Code Name Igor Page 15

  "Old Fedya plants every seed he can get . . . well, he had a bad grow-in . . . forty years ago, something like that. And all he does is try to grow things. When they get too big, they get transplanted outdoors. Lord Axel is good about finding spots for them, where the gardeners won't bother them."

  "So everyone likes Lord Axel?" Forty-one stopped to look up at a tree . . . "Is this a peach tree?"

  Old Fedya looked around, ducked his head in a nod.

  "And he doesn't count as 'the lords don't know about it?' I guess I understand that."

  Natasha bit her lip. "Yes, but they know he's still a lord. Everyone's in a tizzy over who the Ladies will sell to him, and what he will do."

  "I asked him what he was going to do with a hundred servants, and he said he'd mostly leave them here, just pick up the expenses."

  Natasha nodded. "That makes sense." She hunched her shoulders. "I don't suppose he can help many of the kids, like he saved us four."

  Vlad shook his head. "But he appears to be trying."

  Natasha nodded. "It's just that I have so many friends getting close to the age . . . or over it, and sort of dull and uninterested anymore. Or gone. Sold."

  She led them down the hallway and out of the miniature park. There was a good sized screen set up in the corner, where people down both hallways could see it. There was a fair crowd in this hall. Sitting on the floor near the screen, some in chairs, then people standing.

  An older woman leaned to hiss at Natasha. "The Governor's going to make a speech about that attack yesterday!"

  The usual clapping on the screen, a brief introduction . . .

  "A week ago the City Police found a dimensional beacon while investigating a crime. A search of a computer on the premises gave us a list of addresses. The Alliance troops were in the process of checking those sites when the early stages of an invasion were found at one of the addresses. With this early discovery, we were able to shut the portal and kill or capture all the invaders in a few hours. Two Alliance Mentalists and three Alliance Soldier Cyborgs were killed in stopping this invasion."

  Vlad eyed all the people behind the Governor. That's Director Rasputin who was giving orders here, and I'm pretty sure that's the Inquisitor. And that brown-haired fellow with the good tan sure looks a lot like Axel.

  "We owe a lot to those men, and the rest of the men who threw themselves into the battle to save our World."

  "Why Tier Four Hub Budapest Reborn attacked us is something we've been asking the prisoners all day, and the news is not good.

  "They believe that the Enemy has found and attacked the Three Hundred. They believe that there will be no zivvy deliveries this year. They believe the Three Hundred have the Plague and cannot make zivvy. They doubt that the powerless former Three Hundred will be able to teach their successors how to make it."

  The Governor took a deep breath. "Therefore, in case they are correct, I am suspending all chipping except for criminal convictions. Our next scheduled delivery is June first of next year. So chipping is stopped for the next six months. If we do not receive that delivery, routine chipping will remain halted until such a time as regular deliveries of zivvy can be guaranteed."

  The teenagers watching burst into cheers, whistles, and clapping. They drowned out the TV, but Vlad caught Natasha poking a couple of boys. "I thought you guys were lined up to get Exec Plates? Why are you cheering?"

  "Huh. Their Lordships changed their minds and kicked us out this morning. 'We're getting properly trained secretaries' they said, with their noses up in the stratosphere."

  The other boy nodded. "I dunno what happened, they were only gone a day and a half, but they're different. Worse."

  Yeah, they were. Vlad backed away. Pulled out his phone and tapped for text and entered Axel's number.

  IS THERE ANY INDICATION THAT THEY SENT INFILTRATORS OVER IN THE 36 HOURS BEFORE THE ATTACK?

  He sent it with the priority police code.

  On the screen, he could see the brown-haired man look down.

  An answer popped up.

  NO INFO ON THAT. WHAT HAPPENED?

  YOUR COUSINS WERE MISSING FOR THAT TIME. RETURNED LAST NIGHT AND ARE ACTING OFF.

  OFF HOW?

  INTELLIGENT AND DANGEROUS.

  On the screen he could see the brown haired man leaned a bit toward the Inquisitor, the boss type leaned in to look from the other side. Then brown-hair stepped back and slid behind other people.

