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20

 

Cainsville, April 10—11

ALYA, ALSO, HAD been placed under house arrest. The Institute had taken considerable pains to sever all public connection between itself and the princess, and was not going to let her be seen around Cainsville now. Like Cedric, she was confined to one floor of Columbus Dome. The impassive, impassable North Brenda guarded the spiralator, letting no one in or out. System refused to place calls.

A day of playing cribbage with Moala was relieved only when Alya was taken by O'Brien Patrick to view Usk—and that was the briefest planetary inspection yet. Binary suns cut Usk from the list and sent Alya back to jail.

She swore a lot, especially when she realized that Jathro must be wandering loose, not confined as she was. None of her brothers or sisters had been insulted in such a way by Director Hubbard, but then none of them had seduced Hubbard's grandson, either.

And she worried intensely about Cedric. His unexpected fit in the night had terrified her. He was supposed to be the indestructible man, yet something had driven him completely catatonic for a couple of minutes—going cold, heartbeat dropping and fading. Then he had shuddered and sprung back in typical Cedric style. But something had done that to him. Almost certainly Alya had unwittingly said something to trigger a post-hypnotic code implanted very deep inside his mind. She could not have spoken the whole code, obviously, just enough of it to bring a partial memory up near the surface—and that partial memory had hurled him into psychic fugue and catalepsy. It was a tribute to his incredible toughness that he had recovered so easily.

Who had managed to tamper with his head? BEST? Or—Alya kept remembering Hubbard's sneer that Cedric was only a pawn, and a pawn that might have to be sacrificed.

If what had sent him into that fit had been something Alya had said, then the only word that could possibly have done it was kamikaze.

 

She fretted more when she remembered her promise to call Kas and Thalia and the kids that evening. The time came and went with System still uncooperative. Kas would have certainly tried to call her, and had obviously been blocked. Frustrated, Alya decided that she might as well go to bed. Tiber was not due for hours yet, and the previous night had been strenuous in the extreme—Cedric had wonderful stamina, bless him. Oh, Cedric!

Much to her surprise, she felt herself sliding into sleep almost at once.

The disadvantage of that, of course, was that she felt so unholy awful when she was wakened by a ping! from the com, and Baker Abel's voice.

"We expect Tiber in half an hour, ma'am. Transportation is standing by."

"I want—" Alya said.

"Caller has disconnected," System said.

 

Escorted by a squad of unfamiliar bulls, Alya was golfied over to Philby Dome and delivered to a big, pentagonal office. It was an exact replica of Hubbard's office in Nauc HQ, or perhaps slightly larger. The big table was heaped with papers; a dozen men and women were slouched around on chairs, all looking totally exhausted. There was no sign of Hubbard Agnes. The two giant com screens were unrolling screeds of multicolored data: text and three-dee graphs, maps, and images. Nobody seemed to be paying any attention.

Alya sped around the room like a ballistic missile aimed at Baker Abel, who was leaning against a wall, rubbing his eyes. His denims were rumpled, his tawny hair mussed and limp.

"Where is Cedric?" she demanded.

Baker peered at her blearily. "I don't know. System won't tell me. I don't know where his grandmother is, either. Or anyone." He started to say something else and it became a yawn.

Suddenly Alya felt sympathetic. Baker was hard to dislike.

"You haven't been to bed recently, have you?"

He shook his head. "Thanks for the invitation, but you'll have to clear it with Emily. I'm supposed to be pairing with her, and it's getting so I can barely remember why." Then he grinned.

"Like hell you can't," Alya said, returning the grin. She glanced around and was annoyed that Jathro was missing. Where and what was he doing, and why? "What's happening about Tiber, Abe?"

Baker shrugged and heaved himself off the wall. "About ten minutes until window. Another ten to run all the data into System. Most of it'll be precooked already, so five for analyses. Then decision time."

An unpleasant quiver ran through Alya. "Who makes that decision?"

He blinked bloodshot eyes at her. "You do. Unless there's something obviously wrong, of course. Them's my orders—go or no go comes from Princess Alya."

"And I lead the parade?"

"Waving your baton."

Her palms were clammy. "And if I want more time to consider?"

He frowned and shook his head. "No instructions. My guess would be that Mother shuts the file. If you're not certain, right away, then it'll be no go."

"I won't leave without Cedric!"

Baker shrugged again. "I can do nothing about that. I'm telling the truth. I—you okay?"

She nodded, angry that a princess could be so transparent. "I think I need to freshen up."

He pointed in silence at the wall beside them, and she saw the almost-invisible door in it.

