by Jaleta Clegg
He snapped her a salute and left.
“Why is there a flitter being loaded with rescue equipment?” Lowell asked Querran.
“Because some of your people have taken the Survey flitter out for a joyride and crashed.”
“Major Clark and Jasyn, I assume. I’m rather surprised they would crash, although the wind currents can be tricky. Clark is a very good pilot.”
“Your people are out of control, Lowell. You should have let me deal with it my way in the first place.”
“We’d be hauling even more bodies.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Fairly sure. How’s the search going? Did you ever locate Tayvis?”
“Why are you so interested in him, Lowell? He’s just a cat counter.”
Lowell raised one eyebrow. “Oh, he’s much more than that. He used to work for me.”
She didn’t take the warning in his voice or his eyes. “Used to work for you? What happened? Did he blow up something he shouldn’t have or just attack the wrong ship?”
“We had a difference of opinion. He resigned. Don’t we have work to do?”
“You deal with Hom Daviessbrowun and I’ll take the search detail.” She stood up. “I’ve been looking at these too long as it is.”
His com beeped. He flipped it open.
“Hom Daviessbrowun has landed,” Boline said. “What do you want me to show him and his daughter, sir?”
Lowell knew Boline well enough to read the contempt in his voice. “Show them whatever they want to see. Warn them before going somewhere dangerous. And record everything, Boline.” He shut the com, confident that Boline would carry out the unspoken orders buried in his innocuous spoken ones.
“Boline should be able to keep them occupied,” he said to Querran. “May I ride in your flitter or should I commandeer Daviessbrowun’s?”
“He’d pitch a fit,” Querran said with a half-smile quirking her lips. “You’d better come with me. Maybe we’ll actually find this elusive woman you’ve been hunting. I’m beginning to wonder if she actually exists.”
“She definitely exists. This whole mess is proof of that. It isn’t the first time she’s blown an entire investigation.”
“Then why don’t you arrest her? Put her somewhere out of the way?” Querran gathered up the photos.
“And lose one of the most useful trouble magnets I’ve ever come across? You are joking. Her bungling ends up netting much more than you would believe.”
They walked out the shattered wall. Flitters were parked on the once carefully groomed lawn. The house and grounds resembled a war zone. Little had been done to shore up damaged parts of the house. Troops in uniform were everywhere, carrying large weapons. A full squad gathered around a large black flitter, the Enforcers emblem on its side blazing gold in the morning sun. They boarded, sitting near the front. Troops crowded in around them. Paltronis squeezed in last, followed by the only member of her squad still able to walk.
The flitter lifted, following the route down the gully that had been deemed safest. Querrran watched out the window as the forest rolled below them. The stream was a ribbon of silver that grew wider as they went. She saw a flash of people near the stream. A man in a tan uniform waved at them.
“Circle back,” she called, sitting closer to the window in surprise. “I think we’ve found Trey’s missing man,” she added to Lowell.
“Good. It should be interesting to hear what he has to say.” Lowell leaned over her, looking out the window as the flitter circled and set down.
“And what of the other flitter?” Querran asked him.
“Leave me Paltronis and three of your men, that looks to be enough, and you go chase the flitter,” Lowell said as he unfastened his restraint belt. “If we aren’t back at the house by nightfall, then you can start worrying. I’ll call if I can get through.”
He climbed out of the flitter with the Enforcers behind him. Tayvis crouched near the stream, tossing rocks into the water that ran over the falls. Two bodies lay next to him, one tied up with what looked like strips of clothing. Lowell crossed the ground between them, becoming more puzzled the closer he got.
Tayvis gave him one glance then ignored him. Lowell stood over the two bodies. One was obviously dead, drowned by the state of his clothes. His head was also bashed in. The other man was naked. His lip was split and bleeding, one eye swollen shut. His nose leaked blood. He twitched at the strips of cloth tied very tightly around him.
“The dead one is vaguely familiar,” Lowell said when he finished his examination.
