The Puzzler's War

by Eyal Kless

  As I was pondering all of this, it came back to us. As usual, the normally docile Summer became nervous as it approached, and Sergiu had to take control of the mule and distance her a little from the creature. There was something dangling from the Lizard’s jaws. At first, I thought it was a small, hairless dog, but when the Lizard stood up on its hind legs and took the carcass from its mouth with its claws I saw it was some kind of an unusually large field rabbit. Only when the Lizard stretched out its arm and dropped the carcass at my feet did I realise that its unusual size was not the only thing wrong with it. I hunched down and picked up the surprisingly heavy carcass. Its broken neck spoke of a clean kill, but that was not what was wrong with it.

  “This . . . animal has two heads,” I said. The second head was a shrivelled dead thing, well . . . deader than the rest of it, but it was definitely a fucking two-headed rabbit.

  “Yeah, sometimes you get things like that in the wild,” Sergiu commented in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. “Two-headed rabbits, six-legged deer. I once saw a wild hog with seven tusks. Didn’t go near it. They are not poisonous in the classic sense of the word, but most people refuse to eat such animals. Say they bring disease or cause tattoos to appear.”

  Since we’d begun travelling together, the Lizard stayed in our camp during the night and brought us all kinds of vegetation in the morning, from leaves and wildflowers to half-rotten apples I had no idea where he found. What we did not eat, which was most of it, the Lizard ate. This was the first time it had brought meat, and I was not sure that I liked the idea.

  “Is it true, about the tattoos?” I examined the creature again. Its fur was short, dirty, and discolored.

  Sergiu shrugged. “Don’t know. Of course, when chopped to bits and sold in a meat pie no one seems to mind, but most people who eat meat pies don’t care to know what type of meat they’re eating.”

  I waved the carcass at him. “Do you want it, then?”

  “Nah, I think I’ll pass this time.”

  “Me too,” I said, and tossed the rabbit back at the Lizard.

  In what looked like a lazy movement to me, the Lizard used his sharp talons to rip the carcass in two and shoved one part after the other into his gullet. It was over in a matter of seconds.

  I heard Sergiu’s amused chuckle behind me. “Guess he’s not a vegetarian after all.”

  “Guess not,” I mumbled.

  The Lizard turned and sped away like an overenthusiastic hunting dog.

  “You think he’s just fattening us up so he’ll get a better meal for himself?” Sergiu was still smiling, but only just so.

  “It’s definitely getting to know us better through trial and error. Did you notice how it hasn’t brought us again anything we didn’t eat the first time?”

  Sergiu seemed a little uncomfortable with the thought. “Don’t know, Colonel Major, the Lizards I’ve heard of simply charged and ripped you to shreds.”

  “This one seems different.”

  “Absolutely, and if there are more like him in Tarakan Valley, no wonder Trolls are not coming back from expeditions.” Sergiu lowered his head, deep in thought. “Maybe he is unique, or a rare subspecies—as much of an anomaly to the other Lizards as the tattoos are for the rest of us.”

  “You mean it is some kind of mutation?”

  “I mean he’s a freak.”

  We began walking again, making our way through what was once an urban environment. Here and there I saw pieces of concrete, rusting metal rods, or a part of a wall, but the rest of it was just upturned wild land. My vessel told me the area was not clean of contamination. No wonder we were seeing two-headed rabbits.

  “One thing I am almost positive of.” I voiced the thought as it came to mind. “It, or he, is not a natural creature. It was made in a laboratory somewhere. Enhanced growth, superstrength and speed, an eat-all digestive system, no visible sexual organs, and probably a short life-span—a few years at most. This reminds me of the Angels.”

  “Angels?” Sergiu asked immediately, almost too fast, as if covering the fact that he knew about them.

  “In my time, Tarakan used grown clones, human bodies with basic artificial intelligence. They did all the manual work—cleaning public areas, maintaining air train tracks, gardens, and sewers, working as housekeepers and even childminders, those kinds of things.” I did not tell Sergiu about the black market that sold Angels, usually as sex slaves and for other, even more nefarious uses.

