by Jean Kilczer
I tried desperately to release the seatbelt, but it held fast, protecting the pilot.
From what! I thought as I smelled wires burning. Christ and Buddha, I had to get out of the Cub. I would even welcome Slade's men, but they would probably let me burn.
I was breathing hard as I tried to hold onto a floor strut to get my weight off the belt and open it. My hand slipped off. If I got out of this alive, I would never leave the house again without my stingler. I could have cut the belt with the swipe of a hot beam. Speaking of which…
Smoke!
And the bitter odor of wires burning.
Spirit! I screamed in my mind. Do something. Spirit!
What would you have me do?
Send help. Quick!
It is on its way, Terran. May I go now?
Why are you always in a hurry?
Why are you always in trouble?
I didn't ask for this!
But somehow, Jules Rammis, it always finds you. I have a mountain range to see to, on the southern continent of Halcyon. It's too high as it stands. The land to the east is desert. I have to shave down the peaks.
I looked around. But all I saw was sky.
Then the whine of motors. Had Slade's men landed?
Three upside down land vehicles approached, bouncing across the field without lights.
Who are they? I sent. But Spirit was gone.
“Whoever you are,” I gasped as flames shot up behind me and lit the console with red light, “drive faster!” My back was warming. “Great Mind!”
My eyes stung from smoke. I coughed with every breath. “Help!” I yelled, and struggled to release the belt as the vehicles screeched to a slippery stop in low vegetation. “Get me out of here.”
“Hang on!” someone yelled as Terrans jumped out of the vehicles and raced to the Cub.
“What do you think I'm doing?” I felt like a bat. A very warm bat.
The pilot's door was pulled open. A shadowy figure reached inside and lifted me. Another released the seat belt and I slid to the roof of the Cub, rolled, and fell out.
“C'mon!” someone shouted. “It could blow.”
I was disoriented as I staggered to a vehicle with a hand on my arm, steadying me. The whine of two aircraft landing grew as they taxied toward us.
“Let's go!” the man told the driver as we threw ourselves into the rear of the vehicle. He needed no persuasion as he hit the power and we were thrown back against the seats. A missile exploded in our path and flung dirt and pebbles into the windshield. The driver swerved right and headed for a line of trees not far ahead. The two other vehicles bounced alongside.
“They should spread out,” I said.
“Oh?” the driver called over his shoulder. “You know all about escaping from Boss Slade's guards?”
Then we were into the trees. A second blast sounded behind us.
I looked back and saw the Cub reduced to spinning pieces of flying metal. Oh, well. The owner was fully insured. Though I'll bet Lithium Love Mine was paying the bill.
Night closed around us in the thick woods. The driver slowed. “We lost them, Mack,” he told the man beside me.
“How did you know where to find me?” I asked.
“We've been tracking you since you showed up at the pier,” Mack said. He was an older man with a speckled black beard, a low brow, and thick black hair. “We were hoping you'd return.”
“Any particular reason?” I asked.
“We've been trying to hook up with your platoon.”
“What makes you think I'm part of a platoon?”
He gave me a cold look. Or maybe it was just the deep shadows of darkness. “Let's not play games, Jules. We're a deep cover operation from Alpha.”
“Oh?” Alpha had no jurisdiction on New Lithnia.
“I know what you're thinking,” he said. “We're not subject to the Worlds Alliance's handbook. We're here to shut down Love Mine once and for all. When we reach our HQ, you can contact Alpha on our SPS and confirm my information. Does that suit you?”
“It helps.” I sat back. “I want to talk to Starfleet Commander Ca Prez.”
The driver, a young, heavyset, bald tag, glanced back.
“She's not available,” Mack said. “She's on a mission. Watch where you're driving, Darryl.”
That was bullshit. An SPS unit, a Stellar Positioning System, could worm through the furthest known star systems and surrounding parsecs.
“When will she be back on Alpha?” I asked.
“No one has that information,” Mack said. “It's a secret mission.”
