by Becky Black
My fingers slid around the grip of the pistol again, as the lid lifted, but I let go when Vimal looked into the box, grinning. I could have kissed his friendly young face.
"Terminus! Everybody off the bus!" He ordered cheerfully.
Ilyan jumped up and out quickly, said, "excuse me" to the others and hurried off to a door marked 'bathroom'. Vim and Rish helped me up and out of the box. I could hold it for a few minutes before I needed to use that bathroom too. Tanashi came over and ran her scanner over me as I sat down heavily on a bed. I smiled at her.
"I'm fine, doc. Nice work on getting us aboard." She smiled back at me and nodded.
The others turned their attention to the second trunk, unlocked it and lifted the lid. Tesla shot out like a bullet from a gun. Maiga stood up more slowly.
"Oh, fuck!" Tesla cried. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I never want to go through anything like that again! That scanner! I was so sure we were going to be found!"
Maiga looked around frowning as she stepped out of the trunk. "Where's Ilyan?"
"Bathroom," I said. I looked at her and Tesla. They both looked hot and bothered and dishevelled. Now what could they have been up to in there?
Ilyan came out of the bathroom, straightening up his clothes and combing his mussed hair with his fingers. He made a beeline for Maiga.
"My dear," he put his arms around her and kissed her cheek. "As usual a superb plan, beautifully executed."
"I wasn't executing anything in there," she said, moving away from him and smoothing down her hair and clothes.
"Everyone did very well," Ilyan said, looking around at them. "Tesla, how are you, my friend? I know how you dislike closed places. You were very brave to go in there. And Maiga, thank you for staying with him."
How did he do it? Suddenly he had Tesla smiling, he had Maiga smiling and the others all beaming with pride.
"Right," Ilyan went on, clapping his hands together. "Let's get organised."
Chapter 15
My job in the getting organised evolution consisted of taking off my boots and pants and climbing into bed. Maiga sent Jia and Vim off to rustle us up some food. The others unpacked the gear and stowed it away, except Tesla, still milking the shaken up bit and sitting recovering on another bed with Ilyan beside him, talking quietly to him, stroking his back.
That sickened me, frankly. I felt damn sure now that Tesla had full access to Maiga's goodies and poor Ilyan didn't have a clue. But my instinct still told me to keep my nose out of it. Anytime I'd ignored that instinct I always came off worst. No man ever thanked you for giving him that news. Even if you had proof. Especially if you had proof. I had no proof.
Best leave it alone. I sighed and tried to put it out of my mind. Instead I looked around the room that would be home for nearly a month. Pleasant but bland décor. Typical hotel room basically. Neutral colours, generic furniture. But my bed had some kind of heater in the mattress. A nice touch.
This boat called itself a liner but, despite a few basic leisure facilities, really wasn't much more than a transport. Suited our low profile, I suppose. I hoped I'd get a chance to get out and check out the facilities soon. Once I felt strong enough I needed to start working out again, before I got too flabby.
****
I fell asleep not long after the others finished organising and when I woke up only Ilyan remained in the room, reclining on the other bed, reading his Snapper. I'd glanced at it a couple of times. He had a library on there.
"Time is it?" I asked thickly, sitting up, holding my side.
He looked up. "About 19:30. How are you feeling?"
"Hungry," I said. "Where's everyone?"
"They went to the observation deck to watch us leave orbit."
I frowned at that. "Tesla shouldn't be wandering around. He's not meant to be on board."
"We're underway," Ilyan said. He shrugged. "At this point they tend to assume if you're already on board, you're supposed to be here." He gave a quirky smile. "Like a wasp once it gets past the soldiers and into a beehive."
A wasp? Yeah, I could see Tesla as a wasp.
"You should stay out of sight though," I insisted. He looked at me for a while, and then smiled.
"Maiga's right about you."
"What about me?" I asked, frowning. What's the bitch been saying now?
"Never mind. We have something to discuss with you, but we'll do it later."
"You can't leave me hanging like that!" I protested.
