Hunting Party

by Elizabeth Moon

  Heris had no interest in George’s father. She picked her way across the floor, blood-spattered and already littered with the detritus of emergency medical care, to a point where she could see George without interfering. He was alive, breathing on his own, with one IV line in. He looked dirty, and pale, and both older and younger than she remembered him. She knew that look, from the youngsters she’d seen in her own ship’s sickbay; being flat on their backs in clean pajamas made them look like children, but what they had been through aged them.

  “What happened to him?” she asked quietly.

  “Caught in crossfire,” one of the medics said, without looking up. “Small caliber in the abdomen, missed the big stuff.” Which didn’t mean it felt good, or even that he would recover, just that he was likely to make it back to a hospital without dying on the way. Caught in crossfire . . . maybe, she thought, and maybe not. Perhaps someone wanted to get rid of witnesses. There must be more than one traitor in Bunny’s pay. Heris watched the medics, who seemed to go about their business as quickly and competently as any she’d seen, then met George’s gaze.

  “Captain . . . where’s Ronnie?”

  “On the other island, I presume. Militia went there; he’ll be fine.” He might not be, but George needed to hear the best chance, not the worst.

  “Don’t talk,” said a medic, and put a warning hand on George’s shoulder. “You need to lie still.”

  “Cave,” said George, struggling now, his eyes locked on Heris’s. “Might be in the cave . . . Bubbles said . . .” and then a groan he tried to bite back, as the medics did something that hurt even more.

  “I understand,” Heris said, as much to reassure him as because she did. “Bubbles knew about a cave, and they might be in it. All of them?”

  “No—Ronnie—hurt—”

  The medic’s angry face looked up at Heris. “He shouldn’t talk; don’t bother him. He’s got other injuries, too.” Heris glanced down and saw that they’d cut George’s shirt away now, revealing the deep bruises along his side; broken ribs, maybe.

  “He—shot me,” George said, struggling against the medic’s hands. “He—”

  “It’s all right, George,” she said again. Time enough later to find out which he George meant. From the glazed look in his eyes, they had given him some drug, and he wouldn’t be thinking clearly now. She hoped he had been right about the cave. “Everything will be fine.” The medics lifted George onto a stretcher, and rolled him away. He lay quiet, eyes already closed. Her mind raced. A cave—a cave Bubbles knew about. Did Lepescu? Ronnie hurt, and not in the cave. What kind of hurt? If Ronnie was hurt, why hadn’t he been captured? And again: did Lepescu know about the cave? Did the others being hunted? Did the militia captain know about that cave, and if so—

  She went back to Cecelia, who looked less pale than when she’d come in. “George has a gunshot wound he should survive, assuming Bunny’s got a good trauma center in his hospital.”

  “Very good,” Cecelia said. “Riding horses at speed is hardly a safe hobby.” Her voice was a shade brittle, but under control.

  “He hasn’t lost anything vital yet,” Heris said. “Could you hear what he said?”

  “No—not really.”

  “There’s a cave on the island where the others are; Bubbles knew about it, and George thinks the others might be hiding in it.” She waited to make sure Cecelia understood that. Then she went on, “Would the militia captain know about it? Did you ever hear of it?”

  “A cave . . . no. I didn’t. I don’t know if anyone else would, besides the children who camped there. A big cave?”

  “George didn’t know, I suspect. But the militia captain needs to. If there’s a cave, anyone might be in it: the youngsters, or the hunters, or whoever they’re hunting.” Heris looked around. Someone had dragged the corpse away, and the other wounded man, whoever he was, and one medic was stuffing medical trash in a sack. “We can’t just comcall the militia commander; Lepescu would overhear it. If that’s where the youngsters are hiding—”

  “We’ll go tell him,” Cecelia said, and pushed away from the wall.

  “Yes, but—” Heris stifled her doubts. They’d been told to stay here, safely out of trouble, and she’d agreed to that. She looked around for the person in charge.

  The person in charge, busily arranging transport to a hospital for George and the other wounded man, was in no mood to listen. Heris had no idea what the insignia on his collar meant but he was acting like a harried sergeant.

