by F P Adriani
I snorted. Then I reached for him. “Let me take one of the bags….” He shook off my hand. Technically, I was stronger than he was. But he had he-man insisted on carrying so much. This was unlike him. He was nervous. I could tell.
The woods thinned, and now I could see a large black transport’s outline through the trees and the brighter field surrounding the vehicle.
When we finally stepped into that sunny grassy area, no one was waiting for us. And the transport’s workings were silent.
“Well,” Tan said, his eyes on the big machine, his mouth frowning as he shifted the stuff in his arms into a more comfortable position. I hadn’t thought to make a back-strap for the suitcase at least; that had been short-sighted of me….
I heard a noise—a mechanical sucking and squeaking, and then three people emerged from the transport’s other side: Hu, Shayla, and Chuck. They were all wearing their usual long heavy-looking robes. I wondered how they could stand such heavy clothing beneath this hot Sun.
Tan and I walked up to them now, and Chuck immediately growled, “What’s he doing here? I hope he’s just dropping you off.” He turned his eye-ire onto me for a moment; then his eyes went back to stabbing Tan.
Now Hu said in a tight voice, “Pia—”
But I cut her off as I spat, “Either he’s coming with me or I ain’t going.”
Hu sighed and her head turned to Chuck now. “I think Pia needs some familiar support.”
“We don’t need to take her,” Chuck said on another growl. “We could get the coordinates out of her.”
Tan dropped one of the bags; his brow lowered, then his whole body stilled. At least from my side’s view. On his other side, the side I couldn’t see, I knew he had a gun in his jacket. And now he warning-like said to Chuck, “Are you threatening her?”
Tan’s gun must have come out because Chuck suddenly yelled, “Hold it,” and both he and Shayla whipped out guns as my heart jumped into my throat. I had my own hand on my gun beneath my jacket, but I froze because I was so worried about endangering Tan further. Two guns pointed not really at him, but not far from him either….
I watched as the three of them engaged in a battle of angry stares.
Goddammit. Only five minutes in and already this was going terrible!
The Sun beat down on us all, I began shaking, and I could feel sweat trickling in tiny tickling rivers down my neck….
“Calm down, everyone!” Hu finally commanded, but no one seemed to listen to her.
Chuck spoke again. “People like him—cushy life, cushy job, at all our expenses. He hasn’t lost any limbs…yet.”
Now Tan said in a loud quick voice, “So you’re missing an arm—you’ve still got a dick.”
There was a tense silence…and then there was a sharp laugh—from Chuck. “Too right,” he said, his narrowed eyes seeming to consider Tan.
“Can we end this macho showdown right now?” snapped Hu. “And that was actually an order. Next time I say something, including the next time I say to calm down, DO NOT IGNORE ME.” She looked on the verge of saying something else, but then she just waved a quick disgusted hand, spun around and walked fast toward the transport—fast but somehow a bit awkward, as if she were having trouble moving her legs so fast.
Chuck’s head spun in her direction; I thought I saw worry in his brown eyes. Lowering his gun, he rushed after her.
Shayla slipped her gun back beneath her robe and sighed. She said to me and Tan, “Come on inside.”
It was Tan’s turn to growl. “I’m not going anywhere until I get some goddamn reassurances. That sounded like a threat, like he’ll force something from Pia. Or me or both.”
Shayla just rolled her eyes and sighed even harder as she walked away.
Tan and I turned to each other. “Omigod,” I said. I couldn’t think of anything else to say. I was still shaking a bit.
He dropped the other bag to the ground and waved his gun away from us as he spoke to me. “And you think we can last days around these people? They’re violent, they’re coarse. What the hell are we doing?”
“We’re doing something for Diamond. I mean, Tan, we could get on a ship and get off here for forever. Is that what you want? We could. We could run away. End of story.”
