Alien Skies, page 37
part #3 of Wakanreo Series
“I wanted to talk to you,” Kamuhi said. “As I said, Jared thought it would be a good idea. Yulayan and I have had some tense times lately, and Jared thought you might be able to help me understand Wakanreans better.”
She smiled at him. “Our situations are similar,” she admitted, “but mine is easier because I have shahgunrah. I had no choice about it, of course, but now that I have it, I have the benefit of it. Kuaron and I have been very happy together.”
Kamuhi nodded. “I know. But I think part of my problem is that Yulayan grew up seeing you two together, and in the back of her mind she thinks that’s what our relationship is supposed to be like. I can’t do that, Dina. I’m not Wakanrean, and I can’t give her the empathy and total trust that you get from shahgunrah. All I can give her is plain, old, fallible human love.”
“You might be right,” Dina agreed. “There was actually a time when our shahgunrah was crippled, but Yulayan was only a baby, so I’m sure she doesn’t remember it.”
Kamuhi was astounded. “What do you mean crippled?”
Dina stared into her cup. “When they first made the vaccine mandatory for Terrans, they made me take it, too. It was only the one time. After that, they made me a Wakanrean citizen, so I was exempt from the regulations for tourists and resident Terrans.”
“But you did take it once? Does Yulayan know this?”
Dina shook her head. “I don’t think so. I don’t think there was ever a reason to tell her about it.” She smiled wry smile. “So I do know a bit about what you’re talking about. For a little over a year, Kuaron and I had to learn to tell each other what we were feeling.” The smile dissolved into a frown. “But why are you having problems now? Does Yulayan feel she can’t trust you?”
“She gets very jealous,” Kamuhi said. “If I’ve been near a woman who wears perfume, Yulayan demands an explanation when I get home. But even that isn’t a terrible problem because I can explain who it was and why I was with her. What’s awful is that somehow she seems to feel that I can’t be satisfied with just her. She actually told me she could be content if I needed to have a Terran lover now and then, so long as I was honest about it.”
“What?” Dina looked thunderstruck. After a moment, she smiled. “I hope you weren’t foolish enough to believe her. That was probably her way of asking for reassurance that you didn’t need anyone else.”
“I hope so. She also gets jealous because there were women in my life before I met her. So far I’ve refused to say much about any of them. She always wants to know how many there were.”
Dina nodded. “Kuaron was that way, a little bit. I had been married before and it made him very uneasy whenever I talked about it. After a while I just stopped mentioning it.”
“But Yulayan is the one who brings it up.”
Dina shook her head. “Yulayan always did things the hard way. She’s been like that since she was a child. She couldn’t be happy unless she set herself an almost impossible goal and then met it. If she couldn’t do it, then it made her miserable.
“She can’t go back in time and make you not have those other women. So she’ll try the next best thing—find out about them and compare herself to each one. Prove to herself that they’re no threat. If you won’t tell her anything, then that’s going to make it very hard for her to do it.” Dina had a thought. “Were all of them Terrans?”
Kamuhi nodded. “That’s about the only thing I have told her.”
Dina smiled. “Well, then, maybe that’s the problem. She’s worried because she’s not a Terran.” She took a sip from her cup. “Even Kuaron worried about that. Because he didn’t comprehend how Terrans could love without shahgunrah, he had to be convinced that I didn’t love somebody else besides him.”
“A Terran, you mean?” Kamuhi asked.
She nodded.
“Someone that you knew at the time or someone from your past?”
“Someone I knew then,” she said, putting down her cup. “I didn’t love him, but Kuaron took some convincing. He’s always seen Terrans as incredibly fickle. That’s why he worried so much when Yulayan said she wanted to marry you.”
“But I’m not fickle,” Kamuhi protested. “I’ve never been unfaithful to Yulayan, and I don’t plan on being unfaithful in the future. I’m not worried about what her father thinks. What alarms me is that Yulayan doesn’t seem concerned that I might fall in love with someone else. She just worries that I’ll fall into bed with them. It’s not very flattering.”
