“There’s not room for both of us,” Tysen continued, feeling gallant. “And, I’d hate to see you get wet.”
Esther, who had already entered the shelter turned to look at him quizzically, her bright too-blue eyes coldly evaluating him. “Thank you, Lieutenant. However, my clothes are replaceable, and I will not feel the environment as you do.” Suddenly she reached out and grabbed him, pulling him into the limited space and tightly against her. “Here, like this we will both fit under this shelter together.”
Surprised, Tysen started to protest, but suddenly found his throat going dry despite the damp, humid weather. He had thought Esther would feel hard and lean, but now, pressed face to face with the soft, wet, and very beautiful Squire he discovered she was anything but.
“Y-yes,” he croaked, his eyes mere centimeters away from hers, his mouth just centimeters away from hers. “I ah…forget that sometimes…You seem so…human.”
It was an effort to get the last word out, it was like his brain was seizing up, and his whole body was growing suddenly hot.
He thought he detected a hint of amusement in her eyes. “Is that how you think of me?” She asked. “As one of your kind?”
“Well, it’s hard not to.” He answered, his head swimming. “You’re perfect…” He regretted the words as he said them. Should he be saying this? “I mean,” he tried to correct himself. “You’re perfect in every way I can…Ah…See…No…Ahh…”
She smiled, a warm, beautiful smile.
“Thank you. I am glad I can…please you.”
Then she closed her eyes and was leaning in, her mouth reaching for his. He tried to stop himself, tried to tell himself that this was wrong, but he wanted nothing more than to kiss this Squire -this woman- in front of him.
“Esther…” He croaked, trying to hold on to his last shred of resolve. “I think we should…be careful…it would be wrong to get…too close.”
“Yes,” her soft voice whispered back, deep, full and tempting. “So very wrong.”
And Tysen, who prided himself on his self control, who prided himself on not needing anyone, who prided himself for being the master of his own fate- gave up.
“So completely…” He leaned in to kiss her.
The car horn screamed through the deep, warm haze, jolting him back to reality.
“…Wrong!” He finished, pulling back and standing straight upright. He turned his head to look out at the sleek black car that was now parked just next to the bus stop. Tinted windows, smooth dark lines, and a low profile made it look less like a car than a shadow of a car come to life.
“I believe that is our transport.” Esther commented, once again all business.
Tysen, feeling a sudden sense of relief, sucked in a deep breath to calm himself down. “Yes,” he said, breathing out. “Yes, it is. Let me go first- I’ll hold the door for you.”
Then he dashed out the short distance to the car, ignoring the hard rain and pulling open the passenger door. Esther slipped out and inside, and he followed, shutting the door behind him.
The interior of the car was the opposite of the outside, the hard sleekness was inside a warm, dark softness. The cool dry air inside smelled like mint, and soft music was playing from the speakers. It felt like a bubble of comfort and safety from the world around them.
The passenger seat was empty, but a lean, muscular man with ebony skin sat in the driver’s seat. Tysen could see the man’s brown eyes watching them through his rear view mirror with a mix of friendly curiosity and amusement.
“Good afternoon, folks!” The man said in a thick Fedrin accent. “Nice patch o’ weather we’re havin’, isn’t it?”
Tysen leaned forward, offering a hand between the front seats. “Albert Tysen.”
“Keith Ulstead,” said the man, giving it a firm shake. Tysen could feel the thick callouses on the inside of the man’s hand from driving, and another callous running along the inside of his index finger. This man used a gun, and he used it often.
“Brubaker said you wanted a driver- where to?” Ulstead asked, flashing a shining white smile. Tysen also noticed he was wearing a dress business suit of the kind normally worn by executives.
“Green Mountain Village Resort,” Tysen told him.
“On it,” Ulstead nodded, and the car hummed to life around them. Slipping smoothly from the curb into the rainy afternoon. “Sorry to interrupt you folks back there, but I’m on the clock and you can do that stuff on your own time.”