  DON'T DO ANYTHING UNTIL WE GET THERE. FIFTEEN MINUTES. TELL ONE OF THE KIDS TO GO UNLOCK THE BACK DOORS.

  And there was Natasha leaning over to read the messages. Eyes widening. She stepped into the crowd, and he spotted her making gestures.

  And as he made his way back to the stairs, he wasn't a bit surprised to see her three buddies coming from the other direction.

  Natasha grinned. "I'm on a secret mission to unlock the back doors."

  Vlad eyed the trio. "Can you telepath Lord Axel?" Four nods. "You three might find some spots where you can watch the Grand Hall, watch where Lord Andre and Lord Nikoli go."

  Pauli grinned. "I have a f-few m-micro cams spotted around."

  Vlad eyed him. "But not on the west side."

  "Not until a f-few d-days ago."

  "I hope I never have to arrest Lord Axel. I'm not at all sure what you lot might do." Grins all around. "Yes, Pauli, you watch your cams. I'll go down and tell them I'm done, who knows if the Alliance Guards are done or not, and whatever, to hold their attention while Natasha unlocks the back doors and then gets the heck out of range of any violence."

  "Dimitri, Varf? Try to stay unnoticed."

  Grins. "We'll practically be invisible." They hustled off the way they'd come.

  Natasha grinned. "Now the question is, can you find your way out of here?"

  A snicker from Forty-one.

  "Down a level, duck through Axel's childhood apartment, and down the front stairs."

  "Perfect! But use these stairs." She followed the boys. "On the third floor they—now—open right into the apartment. On the first floor, it's just off the breakfast room and I'll pop down the outside hallway and unlock the back doors."

  He opened the door to the third floor and glanced back.

  She was already halfway down the next flight with a cheery "See ya!" floating back.

  Guess I'm not in love, since I just sent her out to do the most dangerous task.

  They hustled through the apartment and down the first flight of stairs. Stepped out to the balcony that gave access to the old Council Hall. Then more decorously down the last flight. Letting his boot-heels click on the mahogany steps and then on the marble floor as he walked out into the Grand Hall.

  Lord Andre stepped out of the last office, Mr. Solovsky's antechamber to the late Lord Vladimir's office, and frowned at him. Glared at Forty-one.

  "I rather think policemen should use the servant's stairs."

  "Indeed? Have you had much experience with the police, Lord Andre?" Vlad strolled across and over to the dining hall. Forty-one started playing statue and the lords ignored him.

  Vlad removed the City Police Department's keep out tape from the first doorway and stepped in to stroll the length of the table to the other door.

  Lord Andre stomped up to glare at him as he removed the tape from that doorway.

  "So I take it you are finally satisfied?"

  "Yes." Vlad stepped out and spotted Lord Nikoli frowning their way. "Really a shame, to see any member of a leading family fall to such depths."

  Lord Andre frowned and loomed. Lord Nikoli started their direction.

  "I'm afraid your cousin has been . . . well foolish hardly covers . . ."

  He broke off to nod politely to Nikoli as he neared.

  "So . . . is Lord Axel here?"

  Behind the frowning pair, Natasha slipped past the back doors, barely pausing, and glanced into Mr. Solovsky's nook.

  "Lord Axel . . . killed . . ." Lord Nikoli broke off to look out the front entrance where a
cab had just pulled up.

  Lord Andre turned toward the front, but jerked back to look behind. "Girl! I said no one was to go in there." he strode down toward her.

  Natasha cringed a bit. "I didn't go in, I was just looking to see if it needed . . ." she ducked a slap.

  "You stupid . . . shit! Troops in the back!" He lunged and grabbed Natasha. "I should have known you were spying on us . . ."

  :: Armored troops entering the southwest offices from the back. :: Pauli's mental voice didn't stutter.

  Which is a bloody stupid thing to think when one is reaching for someone’s neck . . .

  :: Shields! :: Axel's voice.

  Vlad got his left arm around Andre's neck, his right out to grab Andre's right arm and his feet braced to jerk them all backward and out of the doorway as armored troops charged in from two sides.