Dina shook her head. “But I can understand that. Yulayan is half Terran. She grew up every day of her life seeing me, a Terran. She accepts Terran bodies as normal. You’re one hundred percent human. When was the first time you saw a Wakanrean?”
“About three months before I met her.”
“I’ll bet that’s it. She can’t quite believe you see her as being as attractive as Terran women. Talk to her about it.”
“But she’s beautiful,” Kamuhi protested. “I thought that the first time I saw her.”
“Have you told her that lately?”
“No, I guess not.”
“Tell her again,” Dina advised. “Tell her every day if necessary.”
Kamuhi shook his head. “How can she not know she’s beautiful? All she has to do is look in the mirror.”
“It isn’t what she thinks of herself,” Dina corrected. “It’s what she thinks you see that counts right now.”
She gave him another cup of quascha and asked after Malia. Kamuhi talked about his daughter for a few minutes, but then looked at the wall chronometer.
“I’d better be getting back,” he said. “Thank you for everything, Dina.”
She called an autocab for him and in a few minutes it dipped down to the street outside the gate. She waved goodbye from the doorway and then went back into the house.
After he punched in the destination code for the front gate at Headquarters, Kamuhi thought about what his mother-in-law had said. He was so engrossed in his problems that he didn’t notice for several minutes that the autocab was heading the wrong way. When he realized it, he tried re-entering the code, but nothing happened. He tried the cancel key; he tried every key, but nothing worked. The cab sped onward, toward the far side of the valley and away from the base.
Kamuhi pulled out his personal com but he couldn’t get a clear signal. Kamuhi realized that this was more than a non-functioning autocab. It was no coincidence that the cab was headed the wrong way, that none of the controls would work, and that his com was being blocked. Jared had been right all along. This time, he was the one who was being snatched.
Kamuhi had several minutes to assess his situation. An autocab wasn’t the swiftest means of transportation, and he seemed to be going quite a ways. Dina and Kuaron lived in the suburbs south of Wisuta. The city was in the center of a wide valley formed by two rivers that merged in the center of the city. The rivers ran vaguely northeast to southwest and he had crossed them already. In a few minutes he had passed over the outlying suburbs and was in a rural area. He went over farms and open fields. The autocab slowed and started to descend. Kamuhi tried to force the door, but he couldn’t make it budge.
The cab dropped to street level except there was no street. It slowed almost to a crawl and kept going through the open doors of a large stone barn. Finally it stopped. Three Wakanrean men were waiting. One of them was very tall. With a sinking feeling, Kamuhi recognized Inchauro Perduay. One of the others, a shorter man with a light gold head crest and pale body fur, was holding a weapon. When Kamuhi studied him, the shorter man looked familiar, too. Kamuhi realized he had seen him in the Duanlana the night he had gone there with Magda. This man had been the companion of the man named Grazau.
Kamuhi had already hidden his stun gun under his tunic. When the third man pulled open the door from the outside, Kamuhi just stood there. The man with the weapon pointed it straight at him.
“Step out,” he said in Standard.
Kamuhi stepped down from the cab slowly, trying to size up the three. He was least worried about Inchauro because he had seen him in action, and he knew he was both slow and inexperienced. The other two were unknowns.
“Over there,” said the man with the weapon, gesturing to a chair in the corner.
“We should search him first,” said the third man in Wisutan dialect. “Grazau said we should search him before we tie him up.”
Kamuhi was walking very slowly, hoping that the man from the bar would crowd him a little and get within range. If he could get the weapon away, he would have a chance. Sure enough, the man with the weapon moved closer, arguing with his companion.
“Let’s tie him up first and then search him,” he said.
Kamuhi stopped precipitously and they almost bumped into him. He made his move, a quick backward lunge and a blow that knocked the weapon from the Wakanrean’s hand and sent it flying across the barn floor. All three of them lurched toward him almost comically. Kamuhi dove across the floor, rolled and came up in a crouch with his stun gun ready. He dropped the pale-crested man quickly and had moved to take out Perduay when he heard a noise from the doorway.
