by M. G. Herron
Rashiki paused, and we waited for a second as a wheeled cart rounded the corner and tore by us, a piece of bloody, fresh-cut meat waving from a pincer at its top.
It was devilishly pursued by a half-dozen Jel’ka clawing at each other’s flanks.
“So this is how you train the Jel’ka,” I said as they ran past, far too close for comfort.
“It is one method,” Rashiki replied. We turned left and paralleled the track, moving toward where Yarnow, the Jel’ka trainer, stood watching his beasts run.
Rashiki nodded to Yarnow as we passed him. The Torlik Jel’ka trainer held a remote control in his hand, apparently leading the cart on its rounds of the track, or at least monitoring its progress. He nodded back, watching us as we passed.
I was no master of Torlik expressions, but something about Yarnow’s big, heavily lidded eyeball and broad crinkled forehead gave me an impression of sadness. When he smiled politely, it seemed forced, fake. It didn’t touch his eye.
I felt his eye follow us after we had passed him. When I looked over my shoulder, Yarnow quickly averted his face, yelling in an alien language at the Jel’ka, then lifting a whip from his belt and cracking its tip in the air. The brightly feathered raptors peeled off from their pursuit of the cart and curved toward him, churning up dust as they came to a stop around him, bodies heaving from their run. They watched the trainer with keen eyes, hinging on his every motion.
It was not the razor claws or beaks that frightened me the most, but the intelligence in those beady raptor eyes.
Yarnow pulled some scraps of meat from a hip-mounted pack, tossing a piece to each in turn. Each Jel’ka snapped its snack out of the air and gobbled it up.
Beyond the track, the large room housed a few more pieces of exercise equipment, everything from attack dummies to oversized treadmills to twelve-foot tall metal frames. Straps suspended from the frame led to harnesses designed to fit a Jel’ka’s streamlined raptor body.
In one corner was a sort of octagon surrounded by a cage, a one-on-one fighting ring. In another corner, an empty space was cleared by twenty-five yards around a huge metal grate in the floor. It was the kind of grate you’d find built into a sidewalk in the city over a steaming sewer. No steam rose from this one, however, it was secured with an even larger lock than the one at the front gate that I’d blown off with my shotgun. You’d need a welding torch to cut that thing.
I didn’t know what was down there, but the grate told me that whatever it was, it was big.
We walked on.
Finally, we passed through another door and entered a proper medical unit. An elevator at the far end told me that this was an alternative way to access the track above, and I took note of that. Presumably, that’s how the medics got to the injured Jel’ka from their posts so quickly. Then they took the Jel’ka below through whichever exit was closer, with the extra tables in the stables there in case they were needed.
Otherwise, the med unit was separated into two wings. One wing for Jel’ka, complete with the same wire cages from the stable in each of the separate rooms. Most of them were occupied by Jel’ka in various states of recovery.
“They must injure each other a lot,” I said.
“Cost of doing business,” Rashiki replied.
The other wing had normal bedrooms with oversized doorframes large enough for Rashiki’s pod and offworlders of any size. Hix led the way in that direction.
As with the stables and security office, these recovery rooms were primarily stocked with supplies you could buy on the Earth economy—in this case, hospital beds, gauze, cotton balls, rubber gloves, heart monitors, and IV stands. Only some of the equipment was foreign, streamlined and with controls labeled with runes and letters that had no substance or meaning to me. Some of the sleek machines had no visible controls at all.
We passed two empty rooms before we came to the one that held Vinny. The Pangozil lay on the bed in a hospital gown, an IV feeding liquids into his furry arm. The clothes he’d been wearing the night before were laundered and folded on a chair in the corner.
I sighed in relief.
“How is he?” I asked one of the Torlik medics standing over him with a tablet in his hand.
“Stable.”
“Has he woken up at all?”
“No, of course not.”
“I need to talk to him,” I said.
The medic shook his head. “Not possible.”
“There’s got to be something you can do. It’s important.”