  :: The red lightning bolt guys are the good guys. :: Axel again.

  They hit the ground hard, Vlad underneath, concentrated on choking Andre. And shielding . . . he really wasn't good at multiple shields . . . hard when someone’s flailing and getting his elbow into your guts . . .

  Gunfire echoed down the hall.

  :: More to the northwest, they're heading for the front stairs. Boss, you don't appear to have any weapons. :: Pauli, horrified.

  Someone crashed into them, ripped Andre out of his grasp. Then landed on Vlad and smashed him flat on the floor. He raised his head and spotted Axel running up on a trio of Cyborgs in black armor. Who flopped down to skid up to stop at his feet. Axel snatched a rifle from the ground, turned to fire three times at something above Vlad's head, then turned and shot more cyborgs charging down the stairs, who were shooting upwards at someone snugged down and shooting from the second floor balcony . . .

  Then Forty-one was heaving the weight off Vlad and hauling him away.

  A wavery shield covering them as Natasha staggered to her feet and grabbed both of them. Vlad spotted the entry to the dining hall and steered them that direction. The panel between the seascape and the horse . . .

  "Oh!" Nastsaya dived to poke at the bottom of the side molding and pushed. The whole panel swung on hinges and they tumbled through and closed it behind them.

  A short corridor, two doors on each wall, ending in a blank wall.

  "Quietly, now. We need to find out if they brought in another beacon. Where are the nearest stairs up?"

  "Right here. So we didn't have to parade through the back halls and Grand Hall with all the food." Natasha trotted to the first door on the right and opened to yet another metal staircase .

  She stepped through and looked up, froze.

  Vlad jumped through, pistol coming up as he jerked her away from . . . nothing. He eased over to look up, the hair on the back of his neck prickling as he broke into a cold sweat . . .

  A snicker from Forty-one. "You two need to work on your mental shields. That must be a damn good fear impression." He nudged Vlad out of the way and walked up like there was nothing to it.

  :: Pauli? If Lord Axel isn't too busy, could you ask him to kill the fear impression on the west wing? ::

  Vlad and Natasha exchanged glances, then he concentrated on his mental shield, pushed it as hard as he could and walked nervously up the stairs.

  Natasha edged toward the first step, looking firmly down . . .

  And suddenly Vlad's nerves settled and he trotted the rest of the way up.

  Forty-one was peeking through the second floor door. "The soldier Cyborgs are coming out of a room down the hall. Must be a big room, there are a lot of them."

  :: There aren't very many good guy troops. :: Pauli sounded worried.

  "Or they've opened a portal there. The Imps removed the beacon we found, but . . ."

  "You found a . . . never mind, you can tell me about it later. So . . . how do we stop them?"

  Vlad bit his lip. "Are they coming towards us?"

  "No, and I think they're going down a different set of stairs."

  Natasha crowded up behind him. "So . . . I can do stun and energy shields."

  Vlad swallowed. "And I can do a physical shield, but both of us have to be able to shoot."

  Forty-one nodded. "I'll take the left side, keep the energy shield shy of my left side so I can shoot."

  Vlad nodded. "And I know how to open holes so I can shoot through my physical shield."

  Natasha grinned.

  "Quietly, now . . . we need to close the portal so they can't just keep bringing in more troops."

  They slipped out the door, Forty-one stepping to his left, Natasha to his right.

  They got a dozen feet closer before one of the soldiers spun . . . and collapsed.

  Then it got noisy.

  Vlad fired at the few less well armored spots in the standard soldier rig—the thinner plex over the eye-piece, the gap between chestplate and upper leg armor—as they charged the door the Cyborgs were exiting.

  A glimpse of the "throne room" and Vlad dived in to empty his mag at the bar on the floor at the end of the room. A brilliant flash.

  He was jerked back, blinking flash blinded eyes.

  "Keep holding the shield." Forty-one's voice. "Close your eyes, you should be all right in a few minutes."

  "I told Axel you closed the portal, so the Imps should be making progress, we just need to hold out . . ." A flash of heat, "Eep! For a few more minutes!" Her voice got a bit high at the end.

