Duncan was staring off into space, pondering the strangeness of their experiences since arriving on Kyeinnisan when a rumbling at the edge of the woods made them all come alert and instinctively dive for cover in the underbrush. It was just past dusk, but enough light remained in the field beyond the forest to silhouette the shape of a wheeled armored personnel carrier. The ten-ton vehicle was sweeping the forest and adjoining fields with powerful searchlights. Inside, they knew, seven well-armed Security Force troopers were ready to pop out and begin spraying automatic fire at a moment's notice. The sounds of other APCs could be heard all along the forest edge.
"Looks like they don't want to risk coming in," whispered Bovos to Duncan.
Duncan nodded. "Whoever planned this evening's little entertainment hadn't counted on us being armed. The idea was to arrest us and charge us with some local violation. Maybe even confiscate our DropShip and prize money from Galatea. Then our 'host' could offer to intercede on our behalf if we agreed to accept his contract... or something like that. But we blasted our way out. Those troopers should be itching to get in here and pay back the folks who killed their buddies, but instead they're making a feeble show of searching for us."
"You may be right, but those troopers in the city were carrying gyroslug carbines. You can bet the ones in the APC are toting heavy gyrojet rifles."
"And wearing flak vests and maybe even a whole armored suit," said Duncan, "so pass the word to the others to keep still. If I'm right, they've been told not to try too hard to find us. Let's not give them a target so they have to start shooting."
Bovos knew Duncan was right. The risk to the troopers of coming into the woods after them was acceptable. The flak vests would repeal most small-arms and laser fire. And by now the troopers would know the little group had only small-caliber pistols. The gryojet rifles were more rocket launchers for five small, highly explosive missiles than a standard rifle. In this terrain the gyrojet ammo would have fragmenting tips that would disintegrate, sending out shards in a 180-degree arc. Even with all that going for them, the Kyeinnisan Security Force wasn't hunting them too hard. Flashing spotlights across dense undergrowth wasn't going to find them either unless Duncan and the others were stupid enough to get up and start running. Bovos used hand signals to tell Hawkes and Dawn to stay down.
The Kyeinnisan APCs continued to cruise the area for another hour, but not once did any trooper climb out of a carrier to look for footprints or other signs that their quarry had been in the vicinity. To Duncan that said the troopers knew they couldn't have made it very far on foot from where they'd abandoned the patrol transport. No, the troopers seemed to be satisfied just making a lot of noise and light. Finally, they began to move back toward the city to the east.
"You're the one who knows this place, Duncan," Hawkes said. "Where to now?"
"We'll continue heading west. As far as me knowing my way around, I'm familiar with the city, but that's it. About all I know of the surrounding area is that there are a few villages out here somewhere—I think—and some private estates. Come first light we'll try to find some country roads where the APCs can't travel. We'll just play it by ear." Duncan laughed softly. "Which is what we've been doing all along anyway."
"I was hoping one of those troopers would come in here so I could kill him and take his boots," said Dawn. She had managed to wind some thin, tough vine around her torn boot, but it didn't look like it would hold together for long.
"Let's get some sleep," Duncan said. "Then we'll move out at daybreak." He watched by the light of Kyeinnisan's single moon as each of his comrades began to make a little nest for him or herself. In the moonlight he could still make out enough to see Dawn. He was glad to have her; she could handle a 'Mech and fight and kill as good as any man. Probably better, Duncan corrected himself with a smile.
* * *
"Looks peaceful enough."
"See any antennas or land lines for communications, Bovos?"
"Nope, looks like about ten buildings in all. My guess would be it's some sort of commercial center for folks who live out here in the wild. There's no real way of telling if news of us has reached them or not."
"We need food and different clothing, Dawn needs boots, and it would help to look at a map and learn where the hell we are," said Duncan, "So I guess we'll have to chance it."
"How do you want to play it?"
