Ambassador 6: The Enemy Within

by Patty Jansen

  Then Abri and Kita climbed down.

  There was a bit of rejigging as Abri and Kita needed to find space to sit while keeping out of the way of Jemiro, who took up rather a lot of space.

  Then Idda chose this moment to come out of her orange jumper that was strapped around Kita’s waist and she darted all over the drum.

  “Keep her with you!” I said to Kita.

  The mounted officers had slowly moved in front of the courthouse in the direction of the tram stop, but when I raised my voice, one of them turned around and noticed me.

  He spoke to his colleagues, who turned their animals around.

  “Sir, what are you doing here?”

  “I’m just leaving.” Damn it, my off-Earth colonists’ accent would give me away, even if they didn’t recognise me.

  “Can I see your ID, please?”

  No, he could most definitely not. I pretended to put my hands in my pocket. I could feel the shape of the gun underneath. Oh, no, they couldn’t be allowed to find that, either.

  “Sorry, I must have left it in the dinghy. Wait.”

  I didn’t wait for them to tell me to stay where I was, or for them to dismount and come closer or call backup. I half climbed, half fell down the ladder, scraping my shin against the lowest rung. Ouch.

  “Go!” I said to Ynggi.

  But he was still rearranging the pipes of the drum so that he could get to the engine.

  “Go, now!”

  Ynggi pushed the pipes aside and jumped. The dinghy wobbled ominously. He pressed the start button on the engine. It hummed to life.

  An officer had reached the quayside. From my position, I could see his and the horse’s head. “Mr Wilson!”

  Damn, they had figured out who I was, too.

  I pushed off the ladder as hard as I could. The boat left the quayside with such a jerk that I almost fell over the side. The water looked really dark and cold. “Go, go, go, Ynggi.”

  He didn’t have to be told twice. He turned the dinghy around.

  “Stop, Mr Wilson, stop, for your safety!”

  Safety my arse. They did not want to let me out of their little controlled bubble.

  Ynggi steered the boat along the far side of the canal, back in the direction of the hotel. The officers followed us, but the streets were still full of people and the horses could not walk fast. But that wouldn’t matter. They knew where we were. They would call reinforcements who would wait for us downstream.

  The dinghy puttered at a speed much too slow for my liking. “Where is this bus that’s waiting for us?”

  “It’s not far,” Ynggi said.

  “Is there a way we can get there without using the water?” This damn boat was too slow. I wanted to join up with the others. I wanted to see Thayu. I wanted to know where the others were. Before someone used weapons.

  “It’s best to use the boat,” Ynggi said.

  We came past the section of the quay where the quayside was low and cafes and a playground was close to the water. Many people sat and walked there, a lot of them belonging to the colourful group of protesters who had been in the forecourt to the courthouse. They cheered and waved when we came past.

  I also spotted a number of people running along with us. Not the officers on horseback. I was peering into the crowd, trying to make out who they were—

  “Careful!” Veyada called. He pushed my head down as we ducked into a low tunnel. Holy crap. That was close.

  We sat in breathless, dark silence as the boat went through a tunnel under a road and back into daylight. Streets were on both sides of the canal here, and were full of people but had some vehicles. Just shoppers going about their business, nothing to do with the protest. We appeared to have lost the people who had been running alongside.

  We turned around a corner and went into another tunnel under another road.

  As we came out of the tunnel, I became aware of a noise behind us.

  There was a boat coming after us.

  “How far do we still have to go?”

  The other boat, a dinghy with only three people and no heavy instruments, was catching up fast. The men were not in uniform, but didn’t look like Tamerians either. Secret agents? They had to be working for the Pretoria Cartel, because Nations of Earth’s Special Services would be in uniform, would’nt they? And they would not chase us like this. Or would they? How much had changed over the years that I’d been away?

  Oh damn, they were really getting close now. What did they want? Were we police targets now? Why were they chasing us—oh crap, there was another boat ahead, coming towards us.

  Ynggi steered the dinghy to the side, where there was a little jetty with another rusty ladder going up to street level. Deyu stood there, looking down at the water.

  I was so glad to see her. Thayu, Evi and Telaris were with her. Thank the heavens.

  The boat clonked into the jetty. Ynggi jumped out.

  I called, “Hurry up.”

  The Pengali didn’t need to be told.

  Deyu vaulted down the ladder, landing on the jetty with a big thud, and she and Reida and helped Veyada lift up the drum. Abri, Kita and Ynggi climbed up. Idda was sitting on her grandmother’s head, a bright orange beacon ready for target practice. I wanted to nab her off, but I couldn’t reach her, not even her tail.

  Meanwhile the two boats were coming closer and we really needed to get out of here.

  “Come on.” I lifted Jemiro under his arms. He barely reacted. The benches in the dinghy were in the way to get him up the ladder quickly. Veyada leaned down from the quay, grabbed him by the arm and hauled him up.

  A man shouted, “In the name of the court, don’t move.”

  I turned around and faced the man who had spoken, standing in the closest dinghy. He didn’t look like a Tamerian. He was European, blond-haired. His companion, of African descent, held a gun.

  Really? They were making threats to us in the name of the court?

