by Jean Kilczer
You don't like killing, I sent, but you'll do it for the credits!
I have been banished by my people. I have no other recourse.
We always have a choice, Evrill. You'll pay for yours. Either in this life or when you face Great Mind in geth state.
He will understand.
I wouldn't count on it. He punishes those guided by greed or the love of power in their lives. Between you and Big Mack, you have both going for you.
I am not in contact with you to discuss theology. There is no Heaven or Hell, but only what we make for ourselves. Now leave the jeep and walk to the main gate. You are taxing Big Mack's patience.
Will my companions be allowed to return to the Orghe camp?
That is not my decision to make. Go to the gate now, or watch Haj the Shayl let go of the Terran woman. She will be free, only to die.
No! I'm coming. Tell Mack I'm coming.
“Jules,” Bat said, “why does he want you?”
“I don't know,” I lied, “but he wants me alive. Chancey, turn the jeep around and get out of here as fast as you can. I don't know what Mack plans for all of you. He might have lookouts watching us right now.”
Chancey grabbed my arm as I tried to get out. “He'll use you, and then he'll kill you, and Sophia. You can't save her, man. She knew the risks when she came to New Terra.”
“Chancey, listen to me. I couldn't live another day if I turned and ran, and they killed Sophia.”
“Then I'll make the choice for you.” He drew back his fist. I raised an arm and blocked the blow. Pain shot up my arm. “All right,” I said, and held my arm to gain time. “I can't fight all of you”
I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead as though I were distraught, which I was, and spun a red-hot coil behind my eyes. “I don't know what to do,” I said, and forced the coil to spin faster and stronger. I'd get a severe headache for pushing the power this fast and hard, but I'd made my decision to surrender to Mack. I threw the coil, directed at Chancey, but the impact and the message would spread wider.
You want me to leave the jeep. You want to drive back to your camp.
Huff moaned. He's a latent sensitive and was aware of the subliminal message. You want me to leave, I sent again, with all the force I could gather into the message. My head pounded as though drums beat inside me as I got out of the jeep.
Drive back to your camp, I sent, targeting Chancey. I unstrapped my holster and left it on the console. Now hurry!
Chancey looked like a sleep walker as he slid into the driver's seat, his mouth slack. Huff leaped out of the jeep and came to my side.
“No, Huff,” I told him. “Go back!”
I glanced at Galrin. If I did what Mack wanted, I'd be responsible for his death, and the death of all his people. A Judas goat. I glanced into the harsh, brilliant sky. The Shayl was still holding Sophia. I probed her mind.
Terror.
All-absorbing terror.
I'm coming, I sent to Evrill. I heard Chancey turn the jeep around as I started toward the gate with Huff at my side. My head ached as though a band were tightening around it, but I spun another coil and threw it at Huff. Catch up to the jeep and go back with them. Go!
He stopped as though he'd hit an invisible wall. For a moment he swayed, then stared at me with glazed eyes. Tears wet the fur on his face.
Go! I sent.
He turned with jerky movements, as though another being controlled his muscles, then he trotted back down the dirt road.
A tattooed, bald-headed merc unlocked the gate when I reached it and swung it open. At first I thought it was Tempest, but no, they were all obsessed with taboos.
Three more mercs accompanied me as I walked toward Big Mack, who stood in the center of the compound with a comlink in hand, and Evrill by his side. I recognized her as an Egruan woman from planet Equus as I walked up to them.
“I'm here!” I told Mack. “Now let Sophia down, or by God I'll burn your brain where you stand.”
I yelled and pressed my temples as a blister of pain seared across my forehead.
Evrill tilted her head and spread thin lips in an imitation of a human smile. I do not like the work, Terran, but I am committed.
I tried to raise my shields. She held them down as though they were putty.
I cannot allow that, she sent.
“I'm here,” I told Mack. “Now goddammit, let her down.”
He lifted the comlink and spoke into it.
I watched as Haj spiraled toward the ground, still clutching Sophia, and landed near Mack.
