It was Rico who brought her back to the present. “Maggie! Look! Those boys! Aren’t they some of ours?”
Maggie looked in the direction of Rico’s pointing finger, and sure enough, there was a group of ragged-looking boys standing in the center of the pit. Here and there you could see brothers, or best friends, standing side by side, hoping that some sort of miracle would keep them together.
Outside of Molly McCade, and a few others, Maggie knew hardly any of Alice’s children. She spent very little time on the planet’s surface. But the expression of joy on Rico’s face was all the confirmation she needed.
“I think you’re right, Rico ...what now?”
Rico held a finger to his lips. “Let’s listen.”
“So,” the MC continued, buzzing the perimeter of the slave pit, “here’s lot forty-one, a group of twenty-three juvenile humans, recently taken off some slush ball along the rim. They are ice-world acclimated, in good health, and a bargain at ten thousand credits apiece. Do I have a bid?”
Bidding began, and because it was done using the key paid built into each chair, it was impossible to see who was taking part.
The Nexus MC provided a running commentary on how much was being bid, but that was beside the point at the moment, and Rico tuned it out.
He turned toward the robo guide on his shoulder. “Can ya tell who’s bidding?”
“Ofcourse,”the robot replied cheerfully,“it’s on freq four.There were five or six bidders a moment ago, but it’s down to a couple now, and they’re going at it hot and heavy.
“One group is on your right, two rows back, and six seats over. Zords, I think, although it’s hard to see with the crummy two-credit vid pickup they gave me.
“The others are over there, on the far side of the pit, the Lakorian in light body armor.”
Rico resisted the impulse to look at the Zords but could see the Lakorian without difficulty. He was nothing special, a middle-aged male, dressed in well-worn armor.
Rico spoke from the side of his mouth.“How ’bout the seller? Does Nexus own the boys...or is it someone else?”
The robot was silent for a moment as it sorted through a variety of electronic signals. “No, Nexus doesn’t own them, and yes, the owners are here. In seats G5, G6, G7, G8, G9 and G10 to be exact.”
It took Rico a moment to locate them off to his left, four men and two women, all dressed in ship suits and heavily armed.
Maggie was getting concerned, things were moving quickly, and she didn’t understand what Rico was up to. “Rico . . .”
“I have fourteen thousand...do I hear fourteen five? Going once, going twice ...”
Rico ignored Maggie as his stubby fingers danced over the chair’s key pad. “Not now, Maggie...it’s time ta buy the boys.”
“But,Rico...we don’t have any money!”
“Wait a minute, gentle beings,” the MC said with calculated enthusiasm, “we have another bid. I have fifteen, do I hear fifteen five? No? Going once, going twice, gone to bid number C-487912!
“Now our next lot consists...”
A bored-looking Cellite, with muscles on his muscles, herded the boys out of sight.
“Rico . . .” Maggie started, but stopped when she saw his fingers still moving over the key pad. A minute passed while queries appeared on a tiny screen and Rico tapped in the answers. Then he punched one last button and gave a sigh of relief. “Got ’em.”
“But how?” Maggie asked, completely mystified.
“Easy,” Rico replied. “I borrowed three hundred and forty-five thousand credits from Nexus, agreed ta pay ten percent interest compounded every thirty-six cycles, and used the boys, plus Void Runner, as collateral.”
“But that doesn’t solve anything. We still have to pay off the loan.”
“Right,” Rico said patiently. “But it does keep the boys here on Nexus. Got it?”
Maggie not only got it, her respect for Rico went up a notch as well. “So what now?”
“So now we follow them,” Rico said grimly, nodding toward the group of humans now getting up to leave. “I want a word with that bunch.”
A whole cacophony of alarm bells went off in Maggie’s mind. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea, Rico. Let’s find Sam, tell him about the boys, and come back later.”
Rico got to his feet.“Sam already knows about the boys,he authorized the lien on Void Runner.
“But that’s a good idea,”Rico said distantly,“you give Sam a hand, and I’ll be along after a while.”
Something about the way Rico said it, and the look in his eyes, scared Maggie. So she whirred along behind, wishing she could stop him, knowing she couldn’t. Deep down Maggie knew this was something personal. Rico would never admit but this had something to do with Vanessa.
The six humans left the venue, laughing and joking, happy with the profit they’d made. Even after the ten percent that went to Nexus, and another ten for Pong, they were still doing very well indeed. Now it was time for a little celebration.
Rico and Maggie followed the pirates down one level and into a recreational zone. There were all sorts of drug dens, sex shops, bars, and restaurants. The pirates turned into the first bar they came to.
Rico followed with Maggie trailing along right behind.
Rico waited until the pirates had seated themselves at a table, selected a booth nearby, and sat down to wait. Maggie did likewise.
The pirates made fun of the blast-burned woman who took their order, used their combat knives to play tic tac toe on the tabletop, and downed their first round of drinks in five seconds flat.
That’s when Rico stood up, removed the robo guide from his shoulder, and set it on the tabletop. It scuttled away.
Then Rico walked over to the pirate’s table, produced a big smile, and said “Hi.”
