Koban Universe 2: Have Genes, Will Travel

by Stephen W Bennett

  Brethard shook his head, “Yeah. Lucky.”

  Kit got right to the point. “Where is my brother?”

  Fear glinted in his eyes, but he swallowed, and prepared to die. “I heard you ask Carl that, and I know what happened to him when he didn’t know the answer. I don't know either.”

  Kit leaned forward and opened her jaws, and Brethard cringed and closed his eyes, prepared to meet death. Something wide and wet slopped against his face.

  “Hmm. You taste like rare Longhorn.” She had licked the floor smear from his face. “You told the truth for once. You don’t know where Ethan is. Your daughter never told you.”

  “You read my mind? You can do it with your tongue?”

  “I can, or with any part of my skin that has a sense of touch, including my tail. My neck frill is the most sensitive place, but my tongue is sensitive enough, and you smell and taste good enough to eat. I really mean that.” The extra wide toothy grin wasn’t in the slightest friendly.

  Brethard sounded defiant. “My daughter is where you can’t reach her. You can speak with her through a com system, or the House AI. But I don't know if she knows where he is either. She didn’t say how she was involved with him.”

  “It was a mating invitation, leading to a trap I believe,” said Kit. Brethard only nodded.

  “I said I’d lead you to her if you let me live.”

  “I don't think you honored that agreement, do you?” She looked around the ruined cooler, punctured with hundreds of inch wide holes, light streaming through in beams. “Besides, I knew roughly where the entry door was to your armored room before I entered the house. I wanted to catch her before she could reach that. Your delay and the sacrifice of your hired men worked.”

  “I can still ask her to tell you what you want to know. I’m her father. If you promise to spare me, I’m certain she’ll cooperate. Can you be trusted to keep your word?”

  “If I give it, my word is certainly worth more than yours or hers. I won’t make any promises now. I’ll follow you to the lower level, or drag you by your legs if I must. That will hurt, but you are going.”

  “I’ll guide you.” Brethard stood as quickly as his weak knees allowed, but suddenly there were nervous voices calling from other parts of the house. More men had arrived.

  “Use your transducer to send them away, or shout to them to leave. If you don’t do that, they’ll die, as will you, and I assure you I can reach your daughter with enough time, or at least kill her inside that Safe Room. However, that doesn’t accomplish my goal of finding my brother quickly.”

  “If he’s dead, you already said you’ll kill us.”

  “Kobani are hard to kill. I’ll find him, and if he’s dead, I’ll return to hunt you both down. Your only reward will be to gain a head start. Depending on your daughter’s involvement, I may hunt her anyway, even if he’s alive. You ruthless wealthy cattlemen will continue to be prey for me, even if Ethan is alive. Together we will resume the task we were hired to perform, ending the persecution of the small farmers and ranchers. If he can’t continue, I will, and we have friends coming. You do not have clean hands, and simply paying others, like Carl, will not leave you untouched.”

  “Then I’ll make good use of any lead time I get.”

  “Assuming you get any running time at all. I don't know what your daughter will tell me. If it’s bad, you both die, if nothing at all, you both die. Send your men away now, I will not repeat myself.”

  Brethard used his transducer and shouted too, because some of the part-time hands he’d called in were not part of the ranch network. As soon as they replied, and vacated the house, Kit nudged the man to start him walking. He had to step over dismembered and gutted bodies, serving as stark evidence of what this predator could and would do if provoked.

  When they reached the basement level, they stood before a large circular steel door set into a steel wall. The two story metal box was effectively a large bank vault, equipped with supplies, communications, a self-contained fusion bottle, and a spacecraft recycler system. And it was securely sealed. Brethard pressed a button on an external panel mounted beside the door.

  “Maddi, I need to speak with you. My life depends on you responding to me. I’m out here with Kit, and she promises she will let us both live if you answer some questions.”

  Kit spoke up. “That isn’t entirely accurate Ms. Brethard. If I find Ethan alive, you both will be given a chance to flee to some place where I can’t find you. A head start is the phrase people use. I will always hold you responsible for what happened to him, whatever injured him. But you will have time to flee. If he’s dead, or you refuse to answer me, I will kill you both today.”

  Her calm voice issued from the speaker. “You can’t reach me in here, and there are enough supplies stored in this large box for weeks of comfort, and with rationing and recycling much longer. I don’t have to tell you anything, and eventually enough men will arrive to kill or drive you away.”

  “Your father is out here with me. You have no concern for his wellbeing?”

  “He ordered me in here to protect me, and he stayed out there to try to keep you away. I won’t betray his sacrifice and make it meaningless.”

  “Where is Ethan?”

  “Piss off.”

  Kit snarled. “I could kill your father and let you hear him die. Answer my question.”

  “You have my answer.”

  “I might have my claws poised to rip open his abdomen, if you refuse my next request. You would hear his screams as he died slowly.”

  “You’re bluffing.”

  “I’m a predator. I’ve killed nine men in this house today. What could possibly make you doubt I’ll kill him?”

  “I saw some bodies on the second floor, when I had the AI send a household robot cleaner to see how you got inside. I believe you probably killed as many as you say. But you didn’t actually threaten daddy just now. You need him alive to convince me to tell you what you want to know.”

