The Seeds of Time (20 page)

Clio took a long gulp of water, her heart jumping in her chest. This would be her last drink of water for a long while. She slung the canteen strap over her shoulder and stood up.

Teeg looked up at her.

“Need to pee.”

He nodded, went back to his work.

She moved away a few paces and squatted.

Clio had twelve tabs in her inside vest pocket.
Never keep them in just one place. Spread out your stash, make sure they’re always close to hand
. She took six of them and tried pulverizing them between her fingers, but they were too hard. Finally she ground them between the canteen cap and the container and dropped them in, shaking the canteen. As she walked back, Teeg was watching her, so she raised the canteen to her lips and pretended to drink.

“God, I’m thirsty. Maybe I don’t feel so good,” she said.

“Try this,” Teeg said. He handed her one of Estevan’s tortillas, spread with meat paste and rolled.

As Clio reached for it her hand trembled so hard she almost dropped it. “I don’t feel so good,” she said. She sat down, back against a tree, hoping now for delay. Stretch the time out, head home slowly. She chewed on the rolled tortilla, thinking of Estevan, wanting to ask about him, but not wanting to remind Teeg of the failed coup.
Drink, you bastard
, she thought.
Drink
.

“We’ll make the transition gradually,” Teeg was saying. “Start with a few treks to the cave, to carry supplies. Get everybody used to the jungle. Start cleaning the cave up. We’ll need to see what kind of building materials these trees make. For tables, chairs, stuff like that. Carry as much as we can from the ship, before the monkeys get it.”

He reached for the canteen, unscrewed the cap, waved the canteen at the forest crown. “Estevan’s boots are up there in some nest. Probably they’ll have the whole camp dismantled within a day or two, once we’re gone.” He
looked back at Clio, his eyes narrow. “That was another stupid thing you did.”

When she didn’t answer, he snorted at her, then took a long swig of water. “Sent a man after me with no boots. Pretty stupid.”

Clio remembered to chew. She had barely been breathing. The food stuck to the roof of her mouth.

“It’s hot,” she said, slumping further down against the tree trunk. “Too damn hot.” She reached for the canteen, put it to her lips, tilted her head back, swallowed the spit in her mouth. “And you call this a paradise.” Better not be too nice to Teeg. Stay in character. She offered the open canteen to him. He took it, drank again, stoppered it.

“Let’s go.” He wiped off his hands on his togs, hoisted the pack onto his back and the rifle over one shoulder.

Their progress was slow. Teeg had made cuts on the trees as he followed her into the forest. Now they retraced that path, searching for marked trees, along Clio’s original, wandering path. An hour or more passed as time dissolved in the jungle’s humid grasp. The rain eased off, met by a resurgence of the buzzing, chittering, and screaming of the local creatures.

“The noise,” Clio finally said. “It’s just the damn noise. Gets on my nerves, you know? Can’t tell if anything’s coming. Can’t tell if something’s right behind you, even.”

“That’s what this is for,” Teeg said. He patted the rifle. “But you don’t get a gun, honey. Gonna be a long time—if ever—before you carry a gun. If that’s what you’re leading up to, save your breath.”

Teeg’s mood had soured. That talk of Estevan. He pushed her on ahead of him, steering her from time to time with a shove of his hand in her back.

She picked her way carefully along the vine-threaded jungle floor, shying at times from imaginary movements on either side, playing on the spikes of noise that occasionally pierced the sound of rain.

“Goddamn, you’re jumpy.” Teeg had been quiet for a long time.

“Sorry. But can’t you feel it? Like there’s things out
there we can’t see? I just got this bad feeling, Teeg. I’m not saying I want a gun. Just you be ready, that’s all.”

She opened the canteen, faked a drink, handed it to him.

He was watching her, watching her closely, even as he drank. “You think your retroid friends are coming to rescue you, you got a big disappointment, girl. Estevan ain’t going nowhere. Zee—we got him trussed up like a turkey.”

“What about Hillis?”

Teeg wiped his face with his sleeve. “Think I’m that dumb? He’s in the brig too.”

“Come on, Teeg, Hillis never gave anybody any problem. He wasn’t in on the mutiny. Never even knew what was going down.”

“Yeah. Right.” Teeg capped the canteen, handed it back. He sneered. Something about the way he looked at her. Hostile. He was counting up his grievances, Clio was sure. Instead of directing his anxiety at the murky surroundings, Teeg was focusing on Clio. He continued to stare at her, the sneer taking over his whole face. Clio froze, afraid to move. This wasn’t in the plan.

