Cobra Bargain Read online

  "It is indeed," Chandler admitted. "Well. At any rate, now that you've seen the trainees-at least from a distance-we'll be heading over to the special camp where this proposed mission is being headquartered. You'll be able to examine all the Qasaman data there, see why it is we think there's something happening that we ought to investigate."

  The Troft seemed to consider that. [This information, you would not be giving it to me without need. What is it you want?]

  Chandler took a deep breath. "In a nutshell: transport. We can use one of our own starships to get the team from here to Qasama, of course, but we haven't yet got a safe way for them to get from orbit to ground. We would like to borrow a

  Troft military shuttle for that purpose."

  "We don't want to land a full starship," Priesly put in. "Not only because of the danger of detection-"

  [A vehicle with a stardrive, you do not want it to fall into Qasaman hands,]

  Speaker One cut him off. [My intelligence, do not insult it, Governor Priesly.]

  Priesly shut up, a pained look on his face, and for a moment Corwin could almost feel sorry for him. There'd been no anger in Speaker One's comment-merely a desire to save time-but Priesly hadn't dealt with this particular representative of the Tlos'khin'fahi demesne long enough to know his personality. Speaker One had been an interdemesne trader before being given the Cobra Worlds liaison post four years ago, and Corwin had long since noted that such Trofts had an almost supernatural control over their tempers. Not surprising, given the loose and often combative relationships that existed between the hundreds of demesnes that made up the Troft Assemblage. A trader who got into verbal fights with his customers every third time he was out of his home demesne wouldn't be a trader for long.

  "Governor Priesly meant no harm, Speaker One," Chandler spoke up into the conversational void, looking pleased himself at Priesly's discomfiture. "The tactical reasons for borrowing such a landing craft are of course obvious. The financial reasons, I imagine, are also obvious to you."

  [Such a shuttle, you cannot afford to buy.]

  Chandler nodded. "That's it exactly. Though we're in far better shape now than we were thirty years ago when this whole Qasaman mess began, even now our budget will only support the cost of the mission itself-that is, the personnel, basic equipment, and specialized training. You'll remember we're still paying off the last full starship we bought from you; we can't afford to buy a shuttle, too."

  [The Tlos'khin'fahi demesne, why should it lend you this craft? We are far from

  Qasama, with little at stake should they escape their world.]

  Translation: the bargaining had begun. "We don't necessarily want the

  Tlos'khin'fahi demesne itself to provide the shuttle," Corwin put in before

  Chandler could answer. "However, as our main trading partner, the health of our economy should be of some concern to you... and if our buying a shuttle would hurt that economy, it would have at least a minor effect on you."

  [The Baliu'ckha'spmi demesne, would it not have more of a reason to provide you a shuttle?]

  Chandler threw a glance at Corwin. "Probably," he conceded. "The problem is that... the Baliu'ckha'spmi demesne might infer the wrong thing from such a request."

  [You refer to the trade by which you obtained the New Worlds?]

  "Basically," Chandler said heavily. "The agreement was that we would neutralize the Qasaman threat for them, after all. If they decide this means that Qasama wasn't properly neutralized... well, we don't really want to open that can of snakes."

  The Troft's arm membranes fluttered again as he sorted through the idiom. [The reason for bringing me out here in secret, it is also because of this concern?]

  "You don't miss much," Chandler admitted. "Yes, we didn't want any word of this leaking out to other demesne representatives if we could possibly avoid it."

  For a moment Speaker One was silent. The aircar began a leisurely turn, and

  Corwin glanced out the window. Below them, nestled in an artificial clearing, was the small logging complex that had been temporarily taken over by the Cobra

  Academy for the special training course. [The question, I will bring it to my demesne-lord's attention,] Speaker One said as the aircar dipped toward a scarred landing square near the main building's entrance. [Some sort of trade, it will of course be necessary.]

  "Of course," Chandler nodded, sounding relieved. "We'll be happy to consider any request he suggests."

  [My demesne-lord, he will also remember that the original pacification plan was created by the late Governor Jonny Moreau,] the Troft continued. [If I could inform him that one of Governor Jonny Moreau's line would be planning this mission as well, it would give more weight to my arguments.]

  Chandler threw Corwin a surprised look. "Why?" he asked.

  [Continuity in the affairs of war, it is as valued as in the affairs of business,] the Troft said-rather coolly, Corwin thought. [Such a thing,

  Governor-General Chandler, it is possible?]

  Chandler took a deep breath. From the expression on his face, he was clearly envisioning the political flap were he to reinstate Justin to the Academy while still under a cloud from the Monse shooting... "I'm afraid, Speaker One,"

  Priesly spoke up tartly, "the Moreau family is no longer directly involved with such military planning-"

  "Fortunately, that won't be a problem," Corwin interrupted him. "The human female you saw in the clearing a few minutes ago-the one you thought was the best of the trainees? She is Jasmine Moreau, daughter of Cobra Justin Moreau and

  Governor Jonny Moreau's granddaughter."