More bullshit! Starfleet commanders did not take their ships on clandestine missions. I had to act on the assumption that these were Slade's hired Terran guns.
“I'm pretty worn out.” I rubbed my eyes and lowered my head to my hand as we drove deeper into the woods. The headlights bounced off strange, great-boled trees. I had to get in touch with someone from the team. I would not reveal the location of our camp before warning them.
I'd never tried a tel-link at this distance, perhaps fifteen miles, southwest, considering that I had turned north. None of my team were sensitives. Were any of Big Sarge's men? It was a long shot, literally, to send a probe with a message that far.
Still, it was worth a try and the only plan I could devise at the moment.
I imaged a red coil behind my eyes. I lowered my shields and let my essence lift from the protection of the flower Star Speaker had given me as an image to lock onto. I reached down to the core of my being and spun the coil with my life energy.
“He fell asleep,” Mack told Darryl.
I pictured a tornado spinning, sucking up my energy like a warm current and creating a vortex. Wind howled within my mind. Energy coalesced in the center of my being. This was going to cost me, I knew. I spun the tornado faster, a dark monster surging up, moving toward my objective, fifteen miles away. I pictured water rising into a frothing tsunami, racing ahead of the black, spinning funnel. I gave it all the energy I had to give, and it left me drained. I probed for our campsite.
There!
In the clearing by the lake. The image came like a holo stage of real life. I forced the tornado to swell, an electromagnetic storm that enveloped the men outside the cabin, and then I threw the message: Danger! Enemy approaching! I felt it invade minds and flash through neurons. And I knew I had hit my mark.
I couldn't hold back a groan. My breath came quick and I leaned my head against the seat, suddenly weak and overheated. I pressed my hands to my temples as lightning strokes seared my brain.
Joe and Chancey would read the send and know it came from me. They would understand that the campsite was about to be discovered. Through the pain of the headache, I felt a sense of elation at the knowledge that I had just increased my tel power. It would never again revert to its former dimensions.
“Are you all right?” Mack asked me.
I opened my eyes and nodded. “Long day.”
Darryl pulled up to a shack in the woods. The other two cars stopped alongside us.
“Let's go inside,” Mack told me. “You make the call and then you can rest and get something to eat.”
“Thanks.” I stumbled out of the vehicle. “That's kind of you.”
“Anything to help a compatriot.”
Ten men left the two vehicles and talked in groups.
I went inside and glanced around the one-room shack. The walls were rotted and moldy. Rodents scurried out through broken planks in the floor. If this were HQ, where was the control center? The room was bare, but in one corner sat the SPS unit. That much was real.
Mack went to it, turned it on and put in a call to a Lieutenant Colonel Jack Adams.
Sure, I thought as he handed me the mic. Lieut. Colonel Jack Adams of the Lithium Love Mine. Even his voice had a metallic ring, but his Terran dialect was perfect. I guess I was supposed to be impressed that he talked to me in Terran instead of stelspeak.
“I've heard of you, Mister
Rammis,” he said. “Have you given our undercover agents the location of your base camp so they can link up?”
“It's difficult to find, sir,” I said. “I'll take them there.”
“Good enough. Corporal Mackenzie is in charge. You'll take orders from him.”
“Certainly, sir.”
“Over and out.” He broke the link.
Don't hold your breath, I thought as I shut off the unit.
Damn, I was hungry. I hadn't eaten in probably a day. I looked around the room. No sous chef. No stove. No sink. “You keep any food in here?” I asked Mack.
“There's some power bars.” He gestured toward a cabinet.
Power bars! I hate power bars. But I went to the cabinet, took out a box of Taste of the Natural: granola and raisin bars, and ate one.
“Take the box,” Mack said, “and let's go. The sooner we hook up with your people, the better.”
Not in my book, I thought and walked out of the shack.
One of the tags from another vehicle came out carrying the SPS unit and put it in a vehicle's trunk.
Some headquarters, I thought.
