The Rift Rider

by Mark Oliver

  Bei and Awani joined in the small man's laughter. Charlie stood closed-mouthed, silently envisaging the ride rising uncontrollably into the sky, before sending his frozen corpse out into space.

  Chapter 12

  Back inside Tills den, Bei ran over the plan. Charlie idly rubbed the left side of his jaw. Awani had torn out a molar and replaced it with the tooth chip. She had anaesthetised him, so the whole operation passed without pain. But the tooth still felt alien in his mouth and he worried how much it would hurt when he pulled it out. Opposite him, Awani flashed a perfect smile, the gap left by the tooth chip already filled with a golden molar.

  "Hey Charlie," Bei said in a stern teacher's voice. "Are you paying attention?"

  "Yes," Charlie said. "When we get to the palace I follow your lead."

  "Just make sure you know how to get out of there. I won't be able to come in and get you. When you escape, Lady Ori can't know I've got anything to do with it."

  Charlie nodded. The plan sounded simple enough. Get in, get what he needed, and get out. Though there was one point Bei had been a little vague about. "So how exactly will I be entertaining Lady Ori?"

  Bei looked at Charlie and coughed. "Like I said, she just likes to have a lot of good looking men around her all the time. Just laugh at her jokes, fetch whatever she wants, and massage her shoulders whenever she asks."

  "And that's all?"

  "Should be," he said. "Nobody ever talks about what goes in there, so it's difficult to predict." Beside him, Awani folded her arms and turned her eyes to the floor.

  "Just keep her happy," Bei said. "When you get close enough to access her tablet, slip the tooth in, upload the data, decode it, download it and slip it out. Simple. Then get the hell out of there."

  "Got it," Charlie said. "And then you'll take me to Brother Yojim?"

  "On my word," Bei said. "Awani should have found him by then. Right, Awani?"

  Awani nodded. "My contacts in the resistance will know how to contact him. And if his message to you was right, he'll already be looking for you."

  "Now," Bei said, handing Charlie a brown, shell-shaped piece of plastic. "Put this in your ear."

  Charlie took it.

  Bei placed a partner piece in his own ear. "We can communicate using the comm shells. Just say the words without voicing them. The shells will pick up the vibrations. They've got a range of two miles. I'll be hiding out on the edge of the city while you work."

  Charlie slipped the shell into his ear. It fit snuggly inside. "And if there's serious trouble, you'll come and rescue me."

  "I'll do my best," Bei said. "But I make no promises. If her mercenaries see me coming back, they'll know something is up. They're a trigger-happy, shoot first, ask questions later, bunch of bastards. I'd likely be dead within minutes of breaching their security. Once you're inside the palace gates, you'll need your wits and your balls to get back out again." Bei slapped Charlie's shoulder. "Don't worry. I've got faith in you, Charlie."

  Charlie smiled weakly. "Thanks."

  "Oh," Bei said. "I almost forgot." He lifted his right hand and squeezed it into a fist. The hidden blade slid out smoothly, emerging from a patch of skin behind his knuckles. It came out about five inches. The patch of blade closest to Bei's skin was coated in green slime.

  Bei spat on the back of his hand. He rubbed the phlegm onto the base of the blade and the skin around it. A few seconds later his arm, from wrist to elbow, rippled wildly, as if infested by worms. The blue man grabbed the flat sides of the blade and tugged gently. The blade slid out completely, trailed by a dozen green tentacles.

  Bei held it up for Charlie to see. The slimy tentacles curled and snaked beneath it. "I want you to have it."

  Charlie grimaced.

  "It's harmless," Bei said, showing him his already healing right hand. "To the person wearing it anywhere."

  "How does it work?"

  "Simple. Once I slide it in the tentacles will hold it in place. Whenever you need it, just clench your fist extra tight. To retract just flatten you hand. Every time it slides in and out the tentacles release an anaesthetic.""

  "It's got your blood on it."

  "Don't be so squeamish," Bei said. "I've got no diseases. I'm not that kind of smuggler. Anyway, the tentacles keep it sterilised."

