The suite doors burst open and the four guards from outside ran into the room, guns drawn.
'Crap,' said Dora.
'That was disgusting,' said Jana, shuddering with revulsion and pulling a face. 'Seriously, that might be the most horrible thing I have ever put in my mouth.'
She put her empty shot glass down on the sticky bar top and eyed it suspiciously.
'You get used to it,' muttered Kaz, slamming his empty glass down beside hers and motioning for the barkeep to fill them up again.
'What is it even made of?' Jana asked.
'You don't want to know,' Kaz replied with a faint smile.
The barkeep, a tall willowy Martian girl with long hair dyed shocking pink and eyes to match, refilled their glasses and walked away. Kaz had a tab here. He knew the barkeep's name (Shindra) and she knew his usual drink; he even had a favourite booth. Jana guessed that he'd charmed the regulars into accepting him. The barkeep had given him a warm smile when they'd arrived, but although a couple of the barflies had inclined their heads in subtle greeting, the rest of the clientele ignored him.
This was an engineers' bar, its regulars the men and women who worked to maintain the giant terraforming engines that squatted in the valley beyond the ridge to the west of the domed town. These were people who worked long hours in hot, oily chambers of deafening noise, constant vibration and foul smells. They were heavy drinkers, liked their liquor rough and ready, their entertainment loud and raucous. They were all ages, from young boys to old women, and although they seemed more than eager to fight each other at any opportunity they had shown no sign of wanting to take a chunk out of the newcomers. Jana felt kind of invisible, which surprised her. She'd expected to get at least a few catcalls when she'd walked in, fresh meat. Instead she'd hardly garnered a glance. As she and Kaz walked to his booth she wondered if it was because she was with him.
The bar was dingy and dimly lit. Neon signs, floating screens, pool table. There was music, a weird mix of industrial sounds and stringed instruments that Kaz had told her was something called Nu-Martian. If it wasn't for the sounds, and the clay in the air, this might have been any dive bar in any Earth city. Not that she'd been to any, she'd not had that kind of childhood, but she'd seen movies.
He slid into the booth by the door and Jana slid in opposite him. The bench was bare wood and the table may have been varnished once but it had been worn smooth by the forearms and drinks of customers. Above Kaz's head Jana could see a screen replaying Quil's arrival on a seemingly endless loop.
Shindra brought them another round of drinks but Jana pushed hers away with a grimace. Kaz smiled again, sank his in one gulp, then did the same with hers.
'What's the proof on that stuff and how much have you been drinking?' she asked.
'I told you . .
'Yeah, I don't want to know,' sighed Jana. 'I get it.'
Kaz smiled and leaned forward, conspiratorial. 'Actually,' he said, 'it's all an act. I can't stand the stuff. I tried it once and it stripped the skin off the roof of my mouth. Shindra gives me coloured water instead, and because I drink so much and don't fall over, the locals think I'm some kind of hard- drinking tough guy.'
Jana gaped in astonishment. 'But . . . but . . . you let me drink one!?'
Kaz grinned. 'Initiation,' he laughed. 'Now you're one of the clientele.'
She slapped his arm. 'You louse,' she said, determined not to let on that she actually found it pretty funny.
'When's he supposed to be getting here?' she asked.
Kaz shook his head. 'He doesn't work like that,' he said. 'He'll get here when he gets here. He doesn't do timetables. Makes it harder for people to track him down, he says.'
'Huh. OK, so we sit and wait for him.'
Kaz nodded.
'On Mars,' said Jana, shaking her head in wonder. 'We're waiting for a criminal in a dive bar on Mars. That sounds like a song or something.'
'Opening line of a book.' He put on a thick American drawl. 'I was waiting for a criminal in a dive bar on Mars when the broad walked in through the door and all heads turned. With legs that went all the way up to her ears, she was Olympus Mons and I wanted to climb her.'
Jana laughed. 'Guaranteed bestseller,' she laughed. 'But really, Mars.'
'Really.'
'Doesn't it worry you?' she asked. 'We found pictures of us in a battle, in Quil's basement lair, remember? And the sky in those photos looked exactly like the one outside. Not to mention the versions of ourselves that Dora and I met during our first trip.'