“No, there’s no need,” I heard Chuck say, and we both spun around toward his voice. “I’m sorry for before. I let my passion get the better of my brain. I don’t like you,” he said bluntly to Tan. “But I’m not going to kill you. I just want you to know that I know. And you better not try anything.” From the way he was looking at Tan, I took his statements to mean he knew about Tan and Hu. As if Tan would go with her again…. I felt my face flushing; I shifted on my feet a bit uneasily.
“Whatever,” Tan said, looking less angry now. “You could kill us but then you won’t get anything.”
“There are ways, you know,” said Chuck.
“What—torture?” I shot out. “Threatening one of us so the other will talk? Is that what you’re all about? And we should trust you with anything?”
Chuck sighed. “It doesn’t matter. I know some geology and cartography. By whatever means, if I got the coordinates, I could definitely get us there without you. But, honestly, we’re minus people here. We need you. We need your help. We can’t trust too many of our people with this information….” His voice trailed off. I wondered if he was thinking of his cousin John, whom I’d shot…oops. I wasn’t about to reveal that.
I had no idea of John’s health status since, but, whatever the case, I didn’t know if Chuck hated the guy or loved him. And it wouldn’t help either Tan or me if I also made Chuck’s I Don’t Like You list. Though his cousin was certainly on mine after he’d tried to kill me….
What the hell confusing crazy mess had I gotten myself into this time? Though not just me now because, this time, Tan was directly involved too.
*
We decided to keep going: we followed Chuck onto the transport. It didn’t look like the same one as the last time with Hu. For one thing, this one was a lot larger; for another, this one was colder inside….
We moved through a hall, closer to a room at the end. Inside that room, the walls were metal-silver and midnight-black, and the light coming from there seemed very bright. I spotted Hu inside with someone else—an older man. She was seated in a metal chair, and he was bent over her as he did something to her bare thigh.
Her head shot up and she spotted us coming toward her. The older guy pulled back; her gray robe fell down to cover her leg again. Chuck walked into the room now, and I followed…and realized the older guy was the same damn doctor from the cave that time. He snapped his red doctor’s bag shut as he raised his head to me.
“Well-well-well, the gang’s all together again. Isn’t this heartwarming,” I said, my sarcastic voice covering up my pounding-too-hard heart.
Hu ignored what I said; she waved a hand at the man. “This is Doctor Dave. He sticks around for whatever we need.”
My voice was a rabid growl now. “I don’t fucking need anything from him. Keep him away from me.”
“You look all right now,” the doctor said, carefully eyeing me up and down.
Tan’s twisted face seemed both annoyed and incensed. It jerked between me and the doctor. “What the fuck is going on?”
“Pia and I need to talk alone,” Hu said.
“We do?” I asked, ending on a half-sneer.
“I’m not leaving her here, so forget it,” said Tan to Hu.
“We need five minutes alone together. Then you can come back here to get her.” Her voice sounded like impatient little slices through the cold air. “Go bring your things to the bunk room. Chuck will show you.” She was looking at Tan, but her eyes were hard; they held their usual dead look. I wondered what it took to make them look alive. I wondered if Chuck ever did that for her and, also, if Tan ever had….
He exhaled loudly now as his questioning eyes looked at me, but I just shook my head fast, frowning. He shot
out the doorway; then both Chuck and the doctor followed him.
Hu was off her feet now, shutting the door behind them. “Do you know who tried to kill you on Hera?” she asked me.
At first, I just looked at her. Then: “Yes.”
“Well, what have you learned? You’re here now. We need to discuss these things.”
I didn’t answer her directly. “I wouldn’t trust anybody. That is, I don’t think anyone can be trusted. Someone seems to think they’re going to make a mint off what Amy Castano learned. I think she was working on something else for someone else, then she stumbled onto this. And the people she was working for felt they owned this too.”
“I’d really prefer more specifics about who.”
“What does that matter now? We’re on the way, and maybe we’ll get all the answers we need there. The battling-people part—I don’t know. That’s your thing.”
