INFINITY HOLD3

by Longyear, Barry B.

  Everyone had volunteered to go with me, but the ones I picked, including myself, could all get wiped and the command structure back in the castle wouldn't be affected. Deadeye would run the column and Margo the cops. With me I had eight of Comini's old soldiers, Lauris, and Ratt. I didn't carry a weapon myself. I couldn't stand touching a rifle. Just the thought filled me with revulsion. When I allowed myself to think about it, I wondered if I was having some kind of breakdown. If I was, there wasn't much I could do about it, so I stopped worrying.

  When we got within a hundred paces of Anna Tane's bunch, we all dismounted. Three of us continued ahead on foot: me, Ratt, and Lauris. What business did I have bringing a couple of children into a situation like that? None at all. But Ratt and Lauris weren't children. Between them they had done close to fifty trials and executions. That's what toting a star for the RCs means. Anyway, they volunteered.

  Anna Tane led her pair of armed goons toward us, and I stopped and watched them approach. From the outside there was no pain, no spot of vulnerability, visible. Only a person trapped in the most hideous kind of pain could've done the things she'd done, but she carried no outward sign, no hint that anyone or anything in the universe had or ever could touch her.

  She stopped a few meters from me and said, "Nicos. Are you in charge?"

  "What'd you want to talk about?"

  She studied me for a moment. Lifting her gaze to my eyes she said, "You've lost weight. A lot of it."

  I almost laughed. Here we were in the mall catching up on this and that. "It's this new high-lead diet I've been trying."

  Her eyes half-closed as she cocked her head to one side. "How is Deke Kegel?"

  "Do you give a damn?" I asked.

  "No."

  "In that case, he's ashes and his troops are in the Razai."

  She studied me as a slow smile spread across her lips. "You're a liar."

  "And you're Carlo T.'s daughter."

  Her face flushed red, the first real emotion I'd ever seen her exhibit. "This display on the road, Nicos. Is it meant to frighten us?"

  "I thought the meaning was clear: join the Razai or die. Everybody has a choice: live free or die a slave."

  She gave the surroundings a quick scan and folded her arms. "So, let me have it, Nicos. Devastate me. What's your scheme?"

  "No scheme, no scam." I lifted up my arms and pointed north and south. "Iron Lee's armies have already joined the Razai. Right now the combined forces are moving to strike your father's armies on the Chop Gulf coast from behind. Chances are, though, instead of fighting, they'll do the same thing that Iron Lee's squats did: join the Razai. Most people just want to be free." I lowered my arms. "As for the legal situation, you're dead for taking Nance Damas, Jane Sheene, and Alna Moah hostage, and for the murder of Alna Moah."

  She pointed east without looking. "I have eighty thousand soldiers. All I see of the Razai is you and a few squats."

  Colonel Indimi had been right. This was just like a school yard slashout. The mokkers step out and badmouth each other, trying to size up and psych out the other. After some crotch grabbing and chest thumping, out come the edges. Everybody stabs and slashes until one leader or the other springs a leak, then everyone disappears. Except, this time it was different. I wasn't leading a street gang.

  I looked past her to her bodyguards. They were a couple of yard monsters, but looked to be not all hardwood. I spoke to them.

  "I have maybe eight thousand up in the rocks. That includes our wounded and very young children. You got us ten to one, easy. Even so, we're dug in and I can guarantee at least ten of you will die for each one of us you kill. Even if you do wipe us, by then you'll be facing an army made up out of the combined forces of the Razai, Kegel's gang, Iron Lee, and your brothers in the Hand. What's that? A million? One and a quarter? One and a half? Unless you send up the white rag, you'll be done past."

  Anna Tane took a step until she was standing between me and her squats. "Why aren't you talking to me?"

  "Like I said, you're dead. Can't you feel it? You've been dead for days."

  "I'll show you who's dead." She reached behind her back and almost came out with a throwing edge before a rip of explosions behind me resulted in an auto stitch from her gut across her chest, throwing her backwards into the dust. As the echoes died away, I turned and saw Lauris, her auto smoking in her hands, tears in her eyes. "Now she doesn't hurt anymore."