Kaz nodded, but held up a finger. 'But that battle might be us winning,' he said. 'It could be that the tragedy we're here to avert is a nuke or something, and a little battle is actually the better result.'
'Or Kairos could be wrong,' countered Jana. 'We could create an alternate timeline. In which case what we do doesn't really matter as long as we stay alive.'
Kaz shrugged. 'Who knows,' he said. 'I'm sticking with Kairos for now. It might be my mother's only chance, so I choose to believe him.'
Jana was shocked that Kaz still thought he could save his mother. She couldn't see any chance for Peyvand but she didn't push Kaz to explain. Whatever plan he was cooking up to save her, she didn't want to discuss it now.
'It's simple, really,' he said, clocking the look on her face and explaining anyway. 'If Quil never gets blown back in time, then she can't kill my mother.'
Jana smiled, nodded curtly and changed the subject.
'So is this what you've been doing while I've been writing copy and Simon and Dora have been cleaning rooms and serving lunch, hanging around in this bar?' she asked.
'You sound resentful,' Kaz replied, teasing. 'Not enjoying your first job?'
'Don't change the subject,' said Jana. 'You had a job to do too - find John Smith.'
'I have done,' he said. 'That's why you're here.'
'But it's taken you a month,' Jana protested. 'Have you honestly been in this bar every day, drinking coloured water and asking anyone who looks dodgy whether they know someone called John Smith?'
'Of course not.'
'Good.'
'There are three other bars I hang out in, too.'
Jana pursed her lips at him, but he broke into a cheeky grin and she found she couldn't really get angry with him.
'Kairos gave me some leads, based on what they found in the investigations conducted after whatever is supposed to happen tomorrow,' explained Kaz. 'There's a guy who arranges false papers for people and they reckoned he had supplied Smith's entry visa for the central zone of the city. He's hard to track down, but Kairos pointed me to one of his competitors - the woman who actually forged the papers that got you out of the central zone this evening - and she told me this was our guy's preferred drinking hole. In fact, he's been on holiday in one of the other domes and only got back two days ago. In return for a modest cash donation she set up this meet. I let her think I was the law, willing to let her slide if she'd point me to the big fish I was really after. She was only too keen to help me take care of her rival.'
'Nice,' said Jana. 'Maybe you will be a spy after all.'
'I'll drink to that,' replied Kaz, taking a fresh fake shot off Shindra's tray and necking it before she'd even had a chance to put it on the table in front of him.
'Chaser?' Shindra asked Kaz as she placed another shot glass in front of Jana.
'Two please, Shin,' said Kaz.
She nodded, and Jana was sure she caught a tiny appraising glance in her direction from the willowy Martian girl as she glided away.
'So you, uh, hitting that?' she asked, as casually as she was able, regretting it as soon as the words left her mouth.
Now it was Kaz's turn to laugh. 'Hitting that? Did you really just ask if I was hitting that? Did those words really come out of your mouth?'
'What?' said Jana, covering her embarrassment with bravado. 'That's what guys in your time say, isn't it. I've seen films and stuff.'
'No, Jana, guys in my time - well, guys l
ike me, anyway - don't call girls "that" and don't use the word hit instead of the more obvious.'
'So I should have said sleeping with her?' Jana asked, confused.
'Oh my God, will you stop!' Kaz was laughing hard. 'What are you doing?'
'Asking a simple question, jeez.' She was suddenly quite self-conscious. It was not a feeling she was accustomed to and she did not like it one bit.
'You don't have brothers, do you?' asked Kaz.
'You know I don't,' said Jana, scowling.
'Any close male friends? Boys you hang with? Anyone you dated?'
Jana thought back to her life before Pendarn. She'd had friends, sure, and some of them were boys but, if she was honest with herself, she saw them more as accessories than people. Toys she could play with to keep boredom at bay. And as for boyfriends, no way. Hector had tried to kiss her once after math, but she punched him so hard his right eye swelled shut. Actually, she felt kind of bad about that now.
'Not really,' she answered. 'I suppose you're my first real boy friend. As in friend who's a boy, not . . .'
