Merkiaari Wars: 02 - What Price Honour (10 page)

For the most part, Kate found amusement at their companion’s situation when she studied their reactions. To them, he had his arms full of a hysterical teenager, and a goddamn
tourist
at that! Tourists were universally despised as rich no-nothings in the Border Worlds. No one had time to spare on them, especially not when they were busy with their own survival. If she had been one of their own people, their reaction would have been one of concern, but as she wasn’t, they were amused and angry at the same time.

That was fine by her.

“You’re all right now,” Robert said casting around for help from his friends. Said friends simply grinned and backed away with their hands raised to ward him off. They were more than happy to leave him to it.

“I want her arrested for stealing my shuttle,” a distant voice shouted.

Kate stiffened and pushed away. She wanted her hands free in case of trouble. Everyone turned toward the man storming across the taxiway.

“What an arsehole…” one of Robert’s friends said. He was a maintenance engineer going by his clothes.

Another man nodded. “I told Jennings not to leave it unsecured.”

“…does he think he is, strutting around like he owns the place?”

Kate relaxed just a little. Jennings was obviously an outsider. They seemed solid in their disapproval of him. She slipped her hand into her pocket and grasped Millard’s dinky pulser, but she doubted she would need to use it.

“Now, now Jennings. I told you about leaving it like you do. It was bound to happen.”

“That makes no difference. She stole it.”

“I
never,
” Kate gasped using Cherry’s outraged voice. “
You take that back!
”

“It’s all right… Cherry,” Robert said stumbling on her alias as if about to laugh. “We’ll handle this.”

While Robert was reassuring her, the others had closed ranks against Jennings. Kate listened in genuine admiration as they battered him into submission.

“…accessory after the fact.”

“But—” Jennings began.

“And it’s your fault she was abducted in the first place.”

“My fault? How is it—”

“We told you about it before. You can’t leave your shuttle unsecured like that, it’s begging for trouble. Lucky for you miss Cherry doesn’t want to press charges.”

“Charges?” Jennings said faintly and visibly wilting under the storm.

“Charges,” Robert agreed firmly. “Your shuttle is back safe and sound, and the thief is marooned in the jungle. I suggest you be satisfied and let the poor girl go home. She’s had a bit of a shock.”

“In the jungle you say?” Jennings said and at Kate’s nod, his face lightened. A calculating look replaced his earlier outrage at the theft. “Well I suppose… and it does appear unharmed and all. It would be churlish of me to hold this young… err
lady
responsible. Let’s leave it at that.”

Kate released her pulser as Jennings went to inspect his shuttle. Her allies wandered off when they realised the crisis was over, and left her in Robert’s hands.

“Well, can I drive you somewhere?”

Kate thought fast. “I need a hotel. I didn’t have time to find one before…” she looked down shyly. “You know.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Robert said softly to console her. “It wasn’t your fault, and the bastard is history.”

“What do you mean?”

“You marooned him. The jungle is wild. He’ll never make it back here on foot.”

“Oh,” she said in a small voice.

“Don’t beat yourself up about it. He deserved it.”

“I suppose so.”

“This yours?” Jennings said descending from the shuttle and locking the hatch. He was carrying her kit bag.

Kate nodded and reached for it, but Robert was becoming a pest. He got a hand to it first.

“I’ll carry it for you, Cherry. It’s heavy, what’s in it?” Robert asked hefting the bag experimentally.

“Just girl stuff.”

“Girl stuff?” He grinned. “Like what?”

“Clothes and stuff,” Kate said with a disinterested shrug.

“Ah.”

Robert escorted her toward a row of battered ground cars. All of them were covered in dust and had seen hard use. If Kate had been alone, she might well have stolen one of them. A ground car would be useful later. There were a few ground effect vehicles at one end of the row—a truck with its own crane attached to its cargo bay, and two executive saloons that had seen better days, but most of the vehicles ran on tyres with deep treads. Wheeled transport was more common in the Border Worlds; hover vehicles had problems with uneven ground.

“This yours?” Kate asked admiring the dirty and beat up exterior of the truck they approached. The cargo bay was full of odd pieces of junk and tools that had been haphazardly thrown inside, but the cockpit looked clean and well cared for.

“Yeah,” he said blushing in embarrassment as they climbed in.

Transport like this could be very useful. It wouldn’t stand out on a world where the lack of decent roads made four-wheel drive a necessity, and its battered appearance automatically labelled the owner a harvester—a useful mistake for people to make.

“I know she doesn’t look like much, but she’s really something where it counts.”

Kate raised a sceptical eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Yeah,” he said with a mischievous grin and started the turbine.

Weruuuuummm!

Kate winced as the turbine started in a thunder of noise. The power under the hood was unexpected. These things were notoriously easy to tune, but he had more than tuned this one.

“What the hell did you do?”

“The turbine is straight out of a autoharvester,” he said with a another cheeky grin. “Twelve hundred horsepower on max boost.”

Kate whistled silently and gave him the admiring look he craved. “Where did you get it?”

“I have lots of friends, Cherry. We do each other favours.” He backed out of his parking space and then floored it.

They accelerated along the road like a shuttle boosting to orbit. He was grinning like a kid, obviously trying to impress her. He must have decided that she wasn’t as young as she first appeared, and that he might have a chance with her. He was
dead
wrong there, but she wouldn’t hurt his feelings by letting him know that. The only thing in her pants he would get was her pulser in his face. She didn’t react to his reckless driving. She had seen worse; hell, she had
done
worse.

“So, you here on vacation?” Robert said.

Kate shrugged. “Sort of. Daddy wants me to take over the publicity side of things for him next year, so I said he had to let me have this year to myself. He wanted me to stay in the core, but I said to hell with that.” She grinned and Robert returned it. “I was on my way to Arcadia via Thurston, but I heard there’s fighting there. So I came here instead.”

