by Chris Turner
Teebla shook his head and clicked his tongue in a ribald laugh. “My, my, you are quite an impulsive git, Gayad.”
“Watch your back, Teebla! It won’t go so pleasantly for you next time.”
Teebla laughed, his sides near splitting.
Fenli bit his lip, his face screwed up in an effort of concentration. All the while, he tried to outwit his opponents’ attacks and vicious traps. The VR gambling algorithm worked permutations of a new order. Miko saw underwater landscapes of grand imagination, traps, caves, and weedy sea ledges. He discerned underwater foliage, ferns and aquatic life undreamed of. Sharks and wolf-fish came teeming down, attracted by the blood of past gnashes, some friendly, others not so friendly.
“Watch yourself, Mr. Fik. You don’t know the lie of the land.”
Miko murmured without conscious thought, “Aye, Fik, careful, or you’ll get snagged on that jutting coral!”
Fenli gave a loud cry as he smashed hard into Gayad’s blowfish, swimming alongside Ribshot’s pike-turned-dogfish. Gayad’s newly-risen avatar sank in a blood-oozing heap, as Fenli tore chunks out of its underbelly and spat out the poison.
Gayad gave a croak of dismay and launched himself to his feet. Ribshot chuckled, heaving out a dry snort. “Thanks for saving me, Gayad. You didn’t need to, but I appreciate the gesture.”
“Cheater! That’s not legal.” He reached out to tear at Fenli’s throat, his left hand grabbing something tucked at his back.
Miko jerked himself up and slapped the silver air gun from Gayad’s hand.
The other snorted out an insult, swatting a fist at Miko.
Miko grabbed the man’s wrist and twisted hard. Gayad was on his knees, squawking in pain.
Teebla jeered, clapping hands. “Hoy, gentlemen! I appreciate your enthusiasm, but a bit much for so early in the game. Quiet now, as I put the game on hold—” he turned to Fenli with a grin. “I see now the use of your hulking spaceman.”
Fenli gave a sour nod. “Mak is useful in this regard. Really, Teebla, must you bring such spoilsports into the game?”
Teebla managed a sheepish grin. “I have use for Gayad, as a foil. His antics amuse me.”
Gayad continued to struggle and spat more curses in Miko’s face. The gambler struggled to reach for a knife tucked at his side, and Miko was obliged to apply more pressure.
Bones snapped and the man slid painfully to his knees, howling in agony. His face congested and he hung limply, eyes fluttering.
Attendants came to pull the two apart when Teebla snapped his fingers and they dragged the inert man away.
“There, there.” Teebla frowned. He stroked his bushy moustache and exhaled a firm breath. “Normally Gayad is not that unruly. A pity. The Jakru woman must have created a stir in his loins. Well,” he sighed, “shall we play on?”
“After you,” grinned Fenli, the breath hissing between his teeth.
Miko stood and faced down Ribshot, who seemed to have some harsh words to say as to the ultimate fate of Gayad.
“You didn’t need to break his fingers,” croaked Ribshot.
“Sit down, you fool,” ordered Teebla.
Ribshot plunked himself down in his seat. His fingers grasped the air pistol at his belt.
Miko took his seat.
The game resumed.
“Argh!” Fenli’s groan came loud and plaintive across the casino for all to hear.
Teebla looked at him sidewise and shafted him a grin. “See, mind those poison sacs—and see if your associate can keep his hands to himself.”
“Look out!” cried Miko.
“Don’t tell me how to play!” sneered Fenli. He jerked the stick forward and snorted. “Join the game, if you want, Mak, but don’t tell me how to play!”
Miko glared at him. Hating Fenli and depending on him at the same time, Miko pushed down his frustration. As much as he admired his bravura, it was a messed up dysfunctional combination. There was a method to Fenli’s madness, as Miko saw in Fenli’s next move.
The daredevil finned wide and deked out Teebla’s vindictive whale; now, it came ripping around the side, corkscrewing about, to savage its sleek blue flanks, hammering its gills.
“Ordinary sharks don’t flee from killer whales,” Fenli purred.
Sweat poured from Teebla’s brow. “You’ll have to do better than that, Fik!”
