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Vila wiped the sweat from his hands, then bent over to check his companion. Best to do it while he was unconscious. Avon certainly wouldn't have let him do it while he was awake. Vila smiled in relief as he pulled back the wadded piece of cloth. The wound wasn't that bad, the blast grazed his left side, but he was sure it smarted from the way Avon favoured it. And of course, once they had started moving, it had begun to bleed.
Damn, Vila thought looking at his companion, for a man who claims he doesn't care about anyone, Avon sure gave a good example of doing just that. If he hadn't shoved me out of the way, it would have been me lying there. Vila adjusted the makeshift bandage, then sat back to wait.
He glanced down at the shaft at the sealed grid. No one would know they were there. Not the way he had sealed it, though it had been damn hard with Avon passing out as he had just as they climbed in. Another complication. Vila hated complications almost as much as Avon did.
It had seemed so easy. Just teleport into the base, pick up the computer disk Blake wanted, then pop back out. The first part had been easy. The safe was so simple even Avon could have opened it, though Vila had not told him that. No sense adding something else to the man's ego when it was already so inflated. Then pursuit ships had arrived and with a very short warning that they'd be back, Blake had taken Liberator out of orbit. Oh they had done that before, mind you, so Vila hadn't been all that worried, but that had been before that guard had shown up.
Federation guards could be so unpredictable. Vila had met some who had simply demanded he surrender, without so much a shot fired. This one though must have been having a bad day as he opened fire without such much as a "Halt!." So much for courtesy nowadays.
"Come on, Blake," Vila muttered, checking his timepiece. Two hours had gone by since they'd teleported down. "Lose those ships and get back here. I'm not a doctor, you know."
"That much is certainly true," murmured a voice from beside him, making Vila jump.
"Oh, Avon, you're awake then."
"No, I always talk to fools in my sleep." Avon sat up slowly, wincing as his jarred his side. He checked the wound and saw the bandage. "Your doing, I take it?"
"Well, I couldn't let you bleed and leave a trail for them to follow," Vila exclaimed.
Even Avon saw the logic in that. He glanced around. "Where are we?"
"Some kind of maintenance shaft," Vila said. "I fixed the grid so it looks like it's been locked from the outside."
"Any word from Blake?"
"No. But he'll be back."
"Unless he's been blasted into a thousand pieces," Avon remarked.
"That won't happen," Vila stated firmly. "Jenna's too good a pilot for that."
"I'll tell her you said that."
Vila scowled. "Why must you always be like that, Avon?"
"Like what?" Avon inquired.
"So nasty!"
"It keeps Deltas like you in your place," he replied coolly. He maneuvered himself into a more secure position, then said, "We might as well make ourselves comfortable."
"You don't think we'll have to stay here all night, do you?" Vila asked anxiously.
"Who knows?" Avon closed his eyes and tried to relax.
"I don't like this place," Vila mumbled.
"Tell me something new," his companion retorted. His eyes opened a slit. "Why don't you like it?"
"Reminds me of somewhere, that's all," Vila replied, glancing about nervously, then he leaned back against the wall.
"Home?" Avon teased.
"I don't want to talk about it," Vila replied.
"Don't tell me you're afraid of the dark?" Avon chuckled. "A thief afraid of the dark, how novel."
"I told you I don't want to talk about it!" Vila snapped back.
But Avon's interest had been piqued and he was not about to let it pass, especially since there was not much else they could do.
"I don't know why I should be surprised," Avon went on in a matter-off act voice. "After your past record of fears."
"I'm not afraid of the dark," Vila corrected.
"A phobia then?" Avon ventured.
"No, nothing like that. Just let it lie, all right?"
Vila was hiding something and Avon was most curious to find out what. "If it is a phobia, taking about it might help."
"It's not a phobia," Vila snapped. "Just leave it alone, please!"
"Very well," Avon told him.
In the darkness and quiet of the shaft, Vila could not suppress a shudder. "Is it cold in here?"
"Not particularly," Avon advised. He felt a little warm, but that was probably just a reaction to being shot.
"I didn't mean to shout at you." Vila apologized. "It's just that, that I found my father in a place like this, Avon. He was just sitting there, all alone in the dark. Dead."
There was not much Avon could say to that so he said nothing and waited for Vila to continue.
"I was about six. Used to dog my father's tracks all the time. He would always catch me and send me back sometimes with more than a warming but this time, he didn't. He was too occupied with what he had to do to notice me shadowing him."