"We'll just stroll in and, if asked, say our vehicle broke down while we were touring the countryside. I'll wait here while you go back and get the others."
* * *
"Good day to you, sir." The older man seemed friendly and not at all alarmed to see dishevelled strangers somewhat worse for the wear.
"And a pleasant day to you," said Duncan. "Is there a place in this town where weary travelers might find food and maybe buy a few things?"
"Down toward the end of the street Look for the General Merchandise Store."
As Duncan and his companions walked in the direction indicated, villagers passed them with barely a glance. "You know," said Bovos, "if four people walked into my home town, all of them wearing warrior uniforms and on foot, I'd be as curious as all hell."
"Well, I've known plenty of frontier towns where people go out of their way to mind their own business," said Duncan. "This could be one of those, considering how close it is to Luck City, but you've got a point. There. That must be the store up ahead. Let's stay sharp."
The store had a quaint, rural flavor to it. All the necessities of life, from food to clothing to cooking utensils, were for sale—but neither weapons nor maps were on display. Duncan thought that strange. He wouldn't expect the proprietor to carry Class II Intek laser rifles, but he was surprised not to see weapons for hunting and self-protection this far out from the city—however far that was. Of immediate interest were the small tables in the rear of the store next to a refrigeration unit containing food items that looked like they were sold for consumption on the premises.
"What be your pleasure, warrior?" The portly man behind the cooler unit looked like he must have sampled the contents of the cooler case a little too often. He was wearing what reminded Duncan of a butcher's apron.
"A plate of meat, cheese, and bread for my companions and I would do nicely," he said.
"Coming right up. Have a seat and I'll bring it over. And we have some nice, cold beer."
"Beer will be fine."
"Do you sell boots?" asked Dawn. "Something similar to what I am wearing?"
The man pointed toward the front of the store. "My wife will help you find whatever you need."
While Dawn went off in search of boots, Duncan, Hawkes, and Bovos chose a table that gave them a view of the front door of the store, the man behind the food counter, and Dawn. They munched hungrily on the meat and cheese, washing it down with large gulps of beer, while Dawn tried on several pairs of boots.
Apparently satisfied with one of them, she rejoined them, holding a boot in either hand to display her selection. "These should serve very well, quiaff?"
"Anything you—" Hawkes's mouth was still open as his eyes rolled back in his head and he pitched forward onto the table.
Duncan's head began to swim too. He tried to stand and could see Bovos also passing out. "Dawn, we've been drugged ... run!" As his body collapsed under him, the last thing Duncan saw was the proprietor's wife coming up behind Dawn holding what looked like a Nakjama laser pistol. "So you do have weapons here," he gasped and then blackness overtook him.
24
Kispiox Forest
Kyeinnisan
The Protectorate Border, Free Worlds League
9 June 3057
Duncan was surprised. As consciousness began to return he expected to have a roaring headache. He'd been drugged a few times in his checkered past and knew that most knockout potions left behind a blinding headache. What they'd been given was either some local concoction or a sophisticated chemical. Whichever, he was grateful for the lack of pain. Opening his eyes he could see Hawk
es and Bovos lying on the floor near him. They, too, were beginning to come out of it.
"We are in a storeroom at the back of the building."
It was Dawn's voice. Duncan sat up and pushed himself backward across the dusty floor until he could lean against a wall. Looking around in the dim light, he noticed that the room was about three meters long by two meters wide. In the wall opposite him were a window and a door apparently leading outside. The other three walls were lined with shelves stacked with what looked like boxes of merchandise. Hawkes and Bovos were also struggling to sitting positions. As his vision cleared further, Duncan made out Dawn sitting under the window. Her hands and feet looked to be tied with strips of cloth. It was odd that they'd bound her hands in front rather than behind her back.
"Are you all right, Dawn?" he asked hoarsely.
"I am fine. I thought it foolhardy to resist someone pointing a wide-dispersal beam laser who seemed prone to fire rather than fight."