  Ratt yelled, "Think about it!" The two bodyguards had their pieces half way up. Ratt had them covered with his auto. They were frozen fast.

  I walked over to Anna Tane's crumpled form and knelt beside her, half expecting her to come to life again and drive her blade through my neck. She was on her left side, her legs pulled up toward her chest. Her right hand was gripping the handle of a needle-pointed cutter. Reaching out my hand, I pulled her shoulder until she was face up to the sky.

  Her eyes were closed, her face relaxed, at peace. I could only guess at her story. My hatred was in a distant orbit as I reached over and brushed the dust from her left cheek. God, I was sick of the killing, the hurting, the waste. I spoke to her squats as I brushed the dirt off of Anna Tane. "You people have a choice. Your whole army has a choice." I looked up at the pair. "Listen hard. You can join us and live in freedom under the Law, or you can fight us and eventually die. Take that message back to your people." They didn't move so much as a hair. "Any of this getting through?"

  The one on the left looked at the one on the right. Then he looked back at me. "We got it." The guy closed his eyes and engineered an unconvincing shrug. "Supposin' we do go for it. What's that mean for us?"

  "You mean, what's in it for you?" said Ratt.

  "Yeah."

  I sat back on my heel and looked at Anna Tane's face as I said, "What's in it for you is freedom and whatever you can make of it. Bums, billionaires, it's up to you."

  "There's a little something," said the other one in a whisper. I could see the scar on his throat. At some time in the past he'd had a cutter pulled through his voice box.

  "What something?"

  "If we go for it, what do we do with Carlo?"

  I sat straight up and stared at the man. I'd always assumed Carlo would be on the coast with the larger part of his army. A hundred illegal things buzzed through my head, but I eventually quieted down. "All the way between here and your people, along both sides of the road, are copies of the Law. Gather them up and spread them around. What you do with Carlo is up to you."

  One of the guards knelt next to Anna Tane and touched her neck. He was looking for a pulse. After a few seconds, he held his fingers in front of her nostrils. He leaned back and nodded at the body. "You got no idea what depends on this one really being dead."

  "Don't bet your dentures on it." I leaned over, kissed the dead woman's forehead, and pushed myself to my feet. "Bring back her body. It's the only way anyone'll believe you." I felt a hand pulling on my sleeve. It was Lauris.

  "Come on, Chief," she said, her dark eyes glistening. "Let's go."

  I put my arm around her shoulders and the three of us walked back to the critters and mounted up as Anna Tane's guards tied her limp form across her lugh. We turned about and headed toward the island. As we came to the foot of the cliffs, shots rang out from the road. We all looked, but we couldn't tell who had decided what. All we could see was that seven Hand riders out of the original ten remained. They were riding back to their main army bringing Anna Tane's body with them. They left the three dead squats on the south side of the road.

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  Mad Dogs

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  That night, Blue Moon on the rise, we listened to the firing coming from the Hand as the differing factions debated my proposal. Carlo was with them, which meant we hadn't taken out their warlord. The snake still had its head, but it didn't worry me. The dice had been thrown. All we were doing was waiting to see how the spots came up. Eith
er way, I'd done what I could and Prophet would get his payback.

  I was high atop the tallest of the rock columns that could be reached, stretched out on my belly, scanning the east with the vidcam's night lens. All I could see were clouds of dust sparkled with blinding white muzzle flashes. There was little to make of it except that the Hand's valley army was in chaos. The yard rat in me said that I had done good. The emerging human in me wanted to cry.

  I heard footsteps behind me. I turned and saw Deadeye's face cast by the campfires below in red against the night sky. His expression was as impassive as ever, except for the tiny twig he was chewing. He crossed his legs and sat next to me on the rocks. "Anything?" he asked.

  "They're still at it. Is there a problem?"

  He shook his head. "No. Everything's ready. I got a question, though."

  "Ask."

  He looked down and nodded. "Okay. How come you made me number two for this column?"

  I rolled on my side and sat up facing Deadeye. I put aside a dozen wiseass comments that leaped to my lips and let him have it between the eyes. "I've seen your work. I figured you were the best man for the job."