He grinned at me. "Oh and what will you do about it, Sergeant? Going to pin me?"
I winced at the thought of sparring with him just now. Even so, I put on the 'scary grunt' scowl. But then I couldn't help smiling and flopped back on the pillow. Okay, patience, Jadeth.
A few minutes later Maiga came in with food. She gave me some, then sat on the bed beside Ilyan and shared out the rest.
"Maiga, I'd like to discuss your idea with Jadeth now," Ilyan said.
"Okay," she said, nodding.
"Jadeth." He sat up straight, looking at me. "Maiga thinks you ought to become my bodyguard. Officially that is."
Maiga shook her head, gestured with a piece of bread in her hand.
"Not just your bodyguard, but in charge of security generally," she said. "He seems to have a knack for it. He's suspicious of everybody after all."
Funny cow. Her idea though. That surprised me.
"We need someone who is focused on security," she said to me. "You seem to be the best person for that."
I'd never agreed with her more.
"Yeah," I said. "I'll do it. Always been good at security."
"You do seem to have a natural guardian instinct," Ilyan said. Maiga nodded agreeing.
"Like a dog," she said.
I almost choked. "I'm like a dog?"
"I meant that in a good way!" She added hastily.
"I'm like a dog in a good way?" Oh, I couldn't let her off with that one.
"Dogs are fiercely loyal and protective," Ilyan said, quietly. "I like dogs."
That shut me up. His way with words again. He took her mistake and turned it into one of the best compliments I've ever had.
"Right." I cleared my throat after a while. "I can't cover two men at once. I want to make Rish responsible for Tesla's personal safety. The lad's not a bad soldier."
"Good idea," Ilyan said, looking at Maiga, who nodded. He smiled at me. "Straight down to work eh, Sergeant?"
"Yeah."
As if I hadn't been waiting for this moment since I met him.
****
Now I felt even more motivated to recover my strength so Security Chief Jadeth would be ready to hit the ground running when we got to Kitsnujitar. The doc checked me over every day, asking a lot of charming questions like about how I was pissing. "Standing up" became my usual answer.
I spent most of my time either resting or pottering around the suite of rooms. The others usually stayed out all day enjoying the ship's facilities, leaving Ilyan and me alone. Sometimes we talked. Sometimes I rested and dozed while he read. Sometimes he read aloud to me, old books, stories, and I drifted, barely following the story, soothed by the sound of his voice.
About three weeks in I'd started feeling a lot stronger and could even do some light exercise. After I finished a session of that one afternoon, I lay on the bed snoozing while Ilyan read. I'd almost dozed off when he spoke for the first time in a couple of hours.
"Jadeth, do you remember your mother?"
I woke up and looked over at him, wondering what brought that thought up.
"Not really, not much."
"Did you see her again after you went to school?"
"No." I shook my head. "She wrote to me a few times. She was KIA when I was nine. She was mechanised infantry. Tank crew." I paused for a while, thinking about her. "She had blue eyes and brown hair, I think." I tried to picture her face, but the details had long vanished. I shrugged. "What about you?"
"She used to visit me at least once a year after I went to school
. She was a marine."
"She dead?" I asked.
"Yes." He didn't elaborate and I didn't push it.
"I guess she'd have been proud of the way you turned out," I said. "Top advisor to High Command. And now you're the Prophet--"
His face twisted when I said the P word.
"I'm getting damn tired of that name. In fact, I was damn tired of it about a week after Tesla coined it."
"I'm sure he meant it as a compliment."
"Well it's not." He sounded unusually testy. "I'm a scientist, not a mystic. I analysed data and found patterns. I didn't get visions from a god."
I didn't answer. Didn't really know what to say, just made a note to myself that I wouldn't ever call him "Prophet" again.
"Besides, my so called prophecies were self-fulfilling. That's like predicting a house will catch fire, then tossing a match into it and saying 'I told you so.' Is that prophecy?"
"No, boss, technically that's arson." I grinned as I said it and he smiled wryly and shook his head.
"Too true, Jad, too true." He looked thoughtful for a while and then smiled at me.
