Free 03. Quest for the Well of Souls by Jack L. Chalker Page B

to bring Mavra Chang through the Zone Gate to me. They'll know what it all means. And tell them to bring Joshi, too, if she and he want."
    "Right away, sir," the secretary replied.
    He felt better. He'd been wanting to give that order desperately for twenty-two years.
     

Glathriel
    The Parmiter groaned. It wore a partial body cast. Grune, the big lizard who'd been burned, sympathized from beneath the massive bandages on its back and side.
    "Oh, shut up, both of you," snapped the other great lizard known as Doc. "Damn it, if Grune, here, hadn't rolled onto me, I'd still have had her!"
    "You didn't happen to be on fire," Grune responded angrily. "Want me to put a torch to you and see if you roll right?"
    "Take it easy, both of you!" the Parmiter responded. "This bickering gets us nowhere. We're still alive, we've still got this ship and a well-paid crew of nasties, and we've still got the problem of snatching this Chang."
    "Why don't we just drop it?" Grune snarled. "Hell, piracy and robbery might not pay as well, but I sure never got fried doin' it."
    "We can't and you know it!" the Parmiter retorted. "There's big money behind this job. You know the only ones with enough to outfit a ship like this in nothing flat and put up the kind of front money for a crew and expenses we got is a hex government. A government , dummy! One crooked enough that it knew who we were, where to find us, and that we'd take the job. If it knows that and is indeed a government, we'd have to emigrate to the Northern Hemisphere to save our necks anywhere on this world—and even that might not be enough."
    That thought quieted them, so the Parmiter was again able to concentrate. "Look," it said, "let's think this through. We've already gone back in and seen that the compound's deserted. The natives were in an uproar, so they don't know what happened. No sight of any Ambreza yet, so they haven't got her. So, where is she?"
    "Hiding out in the woods, most likely," Grune suggested. "Or on the run for some hex."
    "Right!" the Parmiter responded. "Now, we must go on the idea that she and her boyfriend don't like the Ambreza. After all, they cooped 'em up there. So south's out. Ginzin's over two hundred kilometers north, and it's a holy hell of a mess anyway. They'd be picked up by the Ambreza before then for sure, or dropped into those boiling tar pits if they made the border. They got brains. That's why they're still free and we're wracked up. Now, if we suppose that maybe they didn't go any of those places, what's left?"
    Doc considered the question. "There's only water otherwise," he pointed out. "And they can't lift their noses far enough to keep from drowning."
    " We are on the water, aren't we?" the Parmiter replied patiently.
    Grune brightened. "They had a boat? Or took one?"
    The Parmiter nodded. "Now you're gettin' there. Remember that big boat we had to dodge yesterday? I bet it was their supply ship. If it was, it stopped, saw the mess we made, and maybe . . ."
    Doc nodded. "But that's a hell of a monster ship," he pointed out. "This is a nice yacht, but it's a rowboat compared to that thing."
    The Parmiter sniggered. "Yeah? Maybe so, but did you see those launchers on the front and back? They're rocket launchers. And they shoot neat fragmentation bombs. They come down, hit something—like a ship's deck—and go bam in all directions, blow a hole a kilometer wide."
    "What good's that here?" Grune asked. "This is a nontech hex. You know that."
    "Idiot!" snapped the Parmiter. "So the launchers are spring-loaded, see? With a boost from a fuse and gunpowder charge underneath. They blow up by chemical action triggered by the shock. No power supply, see? They work here, and they'll blow a hole we can sail through in that damned packet."
    "Oh," said Grune.
    * * *
    The Yaxa drifted across the shoreline, its strange eyes searching the ground. It had been a difficult journey; almost twenty days' worth. Now it was over; now the Yaxa had reached its goal.