Bartol dodged into a bathroom. No android would be in there—they didn't need to. He burned another hole in the floor, dropped through it into another bathroom. Again he burned through the floor.
"Autarch! Get out of that room! Leave the citadel immediately! It's your only chance!"
I knew that several minutes ago, Bartol thought.
He only had seconds now.
The assassin blasted his way into the citadel and cut down both the guards. Then he blasted the figure in the gaudy uniform.
"That wasn't Bart—uh—the Autarch!" the Commander's voice came.
Damn right it wasn't! Bartol thought. He sprinted down a stairway. In the lower sublevels of the Palace, the lighting was widely spaced. Here were the storage levels, and the power supplies. He wanted to stay away from the power rooms; they would be heavily guarded.
"Autarch! Where are you! Answer! Where are you! The assassin knows that wasn't you! He's heading downward! Where are you?"
He's getting panicky, Bartol thought with grim amusement. He knows I wouldn't dare answer. The assassin can tap these communications.
The assassin, whoever he was, must have weapons of tremendous power to be able to burn his way into the Autarch's citadel so easily. He could move downward from floor to floor a lot more rapidly than Bartol could.