“Sophia!” I started toward her. “It's all right, baby. They won't harm you.”
A guard grabbed my arm. The other guards closed in around me.
Sophia went limp. Her eyes were open, her mouth worked, but she was silent.
Shock, I thought. I tried to shake off the guard's hand. Another one grabbed my other arm. “Let me go to her,” I told Mac.
The Shayl threw her over his shoulder and walked toward the prison building.
“Damn you!” I said to Mack, “let me comfort her.”
“That's something you'll have to earn.”
“How?”
He shrugged. “Easy. By helping me rid this island of all the fucking Orghes.”
He came close. I smelled whiskey and tobacco on his breath. His dirty, clumped hair, his body odor, were rank as ever. “Either they go, or the love of your life goes. Your choice.”
“The Orghe warriors?” Hatred tightened my throat, “or the women and children too?”
“Oh, especially the women an' children, so the freaks can't reproduce when I'm gone. It's bad business and bad for my reputation if they make a comeback like weeds.”
I bunched my fists in anger. “You're a slimy bastard, Mack. You don't have the moral fiber of a dead pig.”
He smirked.
I wanted nothing more than to wipe that twisted grin off his face. I shook loose of one guard and hit Mack as hard and fast as I could.
He staggered back, but he kept his feet, the friggin' bull. The guards grabbed me roughly.
“Let him go!” Mack ordered. “He's mine.”
“Then come and get me.” I motioned him toward me as the guards let go.
He approached and drew back a fist. I stiff-armed his blow. The jolt raced up my arm like cold fire, but I smashed my fist into his jaw. He reeled, and went to his knees. Blood dripped down his chin.
“C'mon, General,” I taunted, “what're you waiting for?” I could've killed him right there with a death-tel blow, before Evrill could stop me, but what would happen to Sophia if I did?
As I stepped toward Mac, a guard grabbed my arm.
“No!” Mac grunted. “Let the bastard go.”
The guard did, and I grabbed Mack by his shirt front and hefted him to his feet. I drew back a fist for a blow to his temple that would shut down his brain for a time. But a guard grabbed my wrist.
Mack slammed me across my cheek and the world jiggled. I tried to blink away the dizziness, but I couldn't make the pain fade.
Mack threw up his arms and howled like an animal. His victory call. He lifted his fist to strike me.
I kicked him in his groin. He howled again, but this time it was mixed with a cry of pain. I thought he'd go down, but the friggin' bull was now raging. He hit me so fast I didn't see it coming. The world seemed to fall apart like a dropped puzzle. I found myself on my knees with firecrackers exploding inside my head. I was struggling to my feet when he kicked me in my ribs.
Pain consumed me. I gritted my teeth, rolled, grabbed his leg and yanked. He went down like a felled tree.
I got to my feet though the ground shifted, and kicked him in the stomach. He groaned, but managed to get up again.
I backed away a few paces. “If I win this fight, will you let her go free?”
He held his stomach and grimaced. “If you win, she goes free.”
I spun a quick tel coil, designed to knock the stuffing out of his brain, and sen
t it before Evrill could react.
He threw up his arms and staggered back as though a truck had hit him.
Evrill's tel probe slammed into my brain. I fell and couldn't get up. My arms and legs felt tied to the ground.
That is not fair, Terran, she sent.
I lay on my back, pulling in rasping breaths, blood pooling in my mouth. She held me there.
Mack got up and extended a hand to help me up. I ignored it as Evrill loosened her mental grip, and I got to my feet.
“I'd call it a draw.” Mack grinned.
I wiped my mouth. “Will you let her go?”
“You're a fool, Rammis. I wouldn't let the bitch go even if you won. You just don't get it. I need her for collateral.” He motioned to the guards. “Take him to interrogation, and don't leave him with less than four of you! He's dangerous.”
“You're no better than an animal!” I threw at Mack.
“I've been called worse. When you've got the creds this job will bring me, you don't give a fuck what they call you.”
* * *
Sit down, Jules." Big Mack motioned to the wooden chair in the center of the bare interrogation room. Evrill stood by his side.
