Fortune's Light Part 21

His purchase on the rock was tenuous at best; he couldn't hang on for very long, and he wound up dropping at an awkward angle. But Crusher was there to help straighten him out when he landed.

Together they slid down the incline. Somehow they managed to keep their feet.

"Thanks," he told her.

"Don't mention it," she said. "I didn't spend all that time healing your shoulder to let you go and wreck it again."

The body was at the base of the slope. They knelt down beside it.

"What are we looking for?" she asked.

He tried not to think about what they were doing. He couldn't shake the notion that it was one step removed from grave-robbing-if very necessary grave-robbing.

"A communications device of some kind-that is, if I've guessed right about Teller's method of finding his way through the maze. And even if it's here, it won't be easy to locate. Lyneea searched him pretty thoroughly and didn't find a thing."

"Then it's not in his pockets," concluded Crusher.

"No. Not in any obvious pockets, anyway." He played the beamlight on Teller's footwear. "Try those."

"His boots?"

"Just a hunch. I don't think Lyneea looked there."

The doctor removed the dead man's right boot and reached inside it. Immediately she turned to regard Riker, and a grim smile played at the corners of her mouth.

"There's something here all right," she told him. "A couple of somethings, in fact." A second later she drew out a plastic rectangle.

"A chit," said the first officer, recognizing it easily. He trained his light on it. "A valuable one at that-you don't see too many of this denomination." And the thing was black. "Issued by Madraga Rhurig."

"What does that mean?" asked the doctor, delving deeper with her narrow fingers.

"Probably Teller's payoff, or at least the first installment. And since it came from Rhurig, that's probably who hired him to steal the seal."

Crusher plucked out something else then-an object the size and shape of the chit but thicker.

As Riker illuminated it, she turned it over in her hand. It was silver, with four fingertip-size plates and three tiny but separate readouts above them.

"He had a pocket sewn inside his boot," explained Crusher, still looking a little incredulous. "This fit right inside it, along with the chit."

"It looks Maratekkan," he observed. "They're good at miniaturization." He pulled his glove off with his teeth and held out his good hand. "May I?"

She gave it over. Cradling it in his palm, he fingered one of its plates. Immediately one of the readouts became illuminated; numerals appeared.

"Coordinates?" ventured Crusher.

"That's what they look like," he agreed. When he touched another plate, the first readout died and a second one sprang to life. It displayed the same sort of numerals.

The third plate triggered the bottommost readout, but that one was blank, as if it hadn't been programmed. That left the fourth plate, which was set below the first three and centered.

Riker had an idea what it was for. Touching the first plate again, he reactivated the original set of numerals. Then he tried the fourth plate.

Suddenly the thing started beeping. Not loud-in fact, if it hadn't been for the silence all around them, they might not have heard it at all. But it was loud enough.

Riker nodded, gripped the thing tighter. He looked at Crusher.

"A homing mechanism," he told her. "The louder this beeping gets, the closer one is to one's objective."

"I see," said the doctor. She tapped the topmost readout with a fingernail. "It looks as if it's got two active settings. You think that one of them will lead us to ... what's it called again?"

"Fortune's Light."

"Right. And the other setting, I imagine, would indicate the way out."

"That would make sense," said Riker. "Teller probably planted a transmitter near one of the exits."

"So what are we waiting for? Let's follow the audio signal and-"

A sound. They froze at the same time and exchanged glances by the glow of the beamlight.

It could have been one of those skittering things, Riker told himself. There were enough of them down here. But somehow, he didn't think so. The sound had been too heavy, too substantial. And it had been isolated, with nothing before or after it-as if whoever made the sound had realized it, and stopped before he could make another one.

Riker jabbed a forefinger at the opening above them; Crusher nodded. They had to get out of there or they'd be easy targets for whoever had followed them.

With a touch of his thumb, he eliminated the beeping. Then he pressed the device into the doctor's hand and led her up the slope.

"You first," she whispered, as she stashed the thing in her tunic. She braced herself and held out her hands.

He shook his head. "No."

If Crusher went first, at least one of them had a shot at getting away. If they wasted time trying to get him out, they might both be caught.

And he couldn't allow that. They had just found the key to recovering Fortune's Light; it was important that it not be lost again.

The doctor glared at him, but gave in. There was no time to protest and she knew it.

This time, Riker held out his hand-just one, unfortunately, but Crusher was a slender woman. It would have to do.

Placing her boot in his palm, grasping his good shoulder for balance, she launched herself up toward the crossways-lying rock. Riker couldn't add anything to her effort-it was all he could do to keep his hand steady against the thrust of her heel.

But it turned out to be enough. And once the doctor had a good grasp on the rock, she managed to wrestle her way out of the pit. It wasn't easy for her-far from it. But she managed.

"All right," she gasped, leaning her head over the brink. "Come on. There's n.o.body around-not yet."

She held out her hand to him, but they both knew it was a token gesture. If he was going to get out, it would be under his own power. And he had to make it on the first try; after that, with his strength at low ebb already, the odds would drop precipitously.

Setting his teeth, Riker eased his arm out of the sling. His shoulder complained, sending shoots of fire through the muscles in his back. He did his best to ignore them.

h.e.l.l, he told himself, this is nothing. If you can't take this, you might as well give up the whole idea.

