by T E Olivant
Biddy tried to catch Phil’s eye but it was impossible without giving away his position to the Augment who was still rambling on about something.
“Escaping from your tormentors is a crime now, is it?” The Augment said. This made Biddy’s blood boil.
“No, but murder is.”
“Murder?” The Augment looked confused. Biddy was horrified. Was he so out of touch with reality that he had forgotten the deaths he had caused mere weeks ago?
“The Westward Ho!. You sabotaged it. Hundreds of innocent people died.”
“You think I downed the Westward Ho!? Idiot human.” He dismissed her with a look and started to wander back to the life-raft. Biddy was tempted to just let Phil shoot him. Maybe they could hide the body somewhere?
“I am here to arrest you for the murder of every person onboard the Westward Ho!. I do so on the authority of Scotclan. It is recommended that you come willingly or I will use force.”
The Augment barely glanced at her. “I think you have bigger problems. Why don’t you take a look at the screens?”
Biddy kept the stungun trained on the Augment while she let her eyes drift to the viewscreen onboard the life-craft. It showed a scan of the area of space above them. An area that was becoming much more crowded.
“Who the hell are they?” Biddy yelled.
“No idea.” The Augment sounded almost gleeful. “Shall we find out?”
Chapter 22
It was rather pleasing to see the young Detective’s mouth fall open when she saw the three starships converging on their location from the clouds. It was less pleasing to realize that he was going to be picked over like everyone’s favorite carcass.
“Damn it, why didn’t Hastings warn us?”
“Our radios were off for the arrest.”
“Shit!” The woman touched a button on her spacesuit. Lu Tang saw her flinch as presumably a voice shouted down the line at her.
“Okay, I’m reading you now, Hastings. You say two out of the three ships have made contact?” There was a pause, then she continued. “Yes, we’ve got the Augment. And you can tell them that I have no plans to hand him over until I have questioned him. Make it clear that this is non-negotiable.”
There seemed to be more frantic chatter on the radio. All the while the hired muscle kept his gun pointed at Lu Tang. Idiot. He’d have been better pointing it at the sky. That was where the real threat was.
One of the ships, the biggest of the three was coming down even lower. It made an ominous bass sound as it hovered above them, the sort of note that vibrated in your guts. It should have made Lu Tang nervous. It might have done, had he retained all of his human functions. As it was he was feeling exhilarated. This was much more interesting than sitting in his cell on Widdershins 3.
The young Detective seemed to share some of his exhilaration. There were spots of color on her cheeks that he could see even through the plastic of her spacesuit. She seemed to be shouting into her radio, but he couldn’t hear anymore over the sound of approaching engines. Then she yelled out so loud that he did hear something.
“Well tell them all to bloody well land and we’ll have it out on the ground. At least then I’ll be able to hear myself think.”
Just a few seconds later two of the spacecraft veered away to land nearby. Each had chosen a landing position far enough to be out of touching distance. Lu Tang smiled. It would have been very embarrassing all round if they had crashed into one another. The third spaceship, a long black thing that Lu Tang didn’t recognize, stayed floating above them.
“Think it’s a good idea to have them all come down here?” The muscle asked. Lu Tang clicked his teeth. He would never have allowed that sort of subordination.
“We meet them face to face. I’m not sure who they all are, but I have my suspicions.”
“Maybe we could sell him off to the highest bidder?”
Lu Tang reserved a special glare for the muscle. The Detective laughed, so he hoped it was meant to have been a joke.
“Put the restraints on him.”
Lu Tang held out his hands and the muscle wrapped a piece of metallic tape around his wrists. He didn’t fight it. What would be the point?
“I, Biddy Mackay, Detective, am placing you under arrest. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defense if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in any intergalactic judgement chamber you may be taken to. Understand?”
“Yes.” Perhaps the girl wasn’t dumb after all. Lu Tang knew that she had just staked a claim over his person. She had taken him into custody. Hopefully that still meant something in this century.
“Hey!” A shout came over from a group of men hurrying towards them. Lu Tang turned to watch the show. How long would the Detective last against the grownups?
A man with some sort of ridiculous round hat on his head seemed to be leading the group from the West. He arrived with two big men carrying guns nearly the same size as them. Lu Tang rolled his eyes. Testosterone again.
Just as this little group arrived, a cloud of dust was kicked up from the East. On a little rover there were two figures, skimming across the ground.
“Okay, group B win for style,” the Detective said. She turned to face him.
“Any idea who these guys are?”
Lu Tang shrugged. “There are some people who would like to apprehend me. I suggest that before they arrive you might want to take possession of the box on the floor of the life-raft.”
The Detective glared at him for a moment, then went to retrieve the box.
“What is it?” The muscle asked, pulling it out of her arms.
“Something valuable. Not a bomb. And I asked the Detective to hold it, not you.”
“Stay where you are!” The first group had arrived. Stupid hat man stormed over to the Detective. Lu Tang was glad to see that his armed guards had stayed slightly back.
“I am Captain Campbell, Sub-Chief of Scotclan in this quadrant.”
