Shadows In Still Water
Page 15
He watched his father pace the floor. He remembered the last time he had seen his dad like this was just before Robert had been taken to prison for three months for being an accessory to a diamond theft. Of course, he finally convinced the authorities that it had merely been a business transaction on his part and he had known nothing about the diamonds. But Steve wasn’t so sure.
“Actually, there is a bit of trouble on the planet,” Robert said. Sitting on the arm of a chair, he drummed his fingers against his knee. “I’ve been working with the Sclarian Coalition on some business arrangements. As you know the dikes failed and we suspect the Kaprinians were testing some kind of secret weapon that got out of hand. Some in the Coalition think it may even have been deliberate because some very valuable equipment was damaged in the flood, but the Kaprinians lost a lot too, so I think it was an accident.”
“But what would the Kaprinians be doing with a secret weapon?” Steve asked.
“My partners have their own ideas but I’m guessing they’ve got a buyer with plenty of cash. The people on this planet are always looking for funds for their pet projects.”
Steve sat up and brushed the heavy blonde hair back from his forehead. He watched his father for a moment then asked, “Okay, what’s it really about?”
“Now, son. Don’t you trust your old Dad?” Robert grinned then paused as his son did not reply. Running his fingers through his short-cropped hair, he finally shook his head, “I’ve got a hell of a mess here. I borrowed some money from my partners, okay a lot of money, to buy into a project for improving rind-wheat production. But I, well, I bought some weapons grade loron from a guy I know instead.”
“What in the world for?”
Robert’s eyes brightened, “That’s the best part. There’s an engineer here who’s come up with a hyperspace drive that can work within a gravity well. But it’s got a couple bugs--I’ll get to that in a minute. Somebody else heard I had the loron and thought I was building a weapon and wanted in on the action. So what the hell, I didn’t disillusion ‘em and sucked ‘em for all they were worth or at least as much as I could get.”
“Dad, I don’t think I want to hear anymore,” Steve interrupted.
“Don’t get high and mighty with me, son. You wouldn’t be in that expensive medical school without me, boy. Now shut up and listen.” He got up and began pacing the floor. “Anyway, I’ve also got a buyer for the hyperspace drive. He’s been getting real antsy so we decided to test the thing. And kaplooey the dikes went out. So shit we’ve got a damn flood and the damn engineer gets scared and hightails it out of here with the drive!” His laugh sounded more hysterical than humorous.
Steve shook his head and ate more grapes.
“And here I am with one group waiting for a weapon, the other expecting his drive and my partners are breathing down my neck about the money. Added to that some Kaprinian female from the Councilors’ office has been tailing me for weeks. I don’t have the drive, I don’t have the weapon, and I sure as hell don’t have the money.”
“Sounds like you should skip out like the engineer did.” Steve suggested.
“No. No, I want that drive. This guy is smart enough to work the bugs out and that thing will set me up for life. I’m pretty sure he’s still on the planet. I just gotta find him before everybody else finds me.”
Steve shifted his position on the couch. “What does Renner Conlin have to do with all this?”
“Renner Conlin?”
“Yeah. Remember you asked me about him? On the station?”
“Oh, yeah,” Robert ruffled his hair again. “He’s the guy who’s expecting a weapon.”
“You’re kidding? What does he want with a weapon?”
“Beats me. Anyway he’s not getting one.” Robert glanced at his watch. “Hey, let’s forget the heavy stuff and have some dinner. I’ll cook you some of my mojaji. Better than the Kaprinians make it.”
Following his father to the kitchen, Steve shook his head. If he lived to be a hundred he would never understand this man. The guy had the place buttoned up tighter than an underground bunker with who knew what type of people after him and here he was cooking up mojaji and whistling cheerfully. He leaned against the oak island in the middle and talked about school and the internship program while Robert worked.
“You know,” said Robert, sliding a pan of water and seaweed onto the shining white cooking range, “I met your lady doctor a few years ago at a conference. She ain’t bad to look at.”
“But hell to work with,” Steve replied, passing over a bowl for the seaweed as the stove beeped to indicate it was done. He reached for a spoon and dropped it when the lights went out.
“What the...Dad!? “ He felt a hand grip his shoulder from behind and swung out with his fist. “Hey, let go!” Pain shot up his arm like a spreading fire. “Oh, shit.” He buckled to his knees. “Dad! Where are you?”
“Shutup.” The voice was cold and sharp and slightly familiar. Steve moved his head and more pain went up his arm.
Robert moaned somewhere to his right then another voice, like the hiss of a serpent spoke.
“Where is the weapon?” It asked.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” came Robert’s reply.
Steve heard a thud and winced as his father cried out. He wanted to fight but the hold of his attacker felt like a red hot sleeve of iron around his arm. What happened to the security? Shit! we’re gonna die. He blinked away the sweat rolling into his eyes.
“All right. All right,” Robert spoke again, his voice cracking. “Look I don’t know where it is. Ow! Honest. The guy took off after the dikes went out. I’ve been looking for him myself. Believe me I don’t know any more.”
Silence. Steve counted his father’s breaths. He had stopped breathing himself.
