INFINITY HOLD3

by Longyear, Barry B.

  It didn't look good. If Tani had any sense at all, she'd go for a jury, which was almost a guarantee she'd get off, given the current selection of potential jurors. If the jury let a guilty perp off the hook, the Bad Call Rules required the execution of every juror who voted for not guilty. We had thirteen jurors per trial, and I only had four rounds of ammunition left. I issued a quick curse at Nkuma for running off on his jerk quest with the other rifle and the rest of the ammo.

  I talked to Ratt without looking at him. "Any witnesses?"

  "Twenty or thirty. A regular audience to see the Wire get hers. Like I said, I'm one of them. So, what do you do now?"

  I turned my head and did a scan for the roach. My orbs picked up a chubby mau standing next to Tani. That would be Grahl. Maybe they were tying up a few loose ends to the Aduelo defense strategy. I figured there were all kinds of ways to waste time. Trying to beat a charge on points was a juicer game from back home. The law was the law. Home was all done past.

  "Tani Aduelo."

  She broke off her conversation with the cockroach and looked at me. I felt a physical pain right beneath my breastbone. This was going to be a lot harder than I figured. "Tani, you've been fingered for killing Misi Pihn to get her rations. According to Ratt, there're witnesses. Under the law, I can handle it, but I suppose you want a jury."

  She smiled very warmly at me. Damn her for that smile. "I don't want a jury."

  As my lower jaw hung open, she looked at the roach. The lawyer raised his eyebrows and said to me, "I am Lewis Grahl representing Tani. Under the provisions of Rule Fourteen, what you call the Black Rag Rule, the defense moves to have the investigating officer decide this issue."

  He was crazy. "Cockroach, are you shuffling dimensions?"

  "I beg your pardon?" Grahl had smug oozing out of every pore. My first impulse was to let him go down in flames, but a glance at Tani finished that. I walked over to them and faced Grahl.

  "Look, money threads, I don't know what in the hell ambulance you think you're chasing, but if this kid killed Misi Pihn for nothing but her eats, the only chance your pigeon has is a crooked jury."

  Eyebrows still up, Grahl's forehead wrinkled in that eternal expression of burdened superiority sported by those princes of the blood reduced by cruel fate to having to treat with dung. "The way I understand your law," he said, "if the officer decides the case, new rules can be made to cover situations not already addressed by the existing rules. However, if a jury decides a case, it must be done under the existing rules. There would be no opportunity to make new rules."

  I frowned as I thought about it. It hadn't registered on me before, but he was right. The pain in my chest eased a bit as I felt a gleam of hope. "You have something? Something that isn't covered by the law?"

  He nodded and said, "Trust me."

  There it was again: Trust me. Every time a cockroach had ever fed that line to Bando Nicos, the only certain thing was that Bando was headed for the crowbars with a new asshole and a flat wallet. But maybe he knew what he was doing. He'd already seen something in the law that I hadn't seen. Maybe.

  I looked at Tani. It wouldn't be hard to get lost in eyes like hers. Jesus, she was just fourteen! I looked toward the setting sun. "I don't have to trust your cockroach, kid. You don't either." I looked back at those eyes. "You sure you want to do what he says? A jury can vote you not guilty, and you got a lot of friends out here."

  "She wants to do what's right," said Grahl. "You'd have to execute a jury that voted wrong, wouldn't you?"

  My voice went real low. "I don't have that much ammo."

  "Sooner or later you'd have to go after the jury, correct?"

  "Yeah. I would."

  Tani placed her hand on my arm. "Honest, I'll be all right. Lew knows what he'd doing." There was almost a gleam of mischief in her eyes.

  I looked at the cockroach, and he said again, "Trust me."

  Maybe he had something. Hell, Bando Nicos didn't know everything in the world. I wasn't exiled to Tartaros because I was gifted with great smarts. I went back to my place on the sand. "Okay, Grahl. Tani. No jury. How do you answer the charge?"

  "First, there are a few things I would like to make clear for the record."

  Speaking of the record, I hadn't made any arrangements for one. My old court clerk, Ila Toussant, was back with the Razai. I looked back at Alna, and she smiled as she held her hands over her head. In one hand she had a writing instrument and in the other was some paper. I nodded back and returned to Grahl. "Okay."

