Assignment: Avalon

Chapter Twelve: Spaceport Raid

As they circled the city toward their rendezvous with Tor, Melodan moved up beside Kyla in the chill darkness. "What's wrong?" she asked quietly, pitching her voice so that Vik, bringing up the rear, would not hear her. Her breath made white clouds against the lights of Skandar.

"Nothing."

Melodan could only see Kyla's profile. "What did Tor tell you?"

"Leave me alone!" Kyla hurried forward, and Melodan let her go, wondering uneasily just what they would find at the fence.

And beyond it. Over and over, she had mentally rehearsed what she would have to do in the Spaceport tower—but there were so many unknowns. How much time would she have? Skandar would know the moment she sent the message.

If it could be sent at all. There was no guarantee the transmitter still worked. But all she could do was try. As for what came after—

She looked at Kyla's stiff back. She had little hope any of them would escape. The moment Skandar detected the outgoing message, if not before, all hell would break loose. She wondered if Kyla realized that, if that was one reason for her hostility. I'm putting her brother in danger, and I've already put her in danger, Melodan thought. Maybe she has a right to be hostile.

It took most of their two hours to reach the far side of the Spaceport. Hidden in the long grass, Melodan looked at the control tower, a hundred metres beyond the fence, rising from a cluster of lower buildings that hid Skybase. The fence and buildings alike were brightly lit, and Melodan wished for a moment fusion reactors did not last almost forever. A friendly shadow or two would have been welcome.

There were shadows aplenty beyond the tower, in the darkness of the vast landing apron, and Melodan watched them closely for movement.

"I don't like this," Vik said abruptly. "We've put our whole future in the hands of a Skyforce pilot."

"My brother," Kyla reminded him harshly.

"Maybe. But I've never heard of anyone deserting from Skyforce."

"Your entire Free Force deserted," Melodan pointed out.

"From Groundforce, not Skyforce." Vik's eyes flicked from side to side as he scanned the Spaceport. Melodan glanced at Kyla, whose lips were pressed together. She's worried, too, she thought. She's not as sure of her brother as she'd like to be. But why?

She took a deep breath. If it was a trap, it was a trap. She had to play it out.

They waited.

#

In the robocab on the way back to Skybase, Tor leaned numbly against the cold glass of the window, watching the empty streets slide by.

He'd found no forgiveness, no absolution, in Kyla's eyes. She'd turned cold, as though the horror of what he'd confessed had frozen her very soul.

But if she could not yet forgive, at least she had offered him a means of redemption. The story she had told him—that the Preceptorate had returned and would soon take over the running of Avalon—sounded too preposterous to be true, but he didn't care why the Free Forcers needed to get into the Spaceport. It was enough that they needed his help, that in some small way he could make up for what he had done to them.

It would mean the end of his time in Skyforce, of course, but that must be near, anyway. Lady Moldar would soon tire of him and throw him like a bone to the Strator to try to ease her way back into the Council's good graces. And at this point, being thrown out of Skyforce would be more a relief than anything else.