  Priesly sputtered; Chandler cut him off with a hand signal. "Will that be adequate, Speaker One?" the governor-general asked.

  There was a slight bump as the aircar touched down. [It will indeed,] the Troft said. [Your data, I will now be pleased to study it.]

  Chandler exhaled quietly. "Certainly. Follow me."

  Chapter 7

  "All right, Cobras, move it out," Mistra Layn growled. "Remember this is a forest-watch your feet and your heads."

  Keying her auditory enhancers up a notch, Jin fell into her usual leftguard position in the loose diamond formation around Layn and crossed with the others under the trees at the edge of the clearing. It was an operation they'd practiced several times in the past few days: walking through the fenced-off part of the forest around their camp, using their optical and auditory enhancers to try and spot the various animal-cue simulators and moving-head targets the instructors had planted around them. Spotting a squawker or target first earned the trainee a point; nailing it cleanly with fingertip lasers before the group got within the animal's theoretical attack range was worth two more points.

  It was just one more of the silly competitions Layn was continually using to pit his trainees against each other. One more needless opportunity, Jin thought bitterly, for the other three trainees to hate her.

  It was hardly her fault that she was better than they were at these games. It was certainly not her fault that they couldn't accept that.

  Her innocence in the matter was cold comfort, though, and thinking about it brought an ache to her throat. She hadn't expected instant acceptance by the others-she'd known full well that Uncle Corwin's lectures about military traditions hadn't merely been scare tactics. But she had thought that by now, eleven days into the training, some of the hostility would surely have faded away.

  But it hadn't. Oh, they were polite enough to her- Layn's big speech the first day of training about letting her fail on her own had been backed up by action, and both he and the others were clearly bending over backwards to avoid any kind of overtly prejudicial behavior. But the whispered comments and secret smiles were still there, lurking most outwardly in the quiet times when the trainees were alone.

  Or rather, when Jin was alone. The other three spent a lot of that time together.

  It hurt. In many ways, it hurt worse than the worst physical aftereffects of her surgery. She'
d always been something of a misfit as she was growing up-either too quiet or too aggressive for the other girls and even most of the boys her age. Only with her family had she ever felt truly at home, truly accepted. With her family, and to a lesser extent with the Cobra friends of her father's...

  A faint chirping from ahead penetrated her brooding. A tarbine squawker, she identified it, head automatically turning back and forth to pinpoint the sound.

  There?-there. Activating her optical sensors' targeting capability, she locked onto the small black cube nestled in the crook of a branch and fired her right fingertip laser.

  A needle of light lanced out, and the box abruptly stopped chirping.

  "A tarbine?" Sun called softly to her from the rear point of the diamond.

  "Yeah," she said over her shoulder.

  "Why'd you kill it?" Layn asked from the center. "Tarbines aren't dangerous."

  "No, sir," she said, recognizing that she'd made the right decision and that

  Layn simply wanted her to explain it for the others. "But where tarbines are, there's a good chance you'll find mojos, too."

  "With their accompanying spine leopards or krisjaws," Layn nodded. "Right.

  Besides which...? Anyone?"

  "Their chirping might mask the sound of something more dangerous?" Todor hazarded from in front of Layn.

  "Good enough," the instructor grunted. "Enough conversation. Look sharp."

  And a bare second later, the exercise abruptly ceased to be routine. Dead ahead, the bushes suddenly parted and a huge cat-like animal stepped out to face them.

  A spine leopard.

  It's impossible, a small fraction of Jin's mind insisted. The fence surrounding this part of the forest was five meters high, a theoretically impossible barrier even for a spine leopard.

  And then the animal snarled, and theory was abruptly forgotten as four sets of fingertip lasers flashed out to converge on the spine leopard's head.

  Uselessly, of course, and Jin silently cursed herself for letting her reflexes waste precious time that way. The decentralized spine leopard nervous system was functionally invulnerable to the kind of localized damage the fingertip lasers could inflict. The only known way of dealing with the animals was to get in a clean shot with the antiarmor laser running lengthwise down her left calf-

  She was actually starting to shift her weight onto her right foot when the crucial fact caught up with her conscious mind: the trainees' current neckwrap computers didn't allow the antiarmor laser to be activated. The others' fingertip lasers were still slicing uselessly at the spine leopard, leaving blackened tracks in the fur where they passed. And the look that was growing in the creature's eyes... "Stop it!" Jin snapped. "Can't you see you're just making it mad?"

  "Then what the hell do you want-?" Todor barked back.

  "Try your disrupters!" Sun cut him off. An instant later a backwash of half audible, half felt sound washed over Jin as the others obeyed, playing tight cones of ultrasound over the spine leopard. Another waste of time, Jin thought tightly. Sonic weapons could throw the predators off-balance, but only temporarily; and like the fingertip lasers, their use seemed to enrage the beasts. As soon as this one got its balance back-

  And then it struck her. Layn, fully equipped with both antiarmor laser and the nanocomputer needed to use it, had yet to fire a shot.