  “The captain said you were to stay here,” he said. “And here you’ll stay. You don’t even know where this cave is, or if the kids are in it, or if anyone else knows about it.”

  “That’s why—” Heris began, but he flapped a hand at her.

  “The captain’s got good maps of the island; if there’s a cave worth worrying about, he’ll know. He’s got a bloody mess over there—” Then the man shut his mouth and glared at her, as if she had extracted that information unfairly. “Just because you used to be a spaceship commander doesn’t give you the right to throw your weight around here. Captain Sigind said to keep you safe here, and that’s exactly what I’ll do. Now if you’ll get out of my way so I can do my job—”

  Heris swallowed more years of experience than this person had age, and said, “Excuse me,” very quietly. No use arguing with this sort; she had seen them before. The problem now was working around him, and that was most easily done out of his sight.

  Chapter Eighteen

  It had amused the prince to come hunting with the older men, political cronies of his father. He knew they invited him to curry favor, but still—it was thrilling. Illegal, but thrilling. He had been on this planet before, of course, at the invitation of Lord Thornbuckle. Everyone who was anyone had, at one time or another, spent interminable hours riding large stinking vicious beasts chasing after small stinking vicious beasts. Silly work, on the whole, and he had heard others—including this group—snicker about it privately. Lord Thornbuckle didn’t care; he could afford to not care.

  But this—this was different. What can be the thrill of chasing a harmless small creature bioengineered to be chased and killed? So the admiral had said, and so he had agreed. Other game—even other animals, large and dangerous in themselves—offer more sporting chances. No, my boy, the admiral had said (he had hated the admiral’s arm on his shoulder, but he knew he must endure it), there’s only one game worth the trouble. Show your stuff, prove yourself, and in the process finish off some useless criminals. And besides, after that . . . we’ll have a party. With lots of girls.

  He hadn’t expected to feel queasy about it. He had felt queasy when he read the reports on the prison colonies, things his tutor had thought he ought to know. That was cruelty, if you liked, confining someone to dirty, dangerous work and mean, ugly surroundings, for years on end. Killing someone cleanly with a bullet in the head was merciful by comparison. He had agreed, in more than one not-so-casual conversation, that this was so; imagining himself a prisoner, he would rather have died in the open like that than slowly of boredom and overwork. And hence, the invitation to this hunt, which had thrilled him as much with its illicit nature as with its prestige. He was born to prestige; he didn’t need it . . . but he found himself craving the respect of Admiral Lepescu and Senator-at-Large Bodin.

  Still, the first one he killed himself—that had startled him with his own reaction to it, the nausea and guilt, the feeling of shame for being ashamed, the reluctance of his fingers to touch the tattooed ear which he must hack off and turn in to get credit for his trophy. He had done it, but he had made a private pact with himself to be content with one. That was surely enough to prove his ability, to prove he wasn’t just a spoiled wastrel who got into quarrels over opera singers (his father’s words).

  So after that first kill, he found reasons to hang around Bandon lodge the rest of that day. It was easy to play cards too late, drink too much, and sleep heavily when someone knocked on his door. He roused l
ate on the morning after his “blood party” as they called it . . . and found the lodge quiet and nearly empty. Fine with him; his head ached and the ear, proof of his trophy, looked disgusting in its jar of preservative. He stared at it morosely and rang for medicine and breakfast. After that he went back to bed and slept heavily, having promised himself he would find some way of avoiding more hunting.

  But now something had gone wrong. He didn’t know what. Lepescu had yanked him out of bed in late afternoon, and insisted that he had to come hunt again, right now, whether he wanted to or not. The habit of obedience to older men got him into the flitter before he could organize his mind to protest, and then it was too late. They were on the island, and Lepescu was telling him where to go and what to do in the rough voice he probably used on his subordinates in the Regular Fleet. Before he could argue, Lepescu was gone.

