Poisoned Pawn

by Jaleta Clegg

  “And when they check the ship records?” Jasyn stood near him, out of the way of the men hauling crates out of the ship.

  “They will find a lease agreement, signed two months ago.” Lowell pulled the collar of his tan jumpsuit straight.

  “Do you think of everything?” Jasyn asked.

  “It’s what I’m paid to do. And if anyone asks,” he said, glancing down at the name tag on her uniform, “we aren’t related.” He grinned as he left the cockpit.

  She sat in her chair. The ship was shut down, the essential systems in sleep mode. A single pair of lights glowed green on the main board. Everything else was dark. She ran a finger along the edge of the nav board and promised herself that she would come back. “With Dace,” she added in a whisper.

  “They’re ready,” Clark said, interrupting her.

  She stood and walked through the door into the lounge. Clark blocked her way. She looked up at him.

  “You want to say something?” Jasyn asked.

  “I admire your courage, Jasyn.”

  “For what?”

  “For standing up for Dace. For lots of things.”

  “Is there a point to this, Clark?”

  He bent forward and kissed her lightly. She stared at him, shocked. His face turned red. He mumbled an apology and fumbled for the door.

  “Clark?” Her voice was carefully neutral.

  “I’m sorry, Jasyn. I shouldn’t have presumed.”

  She stopped him by putting her hand over his mouth. “Why did you do that?”

  “Because you are the most intriguing woman I’ve ever met,” he said, his lips moving over her fingers as he talked. “Because you are loyal to a fault. Because you give friendship only to a few people. And because I want to be one of those people.” He paused, moving her hand away gently. “And because I fell in love with you way back on Dru’Ott.”

  She kissed him then, a promise of the future. She stepped around him, thumbing open the hatch. He was barely breathing, stunned by her reaction.

  “They’re waiting for us. And I think I started falling for you then, too.” She grinned mischievously. “Especially after you started wearing those tight pants.”

  Jasyn spent the afternoon watching Lowell’s men load three different flitters. Box after box left the cargo hold of the ship, carried into the waiting flitters by Lowell’s men.

  Burundia was not what she had expected. The landing field was just a field, currently covered by short nubby grass. The heat of landing had shriveled most of the grass near the ship. There were trees, stunted and single, but they produced some shade. Jasyn sat on a big rock under one and picked twigs apart while she watched the loading.

  There were only a handful of ships on this side of the field. Most of them had Planetary Survey blazoned on the side. There were a couple of small traders. The Phoenix didn’t stand out as anything unusual. The port representative had come out to visit them, clipboard in hand. One of Lowell’s men had talked with him, acting as if he were in charge. The man signed papers and the representative went away, satisfied.

  Everyone else had a job to do, Jasyn noticed. Even Sector Chief Querran was busy tracking crates. Jasyn had been told to sit in the shade and be patient when she’d offered to help. She got the distinct impression that she was in the way. So she sat and shredded twigs.

  On the very far side of the field were more ships, sleek personal yachts for very rich people. The landing field over there was plascrete and fenced away from the rest. She saw glimpses of buildings through the trees crowding the fence. It was hot. The air was dry. She pushed sweaty strings of hair out of her eyes.

  Lowell came out of the ship and crossed over to her. He looked as cool as ever. He handed her a map.

  “Why does the new camp cook get a map?” she asked, squinting at him.

  “Because everyone needs to know how to get help,” Lowell said. “In case something should happen.”

  She studied the map.

  The space port, what there was of it, was located on the equator in the middle of a desert area, according to the map key. She looked around at the grass and trees and decided it might qualify as a desert. Planetary geography was not one of her specialties.

  The planet had two major continents, enormous land masses separated by wide oceans. The smaller continent, the one without the space port, was marked off into unequal spaces. The other continent, by far the largest, was also sectioned off. Diagonally across the larger one from the spaceport were a series of red marks. She turned the map and looked closer. One of them was labeled main camp. Three others were spaced in a semicircle roughly ten miles apart. They were labeled study areas. In the middle of them all was a single red star. And nothing else. She applied herself to memorizing the major landforms between the red star and the spaceport.