Tysen didn’t like the way the man said it, with a strong playful tones, and decided to make things clear.
“Mister Ulstead,” Tysen said, feeling like it was his duty to protect Esther’s honor. “I don’t know what you think you saw, but you saw nothing. Are we clear?”
Ulstead chuckled at that. “Sure mate, sure. Your life, your time.” Then his voice took on a more serious tone. “Brubaker said you’ve got half the blue heelers in the city looking for you, that right?
Tysen didn’t know the term, but he could take a solid guess. “If you mean the local police, then yes. They were misinformed about our reasons for being here, and are trying to keep us from talking to certain important people. Is that a problem for you?”
“For me, mate?” Ulstead shook his head. “Naw. Nothing’s a problem for me- not as long as I get paid for it. Speaking of which, if you two look in the pockets of the seat in front of you you’ll find two sidearms. I trust you can use ‘em.”
In the smooth black simulated leather of the seat in front of him a seam suddenly appeared on its own. Tysen reached through the gap and pulled out a light gauss pistol of the kind normally carried by police. It had a good heft to it, and brought a sense of comfort.
He glanced over at Esther, ready to instruct her on the use of the similar gun she too had withdrawn from the seat ahead of her, but found her checking the weapon like it was something she did every day.
She gave him a raised eyebrow, and he just smiled wanly, deciding that he really didn’t need to say anything after all.
“Right,” he said, more to himself than anyone else. “Mister Ulstead, I had hoped there would be a full security team coming to escort us. Is this your way of saying we’re responsible for our own protection?”
“Not at all,” the driver said casually. “I just thought you and the Sheila would be more comfortable with gun-in-hand. If there’s any trouble, don’t worry, me and my girls will take care of it.”
Tysen craned his neck around, checking for other cars, but seeing none on the road around them. “Your friends? Do we have another car with us?” He hadn’t noticed any other vehicles, and he had been watching.
That earned another grin from the diver. “Naw. But, they’re here with us, mate. Just don’t you worry about it. Sit back and enjoy the ride. If there’s any problems- I’ll let ya know.”
Tysen didn’t like being kept in the dark, especially when his life was on the line. “And,” he asked, hoping for more information. “Will there be any problems?”
Ulstead’s grin got a little wider.
“Only if they get in our way.”
* * *
As the lightning crashed blue across the dark afternoon sky, it illuminated three boxy armored grav-transports that were flying in loose formation.
Aboard the lead, Chief Jerrod Kyle leaned back into his seat and let the hum of the engine run through his body. The pain-killers he’d downed earlier were starting to wear off, and he was resisting the urge to take more. Too much made him dull, and he needed to stay sharp.
Not that there was much he could do, the pair had so far eluded the local security net, and they’d also kept off the city’s link system. That wasn’t good- he didn’t know what connections they had here who might help them, the official record said none, but who could be certain?
“Y’no chief, this would be a lot easier if we just had them declared fugitives.” Vong said unhelpfully from his nearby work station.
Kyle’s headache got just a little
bit worse. Vong really wasn’t getting this rendition thing.
“No,” Kyle answered, keeping his head tilted back into the seat and his eyes closed. “We need as little trail on these kids as possible- our orders are to keep this operation as low profile as we can. I’m already going to take one for you bringing in port security.”
“Ah. Sorry about that, Chief.” He could hear the regret in Vong’s voice, but what the kid had done was right at the time. They’d hoped Spaceport Security could help catch them before the left the port grounds, but in the end it had still been useless. Nobles could clock upward of fifty kilometers an hour at a run, and maintain it for long periods. They’d simply run from the grounds faster than security could mobilize and disappeared into the nearby industrial zone.
God he hated Nobles.
“We’ll sort it out after we get this pair,” Kyle told him. “Did they try to reach the Admiral yet?”
“No, he’s made no attempts to link into the city network. We have capture teams in the air and ready to go the moment he does.”
