Part 9 (1/2)
”Again, I'll take your word. What else can I do to help?”
”Nothing you weren't doing before. Leave the piratics to us. I'd better get back.” Blades extended his hand. ”I haven't got the words to thank you, Adam.”
Janichevski accepted the shake. ”No reason for thanks. You dragooned me.” A grin crossed his face. ”I must confess though, I'm not sorry you did.”
Blades left. He found his gang in the terminal, two dozen engineers and rockjacks clumped tautly together.
”What's the word?” Carlos Odonaju shouted.
”Clear track,” Blades said. ”Go right aboard.”
”Good. Fine. I always wanted to do something vicious and destructive,”
Odonaju laughed.
”The idea is to prevent destruction,” Blades reminded him, and proceeded toward the office.
Avis met him in Corridor Four. Her freckled countenance was distorted by a scowl. ”Hey, Mike, wait a minute,” she said, low and hurriedly.
”Have you seen La Ziska?”
”The leftenant? Why, no. I left her with you, remember, hoping you could calm her down.”
”Uh-huh. She was incandescent mad. Called us a pack of bandits and--But then she started crying. Seemed to break down completely. I took her to your cabin and went back to help Jimmy. Only, when I checked there a minute ago, she was gone.”
”What? Where?”
”How should I know? But that she-devil's capable of anything to wreck our chances.”
”You're not being fair to her. She's got an oath to keep.”
”All right,” said Avis sweetly. ”Far be it from me to prevent her fulfilling her obligations. Afterward she may even write you an occasional letter. I'm sure that'll brighten your Rehab cell no end.”
”What can she do?” Blades argued, with an uneasy sense of whistling in the dark. ”She can't get off the asteroid without a scooter, and I've already got Sam's gang working on all the scooters.”
”Is there no other possibility? The radio shack?”
”With a man on duty there. That's out.” Blades patted the girl's arm.
”O.K., I'll get back to work. But ... I'll be so glad when this is over, Mike!”
Looking into the desperate brown eyes, Blades felt a sudden impulse to kiss their owner. But no, there was too much else to do. Later, perhaps. He c.o.c.ked a thumb upward. ”Carry on.”
_Too bad about Ellen_, he thought as he continued toward his office.
_What an awful waste, to make a permanent enemy of someone with her kind of looks. And personality--Come off that stick, you clabberhead!
She's probably the marryin' type anyway._
_In her shoes, though, what would I do? Not much; they'd pinch my feet. But--d.a.m.nation, Avis is right. She's not safe to have running around loose. The radio shack? Sparks is not one of the few who've been told the whole story and co-opted into the plan. She could_--
Blades cursed, whirled, and ran.