"He was a thief too, I take it?" Avon asked.
"The best," Vila said proudly. "Blake thinks I'm good, he should have met my father. He could do it in half the time it takes me. A real genius on safes and vaults."
"You do well enough." Avon advised.
A compliment from Avon? Vila wondered. No, he must have imagined it. "There was some uppity Alpha who was being blackmailed by another man he worked with. Anyway, he wanted my father to plant some data tapes in the blackmailer's vault. Something he could use against him."
"That makes no sense, Vila. Why not plant them himself? He obviously had access to the same vault."
"Maybe he was afraid he'd get caught," Vila replied. "Who understands the workings of the Alpha's mind? Not us lowly Deltas."
Avon let that pass. "What went wrong?"
"I'm not sure," Vila said slowly. "The tapes were in the vault. I found them there so I knew he had gotten in and out safely. I think the Alpha didn't like loose ends and my father was one. He must have been waiting and when Dad was finished, he shot him."
"Why not call security?" Avon asked.
Vila shook his head. "I guess Dad got away from him before he could do that. Dad didn't try to go back the way he'd got in. Knew they'd probably be waiting for him there since that's the way the Alpha had insisted he come, so he made his way through a maintenance shaft. He was almost to the end when his strength gave out."
"How do you know this?"
"Because I followed him that night, Avon. I watched and waited and when Dad didn't come back out, I went in looking for him. When I saw the safe, I couldn't resist trying it. Opened like a dream." Vila smiled a little at the memory. "Then I heard someone coming and fled. The shaft grid was partially open, so I climbed in and locked it behind me."
"As you did this time," Avon surmised.
"Exactly."
The rest was obvious but Avon let him finish.
"There was a steady stream of fresh air so I started following it. Then I spotted something ahead. It was Dad."
Avon heard a muffled sob and realized it was Vila. "What did you do then?"
"What could I do?" Vila murmured. "I was only six. I couldn't carry him back home."
"You left him there?"
"No, I had a friend. He was older and stronger than me. I followed the shaft to its end and went and got him. He helped me get Dad out and bury him."
"And no one noticed he was missing?" Avon asked.
"Who counts bodies in the Delta Dome?" Vila answered bitterly. "As long as there's enough to do the dirty work for the Alphas, who cares!"
"There are some responsible Alphas," Avon pointed out.
"Oh? Name them."
"My father for one," Avon stated. "He was a diligent man who never stopped trying to improve himself."
"By doing what?" Vila asked sarcastically. "Pushing buttons?"
"He was charge of the Accounting Bureau for the Bakir Foundation. Making sure everything was kept in order."
"The Bakir Foundation?" Vila exclaimed.
"Yes," Avon answered, wondering at Vila's tone and the heavy silence. "Why, what is it?"
"Avon, that's where my father died."
"Impossible!" Avon snapped immediately. "The security system there was top rate."
"So was my father," Vila pointed out.
But Avon refused to believe it. "If something like that happened, my father would have known. He designed the security system himself."
"Maybe he wasn't told about it," Vila ventured. "Or maybe since nothing was taken, Security didn't think it was necessary to tell him."
"There are an infinite number of maybe's," Avon agreed. "But I think it's highly unlikely." He paused a moment. "Did your father ever mention the name of the man he was working for?"
"No." Vila answered. "He always kept his clients confidential. Dad was funny about that. Figured if he was the only one who knew, the axe wouldn't fall on anyone else."
"Clever of him," Avon stated. "And stupid."
"My father was not stupid," Vila snapped. "He was the very best of what he did. No one else could touch him."
"If he had kept a record of his clients, Vila, he could have run himself a very good blackmail operation."
"Blackmail?" Vila exclaimed in outrage. "My father wouldn't stoop to that. He was a master thief, not a backstabber."
Avon smiled to himself. "All right. I meant no insult." He let Vila calm down a bit before he continued. "I gather you never found out who the man was then?" Avon inquired.
"I didn't say that," Vila replied quietly. "I found out and I fixed him, too."
"Oh how?
"Like most Alphas, he had a few vices. I just arranged to have a vid disc of some of his more colourful ones on display for public viewing." Vila said smugly.
"Blackmail, Vila? I thought you said..."
"That was my father, Avon. Beside, this was different. This was revenge!" Vila told him firmly.