  When Charlie said nothing, Bei raised his eyebrows, and said, "You saw what the blade did on the destroyer. That's robundee steel, right there. It can cut through anything. It'll come in useful if you have any trouble, I promise you,"

  Charlie held up his right hand. "Put it in." Bei was right. He needed a weapon.

  "That's the spirit," Bei said, and rammed the blade into the back of Charlie's hand.

  Charlie's scream lasted the two seconds it took for the blade to anesthetize his hand. Charlie watched the tentacles slime their way down the blade and into his arm, pulling the slick metal in with them. He felt nothing.

  "Feeling will come back in a minute or two." He smiled. "Go on, try it out."

  Charlie gripped his hand, and the blade shot out. He threw some punches at the air in front of him, got into, and tried out a few combinations he had copied from some Van Damme movies. He grinned. "Cool."

  Awani rolled her eyes, and said, "You men and your toys."

  Bei's amber eyes turned serious. He placed a blue hand on Charlie's shoulder and kept it there until he had finished speaking. "The Corporation plans to end our revolt for good. Their confidence is high and we need to know why. That chip has the answers. I know we aren't your people, Charlie. To you we must seem a strange bunch, living in a world we no doubt messed up by ourselves. But I sense something good and honest and brave in you. I know you'll do the right thing."

  Charlie swallowed. "I'll do my best."

  The amber eyes regarded him steadily. "I just hope that's enough."

  Seenthee's two moons were high in the sky when they climbed out of the bunker. Tills had brought the two rocket rides up a secret lift and set them to hover mode. Under the white moonlight they looked like two sharks poised to attack.

  "Beautiful," Bei said.

  "I suppose it's too much to expect to get them back in one piece," Tills said, strapping a bag of technological goodies and medical supplies to the back of Bei's ride.

  "We'll do our best," Bei said. "It'd be sacrilege to see them come to any harm."

  Charlie was more concerned with himself to coming to harm.

  "Keep the rides about two metres of the floor," Tills said. "At that height the planet's magnetic pull will stabilise your flight. Any higher and you risk losing control."

  Bei flashed a grin at Tills. "Sounds fun."

  Charlie frowned. He experienced an unpleasant sensation passing through his bowels.

  "Good luck," Awani said, handing him a bug-eyed pair of goggles.

  Charlie smiled, thanked her and slipped them on.

  "I'll be waiting for you in Jajag city," she said, and leant forward, kissing him softly on the cheek.

  A thrill ran through him. He coughed and, forgetting his fears, said, "I'm looking forward to it."

  "You should be," she said, smiling a mischievous smile.

  Even covered head to foot in animal fur, with the cold wind whipping at his nose, Charlie felt a delightful trembling down below.

  Bei got on his ride, removed his glove and pressed his hand against the blue activation slab. It hummed to life. He pulled on the accelerator and the ride rose into the air.

  Charlie took a deep breath, slung a leg over his ride and activated it. He twisted the accelerator as Bei had done. The ride jolted upwards, spinning wildly as it rose. Charlie screamed, gripping the accelerator even tighter and sending it in ever increasing circles. He squeezed his legs tight around the rocket's body, holding on for dear life.

  "Ease up on the accelerator and grip the stabiliser," Bei called over.

  "What?" Charlie shouted.

  "Twist the control on the other handle bar."

  Charlie did and the ride im
mediately came under his control. It took a lot longer to control his racing heart.

  "You okay?" Awani said, looking up at him.

  Charlie nodded, coercing his lips into a smile.

  She smiled back, and blew him a kiss.

  Charlie raised a gloved hand. He hoped he would see this beautiful alien girl again.

  "Here we go," Bei said. He revved the ride's rocket engine, igniting its rear in blue and red. He smiled, and shot forwards in a colourful blur.

  Charlie swallowed, closed his eyes, said to himself, "it's no different from the Hobbit," pulled back the accelerator, and rocketed after the blue man. Charlie kept his eyes locked on the trail of dust ahead of him. The acceleration was terrific. Like a giant invisible hand, it pinned him down against the cooled surface of the ride.

  With the ride humming pleasantly beneath his chest and the wind whipping over him, Charlie's fears gradually faded and he began to enjoy himself. He hurtled across the desert, increasing his speed, as he grew more adventurous. The barren floor raced beneath him in a blur of browns and greys.

