by Natalie Grey
He flexed his hands, then clenched them. He must go as fast as he could. He—
The door burst open and his hutmates started screaming. Bright lights pierced the darkness, blinding the people inside, and guards peered about suspiciously as they waded into the pile of Ubuara. With them was Chogaru, who pointed directly at Leiguba.
“Him.” He looked around and effortlessly identified the rest of the Ubuara. “There. There. That one’s getting out the window—catch him! And there. Those are the ones you want from here.”
“Chogaru!” Leiguba did not struggle as the guards picked him up and secured his arms. He knew he was not strong enough to fight them, so instead he focused his attention on the Nekubi. “Chogaru, what did they threaten you with?”
“Nothing.” Chogaru smiled. “From the first day I came here, I have reported on all of you.”
“What?” It was like being punched in the stomach—or perhaps one of the guards actually had. Leiguba struggled to breathe.
“You wanted to rebel, but that’s not going to work.” The Nekubi shrugged. “People like Lan have the power, Leiguba. You have to get a bit of it for yourself, not try to fight it head-on.” He looked at the guards. “Come on. I’ll show you the rest in the other huts.”
“Chogaru!” But he was gone, and the guards dragged Leiguba and his fellow conspirators into the night.
When the first screams came to him on the wind, Lan crossed his arms and smiled. The guards had moved quickly.
He hadn’t let the new soldiers in yet. When Jutkelon had asked him whether he trusted them Lan had realized the danger at once. Just as Gar had betrayed Lan, the guards might betray him.
He was coping with the one betrayal, but he had to be open to the possibility of another. Thus, he was giving the guards below a chance to prove themselves before he intervened. If they did not, he had his new soldiers.
In the meantime, he would stand and watch as the operation unfolded. He was savoring it.
You want to defy me? His lip curled. It will cost you more than you could have imagined.
It was really remarkable, Chogaru thought dispassionately. Technology had advanced so far and so fast. There were lights one could put in living quarters that took almost no energy to run and would last several lifetimes. There were building materials and structures that could resist nearly anything.
Yet most of the people of the universe lived in squalid little huts like these. The best technologies did not get sent to these places. Instead of well-built huts that would last for generations, overseers invariably used the same old materials to build poorly-constructed rat-traps that were always in need of repair.
And on nights like these, with people screaming in the darkness and the guards holding torches. Actual flaming torches, of all the stupid things?
You could really see how shoddy it all was.
He looked around at the screaming people and the dirt and the flames and felt nothing but contempt for all of it. He was all for patient progress, but when this was over he was done with this place and would never look back.
Lan really was stupid, if he was content to make this his best cash-grab rather than using it to go for more.
One of the families waited until the coast was clear and then snuck out of a house and headed up the hill toward the mine. Chogaru shouted for the guards and pointed.
“Are they rebels?” one of them asked him. He did not call Chogaru “sir.”
Chogaru memorized his face. “No,” he said icily, “but they are trying to escape. Make sure they stay here in case it turns out they have been complicit.”
The guard went over doubtfully. First he tried to usher the family back down the hill, waving his hands as he explained. He wasn’t acting very strong, Chogaru noted. If he were that family, he would think this guard didn’t really want to follow Lan’s orders.
But when the parents made a break for it, pulling their child along with them, the guard did what he had to do. He grabbed the child and dragged it back toward the camp, knowing the parents would follow.
Chogaru nodded when the guard returned, pointedly ignoring his miserable expression. In the flickering light he realized it was not just any guard, but Heddoran, the captain.
He of all people should know better. Chogaru would remember this.
He had the sense of being watched and turned his head. There, through the jail’s front window: Leiguba. Chogaru turned away coldly. Leiguba needed to remember that this wasn’t personal. The Ubuara had done stupid things and Chogaru had not, so Chogaru was out here directing things and Leiguba was in jail.
There was no reason for Leiguba to be staring at him as if this had been some sort of betrayal. Chogaru had stepped in to fill a gap in the system of this town. It was natural.
In the jail cell, Leiguba slumped against the wall. Chogaru. It was Chogaru they shouldn’t have trusted.
How could he have known? And what the hell did they do now?
“Keep moving.” Gar hissed. He beckoned to the children and pointed under the general store, shoving them underneath roughly when they cried about how dark it was. “Quiet! You want the guards to hear you?” The children’s protests subsided and Gar pointed to one of the oldest. “You…keep the rest of them quiet, and make sure no one goes running off. I’m going to get help.”
The child nodded jerkily, and Gar looked around before slipping off. He watched Chogaru and the guards for a moment, then headed up the hill towards the mine—and the cave.
This was the stupidest thing he’d ever done. He’d still been under the porch and had been paralyzed by indecision when everything began. He should have taken advantage of the chaos and leave all of this behind or, failing that, he should just have stayed under there and hoped that no one noticed him.
Instead, he’d grabbed children as they and their parents ran past in terror and hid them, and now he was going to fetch Barnabas.
This was going to get him killed. Why, after a lifetime of doing the smart thing, was he not doing so when it counted the most?
