by neetha Napew
‘No, just died of starvation…’ Mooney said, licking his lips.
‘Not that either,’ Sean said, ‘but I’m sure we can find you something to eat when we get where we’re going.’
‘Where are we going?’
All five had fallen into a single line behind him as he strode purposefully through the passage, the little line of phosphorescence popping out just ahead of them. Petaybee was full of new tricks these days, he thought with no small degree of wonder. New passages, new ways of communicating direction, and that extremely idiosyncratic and erratic echo.
‘All I know right now is that we’re getting out of here. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine,’ Sean said.
‘Now, guess, guess.’
‘Oh, frag, there it is again. That voice! Once it sounded like it was crying some woman’s name. Listen. What is it?’ Mooney demanded on a semi-hysterical note. He crouched down, brandishing his dagger, his eyes showing whites all the way around like a spooked curly’s.
Tetaybee,’ Sean replied amiably, without breaking stride. The others rushed to keep up with him. He really must discover how to bring clothing with him when he went selkying. Despite his disclaimer, the temperature was not all that high in the tunnels.
‘Does it do that often? Echo you?’
‘It wasn’t echoing me.’
‘It wasn’t?’ Ersol lost his pomposity again.
‘If it wasn’t,’ Minkus said with the edge of fear in his voice, ‘who’s speaking?’
‘I told you - Petaybee.’
‘Petaybee!’
‘Now, see here, Shongili, that was an echo.’
‘Was it?’
‘Petaybee.’
‘Oh, my gawd!’ Ersol said, his voice quavering badly. ‘Lemme outta here!’
‘It can’t be far now. The passage is getting narrower and sloping up - we should be reaching the surface soon,’ Sean said encouragingly.
And they did. Walking up an incline, they emerged from the side of a hill into a cool snow-laden wind that required all Sean’s physical control to resist shivering.
‘Hey, Shongili, I don’t care what you say, your goosebumps just got goosebumps. Here,’ and Ersol threw a sweater around his shoulders. ‘You got some spare pants in your pack, don’t you, Clotworthy? Mooney, break out a pair of socks, at least.’
They paused long enough to put Sean into minimal coverings and then continued down the slope. They emerged onto a low ridge and a clump of wind-raked bushes to stare down at the lake, its edges now frozen, on the other side of which Sinead had left them.
‘Hey, isn’t that your sister?’ Ersol cried, pointing to figures on the verge.
Somehow ‘your sister’ sounded like a nasty epithet. Sean ignored the tone, knowing that Sinead could be a trifle difficult at times and these men, particularly, needed the kind of lesson only she could teach on Petaybee.
Sean put both hands to his mouth and uttered the ululating call they always used to cover long distances. One figure responded, straightening up, and looking around.
‘SINEAD!’
The sound of her name reverberated under her feet. Then a piercing distant whistle from the far side of the lake indicated that Sinead had not only heard, but seen them.
‘Let’s go.’
‘Isn’t there anywhere we can go besides near her?’ Minkus asked plaintively.
Sean chuckled to himself as he led the way down the slope. Somehow this encounter had restored him in a way not even the swimming could. Or maybe it was a case of both. The planet healing and then revealing what it was he had to do: organize the influx and protect Petaybee as best he could.
He was reminded again of the influx as, halfway back to Kilcoole, they met Clodagh leading the white-robes like a mother duck with her ducklings behind her. The white-robes broke formation, however, and hurried forward to fuss.
‘You poor men, we heard your cries!’
‘You couldn’t’ve,’ Mooney said. ‘We weren’t that loud.’
‘It was awful,’ Clotworthy said to Sister Agate. ‘I can’t stop shaking.’
‘It’s the cold, poor dear.’
The hunters confided to the other off-worlders about the cat, the unicorn, and their injuries.
‘Poor Mr de Peugh,’ Brother Shale fretted. ‘Whatever is wrong with him?’
Clodagh shrugged. ‘Looks to me like he lost an argument with Petaybee.’
‘The Beneficence?’ Brother Shale asked. ‘The Beneficence did this to these poor men?’
