by Steve Perry
– – – – – –
Back at the base, Jo was waiting.
“How’d it go with the Dycon guy?”
“He offered a bribe.”
“How much?”
“Seven million?”
“Each? Or together?”
“I didn’t ask.”
“Really? You should have taken it. I would have.”
They both smiled.
Jo’s grin faded: “Gramps told me about Junior.”
“Yep. Into each life a little shit must fall. We’ll have to do this by the numbers, he’s gunning for us. Document everything, and if we need to overstep, make sure nobody is watching.”
“I hear you.”
“You going back to the woods tomorrow?”
“Kay and Em. I’m doing delivery inventory on the weapon shipment.”
“Okay. Keep me in the loop.”
FIVE
There was no sense of foreboding, nothing to mark the moment as different than any other. Kay caught Em’s spasm peripherally and the sound of the projectile as it broke the sound barrier followed half a second later, echoing over as she turned and saw Em, six meters away, still falling, the back of her head blown out . . .
The wound was obviously fatal, and the boneless manner of her comrade’s collapse told the story: Dead as she falls . . .
Kay dropped flat and the crack! of the bullet meant for her followed the round as it zipped past, a meter and some above her.
There was only one direction from which it could have reasonably come, and she rolled, staying prone, until she put one of the larger tree boles between herself and the sniper.
Half a second between the time the missile blew past and the sound of it achieving the speed of sound. Allowing for a short travel from the weapon’s barrel to get up to that velocity, maybe a hundred and sixty-five meters, that way . . .
She came up, and sprinted to her left for five meters, turned, zigged, then zagged, stutter-stepped, changed direction; she made no attempt to stay behind cover, working for maximum speed—
The sniper fired again, but the bullet passed well behind her—
She jinked. Stopped cold for two heartbeats, then cut to her right for two more steps before pivoting to her left—
The sniper fired again. The missile flew in front of her. He had tried to lead her, anticipate her path, but he was two meters off—
Another shot, this one hit a tree to her left rear, a meter back—
She kept dodging, side-stepping, dropping, rolling, leaping. She slowed down, sped up, covering ground fast but never more than a second or two in one direction—
She couldn’t see him, but she had angled downwind and she had him now by scent, and knew where he had to be. He was well-camouflaged visually, a combination of electronics and a yowiesuit stuffed with local vegetation, but he couldn’t hide from her now.
The sniper rifle was accurate at long range, but not designed to track a fast-moving target that changed direction quickly.
He should have dropped the rifle and reached for his sidearm as soon as he realized that she was coming at him.
He finally did, when she was close enough to see the movement despite the camo.
She should have used her pistol, too, but she didn’t want to do that.
“Fuck!” he screamed, as she sprang, claws extended.
It was his final word before she tore out his throat.
– – – – – –
At their HQ, Kay stood across from Cutter, making her report. Regarding Mishfem, it was short:
“She hunts on the Other Side.”
There was a moment of silence. “I’m sorry,” Cutter Colonel said.
“We are predators, but in the end, we are all also prey. We all die. We arise each day knowing it could be our last. Mishfem died well, doing what she chose to do. It was quick. It was clean.
“She was here, and of a moment, she was gone. Such is the way of war. There are worse ways to die.”
That was true. Not much anybody could say to that; they all knew.
The gloves were off, though. Nobody was supposed to be shooting in this period, and while they all knew that was always a possibility, until the first round zipped by, you were never sure it would come.
Cutter understood why this had happened. A chance to take out a couple of Vastalimi? That would be hard to resist. That killing one only cost a single sniper? It was a trade most commanders would make in a heartbeat. A Vastalimi soldier was worth a platoon of regular troops, maybe more. Em had not been as adept as Kay, but even so.
This didn’t mean that CFI was going on a ranger hunt, looking to take out anybody they saw, but it did mean that enemy scouts who shot at you were fair game. And the opposition couldn’t complain since they’d initiated the action.
There were rules in war, more so in the modern versions, but the rules weren’t absolute; they got bent, twisted, broken. The nature of the game. In the heat of battle, when looking through your sights at somebody who might kill you tomorrow, sometimes shit happened.
Junior was watching, so they’d have to be careful, though. Self-defense was allowed, but it would need to be documented did the need to prove it arise. Kay hadn’t been wearing a cam when the sniper killed Em. He believed her, but he needed to ask:
“How long before they find the body, do you think?”
Kay said, “I removed his locator. And the remains are in a place where a simple search will not uncover them. Certainly not all of them at once.”
– – – – – –
Jo and Kay walked in the hot afternoon. Kay said, “Something else you should know.”
Jo looked at her.
“The opposition has one of The People working with them.”
“Really?”
“A male. I caught his scent. Faint, and after Mishfem’s death, I did not explore it further, but I find it hard to believe that he was there by coincidence.”
“I wouldn’t think so either.”
“It bears more investigation.”