  "Very well. To begin, the deceased was an informer. Back in prison she and Tani had had several run ins—"

  "Forget that stuff," I said. "Rule Eleven. If it happened before the landing, it's done past. As if it never happened. I thought you knew the law."

  "I do. I just thought a bit of background might be helpful in making a decision."

  "Facts help, cockroach. Background is bullshit."

  "Very well. I should mention that, somehow, this Misi Pihn had an over abundance of rations. It has been rumored—"

  "Yeah," I interrupted, "and so what? Are there any charges? Like, is Tani charging that Misi nabbed her eats?" I gave him an out if he wanted to take it, but he had to do it his way.

  "No," he said.

  "First Rule. What's mine is mine. It's not Misi's job to feed Tani, no matter how much stuff she has." I gave a little sigh of impatience. "Look, you know the law. So far this has all been smoke. Do you have anything or not?"

  Grahl studied me for a second, glanced at Tani, and nodded. "Very well, Nicos. Tani enters a plea of guilty and the defense makes a motion that Tani Aduelo be sentenced as a juvenile. She is only fourteen and has that right." There were a couple of giggles from the dunes.

  I stood there with my teeth in my mouth for I don't know how long, waiting for him to give me the rest. After a long time I managed to figure out that's all there was.

  "That's it?" I demanded. "That's your big move?" I had counted on the lawyer to have an answer. You'd think by then I would've learned. "Talk to me, cockroach. Is that your sharp step, your deft play?"

  "Think for a second, Nicos! This law of yours doesn't allow any grading of punishments, especially not for taking a life. The Razai cannot hold prisoners, the payback for taking a life is death."

  "Yeah?" Again I waited. Again I damned myself for not learning from the time before. "So what's your point?"

  He looked exasperated at the low form of intelligence with which he had to contend. "Don't you see? No provisions have been made regarding juveniles. You now have an opportunity to make such a provision. From what I understand, most of this law you're so proud of was made up by you. Now you have an opportunity to correct one of your many oversights." He glanced knowingly at the thousands of surrounding sharks. "It would also be a way to avert further unpleasantness."

  I don't know. Maybe in law school you have to get certain neural centers crisped before you're allowed to take the bar exams. The juicer had lots of games, and the juve game was an old favorite. I'd even used it myself to keep down the numbers after almost beating to death that school teacher, which is why I was sent to Lancaster Juve instead of Pen State.

  And everyone knew it was a game. Everyone in the crowbars, anyway. That's right. Cut his hair, put him in a suit and short pants, rouge his cheeks, promise the black rag he'll never do it again, and turn that little killer loose on the streets to bust more skulls. What about payback? What about justice?

  Juicer law never was much concerned with the victim or with what was just. What was funny, though, was that everything the cockroaches, stains, and black rags did was in the name of justice and for the victim.

  I began unslinging my piece. Grahl took a step toward me. "What are you doing?"

  God, I was sick. I spat on the sand as I checked the load in my rifle. "You got another motion, cockroach?" I levered in a fresh round.

  He walked over until he was next to me and began speaking in a very low voice. "Don't you see, Ni
cos? I've given you a way around your Payback Rule."

  Man, the taste in my mouth was ancient and repulsive like the papers off the bottom of a legal eagle's birdcage. Yeah, I wanted a way around the Payback Rule, but it didn't have anything to do with there being something wrong with the rule. That and the rest of the law was all that kept us out from under the big fist. It's what protected us.

  I looked at Tani. "You got anything to say, kid? I think your cockroach's run out of air."

  "I have more to say, Nicos!" bellowed the roach.

  I turned my head until I faced Grahl. "You remember Rule Forty-eight?"

  The cockroach thought for a moment. "The Obstruction Rule?"

  "Yeah. The Obstruction Max Payback Rule."

  "Yes. The maximum punishment under consideration in an action is applied to anyone who obstructs justice in that action. A trifle barbaric, I thought."

  "Most cockroaches do. Anyway, just so you understand, blowholing for the sake of it obstructs justice. It delays things. For that you get the max."