The transport motor had started up and we must have lifted off; I could feel the rumble of turbulence beneath the floor.
And unless I’d begun imagining things, Hu seemed to be flinching with every jerk of the transport. Now she said, “I don’t like being in the dark with respect to information.” She must have seen my staring at her uncomfortable face. “I also…don’t like flying. I’d rather be on the ground. Or beneath it.”
I snorted.
Then she said, “We’re going to make a few detours along the way.”
My brow lowered. “What kind of detours.”
She raised her right hand, palm forward. “Nothing nefarious. They’re necessary. First we’ll fly over The Razor Grasslands to take a close look at—”
“But that’s wasting time! I don’t want to prolong this because it’s dangerous and I have a life to get back to. And, frankly, I don’t understand all this. Like, for example, why didn’t Lori tell you the location on Julianne’s map piece?”
“What makes you think she didn’t?” Hu replied. “You know first-hand the map doesn’t tell you anything about exactly where the danger points are. The Astral Mountains cover over a thousand square-miles of mostly forest. That location told me nothing…except now I know whoever has that map piece knows about that general area too.”
I didn’t want to think about that right now; I didn’t want to think that someone could be waiting for us there. So I said, “I just don’t understand why you didn’t at least do the grassland flyover sooner.”
“Number One, we did. Number Two, YOU didn’t have the specific coordinates then, but you do now. Number Three, I don’t have unlimited resources to keep traipsing across Diamond. I’m combining trips to save money….”
…I could never figure out where she even got any monetary resources—probably from sympathizers….
“…And finally, as I said, I don’t like flying. The less I do, the better. Now I need the coordinates for The Grasslands.”
I stared at her pale face. “You’ll get everything when we get close to the places.”
She eyed me curiously. “Still suspicious, eh?”
Someone banged on the door; Hu walked over and opened it up. Tan stood in the hall, with Chuck not too far behind him.
“So now what do we do?” Tan asked, but in a mocking uninterested voice.
Hu shrugged and then abruptly motioned at me first and at the door second. “Whatever you normally do. We won’t reach our first stop for hours. This meeting’s over. If either of you need anything from now on, ask Chuck. Go on then,” she finished, her left arm motioning for me to leave now.
So I did.
*
Chuck had disappeared down the hall, leaving Tan and I alone as we walked.
“Where the hell are we headed in this thing?” he asked me in a lower voice.
“We’re supposed to be flying to The Razor Grasslands.”
He stared at me for a silent moment, his face looking more than a little worried.
“One of the spots is there, Tan. We’re not going in, so don’t worry. We can’t. It’s impenetrable. But I think she wants to make sure.”
“What about what we want?”
We had stepped into our designated sleeping area. The room contained four beds, but only two frames had mattresses on top. This room was smaller than the one Hu had been in, and though I saw lots of silver here, the room felt warmer. I dropped my bags onto the floor as Tan shut the door behind us.
He came up to me then, very close, close enough to whisper in my ear, “You think they’re watching us—listening in to everything?”
I hadn’t even thought of that, which had been stupid of me. I stilled. “I don’t know.”
“Better not talk about anything too private then,” came another whisper, but this one was punctuated by a kiss on my ear and then my neck as Tans arms closed around me. “Let them get a look at that.”
Bristling a little, I moved slightly—but pointedly—away.
His arms dropped to his sides. “What’s wrong?”
Quickly I slid back over to him, very close, started saying, “How do I know—” Then suddenly, I didn’t want to finish my thought out loud. My lips snapped shut.
Tan’s mouth twisted and a muscle in his jaw twitched…maybe a little sadly? “Just say it please.”
My mouth moved right to his ear. “How do I know you didn’t come because you wanted to see her again?”
He sighed then, his arms sliding up over my shoulders till our faces were almost pressed together. “I love you. Don’t you know that by now?”
My head lowered to the side a bit.
