Ambassador 4: Coming Home

by Jansen, Patty

  “They will be here before then.”

  “If you say so. But meanwhile we’ll plan as if they won’t, or won’t be much use. All of us will go in armed and ready. There will be no wussing about sparing lives.” I believe she directed that at me. “There will be dead bodies. Ideally, there will be seventeen of them, and none of them will be any of us.”

  Damn, I was starting to feel sick. Ezhya had spoken of how the political fallout and aftermath of this worried him, but I preferred that to a shooting match.

  We divided in smaller groups, each with a clearly defined task. I was with Thayu and Telaris and we were supposed to make our way to the site in as straight a line as possible. Good. We could manage that.

  We were not meant to fire unless in absolute self-defence, at least not before they knew of our location.

  Once on the site, it would be my task to distract the guards with talk, while Sheydu organised the explosives.

  What should I talk about? I asked.

  That was up to me. Whatever I could think of as reason why the three of us would be clambering out of a marsh in the middle of the night.

  Yup. Because that’s what silly gamra delegates do. They take nightly trips and get themselves stranded in places where no one has any reason to be at pretty much any time of the day.

  We went fishing or something, Thayu said.

  Except I didn’t fish.

  Now you do. And you got hungry and there was no fish in the house.

  That’s just lame.

  The purpose is to keep them talking and distract them, not to provide a credible excuse.

  True. But could one even talk to Tamerians?

  So much potential for things to go horribly wrong.

  Several groups split off straight away. Nicha went with Evi, and Reida and Deyu went off together—into town by the look of things. Veyada and Sheydu stayed with us. Sheydu carried her pack with many pockets that bristled with gear. She made an effort to walk lightly, but I guessed the pack was really heavy.

  Our group walked along the beach until we reached a small sandy outcrop where a couple of megon trees grew.

  The megon tree had been found to be an extremely distant relative of the paperbark trees on Earth which in turn had its roots in now-extinct tree species that used to grow on the edges of rivers in Athyl—the Aghyrian first wave colony-seeders never just sent people. They sent entire colonisation packages which included seeds of crops. In its natural state, the tree usually consisted of one or multiple straight trunks with weeping branches, like a wilted, sad-looking pipe-cleaner brush. It also had peeling bark which locals used for making cardboard. But unless cleaned, harvested and pruned, it was a scruffy kind of tree, and the few specimens on the point were every bit typical representatives.

  Because it was the end of the dry season, they were also in flower, and the heavy scent hung over the water. The oil that exuded this scent was sold as a fire retardant all over the settled worlds.

  It also meant that we could not use the trees as cover, because the oil would mess with the firing reliability of our weapons.

  So we stuck to the edge of the sandy beach, where it was very open and exposed and the reeds were low and there was a muddy exposed tidal area where a couple of ringgit did their noisy mating call.

  We rounded the point and were met by the sight of the brightly-lit tent. There were people hanging around outside it, people silhouetted by the bright lights inside, people patrolling the walkway and the bridge from the shore to the train station. The train platform was brightly lit, even though there was no train in sight.

  A shout rang out somewhere at the site.

  And that’s when all hell broke loose.

  Chapter 21

  * * *

  SEVERAL PEOPLE in different parts of the site opened fire in our direction.

  Thayu pushed me down faster than I could drop myself. I landed on my belly in a patch of sand.

  Oof.

  At least it wasn’t mud.

  Charges flew over our heads, bright trails in the darkness that petered out somewhere behind us. One stream hit a branch of a tree a short distance from us. It exploded in a shower of sparks, but they went out long before they hit the ground.

  “Shit,” Thayu said. “They’re doing that on purpose because that’s going to release a lot of oil into the air. I hope Veyada and Sheydu can get their weapons covered in time.”

  Thayu peered in the direction of the trees. She was wearing a pair of infrared goggles without which she would be virtually blind. Of course Tamerians had excellent night vision. We had not yet discovered what their weakness was.

  Evi and Telaris were our night-vision specialists. Evi had gone with Nicha—I had no idea where they were—and Telaris lay on his belly behind a log a few steps in front of us. His gun rested on the log. The safety was off, which I knew because the tiny light on the back of the grip was orange. Telaris concentrated on the headgear that he wore that would be projecting an image that only he could see. He moved the gun accordingly. Apparently someone walked from left to right, but I didn’t see them.

  Someone to the right of us fired at the dig site.

  And again.

  Both charges hit the timber structure that surrounded the white tent. There were no people on this part of the walkway. I guessed the shots had been fired by Sheydu with the heavy gun, in order to take out one of the escape routes from the tent.

  A guard at the walkway returned two shots, but they hit the reed beds harmlessly. At least I hoped. I didn’t know where Evi and Nicha were.

  A couple of people came out of the tent to look. The sound of voices drifted on the night air. I wondered what language they spoke. I wondered what they said. I hadn’t, to date, heard a Tamerian say anything at all.

  They spread out over the walkway, moving slowly, alert, watching and listening.

  Thayu started crawling forward. I was afraid that I’d lose track of her, so I followed close behind. We passed Telaris, who looked like he was going to provide cover for us.

