The Eyes of the Huntress (Shil the Huntress Book 1)

by Niall Teasdale

  The answer was there in Shil’s head before Dakris said anything. ‘Belmarn,’ Dakris said. ‘It’s about… Uh, I’m not even sure where we are.’

  ‘I am. It’s about two hours’ walk. We go there, handle the necessities, and find somewhere where you can rest for a while.’

  ‘What about you?’

  ‘I don’t need to rest.’ Shil looked around at Dakris and flashed a smile, though that was lost in the mask. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll get us out of this. I’ve been in worse situations.’ Which was technically a lie, but previous hosts of Anoa had been in far worse situations than this, and they had survived. There was no way that Shil was going to let herself become the shortest-lived host in history!

  Belmarn.

  Belmarn was a town because it had shops in it, as far as Shil could work out. It was one of those places which was technically a village but liked to think it was bigger and more important, and this town did serve as the principal commercial hub for a large area of the planet. Of course, a lot of that area was impassable mountain slopes, but it was the thought that counted.

  Amazingly, at what Shil considered to be the middle of the night, the place was still lit up and doing business. Of course, thanks to the long, long night, there was still five hours to go before midnight. Five Earth hours; Shil was not really bothered about what the tholdarians thought about time. Worrying over local changes in time could give you a real headache. Then again…

  ‘I do not understand how you can handle such a long day,’ Shil said as she pushed a trolley through the local supermarket. It was kind of cool that there was a local supermarket, and this one was set up to supply houses which got their supplies in bulk. ‘It’s going to be dark for ages yet. You know, your daylight period is as long as the whole day and night on my world.’

  ‘Oh, well, I was born here,’ Dakris said. ‘I think you get used to it. Eventually. We take a couple of naps during the day and then have a longer sleep at night. When they did the change to let us breathe the atmosphere, they tinkered a little with our body clocks.’ Her voice dropped a little. ‘How can you be so calm? Anyone could spot us and call the police.’

  ‘Part of being inconspicuous is looking like you should be right where you are. We’re just a local shopping with her off-world friend. No one is ever going to believe I’m from this world, so there’s no point in pretending. I’m just one of those loud foreigners everyone loves to hate.’

  ‘Oh. Well, you’re the expert.’

  With enough food to feed them for several days, they walked back out into the night and Shil looked around the car park outside the supermarket. ‘We’re going to need a car…’ She watched as a small truck pulled in and drove into a space well away from the entrance, and she smiled. ‘That car.’

  ‘Why that one?’ Dakris asked as Shil started toward the vehicle. Two people, a couple by the looks of it, were getting out.

  ‘Because those two are going to be inside for at least as long as we were. They won’t know their truck’s gone missing for a while. Then they’ll have to report it, and someone will have to connect it with us, if they ever can. Basically, we’ll be a long way away before they start searching.’

  ‘Oh. But how are you going to get into it?’

  Shil was not entirely sure of that until Dakris asked, but she had known she would figure it out. What she needed was there when she needed it, and the knowledge required to hack the car’s security system was right at her fingertips. ‘Not a problem. Trust me. We’ll get out of town, have something to eat, and then I want you to get your head down for a few hours.’

  ‘Then what?’

  ‘Then… Then I’m going to have a chat with Matriarch Tholdin. I think she’s going to be the only person who can resolve this little problem, one way or another.’

  ‘Are you crazy?!’

  ‘Maybe. No one’s ever said I was, but there’s at least a small chance I’m a little unhinged.’

  ‘Oh… Great.’

  Shil put her bags down beside the truck and then proceeded to get a small device out of her pack. A second later, there was a clunk as the truck’s locks disengaged. ‘I might be crazy,’ she said, ‘but I’m also very good at this.’

  Outskirts of Tholdris, 19.1.470.

  Shil drove through the night, not really paying too much attention to the direction she was going. It was roughly the right way, and not getting there too early was important. And anyway, Dakris was asleep in the seat beside her.

