by Lyn Brittan
His body tensed beneath her hands, and a small sliver of unease zagged through her body.
“You’re quiet back there, Ert’zod. Maybe it’ll be better if I take you back to the shuttle. I’ll go on ahead, and you can call in backup. Not saying we’ll need it but, I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
“That sounds oddly mature for you.”
He turned with twisted lips and his eyes narrowed. On someone less handsome, it may have been threatening. “Don’t forget my job, Ert’zod. I keep people safe for a living. You equate attitude with ability. Thinking like that’ll get you killed one day.”
“I judge what I see.”
“Then look at my record.”
“Infraction after infraction after—”
“Let me help you out. I repeat, my job is to keep people safe. Find one time when I haven’t and I’ll fucking resign right now.”
She knew he was right. Everything about him agreed on three traits: irreverent, flirtatious, and, well, reliable. He avoided all rules save one, his prime directive of keeping the men and women under his watch safe. Apparently, that now included her.
“I’m taking you back to the shuttle.”
“You don’t think I’m scared, do you? Whatever you’ve read about the Ert’zod family, about what percentage of it involves running from danger?”
“Zilch, but if you ever feel uneasy...”
“Drive.”
“Yes, ma’am and thanks.”
“For what?”
“For making me officially reconsider my earlier assessment. You may have some Ert’zod in you yet.”
“Just go.”
Soon abandoned homes replaced the fields and even later, a town completely devoid of any signs of life. She expected, heck, wanted, Vin to say something casual and amusing, but a heavy sense of dread cloaked the air.
Her skin prickled, and she licked her lips, now dry and parched. The emptiness here was oppressive. She’d been born on a small space station but spent her youth traveling from place to place with her father. Then she’d gone off to school in a huge city in a mega quadrant, before being sent off to make her life in similar environs.
This place?
Silent.
Empty.
A heavy type of quiet.
She craved the thudding noises and howls of urban life. Everything was suddenly too small. She needed air. Fresh air. Not the filtered and recycled stuff they’d been breathing on the cyclerover. “I don’t like this place.”
“No kidding. So think. Think fast. What do we know? What can we put together from everything we’ve seen so far?
“No food source. No town. No people.”
“We don’t know that.”
She licked her lips for the dozenth time. “Whatever, just open the enviroshield. I need out.”
“Umm, no.”
“Shield. Down. Now. What happened to living on the edge, Dhoma?”
He shrugged at her rolled eyes. “I don’t know? Overwhelming evidence of mass extinction? That’s enough for most people. What happened to your freaking regulations?”
Tossed to rot at the throat-closing sensation of the last few minutes. She’d rather die than tell him that though. “It’s like you said. We need to think. Investigate. You’re armed. I’m armed. What’s the worst that could happen?”
“You seriously did not just ask that.” Vin pointed to an empty terrarover. Then an empty house. Next, the empty street and the entire row of empty stores. “That. Whatever that is. That can happen. Has happened. Might happen again.”
And yet, her hair was caught in a whoosh of air as the shield around them went down. Before she could thank him for trusting her, he swore and got off the vehicle. “Fine, but only because I care about my people. I’m not calling my team into a fire pit without giving them a heads up first. We’ll do some quick recon and then get out of here. Maybe we can find out what the hell that scent is.”
She didn’t bother with the non-intentioned... and not totally existent slight. “What scent?”
“The same one from the forest. Still not smelling it?” He shrugged at her shaking head and stomped over to the nearest building. Broken glass crunched beneath his boots, and he waved her over. “I need some light over here. Hold up your omnitablet.”
Despite the bright day and the blinding reflections from the empty glass buildings, inside this smaller one, darkness won out. She leaned into the building, but a hairy, muscled arm jerked her back. “Don’t cut yourself.”
The advice was so unnecessary. Blood wasn’t her thing. Her stomach rolled at the thought of it. Rather than bracing herself against the windowpane, she used him for balance.
For all her nervousness, he didn’t shrug her off or laugh. In fact, Vin gave no outward appearance that he’d noticed her body on his at all. “Sweep the light around... yeah, like that.”
Nothing unusual. Most things were in place. Some tables were turned over, but the chairs were still stacked on the side. Although that in and of itself was more concerning. “Dhoma—”
“I’m begging you for first names now. Shit storms kinda require it. Or do you not agree with my coarse assessment?”
“We stand in a whirlwind of fecal matter, yes.”
His chest rumbled with low laughter, and he cracked his neck. “Weird, ain’t it? No one left in a hurry. There aren’t any scattered remains or half-eaten food bits.”
“Chairs are stacked on the side,” she added. “If we get to the next building over and find the same thing, that all but guarantees that these people left on their own accord.”
He tsk-tsked her. “Remember, we only know things we see with our own eyes. We know they abandoned this place. We know the leaving was planned. There’s nothing here to assure us that it was willing. Hey, look up there in the corner. What’s that?”