“Pleased to meet you,” the Detective replied. She was being deliberately subservient, or so it seemed to Lu Tang. There was probably some sort of power play going on. What a bore it was to be played with as a toy by these humans.
“Where is the Observer?”
“In my cells.”
The man wrinkled his nose. “This is some sort of joke?”
“Not at all. I have arrested her for attempted murder.”
“Of him?” The man gestured at the Augment.
“No. Of Tibo, the starglider pilot.”
A ripple of shock went across the Augment’s brain. “Tibo’s dead?”
The Detective gave him a Look. “I said attempted murder. He is currently awaiting treatment.”
Lu Tang shook his head. Incompetence seemed to be a hallmark of this young woman’s job. Why on earth had they tried to kill Tibo? It couldn’t have been self-defense: Tibo had always been too fat and lazy to fight anyone.
“Stay back!” The two-armed men that had arrived with the Scotclan Chief suddenly raised their weapons. Everyone turned to face the couple that were climbing off the buggy.
They were dressed in slim fitting spacesuits covered in pockets and tools and their tattoos were visible through their helmets.
“Ah, these may be my clients,” Lu Tang said to the young Detective. “I don’t suppose you would let me speak to them in private?”
She gave him another Look. These humans were so rude.
“I am conducting an arrest on behalf of Scotclan. Would you care to state your business with my suspect?”
The female gang leader looked the young Detective up and down in a dismissive fashion.
“I am the Leader of the Council of Eritree and I have a prior arrangement with this man.”
Lu Tang raised an eyebrow. Not just a gang member. The gang member. The most established gangs in this system had become the government.
“I’m afraid this is a murder investigation so your arrangement will have to wait.”
“You are on the soil of Eritree.” The woman’s metallic tattoos gleamed in the light. “We are in charge here.”
“Scotclan have intergalactic jurisdiction. Isn’t that right, Chief Campbell?”
“Um, yes,” the Chief replied, looking a little startled at being brought into this dispute.
“Then I’m afraid the Council of Eritree will have to wait until we have concluded our business with the suspect before they can have access to him.”
“Yes, of course,” Campbell said, regaining his composure. “And on that note, Detective Mackay, I would remind you of your duty to hand the suspect over to me.”
The Detective turned to face the man. “Are we not on the same side, Sir? Because it seems like you are undermining my efforts to apprehend the suspect.”
Her tone was light but there was definite menace in it. Lu Tang was starting to enjoy himself. Perhaps the young woman was not as foolish as she seemed.
“I mean,” Mackay continued, “none of us want a nasty, corrupt little murderer to get away with it, do we?”
Nope, Lu Tang thought, she was definitely just as dumb as she seemed.
Chapter 23
Instead of answering her, Chief Campbell stared up at the sky. Biddy kept her eyes on the older man. She felt as though she was walking a tightrope above a ravine full of crocodiles. And Campbell was one of them, snapping his jaws at her.
“You are Biddy Mackay of the Black Maria,” Campbell said softly. For the first time Biddy noticed a radio link on the man’s helmet. Someone had been feeding him information.
“Yes?”
“According to my data you are still on your probationary period with Scotclan. A decorated probation, I’ll admit, but you are still not a full Detective. In which case, I am unfortunately forced to invoke a supervisory clause and take the suspect into my own custody.”
“That will not be necessary.”
“I’m afraid it is.”
Biddy had had enough. She walked towards the Chief and stood right in front of him, jutting out her chin so that she could look up into his eyes.
“It’s funny,” Biddy said without a hint of a smile, “but I did wonder if the fact that I was a probationer might become a problem on this case. So I had my very clever tech support check into it. It turns out that my probation period finished three months ago.”
“Ah,” Campbell let out a triumphant noise, “but it was never formally signed off.”
“No. It needed to be signed off by a Clan member of at least Reverend level, is that right?”
“Yes, so…”
“And it hadn’t been. Until today, when a Clan member of Very Reverend level signed off on it. I can provide you with the documentation if necessary.”
“But who would –”
“Your Observer. Macleod was a Very Reverend member of the Clan, was she not?”
“Hmmn,” Campbell said, and his cheeks turned pink. Biddy resisted the urge to roar in triumph.
“Now, if we can return to the rather pressing matter at hand. In five minutes a shuttle will arrive from my spacecraft. I will leave on that shuttle with the suspect. Once I have completed my investigation I will consider calls to release him to other interested parties, but not before.”
Chief Campbell cleared his throat. There was a bead of sweat dripping down his neck. “Scotclan would clearly be first in line to receive the Augment rather than the local department.”
The woman from Eritree narrowed her eyes. “I disagree. He should be returned to the planet from which he was abducted. Or maybe we should let the God himself choose?”
Biddy was on the verge of screaming. “We do not normally let the murder suspect have a say in his own arrest!”
The Augment was grinning now. It turned her stomach. This person had killed two hundred people and the people around her didn’t seem to care. The whole thing had turned into some sort of dreadful comedy act.
Enough was enough.
“Hastings, send down that shuttle,” she said into her radio. She turned to face the couple from Eritree.