  My heart was thudding like crazy. This sort of stuff was definitely not my thing, although I found myself doing it with disturbing frequency. Each time, when it happened, I had the same thoughts: I should get some training. I should get a heavier gun. The weapon in the bracket on my arm wasn’t even mine. It belonged to the team. I didn’t own any guns, because, you know, guns! but I was rapidly losing count of how many times guns had saved my ignorant, self-righteous butt, and I really, like really, should do something about getting a dedicated, fitted and weighted weapon for myself.

  Next week.

  If, at that time, I was still alive.

  And if I was, I would probably forget about it.

  Until next time.

  I looked over my shoulder, but it was too dark to see any of the others: Telaris and his gun and Veyada and Sheydu.

  I hoped they had everything under control. I was only in contact with Thayu, who told me through the feeder to stop worrying and keep crawling.

  But it was so exposed and they were going to see us.

  We’ve got it all going as planned.

  Glad to know it. Better if I knew how they were going to stop those Tamerians shooting our sorry butts.

  Stop worrying.

  But I had to worry. I was a diplomat, not a commando fighter. Yeah, yeah, I should learn a bit more of this stuff.

  Dog, meet tail.

  A fairly long period followed when we crawled through the reeds. Thayu was going too fast for me to attempt to be silent. I slipped. I got wet—again.

  Two guards stood on the walkway between us and the tent. We could see them clearly because the tent stood out like a bright yellow rectangle with the glow of light inside. Both men were peering into the darkness, clearly expecting trouble. Sometimes one of them stopped and used binoculars or a scanner and transferred the image to a reader. I could see the blue-green glow of the screen. He would look at it and then he would walk a few paces and repeat the p
rocess.

  Maybe they were waiting for reinforcements.

  A moment later that reinforcement arrived. Footsteps echoed in the stillness, and another guard came down the walkway that led to the station. Where had he come from? I hadn’t seen a train arrive. In fact I was positive there hadn’t been a train.

  The new guard passed a few others, greeting them as he continued on, and rounded the corner to the side of the tent that faced us directly, where the two other guards were still peering into the darkness.

  The newcomer said something.

  The two guards turned to him—

  And the new guard fired a gun, twice, in close succession. Both guards fell.

  People shouted all over the site. Heavy footsteps thudded on the wooden walkway. Men came from around the corner.

  Someone else in dark clothing climbed onto the walkway from the reed beds below. This figure moved in a lithe and cat-like manner. Coldi, likely female. I would have thought it was Thayu, but she was still with me. In quick succession, she despatched three of the men, while a fourth was shot by her partner. The Coldi woman was Deyu, and the first fake guard was Reida, of course.

  A flap opened and a guard came from inside the tent.

  He was hit in the chest by a beam from somewhere to our left, towards the water. I hadn’t realised that anyone from our party was out there. In fact, someone fired from our right-hand side and I was almost certain that this was either Nicha or Evi. I couldn’t see Veyada and Sheydu anymore, but they could never have travelled that distance in the short time since they had been with us under the megon trees. They were Coldi. They would never choose to go into the water of their own volition. That shot had come all the way from where the railway tracks were.

  A couple more Tamerians ran to that side of the tent. I saw a weapon being fired somewhere over the water. I saw the streak of light fly over the water. It struck the side of the tent, the walkway and the guards all at once. The walkway collapsed. A man screamed. Something heavy hit the water.

  A guard fled the scene, but a second streak of light hit him. That part of the walkway collapsed, too. Someone was splashing around in the water, calling out, but his voice stopped when a third streak hit him.

  Holy crap, that was some sharp shooter there.

  It seems Reida’s local backup has arrived, Thayu said. Stay close to me. I could feel that she was very cautious about this support.

  I didn’t need to be told twice. Telaris had now also joined us.

  Do you know who these people are? I asked Thayu.

  Pengali is all I can guess. He’s got a lot of friends in places in town where you or I would never get a foot on the ground.

  I figured as much.

  She added, It’s why they’re here that worries me.

  I got that.

  We kept going forward. We hit a patch of reeds where the water was thigh-deep and we had to wade holding our guns above our heads. Just as I was looking forward not to getting wet anymore.

  A tense silence hung over the marshland in which our sopping footsteps sounded incredibly loud. Just as well there weren’t any Tamerian guards left in a position to fight because we were in the open, terribly exposed, with nowhere to go.

  Thayu whistled. Reida or Deyu whistled back. A tiny light went on. Someone whispered, “Quick!”

  Deyu.

  Thayu splashed through the remaining muddy ground to the walkway. She climbed up, helped by an outstretched hand from Deyu.

  “Come up here now.” Thayu stuck a hand over the edge and, when I grabbed it, hauled me up to the level of the railing with one arm. I climbed over the railing. The wooden boards felt dry and solid under my feet after ploughing through that mud. By the muted light that filtered through the tent’s fabric, I could see the muddy state of my boots. For crying out loud, that was two pairs ruined today.

  “Anything going on inside?” I asked.

  There were some thumps from Telaris making his way onto the walkway.

  “It’s been quiet,” Deyu said. “We haven’t been inside yet. These guys were kind of defending the tent.” Not very well, she clearly thought.

