Anne wanted to disobey, but she knew how single-minded Kilel was. At a basic level, Anne trusted the inspector, if only for her consistency. She knew this world. Anne didn’t, and she didn’t want to start something while the maniac beside her held a staser.
“Come, Anne. He’s unarmed. Neither is your mother.”
Kilel’s use of the word overcame Anne’s final doubts. She stared at Molly and let the fact sink in. Her mother was just twenty feet away, next to her father. Curiosity, anger, and terror swirled in Anne. Molly Bain was beautiful and elegant in her gown, though she had hints of circles under her eyes. She was tired, and not just from a late night. Anne’s father was dressed in a business suit, incongruous in itself, because he never wore anything other than jeans and a t-shirt. A casual observer might mistake them for a couple, but they hadn’t been together since Anne was a year old. A quiet fury pushed aside her other emotions. Her father was often lonely. I won’t let that woman cheat him of his heart again.
The inspector walked straight toward the pair. Bill spotted her and stopped, alarmed. Molly said something Anne couldn’t hear.
“BES agent.” Kilel announced herself with firm authority. She broadcast her credentials on the com network. “You are under arrest for crimes against the environment.”
Anne’s attention was on her mother, who shared the same fascination. Molly mouthed the word “Anne” and inclined her head as if asking a question. Anne answered with a nod. A man behind the couple distracted Anne. He was also dressed in a suit, which hung on him better than her father’s clothes fit his frame. Anne noted the disidentification mark on his forehead. What was her father up to?
Kilel repeated her instructions to Bill and drew her staser. The pedestrians nearby scattered, except for the dissed man.
The courtyard got more crowded when Colonel Penn stepped out from behind a row of withered vegetation. He was wearing civilian clothes, which confused Anne. The strange place, people dressed wrong, dissed people with her father and mother. Nothing made sense.
“Inspector Kilel, may I have a word?” the colonel said.
“Sir, remain where you are.” Kilel kept her weapon on Bill.
Kilel’s warning to the colonel startled Anne. What is she thinking? The girl’s palms sweat as adrenaline coursed through her body.
A ping popped up in Anne’s minds-eye. It was from her mother. Get ready to run.
“Don’t, Anne.” Kilel was monitoring Anne’s com traffic.
The colonel raised his hands. “You’re to be commended, Inspector.”
“Sir, I...” Kilel sounded as if she wanted to make a declaration, but changed her mind. “What are you doing here?”
“The smuggling operation,” Raleigh said. “I received a tip. A trusted source, and I had to follow up myself.”
Kilel lowered her voice. “Sir, you’re ill. I can see it from here.” Anne registered his gaunt appearance as well. He looked worse here than at the nursery.
“Inspector, I know you are investigating the endangered species case against my brother.” The colonel’s hands trembled like a chittering bird. “You must trust me. The smuggling case is far more important. I was about to take him and Mrs. Bain into custody.”
Bill growled. “You back-stabbing...”
He’s lying, Anne, Molly texted. He needs my help with his illness.
Anne didn’t understand what her mother meant. A part of her wanted to bolt, if not to her father, then somewhere, anywhere, to get away from Kilel. The woman was unhinged.
Kilel held her weapon steady. “Sir, I must decline your request. I’ve come a long way for Mr. Penn, and I intend to take him into custody.”
“Inspector, I appreciate your dedication and focus, but as your superior, I am ordering you to allow me to arrest Mr. Penn.”
Tension wound Anne’s muscles like a spring. No one was arresting her father if she could help it.
“Colonel Penn,” Kilel said, “why did you order me off the smuggling case?”
“Orders, Inspector. From above.”
Anne worked up the courage to text Molly. What are they talking about?
Molly’s emo-sigs were active. They displayed a mixture of pride and shame.
“I understand, Colonel,” Kilel said. “I’m sorry, I cannot let Mr. Penn out of my sight. Or you.”
The colonel took a step forward. An aluminum case hung heavily on his left arm. He did not want to let go of it. “Janine, don’t risk your career on this. I’m... close to retirement. I can recommend you for promotion. I’ve often thought that you would be a perfect candidate for my position... when the time came.”
