I looked at Damus, but really I was looking beyond him to Kai. He was still struggling to start the vehicle. I said, “Great, let’s go.”
Chapter 9
“Who told you she was here?” I asked.
"She asked a water vendor where the ships were going, and he gave her directions to the facility."
We had arrived without incident to the flight station. I had not seen Kai again since Damus showed up. I busied myself with watching the people pass by us, most were men, looking to trade in their diras for fuel or fresh produce.
Someone was hocking histrum, which was a native succulent with some pain relieving properties, close to us. It granted us the privacy to talk to one another without the chance of being overheard. I wanted to ask him what happens to me once we find the girl, but I already knew his answer.
"Do you have an image yet of her?" I asked to keep up the ruse that I did not know much.
“You know they don’t send me the pictures.” He sounded remote and detached. “That’s in your job description.”
“I didn’t get one either. You would think they could scrounge something up from the target’s past.”
“No use questioning the Council, it will just get you dead sooner.”
“Do you know why they want this girl?” I next asked.
"Why are you asking so many questions? We've done this countless times before. We have a job to do, and that is what we will do."
“We’ve never been tasked a nab-and-bag and a kill order in tandem. I wonder why they would assign one to us now.”
He shrugged his shoulders, “Kull is off your orders, not mine, but the girl is the priority now.”
I checked my oculus and noted that Kull was still no longer on my docket. I grew nervous. I needed to have a look at his oculus. I needed to know that I wasn't on it too. Damus was the most efficient killer I had ever known. Kai had been crafty, yet controlled. His deaths had been more like mercy kills. Damus seemed to enjoy the pain he inflicted on people.
He kept his oculus in an inside pocket of his coat. The only way I was getting it, was off his dead body. He refused to look at me, even though I had been staring at him. I did not need to see what was on that fracking oculus… I already knew what was on it; I was a dead man walking.
It was moments like these that defined a person. I could attempt to continue to play both sides, but this was getting me nowhere. If I tried to take him out with witnesses, there would be a scene. I would most likely be immediately detained and arrested, but only if I was lucky. If I was not, then I would be dead. If I tried to do it covertly, it was just a matter of time before every hunter in this city would be after me.
On the other hand, if Kore has any sense of self-preservation, she would give Damus as wide a berth as possible. He was as dangerous as he looked. If I stayed with him, I might never find her.
I decided what would be the best course of action. “Damus, I’m going to relieve myself.”
“You’re not hooked up?”
“Left my stuff at a hostel.” The lies were piling up.
He nodded his head but continued scrutinizing every person who passed by us. I took off, intent on finding Kore without him. Once I had her, the only way we were going to elude him, was if Kai was waiting outside with that delivery vehicle. I was betting he was there waiting for me. He better be there. Where was she?
I wove through the crowd and hoped she was on this side of the transport station. It was far busier than the other side, and something told me she would not go into a bolt hole until she knew for sure someone was hunting her.
Had she found people willing to help her along the way? There indeed seemed to be an underground contingent waiting to abet her. If I spotted her, would they protect her from me? A transport vessel had just unloaded a group of miners from the Notos system. I shifted to the wall, to let them pass.
Once they passed, I began weaving through the remaining stragglers, looking at each face that passed. I paid particular attention to the faces that were hidden by scarves, hoods, and goggles. One of these people had to be her.
I almost missed it. She was even shorter than I anticipated and she had an uncanny ability to almost glide as she melted back into the shadows. Even though I could not I.D. her, I knew instinctively that whoever it was, they were definitely trying to hide from someone, maybe even me.
After I put some real distance between us, I put my gun in my boot and slid my oculus into the back of my pants. Then I backtracked and stood across from where I had seen her slip into the shadows. I waited for several tigs, but she never resurfaced. She might have gone some other way, but I doubted it. She could only have been here a short time, studying the facility a little longer before she acted. At least that was what I would have done.
Shifts were going to switch in less than an ora, so the station was about to become extremely busy. Suddenly the emergency alarm went off, and judging by its tone, we were about to get flooded by radiation. We usually had a few tads between emergencies, but not this time. People scattered looking for the emergency safe rooms.
I looked down the aisle and saw Damus making his way towards me. He had not seen me yet, and I was determined to keep it that way. I did not want to explain why I had not rejoined him yet. I stayed low and dashed across the way at the same speed everyone seemed to be scattering.
I made it across the divide and into the dark alcove where she had disappeared. She was not there, but there were several crates stacked against the wall. All were too small for even her to hide in. I calmly began pulling them methodically down until there were only three left.
I spoke in a low and urgent tone, "You may not know it, but there is about to be a burst of radiation across the surface of Icharus." I waited for a reply, and when I got nothing, I added, "While this portion of the planet may not get doses that are instantly lethal, you may still get ill, and possibly contract a disease later from it.”
