Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2006 Edition

by Rich Horton

  The welcomer frowned again. Sabor could visualize the turmoil in his mind. This was not, obviously, a routine call from a routine caller.

  The welcomer decided a terse nod would be the appropriate physical response. “I will advise her at once."

  "I suggest you give the message your highest priority."

  "I will include your request with my transmission, Financier."

  Purvali had removed a scarf from her luggage and wrapped it around her head. Her hidden face and her straight body communicated the same message kilometer after kilometer, without a single change in her position, every time Sabor popped her image onto his display.

  "You have a realtime call from Colonel Jina,” Sabor's system announced.

  Sabor glanced at his time strip. It had been forty-one minutes since Avaming had announced he was deploying his troops. “That could be interesting. Put the good colonel on. Copy to Choy and Purvali."

  Colonel Jina flashed his unforgettable smile. “Good afternoon, Sabor. We're having a busy day, aren't we?"

  "It's always good to stay active, colonel. What can I do for you?"

  "I've been keeping track of the time you've devoted to rest stops. We will be resolving this situation the next time you're forced to stop for a feeding session—in about twenty minutes, by my calculation. You don't have enough cats to counter another assault and your widemounts don't have enough energy to outrun us."

  "My assistant Choytang is in charge of our logistics. But I believe twenty minutes is a reasonable estimate."

  "Kenzan Khan is determined to take you prisoner and acquire total control of your assets. It seems to me there should be some room for compromise. If you were to forgive all his current debts, for example, he would be in a position to borrow more capital from you and maintain the forces he needs to pursue his conflict with Possessor Dobryami. I would be happy to convey such an offer to him."

  "Doesn't that create some conflict with your professional ethics, colonel?"

  "I have several assets at risk. I would rather not lose them in an avoidable assault."

  "They are all replaceable."

  "But replacement takes time. And time has a financial value. As you, of all people, should know. The proposal I am making would be in everyone's interest, Honored Sabor."

  "I have to think about time, too—the long term consequences. I would still be surrendering to extortion. I would be encouraging all the other ruffians who would find such actions appealing."

  "It seems to me this wouldn't be the first time you have yielded to the threat of violence. You and your colleagues have consistently bestowed large loans and special rates on the more powerful possessors."

  "No possessor has ever attempted anything this blatant. If we're going to discuss our mutual interests, it seems to me it would be in your interest to advise Kenzan Khan you aren't going to fulfill his contract. Your business, colonel—like all businesses—depends on a system for an orderly transfer of payments. In most societies, that infrastructure normally rests on the rule of law. We have not established such a rule here and we are therefore dependent on other means. But that doesn't mean you can live without the infrastructure."

  "You are going to be taken. You will be captured. Your concubine and your assistant will be captured. You will be taken to Possessor Khan. Your minds and all your assets will fall under his control."

  Sabor's fingers tapped out a silent message to Choy. What's the maximum time you can keep the widemounts moving?

  Thirty-three minutes.

  Do it. Postpone the next stop for as long as you can.

  "Kenzan Khan is endangering a key social structure, colonel. Do you really want to live on a planet in which the banking system can be corrupted by anyone who controls enough soldiers?"

  "I can only interpret that statement as the plea of a desperate man, Honored Sabor. You may call me any time you wish to discuss my offer."

  The colonel's image vanished. Purvali's image leaped into the center of Sabor's visual field.

  "It's settled,” Sabor said. “I will not give Kenzan some kind of compromise. There will be no end to his demands if I do that."

  He cut Purvali out of his display and started recording a message for Possessor Dobryami. “This is a follow up to the message I left with your welcomer, Possessor Dobryami. If you launch an attack on Possessor Khan's forces within the next forty minutes, I will reimburse you for the cost of any losses you sustain. The reimbursement will be based on the cost of an accelerated replacement at the fastest possible tempo."

  A blinking light on the edge of his display announced a text message from Purvali. I presume we can at least drape our widemounts in their armored blankets?