“Why here?”

“Why not?” she said with a shrug.

“Well, there’s been some trouble here too. Nothing really serious,” he hastened to add seeing the worry blossom on her face. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure it will blow over by tomorrow. So, what do you think of Tigris, nothing but trees and more trees huh?”

That was a trick question if ever Kate had heard one. “I like trees,” she said enthusiastically.

“Really?” Robert said, raising an eyebrow in surprise.

“Yeah. It’s so great being able to walk on the surface for as long as you want. It’s like having a huge agridome all to myself. You’re lucky living here.” Kate shook her head in awe. “All this space and air for free, and you don’t have to watch how long you’re out in it.”

“Where you from?”

“Didn’t I say? Garnet.”

“Garnet… no wonder you like trees,” Robert said with a snort of laughter.

Kate tried to look hurt. “What’s wrong with Garnet? Ever been there, ever seen the sunset over the Cheji Mountains? It’s beautiful. So what if we haven’t got lots of stupid jungle. We’ve got trees… lots of them. And we’ve got crystal forests—they’re so huge they go on forever, and they’re really useful too.”

“I’m sorry,” Robert said contritely. “I didn’t mean to belittle your home. I’m sure it’s beautiful. Maybe I could visit sometime.”

Kate wasn’t going to let him off that easy. “
Hmph.
”

“I apologise, Cherry. I mean that. I was born on Tigris and I love it, but I’m not used to visitors saying they like it.”

Kate frowned and unbent a little. “Why, what’s wrong with it?”

Robert smiled pleased at the confusion he heard in her voice. “Nothing by my way of thinking, but you know what people are.” He shrugged. “The tourist types say things like how quaint it all is, or how terribly brave we must be living on the frontier, how scary and dangerous the animals are… my god they say, you have real live animals walking about without supervision where people might run into them. They treat us like backward savages. They actually get a thrill out of mixing with us,” he finished in disgust.

“I’m not like that. It’s exciting being here, but not because I think you’re all savages. It’s exciting being on my own away from home, that’s all.”

Robert nodded. “I would love to travel like you’re doing.”

“It is fun,” she agreed. “But Garnet will always be home.”

“I understand perfectly. I feel the same way about Tigris.”

The crashing of abused suspension over ruts and potholes gave way to the comforting purr that Kate always associated with civilisation. The plascrete road that humanity always inflicted upon its worlds, hummed and purred with the speed of the tyres racing over it. At this rate they should reach the city of Rhagnall in no time. She was glad of it.

Kate tensed when Robert suddenly slowed down. There was some kind of checkpoint up ahead. She eased her hand into her pocket and retrieved her new pulser. She kept it low beside the seat, and waited to see what would happen. Robert hadn’t noticed the weapon. He didn’t appear concerned when a man in uniform stepped onto the road in front of the barrier and waved him down.

Robert opened his window and leaned out. “Hey, Johnny. What’s happening, man?”

The soldier, Johnny, came forward, stuck his head through the open window beside Robert, and peered around the interior. His eyes brightened when he noticed Kate. He smiled and she forced herself to reciprocate. Her pulser was aimed to take him in the upper chest—maybe the neck. The door would be no hindrance to her shot, it would simply burn through. She couldn’t do better without pulling Robert down or revealing that she was armed.

“How’s it going, Roberto?” Johnny said looking Kate up and down and enjoying the view.

Kate felt like blasting him just for that, but she held off. Johnny’s friends wouldn’t take kindly to her burning his face off. They were bound to get upset about it, and then she would have to kill them too. No, it was better to keep her cover uncompromised. Anyway, Cherry always aroused this kind of interest. It was part of what made her a good disguise. No one expected violence from her.

“Good, and you?” Robert said.

“Not so hot. We had another bunch of riots in the city. Not good man, not good at all.”

“Yeah, I heard about it on the news. How is it now?”

“Quiet.”

“Well that’s good,” Robert said.

Kate didn’t agree and neither did Johnny by the look of his face. Things tended to go quiet just before the storm.

“This is Cherry,” Robert went on. “She’s on vacation here.”

“Nice to meet you, Cherry. Are you staying long?”

“Not long,” Kate said wondering if he was asking officially. “Just the week.”

Johnny nodded. “We aren’t supposed to let anyone through, Roberto, but seeing as it’s you…” he gestured to one of his men to raise the barrier. “You be careful tonight. If you see anyone on the streets, for God’s sake don’t stop. There’s a curfew, so no one should be out, but just in case there is—don’t stop. Okay?”

“Okay man,” Robert said easily. “Can I drop your name if a patrol stops me?”

“No problem,” Johnny said and stepped back.

“Thanks,” Robert said and drove on. “A friend of mine.”

“Yeah?” Kate kept her eyes on the soldiers in the mirror. “Known him long?”

“Johnny and me go back. He’s not like the others—he believes in what he’s doing.”

That was interesting. “How do you mean?”

“Sanderson has been buying troops from all over the place.” His face twisted into a snarl, “Mercenaries can’t be trusted. Johnny can be. He was born here just like me.”

Kate privately agreed. A man with no stake in a place could not be relied upon to defend it. Tigris would be far better off building its armed forces from locals. They at least had something to lose if they did a bad job.

The city was dark and quiet as they drove through the streets. Street lighting had been turned off in an effort to discourage people from leaving their homes. It had worked. The city felt abandoned. Robert was silent as they drove along. He was concentrating upon his driving as if he feared to fail some kind of competency test. The only light, other than Robert’s headlights, came from the public address screens. Every one of them showed the same thing—a screenful of text warning people to remain calm and off the streets. The glow emanating from them seemed somehow sad. Each one a lonely island in the unremitting darkness the city had become.