Blue War: A Punktown Novel

by Jeffrey Thomas

  As if he could sense Stake’s confusion, this monk turned around slowly. Even without features, Stake had a strong sense of the holy man contemplating him with something of befuddlement himself, as if wondering how the Earth man had been able to invade his own delusion.

  Stake sensed the being’s great power. It crackled in him. The Earther could swear he even saw faint flickers of violet electricity far back in the void of his face. He was afraid the monk would do something to drive him and his team out of this sacred place, or worse, so he raised one hand with spread fingers, and said, “I’m here to help you. I want to stop the Blue City. I want to stop the plague-bringer.”

  The cipher face regarded him for several moments more, before the cleric slowly turned back to the wall and laid his hands upon it again. The image in relief he stroked was of Ben Bhi Ben as a man in his middle years, steady with purpose, seeing his people through great adversity, guiding them toward peace.

  Stake turned away, too, prepared to retrace his steps, but he found the rest of his team and the two prisoners were no longer there. He backtracked through hallways too dark for him to tell if their surfaces were covered in more relief mosaics. At last, alone, he stepped into a vast chamber, bigger than anything he had seen in a monastery before. It was something more like a warehouse, with a high ceiling and murky lighting. Along either side of this hall were dozens upon dozens of small bodies lying on slabs. At first he thought it was a great mausoleum, but the bodies appeared to be hooked up to life support systems, and there was an electronic beeping, a gurgle of fluids through tubing. Was it a hospital, then?

  He crept to the foot of the nearest slab and looked down upon a small, naked figure. Its skin was blue. Slender limbs, a thatch of black pubic hair, and two tiny moles on the smooth belly near its squinted navel. One mole was pale, almost white, the other almost black. He knew those moles. They were identical to the ones on the belly of the fierce little sniper they had captured, the woman named Thi Gonh.

  He moved to the next figure. It, too, had those moles on its belly. So did the third body. Stake looked across the hall, at the figures ranked along the opposite wall. Every body in this room was a reproduction, a clone from a single master. He knew them from the moles only, however, because each and every body was without a head. From the puckered stump of their necks, a few tubes and cables snaked out to connect with support units set into the walls.

  Deadstock.

  A thin blue mist hung in the air, growing thicker as it coiled lazily toward the ceiling, all but obscuring it. Growing increasingly anxious, Stake continued between the double rows of human deadstock. The fog became thicker, thicker, so that he could only see vague outlines of the clones. He started to run, run straight into the blue fog, until it swallowed him entirely and he saw no more.

  ***

  In addition to acquiring a hotel room, Stake had rented a hoverbike to replace the helicar he no longer had access to. The bike was dented, scraped, and so orange it almost made his eyes hurt, but at least it had a side car as he’d requested. At present, the side car was empty as Stake floated along through a street choked with many more bikes. While he rode he had activated his wrist comp, and was waiting for someone to pick up his call. After several moments, the face of Ha Jiin security captain Hin Yengun was gazing out at him from the screen.

  “Mr. Stake,” Yengun said, his features intense but voice polite, as usual. “So you are still here on Sinan.”

  “Captain, I need your help. I’ll tell you more later, because it’s not secure talking on an open frequency, but it’s about the excavation of the pits the three clones were found in. There’s something extremely important I have to find.”

  As the pits were on Ha Jiin territory, Yengun’s commander had organized the original excavation, and passed along the findings to Gale. Stake cursed himself for not thinking earlier to meet with the commander and show him the pictures of the items Gale had displayed for Henderson; he could have proved they were bogus sooner, and asked the commander what the real items had looked like. Well, he had arrived at the truth by another route.

  “Mr. Stake, my people and your people have been over that area very thoroughly. Especially your people, with scanning equipment.”

  “Yes, but I’ve been wondering if maybe your commander didn’t turn over everything he found to Colonel Gale. He might have kept something that could prove the Earth Colonies were acting in a covert manner, before the war even took place.”

  “If he did retain such a thing, he might not be inclined to tell me, anyway. But I suppose I could try to find out.”