Before he could do anything, Kamuhi felt a sudden stab of pain. He cried out and hit the floor. Even as he lay, feeling consciousness slip away, he saw boots walking across the barn floor. When he looked up, the last thing he saw was the face of the man called Grazau.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Yulayan was at work when she got the note. She had gone to the supply cabinet for a moment, and when she came back there was a gray envelope on her desk. She picked it up, curious about how it had gotten there. It had her name written on the front in an old-fashioned hand, and she could feel something heavy inside it.
When she opened the envelope, there was just one sheet. It was paper, not thermaplast, plain cheap writing paper, like someone might use to write a grocery list. At the bottom of the envelope Yulayan could feel a lump. When she tipped the envelope over, two ThreeCon lieutenant’s insignia slid into her hand.
Yulayan stared at them for a moment. She could suddenly feel her heart beating very fast. When she unfolded the single sheet, she already had a good idea of what it would say.
We have the fijazhai known as Hailoaka in our custody. If you wish him to live, you will go at once to the Hospital for the Infirm and tell them that you want them to remove the abomination from your body. If you do not do this, we will send you a small piece of him every day until he is dead.
Yulayan fought panic. Her first instinct was to rush to the hospital, but she didn’t. Her second was to call her parents or Jared, but she didn’t do that either. She sat down in her chair and tried to think. If they had managed to leave the envelope on her desk, there must be someone at Quafray who was a qatorglynai. The company was very security-conscious, and no stranger could wander in off the street. That meant that she could be under observation right now.
Yulayan sat, holding Kamuhi’s double bars tightly in her hand. She remembered that she had a personal com in her bag; it was one of the things that Jared had insisted on. The qatorglynai might not know that. The only thing was, she had to have somewhere to use it in privacy. She also had to be careful not to do anything that would make them think she wasn’t going to comply with their orders. Yulayan reached a decision. She stuffed the envelope, the sheet of paper, and the insignia into her bag and rose to go.
“Is there anything wrong, Parundai Bellaire?” It was her supervisor, a woman named Hahnou Piouq.
“I’m sorry, Kantai Piouq,” Yulayan said brusquely. “I have an emergency situation, and I have to take care of it at once.” She studied the woman’s face for signs of complicity, and then realized that fear was making her paranoid.
“I’m distressed to hear it, parundai,” the other woman said. “I hope nothing’s wrong with your child?”
“No, nothing like that,” Yulayan said, realizing with a shock that she didn’t know for sure whether Malia could be a target or not.
She went out into the street and looked for an autocab. It occurred to her that this was what the qatorglynai would expect her to do and she began to inspect each cab that passed to see if there was anything that marked it as unusual. Finally, she walked to a nearby hotel where there were always autocabs waiting and picked one out of the line.
In the cab, she punched in the name of the hospital since she didn’t know the destination code. The cab’s monitor displayed an address, and she pressed the confirmation key. Then she quickly pulled out her communicator and keyed Jared’s personal code. He answered within a few seconds.
“Jared,” she said at once, “the qatorglynai have Kam.”
He nodded. “I was afraid of that. Drushachh called me. He’s way overdue getting back to the base. How do you know they have him?”
Yulayan told him quickly about the letter and the insignia.
“Anyone could get a hold of lieutenant’s bars, Yulayan.”
Yulayan shook her head. “They have him, Jared. I know they do. And you said he was overdue.”
“I know, guisha. But if anyone contacts you, refuse to believe it. Insist on real proof that they have him and that he’s alive. Demand to speak to him or to see a holo that shows he’s alive.”
“What do I do? What can I do to get him back?”
“What are you willing to do, Yulayan?” Jared said. “How far do you want to cooperate with them? That can only be your decision.”
“I’ll let them take out the implant, Jared. I just want to be sure they don’t kill him afterwards.”