The Torlik let out an exasperated sigh, tapping on the tablet a few times. “You can’t remove the Ora from the patient’s bloodstream without harming him. The antidote we gave him contains a sedative, but his body has to process the drug on its own time.”
“What if—”
“You’re lucky he’s not dead,” the medic snapped. “There was enough Ora in his bloodstream to stop his heart.”
This halted my objections cold. Stop his heart…
“Thank you, Caylar,” Rashiki said. “That will be all.”
The Torlik medic nodded and left the room.
“We’ve got to find whoever did this to him,” I said.
“I agree,” Rashiki said.
“You do?” I asked.
This surprised me. I thought Rashiki was just humoring me thus far, helping me only insofar as it was good for his business and it didn’t inconvenience him.
Rashiki frowned as he nodded, his jowls flapping. He turned and bobbed out of the room in his pod. “Come.”
Hix and I followed him to the opposite wing of the hospital. We went into the last room on the left. It stank worse than the stables, of the beginnings of rot mingled with excrement. The source of the smell was the limp body of a Jel’ka on the table. Judging by the scar where its absent eye should be, it was the majestic Slim’dar Killperch.
Beside him on the table there was, what looked like, the shriveled up skin of a balloon or condom. Beside that, a half-melted pile of orange crystals.
“What the hell? Is that…?”
Hix fingered one of the tools on his belt. Rashiki nodded. “Ora.”
“Shit,” I said. “Now I understand why your trainer, Yarnow, looked so upset. He found out what killed his Jel’ka.”
Rashiki nodded. “He cares for the Jel’ka personally, so it is no surprise if he is, perhaps, more attached to the creatures than the rest of us.”
“I didn’t know that’s what the junk looked like.”
Rashiki nodded. “The crystal can be ingested or snorted. Or, as happened with Vinkalathis, it can be melted down and injected directly into the bloodstream in liquid form.”
“And Slim’dar had that…” I nodded at the pile of crystals. “Inside of him?”
Rashiki’s face twisted in anger. “In his stomach.”
“Did you have to cut him open?”
“No. We eventually found a way to empty the contents of his stomach without cutting him open and violating the refund policy.”
“Thank god for that,” I said sarcastically.
“These creatures are worth more Federation credits than you’ll make in a lifetime.” Rashiki practically spat the words at me. He was passionate about this.
“Apparently.”
A moment of silence passed as my thoughts raced to rearrange themselves according to this new revelation.
“So you think that means that what happened to Vinny and what happened to Slim’dar are related?”
“It seems likely,” Rashiki said.
“I watched the footage a dozen times after you left,” Hix said. “That hooded Pangozil knew this was going to happen. He was waiting for it. The second Slim’dar hit the dirt, he made his move.”
“What we don’t know,” Rashiki said, “is how you and Vinny are involved.”
“What?”
Before I could move, Hix pulled one of the small objects off his waist. As he leveled it at me, it whined and the tip of it glowed a neon green.
It had th
ree holes for fingers, rather than a handgrip.
But it was definitely a gun.
And it was pointed directly at my head.
16
Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said, raising my empty hands. “You can’t shoot an unarmed man! I came here in good faith.”
“You fled here after an explosion at Harbor, covered in scrapes and bruises,” Hix said.
“So you know about that, huh.”
“Shooting the lock off the gate didn’t help,” Hix added. “You don’t really expect us to trust you, do you?”
The neon green tip of the gun drifted a few inches closer to my head.
I licked my lips. “Okay, I can see how bad this looks, but I’m not your enemy. You’ve got to believe me.”
The gun didn’t move.
“You and Vinny were in cahoots with whoever killed Slim’dar,” Rashiki said.
“What‽ No way. I was the one helping you narrow down the suspect list!”
“How convenient,” Hix said, dragging out the long vowel sounds with his surprisingly convincing southern drawl.
I closed my eyes briefly, breathing in through my nose and trying to maintain a semblance of calm.