  “Another idea would be to look at the men who were hired to do the actual work. If someone found something of value, he may have pocketed it for himself.”

  “And if I should look into any of this, it would help you how?”

  “It might help all of us, captain. You and me. The Ha Jiin and the Jin Haa. It might just stop Bluetown in its tracks.”

  ***

  Stake parked his bike in front of a fast food restaurant called Burger God, part of an Earth Colonies chain and here primarily to cater to the Earth soldiers, as it was situated just down the street from the Colonial Forces base. Sitting at one of its small tables, he next called the base and via the automated menu rang through to the science division. As he had hoped, Ami Pattaya’s top tech Bernard came on.

  “Hi, Bernard,” Stake said. “Hey, I wanted to check on how Captain Henderson is doing, but I can’t get through to his number. Maybe they’ve got me blocked. Is there any way you could go look in on him for me?”

  Bernard was looking at Stake warily, and he didn’t know if that was because he blamed the detective for Ami’s death, or if his request sounded suspicious. Bernard replied, “He’s having his hand regenerated. I heard Colonel Gale wanted to send him back home so he could fully recover, but the captain didn’t want to do that.”

  Stake was aware of all this. Despite what he’d said to Bernard about not being able to get through to Henderson, he had spoken with him only two days ago, when Stake had called the captain to okay the trip back home to Punktown. The idea wasn’t to find out how Henderson was doing. The idea was to send Bernard out of the science lab on an errand, so that Stake might enter it in Bernard’s guise.

  “I’m sure the colonel would love to have Henderson off Sinan,” Stake couldn’t help himself from saying. “Me, too. Especially me.”

  “I guess. Anyway, I just saw Dr. Laloo on his way to go look in on the captain in his quarters, now that they’ve moved him out of the infirmary. Maybe you could call the doctor and he’d tell you how Captain Henderson is.”

  “Oh, yeah...okay.” Stake’s racing mind swerved down a new lane. “So, how’s Brian doing?”

  “He’s all right, I suppose, but once in a while he asks for ‘Mee.’ Ami.”

  Stake winced. “The poor kid.”

  “I’m trying to keep him happy and distracted, so he won’t miss her too much.”

  “You’re a good guy, Bernard. So where is Brian now? Caged up in Laloo’s department, or with you in the lab, or...?”

  “He still sleeps in the med unit, but I have him with me for much of the day.” In fact, Stake realized he could hear the distant chirps and squeals of the child playing in the background.

  “Well, I wish the best for him. Thanks, Bernard. Maybe I’ll try Laloo now and see if he’s willing to talk to me. I guess I should have called him in the first place, but I feel more comfortable talking to you.”

  When Stake had finished with its vidphone feature, he looked in his wrist comp’s files for some images he had captured on the sly of the Choom medical officer. Yes, Laloo. Even better.

  He got up and worked his way into the Burger God’s bathroom, where he closed himself inside a stall. Some acts were just too private to share.

  The Burger God did good business with Jin Haa customers, too. It was bustling today, and no one seemed to notice that a different man stepped out of the bathroom stall than had en
tered it.

  ***

  Looking like other people wasn’t all that good unless you could occasionally sound like other people, too, and Stake was very adept at mimicry, through practice and maybe even an instinct related to his gift. The gruff, snappish delivery of Dr. Laloo was easy enough to imitate. Stake had noticed he sort of grumbled to himself, and so he did this as he approached the front gates of the Colonial Forces base on foot, his hoverbike still parked down the street in front of Burger God. He had only seen Laloo in surgical scrubs, but since he didn’t have any he hoped it would not be out of character to wear the camouflaged fatigues he still had possession of, or the visored cap he’d pilfered. Laloo’s hair was cut very close, and was graying, and the cap would hide Stake’s discrepancy.

  “Doctor,” one of the two men posted outside, assault engine in his arms, greeted him.

  Stake mumbled impatiently in return. The mumble wasn’t just part of the act; portraying Chooms put his skills to the limit. Already, the muscles in his jaw ached from the stretching of his mouth back to his ears in the manner of Oasis’s indigenous people. His teeth couldn’t extend that far back, of course, but he kept his stretched lips closed to hide the fact.