‘Oh surely not,’ Brother Schist said nervously. ‘That wouldn’t be very… benevolent… would it?’
‘Sin,’ said Sister Igneous Rock firmly. ‘He sinned against the planet and it smote him.’
‘Now you just cut that out!’ Clodagh said. The hunters weren’t the only frustrated people that day. ‘Petaybee hasn’t invented sin yet.’
Luzon’s Headquarters
‘They did what? Dr Matthew Luzon said in a volume that blasted the eardrums of the party on the end of the comlink.
‘The PTS transporter licence has been revoked and the vehicle impounded.’
‘That can’t be donel’ Why, Luzon thought, angrily stamping the cane he still had to use into the thick carpet, there weren’t nearly enough people down on the planet’s surface yet and he hadn’t been able to infiltrate enough of his agents to effect the sort of damage he had planned on creating. Makem hadn’t reported in since he landed, either, and so Luzon had no idea if the Asian Esoteric and Exotic Company had reached the surface. They had been so eager to slay the unicorns for their horns, long believed to have aphrodisiac and healing powers, to acquire the whiskers of the orange cats, which they had been told had similar powers as well as life-extending properties. He had also given them a list of therapeutic plants and lichens, which incidentally included all the vegetation so far catalogued on the planet’s surface. The way those fellows worked, a forest could be hewn, chopped into splinters and removed, quicker than one of those disgusting felines could blink. The’renewable wealth’ of Petaybee would be past history.
‘Perhaps, but it has been done. The remote device was removed from the cockpit and there’s one of those propulsion unit clamps that would blow the vessel into trash if someone tried a manual take-off. That ship is grounded.’
‘But that’s a totally prohibited perversion of basic commercial venture rights. All the proper forms have been accepted by…’
‘They’ve just been dis-accepted, Luzon. The credit account has had its assets frozen and mail, messages or credit transfers addressed to PTS are being returned to sender.’
Matthew Luzon, fuming and sputtering and sorely tempted to send the comunit across the room into the mock-marble fireplace, was trying to figure out how the carefully constructed and protected PTS operation could have been discovered and blocked. Who? Unless that twit-brained Makem had been corrupted down on the planet’s surface? The noise of his room buzzer penetrated his fury.
‘YES?’ Even Luzon was astonished at the snarl in his voice and moderated his tone. ‘Yes?’
‘Torkel Fiske to see you,’ said the sexy-voiced receptionist of this exclusive health resort.
‘Ah, the very man.’ Matthew’s ire settled almost as instantly as it had flared. ‘Enter. Enter. My dear Captain Fiske, how good of you to spare some time to visit the convalescent.’
Fiske came in, suavely dressed and smiling, with a touch of smug satisfaction that was visible to the shrewd eye of his observer. Matthew began to feel that his unexpected visitor was going to cheer him no end and prolonged that pleasure until he had seen Fiske suitably supplied with the drink of his choice and some of the enticing tidbits that the resort offered its distinguished clientele.
‘I came, Doctor Luzon, because I felt that you might not have heard the news,’ Fiske said, still smiling unctuously. He took another sip, chose one of the little canapes to eat.
‘I fear the medics have required me to suspend my usual activities until m
y injuries are completely healed,’ Luzon said, ‘so I’ve not kept up with general news. If anything is bad enough, someone always manages to inform the galaxy,’ and he smiled condescendingly over such a foible.
‘Then I was right. You haven’t heard about the kidnapping.’
‘Kidnapping?’ And Luzon leaned towards his guest, his heart pounding in the suspense of waiting to hear the names of the victims.
‘Yes, kidnapping. And from Gal-Three where, as you may know, they have such a tight security system.’ Fiske smiled at Luzon, a smile deprecating the machinations of a security system that failed to secure.
‘Really? How very alarming.’
‘Yes, and everyone is astounded. I mean, who would have thought that Marmion de Revers Algemeine had a single enemy in the galaxy.’
‘Not her!’ Luzon could scarcely contain his joy though he expressed a horror which caused Fiske to grin more broadly.