A pearly sheet twinkled against the artificial light of her omnitablet. It draped from the ceiling, creeping toward the metallic floor like an upturned and clawed hand. She took a picture, not at all sure what she’d captured. Their heads knocked together as they viewed the image. “What do you make of it, Vin?”
While he studied the picture, she stepped back and crossed her arms, running hands down her prickling arms. Odd wasn’t the word. Yet, she tried to stay logical and ignore the feeling of dread that ran like ice down her back. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. Like you said, we don’t know anything until we see it. Maybe we’ll walk across the street and find we’re completely wrong.”
They were completely right.
At least, right in that some generally screwed-up crap had gone down. Every building was the same. Perfect. Neat. Orderly. Chairs to the side with most tables upright.
That didn’t mesh well with the broken windows...
...or the gleaming samite sheets that adorned some of the ceilings.
They’d reached the end of the block and she stepped into the road to cross the street. Vin caught her by the collar and gently pulled back. “I don’t think we need to get any farther away from the cyclerover. I’m not saying I’m scared, but...”
His voice had the joking lilt to it again, but this place seemed to suck a little of the honesty right out of it. Something had shaken him. Her father called it an agent’s sixth sense—feeling danger before it reared its head.
Vin backtracked to their machine, but she kept catching him looking over his shoulder. He helped her onto the cyclerover then nudged her forward to the driver’s seat.
“What’s this?”
“Are you as good as driving these as fixing them, Allie?”
“The best.”
He took out his weapon and checked the charge. “If something goes down, I need my hands free.”
“That sounds like we’re not going back yet.”
He raised his arm, pointing over her shoulder. The road bent ahead, hooking to the left. “We’ve gotta know what’s around that corner. Back us in. Keep facing outward. If anything goes sideways, gun us out of here.”<
br />
Allie eased the cyclerover into reverse, her eyes scanning ahead of her the whole time. She checked the rearview mirrors too.
Vin had two weapons now, one in each hand. His jaw was so clenched it could cut wire.
Then he swore a little.
Then a lot.
A whole lot.
A second later, she’d backed up enough to see the reasoning of his flowery language and was compelled to agree. “Fuck.”
“My sentiments exactly, Allie.”
Down the end of another long street was a stockade of sorts. Steel plates separated the rest of the town from... well... whatever that big edifice was. “What kind of—”
“Judging from the very angry men on the roof with their weapons pointed at us, I’m gonna say it’s a fort.”
“Time to go.” She fussed with the controls and plotted a course back the way they came.
Vin’s hand pulsed on her shoulder. “No point. We’re in range, and good money says they knew about us before we knew about them. Remember the coordinates, then delete them. Now, Allie. Do it now,” he whispered.
“But—”
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep you safe.”
“You’d better. Pretty sure my death is against regulation.”
And triple damn her, but his laughter almost made it better.
Chapter Three
Unless Vin was crazy, their captors looked as surprised to see them as he and Allie were to “find” them.
The men carried guns. No big deal, really. But they also carried sticks. Batons, he thought they were called. No one had used those since the old days—back when Earth wasn’t the wasteland of the Milky Way.
Life in the modern universe didn’t require such tools of force. Even the most basic gun had a stun setting. And for riot control, the larger ones fanned out an electrical charge for several lengths.
Simply put, you don’t carry around batons for control.
You carry them to instill fear.
They all dressed the same, brown flowing linens and reflective sunglasses. No markings of rank. Yet one of them, faced marked and pitted with scars, stepped forward. “Weapons on the ground, nice and easy. Good. Good. Now then, who are you? How did you make it here?”
“We’re representatives of the Outer Settlement Agency,” Allie said, bowing and extending her hand.
Not a single one of them took it. A few of their jaws dropped to the ground. Two of them narrowed their eyes. He didn’t care for the curl on their lips.
Vin stepped a little closer to Allie.
Fuck this. Fuck him. He’d totally misjudged the situation. He should have hauled her back to the shuttle for backup the second they hit an empty quadrant.
The man he assumed to be in charge stared at Allie for several seconds before snapping his eyes back to Vin. “Thought OSA forgot about us.”
“Not at all. As she said, that’s why we’re here.”
“We don’t need OSA.” The man holstered his weapon and eased closer. “The woman’s one too?”
“I can speak for myself and for the record...”
For once, Vin was happy to hear her rattle off about regulation numbers zero through a million. It gave him time to survey the craphole they’d crashed into.
Respect of OSA kept the galaxy in check. You always had thugs and pirates and organized crime, but as long as they ran from the good guys, the ‘verse was still in balance.
Not only were these assholes living outside the system, they flaunted it.
Guns happened.
Warlords happened.
But this was too organized. Too... governmental.
The man dismissed Allie with a sneer and a wave of indifference.
She huffed and advanced, but Vin held her in place with a hand on her shoulder.
The armed men grinned at this and elbowed one another. Also, very not good.
Had Allie picked up on it? No, she was still rattling off regulations and laws. From where he stood, however, these men only positively engaged when he somehow verbally or physically restrained her.