“I agree.” Jo waited a second before she said, “Maybe I should—”
“No need,” Kay said, cutting her off. “I will do it.”
Jo nodded. The Vastalimi were stoic about many things, death notwithstanding. People came and went, that was the way of it, and there was no need to be overly disturbed; nothing could be done to change the general pattern, only the individual ones. Everybody got onto the hoverbus, and eventually, everybody got off; the questions were, how long was the ride, and how did you leave?
“Are there rituals to observe for Em?”
“No. She was, now she is not. She was a good companion, she moved well enough. What was left is but a husk; her essence has departed. If you believe in the Other Side, she is there; if not, then she is wherever she is. Sudbina.”
She looked at Jo.
Jo nodded. Yes. Fate.
SIX
Despite Kay’s offhand attitude, Em’s death cast a shadow over the camp. The body was cremated, the ashes scattered, and business went on. When you worked in a profession whose tools included guns and bombs, death was always on the menu; only a matter of time until the order you placed arrived . . .
Jo worried about Kay’s mental state. Em had been with them only a short while, there weren’t any long-standing bonds, but still; save for the recent discovery that there was a male Vastalimi working with the opposition, Kay and Em had been the only two of their kind on this part of the planet as far as anyone here knew. Surely that had to resonate somehow.
Jo broached it carefully. “Is there anything you need?”
“Need? No. I wouldn’t mind having a chance to hunt, but that is not a need, only a desire. And there is no prey worth chasing in this area, save for humans.”
“Probably not
a good idea to bag any of those, except maybe for the opposition. And I suspect the colonel would frown upon that, given the extra scrutiny we are under.”
“Agreed.”
Jo was still thinking about Kay’s mind-set when she went to see Formentara for a tune-up.
All of her augs were functioning properly, as far as Jo could tell, nothing bothering her, but Formentara required frequent checks. Much easier to prevent a problem than to repair one, zhe said, and given the number of augmented systems Jo was running, problems could crop up. Anybody of lesser talent and skill than Formentara would be hard-pressed to keep Jo’s system in balance. Most people with anywhere close to as many augs as Jo had were looking at short lives. Generally, each major aug would cut ten years or so from one’s life span unless precisely tuned and balanced, and until she’d met Formentara, Jo had expected to die young. A price she had been willing to pay . . .
“On the table,” Formentara said.
Jo obeyed, lying there naked as Formentara waved hir magic hands over the reader fields to observe and adjust. The room was warm enough so Jo didn’t need to worry about her temperature.
“Anything bothering you?” zhe asked.
“Not really.”
“Yeah, something is—your hormones are off. What?”
“Well, Em’s death.”
“That was a bitch.”
“I’m more worried about how it affected Kay. She says she’s fine, but I’m not sure that’s so.”
“Too bad she won’t let me work on her.”
“She’s faster and stronger than a human, even augmented ones.”
“Yeah, but I could turn her into a super-Vastalimi. She’d be a blur.”
“Not in the cards.”
“A parochial prejudice, that attitude toward simple augmentation.”
“What can I tell you? They are aliens.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Not much I can. She’d like a chance to go hunting, but there’s nothing around that would offer her any kind of challenge. This is Earth, which as you point out endlessly, is the cradle of human civilization. Not many critters running loose that would give one of The People much of a workout.”
“Hmm.”
“‘Hmm’? What does that mean?”
“How busy are you in the field? How much time could you give Kay to play?”
Jo thought about it. The main part of the ranger work was done even though there would be forays to tweak the intel already gathered. They didn’t really need Kay until things heated up. “Four or five days, maybe. Why?”
“Just because there’s nothing to give a predator of Kay’s ability any challenge around here doesn’t mean there isn’t anything on the planet that might. I know some people. Let me talk to them.”
“Okay.”
“Meanwhile, shut off your beta-blockers and give me an epinephrine spike, half-strength.”
Jo obeyed.
“Good. Three-quarters . . . good. Two seconds at full . . . fine . . . reboot to carrier levels . . .”
Jo went through the tests. Everything seemed to be in optimum condition. After she was done here, she was going to go and find Kay, see if she could come up with something to keep her busy and not thinking too much.
– – – – – –
Wink came around the corner and found Jo lying on her belly, staring intently at something on the ground.
“What are you doing?”
“Tracking. Be careful, don’t step on the grass.”
“What? Why? Who are you tracking?”
“Kay.”
“Uh-huh . . . ?”
“She’s been teaching me how to cut sign. It’s an important skill for a hunter.”
He looked at the ground, which, like most of it around here, was a mix of dirt and dust, with frequent patches of scraggly grass and a few ratty-looking shrubs.
There was nothing he could see that offered any clue to Kay’s whereabouts.
“Sign?”
“Any physical evidence left behind by somebody or something’s passage.”
“I don’t see anything.”
“Can’t from that angle. Come down here.”
“On my belly in the dirt?”
“Suddenly you are Doctor Fastidious?”