“He should be,” Tayvis answered, standing and turning to face Lowell. “Dysun Farr, a pirate you locked up after Dadilan. Luke shot him and he went over the falls.”
“Ah,” Lowell answered, placing the face and name together. “And the other is Luke Verity, I assume?”
Tayvis didn’t answer.
“What happened to him?”
“I shot him with a tranquilizer dart then beat the crap out of him.”
“Why?” Lowell nudged Luke with one foot. Luke rolled his eyes, groaning around the gag shoved in his mouth.
“Because they don’t give real weapons to Survey, especially in a wilderness area while doing population studies on threatened species.”
“Is that underwear in his mouth?” Lowell bent closer.
Luke struggled against his bonds.
Tayvis kicked him.
Lowell turned to Querran’s two men. “Call for a flitter. Take the body and the prisoner back to the mansion. Keep a close eye on him. He’s the leader.”
The men hauled Luke to his feet, replacing the strips of cloth with force cuffs. He fought, but only until Tayvis waved a fist under his nose. The enforcers hustled him up the bank. Paltronis carried Dysun’s body away after shooting an unreadable glance at Tayvis.
“You want to tell me now?” Lowell asked, once the others were out of earshot.
Tayvis sighed, running his hand through his hair. “He’s Rigellan. Dace found out the hard way. Be glad I didn’t just kill him.”
“Where is Dace?”
“Your guess is probably better than mine. Some hairy thing came out of the woods and carried her off. After Luke shoved her over the falls. It went that way.” He pointed up the side of the ridge, away from the house. “I tried to get to her, but it got there first. I didn’t want to chase it without some kind of backup.”
Lowell studied Tayvis for a long moment. He looked worn, as if the slightest thing would set him off. Not the man Lowell wanted right now. He pulled out his com.
“That won’t work,” Tayvis said. “I spent half the morning climbing the far ridge to find a spot to call in, which is how Luke got his hands on Dace again.”
Lowell saw the no signal indicator and slid his com into his pocket. “We can wait here. Querran’s flitters should be passing overhead before too long. Tell me what happened.”
“I don’t report to you. I’m Planetary Survey, remember?”
“Just tell me what happened, Tayvis.”
Tayvis tossed a last rock into the stream. “I was doing my job, counting bushies and marking any possible den sites I found. Late last night, I found Dace. The bushie I was tracking had her cornered. She was in bad shape. I only left her alone this morning because she couldn’t walk and I had to report in. I came back to find her gone. I tracked them here. Luke and Dysun were having an argument, with Dace in the middle. I shot Luke and Dace went over the falls. Then that creature came out of the woods, scooped her out of the water, and took off. I secured Luke and was ready to track it when I heard your flitter. Whatever the creature was, it isn’t native to this planet.”
“I was wondering where Rinth had gotten to,” Lowell said.
“Rinth? It has a name?”
“Luke believed Rinth was a pet, loyal to him.”
“That thing came from Luke? It took Dace. And you want me to stand around talking?”
“Calm down, Tayvis. I’ve spent all night sear
ching.”
Tayvis’ lips twitched. “She got to you, too.”
“Is it that obvious?”
“You aren’t worried that Rinth has her. He’s Luke’s pet.”
“Rinth is not what Luke believes,” Lowell said. “He won’t hurt her.”
“She was in bad shape, Lowell. We have to find her soon.” Tayvis glanced at the sky. Clouds built over the mountains in the distance. “The bushies hunt at night. There’s at least one very mean old male in this area.”
“Paltronis can help you. Wait until Querran returns, though. You are going to need the rest of her troops. It shouldn’t take her long.”
Tayvis kicked a rock into the water. “I’ll wait, but only an hour. And then nothing you say is going to stop me.”
“One hour, and you go with my full support.”
“At least we finally agree on something. Since I’m waiting, what supplies do you have with you? Mine are back that way,” he said, gesturing behind him.