“The hooded offworlder duped and then cashed Vinny’s bets after Slim’dar died,” Rashiki said. “He stole five hundred thousand Federation credits from me.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Is that a lot?”
“Yes!” Rashiki shouted. The hookah hose slapped his fat rolls as he raged, rocking back and forth in his pod. “No one else bet against Slim’dar! No one! He was favored to win! Twenty to one odds!”
Rashiki’s whole body heaved as he breathed hard.
“Yet Vinny bets against Slim’dar, at a ridiculous margin. Then, after he’s been conveniently knocked unconscious, someone else cashes in his wager, transfers it to a private key, and walks out with the credits. And he leaves a clueless human behind to deflect suspicion!”
“Rashiki, you’ve got it wrong.”
“Shut up! I almost believed you. Until we found same poison that put Vinny into a coma lining the stomach of my prize Jel’ka. Admit it!”
“I’m not admitting shit, Rashiki. You’ve got it wrong,” I insisted, trying to keep my voice level. “Why the hell would I come back here if I was in on some kind of scam? Huh?”
“Because we have your partner.”
“He’s not my partner. He’s my friend. I came back to make sure he was all right, that’s true. But also to ask him questions. To get more information about the hooded alien who drugged him. I want to find this offworlder as badly as you do!”
Rashiki glared at me with that huge eye, chest still heaving as he seethed.
“Damnit, you’ve got to listen to me. I knew nothing about your Jel’ka. Didn’t even know what a Jel’ka was before last night.”
“Maybe you didn’t. But Vinny did.”
“He’s a regular customer, isn’t he? Tell me, does Vinny seem like the kind of guy who would run a scam on you?”
Rashiki chewed on his lower lip as he thought about this. His teeth were stained nicotine-yellow from the sweet smoke he inhaled.
“He used to play the races all the time,” Rashiki said. “Then one day, he just stopped coming. Unusual, but not unheard of. Rumors said he kicked the gambling habit, wasn’t going to play the races anymore. He was focusing on his restaurant. Then all of a sudden he comes back. It’s been months since he’s been at the track. So you tell me, Earther. If you’re his friend, why did he come back now? Doesn’t it seem suspicious to you?”
I pursed my lips. Why had he come back last night?
I thought back to the previous evening, when I’d come to Vinny for advice. He’d already been planning to go to Rashiki’s. Only at the last minute had I been invited along for the ride. If it was a scam, no way would I have been invited. Last distraction you need when you’re running a scam is a newbie who’s not even in on the game.
I shook my head.
“No way, Rashiki. I get it. I’d be skeptical, too. But no, it doesn’t fit. If Vinny was involved at all, he was a pawn in someone else’s game. Maybe he heard about the new Jel’ka that just arrived, and that got his mouth watering to gamble again. Maybe he thought he could make some quick cash with a couple smart bets. Those alone are reason enough to come back here. What I do know is that he only invited me at the very last minute. I’ve been chasing scumbags and scammers my whole career. I know how to think like one. No scammer worth a damn would bring a clueless buddy like me along at the last minute if he was going to pull a fast one on the most exciting offworlder game on the planet.”
That seemed to stroke Rashiki’s ego enough to make him begin to regard me with something other than pure malice. He looked at me out of the corner of that huge ponderous eye.
“Why?” he asked.
“Because we’re friends. He was just coming down here to have a good time, and as a friend, I asked him if I could tag along so we could talk. Besides, I’m still trying to understand you offworlders. I thought it would be good to get out and meet more of you. Rub a few elbows, you know?”
Rashiki snorted.
“I was still getting my bearings when—” I waved my hands around, trying to encompass the track and all the strange events of the last twenty four hours. “—everything went down.”
They just stared at me.
“Besides, if I was really in on some kind of scam, why would I be running back and forth across this city trying to figure out who was wearing that hood? Why the hell was I the one that got jumped today?”