Nothing.
“I know you are there. If you come with me, I will take you to a more safe location.”
Nothing.
I pulled the top crate down and found a hole in the seam where rivets had fallen out of two pieces of metal. The edges looked particularly rusted and jagged. I knelt down, peeked into the hole that was far too small for most people to crawl through, and ice cold air hit me in the face. I could not see a thing in the darkened space that laid beyond its opening, but I guessed that it was a hangar.
“You have four tigs remaining. Impact is imminent. Find shelter immediately.”
I took out my gun and seared the rivets three feet higher up from the current opening. After popping them out, I pulled back the metal corners and made the opening large enough for me to fit through. Once in, I turned my oculus back on, and then clicked on its floodlight feature and held it out in front of me. It was a hanger, but if judging by the cargo boxes, it was not wholly abandoned. There was little in the space other than six, large metal storage containers, which were eight-foot cubes, favored by the transport authorities about twenty annos ago for transporting ice that would turn into water in transport to one of the drier sectors like Sinai.
“I know you’re in here. If you’re not in one of these containers in three tigs, you could die from the radiation coming from Aka.”
I did not know what to expect, but nothing happened. I walked further into the room. I flipped the floodlight function to the bolometer and then directed it over the containers as I passed them, one at a time.
The sound of my footsteps echoed in the vast space. While it would have been safer to stay in one of the safe rooms in the heated interior of the facility, one of these receptacles should suffice as a temporary faraday cage. Up, down went my arms as I measured the thermal radiation coming from each one. She must be hiding in one of these. She must know that if she is not in one of them in the next couple of tigs, she could get sick and maybe even die, right?
I made it to the last container and scanned it. No one. Where was s
he?
My knees buckled, hit from behind, and once I was down, my head was struck hard by something. When I came to, something cold and hard was being pressed into the back of my neck.
“… is imminent. You have one tig remaining.”
“You do know that if we aren’t in one of those metal coffins in the next thirty reals, we might die in here,” I slurred.
Reals ticked by, but then she finally said, “Go ahead then and get in one.”
“You will have to come in with me.”
“Why?”
Was she daft? “Haven’t you been hearing the warnings? We are about to get bombarded with radiation from the star this planet orbits.”
“The red dwarf?”
“Yes, Aka.”
Another precious few reals passed. “All right. I’ll go in with you. Open it up.”
I hoped I could open one. Locking mechanisms were all a little different, so I stood up, opened my oculus to use its light function again, and then discovered that my gun was missing. It must have been the weapon she was pointing straight at me. Perfect.
I walked around the container once and then jumped on top. I lifted a series of levers on one end, and then the door on the other end opened up from the bottom. I would not be able to secure it, but at least it should shut completely.
I jumped off the top of it and landed with a thud in front of her. She still had my gun pointed at me. I was finally able to take a good look at her just before she shook a hood down again, casting her face in shadows. From the glimpse I caught, there was no doubt, she was unusual, if not only for her exceptionally fine boned facial structure but for her rare complexion. Her skin was as white as gypsum, and her hair was only a few shades darker, but still well within the range of off-white. I had seen someone once close to her coloration in historical reports, but none with her dark eyes.
“Impact is imminent in thirty reals.”
"In, now," I said as I grabbed her arm to drag her into the dark, cramped space with me. If she were going to shoot me, she already would have… I hoped.
After we were both in the receptacle, I heard Damus over my oculus. "Jett, where are you?" which was followed by a twenty real countdown. We listened to the opening and closing of another receptacle just before it reached zero. I turned around to see who I assumed to be Kore. She was leaning up against a wall holding the gun straight out in front of her. She wouldn't be able to maintain that position for much longer, but she would not need to since these events were usually over in tigs rather than oras.
The space in the cubicle was only about six feet square with a foot of titanium enhanced foam steel surrounding us. I could reach out and simply take my weapon back, her distrust of me obvious. I would then force her to do something she did not want to do, which was to come with me to Kull. I was not holding my breath that she was trying to reach him too.
First things first, I asked, “Are you Kore Β1?”
"Be quiet," she whispered. "That other man may hear us."
“Are you?” I asked much more quietly.
“You are Jett.” I took her non-answer as answer enough.
I decided to return the favor and tell her, “That other man is an agent for the government. He is coming for you, dead or alive.” Suddenly I became overcome with a feeling of protectiveness. Could she manipulate my feelings somehow? All I knew right now was that Damus would be taking her over my dead body.
She slowly took her hood down with her free hand. She looked me over, my oculus lighting up the small space. “What about you? Are you going to take me somewhere I don’t want to go?”
“I’ll not lie, everyone wants me to take you to someone else, but no one will tell me why.”
“Who else?”
“A man named Kull. Do you know him?” She gave no indication that she had. “One of the other colonies has returned to this system too. Do you know anything about them?”