"I thought you Clan types never passed up a chance for a fight."
Dawn shook her head. "You misunderstand the way of the Clans. We did not prosper as a people by rushing blindly into death. Attacking a shopkeeper with a pistol would not have been honorable combat. I made the choice of any thinking warrior."
"I approve of your prudence. I guess we can assume the local gentry did know the Security Force was looking for us. But I don't understand why you're still tied up. With your hands in front of you like that, couldn't you have gotten at the knots with your teeth?"
Dawn smiled. "Observe this." She strained at the cloth bands around her wrists. The cloth gave easily, apparently some kind of elastic material. "Now, you are wondering why, if I could escape with so little effort, I have not done so, quiaff! But you three had not awakened from the drug, I had no place to go without you, and if I got free of these comfortable bonds our captors might have returned and seen fit to make me less comfortable. So I decided to wait for you to wake up. Pity. My dislike of beer, which is where I imagine they put the drug, has robbed me of a refreshing nap."
"A refreshing nap?"
"You do look rested."
Duncan smiled. Dawn was actually showing a sense of humor. Perhaps the big truth session they'd had yesterday had relaxed her guard some. "Has the store owner or his wife been back to check on us?"
"Not once since they put us in this room. Odd, quiaff?"
Duncan stood up with some effort, still feeling a little dizzy. He walked over to the door, saying, "Bovos, check the door into the store. Listen for anyone coming. Dawn ... get yourself loose!"
Hawkes, meanwhile, was checking the window. "It's not even nailed shut," he said.
Duncan raided the knob of the door. "And this door is so flimsy Bovos could open it with one kick. Hell, I could open it with one kick."
Duncan turned to look over his shoulder. "Bovos?"
"I don't hear a thing. No one's in the store—or else they're not making any sounds."
"How about outside, Hawkes?"
"Twenty meters of open ground, some storage buildings here and there, then more forest. Can't see anyone."
"A sophisticated drug that knocks you out with no ill effects, Dawn bound with elastic cloth, a room that wouldn't hold a child captive, no guards, and a clear escape route. What do your powers of deduction tell you now, Dawn?"
"Someone wants us to escape, Duncan."
"Let's oblige them. Bovos, would you be so kind?"
"What?"
"The other door, please."
Bovos walked the length of the room. With a single hit of his double fists the latch sprang open, the lock thrown from its casing.
"C'mon, people, let's go," said Duncan, but he hadn't taken more than a few steps through the door before freezing in his tracks. He heard something, and the sound was unmistakable ... a BattleMech!
"I hear it too," said Hawkes.
"Dawn, you and Bovos wait for us over at the edge of the woods. Hawkes and I will go check this out."
The two men eased along the rear of the store until they came to a side road leading to the main street. Keeping close to the side of the building they stood and watched for a few moments.
Down the road, in the same direction from which they'd entered the village, stood a light 'Mech—a Wasp. Next to it was a ground transport. Both bore the markings of the Kyeinnisan Security Force. The troopers were chatting sociably with some locals, who were providing them with cold beer.
Duncan winked at Hawkes. "I wonder if it's drugged?"
* * *
"I'm hungry," said Bovos, but Duncan knew he spoke for them all.
It had been two days since he and Hawkes had slipped back into the store and grabbed some clothing plus a few loaves of bread and some tins of vacuum-packed meat before rejoining Dawn and Bovos at the forest's edge. That meager fare was now long gone. Since then they'd continued traveling, just to keep on the move, sticking to narrow woody trails where vehicles couldn't maneuver. Occasionally, they heard a 'Mech or an APC behind them on the main road.
"This is getting stranger and stranger," Duncan said. "If any of you were in command of the Security Force trying to find us, what would you do?"
"Disperse my troops to box you into these woods and then tighten the perimeter until I was on top of you," said Hawkes.
