Cold Revenge

by Jaleta Clegg

  A flitter whined overhead. They ducked into shadows.

  "Who did they find?" Jasyn demanded.

  "You’ll have to ask Paltronis when we get there," Vey answered.

  She set a pace that left them no breath for talking. They went a different route. Vey stopped to check her guide, reading the tiny screen as she picked a way through the ruins.

  They were stopped by another of Paltronis’ people, near a dark tunnel mouth. Vey waved him away. He moved back to his guard post and let them pass.

  Jasyn hurried impatiently down the long tunnel. They came out in another of the low-roofed round rooms. Paltronis looked up as they came in. Jasyn looked past her, searching the room for the faces she wanted to see. Kelly and Fergus were there, and Ginni with Habim. There were three men she didn’t recognize. And her brother.

  "Jerimon." Anger warred with relief. She didn't know if she should slap him or hug him. "I don't know what you thought you were doing. I should shoot you. Where's Dace?"

  He shook his head. "She left yesterday with Tavyis and Doggo to find the Phoenix. They weren’t at the meeting point last night. Paltronis ran into us this morning. Jasyn, I'm sorry. I didn't have a choice. I did what I could. You got my message?"

  "There's always a choice." Jasyn shifted away from him.

  "You're right. I could have chosen to die in prison. Lowell offered a chance to get Targon off my back. And off Dace's. I took his offer. I can't tell you how sorry I am about it now. What happened after I left the Phoenix? We saw the ship come in." He held her at arm’s length. "Ginni said you were all right. I’m glad she wasn’t lying."

  "I never lie," Ginni said. "Just bend the truth a bit."

  Jasyn shoved her brother away. She'd deal with him later. "If Dace is here, why are we sitting around?"

  "Because something has everyone stirred up," Paltronis said. "We need a plan."

  Vey passed food around. It was tasteless, emergency rations, but it was food.

  "We have to warn them off," Jasyn said to Clark, knowing he’d understand.

  "How?" he asked.

  "Warn who?" the man they’d called Wade asked.

  "Merchants," she said. "Gypsies. Family. They were coming to help. They should be heading in very soon. They’ll be slaughtered."

  "Our ship doesn’t have a working com," Wade said.

  "What about Ricard Blake’s ship?" Jerimon asked. "It’s parked next to yours."

  "I like the way you think," Wade said.

  "Just one minute," Jasyn said, raising her hands. "Who is Ricard Blake?"

  They told her. That led to more questions. Jerimon finally got the rest to be quiet long enough for him to tell Jasyn what had happened. All of it, from before he’d come to her ship in the snow on Muugran. Jasyn kept her face set in an expression of polite interest. She wanted to kill him, right there, in the most painful way she could think of.

  "You set us up," she said.

  "On Lowell’s orders. This was not supposed to happen, none of it. I’m sorry, Jasyn. I’m sorry to all of you. If I hadn't moved, Targon would have caught up with you eventually and you wouldn't have had any Patrol backup then. It was better this way."

  Jasyn curled her hands into fists. She'd beat Jerimon's self-righteous attitude out of him later.

  "Too late for apologies to help much," Paltronis said. "We know Dace is still out there, with Tayvis and someone named Doggo. Who else?"

  Jasyn shook her head. "Everyone that came in with us is here. Except Marik, but he’s dead." It hurt to say it.

  "The rest of our group is here," Jerimon said.

  "So except for Ricard Blake and his group," Paltronis ticked them off on a finger, "the three Patrol squads that haven’t reported in yet, all of Targon and Blackthorne, and whoever landed in the other three ships we haven’t identified, Dace and the people with her, we’re all here." She shook her head. "This is insane."

  "All we need is a Fleet," Jerimon said, "just to make things more complicated."

  "They’ll be here tomorrow," Paltronis said.

  "Don’t forget the merchants," Jasyn said. "They are on their way here now. How do we stop them?"

  "Can we?" Paltronis asked.

  "Ricard Blake," Jerimon said. "We break into his ship and call them from there."

  "All of us?" Jasyn was more than a little skeptical. She looked at the group of people.

  "I can break any code," Wade said. "I can get us into his ship."

