INFINITY HOLD3

by Longyear, Barry B.

  Something began smoking my wig. I looked around, then got to my feet and looked around some more. There was no running water in camp. Not at the latrines; not where the kitchen used to be; nowhere. A tingle went up my spine. I pointed north. "Just beyond the edge of camp at the foot of the bluff there's a spring."

  He looked at me, glanced at his mother, then closed his eyes. "If I go by myself, get in trouble. Get lost. Get in lots of trouble."

  "I can relate." My head was running at light speed as I got to my feet and pulled at Idiot Son's arm. "It's okay. I'll take you." I looked back at Deadeye. "Watch things. There's something I have to check."

  As I ushered the hulk toward the spring I tried to remember the drink I had at the spring before Brain Drain warned us about the approaching patrol.

  There had been the end of a pipe in the water. Yet there was no running water in Kegel's entire camp. What else could the pipe be but the water supply for the underground chamber?

  When Idiot Son and I arrived, I went right to the edge of the spring and looked. The pipe was still there. I stood in the water, bent over, wrapped my fingers around the end of it, and pulled. It was hollow wood, it was strong, and the other end of it was buried deep in the side of the bank. I got a little mud on the tip of a finger, rubbed it with my thumb, and dissolved it in the water near the end of the pipe. It was sucked in.

  "I got you, you bastards," I muttered. "Like the hightowers on Manson's ass, I got you."

  I looked around and Idiot Son was at the other side of the spring on his knees drinking. "Aren't you finished yet?"

  He looked up, his face confused and hurt. "Sure, Chief."

  I pointed back toward the camp. "Can you find your way to the camp and back here by yourself?"

  He looked toward the camp and back at me. "Sure, Chief."

  "Terrific, Einstein. Go back to the camp, get Head Start, Deadeye, and Marietta and send them here. Then you and Power Tool collect up all the fire cubes you can find and bring them here as fast as you can. You got all that?"

  He capped his water bottle, got to his feet, and frowned at me. "What if I get lost? Get into trouble?"

  "Dammit, Idiot Son, it's time to grow up! You can do it! So do it! Seize the day! Move your ass!"

  He walked through the spring and headed straight toward the camp, ignoring the trail. While he crashed through the grass like a bull in the brush, I walked the entire edge of the pool, looking for the overflow. When water was too abundant, there had to be a place for it to go. Even though it'd rained like Noah's nightmare the night before, the level of the spring wasn't much higher than when I first saw it.

  It was while I was pushing my way through a wall of big grass on the western side of the spring that I saw a trickle of water at the bottom of a steep, grass choked gully. A hundred feet west and maybe twenty feet down, the ditch widened out into a small stream bed. The grass was shaded over the stream bed making the air still and dark. The wasps filled the air and I daubed on more mud and grass juice.

  While I was rubbing the goo on the back of my neck, I heard a trickle. It was coming from downstream. After a few more steps in that direction, I saw the dull glitter of flowing gray water coming into the stream from the south bank. Raw sewage.

  "Down 'n brown!" shouted Marietta. "Where're you at?"

  I ran back upstream until I was again at the spring. Idiot Son and Mummy were there with Head Start, Deadeye, and Marietta. Idiot was holding a huge sack of fire cubes in each hand. I nodded my thanks at him. "Good work, Einstein."

  "Who's Einstein.?"

  "Someone who was very smart," answered Mummy as she patted her son's arm.

  "Yeah," said Deadeye. "He helped invent nuclear bombs and made it possible to fly us here."

  "Cut the jaw music," I ordered. "Look at this." Pulling them over to the spring, I showed them the pipe. "That's the water supply for the chamber. I'm positive."

  Marietta bent over and placed her massive palm over the end of the pipe. "Now that's what I call suction." She pulled her hand free and stood up. "If it goes in, Chief, it's got to come out."

  I pointed toward the west. "Down there, maybe a hundred feet away, is the sewage outlet." I looked at my deputies. "We got 'em!"

  Mummy held out her hands. "So we can make their sewer back up and cut off their water. What if they have a cistern in there and can live with the stink?"

  Head Start nodded his agreement. "It could take weeks, Chief."

