Ranh

by Ian J Miller

  "Which I assume it has not."

  "You assume correctly. I assure you, the Military Curia has no knowledge of any intention to go to war. Which means, we are still nowhere, apart from some wild theories."

  "It would be easier to unravel," Kazyn pointed out, "if we had more facts."

  "You suggest?"

  "We have images of those two fowls who asked those questions," Kazyn pointed out. "If we knew who they were . . ."

  "Details! We need details!" Methrell jumped to her feet. "Those I can get." She paused, then added, "Strictly speaking, we need more."

  "What have you got in mind?"

  "Someone needs to give those fowls a stir-up, and that someone might as well be you."

  "I'm supposed to be on the run," Kazyn pointed out. As yet, nobody had told him about the surveillance record of how the carcass really got into his larder.

  "So you're going to be seen somewhere a long way away," Methrell shrugged. "We need evidence of your being there, and the easiest is for your fleeing self to lose your tailball cap."

  "That's somewhat difficult to replace!" Kazyn protested.

  "Which makes it all the more plausible," Methrell shrugged. "I'll find someone who looks enough like you to drop it. Then you can prove yourself by turning up and extracting the information. That is, assuming you wish to play in the big league?"

  Kazyn stared at her. This, he knew, was decision time. He was reasonably convinced that if he backed down now, he would be safe. He would be returned to society, with an alibi from the Military Curia, an alibi that nobody would dare challenge. But he would have no future in Ranhyn politics. He would be ordered to stay away from anybody of influence, including Natasha and Gaius, and he would probably never be permitted to go into space again.

  "I will need information about them," Kazyn pointed out.

  "And you will really need to be running," Methrell noted. "I shall provide the information, but I can't see your running will be plausible if you turn up to your apartment and collect a cap. Give me your key and I'll go get it."

  "And work your way through my larder," Kazyn grinned. "I have a better idea. I shall contact Baht, who can then bring you the cap."

  "And who is Baht?"

  "Baht is a student who looks after my apartment and does errands for me. She was unacknowledged, and I'm paying her fees while she finishes her courses."

  "Agreed," Methrell said. She paused, then added, "Could this Baht speak to your nestling and arrange a meeting with me?"

  "I see no reason why not," Kazyn said, "although . . ."

  "Although what?"

  "Baht could be frightened for her safety. She's a bit timid and . . ."

  "You can tell her that, as a matter of honour, I shall defend her," Methrell said coldly. "Crossing me," she added, with her voice filled with venom, "is a very very bad idea."

  Kazyn looked at her and shuddered a little. The primitive force of the Ranhynn coursed strongly through her veins.

  * * *

  At first Baht did not recognize Kazyn. He was dressed in rather drab brown overalls and rather drab warn old boots; he looked like a Ranhyn who was down on his luck which, he thought to himself, had a ring of truth to it.

  He requested Baht to get him some things he would need, then get the cap and take it to Seppet Methrell, and to nobody else. If anybody else tried act as an intermediary, she was to tell him or her that Methrell had demanded to see Baht, and sooner or later she would. Then they could explain their obstructive attitude to Methrell, and take their luck at having a life as pleasant as sewage pipe cleaner.

  "They may not believe me," Baht murmured.

  "They probably won't," Kazyn grinned, "but I promise you they won't dare risk it."

  * * *

  Kazyn was not quite correct. Baht pressed the button at the front door and waited. A rather superior looking Ranhyn looked down on her, and asked what someone as low as she was thought she was doing at that door.

  "I am Baht."

  "Oh, good for you," sneered the guard. He was later to regret not having properly looked at the standing instructions. "And what do you want?"

  "I am bringing something for Seppet Methrell."

  "Then give it to me, and be off with you."

  "I was instructed to give it to her personally."

  "Oh you stupid little . . ."

  Baht flinched away, and quivered a little. But when she looked up, a large female had joined the guard, and had asked what was going on.

  "This unacknowledged . . ."

  The female saw Baht flinch again. She frowned and quietly asked her name.

  "I am Baht, and I have brought something for Seppet Methrell."

  "I thought that might be the case," the female nodded. "Please don't be frightened," she continued. "I asked you to come." She paused, then added, "Oh, I am Methrell. I thought you were told not to be frightened."

  "Yes, but he . . ."

  "I know," Methrell added softly. "He didn't read the orders for the day properly."

  "I'm sorry . . ."

  "Why?" Methrell asked, as she smiled at Baht. "You've done exactly what you were supposed to do. No!" her voice hardened, "what happened is this puffed up excuse for a doorman decided that he didn't need to take any notice of me." Her voice turned to venom as she whispered, "Isn't that right?"

  "I . . . I'm sorry, I . . ."

  "Not yet you're not," Methrell said, while baring all her teeth. "You will give Baht your name and contact details." She turned to Baht and added, "The next three Ranhynn that question your honour in any way, you will give the details to your new protector." She turned back to the doorman, and added, "You will restore Baht's honour fully and completely. Do you understand?"

  "Yes."

  "You will defend her honour as if it were my honour. Do you understand?"

