by Jake Elwood
Cassie didn't bother replying, just ran, Lark trotting along beside her. The box chafed her ribs with every step. They were on a quiet street with dark houses on either side. There was no one to see the two fugitives as they jogged past.
When Lark started to falter, Cassie stopped and leaned against a light pole. Lark collapsed onto the sidewalk, leaning her back against the pole and panting for breath.
Cassie unzipped her jacket and took out Carmody's mysterious box. She tried prying it open, then bashed it against the pole. When it still didn't open she set it on the sidewalk, drew her pistol, and burned off the hinges at the back. A sharp twist pulled the lid free, and she tossed it aside.
Inside, nestled in pale velvet, was a rounded shape the size of her fist. It gleamed pale in the streetlight, looking like metal, but when she lifted it out it was surprisingly light. There were dark lines inset in the metal, and bumps and indentations, all of it incomprehensible.
"What is it?" said Lark, standing up for a better look.
"I think this is Ancients technology," Cassie said in a hushed voice. She'd seen holos, but she'd never held an artifact of the Ancients before. "It's almost a million years old."
Lark's eyes widened.
The carved gemstone in Cassie's right thigh pocket was, by comparison, less than fifty thousand years old. The Karmee were extinct by the time humanity found their homeworld. They'd left millions of artifacts behind, and tens of thousands had been smuggled off the planet and into private collections.
All of the artifacts of the Ancients ever discovered numbered less than two hundred. To call the little silver egg "priceless" was an understatement.
"I could be in a lot of trouble," Cassie said. She slid the egg into her left thigh pocket and grinned down at the child. "On the lighter side, I'll die rich." She stretched her legs one at a time. More rest would just stiffen her up. "Are you ready to keep going?"
Lark nodded, and they loped down the street.
The kid was gasping for air by the time they crossed a street, pushed through a row of screening trees, and saw their destination before them. Cassie called another rest stop while she sized the building up.
It was a sprawling structure, built like an ancient castle, with moody red lights on battlements that looked like stone. There were squat towers at each corner, and two more towers guarding the main entrance, but the roof seemed to be flat. There would be plenty of room for Roger to land the Raffles.
"You people have castles?" Cassie said. "Weird town."
"It's Holo… World," Lark gasped. "I always wanted… to go."
Cassie nodded, understanding. The sprawling castle was a full-immersion holographic playground. "I always wanted to go to one of those, too," she said. "Come on. It's just a little bit farther."
They trotted across another street, not moving much faster than a walk. There was a narrow strip of parking for ground cars at the base of the castle walls. Air car and skimmer parking would be on the roof, Cassie assumed. That was good. The roof would be strong enough to support the Raffles. All she needed now was to see the spaceship slowly breaking through and tumbling into the ruins of the castle.
"Do you see a way onto the roof?" she asked.
Lark shook her head, too out of breath to reply.
Cassie explored the stone wall with her fingers. It felt like real stone, and the gaps were wide enough for her fingers. She lifted a foot, trying to wedge a toe into a gap.
Lark, too breathless to speak, thumped her on the hip for attention, then tugged mutely at Cassie's antigrav harness.
"Oh. Right. I'm an idiot." Cassie squatted. "Get on my back."
Lark scrambled onto her back, her skinny arms around Cassie's neck. Cassie powered up the harness and stood. With the harness at full strength her feet barely stayed on the ground. She leaped upward, rising a couple of meters, and used her fingers to scramble higher. Up and up they rose, until she was able to hook one hand over the top of the wall. She pulled the two of them up and through a gap between the tooth-like crenellations along the top. When her feet were solidly on the roof she powered down the harness, then knelt to put Lark down. "We're ready," she said.
"I'll be there within four minutes," Roger promised.
"Roger, Roger." The rooftop looked reassuringly modern, with landing spots marked out in bright yellow paint. She headed for the center of the roof, then paused and looked at Lark. "Actually, you better stay where you are. The police will be here in a few minutes. Tell them your father beats you."