  “Ahh. I suspected you had surveillance of us out here. You saw that I made no move towards your father.”

  “OK. So what?”

  Kit moved so swiftly that Brethard couldn’t react. She enclosed his body with her front legs, poised with her jaws agape, clearly threatening to bite off his head. The Comtap didn’t require use of her mouth in order to speak, and she asked, “Are you prepared to watch as I kill your father for your acts? Simply tell me where Ethan is and he lives today.”

  “If you find him and he’s dead, you’ll return and kill us anyway.”

  “Maddi!” Brethard screamed. “Tell him where you left him. We can run away baby, before she returns. She agreed to give us a head start.”

  Kit was surprised. There was a thought in the man’s mind she’d not detected earlier. “Your daughter told you he was dead earlier. Except I only asked you if she said where he was, and I only sensed that you didn’t know. Nevertheless, as I told your father Ms. Brethard, Kobani are very hard to kill.”

  “I shot him in the back of the head with a .45 automatic.” That admission was intended to remove any doubt.

  Her unexpected revelation shocked her father. Her words would surely provoke an ugly death from Kit. “Maddi. Why?” he cried out.

  He wasn’t asking why she’d killed Ethan, since he didn’t care about that. It was why she’d just killed him.

  Kit provided an answer. “She’s your only heir, is she not? She’s safe in there, and you are out here, with me. She just said something she had every reason to believe would send me into a killing rage, ending your life in a very painful manner. I didn’t hear even a hint of regret or hesitation in her voice. You raised the child you deserve, Brethard. Her mistake was assuming I’m a mindless killer. I am a killer, by my very nature, but I’m not unthinking.”

  Her father remembered when she fled down the steps ahead of him. “You ran down here ahead of me, to leave me to the mercies of this beast.”

  Kit had heard enough of that descrip
tion. “Between you, your daughter, and nearly everyone on this giant cow dung pile for a planet, I’m tired of being called a beast, a monster, or most offensive of all, a dumb animal. I don't care about your crappy relationship. I give you my word right now that I will not kill either of you if your daughter tells me where Ethan is.”

  “No. I don't see an advantage for me to do that at this point. My father appears to have reached his limit of tolerance. I’d be disinherited after this, unless you kill him today. If you do that I’ll tell you where to find him.”

  “My God, Maddi. Even your mercenary mother had more feelings for me than this. You aren’t as impregnable inside that vault as you think. The designers gave me a way to get inside if I was ever locked out.”

  “I manually activated the failsafe lock daddy dear.”

  “You turned the big rotary dial that activated the solenoids that pushed the heavy pins into their slots. If I enter the master code to unlock the main door, which you don’t have, the time lock system, part of the bank vault design that I paid for, will apply power to the solenoids two hours later, and retract the manual safety pins. I didn’t tell you when you were younger because you were a little brat, and you often locked yourself in your room. I didn’t want you locked in here instead. Only now you are, but I can get you out.”

  Kit interrupted the family fight. “My own way, using the shuttle lasers would drive you out faster or bake you alive, but even that is too long for my needs. If I don't learn where Ethan is in the next five minutes, I don’t need to learn how to activate the main lock from your father, and then wait hours for the other pins to release. I’ll try my laser method, which might damage the door and heat swell it so much that it’s jammed shut. You will die either way, a scorching death or torn apart by me within the next hour. Except that delays my search for Ethan. Decide now.”

  She stalled two minutes, thinking, and decided her father was definitely the lesser threat. “I shoved his body out of the back of a truck, just off the road from Trail’s End. He fell a short distance from a creek bank drop-off onto some scrub trees, and he was dangling over the water the last that I saw him.”

  “I’ll need a mental image for confirmation of that before I leave here.”

  The scoffing tone from the speaker was clear enough. “How? I’m not going accept your promise and open up to let you touch me to read my mind, that’s for damn sure.”

  “There’s a way that’s safe for you. Particularly if the door is made of an electrically conducting material.” Kit looked down at Brethard, who was still in her grasp. Is the main door solid steel, or does it have a ceramic thermal core to block a plasma torch from cutting through? The PU navy uses ship hulls designed like that, and it might not allow the link I need.” She released Brethard.

  He shrugged as he moved away. “I was told the door is solid carbon steel.”

  “Good. Ms. Brethard, the door is probably conductive enough, so place both hands against the center of the door on your side. I’ll touch the outside. I should get an image if you picture the place you left him, and think of where that is from the ranch house.”

  Kit moved to the door and pressed her frill against its center. She sensed the mind on the other side, weaker than for a direct contact, but readable. “I need several answers if I’m to let you live. Think of where you left him.”

  That image came through relatively clear, and Kit quickly asked another question. “What did he look like after you shot him and later when you left him?” There was a vivid emotional response to that from her. Then there was one more question.

  “What will you do after I leave?” The link suddenly cut off as Maddi pulled her hands away.

  “I gave you what you wanted. I don't see how sharing with you what I’ll do next is to my advantage. You might try to follow me.”