  Charlie caught up with Bei's ride. He twisted his head and, brimming with satisfaction, grinned at the blue man. Bei returned his smile, his lips and cheeks flapping in the gusting wind.

  The distant mountains loomed ahead. Beyond them lay their destination, Het City, the personal fiefdom of Lady Ori. As they rode, Bei and Charlie communicated to each other through the shell communication devices in their ears. Despite the whizzing and whirring of the wind blowing past them, they could hear each other clearly. They ran over the mission once more and then Bei told Charlie about Lady Ori, one of the most powerful women outside of the Corporation.

  Through hacking, blackmail and insider trading she had acquired great wealth and even greater power. She was one of a handful of independent leaders that ruled, with the Corporation's permission, the more barren or secluded sections of the continental belts. The Corporation called them Special Appointments but the rest of the turen population called them monarchs.

  They ruled their fiefdoms with a whip in one hand and an energy blaster in the other. A handful of lucky turen worked in their palaces. The rest worked in mines or under the baking light of Veiga, harvesting resources to be sold to the Corporation.

  In time, the two men's conversation faded, both content to ride in silence. As they flew across the moonlight desert plain, Charlie's mind lay full and alert and he experienced the cool, sharp mindfulness that came to him when riding a wave. For now all thoughts of home and fears about what was to come had drifted into the far corners of his mind.

  He breathed in and out and, feeling the rush of speed flow through him, smiled.

  Chapter 13

  By the time they reached Het City, the two moons had dropped below the horizon, and the planet's giant star hung in their place. The sky was a hazy carpet of reds and pinks. The city below it was somewhat less spectacular. It crawled out of the desert like a grey, angular, multi-limbed beast that looked on the verge of losing its fight fo survival.

  To the rear of the city, four gleaming spires emerged, like jewelled spikes, from what at that distance appeared to be giant rock, but on closer inspection was a series of ring walls. At their centre stood the palace of Lady Ori, its splendid wealth safely defended from the rest of the city.

  The temperature had risen with the rising star. The two riders came to a stop. The climbed out of their suxo suits. The tang of the escaping body odour brought a grimace to Charlie’s face. They packed the furs away in the holdall strapped to the back of Bei's ride.

  Charlie shifted uncomfortably on his seat. He badly needed to take a shit.

  He told Bei and the blue man laughed. "You'll have to wait until you get to the palace. You're liable to catch something nasty if you pull your trousers down out here."

  Charlie moaned.

  Bei looked out across the city and at the palace walls. "Once we're inside the walls, we talk face to face. I don't want to arouse any suspicion. Understood?"

  Charlie nodded.

  As they negotiated their rides around the derelict, rubbish-filled streets of Het City, Charlie tried not to think about the pressure building up in his bowels. He hoped they would get to the palace soon. He doubted Lady Ori would want him if he walked in with soiled trousers.

  The turen they passed were a sorry, ragged, miserable bunch. They looked like the cast of a zombie movie. Only these zombies were multi-coloured, occasionally furred and too downbeat to bother frothing at the mouth. Charlie turned his head away, focusing on the road. A guilty feeling filled his belly, though he could not say why. These aliens have got nothing to do with me, he told himself.

  Once they got within a mile of the palace, the broken streets widened and straightened into tree-lined boulevards, filled with smart, healthy looking aliens, shopping and idling away their days in cafes. The sudden change in environment shocked him.

  Charlie saw no beggars here. And the hundreds of flowers planted alongside the pavements or dangling villa walls drowned out the smell of decay and shit that permeated the rest of the city.

  "This is where the Lady Ori's inner circle live," Bei said.

  On the outskirts, the local transport had been in the form of wheeled carts hauled by six-legged, humped cow-like animals. However, inside the inner boulevards Charlie saw an array of flying vehicles. Bei called them hovercrafts. But, in Charlie's opinion, the name hovercraft did them no justice at all. They looked like flying BMWs.

  The closer they got to the palace walls, the taller they loomed over them. They had been constructed out of boulders that could have come straight from Stonehenge. In the middle of the wall stood a gate, beautifully crafted, golden and guarded by a dozen heavily armed men and women.