"And there is a difference, isn't there?" Avon replied sarcastically. "What happened to him?"
"Not as much as I'd hoped," Vila murmured. "His family disowned him, shipped him off somewhere. I was hoping for a little justice. I should have known better. Justice for a Delta in an Alpha world, huh!"
"There is little justice for anyone in the Federation," Avon commented quietly, "Look at Blake."
"What about him?"
"He was accused of child molestation," Avon advised. "Do you honestly think him capable of that?"
"No, of course not!"
"And yet he was found guilty of it," Avon continued. "As I said, there is little justice."
Vila didn't say anything for a while, just sat pondering Avon's words. Then he asked, "Did you really try to steal all those credits, Avon?"
"What do you think?"
"I think you're a greedy person like me. You tried something big and it didn't work."
"That time," Avon amended. "With Liberator at my disposal, the end result will be far different."
"Really." Vila thought for a moment. "I don't suppose you might like a partner, someone to help out, you know?"
Avon took a moment to consider. "Perhaps," he said. "Perhaps."
"Wonderful!" Vila exclaimed, taking Avon's words as acceptance. He rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "Why don't we start planning? I mean it won't take that long for Blake to fix the Federation at the rate he's going and then we'll be free to do what we want, right?"
"At the rate Blake is going, he's likely to get us killed," Avon retorted.
"He wouldn't do that, Avon," Vila protested. "I mean he cares what happens to us. Doesn't he?"
Avon's answer was cut off as both of their teleport bracelets chimed.
"What took you so long?" Avon demanded, answering before Vila could.
"Jenna had a little trouble losing our company." Blake chuckled. "One of the ships seemed very determined to catch us."
"Did they succeed?" Vila asked nervously.
"Only in getting themselves blown into little small pieces," Blake advised, "Now, are you ready to teleport?"
Avon glanced across at Vila who nodded. "More than ready."
#
Cally matched looks with Avon as she bandaged his wound. "It's not bad. Does it hurt?"
"No," he replied, though it smarted very much at that moment.
"Vila said you did it to save him," Cally said, putting away the instruments she'd used.
"Did he now?" Avon slid off the couch and managed not to wince as he jarred his side.
Cally turned about to face him. "Why do you pretend so, Avon?"
He stared at her. "Pretend what?"
"Not to care."
"Anyone who cares is a fool, Cally," Avon retorted. "Be they human or alien." He left without another word and went to his cabin to rest.
#
Two hours passed and despite his best efforts, Avon could not sleep. Vila's words kept echoing in his mind. His father must have known about the break-in. So why didn't he ever mention it?
Another ugly thought entered his mind. A certain relation of his, an uncle, had left his father's service on rather short notice. Had left without a word of farewell. Avon had always liked the man though his father hadn't. In fact, as memory came back, his father had always spoken of him as if he were some kind of vermin.
And maybe he was, Avon thought. Especially if it had been father he was blackmailing. Avon caught himself. No, that wasn't right. Vila had said his father was supposed to plant evidence in the blackmailer's safe to incriminate him. If that was the case, then my uncle had been the victim and my father...
Avon got dressed. There was only one way he could find out. Have Orac locate the records for the Bakir Foundation. Allowing for what Vila claimed to be his age, he would have the computer run a 5-year spread of all assets and security date, anything and everything the computer would find. He headed for the flight deck.
#
But he wasn't the first one there. Vila was huddled over a drink, watching Orac's flashing lights with an intensity Avon had never seen before.
"Come on. Orac," Vila snapped. "You said it'd only take a few minutes."
*And it would have, had you not continued to interrupt me with your mindless bantering.* The lights flashed once more and then ceased.
"Well?" Vila demanded. "What did you find out?"
*In answer to your query, the data supplied was correct. Avon's father did in fact install the security system and I find it to be a most impressive one.* That brought a smile to Avon's lips, *For its day. Though it certainly would be obsolete today.*
"I didn't ask you to evaluate it, just tell me what you found out."
"Yes, Orac," Avon spoke up, walking down the stairs and over to Vila. "What did you find out?"
Vila looked as if he would faint or maybe simply melt into a puddle and slide under the flight deck couch. Unfortunately, he could do none of the above. Instead, he put on what he hoped was his best fool's look and said, "Oh, Avon. Didn't hear you coming? Your turn at watch already?" He started to get up but Avon's look set him right back down.
"No, it's not my watch," Avon stated firmly. "As to why I am here, it appears you had much the same idea as I."