‘And… you’ll never guess who was kidnapped along with her?’
‘No, indeed I cannot, so do tell me.’ Luzon was all but bouncing about on the seat of his electronic mobility device.
‘Colonel Yanaba Maddock-Shongili…’
‘Not the doughty Colonel?’
‘And…’
‘Oh, not more victims! How appalling!’
‘Buneka Rourke and young Diego Etheridge-Metaxos too.’
Luzon raised his eyes ceilingward. ‘There is justice in the universe. Truly, there is!’ He bowed his head. Then peered up at the grinning Fiske. ‘Who perpetrated this atrocity?’
‘The infamous Captain Onidi Louchard!’
‘Oh! Famous… I mean, infamous. I’ve heard the pirate was clever but to breech Gal-Three Security, I’m truly speechless. And?’
‘And what?’
‘Have the bodies been returned?’
‘You are bloodthirsty, Doctor,’ Fiske said, his glance tinged with censure. ‘The ransom has been set…’
‘On Algemeine?’ Luzon snorted with scorn. ‘It’ll never be paid.’
‘What do you mean?’ Fiske sat forward, concerned.
Luzon waved his hand at such folly. ‘My dear Fiske, Marmion Algemeine is one of the top financiers in the known galaxy. She would adhere to the Code out of principle, unlike the cravens on the Amber Unicorn.’
‘What Code do you mean?’ Fiske repeated, now seriously agitated.
‘Why, the Anti-Extortion Code, of course. Surely you’re aware that the really rich have the most stringent laws against the payment of ransoms? To prevent wholesale kidnappings and the payment of vast sums of ransom monies? A wise move and no-one has tested the Code since the spectacular and highly publicized failure of the Amber Unicorn ploy over a hundred years ago.’
‘But… but… Louchard is smart and ruthless. He’ll figure a way around it.’
‘Not if he was fool enough to choose Marmion de Algemeine, he won’t,’ Luzon said, dismissing the matter with a snort. ‘Why, what’s the matter?’
For his handsome guest had turned quite pale under his space tan.
‘Then Maddock and those kids will die too?’
‘Of course. They’ve no assets… unless…’ and now Matthew rubbed the carved jade head of his cane against his lips. The coolness of jade was so soothing and helped him think. ‘Unless Louchard can figure out a way to get concessions out of Petaybee.’ Immediately the words were out of his mouth, Luzon cancelled that possibility - until he glanced at Fiske again. ‘Don’t tell me that was your master plan, Fiske?’ he asked scornfully. ‘Tell me - what was Louchard like?’
‘I never met Louchard,’ Fiske said, his expression set, his tone distracted, like that of a man, Luzon recognized, who is thinking very fast about something else entirely.
‘But didn’t you mention to me the fact that Louchard was involved in the smuggling of those miserable quantities of ore that were extracted from the planet?’
Actually both men knew that Fiske had mentioned no such thing and Louchard’s involvement was speculation. Still, that would account for the pirate being willing to kidnap that wretched trio in the hope of being able to obtain concessions no-one else had had from Shongili. Luzon would never believe it was the planet: therefore the mind behind all his misfortunes on Petaybee had to be the very human one of the man who stood to lose most - Sean Shongili.
‘He might just do something to protect that unborn bastard of his, at that,’ Luzon mused. ‘Where are you going, Fiske? You bring me such interesting news.’ But Luzon’s words did not pass the door that Torkel Fiske had slammed behind him.
It was a considerably more cheerful Luzon who began tapping out numbers on his comlink.
15
Aboard the pirate ship
Contents - Prev/Next
‘I don’t mean to pry or open a very sore subject, Namid,’ Marmion said when they had all rehashed, parsed and argued over the latest visit from their captors, ‘but have you any more relevant information about your ex-wife that we might use to advantage?’
Namid pointed to the corner of their room where he thought the listening device was planted. Then he continued speaking in such ringing, dramatic tones that they understood he wanted every word to be overheard by their unseen monitor, particularly if that monitor was the object of Marmion’s enquiry. It occurred to Marmion that perhaps since the man had been unable to communicate effectively directly with Dinah, he was using the opportunity of talking about her more or less publicly to try to make an impression on her instead.