  Idiot Son frowned and looked up at the sky as he scratched his chin. "Air? Ain't they got to breathe?" He leveled his pig-eyed little gaze at me. "Chief?"

  "They got to breathe, Einstein." I pointed at the slight rise between the spring and the camp. "This edge of the grass is closest to the chamber, and they would've saved a lot of digging by using the same ditch for the air and the water. I'm betting they get their air from an opening somewhere on this side."

  Head Start grinned. "And you want to build a little smoky campfire next to their air intake?"

  "Don't have an orgasm." I pointed at the rise. "Get looking. It'll be hidden somehow, so investigate anything and everything. Sniff, too. The air from down there'll smell different. Musty. It'll be colder, too." I held up my hands and rubbed my fingers together. "Feel the air. Find 'em."

  Our collective best guess was that the air intake would be as far from the sewer discharge as possible, so we searched above the spring to the east. After an hour it was Idiot Son who found the air exhaust. His face was all smiles as he pointed at his nose and said, "It was colder and molder. I mean coldy and moldy."

  "I read you. Talk low. They might be able to hear us through that pipe." I patted his shoulder and squatted down as I looked beneath the ledge where a fist thick wooden air duct was hidden by the overhang. I put my fingers near the opening and felt the cool air rushing out. "By the Spider's spare hairs, son, they've got air conditioning down there."

  I looked to the right and to the left, letting my gaze search out and examine every little crack and hole in the ledge. About twenty feet further away from the spring there was a bunch of loose rocks piled up against the side of the ledge. I squatted down next to it and began removing the rocks. After a minute the top of the air intake was exposed. The end of it was covered with a sheer stocking to screen out the bugs.

  I turned to Head Start. "Fire's your thing, deputy. How about you making up something nice and smoky with the fire cubes, the grass, and some of that nice thick moss that grows along the stream bed? As soon as the smoke begins coming out of the air exhaust, block it up."

  He nodded, the expression on his face giving me chills. "Thank you. You can count on me, Chief. Thank you."

  I managed a bit of a grim grin of my own. "The rest of us'll be waiting where Kegel's tent stood."

  The rest of the crew followed me back to the clearing. I had them get in the test holes we had dug and face where Kegel's tent had stood. After loading and checking my weapon and clip, I leaned against the edge of my test hole and waited. In a moment Power Tool whistled. I looked at him and he pointed toward the north. A column of thick black smoke was climbing into the air. I looked back at the site of Kegel's tent, my weapon aimed, my breath held.

  It didn't take long. A couple of minutes after I saw the smoke, I heard metal hitting small stones. A hole opened about ten feet in front of me, and I was about to point out its location to the rest when a puff of smoke and the muzzle of a rifle came out of the hole. The smoke continued upward and the rifle fired.

  It fired again, I heard racking coughs, then a shovel dug in and collapsed the dirt from beneath. The end of a ladder came out followed immediately by three Hellborns with weapons blazing. Before I could fire, Power Tool, Deadeye, and Mummy gave their weapons a little burp each, and the Hellborns were on their way back home. Marietta and I drilled the next one who was following his blazing rifle into the sunlight, and then there were none.

  We watched the smoke come out of the opening for a few more minutes, and then I called to
Marietta. "Go on back to the air intake and have Head Start put out the fire and open the air exhaust."

  "It'll break his heart."

  "Into each life some rain must fall."

  Minutes after she left we could hear her arguing with Head Start, but right afterward the smoke from his end died out. Not long after that the smoke from the hole eased, eventually becoming nothing but wisps.

  I climbed out of my test hole, stepped around the bodies, and looked down into the darkness. Striking a fire cube, I tossed it in. Right away I could see why the door had been so foolproof. It was a trapdoor that opened inward at the bottom of a two meter deep hole. They had closed the door, the Hellborn on the surface had filled in the hole, then went out to kill and die to keep Kegel's secret safe. When the ones inside the chamber had to come out, they would stand back, open the door, knock the dirt out of the way, and come out. The door was clever, if you could find enough jerks with shovels who were willing to die for you. The Hellborn was incomprehensible. To die for Kegel and Anna Tane? I never could understand that kind of loyalty. It's not like they were heroes, or even likable. Why would a bunch of yard smart sharks give their lives for a critter like Kegel?