  They took off near sunset. She was put into a flitter, flown by a man she didn’t know. Lowell took the seat on one side of her, Sector Chief Querran took the other. They lifted into a sky blazing with sunset color and flew into the night.

  Jasyn fell asleep after a while, her head slipping to land on Lowell’s shoulder. He shifted it to a more comfortable position and let her sleep. Querran went to sleep, too, leaning against the far window.

  Jasyn woke hours later, stiff and embarrassed to find herself leaning on Lowell. She sat up, rubbing her neck. The sky was now bright with sunrise.

  “We’re almost there,” Lowell said.

  She peered over him, out of the window. Unbroken forest stretched below them like fuzzy green carpet. Far away, very far away to the south, a chain of mountains caught clouds like misty hair. The rising sun tinted them pink.

  The flitter descended, spiraling down. Jasyn sat back in her seat and pulled her belt tight. Wind pushed them briefly sideways. The trees below rushed up at them. At the last second, a meadow opened below. The pilot set the flitter down with barely a bounce. She moved to get out. Lowell stopped her with his hand, gently holding her in her seat.

  Two other flitters set down on either side of them, kicking up dust. After their engines shut off, Lowell unbuckled his belt and slid the door open. The thick smell of pine trees and meadow grass and morning filled the flitter. They climbed out, stretching kinked muscles.

  “I’m looking for Lowell,” a man called out, hurrying over from the other side of the meadow where bubble shelters were set up.

  Lowell went to greet the man. They talked together, the man waving his arms around, for quite some time. Meanwhile, Lowell’s ever efficient team unloaded the flitters. Boxes labeled food and other supplies were carried across the meadow to the bubbles. She knew most of them had weapons in them. And the scanning equipment. It all looked so innocent. It amused her, in a twisted sort of way. She walked over behind Lowell.

  The man saw her and clammed up. Lowell turned his head to her.

  “Your new camp cook,” he said, drawing Jasyn beside him.

  “Who is she really, Lowell?” the man asked.

  “She can cook. Does the rest really matter?”

  “You know you’re disrupting real research for this.” The man wore a pale green EcoSystems uniform. “I shouldn’t let you do this at all.”

  “You’re being well paid, and you have the full cooperation and use of quite a few Planetary Survey engineers and scientists.” Lowell scratched his ear.

  “And what about our data sets? What about the time we are going to lose? You’re going to disrupt the ecosystem for quite a while.” The man slapped his clipboard against his leg. “Last time I let you ‘help’ me, I lost the grant.”

  “You should have told me, Trey,” Lowell said. “I could have fixed it for you.”

  “Not everyone appreciates your help, Lowell,” Jasyn said.

  The man shifted his attention to her. “Can you really cook? It’s going to get hard around here if we have to go on ration bars. Lowell tends to bring too many people with him. Without thinking through all of the logistics.”

  “I can cook,” sh
e said, surprised by his assessment of Lowell.

  “Trey, this is Jasyn. Jasyn, Trey.” Lowell waved them at each other. “How about you get acquainted and complain about me while I get things organized?” He smiled brightly as he went back to the flitters.

  “He’s definitely an odd one. We do have a field kitchen set up,” Trey said, switching the subject. “I hope you brought supplies. I’ve only got enough food for the twelve of us that are supposed to be here.”

  “I don’t think we’ll be here long,” Jasyn said. From the look of the equipment Lowell’s men were unpacking, they could start a small war.

  “That’s going to wreak havoc with the bushies,” Trey griped. “The animals we’re studying here. Not the little furry ones you find everywhere. We’re studying the big ones that eat the little ones. It’s a game with the rich people who own the planet to hunt them. Most of them have several dozen pelts on their walls. Makes me sick.” He started towards the bubble shelters.

