Drarkghon's Hoard, page 17
“Okay. I land somewhere. Where?”
Ben smiled. “I get a pass?” He flicked his fingers in dismissal. “It’s at the edge of the equatorial zone near the ocean.” He pulled out his comm and projected a map showing the edge of the continent and a line of islands. The label said Doormaand Archipelago.
Dru’s heart beat a little faster. He shot a look at Kit. She’d tensed a little but she hadn’t reacted too much. She was learning to keep her cards hidden. Well, two clues pointing in the right direction.
Ben tapped his finger on an area a little inland from the coast, not an island. “Set down there. Ziaarn will meet you there.”
Dru snorted. “Along with a platoon of the Rylat’s bodyguard?”
Ziaarn’s eye ridges reddened. “I will be alone.”
“Oh yes? You’re a member of the Rylat’s guard. Have you taken leave? Taken time off for your grandmother’s funeral?” He was being stupid, he knew.
Kit grabbed his arm. “Cut it out. Shut up and listen.” Her fingernails bit into his skin.
Ben’s lips quirked. “Listen to the lady. Ziaarn has been thrown out. Dismissed. Banished.”
“Banished? For speaking?” He was almost at the point of believing the story but he wasn’t going to rush it. The Yrmak’s eye ridges were still redder than normal which he knew meant she wasn’t happy but her demeanor... bitter, embarrassed, angry?
“It’s all about status,” Kit said. “Have you heard about losing face? Being made to look a fool in front of people? That’s what Aestra did to Ziaarn.” She turned to the Yrmak. “Am I right? That’s what fyzteer means?”
The Yrmak nodded. “Public humiliation. And in front of Humans, too.” She shrugged. “I have been cast out. Even my home village will not accept me. I am leeproyz. Unwanted. Unclean.”
Dru sipped a little more beer to give himself time to think. Oh, what the hell. Kit wanted to do it, and it was the best lead they had. A great lead, in fact. He put his mug down. “Okay. I think we can do this.”
The general relief was palpable. Ben and Kit both let out a breath and relaxed a little. Ziaarn’s eye ridges settled to orange.
“What’s the plan? When do we meet Ziaarn? Do we have any supplies we need?”
“I’d suggest two days. That gives Ziaarn time to set up a meeting place and collect anything we might need, and time for you to leave Urdus and be forgotten about.”
Time to set up an ambush? Then again, there was always risk and he wouldn’t be walking into it blind. “Okay.”
Ben showed Dru an entry on his comm. “These are your coordinates. Be there at 0400 the day after tomorrow.”
Dru copied the data and put his comm away. “Fine. I’ll make sure we’re there.” Except they might be there a bit earlier and have a look around.
Kit beamed. “We’re agreed, then.” She said something to Ziaarn in Yrmak that appeared to go down well. “Pleased to meet you, Ben. And thanks for your help.”
Ben stood. Clearly, it was time to go.
Doormaand
Ben showed them a back exit to the pub. Kit exchanged a nod with Ziaarn, who melted away into the darkness. Ben pointed for them to go another way, along a back alley which would eventually lead to the main street not far from the fairly bright lights of the space port.
The door closed behind the publican, leaving them in darkness. Kit started to move but Dru touched her arm. “Wait. Your eyes will adjust.”
Standing in silence, she heard the steady drip of a gutter somewhere. Thank goodness it had stopped raining. Her nose twitched. Something stank. Rotting vegetables? Off to the left and ahead a glow reflecting off the clouds was the space port.
“Okay?” Dru said.
She nodded. But he wouldn’t be able to see that. “Yes.”
The alley ran along the back of a number of businesses. The smell of rotting vegetables grew. They skirted around a large container overflowing with rubbish.
“Smells like garbage collection’s overdue,” Dru said.
Kit’s nerves spiked when something scampered across the alley in front of them. Just a critter.
A growing light in the distance signaled the end of the alley where it met the main road. Kit paused at the entrance and looked up and down the street. She waited while a couple of people finished crossing the road to the terminal but apart from them there was no one else about. She stepped out, Dru a pace behind her.
“Very good,” he murmured as he ranged up beside her.
She stared at him. He was silhouetted against the light from the space port. “What?”
“You were careful.”
It’s dark, we’re in a city we don’t know, what did you expect? But all she said was, “You make it so difficult.”
His eyebrows shot up. “What are you talking about now?”
“All that at the pub. It’s a clear lead, they’re willing to help and you...” She waved her hands as the annoyance bubbled up.