  The prince stumbled around that night, angry and tired, and found nothing but mudholes in the swamp. He measured his length in one, and only his custom hunting suit kept him dry. He heard some shots in the distance, but nothing close enough to startle him. At dawn, Lepescu reappeared, and handed him a mealpack. “Eat this here,” he said. “We have to get them all, fast. None of us are going back until we do.”

  “Why?” the prince asked. The mealpack had a picture of helicberry tarts on it, and he hated helicberries. He wanted puffcakes with sarmony honey, fat sausages, a bone-melon.

  “Just do it,” Lepescu said. He strode off, looking more military, in the dangerous sense, than the prince had seen before. And the prince, tired and hungry, sat down and ate his excellent breakfast. He did not follow Lepescu afterwards; he did not patrol his allotted section of island. It had ceased to be fun, or exciting, or anything but a deadly bore, and he would insist on returning to his comfortable bed on Bandon as soon as someone else showed up. Long after noon, someone else appeared—one of the servants with vaguely military bearing—and brought him two more mealpacks, coldpacks of water, and warnings. He was to stay on the island; he was not to drink any local water; he was not to call anyone on his comunit; he was to shoot anything that didn’t identify itself instantly.

  The prince was more than somewhat annoyed. One did not do this to princes. Even powerful political figures—even admirals—did not do this to princes. It was supposed to have been an adventure, with girls to follow, and the chance to reminisce for years to come, and the camaraderie of men who had proved themselves real men. It was not an adventure anymore, and no one had said anything about the promised girls for days. He said nothing to the servant, who strode away almost as purposefully as Lepescu, and ate his excellent lunch, then his excellent supper, and finally lay down where he was (protected by his excellent weatherpack) to sleep as long as he liked. If the criminals got him, so much the better: Lepescu would find his head in a noose.

  He woke to hard rain drumming on the shelter and the smell of wet leaves. Good. No one would be skulking around in this, and Lepescu would have to let him sleep. Lightning crackled, thunder boomed, but the prince slept on, unconcerned.

  * * *

  The Admiral Lepescu who woke him in the dark dripping aftermath of the storm was someone he had never met. He could now credit the more vivid rumors about the admiral’s career, faced with that cold, angry countenance, those still gray eyes with so much hunger in them. The tongue-lashing he got for not having followed orders actually frightened him; the scorn in Lepescu’s face shamed him all over again. He wanted to please this man, and only the habits drilled into him from early childhood kept him from cringing apology.

  “I don’t understand the problem,” he said stiffly, when Lepescu paused in his tirade. “These are just criminals. . . .”

  “You don’t have to understand,” the admiral said. “You have to obey.” Then, as if suddenly remembering who the prince was, he added, “Your highness.”

  “But what’s the hurry?” the prince asked. “You said we’d be here four or five weeks, and it’s only been—”

  “Someone knows about the hunt,” the admiral said. “You wouldn’t want to be compromised. . . . You know what this could do to your future career. And we can’t get them all without your help before we’re discovered. Someone is bound to recognize Ser Smith.”

  “But surely—” the prince began, but the expression on Lepescu’s face stopped him. “All right,” he said, trying to sound decisive rather than scared. “I’ll be glad to help out.” The moment it was out of his mouth, he realized how silly that sounded; he could feel his ears burn. He still didn’t understand why they couldn’t just flitter back to Bandon, take the shuttle up to the Station, and find some compliant girls there, but he knew he couldn’t ask Lepescu. Not now.

  Morning had brought an end to the rain, though clouds still clung to the ridge and mist rose from the sodden ground to meet them. Somewhere on the other side of the ridge, the sun might be spearing through that mist, but not here. The prince sighed, punched the button on his breakfast mealpack, and waited for it to heat. He would get his boots muddy again, and they would drag at his feet. . . . He hated mud. This whole expedition looked more and more like a mistake, rather than high adventure. The invitation had specified that they would be here in the dry season, that it could not possibly be compromised . . . and now he was going to be wet, muddy, and in trouble with his father. Not so much for blowing away a few criminals (or rather, one criminal) as for getting caught doing it.