"About what?" Play stupid, maybe Avon didn't really hear that much, maybe, but from his look, Vila doubted it.
"We are waiting, Orac," Avon commanded.
*Very well. There is no record of a security breach at the complex, either internal or external. Nor is there any mention of terminations in the complex personnel records during the requested time period.*
"But that's not possible," Avon and Vila said in unison, then took turns looking uncomfortable about it.
"My father was head of Security," Avon pointed out.
*I am well aware of that,* Orac replied. *And as Head, he would have been notified immediately of any such intrusion.*
"But Dad did break in," Vila insisted. "I know he did."
*My findings indicate otherwise,* snapped the computer.
"I don't care," Vila exclaimed. He looked at Avon. "He did break in, Avon."
"Not according to Orac," Avon countered quietly. He held up a hand to stop Vila's outburst. "But there are ways to fool computers." Deleting the entry data was terribly simple, he continued to himself, and as creator of the program, my father would have been in position to do it.
"Such as?" Vila inquired. He was puzzled by the expression on Avon's face.
"Simply deletion of the entire record," Avon replied evenly, sitting down across from Vila. "And there'd be no trace."
"But what about the guards that chased me?"
Avon looked at him. "Are you certain you were being chased, Vila? After all, you were but a child."
"If you survive to age six in the Delta Dome, Avon, you're no longer a child," Vila countered coolly. "Believe me, you learned to tell if someone was after you. You had to."
Avon considered that. "All right then, they were probably bought off or perhaps even eliminated as your father was."
"Three murders and no one suspected anything?" Vila asked.
"It happens, Vila," Avon replied quietly. "Credits carry a great deal of weight. If a few unimportant people should disappear, who's the wiser."
"But their families? Surely they would have said something?"
"The guards at Bakir were all Deltas, Vila," Avon pointed out. "Did your mother file a complaint when your father turned up missing?"
"Of course not. But that was because I...I told her about Dad."
"Very well then. Tell me this. If you had not followed your father and he had turned up missing, what would your mother have done?"
Vila paused, thinking about it. His mother had been a quiet woman, gentle and kind, she had cried for three days when he had told her about Dad but after that, she had gone on, telling their neighbours that her husband had taken a position off-world.
"Well?" Avon asked.
"You know damn well what she did," Vila shot back angrily. "The only sensible thing she could do. Pretend he was away on business."
"And later on, pretend she received word that he had been killed?"
"Yes, damn it," Vila cried.
Avon hadn't meant to cause such pain to Vila. "Vila, as you said, it was the most sensible thing to do."
"So you think the guards were killed then?"
Avon shrugged. "That or sent off-world."
"All right, that solves them then. But what about the computer records being blank? You said your father set them up."
"Yes," Avon replied, suddenly feeling rather cold.
"If that's true, then it had to be him that wiped them, right?"
Avon stood up, ignoring the protest of his side. "Possibly," he said evading a direct answer.
"You know he had to be the one, Avon!"
"I don't know that, and neither do you."
"Know what?" The voice belonged to Blake. He was standing on the landing by the steps, staring at both of them.
"Nothing, Blake," Avon snapped.
"Nothing," Vila said in almost the exact tone as Avon. "Take over, will you, Blake," Vila added, hurrying past him. "I'm...I'm not feeling well."
Avon stared after him only to be stopped by Blake. "You aren't feeling well either, I take it?"
"Blake, I'm in no mood," Avon threatened.
"Oh, but you are, Avon." Blake replied with a hint of a smile. "How's the side?"
"Tolerable," Avon replied tightly. In fact it was hurting very much.
"Good. I have a couple of things to ask you, if you've the time, that is?"
Blake wasn't exactly ordering Avon to stay. One never did that to Avon, but he also was making it perfectly clear that until Avon answered his questions, Blake would keep after him.
"Very well." Avon walked back down the steps and sat down carefully on the flight couch.
"Good. How long before you can decode the disk?"
"The code is proving difficult, but I should have it by morning." In fact, Avon hadn't even begun on it, but he wasn't about to admit that to Blake. "What else?"
Blake studied him, reading signs of weariness and distress. Avon's side had to be hurting. "That's really all I needed to know. Don't let me keep you."
"You said a couple of things, Blake. What else?"
"Did I?" Blake shook his head. "Sorry, I meant one."
"I'm sure you did. I'll let you know when I've broken it."