“What about his companion? Why the hell wasn’t she in the files?”
“We don’t know, sir. We have nothing about her- it’s like she just appeared out of nowhere. The spaceport record has her name, but the identity code she uses just leads us to a security block.”
Kyle looked at him and frowned. “What level?”
“You don’t want to know.” Vong said, and from the look on his face Kyle knew that he really didn’t.
This whole thing was getting more squirrelly by the minute- this was supposed to be a simple courier grab, but it looked like the target had some sort of bodyguard connected to Imperial Security or higher. He honestly considered just letting them go, and taking the flak for it. Catching them might be the worst thing he could do for his career.
“Sir!” Vong suddenly perked up. “We’ve got something! His companion linked to a local branch office of the Halloway Concern less than an hour ago. We’re going through their outbound connections now.”
Kyle stared at him in surprise. “That was fast. How’d they pull that off?”
“It was Kilpatrick, sir. She apparently got a trace off the companion’s link ID from the spaceport network and was monitoring for it to resurface.”
Kyle wasn’t sure whether to be happy about that, Kilpatrick was one of their best intelligence analysts, but she also wanted Kyle’s job. Still, if he could capture these two the day might not be a total loss yet.
“Get me everything she’s found out so far. Tell the capture teams to move so they’re covering the routes to the resort. They may already have transport and be on their way there. I want all units on this, and when we find them I want them swarmed. Got that?”
“With pleasure, sir!”
* * *
Tysen watched the world explode to colorful life again as they shot from the end of a tunnel and back out into the open. They were on the side of a mountain now, and below he could see verdant green subtropical forest spread out like a mat to cover the valley below. As they drove, the car passed through cascades of wispy fog wafting down from the mountain beside them and flowing down over the highway into the lower valley.
It was quite beautiful, really. Tysen could see why Fedrin had a thriving tourist industry, and so many of the Nobility had homes here. A temperate climate, an abundance of food, and a warm people made for an excellent vacation spot.
Then, as they passed through another flow of fog, something caught Tysen’s eye. For a moment, and just for a moment, in the fog he saw what looked like the ghostly shapes of men running on the highway near the car. There was no detail, not even anything solid, just dark silhouettes in the mist that were there- and then gone again the moment the mist ended.
What was that? Tysen thought, concerned. Had he really seen something? Or was it just a trick of light and shadow?
“Mister Ulstead, how much further?” He asked, trying to ease his nervous mind.
A translucent holo-display showing a map of the region suddenly appeared in the air between the front seats. “We’ve just cleared the Beenway Tunnel, so we’ve got about sixteen more kilometers to go.”
Tysen studied the map, the highway was a long and twisted snake before them, with few ways on or off. That could be good, or very bad.
“Are there any back routes we could take?”
Ulstead shook his head. “Naw. Too stupid. We’ve got more cover here on the main highway where there’s lots of witnesses. The way I figure it, they’ll try to nab you two as a quietly as possible.”
“You seem to know this game well, Mister Ulstead.” Tysen said, appreciating the man’s professionalism.
That earned him a laugh. “It’s my job, mate. Now, when the fur flies, I want you two to just do what I tell ya, ‘kay?”
“Were you a military man, Mister Ulstead?”
“What?” The driver answered. “And spend my days saluting some Noble who got his rank by being born to it? Not this fella, mate!” He paused for a moment to maneuver the car around another slower vehicle. “No, I learnt my trade from the other side of the lines, if you catch my drift!”
Esther looked at Tysen. “I don’t understand the reference.”
Tysen frowned, not sure if he was happy about this new development. “He means he’s part of the local organized crime guilds. Although,” he admitted. “That makes sense, after all- who can you go to if you don’t trust the police?”
Esther considered this new information for a moment.
“Isn’t it strange for a criminal to be so open about his background?”
Tysen just shrugged, but Ulstead provided an answer.