Barnabas had just sunk down on a rock to go over the plan in his head once more when the screams began.
Shinigami, what’s happening? He didn’t dare risk sound until he knew what was happening.
Something is going on in the town. Guards are going into the huts and taking people out, and the soldiers are just waiting outside the gates.
Where are the guards taking people?
Into the jails.
And Lan?
Watching it all. One second…zooming in. He looks smug, the sonofabitch.
Barnabas swore under his breath.
I caught some of that. How do you fuck a moose sideways?
Barnabas slanted a look upward and forbore to answer.
Fine, don’t tell me. I’ll just look on the datanet… OH GOD, NEVER SEARCH FOR THAT.
Barnabas palmed his face. I could have warned you. Why would you think it was a good idea?
I thought it was figurative!
That’s how I meant it, certainly, but… Look, we don’t have time for this right now. What the fuck is Lan playing at?
I don’t know, but the other one is coming for you. Reviewing the security tapes, it looks like he hid some of the children.
Barnabas didn’t wait for Gar to reach him; he yanked the Luvendi into the cave. “What’s going on?”
“Oh, thank everything—you’re here!” Gar tried to peel Barnabas’ fingers off his shirt but gave up fairly quickly. His strength would have been no match for the kalanon, much less the Ranger when he was angry. “Where have you been? Lan has gone off the deep end! There was a rebellion set to go tonight because they were afraid that if you didn’t get back in time they’d all be killed.”
Barnabas swore, this time more inventively and in Latin. He should have been there. He should have headed this off.
You know what time it is, right?
I do. He let go of Gar’s shirt and went to arm himself. It’s time to make them v
ery, very sorry they pulled this shit.
Finally.
“Gar? If you wanted to get the guards to stand down, what would you do?”
“I’d start with Heddoran. He was very impressed that you were a religious man.”
“Very well. Go speak to him.” Barnabas waved him off. “Feel free to start with religion, and move on to self-interest if that doesn’t work. It’s like this, you see.” He smiled coldly. “Whoever is still defending Lan and carrying out his orders when I get to them dies.”
Chapter Eighteen
“Stop! Everybody stop!” His voice was carried away by the wind as Gar ran down the hill waving his arms. “STOP!”
On the opposite side of the small valley, Lan frowned. There was no mistaking that tall thin figure, and it had come out of the cave Chogaru had mentioned earlier. So Gar had been working with Barnabas.
His death would not only be public, it would be painful as well.
Shinigami tried to capture his voice to blast it from the loudspeakers, but couldn’t. Too much interference, she supposed. She said as much to Barnabas.
He’s on his own, Barnabas told her grimly. I’m giving him a two-minute head start, and that’s only good as long as they don’t hurt anyone.
Gar, having picked up considerable speed on the slope, burst into the center of the town. “Stop,” he blurted. He bent over to catch his breath, bracing his hands on his knees, and held up a hand for silence.
“He was arrested earlier,” Chogaru told the guards coldly. “Bring him back to his cell.”
“Wait!” Gar forced himself to stand and held his hands out beseechingly. “Just wait. Please. A moment. I bring a message from…from…” He looked at Heddoran. “From the kalanon. He takes exception to all this. He says it is slavery, and he is obliged to intervene. He would have you stand aside so these people can be freed.”
Chogaru gave a snort. “Do you hear yourself? This is ridiculous.”
Gar presently had nothing to lose, just as when he had stared down Barnabas in the room in Tethra, and now, as then, Gar felt a strange calm come over him. He met Heddoran’s eyes.
“I think you know that what you are doing is not right, Heddoran. I see it in your expression. You do not like chasing down children and hauling their parents away screaming in the dead of night.”
“This is ridiculous.” Chogaru’s voice had risen. “Take him back to his cell or kill him, but be done with it.”
“Shut up.” Heddoran swung his head to look briefly at Chogaru.
“What?”
“Shut. Up. I don’t like you.” Heddoran looked up the hill to Lan’s hut. “And I have not liked the overseer’s orders for some time. But I do like the kalanon.”
“He is a…” Gar struggled to find words. How did one describe what he had seen? “He is a warrior,” he explained diplomatically. “He could triumph over all of you, but he has chosen—out of respect for you, Heddoran—to give you the chance to stand down.”
There was a pause. Chogaru looked between the two of them and the guards looked uncertainly at Heddoran. Everyone had frozen when Gar arrived. Some of the guards had been dragging workers, and the workers were still as well—too enthralled by the scene to pull away from the guards.
Gar forced himself not to look around, but he was very aware of the guards at his back—and of the heavy pistols they had not yet used tonight.
“Stand down,” Heddoran commanded.
Gar sagged with relief, and he could have sworn he felt the same emotion ripple through the guards. Workers were helped to their feet and cuffs were undone.
“Don’t listen to him,” Chogaru shouted. “You work for Venfaldri Lan, overseer of this mine. You could be hauled up in front of a court for dereliction of duty! You were hired for security, not for—”
Heddoran stomped over to Chogaru and bent down so his heavy head was nose to nose with the Nekubi, who broke off with a strangled gasp.
