03. The Maze in the Mirror by Jack L. Chalker

Author:Jack L. Chalker
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-01-31T22:40:34+00:00

7.

The Phantom of the Labyrinth

"You have some explaining to do," Quin Tarn told me a bit sternly.

"Oh? And what do I need to explain?" I asked innocently. "I was locked up tight and sound asleep when it happened. As if either Maria or I could have driven those two swords into him at all, let alone with that much force, even assuming we'd mastered the trick of walking through walls."

He looked at me intently. "You know just what I mean. Quisquot-my chief of security, the one who knows some English and brought you down -is very good and very experienced. He noted that while the woman, here, gasped at the recognition, you smiled."

"Well, at first I was afraid it was you," I admitted, "but as soon as it was clear that it wasn't, I wanted to see if I knew the guy. I do admit I was expecting somebody else-a Company spy, perhaps-but when I saw that it was another Pandross, well, I got the message and I think you did, too."

"Indeed? And what message is that?"

"I knew from the start that Pandross had faked his own death, and that he knew I knew it," I told him, hearing Maria gasp again and then give me dagger-like looks. "How is not worth going into right now. Pandross killed Pandross-or, rather, a double of Pandross. He probably has lots of them around. Most top security men do-the ones who have a sufficient number, anyway. He probably had the medical scan of that victim stuck in from the start, years ago, and just updated it if anything happened to him, so that the computer autopsy would verify that he himself had died. That gave him an unprecedented freedom in which he held the keys to security and the knowledge of the entire underground network but was accountable to none, all of whom thought him dead. I was the only one who could have exposed him, but until I understood his motives it seemed more prudent to keep it to myself. Since he'd gone out of his way to make sure I knew he was still alive even before I knew he was supposedly dead, I figured he'd contact me at some point and I'd learn what it was all about. In a way, he just did."

"I take it, then, that you do not believe that our body there is Pandross, either," the rebel leader commented.

"Probably not, but we'll never prove it one way or the other, will we? Not unless Pandross shows up again. If it is, then we have another player in the game, somebody Pandross trusted. Somebody capable of getting in and out of here past your best security system. I doubt it, though. This is a cynical security man's way of sending us both a message -that your operation leaks like a sieve, which I can believe, and you are, therefore, incredibly vulnerable, and that Pandross or whoever is behind this is fully capable of taking you out. The

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