  The armored blankets had been rolled into telescoping cylinders and attached to the carriers. The cylinders would extend fore and aft on command and the widemount would be sandwiched between two blankets that extended along its sides from head to tail. The blankets would interfere with the widemounts’ side vision and general maneuverability but their smiling adversary had made it clear they had to reorder their priorities.

  "We'll lower the blankets when we make our rest stop,” Sabor said. “Sooner if it looks like they're attacking the widemounts."

  And how about me? I'm going to have a few problems shooting at our adversaries if you keep me locked inside my boudoir.

  "We'll deal with that when the time comes."

  You are being irrational, Sabor. Do you really think you'd be doing me a favor if you kept me alive just so I could spend the rest of my life as one of Possessor Khan's harem bodies?

  "You have a real time call from Counselor Tarakelna."

  "Put her on."

  Counselor Tarakelna was the member of Dobryami's staff who handled most of her financial negotiations. She greeted him with her usual controlled, carefully measured smile and Sabor responded with his best simulation of his normal business façade.

  "Possessor Dobryami examined your last offer, Sabor. She feels you're offering her a minor return on a major risk. You are asking her to attack before she is certain Possessor Kenzan Khan has lost his extra forces."

  "I can assure you those forces are going to be returned to their owner. It should happen at any minute. If Possessor Dobryami accepts my suggestion, she will have soldiers in position, in Kenzan Khan's territory, when it happens."

  "Possessor Dobryami believes the risk/reward ratio is higher than it should be. She feels a complete cancellation of twenty percent of her debt load would be more logical."

  "Possessor Dobryami has been granted a major opportunity, Counselor. We both know it would be to her advantage to seize it."

  "Possessor Dobryami fully understands the value of your information. But she feels she can take full advantage of it after she is certain Possessor Khan has lost control of his extra troops."

  Sabor nodded. “I've been looking at her account data while we talk. You can tell her I can offer her a nine tenday stretchout—ninety days, starting now, with no payments of interest or principal."

  Counselor Tarakelna frowned. She studied Sabor's face and he looked back at her blandly.

  "I will advise the Possessor of your offer,” Counselor Tarakelna said.

  Sabor ordered the blankets dropped as soon as they settled into their next feeding stop. Choy formed the three passenger widemounts into a defensive triangle, with the cargo widemount positioned about thirty meters outside the triangle.

  This time, Colonel Jina's emissaries slipped into a dispersed formation. Three of the hardbodies and two of the cats disappeared from the display. Elongated ovals indicated their estimated positions.

  A text message from Choy flickered across the map display. I am releasing all my reconnaissance birds. I gather I should consider this our last stand.

  "Pull out all the stops,” Sabor said. “Maximum effort. Do or die."

  Birds whirred out of Choy's cages. Symbols lit up on the map display. The hardbodies and their cats had formed a wide arc about seven
ty meters from Choy's triangle.

  "I am being attacked by anti-material molecular missiles,” Sabor's carrier announced. “My armor is responding."

  "Our carrier's shells will dissolve in about ten minutes,” Choy said. “We should counter-attack sometime before then. While our personal armor is still at maximum."

  "Can we attack on the widemounts?"

  "For a few minutes. They still have some short-term energy reserves."

  "Hold off for as long as you can. Colonel Jina is obviously taking his time. The longer he takes, the better for us."

  The display monitored the effect of the invisible rain falling on the carrier shells. The widemounts munched on whatever nourishment they could scavenge from their immediate surroundings. Choy's cats formed a tight formation between the widemounts and the snipers in the trees. Sabor shifted his attention between the display and the real world and tried to spot the hardbodies when they broke cover and fired.

  "We have to get very physical when we attack,” Choy said. “We have to break bones. We can't possibly overwhelm their armor before they overwhelm ours."

  "I understand,” Sabor said. “Try to avoid killing and irreversible damage. We'll leave that possibility in reserve—as a retaliatory threat if Colonel Jina starts thinking you and our female companion are expendable."