  "One group, no more than four people," Paltronis said. "Wade, Jasyn, hal’Tri, and Clark. You have three hours before we assume you’ve been captured."

  They scrambled up. Paltronis hadn’t given them much time.

  "I’m going," Jerimon said.

  "You’re going to help me," Paltronis said. "We have to move to a more secure location. There’s one near our landing site. hal’Tri knows where our ship is. He’ll make sure the others get there when they’re finished."

  They left, two groups sneaking into the maze of weathered walls. Jasyn watched the other group as they wove through the ruins. Habim carried Kelly, the bandages on his broken leg showing white against the reddish stones. One of the Patrol agents, she couldn’t remember his name, carried Deke. Jerimon and Ginni helped the old man, Flash, over the stones. Fergus followed Habim, limping himself. Paltronis led them, marking the path. Vey had disappeared into the stones, Jasyn guessed she was scouting.

  Her own little group was fast disappearing in the opposite direction. She hurried to catch up, taking Clark’s hand to scramble over stones. Another tremble shook the ground. Loose stones rattled around them. They hurried faster.

  Ricard Blake’s yacht sat next to a battered ship that looked as if it should never have flown. They paused in the dubious cover of a short wall and studied the ships. There was no sign of life below them. The afternoon sun slipped away to the west, inching downwards across the sky. Shadows stretched long fingers from the ships. The wind blew steadily, freezing cold and whispering of ghosts. Jasyn shivered.

  "No one there," hal’Tri said. "We slip down to that triangle of stone near the hatch." He was gone, blending into the surrounding stone. They did their best to follow him.

  The triangle of stone was two walls leaning on each other, the delicate shape of an arch keeping them apart. They crouched under the arch and studied the ship.

  "Easy lock," Wade whispered. "Two minutes at the most."

  "Too late," Clark said. He pointed to the east. Ricard Blake and his crew were marching back to the ship. They had several large crates they laboriously lifted over the uneven stones.

  "Much too late," Jasyn said. Ships passed overhead, going south to the seemingly deserted field. They were lumbering freighters, not sleek Patrol fighters.

  Clark took her hand and squeezed it. "They knew what to expect. This isn’t our personal revenge any more."

  "So, there’s no point in breaking into the ship?" hal’Tri asked.

  "Not unless you want better food," Wade said and grinned. "We stole half his breakfast yesterday. Best I’ve had in a while."

  Chapter 49

  The wind whispered secrets. The sun slid below the horizon. Tayvis and I were still climbing over rocks, searching for any sign of the others. We hadn’t found any trace of Vyn or his team. We hadn’t seen Jerimon or Wade or anyone from the Gull. We hadn’t found any trace of Jasyn or Clark. We could have been alone on the planet, except for the smoking pile of rubble and the few people still scurrying around it.

  The ground rumbled and shook. I looked up and watched two dozen ships streak across the sky, flying low. They skimmed over the tumbled ruin of the landing field and kept going, lifting away into the sky. They were merchants, fat bellied ships designed to haul cargo.

  "Someone knows we’re here," Tayvis said.

  He sat next to me on a ridge of stone that might have been a wall, a thousand centuries past. We watched the sun set, watched the chaos below us. The wind riffled through my hair, my short purple spikes had softened
.

  "What now?" I asked. "Don’t we have to get under cover for night?"

  "I doubt any of their psychics will be in the tower tonight," Tayvis said. "They put them up there, fed them Shara, and let their nightmares create the legends of ghosts. There isn’t anything on this world other than stone and wind."

  It was getting cold. I wrapped my arms around my middle and shivered.

  "We should look for the others," I said. "North and west of here. If I remember my directions right."

  He slid off the stone and held his hand out. I slid after him, catching his hand and using it to help me keep my balance. He caught my other hand, pulling me still. I looked up at him. The setting sun painted half his face copper and left the other half in shadow. He looked tired, lines of pain stretched across his face.

  "I’ve already chosen, Dace." He kissed me and left me wondering what he meant. He kept my hand, pulling me after him as he picked his way down the slope of shattered stones.