“Than what?” With fantastic dexterity, Fenli worked the joystick, just missing the blunt end of the whale’s snout. He sidewinded his way around the monster’s flank, ripped saw-edged teeth into the whale’s middle, biting off whole chunks of its hide and gorging on succulent flesh. The whale sank in a blood-wisped trail. Scavengers came to tear at the carcass.
Teebla threw down the controls in defeat. He held up his hands. “Bravo, I concede.”
“That’s enough for one passage to Aldebaran,” mumbled Fenli. He hoisted his winnings to Miko. Half derisively, he scowled. “Since these guys didn’t put up cash, the winnings were only half the wager. Not enough for both of us.”
“So what now?” inquired Teebla.
“I’m still feeling lucky.”
“Well, if you’re up for another round. Obviously, Gayad can’t play, but Ribshot will deal as usual.”
“We don’t need that punk,” grunted Miko. “Can’t we cash in the marbles?”
“You can, but there’s a service charge,” said Teebla.
Fenli snarled, but he put on a crafty face. “Double or nothing then, Teebla. If I lose, we keep the merchandise. You take the money. If we win, well, that’s double fare for us, and we walk away with our product, and no more games.”
Teebla shrugged. “Sounds fair enough. You sound confident in your abilities.”
Fenli pushed all his winnings into the central slot.
Miko gasped. “Is that wise?”
“Relax, I’ve got everything under control.”
“Where have I heard that before?”
Fenli pulled his luminous wager marbles to his side and Teebla gestured at Miko. “So, who is this man? Your mascot?”
Fenli grinned, offering no specific answer. “I’m training him.”
“He doesn’t look like a man to take orders.” Teebla and Ribshot scrutinized the NAVO man, hardly guessing that he was an elite-trained military commander. “Perhaps he’s a government agent, or a spy—sent to infiltrate our operation?”
“Hardly!” Fenli assumed a face of shock. “What do you take me for? A fink?”
To Miko’s eye, they were only trying to goad Fenli into a fight and shake up his confidence.
“As I said, not enough to buy a ship,” murmured Fenli, “but enough to book a ticket out of here.” He examined his winnings.
A slinking figure sauntered over, her hips swinging with enough swagger to raise the eyes of most of the men in the hall. She wore fine, expensive clothes, silk tassels, bright buttons and a wide black belt and jewelled necklace.
There was something oddly familiar about her. Miko stared. Taller...but that could be just the heels. Her dark wine hair and greenish eyes... Yes, The minxish line of cheek, the mocking glint in the eyes. Exchange dark hair with the sophisticated look and bleached-blonde hair and leathers of the vamp from before and one had the call girl. Obviously, the woman was a student of disguise.
She cozied up to Miko without pretence. “You have a ship?”
“Had a ship,” corrected Fenli.
“Pity,” she sighed. “I wish to get off this planet. I have a date off-world with some important people. This dull planet bores me. Now, how much—”
“Quiet, whore,” roared Teebla, “can’t you see we’re concentrating on our game?”
“Who says, four eyes?” She was about to retort something spicier, but the cold look on Teebla’s face seemed to warn her against such insolence.
Others had come to watch the game; the match, it seemed, was one of the more interesting contests taking place in the casino.
The dance band continued to beat out a rousing
tune. Partners veered and swayed on the dance floor. A crowd of Daulks, all male, gathered to do an electro-tango. Miko grimaced.
A fight broke out at a distant table. Two men came to blows: a Daulk and a Mercir with suits and high black caps.
“Quite a rowdy place here for one so ritzy,” commented Miko.
“It’s normal to me,” Teebla said. He scratched his head. “Quite a game so far, wouldn’t you say?” He peered curiously at Miko. “How do you like the view of Lake Zaol, Mr. Mak? It’s a form of mercury. Not as dangerous as the real stuff, but still lethal. The ‘unwanted’ sometimes drink it when they give up on life.”
“Why would they do that?”
“Life is hard, Mr. Mak. See those shanties on the east bank of the lake? Owned and built by Unwanteds. I periodically do business with them. It serves me not, or gains me little advantage. Textiles, herbs, contraband. I’m a sucker for profit, from any quarter.”
Miko saw the thrust of the lake squeezed the unwanteds’ ramshackle dwellings into a narrow band of habitation along the infertile barrens.
“Shall we continue?” urged Teebla. “’Tis you against I, winner take all.”