  "Yes," came the quivering response, as realization was beginning to dawn.

  "Good, because if there is any question, the question will be to my honour," she snarled, "and I shall defend my honour fully. The absolute best you can hope for is a thorough singeing, and I don't promise to pluck first. Now, get back to your job, and this time, do it." She then turned back to face Baht, and asked quietly, "You were requested to bring a package."

  "It's here," Baht replied, and carefully brought a well-wrapped package from a pocket.

  "Who knows what's in this?" Methrell asked quietly.

  "Just me," Baht replied, then she added as an afterthought, "and, I suppose, you, and Kuyrill Kazyn asked me to bring it."

  "Nobody else?"

  "Nobody else."

  "Excellent. Make sure it stays that way. Now, I want you to do one more thing for me. Would you do that?"

  "What is it?" Baht asked cautiously.

  "I want you to go and see the Earth woman, give her an invitation to see me at this place and at this time," and she gave Baht a slip of paper, "then escort her there. Her alone, not the other."

  "What if she won't come?" Baht asked. "I can't exactly drag her through the streets, and . . ."

  "Heavens, no!" Methrell laughed. "Give her this note. Tell her I wish to discuss matters, and tell her I guarantee her safety. The reason for going to a simple café is that I am hoping the two of us can get together without the media having a frenzy of cameras, microphones, and so on. Can you do that?"

  "I can carry the message," Baht replied simply. "If she won't come, I can't do much . . ."

  "If she is too afraid to come," Methrell said, "then that is itself an answer to my question."

  * * *

  Zander had finally calmed down from his period of sleepless nights and had finally decided that the Conclave Guard was not hunting him. He made the mistake of believing that they had not identified him, for while they had not obtained his name, they had enough detail to identify him if they ever got claws on him, but he also failed to appreciate that they had regarded him as a failed burglar, which was well below what they regarded as their level of interest. At fi
rst, there had been a flicker of interest, because Kuyrill Kazyn was of extreme interest to them, but they finally worked out that if this Ranhyn had anything at all to do with Kazyn, he would hardly enter Kazyn's apartment by climbing a ladder and opening a window on the third floor in full view from the street. That, of course, did not mean they had forgotten about him, but rather his data were put to one side until he appeared in another case. Fortunately for Thuygen, the case was not forwarded to the police, largely because the Conclave Guard did not want to draw attention to the fact they were desperately searching for Kazyn.

  Thuygen had finally generated sufficient courage to leave the basement where he had been hiding, and was walking towards a supermarket in a fashion that he believed would make it difficult to identify him. Actually, skulking in the shadows and varying his speed dramatically drew attention to him, but most who saw him simply shook their heads in almost dismay. There was no warrant out for him, nor any plea for information so he merely looked silly to them.

  It was just as he was wondering how he was going to cross a major road without being prominent when, as he looked around to see if anyone was noticing him, he saw the female from Kazyn's apartment. His first action was to step backwards towards a building entrance to get out of sight, but all he achieved was to stand on the foot of someone behind him. There was something of a screech, then he felt a claw jab into his rump. He apologized profusely.

  What was, perhaps, surprising was that the female had not seen him. She was carrying a small package, and seemed to be both deep in thought and somewhat frightened. He decided to follow her, and, if she got somewhere that was free of spectators, he would demand to see what was in the package.

  Following was easier said than done, because she suddenly made a crossing of the street at the end of period for pedestrians. To try to cross against the lights would really draw attention to himself, and if any police saw him, there would be an immediate arrest. He waited for the lights to change again, then he set off. Fortunately, he could still see the female. He walked as swiftly as he dared, until suddenly the female jumped onto a trolley bus. Thuygen ran, and just managed to get on board as the bus pulled away. Fortunately, running to catch a bus was not an entirely unreasonable thing to do, so nobody would take too much notice of him.

  It was when she got off that Thuygen had to decide whether he would challenge her over the box, and eventually decided that he would not. It would be rather embarrassing if all she had was a choice cut from a specialist butcher. Soon he was glad he had decided not to challenge her for she turned into a building that was rather grand. She must work there, and possibly for someone influential. He took note of the address and walked away.

  It was later when he checked the address he was very glad he had not challenged her, for that was where the Seppets lived. Challenging someone who worked for the Tenzat of the Military Curia could lead to a very bad time at the hands of the troops.

  Chapter 15

  Kazyn had to admit that Methrell had done a good job. According to the news, four Ranhynn had attacked another in one of the southern cities, and they had come off somewhat the worse for wear. They were now in custody, receiving attention before facing charges. But the fifth, instead of coming forward and laying charges, and instead of making the usual protestations about how the police were not doing enough to clear the streets of the low-life of Ranh, had simply disappeared. However he had left a cap. The cap belonged to one Kuyrill Kazyn, who had been involved in the recent public plucking, and was wanted for questioning over the finding of a body in his larder.

  So far, so good! An interesting point had been that he was only wanted for questioning. Perhaps Methrell was on his side. Perhaps, but it would be wrong to assume too much.

