The clockwork traitor, p.10
The Clockwork Traitor, page 10
Suddenly a loud cry of alarm sounded from outside. "Somebody, come quickly!" called a voice that the DesPlainians recognized as belonging to Jacques.
Immediately the hall began emptying as everyone rushed to see what had happened. Edna's first impulse was to rush outside also, but Jules squeezed her hand gently. "It could be a diversion," he warned.
Yvette and Yvonne came running up to the two of them; their first duty was the Princess's safety. "Vonnie, ma cherie, you stay with Edna. Don't let her do anything stupid like running outside and getting her head blown off. Come on, Evie, let's take a look."
There was a crowd gathered around the bottom of a hill in the garden by the time they arrived. Pushing through the mob, they made their way to the front where Yvonne's brother Jacques was waiting for them. He didn't say a word, nor did he have to. The scene at his feet was startling enough.
There, stretched out on the ground, was the body of Anton Borov, quite dead. His mouth was open and an expression of horror was frozen on his features. And lying across his body, which was oozing blood, was the entire trunk of a large banabol tree.
Chapter 8
Invasion Force
Duke Etienne d'Alembert and his brother Marcel spent most of the day after their return from Rimskor Castle in conference together. They had, after all, a great deal to discuss. Both of them agreed that Duke Fyodor, while outwardly polite and sensible, was standing right on the borderline of insanity. His obsession with the mechanical, the precise, the straight but slightly askew, was an indication of incipient mental imbalance. They also agreed that he was potentially dangerous, and that he was quite capable of formulating a plot to destroy the Crown Princess though what his motive could be, they had not the faintest idea.
They talked about Rimskor Castle and about its defenses. Neither could ever recall seeing a stronghold so ingeniously designed to keep out intruders-a place whose very construction seemed to make forcible secret entry an impossibility. Not only was there but one way into the castle, but the road leading up to it was booby-trapped and under constant surveillance. Inside were enough alarms to make a bank security officer jealous. Only the most foolhardy, the most desperate, or the most capable of operatives would even seriously consider an assault on such a fortress.
Etienne and Marcel were not foolhardy or, at this stage of the game, particularly desperate. But they were two of the most capable tactical planners the Service of the Empire had ever known; and they knew that whatever tactics they planned would be carried out by members of the Family d'Alembert, the most capable, most talented single group of human beings alive.
They first ruled themselves out of further participation in the raid, for several reasons. For one thing, they were getting a little too old for such adventures, and both of them were smart enough to realize that. While each was still capable of taking on several people his own size or better, this particular raid would require the swiftness and sure handedness of youth. Their own contribution-experience-could be performed beforehand on the sidelines.
For another thing, they were already known inside Rimskor Castle. If, by some chance, they should be caught, the entire cover identity of the Circus as SOTE's right arm would be blown. Never in all the history of the Service had the Circus's true role been compromised. References to it were never written down, nor had its members ever even been listed on SOTE's computer files, lest some clever criminal someday tap into the computer memory. Thus, only the Imperial Family, the Head, and his daughter/ factotum Helena knew the full story of the Circus's involvement in galactic security. If that involvement were to continue at its efficient level, no one else could be allowed to know. So Rimskor Castle would have to be invaded by people who were totally unknown there.
Once the two brothers had their plans mapped out, they decided on the personnel who would carry out the raid. With nearly a thousand members of the family to choose from, the selection of the assault team could have taken hours; but fortunately there were some specific talents they were looking for, and they were able to pick the appropriate people quite quickly. After the final show of the evening, Etienne and Marcel assembled the four chosen members in the manager's office for their briefing. The people were.
Rick d'Alembert, the leader of the wrestling team, who had already proven himself as being both durable and agile on many past assignments. His large, supermuscled form would give the team all the strength it would need.