Most of the pirates snickered, but one replied. He had long lank hair parted in the middle, carefully plucked eyebrows, and a once-broken nose.
“Hi? Don’t you mean ‘Hi, sir’? That is what you meant, right, rimmer?”
Rico nodded. “Yes, sir, that’s exactly what I meant, sir.”
“Good,” the man answered. “Now tell me, rimmer, what the hell do you want?”
“Just a little information, sir. Someone attacked a planet called Alice a while ago, and I wondered if you were there.”
Maggie swallowed hard and moved away from the booth. The bar was completely silent. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a laser.
The pirate’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, you did, huh? Why’s that, rimmer? You from Alice by any chance?”
Rico smiled slowly. “Why yes, sir, I have that honor.Now I’d appreciate an answer.”
A woman spoke this time. She had hard eyes, a dope stick hanging from the corner of her mouth, and a whippet-thin body.
“Yeah, rimmer, we were there, the dirties put up quite a fight, but we waxed ’em good. How’d we miss something as big and ugly as you?”
It was the last thing she ever said. Maggie had never seen anything so fast. One moment Rico was standing there, arms hanging loosely by his sides, and the next there was a blaster in his hand.
The first bolt of energy took the woman right between the eyes. She fell over backward.
The next hit the man sitting beside her in the center of his chest, punched a hole through the back of his chair, and turned a neuro-game into a collection of fused circuit boards.
The air felt like quicksand as Maggie slapped the right side of her hover box, heard the panel pop open, and felt the spring-loaded blaster jump into her hand. As the weapon started upward Maggie wondered if it would arrive in time.
Meanwhile, the second woman shouted something incoherent as she put a bolt of blue energy through Rico’s shoulder, and died a fraction of a second later.
One of the men stood and brought a blaster into line with Rico’s chest.
Maggie fired. Her bolt took the man’s hand off at the wrist. It made an audible thump
as it hit the deck.
The man screamed and died as Rico put a bolt through his head.
Maggie fired again, saw a man try to cover the hole in his throat, and felt herself fall as raw energy sliced through her hover box.
She didn’t see the last man die from her vantage point on the floor, but she heard the scream of energy bolts and saw Rico’s boots appear in front of her face.
A second later his face was visible too, full of concern, asking how she was. Maggie saw a wisp of smoke drift away from the hole in Rico’s shoulder.
She didn’t get to answer, because a bunch of blaster-toting remotes picked that particular moment to show up, but Maggie knew what she wanted to say.
She wanted to say that it felt good to have friends.
Fourteen
There was an observatory tucked away far above the ship’s bridge, a tiny place where the navigator could get a star fix in an emergency, and the chief engineer could visually inspect thirty percent of the ship’s hull. The observatory was hardly ever used and had become Molly’s secret hideaway.
At the moment there was nothing to see since the ship was in hyperspace. Still, it was comforting to have a space of her own, where she could think and, if necessary, cry.
She sat on the circular bench, arms around her knees, and stared at the opposite bulkhead.
The headband was tight around her forehead, a constant reminder of Pong and what he could do to her.
The security officer had been a small man, with a shaved head and a walrus-style mustache. As he pulled the loyalty-band around Molly’s head and locked it in place, he described how it would work.
“Most o’ the time it ain’t nuthin’, just a headband like ya might wear to keep the hair outta your eyes. But ya try to take it off, or do somethun’ the Pong don’t like, and blamo! You’re history.
“Yasee it’s full o’ OS-3, carefully shaped ta explode inward, liftin’ the top of your head off, but keepin’ everyone else neat and tidy! It all works off that ring on his right pinky.”
The security officer thought he was doing Molly a favor, warning her so she wouldn’t mess around with the band and get herself killed, but his lecture had given her regular nightmares.
Every time Molly went to sleep she had the same recurring dream.
It began as she stepped off a shuttle. She could see Mommy and Daddy on the far side of the landing pad. They were alive! Then she ran across the pad, shouting her happiness, waiting to feel their arms around her.
And then, when she was only feet away, something horrible would happen. She would see the bands around their heads, hear Pong laughing, and wake up crying.
It was horrible and caused her to stay awake as long as she could.
But if the headband was terrifying, it conferred benefits too. Molly was allowed to go anywhere she wanted. By order of Pong himself she was accorded the respect shown a junior officer.
She thought it was a joke at first, a strange way to tease her, but now she knew it was real.
On three different occasions she’d given orders and they’d been obeyed. It had been a thrill at first, to suddenly have power, but that feeling quickly disappeared. Now the power troubled her ... and she didn’t know what to do.
Her first impulse was to help the others, but thanks to their already improved circumstances, there wasn’t much she could do.
Still, she did what she could, and was able to get them some nicer clothes and holo cubes.
The girls seemed to appreciate Molly’s efforts at first, until Lia told them she was a spy, and they turned against her. Now they wouldn’t even talk to her.
And that had led to a strange and disturbing encounter. During each twenty-six-hour cycle it was Pong’s wish that she spend two hours with him.
Molly didn’t see the point of this, because he spent most of the time working and rarely even spoke to her. But her presence seemed to give him pleasure, and Molly had no choice in the matter, so that’s how it was.
