Escape From Zulaire (13 page)

The priest steepled his fingers. “You’re trying to help Zulaire heal itself. No one could begrudge you a little comfort and warmth along the journey.” The comment had the ring of a blessing.
 

Warmed and cheered by Rahuna’s understanding remarks, Andi stowed the now-refolded shawl in her black pack.

“We need to go.
Now
.” Tom’s tone sounded crisp, no-nonsense. Hands on hips, he frowned at Wilson and Latvik, who were still smothering wide grins at the priest’s initial comment about the shawl. “
Move out, people
.”

The captain led the way down the slope away from the transportway. Andi guided Rahuna’s descent of the crumbling, brush-covered hillside. When they reached the three corpses lying in the muddy ditch at the bottom, the priest halted. “I must say the prayer for the dying.”

“Sir, they’re already dead and we need to move. We’ll join them if we don’t get going.” Tom glanced at the bodies and shook his head, mouth turned down. “I don’t have time for burial detail.”

“A moment only, Captain. It’s for the benefit of their eternal rest in Sanenre’s arms.” Rahuna met the captain’s stern gaze with calm assurance, before falling to his knees in the mud. Thinking at first he’d collapsed from his injury, Andi rushed forward.

As Rahuna chanted, she drew away a yard or two, standing in silent respect with the others. When the last sonorous, heartfelt syllable of the cleric’s prayer faded away, Tom motioned for Wilson and Latvik to aid the priest in scaling the next hillside.
 

Climbing alongside Andi, the captain provided a quick hand to her elbow when she slipped or fell behind.
 

True to his word, Rahuna jogged up the steep hillside with incredible agility for a man of his advanced age and recent injuries.

Tom stopped at the rocky line where they’d hidden prior to the ambush. Pausing beside him, Andi took deep breaths, leaning over, hands on her knees, trying to rest for the remainder of the climb. Her leg muscles were knotted in pain, and she couldn’t catch enough air.

“His Holiness is pretty amazing,” Andi said between deep breaths. “He’s doing better than me, and I’m probably thirty years younger.”

“He’s running on adrenaline, I bet. We’ll be carrying him by nightfall.” Tom shook his head.

Andi straightened, arching her back. She watched the other men climbing the hillside for a minute. “Thanks for changing your mind, for going in after him.”

“Hey.” Grasping her shoulders lightly, the captain swung her around to face him. He leaned closer. “I’m not a heartless guy, you know. But my orders have to take precedence over anything else. Personal agendas get you killed in a war, which is what we have here. Okay? I can’t go off trying to rescue everyone we find being attacked by these Naranti bastards. We have to reach the capital.”

“I understand that.” She was mesmerized by his green eyes, so intensely focused on her. “You don’t owe me an explanation. I’d be dead if you hadn’t had orders to come get me. So I’m the
last
person to quibble with you for following orders.” She didn’t relish the tension between them in the last few minutes.
Where did this come from? I wonder if he’s still touchy about the shawl comment.
“I’m sorry if His Holiness embarrassed you with his remark about the bridal shawl.”

“It’s all right.” Blaster raised, he turned and let loose a sustained barrage, sweeping over the dry brush on the opposite hillside. Startled, she withdrew a few steps up the hill as flames licked at the ground cover. “Little diversion,” he said in response to Andi’s questioning look. “Burn the evidence, confuse whoever comes to investigate. Maybe cover our tracks, too. Come on, we’d better catch the others.” Tom headed up the hillside. Andi made short work of the climb to join him and their companions.

“We’re going to have to travel inland for a while.” He joined Wilson, who was studying a map readout. Looking a bit pale, Rahuna sat on a boulder, blue around the lips and not as spry, despite his earlier boasts.

“If we stick to the transportway, it’ll be too easy for anyone who wants to find us. And I’m guessing someone will decide to come after us. It’s going to be pretty obvious His Holiness didn’t do all the damage to the raiding party himself. I figure we cut inland a few miles, work our way through this valley between the two foothills and come back out here.” Tom stabbed at a spot close to the black ribbon where the transportway began a straight run across the Mdaba Plains to the capital.