“You got a lot of men dancing to your tune, don’t you, Miss Red?”

God
, Clio thought,
here he goes
.

“And you think you got me dangling by a string, too, isn’t that right?” When she didn’t respond, he pushed her. “Isn’t that right?”

Clio staggered back. “What do you want me to say, Teeg? You seem to have all the answers, so what am I supposed to say?”

He lunged forward, pushing her again. “Just say that you ran a fucking tease number on every man on crew. Just say that, Clio. Say it!”

She scrambled backward, tripping on some roots, fell. “You shouldn’t hurt me, Teeg. You need every woman you’ve got, remember that.”

He towered over her. Paused. Stepped back, wiping his face with his hand. He seemed to reel, lose focus. Then he
snapped upright, slapping his rifle, as though making sure it was still there.

“Right.” He frowned, looking at her sprawled there in front of him. “Get up.”

They pushed on, following the gash marks in the trees. The rain had slacked off, and the jungle brightened. The sunlight glazed the wet surfaces everywhere with a bluish glow. Bird and insect sounds rushed back to claim the airwaves. Monkeys were skittering down every vine in sight, sending Teeg spinning to cover each new assault. Twice he fired off a round, shooting wide, but calling forth a surge of screams as though he had hit something—perhaps the jungle itself, registered in a billion mouths.

Up ahead, brighter still, the forest edge. The end of their trek. Clio would march into camp behind Teeg’s gun, a hunter’s trophy.

No. Not her heritage. She tried her last maneuver.

“The crew isn’t with you, Teeg,” she said. “They think you’ve gone too far. I’m just warning you, not everyone you count on is a friend.”

“So now you’re my friend, is that right?”

“I’m just trying to save your life. Because the crew wants to go home, Teeg, and they’re armed too.”

“Your friends aren’t armed. Mine are.”

“But Liu is with us. And Meng is just going along with you to save her skin. She wants to go home. And Posie, he’ll do anything for Meng. She leads him by the nose.”

“You’re lying. Posie’s with me. They’re all with me.”

They had come upon the perimeter undergrowth. Here the light was brighter. Teeg’s face rippled now and then with nervous tremors. His eyes shifted constantly, but always came back to Clio. “You’re lying,” he said again.

“Then just walk out there, Teeg. Just walk out there and trust your fate to Posie. You think he wants to share Meng with you? Man, he wants to take her home and live in comfort, not in some ugly, stinking jungle!”

Teeg lunged at her, gripping her arms, shaking her. “You lying bitch, you fucking lying bitch.” He pushed her hard in the chest, and she fell into the wet cushion of the
undergrowth. He unslung his rifle, pointing it at her. “I’ll kill you, if you lie to me, I’ll kill you.”

“I’m not lying! I’m trying to save your life. I don’t want a bloodbath, Teeg. I don’t want us all to kill each other. But you’re in charge, you decide what you want to do, Teeg. You’ve got the gun, just remember that. I can’t hurt you. I want to help you. But you got to decide.”

Teeg swung the rifle around, stared toward camp. He reached down and grabbed her arm, yanking her up. “Move,” he snarled. Then he plunged her into the dense undergrowth, pushing her headlong through the bushes. Clio shielded her face with her forearm, staggering and tripping, moving just ahead of Teeg’s rifle butt. When they reached the edge of the clearing, Teeg pulled her down into a crouch.

Someone was walking along the perimeter. Looked like Liu. From beside her, Teeg’s breathing was hard and ragged. “You go out there and tell Posie to come out and talk to me.” When Clio hesitated, he thrust her out with a shove. “Go! You just don’t go more than halfway into the clearing. Tell Posie I want him to come out and talk. And if you run, Clio, so help me, I’ll shoot you down. Now go!”

Clio started walking. She folded her arms behind her head, like a prisoner, and started walking toward the perimeter wires. The figure they had seen was walking away from her, so she called out, “Liu! Hey, Liu, it’s me, Clio!” He came running to the wire. “Teeg’s willing to talk,” she shouted. “This doesn’t need to be a fight. He’s willing to talk, but only to Posie. I’ll wait right here.” Clio’s only weapon now was contusion. To spread confusion, distrust. And she thought hard about running. Teeg was strung out, shaky. Maybe couldn’t hit a moving target.