  "Get ready to move out. Our carrier shells will dissolve in about one minute."

  Sabor's widemount shifted out of the triangle. The three passenger widemounts formed a rough line and lurched toward the left end of the hardbody line.

  "I'm going to attack the two snipers on the far left,” Choy said. “The widemounts are our primary weapon. Concentrate on keeping low."

  Sabor's carrier shell disappeared. A fog of fine particles blurred his image of the forest before the remains of the shell dispersed. Dishes and pillows slid off the platform that had formed the foundation of the shell. He stretched out flat on the platform, with a pillow between his head and the hardbodies, and noted that Purvali had acted like a sane human for once and engaged in the same maneuver.

  Cats charged out of the trees. The three cats they had left screamed as they received the attack. A cat leaped at the head of Choy's widemount. Claws ripped bloody gashes in the widemount's skin. Choy raised his gun and fired into the animal's mouth.

  Purvali yelled. Sabor turned his head and saw another cat pulling itself onto the back of Choy's mount. His hands reacted while his consciousness was still assimilating the situation. Four shots streamed into the cat. It reared on its hind legs, with its front claws reaching for Choy's head, and slid off the platform.

  A command flashed out of Sabor's brain. His information system dispatched a message to Colonel Jina.

  "We are avoiding inflicting irreversible damage on your expensive assets, colonel. I would appreciate it you would render my assistants the same courtesy."

  He had been bargaining and haggling all his life. The process apparently continued when you switched to non-monetary situations.

  Choy's platform rose half a meter. Sabor turned his head and realized his own widemount was sinking. He checked his display and discovered the widemount's armor had been overwhelmed. The hardbodies had apparently been concentrating their fire on their ultimate objective.

  "Get on my platform,” Choy said. “The extra widemount is right behind us. We'll continue the attack."

  Sabor scrambled onto Choy's platform. He checked his personal armor and discovered he had only absorbed two hits. He had kept his head and stayed low when he had fired at the cat attacking Choy.

  "This is rather exhilarating,” Sabor said. “Isn't there some saying about war being the continuation of diplomacy by other means? Should we assume the same maxim can be applied to financial activities?"

  They were now about five paces from the point they had been driving toward. The two hardbodies in front of them were holding their position and pouring moles into the four-legged fortresses bearing down on their position. On the display, symbols marked the places where the other hardbodies were firing from Sabor's right.

  The fourth widemount pushed into the gap created by the loss of Sabor's animal. Choy gestured at its back and Sabor slid off Choy's widemount and flattened himself on top of the bin that hung from the cargo animal's side. His right hand tightened around a braided cable.

  "You have a message from Heinrich Dobble."

  "Run it."

  Heinrich's image rose between Sabor and the action at the front of Sabor's visual field. “Dobryami has crossed the border, Sabor. My sources advise me she has forty soldiers advancing through Kenzan's possession."

  Sabor reacted without missing a breath. “Message for Financier Zara Nev. Apply simulation seven. Text: I believe it would be in your best interest to reconsider your position and join our common stand against Kenzan Khan's attempt at extortion. Kenzan is doomed. Possessor Dobryami has taken advantage of Kenzan's current weakness and invaded his possession. She is not in a negotiating frame of mind. The total destruction of Kenzan's financial position is the most likely outcome."

  Simulation seven was Sabor's cheeriest, brightest communications facade. He usually used it when he distributed invitations to informal gatherings.

  Choy forced the three widemounts into a trot—a move that would probably drain any spare energy they still had left in their reservoirs. The two hardbodies started to fall back but they had waited too long. Choy and Purvali edged ahead of Sabor. Their widemounts lowered their heads. Broad skulls shoved against the two hardbodies. Choy and Purvali slid to the ground and leaped like a pair of dancers. They pulled themselves back on their widemounts—they couldn't have spent more than ten seconds on the ground—and Sabor stared at the two figures writhing in the organic debris that covered the forest floor. Both hardbodies had legs that had acquired an extra joint. Their weapons had been tossed into the trees.