“Damn right. I don’t trust easily. It’s got me into hot water more than once.”
“Seems to me their story fits well enough. And please don’t imagine I’m completely gullible. Even less so since I teamed up with you.”
He grinned. “That’s nice to know. Anyway, we’ve signed up. But that doesn’t mean we drop our guard.”
Huh. He was paranoid enough for both of them and then some. But he was right. The memory of her encounter with Sanur came up. And professor Gudrada and the coin. She hadn’t exactly excelled either time. “What now?”
“We check out of the hotel and stay in the ship. The powers that be need to know we’re moving on. Besides, I’m sick of having to watch what I say all the time.”
Fair enough. The surveillance in the hotel cramped her style, too. Especially the bit about having to share a bed with a surveillance camera pointed at them.
“But we need to act natural. We don’t want it to look like we’re running. How are your acting skills?”
“I’ll manage. So. You want us to say something in the hotel room?”
“Yes. Let’s pretend we’re going to that place your relative went to.”
“Good idea. That would be Navogar, where he met Karamov.” In fact, she would have suggested it as another stop if they hadn’t met Ziaarn.
“That’s the one.”
“I’ll be glad to be out of here,” Kit said. It had been interesting but the place felt claustrophobic, as though she was being watched everywhere she went. And as Dru said, trust was a rare commodity. Professor Sondheim had fabulous good looks but he had, she was sure, ulterior motives.
The sound of footsteps hurrying behind them sent her nerves into overdrive. Dru tensed and turned, his pistol in his hand.
Kit matched his movement, her heart hammering.
The figure came closer.
“It’s Ben.” Dru didn’t put the pistol away.
The publican stopped in front of them. “Somebody’s looking for you. I thought you should know.”
“Explain,” Dru said.
“A fellow came to the bar and asked if I’d seen this woman. He showed me a pic of you,” he said, gazing at Kit. “It must have been five minutes after you’d left.”
“What did he look like?” Kit asked.
Ben shrugged. “Mid height, dark hair, dark skin. But he had an accent. Off-world.”
Oh crats. Sanur?
Dru glowered. “And then you came straight out to tell us?”
The other man nodded. “After he’d left. Yes.”
“Well, you’d better come with us then, hadn’t you?” Dru grabbed Ben’s arm and strode back the way they’d come toward the bright lights of the spaceport.
“What are you doing?” Ben tried to pull out of Dru’s grip.
“You’re coming with us,” Dru snarled.
The drizzle had started again. The few lights left on in shops reflected in the puddles on the deserted roadway. Kit huddled into her coat and hurried after the two men. What was going on here?
“What the hell? Coming where?” Ben dragged back.
“Somebody shows you a picture of Kit and the first thing you do is chase after us. What’s that going to tell the guy?”
Ben struggled along beside him. “He left. I waited til he’d gone.”
“And he was alone, wasn’t he?”
“Yes.” But the man’s tone held a touch of doubt.
Kit smiled. Even she could pick up on that. There would have been somebody else there. They’d been followed to Berriman’s. When Ben returned to the bar and they didn’t, the picture was a ploy. And it worked.
“So now they can probably guess you know a lot more about Kira than where she is now.”
Ben had stopped fighting. He must have worked it out for himself. “Sorry. I didn’t think.”
“You sure didn’t.” Dru still had the gun in his hand. He turned his head every few strides, checking for pursuit.
They carried on. The pub over the road from the space port was still open, light spilling out onto the wet pavement. A figure swathed in a coat came out, hurried across the road, and disappeared into the terminal.
Dru stopped outside the door. “We’re a crew going back to our ship. Act casual.” He turned to Kit. “Got that?”
She nodded. He’d been tense, running on adrenalin but that melted away and he was just another spacer returning from leave. Slipping an arm around Kit’s shoulders he said to Ben. “Good pub, that one. We can go there again next time.”
Ben took up his role with a grin. “Nice to find a place that sells decent beer.”
They’d reached the door that led to the parking bays. Dru picked up the pace and Kit almost had to jog to keep up.
“Astra, open up and warm up,” Dru said. “We’re going to be in a hurry.”
Kit heard footsteps behind them.
“Company’s coming,” Ben said.
Dru let go of Kit. “Run.”
Kit glanced over her shoulder. Two figures were running toward them. Her heart pounding, she sprinted. The best thing she could do was get the bay door open. Astra couldn’t do that. Behind her the buzz zip of laser blasts filled the air. She skidded to a halt beside the big metal hatch and fumbled with the controls, punching in the access code. It seemed to take forever for the lock to release and the door to slide open.