  Tani Aduelo's cockroach was quiet, so I stood my ground on the sand and faced the mob of convict-exiles from Mihviht. I didn't need to read The Law of the Razai. I knew it by heart. But reading it meant that I wouldn't have to look at Tani. My hands trembled as I began reading Rule 15. "The penalty for all crimes is payback, and payback for taking a life is everything plus a little."

  "Objection!" shouted Tani's cockroach.

  "Man!" I shouted, "I told you slowing things down draws the max!"

  "Then shoot me, Nicos!"

  I pulled my rifle off of my shoulder and aimed it between his eyes. Every rotten money-threads cockroach sonofabitch who ever lined his pockets by running me through the juicer filled my sights. My finger tightened on the trigger. I took a breath and waited a second. The edge of rage was pushed back by knowing that I didn't have to act upon it. The image of my fellow rage addict, Cap Brady, came into my mind. I thought of the CSAs at the meetings who told me that as long as I don't give into the rage, Bando Nicos still had choices. The chili pepper was still running things. The instant I give into it, the monster runs the show.

  There was another exhaust trail in the sky far to the north. I fixed my gaze on it and slowly lowered the rifle. When it was down and my aching finger was off the trigger, I looked at the cockroach. Grahl, his eyes closed, was licking his lips and trying to get his heart started. "Cockroach," I said, "I'd be damned careful about handing out invitations like that." I slung my weapon. "Say your piece."

  Once he stopped trembling, the cockroach looked around at the sharks as he held out his hands. "Tani is only fourteen years old. She's just a child. She didn't plan any murder. She couldn't. She's too young and immature to understand what killing another person means. In addition to that is the frightening stress of exile to this horrible place. Here she is, a helpless child, condemned to a hell populated by vicious predators."

  The dunes grumbled with agreement even though they were the vicious predators Grahl was talking about. The cockroach looked at me. "At best this is involuntary manslaughter, not premeditated murder. And you can't hold a child this young responsible for a murder in any event. No judicial system I know of does that. Mihviht doesn't; Earth doesn't—"

  "That's enough, cockroach," I interrupted. "You're chewing old cabbage." I looked from him to the dunes. "People, it's time to wake up. This is not Mihviht. This is not Earth. This is Tartaros. Here we are responsible for our choices. All of us." I pointed at the girl. "Tani chose to steal Misi's food. Misi defended herself. Then Tani killed Misi. It was her choice, even if she only tried to scare or wound Misi. The thing she did took a life, and the payback for taking a life is everything."

  The cockroach pushed his fingers through his hair then held out his hands. "What about rehabilitation—"

  A wave of laughter moved over the crowd. It looked like putting on the head doctors and working the cotton candy rehabs was a popular sport on Mihviht, too.

  "Damn it!" screamed the cockroach. "She can't become rehabilitated if she's dead!"

  I held up my hand to shut him up. "No one's trying to rehabilitate her, Grahl. The only thing that concerns us here is payback." I moistened my lips, glanced at Tani, and looked back at the cockroach. "If the girl wants to improve her emotional life, she better get on with it. Her time is running out."

  "Nicos, what about the lack of premeditation?"

  "What about it? I never heard a corpse ask a killer how much thought went into thinning him. In the Razai, taking a life is taking a life. You take it, and you can't pay it back, you're done past."

  There had already been too much talk. I faced Tani, half expecting her to run for it. The one law that most of the Mihvihtians found very amusing was the Razai's prohibition against holding anyone prisoner. Under the law she had the freedom to boogie. She didn't even have to be at the trial.

  But she didn't run. She stuck it out and concern for what she was facing hadn't once crossed her face. She thought she had the cards. She really believed that she could get out of it. Somehow something was going to cut her a break.

  "You got anything left to say, Tani?" My throat hurt it was so dry. She nodded and smiled at me.

  Tani did have a closing argument, and it was pretty effective. As she held me with her gaze she began undressing. The sharks fell as silent as death. Piece by piece she removed her crowbar uniform down to her smalls. She slipped off her top and panties, and stood there on the cooling sand in her god-issue. She held her arms out and slowly turned around. Little pips for breasts, only a suggestion of hips, a wisp of golden pubic hair, dear God she was young. Dear God she was beautiful. I looked at the cockroach, and maybe he had a better reading on me than Tani had. His eyes were closed, his head hanging down.

