Crisis Of Empire - Crown Of Empire Part 29

"And every kind of vehicle you can imagine. If we arrive in this, no one will think anything of it.

It will be just one more aircar. And if we leave it where there are many others, then when the Navy follows the tracer, they'll have to sort through the confusion." She glanced at him.

"Not too bad, do you think?"

"It could work," Chaney allowed.

"And it wouldn't be risky. Under the circ.u.m- stances. Lieutenant, I think it's the best we can come up with,"

"All right, then. I'D check our supplies here." He rose and went back to find the weapons lockers.

"Plenty of weapons," he called to her, pulling

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Chekea Quinn Varbro

out two railguns with shoulder straps. On further reflection, he pulled out two more. Two people, two shoulders each. He opened another locker:

half a dozen bandoliers ofrailgun ammunition.

Very nice.

The next locker held ration kits and Chaney suddenly realized how hungry he was. He brought his finds forward.

"Hungry?" He held a ration bar in front of Tira's mouth.

"Ick," she said, shying away. "What's that?"

"Food," he answered. Somehow, he'd almost forgotten that she wasn't a soldier. "Rations.

Portable feast."

"Good Lord," she said. 'That's what we feed our soldiers?"

"Yup." He sat down and took a bite of his own ration bar.

"No wonder the Navy's mutinied." She wrin- kled her nose and Chaney's heart gave a little jump.

Tira finally bit into the ration bar. "Guess it's better than starving," she conceded.

Chaney laughed, an amazing feeling of pure delight coming over him.

"We'll be fine," he said. "Somehow, one way or another, we'll be fine."

They rode on toward the Palace.

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They landed the aircar on the far side of the Senatorial building from the Palace. There were dozens of aircars parked there and they hoped the crowd would slow down any pursuers.

They made their way around the Senatorial building and across the open plaza to the Palace.

There were crowds in the plaza: civilians of all cla.s.ses, fighting, screaming, walking in stunned silence; and soldiers; Secretarial Guard, Navy - Logistics and Protectorate both - and a few plain black Kona Tatsu uniforms. Chaney and Tira shoved through the crowds, clutching their weapons and watching for trouble.

Finally they entered the Palace itself. Here the bustle was greater, not less Clerks moved through the halls at a frantic pace, carrying papers, boxes, and even furniture. Tira couldn't tell if they were looting or doing their jobs.

They reached a dropshaft without incident, which lira admitted made her suspicious.

There's only one place to go with this, the cross- over. No other stops."

"Let's try it," said Chaney.

lira stepped into the dropshaft and activated it, relieved when it actually worked.

They reached the cross-over in seconds, and found the whole of the long connecting tunnel a

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Chelsea Quinn Yarhro

ma.s.s of scattered debris and abandoned dead.

Most of the bodies were aliens - Daphneans and Peomers - but there were clerks and Treasury uniforms among them.

"It must have been quite a fight," said Chaney.

"Look at that on the wall. Rainbow Dawn.

What does that mean?"

Tu-a pointed to the huge scrawled letters.

"Don't ask me," said Chaney, and started cau- tiously down the cross-over toward the south-east tower.

They had reached the tower when three clerks rushed out on them, holding chairlegs for clubs and blocking their way.

"You can't come in. No one can come in." The clerk nearest them took a frightened, brave step forward. "Leave. Now."

"We're born armed. We have guns," said Chaney patiently, not wanting to hurt the terrified clerks.

Tu-a did not step back either. "But I live here,"

she said simply.

The clerk stared at her. "Thousands of people live here," he bl.u.s.tered. "That means nothing."

"It does to me," said lira. "And it must to you, or you would have left with the others."

The nearest clerk looked perplexed. "Well, someone has to keep order. We can't all run away or it would all be... lost."

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"Yes," said Tu-a, taking a step nearer the clerk.

"I've been trying to get back here since the first attack yesterday. Do you think you could let me and my guard through, if we give you our words that we won't do any damage?"

As she came closer, the clerk suddenly recog- nized her. He turned to the others. "What do you think?"