“All right,” Jared said, his voice soothing. “Go to the hospital but stall. Ask to talk to the surgeon. Since they named a specific hospital, it’s most likely a setup, and there’s somebody there who’s prepared to do the operation. Ask a lot of questions. Ask to see credentials. Do whatever you have to do to make it take as long as possible. Buy us some time to find him.”
“All right. I will.” She had another thought. “Jared, could you check on Malia?”
“I already did, guisha. She’s fine. I’m taking her out of the childcare center and moving her to a safe house. If anyone asks, you can say you don’t know where she is. I’ll put someone on your parents and your brother’s family, too.”
“Thank you, Jared,” Yulayan said gratefully.
She cut the connection as the arrival alarm beeped. She was at the hospital. Yulayan took a deep breath and opened the door.
WHEN Kamuhi became aware of his surroundings, the first thing he noticed was a throbbing pain in his left arm. The second was that he was very uncomfortable. He was lying face down with his hands behind him and he couldn’t move his arms. After a few seconds, he realized that he must be in restraints of some kind. It took him a moment to connect what had happened in the barn with his current whereabouts.
By rolling to one side, Kamuhi was able to move to a sitting position. Whatever was holding his arms to his sides and his hands behind him was very efficient. It might even be the same kind of restraints they used in Security.
He was in a small room, dimly lit from above. It was stuffy and the floor was very dirty. There was no furniture and there was only one door, and one small square window above it. Kamuhi saw that he was naked from the waist up. When he looked down, he could see a deep gash in the flesh of his upper arm. He realized someone had removed the subcutaneous transponder. From the look of his arm, he was lucky he had been unconscious when they did it.
His uniform tunic was lying on the floor in front of him. Kamuhi noticed that the insignia had been removed from the collar. Just then he heard footsteps from outside the door. Someone opened it, and light streamed into the room and blinded him.
“He’s awake,” a voice called in Wisutan.
The footsteps drew closer and Kamuhi was jerked roughly to his feet.
“Stand up, fijazhai,” someone said in Standard.
Kamuhi fought dizziness. Whatever had stunned him was still having an effect. His eyes were adjusting to the light, and he could see better now.
There were more footsteps, and two more Wakanreans came into the little room. One of them was Inchauro Perduay and the other was one of the men Kamuhi had seen in the Duanlana, the man known as Grazau.
“So this is your fijazhai, Inchauro?” Grazau said. “Did you get the transponder off of him, Rugar?”
“Yes, Grazau,” said the man who had first opened the door. “But the funny thing was, it wasn’t working. We smashed it anyway, but it had stopped working before that.”
Grazau laughed. “Maybe the fijazhai don’t make as good machines as they think they do? Are you sure that was the only one?”
“Yes, Grazau,” said Rugar again. “We scanned him twice from head to foot and the transponder was the only thing that showed up.”
“Well, keep the dampener on anyway,” Grazau said. “It can’t hurt to be cautious. Fijazhai are tricky. Look how they found our people at the hospitals.”
Kamuhi’s heart sank. He had been counting on the newly implanted transponder to lead ThreeCon to this location. If the qatorglynai were dampening the signal, the transponder would do him no good.
Grazau was looking at Kamuhi and frowning. “I know him,” he said suddenly. “I’ve seen him before.” Grazau turned to Inchauro. “Straighten him up so I can see his face.”
Perduay pulled Kamuhi’s head back by his hair and forced the Terran into standing his full height.
Grazau swore a Wakanrean oath. “He was in the bar the other night! He was one of the fijazhai fighting over the whore.” Grazau used the Standard word since no Wakanrean dialect had a word for someone who sells sexual favors.
“Are you sure?” Inchauro said.
“Of course,” said Grazau. “How many Terrans are that tall? I ask you, could I make a mistake? Could you mistake him for someone else?”
Perduay shook his head. “But what was he doing in the Duanlana fighting over some Terran woman?”
“Idiot!” said Grazau. “It was an act. He must have been there watching for us.”
The qatorglynai leader moved closer to Kamuhi and stared into his face. He cursed the Terran, ranting on in a stream of obscenities. Kamuhi said nothing. He kept his expression as impassive as he could.
