Cobra Outlaw - eARC by Timothy Zahn Read Free Book Online Page B

one of the Trofts had asked.
    [The dark memory, we still have it,] the man Anya had named as Henson Hillclimber had answered.
    At the time, Merrick had assumed the alien and the human had been talking about the same thing. Now, he realized they hadn’t.
    The Troft’s dark memory had been the insurrection itself. Henson’s dark memory had been the shame of Anya’s parents surviving the rebellion instead of dying with the other fighters.
    “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand,” Merrick said in a low voice. “So they’ve been hiding out here all these years?”
    “I don’t know what they’ve been doing,” Anya said, a little stiffly. “Whether hiding or continuing the fight. But if they’re still alive, they’ll be here. There’s nowhere else for them to go.”
    “Ah,” Merrick said. It seemed a rather dogmatic statement, given that they were sitting in the middle of hundreds of square kilometers of forest. But there was clearly a lot he still didn’t know about Muninn and its people, and he didn’t feel like arguing from ignorance twice in the same conversation. “Just the same, it might be better if I went ahead and checked things out.”
    Anya gave a short, rather hollow laugh. “And you think you can find it without my help? A hidden sanctuary which the masters have undoubtedly searched for years to discover?”
    “I thought you said they didn’t know it was out here.”
    “They know there was a rebellion,” Anya said. “They will surely be on the watch for future trouble.”
    And the forest was the obvious place for disaffected elements to meet and plan, away from prying eyes. The Trofts would have to be blind and stupid to miss that one. “All the more reason for me to go first,” Merrick said. “Make sure there aren’t any hidden watchers or search equipment.”
    “We go together,” Anya said firmly. She shot a furtive look at the predator Merrick had killed and pushed herself to her feet. “Stay close, and be as quiet as you can.”
    Ten minutes later, they were there.
    Though it took Merrick another minute to realize that. The clump of rock nestled among the bushes and matted grass looked no different than a hundred similar rocks they’d already passed on their nighttime trek. It was only when Anya turned to him and raised her eyebrows questioningly that he realized she was waiting for the threat assessment he’d promised.
    Slowly, carefully, he gave the area a visual sweep. There were several animals within range of his infrareds, but none of them seemed interested in the two humans who’d strayed into their territory. There was no hint of any Troft presence, either by sight or by sound. Either the aliens were still concentrating on the river ravine where Anya had dumped Merrick’s hang glider or else they’d left their aircars back at base and were conducting their search on foot.
    Abruptly, Anya clutched his arm. “Over there,” she whispered urgently. “In the reedgrass.”
    “It’s okay,” Merrick soothed. “It’s just a razorarm. Like the one we saw our first day on Muninn.”
    “I remember,” Anya said tensely. “I also remember the battles you had with the same creatures in the Games on Qasama.”
    “Those were from a different group,” Merrick reminded her. “They hadn’t seen humans before and didn’t know we were dangerous enough to avoid. This bunch has, and they do.”
    “That’s an assumption,” Anya shot back. “And a dangerous one. Why would the masters bring predators who avoid humans in order to discourage us from traveling through the forest?”
    “We don’t know that’s why they brought them,” Merrick countered. “We were just guessing.”
    “It was your own idea.”
    “And I was just guessing,” Merrick said, starting to feel a little annoyed. How many times did he have to foul up before Anya gave up this belief that he always knew what he was doing? Especially here on Muninn? “I might easily have been wrong, or only partially