  He was now supposed to deal with those other two fowls. But that could wait. On his shuttle, he had some weapons he had brought from Earth. He had always wondered how he could get them through the customs authorities, for there were strict controls on weapons on Ranh, and alien weapons were especially frowned on.

  Now was the time to get them. What he was doing was somewhat illegal, but being caught at this descended into insignificance compared with being sought for a murder investigation. And since everybody who was looking for him thought he was at the other end of the continent, hopefully any guards would have a low attention level.

  The plan was reasonably simple. Baht would drive a vehicle up to the main building, then turn left and drive to the auxiliary parking lot. Hopefully the area in front of the main building would be parked out. She would then walk back to the main building and request a package number KK337 that he had left behind for customs examination. In fact there was no such package, but when he had declared what he had brought back, he had included this extra package on his form and had paid duty on it. Accordingly, with any sort of luck, Baht should be able to keep the officials occupied for quite some time.

  He lay on the rear floor of the vehicle, and as he suspected, there was no real inspection. No ships were coming or going for nearly a month, except possibly for the Ulsian shuttle, and protecting that was a formality rather than a priority. The fact was, it was known that Ulsian shuttles were themselves sentient, and very capable of protecting themselves.

  Kazyn lay flat, hardly daring to breathe, as the vehicle came to a halt. As expected, the guard was more interested in hassling the driver, but when he found she was little better than a paid employee of a major family, he quickly pulled back. After all, he had two options: let her through or not. If he did not, he would be annoying a powerful family, and if he did, what could go wrong? At worst, this low-level employee would pick up the package or she would not. Her status gave her no option other than to go to the main reception area. All other doors would be locked to her. He waved her through.

  As expected, the only vacant parking spots directly in front of the building were either reserved or occupied. Baht drove the vehicle around to the back of the building, and parked in one of the darkest spots, which happened to be near the door to one of the hangars. She then got out, and walked jauntily back to the main entrance.

  Kazyn, meanwhile, crept out and, wearing overalls that looked reasonably similar to those of a maintenance worker, made his way to the door of the Kuyrill hangar. He keyed in the entry code, the door opened, and there before him was his craft. The security on this was almost impenetrable, however it was his ship. He keyed in the various sequences, and the door opened. This was surprisingly easy. He entered the rear storage area and recovered a large case, then he retreated, relocked his property and locked all doors that he had unlocked, then he carefully retreated back to the vehicle.

  Meanwhile, Baht was almost enjoying herself.

  "Sorry," came the totally disinterested reply, "there's no such package."

  "There must be," Baht said, with her voice as laden as she could with what she hoped would sound like frustration.

  "It's not on the computer, so there's no such package.

  "It's on this list, so there must be."

  "The computer doesn't lie."

  "Kuyrill Hadell wouldn't pay so much money for something that didn't exist," Baht pointed out.

  "She didn't. It was Kazyn."

  "Well, let me assure you, he's paying my wages and he's the stingiest Ranhyn of all. He most certainly wouldn't be paying for nothing. And look, the list is receipted."

  "That stamp only means the money was paid."

  "It surely means that the correct money was paid," Baht pointed out. "You're not suggesting that the official simply stamped the list and waved them through?" In fact this was exactly what had happened, but since the goods had been deposited, they could be checked later. What had happened was that someone had checked later, but only to call out to someone what he saw, and the other acknowledged that that was on the list. The object was to ensure enough money had been collected. Who would pay too much?

  So the official had to get others to check, but a visual inspection came up with the sa
me result.

  "There's nothing there," he admitted, and now worry was entering his voice.

  "What can I do?" Baht almost pleaded. "This isn't good."

  "Tell me about it!"

  Baht paused for a moment, then said softly, "There may be a way out of this for both of us."

  "What?" came the gruff response.

  "It depends on what was in the package," Baht said. "On whether it is metal or not."

  "We haven't got it, so we don't know."

  "Yes, but we've got the declaration," Baht pointed out. "We know what should have been in it."

  "It isn't clear," the officer replied, now becoming very concerned because he noticed that it was his initials on the bottom of the form. This was not accidental. Kazyn had made a big effort to find out when this official was on the night shift.

  "Then why don't we say you scanned it, and found it was biologically contaminated. Accordingly, it had to be destroyed."

  "Kazyn will object to that."

  "Probably not," Baht replied. "At the moment he is a long way away, and he can't object too much without stating what it was, and if there was something there that shouldn't be destroyed, you could say there must have been a mistake, and the wrong package got destroyed."

  "We can't just go around destroying packages," the official frowned.

  "Yes, but if you haven't got it, you already have destroyed it," Baht pointed out. "We're just tidying up the books."

  "And what say it turns up?"

  "Get back to me, I'll come back out, and we can correct the books."

  The official stared at this young student. This had all the makings of trouble, but then again, if he did nothing he was still in trouble. Eventually he nodded, and produced the form. Baht signed for Kuyrill Kazyn, and eventually the form was signed. The official thanked Baht, then Baht took her leave.

  * * *

  "I hope you got what you wanted," Baht murmured.

  "I did," came a muffled whisper from the rear floor.