This particular cycle Pong decided to inspect the ship, an activity he usually left to others, but sometimes did himself.
So with Molly at his side, and the Melcetian mind slug riding his shoulder, Pong started in the bow and worked his way toward the stern.
Most of the inspection was a long succession of worried-looking faces, boring conversation, and trips into odd nooks and crannies.
Molly spent most of the time eyeing the signet ring on Pong’s little finger. The ring that gave him the power of life and death over her.
But then something strange happened. They were walking down one of the ship’s main corridors when they encountered Lia. She was on hands and knees, polishing the long metal strip that ran along the point where bulkhead met deck. There was no one else in sight.
Later, Molly would wonder how Lia came to be in that particular place at that particular time, and why Pong would know her name. But it seemed natural at the time and she accepted it.
Pong stopped. Lia looked frightened and polished twice as fast as she had before.
“So,”Pong said, “this is Lia.”
Molly looked from Lia to Pong. What was he doing? Why the sudden interest in Lia? Did it have anything to do with her?
“Correct me if I’m wrong, child,” Pong said thoughtfully, “but Lia’s the one who turned you in. Not only that, she did so without any knowledge of what the consequences might be. For all Lia knew, I might torture you or have you killed.”
Molly struggled for an answer. Pong knew Lia had ratted on her, so why ask the question? And given the fact that Lia had acted without any thought for the possible consequences, why protect her? Emotions surged. Come to think of it, Lia was still doing everything she could to isolate Molly and make her life miserable.
Still, to confirm Lia’s guilt seemed disloyal somehow so Molly said nothing.
Pong nodded, as if he understood exactly what had passed through Molly’s mind.
“Loyalty. A fine quality when deserved. But ask yourself the following question. Does Lia deserve your loyalty? What would she say if your positions were reversed?”
Molly had a pretty good idea what the answer to that was. Lia would condemn her without a second’s thought.
Lia knew too, and had forgotten to work, staring upward in abject terror. Her eyes pleaded for mercy.
“Right,”Pong said as if Molly had spoken. “She would betray you in a second. Not just now, but later too if she gets the chance. She’s jealous of you, and wants to dominate the other girls.
“So, here’s the problem. Should you forgive her? Knowing that she’ll be
tray you if given the chance? Or kill her, and remove the threat?” Lia made a mewing noise and started to back away.
Molly felt resentment bubble up from deep inside her, resentment at what Lia had done, would do if she got the chance.
Molly’s emotions demanded one thing, and her mind another. Her mind won. “No, killing Lia would be wrong.”
Pong nodded agreeably. “I understand, and might agree if you were home, dealing with childish squabbles.
“But remember, child, you aren’t home anymore. It’s unlikely that you’ll ever see your mother and father again. I know what that’s like ...I too lost my parents at an early age.
“So the decision is up to you. What do you want of life? What it gives you, or what you can take? Will you be victim or victor? The choice is yours. Just say the word, and Lia will die.”
And with that Pong had continued on his way, running a finger along a piece of conduit looking for dust, whistling through his teeth.
Molly had followed, looking backward over her shoulder at a terrified Lia, not knowing what to do or say.
And now Molly felt horrible, because she knew that for one brief moment, Lia had been very close to death.
Fifteen
McCade leaned back, left one foot on the deck, and placed the other on the bulkhead behind him. Phil stood a few feet away tapping numbers into his oversize w
rist comp.
Four major passageways spilled people and machines into the intersection in front of them. Some paused for a second, looked around, and resumed their journeys. Others knew where they wanted to go, and worked their way through traffic with the determination of fish swimming upstream.
McCade found half a smoked cigar in his breast pocket, stuck it into the corner of his mouth, and puffed it into life.
The bounty hunter had mixed emotions. On the one hand he was glad that Rico had found the boys, but there was no sign of the missing girls, or of Molly. He couldn’t help feeling disappointed.
Nexus wouldn’t allow them to speak with the boys until they were paid for, but McCade figured they’d been on an entirely different ship, and hadn’t seen the girls since the raid.
Well, there was nothing he could do except free the boys as quickly as possible and resume the search for Molly.
McCade removed the cigar, flicked some ash toward the deck, and stuck it back in his mouth. “So what’s the tab?”
Phil punched a few more keys, gave a low whistle, and looked up. “Well, what with the three hundred and forty-five that Rico borrowed to pay for the boys, damage to the bar, medical treatment, interest, and a whole bunch of service charges that Nexus tacked on, we’re looking at a grand total of five hundred and thirty-six thousand credits. Not counting the money we’re spending now.”
“A substantial piece of change,” McCade said, eyeing the crowd.
Phil nodded. “Yeah, real substantial. Do you think we can pull it off?
“Sure,” McCade answered, sounding more confident than he felt.
“There must be a couple hundred sentients wandering around this place with a price on their heads. All we have to do is round ’em up, sell their bounties at a ten-percent discount, and let some enterprising soul haul ’em in. What could be more simple?”
“Training rath snakes to make coffee,” Phil growled in reply.
The variant didn’t mean it. The idea made sense. Well, not sense exactly, but it might work anyhow.
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