Landing lights bathed the two of them in a soft golden glow. Cassie took her first close look at the child. There were no marks on Lark's face. Carmody was too wily to leave evidence the world would see. There was a dark pattern on the girl's arm, though, showing above the cuff of her pajama sleeve. The puffy swelling of a new bruise was laid over top of the mottled black blotch of an older bruise. Defensive injuries, Cassie guessed. Lark had tried to block his blows.
"Show them that bruise on your arm. Show them all the bruises. They won't send you back to him. They'll find you somewhere safe to live." Cassie gazed out over the rooftops of Camulod, inhaling deeply, enjoying the smell of trees and lush grass. Every planet had its own smell, and she would never be able to come back to this particular world.
Flashing red and blue lights caught her eye, and she tensed. There was a police skimmer coming in fast over the residential rooftops. Cassie drew her pistol, switched it to stun, and looked around for cover. She saw a rectangular block near the center of the roof. It was the size of a small building, and a glowing panel on the side showed the universal symbol for bounce tubes. "Stay where you are, Lark," she called, and ran for the block.
A searchlight played across the rooftop, highlighted Cassie for a moment, then lost her as the police skimmer swept around in a turn. A second skimmer touched down on the rooftop thirty or so meters away. A hatch swung down, and Cassie snapped a quick shot to keep everyone moving cautiously.
She reached the shadows at the base of the bounce tube block. The doors to the tubes were shut. She had to stay put and wait for Roger.
"Put your hands on your head," boomed an amplified voice. "Step away from the wall. Make no sudden movements."
She replied by firing another stun blast into the side of the police skimmer.
"Release your hostage," the voice continued. "You cannot escape."
"Keep back or I'll kill her," Cassie shouted. She thought quickly. "I want five million creds and a spaceship, or I'll cut the kid up and send her over to you in bits and pieces." That was nonsense, of course, but the cops would keep their distance while they roused a hostage negotiator out of bed and tried to talk her down.
Another skimmer landed on the far side of the bounce tube block, and ground cars came streaming in through the suburban streets. Cassie edged back, and yelped as she bumped into someone. She jumped and whirled, and Lark let out a small squeak of surprise.
"Don't sneak up on me!" Cassie noticed that her pistol was centered on the girl's face, and hastily pointed it at the sky. "Oh, don't look at me like that. I won't cut you up."
Lark said nothing, just stared.
"You better get back to the edge of the roof. It's the safest place for you."
The girl didn't reply. She didn't move, either.
"Suit yourself," Cassie said. "Try to look like a hostage, okay?"
The spotlight from above returned, bathing her in sharp white light. The skimmer made lazy circles above her, the spotlight barely wavering. Cassie thought about taking a shot at the light and decided to restrain herself. The longer she could put off a gunfight, the better her chances.
Half a dozen police ground cars rolled up, vanishing from sight as they reached the base of the walls. Cassie could hear men's voices arguing loudly. One voice, more belligerent than the rest, sounded vaguely familiar.
A hover truck rose into view over the top of the south wall. The truck moved inward, then settled onto the rooftop. The doors on the far side
of the vehicle slid open. Cassie could just make out a knot of people climbing out and clustering behind the truck. A burly shape was waving his arms and haranguing the others in a strident voice.
"Give yourself up." The amplified voice sounded a bit rattled. "We won't wait all night."
Cassie frowned. That hardly sounded like a modern, professional police officer. They should be trying to calm her down, not goading her into doing something desperate.
She could hear a woman's voice, arguing, almost pleading, too low for her to make out the words. Then another voice, an angry bark that cut through the surrounding din. "Shut up and do as you're told."
A dark shape advanced from behind the hover truck. As the shape moved farther from the truck's lights and closer to the spotlights shining down from the skimmer, it came suddenly clear. She could see two uniformed cops holding clear plastic shields that protected them from head to toe. They moved cautiously, shuffling along a careful step at a time, tension in every line of their bodies.
Behind them, looking angry and impatient, she could see another figure, a thick-bodied man with his shirt half-untucked and his hair standing up in clumps. It was Carmody, and he had a thick silver pistol in his right hand.