Anne, you must believe me when I say...
“Colonel Penn, I’m placing you under arrest.” Kilel’s weapon ticked. “Please move next to Mr. Penn.”
The colonel was astonished. “You’re making a mistake, Janine. Let me continue my investigation... and I’ll forget this happened.”
...I did what I thought was best.
“Colonel, move closer to Mr. Penn, or I shall be forced to discharge my weapon.”
Anne did not comprehend her mother’s words, even as Anne listened to the conversation between Kilel and the colonel. Is she talking about her abandonment of my father and me? Is she talking about the smuggling?
“Inspector, let me continue with my plans, and I will tell you all I know.”
Kilel remained cagey. “About the carbon operation? Colonel, I want to know who is running the operation in the capital, and who told you to halt the investigation.”
“Yes, Inspector. Telling you is the least I can do, but I believe you already know the answers.”
Kilel angled her head. “The traces of oil at the Yesler City pier, the burned-out car, the behavior of the general in Pennsylvania, your orders to me, your lies to me just now. The rot is seeping down from the top, from the minister’s office itself.”
“Yes,” the colonel said.
“And in the Bureau?” Kilel was incredulous.
The conversation made little sense to Anne, except that the mention of a minister raised further alarm. Powerful people are involved in this, but all I want to do is go home with my father. Kilel took her eyes off her quarry as she parleyed with the colonel, and Bill and Molly began to inch away. Kilel kept talking to the colonel, discussing some case. An awareness dawned on Anne that Kilel knew what her father was doing and she was letting it happen. She wants us to run. She’s really after the colonel.
“I don’t know for sure, Janine, that our agency is involved, but it seems likely. Believe me that I’m not involved.”
Anne sent this text to Molly: I’m ready. In a sudden burst Anne ran to her father. Even as she sprang forward, he and her mother were running to one side, and Anne angled her pounding feet to match their trajectory. Any moment she expected to be struck by Kilel’s staser.
A puff jumped from the pavement at the colonel’s feet. A gun’s report echoed in the square. The colonel raised his hand to shield his eyes. A bullet entered his chest, and he dropped in a heap. Anne heard a second shot. Colonel Penn came to rest on his left side. A third shot rapidly followed. The rifle was on semi-automatic. Anne knew the sound and the effect. She once fired a vintage M-16 rifle during her marksmanship class.
Anne, Bill and Molly ducked behind a concrete planter, its flowers withered. The dissed man joined them, and Anne fought her instinct to ignore him. “We have to get out of here,” the man said.
“Shut up, Scribb,” Bill said. “We know that.”
The electronic whine of a staser on full power preceded its release. Kilel crouched and fired, and a section of hotel wall shattered. Yet the gun gave a fourth report, and Kilel fell to the pavement.
Rather than being relieved, Anne was alarmed by the fallen officer. As hateful as Kilel was, no one deserved to be shot out of ambush. “The inspector’s hit,” Anne said.
A look passed between father and daughter, the tilt of the head and the set of the jaw a silent communication b
oth grasped. How many times had they talked about helping a shipmate or a neighbor, even one you despised, when a life was in danger? He or she might be on a passing vessel while you were drowning, and you prayed that he would return the favor when the time came. You may hate that person and everything about him, but he is a human being same as you, her father taught.
Bill pushed his companions aside and ran to Kilel. He lifted the unconscious, bleeding police officer onto his back, as a soldier might on a battlefield. Anne’s feelings alternated terror with pride as he waddled into the hotel’s entrance.
Anne expected him to be shot too, but the rifleman apparently only wanted the BES officers.
“What do we do now?” the dissed man said.
Anne had only one thing in mind, to go to her father, but he was now in the hotel. She noticed her uncle bend his leg. “The colonel is still alive.”
“Molly, look.” The dissed man pointed at an approaching figure. “It’s Gore, and...”