  What were these people?

  I called out, “Stop this farce and just tell me who you work for. Why are you so keen to control all my movements? Because I might find out something your boss doesn’t like?”

  Neither of the men reacted to my words, but the African man slowly raised the gun.

  “Is your boss Minke Kluysters? Tell him that I don’t appreciate receiving threats. Tell him that I have no issues talking to him if he treats me in a civilised manner—”

  A crack split the air and a flash of light hit the African’s hand. He shouted and dropped the gun into the bottom of the metal dinghy with a clatter.

  “Don’t come any closer!” Evi called in his strongly accented Isla.

  He and Telaris and Amarru’s guards spread out along the quay, all of them pointing their weapons at the men.

  “Quick!” Deyu held out a hand to me.

  I had one foot on the jetty when something flew through the air, landing in the water next to the dinghy. Next thing the world turned into a frothing mass of white, and water sprayed outwards, splashing in my face and all along my side. A big wave made the dinghy rock so much that my foot slipped. I fell, hanging onto the ladder. A strong hand came from above and hauled me up to the street.

  Deyu, rescuing me like a drowning kitten. Well, that was kind of embarrassing.

  The other boat had overturned and its occupants struggled to get it back upright. A lot of people had come to the water’s edge. I could already hear a siren in the distance.

  “Come. It’s not far,” Sheydu said.

  She looked smug while closing one of the pouches on her belt. It was empty. Waterproof explosives, huh?

  Veyada, Deyu and Telaris picked up the drum between them and took off at such a pace that I had trouble keeping up.

  The Pengali—being much smaller than most of us—also struggled. Amarru’s guards dragged Jemiro along.

  We ran to the corner, and turned left into the street. There was a bus sitting on the side of the road. As we came closer to it, the door opened autom
atically. It reminded me of Margarethe’s bus, but certainly this was a different one.

  The drum went in first. Strong hands hauled in Jemiro and we piled in after. I was one of the last ones to enter the plush inside. The driver was Coldi, predictably.

  The Pengali were in the first rows behind the driver, panting, wide-eyed. Jemiro was there, pushed into one of the seat, since he could not stand unaided. The rest of the team was there, Eirani and Karana, and Nicha and Ayshada and Mereeni and Reya but . . .

  “Where is Thayu?”

  Blood draining from my face, I scanned all the seats. I didn’t see her. I had definitely seen her just a few moments ago. She had been running alongside us.

  Alongside us, while she should have been in front, because she was Coldi, and they were much faster—

  And hey, what was that?

  Someone crouched between the seats.

  Thayu sat doubled over on the floor. He breath was fast, her skin sweaty, her hands trembled. She had undone the fastening to her armour and her uniform. Her fingers were covered in dark Coldi blood.

  Damn, no. “Thayu, tell me what’s wrong. Where did you get hit?”

  She shook her head, her face pale and sweaty with pain. “The child . . .”

  Damn—no.

  Chapter 22

  * * *

  I CALLED OUT, “Veyada!”

  He stumbled through the aisle, climbing over the drum. Someone must have told the driver that everyone was on board and the bus had started moving.

  Veyada took off Thayu’s uniform and unstrapped all her equipment and weapons, of which there were a lot. He gave her a bandage and a warm emergency blanket.

  Sweat glistened on Thayu’s face. To my questions, she would only nod or shake her head. Yes, she was in pain, yes she had been feeling off for a number of days, no, there was nothing I could have done to change this.

  I held her hand, while Veyada went to attend Jemiro, who probably needed attention more urgently.

  The bus made its way out of the city at good speed. Sometimes it turned into a side street, no doubt avoiding surveillance or police checks.

  Thayu looked out the window. Her eyes glittered with tears.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  “What for? You can’t help it.”

  “I should have been there to help you, but I’ve just been a waste of space on this trip.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” I stroked her cheek.

  “We’ll try again,” she whispered.

  “Let’s think about you first.”

  She sniffed. I softly stroked her cheek. I knew she hated appearing to be weak and I didn’t want to dwell on it any further. She was much more upset than she let on. I should give her time, after she had herself checked out.

  I stroked her hand. “I have you. That’s what matters.”

  We both knew it wasn’t quite so simple, and we would, once she had recovered, go back to Lilona in Barresh and go through another set of treatments. Having tasted success, Thayu would only become more adamant that she wouldn’t use a surrogate. And I would have my private parts poked with needles again. I understood that the next level of treatment would be more invasive, but I loved her, so I would do it.

  Veyada came back a bit later.

  “Sorry, there was nothing I could do,” he said to me. “She lost the child and she’ll be fine. You’ll have to try again.”

  “How is Jemiro?”

  “I’m worried about him,” he said. “He’s still not responsive and he has a very high fever. I have no idea what’s going on. I don’t know if anyone does, or if anyone can do anything about it.”

  The undertone in his voice worried me. “Surely you don’t think . . .”

  “I don’t know what to think.”

  We let Devlin’s discovery—that Jemiro Pakiru had died a few weeks ago—hang between us. I didn’t know what to think about the implications. Stolen identity, stolen personality—heaven knew, he might be some sort of revived person. A zombie. Whatever they had done to him, he was coming apart. Was there life at the end of this tunnel for him? I had no idea. I felt sick.