  The tholdarian woman was running on empty. She had bolted down her food because she had started rationing herself a couple of weeks earlier to eke out her supplies. And sleeping had been hard when she never knew who might discover her and when. Shil could understand the latter; Sheila had been something of a martyr to insomnia all her life and even if Shil did not really sleep as such, she remembered the pain of lying awake at night. Of course, Sheila had usually been listening to Brian’s snoring. His snoring had not been what kept her awake, but it had made things that much worse. Dakris, thankfully, did not snore.

  There was a plan forming in Shil’s head as she drove. There was going to have to be a lot of improvisation, because she had no idea of the layout of the matriarch’s compound at Tholdrinahl. She would have to get there, get in, and wing it. But there was a plan and it had come from talking to Dakris about the matriarchal compound.

  Yes… Yes, it would work, but she needed to contact Cantarvey again. That meant the local cops might be able to figure out where she was. Unless…

  ~~~

  ‘There is an unusual delay in your transmissions, Shil,’ Cantarvey said, and there was an unusual, but expected, delay in that.

  ‘I’m looping this through about seventeen ground relays,’ Shil replied.

  ‘Ah. That is a remarkably clever strategy. It should result in some difficulty in narrowing your position down. What is it you need of me?’

  ‘I’m sending all the data I got on their little scam.’

  ‘And you need me to transmit it to StarCorps?’

  ‘No, I’m going to handle that. What I need from you is some video manipulation.’

  The AI was probably not generating an avatar, but Shil could just tell she was frowning. ‘I’m not sure I understand.’

  ‘No, I’d imagine not. This is what I need from you…’

  Tholdrinahl.

  Security at the matriarch’s compound was not as tight as it could have been. There were guards on a fifteen-minute rotation, an outer fence with motion sensors, an inner wall with more motion sensors and cameras, and the place was secured with digital locks and various alarms. On the other hand, the guards looked bored, not alert, and no one had updated the security systems in a couple of decades. Even with updates, Shil was more than a match for them, but without…

  And someone had decided that the gardens should look good, rather than being functional as a barrier. There was lots of cover, though Shil had to wonder what they had done to the plants to make them tolerate the freezing conditions. It was about two hours before dawn and the air temperature was getting to the point where Shil found it tough to work in. Anoa was keeping her body warm, but there was a definite chill against her uncovered skin, of which there was a fair amount. At least her suit kept a little of the cold out.

  Whatever, tall, thickly leaved bushes with a grey colouration to them provided plenty of room for avoiding guards as Shil made her way in. The compound had a couple of structures in it. From the antennae on its roof, one of the smaller buildings was going to be her first stop; that had to be the communications building and, from the looks of it, it was not in use at this time of night. There was also what looked like a garage, though that term might have been selling it short. It had big doors mounted along one wall and Shil suspected that it had air transport as well as ground vehicles in it. The tholdarians had contragravity technology, and she was sure the matriarch would make use of that when she needed to visit the city to the south.

  And then there was the
residence itself, which had definitely been designed to look good, rather than with any thought to security. Dakris had said that internally, it was rumoured to have better security. The matriarch’s chambers could be locked down tight if needed, and the guards carried electron carbines. The latter was a concern because they could theoretically penetrate the force screen Shil’s suit generated. Of course, they would have to see her and hit her for that to be an issue.

  For now, however, she was more worried about getting into the communications building. She waited in the bushes for a pair of guards in thermal suits to pass, and then moved out to the door. An electronic lock with biometric sensors, so someone was security-conscious. Still, it took her barely thirty seconds to bypass the device with the judicious use of a screwdriver and a logic probe. She took the time to reaffix the cover before moving in: there was no sense in making it easy for the guards.

  Now came the difficult part. Somewhere in here was the equipment used to transmit on Tholdaria’s emergency broadcast system. There was also an interface into the interstellar communications system. She needed to tap into both for this to work. She paused, letting her senses drink in the feeling of the building. She was alone.

  Smiling, Shil set to work. The matriarch was going to be in for a horrible shock sometime soon.