T get it,' Kaz reassured her, still laughing slightly at her awkwardness. CI suppose groups of boys might speak like that, and ask direct questions like that, among themselves. I don't know really. I moved around so much I was never really a part of any group and I'm honestly not sure I'd have wanted to be. But either way, it's not the kind of thing friends ask each other, at least, not in that way, not in my time. But it's OK, it's fine, really. Keeping track of all the different social conventions and behaviours across different time periods and, hell, planets now, is hard. And to answer your question, no. Shindra has a guy. He's about ten foot tall and twelve foot wide and I'm pretty sure he's sharpened at least two of his teeth to points.'
T think she's kind of into you, though,' said Jana. 'She gave me a look, like she was sizing up the competition.'
'Really?' Kaz seemed genuinely surprised. 'OK, hadn't picked up on that. Huh. Well, if you're her competition that would make Shark-Teeth mine, and as nice as she is, that's not a game I want to play.'
'Or is it that she's got competition?' Jana asked, teasingly.
'What?'
'Oh come on, Kaz,' she scoffed. 'You spent six months as a pirate. You're not telling me there wasn't a girl in the mix somewhere or somewhen, good-looking lad like you.'
Kaz folded his arms and leaned back against the hard wood of the benchback as Shindra placed large tankards of beer in front of them both. He shook his head in amused amazement.
'Are you jealous, Jana?' he asked, smiling, when the barkeep had retreated again.
Jana scoffed. 'Not likely.' She took a sip of the beer. It was watery and tasteless but it helped wash away the lingering aftertaste of the shot.
'Before he left Kinshasa,' said Kaz, smiling, 'Simon said he thought I should ask you out.'
That stopped Jana dead. It wasn't what he'd said so much as how he'd said it that brought her up short. He was passing it off as jokey, but there was something about the way he'd avoided her eyes as he'd said it that gave the game away. She'd been enjoying the playful banter, a bit of good-natured back and forth, just teasing, no actual charge to it. She wondered if she'd not misjudged the situation completely.
'Simon is not the love god he likes to make out,' she lobbed back. 'He's the last person you want to be taking dating advice from.'
'Oh, I don't know.'
Crap.
She had, she'd completely got the wrong end of the stick. This wasn't friendly piss-taking, this was flirting. How could she possibly have missed that? She made a lot of very good excuses for herself, mostly involving time travel, near-death experiences and travel to alien worlds holding her focus instead of things like hormones and romance and stuff, but the fact remained that she could kind of see, if she squinted hard at her recent behaviour, how Kaz might have interpreted it as romantic interest.
She had to deal with this quickly, otherwise she'd end up losing the only friend she'd ever really had.
'Kaz, listen—'
Before she could continue, he held up a hand to quiet her. He was looking over her shoulder down into the bar.
'He's here,' said Kaz. 'At the bar ordering a drink. Shindra's pointed us out. He's coming over. Be cool.'
Be cool? Jana was kind of offended by that. She was far cooler than he'd ever be. She made a mental note to return to the whole unfortunate romantic misunderstanding thing at the first opportunity and turned her attention to the new arrival.
He was an old man. Really old. Probably the oldest she had ever seen. Small, hunchbacked, his face a thin tracery of spider web lines over deep crevasses. Thick tufts of hair sprouted from his ears and nostrils like some kind of infestation, and his eyebrows curled up so high they met his hairline and kind of merged with his fringe, making him look like he had badger stripes. His teeth varied between dark brown and black, but when he put his glass down on the table his hands were as steady as could be and his eyes, when he turned them upon Jana, were sharp, clear and full of wit.
'Mademoiselle,' he said, imposing a smile on his ruined face. There was nothing lascivious about his gaze, though. He was simply being polite.
'Hello,' she said.
'Mr Brock?' asked Kaz and it was all Jana could do not to slap her forehead. What a perfect name for Mr Badger-stripes; actually, it was probably his pseudonym for that precise reason.
'That's me, young man. How can I be of assistance?' As the old forger spoke he pulled a stool across and perched on it, resting his folded arms on the end of the booth table.
'I need some information, and I can pay handsomely for it.'