I bit my lip and hesitated. One of the four guards, Tempest, shoved me toward the chair.
“Don't look so worried,” Big Mack said from behind his massive desk on the platform. “Nobody's going to hurt you.”
The window behind him was dark with night, and only a bare bulb hung over my head for light.
“Where's Sophia?” I asked. “Is she all right?”
He sighed. “Still the same song. She's happy as a lark with the three squares and a roof over her head.”
“What do you want?”
He picked up a small tube. I could barely make it out in the dark. “This is possibly the most potent poison known to the worlds. It transcends most differences in species and kills quickly.” He turned it over in his hand. “And painlessly, you'll be happy to know. But that is neither here nor there.”
He threw it to me. I missed and it clattered to the floor and rolled. A guard retrieved it and handed it to me.
“I love planet New Lithnia,” Mack said. “Ever since you closed down the salt mines they've become the premier exporter of arms. Good work, Rammis. You should be rewarded for your efforts.”
I turned the vial in my hand. A clear liquid clung to the sides of it.
Mack lit a cigar and puffed it to life. “You'll tell your friends and the Orghes that you managed to escape. You're resourceful. They'll believe you.”
I felt like flicking off the metal cap and drinking the brew myself.
Evrill shook her head. He will kill Sophia if he no longer has your services. Or worse. He might make her his personal whore.
“Do I have your word,” I asked Mack, “that after I execute the Orghes, you'll let Sophia go free and unharmed?”
He sat back and chuckled. The idealist, who criticizes me for a lack of moral fiber. Now you're ready to kill two hundred Orangs, or however many there are, to save one piece of ass."
“One way or the other,” I said, “the Orghe people are doomed on this island, and they refuse to leave it for another one.” I put the vial in an inner jacket pocket and zipped it. “They've vowed to commit mass suicide first. I've done what I can do.” I looked at my folded hands. “I'm not Jesus or Buddha.”
“One drop on each plate of food or in a drink,” Mack said. “That's all it will take.”
I pictured the Orghes lying dead and bloated around Oldore, their dead leader and his wife, Anbria. I had seen photos of a mass suicide back in the twentieth century when a lunatic religious leader poisoned all his subjects in their compound, and then had himself executed. It would look like that. I held the image in my mind so that my real plan would remain subliminal, and not be revealed to Evrill.
“After I've fulfilled my mission, I'll wait outside your camp for Sophia to come to me. Is that agreed?”
He shrugged. “Agreed.”
“If you decide to kill her anyway, know that I will hunt down and kill Evrill, and then I will separate your brainstem from your body.” I stood up. “It will be a quick and painless death, General, like this vial of poison.” I put my hand on my chest and felt the vial through my jacket. “Even though my own death will be a certainty.”
Chapter Twenty Three
“Jules!” Big Mack snapped as we walked to the main gate, surrounded by four mercs, with Evrill trailing.
I turned. “What?”
He hit me across my face.
I gasped and staggered back. “What the hell's wrong with you?”
He hit me again.
My knees buckled and I fell to my side.
He grabbed my jacket. I folded my arms over my head. “Don't hit!”
“That should do it.” He dragged me to my feet. “Got to make it look like you fought your way out of here.”
I clung to his wrists to stay on my feet. “Or crawled my way out!”
“Yeah, that too.” He brushed off my jacket. “When this work is over, I could use another good merc, especially a tel. What say, are you up for it? Life's an adventure, tag!” He hit my shoulder playfully. I reflexively lifted an arm to block. “You join us, and after this job, you'll be swimming in golden creds.”
“Take care of my woman,” I said brusquely, “and we'll talk.” Like hell we'll talk, I thought, then I remembered that Evrill was with us. “Yeah. We'll talk.”
“You join my team and you can have any broad you want. The best asses around.” He grinned. “With your looks, and a pocketful of creds, they'll be clawing each other's eyes out to get to you.”
A merc swung open the gate.
“Sounds like a sweet life, but I want this woman to live, and my five alien friends.”