"Exactly. With all the troops and vehicles the Kyeinnisan Security Force is fielding, they could have surrounded us by now and then closed in. But they haven't tried that or anything like it ... not once. They keep to the south of us, to the north of us, and behind us. But the west is always open. They could have had us back in that village while we were still out cold. Instead, they dawdled around drinking beer, giving us time to wake up and escape.
"The village must have been just a means to find out where we were," Duncan mused. "They didn't know precisely where we'd entered the woods or what direction we were going. So they alerted little villages like that to sound the alarm when we showed up."
"Precisely. The locals got all hyped up and slipped us a drug. They let us escape because they wanted to get us heading west. They've kept on three sides of us for two days."
"They're herding us like cattle," said Bovos, "but to where?"
Before Duncan could answer, they heard the sound of someone approaching. A few seconds later Dawn came into view, moving carefully up the little trail toward them. Duncan had been so involved in the discussion that he hadn't even missed her. "Dawn, where the hell have you been?"
"I found something," she said. "A large wire fence about a hundred and fifty meters from here."
"A government installation of some kind?"
"I do not think so. There are signs at regular intervals.
And there is a symbol but no words. A short distance inside the fence is an orchard." Dawn reached into the pocket of her jacket and produced three pieces of fruit.
"Well, Bovos," Duncan said, "breakfast is served, courtesy of Dawn." He turned back to her. "I guess the fence wasn't electrified or you couldn't have climbed it."
"Neg, the fence is not electrified nor did I have to climb it. A hole has been cut in it big enough to walk through without having to bend over."
"Sounds like an invitation to me. Dawn, lead the way. Gentlemen, shall we continue our morning stroll?" Following Dawn back up the trail, they were nearly out of the woods before catching sight of the fence. It was a heavy-gauge linked-mesh type not quite two meters tall. As Dawn had said, someone had cut a meter-wide flap in the wire and pulled it back so a person could step through without effort.
"There's the sign," said Hawkes.
Duncan looked to the right of the opening in the fence. The sign was a half-meter wide by a meter in length. On it was the representation of a deep blue shark against a sea of red resting on top of a staff. "What in the hell is that?"
"Beats me. I've never see it before," said Hawkes.
"I have," said Dawn coldly.
"So ... give ... what is it?"
"It has not bee
n seen in many hundreds of years," said Dawn. "Not since the time of the Star League."
"The Star League?" Hawkes virtually whistled the words under his breath.
Bovos suddenly pointed toward the trees. "We have company," he said.
Duncan looked beyond the fence and saw some troops or guards trying to conceal themselves among the trees where Dawn had apparently gotten the fruit. He didn't recognize the pale green uniforms the men were wearing. Whoever they were, they were definitely not Kyeinnisan Security Force Troopers.
Dawn's eyes had narrowed to angry slits as she stared from the symbol to the guards and back again. "They have no right," she was muttering angrily.
"Now what?" Hawkes fingered the small pistol stuck into his belt.
"Let's go introduce ourselves," said Duncan, ducking through the opening in the fence, then heading straight for the half-concealed soldiers. The others followed.
Duncan walked slowly but confidently in the direction of the orchard. Hawkes moved up along to his right. Dawn and Bovos came up on his left. They stopped less than ten meters from the orchard and looked at the soldiers, who suddenly realized their presence was no secret. One of the soldiers came forward. Unlike the others he carried no rifle or large weapon, just a holstered sidearm. He also wore what Duncan figured was officer's rank on the epaulets of his jacket.
"Hello there," Duncan said cheerily. "Looks like you've been expecting us ..."
* * *
"Our ship is clear of guards, Captain."
"Very good, Lieutenant," Trane told Auramov, but he couldn't help worrying about Duncan and the others. He kept telling himself it was because the success of the mission depended on their well-being, but it was more than that. Duncan might be an amateur, but he was one damned talented amateur. He could have stayed out of the Games on Galatea, but he'd fought bravely and well. As had Hawkes, Bovos, and Dawn.
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