might be ruling over an empire of corpses.

Once he disappeared for several days, then came back to invite Blade to a private showing of some films. They showed a raid on a Tribal village. Blade watched with disgust at the ruthless butchery, and also with interest at the close-ups of the Tribesmen. Many of them had the long, hairy, pointed ears of the young chief he'd let escape from the Doimari tracking station. Was this the same Tribe, or was the mutation just a coincidence?

Detcharn was so proud of the raid and the number of Tribesmen he'd killed personally that Blade was able to draw him out. «I hate to sound like Moshra, but was the raid necessary? You got off lightly this time, but what if they're waiting for you the next time?»

Detcharn shrugged. «Our soldiers know getting killed is part of their job. But I'm not planning another such raid any time soon. Perhaps not at all, if the Day comes soon enough. This was the Tribe that ran off from our ranging and tracking station and let it fall to Kaldak. They had to be punished.»

So this Tribe might indeed be the young chiefs. Interesting-and maybe useful, since they now had no cause to love Doimar. If Detcharn just hadn't killed off so many of their warriors that they might now be helpless. .

«Killing them won't bring back your old station,» said Blade reprovingly. «It might even provoke other Tribes to attack your new one, whenever you set it up.»

«Oh, it's been in operation for some time now,» said Detcharn. «I will send you out there to see it yourself in a few days. And you're right, we should patrol the area around it more closely. But the Tribes spend too much time fighting each other to ever unite against us or Kaldak. Also, the new station is a good hundred miles from the nearest Tribe with Newtec weapons. Long before they can find it and send warriors that far, the Day will fall on them as it will on Kaldak.» He dismissed adding the Tribesmen to his planned genocide with an airy wave of his hand and poured more drinks.

At least Blade needed no help to learn about the missile base. It was all laid out in front of him anytime he stepped out on the terrace, which he did about twice a day. He quickly memorized every key point so thoroughly he could have easily built a model of the base.

Taking out the base was not going to be a one-man job. Blade knew that almost at once. But twenty or thirty men armed to the teeth and taking it by surprise would have a chance. Forty or fifty would have a very good one. There were usually less than a hundred guards, they were scattered widely, and only a few of the Seekers bothered to carry weapons. The base was also a couple of hours' flying time from Doimar itself. The raiders could do their work and be long gone before reinforcements arrived.

Assuming you could conjure up the men needed, how likely was surprise? There Blade had to do more guessing than he liked, but finally decided that the chances were good enough to make the raid worth trying if he could get the men. The Doimari seemed to assume that the Kaldakans not only didn't know about the base but couldn't have done anything if they knew. There were virtually no antiaircraft defenses and all the radar sets were used for tracking missiles as they took off.

And if all else failed, there was still a one-man job which could upset Doimar's plans. Blade could kill Detcharn.

Killing his own son wasn't something Blade would normally have been contemplating this calmly. But then, normally he wouldn't have had to contemplate it at all. It was a tragedy that a mind as brilliant as Detcharn's had to be destroyed, but that very brilliance meant there was no one to take his place.

Of course Blade's own chances of survival afterward would be small. But he'd made up his mind on that point, too. Detcharn was too dangerous to be allowed to live.