Space Stations

“I know what he said, Major Lemaris. If you will provide me with a record of this woman's med-scan, I can determine what might be done for her aboard our vessel before she's put in suspension. In any case, it will probably be more than you can do for her here.”

“I don't care for the implications of that remark,” Tom muttered.

“The Associated Habitats have an agreement with the Council of Mukhtars to transport people from Earth to Venus,” Benzi said. “We don't interfere with whomever you choose to be our passengers, and we save you the trouble and expense of transporting them. In return, we expect you to allow us to get them to their destination quickly and efficiently.

I'll admit that there were many among my people who wondered if we should perform this job at all, but we decided to do what we could for those people willing to sacrifice everything they had for the chance at a new life.”

“You just wanted to do the right thing,” Alonza said, “with no ulterior purpose in mind.”

“Believe that or not, as you like. In any case, unless you abide by the agreement we have with your Mukhtars, there will be some of us who will argue that our agreement with you has lapsed, and that we no longer should perform this service for you.”

Tom leaned against the wall, hands in his pockets. Alonza wondered if this Habber could interpret a med-scan record properly. It did not matter; he was Linked to his people's cybers, and they could interpret the data for him. He would soon find out that Tom was lying.

“I'm glad somebody's sticking up for me,” Sameh Tryolla said as she got to her feet. She came toward them and gazed at Benzi. “I knew you would come. I want to get out of here.”

Benzi said, “I'd like to see that scan now.”

“Be easier for me to access it from my office,” Tom responded, still stalling for time.

Good old Tom, Alonza thought, grateful for that even if it wouldn't do them any good in the end. She folded her arms, trying to think of what to say next.

“I'll come with you, then,” Benzi said as he turned toward the door.

Sameh was standing just behind Benzi as the door opened and Tom stepped into the hall.

Alonza saw the woman's arm rise in an oddly familiar gesture. In an instant, realizing that there was no time to pull out her wand, she slashed at Sameh with her right arm, chopping her hard on the wrist with the edge of her hand.

Sameh's arm fell and slapped against her upper thigh. She stumbled back and stared at Alonza, her eyes wide, and suddenly her face contorted, becoming red and then purple.

A harsh gurgling sound came from her throat; her eyes seemed to bulge from her head, and then she fell forward and crumpled to the floor.

Tom was still standing in the open entrance. He pushed past Benzi as the door slid shut, then knelt next to Sameh. His fingers found her neck, then clasped her by one wrist.

“She's dead,” the physician said. “And I don't need a scan to tell me that.”

Benzi's light brown skin had turned yellow. He closed his eyes for a moment, clearly struggling to compose himself, then turned to Alonza. “What happened to her?” he asked.

“Think this happened to her,” Tom replied as he lifted Sameh's right arm by the edge of her sleeve, revealing a tiny device no larger than an implant or a gem. “Better not touch it. I'm guessing it's deactivated now, but no sense taking a chance.”

“What is it?” Benzi asked.

“Probably a disrupter of some kind,” Tom said. “Activate the thing, slap it onto somebody, and it disrupts the body's blood vessels or neurons. Gives somebody a stroke or shuts down their brain, and—”

“You have such things?” Benzi asked.

“Well, there's one of them right there,” Tom said. “Always knew they were a distinct possibility. We've got implants for medical purposes. It wouldn't take much to make them for other uses.”

“I never heard of such a thing before,” Alonza said softly, although she had heard plenty of rumors and had long harbored the same suspicions as Tom.

“It seems that you may have saved my life,” Benzi said to Alonza. “I'm very grateful.”

Alonza thought of Colonel Sansom's orders. Get the operative into custody as quietly as possible, he had told her. If he had wanted to keep this matter quiet before, he certainly would not want word about the woman's attempt on Benzi's life to leak out now.

Presumably the operative had been sent here for the purpose of killing the Habber, and afterward those who ran the shadowy and mysterious secret service of the Guardians had come to their senses and decided to call off the mission. She wondered what the diplomatic consequences would have been if Sameh had succeeded, and exactly what whoever had given the woman her orders had hoped to accomplish.

There was no question of what Alonza's own fate would have been had Benzi died.