  "Let's slide down to the corner and crowd in together so you don't have to cover so much and . . . here come the good guys . . ."

  It got very noisy. He kept squinting through watering eyes, flashes around the periphery of his vision . . .

  Silence, relative silence. Moans, distant screams, snapped commands . . . Axel's voice, getting nearer.

  "How close were you to the portal when you shot the beacon?" Loud enough to hear through his ringing ears.

  "Fifteen feet? Maybe?"

  "Ouch. The doc will be here in a few minutes, get him to check your eyes. I've got to go sort out the Fake Cousins."

  "Are they really imposters?"

  "Either that or I've been underestimating them for my entire life. I hope to hell they are, because the Nikoli look-alike is dead." The movement at the periphery of his vision that was probably Axel, moved off.

  They helped Vlad down the stairs, over the frame of the hidden door and sat him down in one of the dining room chairs. Apparently where they were putting all the low priority patients.

  He closed his eyes and listened . . .

  Natasha, of course, looking out at what was going on elsewhere. "Why are they washing his face?"

  And Forty-one. "It's peeling off a film that gives him wrinkles . . . He's a lot younger than the real Lord Andre."

  "I know him! That's Makar! He's two years older than me. Miss Ludmilla's son. I . . . had hoped he'd run away and made it . . . but I was afraid His Lordship had sold him, or killed him, or he'd died getting chipped . . . But not that, because Sevastyan disappeared too . . ."

  Forty-one snorted. "And he looked a lot like Lord Andre, who was probably his father, and Lord Vladimir might have been his grandfather?"

  Vlad cleared his throat. "And this Sevastyan? Did he just happen to look a whole lot like Lord Nikoli?"

  "Yes." Natasha sounded exasperated. "My stupid family. We used to kid them about it, they were so very close . . . so all this was planned . . . over two years ago?"

  Vlad nodded. "When the people he was talking to noticed two boys who might be really useful, sometime in the future. Maybe not the way it played out, with the Plague and all, but Siberia Max is a tasty little tidbit, with the cutting-edge research, the micro electronics manufacturers . . . the small population, and especially the three working portals."

  Axel's voice. "I think you're right about that. And my cousins are being held on Budapest Reborn."

  Chapter Nineteen

  Budapest Reborn

  Friday, November 23, 3738

  Beacon, check. Common laborer's g
arb but made of spatter cloth with the hood in the collar, check. Tools in a grubby canvas tote, check. Quad of Portalists focusing down on the right building, the Dimensional Center, with the portal access in the far rear, to keep the mere commerce away from the Elite bureaucracy that controlled it from their posh offices in the front, upper levels . . . and down past the security offices and into some vague area that might be where the holding cells were, check.

  Pity that idiot Makar wasn't more certain where the cells were and whether that was where the Twins were being held, or not.

  Or even if they were alive or not.

  :: It looks like no one is in that room. :: from the quad.

  :: Attach there, then. :: Axel watched the portal spread and pulled the spatter cloth sack over his head. Found the slit for vision. Trotted up and jumped through.

  An empty room, as advertised.

  He cracked the door . . . empty hallway. He gave a thumbs up and the portal shrunk and disappeared. A bit of dust and scorched smell, as the portal had damaged the ceiling and no doubt whatever else was up there.

  Time to leave, in case there was anyone up there to notice.

  Axel stepped out and walked down the hallway . . . stopped and listened at the squeak, squeak . . . turned and headed toward the sound. The corridor was long, hallways leading off to the left, nothing to the right.

  So I'm on one side of the building?

  The squeak got louder. A cart emerged from the last cross corridor. A large bin, some handles sticking up . . . an old guy pushing it. Tan cap. Hmm, going to need one of those. Tan pants and shirt, check, lightweight shoes . . . well, his were the right color . . . lanyard and card . . .

  The janitor showed no sign of noticing him. Turned and stopped in the center of one section. Walked into a room, emerged with a small bucket sized basket . . . emptied it into the bin on the cart. Right. Collecting the garbage. And where do you take it when you're done? And where do they keep prisoners?