McCade had conflicting emotions. Having your ship stolen out from under you was about the worst thing that could happen short of death itself, and to have it happen on a planet as desolate as Spin, well that made the situation even worse.
On the other hand he couldn’t help but admire Neem’s resourcefulness, especially since the Il Ronnian was the human equivalent of a college professor. “I’m amazed, Neem...it was a nice piece of work.”
“Thanks, Sam, I’m kind of proud of it myself. I’m not much of a pilot as you know, but the tug was equipped with automatics, and having had some experience with Pegasus, I had little difficulty getting into space.”
“And then?”
Neem’s tail assumed a posture of doubt. “Then I didn’t know what to do. I checked the tug’s computer and found coordinates for the Rock, but based on what you’d told me, I knew I wouldn’t get past the weapons platforms.
“I’m ashamed to say that I was just about to run home with my tail between my legs, a rather strange saying for you humans to have by the way, when I stumbled across the answer.
“As I entered the new course into the tug’s computer it asked me if I really wanted to enter a new set of coordinates or use the last ones instead. Just out of curiosity I asked what the last ones were. Well, I couldn’t believe my eyes when the coordinates flashed on the screen.”
“Your next destination was the Rock,” McCade guessed.
“Don’t be silly,” Neem replied tartly. “I was lucky, but not that lucky. No, the next destination was the Asod Cluster.” Neem paused dramatically. “To tow a disabled ore barge to guess where?”
“The Rock,” McCade said, exhaling a long, thin stream of smoke.
Neem’s tail drooped. “You guessed.”
“Sorry,” McCade said unsympathetically. “So you went to the Asod Cluster. Then what?”
“It was fairly simple after that,” the Il Ronnian admitted somewhat reluctantly. “Thanks to the ship’s automatics I was able to assist two other tugs in pulling the barge out of orbit. We locked all four vessels together via tractor beams and made a synchronized hyperspace jump.”
McCade winced at the thought. It was a common practice but it was damned dangerous. One miscalculation, one hyperdrive slightly out of phase with the others, and all four ships would be lost. Blown up? Forever adrift in hyperspace? No one knew for sure, and McCade had no desire to find out.
“So,”Neem added matter-of-factly, “once we cleared hyperspace it was simple. The pirates were expecting us so we sailed right past the weapons platforms. Then we placed the barge in orbit, landed for refueling, and went our separate ways.
“By then I was determined to take Reba’s place and obtain your freedom. A disguise seemed in order and it was a simple matter to cut up three of the tug’s spacesuits and construct a somewhat exotic-looking alien. I thought the extra arms were especially effective, didn’t you?”
“A nice touch,” McCade agreed dryly as he stubbed out his cigar. “I owe you one, Neem. A big one.”
“Yes, slave, you certainly do,” Neem replied through a big grin. “And the next time I purchase slaves, remind me to go for quality rather than quantity.”
“How did you pay for us anyway?” McCade asked. “And why buy four instead of one?”
Neem gave a good imitation of a human shrug. “I had some time to kill during the hyperspace shift from the Asod Cluster to the Rock. I used it to crack the tug’s safe. When I got the safe open I found a thick wad of credits inside. It was as simple as that.
“Once on the Rock I donned my disguise, took a taxi to the hotel where my other two slaves are still under lock and key, and waited for the auction.
One rotation later it started, and not wanting to seem too interested in any one human, I bought four. The rest is, as you humans would say, history.”
“Paydirt!” The voice belonged to Chips. “They’ve got one helluva good system, I’ll give them that, but not good enough to foil old Chips! I went around their blocks, defeated their traps, and fooled their tracers. In a few moments you’ll have a printout of all the loot taken from Il Ronnian space within one standard week of the date you gave me. Complete with description, estimated value, and final disposition. Then all we gotta do is grab the vial and haul ass.
“That’s great!” McCade said, jumping to his feet. “Chips, you’re a genius.”
The small charge went off with a loud cracking sound and the triple locked door flew open. A small army of armored police rushed in and took up positions around the room.
They didn’t say anything. They didn’t have to. Their drawn weapons said it all. McCade, Chips, and Neem all froze without being told.
Smoke billowed, eddied, and was sucked toward the nearest vent. That’s when Reba stepped into the room and smiled. “Hello, Sam. Greetings, Neem. I couldn’t help but overhear that last comment via the bug in the ventilator. Chips is many things...but a genius isn’t one of them.”
McCade treated Chips to a withering look.
The little man spread his hands apologetically and said, “Ooops.”
Nineteen
“Sam McCade, I’d like you to meet Sister Urillo. Sister Urillo, this is Sam Mc-Cade.”
Sister Urillo was a cyborg, a beautiful cyborg, but a cyborg nonetheless. It hadn’t always been so. During a raid on Carson’s World a surface-to-air missile had ignored the electronic countermeasures built into her aerospace fighter and hit one of her stubby wings. Her ship crashed a few seconds later.
Her copilot pulled her from the burning wreck, but she had massive injuries, and even with an unusually fast air evac, she just barely survived.
Doctor after doctor said she’d be lucky to live out her life in a nutrient tank, little more than sentient tissue, stored away in some dark corner of a hospital.