After a few minutes Posie was walking toward her, across the clearing. He moved toward her, pistol drawn, as though she were a horse that he walked into the pasture to put down.

Everything now depended on convincing this man who hated her that she was telling the truth, that Teeg had gone crazy, that Posie and she now had to align to survive.

He was standing in front of her.

“Doc.”

He stared at her, hard, gun directed at her belly.

“Doc. Teeg is in those bushes, with a rifle aimed at us. He tracked me down, then he took me to the big cave by the river and started raving. Said we’re all against him. Me, you, everybody. Said you want to kill him and take over. Doc. He’s cracked up. I think he’s going to kill you.”

Posie looked at her contemptuously. “Why should I trust you? Maybe Teeg isn’t there. Maybe you killed him.”

“He’s there. Want me to call out to him? But meanwhile you have to figure what you’re gonna do if he answers. ’Cause he’s got a bead on your forehead right this second, and he’s gonna put you down, and then me too, probably.”

Posie’s eyes were shifting rapidly across the expanse of the jungle wall, then flicking back to Clio, searching for the enemy. Weighing her story.

“Get down on your knees, hands behind your head.” He gestured toward the ground with the gun.

Clio sank down, arms folded against the back of her head. They shoot prisoners this way, Clio thought.
God, I’m going to die
. She looked up at Posie to catch his eye. But he was looking at the turquoise surge across the clearing.

“Teeg!” he shouted. “You out there, Colonel? You out there?”

A few beats. Then: “Yeah, I’m here.”

“This bitch says we got a problem, you and me. That makes her a liar, I figure. We had our plans, and we’ve still got those plans, right Teeg?”

Clio blurted out, “Oh God, Doc, you called him Teeg. That makes him real mad, you gotta call him colonel. God, he’s going to kill us all. Why do you think he’s hiding out there Doc? He’s not afraid of
me
, he’s afraid of
you
. Can’t you see that?”

“Shut up!” Posie was still watching the jungle wall. He’d made the mistake of keeping his gun drawn. Teeg would notice that, for sure.

“Let’s talk, Posie!” came the shout from the undergrowth. “Come over here, and bring her with you!”

Posie’s tongue flicked at the sides of his mouth. He was hesitating.

“God, don’t go, Doc,” Clio said. “He said he’s going to make sure he doesn’t have any rivals. You’re the only one smart enough to be his rival, for me, for Meng. You’re a dead man.”

“Shut up!” Posie said, not looking at her. His feet were still rooted in place. God, he was hesitating.

One thing Clio was sure of. She wasn’t going back. If Posie walked toward Teeg, she was going to bolt. Nothing to gain by letting Posie and Teeg parlay.

“You come out, Colonel. We don’t need to hide from each other. That’s not how we work together, is it? You come out, I’ll meet you halfway.”

Then, from the thicket, Teeg’s voice came, a misshapen growl: “Hell you say, Posie! I’m your commanding officer! We’re not bargaining over
orders
, or
are we?”

“Colonel! You could be in the hands of an enemy. How do I know? If you come out here, then I know you’re safe.”

“Fucking hell!” Teeg was plunging out of the bushes, and Clio lurched to her feet, screaming, charging up the scene with a high-pitched warning:
“Run, run now! For your life, Doc, for your life.”
And Posie was falling backward, his hand thrown up over his head, his gun sailing out behind him, turning over and over in the air.

Clio was up and sprinting before Posie hit the ground, before the crack of the rifle split the air, before Posie’s scream mingled with her own.

It was a long run to the perimeter. Her sluggish body lurched across the clearing, and she shouted, “Don’t shoot, Liu, help me!” Others were gathered there, guns were drawn. The thud of rifle fire filled her ears as the clearing erupted into a lead-infested kill zone.

In the last few yards, Clio dove into the grass, skidding within inches of the wires. “Blank the wires!” she called out.

Behind the perimeter, a few feet away, she heard Liu say, “It’s blanked, you can come in, Clio.”

She dove through. Behind her, gunfire still. In front of her, Liu and Meng, crouched behind the hygiene stall. “Teeg’s gone crazy,” Clio said. “He’s going to kill us.”

Liu was staring, slack-mouthed, out toward the clearing. “Posie’s down,” he said. “Posie’s down. Teeg shot him. God, we’re all going to die.”

Meng said, “Christ, what a fool. You’re stupid, so you probably
will
die.” She looked at Clio, who was still lying belly-down in the dirt. “What the hell happened out there?”