  Jasyn hesitated and then followed him. Lowell had just told her to stick with Trey, she’d better do it. Lowell was busy anyway. He and Querran had their heads together over something. She caught a glimpse of Clark hauling crates with the rest of them. Trey was still spouting off about the bushies, whatever they were.

  “Why all the weapons?” Trey asked, pausing at the entrance to a shelter. He frowned at the portable missile launcher Lowell’s men were unpacking. “That’s definitely off limits here.”

  “Lowell hasn’t told you why he’s here?”

  “Something to do with some crime ring,” Trey said offhandedly. “I don’t get the news often. I haven’t heard of anything big lately. This is the kitchen. Breakfast hasn’t been served yet.” He flipped his clipboard against his leg. “Fix whatever you want. Let me know if you need anything.” He was gone before she could even open her mouth.

  Jasyn looked around the kitchen at the assortment of mismatched pans and stacks of cans and packets of dried rations, most labeled with the Survey leaves. The portable stove looked as if it hadn’t been cleaned in decades. Five rickety tables sat on the uneven floor. She put her hands on her hips and tried to decide where to start.

  Muttering a highly imaginative description of Lowell’s ancestry, she began by sorting the supplies. She was in the middle of scrubbing the tables and the stove when men started drifting in, looking hungry. Most of them drifted back out when they saw cleaning in progress. A skinny woman, tall and all angles, planted herself in the middle of the room.

  “What are you doing in my kitchen?” she demanded.

  “Cleaning it,” Jasyn answered.

  “Who are you?”

  “My name is Jasyn and Lowell says I’m the new camp cook.” She added a few muttered words about Lowell.

  “You can make something real for a change, then. The men are tired of ration bars.” The woman turned around and left.

  Jasyn slopped soapy water over the stove. Black bits floated across the floor in a dirty stream. At least the kitchen included a tap for running water. Jasyn didn’t want to think about where the water came from. It looked clean enough and she wasn’t going to worry. A growing chorus of complaints filtered into the tent from the crowd outside. No one dared open the door and look inside.

  Lowell finally came in. He watched her finish scrubbing the stove. She reached for a pot. They were clean. Most of them looked as if they had rarely been used. She filled the pot with water and put it on the stove. The stove spit and sputtered before finally glowing.

  “Do you want help?” Lowell asked.

  She shot him a glare.

  He grinned. “You wanted to be included,” he reminded her.

  She dug through the supplies. She lifted big bags onto the tables. “How many do I have to feed and for how long?”

  “Somewhere around thirty, and maybe a week.”

  “You arranged this on purpose.” She ripped open a package.

  “I’ll let you think that if it helps.”

  Trey came barging through the door, clipboard banging on his leg. “Why haven’t you fixed breakfast yet? It’s three hours late. My schedule is…”

  Jasyn told him where he could put his schedule. His mouth opened in shock. Lowell smothered a laugh by coughing.

  “Just cook it soon, and don’t be late with meals again,” Trey said in full retreat out the door.

  “Let me help,” Lowell said. “Just give me a spoon and tell me what to stir.”

  She handed him a spoon and pointed at the pot that was now steaming. “Keep stirring. And I hope I’ve got this right. I usually cook for a lot fewer.” She poured the contents of the packet into the pot. The mixture bubbled as it thickened. Lowell stirred, watching Jasyn with a curious look. She rummaged through the pile and picked out three more packets. She measured out a handful of brown spice from one packet and added it to the pot along with the dried fruit in the other two packets. Lowell kept stirring.

  Jasyn searched until she found eating dishes, a stack that looked as if they hadn’t been used much. She stuck them on a table and then went to the door.

  “Food,” she announced.

  The men followed her into the shelter. Lowell cheerfully dished up the stuff in the pot. The men ate it and seemed happy enough. Trey came in last, frowning and banging his clipboard until he tasted it.

  “Real food,” he murmured. “Next time, Lowell, you have to provide me with a cook. Forget the scientists. They can’t keep a schedule and they definitely can’t cook.” He wandered away, clipboard forgotten while he ate.