  “I didn’t see you leave earlier, doc,” said the other guard, as the gate’s barrier of force was drawn aside to permit him entry.

  “Then pay more attention – there are terrorists loose in this city!” Stake scolded him as he brushed past onto the base.

  “Yes, sir,” the soldier replied, cowed.

  Stake was glad he was familiar with the base’s layout, and made his way to the medical unit as quickly as he could, heart pounding, afraid that at any moment he’d turn a corner in the rat’s maze of corridors and come face-to-face with the man he was impersonating. No one accosted him, though he nodded and grunted when passing a few of the base’s personnel. Two more guards were still stationed outside the med unit, since Brian spent the nights and part of his time in there. Stake stopped before them, patting his pockets as if in search of something. “Dung,” he griped.

  “Sir?” one of the men said.

  “Forgot my damn ID card somewhere,” Stake managed through painfully clenched teeth. A muscle in one of his cheeks was twitching. “Probably left it back in Henderson’s quarters.”

  “I’ve got you, sir.” The soldier leaned in close to the recognition scanner by the door, and its green light slid down his face and chest, confirming his features and ID badge. Stake was relieved, not sure whether his mimicry would have been the equal of a military scanner. As the door whisked open, the guard asked, “And how is the captain doing, doctor?”

  “Coming along, coming along,” Stake said, barreling into the room. The first thing he did as the door swept shut again behind him was slip a lab smock on over his camos, and exchange his military cap for a surgical hair covering. He draped a mask around his neck for good measure. Then, he leaned over a computer monitor and punched in the extension for the science lab. Once again, Stake found himself speaking with Bernard, but this time he felt confident enough not to have to distort his voice as when he’d counterfeited Ami Pattaya. “Bernard, can you please bring the boy back in here? And while you’re at it, bring me the box of gear found with the clones. There’s something that occurred to me that I want to look into.”

  “Okay, doctor. Did you happen to get a call from the detective, Jeremy Stake? He was asking me how the captain is doing.”

  “I don’t have time for him right now. Please make it quick, Bernard, if you don’t mind.”

  As Stake waited for Bernard to arrive, he chided himself for not going to the science department directly, lessening the chance of the real Dr. Laloo returning to the med unit before he could leave it. In the midst of this thought, his wrist comp jarred him by ringing. He looked at the caller’s ID: David Bright. That was all he needed right now, listening to the next installment of the businessman’s nervous breakdown. He didn’t pick up.

  Stake was jarred again as Bernard entered, the young black man holding Brian’s hand. The child looked up at Stake without much enthusiasm; obviously Laloo wasn’t his favorite person on the base. Under Bernard’s other arm he carried the container Stake had requested.

  “Very good, Bernard.” Stake took the box from him. “You may run along and play with your test tubes now.”

  “Just to let you know, sir, I haven’t given him his lunch yet.”

  Maybe we’ll make a quick stop at Burger God, Stake thought. “I’ll see to that, don’t you worry.” Stake made a shooing motion.

  Bernard didn’t try to hide the disapproval he felt for the man Stake imitated, his face sour as he turned and left the unit. Bernard’s protectiveness toward Brian made Stake feel sorry that – if all went well – this might be the last time he would see the cloned child.

  The detective leaned down to take Brian’s hand, and in his own voice whispered, “Come on, my man. It’s time you had a look at the world outside these walls.”

  ***

  The guards directly outside the door had thought nothing of Dr. Laloo leaving the medical unit with Brian at his side, but it was the guards posted at the base’s front gate who raised their eyebrows. Laloo’s doppelganger waved one arm impatiently until the barrier was withdrawn. One of the guards said, “Sir, the colonel is letting you take the child off the grounds now?”

  “For a brief walk, yes, if that doesn’t spoil your day, private.”

  “Are you going to have an escort, sir?”

