“Briertrush, tell them –“ I stopped as the ground vibrated, as though a granite tuning fork had been tapped somewhere deep beneath our feet.
Lisa held her palms pressed against a stone slab. “The rocks are singing, Daddy!”
I felt it too, but we were in an open meadow, a great place for an air attack. “C'mere, Lis'!” I took her hand and glanced around. “Stay close to me.”
“Ta Spirit.” Briertrush sighed, his lips parted, his eyelids low in what I took to be an expression of bliss. His nostril slits fluttered. “Thre home of Kubraish Spirit.” His great bulk swayed as he stared at the ground.
“Krei!” a youth shouted from high on the slope and waved a melon large as a honeydew over his head. “U'pey kreish!” He tossed the melon down the slope.
It rolled to the splayed feet of an old male. He picked it up and stared at it as though it were the Holy Grail.
This was their natural food. The fruits that would tune their bodies back to health and allow the young women to conceive and bear children.
The people dropped their packs and sprinted toward the orchards, yodeling in their throats.
“Tell them not to crowd together!” I told Briertrush and scanned the skies. Still empty. So were the ridges where our scouts were supposed to be. “Son of a bitch!” But no enemy troops emerged from behind trees or the sandstone escarpments dotted with natural caves.
Not yet!
“Call the people back,” I told Briertrush. “Dammit, no wonder you tags lost your mountain!” “Told you I am na ta leader.” He dropped to his knees.
“What the hell are you doing?”
He took the sublink from within his roll of supplies and turned it on. “Contact I thre Terran rebels.” He put on the headset and poked the keyboard with a flaky finger as he typed in something, probably a code.
“I thought you said the rebel movement had been defeated?”
“Till now, know I na whether you mindlinked with czar.” He looked up. “Rebels think prehaps you be spy of czar.”
I straightened, but kept my hand away from the stingler. “Are you certain of me now, Kubraen?”
Lisa leaned against my leg.
“Yesh, Julesh, fo certain now.”
“Daddy?” She clutched her straw doll and looked around. “There's something coming. Let's go away.”
“Rache here,” a voice crackled over the sublink.
“Crode…,” Briertrush began, “ah, codrei…”
“Give me that!” I yanked the headset off him. Stiff hairs remained tangled in the headphones. “Daddy.” Lisa tugged on my hand. “Let's go!”
“Wait, Lis'. What's the code?” I asked Briertrush.
He rubbed his scalp. “Silver.”
Of course. “Code Silver!” I called in on the sublink. “This is code silver.”
A pause.
“Is this Jules Rammis?”
“Yes! Is this rebel HQ?”
“Affirmative.”
“We need help. We're on Spirit Mountain, east slope. We're expecting an attack from the czar's forces, probably from our southeastern flank.” I scanned the sky. “Or from the air. Our people are unarmed and out in the open. Can you assist?”
“We have guerrillas located along the western ridges. Get your people under cover.”
“They're scattered throughout the orchards.” I scanned the ridges.
“We'll send a company to defend. Maintain radio contact.”
“I'll try. Is it true the satellite's been knocked out?”
“Scrambled when we attacked the czar's base. Now keep your people moving.”
“Roger.” I gave Briertrush the headset. “Come on, Lis'.”
“Rammis?” I heard Rache's voice.
I took back the set. “Rammis here.”
“Are you I-DEA?”
“Jesus and Vishnu, no! I'm –“ Had this rebel been in contact with Bjorn? Who was I really talking to? “Where did you get your information?”
“It's a logical deduction. Can you contact Interstel?”
“No, and I'm not so sure it would help. Rammis out.” I gave Briertrush the headset.
“Daddy!” There were tears in Lisa's eyes. She hit my thigh with a fist. “They're coming.”
I scooped her up and scanned the luminous skies. Nothing. “Who's coming?”
“The dragon! I feel him, Daddy. I feel him!”
Briertrush scooped up the sublink. I picked up Lisa and we ran for a treed ravine and slid down into it. A small black animal darted away as I set Lisa down behind a boulder. She clung to me and cried.
“Lisha.” Briertrush took her hand, patted it between his like a pancake. “Small one. Sworn I ta protect your frather.” He looked up as the drone of engines vibrated water droplets off trees. “Spirit protect us all!” he murmured.