Claude d'Alembert, a third-nephew of the Duke's, and one of the first-string members of the aerialist team that was the premiere act of the show. Like most DesPlainians, Claude was short and solidly built, yet even so there appeared to be a wiry quality to him. The speed of his reflexes was second to none in the Galaxy, and he could perform feats that ordinary mortals would consider impossible.
Jeanne d'Alembert, a second-niece to both Etienne and Marcel. At only age seventeen she was considered the Galaxy's most able animal tamer. Her complexion was quite pale and-for a DesPlainian-she was actually quite fragile, standing but one and a half meters tall and massing fifty-five kilograms. But despite the fact that physically she was the slightest of the Circus's personnel, her talents for handling animals would more than make up for her deficiencies.
And, finally, there was Luise deForrest, who had done such a capable job of leading the investigation that had led to the discovery of Duke Fyodor's involvement in the plot against the Princess. Duke Etienne was counting on her leadership abilities and quick, incisive mind to take charge and coordinate this mission-and hopefully find the evidence the family would need to smash Duke Fyodor's plans wide open.
The four members of the assault team stood rigidly alert in the Circus manager's office. All were dressed, at the Duke's insistence, in silver lame jumpsuits; that color, he felt, would make them more inconspicuous while invading a place like Rimskor. On their feet they wore silver suregrip athletic shoes, which would give them a maximum amount of traction yet make a minimum amount of noise. All of them had belts with utility pouches for holding their specialized equipment-as well as blasters and stunners. In addition, Jeanne had, tucked within the bosom of her jumpsuit, one of her pets, who would make a fifth member of their team when the proper moment came.
"Part of our problem," Etienne was explaining, "is that we don't know exactly what we're looking for. We need some evidence of treason, obviously. If you can find a description of the time bomb-or where it's going to be set, or when, or by whom-that would be ideal, but don't bold out for that. Even the word 'bomb' on a scrap of paper would be enough to justify our intervention. The instant you find anything, send out a call on the bleeper. We'll rush in with blasters blazing. Give us the proof and we'll do the rest."
Then he and Marcel outlined the plan they had devised for the four invaders to break into Rimskor Castle., They sketched out what traps they were likely to encounter and how to circumvent them. Marcel provided them with a map of the castle, which they all memorized in a few minutes. "Eh bien," Luise remarked when there was nothing more to be said, "let's get moving. Sitting here won't catch us a traitor."
They took one of the Circus's cars and drove through the night to the artificial mountain that was the castle. Actually, they drove right past it, and continued past for half a kilometer, where they parked their vehicle and doubled back on foot. That car could only have gotten in by going through the front gate-and they had not been invited.
The only way they could avoid being seen was to stay away from the road that led up to the entrance. Fortunately, Duke Fyodor had provided a ready way for them to do that. The entire outside of the "mountain" had been landscaped in metal and plastic as an artificial model of a real one. Rocks, outcroppings, and metallic trees abounded, making it easy for the d'Alemberts to form a mountain climbing expedition.
Claude led them off. As the acrobat, he was the most agile of the quartet. Using the grappler hooks, ropes, and pulleys from his pouch as only a professional could, he made his way up the mountainside as easily as a mosquito up a pane of glass. This being the back side of the mountain, away from the entrance, there were no alarms. Why should there be, when the only way into the castle was still through an electrified, barred gate and two live guards?
Once Claude had gotten into a secure position, he helped pull the others up. Rick came next, then Jeanne, with Luise, the leader, holding up the rear in case of trouble. Having gotten this far, they proceeded to work their way around the mountainside to the front. They learned to avoid the metal trees, whose leaves were quite sharp and painful. Their path involved climbing around or over boulders and sometimes having to use the grapplers and ropes again to climb higher on the slope in order to maneuver around one particular area.