But Urillo refused to give up. She said “yes” to the countless operations, she said “yes” to the experimental bionics, and she said “yes” to the pain.
And finally, when all the parts of her body were meshed into a unified whole, she went a step further. She made a decision to love and accept her new body. So while others might have hidden their bionic parts, Sister Urillo flaunted hers, treating them as ornaments and using them to her advantage.
She had rich brown eyes and a beautiful face. It was almost untouched by the crash, the single exception being her left temple and cheek where smooth brown flesh gave way to golden metal. The metal had been sculpted to match the other side of her face. Fanciful patterns had been engraved into the metal, moving and flowing to surround and enhance the single ruby set into her cheek. It glowed with internal fire and flickered with each movement she made.
Her shoulders were of gleaming chrome giving way to golden arms and fingers. Her red dress was cut low to reveal most of her remaining breast and all of its metal twin. The metal breast was perfectly shaped and tipped with a ruby nipple.
Lower down her dress fell into sculptured lines around beautiful legs, one brown and one chrome. They took turns appearing and disappearing through slits designed for that purpose.
And Sister Urillo’s appearance didn’t end there. Her combination office-living quarters were a carefully designed extension of her body. A high-tech, glass-topped desk served to complement and echo her metal parts while the rest of the furniture was soft and brown like her remaining flesh.
McCade noticed that her voice had a lilting quality and was only slightly distorted by a hidden speech synthesizer. “Greetings, Sam McCade. Although we haven’t met, I was present the last time you left the Rock. It was an expensive and rather spectacular sight.”
Even though her hand was metal covered by a thin layer of golden plastiflesh, McCade found it warm to the touch. Some sort of heating element woven into the plastic?
He smiled wryly. “My apologies, Sister Urillo. Had I known that such a beautiful woman was present I would have stopped to introduce myself.”
“It’s better that you didn’t,
” Urillo replied with a laugh. “I would’ve been forced to blow your head off.”
She turned to Reba. “He’s annoying but gallant as well. You didn’t tell me that.”
Reba looked from Sister Urillo to McCade and shrugged. “Sam is full of surprises. Like his transformation from slave to computer thief for example. It was a mistake to underestimate him.”
“I’m glad you admit it,”Sister Urillo said as she went behind her desk. “A little humility is a useful thing. Both of you, please, take a seat. McCade...you may light one of those god-awful cigars if you wish . . . though Reba may object.”
“Go ahead,” Reba said as she selected a seat. “My cancer shots are up-todate.”
The invitation bothered him. He wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was their complete control of the situation, or maybe they’d taken the fun out of it, but whatever the reason he refused.
“Thank you, ladies,” McCade said, dropping into the deep comfort of an over-stuffed armchair, “but I think I’ll pass.”
“All right then,” Sister Urillo said, her eyes suddenly hard. “Let’s get down to brass tacks. By now you realize Reba’s something more than a damsel in distress. Most of the time, when she isn’t allowing herself to get captured during Il Ronnian raids, she’s one of my security agents. I sit on the Brotherhood’s governing council and have responsibility for planetary security. So when Reba left Spin, she came straight to me.”
McCade nodded. Well, it was his own fault. He’d been suspicious, just not suspicious enough. “I suppose Chips works for you as well?”
Urillo nodded approvingly.“Yes,Chips works for us on a part-time basis.”
“Then why the charade?” McCade asked. “Why not grab me off the top?”
Reba shrugged. “We wanted to see if you would contact any Imperial agents. There are some but we don’t know who they are.”
“And,” Sister Urillo added wryly, “you did contact an agent. A crazy Il Ronnian who found a way to escape from Spin, bypassed our security systems, and bought you on the open market. We actually lost track of you for a while, and if it hadn’t been for Chips, you might have escaped.”
Reba nodded soberly. “Another mistake on my part. I should’ve killed Neem, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
“That was a mistake,” Sister Urillo agreed, “but in retrospect it was a good mistake.”
“Speaking of which how is Neem?” McCade asked. He hadn’t seen the Il Ronnian since the police had broken in.
“Your friend is fine,” Urillo replied calmly, “which brings us to you.” She leaned forward in her chair. Her eyes narrowed and the light sparkled off the ruby in her cheek. “I should kill you and use your body to help rebuild our damaged soil. And if it weren’t for this absurd religious relic, that’s exactly what I’d do. But Reba tells me the Il Ronn are ready to come after this thing, and if they do, the Rock’s the first place they’ll stop. And while we might stand ’em off for a while, there wouldn’t be much left when they got done, and some stupid vial isn’t worth dying over. So this is your lucky day, McCade. Instead of winding up dead, you’re going to find the relic and give it back to them.”
McCade felt a big emptiness in the pit of his stomach. “Find it? You’ve already got it. The Vial of Tears was taken during a raid on an Il Ronnian planet and brought here.”
Sister Urillo leaned back in her chair and steepled her golden fingers. Light winked off her forearms and danced across the ceiling. “Unfortunately that’s not the case. Oh, it was taken during a raid all right, but it wasn’t brought here, and we aren’t sure where it is.”