“Search the house,” the serpent voice said. A soft click then a thud.
“Dad!” The pain jumped from his arm to his head and he fell forward into a dark pool.
Chapter Twenty Three
Aurelia felt nauseated and sat up, pulling off the blanket she had been given. It smelled as if someone had dipped it in the river, wrapped rotting fish carcasses in it, allowed it to dry then tried to make it smell better by drenching it in cheap perfume.
Reading her watch, she saw it was 2300 and she had been lying there, sleepless, for three hours. The rest of the camp was quiet. Everyone had been too tired for the bonfire party to last much over an hour. Of course, none of them could go to sleep in a hurry and certainly not without noise. She had spent forty-five minutes lying there with her fingers in her ears while they all chattered and laughed about who was sleeping where.
Wrapping her arms around her knees, Aurelia looked up at the stars, but that only reminded her of the Pasteur and Chief Rekhaan who was probably sleeping soundly. She could feel her blood pressure starting to rise.
Pulling herself awkwardly to her feet, she stood and listened to the night. Breathing, snoring and rustling were the predominant sounds and farther away the gurgle and rush of water mixed with the low hum of pumps sending the water back behind the dikes where it belonged. Jidal IV had a small insect population and few nocturnal animals.
Only the smallest moon was visible, peeking out from the clouds. Aurelia felt chilled but she certainly was not going to use that blanket again. Folding her arms across her chest, she walked the long way around the camp to avoid stepping on bodies and limped up the trail to the bluff.
Another moon broke free from the clouds, spreading orange light over the river valley as she reached the top. She could now see another trail leading down from the bluff and running alongside the river. It didn’t look like it ran too close to the water so she started down the path.
As Aurelia neared the bottom of the bluff, her right foot slipped in the mud and her left leg, unable to handle the sudden weight shift, collapsed beneath her. She slid the rest of the way down the hill on her backside and lay at the
“I hate this place,” she muttered as she sat up, looked at the mud on her hands, sighed and wiped them on her shirt front. “Dammit.” On her feet again, she turned right onto a trail that ran parallel to the river a safe distance away.
I can’t remember a mission that tops this one for sheer annoyance, she thought. They had been through worse on less sleep but it was the little things piled on top of each other that seemed harder to handle. She didn’t like being cut off from her ship, and she didn’t like the sense she had of impending disaster.
Pulling up short, Aurelia saw that water covered the path a few feet ahead. The trail dipped low at that point then rose again up a fairly steep hill. Stooping to pick up a rock, she pitched it into the water. It hit with a heavy plunk then a splash. She shivered, deciding it sounded too deep to pass through. As she half-turned to start back, another splash from behind the hill made her snap her head around. That had been too loud and too heavy for a fish. If she went to the right off the trail, she could avoid the water and, with a little climbing, come up the far side of the hill.
By the time she reached the top, her mood had suffered no improvement. Rocks and two ganberry bushes with thick burrs had scraped her hands and face. Just as she rose to her feet, a third moon broke free from the clouds lighting up the end of the trail below her.
“Shilzit!” she whispered and dived behind a boulder. Her heart, already pounding heavily from the climb, started to race faster. Peering out from her cover, Aurelia watched the two black-robed figures moving around the bottom of the hill, arguing over what appeared to be a body. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but one voice sounded vaguely familiar. One of the beings finally picked the body up and as the light struck the white, unconscious face, Aurelia sucked in her breath. Steve Miller was being carried toward the river.
“Stop! Police!” Aurelia yelled, breaking from cover and slipping and sliding down the hill.
The being holding Miller dumped the body into the water. Both black-robed figures ran to a waiting flitter.
With no time to think, Aurelia frantically tugged off her boots and socks. She ignored the sharp rocks biting into her bare skin as she raced to the riverbank, keeping her eyes on Steve’s body already moving swiftly downstream.
The instant she struck the water she knew she was in trouble. The swift current forced her head under.
Oh, God, help me. Her hands beat against the water. She choked on the thick, sour stuff and kicked for the surface.
“Miller!” she screamed as she broke free. She had no idea if she was still trying to find him or hoping somehow in the insane part of her mind that he would find her. She hit slight rapids and went under again.
No sight.
No sound.
Lungs burned.
Relax. Move your arms.
It’s cold.
You can do this or die, dammit.
Strong fingers gripping the back of her neck shattered all rationality.
Oh, God, no! Braden, stop, please!
She could see the gray sides of the stone trough now. Braden pressed her head down in the water, pulled her back, laughing as she sucked air.
Her head was yanked until she thought her neck would snap. Master Braden stared at her with his red, slitted eyes and whispered, “Slaves will do exactly as they are told.” The smell of his scaly, reptilian body brought bile to her throat.
“Do you understand, Number 82?” His forked tongue flicked out, raked across her skin.
She flinched.
He laughed and shoved her head under the water again.
She struck out with her small, bare feet against his rough, thick hide.
“It will only make him madder.” the others told her. “Don’t fight him.”
But she had to.
Their voices were coming from a long tunnel. She could hear them now, “Don’t fight!”