  “Not for a fucking walk around the block. Just mind the store while I’m gone, will you?” Stake dragged Brian along a little faster, dreading that Gale himself might look out a window at any moment and see them passing through the energy barrier. He felt the guards’ uncertain eyes on his back as the field closed again behind him and he pulled Brian off down the street. Even Jin Haa passing on bikes or on foot turned their heads to follow the Choom in his lab smock and the tiny Earther child, who looked around at Di Noon in bright-eyed wonder.

  They made it to the battered hoverbike, waiting like a faithful horse outside the Burger God. Stake glanced in through the windows and decided it was too busy to risk taking the time to grab the child some lunch just yet. He lifted Brian into the side car, removed his lab coat and surgical hat and stuffed them in beside him before straddling the machine and lifting it off the pavement.

  Now they were on their way, and Stake was finally able to let the huge Choom grin relax from his face. The pain of stretched muscles was giving him a headache, and he felt alarm at the notion that one of his bender episodes might be coming on. Bad timing for that. Trying to take his mind off such thoughts, he glanced down at the blue data bracelet clamped around his right wrist, then switched his attention to the wrist comp on his left. No call had come through from Thi Gonh yet. Afraid to put Thi in danger by contacting her himself, he had asked Captain Yengun to call her instead and have her get in touch with Stake as soon as she was clear to do so. Was she unable to get out from under her husband’s distrusting eye?

  Again he took in the second bracelet he had removed from the base. This time, with the box still resting in the medical unit, the absence of the two bracelets was sure to be noticed. Well, with Brian stolen from the base, how much more hot water could he boil for himself? Two bracelets...one to go. But he wasn’t optimistic about the odds of Yengun actually tracking it down.

  Stake was well on his way through Di Noon, reassured by the distance he had put between himself and the base, when a call from Thi Gonh finally came in. By the way she didn’t act surprised at his appearance, he could tell he had reverted to his own nondescript features. Her smile shone at him. “Ga Noh. I miss you.”

  “Thi, I have an emergency here, and I don’t have anyone else to turn to.” Having no choice but to hope their conversation wasn’t being monitored, he skimmed over the circumstances by which the enigmatic clone had come to be in the side car beside him, laughing delightedly as the wind rushed in his face. “I need a plac
e to hide him, where people aren’t likely to look. Ha Jiin land would do better than Jin Haa land. I thought about asking Captain Yengun. I like the man, but I think that would be too much for him to swallow.”

  “Your friend, Henderson, no help you?”

  “He’s recovering from serious injuries, but mainly he’s very dedicated to his work and he wouldn’t go along with what I’m doing. In fact, I think he’d be horrified, however good my intentions. I can’t involve him in this. Guess you could say I have a new employer now.”

  “I don’t know...I can not take boy my house.”

  “No, not your house, of course, but do you have a friend or neighbor who you can really, really trust a hundred percent to hide the boy until I can move him someplace else?”

  Thi sighed, looking distraught at the possibility of letting him down. “Maybe – I not sure. I call you again soon, very soon, okay?”

  “Okay, Thi. In the meantime I’m heading out of Di Noon toward Bluetown. If you can do this, that way I’ll be closer to meet with you or whoever it is you can get to help us.”

  “I think I know, but not sure. Maybe if you give money a little, too.”

  “Sure, sure, if that’s what it takes.”

  “I call you again soon, Ga Noh, okay?”

  “Okay, Thi. And Thi?” He smiled back at her belatedly. “I miss you, too.”

  TWENTY-THREE: DELUGE

  Stake was out of the city, navigating a road through the jungle on his way to Bluetown. Overhanging its borders were oversized leaves with edges like blades, serrated or razor sharp, the bayonets of two encroaching armies, all seeming to want to slice at him as he raced between them. He passed several men leading a group of yubos, but when they turned to look he saw that none of them were Thi’s husband. He reminded himself he was still traversing Jin Haa soil.

  Brian was getting a bit squirmy in his seat, maybe hungry besides. He was beginning to whimper, looking about more restlessly than excitedly. Stake thought of something, and produced the ID badge he had filched from Ami Pattaya. He had brought it with him in case he’d needed it to gain access within the base, but that hadn’t been necessary. It bore a photo of her face. He handed it to Brian, who held it in both hands and said, “Mee.”