“You see,” Reba added, “the raid was unsanctioned.”
“Meaning that while the raid was carried out in our name and using our ships, we didn’t authorize it,” Urillo added. “That particular raid was led by Mustapha Pong, an ex-colleague of mine and a complete rogue.”
“I was looking for leads to Pong’s whereabouts when I was captured,” Reba explained. “We want him just as much as the Il Ronn do.”
“Exactly,” Sister Urillo agreed, chrome flashing as she crossed her long legs. “So I want the two of you to stop screwing around and go find him.”
Twenty
Tin Town. Though not a town in the normal sense of the word the name fit. First because Tin Town was made of metal, and second because it qualified as a collection of inhabited dwellings, and that’s what a town is.
So what if this particular town was in orbit around a planet, was equipped with hyperdrive, and had once been an ore barge? To the ten thousand five hundred and sixty-five sentients who lived there, Tin Town was home.
As Pegasus drew closer McCade dimmed the main viewscreen. Tin Town shimmered with light. Much of it came from the signs that covered its hull. They rippled, flashed, and pulsated, advertising everything from ***HOT SEX*** to Clyde’s Cyborg Clinic. “Check in and check us out.”
Some of the light came from Tin Town herself. As the hull turned on its axis an endless array of solar collectors flashed in the sun and generated a belt of light. In addition, there were the winking navigation beacons, the glow of welding torches, and the occasional blue-white flare of steering jets when ships jockeyed for position.
McCade had never been to Tin Town before, but like everyone else, he’d heard of it. The habitat had been founded some seventy years before by a group of people who disliked government of any kind. They believed everyone should accept responsibility for every aspect of their lives, and having done so, they owed nothing to others. As a result they were commonly referred to as “Loners.”
The group first tried to live out their philosophy on a succession of rim worlds. Things would be fine for a while, but after a while new settlers would come along and conflict would soon follow.
The new settlers would want to establish a fire department, or a police force, or some other public service, and they’d propose a government to organize and provide it.
The Loners would object, suggesting a privately owned enterprise instead. They felt each person should be free to support the service in question or go without.
“But what about the destitute?” the settlers would ask. “Don’t we have a moral duty to help them?”
“Not at all,” the Loners would reply. “With the exception of a very few who should borrow money and start again, the destitute failed to provide for themselves. Now they want us to take responsibility for their lives and protect them from the consequences of their own folly. That’s not fair. Why should we support a government we don’t want or need?”
Needless to say the rest of the settlers went right ahead and formed governments without them, provided services, and imposed taxes. At this point the Loners were forced to pay or leave, and time after time they left, eventually settling on some other planet where they were forced to start all over again.
Eventually some of the Loners grew tired of the unending struggle and decided on another course of action. If they couldn’t have their own planet, they’d create an alternative. A habitat large enough to hold them but small enough to control. Their habitat would be mobile too, so they could leave unfriendly environs whenever they wished, including human space if that became necessary.
Research showed that a conventional ship wouldn’t be big enough and a custom-designed habitat would be way too expensive. The solution strangely enough was an ore barge. Unlike most ore barges, this one was equipped with drives of its own and was fairly new to boot. The barge had come onto the market when the company that owned it went out of business. Due to its unusual size and design, other companies had declined the opportunity to buy it.
But the barge was perfect for what the Loners had in mind so they formed a corporation and bought themselves a dream. True to their philosophy each person bought as much of the barge as they could afford, paid for those services they wished to receive, and were in all other respects free to do as they wished.
To protect their newfound freedom the Loners instituted a pol
icy of strict neutrality toward all governments, planetary and galactic alike, and in doing so made themselves accidentally rich.
Throughout the history of human civilization there’s been a need for neutral ground. A place where enemies can meet, where money can be stored, and secrets can be kept.
Given their fanatical desire for independence, their utter pragmatism, and their ability to run from trouble, the Loners were perfect candidates to fill this need. And fill it they did, opening banks, storage vaults, and a broad range of related services.
Due to their prosperity, others were eager to join them. And pragmatists though they were, the Loners didn’t care whether the newcomers understood or approved of the undeflying philosophy, only that they lived in accordance with it.
Time passed, and before long there were more people than space to put them in, so additions were approved. There was no reason to limit mass since Tin Town was too large to negotiate a planetary atmosphere, and doing so would have compromised its security.
As a result the barge began to change shape. Her once-smooth hull grew bumps and bulges as sections were enlarged. Two globular liners were connected to the barge’s bow and stern, making her the bar between two huge dumbbells. Then a forest of sensors, weapons platforms, and cooling fins appeared along with the now-famous name “Tin Town.”
A soft chime interrupted McCade’s thoughts as the com screen lit up. Where he expected to see a face, there was a request for a damage deposit instead. A rather large damage deposit.
Although the Loners placed no political restrictions on their visitors, they did insist on insuring themselves against financial loss. After all, a town without laws tends to attract some nasty visitors and without some sort of controls would soon cease to exist. Therefore each visitor was required to produce a rather substantial damage deposit before they were allowed to land.
McCade on the Run (Sam McCade Omnibus) Page 12