I led Darryl on a circuitous route through thick woods to our camp to give my team the most time to prepare, and leave, and finished the whole box of granola bars on the way.
Finally, Mack leaned forward and peered out the front windshield. “Are you sure about this route?” he asked me. “We should have hit a road by now.”
“It's secluded,” I said. “Off the road…and the map.”
He checked his watch. We've been traveling for forty five minutes. We're climbing into the next mountain range. It's snowbound. There's nothing up there!"
“It's not that much further,” I said. But as I looked around, I realized I was lost.
“Are you playing games with us?” he asked.
“No.” I bit my lip. “I think I'm lost.”
“That's just great!” he said. “What town is the camp near?”
“Bolton Springs.”
“Why the hell didn't you just say so? We're northwest of Bolton Springs. Darryl!” He pointed to our left. “That way.”
Darryl turned the vehicle left and we bounced through vegetation. The two other vehicles followed.
“How do you know which way is southeast?” I asked him.
“For Christ's sake, don't you have any sense of direction?”
Chapter Fourteen
The campsite was deserted. You'd never know anybody had lived there. We got out of the vehicles and Mack's people checked the area. A few of them went into the cabin, then emerged. One man looked at Mack and shook his head.
“So where the hell are they?” Mack asked me.
I glanced around. “They were here when I left. Must've decided to move on. You know how it is with guerrilla fighters. Hit and run, and set up a new camp.”
He came close to me. His teeth were yellow. I smelled tobacco on his breath. “And they didn't tell you where they'd be running to?”
I backed up. “I left kind of suddenly.”
“You know what?”
“What?”
“I don't fucking believe you.”
“What reason would I have to lie to you? We're compatriots, right?”
“How were you going to find your platoon, compatriot?” He grabbed my vest. “What's the plan to hook up at the next camp?”
“No plan,” I said. “Stragglers are supposed to meet with a team member at Two Sons and a Dad's Tavern in Bolton Springs.”
He let go of my vest. “Then that's where we'll go,” he said too softly and patted my cheek. “Now get inside the vehicle.”
“You're coming on a little strong for a compatriot, aren't you?” I said, hoping to convince him that I still thought we were on the same side." I mean, I'm supposed to take orders from you, but –”
“Get into the vehicle!” He smacked my cheek. I fell back against the door. “I don't care what you thought,” he said. “After that ride you took us on in the woods, I don't trust you. You got that? You could be one of Slade's boys.”
“Who, me?” I got in, holding my stinging cheek.
Mack slid in next to me.
Time to form an escape plan.
I could probably influence Mack and Darryl with a deep probe. But twelve men were far too many. The best I could do was to tel-link and find out what they were thinking. No help there.
We pulled up in front of the tavern, got out, and went inside. George, behind the bar, straightened and plastered a smile on his face. Thirteen customers. That should make his day. His sons hurried to wipe tables that still had empty dishes and glasses.
“Sit down,” Mack told me and motioned to an empty table.
I sat.
He looked around. A few patrons were at the bar. Two others played pool. “Well?” he said. “Which one is he?”
“He's not here yet.” I checked my watch. “He's supposed to show up at six o'clock. It's only four thirty-five.”
Tall, skinny Ted came to the table, all smiles, and wiped it off with a damp dishcloth. “What can I get you gents?”
Mack slid me a look.
“Coffee,” I said.
Ted held his smile and waited.
“You buying?” I asked Mack. "My credcount's locked.
“Whatever,” he said.
“A slice of mudpie,” I told Ted.
He nodded at Mack. “And you, sir?”
“What the hell's mudpie?” Mack asked. “All right. Mudpie, and a beer.”
It would be dark in half an hour. I decided to wait until then to make my move.
The mudpie was dry, with added fillers. The coffee was weak. The cream was powdered.
Smoke thickened the air as the men lit cigarettes and cigars. An old holo stage replayed a Terran film, probably sixty years old, and flickering.