He grinned. He squatted, then stretched out.
“See that little tuft of grass?”
“Yeah. It looks like a little tuft of grass.”
“Look closer.”
“I don’t have your optical augmentation, I can’t look any closer.”
“Yes, you can. I’m not using any of my augs. That’s part of the game. No opthalmic, no olfactory, no enhanced otics, just basic biological issue.”
He stared at the grass. “I still don’t see anything. It’s grass. No, wait, there’s a bug of some kind. That Kay, in disguise?”
She ignored the last. “Now, look over there, next to it, at that patch.”
He looked. “Okay. And . . . ?”
“That patch is undisturbed. See how the stalks stand, the angles?”
“Okay.”
“Now, look at this one again.”
He did. “Some of the grass here is bent down.”
“That’s it.”
“That’s what?”
“Somebody stepped on it.”
“Whoopee. How does this help you find Kay?”
She came up to her feet in a smooth, easy motion. Wink also stood, albeit not quite as smooth and relaxed. He looked down at his tunic and trousers. He shook his head.
“Damp or wet ground takes tracks. Look behind you, at where you and I walked.”
“Yep, I can see that, we’re sublime, we’ve left footprints in the sands of time.”
“But Kay came this way, and she didn’t leave obvious footprints. You see any?”
“I do not. How did she do that? She float?”
“Sort of. She hopped from one bit of vegetation to the next. Plus the odd rock here and there.”
“Ah.”
“If I examine the grass within a Vastalimi’s jumping range around this one, I should be able to find two places where Kay came down. One getting here, another leading away. The closer the distance, the harder it will be to see.”
He thought about that for a moment. “Because she can step lightly from this to that, but if she has to jump farther, the impression will be deeper. Or if she lands on a stone that doesn’t leave any sign.”
“See, already you are learning. Since I know I’m tracking a Vastalimi and not a human, I know she can jump farther. I can look at the closest grass first, and if I find something, recalculate where her next step or leap might be. If I don’t find anything close, I range longer.”
“Makes sense. Doesn’t even sound that hard, once you explain it this way.”
“Yeah, except that Kay knows I’m tracking her.”
“So . . . what?”
“She might backtrack.”
“Um . . . ?”
“She knows what I’m doing because she taught me how to do it. I’m looking for a flattened bit of vegetation, maybe a partial print slopping over onto the bare ground. Maybe a squashed insect.”
“Yeah . . . and . . . ?”
“Think about it.”
He did. Didn’t come up with anything. He gave her an offhand shrug. “I’m just a doctor. I can follow a blood trail.”
“Okay, so we have this sign we just saw. And back to my left, there’s another sign. Past that, a couple of meters away, another one. That’s how she got here.”
“I got that part.”
“What if Kay came that way, then went back onto the same spots? She’d use them twice.”
He considered that. “Ah. So if you can’t find any other sign past this
one except the one that led you here, you work on that assumption.”
“Yep. And if that’s right, somewhere back along the way, I should find two disturbed bits of vegetation, where she backtracked to leave a false trail, then went off in another direction. Plus landing on the identical area twice should, in theory, make it a little deeper and messier than doing so only once.”
“Right. So, not as easy as it seems.”
“Nope. And slow. Hard to cover a lot of ground when you are spending a fair amount of time lying down and trying to see which way she went; it makes for painstaking work.”
“If you could use your enhanced vision, you could do it faster.”
“Sure. And if I com her and ask her where she is, I can do it really fast. If I were trying to track somebody for real instead of this game, I’d dial up the magnification, and it would be relatively easy. I could maybe use IR to see warmer patches, except that in this weather, it doesn’t work so well. But the idea is to get good at doing it the hard way; after that, you can cheat.”
“Well, have fun out here broiling in the sunshine. I’m going to go change clothes and have myself a cold beer.”
“You don’t want the thrill of victory when we find her?”
“You can tell me about it, I’ll share your joy.”
– – – – – –
It took Jo nearly two hours to follow the winding trail Kay left, stops and starts and backtracks, but eventually, she came to where Kay sat on a tree stump, waiting.
“Very good, Jo Captain.”
“How long would it have taken you to follow that trail?”
Kay shrugged. “Thirty minutes.”
“Great.”
“Everyone starts off an ovum,” she said. “Formentara has called me.”
“Yeah?”
“Zhe has found a place where I can seek prey.”
“That’s good.”
“It is. If I have a few days.”
“Nothing going on here you need to stick around for, go.”
“Thank you, Jo. It will be a good thing to do.”
– – – – – –
Overall, Earth was not a good place for a Vastalimi to hunt. Prey animals had been domesticated here for thousands of years, and there was no joy to be found in catching a lumbering bovine and killing it. Most humans no longer ate meat, fowl, even fish; they consumed ersatz versions of these made from plants, designed to look and smell and taste like the real thing. Of course, with their poor senses, humans were easy to fool.