"You know, I seem to recall promising to buy you a nice cold beer, Sergeant."
****
We wandered along a parade of shops, trying not to look in any way like wanted men. My side ached. This was the furthest I'd walked since being wounded. Perhaps I looked pale because Ilyan gave me a concerned glance.
"Shall we sit?" He led me to some small tables outside a café bar. We sat and in a moment a waiter with a prosthetic arm showed up. Ilyan ordered us a pair of cold beers.
"There's Jia and Vim," I said, spotting the two of them strolling along the parade, holding hands. They didn't see us, too deep in conversation. Jia wore a gauzy white dress tied at the waist with a green sash. Her hair hung loose down her back. I suppose Vim had clothes on too, I didn't notice.
"Young love," Ilyan said, smiling.
"Nice legs." I said, with an evil grin. I wished I'd persisted a bit with Jia. I could have cut out the boy easily enough. But I suppose she's better off with Vim. More compatible. And they do make a cute couple.
Speaking of which, where might Maiga and Tesla be? These liners usually had rooms you could rent by the hour.
"Anything wrong?" Ilyan asked.
"Sorry, just thinking about something," I said, forcing a smile, wondering what my face had been betraying. The waiter with the fake arm brought our beers and Ilyan raised his glass to me. I raised mine in response and we clinked them together.
"To my bodyguard."
I didn't know how to respond to that at first. Then I said, "To your success." Generically useful. We drank the well-chilled lager.
"How will we measure my success, Jadeth?" Ilyan asked, putting down his glass.
"What about the rumours coming through?" I said, "Chatter about units bugging out and heading for Earth. Plus High Command did try to kill you. They're afraid of you. You must be having an effect."
"Hmm, so I can measure my success by the number of assassins sent after me?"
Not a pleasant thought. We both sat there glum for a while. Then I gave myself a mental slap around.
"Right," I said. "Drinking game?"
"Okay. Rules?"
"One sip for..." I glanced over at the waiter. "Anyone with a prosthetic arm. One for anyone in uniform. One for… any one member of our party."
"Two for a couple." He took it up. "Two for a prosthetic leg."
"A big gulp for a couple in uniform or for a prosthetic arm and leg."
"Two gulps for an alien." He came back with quickly. He's done this before.
"And drain the glass for a mixed human alien couple," I added on, which made him laugh.
"Love is blind," I said, grinning
We sat there the rest of the afternoon, playing our stupid people spotting drinking game. Of course, like any drinking game the longer we played it the worse we got at it and the more we argued over it.
"Oh, they were not a couple!" Ilyan insisted nearly three hours later. He brushed his hair back from his flushed face.
"They couldn't keep their hands off each other. Drink up."
"She was thirty years older than him!"
"Love is blind." It had become my refrain. Grudgingly he took two sips. We weren't likely to get too drunk on the rather weak lager, not unless lots of mixed species couples suddenly turned up. But it felt nice to relax with him like this.
"Oh!" He pointed and sipped twice. "One for a member of our party. Two. Two of them."
I followed his weaving finger and saw Maiga and Tesla heading towards us. I sipped once twice, three, four times. One each for members of our party. Two for a couple.
"Four sips?" Ilyan pushed his hair back again. He looked puzzled. "What's that mean?"
I shrugged. "Means I was thirsty."
"Hello!" Ilyan called, too loud, and waved as Maiga and Tesla arrived. "Join us! Jad and I are playing a drinking game."
"Nah, they can't jump in at this stage, everyone has to start out equal." I didn't want them to play. I wanted them to piss off and leave us alone.
Maiga sat down by Ilyan and he put his arm around her, kissed her cheek, more clumsy than usual. I caught the black look Tesla gave them.
"Perhaps it's time you went back to our suite," Maiga suggested, in that special voice women use for talking to their man when he's drunk. "Jadeth looks tired."
Ilyan at once became serious, looking at me with concern.
"You're right." He put his hand over mine on the table. "Jadeth, we should go back now. So you can rest up before dinner."