  Sergiu just nodded encouragingly. I guessed he was trying to get me talking and waiting for me to say something interesting. I didn’t mind; I was trying to get him to do the same, angling him closer with stories of the world before, which might open him up enough for me to know better what, and especially who, I would be facing.

  “When things got a little hot, military wise,” I continued, “Tarakan—I mean, we—began producing cloned soldiers in the same manner. We called them Guardian Angels, and they were larger, faster, meaner, ferociously aggressive, and although they were still bounded by strong protocols, they were exceedingly more intelligent, so they could handle the chaotic combat environment.” Unsurprisingly perhaps, there was also a small but active black market for those kinds of Angels as well. “This Lizard reminds me of the Guardian Angels, but the snout, claws, and tail . . . that was not part of the original design.”

  “And how can you tell it’s a Guardian Angel?”

  “I used to train them.” A memory flashed in front of my eyes. Rows of the “newly hatched” towered over me, at attention, radiating aggressiveness. This time even my vessel could not repress the physical shiver the memory caused. “I am sure this new race of Lizards is a brother, or at least a close cousin, to the Guardian Angels.”

  “A fallen Guardian Angel, then.” Sergiu was clearly amused by his own wit.

  “You might call it that.”

  “There is a saying in the land I came from, ‘Beware of close cousins.’”

  I glanced to see Sergiu smiling under his hat, but my mood grew darker with the memories my story had dug up. “Quit while you’re ahead, Sergiu.” I glanced at the small screen I held in my hand. “We have a long way to go.”

  Chapter 56

  Twinkle Eyes

  “Vincha, slow the rust down,” I cried out over the hum of the engine.

  But as before, Vincha, hair unnaturally raised and a visor covering her eyes, simply ignored my plea. Despite being a long way from the magnetic field of the Tarakan highway, Vincha kept the shark in hover mode and at bloodcurdling speed as we crossed the forest. Whatever we were not experiencing in the form of bumps and holes in the uneven dirt road, Vincha was making up for in aggressive, almost hysterical driving. My body was repeatedly slammed against the restraints as the shark zigzagged sharply, narrowly avoiding fallen trees, rocks, and all kinds of debris. Galinak, white as a corpse, groaned in the front seat. Nourishment pills or not, I was pretty sure he was going to throw up whatever he had in him in a matter of moments. I was pretty sure I would not be able to hold my own for much longer, either.

  As if listening to my prayers, a soft yet insistent blipping sound suddenly erupted in the cabin of the shark. From the corner of my eye I saw the energy meter flashing red. I remembered it being almost full when we sped away from the wreckage of the battle to elude Sellika and her force of highway bandits, but Tarakan stealth and hover technology came with a high energy price. Vincha swore softly, ignoring the ever-increasing alarm, but a little later she was forced to slow down and eventually lower the wheels and come to a complete stop.

  The doors slid away when Vincha stepped out and a fresh breeze from the forest entered the shark’s cabin. I leaned back and closed my eyes, steadying myself as Galinak released himself from the restraints and simply collapsed sideways to the ground. A moment later I opened my eyes again and Vincha was back, holding a small black box in her hands. She pressed open the steering wheel as she opened the box. I saw three Energy Gems, fully charged and glowing with blue energ
y. Vincha tightened the leather glove on her hand, then grabbed one of the gems from the box and busied herself replacing the depleted gem that she yanked out of the steering wheel’s socket.

  “Those are very expensive,” I commented. “Hard to come by even at the best of times.”

  “What can I say? I’m a resourceful kind of gal.” Vincha slammed the glowing gem into the socket and leaned back in her seat, tapping the steering wheel impatiently as the shark slowly came back to life.

  “Still, I don’t think you have enough power to keep the shark hovering for the entire journey,” I said. As Galinak slowly climbed back to his seat I added, “And we don’t know what we are going to find when we get there. If your daughter has already been taken, we will need to give chase.”