The seductress crowded close to Miko, her breasts pressing against his shoulders.
Miko turned to blink at her. “Do you have a name?”
“Mine’s Star. What’s yours?”
“He’s Mr. Mak,” offered Teebla with a wide grin.
“Well, Mr. ‘Mak’, seems as if your partner, or bully boy, has accumulated quite a stash—” She whirled angrily. “Hey, buzz off, creep!”
Out of the corner of his eye, Miko saw a playboy Daulk teasing Star’s ringlets. He had grey ears pinned under a silver headband and was making a pass at her but she slapped him and turned away.
The game was underway.
Fenli dove low, losing the gambit. His face twitched, but he regained his composure and Teebla broke out in another grin. “So,” Teebla chuckled, “it seems your luck is not infallible.”
Miko saw that Fenli thought to try the same trick by holing up in a cave for an ambush. But Teebla was not so naive. He pulled back on his toggle sharply and waited. Miko heard Fenli sigh in irritation. Fenli’s lips parted in a scowl as he thought Teebla had performed a cowardly manoeuvre, but there was clearly a purpose in Teebla’s feint.
A monstrous, pucker-marked squid came lumbering out and latched tentacles around the unwary shark’s body. Fenli jerked the control wide, trying to evade the beast, his eyes popping out of his skull at the enormity of the creature before him, but it was of no use.
Cursing, he tore at the controls but Teebla gloated, smashing his whale against Fenli’s shark’s skull.
The shark’s eyes went dead. The squid grabbed the lifeless hulk and dragged it into its hole.
The game was over.
“A valiant effort,” remarked Teebla. “You play a daring game, Mr. Fik, but as you see, you forgot your defences. So, paid the price. So it goes. A harsh lesson. Nevertheless, I see potential in you.”
Fenli looked on sullenly.
“And now for the accounting... Your winnings are mine.”
“Wait!” cried Fenli. “Double or nothing!”
Teebla’s brows rose. “Another double or nothing? Are you sure? You’re more daring than I thought possible.”
“Call it up. Write up an agreement!”
“Are you crazy?” Miko grabbed his arm. “If you lose, our hides are—”
“Your hides are mine, indentured to me.”
Star blinked. The girl’s eyes flared. She shrilled out a breath and thought to thrust herself away. Yet the thrill of daring shone like quicksilver in her eyes; she clung closer. Miko felt her hot warmth, so close she was. Her hand clutched his arm as if her ticket out of here rested on the events unfolding in the next minutes.
Teebla struck his fist on the dial pad and the holoscreen lit in multicolour. His laugh carried far and Fenli’s shark surged through the gloom, resurrected once again. Fenli drove it with a burning purpose.
Teebla came darting in, herding Fenli’s shark into a coral maze. Too fast. He shot past some sharp edges and snagged his upper fin. A thin trail of blood mist wisped behind.
Miko grimaced. The blood would attract more predators.
Teebla seemed calmly aloof. Had his ploy been a subtle tease, bringing Fenli in for the big kill? Miko’s guts swarmed with a sick feeling.
Fenli, in desperation, veered into a school of triangular, blue aerofish, daring his enemies to come in with limited visibility.
Teebla called the bluff. Ribshot shot in far behind him. The aerofish scattered in panic. Fenli cursed, his ploy gone sour. Wounded, trailing a blood stream, he took out Ribshot in a blinding spray of blood and guts. Teebla came zeroing in for the kill.
Fenli dodged, but the whale’s blunt nose only caught him on the dorsal fin, sending him tail-spinning.
Scavengers were all about, angling in from all sides, taking chunks out of Fenli’s hide. Fenli tried to flee, but the blood stream attracted more predators.
Dogfish and swordfish swarmed from all quarters and tore into the shark’s sides. Fenli fought back, sharp, blood-flecked teeth snapping. Teebla set down his controls as Fenli’s shark sank in several gory pieces.
Fenli chewed his fingernail. Miko looked on with disbelief and horror. The woman sagged; she stepped back away from Miko, not wanting any part of these indentured men.
Teebla pulled on his water pipe with casual effort. “Have you no collateral or benefactors who can back up your bids?
Fenli waved hands, mouthing various protestations.
Teebla held up a hand for silence. “Then regrettably I must use you as collateral. The next steps that must unfold are doubtless self-explanatory.”