The more she talked, the more they lasered in on her with open looks of derision. Still, she kept listing their faults, wholly oblivious to the bullshit deepening around them.
The leader held up a finger and tapped his earpiece. “Message from Graham. He welcomes you into our community. This way.”
“Actually—”
But the man cut Allie off. Rather than respond to her, he addressed Vin. “It’s for your own good. It’s close to nightfall. You’d rather be with us, than with them.”
“Them? What’s a them?”
Allie’s question again went unanswered. “I suggest you quickstep. Graham doesn’t like to be kept waiting. You can stop looking down at your weapons. They’re ours now.”
They didn’t have much choice in the matter. One of the grunts snatched his firearms away then turned to Allie. The glint in his eye didn’t sit well with him. Before any of them touched her, Vin kicked her weapon towards them. The whole time, he kept his eyes on the leering guard with a look that very much said, don’t.
The men formed a tight circle around them. Vin walked so close to Allie that their legs brushed together and leaned over to her ear. “For the love of all that’s holy, please follow my lead.”
“Why should I? You led us here,” she hissed back.
“Fair point, but you weren’t supposed to follow. Let’s fight about who’s more right later. This place—it’s like they’ve all—”
“Regressed?”
He for doggone sure couldn’t think of a better way to phrase it. He was also fresh out of words to explain what waited on the other side of the wall.
A damned paradise.
The steel and gray of the town gave way to colorful trees that kissed against buildings and well tended mini-gardens. Buildings made of actual wood lined the streets and swinging wooden signs swayed above each door.
A barber.
A school.
A woodshop.
It was something out of an Earth History lesson, complete with women covered neck to knee in blue sheaths working in the gardens. Though none of them looked up despite the commotion caused by his and Allie’s arrival.
Allie whipped out her omnitablet and started taking photos. She maybe got two or three before one of their guides ripped it from her hands. “Not allowed.”
“What?”
“Hush, Allie.”
More freakish nods of approval from the men were thrown in his direction. Creepy as hell. Their murmurings stopped as they entered a two-storied building that looked like an old-fashioned and multi-level farmhouse.
People milled around them, but only those dressed in tan met his gaze head on. Ladies in blue scrubbed floors cleaner than any plate he’d eaten off of. Two of the tan wearing soldiers walked with a woman dressed in green between them. She smiled. Sort of. It didn’t quite reach her eyes.
Tan. Soldiers.
Blue. Workers.
Mental note: none of the people wearing tan were female.
He was sure he’d spotted at least two males wearing blue.
On creaking floors, they walked to a large door at the end of the hallway, where they were soon abandoned.
“Come in.”
Allie sucked in her bottom lip. Vin tapped his own and shook his head. “Toughen up, Ert’zod. You got this.”
“I know.”
And he almost didn’t hear the shake in her voice.
“Let me do the talking.”
“We’ll see.”
With one last warning look, Vin stepped to the door, but it didn’t open.
He waved his hand over the round handle.
Nothing happened.
“The hell?” He wiggled fingers above his head, standing on the tips of his toes, but no sensors pinged.
A grinning Allie elbowed him and twisted the knob. “I’d remind you that we’re in an archaic house with archaic machinery, but as per your equally archaic rules
, I’m not allowed to speak. After you.”
She had spirit. Good. She’d need it for whatever came next. That she found a moment of levity in this gave him hope. They’d make it through this just fine.
Not too much would happen.
Probably.
You’d have to be an idiot to harm OSA personnel on purpose. Yet the both of them would need all engines on full blast to maneuver through this strange place.
He’d half expected a man with a crown atop his head, surrounded by a bevy of naked women on the other side of the door. Instead, he saw the epitome of normal.
A man in simple trousers and a white shift greeted them from behind the desk. He slightly bowed and hooked his thumbs around old-fashioned suspenders. “Guests. I must say, you caused quite a stir. Welcome to Appleton. I’m Graham, a mayor of sorts. Please have a seat.”
Vin swallowed down his shock at seeing the man hold out Allie’s chair for her.
“Bet you weren’t expecting that, were you, ma’am?”
Vin silently willed her to shut up and stick to the plan.
“Can’t say that I was.”
Damn.
And of course, she kept on talking. She was so busy running her mouth that she probably missed what Vin found impossible not to see—the tense twitching above Graham’s left eye each time her mouth vomited the words “OSA” and “regulation.” They were fucked, and the way she was going, Graham was going in dry.
Graham slicked back a few of the gray strands at his temples. His fingers scratched the afternoon beard of a face that bore the lines of wisdom and long hours in the sun.
Wisdom not shared by Vin’s rambling co-prisoner, who was too clueless to know that she was, in fact, a co-prisoner.
Allie sat on the edge of her chair and tapped Graham’s desk. The man’s eyes followed her thudding finger, and his face reddened. “One of your men took my omnitablet. If you’ll just give it back, I can show you precisely what the regulations say.”
“My parents were Outer Settlement Agency folks. Good people, for a time. It’s fair to say I know plenty about OSA.”
Oh, yeah, they were screwed.
