Slave (31 page)

I was gaining on them. They were moving much more slowly than I was, for they weren’t mounted, as yet.

Horses don’t travel very well through jungles, so I figured that they must have left their own somewhere near the road. I could smell horses, but I wasn’t sure they weren’t merely others out on the road being ridden by someone else. Cat, however, I could smell with crystal clarity: it was as though he was emitting a homing signal
that I could follow with my eyes closed. I knew he was with the four Nedwuts, though their scent was more vague, being less familiar. Cat was with them, and was hurt, that much I knew, but no more—except that I would make them so fuckin’ sorry….

I walked the horse again, and spent the next fifteen minutes trying to divert my mind by coming up with a name for him, finally deciding on Buckaroo Banzai after ruling out Tonto. It probably didn’t fit him all that well, but it had a nice ring to it. I’d run across the name in my perusal of ancient texts once and had thought it sounded intriguing. Then I spent the next mile or so at a trot, chanting some nasty little ditties I’d learned on Farstal Six about the sexual potency of their males—which was obviously written by an irate female who wasn’t getting any since it basically referred to all of the men as dick-less shitheads. I’d print it here, but it only rhymes when you sing it in Farstalese and it would probably lose something in the translation, especially since I’m not much of a poet.

Essentially, what I was trying to do was to allay some of my anger since I knew it would cloud my judgment.

I’d always thought sex messed up my brain, but concern for Cat’s welfare was just as bad, if not worse. He would be okay, I told myself. He’ll be fine. They had just roughed him up a little bit when they captured him and he would be fine and dandy when I caught up with him.

The Nedwuts would hand him over at gunpoint and I would send them on their way to their ship, perhaps even warning them that the local authorities had been alerted to their illegal presence on a planet from which they’d
been banned. I would be civil, but firm in my dealings with them. I would keep my head clear and I would not let my temper get the better of me.

Yeah,
right
! Who did I think I was trying to kid? The sonsabitches would be lucky if I didn’t skin them alive!

I was mad as hell and I was gonna stay that way for a good long while. It was an interesting exercise in mental discipline to presume that I would be able to control my anger when I found them, but that’s all it was. I actually pitied the poor, dumb bastards.

I let Buckaroo walk for a while and tried to think of another song to sing, but I couldn’t come up with one. I was getting closer, and it was getting harder and harder to put it out of my mind. I could smell Cat more clearly the farther I went, and he was not only hurt, he was bleeding. I could smell it, and as far as I was concerned, those Nedwuts were already dead meat. They should be saying their prayers, asking God for anything they could think of to slow me down, though I’d have been willing to bet they had no idea that I was after them. They should have known it, though. Should have guessed.

They knew about Zetithians and must have known why they were destroyed, but obviously didn’t take into account that I would go through hell or high water to get him back—or perhaps they
did
know it, and were even counting on it. Maybe it was a trap for me, since they were well aware that Earth women were valuable on this world. I would have to be very, very careful.

Alanna had said that she would report their presence, but I wondered who she had told and what form the enforcement of the law would take. I hadn’t seen any
kind of lawmen—or women—anywhere since we’d

landed. I mean, there were all of these fuckin’ rules, but I sure as hell hadn’t noticed anyone out there enforcing them! Maybe I’d just missed it. I mean, I hadn’t actually
seen
anyone being hauled off to jail, and besides, what would be the point since most people were already in chains, anyway?

I was almost to the point where their trail would cross the road—had
already
crossed the road.
Dammit!
They were staying in the jungle! The horses I’d smelled must not have been theirs after all. It occurred to me then that they were being awfully sneaky about this and the whole scenario smacked of premeditation. The notion that it was a trap for me grew and took shape in my mind. Cat was still with them, but was probably alert, for I could smell his anger overshadowing the pain; he was conscious, and he was
pissed.
Unfortunately, I knew I was going to have to leave Buckaroo behind for the time being and go the rest of the way on foot. Dismounting, I rummaged through the saddle bags and found a pair of hobbles which I put on Buckaroo’s forelegs, then removed his bridle and tied it to the saddle. With any luck, he would still be there grazing alongside the road when I came back.