  Vincha tilted her head and a lock of her red hair twitched and turned. “Oh, she’s there,” she said. “Can’t pinpoint her yet, but as soon as we get close . . .”

  “So it’s true.” I kept talking just to stay standing for a little longer. “Puorpan said you planted a device under Emilija’s skin, to keep tabs on her.”

  “Oh, he told you so, did he?” Vincha’s grip on the steering wheel hardened. “That rust bucket is going to pay for betraying me like that.”

  “He only talked to me because I told him I’d warn you, and it took some convincing. I wouldn’t blame the man if I were you.” The image of Vincha breaking down under LoreMaster Harim’s gentle yet relentless interrogation flashed before my eyes, so I added, “Everyone has weaknesses,” for good measure.

  “And he gave away the coded channel so that agent could track her down.” Vincha swore loudly. “We go a long way, Puorpan and I, but I should have known better than to trust him.”

  “He had no choice,” I said, and then, annoyed for some reason, I added in the privacy of my own mind, And you should not lecture anyone about betrayal.

  Vincha didn’t answer, so I added a question in a gentler tone, “When was the last time you saw Emilija?”

  “What is it with you, Twinkle?” she snapped back, angry. “Trying your mind games on me again? I’m still not going to let you take my daughter to your Tarakan masters to be sacrificed.”

  “No one is talking about sacrifice,” I protested. “Rafik was still alive when we met him in the City Within the Mountain, a grown man in his prime.”

  “Balls to that. How do you know it was really him?” I could see Vincha’s infamous temper rising with every word. “He could have just been an image. That Adam tricked us all into a suicide mission, remember?” She glanced backwards. “Everyone who came with us died, including Bayne, and both of you clowns would have been Lizard chowder too if it weren’t for that crazy deal you made. So don’t try to loop my wires about the Tarkanians’ good intentions.”

  The memory of the only Troll who truly loved her must have rattled Vincha, because instead of pressing, she fist-slammed the button for the doors to slide shut. Galinak groaned, but this time Vincha did not go back to hover mode and we began driving on four wheels, a sign that at least some of my words were getting through to her.

  “They wired you up,” I pressed on, “and as much as I can tell your augs did not cause rejection fever, so you do not need Skint to ease the pain.”

  “They only did it because it suited them, Twinkle Eyes.” Vincha glanced for a second time, her eyes narrowing. “Tell me, how was it on the inside? Five years you spent inside Adam. Was it all fun and games?” When I failed to answer she snorted in contempt. “You don’t even remember, do you? They stored both of you somewhere, like dried meat, and forgot you ever existed. They only woke you up to find me, Twinkle Eyes, and my guess is you have as much a choice this time as the first time around.” Something in my face must have betrayed me because she chuckled cynically. “You and your little sick lapdog are just like two cards in their hand.” She caught my eyes in the rearview display and winked. “Two cards played.”

  “And what’s your alternative?” My answer came out louder than I wished. Vincha was definitely stepping on my wires. “Keeping Emilija in a world she doesn’t belong to? Letting her dream of the Great Puzzle and be drawn to the Lizard-infested Valley? No, don’t try to tell me you’ll be able to stop her. Your daughter has to be a grown woman by now. How long do you think you can contain her?”

  The shark accelerated dangerously as I verbally lashed at Vincha, but I was too caught up in my own doubt and anger to pay attention to the signs. “When was the last time you saw or talked to her?”

  “Mind your own rusting business,” Vincha growled.

  I changed the angle but kept pushing her. “The power gems for the Shark you stole are very expensive, even for a successful smuggler such as yourself. It takes a lot of jobs to afford feeding a shark on your own without piracy.”

  “How do you know I ain’t pirating?”

  “Because a pirate shark needs a crew of four to get anything done,” I answered hotly. “A driver, a gunner, and two more to take control of the stoppage, and that’s just for the small-time, off-the-Tarakan-highway stuff. You need at least two more sharks to have a chance of stopping a SuperTruck. And besides, a pirate does not waste time selling a few bottles of moonshine to a bar owner.”