Taking hold of the rocky projection he'd used once before, he gathered himself and sprang for the cross-piece. His hands hooked around either side of it. In the same motion, he swung his legs up and past, until they found the lip of the pit.

Agony. Like talons shredding the newborn nerve ends in his shoulder. Like acid searing the raw, half-formed flesh.

No time to breathe. No time to think about what would come next.

As Riker readjusted his grip on the rock, pushed with his feet and twisted, he cried out-he couldn't help it. He thought his shoulder would give out before he could reach the top. He thought he would find himself on his back next to his friend, hopeless, having spent the last of his strength.

He was wrong on all counts. On the other side of the blinding pain was Crusher. And the hard, rea.s.suring ground that surrounded the pit.

"Come on," she was saying, trying to get him up off his back. "Let's move, Commander."

Cursing inwardly, he allowed her to help him to his feet. Then, slipping his bad arm back inside the sling, he started off with her down the pa.s.sageway.

It was getting late, he noted. Up above, the sky was approaching the color of twilight.

Behind them, there were footfalls-distinct now, unmistakable. It gave them a greater sense of urgency as they negotiated a bend in the corridor and rushed through the gathering gloom.

They had a head start, he told himself. They could probably elude whoever was pursuing them.

But more than likely, there were other pursuers in the maze. And maybe a few outside as well, waiting for them to emerge.

A blaster would help to even the odds. It would help a lot.

Making up his mind, Riker stopped dead in his tracks. A moment later, the doctor stopped too-and looked back.

"What's the matter?" she breathed.

"Nothing. Just hoping our friend is well armed, that's all."

"What does that mean?"

"We need a blaster," he explained. "And I can't think of another way to get one." Slowly, as silently as he could, he worked his way back to the twist in the pa.s.sageway.

When he reached it, he listened. The footfalls were getting louder. Closer. Suddenly they stopped.

In the vicinity of the pit? Perhaps to see if anything had been disturbed?

After a moment the sounds of progress picked up again. Riker noticed how quickly night was falling, how eagerly it was rus.h.i.+ng to fill this place. But that was all right. Their pursuer would take that much longer to spot them.

And by then, he hoped, it would be too late.

The sc.r.a.pe of boot soles on gravel, a little nearer now. Nearer still. He exchanged glances with the doctor as she clung to the wall behind him. She frowned, unable to conceal her anxiety.

Turning back to the twist in the corridor, holding his breath, Riker closed his fingers into a fist. Just another moment. Just one more second. But his timing would have to be perfect.

As their pursuer turned the corner, Will took a swing at him. But the man was shorter than he'd expected, and the blow was only a glancing one.

It gave the Impriman a chance to strike back-and strike he did. Something hit Riker in the jaw-hard enough to stagger him. As he recovered, trying to protect his injured arm, a light came out of nowhere to blind him.

"Run," he told Crusher, sweeping her behind him-and knowing all the time how useless the gesture would be. He didn't stand a chance against a blaster. And the doctor wouldn't get very far in the time it would take Riker to fall.

Anyway, Crusher wasn't running. She was apparently going to stand her ground.

"If I'm going to die," she answered, throat tight, "I'm going to do it with dignity." And she stepped up to stand alongside him.

He was proud of her for that.

"Chits and whispers," said the voice behind the light. "Why did you have to go and surprise me like that?"

He knew that voice. And he'd never been so happy to hear it as he was now.

"Lyneea," he said.

"You're d.a.m.ned right," she told him, lowering the beamlight a little. She rubbed her temple with the fingers of one hand. "What were you trying to do? End our partners.h.i.+p in one fell swoop?"

He chuckled, ma.s.saging his jaw where she'd struck him. "I might ask the same of you. What in blazes are you doing here anyway?"

"Keeping an eye on you, of course. Did you think I'd leave you all alone, without protection?"

"You mean you were waiting outside the hotel? Watching over us?"

"That's just what I mean."

He thought about it for a moment. "But not just to protect us-right? You were hoping the a.s.sa.s.sin would show up-and try again."

"Obviously. I had no other leads."

Riker sighed. "I've got to hand it to you," he said. "Sentimental you're not."

"And cooperative you're not. What kind of insanity possessed you to leave your suite? Do you know how much more difficult it is to protect someone on the move?"

"You could have stopped me," he suggested.

"But that would have ruined the plan. We would have lost the element of surprise."

"Ah," he said. "I forgot-sorry."

"Excuse me," said Crusher, "but could we continue this elsewhere? I mean, our a.s.sa.s.sin friend may be closer than we think." She looked around, s.h.i.+vered. "I'd feel a whole lot safer on the outside of this maze."

Lyneea nodded. "Very sensible, Doctor." She regarded Riker. "You would do well to take a lesson from her."

The first officer cursed beneath his breath. Just what he needed-arguments from both sides.

Suddenly something clattered against the stones beneath their feet. As the echoes died, Lyneea played her light beam over it.

"What's that?" she asked. "More high-tech contraband?"

Riker bent and picked it up. "Just the thing that's going to lead us to Fortune's Light." And with a flick of his finger, he activated the device. It started beeping again.