  “Surely we’re not going to take him onto a commercial flight like this?”

  “No. I’ve issued a medical emergency.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “To one of the meet points.”

  I’d heard meet points mentioned occasionally, but I’d never seen any of them used, nor did I know where they were. All off-world traffic went through the Exchange and the craft remained at the Exchange, but there were some agreed places where gamra craft could come in case of emergencies. This was only to transport people to the Exchange if the emergency was specific to gamra people. Of course there would be meet points in this area.

  “We’re still being followed,” Sheydu said.

  I could only see out the side windows of the bus, and the view out there was of farmland, canals and submerged marsh. I couldn’t even see the road in front, let alone behind us.

  “What do they think they can achieve?”

  She sniffed. “Block our communication for as much as possible for as long as possible.”

  “But you can get around it, can’t you?”

  “Some of it.”

  “Has anything major happened?”

  “Amarru needs to talk to us and has news that she needs to share.”

  When didn’t she?

  But Sheydu was right, my head was still quiet, and we’d long since left the dead zone.

  By the time we turned off the main road and went through farmland to a shed half-hidden behind trees, the sun was low on the horizon. I still hadn’t seen anyone following us, but I trusted Sheydu and my team on this matter. Did it matter that we were about to meet an Exchange craft, I asked. Sheydu said it didn’t, because emergency medical transport was covered under an agreement.

  The Exchange craft waited on the other side of the farm shed. It was a standard, Asto-made service craft, with two flight-crew and two medical officers. We informed them of our problems.

  They looked after Thayu, who was shivering.

  She would have to go to the hospital to make sure the miscarriage was complete and she had no other complications. They took her on a stretcher into the cabin, which had modules that could be moved according to the needs of the patients and the number of passengers.

  They took more time with Jemiro. He also came in on a stretcher, but they had attached monitors to him and strapped a mask over his mouth. His skin had gone sickly grey.

  I met Veyada’s eyes. He pressed his lips together.

  “Whatever is going on with him, it’s disgusting,” I said.

  He nodded.

  Everyone else came inside. The Pengali’s drum went right up front, and Abri, Ynggi and Kita took the seats around it.

  I sat next to Thayu in the medical unit at the back, surrounded by screens. Her gold-flecked eyes scanned all the equipment along the walls and even on the ceiling.

  Jemiro lay on a stretcher on the other side of the med unit, and the two medical officers, both Coldi and both in light green shirts with a gamra blue edge at the edge of the collar, worked over him, even while the flight crew shut the door and the engine hummed.

  With a soft shudder, the craft left the ground.

  I kept expecting the nose of the craft to turn upwards and to be pressed into my seat, even if I knew that this would not be a high-speed, high-altitude flight. Because of my position at the back of the craft, I could only see a tiny piece of sky, mostly filled with clouds bright orange with the low sunlight.

  One of the two med officers crouched next to me.

  “When we get to the Exchange, he will go straight into the Emergency Unit. He is not stable, regressing, in fact. Not responsive to our treatments. Do you have next of kin we could contact?”

  I met his Coldi eyes and knew it was really bad.

  “I have to admit that we’re not sure. I presume you have his gamra card.”


  “Yeah. It doesn’t check out. It’s either been cancelled or there are other issues with it.”

  Damn. “He’s from the Pakiru family of Barresh.” But was he, really? “They’re fairly well-known.” They should be able to confirm with us whether or not they were missing someone fitting Jemiro’s description. Why hadn’t we checked this out earlier? Because all his qualifications and documentation checked out at the time my team investigated.

  I’d known about Jasper’s reputation. My team had known it, too, maybe even better than I did, and why—

  A bank of lights at the ceiling of the craft burst into life. Sound exploded in my head. Hundreds of voices talking over the top of each other, music, other sounds.

  “Argh!” I lifted my hands to my head, willing the feeder’s reception to narrow.

  Clearly, the block on our communication was gone, and everything came in at once.

  The noise, the noise.

  A single Coldi voice remained. It said, “I need to speak to you. Can you contact me as soon as you can hear this?”

  It was Amarru, but the message was a few days old.

  I closed the feeder, and I pulled out my reader. Hundreds of messages scrolled over my screen. Most were not terribly important, but there was one from two days ago, from my father, asking where we were and if we were still coming.

  * * *

  By the time we had arrived at the Exchange and Thayu and Jemiro had been taken off the craft to the hospital, it was dark outside. I walked up to Amarru’s highly guarded and fortified office. The Exchange had just opened and there was a hum of activity through the building.

  Amarru’s guards opened the door for me.

  As I entered the office, I realised that I hadn’t been in this room for a long time. Amarru usually came out to meet me.

  She sat in an armchair near the window, through which I could see the city lights. She rose as the door shut behind me. “I’m glad you made it out without too much damage.”

  “Yes?” I was a bit baffled by this. Sure, we’d been watched, but we hadn’t been in any great danger at any time, had we? Maybe only at the end with the chase through the canal, or when we went to the beach.