Edge of Dark (5 page)

“We shouldn't have made them so fast,” Katherine said, between the end of the alarm and the start of the actual message. She grabbed for a tranquilizer dart gun and looked like she was about to follow the escapees.

Chrystal blocked her way. “Leave them. They'll be all right or they won't be. The same is true for these.” She gestured at the seven animals they'd gotten into the barn.

Yi's voice sounded in Chrystal's ear. “Are you almost done? Do you need help?”

“Soon,” she said. “We'll hurry.”

“Good,” he replied. “Be careful.”

The message started again, effectively ending the conversation. It sounded different this time, but the words were too garbled to make out in the warm, busy barn.

“Do they all have water?” Katherine yelled over the loudspeaker.

“Maybe.” Chrystal ran up and down the stalls, peering over stall doors. The warnings were getting on her nerves now, pushing her to go back home.

The jalinerines looked restless, beseeching eyes turned toward her. She reached into the stall to pat her favorite, a dark brown female with pale tan spots named Kinship.

Katherine stood in the middle of the barn, looking around. “We should add extra feed.”

“They'll eat it all at once. Maybe we should have left them out where they can get grass.”

Katherine looked torn, and a little frantic.

“Come on,” Chrystal said. “They're half and half now. We need to go back.”

Katherine returned to the barn and opened two of the stall doors. “That's half and half.”

Chrystal laughed, which drove the intense look from Katherine's face. The taller girl stepped over to Chrystal and folded her in her arms.

“You're right,” Katherine murmured. “We should go.” She leaned down and her lips crushed Chrystal's, an urgent kiss full of the need for hurry and the scents of animal and grains. Katherine led them through the reverse moves to get near the spinning edge. They stood close together, holding hands, watching the rotation for the right moment to step on. They hooked into fresh gear and caught the zip lines to glide home.

Outside, everything on the open deck had been tied down or stowed. The kitchen counters were spotless. In the bedroom, Yi moved like a cat, stuffing loose objects quickly and very neatly into drawers. Jason looked up from the side of the bed where he was tying a bulging backpack to the foot of the bed.

When they were busy with the jalinerines below, Chrystal hadn't been able to quite make out the second message, but up here it was clear. She recognized the Head of Security. “Next ships are approaching. Defensive measures are underway. All nonessential staff are ordered to strap into acceleration couches.”

Chrystal froze, suddenly cold. “You were right,” she whispered to Jason.

“Hurry,” Yi hissed.

They chose their usual sleeping positions, with Jason and Yi on the far sides and the two women in the middle. Chrystal was next to Jason and she helped him dig for the straps, which they'd only used twice in the last three years. Both times, they'd been part of planned drills, and Katherine had laid the straps all out the morning of the drills after she made the bed. Now they were wadded and stuck in crevices on the sides. Little pouches in the beds hid the middle straps, and Chrystal broke a fingernail getting one out.

Another round of alarm and messaging happened as they settled, and then re-settled when they discovered that Katherine had an arm trapped and needed to shift yet again.

Chrystal's little finger touched the side of Jason's hand, and one foot brushed Katherine's foot. Otherwise they lay all in a row, looking up. Their breathing filled the cabin.

Katherine was the most prone to talk about her feelings. “I'm scared.”

“It'll be okay.” Jason's answer to everything.

“From your lips to the universe,” Katherine whispered. “They sound serious.”

Yi used his calmest engineer voice. “I heard rumors about restlessness at the Edge a week ago, in the gym.”

“You didn't tell us?” Chrystal struggled not be annoyed.

“
The Ice Pirates will get you
isn't exactly a new story,” Yi said. “This didn't seem any scarier than usual.”

“They can't hurt the High Sweet Home.” Jason sounded calm, almost zen. “Our defenses are good.”

Katherine fretted out loud. “I'm still worried about the animals. Maybe we should have caught Sugar.”

“And done what?” Jason asked her.

“Aren't you worried?” she asked him.

“Not much.”

Which meant he was very worried; Jason the invincible would usually have said, “Not at all.”

The lights went out.

CHAPTER FOUR

CHARLIE

The sky was bruised red and purple by the time Charlie neared the single ranger outpost on Goland. Wilding Station had been built on a high plain and surrounded by tall, strong fences to keep it safe from human and wild predators alike. It even had an aircraft-detection system, which beeped friendship at Charlie as he approached. A wicked wind sheared right off of the High Resort mountain range and plunged to the valley floor at just the right angle to trouble the skimmer. The autopilot had to correct so hard and often to manage the wind that he almost missed Jean Paul standing beside the hanger door with his arms crossed.

Jean Paul helped him run through the shutdown sequence and lock up for the night. They worked in silence, which suited Charlie. There was a lot to consider: The savage beauty of the rakul, the unfair shooting of the tongats, the boys' loss and stupidity, the look on their mother's face when only two of them climbed off the skimmer.

As they walked back to their shared quarters, the wind felt like a cold knife at Charlie's backs, strong enough to make him feel light and vulnerable. When the door closed behind them, Charlie asked, “Is that what lower gravity feels like? Like you're floating a tiny bit and you've lost your friction?”

“That wind might have stolen two percent of your weight.”

Charlie shivered. “What happened to the family?”

“If they leave tomorrow, empty, they won't face charges.”

“That's good. I liked one of the kids.”

Jean Paul raised an eyebrow.

“I did.”

“Good thing you're in a liking mood. Someone picked up your highest rate. Babysitting job.”

Charlie felt the scowl cover his face and took a deep breath to dismiss it. “I'm not done here yet.” He had already planned a more direct route back to the rocky area where he'd found the boys in hopes of getting rakul pictures. He hadn't had a hand free for his camera, and the shots from his wearables almost never came out any good at all. He probably had low-res pictures of the rakul's left foot.