“No cover anywhere in the Plains, sir,” Wilson said.

“I know. I’m hoping we can steal vehicles someplace along this route.” The captain released the map, which disappeared in a blink. “How are you in the small-miracles category, sir?” he asked Rahuna with an engaging smile. “Can you conjure up a cargo hauler? Or even a big personal vehicle?”

Chuckling, Rahuna shook his head. “Sanenre is known to approve of those who don’t ask for much beyond their true needs. I’m grateful for my life, but I can’t promise, Captain. I think your arrival was my appointed miracle for this journey. But I’ll include your request in my prayers.”

“Fine, then we’ll all be counting on you to get us a ride.” Straightening, Tom lost his momentary air of good humor, his face reverting to a frown. “All right, folks, time to move out.”

***

The group hiked all afternoon through a valley between the two foothills the captain had indicated on the map. Even with no sign of any pursuit, Andi couldn’t relax, no matter how peaceful the surroundings appeared. Midway through the afternoon, Tom allowed one break. The soldiers sprawled out in all directions underneath the multiple trunks of an ancient tamaril tree. Lysanda sat, resting her head on Abukawal’s shoulder, and appeared to drowse a bit, while Sadu played with twigs and pebbles, building a fort and knocking it down.

After Andi and Wilson divided up the combined rations, Rahuna blessed the food as if it were a holiday feast before he would let anyone eat.

After the meal, as the group moved out again, Andi excused herself to the old priest so she could walk with Tom.

“Have a nice lunch with His Holiness?” The captain gave her a lopsided grin and a quick sideways glance.

He noticed
. Pleased, Andi smiled.
 
“Rahuna’s an excellent companion. People pay bribes to be his seatmate at state dinners, and here I had him all to myself for an
hour
.”

Stumbling, Tom caught his balance again with a jerk. Pausing to collect himself, he hitched the pack up better on his shoulders and resumed walking.

“Are you all right?” Andi reached out, but he shook off her helping hand.

A fine sheen of sweat beaded his forehead. There were dark circles under his eyes. “I’m fine. It’s warm this afternoon.” Tom wiped at his brow.
 

Lords, he’s shaking like a leaf. What’s going on with him?
She grabbed his hand and was unable to still the tremor running through it. “You are
not
all right. Let me look at you.”

Fists clenched, red-faced, Tom pulled away again. “I said I’m fine, now drop it. If you have to worry about someone, then maybe you’d better go keep an eye on Rahuna.” He stomped off. As he moved away from her, she saw that sweat had soaked through the back of his shirt.

That’s not right.
Worry nagged at her, jangling her nerves. She searched along their straggling column for Sergeant Wilson.
 

He was pulling rearguard this shift. Andi worked her way through the rest of the group to meet him. Wilson was idly whistling another of his endless, on-and-off-key tunes. “Pleasure to see you, ma’am. Seemed like you enjoyed your lunchtime chat with—”
 

Curtly, Andi interrupted the flow of remarks. “Something’s wrong with the captain. I want you take a look at him, because he won’t even talk to me.”
 

 
Stopping in the middle of the trail, Wilson craned his head, trying to see the front of the line where Tom was leading. The captain was out of sight, around a bend in the narrow valley. Wilson fired questions at Andi. “Sweating? Got the shakes?”

How does he know that?
Speechless, she nodded.

Shucking off his main pack, Wilson jerked the medkit out, spilling some of the other contents onto the trail. “Can you stand rearguard until I can send Rogers back to relieve you?”

Not even waiting for her answer, the sergeant rushed off, running and darting through the group. Andi waited to be relieved of duty, uneasy thoughts welling up inside her.
He clearly knows something I don’t
.
And it doesn’t seem to be good.
 
Taking cover behind one of the broad-trunked trees, she faced the valley they’d hiked through and scanned the tree line, blaster at the ready.
Thank the Lords of Space, we haven’t had any rebels on our trail.
She had her orders. She had to wait and guard, although every instinct in her screamed to go see what was happening with Tom.