“Why not? You’re not very friendly with the local law, and it’s not like you’re going to turn me in. Besides, they know about me sure enough- they just can’t catch me.” He said, then a note of seriousness came to his voice. “Speaking of which, we’ve got new friends.”
Tysen turned quickly, “Where? I don’t see anything but trees.”
Was Ulstead talking about the phantoms? He wondered.
“A cloaked Armored Grav-Transport just flew over us,” the driver informed them. “And, there’s another behind. Five’ll get ya twenty there’s a full ambush waiting for us around the bend ahead.”
“Can we get off the road? Turn around?” Tysen asked, worried.
Ulstead gave a dismissive snort. “And have them hunt us down like dogs through the woods? Not likely! Don’t you worry, though. We’ll get through this- although your Mister Money’ll have quite the bill before we’re done.”
Sure enough, as the car came around the corner there was what looked to be a security checkpoint ahead. A full squad of a dozen men in tactical armor had cordoned off the road and were slowly channeling the cars in their lane through a single choke point. Behind the men, parked on the roadway several bulky armored transport vehicles sat with their gun blisters aimed at the oncoming traffic.
“Here we go,” Ulstead said casually. “Three armored transports, a fake security check, they’re going all out for you two.”
“Each has a capacity of twelve men.” Esther commented.
“Right you are, little lady. They’ll be keeping the rest of their men in reserve. Well, they’re trying to make it look like a normal checkpoint, so we should play along.” He slid the car into the ahead line, fifth from the checkpoint.
“Can we hide?” Tysen asked, wondering if the car had some form of secret compartment for smuggling.
“Why?” Ulstead asked, sounding mildly amused at the suggestion. “They already know you’re here, otherwise the other transport wouldn’t be pacing us from behind.”
Tysen cursed, he should have thought of that. Then he glanced back through the rear window, and he could see another AGT had appeared in the sky near them. They really were surrounded, and there would be no easy way out this time.
He wondered what Mister Kyle would do to them once they were in custody. After all that had happened, it wo
uld undoubtedly be personal, and he could expect no gentle treatment. Then he laughed at himself. No gentle treatment? He would never see the light of day again. Luckily, he had updated his personal will before the trial, so everything was up to date.
Or was it?
He looked at Esther. What would become of her? Could he ask for leniency on her behalf? After all, she wasn’t the one they wanted. But, she was a witness, and they were unlikely to go easy on her after all this. He regretted getting her involved.
Suddenly, he wished he’d kissed her anyway, witnesses be damned.
The car came to a halt, and Tysen heard the hum of the motor stop.
“They want us to get out,” Ulstead told them, taking off his safety belt. “You two stay by the car and let me do the talkin’, ‘kay?”
When Tysen looked, he saw they were now at the head of the line, and a U-shape of security troops were standing about ten meters ahead of them. Directly in front of the troops, Mister Kyle was waiting, gray long-coat flapping in the wind and gun in hand.
Tysen locked eyes with the driver. “Do you really know what you’re doing?”
Ulstead shrugged. “You’re going to find out, aren’t you?”
* * *
“Aww, hell no.”
Chief Kyle’s words were lost in the sound of the wind and noise from the other lane of traffic, but he meant them well enough. He’d watched the car doors open, and the kid and his girl step out, but now the driver was walking over to him while the kids stayed next to the car. Not a good sign, especially given who the diver was.
“Chief Kyle! G’day! Long time no see, mate!” The driver said, strolling up to the agent casually, his hands in the pockets of his business suit. He was acting like he was greeting an old friend on a summer day, and not surrounded by shock troops at gunpoint. Also not a good sign.
“Ulstead, I need those two.” Kyle said, cutting right to the chase.
The driver shrugged. “Sorry, Chief. You can’t have ‘em! I took a contract to get them from A to B, and you know I always follow my contracts to the letter. After I get them to B, though, they’re all yours.”
Twin Stars 1: Ascension Page 14