  "Mercenaries," Bei said. "Let me do the talking."

  Bei and Charlie powered down their rides, coming to a stop in front of the palace guards. They greeted the two riders with raised barrels and pissed off looks.

  "We're here to see Lady Ori," Bei said, throwing one of them his identification card. "Tell her Bei Lowaiki has come to pay off his debt."

  A guard caught the ID card and disappeared through the crowd. Charlie stood on tip toes so he could see where the man went. The guard passed through the outer gate and kept walking until he came to a great hulk of a man sitting in front of the last set of gates.

  The huge man reminded Charlie of the bouncers he had grown up trying to outwit as an under-aged clubber. He had a head like a fridge. It sat upon a hulking chest, the man appearing to have no need for neck. A pair of monstrous pecs hovered over a great, round belly. It was a gut any beer drinking man would have been proud of.

  The square-headed guard stood up, revealing freakishly out of proportion legs. They were as thick as tree trunks but accounted for barely a quarter of the man's total height. It was as if someone had chopped his legs off at the knees, cleaved his feet off and reattached them to the stumps.

  He waddled, duck-like, through the opening gates, and stopped in front of Bei and Charlie. A thick purple cigar protruded from the corner of his mouth. He rolled it into the centre of his mouth, took a deep draw of it, exhaled a plume of orange smoke through his nose and rolled it back to its spot in the corner.

  In his hand, he held a chunky walkie-talkie. When he spoke into it, the fat cigar jiggled lightly. "Your Ladyship, we have a Bei Lowaiki here asking for an audience." A pause while he listened to the response. "That's right. Smooth looking customer with a high opinion of himself." He ran cold, dark eyes over Charlie's face. "He's got a young gentleman with him. You would like him." Another pause. Then, he slid the walkie-talkie back into the holder on his belt. "Follow me," he said, handing Bei back his identification card.

  "Wait," Bei said. "We're not leaving our rides out here. No offence, but I don't trust any of you mercenaries with these classics."

  "Go get them," Square Head grunted. "But walk them in. I don't want any funny business."

  They pushed the hovering r
ocket rides through the gates, keeping a few steps behind the square-headed guard. Charlie glanced upwards. The palace walls towered over him. It made him queasy.

  "What's the deal with the walkie-talkies?" Charlie asked Bei. "They seem a little out-dated."

  "Lady Ori's a smart one," Bei said. "She keeps all her communications non-digital. Doesn't want the Corporation or any other monarch hacking her."

  A squadron of five mercenaries joined their party, surrounding Bei and Charlie. Unlike the Corporation soldiers, these wore no uniform, and had no ridiculous hairstyles. In fact, except for Square Head, each man and woman in the troop had the good looks of models.

  "Lady Ori likes to be surrounded by beautiful people," Bei said, noticing Charlie checking out their escort.

  Square Head led them through a ten metre wide hole in the side of the Palace, and down into a sparsely lit basement. It stretched a long way into the distance. Hovercraft were parked sporadically around it, ranging in size from mini metro to articulated lorry. A number of spacecraft, similar in shape and size to the Bane Flyer, also stood at the far end. Charlie wondered how the pilots got them in and out.

  They parked their rides as close to the entrance as possible, selecting a spot between two chunky, heavily armed, spider-legged vehicles. As Bei had instructed, Charlie made a mental note of his ride's location and the layout of the basement. When he next saw it, he would be leaving in a hurry and could ill afford forgetting where he had parked it.

  Fifty metres away, they entered an extravagantly marbled lift, at odds with the oily, dusty darkness of the basement. As they rode upwards, delicate strings drifted out of the lift's speakers. It sounded lovely.

  They stepped out of the lift and into a vibrant semi-circle of greens and reds and yellows. Flowers, arranged in curling patterns, and bushes, trimmed to resemble various alien animals, filled the garden.

  Charlie sneezed. He shot his eyes up to the sky, half expecting a roller to come surging down. But then he realised it was most probably his hay fever playing up. Again his stomach rumbled, reminding him of the need to go. He took a deep breath and tried to think of something else.