Captain Vorpatril's Alliance Read Online Free PDF Page B

don’t suppose you could untie me?”
    “And why are you strapped to that chair?” added the other, staring.
    “Tortured, too,” Ivan supplied inventively. Nanja, Rish, wake up! “Horribly. For hours .”
    The second man peered in suspicion. “I don’t see any marks.”
    “It was psychological torture.”
    “What kind?”
    “Well,” Ivan said, beginning with the first thought that rose to his mind, “they took off all their clothes, and then—”
    The first man said, “Don’t talk to him, you fool! The job’s gone wrong. Toss the place and let’s split.”
    “Hey, it gets better—don’t you want to know about the ice cubes…?”
    “Should we grab him, instead?”
    The stunner wavered in doubt, steadied, pointing all-too-directly into Ivan’s face. “Decide on the way out. Stun him first.”
    And ask questions later? In some nastier locale, much harder for ImpSec to find…? Dammit, Miles could have talked two such goons into untying him. Yeah, and probably suborned them to his cause before the ropes hit the floor, to boot. The trigger finger tightened…
    The staccato buzz of a stunner beam came not from the Komarran, but from the shadows of the darkened hallway. Two pulses, two direct head-hits, the most effective if you could make the aim. The range was short. The invaders dropped like sacks of cement.
    Ivan controlled his involuntary flinch. “About time you two woke up,” he said cheerily, swiveling his head.
    Rish padded into the light, followed at a more cautious tiptoe by Nanja. Neither woman wore filmy nightwear, Ivan saw to his disappointment. And apparently neither slept bare, more’s the pity. Instead, both wore body-hugging knits suitable for the gym. Or for snapping awake in the middle of the night and dealing with unpleasant surprises.
    “You know, if anything I said maybe led you to think I didn’t quite believe you, I mean, about being a touch twitchy about uninvited visitors, I take it back,” Ivan began. He nodded to the two lumps on the floor. “Anybody you know?”
    Rish knelt and turned them over. Nanja followed to stare down into their faces.
    “No,” said Rish.
    “Local rental meat,” said Nanja, in a more disgusted tone. Her face grew suddenly tenser. “They’ve tracked us. Not only to Komarr, but all the way to here . Rish, now what do we do?”
    “Follow the plan.” The blue woman rose and stared down at the unconscious pair. “Kill them first, I suppose.”
    “Wait, wait!” said Ivan, a twinge of panic running through him. She meant that, even if she didn’t sound very enthusiastic about it. “I mean, I agree with your diagnosis, local hirelings. Suggests they probably don’t know much. And I don’t think they were assassins—cappers. They were kidnappers, I bet.” He added after a moment, “And don’t I get any reward for saving you from them, just now? I mean, a kiss would be nice, but untying me would be more practical.”
    Nanja, after long look at him, nodded. Under her blue companion’s disapproving glare, she knelt and undid Ivan’s bonds. He vented a whoosh of relief, rubbing his wrists and ankles before carefully standing up. The room only spun a little.
    He really shouldn’t push it, but faint heart never won, and all that. He bent his head and presented his cheek to her, just to see what would happen.
    A hesitation. A widening of her eyes, which, close up, were a clear sherry color, lighter than her skin, very striking framed with her long black lashes. To his unconcealed delight, she stretched her neck and bestowed a neat peck on his cheekbone.
    “See?” he said, in an encouraging tone. “That wasn’t so hard.” The spot tingled pleasantly.
    He poked an invader with his toe in passing, as Rish knelt to go through their pockets, then stuck his head out the big rectangular hole in the window through which a faint draft now coursed. A float pallet of much the sort used by techs to effect repairs on tall building faces hovered just