  I faced the kid and Tani Aduelo was facing me, her arms still held out. I quickly raised my rifle, aimed for her heart, and blew her away. She dropped to the sand like a wet rag, her eyes wide open.

  The sound of the shot faded and the scene could've been a painting. Then there was a growl, and a haystack yard monster with oily black hair started coming down the dune to my right. "Bando Nicos!" he bellowed, "I'm going to kill you, chili pepper! I'm going to rip off your bit's head and shove you in the hole!"

  I didn't look at Alna. I didn't even think about what to do next. Rule 13, the You Say It, You Pay It Rule, was still in the law. Besides, when the dark horse rode me next time, the haystack's ghost would hardly be noticed next to little Tani's. I waited until the yard monster wasn't directly in front of anyone, aimed for his head, and fired. The sharks to his rear were splattered with the think goo he never used, he plowed into the sand face first, and was still.

  Ratt Katz was looking at me like I'd popped up from Hell. "A threat is a crime," I recited. "It carries as a penalty the performance of the threat upon the threatener." I must have sounded dead. Like a machine. I wondered what Marietta would feel now that the rule she'd invented had finally claimed a life. Maybe it'd saved a few lives, too. I had to remember that for when the ghosts came at me with their questions.

  I felt light-headed. I looked and Alna was standing at the edge of the crowd, her mouth open, her eyes wide. She tilted her head to one side and looked at me. Her eyes were full of fear. Was it fear for me? For us? Was she afraid of me?

  She covered her face. I looked around at the Mihvihtians. They were looking back. What I read in their faces really threw the coal to it.

  I hated them. All those faces. Right then I hated every single one of them. Back on Earth I never understood why cops seemed to have a case on against the universe. They were the man. They were on top, right? Then why did they hate the world and everything on it? As Tani's bare little ass cooled, I knew why they hated everyone.

  I levered a new round into my rifle. "Sun's almost down. Get the column moving."

  "What if we don't want to get the column movin', baby-killer?"

  I looked to the dune on my left but I couldn't make out who had shou
ted the question. I guess in a way they all had. "Find your own way out of the desert," I answered.

  One by one, and then in little groups, the crowd began to thin. Angry eyes and nodding heads pointed in my direction. Angry lips whispered silent threats and vows. The shadows had grown long enough to cast the space between the dunes into darkness. Ratt sneered and headed east. Alna stood there for a long time, then she turned and walked away by herself, her desert sheet pulled tightly about her.

  When the sharks were just about all gone, I walked over to Tani Aduelo's still form. Her face was soft and innocent. I had to remind myself that I was just looking at the outside. She had probably sold her young ass a thousand times, and no one from lock city carries a cutter who doesn't have experience in using one. The only fourteen year old kids that were sent to Tartaros from Mihviht were killers.

  If the outside is all you can see, though, that's all you can look at. Her silent face still said, "It's lies, all lies." A wisp of steam was coming up from her wound. The horror of the coming night cold touched my neck. I wrapped my desert sheet about me.

  "What are you doing here?" I looked up and Lewis Grahl was standing there.

  "I don't know."

  "Haven't you done enough? There's nothing you can do to make up for this." Tears edged into his voice. "Go away. Just go away."

  "I got nothing to make up for, cockroach." I pointed at the girl's body. "Grahl, I seen thousands and thousands of dead on the sand. I splashed a few of them myself. We never bury the dead. Sometimes there's too many to bury. Usually there isn't any time." I nodded at the girl. "The sand bats. They go for the eyes first."

  "Nicos, you're a monster."

  "Yeah."

  As the column moved on, Tani's cockroach and I knelt down and began scooping out a grave with our hands. She was still warm when we lowered her in. Grahl tore a piece from his sun sheet and placed it over her face. Then we pushed the sand over her.

  The cockroach was crying, and I got this flash. It said that things would have been a lot better on Earth if, instead of just topping off their bank accounts, the cockroaches who lost cases had to bury their pigeons, or do time with them.