The Prison in Antares by Mike Resnick Read Free Book Online Page A

thing in common with lie detectors.”
    â€œOh?”
    Circe nodded her head. “Yes. If the subject believes what he’s saying, I can’t detect that he’s lying. Remember: I’m an empath, not a telepath.”
    â€œAnd I’m an image-projector, not a shape-changer,” added Proto.
    Pretorius smiled. “We’re a unit of almosts and not-quites.”
    â€œExcept for you,” said Circe to Irish. “You’re exactly what you’re purported to be.”
    â€œShe’d damned well better be,” Snake chimed in. “I don’t want to risk my life bringing Nmumba back if he’s already given them what they want.”
    â€œOn the flip side, you don’t want to kill him if he hasn’t,” said Ortega. He smiled at Irish. “That’s what we’ve got her for.”
    Irish realized just how much depended on her, and suddenly she wasn’t hungry anymore.

8
    â€œIt’s taking her longer than I’d have thought,” remarked Circe, checking her timepiece.
    â€œDamned planet’s ten times the size of Earth,” replied Pretorius. “It could take her a couple of days to pinpoint where he is, or what his route is.” He paused. “Well, there’s no sense just sitting around waiting. She told us something else, too.” He turned to Irish. “Remember?”
    â€œThat we couldn’t approach Antares in a Democracy ship,” she replied.
    â€œRight,” said Pretorius. “She didn’t have to be a genius to figure that out. Hell, we’re at war with the Transkei Coalition, and they’re part of it. There’s no way we can disguise this one, so we might as well go about getting a ship that won’t get us blown out of the sky when we approach Antares.”
    â€œJust a minute,” said Snake. “If Proto is able to appear as an officer from Six, the guy must have had a ship there. Why don’t we just steal it?”
    â€œYeah,” Proto chimed in. “I mean, we know he was there.”
    Pretorius shook his head. “No, we can’t cause her any trouble. Get one of her customers killed there—either the officer or just some concerned citizen—and she might never deal with the Democracy again.” He paused. “Besides, there are seven of us, eight once we grab Nmumba and make our way back to base. I saw one officer from Antares Six, not eight. The likelihood is that his ship wouldn’t be able to accommodate us all, even if we could steal it with no repercussions.”
    â€œI hadn’t thought of that,” admitted Proto.
    â€œMaybe that’s why Nathan is in charge,” said Circe with a smile.
    â€œI suppose we could just enter Coalition space, get as close to Antares as we dare, attract a ship, and kill or capture it,” said Pretorius, “but I can think of twenty things that can go wrong, most of them fatal. It’s too damned chancy.” He turned to Pandora. “Find us a planet or system near the edge of the Neutral Zone where we can reasonably expect to find some Antareans, preferably nonmilitary.”
    Pandora began issuing orders to her computer, then looked up. “Do the Antareans have to be from Antares Six?” she asked.
    â€œIt’s preferable. Why?”
    â€œBecause it’s got a population of a couple of million, while Antares Two has maybe eighty million and Antares Three’s got upward of ten billion.”
    â€œOkay, I see your point,” said Pretorius. He lowered his head in thought for a moment, then looked up. “Hell, they’ve got to be used to seeing ships from other planets in the same star system. Sure, any ship that’s equipped to handle us and comes from any of the Antares planets should do the trick.”
    â€œThat makes it a little easier,” said Pandora, still bent over her computer. A moment later she looked up. “Does it have to have military