  I looked around at the others and pointed toward the hole to indicate that I was going down. Deadeye got up to follow me. "I'll go by myself," I told him.

  His usually deadpan expression did not alter. "A little early to commit suicide, isn't it? Or is this a macho thing? I'd hate to spoil it for you if you're still trying to hunt down your dick."

  Just what I needed: an insightful button man. I didn't know where to aim my glare. With any kind of luck there would be more Hellborn down in the hole protecting their masters in a closed off room that hadn't been smoked. I was more than willing to die to find Kegel and Anna Tane alive. It would sort of wrap up the story of Bando Nicos with the right kind of ribbon. I'd be dead, which would take care of my problem, and I could bring Kegel's and Anna's scalps with me to the Big Light at the end of the tunnel. Unless they took my piece and shot their way out. Unless my desire to die was more important than making sure that Kegel and Anna Tane got theirs.

  "Okay, Deadeye. Follow me down. Just don't stitch me in the ass if things get hot."

  "Relax. Deadeye never misses."

  Yeah. That helped me relax. I tossed another fire cube in the hole and began climbing down the ladder, the muzzle of my piece pointing down. That tic-tic-tic sound was loud.

  At the bottom of the ladder I stood on the pile of loose door dirt and squinted against the haze as Deadeye climbed down. My eyes stung and my nose began watering from the smoke still remaining in the chamber. In the dim light I saw that the tic-tic-tic sound came from a little water driven wheel at the back of the chamber that in turn drove a fan that sucked in the fresh air. Part of the water was diverted to a curtained off toilet made from rocks and mortar. The flow through the thing was constant.

  The chamber was huge, the ceiling beams supported by a forest of thick posts, the floor crowded with baskets piled full with stuff. "What's that?" Deadeye asked in a whisper.

  I shook my head. There were dying fire cube lights in holders attached to a couple of places on the log walls. One of them died out and I lit another cube and tossed it in front of me.

  The fire cube landed next to a large woven basket. I pulled my greenstick, touched it to the fire cube and held the light over the basket.

  I could feel my eyebrows climb. The basket was full, and it was just one of many such baskets. They were full of currency. All different kinds, sorted out by planet, bundled into wads that could choke a lughox. There had to be millions. Maybe billions. Each basket of currency made up from the bits of change millions of convict-exiles had brought to the desert. It was the beginning of my sense of how huge the crime of Tartaros was.

  I showed the light around the chamber, disappointedly determined that Deadeye and me were the only occupants, and turned back to the strangely sad treasure of Deke Kegel and Anna Tane. There were baskets of timepieces, each basket containing the timepieces based on a particular planet's day length, with another couple of baskets full of adjustables. There were eye glasses, piles of clothing, piles of boots, piles of books, jewelry, a million and one little keepsakes, each one brought to Tartaros by a shark who just wanted to keep a little touch of home, the memory of a loved one, a little something of value.

  There were more baskets full of drugs, home made weapons, poisons, and photographs. I picked up one of the photos and looked at it. It was of an obviously shy girl clad in god-issue in what she probably figured was a gland thumper of a pose. The writing was in some language I couldn't figure. The girl's name was Iliva.

  Some yard eagle on his way to infinity hold had asked his bit for a stroke photo, and this is what sad little Iliva had given him. The jerk had kept it, too. Now he was bait for the sandbats and her photo was part of Kegel's inventory of lost dreams. You sort of wondered if Iliva still remembered her long departed shark. There wasn't any date on the thing. I dropped the photo and looked at the baskets and baskets of photographs. There were hundreds and hundreds of thousands of them. There were baskets of toys, too.

  I picked up a tiny toy dragon as that sick anger flooded my head and heart. How many men, women, and children had Kegel and his gang killed to accumulate all of this crap? The little dragon was missing an eye. I dropped it back in the basket and looked up as I heard a familiar voice.

  "There's more where that came from."

