Lucas glanced up from his screen and nodded. “Good. Give the signal. ”He turned to Kyle and Nikolai. “Well, looks like my talk with Kai will have to wait until this is over. ”He turned back to the screen that showed the huge doors of the cargo bay slowly opening and the shuttle craft launching from its decks. It quickly cleared the ship and began making its way to the surface of the planet, while Communications opened a channel to the council. The face of a council representative quickly came into view.
“Good morning. We’ve received your hail and have dropped our shields to allow your shuttlecraft to enter our airspace. May we ask the nature of this visit?” The woman looked angry, her face stiff and unyielding, but that was to be expected. The Scythians had never liked surprises. It was easy now to see why.
“The Alliance is conducting random surprise inspections of planets in the system. A new Alliance regulation, and we’ll try to be as unobtrusive as possible. We’ll need access to a few of your military facilities, of course, and the palace itself. ” Lucas kept his voice disinterested and slightly bored. He had no wish to tip their hand, if this was to fall into place the way he’d planned.
“New regulation?” The emissary raised one eyebrow. “We were not informed of this new regulation, or of this visit. ”
“No,” Lucas replied. “Surprise inspections are not usually announced beforehand. ”
The Scythian’s face turned red and her lips tightened, but she’d been well trained. She managed to incline her head gracefully enough. “I’ll see to it that the queen is informed. “She is—indisposed at the moment, however. ”
Indisposed? Having the baby that she planned to turn over to the priestesses? If so, they may be in time. “Her presence won’t be required,” he said. “The inspection team will be landing momentarily, I believe. Please see to it they’re given the access they require. ”
He cut off the transmission even as the woman was trying to formulate a reply, and turned to his cousins. “See to it that the commander of the landing force sends soldiers to both the palace and the te
mple as soon as they arrive. Inform him that the queen may just have given birth or be in the process now. ”
“Right away,” Nikolai said, turning away.
“Kyle, go below decks and make sure Kai is awake, please. I need to see if he knows how soon they turn the babies over to the damn temples after they’re born and what the usual procedure would be. If there’s any chance to save this baby, I want to make sure it doesn’t slip through our fingers. ”
Lucas turned his attention back to the monitor showing the shuttlecraft landing on the planet. The doors opened quickly and the team, some hundred and twenty soldiers strong, began to jump down to the landing dock and disperse in several different directions. He watched them for a few moments, seeing them spreading out under the watchful and surprised eyes of the Scythian representatives. The cameras from the shuttlecraft showed land transports pulling up and the soldiers climbing in the backs.
His personal communication device beeped urgently and he picked it up, seeing Kyle’s name on the screen. “Yes? Is something wrong?”
“Lucas, it’s Kai. He’s—missing. I found the soldier who brought him his breakfast this morning tied up on the floor of your quarters. Kai knocked him on the head when he came in this morning. ”
“What?” Lucas shouted, rising to his feet. “What are you talking about? How could he be missing?” He touched a button on his console. “Comp, give me the location of Kai Balenescu. ”
The impersonal voice replied. “Kai Balenescu is not on board the ship. ”
“What the fuck do you mean he’s not on board the ship?” Lucas yelled futilely at the comp. Kyle came running into the room from below decks, his face blanched of color. Lucas whirled around to look at him blankly. “How could he not be on board the ship?”
“The shuttle,” Kyle said hoarsely. “He took the guard’s uniform. ” Kyle cast a wild glance down at the transport on the screen. “Lucas, he’s on Scythia. ”
* * * *
As soon as they arrived on Scythia, Kai used the confusion of landing to cover his escape. Edging toward the end of the column of soldiers as they loaded the land transports, he ducked behind one of the trucks and made his way to the line of shuttle transports that always parked near the docks, hoping to pick up a paying fare from visitors to the planet. He slipped into the back seat of one at the back of the line, and held his weapon to the back of the driver’s head. “Drive me to the palace. Quickly. ”
The driver froze in place for a moment, then Kai saw her hand moving toward her communicator device. “Don’t even think about it. ” He nudged the gun into the back of the driver’s head. “Take me to the palace, I said. Do it now. ”
“All right. Don’t shoot. ”
The woman, who didn’t look Scythian—probably an indentured slave—put the vehicle in gear and pulled off rapidly, glancing at him continually through the rear-view mirror. Kai concentrated on the route she was taking, making sure she was taking the shortest possible route. When they arrived at the palace, he directed the driver around to the tradesman’s entrance and waited while she lowered his window. He quickly punched in the code and shoved the barrel of the gun in the back of her head again to get her to move forward.
He directed the driver to the door he sometimes used when he went out hunting with the guards—it was a side entrance that led directly to the kitchens. Often, as a boy, he’d come in from a long day’s hunt ravenously hungry and the palace cook, a friend of Merri’s named Coova, had always given him sandwiches to help hold him off until dinner, clucking her tongue at his huge appetite and warning the princess she would soon get fat if she continued to eat so much.
He shook the old memories aside as they pulled up outside the door and turned to the driver, who was giving him baleful glares through the mirror. Kai leaned over her and jerked out the cord to the communicator on the dash. “Look,” he said to her. “You saw the soldiers landing, so you must know something is happening. Despite what you must think, I’m not here to harm anyone. I don’t want to hurt you, either, but you have to listen to me. I’m here to help the queen. If you raise an alarm, someone will get hurt. More soldiers will be arriving soon, so the best thing you can do is get out of here. ” He looked her over carefully and saw that she was listening carefully to him. “I can see that you’re not Scythian, so you probably have little reason to be loyal to them. Go home and help your family. Stay inside until this is over. ”
He got out of the transport quickly. There was nothing he could do to stop her from raising an alarm, but he hoped his words had been enough to frighten her into leaving quickly and going home. If not, he had his weapon, and he was prepared to do whatever it took to get him to his mother.
Running to the door, he opened it with the use of another code and ducked inside. For a moment, no one reacted in the bustling kitchen and then a woman cooking something on the big stove next to him gave a start and a little scream. He grabbed her around the neck and pulled her back into him, holding his weapon to her head. The others froze at the sight, giving distressed little whimpers and backing away from him. “No one move. I’m not here to hurt anyone, but I will if I have to. Where’s Coova?”
A surprised grunt from the back of the room and then the tall, portly woman stepped forward, wiping her hands on an apron. “I’m Coova. What do you want here?”
“Come closer. ”
She walked closer to Kai, hesitating only a little. “Let her go,” she said, nodding at the woman Kai still held in his arms. “She won’t cause any problems, will you, Hilva?”