I leaned in and pointed at my face so they could see all the fresh scabs and cuts on my cheeks, the bruises around my eyes.
“Maybe that happened at Harbor,” Hix suggested in an unforgiving monotone. “Maybe you were in on that, too.”
“No. I got jumped before Harbor blew up.”
No response. They fidgeted uncomfortably. I could see they were as afraid of the Gatekeeper as I was. He would retaliate for the attack. If I was behind it, I was a walking dead man.
I shouldn’t have shot off that lock. I cursed myself for my lack of patience. I needed patience now.
“Did whoever told you about Harbor also tell you that, had I arrived ten seconds earlier, I would have been pulped into a million pieces of Gunnfetti?”
They didn’t contradict me, but I could see they still didn’t trust me, either. Hix kept the barrel of the tiny alien firearm trained on my head. I squirmed under it. For a brief instant, I wondered if it was loaded with bullets or something more alien. Lasers? Maybe he’d pull the trigger and my friggin’ brains would just dribble out of my ears like watery oatmeal.
If I can’t convince them I’m on their side, I might get to find out.
The grim thought amused me. I fought down the insane smile that threatened to creep onto my face.
Instead, I took a deep breath, calming myself, surreptitiously employing the meditative breathing that Dyna had taught me. After a few breaths, I exhaled some of the tension in my body, and got myself back under control. No mean feat when you had a gun pointed at your head.
How else could I convince them?
My eyes were drawn to the gray cloak the robot attack dogs had left behind. It had been stuffed into the side of Rashiki’s pod for storage while we walked downstairs.
“I understand why you don’t trust me,” I said, my voice once again calm. “But I am on your side. Let’s start with what we have in common. We both want to talk to Vinny, right? Find out what he knows?”
Reluctantly, the two Torliks, one fat and one skinny, nodded.
“Okay, that’s a start,” I said. “The sooner he talks, the sooner we’ll have his side of the story, and maybe he also has some clues that will help us find whoever stole your money and killed your Jel’ka. What if I promised to help you get your money back? I won’t even ask for payment.”
Rashiki bobbed in his pod. His expression remained neutral. “I’m listening,” he growled.
>
“Is there anything your medics can do to speed along his recovery? The sooner we can talk to him…”
Rashiki shook his head. “The fact that you don’t know how the drug works is more convincing than anything else you’ve said. I assure you, my medics are already doing everything they can. The process cannot be sped up.”
Saved by my own ignorance!
I nodded as my hands began to shake. Perhaps whoever drugged Vinny had done so simply to be sure he couldn’t talk for a little while. It wouldn’t be a bad strategy, if it was intentional.
What does Vinny know?
“I’ll be notified as soon as he’s awake,” Rashiki added.
I wished that I was the one being notified, but didn’t say so. Best to be agreeable now.
“Great.” I pointed at the gray cloak. “That was left behind after the robots jumped me at Vinny’s house. But it wasn’t the only thing. Remember how I said it was a warning? They beat the shit out of me, tied me down, and then delivered a message.”
I paused, trying to see what effect my words were having. Hix was the first to grow frustrated with my silence.
“Spit it out,” he snarled.
“It said, ‘Last warning, Earther. This is not your war to fight. Unless you’re willing to die for the cause…’”
Rashiki’s gaze went distant. A thought quickly congealed in his mind, and when it came together, he sighed deeply, then closed his eye and leaned back in his seat, muttering curses under his breath. He took a deep desperate drag from his hookah, as if that would dissolve the pain that showed plainly on his face.
Hix frowned and lowered the gun to his side, but didn’t put it away or take his eyes off me. My heart still pounded in my chest, but I took a deep breath now that the weapon had been averted.
We seemed, at last, to be moving in the right direction.
“Hix,” Rashiki said, exhaling a hazy nebula of smoke with his eye still closed. “Did we not relocate to a silent planet, light-years from the nearest Carrier-class trade route, simply to escape the influence of those fanatical revolutionaries?”