  Nonetheless, he set out to do what he was told, and worked his way up the west side of the island. He left his comunit off; he didn’t want to be distracted by whatever might come over it. Twice, he saw something move that wasn’t ID’d as hunter, and shot at it. Once, whoever it was shot back. He found two bodies, both criminals, with the ears clipped. Lepescu’s plan didn’t make sense to him—herding the criminals into the interior ridge and its rough terrain would make a final cleanup harder—but he went along. He couldn’t think of anything else to do. He followed the stream uphill because it was easier to walk that way.

  * * *

  The clatter of rocks falling echoed through the cave; Bubbles was sure it was loud enough to be heard outside. Had the hunters found another entrance? Was Petris trying to find them?

  “We have to move,” she said to Raffa. “We might find a better place to hide, and here we’re trapped.”

  “Good idea,” Raffa said. “We’ll have to take the candles, and mark our way—”

  “We can’t mark it; someone could follow.”

  “How could they tell how long ago the marks were made? We can’t just go into the cave and not know how to get out—”

  “Right.” Bubbles picked up her pack, and stuffed into it everything of Kev’s that would fit; Raffa would have to carry the rest. The night goggles gave her a blurry picture of the inside of the cave, and she could see a ledge extending along the left wall. Black water lay still and smooth at its edge. She fumbled at the rifle she’d taken, making sure it had a round in the chamber, and slung it on her shoulder. This is an adventure, she told herself. Just do it like you used to, and it will come out all right.

  Raffa followed her lead; Bubbles shuffled along wishing she dared light a candle as her vision dimmed. Even with the goggles, she could see very little by the time she came to the first angle of stone that blocked the entrance. She ducked around it, and leaned against the damp wall. Ahead, all was black, utterly black. Water dripped into the central pool in an unpredictable rhythm. Somewhere in the distance, another rock fell. Raffa touched her arm, and she jumped.

  “I think it’s safe to light the candles now,” Raffa said. “We’re out of sight of the entrance.”

  “But they could reflect on the water,” Bubbles said. “And if we’re the light source, then anyone hiding back here would see us first.”

  “Yes, but if we don’t have a light, we’ll step off a ledge somewhere—we can’t just feel our way along.”

  “I know.” She took a long breath. The darkness pressed on her eyes, her face; she c
ould almost feel furry hands clasping her. Ridiculous. She’d never been afraid of the dark before. But then she’d never been in this cave before, either. She pushed the goggles up, so that the sudden flare wouldn’t blind her, and scraped the lighter until a spark caught the candle. Dim yellow light flickered around them. She put the candle into its lantern, and four beams made clear the distinction between light and shadow. Raffa’s face, underlit, looked strange and dangerous and oddly exciting. Bubbles pushed that thought away—she had no time for anything but the present crisis. She looked around. They had turned a corner into a rough corridor, low, narrow, and twisting. On the opposite wall, a blurred mark showed, one of Kell’s she had no doubt. It looked like a cartoon sailboat, she had no idea why. She moved the lantern about, looking on all the rock surfaces nearby. Another mark, this one somewhat resembling a tree, near what might be a niche or another corridor, a black gash in the rock. The central cavern’s water extended into all the dark entrances she could see, as if all drained into or from it.

  “Boat equals water,” Bubbles said finally. “Water flows downhill, meets the sea—”

  “A way out?” asked Raffa.

  “We know where the trees are,” Bubbles said. “On top of this cave, and full of hunters.” She turned to continue downward, the way she hoped the boat indicated.

  A clatter of rock, clearer now, from the tree-marked gash, and then a splash. And a scream.

  “The light!” Raffa said, but Bubbles had snuffed it already. In the darkness, they clung together again, hearts pounding. Bubbles saw red and yellow blotches floating on the darkness, and told herself they were the afterimage of the candle. Irregular splashes continued, coming nearer; Bubbles thought she could hear rough breathing, something that might be boots scraping on stone. She felt Raffa’s warm breath tickling her ear, and Raffa said, “He must have seen the light somehow.”