“I told you to shut up,” Heddoran growled. “You speak of my contract? What of these people? Everyone knows they should have left months ago.”
There was a murmur of assent from the workers.
“We should put you in the jail,” Heddoran stated simply. He looked up at the hill. “Along with Lan.” He looked down at his radio, which was still transmitting, and smiled. “Did you hear that, Lan?”
Lan had heard the whole thing as it happened. He gave a terse command, and everyone in the valley heard the screech of the gates opening.
Go for Lan. Don’t let him get away.
Barnabas cast a look at the Luvendi and shook his head. No. It’s going to be a massacre if I don’t go now. He paused and smiled. Well, it’s going to be a massacre if I do go.
With that, he took three steps and launched himself from the hillside.
His footwear might look like well-worn leather boots, but they were far more than that. His jump carried him over the town square and he landed in a cloud of dust in front of the gates as the soldiers began to stream in.
“State your business here.” His eyes began to glow red.
“You know our business here.” Gressa had been a mercenary long enough to know the rhythm of a fight—and when to disrupt it. “You should—” Still speaking, he casually flipped his gun up and fired point-blank at Barnabas’s head.
Barnabas still stood. The bullet had flattened itself against his gauntlet, since he had thrown his hand up in front of his face as soon as he’s seen Gressa’s fingers twitch toward his gun.
How did you know he meant to shoot you in the head?
He’s a seasoned mercenary. He’s not going to shoot me in the chest and have me live long enough to shoot him back.
Barnabas looked at all of them. Their mouths were hanging open. They had never seen anyone move so fast.
But they were well trained, so a moment later they raised their weapons. To their surprise, when Barnabas next spoke he had very long, very sharp fangs.
“Wrong. Answer.”
Gressa didn’t even hear the words. His head had been severed from his body and was bouncing on the ground by the time Barnabas had finished speaking.
Gressa wasn’t the only one who knew the rhythms of a fight. Barnabas recognized the absolute shock that froze the mercenaries, and he knew it would wear off in a moment.
He would win even if he let them recover, of course, but he still had Lan to deal with once he was done with them.
Shinigami, he said, his mental tone even and calm as he unholstered his Jean Dukes Specials and took out two of the other squad leaders. Do me a favor.
Yes? Shinigami peered through his eyes as the soldiers flowed around him. They weren’t shooting, since they had been foolish enough to surround him entirely. They knew they would catch one another in the crossfire.
It would have been smart to stay where they were and fire in waves.
But they weren’t being smart. He had gotten under their skin when he’d killed Gressa and they were now reduced to primal instinct, aware on some deep level that they were going to die.
If you see Lan escaping, Barnabas told her, let him go unless it’s into a shuttle that can take him off-planet. Just track him.
You said I was going to get to use missiles.
And you will. One moment.
Barnabas could identify three more leaders from their original formation. He picked one off with a single shot and leapt clear over the crowd to land behind another. His impossibly-sharp knife easily pierced the creature’s torso.
The squad leader screamed, but he didn’t seem to be bleeding very much.
His heart is down near his right hip.
Thank you, Shinigami.
Another thrust, and this time purple blood fountained from the wound when Barnabas removed the blade.
Much better, but now I’ll have to wash everything.
You know how you could have avoided that, right?
Yes.
Several of the soldiers had finally roused enough to fire on
him. Barnabas ducked, bared his teeth, and leapt into the fray once more.
He was laughing like a maniac now. He moved in a blur, pushing himself to the limits of his abilities. Teeth sank into flesh and his knives were coated in blood of varying colors.
Soldiers threw themselves at him, aware only that this was violence and combat and they were trained to deal with that in only one way.
Unfortunately for them, it was the wrong way.
They piled on him one after the other but Barnabas always emerged, sending the soldiers staggering away from him as he shot them with their own guns.
“Justice,” he whispered as one of them fell to the dirt with a choking gasp. “You chose to be here and to stay. You will pay the price.”
“You’re a monster!” One of the remaining mercenaries stumbled to his feet, a rifle clutched in trembling hands. “A mutant.”
“You have no idea how right you are,” Barnabas told him and nodded at the gun. “Are you going to shoot me or walk away?”
Back in the town square, Gar struggled to breathe as he observed the confrontation.
He had seen Barnabas with his eyes glowing red before, and he supposed he’d believed Barnabas would be able to clear the entire camp.
But watching it happen was something else.
The human was beyond scary—a nightmarish beast, all the more terrifying for holding his monstrous impulses in check. His calm and quiet demeanor hadn’t fooled Gar, not exactly.
One of the children whimpered and hid its face in Gar’s robes, and despite his general dislike of children, he found himself patting it on the shoulder and trying to put himself between it and...that thing.
He exchanged a look with the guard captain. Glad you stood down, aren’t you?
Heddoran just stared at Barnabas, his expression somewhere between fear and reverence.