Rogers brushed past her, startling Andi. “I’ve got the lookout, ma’am. Sergeant Wilson’s compliments, and could you join him at the head of the column right away?”

“What’s going on?”

“I couldn’t say, ma’am, but the captain had some kind of seizure. He’s down.”

Feeling like she’d been kicked in the gut, Andi stared at Rogers for a split second then ran as fast as she could toward the head of the column. She skimmed past Abukawal and Lysanda. A short distance farther down the trail, she pushed Latvik unceremoniously out of the way, skidding to a stop next to Rahuna. The priest reached out a hand to steady her.

Tom lay full-length on the ground on his back, his eyes closed. His hands rested at his sides, twitching from time to time. Beads of sweat rolled down his temples, pain contorted his handsome face, deep wrinkles marking his forehead. Dismay lanced through Andi like a knife as her heart skipped a beat. Wilson sorted through the contents of the medkit. Discarded in the grass, one used medinject already lay by his boot.
 

“What’s happened to him?” She fell to her knees next to Wilson. “How could his condition deteriorate in just a few minutes?” Reaching with one hand to touch Tom’s cheek, she was shocked to find his skin cold under her hand. “He was talking to me and walking when I left to find you. And now he’s
unconscious
?” Andi grabbed Wilson’s sleeve and tugged on it to make him look at her. “How can that be?”

“Bhengola fever.” The sergeant’s lean frame was tense, his shoulders hunched. He wouldn’t face her. The vein at the side of his throat throbbed as he rummaged through the medical supplies. “The captain gets these attacks from time to time. We were hopin’ to get back to the capital before the next one hit. You know of any local remedies?”

“Bhengola fever?” Andi covered her mouth with both hands and gasped. “Did I hear you correctly?
Bhengola
?” Wilson nodded once. Chewing her lower lip, she ran one hand through her hair. “He never caught it on Zulaire. We don’t have that here.”

“He’s had it for years, ever since an assignment on Panamilla 2,” the sergeant said. “It ain’t a contagious thing, not after the first attack has passed, thank the Lords of Space.”

“Isn’t bhengola usually fatal?” Stepping backward, Latvik swallowed nervously and glanced around, probably to see how everyone else was reacting.

“Can be over time,” Wilson confirmed. “Attacks get more intense. Not more frequent. They’re pretty predictable, as a rule. We carry off-the-books doses of aliquinalone on every mission.”

“Off the books?”
 
Andi repeated the phrase softly, a question in her voice.
Does he mean illegal?

Wilson shot a hard glance at her. “Soldiers with bhengola fever get mustered out, ma’am. No ifs, ands or buts. No cure, you know? And the military is all Captain Deverane has. We’ve used most of the quine we brought because we never expected to be stuck here so long. I haven’t been able to get more on the black market, although I might have a shipment waitin’ when we get back.”

How can he be so matter of fact about admitting to black market activity in front of all these witnesses?
Andi felt the blood pounding in her temples. Trying to will away a headache, she rubbed her forehead.
 

“So do you know of anythin’ local that might help or not?”
 
Wilson’s face was pugnacious, jaw jutting, eyebrows drawn together. He gathered up the discarded injects and stowed them in a side pouch of the pack.

 
She’d studied the symptoms of the major interplanetary infectious diseases one semester at the Loxton Academy. Often the agent on an isolated planet would be the only medical resource for the outworld population and, hence, had to have rudimentary knowledge.
Why didn’t I pay more attention in that damn class?
She summoned her vague memories of the lecture on chronic, relapsing fevers, including bhengola. “Caused by a parasite. Symptoms include fever, chills…”

“Convulsions—it’s an ugly disease, all right,” Wilson said. “The bhengola parasite dies off in the human body after the first cycle of infection, but enough of its loose genetic material remains in the lymphatic system to do the recurrent damage. That’s what makes it incurable.” Having found the medinject he was searching for, he held it to the sunlight. “Last one. And one is
not
goin’ to be enough.”