Anne missed the name of the other person, because she was transfixed by the vision of a bipedal orange cat, dressed in a historical uniform. I saw him at City Hall. Anne’s com displayed his avatar, a stylized face of a bengal tiger. A woman, tanned and wiry, carried a sniper rifle as if she had shot it a moment ago. The cat-man left his conversation channel open to the public, perhaps by accident. Anne monitored the conversation.
Well done, my lovely Micah. Our partners will be pleased.
CHAPTER 35
♦ ♦ ♦
BILL’S ANKLES AND CALVES PROTESTED at carrying Kilel’s unconscious deadweight. He fought up the hotel’s flights of stairs and directed Molly to push open the fire door. “Molly, the door lock,” Bill huffed. While Anne and Scribb looked on, Molly entered the room lock code given to her by the colonel. Bill laid Kilel like a sleeping child on the double bed. The inspector’s blood soaked her blouse.
“ Scribb, watch the hall,” Bill ordered.
Molly’s eyes lingered on Anne. See, he thought, amid the whirl of thoughts in his mind, that’s what you gave up.
Bill found a thick towel in the bathroom. He tore Kilel’s blouse at the wound and grimaced. He pressed the towel against it. “Someone needs to get a doctor.”
“Why did you rescue her?” Molly said.
“I saw her lying there, bleeding,” Bill said, exchanging a glance with Anne.
“You could’ve just left her there.”
“She needed help,” Anne said.
“That’s what we do, Molly. We think of others, not just ourselves,” Bill said. “Someone needs to find a doctor.”
“I will,” Scribb said.
“Well, go on. Go!” Bill said.
Martin settled on Kilel, as if he wanted to ask something.
“What are you waiting for, Scribb?” Bill said.
“Is she going to live?”
“How the hell should I know?”
The monk’s face twisted in resignation, and he left the room.
“Bill, your brother is still moving,” Molly stood at the window. “He’s still alive.”
Kilel groaned, and Bill refolded the towel, looking for another clean patch to compress the wound.
“Go to him,” Bill said. “He needs help.”
“I’m not going out there.” Molly said. “I don’t want to get shot.”
Anne, at her father’s side, regarded Molly with distaste. “I can do it.”
“No, it’s too dangerous. Molly should go. I’ve got to stay here with Kilel.”
“I’m not dressed for rescue work,” Molly said.
Anne started for the door.
“No, Anne,” Bill shouted, fighting a wave of panic.
“The shooters don’t care about me. And he’s my uncle.”
“Anne!”
She dashed into the hall.
“Dammit.” Bill wanted to watch for Anne in the courtyard, but he needed to hold the towel and stop Kilel’s bleeding. “Molly, get over here.”
“What? Are you kidding me?”
“Fuck it, woman. Think of someone else for a change and hold this towel.”
Molly growled, but she followed Bill’s order. They switched places and he peered between the steel plates in the window. A jolt of anxiety subsided when Anne appeared and kneeled next to the colonel. The officer’s arm slid over the pavement. Anne rested her hand on his. Bill was struck by the tenderness of her gesture. His mouth moved, and she moved her ear closer to hear. Colonel Penn’s arm relaxed. Anne lifted her hand from the colonel’s and gazed up at the hotel, as if looking for reassurance. She trotted back to the hotel entrance. After a moment, she showed up at the room door, her face white.
“What did he say?” Bill said.
“He died right there in front of me.” Anne buried her face in her father’s chest. “Your brother is dead.”
Bill held his daughter in his arms. How can a man miss his child so much and not go insane? “It’s all right, sweetheart. He and I, we didn’t know each other very well. You and I have to get through this, then we’ll talk about it. Okay?”
Anne cleared her throat. “He had a message for Kilel. Something like, ‘Don’t give up’ or ‘Don’t worry.’”
“What else?” It was Kilel, half-conscious. “What did the colonel want?”
“Take it easy.” Bill returned to the inspector, edging Molly aside. “You’ve been shot. You’re bleeding. We’re getting a doctor.”
“What else did he say?” Kilel was insistent.
Anne brought a cup of water to Kilel. “He said, ‘Interior Ministry’ and ‘Protect yourself.’”
Kilel blinked at the ceiling. “We need to get him out of Run.”