“Why are you treating me this way?”
"What? Like you might actually have a clue, and I'm poking plokies in the dark.” It was the only way to collect one of the only edible plants that could grow in Torva’s permafrost, close to the Senja sector lines.
“No, like I’m actually normal.”
“You look normal enough to me,” I lied.
She stared at me but did not say anything in return.
“All right, you look pretty extraordinary to me, but what makes you that way.”
She smiled grimly and said, “For one thing, I did not need to come in here with you. I simply humored you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Radiation has little effect on me.”
“You mean right now, but later you will grow ill.”
“No. I mean it has no negative effects on me,” she told me.
The speaker sounded muffled when it said, “The event is over. You may return to your normal activities. Proceed with caution. If you suspect that you have contracted radiation poisoning, please locate the closest clinic for evaluation.”
“If the government takes me,” she hastily told me, “They will strap me to a bed and harvest every single egg this body can create and then they will subject me to every known horror man can create to test my so-called limits. I will not go with the other man, even if I have to kill you to prevent it.”
It was my turn to frown. Frack Kull. Frack the Council. "I have no intention of bringing you to anyone, but what are we going to do about Damus?"
“Let me take care of him,” she told me.
Chapter 10
“I’m not certain you are comprehending the situation correctly.”
“Open the door.”
“He’s a killer. It’s what he lives for,” I told her.
She stared hard at me for a moment and then she said, “He hasn’t met me yet. Open it up.”
I thought to myself, there were two of us and only one of him. There was always the odd chance that we might be able to slip around him and leave him in the hangar while we escaped to… somewhere other than here.
Right before I lifted the lever to release the mechanism holding the door shut, she added, “Keep him distracted.”
“You’re not going to give me the slip, are you?”
“The slip?”
“Leave me.”
She tilted her head slightly, studying me. “Why should you care? I told you that I would not allow myself to be used as some sort of breeder. Do you really want to bring me to Kull to be used as a political pawn or worse?”
Why did I care? She was not a child, but she looked almost like one. She was not savvy to things like electromagnetic pulses… but she knew how guns worked. She did not seem to trust anyone, but here she was with me in this receptacle. I was told she had no feelings, but she appeared to have opinions. Everyone wanted her, but she did not want anyone. She was one contradiction after another, and I found the mix to be intriguing.
I would only admit it to myself later, but at this moment, my allegiances were switching faster than a water pusher can change sales tactics in Sinai. For the first time in my life, what I wanted seemed trivial. I was only a hunter, with the biggest catch of their career. What was it about this woman that had everyone scrambling to catch her? How did she escape in the first place?
“If you’re impervious to radiation, then why did you come into the container with me?”
“To keep you in my sights,” she replied, which sounded suspect to my ears.
“I can help you,” I told her as I grabbed her free hand.
“Jett, is that you?” we heard Damus call out.
“I’ll be the judge of that.” I took that for a yes.
I lifted the lever and then the door opened. Thankfully, it was turned away from the entrance hole in the wall. I stepped out, and she stole past me into the shadows.
“Jett, is that you?”
“Yes Damus, it’s me.”
“Why did you come in here?” he asked as he approached me. I noticed his gun was out.
“Was it her?” he asked.
“No, I was mistaken. No one is in here but us.”
He looked around suspiciously and then said, “You’ve never once been mistaken since I’ve known you.”
“Really? I must be losing it. Before you know it, they’ll be retiring me.”
Damus stared at me for a reel too long. Frack, he was going to off me once I located her. I was not anywhere near old or useless enough to merit that status. So while I did not have my weapon of choice, I slowly slid out my med club and pushed the button for a sedative needle.
“Are you telling me that you are going to kill me once I locate Kore Β1?”
“Fewer the witnesses the better for the Council.”
“This is ridiculous. She can’t be that important. What is she? She’s a nobody. But us? Well, we go way back. Where do your loyalties lie?”
He raised his gun and aimed it at me. Where was Kore?
“They said that if you were not able to find her, I should go ahead and terminate you. I think you can’t find her.”
“Once they have her, you’ll be next.”
Before he could respond, I saw her fitting herself through the backlit opening and escaping. Kuthic! She was slipping away again. I dropped down and swept Damus off his feet, his hand flexed, shooting off his gun, but as he went down, it changed the angle of the discharge, so it shot up instead of getting me. He landed with a thud and a swoosh, as his breath huffed out of his body.
I slammed his head hard with the club, and the needle went in through his eye socket. I had a choice. I could beat him to death, or I could chase after her once again. Time was a precious commodity. I left him alive to chase after her. Only emergency lights and atmosphere were turned on, since most of the station’s power had been turned off at the grid in anticipation of the radiation ejection. A few people who had surfaced from their hiding spots were meandering, looking lost in the main corridor.
Icharus_ARC Series Page 7