Lowell settled himself on a rock near the stream. “Ask Paltronis. She rarely leaves anywhere without a full kit on her someplace.”
* * *
Jasyn held the stunner too tightly. She crouched next to their flitter, huddled in its shadow. “Why are we going over there again?”
Clark adjusted her grip on her weapon. “Relax. You’ll do fine. Ready?”
She nodded. They ran to a thick clump of bushes. Nobody shot at them.
“Do you think they all died?” Jasyn asked.
“Nope.” Clark pointed at the other flitter.
Two figures stumbled out of the door, three more crawled after them. The flitter exploded in a ball of flame. Those who had gotten out fell down, out of sight.
“There are five of them,” Jasyn said nervously.
“And I didn’t see any weapons,” Clark reassured.
Two of the men got to their feet, staggering away in different directions.
“You take the one who went up the slope,” Clark said. “I’ll cover the other one.”
Jasyn nodded and darted up the hill, headed diagonally to where the man limped toward the ridgeline. Clark watched her for a moment. She moved more confidently now. Her stunner was up, ready to fire. With all the weaponry that had been lying around, Clark found it ironic that they ended up with stunners. He started after the other man.
The clearing was deceptive. The absence of trees made it seem relatively empty from the air. It was covered with bushes higher than his head. Clark soon lost sight of the man. He used the burning flitter as a reference, moving towards the plume of smoke through the thick brush.
A bolt of blaster fire hit the bush next to him, setting it smoking. Clark ducked the other way, rolling behind a thicker clump. He looked up the slope where Jasyn chased the first man. She was in plain sight on the open hillside. With a sinking feeling, he realized that if he could see her, the man who had just shot at him could see her, too. He had to catch the man, and quickly. He darted out from behind the bush, crouching low.
He saw the next shot. It arced from behind another clump of bushes and hit the hillside near Jasyn. She dove flat, rolling behind an outcrop of rock. The man she was chasing changed directions, running back down the slope.
Clark headed for where the shot had come from, not caring how loud he was. He hoped he sounded like a full platoon as he crashed through knee-high growth.
Another shot came close, sizzling over his head. He swerved to the side. Another shot, this one weak, fizzled out just behind him. The man was out of power. Clark gambled he didn’t have another power pack and charged through another bush.
The man knelt on the ground, frantically emptying his pockets. The blaster lay next to him, cover wide open. Clark raised his stunner and fired. The man crumpled into a pile of leaves. Clark hit him again for good measure, setting the stunner as high as it would go.
Shouts and screams echoed from the hillside. He dragged the unconscious man into an area of lower growth and left him there. He ran towards the sounds of fighting. Jasyn was in trouble.
He charged through the thick growth lower down, breaking out as the hillside steepened. He couldn’t see Jasyn anywhere. The bushes thrashed not far away. He ran for the disturbance.
The other man had Jasyn pinned, barely. She turned her head and bit his arm. He shouted an obscenity and jerked his arm back. She took the opening and shot him in the face with her stunner. Jasyn shoved him off her and stood, brushing off her uniform.
“He surprised me.” She looked down at the limp form on the ground. “What do we do with them now?”
“I haven’t thought that far,” Clark admitted.
“You don’t do this much, do you? Anything we can use to tie them up?”
Clark was saved from his embarrassment by the arrival of another flitter. This one was black, a huge transport. The Enforcers emblem was very large, very prominently displayed.
“I think we’re in trouble,” Clark said.
The flitter landed in the middle of the long clearing. Troops in black dropped out of the open hatch, double timing it to the burning flitter.
Clark waved. More men headed their way. Clark sat down on the open slope, waiting. He watched as Chief Querran herself climbed down. She put her hands on her hips surveying the intact flitter with a sour look on her face. Smoke drifted from the burning wreck of the other flitter, rising in a thick plume into a sky growing dark with clouds.
“This isn’t going to be pretty,” Clark said, watching Querran.
