Read Online Blackcollar: The Judas Solution by Timothy Zahn - Free Book Online

top without the current blinding them."
    "Another good reason to leave the fence alone," Skyler said, pulling on his battle-hood and gloves as the others followed suit. "O'Hara?"
    O'Hara stepped to his side, and together they eased their way cautiously forward until they were about a meter from the fence. There was no obvious reaction from either the fence or the environs. Turning to face each other a meter apart, they settled into wide horse stances, knees bent, hands cupped thigh high in front of them. "Kanai?" Skyler said, looking back at the others. Kanai nodded and started forward at a slow jog, picking up speed as he came. He reached Skyler and O'Hara and leaped forward and upward.
    And as he did so, the two blackcollars caught the undersides of his boots in their cupped hands and pulled convulsively upward, hurling him toward the night sky. He flew to the top of the fence and did a neat high jumper's roll over the top, continuing the roll and twist and landing in a crouch on the other side. Fifteen seconds later, Hawking was beside him. "You've got fifteen minutes to get through the grounds and check out the house," Skyler told them. "After that, O'Hara and I drive up to the front door like we owned the place."
    "We'll be ready," Hawking promised. Touching Kanai on the shoulder, he gestured, and together they slipped away into the night.
    * * *
    "This is completely outrageous," Manx Reger growled, his eyes blazing as he glared at Poirot from the middle of the large overstuffed chair where the two Security men standing to his right and left had planted him. "It's also completely illegal."
    "That's good, coming from a crime boss," Poirot countered. "Let me ask one more time: What's in the shipment your friends dropped tonight?"
    "I have no idea what you're talking about," Reger said stiffly. "And as for being a crime boss, I deny that categorically."
    "Of course you do." Poirot turned to the door as Bailey came into the room. "You have everyone?"
    "I think so," Bailey said. "There were two more hiding in shielded guard holes. We've put everyone together in the dining room."
    "Make sure they stay quiet," Poirot warned.
    "We will," Bailey assured him. "I also heard from the spotters. They say a car's gone down the access road west of the estate and stopped by the fence there. Four men got out, and they think two of them must have gotten through the fence somewhere and come onto the grounds. Only two got back into the car, anyway."
    Poirot scratched his cheek. Suspicious couriers checking out the estate before making their delivery? Or was it standard procedure to bypass the house and deliver the contraband to a hidden cache somewhere else on the grounds?
    He looked at Reger, but the other's face wasn't giving anything away. "Put a couple of our plainclothes men outside," he told Bailey. "Tell them to keep out of the light. Maybe the sight of some roving guards will make our gate-crashers happier."
    Bailey nodded and repeated the orders into his comm. "What about the two in the car?" he asked.
    "Let them be," Poirot told him. "Sooner or later, I'm sure they'll come to see us."
    * * *
    "Five minutes," O'Hara said.
    Skyler nodded. So far, whoever had taken over Reger's estate hadn't come to check out this car sitting on the road along the western fence. Either inattention or overconfidence, and either was likely to cost them. "I'm thinking we'll just go straight in, play stupid, and take it from there," he said.
    "They may remember you," O'Hara pointed out. "And if Galway's been doing his job, they probably have a photo of me, as well."
    "Which I'm guessing local Security will have long forgotten," Skyler said. "They've got enough faces from their own neighborhood to memorize."
    "I suppose." O'Hara was silent a moment. "I wonder what this difference of opinion is that Kanai's having with Phoenix."
    "Whatever it is, I don't like it," Skyler said. "A Resistance movement is no place for politics and disagreements."
    "Not that