#
It took two hours to break the code but finally it was done. Avon paid Blake a call in his cabin, surprising him immensely. He dropped of the transcript without a word and left.
He made one more stop, the Medical Unit where he picked up a sedative. He had always hated medicines but this time he felt he needed one. It didn't provide him with that he wanted most though, a dreamless sleep.
Instead, he keep seeing his father erasing computer records, destroying all evidence that a intrusion had been made in the Bakir facility. His uncle's face appeared, looked as he had the last time Avon had seen him. Pale, his eyes wide with fear. Avon had tried to speak to him but his father would not allow it.
"Forget he ever existed," Avon's father had ordered in a stern voice. "He is dead to you, to all of us." That had been that and Avon had dutifully forgotten about his uncle, until now.
If Vila had gotten his facts straight, then his uncle had been the victim of a blackmailer. Someone he had worked for. At the Bakir Foundation, his uncle had worked for his father. Avon wanted to deny it but things suddenly began to drop into place. His father's monthly allotments of credits doubling without warning, making it possible to send Avon to the finest institutes of computer science. Such things were not inexpensive and while his family had been relatively well-off, Avon knew they had been far from what could be called wealthy. Wealthy Alphas merited seats in the government or on the council. They owned planets or at least the mining rights to them which amounted to the same thing.
My uncle must have gone to Father and confessed what he had done when the guards found no trace of Vila's father, he thought to himself grimly. Then Father took care of everything, making sure nothing was left to be found.
How it must have worried him when his searchers found no trace of Restal. Worried him but didn't prevent him from carrying on business as usual. Why, Father? What made you do such a thing?
The man in Avon's dream heard his words and gazed back at his son. "Money, power, what every man needs and wants, Avon. Isn't that what made you try to steal 5 million credits?"
"I did not resort to murder," Avon protested.
"Neither did I. That was your uncle's doing. He paid for it, Avon. He did that very well."
"As did Vila's father, " Avon pointed out.
"A worthless Delta, a thief by trade. Easily replaced, those Deltas. Sometimes I thought too easily. But..." He sighed.
"You killed the guards, didn't you?"
"Killed, me?" Avon's father looked shocked. "Avon, I have never killed anyone in my life!"
"Then you arranged it," Avon replied coolly.
His father laughed. "I told you. Deltas are an easily acquired commodity."
"I do not look on Vila as being such."
"Then you are a fool, my son. And you will die a penniless one at that."
#
Avon woke up then, tears of shame streaming down his face. He went to the water basin and washed them away. All a dream, a portion of his mind advised, not all of it, he said back. Too much of it had happened to be merely a dream. A hallucination then, brought on by the sedative. He knew how drugs could affect him. But something told him this way not the case. His subconscious had simply filled in the missing gaps in the picture.
#
Vila was seated alone on the flight deck when Avon arrived. Apparently, Vila hadn't slept too well either.
"Rough night?" Vila inquired without looking at him.
"I've had better," Avon responded, seating himself across from Vila. "Has Blake been at you, too?"
Vila nodded. "Kept waitin' to know what was up."
"And what did you tell him?"
"I told him nothing," Vila replied somewhat coldly. "Like you did."
"Hmmm. Vila, about your father...."
Vila looked up at him. "Yes?"
"I'm sorry he died the way he did."
"So am I," Vila murmured. "Not really a bad way to go, bleeding to death. I've heard the ancients used to do it a lot. Called it honourable suicide or something like that."
"The Romans, yes," Avon stated with a nod. "Not something I would want to consider though."
"Me either. Leave death to the dying. I'm for living."
Avon actually smiled at him. "That is the most intelligent thing you've said since I've known you."
"It is?" Vila was properly shocked by Avon's announcement.
"What is?" Blake stared at the two men in front of him from the steps.
"Avon just complimented me on my intelligence," Vila said.
"Did he?" Blake fixed Avon with a curious eye.
"Life is preferable to death any day, Blake," Avon told him.
"Most assuredly."
"Hmmm." Avon studied Blake a moment. Something was up. "But you plan to go on placing our lives on the line anyway, don't you, Blake?"
"Not if I can help it, Avon," Blake countered. "Not if I can help it." He paused for a moment. "There is something, however, I should like to take a look at."
"I don't feel well," Vila groaned aloud.
"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me, Vila," Avon replied, glancing at Vila. "Not one little bit."
the end
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