She gasped for air and choked on water. Her lungs hurt. A sudden sharp pain in her jaw brought darkness.
The next thing Aurelia knew, she was lying in mud on the banks of the Talax River, screaming up at Jak.
“Stop it, Aura!” Jak yelled, shaking her by the shoulder. “Or so help me I’ll hit you again!”
Aurelia sat up, coughing then threw up, most of it black river water. “Miller. Did you see Miller?” she asked, her voice a hoarse whisper.
“He’s right here,” Jak replied motioning to Steve’s still unconscious body lying a few yards up the bank. “I saw him first. He’d gotten hung up on some rocks then I heard you yell. What are you doing trying to rescue somebody if you don’t know how to swim?!”
“I know how to swim,” Aurelia said between clenched teeth. She raised her hand to her jaw that felt hot and swollen. “What’d you do, hit me?”
“You bet I did! Damn near broke my hand. What were you fighting me out there for? We both could have drowned.”
Climbing slowly to her feet, Aurelia pushed the heavy, wet hair back from her face. She tried to smooth her shirt. Every muscle in her body began to twitch. She clenched her hands together but the trembling was uncontrollable. She had to force the words out of her mouth, “You should have let me go.”
Jak rose from his kneeling position and laughed. “Yeah right. And entertain some very interesting questions as to why I let my boss drown?”
“So you saved me just because it would inconvenience you. That’s all you ever care about isn’t it? Whatever makes you look good. Whatever puts you ahead!” She had no idea what she was saying, part of her mind was still a terrified ten year old being tortured unmercifully.
“What are you talking about? You know I wouldn’t let you drown.”
Staring at Jak, Aurelia had to stab at him. Inflict pain. As if that would help her own. She knew exactly what would hurt the most.
“Look at you. You’ll never make chief surgeon you incompetent half-breed. Your grandmother sure must have lowered her standards.”
She gasped at the stinging pain from his hand striking her flesh. “I can have you fired for that!”
“Go ahead! You have no right to insult me!” Jak’s voice held a note of bewildered shock.
“My mistake. I didn’t think you were intelligent enough to know an insult when you heard it.”
“Can’t you two shutup!” Steve groaned.
Aurelia went charging up the bank, slipping twice in the mud, until she stood over Steve. She slid her hand around the back of his neck and pulled him to his feet with more strength than a woman her size should have possessed. Steve staggered and struggled to release himself from her grip.
“I want you back on the ship as quick as you can get there, Mister! I knew you’d be nothing but trouble!” Aurelia hissed in his ear.
“I can’t go back!” Steve protested, his voice cracking. “We’ve gotta find those guys. They’ve got my dad. I don’t know...maybe he’s already dead! I’m not leaving. No way!”
“You’ll do what I say when I say it,” Aurelia told him, then shoving him away from her, she added, “Get back to camp.” Turning, she started for camp herself walking in a wavering line.
She dimly heard Jak telling Steve that he couldn’t do anything for his father at the moment, but Aurelia’s mind continued to struggle with the flashback. At times the dirt path beneath her feet seemed to disappear, her fevered brain replacing it with the blue marble of Delsyn House where she had been a slave for four years under her third master, Braden. Her body still shook uncontrollably and her jaw ached. She was past the bluff and just a few feet from camp when her left leg gave out and she fell to the ground.
She heard footsteps behind her. As Jak knelt beside her, Aurelia whispered, “Leave me alone.”
“Just shut up for once,” Jak re
plied and lifted her into his arms.
Chapter Twenty Four
Millie opened one eye. A strange, dark shape with two antennae loomed over her.
She sat up, heart hammering, the blood rushing past her ears.
“Millie,” came Jak’s familiar voice.
“Shhh!” Jak warned. “Get up, Millie. I need your help.”
“You’re dripping all over...” Millie blinked the sleep from her eyes. She realized he was holding Aurelia. “What happened?! You’re both sopping wet.”
Jak lowered Aurelia to her feet keeping an arm around her waist. She was only half-conscious and muttering in some strange language.
“I’ll tell you about it later. Get her into some dry clothes. She can have my place in the dome. It’s number three. I have to take a look at Steve then I’ll come help you.”
Millie nodded. She could tell from the sharp bend in his antennae that Jak was in no mood for questions. Slipping an arm around Aurelia’s shoulder, Millie urged the doctor toward the big, blue and white dome.
“What’s going on?” someone asked sleepily.
“Hey, people are trying to sleep over here,” someone else called out.
“Shhhh!” Millie cautioned. She glanced back at Jak who was kneeling beside Steve sitting on the ground. More questions popped in her head but she could feel Aurelia’s body shaking and hurried to get her into the dome.
Inside, it was warm and dry with the quiet sounds of people breathing. Zimbin apparently was sleeping closest to the door as Millie heard him whisper, “Who’s there?” as the door slid open.
“Millie,” she answered shortly.
“Something wrong? Do you need help?”
“No, it’s all right. Go back to sleep,” she replied and pulled Aurelia into the P.H.C. Millie sat the doctor down on a heavy case of medical equipment and got her out of her wet clothes with some difficulty.