Miko and Fenli hauled themselves to their feet, drawing weapons. A quick grab to his shoe and Fenli slashed out his machete, driving Ribshot back. A bouncer came running and steel swung, severing the bouncer’s wrist. A howl rose above the dance music and Miko bared his own gleaming weapon.
“Gentlemen, I ill advise it!” Teebla barked. He grated orders into a small receiver on the button of his vest. Two men scrambled from the shadows.
There was a flash of white eyes in the dimness, feral snarls erupting like those of cornered animals. Steel glinted in fists and drew blood. One of the enforcers fell with a slashed throat. Four more thugs sped swiftly to the scene and disarmed the rebels in swift order.
Teebla scratched his neck in awkward amazement. “An ingenious assault, gentlemen—testament to your reflexes, but regretfully these bloodlettings will be added to your indenture.”
At the first hint of violence, the woman had fled pell-mell for the exit, but rough hands seized her and dragged her back to the blood-splattered table.
Ribshot growled a curse. “Here, take her.” One of Teebla’s henchman motioned to the man beside him.
“Hey, wait. I’m not part of this outfit—”
“Too late, sister. You bed with the viper, you get bitten. Now, come along.”
They trundled Miko, Fenli and the young woman to the stairs and then a service elevo-lift.
The outside air felt cooler than Miko remembered it. He blinked, his eyes adjusting to an empty parking lot breasting a dim alley behind the hotel. His skin shivered to the dawn’s damp chill that wafted off the lake. He hated being frogmarched like a criminal, but the situation was what it was.
Teebla motioned. “To the lumo-vehicle,” he rasped. “I owe a certain kingpin some spoils, so these two will be adequate recompense. An odd stroke of irony, Mr. Mak. You see, you inquired about the unwanteds. Now, it seems as if you will be getting a closer peek at them.”
Ribshot gave a harsh laugh. “Aye, Mr. Mak will enjoy it. Especially, in B & D’s company.”
“Mind your tongue, Ribshot. I don’t want my plans being broadcast to the masses. Or my surprise given away. It takes away all the fun.”
A blurred shape hurtled out of the morning shadows,
all claws and teeth. A pincer snapped and pinched off a man’s forearm.
Shrieks rang in the air. Steel rasped and the locust was laid out on the paves, chitters competing with men’s curses. The move was valiant but stupid. Usk was tasered near to death and his pincers pulled behind his back.
“What’s this crabby little thing?” Teebla cursed. “One of your gruesome minions?” He scowled as the locust snapped teeth at him. A friend of yours?”
“Sometimes he gets overzealous,” muttered Fenli.
One of the thugs slapped Fenli hard across the mouth. “If I want you to speak, I’ll ask for your opinion.”
“You did.”
The thug hit him again.
Miko almost laughed, but then it was hardly a laughing matter. The gang members pushed them into a black surface car and whisked away into the misty shadows.
* * *
Audra hovered in her Doraxu craft above Demen II, east of Skullrox. She could feel the humans’ presence down there somewhere, amongst all the smoke and debris, the dissolute sprawl of modern-day humanity, with all its dry terraformed air they called an atmosphere. This human planet suited her less than the others she had visited in brief in her multiple jaunts about the galaxy. But she had a mission—and a score to settle. The wounds on her side were grievous, but they had healed long ago, along with the many wark bites, thanks to the locust elixir. For that, she could be thankful. The locusts she had absorbed on her way to the spaceport had given her ample fuel to conduct the acts she felt were now necessary.
She fluttered her tentacles and gave a satisfied chirrup.
True, she would have to wait her turn and bide her time, but that was to be expected.
Patience. As a Zikri she knew well that patience was a valuable asset. It was all good and fine to forge ahead on a warpath of impulsive haste, but it was too large a swathe of terrain to effect a random search for the ungrateful Miko. Somewhere in that east end in the slum district, she sensed the pilot was lurking.
It had been easy to track the fugitives—the degree of enticement put on part of the radio expert who now hunched dejectedly in its pilot’s seat, was all that was necessary.
She gave an idle glance over her shoulder. Chitters and angry twitters, if not moans drifted feebly from the two glass tanks. Two wretches she had stuffed in their feeding tanks, floated there listlessly, in case she needed them for food at a later time. In any case, they were expendable resources.