Through pearly fog I watched black mantas lift over the misty hills.
“Rammis?” A voice blared from the flagship manta's speakers. “Why don't you leave those vacced-out tree chewers and join your own people? They're doomed, you know, and your telepathic abilities are worth more creds to the czar than you can spend in a lifetime.”
“Stay down behind this boulder, Lis', OK?” I told her and watched a formation of mantas approach the orchards. “Whatever happens, stay down, baby.”
She hugged her doll and stared at the sky. “It's Greenwings.”
“Who? The dragon?”
“Uh huh.” Tears glazed her eyes. “He says he wants to take care of us, Daddy. He says he wants to take me for a ride on his back.” She shook her head. “I don't want to go. He's a bad man.”
“That's right. He's a bad man. Promise me you'll stay behind this rock till somebody comes for you or you see those airplanes leaving.”
“Will you come for me?”
“I'll – I'll come back.” But the words stuck in my throat. I kissed her forehead. “Stay down, baby.
“Promise you'll come back?”
I squeezed her tight. “I'll do my best, Lisa.”
She chewed her lip, still studying the sky with furrowed brow, and nodded.
“C'mon!” I told Briertrush. We raced for a high position on a rocky outcrop far enough away so if we drew fire Lisa would still be safe.
Safe? I thought ironically and glanced back at the hollow. Not if the czar's forces won.
We waited, watched through trees. Briertrush began a low chant as mantas banked and screamed down on scattering Kubraens. The thud of ships' rockets batted through my chest. Kubraens screamed. Trees exploded and caught fire.
“Christ,” I muttered, braced the stingler in both hands and licked dry lips as I aimed at a ship. Too far. Too far for accuracy. Spirit? Are you awake? Whatever you intend to do, do it now! The czar's troops are attacking your people.
Hot light flashed from rebel-held positions along the western ridge, but no ships rose from there to meet the czar's aircraft. I felt the ground vibrate and ducked as a rebel missile found its laser-designated target and a czar manta exploded.
Five czar mantas broke away from the orchards, raised their sensors and flew a nape-of-the-earth line along the ridge, sniffing out rebel fire control systems. A sudden blast from a ship's rocket shook ground. I covered my ears as the explosion tore a hole in the side of the ridge.
Lis', stay down! I sent. Please, baby. Stay down.
A ghostly mist swirled up from the ground. It thickened and rolled over Kubraens, concealing them as they ran for caves in the escarpment.
Spirit!
Some of the males carried wounded companions. But others lay motionless beneath trees where shattered fruit littered the ground.
Spirit. Late, as usual.
Briertrush hissed something in Kubranese as a blue and white manta, its pattern calculated for sky camouflage, swooped low over our position.
I sucked in a breath, aimed for its engines and fired. “Christlotus,” I muttered as it banked away undamaged. My heart crowded into my throat as the manta lowered and
skidded to ground in a rooster tail of ripped plants and dirt just fifty meters away from Lisa's hiding place!
I stood so the pilot could see me and fired a shot at the ship. No damage. I pressed myself behind a tree and closed my eyes as the gunner responded with a rocket that blew a grove of lump trees into firewood. Three warriors emerged from the ship and ran toward us.
“Come on!” I yelled to Briertrush. He was right behind me as I raced between bushes, hurdled logs and headed for a ravine further away from Lisa.
An embankment!
I couldn't stop, yelled as I slid down and rolled into a narrow river of thick quicksilver. I didn't know what to expect from the mercury fluid that oozed around me but I hurriedly splashed toward the far shore.
I didn't expect a tingling warmth. Didn't foresee my vision blurred by an overlay of stars. Or the sensation of falling toward a young planet, still pearled by its envelope of fetal clouds. Part of my panicked mind felt strangely paternal about this new creation. “Dammit! Not now, Spirit!” I wiped a hand across my eyes and stumbled up the far bank.
The illusion vanished and Briertrush, close behind me, did his groin-heart-neck thing. Behind us, shouts.