On one such occasion, Claude was pulling himself upward along the rope when he ran afoul of one of the mechanical "mountain goats" that dwelled in this terrain. The goat, which had been programmed to be as cross as its natural counterpart, took exception to this intrusion on its exclusive territory, and proceeded to try to remedy the situation. Its major method of attack was to butt Claude with its head while the acrobat was hanging free on his rope. Claude could only hang on and swing out into empty air-and a possible thirty-meter fall-as the robot animal battered his body again and again.
Seeing what was happening, Rick drew his blaster to destroy the creature that was impeding their progress. "No," Luise whispered, putting her hand on his to stop him. "Blasting one of those things might just set off an alarm-or at least make someone curious enough to come out here and look. We've got to do it another way. Throw a rock at it."
Rick at first thought she was joking, but then realized she meant it. Looking around, he found a loose boulder that appeared adequate. It turned out to be lighter than it looked, being of an aluminum alloy, so it was no effort at all for his superbly trained body to lift the boulder and fling it at the goat. The missile was right on target, and hit the mechanical beast squarely in its midsection. The goat was startled at this unexpected assault, gave a tinny bleat, and wandered off along the mountainside, its pride more wounded than its body. With that obstacle surmounted, Claude began to climb once more.
"Everything all right?" Luise whispered up to him. "Smooth. The ribs hurt a little, but I'll manage. Just keep the mosquitos away next time, eh?"
On they went, without further interruption, until they reached a projecting ledge just above the front gate. Below them they could see the searchlights that illuminated the narrow road leading up to the castle's entrance, and directly beneath the overhang would be the barred, electrified gate they would have to pass through to enter the castle-a gate covered with alarms, and whose bars were only twenty-five centimeters apart.
It was at this point that Jeanne's expertise came into play. From out of the bosom of her silver lame jumpsuit she pulled Bur-Bur, a small brown ticklemouse from the planet Corian. Bur-Bur was a little ball of fluff fifteen centimeters long and only twenty wide. When tucked inside Jeanne's clothing, all soft and warm and cuddly, he had just been a small ball of fur, lying quite still. When active, he would scamper around on his six tiny legs and look up at a person with those big black eyes that seemed three sizes too huge for his body. The ticklemice were considered vermin on their native world, but Corian had largely solved that problem now by exporting the cute creatures to other planets as pets.
It was not Bur-Bur's cuddliness, though, that had induced Jeanne to bring him along, but rather the fact that, despite his small size, the ticklemouse was an exceedingly intelligent creature-as smart or smarter than a terrestrial house cat, and infinitely more trainable.
As the other three members of the assault team waited, Jeanne "talked" to Bur-Bur. The conversation was mostly silent, with Jeanne cooing to the small animal, staring into his large eyes with her own and building the psychic bond between herself and him that was necessary for her own peculiar brand of magic to work. No one-least of all Jeanne-could ever explain how she had developed such a fantastic rapport with all kinds of animals; all her family knew was that it worked.
When she felt Bur-Bur was ready, she took out of her pouch a small mechanical device and strapped it on his back like a tiny saddle. Then, putting him down on the ground, she watched him scurry away to perform his assignment. The clever little beast picked his way carefully but quickly down the mountain slope alongside the gate. As they watched, the four d'Alemberts donned the gas masks they'd brought along and waited for developments to occur.
Bur-Bur reached the ground and, after standing up on his hindmost legs and sniffing the air, dashed rapidly forward inside the gate. Luise waited just a second to make sure he was inside, then pressed a button on a remote control device at her belt. The box on Bur-Bur's back flew open and emitted the characteristic sweet fumes of tirascaline, one of the strongest sleeping gases known to man. It would not affect the ticklemouse's nervous system at all, but the gas would knock out any human being in a matter of seconds and keep him unconscious for hours.
The invasion group didn't even wait for the effects to occur before starting down from their perch. It took them all of ten seconds to scramble to the ground, and by that time the two guards were completely oblivious to the world around them. Luise peered inside the gate just to make sure there were no other people-or robots-around, then began the next phase of the invasion.