“Unfortunately,” Tan continued on a sigh, “I can’t prove it right now. If we do have an audience, I don’t want to give them that good a show.”
I laughed a little, raising my head now.
*
For the next several hours, we didn’t give them any shows—we didn’t give them anything. Someone had left a bunch of fiction books in the room. So both Tan and I read in mostly silence, then we napped in mostly silence. There was nothing else we could do. And considering that the naps might be the last resting opportunity we’d have for days….
A banging woke me.
Startling to a seated position, my hand reached for my gun and my head whipped around as my tired eyes struggled to adjust to the shadowy room…then they finally did adjust and I realized where I was. The banging had come from the hall: someone was knocking at the door.
Tan had woken too; he slid to sitting on his bed’s edge, his face looking so adorably sleep-sluggish that for an instant his expression tugged at my pounding heart, thankfully slowing it down.
The banging started again and I got up to open the door.
Chuck stood outside. “We’re almost at the destination. Arlene wants to see you. We need the coordinates.”
*
We stood in Hu’s room again, the four of us, the two “couples,” assuming Hu and Chuck were actually a couple.
I finally—verbally—gave them the latitude and longitude coordinates for The Grasslands location.
And then Hu frowned at me. “So you’re not going to show me the notebooks.”
“Nope. I memorized the numbers just for this.”
I watched her astonished angry eyes. “Are you telling me you left the notebooks somewhere?”
“Nope. They’re right here.” I held up my case, my fingers lightly tapping on it a few times.
Both she and Chuck groaned. And her voice rose quite a bit when she spoke. “So then you’ve been carrying them around in a suitcase?”
“This isn’t any old suitcase. And if you’ve got any bright ideas, you can’t open it. Only I can and only in a certain way will the contents be preserved then.”
Tan had been silently watching us all, but now he said, “Why should Pia trust you?”
“Why indeed,” said Hu. “I figured she wouldn’t. So you’ll forgive me if I don’t trust the coordinates. Nevertheless, they’ll need testing.” Turning to Chuck now: “Go to the bridge and give them the numbers. We’ll meet you
there.”
Chuck walked away fast. I didn’t understand why we all weren’t going together. Then Hu started moving, favoring that same leg as earlier, the one the doctor had been manipulating.
Her face twisted now. She must have seen both Tan and I eyeing her with curiosity. She glanced at us, then away again as she slipped out into the hall. “I’m having issues with my leg. It’s been getting worse lately. The treatments temporarily leave me even more lame.”
We didn’t respond. We just kept walking. It seemed Tan didn’t want to watch her limping along, and I still didn’t want to think of Hu as anything other than a lunatic, certainly not someone who could be in pain. So what? She’d caused enough of that here….
We finally stood on the bridge.
Shayla was one of the pilots; she sat before the panoramic front window. A guy sat beside her, and another guy sat at a panel on the bridge’s right side.
In the window, a gray-brown blur of Diamond ground moved ahead of us.
“About two minutes till we reach the location,” Shayla said.
The transport slowed down quite a bit, and, even though the Sun would be setting soon, I could still make out the land’s features. It was mostly flat here, flat but treacherous, the super-sharp narrow grass blades growing into such tight tangles, it looked as if the pale ground had a coating of dark animal hair.
I didn’t know what the hell we were supposed to see among that tangle, but I’d given Hu the exact coordinates Amy had listed in her notebook.
“We’re above the target right now,” said Shayla. The transport hovered in circles over the spot, which looked like the same hairy mess as everywhere else around here.
Hu looked at me now, a little too hard a look.
I sighed loudly. “What—what? Those are the coordinates. I told you the truth.”
Her head turned to Chuck on her other side. He was examining one of the panels near that other guy, who I assumed was a navigator.
“Well?” Hu asked Chuck now. “Do you see anything remarkable about the topography?”
“I’m still looking,” he said. And the transport remained hovering-circling for a few minutes while he continued looking and punching at keypad buttons near the panel.