  ~~~

  ‘Matriarch. Matriarch Melissara. Come on, wake up. This is going to be no fun if you sleep through it.’

  The matriarch’s eyes flickered open and she wondered why she had woken for about a second before reality reasserted itself over dream. Had she been dreaming?

  ‘Seriously, lady, you could sleep through your own execution.’

  Bolting upright in bed, Melissara took in her surroundings, particularly the woman in the red bodysuit sitting in an easy chair beside her bed. Young-looking, with scarlet hair pulled into tight braids, red around her eyes and on her lips, and a lot of exposed, white skin. And a sword in her lap. Weirdly, Melissara seemed to take a long time to get to the sword because the woman’s eyes held her: orange, fiery eyes stared out of that white face.

  The matriarch pulled herself together. ‘Can I be of some sort of help, young lady?’ She was quite an imposing woman, almost a century old now thanks to rejuvenation technology, fit and attractive, but with a severe air about her. The matriarch was used to giving orders and having them obeyed. Blonde and blue-eyed, she appeared regal and confident, even when naked from the waist up having just woken up in unusual circumstances.

  Shil grinned. ‘Oh, that made my day. Where I come from, half the planet would think I’m old. Not the point. There is nothing you can do for me, matriarch. I’m here to ensure that justice is done.’

  ‘Justice? What are you– Who are you?’

  ‘My name is Shil. Shil the Huntress.’

  Realisation dawned across Melissara’s face. ‘You’re the bounty hunter. The one who found Dakris.’

  ‘Now we know each other, but I’m not exactly a bounty hunter.’

  ‘StarCorps? Some Special Circumstances agent?’

  Shil smiled. ‘I just take StarCorps’s bounties. Everyone has to make a living. No, I hunt bounties so that I can find people who need to be punished for what they’ve done, matriarch. And you… You need to be punished for what you’ve done.’

  Melissara gave Shil an indulgent smile. ‘You won’t be leaving here alive.’ She shifted quickly right, reaching behind the heavy, wooden cabinet beside her bed.

  Shil held up a lump of plastic with some wires trailing from it. ‘If you were looking for this, I figured you had a panic button, so I took care of that before I woke you up. I’m doing you a favour, really. I’m sure you don’t really want to have all your staff killed.’

  ‘Ha! You’re that confident?’

  ‘Yes. Yes, I am.’

  The matriarch’s smile faded. ‘You can’t think there’s anything you can do about this. You’re alone. I control all the communications on the planet. You can’t–’

  ‘It’s funny you should mention communications and your control of it,’ Shil interrupted. ‘I paid a visit to your communications building before I came here. I figured the chances of you allowing my ship to send anything out of the system were slim to nothing, but something from your personal account… That would probably get through. By now, StarCorps have all the data I collected from your little slave factory.’

  The matriarch laughed. ‘StarCorps? What do you think they’ll do about this? I own StarCorps on this–’

  ‘I know. I had to kill your niece earlier tonight. I bundled that with the data on the genetics facility.’

  ‘And you think murdering–’

  ‘I think the video showing her saying she was going to kill me because I’d spoken to Jandia Dakris should cover me. Besides, do you really think someone interested in justice would leave it at that?’

  Melissara’s eyes narrowed. ‘What have you done?’

  Shil picked up a remote control from beside her. ‘Actually, I’m just about to do it. Sort of. Let’s turn the local news on, shall we?’ She hit a button on the remote and a screen lifted up from the foot of the bed. There was a pause, and then the chatter of some news channel.

  ‘What have you done?’ Melissara asked again, her voice a little more strident this time.

  Shil checked the time. ‘Should find out about…’

  The voice of the newsreader cut out to be replaced by a loud tone. The matriarch gasped as she saw the emergency broadcast alert card appear on the screen, and then her own image, and her own voice began to come from the speakers. ‘It is with a heavy heart that I speak to all of you tonight, but I can no longer keep the actions of my government and myself secret.’

  ‘What is this?!’ Melissara screamed.