'They're gaining ground!” I called to Briertrush as we sprinted through thinning trees. I stopped before an open field. We'd never cross it alive! “We make a stand here.” I checked the stingler's ring for hot. I was afraid they'd locate us just by the sound of my hard breathing. A rustling in bushes. I took a breath, held it. ”He's got a weapon,” I heard.
“A hand stingler, I'd say,” came the reply. “Rammis? Your rebel friends should have informed you that a manta can withstand light laser hits. Was that a stingler you used to tickle my ship's belly?”
I knew my eyes were wide as I glanced at Briertrush and cleared my throat. “Come into the open,” I called. “I'll show it to you.”
“No, that's all right,” the man said casually. “We're not here for a fire fight. If we were, you and the tree chewer would be black spots in the grass by now. What we can't figure, Rammis, is why you've chosen to die with aliens. Why don't you just come out of the trees and leave him there with his lunch? You're a tel. You should know we've got you surrounded and marked.”
Shit!
I grabbed Briertrush's arm, backed, glanced around quickly and heard the hum of a programmed personal dart slashing branches. “Duck!” I shouted, yanked on his arm and threw myself to the ground.
“Bretter lie we down, Julesh. Harder targrets that way.”
“Right.”
We crouched behind a thick-boled tree. Lisa! I sent, calming my mind. You OK, baby?
OK, Daddy. Be careful.
Damn, wish I were as fearless as my six-year-old daughter. But I was trembling and afraid they'd kill us where we stood, crouched behind a tree.
Briertrush howled as a dart grazed his leg. Yellow fluid spurted. I didn't know if it was dart poison or his blood. Until the dart slowed and wheeled for another pass. I held the stingler in both hands, fired, swept the dart with a continuous beam. The missile nosedived and dirt flew as it buried itself in a futile quest for a Kubraen DNA code beneath ground.
“Come on!” I whispered and ran downslope through a line of trees that followed the quicksilver river. He limped after me.
Again the hum of a dart. I fired. Missed! Briertrush cried out as the dart smacked into his back, discharging its deadly toxin.
I lowered the stingler and stared at him as he clung to a tree.
“Ta rivrer,” he moaned, dropped to his knees and crawled toward the silver water. “Julesh! Help me ta rivrer!”
I did, and eased him into the thick fluid. Behind us a branch snapped.
“Go now,” he groaned. “Find Kubraish Spirit.” His silver eyes darkened to lead.
My legs tingled from the liquid as I watched the trees behind us.
“Will you be all right?”
“I will be bettra now.” He pushed me away. “Go!” He closed his eyes and sank. Cold lava folded over him till only his wet face showed, like a death mask on a mirror. I backed out of the liquid as I heard the manta's crew approach. An opaque curtain of mist rolled across the river's meandering length. I followed the current downslope to keep the mist between me and the enemy. Spirit!
“Where'd he go?” I heard a crewman shout. “Where the hell did this fog come from?”
I ran past groups of huddled Kubraens, some tending wounded within the river. Some sprawled out in the field, beyond help.
But the rebel forces had taken the orchards, were firing at czar mantas, and engaging the czar's ground troops, advancing now from the southeast. Black smoke roiled over fruit trees that sizzled and exploded as mantas torched them with lances of hot light. Above it all, the blue and white hovair slowly circled like a hawk.
Lisa? I sent. Lisa!
I'm here, Daddy.
I breathed again. OK, baby. I'm on my way.
You are? She seemed surprised. OK!
A wounded rebel soldier moaned. He crawled beneath a tree and collapsed. Alone, he could easily bleed to death.
I trotted to his side and eased off his backpack. “Take it easy, tag. I'll call for a medic.” I withdrew his shoulder unit. “Medic! I shouted into it. I checked him for bleeding. A trickle from a beam wound on his right side. I opened his medkit and took out a syringe marked Morphloid. “We need a medic here!” I shouted again into the unit. “There's a wounded rebel soldier needs help.” The unit's locator flashed on. I rolled up the man's sleeve, rubbed a ball of soaked cotton on his arm and gave him the shot.
He winced.
”Sorry. It's my first on a human.
He managed a grin. “Should probably be your last, tag.”
“You'll be OK, soldier.” I patted his arm. “Looks like the laser already cauterized your wound.”
“It hurts like blazing hell!”