  Sabor's widemount ripped a mass of leaves and blossoms from the lowest branch of a flowering tree. Sabor could feel its back trembling underneath him. The other widemounts had become as motionless as mounds of dirt.

  Five symbols raced across the map display. Jina's human staffers had broken cover and initiated their final assault.

  Purvali and Choy jumped off their widemounts. “Use everything you've got, Purvali,” Sabor said. “There's little point in trying to conceal your potential now. But please abide by the rules of engagement. No permanent damage."

  He crawled onto the back of his widemount and fired half a dozen moles at one of the oncoming hardbodies. Purvali and Choy had dropped into on-guard crouches below him. The hardbodies were veering around trees and sailing over obstacles with a controlled, absolute silence that was a thousand times more unnerving than a chorus of battle cries.

  The hardbodies could have split their forces. Two could have gone after Sabor while the rest tried to keep Choy and Purvali occupied. Sabor could have held off his assailants for a few seconds while his dedicated staff demonstrated their ability to deal with three-to-two odds, and the three of them could then have joined forces and completed a final rout of Colonel Jina's minions. Instead, the hardbodies clumped into a line as they approached the widemount and the entire group converged on Choy and Purvali. Jina's tactician had apparently gained some respect for the abilities Sabor's assistants brought into the arena.

  Purvali's upper body swayed. She stepped toward an oncoming hardbody and made a small movement to her left. The hardbody twisted to follow her, she made another small movement—and suddenly she was positioned behind the hardbody, with her body leaning backward and the bottom of her foot slamming into his kidney.

  Sabor had seen her make moves like that during training sessions. In actual combat, the spectacle had a power that transcended the excitement evoked by the kind of speed and grace her hyped-up physiology could attain.

  His awe turned into horror within seconds. Purvali hooked her foot around the stunned hardbody's ankle and pulled him to the ground. She leaped half her height straight u
p and came down on his back. She kicked downward as she landed and hit him with the maximum impact. It was a lethal blow—an attack that would drive splintered bones into the heart directly under her heel. The shock wave forced through the hardbody's chest would probably rupture the heart if the puncture wounds didn't do the job.

  Choy was defending himself against two hardbodies. One of his attackers jumped back and disengaged. Three silent demons turned on Purvali.

  Sabor didn't need a message from Colonel Jina to advise him the rules had changed. He could see it in the way the three hardbodies held their hands as they closed. Purvali was fast and she was stronger than the curves of her body and the silkiness of her skin indicated. But she couldn't survive an attack from three purpose-nurtured soldiers who had decided they could remove an obstacle without fretting about the damage they inflicted on it.

  Sabor wedged his gun between a pair of cargo bins. He rose to a crouch and jumped, feet first, on the hardbody who was slipping behind Purvali's back.

  It was an impulsive act but his body knew what it had to do. His boots slammed into the hardbody's helmet. His target shied away from him as the blow hit and he threw out his arms and grabbed at anything he could get his hands on.

  His fingers dug into the hardbody's uniform. His left heel pounded on the hardbody's foot. It was a weak effort but it did the job. The odds against Purvali were reduced to two to one. It was only a momentary respite but it could be all Purvali needed.

  Unfortunately, the hardbodies immediately realized he had placed their true objective in reach. The hardbody facing Choy abandoned his opponent and danced toward Sabor. The other two hardbodies slipped around Purvali. A hardbody twisted Sabor's arm behind his back. Three hardbodies formed a wall in front of him.

  Sabor jerked his head toward Choy. “Stop her. Don't let her attack. They'll kill her."

  Choy stepped behind Purvali. He gripped her wrist and trapped her in the same kind of hold the hardbody was using on Sabor. Purvali tensed and then let herself relax.

  "You'll just get yourself killed,” Sabor said. “And I'll still be a prisoner."