“They specified you.”

“You haven't answered yet, have you?”

“Of course not.” Jean Paul followed him through the central hall. The ranger station where they lived provided enough shelter to keep the wind from the backyard.

“Turn it down. Surely Manny can use me rangering out here more than me squiring in town.” Charlie opened the kennel door and ninety pounds of three-legged tongat stood on her hind legs to greet him, pushing at his shoulder so he had to take a half step back to brace himself. Her left front leg was missing at the shoulder, which was probably the reason he had been able to capture her. Or perhaps save her was a better word. Although who had saved who wasn't entirely clear—he loved the beast as completely as she loved him, the bond so close he swore she knew his every emotion.

Cricket licked his cheek, her impossibly long tongue sliming his face in moments. He laughed. Behind him, Jean Paul said, “You might need the extra pay to feed that thing.”

“She's not starved.” He had more than enough credit anyway.

“Your uncle promised that if you take this work, he'll see that you get another tongat license.”

Which he wanted desperately. Another rescue, of course. Not for himself, but Cricket was a pack animal and he was a lousy pack member. He was too busy. He turned back to the house, Cricket now walking at his heels. Even though she was smaller than most of the ones he'd shot today, her nose bumped his butt. Her base coat was as black as a nightmare, and her eyes as dark and deep, but she had a white tip on her tail and a white sock on her left front paw. “Who's paying?”

“Satyana.”

“
The
Satyana?” He settled the tongat in the living room and began pulling out ingredients for her dinner. Two tharps, beheaded but with the small bones still intact. Some vegetables. Two eggs. He couldn't think of anything Satyana Adams would need
him
for. “Doesn't she have her own guards?”

“She wants you to squire Nona Hall around.”

The eggs broke messily and he picked the biggest parts of the shell out with his fingers, leaving the rest. “Who's that?”

“Her family came in on that generation ship. Maybe she has some interesting stories.”

“Why don't you take the job? Fame interests you.”

“I'm sure they're hiring people with my safety record.”

Charlie knew better than to go farther down
that
path. Jean Paul had gotten drunk and made a mess of a big job a few years ago. He'd lost three high-paying tourists who'd fallen off a cliff while roped together. People who understood Lym had forgiven him, but the accident had cost him his online reputation.

Charlie added the meat and the root vegetables and put the whole mess into the oven on high to sear it. In the wild, Cricket's food would be warm and bloody and in no danger of collecting bacteria that could make her sick.

Jean Paul wasn't giving up. “I looked her up. Nona was born on the Deep, teaches biology at one of the minor universities there. She's probably interested in the same things you are.”

“Anything else?”

“Satyana doesn't want her to know she hired you.”

Charlie started in on their dinner, tossing a block of cheese to Jean Paul. “Grate some of that.”

Jean Paul complied, and the two men went back to working quietly. The timer buzzed for Cricket's dinner, and Charlie went through the restraint exercise of making her sit for five minutes before he put her bowl down. One small way to be sure she didn't eat him some day. “How the heck am I supposed to keep Satyana's role a secret?”

“Lucy at the Chamber will make sure you're at the top of the list whenever Nona comes in to hire a guide.”

“What did that cost us?”

“It cost Satyana a new coat for Lucy.”

Charlie didn't like anything that smacked of bribery. “Tell Satyana it has to be straight up. No lies.”

“Lucy will get to keep the coat.” Jean Paul handed a small bowl of cheese to Charlie.

“Good. I'm not lying for a coat. I'm not even lying for a tongat license.” The room smelled of the spices and oils Charlie fried up as he started preparing eggs.

“Whatever you say, boss. Do I tell your uncle no dice?”

“I'll handle it.” Maybe he could finesse the tongat license. “I need to talk to Manny about the sensor networks anyway.”

“I suspect Satyana has her reasons for keeping it secret.”

“I'm no entertainer. I don't need her to make my career.” Charlie added the eggs to the pan, swirling it around so they filled it evenly. He turned the heat down.

“I wasn't thinking of you. There's more. Nona Hall just lost her mother.”

“So now I'm supposed to heal the broken?”

Jean Paul glanced at Cricket, who had just finished eating and gone back to sitting, her head following Charlie's every move, her small ears flicking back and forth whenever either man talked. “She's a tongat, not a human,” Charlie snapped.

“Hey!”

“Sorry. It was a long day.”

“Quit taking it out on me.”

“I remembered something that happened today. Sam—the biggest kid—said we're about to be overrun by ice pirates.”

Jean Paul frowned. “I heard a rumor about that at Jimmy Ling's birthday party last week. I came home and checked it out. Two ships got kidnapped from inside the Ring this year, and five had to fight or run but got away. That's more activity than usual.” He looked thoughtful. “Manny might know something.”

The trap was clearly closing on him. He added the cheese in a light layer on top of the eggs and sprinkled more fresh herbs over that. “When does Nona land?”

“In a week.”

“All right. Get someone out here to replace me in a week, and I'll stop off home.”

“You want me to feed Cricket?”

Charlie laughed. “Manny'll do it. He likes the challenge. Besides, maybe I'll take her along. Keep the rich girl in line.”

“You're kidding.”

“Nope. Do you promise to feed yourself?”

Jean Paul threw a kitchen towel at him, which Charlie caught and threw back. If he liked men for sex, his life would be perfect. He caught the towel for the third time and hung it up carefully. It was time to load breakfast-for-dinner onto their plates. “Maybe if she hires me, we'll stop here. Then you can meet the rich and famous.”