Quest for the Well of Souls - Jack L. Chalker [118]
He nodded.
"A gift from Obie, Renard, twenty-two years delayed. It's the arresting agent for sponge. It will free millions and break the back of the syndicate. You of all people must understand what that means. You must get that to the Council! Remember your responsibilities, Renard!"
The Agitar nodded. He didn't like the order, but she was right. If only he could get out, then it was his duty to do so.
Mavra walked slowly, deliberately down the hall and they followed. Just ahead was the opening to the first platform, then the bridge over the great shaft that led to the big dish. Once they were framed in that archway, Obie would be able to detect them and would be forced to warn Ben Yulin and his love-slaves.
Renard ran out a few meters of wire, then sat on the floor, just out of view of the open area, his thin goatlike legs splayed in front of him.
The orange liquid inside the Bozog's forward bump swirled, then exuded a serpentine tendril that grabbed the wire and twisted around it.
Mavra scanned the area. Renard was in position, hands on his energy pistol—it was not on stun. His face was grim, and he was perspiring, but he nodded.
"Here we go," Mavra said tensely, and stepped out through the archway.
* * *
Ben Yulin was exceptionally pleased with his girls' catch on their first attempt. Wooley's unconscious form had been hardest to move, particularly to get down the stairs and onto the disk, but they'd managed, and the transformation was swift and complete. The tiny form of Vistaru was next; the transformation equally swift. Since they had names, he let them keep them, but he observed no other restrictions regarding them: he wiped their memories clean, reprogramming them as two more loving slaves, horse tails and all, only slight variants of the others.
And, after, he joined them and initiated them into his hareem as he had the others.
He was holding them both to him, patting one on the head, when Obie suddenly broke the mood. "Intruder on the far bridge," it announced.
Yulin immediately abandoned the two new recruits and bounded up to the control console. "Who is it, Obie?" he asked.
"One life form, very large," the computer replied. "It appears for all the world to be a horse!"
Yulin's eyes blazed. "Mavra Chang!" he grunted under his breath—the one person he still considered a threat to his dreams, for she had some sort of rapport with Obie.
And she was the only other pilot.
"What does she appear to be doing?" he asked the computer.
"Standing just in front of the bridge," Obie replied.
He frowned. Now why the hell would she expose herself like that? "You sure there are no other life forms on that bridge?" he asked, puzzled.
"No other," the computer assured him. "Unless the Yugash is with her. That one would have to be a lot closer for me to detect unless it was inside her body—then it would be undetectable."
Yulin nodded. That must be it. She was setting herself up as bait, and when he got her in, the ruse would also get the Yugash in.
"Obie," he asked, mind racing, "could the Yugash communicate with you?"
"Yes, Ben. Of course it could."
"But nobody in this room could be taken over by it."
"No, Ben."
He considered that. "Obie, basic programming line establishment." He tapped out a long string of numbers on his keyboard.
"Running," the computer responded.
"You are not to take orders of any sort from a Yugash, whether on its own or in someone else's body," he said flatly. "Further, you are to ignore all Yugash-generated information."
"Clear and locked," the computer came back.
Yulin nodded in satisfaction. All right, he told himself. Let the Yugash get in. Without a body, and powerless to communicate with Obie, it would just have to compromise with him or float around aimlessly. Offer to send it home, somehow get it under his control.
He smiled. This might be the best break yet.