Cassie gaped at him, then turned to Lark. "This is insane. How much pull does your father have?" She didn't wait for an answer. Obviously Carmody was a much bigger deal than she'd realized. She knew he was rich. She didn't know he could order the police around.
"He won't let them arrest you," Lark said softly. "He's going to shoot you."
"Why didn't I kill him when I had the chance?" She glanced upward. "Roger, what's keeping you?"
As if in answer, she saw the dark bulk of a spaceship plunging out of the sky. The running lights were off, making the ship nothing more than a black hole in the stars. Cassie crouched instinctively, and the cops with the shields flinched back as the ship plunged toward the roof. The spotlight abruptly vanished as the police skimmer raced out of the way.
Roger didn't land the ship, just hovered a meter or so above the roof, and Cassie ran for the open hatch on the side. Lark ran with her, and that may have saved Cassie from being shot by the surrounding cops. Cassie dove into the hatch, then squirmed around on her knees and looked out.
Lark was there, fingers curled around the bottom sill of the hatch, and Cassie hesitated. Surely the child would be better off on her home planet than fleeing with a wanted felon!
Behind Lark the two cops were kneeling, shields sideways on the roof in front of them. Carmody stood behind them, holding the pistol in both hands, levelling it at the ship. The range was long, the light was bad, and the barrel was wobbling. Either he had far too much confidence in his own marksmanship or he didn't care if he hit his daughter.
Cassie aimed and fired in one smooth motion, and Carmody flopped back to lie twitching on the grass. Cassie reached down, grabbed Lark, and hauled her into the ship. The moment the sensor showed the hatch was clear, the cover slammed shut and Roger sent the ship hurtling into the sky.
Episode Two
A Dangerous Bounty
CHAPTER 4
It was raining on Cristobal. It was always raining on Cristobal, and the locals had learned to ignore it, smirking to each other when visitors complained. They could even see value in the rain. It kept the overheated planet cool. Rain washed the concrete buildings and the roofs made of scrap steel, and kept the city from sinking under the weight of its own filth.
Cassie sat in the cockpit of the Raffles, watching rain pour across the windows, and smiled. It wasn't that she liked Cristobal exactly, but after a harrowing mission it felt good to be home. The fall of raindrops ended as the repulsor platform beneath the ship carried them into a hangar.
She gave the cockpit instruments a final check, then rose and moved deeper into the ship. The door to the tiny spare cabin hissed open to reveal Lark, staring up at Cassie with her usual solemn gravity. Cassie gave her an equally solemn look. "How are you doing, Lark?"
"Good."
"How are the clothes?" She'd fabricated a full set of clothes for the kid, trousers and a top in blue and gray, plus soft waterproof boots and a mackinaw.
Lark glanced down at herself. "Good. Thank you." She looked back up, wariness in her eyes. Well, she'd been hurt a lot. She'd be expecting random acts of brutality.
"Great," Cassie said. "Well, come along. I'll show you the city of Cristobal. It's also the name of the island we're on. There isn't much else on the planet. The planet's called BLX One, by the way. Blix, most people call it. Only planet in the system."
The girl didn't respond, and Cassie let her voice trail off. Small talk and cheerful banter were not her strong suits. She grabbed a waterproof jacket and led the way down the ramp at the back of the ship and into the hangar.
"Cassandra Marx!" The voice came booming through the hangar, and Cassie fought the urge to flinch. Carston Holcroft, with his boisterous manner and endless back-slapping, was enough to make Cassie appreciate Lark's unsmiling silence. "It's about time you graced my hangar with your presence. And have you brought your outstanding hangar fees, hmmm?"
She glared at the man as he swaggered across the hangar floor. Holcroft was of a piece with his hangar. He was overly large, dirty, poorly maintained, and he stank of grease. His coveralls were in danger of bursting from the pressure of a protruding stomach. Thick, hairy arms, bulging with a mix of fat and muscle, gestured and waved with every word he spoke. He was unshaven, his plump jowls bristling with black and white whiskers, and the false smile on his face never touched his narrow, cold eyes.