I stuck a few supplies in the pockets of my overalls, slung one pulse rifle over my back and, carrying the other one at the ready and set for the highest stun level, crept through the jungle right on their trail. I couldn’t see them as yet—even perfect vision won’t help you a whole lot in a jungle, because you can’t see through trees—but they were close and didn’t seem to be moving anymore, which I thought was rather odd.
I discovered that the best thing about being able to smell my way was that it freed me from the necessity of trying to decide which way to go, or to even look where I was going. All I had to do was follow my nose and concentrate on moving quickly and quietly. As a result, I was upon them almost before I knew it.

Peering through the dense foliage, I could see that there were indeed four of them, but I couldn’t see Cat from where I stood. I toyed with the idea of using a wide-beam stun, but with all the trees, a lot of the energy would ricochet off to who knows where, and I needed a more precise means of picking them off. Nedwuts were born hunters, and their sense of smell was pretty good, too, though as far as I could tell, they hadn’t realized I was there yet. I circled around to approach them from downwind, noting as I moved that they were in a small clearing, and also that Cat was tied to a tree.

Apparently, they’d decided to stop for lunch and a little sport. I heard pulse blasts and figured they must be cooking something, because they’d gotten a small fire going. They were laughing and talking among themselves and appeared to be roasting their catch on the end of long sticks. Then one of them took his stick, red hot on the end, and went over to Cat. Poor Cat! Once again I’d waited a moment too long. I heard him roar out in pain and I started firing.

I took out the one closest to Cat first, and then took a wide circle around to get a clear shot at the rest of them, for after the first shot, they knew I was there and took cover. They might not have realized that there was only one of me, but I knew a few tricks, and
Nedwuts aren’t the smartest thugs in the galaxy by any stretch of the imagination. What I didn’t count on was that they had Cat and had every intention of using him against me.

“The Zetithian is as good as dead,” one of them shouted. “Surrender yourself, or he dies.”

“In your dreams, slimeball!” I yelled back. I hoped Cat appreciated my use of the term. It was one of his favorite Earth expressions, after all. “If you touch so much as another hair on his head, believe me, you’ll wish you hadn’t!”

“Empty threats!” the Nedwut sneered. “We have taken Earth females before. They pose no danger.”

“Yeah, well, you’ve never dealt with me before, asshole!” I argued. “I’m just a little bit different, and I want my Cat back!” One of them was moving. I could smell them, and hear them. They were trying to circle around and come in behind me. What they didn’t realize was that I knew exactly where each of them was. I swore to myself right then and there that if I ever saw Delamar again, I was going to give him a big, fat kiss right smack dab on top of his weird little alien head!

“We knew you would follow him, which is why we took him,” the Nedwut snarled. “
You
are the prize here, not him. There is a bounty on Zetithians, and we will collect it whether he is alive or dead, but you, my lovely Terran, you are worth far more alive and well. Killing him means no loss to us. We could kill him right now.”

“If you did that, I’d just leave,” I replied. “There would be no reason for me to stay.” There would be no reason for me to do much of anything if Cat died; but I’d probably
turn the pulse rifle on myself. No way would I let these bastards take me alive. “Well, guys,” I said nonchalantly, hoping that Cat wouldn’t hear me and lose hope. On the other hand, he wasn’t saying anything either. I had only heard him scream, which didn’t bode well for his condition when I finally got to him. “If he’s as good as dead, I might as well give up and go home right now. No point in hanging around here anymore. See ya!”

One of the Nedwuts was still moving around to position himself to get the drop on me, but I knew precisely where he was, even though he wasn’t making a sound. I took a deep breath, spun on my heels and fired a fairly wide stun shot in his direction and took him out. I heard his body crash heavily into the underbrush.

“That’s two for me and none for you,” I yelled. “You guys better get lost or I’m gonna pick off the rest of you: one by hairy fuckin’ one! Let’s be sensible about this!”