  A three-round burp from an auto blasted out from the direction of the main avenue. I started climbing to my feet. "What's that?"

  "Don't worry about it." Deadeye waved his hand back and forth. "It's just Ratt doing ragtime. A kit bag killer named Grubbs. Looks like he came up guilty." Deadeye took the twig from his mouth and spat some shreds out onto the ground. "That Ratt Katz would make a great hitter. Dead shot, cool as ice, and no one's looking out for a punk his age. I can think of a dozen contracts where he would've been first pick."

  "You a talent scout? He makes a good RC, too."

  Deadeye nodded. "Yeah. You thought I was a good RC. Good enough to make your number two."

  "Yeah? What's eating you?"

  "Nothing. Everything." He pointed at me with the stump of the twig he'd been chewing. "If I'd killed somebody's brother, I'd never trust that somebody. No smart person would."

  "I don't claim to be smart."

  "I don't get it, Nicos. You must trust me. Everything I ever learned in my entire life tells me you shouldn't, and everything I see in front of me says you do."

  I smiled, shook my head, and looked again through the night lens at the rough night on Skull Road. "Right now your ass is right up against the answer to all your questions. Ask your ass what planet it's cuddled against. Once you have the answer to that question—and understand it—you'll know the answer to everything else." I lowered the vidcam and faced him. "What's eating you?"

  "Nothing." His thin lips spread out into a smile. "Still makin' notes, I guess." The smile faded. "Lauris Nhandi said that you kissed Anna Tane after the kid smoked her."

  "Yes."

  "Why?"

  I looked up at the moon. For just an instant I felt like I was at the bottom of a deep, deep well, and the moon was the daylight shining from an opening far far above me. "You ever kill a mad dog, Deadeye? A beautiful, magnificent mad dog?"

  "No."

  "That's what Anna Tane was. She was full of pain. I kissed her because of her pain."

  "But she was dead."

  "That made it safe."

  "Mad dogs have to die, Chief. Ain't it a bitch?" He nodded his head, his expression no longer impassive. He was frowning. Something was still eating him. Before I could pump him, he pointed toward the east.

  "Something's changed down there, Chief."

  I turned my head and could see two distinct battles going on. One close, a much smaller one further east. Through the night lens I could see Carlo's valley army smoking it out. Toward the east were the advance riders of another army. The dust filled that end of the valley. "Another army is heading our way. Big. Maybe it's the rest of the Hand."

  "Let me see." I handed the vidcam to Deadeye. He held it to his eye and let out a low whistle. "Oswald, here we come."

  "Can you tell who they're fighting?"

  Deadeye shook his head. "No. They might be some Razai from the other columns that got lost—no. No!" Deadeye climbed to his feet. "That big army! It's Nance!"

  "The hell you say," I muttered as I stood next to him. "You can't make out faces that far away."

  "I can sure make out the Eyes of the Spider on a flagpole." He handed me the vidcam. "Check it out."

  I held the vidcam to my eye. It took a bit, but in the greenish light of the video display I saw one rider with a flag. I couldn't see the stars on it because the rider had his arm around both the flag and the pole, but the flag was dark. There was another rider at the head of a quickly advancing flank unit coming up on the left. That flag was flat out on the breeze, the twin silver-white stars flashing at me. "It's Nance," I said. "Some of Carlo's squats must've headed back to warn the two Hand armies on the gulf. I guess they're a little late." They were late. The advancing army was huge. I could see riders in Hand sheets and more riders wearing only crowbar blues, Iron Lee's squats. This end of the continent had gotten together to settle Carlo's hash once and for all.

  "That's it," said Deadeye, his voice cramped with the wonder of it all. "That's it. We've won! The Razai owns the block!"

  I lowered the vidcam and continued looking toward the east as I spoke. "Deadeye, I want you to do two things."

  "Name it."

  "First, I want you to get together some riders under a white rag to bring the news to Carlo and the rest of them down there. Maybe you can save a few lives."

  "I'll go myself. What else?"

  "Tell Ratt to meet me in the clearing where the RC wagon is set up. It's time to settle some old business."