“Lowell will get us out of it. He owes us.” Jasyn turned to look at Clark, with a mischievous grin. “You work for Lowell, not Querran. And if I read things right, he outranks her.”
“Jasyn, I’ve already screwed things up pretty badly for Lowell. He isn’t going to stick his neck out very far for me.” He stood as the troops approached.
“You’ll be surprised at just how accommodating Lowell is going to be,” Jasyn said quietly, rising to her feet behind Clark.
“Chief Querran would like a word with you,” the first man said as he arrived. He looked down at the man on the ground. “Stunner?”
Jasyn held up her stunner then handed it over to the man. “Let’s go, Clark.”
They walked down the slope. It felt a lot longer going down than it had going up.
“Jasyn, what are you planning?”
“Trust me, Clark.”
“That look in your eyes is scaring me.”
She took his hand and squeezed it.
They walked up to Querran.
She frowned. “Explain yourselves.”
“We decided…” Clark started.
“To take the flitter back to the mansion,” Jasyn broke in. She put a hand on Clark’s arm. He shut up and let her talk. “The winds were a bit strong so we circled south. And then this flitter came out of nowhere and started shooting at us.”
“And?” Querran asked.
“Clark did some really good flying. We were trying to get away.”
“That isn’t what it looked like to those who saw you flying,” Querran said. “You started the pursuit without calling for backup.”
“We called, sir,” Clark said. “The com wasn’t working.”
“You took the flitter without authorization. You flew it into a battle zone. And you deserted your assigned duty.” Querran glowered. “Do you want me to continue?”
“You can bluster all you want,” Jasyn said. “You don’t have any authority over me.”
“Yes, I do,” Querran said. “Do you want me to quote the laws? Civilians in a military zone, as declared by the commanding Patrol authority in the area are subject to military rules. You put yourself under my command when you agreed to come along.”
“So lock us up. At least we were doing something,” Jasyn said.
Querran sighed, deeply, and pressed her fingers into her forehead. “You aren’t my responsibility. Lowell can decide what to do with you. For now, just get in the flitter and stay out of the way.”
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Clark tugged Jasyn away, towards the black flitter.
“Was it necessary to make her mad at us?” he said.
“Do you always roll over and let them walk all over you? Of course it was.” She climbed in and settled into a far seat. “Now maybe they’ll actually start looking for Dace.”
“They already were, Jasyn.” He sat down next to her.
“They talked, for hours. They looked at maps. They sent people scurrying back and forth. They did nothing to look for her!” Jasyn turned her head to the window. “Typical of Lowell to sit around and wait for us to do his work for him.”
“Are you always this obnoxious?” Clark asked.
“You’ll find out, won’t you. Unless you were lying to me.”
“Never.”
“Weren’t you ever in trouble, Clark?”
“Never,” he answered, again.
“Can’t you say anything else?”
“Like what?”
“Anything to make me forget why I’m out here, and why I’m in trouble again.”
“You make a habit of getting into trouble? Tell me about it.”
She looked out the window, where Querran’s troops carried prisoners across the clearing towards their flitter. Two other men checked the Survey flitter they’d stolen. She looked away, at Clark.
“It might help if you think about something else for a while,” he said. “Tell me the whole story of how you met Dace.”
“She was in deep trouble then. As bad as this, if not worse. She and my brother had the Targon crime syndicate, the Patrol, and the Sessimoniss after them. They landed on Nevira in a blizzard. That’s when I first met Dace.” Telling him the story did help, for a while.
Chapter Thirty
Tayvis was tired of waiting. Paltronis shared her supplies, rations and water, but no extra weapons. Tayvis cleaned and checked his tranquilizer rifle. The cartridge was almost empty. He had maybe four shots left. He finished then sat talking to Paltronis for a while. They’d worked together before, a few times. He was running out of things to say when he heard a flitter approaching. He stood up, eager to leave. The only problem was the flitter was coming from the mansion, not downstream where Querran had gone.