“The morphloid will kick in soon.” I glanced at the empty sky with relief. The battle hadn't reached Lisa's hiding place. “Anyway,” I told him, “pain shows that the nerves are still intact.”
“That's real encouraging,” he squeezed out.
A rebel soldier trotted toward us. She wore a white patch on her shoulder with a red cross, the same as a medic would have on Earth.
“Here comes the medic.” I stood up and waved to her, then pointed at the wounded soldier.
“Are you Jules?” he gasped. “Jules Rammis?”
“I guess my sordid reputation precedes me.”
“It's your clothes. Soldiers don't usually wear turtleneck sweaters, and you're not carrying a rifle.”
Daddy!
I'm coming, Lisa. I started toward the ravine.
Put me down! Daddy! she cried in my mind. Make him put me down!
Oh my God. Who? I shouted the thought as I raced toward the ravine. Who's got you, Lisa? Is it a Kubraen?
No. It's a bad man. Put me down. I kicked him, Daddy! Put me down or I'll burn you!
No, don't, I sent. If she burned him with her mind, he might kill her. No, I'm coming. God almighty. Spirit! Help her. The czar's people. They've got Lisa!
I waved frantically at an all-terrain rebel vehicle. The woman driver swung it in my direction. Her passenger, an older man with a scarf and an officer's hat, remained expressionless behind sunglasses. A gold and purple flag fluttered on a pole from one bumper. “I need help. Quick!” I shouted as I ran toward it.
It screeched to a halt. ”That's him!” I heard the driver tell her passenger.
I jumped into the back of the vehicle, stood up and held on. “That way!” I jabbed a finger toward the ravine. “They've got my daughter. Hurry up!”
“Commander?” The vehicle idled as the driver stared at her passenger.
He glanced back stiffly. “Jules, aren't you?”
“Yes, Jules! What the hell are you waiting for?” I shouted at the driver. “They've got my daughter! Go, goddamn you!”
She flicked me a glance and looked at the commander.
<
br /> I couldn't believe it when he shook his head. He turned to me, an arm over the backrest. “Think about the situation for a minute,” he said. “If the czar took your daughter – “
“I don't care if it's a trap,” I told him. “Just go!”
Daddy! Lisa sent. They want you to come and get me.
I'm coming, baby. Are you still in the ravine?
I'm near the big rock.
“Are you going to help my daughter?” I shouted to the commander and grabbed his scarf'.
He yanked my hand off with surprising strength. “I intend to, but not by blundering into a czar trap. Now try to relax for a minute, and think clearly about – “
“Fuck you!” I jumped out the back of the vehicle and ran toward the ravine through a stand of trees where they couldn't follow.
“Rammis!” I heard the commander call. The vehicle swung toward me. “Get back in the jeep. We can't allow the czar to have two telepaths.”
I was beyond caring what RECOIL or the czar could allow or wanted. A plague on both their houses! Three, if you counted Spirit.
I was leaping a log when it struck. Coldness. Across my back. I hit the ground hard and rolled. Lisa! I cried in my mind as the sky darkened. I threw everything I had, including my tel power, into getting back on my feet. I imaged a hot ball spinning. I willed the coldness to drain from my arms and legs with the heat of a mind coil. I was on my feet and staggering toward the ravine when the crotefucker hit me again and I felt dirt in my mouth as I slammed into the ground. Then nothing.
Chapter Eleven
“We have his daughter,” Carlos told Juanita, his mistress. “But we missed Rammis, thanks to that cabrón.”
“Rache?” She brushed her long red hair as she sat before the gold-filigreed mirror of the Baroque bedroom.
Carlos looked up from the small pink crystal balanced on his fingertips as he sat propped against silk pillows on the platformed bed. “That idiot Bjorn thinks Rammis is an I-DEA agent who took his daughter along on a mission to locate me and the crystal mines.”
“Is that so foolish?” Juanita asked. “If he's not I-DEA, why was he interested in the underground warehouses in Lost Vegas?” She shook her mass of thick hair, and let it fall forward against her prominent rouged cheekbones, then brushed it away from lips almost too full for her fine-boned face. “Just an entrepreneur?”
Halcyon Nights (Star Sojourner Book 2) Page 17