  I half turned around and saw Kegel standing there with a rifle trained on me. Behind him was an open door to another chamber. I swung my piece to cut him in half, but a hand leaped out of the shadows, hit my front handgrip from below, and ripped the weapon out of my hands. I leaped at the one who took my rifle, but he swung the stock of the weapon and hit me in the face. Damn, what a week I was having.

  My head shattered. I could feel all of Mercy Jane's and Wolf's handiwork being trashed. I went down on my hands and knees spitting blood. When I looked up I saw another Hellborn holding a piece on Deadeye.

  "You must be crazy coming down here, chili pepper," said Kegel. I looked up at the freakfaced bastard. He was looking over my rifle. Kegel pointed out the auto nut on the trigger housing to one of the Forks and grinned. The Fork holding the piece on Deadeye held up the hitter's auto.

  "Boss Deke, this one's fixed, too."

  Those four mokkers with a couple of autos in their hands might just be able to take out Marietta and my pitiful little bunch of whacks. If they got loose and made it back to the Sea of Stars, they just might be able to keep Jak and Cap from getting control. Not only that, they'd have a few automatic rifles to play with. Wouldn't that be a cruise, I thought. Bando Nicos helps the gut stringers to take over the world. Perfect.

  Kegel flipped the auto nut back and forth a few times. "Get up." Leaning against one of the posts, I used it to pull myself to my feet. "You know, Nicos, somebody did one hell of a fine job on this piece."

  I just looked at him. He shook his head at me and grinned, that scar on his cheek glowing orange in the dying light from the fire cubes. Kegel's left hand was holding the weapon around the stock, right in front of the trigger guard. A dim memory brightened. Don't hold an auto there when you fire it, cautioned the Troll. Important safety tip.

  "You're one crazy chili pepper coming back here."

  I spat on the dirt floor and said to him, "I got a hole in the head, clownface. What's your excuse?"

  "What?" His face went bright red.

  I was counting on a number of things. The least reliable of these items was being able to dodge the first few slugs Kegel fired. The post I was leaning on was close to 40 cents thick. Maybe it would take a couple of slugs.

  "I said you're a goofy lookin' freak with a face that ought to be in a horror show." I laughed as I stuck my fingers in the corners of my mouth and pulled my cheeks out into a grin.

  He bellowed like a wounded bull. The muzzle of the weapon exploded in a roar as I sprang to my r
ight behind the post. Splinters flew everywhere as Kegel stitched a few rounds up the post and into the logs overhead, screaming as he dropped the weapon, fell to his knees, and held his left hand before him, all four fingers neatly pruned.

  Blessing my lucky stars for me not getting hit, I scrambled for my rifle. One of the Forks fired at me, the slug burned through my left thigh, but before he could get another round into his lever-pumped piece, I rolled across the dirt, got my auto back, and stitched him. Another slug dug into the split log floor near my head and I pulled around to stitch the shooter. Deadeye's piece roared first, and the count was complete.

  "Nice shooting," I said.

  Deadeye shrugged. "It was okay." He pointed his piece toward Kegel. "What about him?"

  "Keep an eye on him." Kegel was on his knees screaming about his poor little hand. Deadeye kept him covered as I pulled myself to my feet, ripped off a piece of my sheet, and tied it around my wound. While I was wrapping the filthy bandage around my leg, I noticed the slug had gone all of the way through. I was standing, so the bone wasn't broken, and nothing was pumping out. Kegel was still howling.

  "Quit whining. I don't figure that little manicure is anywhere as painful as being hung up on those sticks by your guts."

  "Maybe we could show him," suggested Deadeye. "Sort of a scientific experiment."

  Kegel went from a whimper to a growl. I tossed him a rag for his trimmed fingers. There wasn't any reason to keep him alive. After all, we did his ragtime the night before. There was one little bit of unfinished business, though. "Where's Anna Tane?"

  He wrapped his hand and rocked back and forth with the pain. I repeated my question. "Where is she?"

  Boss Kegel grimaced at me, clutching his wrapped hand to his chest. "I get a trial, Nicos. I seen the law. I get a trial. You're a cop. You got to give me a trial. And a jury. I get a jury."

  "You already had your trial, Kegel. Last night. Jury and everything. You should've been there. This is payback time and you owe the max. It's the dark and chilly for you."