“Inspector, I’m sorry,” Anne said. “He’s dead. I’m sure of it. Blood was everywhere.”
Kilel closed her eyes. Bill wondered if she was saddened by his death, but he didn’t have time or the energy to ask her. “Where’s Scribb and a doctor?” he said to no one in particular.
“They won’t come.” Scribb slid back into the room. “There’s a clinic next door, but the doctors are too scared to treat a bessie.”
“What do we do now?” Molly said.
“We could leave her,” Scribb said.
“No, we shouldn’t abandon her,” Anne said.
“The hotel might find a doctor.”
“No one’s going anywhere.” Kilel propped herself up on the bed, reaching down to her holster. She pointed her staser at Bill. He cursed himself for failing to disarm her.
“Inspector.” Scribb’s eagerness bordered on desperation. “The colonel promised...” He pointed at Molly. “She’s part of the smuggling ring. I did nothing. She helped Gore get the oil here. She’s...”
Molly hissed, “You’re a liar, Martin. I was a hostage.”
Scribb’s agitation grew. “She fixed the AI programming for the convoy. She was with him at City Hall with Gore. They might be lovers...”
Kilel pointed her staser at Scribb’s head. “I know who you are, dissed man. You’re dead. Get out.”
Scribb’s face flushed. Bill knew the look. The man wanted to scream at the injustice done to him. He was nothing more than a ghost. He kept himself in check, though, and backed out of the room.
“Maybe Martin’s right,” Molly pointed at Kilel. “In the shape she’s in, she can’t follow us.”
“You’d abandon her like you abandoned Dad and me?” Anne’s tone dripped with bile. “I won’t leave a person who is injured, even if she wants to put us in prison.”
Molly turned away, uncomprehending.
“If we leave her, someone’s likely to finish the job,” Bill pointed out. “ Bessies aren’t popular in Run.”
“I’m your way out of Run. I can protect you, even if I’m hurt.” Kilel winced. “Mr. Penn, can you see a blue and silver car on the hotel driveway?”
Bill scrutinized the plaza and the entrance. “I see it.” It was five meters from Colonel Penn’s body.
“The police car you got in Dud
inka?” Anne said.
“We need to get to it,” Kilel gulped. Her skin was growing pale.
“What if the sniper is still out there?” Molly said.
“We’ll have to risk it.”
“Wait,” Bill said. All of this was too convenient. Kilel still pointed the staser at him, and he remembered her threat the last time she did so, back on the dirt road near Thomasburg. “How do we know you’re not lying? Maybe we should leave you behind.”
“Dad, we couldn’t,” Anne said, disbelieving.
Kilel was breathing heavily, weakening by the moment. “You’re tainted by your association with me. You’re all marked for death by whoever shot the colonel. I’m your best chance for survival. Like you, I could walk out on my own, but I also need you. You have information that I want to break up the smuggling ring. I’m willing to trade. You help me, and I’ll help you.”
Bill glanced at Molly and his daughter. “Anne knows nothing. You’re bargaining with me only, Kilel. Molly knows what she saw on the road here, nothing more. She was a prisoner.” Kilel panted slightly, losing color in her cheeks, and Bill pressed his advantage. “You have to drop the species destruction charges against me or I won’t cooperate. Is that clear? All I want is my daughter and my life back.”
“Agreed.”
Kilel’s lack of hesitation, given her determination to find him, raised Bill’s suspicion. “Why should I trust you?”
“You don’t have to trust me, Mr. Penn. I’m being pragmatic. We both win by surviving and delivering on the bargain.”
“We don’t have many choices,” Anne said, although Bill could see that she feared the woman, despite the wound. He saw no other way. I’ll have to hope that Kilel is as rigid about keeping her promises as she is about enforcing stupid laws. “Let’s go,” he said at last.
Kilel holstered her staser. She tried to sit up, but she moaned in pain. Bill lifted her good arm over his shoulder. Kilel whimpered, but got to her feet. Bill led her out the door, glad for the strength he gained aboard Aganippe.
Carbon Run Page 31