The washroom was garishly bright and decorated in holographic tiles, a style briefly popular long before Alya had been born. Some of them had fallen off and not been replaced. Mother Hubbard had been economizing behind the scenes, obviously.

Alya washed her face and combed out her hair, and began to feel better. A couple of cups of coffee and perhaps some of the curly-dry sandwiches she had seen out there, and she—

The comb slipped from her fingers. She felt herself bowled over by a great cold wave of terror, and all the holo tiles seemed to gape and wink like fanged mouths as the walls rushed at her. She stuffed a knuckle between her teeth and fought for control.

Danger! it was saying. Go now! Escape!

And the Escape! seemed to echo, over and over.

She backed up against the wall, sweat streaming down her face. Never had she felt a satori so strong. It was crushing, over-powering. She could no more think straight than if she had seen a bull charging straight at her, or a man coming with a knife—it was as irresistible as that. A screaming sense of danger choked her mind, making her heart race and her hands shake.

What had happened? Cedric? Was something threatening Cedric?

Or Tiber? If the window was open, then the choice was clearly available to her at last. That was it! All she had to do was walk out of there and say "Yes!" and she would be whisked away to a safer world. Relief! Cedric might be important, but obviously he ranked a distant second as far as the buddhi was concerned.

Alya forced herself to pick up the comb. She struggled to compose her face before the mirror—she thought she resembled a terrified coconut—and then she squared her shoulders and tottered back into the big, pentagonal office.

She sensed the satisfaction at once. The people had all collected before the two big coms. One was still rippling data, much faster now. The other showed three men in a very cramped interior. They wore denims, and the close cram of instrument boards and controls around them identified the locale as a skiv lab module. The men were laughing and all trying to talk at the same time. Sunlight was streaming through a window behind them.

One of the women in the office said something that provoked more merriment. Baker Abel slipped out of the group and came around to Alya. He was grinning broadly and had lost most of his tired look.

"Hundred percent on science!" he said. "System needs a few moments yet, but the team commander says it's a big improvement on Earth itself! You ready to lead that parade now?"

It was the hardest thing she had ever done in her life.

"No!" Alya said. Every nerve screamed.

Baker's jaw dropped, and for a moment he reminded her again of Cedric. "No?"

"I need Cedric to help me decide."

Baker frowned, studying her, then gestured to a couple of chairs. Alya perched on one, and he pulled the other between his legs, so that he sat on it backward, arms folded, his usual flippancy gone.

"I swear," he said quietly, "that I don't know! She's gone off on some mysterious project of her own, and Cedric's probably with her. I know he was locked up on the top floor of Columbus. He's not there now, 'cause I looked."

"Keep looking. He hasn't left Cainsville?"

"How should I know? System won't talk. I can't even get through to the deputies now. Something odd's going on."

Alya leaned back. "Then we'll have to wait, won't we?" She hoped her trembling was not too obvious.

"Alya, please! Believe me—I'm on his side! Truly, I want to help Cedric. I'm delighted that the two of you are pairing. He's a great kid! But I can't find him for you right now."

"Then I shall go and look for him myself."

He shrugged, baffled. "Swell! Meanwhile I've got two thousand refugees and three thousand tons of supplies and trucks and more teams of rangers. Three hours, ten minutes left on the window, maybe. What do I tell everyone? What do I do with them, Alya?"

Rising, she smiled her meanest smile. "Set them to work looking for Cedric!"

"Hold it!" He seemed to be thinking very hard, chewing his lip and staring at her with calculating gray eyes. If he made a wrong decision, Baker Abel was going to be in very deep trouble. "You can find him?"

"I can try." Actually, Alya was not sure she could even find her left ear—the sense of imminent danger was beating on her like a steam hammer.

"You want help? Bulls? No—you don't need bulls, do you?"

She shook her head. Baker was obviously looking for a solution and willing to risk his neck for her.

"If I call 'em off for—an hour?"

Alya nodded with sudden relief at having a workable compromise.

"You'll come back and tell me in an hour?" he asked. "Promise?"

"Yes! Thanks, Abe. I—thanks!" She marched to the door, and he let her go. Bulls sitting in the corridor started to climb to their feet and then settled back, exchanging puzzled glances.

Alya headed for the spiralator. At ground level she climbed into a golfie. She closed her eyes for a minute to think—or feel, maybe.

"That way! I mean—what way is this golfie facing?"

"The personnel cart is pointed west."

"Then make it go north."

After that it was all either right, left, or straight ahead.

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Framed