  He didn’t say anything else. We stumbled through the night, until the cold wind and the dark became too much. We huddled under a lip of stone. I leaned against him, his arm around me, as we shivered and watched stars wheel overhead. I slipped in and out of sleep. Most of it was haunted with images of charred faces and the smell of burnt flesh.

  The sunrise was welcome, both for its promise of warmth and the light it spilled over the ruined world of Xqtl. I didn’t want to be in the dark with my nightmares, even if Tayvis was there. I stirred. He blinked open eyes that were red with lack of sleep.

  "I hope I don’t look as bad as you do," I said.

  "Your hair is a bit mussed. Let me fix your spikes." He grinned as he ruffled his hand over my head. I ducked away.

  I stopped, halfway out of our shelter. We were exposed on a slope of low walls. Angry men with guns walked across the rubble below us. One of them shot at me. I ducked back under the wall.

  "Who?" Tayvis asked, looking out beside me.

  "Does it really matter? They’re shooting at us, therefore they want us dead. So we should run away from them."

  "Simple," he said. "I wish Lowell thought that way. Which way?"

  We were pinned down. We couldn’t go up the hill, we had to climb the wall we hid under. It shrunk down on either side to less than two feet. Tayvis pulled out my blaster and handed it to me. I checked the charge. Still green. He pulled out the one he’d picked up.

  "There are only eight of them," he said.

  "I hate doing this." I crouched behind the wall, peering over the top.

  The men picked their way up towards us. I clipped the top of a wall next to one. He ducked, flat on the ground. The wall was knee high, he wasn’t hidden. I shot another chunk over his head. He squirmed backwards.

  Tayvis didn’t hesitate. He shot three of them. The rest scattered backwards, away from us. I saw the face of the one I’d shot at. It was Tom, my personal thug. I turned to lean against the wall. I held my blaster down between my knees, pointed at the ground.

  "I can’t do this, Tayvis. I can’t shoot them. I don’t care who they are."

  "They’re gone, for now. Let’s move while we can."

  I tucked the blaster away and scrambled up and over the wall. Tayvis was right behind me. We went down into a twisting maze of walls and found one that ran mostly in the direction we wanted.

  He let me get ahead. He hung back, listening for signs of pursuit. I ran around a corner and paused, leaning against the wall. I closed my eyes, wishing the sun was warmer, the air something more than dry and dead. I wished I was anywhere else. I peered back around the corner, looking for Tayvis. Something hit me, knocking me flat.

  I spat out dirt, fighting automatically. I kicked and squirmed and twisted. Whoever it was knew how to fight back. They got both arms behind me and heaved me to my feet.

  "Ow," I said.

  "Let her go," Tayvis said from somewhere overhead. I heard rocks rattling as he slid down beside me.

  They let go of me. I turned slowly. I didn’t know the man backing away from me.

  "Tayvis?" From behind me again. I turned around quickly.

  I knew this person. Paltronis, one of Lowell’s guard dogs. "We’ve been searching for you since yesterday," she said. "For both of you."

  Shots ricocheted off the wall above us. It was suicide to stay where we were.

  "This way," the man I didn’t know said. He took off into the maze.

  I didn’t wait for a second invitation. I ran after him, Tayvis and Paltronis both on my heels.

  We ran until we reached a section with taller walls halfway up the next hill. The three of them turned and shot at our pursuers. I got as far as pulling my blaster out. I held it in front of my face, my finger on the trigger, pointing at the coppery sky. I couldn’t make myself turn around and shoot. This was for real. This was not a practice simulation. This was why I had not joined the Patrol. This was where Lowell kept pushing me to be. This was what I fought so hard not to become. I could so easily slip into the role of professional assassin. And become something I loathed.

  "We’ve got to move," Paltronis said. "The others are waiting for us. Jens will cover us."

  The man I didn’t know, Jens I assumed, took up a guard position, slithering to the top of a wall that gave him a view across the maze we’d just run through. Tayvis pulled me to my feet.

  We hurried though the endless ruins of red stone. There was nothing alive except for us. And the people trying to kill us.

  Another group surprised us not long after that. There was another round of shooting. A bolt sizzled next to me, blasting chunks from a wall. I turned and fired, automatically, the reflexes trained into me at the Academy taking over. Whoever it was had no time to scream as he died.