  Deadeye hustled off and climbed down the column path to the next level below. He shouted something and two armed squats joined him at a run, the three of them vanishing beyond the rocks. There were more shouts, followed by a few cheers and whistles. In a matter of less than a minute, all of Rock Island was cheering. I dropped the vidcam in my kitbag and slung the thing over my shoulder.

  I was alone with the Razai's victory, facing my own death, that dying cop in Philly hovering before my eyes. The ghosts were gathering: Dick Irish, Mad Yvonne, Tani Aduelo, the Rhadmajani brothers, and eternal Prophet. I had to get Prophet his payback before Nance and Stays arrived. They'd rigged something, I was certain. After all, they were crowbar grads. When you own the system, you use it to cover your own. It wasn't only the cockroaches who swore by that. It was a crowbar given. You want to give a pal a break. Otherwise, what's the point of being boss?

  They wouldn't think it through. Somehow they'd rig things to get me off, probably along with nine yards of cockroach shit to justify it. But there was no justification. There was no way to rig it and not have what everybody fought for not be a joke. The law was my candle. I wanted to go out with it still burning.

  "Bando?" It was Margo's voice from below. I looked over the edge.

  "Yes?"

  "Is it true? What Deadeye said?"

  "Yes. Congratulations."

  "Congratulations?" she repeated, her brow furrowed. "Why?"

  "You were the one who asked the Razai to take on the Hand and free the slaves. Now it's done."

  She looked down for a moment. When she looked up there were tears in her eyes. "It wasn't me, Bando. I didn't defeat Kegel, Iron Lee, Anna Tane, and Carlo. It wasn't even the Razai. It was the Law It was Bando Nicos and the Law."

  She was in it. Whatever conspiracy Nance and Stays had cooked up, Margo was part of it. "I got a big job for you, Margo."

  "Yes?"

  "The RCs have to gear up to collect the charges from the slaves and do ragtime on the Hand rape and murder perps, like you people did after we wiped Pau Avanti. Start gearing up. You're going to need a couple dozen new RCs and people who can plow through the living wreckage and more people to hound down and whack the perps who rabbit. Start picking your people. It's your call, but I'd make Lauris your number two. It's an important job. Can you handle it?"

  "I can handle it." Sh
e kissed her fingers and blew the kiss up to me. "I love you, Bando Nicos." She turned quickly and ran off.

  "I love you," I muttered beneath my breath. "It's just a little late for things like that."

  I began working my way down from the column to meet with Ratt and my worst enemy. I prayed that my eyes would stop watering before I had to face them.

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  Nicos v. Nicos

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  The fighting below ended after Deadeye brought the news. A few hundred sharks were already gathered around the edges of the RC clearing and clustered atop the surrounding rock columns. There was a fire burning in the center of the circle. All anyone knew was that Bando Nicos was bringing charges against a perp. Ratt was standing near the fire, nervous at being the center of attention and not knowing why. I saw Lewis Grahl in the crowd, Lauris, Mercy Jane, and Deadeye. Everyone had heard the victory news and was feeling up.

  None of the original RCs were there. The old guard was off with Nance, and they still had to be at least an hour away. Almost no one from Greenville was there. If Nance had worked up a scam to spring her favorite chili pepper, it wasn't through this crowd. There was something that needed to be taken care of, though.

  I walked over to Lauris and held out my kit bag. "Here."

  She took it, her eyes confused. "What is it, Chief? What's going on?"

  I couldn't meet her eyes. As I looked down at the kit bag I said, "I murdered Prophet. It's payback time." Lauris's eyes widened as her mouth fell open. For some reason letting her down hurt worse than anything else. She was giving me that, "Bando, say it isn't so," look, and all I could do was say, "It's so."

  I reached into the kit bag and pulled out Jontine's camera and disk holder. "My stuff goes to Prophet's heir, if he's got one. But this stuff doesn't belong to me. It belonged to Jontine Ru." I held them out toward Lauris. "I want you to take this. Maybe you can finish up Show Biz's documentary." I forced myself to look at her eyes. They reminded me so much of Alna's.