  “Anything else you want to mention in your brilliant deduction?” The trees were melting into a blurry green line as we whizzed past.

  “Twinkles,” Galinak moaned a warning, but I was on a roll.

  “Last but not least: I said to pirate you need a crew. They might be scumbags and cutthroats to anyone else, but you need to trust them as much as they need to trust you. If you count Galinak and myself, I’d say you have two friends in this world.”

  Vincha snorted her contempt.

  “No, Vincha, you are definitely a smuggler. A good one, perhaps, but as usual, you only think of yourself and betray everyone around you because you think you don’t need anybody.”

  “Shut the rust up, Twinkle Eyes.” The shark was picking up even more speed, but so was my mouth.

  “Smuggling is good business these days, better than piracy, I’ll wager, but you still need to keep on working to feed your shark. And this Sellika does not sound like a woman who lets you drive around her turf freely. She takes a cut, and a hefty one. So you stick your kid with some stranger family with a bit of coin and forget all about her, just as long as you can keep on living your life the way you want it?”

  Vincha slammed on the brakes and my body crashed forward. The uneven road, or maybe it was her expert driving, caused the shark to spin several times. By the time I regained my bearings, Vincha had turned and punched Galinak right on the button, this time knocking him out cold, and a heartbeat later a power gun was aimed straight at my face.

  “Get out,” she said.

  It took every ounce of self-control to look past the barrel of the gun and into Vincha’s eyes. Earlier it was I who’d pointed a gun at her. Now the tables had turned, but this time I wasn’t sure she wouldn’t pull the trigger.

  “No,” I said in what I hoped came out in a quiet but resolute tone.

  Vincha quickly turned her wrist so I could see there was no stun button on the weapon. “I am not kidding, Twinkle Eyes. I am tired of your yapping mouth. Get the rust out. The only reason I ain’t pulling the trigger yet is because I don’t want to drive away with your brain all over the backseat.”

  “No.” I shook my head slowly. “You’d be a fool to pull the trigger.”

  She steadied the weapon, but I could see reason was beginning to sift through the mist of anger.

  “You still need me, Vincha, you need us,” I added a little too quickly, betraying my nervousness. “I know what the other agent looks like, and Galinak is someone you’ll be glad to have around when things get hot, as they did back in the Wheel of Fortune.” The barrel lowered itself a little, but a gut shot would have been just a slower, more painful version of a head shot. “Someone is on their way to kidnap your daughter and bring her to this Mannes. I know you’ve heard of him, w
e’ve all heard of him, and his reputation makes that monster Nakamura seems like a kind uncle.” I locked my gaze with hers. “You can’t do it on your own, not this time. First we’ll stop whoever wants to take Emilija, then we’ll find a way, a peaceful way, to deal with the Tarakan problem.”

  It took a few more heartbeats for Vincha to holster her weapon and turn back to the steering wheel.

  “Damn you and your rusting reason, Twinkle Eyes.”

  I waited until we began moving again and asked, “How’s Galinak doing?”

  Vincha glanced sideways. “He’ll be up in a few moments. I thought I broke his jaw, but I guess I was wrong.” There was obvious regret in her voice. “These bodies they gave you are quite resilient.”

  “Not resilient enough, if you ask me,” I answered.

  “Yeah well, you always happen to be in the middle of a shitstorm.” Vincha shook her head slightly as we picked up speed, “and you pull me right in there with you.”

  “Funny, I thought exactly the same thing about you,” I answered in a lighter tone, as if Vincha had not been aiming a power gun at my face moments earlier. I guess we were both climbing down carefully from the edge of the high emotional cliff we’d stood on only moments before.

  “Just help me find my daughter,” Vincha mumbled, and snapped down the driving visor over her eyes.

  I leaned back and tried to figure out what to do once we managed that, but for the life of me I couldn’t.

  Chapter 57