I shrugged. "Whatever."
Party's over.
Chapter 16
Civilian liners and transports didn't go into war zones, which meant we had to get off as near to Kitsnujitar as possible and find someone to take us the rest of the way.
The nearest stop was a space station. First built a thousand years ago by the Wassawan people, who are all gone now, it had changed hands dozens of times since. All the various species who'd owned it over the years had expanded it, changed its name and moved it around. Right now, it sat on the edge of an exclusion zone around Kitsnujitar space. The current owners, a commercial company based on Sigthoni 5, called it Station Olojimi. Grunts called it Hollow Jimmy.
The liner would stay docked at Hollow Jimmy for a couple of days, loading fresh supplies and letting the passengers take in some of the weird sights, sounds and smells of the huge marketplace the station housed. People came to Hollow Jimmy to strike deals. A half credit cup of coffee or a mining complex that covered half a moon; you could buy and sell it all, no questions asked.
'No questions asked' suited us. We disembarked the liner, Maiga insisting that those who went onto the ship in the smuggle boxes came off in them too, including her. Tesla claimed he still needed 'someone' in the box with him to keep him calm. Somehow, I think he'd have been disappointed if I'd volunteered to ride with him this time.
We found a hotel, low key again, only a couple of steps up from a flophouse. Maiga settled down to hack into the station's network to find transport and monitor the comms for news about us. Tanashi and Diliph went to track down some medical supplies. We'd not been able to steal any on the liner. Too much security.
The rest of us decided to explore the station to see what supplies and gossip we could pick up. We explored the marketplace and the byways around it. In the little alleyways off the market small facilities offered every kind of service imaginable and plenty of unimaginable ones.
As we passed the door of one place a woman with too much chest on display called out to Ilyan.
"Hey, Colonel, you want to treat your boys to a good time?"
"Shut it," I said as we hurried on past. Vim and Jia both blushed and looked shocked.
Ilyan frowned. "Why did she think I was a colonel?"
"They call anyone they think is a soldier 'colonel'." Rin said. Seemed to know a lot about it.
"I see." Ilyan fro
wned again. "But how did she know I was the leader of the group?"
"Sir," Jia said. "There are microscopic bacteria living off the dirt on this floor that can see you're the leader of this group."
Ilyan stared at her, then at me. I grinned.
"What she said."
"So much for low profile," he muttered. "Perhaps we should split up for a while."
We did and Rish and me stuck with Ilyan and Tesla, while Jia and Vim strolled off together and Rin went off on his own.
****
When we four lads went back to our accommodation, Maiga reported she had found us a smuggler willing to take us to Kitsnujitar, for a hefty price of course. We'd leave in the morning.
The medics returned with the supplies they'd bought. Not long after that Vimal and Jia came in, with a takeaway dinner for us all.
Rin didn't show up for dinner. Ilyan and Maiga seemed kind of worried about that, but I figured he'd just gone looking for a girl to call him colonel. Though when we couldn't contact him on his Snapper either even I started to get nervous.
Finally, as midnight approached and Ilyan and Maiga had been pacing up and down for at least an hour, I stood up.
"Me and Rish will go look for him."
Rish nodded at me. I looked to Ilyan for confirmation and he nodded too.
"Be careful," he said.
"Yeah. You tooled up, Marine?"
"Of course."
"Then let's go."
****
We headed straight for the same back alley where we'd seen the lady with too much chest and found her still working the door. A few credits got us the info that Rin had been around here, not long after we saw her before. He'd paid for a girl for an hour and left again. She pointed out the direction he'd gone and we headed that way, past the colourful stalls and booths. Mixed scents of human and alien food and drinks wafted over us.
"You've known Rin longer than me," I said to Rish. "Think he'd run out on us?"
Rish glared at me, dark face darkening further. "No! He wouldn't."
I didn't push it. The lads seemed close. If Rish said Rin wouldn't abandon us then I believed him.
"Police," Rish said, slowing his pace. I looked up to see the station rent-a-cops fussing around the mouth of an alley.