A woman with platinum hair piled on her head, eyes so green they never came with the DNA, and a low-cut tight, shiny pink dress, sauntered to our table and leaned on it.
Mack's gaze was glued to her breasts.
“Hi, cupcake,” she said to me and smiled. “Want to buy me a drink?”
“Sorry.” I shrugged. “Locked credcount.”
She slid into the chair between me and Mack. “Then suppose I buy you a drink?” She pursed her bright red lips and threw me a kiss.
“I can buy you a drink,” Mack told her.
She kept her eyes on me. “I was asking cupcake.”
I smiled.
“You should do that more often,” she said.
Mack leaned toward her and was inches from her cheek. “He's with me, slut.”
She moved away from him. “Is that true?” she asked me.
Dusk was settling into darkness. It was time to implement my plan. “Well,” I said and fluttered a hand, “he pays the bills.”
She sighed and got up. “What a shame.” She swished her dress as she walked away.
I stood up.
“Where do you think you're going?” Mack asked.
“I've got to pee. Want to come along?”
“Yeah.” He got up.
“OK.”
He followed me to the men's room.
I took a urinal, closed my eyes and spun a red coil as I peed. This was a new experience for me. I wondered if I could chew gum at the same time. A probe was easy after the tornado I had conjured.
Mack was in the next stall. I strengthened the coil, spun it faster, and attached a message as I threw it. Close your eyes and keep them closed. You cannot open your eyes.
He moaned and rubbed his closed eyes as I tiptoed toward him and grabbed his stingler from out its holster. He felt it, turned, and almost sprayed me with urine as I shoved the weapon in my waistband and went to the small window.
“Where are you?” he called and staggered out of the urinal, his hands waving as he felt for something solid. “Come back here!”
I opened the window, lifted myself, and slid outside. “If I wanted to come back, crotefucker,�
� I called, “I wouldn't be leaving.”
“Get him! He's escaping,” I heard Mack yell as I trotted to the closest vehicle, slid into the driver's seat, and started it.
Mack's men piled out the front door as I threw the vehicle into gear and floored it, spewing a fantail of gravel and dirt as they raced toward me. “Eat shit and die, mother fuckers!” I threw back.
But I knew they wouldn't be far behind. I raced down the road and skidded into a dirt path.
Shouldn't have done that, I thought, as I saw the raised dust in my taillights.
I heard tires screech as the two vehicles plowed to a stop on the main road, drove back in reverse, and sped down the dirt road behind me, lights blazing.
Open terrain ahead. I tied the seatbelt around the steering wheel, slowed the vehicle, and then punched in buttons to program it to gain speed in ten seconds.
“Go fetch!” I said, jumped out and rolled. I ran to a big-boled tree with a spiky trunk, climbed it, and huddled among thick branches and bushy leaves.
I closed my eyes and tried to relax as I lowered my shields and probed. The simple thoughts of forest animals were a barrier I had to break through. After a few minutes, I linked with a human mind. Unfamiliar. One of Slade's men? But then, a softer awareness, a gentler psyche. Feminine, I thought. I felt her deep concern and sadness. Sophia! Her presence came like an image seen in subdued light. An image familiar in its way of moving and thinking.
I climbed down the trunk and sprinted in the direction of Sophia's siren call. It shouldn't be far. The tel-link was strong. I saw an image of three campfires in thick woods. Shadowy figures moved among them.
Suddenly, angry thoughts clawed at my mind like frustrated predators. Mack's men had found the vehicle overturned in a ravine. Empty. Its wheels spinning. They were not pleased.
For the next two hours, I moved cautiously through heavy woods. One of New Lithnia's moons was up. It threw enough eerie light for me to pick my path.
Sophia… Her concern was for me, I knew. I felt her guilt and regret that she had betrayed me. No! I sent. You didn't betray me, my Sophia. My beautiful Sophia. But she was not a sensitive and there was no response. We moved in different spheres, Sophia and I. But I was closing the rift between us as I sprinted across a clearing, breathing hard.