Taking from her utility pouch the electronically coded plastic card that Marcel had duplicated, she inserted it into the slot beside the gate. Sure enough, the gate slid open to admit the party and the four of them raced inside. Jeanne picked up Bur-Bur, who was standing around after his mission was completed, wondering what to do next. She tucked him into the bosom of her jumpsuit and zipped it up to the top. Reassured that he had performed well, the ticklemouse curled up and went back to sleep in his warm, pleasant surroundings.
The first stage of their plan had worked. They were actually inside Rimskor Castle.
Stage Two, however, would be the harder part. Now that they were inside, time was of the essence. They had no way of knowing whether or not Security Central bad a system of checking with the guards at the gate every so often. If the head of Rimskor's security system did check them, he'd find them unconscious-at which point, the general alarm would be sounded all over the mountain. Speed, therefore, was the d'Alemberts' watchword.
Stun-guns at the ready and set on five, the invaders raced through the underground parking lot toward the elevator tube that was their destination. Instead of going to the first level, however, which included the ballroom and the main hall, they went up to the fourth level. According to Marcel's map, this was a level of auxiliary bedrooms and guest quarters. It was expected to be practically deserted at this time of night with no official functions going on in the castle, so the assault party would not have to worry about accidentally running into anyone who could sound the alarm. Plus, Marcel thought he had seen an entrance to the "forbidden area" on this level.
The hallway was dark, but that was only a minor inconvenience. Removing their gas masks, the team donned instead sets of infrared goggles and lights, so that they could make their way through the darkness. The special flashlights gave the entire corridor an eerie glow that accented the highly spartan decor; the place seemed even more bizarre than it did in normal light.
The floor was of highly polished metal, but even so the quartet of invaders made no noise at all as they moved quickly across it. Their special soft-soled sure-grip shoes muffled the sounds of their steps as they hurried across the floor. Their jumpsuits clung tightly to their bodies and didn't even rustle when they moved. They dared not make any sound that would alert the fortress's security patrol.
They found the desired doorway down the third hallway, right where Marcel had promised it would be. This area was as dark as the rest, and Luise knew she would never be able to work as efficiently as possible on the alarms while using only the infrared. Therefore, she switched on a small wheatgrain bulb of regular light and took off her goggles. Her comrades fanned out around her, keeping their goggles on and watching for any sign that might indicate the approach of a guard.
Taking out a handful of electronic sensors, Luise studied the alarm system built into this door. As Etienne had indicated, it was a fairly standard system; Duke Fyodor was obviously counting on the fact that it would be next to impossible for anyone to get this far. But of course, he didn't know about the d'Alemberts.
Luise had done a lot of studying in the field of electronics, and bypassing this alarm circuit was almost too easy. Once that was done, she picked the lock on the door and turned off her wheatgrain bulb, switching back to the infrared. Slowly she opened the door and led the way into the darkness beyond, with the other three following her.
She found herself standing on a narrow staircase leading downward. Her portable sensors scanned the steps carefully but found no sign of any alarms or pressure-sensitive plates that would alert the castle's forces to the presence of the intruders. She moved down the stairs as quickly as she could, always cautious of the way before her. She estimated she'd gone down two levels before she reached a landing and found a door on her left that would lead into the hidden portion of the castle.
A quick check showed that this door was not booby trapped in any way; obviously this far into the inner sanctum the Duke was not concerned with oversecurity. He couldn't have his own people inadvertently setting off the alarms every time they opened a door. Luise relaxed. Except for one or two specially controlled areas, they wouldn't have to worry about tripping any warning devices.
Of course, it was just those specially controlled areas that they had to find; not much would be learned from an area where no secrets were kept.
The assault team went through the door and found themselves in a laboratory of some sort. After ascertaining that the place was empty except for themselves, they searched for and found the light switch. Instantly their eyes were dazzled by the brilliance after so long a period in darkness and the eerie glow of infrared, and it was almost a full minute before they were able to see again.