"I paid a year in advance," Cassie said patiently. "That was three months ago. Remember?"
"Did you?" he said, his smile thinning.
"Don't give me that suspicious look," she said. "We had this same conversation last time I touched down. And the time before."
He laughed. "All right, all right. Maybe you did pay. I'll go check my books. But if you're blowing smoke up my ass, there'll be trouble." His gaze shifted to Lark. "And what's this? Protégé? A love child you never told me about? What's your name, little girl?"
"She's an assassin robot," Cassie said. "Made to look small and harmless. People just walk right up to her. It's incredible."
Holcroft's eyebrows rose. He gave Cassie a doubtful look, then looked again at Lark. "Really?"
"Let me know if there's anyone who's really behind on their hangar fees," Cassie told him. "I'll send the bot to take them out." Then, leaving him standing there staring, she led Lark out of the hangar and into the street.
"Asshole," Cassie muttered as she sealed her coat and pulled up the hood. "Try to avoid him if you can."
Lark sealed her mackinaw and gazed around. "Will there be flooding?"
Cassie thought of the floodwater tunnels in Camulod. "Not like where you come from." She gestured at the sky. "It's always like this here. And this is how deep the water always is." Rain water flowed through the gutter beside her feet, a couple of centimeters deep.
Cristobal wasn't much to look at. It was an entirely practical little city, everything built to be cheap and functional. Very few buildings stood higher than three stories, and most had only one level. Nobody much wanted to live there, so land was cheap. There was no need to build upward.
Concrete was the primary building material. There was glass too, but less than you'd find on some worlds. Nothing about the view made you want plenty of windows. The sky was invisible, hidden by constant cloud, and the perpetual rain meant you could never see very far. That was a blessing, for the most part. It was an ugly planet.
The ocean was a few kilometers away, and Cassie could hear the faint boom of the surf. The water was caustic and uninviting. There was some terrestrial life in the form of spiky green grass that sprouted among the rocks, and low, scraggly evergreen trees. The planet's oxygen atmosphere came from plankton engineered to survive in the toxic oceans and seeded by terraformers a hundred years or more before.
Gravel crunch
ed beneath their feet as they walked. Very few streets in Cristobal were paved. It was all part of the city's rustic charm. Cassie found herself grinning as she headed for the main thoroughfare that passed the informal collection of hangars and landing pads that comprised the island's spaceport. Cristobal, scruffy and pungent and unwelcoming, was, in its offbeat and strangely charming way, home.
"Your dad won't ever find you here," she told Lark. "You're safe. We'll find you a nice place to live, and no one will ever hit you again." She thought about the path her own life had taken. "Well, hardly ever. Most of the time."
"I want to stay with you."
Cassie gave Lark a startled glance. "That's just because you have no one to compare me to except your father," she said. "And maybe Holcroft. Compared to them, I will admit I'm a bargain." She grinned. "However, just wait until you meet someone respectable. You'll see that I'm right."
Lark didn't argue, but there was a stubborn set to her jaw. Cassie looked away with a sigh. The girl's determination wasn't going to get her anywhere.
A post on a street corner featured a big red button, which Cassie pushed. "This'll bring us a cab," she told the girl. "The city's not really networked too well. But we get by."
The taxi rolled up before long. It was electric, a little four-seater with open sides and a waterproof top. A speaker mounted at the front bid them a cheerful "Good morning!" and asked their destination.
"City Hall," Cassie said, and waved her bracelet over the console. They went rolling into traffic, the AI guiding them nimbly around cargo haulers and a few personal vehicles.
"This is our local fare system," she told Lark, showing her a wide aluminum bracelet. "You have to put money on it in advance. Works for taxis and vending machines and almost anything with an admission fee. Oh, that reminds me." She rummaged in her pocket and drew out another bracelet. "Here, this is for you."
Lark started to reach out a hand, then hesitated.
"Take it, it's all right. It's got about a hundred creds on it. I don’t want you to be stuck if I'm not around. Honestly, this city is a nightmare without a bracelet."