The trouble was, if I didn’t take them out a little quicker, the ones I’d already shot would begin coming around and then we’d be starting all over again. “So far, I haven’t killed any of you, but that could change if you keep this up. You’re trying my patience here.”

I scented something else, then. Cat was still bleeding, and quite a bit from the smell of it. I had to hurry. “Like I said,” I shouted, “my patience is wearing pretty damned thin! You guys better get lost or I’ll kill all four of you!”

“You are weak, female!” the Nedwut spat out. “You should have killed us all while you had the chance. Now you are paying for it.”

Actually, Cat was the one paying for it. I had to do something quick because Cat was bleeding and might
even be dying. I looked at the clearing, peering up into the trees, and there, thanks to my improved vision, I was able to see the answer. One of the little wild primates was up there, perched high in the branches of the canopy, staring down at us all with a marked degree of curiosity.

Moving as quietly as possible, I shifted to a new location, going for a position where I had a clear shot at the network of branches above the clearing. “Sorry, buddy,”

I muttered, taking a bead on the limb next to him and pulling the trigger.

The poor little bugger screamed and scrambled to a new perch as the one he was on gave way beneath him. As diversions go, it was fairly effective, for one of the Nedwuts raised up and fired off a pulse, missing the animal completely, but at the same time exposing himself to me. He might have missed his shot, but I didn’t, for he dropped to the ground in a nerveless heap. I took a moment to make a mental note that these Nedwut pulse rifles were far more effective against Nedwuts than mine were—which made sense because they tended to bicker among themselves just as much as they did with everyone else, and undoubtedly took pot shots at each other from time to time. I was terribly glad I’d brought them with me.

“Okay, buddy,” I yelled. “There’s only one of you left.

Now, I’ve got a really nice pulse rifle here—you know, the one that I took from your dead leader? It shoots pretty well, doesn’t it? And maybe you’d like to get it back, but right now, there’s another question that you should be asking yourself, and that is, do I feel lucky?”

“Luck has nothing to do with it!” the Nedwut snarled.

“We will prevail! You are weak and a female! We will
not fail. You will be our prisoner and we will sell you into slavery and the Zetithian will die. We will take his hide for the bounty and you will spend the rest of your life in harsh servitude while we go on to enjoy the wealth that we have acquired as a result of our meeting.”

“Yeah, well, there’s something you should know about this planet, you stupid jerk! Just in case you haven’t noticed, there are females walking around this planet without chains on, but there are no males that are free. It’s the
males
who are enslaved here, you idiot, it just doesn’t look that way.” I knew I was in deep do-do for giving away such a major secret, but I doubted that he would believe me anyway.

“You lie!” he hissed.
See, what did I tell ya?
“It is the
women
who bring the high price! You know nothing of this world.”

“You might be surprised,” I said with a chuckle. “I know more than you might think. I also know that the authorities have been alerted to your presence here and even if you leave right now, you’ll still get caught. I spotted your ship on that ridge, and you may find that there’s a little greeting party waiting for you when you get there.”

“There is no law on this planet!” the Nedwut growled.

“The people are all sheep, and need no governing. It is a pity that other worlds will not pay for them, for we could take as many as we wished, and no one would stop us.”

I hated to admit it, but I sort of believed that, as well.

The men didn’t get into trouble because they all had responsible females looking after them. It would be very difficult for the males to get together a gang of cutthroats
and go out on a killing spree. The form of control and law enforcement was of a sexual nature and I seriously doubted that they had much call for police or prisons or even much of a judicial system. The female neighborhood grapevine seemed to be a much more effective means of controlling the native males; it was the offworlders who needed policing, which was the problem I was currently experiencing. We were all offworlders, and if we got caught, they would probably throw every last one of us in the slammer.

“Yeah, well, you might be right,” I conceded, “but I gotta tell ya, I’m getting sick and tired of all this shit I’ve had to take from you. I think I’ve had enough and I also think it just might be a good day to die.” I knew that while we were arguing, Cat was probably dying and I was tired of crouching behind my friendly log, anyway, so I decided to go for broke. I fired a couple of shots to distract him and took off for the clearing, firing as I went.