  “Where are the others?”

  “Nicha and Evi are on the other side. Sheydu and Veyada are just coming up now.” I followed where she looked with her night vision goggles. She was right. Veyada was just helping Sheydu up.

  “Who was shooting over there?” I gestured at the blackness of the night away from the island where a faint glimmer on moonlight reflected off the water.

  “Just some of our friends.”

  “Pengali?”

  “Anything wrong with that?”

  “Are they in a boat?”

  “No, they’re on the rails.”

  Of the train that went out there. Holy crap. “What if a train comes?”

  “There aren’t many this time of day.”

  True.

  “Pengali are smart and they can climb really well.”

  I formed a mental picture of a bunch of Pengali in tribal outfit perched on the struts that supported the track bed. That would work, if they had a means of getting up there. Except the tribal outfit. They would probably be wearing something sensible and dark. Or, being Pengali and in possession of beautifully-patterned skin, very little at all.

  Thayu walked over to the tent flap, but the body of a Tamerian guard lay in front. “Move him out of the way,” she said to Deyu, who went about doing it, dragging the man by his feet to the far side of the walkway. She was going to push him in the water, but he wouldn’t fit between the boards and the lowest beam on the fence, so she left him there.

  Truly, no one cared about Tamerians. There would be no family—he probably had none—and his body, and that of the others, would most likely be pushed out into mashes on a joint burial float with no gifts and no flowers.

  I didn’t know why I thought about this. I guessed it disturbed me that so many Tamerian deaths had gone unreported and bodies had been left unclaimed. I couldn’t get my head around the fact that no one seemed to care.

  Thayu pushed up her night-vision goggles and peeked through the gap between two pieces of heavy fabric. “There are people inside.”

  Shit. “Are there? What are they doing there?”

  “Right now? Hiding under the tables.”

  “How many?”

  “Sixteen or so. Have a look.”

  She moved aside so that I could get to the flap. I carefully lifted the fabric.

  Around the perimeter of the tent was a second walkway that surrounded a rectangular hole which I presumed to be the dig site. Along much of this walkway stood long tables with light suspended above them. Bathing in the glow were hundreds of flat trays, each containing a thin layer of soil. The lights produced warmth that dried the mud, I guessed.

  At the far end of the tent, opposite from where I stood, a number of people had been picking little fragments out of these trays of dirt, if the vials and tweezers on the table were anything to go by.

  Chairs were strewn over the walkway and the people, wearing coats, facemasks and gloves, cowered under the tables, casting fearful looks to our side of the tent. They were ordinary people, research assistants. Keihu, Pengali, Kedrasi. Just doing their jobs.

  Shit. Getting innocent civilians caught in this project wasn’t part of the plan. That was why we were here at night. I dropped the tent flap into place.

  “What are they doing here at this time of the day?”

  “Don’t ask me,” Thayu said.

  “What are we going to do about them?” Reida had assured me that there were only Tamerians guarding the site at night. Those we could shoot. We had not planned on having to deal with innocent civilians.

  “Move them out before we blow the thing up,” Sheydu said.

  Count on her to make a blunt remark. Never mind that she was right, and never mind how we were going to get them far enough away that they wouldn’t see the explosion and wouldn’t have questions that might get certain people—like
the Barresh Council—to interfere with what we were trying to do. We really couldn’t use witnesses.

  But did we have an option? “All right. Who’s going to do the moving? I don’t want any of us to be recognised.” Evi and Telaris, especially, were well-known in town as my guards. Everyone knew Thayu and Nicha, too.

  “Reida will do it,” Thayu said, having been privy to my thoughts through our feeders and agreeing with them.

  She gestured Reida over. He was quite a sight. Muddy, wet and covered in sticks as we were, carrying a military-style weapon that I was sure wasn’t his and belonged to no one in our household. He was bleeding from a cut to his cheekbone, and his attempt at wiping the blood had only distributed it all over his face.

  Thayu spoke briefly to him in a low voice. I made no attempt to listen in. Most of it would be in spy code. Reida understood. His face looked solemn. He might be keen to measure himself with a Tamerian—and his muscled arms looked so impressive that I would hate to be that Tamerian—but he definitely didn’t see fighting as enjoyable or frivolous. Asha was right. That young man had come a long way, both as a fighter and a provider of mysterious Pengali backup.

  He turned around and held up two fingers.

  Thayu whirled around, aiming her gun at the darkness. With barely any sound, a small figure climbed onto the walkway, followed by a second one. Both female, near-naked, Pengali and carrying fearsome guns.

  They were much smaller than any of us and they regarded us with their huge, roving brown eyes. Both dipped their head in greeting to me. One of them waved her tail over her shoulder in the way Pengali greeted each other.

  I said, “I’m honoured to have your help.” I didn’t speak their language beyond a few words relating to food—another thing on my long if I have some time list.

  Both followed Reida into the tent.

  The people under the table huddled closer together. A keihu man at the front of the group shouted. “Don’t come any closer!” He held a piece of wood.

  “The boss says you have to leave,” Reida said.

  “We’re not going anywhere,” the man said.