  Another test. Of course-and with that all the pieces fell together. A single spine leopard, captured and released into the enclosure, to see if their first response would be to scatter or to continue their assigned mission of protecting

  Layn. Doubtless the Cobra already had his antiarmor laser target-locked on the animal, ready to fire the second it looked like things were getting out of control.

  Phrijpicker mousfin, she snarled mentally at him. It was a particularly stupid trick-under target-lock or not, spine leopards were far too dangerous to fool around with this way, especially on inexperienced trainees. Somehow, they had to stop the thing before it shrugged off the effects of the sonics and charged. And maybe wound up killing someone.

  And whatever they were going to do, they had better do it fast, The spine leopard was rolling its weight slightly from side to side now, the spines along its forelegs beginning to bristle outward-a sign that it was starting to feel endangered. Which would make it that much more vicious when it finally attacked...

  Her eyes flicked around the area, came to rest on the cyprene trees and the thick gluevines running up many of their trunks... and a small chapter of family history bobbed to the surface. "Sun!" she snapped, leaping with servo-enhanced strength into the lower branches of a gluevine-wrapped tree midway from her to the spine leopard. Her muscles tensed, but the sudden motion didn't trigger an attack. "Cut the gluevine at the base of the tree," she called back over her shoulder as she got her own lasers going on the top part of the nearest vine.

  "Rip it free of the trunk-don't touch the cut end."

  Sun moved to obey, and three seconds later a five-meter section of gluevine hung free in Jin's hand. Glancing down, she saw that the spine leopard was still holding its ground... but even as she watched, it leaned back on its back haunches. Preparing to spring...

  "Hariman-split the vine lengthwise," Sun called. "Moreau?-I've got this end. You ready?"

  Which meant he'd figured out what she had in mind. "Ready," she called back, clenching her teeth in anticipation. "Hariman?"

  Her answer was a burst of laser fire that cracked the gluevine's thick outer coating, letting the incredibly sticky stuff inside ooze out. "Go!" Sun snapped; and Jin leaped.

  Her target was another cyprene just beyond where the spine leopard was coiling itself for its spring. A spring that would carry it to Todor, still doggedly playing his sonic over the predator... and as time seemed to slow down for her,

  Jin saw for the first time that, in moving over to cut the gluevine, Hariman had unwittingly put himself directly in the line of fire between Layn and the spine leopard. Which meant that if this didn't work, either Hariman or Todor would probably die.

  The outer twigs of her target tree scratched at her face and hands as she came in through them... and with all her strength she hurled the vine to the ground.

  Directly across the spine leopard's back.

  The creature screamed, a blood-chilling sound Jin had never before heard one make. It almost made her miss grabbing the cyprene's trunk; as it was, she tore a gash in the back of her left hand scrambling for a grip. Twisting around, heart thudding in her ears, she looked down.

  The spine leopard went ahead and leaped anyway... but even as its feet left the ground, Sun tugged on his end of the gluevine with Cobra servo strength, and an instant later the predator was flying past Todor on a tightly curved course. It landed on its feet, gluevine still draped solidly across its back, foreleg spines spread out in full defensive position-

  And twisted to face Sun.

  "Stick the vine somewhere and get out of there!" Jin shouted to him.

  Sun needed no prompting. In a single motion, he jammed the cut end of the gluevine against the tree he'd cut it from and leaped straight up into the cyprene's branches. Barely pausing to catch his balance, he changed direction and pushed off toward Jin's tree, half a second ahead of the now leashed spine leopard's own leap toward his ankles.

  He caught the trunk just above her, sending a rain of twigs and leaves down around her head. "Now what?" he muttered.

  "I assume Layn's eventually going to laser it," she told him... but the Cobra was still standing there with Todor and Hariman, watching with them as the spine leopard thrashed about trying to free itself from the gluevine. Todor took a step toward the animal, and it paused in its efforts to make a short leap and slash with its front claws.

  "Doesn't seem interested in doing so, does he?" Sun grunted as Todor made a hasty leap back. "Maybe they're going to tranq it and use it on the next batch of trainees."

  So Sun had tracked the same line of thought she had. "Pretty damn fool game, if you
ask me," she growled to him. "They could at least have waited until we had our antiarmor lasers activated."

  "So maybe they want us to be creative."

  Jin twisted up her head to look at him. "Meaning...?"

  "Well... how long do you suppose it could live with its pseudospine broken?"

  She looked down at the animal. Already it had worried a few centimeters of the gluevine free, sacrificing a narrow line of its fur in the process. Left on its own another minute of two... "What say we find out," she suggested grimly.

  "Sounds good. You take the rear, I'll take just back of the head. On three; one, two, three."