  The world went fuzzy, or my brain did. I was in full retreat mentally. I couldn’t cope any longer. I’d gone past my limit of violence. I shot at whatever moved, without waiting for them to shoot first.

  I lost track of Paltronis somewhere during that nightmare scramble through broken walls. Tayvis said something, shaking me to get me to listen. He was going somewhere, a distraction, he said. He pushed me into a narrow, twisting way.

  I ran along it, hearing the sounds of shooting fading behind me. If I ran fast enough and long enough, maybe I’d escape it. I stumbled around a corner, lungs laboring to breathe. Someone moved, I raised my blaster.

  Then slowly lowered it.

  I stumbled a few steps forward before letting myself sink down to the gritty rock underfoot. I’d found them. Jasyn, Clark, Jerimon, Ginni, Habim. My crew. Others I didn’t know. People I did know. Vyn and York sat next to Doggo.

  "Where are the others?" I asked.

  "Which set?" Clark asked. "Why is your hair purple?"

  I started laughing.

  "I kind of like it that way," Tayvis said behind me.

  I stopped laughing, it sounded awful, like something dying.

  Shots chipped the stone overhead. I flinched.

  "Paltronis is setting up an ambush not far from here," Tayvis said. "We need to lure them there." He looked over the people hiding in the shadows of the narrow alley.

  "I’ll go," Vyn said. York stood up with him, his rifle hanging from one hand. The others I didn’t know stood up. I guessed they were Patrol. Clark stood. Jasyn started to protest. He handed her a laser rifle.

  "I’ll be back," he promised.

  "In one piece," Jasyn called after him.

  They left, making enough noise to draw attention after them. The sounds of shooting faded.

  "We should get under cover," Jerimon said. "There’s a better spot just around the corner." He got Habim and Ginni up and moving. Doggo trailed after them.

  Jasyn stood and offered me her hand. "You look tired, Dace. Purple hair just isn’t your style."

  "Ask Doggo about it." I took her hand, let her help me to my feet. She pulled me into a hug.

  "We were worried sick about you," she said.

  "You shouldn’t have been i
nvolved in this," I said. "This is my fault."

  She let go of me. "Now you sound like Jerimon. He hasn’t stopped apologizing since we met up with him."

  We turned the corner. It was a dead end, tall walls, ten feet high or more, running straight back into a wall that was even higher. It did give us better cover. The only way to shoot at us was from the narrow entrance or from straight overhead. Jerimon waved us past him, deeper into the shadows where the others hid. He took up a position, leaning against the wall, rifle held at the ready. I could have corrected half a dozen things about his stance, but I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to think that way.

  Ginni studied me, her eyes big in her thin face. She looked determined, scared but ready to fight. She held one of Habim’s massive hands.

  "Dace," Habim said and beamed a bright smile at me. "Where did you go?"

  "A place I didn’t want to go." I raised my hand and saw the blaster still in it. The charge was gone. I checked my pocket. I didn’t have the spare charges anymore. I’d lost them somewhere.

  Doggo looked up at me. He looked a lot older. "Spacer Chick. You looking for this?" He held up a charge. He tried to grin. It was a ghost of his earlier smile, lacking a lot of self confidence.

  "You want a gun, Doggo?" I dropped the blaster in his lap. "You can have mine."

  There was a distant burst of gunfire. The ground rumbled. Something in the distance crashed with the sound of a mountain falling over.

  Jasyn reached out and took my hand, squeezing until her knuckles were white. She was worried about Clark. If I let myself out of the numb corner of my brain, I’d be scared to death for him and Tayvis and the others out there.

  A shot rattled off the stones above my head. I ducked. Chips of stone shattered around us.

  "Get down!" Jerimon shouted. He poked the rifle out of the alley and fired off a shot.

  We huddled on the stones. Another shot zinged past. Ginni screamed. Her cheek was bleeding where a chip of stone had struck. Another shot hit the other side of her. They were aiming at her.

  Habim seemed to realize it at the same time I did. He rose to his feet, pulling his massive frame to an impressive height. He let out a wordless bellow of rage.