“What's so special about this piece of ass?”
“She's pregnant with my son,” I lied. “Is it a deal?”
He hooked his thumbs in his holster and sucked a tooth. “Can't argue with that.” He extended his hand. “Deal.”
I looked him in the eyes and shook his hand. “Deal.”
“What about the tags you came here with?”
“In two days a WCIA starship will land on the island and take them back to Earth. I want my woman and my five alien friends you're holding on that flight.”
“You complete your mission, and I'll personally see to it.”
“Good enough.” I turned and strode through the gate.
“Hey!” Mack pointed to my left. “That way to your camp.”
“Oh.” I started in that direction.
“A dead cow,” I heard Mack exclaim to his men, “could find its way home faster than that tag. Back on New Lithnia, he had us going around in circles in the woods.”
“Fuck you too,” I muttered and kept walking.
It was about fifteen miles from here to the new Orghe camp by the limestone cliff.
I walked across craggy sandstone terrain and pockets of tall conifers in the dark, where whistles and grunts grew silent as I went by, with my boots crunching on pebbles. The air turned cold with night. I lifted my collar and hood as a patter of rain drummed on broad leaves and sent their pungent aroma into the air.
After a few miles, I came to a roaring stream that wound in the direction of our camp. Shayls cruised the sky, lit by a moon that played with rain clouds. Big Mack didn't trust me any more than I trusted him.
Two hours into the trek I stopped and rested in a grove of tall conifers where a rivulet from the stream pooled and splashed down rocks.
I took out the vial and poured the liquid into the ground. The green grass turned yellow within two minutes, then wilted and fell flat. I scraped up some sand and poured it into the empty vial, then wrapped my finger in a narrow leaf and used the sand to scrub the vial clean. The leaf yellowed and died. “Some fucking potent stuff!” I muttered and washed my hand and the vial in the rivulet, pouring each fill of water into the ground instead of the pool. Ani
mals probably came here to drink. Finally, with the Shayls lowering in the sky, and the beat of their wings directly over the trees, I filled the vial with fresh water once more and did the acid test.
I drank it.
There was no taste and such a small amount didn't require a precious digestall tablet. If the vial still contained a residue of poison, I would keel over like the grass.
I waited. Two minutes later, I was still alive and I breathed again. I filled the vial with fresh water, capped it, shoved it into my jacket's inner pocket and zipped it.
One Shayl landed with a scratching of claws on rock and stared at me with those cold eyes.
“Time to go?” I stood up. “So soon?” I turned back to the stream and walked.
He leaped into the sky and his broad, powerful wings gained him height.
Later in the night, I really had to stop to rest. I was stumbling over rocks. I chose an overhang in the sandstone cliff and crawled under it. I wished I had a stingler to heat some rocks.
The Shayls, too, must've needed to roost for the night. They lighted on ledges along the cliff and folded their wings.
I fell asleep within minutes.
It was still night, but nearing a drizzly dawn in the east, when something licked my face. I jumped and reached for a stingler I no longer had as an animal rose up and towered over me.
“I have been searching the land and the water for you, my Terran cub. Why are you hiding under this roof?”
“Huff?” I got to my feet. “Huff! What're you doing here, buddy? How did you find me?”
“With much difficulty. I thought I had to return to the camp. I did not know why, but it seemed urgent as the swim from a falling glacier. Did you do that to me?”
“I did, Huff. I wanted to keep you safe.”
“Safe!” He sat down and pulled me beside him. “It was with difficulty to turn back and sniff out your scent.” He put a heavy paw on my shoulder.
I had to hold myself up.
“Jules of Earth! My friend and my cub. You keep everyone safe.”
“I try to.”
'Like cubs within their mothers' belly pouch, all, but not yourself! Why do you do that?" He raked his claws through the sand, leaving deep gouges. “You tax my liver with your recklessness, and Joseph's liver too. You tax all our livers! You will make us old before the star of Kresthaven rises and sets in its appointed times.” He wrinkled his brow. “What happened to your snout?”