  Hitting the mute button, Shil smiled. ‘It’s faked, obviously. You’re going to be explaining to anyone who’s watching all about your experiments to make tougher males, who are also mindless slaves which you plan to sell as indentured workers off-world. Oh, there’s a bit in there about how the original modifications to make everyone able to function in the thin atmosphere also included modifications to make the males less assertive. Your records included that, and the fact that they’ve been overcoming their subservience for the last century or so. I wonder how your male population are going to react to that.’

  ‘You… There will be riots!’

  ‘Oh, I hope so. I’d like to see pitchfork-wielding townspeople queuing up outside your gates, all ready to lynch you. But, you know what? I wouldn’t worry. I’d like to keep you alive for the trials.’ Shil got to her feet and started for the door. ‘Excuse me. Your guards are going to wonder what’s going on soon and we don’t want them interrupting us.’

  The matriarch figured out what Shil was going to do a second later. Throwing her sheets aside, she scrabbled out of the bed and rushed at Shil, lowering her shoulder as she ran. Shil sidestepped at the last moment and Melissara bounced off the doorframe with a yelp of pain. Shil pushed her sword hilt gently into the matriarch’s back and, with a soft gasp, Melissara slid down the wall as her voluntary nervous system shut down on her.

  ‘That was stupid,’ Shil said, opening the bedroom door. ‘Now you get to sit there for a few minutes, unable to come out with any more amusing comments. I’ll be back as soon as I’ve set the security lockdown.’ Shil started through to the matriarch’s lounge and then paused to look back. ‘Oh, uh, don’t go anywhere.’

  ~~~

  ‘Tensions continue to rise in Tholdris some eight hours after the surprise announcement by Matriarch Tholdin this morning.’ Shil was watching the news with Melissara. Melissara was now lying on the bed with her wrists tethered to the headboard’s rail using a pair of plastic ties: Shil had got sick of paralysing the woman. ‘There have been attacks on government buildings in outlying towns and the matriarchy’s approval ratings have fallen to an unprecedented level.’

  ‘Things are not looking good, Lissy,’ Shil commented. She had discovered that the
matriarch seemed to particularly dislike that shortening of her name. There was a mumble of complaint from the matriarch, but it was difficult to really voice your concerns with a thick wad of cloth in your mouth; the gag had taken longer than the cuffs, but Shil had really got tired of paralysing the woman.

  ‘The state of emergency continues,’ the newsreader went on. The woman looked uncomfortable, as though she was doing a job she really did not want to be doing. She had looked quite confident on the morning news. ‘Citizens are advised to stay indoors and comply with all orders given to them by military or police officers. Anyone attacking a matriarchal official may be subject to lethal–’ She paused, apparently listening to something in her ear. ‘This just in. Two StarCorps cruisers have been sighted approaching the Tholdris orbital station. Over to Gerhalt Meersham, our reporter on the station.’

  Mister Meersham, whoever he was, did not appear on screen. Instead, there was a view from an observation gallery on the orbital. It showed two massive, more-or-less-cylindrical ships moving in toward the station, but there was a third, smaller and far sleeker vessel between them.

  ‘Oh,’ Shil said. ‘They sent a judicial yacht along with the cruisers, Lissy. You’re in trouble now.’

  ‘As you can see,’ Meersham’s voice said in voiceover, ‘a StarCorps yacht is in formation with the two cruisers. This is a strong indication that StarCorps are taking the recent revelations seriously. StarCorps yachts are used to transport judiciary officials or Special Circumstances officers. Either of those arriving to deal with this situation is bad news for Tholdaria and the matriarchy. The two cruisers carry two hundred enforcement officers each and are equipped with gravity-accelerator guns capable of firing nuclear-tipped projectiles into the atmosphere of a planet. There have been no signs of any intention to fire upon Tholdaria, but the threat is there. Now back to–’

  Shil hit the mute button. ‘He’s right, you know. None of that looks good for you. Let’s hope no one in your military is hot-headed enough to start shooting.’

  Tholdris Orbital Station.