‘They say,’ and he sighed,’ that we never really know the people we love. When I first met Dinah, I thought I had never been so close to anyone. Not only was she attractive, intelligent and interested in my work, but she had a great deal of drive, a lot of passion that I’m afraid I misconstrued at the time. Love blinds us, or something like that. We talked for hours. I told her about my work and she was quite honest about her early years: the death of her parents when she was far too young to be alone; her first marriage at sixteen to a wealthy, ruthless man who left her an interest in certain enterprises - of which I suspect this is one. She was quite frank about her other marriages, most of them for convenience and empire building, until ours. I genuinely believe it was a love match on her side as well, at least at first.
‘She so desperately wants connections, you know. Her family was among those scooped up by Intergal when they were buying up wars and other inconvenient impasses on Earth to populate their experimental colony planets. Your Petaybee was one of the early ones, of course. Since the “colonists” were divided in the interest of breaking up political factions, many families were split and settled in different places. Dinah’s great-great-grandfather came from a long line of sea-faring people and had worked with the paramilitaries. She seems to believe he was some sort of great patriot, but he apparently adapted well enough to spacing and became one of Intergal’s top cryptographers. At some point he married a fellow exile who had also chosen a Company career over colony life.
‘Dinah says that most of their progeny were prevented from advancing in the Company because of IntergaFs nepotism, but I think she might be a bit prejudiced. Surely none of them became wealthy and when her parents died, Dinah had a rough time supporting herself. She told me candidly that she used her looks at first. Then, when she met the right people, her intelligence got her jobs as messenger, despatching, and freelance computer hacker, which was what she was doing when she met her first husband. She looks at her involvement as protecting her inheritance and investments, I believe. But I had absolutely no idea she was connected with piratical acts until she brought me aboard.’
‘Didn’t you know anything about her business?’ Marmion asked.
‘Oh, yes, I knew she was involved in “shipping” as cargo-master’ Diego interrupted him with a snort. ‘Or should I say “purser”,’ Namid added in a show of humour that made Marmion give him one of her genuinely warm smiles. He had to pause but went on. ‘That explained her absences and odd schedule. She was so inte
rested in my work: variables and what star systems were likely to spin out ore-laden planets and well, all the practical applications of astronomy. It all seemed so harmless, so natural.’ He hunched his shoulders in frustration. ‘And she is, you must admit,’ he now addressed the remark to Diego, ‘a very attractive person.’
‘Ha!’
‘And clever as she can stare,’ Bunny said with slightly sour admiration. ‘That nice guy,’ bad guy ploy she and Megenda were pulling is so old it’s got whiskers longer than Uncle Seamus.’
‘Unfortunately, we end up falling for it because we don’t know when farce and fact meet,’ Yana said.
‘Oh, how I’d like to get that Megenda inside Petaybee for just five minutes…’ Bunny said, fingers going to the scab on her face.
‘Let’s not be vindictive. We know he was only playing a part and may be a very nice fellow off-duty, aside from an unfortunate tendency towards child abuse,’ Marmion said, glancing at the bruises on her young friends’ faces.
‘”When a felon’s not engaged in his employment, his employment…” ‘ Namid sang in such a rich baritone that Marmion regarded him with amazement. ‘ “Or concocting his felonious little plans.” Gilbert and
Sullivan’s little operettas are as cogent today as they ever were…’
‘Go on,’ Marmion urged, her eyes wide with delight.
‘”His capacity for innocent enjoyment, ‘cent enjoyment, is just as great as any honest man’s.”’
Marmion laughed and laughed and laughed and Yana found herself smiling at such contagious mirth. Even Diego grinned.
‘I like the tune,’ Bunny said diplomatically but her confusion was obvious.
‘It’s not exactly latchkay type singing and music,’ Diego said, relaxed for the first time since their capture. ‘I’ve some disks, I think. You might just like G&S.’
‘G&S?’
‘Later,’ Diego said.