  Kit moved back to her father. “Touch my neck frill. I want to show you where she says Ethan’s unconscious body was dumped. It’s not far from this ranch house. Tell me if you know of this place.” Kit sent him the location image received from Maddi.

  “I know that small valley.” He said. “It’s about five miles before the ranch road branches away from the road from Trail’s End. There should be a good flow of water this time of year. My cattle water along that creek.”

  “How long ago did she arrive here before I did?”

  “No more than forty five minutes, I think.”

  Kit shared nonverbal thoughts with him. “You should know something about your daughter.”

  Kit sensed Brethard’s current thoughts about his daughter, and his drive for self-preservation. Content with what she sensed there, she pulled away from him. “I grant you one day of lead time if he is dead when I find him.”

  The final image Maddi had of Ethan, suspended on the underbrush above the creek, was a blaze in her mind. She exploded into motion, leaping up the steps to the first floor in a blur of legs, her claws ripping at the steps and walls for traction. She rebounded from walls at corridor turns, as she ordered Bandit to open the shuttle hatch on the side away from the house. Despite her need for speed, she couldn’t afford to be reckless right now.

  “Bandit, sweep a shuttle laser along the roof line, even if you don't see anyone moving up there. Keep the heads down of shooters that may have stayed behind. The instant I’m inside, close the hatch and lift off. Use maximum acceleration to this area,” she sent the rough coordinates, and a word description of the terrain, since the AI couldn’t receive mental images.

  “The place we’re looking for is a valley southwest of the ranch house. Perhaps five to eight miles away, near the road we followed when I flew here from Trail’s End. It has a small stream flowing through it.

  “Keep the Wanderer stealthed, and when I call you, start down and land close to the shuttle as quickly as possible. Please do that without damage to the ship.” She added in afterthought. AI’s could be very literal when you used a phrase like as quickly as possible.

  She was a teal streak of motion as she shot through the shattered plazsteel doors, and tore up clumps of sod as she angled towards the shuttle, which was still sweeping a laser along the parapet. If anyone was still up there, no one was foolhardy enough to look over the edge. The shuttle lifted on its reactionless Normal Space drive, and streaked away at tree top level.

  Kit’s thoughts were now were fixated entirely on recovering her brother. She couldn’t stop replaying the flashes of the final brief images she had received from Maddi, of the oozing bullet wound in the back of Ethan’s head. The first visual was of him naked and bleeding, face down in what seemed to be a shower. The second image showed him still naked and face down, lying on branches of scrub trees, suspended precariously over a shallow stream. Both images showed the hair at the back of his head, coated with fresh blood.

  She felt tremendous anxiety, but at the same time, she was also optimistic.

  ****

  Brethard, surprised to be alive, prepared himself for more unpleasantness, aware that the daughter he loved was a product of him, and of the woman that he’d loved and married. He had always wanted wealth, power, and the beautiful women that he could attract with those things. His wife had wanted wealth, and the security he could provide her. He had loved and desired her, and knew she possessed only a slight affection for him, but that would quickly fade if he didn’t maintain his position of power and wealth. He grew only more wealthy and influential, so that was no worry.

  He had always known his daughter shared her mother’s desire for wealth and security. Now he knew that her ambition exceeded his own, pushing her to find an avenue to wealth and influence independent of the ranching empire he held control over. She wanted to forge her own empire, aware that someday her father’s business would also come to her.

  Unfortunately, his daughter found that her path to money had not given her the kind of power she wanted. Through her brothel business, she learned secrets and could ruin reputations of men, could blackmail them, even destroy their business
deals with her knowledge, or sell what she knew to others. Only, she didn’t achieve the respect she craved, to rise above mere regional influence. She had planetary level goals. Brethard recalled her complaints, before she left home, that he had allowed other cattlemen, possessing no greater power or influence than he did, take the risky lead in halting the president’s erosion of the planetary cattle business and economy.

  She had said he wasn’t willing to take the risks, to get personally involved in the attacks required to stop the land grant users from fencing off their rangelands. She told him he wasn’t as ruthless or daring as several other cattlemen were, and not nearly as much as she was. He’d told her that the small outfits would fight back in kind; meeting murder with murder, which only confirmed what she thought of him, a weakling. Today was evidence of what he predicted would happen, even if he had not been the primary target of the backlash from the small outfits, at least not until Maddi had meddled with their hired man.

  She had called her father too timid, before striking out on her own to start her business several years ago. Stung, his response then was to chase sheep off the open range nearby, and then he ordered several of his men to shoot or lynch the owners if they continued to resist. Next, he paid money into a secret CCA account, to support the bonuses and pay of the gunmen that conducted bolder raids on farms and small ranches. Nevertheless, he decided not to get his own hands too openly dirty, or to organize or hire the men involved in the killings. Clearly, Maddi had jumped at her first opportunity to dirty her own hands. She had the ruthless quality that he lacked.

  Brethard called his men back to the house, to cover up the bodies, to call the law to investigate, and notify the next of kin of the dead. There was the considerable matter of clean up as well, and he had set men to cleaning up the plazsteel debris and fire damage. He quickly and quietly ordered an intact section of one narrow plazsteel panel removed from the back veranda, and had the men rush to store it for him.