“Your transaction, whatever it might have been, was done with a murder suspect. If he is found guilty then you could be forced to answer related charges. Do I seem like the sort of person who would just let that go?”
The female miner said nothing, only stared at her with cold hatred. Biddy took this as a reluctant acceptance. She turned back to the Chief.
“I will, of course, keep Scotclan informed of my investigations. I will however not countenance any further direct intervention in my case. The last time your people tried to help me someone ended up in a medical pod. Any further access to my suspect will be granted solely through me. Is that clear?”
“Your career won’t be worth Martian dust after this,” Campbell said, moving towards his companions.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Biddy said under her breath.
Campbell and his men were already disappearing into the dusty landscape. After another glare just to prove to everyone she was a hardcase, the woman from the Council of Eritree did the same. Biddy watched them all leave with her arms folded. They didn’t need to know how loudly her heart was hammering in her chest.
“That was quite impressive,” a voice said beside her.
Biddy spun around to face the Augment. “Don’t think for one second this means I am on your side. In fact, I think you’re a murdering scumbag. But I had to protect my reputation. And you were the means of doing that, nothing more.”
“Quite,” the creature said, his mouth curled in a half-smirk. “And I look forward to sampling your hospitality. There is just one problem, however.”
“What is that?”
“Have you forgotten about the third ship?”
Biddy’s eyes flickered upwards. Damnit, in all the excitement she had forgotten about the third ship. It hovered silently above them like some sort of ominous cloud.
“Shit.” She glared at the Augment. “Something to do with you?”
“Indeed.” The man put his hand to his right ear. “You can come and get me know.”
Phil grabbed at the Augment’s head and pulled away a small black transmitter. “Sorry, ‘tec, I should have checked him.”
“No matter,” Biddy said, her eyes back on the sky. Would the Augment’s friends come down and get him? Would they blast her and her bodyguard into smithereens?”
“Any moment now,” the Augment said. He was fidgeting from one foot to the other. Not very God-like behavior, but Biddy supposed that she had never actually met a God before. Besides, what did it matter when the big ship was about to kill them.
“Any second…” Now the God’s voice was hesitant. Biddy looked back at the sky. The ship was turning. After a few seconds an engine flared and it moved out of the atmosphere into space.
Biddy turned back to her suspect. “Well, any other tricks left?”
The Augment’s face was a picture, eyes wide and staring and mouth hung open. Biddy waited for him to speak, but he said nothing at all.
“Time to go,” she said to Phil. “Let’s get this asshole on the shuttle.”
Chapter 24
Betrayed. It was pretty clear that he had been betrayed. But who by? And for what reason? Lu Tang sat in his stark white cell and thought about nothing else.
He didn’t waste time thinking about the juvenile Detective that had captured him. She had got lucky, that much was plain enough. She was someone’s puppet, he just had to work out whose.
His allies on the black ship, now they were a different matter. He had been so sure that the third ship had been the home of his special caller. But it had flown off without even attempting to intervene in his arrest. It had made him look like a fool.
It couldn’t have been the voice, he told himself. The idea that his sole companion for the entire time of his imprisonment would just abandon him like that… It was unthinkable. It must have been one of his other enemies, someone who merely wanted to gloat at the indignity
of his arrest. But who exactly?
Of course, the list of people who didn’t like him was pretty long. But the question was: if they were just trying to get at him then why hadn’t they done so on Widdershins 3? A nice little assassination attempt would at least have broken up the monotony. So it followed that his most recent capture by the irritating Celtic girl was carefully timed. It could only be because they wanted the portal drive.
Lu Tang felt his initial anger ebb away. He yawned. Humans were so boring. He had a thing, they wanted to take the thing. Simple as that. Centuries in and there was nothing that could truly surprise him. What an interminable existence it was that was granted to a God.
Now he would have to plan another escape. How tiresome. But before he escaped he would have to find out what that stupid girl had done with the portal drive. Hopefully she had stored it somewhere safe without bothering to look inside. And if she did look inside… well, she wouldn’t have the brains to fathom what it was anyway.
Would he have to kill her? Despite everything, Lu Tang did not enjoy the idea of taking a life. But if it was the only way to achieve the outcome he desired, then he would have to consider it. After all, what was the loss of one human when compared with the completion of a project that had spanned nearly half a century?
Perhaps he would find a way to use the girl instead. She didn’t seem as if she would be hard to manipulate. Yes, he just had to find her weak spot. And then push a blade into it.
Some young crew member knocked at the door, opened it and deposited a plate of food before scurrying off again. Running away from him as if he was some sort of monster only found in the darkest of nightmares.
It’s better if they fear me, Lu Tang told himself. That will make them easier to manipulate. He pulled the plate towards him and grimaced. Curry. Better make that escape plan sooner rather than later.
Lu Tang closed his eyes in semblance of sleep. The smell of reheated food and dry metallic smell of his cell put him right back on Widdershins 3. It had almost sent him insane, that cursed planet. A decade of isolation. If he had been a mere human he would barely have lasted a month. For a God it was merely a tiresome inconvenience.