Free The Prison in Antares by Mike Resnick Page B

we’ve already been in action.”
    He returned her smile. “Spoken like someone who’s spent her professional life in a lab.”
    â€œWhich I have. Well, a lab and a hospital.”
    â€œI just hope you have to prove how good you are,” said Pretorius.
    She frowned. “You do?”
    He nodded. “It’ll mean he’s still alive, and hasn’t overtly joined the enemy.”
    â€œI must seem terribly green to you,” said Irish.
    â€œWe’ll put some other color on you before we’re done,” he replied.
    In a few minutes they had reached their rendezvous point, and in another three hours they had transferred their computers and the bulk of their weaponry to the Antarean ship.
    â€œI hope it’ll all work,” said Pandora when they were done.
    â€œIt’s already working,” replied Pretorius.
    â€œDifferent power sources. I just hope it doesn’t damage the computer.”
    â€œOr the guns,” added Snake.
    â€œWell, we’ll find out,” said Pretorius.
    â€œYou don’t seem very worried,” noted Ortega.
    â€œWould worrying help?” asked Pretorius.
    â€œProbably not, but I do it all the time anyway.”
    â€œSo we’re all here and all tied in to the power,” said Pandora. “What do we do now?”
    â€œThe first thing we need is a map of the subway, or whatever we’re calling it,” replied Pretorius. “It’s a big planet. We can’t just hope he shows up on our instruments.”
    â€œThere must be dozens of maps on Three,” said Pandora. “Maybe I can find a way to tie into one.”
    â€œThere’s also thousands of defense weapons on Three,” said Pretorius. “I know we’re in an Antarean ship, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be scanned and boarded, especially if we can’t show that we’re there for a purpose.”
    â€œSo we go to Six?” said Pandora.
    â€œWe go to Six,” he confirmed.
    â€œAnd then what?”
    â€œThat depends on what we find there,” answered Pretorius. “We need to locate, not a subway station, at least not one that’s just for boarding and exiting the vehicles, but something that controls them—controls their power, their routes, their destinations, whatever.”
    â€œHow do we do that?” asked Ortega. “I mean, for all we know, there’s no public transportation at all. The whole system might be military.”
    â€œIf it is, that will be to our advantage,” said Irish, and all heads turned to her.
    â€œWould you care to explain?” said Pandora.
    â€œIf it’s public transport, the system will go anywhere that the inhabitants live,” she said. “But if it’s entirely military, it will have far fewer routes and destinations. More dangerous, to be sure, but fewer.”
    â€œMakes sense,” admitted Ortega.
    â€œYes, it does,” agreed Pretorius. “But it’s totally hypothetical. We have to learn what the hell this system does, who and what it transports and to where.”
    â€œSo we still need a map,” said Snake.
    He nodded his head. “We still need a map.”
    â€œSo where do we get one?”
    â€œWe head to the Antares system, hope nobody challenges what is obviously a ship that’s at least of Antarean origin if not ownership, and when we can determine where the hell a map might be, either Pandora finds a way to transfer a copy to our ship’s computer, or we send our best thief in after it.”
    â€œThanks a heap,” said Snake grimly.
    â€œIt’ll be on a computer,” said Pandora. “Sooner or later everything is, and sooner or later every computer’s security can be breached.”
    â€œThat’s fine in theory,” said Pretorius. “But all we’ve got is sooner, not later. Every day we don’t locate and grab Nmumba is another day they have to break