Mr Brock's cadaverous smile widened.
'Tell me more,' he said.
Barrettown, Mars, H April 2158,10:22 Rlfl. - 13h 12m to the eoent
Dora knew, somewhere at the back of her mind, that fighting the guards was the worst possible thing she could do. If she put up no resistance and explained herself, she could spin any kind of story to explain the sparks. It all depended how much Quil had already figured out about the asteroid she had turned into a bomb. Did Quil know she could travel in time? She'd recognised the sparks, so she must at least have experienced some kind of temporal glitch, but she might not understand what it meant, not entirely. If Dora could avoid a fight, she might perhaps be able to persuade Quil she was an ally, sent from the future to protect her.
But as all of these thoughts were running through her conscious mind, Dora's subconscious training, instinct and muscle memory kicked in.
Yin/yang was first through the door, with the two leaf- pattern women flanking him and Blank-mask bringing up the rear. Quil was to Dora's left, still crabbing backwards from her in alarm.
Dora grabbed the bucket full of pulped fruit mixed with the cleaning fluids that had scrubbed it off the walls and tossed it towards Yin/yang. It caught him full in the face, and although the mask afforded protection from most of it, his eyes were exposed. He howled in pain and staggered backwards as the noxious pulp liquid splashed across his eyeballs. Momentarily down, but definitely not out.
Leaf-pattern one and two kept moving forward, swerving either side of Yin/yang, their weapons raised. Dora flipped backwards, head over heels, landing on all fours on the other side of the low coffee table. She grabbed the edge of the table and flipped it, using it as a shield just in time to deflect their weapons. She heard the buzz of their lasers firing and saw smoke rise from the other side of the table as they burned through it. The wood would only last a second or two, at best. Dora stood and heaved the table at them, throwing it with all her might. It caught them both in the chest, knocking them off their feet.
Blank-mask was the only opponent still active, and he jumped nimbly over the falling women and landed firm on his feet, gun aimed straight at Dora's head. There was nowhere for her to go.
'Don't kill her!' yelled Quil to the guard, giving Dora the opportunity she needed. She jumped forward, kicking Blank- mask square in the chest. He grunted and d
ropped his gun, but fell back into a fighting pose, clearly well trained. His chest was so solid, Dora's foot was vibrating with the aftershock of the impact. Damn, these clones were built tough. For the first time, her conscious mind realised quite how deeply in trouble she was.
Dora matched Blank-mask's fighting stance. Yin/yang and the two leaf-patterns were still struggling to gather themselves.
If she struck now, she might have a chance of making the stairwell. Dora lunged forwards, raining a flurry of blows down on Blank-mask's rock-hard frame, but he deflected or absorbed every one as if it was the tiniest annoyance. He landed one solid counter-punch, a right hook that made Dora's head ring and caused a deep sharp crunch from her jaw, which spiked with sudden pain as her mouth filled with blood. She lost her balance and went down on one knee, but even as Blank-mask raised his fist to deliver the knockout blow, Dora reached forward and jabbed as hard as she could at his groin. Not all solid then, she thought as he froze in the moment of shock that precedes the pain of being punched hard in the balls.
She took advantage of the brief respite to launch herself forwards, past Blank-mask, punching out both arms at once at Leaf-pattern one and two as they were clambering to their feet, sending both sprawling again, then shoulder-charging Yin/yang, who had ripped his mask off and was rubbing his eyes frantically.
Then she was past them and into the corridor, running hard for the stairwell. She couldn't wait to call a lift, but if she could get through the stairwell door, she had a chance.
'Stop!' That was Quil's voice, calling after her. Dora ignored it and ran on. A sizzling blast of hot light blew past her head and burned through the lift doors ahead of her.
'I don't need to kill you to stop you!' shouted Quil.
Dora eyed the distance to the stairwell door and knew Quil was right. She didn't have a chance of making it.
She stopped running, spat the blood out of her mouth and turned to face the fractal mask of the woman she could have befriended, arms wide and unthreatening.
'I'm not your enemy,' said Dora. 'Think about it. If I'd wanted to kill you, I had plenty of opportunity before we sparked.'
Second Lives Page 14