  “I get extra for this,” Jasyn told Lowell. “Do you do dishes, too?”

  “Today,” Lowell said. “Tonight we are moving out to the study areas.”

  “What’s at the red star?” Jasyn asked.

  “A house, or so the report says.” He dished up the last of the stuff in the pot, two bowls, and handed one to Jasyn. “You stay here. I’ll send for you if I need you.”

  “As long as you do dishes, today,” she said.

  He grinned and ate his breakfast.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Rinth came for me at lunch. I hunched in the chair. I didn’t want to face Luke.

  “You will come now,” Rinth said in his high monotone.

  “Tell Luke I won’t come. I’m through playing his game.” I pulled my knees up, tucking my chin onto them.

  “You are late. You will come now.”

  I stared stubbornly out the window.

  “You will come now,” Rinth repeated. He shuffled his large hairy feet.

  I ignored him.

  He came down the steps and took my arm. I glared, pulling back. His hand was like a station grappling arm. I couldn’t budge him. He pulled me off the couch, dragging me up the steps.

  “You will come now,” he repeated over and over as he dragged me down the hall.

  I scrambled next to him, my arm screaming in pain in the grip of his thick-fingered hand. I managed to make it to my feet. I had to hurry, half running just to keep pace. Rinth pulled me as if I weighed nothing. He dragged me into the dining room and deposited me on the carpet inside the door.

  Luke frowned from his seat at the table. Lopei was there along with three other men I didn’t know. I got to my feet with what little dignity I could muster. I was barefoot, dressed in the most concealing clothing I could find in the closet. There wasn’t much that wasn’t low cut or sleeveless or slit up the sides. I did my best.

  “Go change, Miya,” Luke ordered. “You displease me, and embarrass me in front of my guests.” He dismissed me with that cold comment.

  “Rinth gave me no time to change,” I said. It was true enough.

  Luke glanced from me to the furry lump behind me. He smiled, a calculated look that left his eyes cold. “Then you may join me. Rinth will be punished.”

  Rinth gave off high pitched whining noises and scuttled away. If he’d had a tail, it would have been between his legs.

  I took a seat at the table, as far from Luke as
I could get. His smile turned to a leer.

  “Miya, you look tired. Did I wear you out last night?”

  Lopei gave me a suggestive grin. Another man at the table sniggered.

  “No, Luke, you couldn’t wear out a…”

  “You will regret this.” He cut me off.

  “No more games, Luke. I want to go home.” I stabbed the food that had been placed in front of me, shoving it across the plate.

  “Perhaps your father would pay more quickly if I removed a part and sent it to him.” He leaned back in his chair and looked me over coolly. “Perhaps a finger or a toe.”

  I put my fork down, my appetite, small as it was, quickly disappeared. What little I’d managed to force myself to eat threatened to come back.

  “I will keep you if I choose,” Luke promised. “I will make you beg for me to come to you. If I choose.”

  I shivered and stared down at my plate.

  “I felt you responding, Miya, my ice maiden. You will thaw, eventually. Until then, you will do well to remember who you are offending.” I heard him rise from his chair. He came to stand behind me. He leaned down. “You would be wise to please me,” he whispered in my ear, his breath hot on my neck. He stood and walked away from me.

  “Lopei, tell me what my associates on Kiju are doing,” he ordered, leaning against the open window.

  I sat while Lopei talked. I knew I should be listening, I should be remembering all of the names and places. If I were an agent, I would be, despite what Luke had done to me. I wasn’t an agent. I hated what I was becoming. I hated knowing what I was capable of doing. I wanted out.

  Lopei finished his report. Luke made a frustrated noise. Apparently things were not going well for him on Kiju.

  “Nuev, report,” Luke commanded.

  The second man began talking.

  I picked at my lunch until it was cold and unappetizing. The other two men gave their reports. About then it dawned on me that Luke was never going to give me up, no matter how much money Hom Daviessbrowun paid. He would never have let me sit through a meeting with his top men if he planned on letting me leave alive.