“Hurry up,” she yelled, holding the door open with her foot.
Ben stumbled past her, then Dru. “Get on board,” he said.
The bay door closed behind him. As she ran up the ramp she heard him destroy the lock.
Dru pointed Ben at the seat behind him in the cockpit. “Strap in. Astra, set course for Navogar. But first, get us out of here.”
“Acknowledge.”
The ship’s power surged.
A voice came over the speaker from traffic control. “Javelin, what the hell are you doing?”
“Sorry, control. We have an emergency situation. We have to leave now,” Dru replied.
“What emergency situation? You can’t just—”
Dru switched off the comm.
The ship lifted, pushing Kit back into her seat. The few lights that defined the city shone in the blackness below and then they winked out as Javelin raced through the cloud cover and out into space. Dru sat at the console, adjusting vision from the sensors. “Doesn’t look like we’ve got company. Astra, check the ship for bugs.”
He rose from his seat, his features grim. “In the lounge, you two. We need to talk.”
Ben licked his lips, tapping his fingers on the benchtop. Dru sat opposite him.
“Okay, what was that all about?” Dru said.
“I told you. A guy showed me a picture of her, asked if I’d seen her.”
“You said no, of course.”
Ben frowned. “Listen, I’m not a juvie at this game. I said no and he said he’d appreciate it if I let him know if she came in. He gave me an ID on a card.” He threw it on the bench. “I waited til he’d left and then waited a bit longer. Then I followed you by the back alleys. Nobody followed me. You’re right, they must have had something worked out between them and I fell for it. Like I said, sorry.”
“Okay, we’ll leave it at that. I’ll show you a cabin.” He stood and led Ben out to the corridor.
But Kit didn’t think he was happy. His face had lost expression. There would be more to come.
DRU POINTED OUT A SPARE cabin and explained how it worked after he’d introduced Astra. Later, he’d make sure Ben didn’t have access to the maintenance systems. He still had questions.
He went back to the cockpit and sent instructions to Astra. Kit came in and sat beside him. “Are we really going to Navogar?”
“No. We’re going into orbit around a gas giant.”
She giggled. “Just like old times. Do you think you might find another crashed ship?”
He reached out and held her hand. “Wouldn’t that be funny?”
The smile faded. “You don’t trust him, do you?”
“What did you expect?”
She shrugged, nodding.
“His story doesn’t quite work for me. He feels right, but if their attackers thought Ben was involved with us why didn’t they just grab him and wring the information out of him? Maybe he’d set the whole scene up so we’d have to take him with us.”
She squeezed his hand. “I guess. But he could help us. He’s lived on this planet for a long time.”
“Certainly.”
“Hey. Am I interrupting anything?” Ben stood in the hatchway.
Dru took his hand away from hers. “No. Just putting us into orbit around an outer planet.” He stood and went back to the lounge, where he dropped onto the couch. The others had followed him. Kit took the seat beside him and Ben sat in the chair opposite.
“What can you tell us about the place we’re going to?”
“Have you got a map?” Ben asked.
“Tell Astra what you need.”
“The main continent east of the Doormaand Archipelago.”
Astra projected the map to the display. A mountain range came down to the coast and into the sea, where their tops were now islands.
“Ziaarn will be here, about seventeen klicks from the coast.” He pointed at a location in the foothills. “There’s plenty of flat ground nearby. You just need to avoid the no-go zone. If you zoom in to this area here you’ll see the military base.”
Astra zoomed the display to show a cluster of round huts inside a fenced off perimeter a few klicks away from the village.
“How many troops?” Dru asked. “And why are they there?”
“About a hundred. They’re there to guard the ruins. I’m not sure exactly where they are but if you can locate the troops—”
Dru nodded. “You’ll find what they’re guarding.”
Ben raised his hands. “No, not needed. Ziaarn knows exactly where they are. She’ll take you there. But it’s higher in the mountains.”
“Ziaarn said it’s dangerous down there.”
“There are animals. But that’s not the main issue.” Ben ran a hand through his hair. “If the local villagers come across your ship they’ll tell the soldiers.”
“Okay. So we land and then Astra takes the ship to an island off the coast. Would that work?”
Ben’s eyebrows shot up. “You can do that?”
“This isn’t the AI you used to use back in your military days.” Dru frowned at the display. “Astra, we need to land near these coordinates and then you take the ship to a nearby uninhabited island.”
“Acknowledge.”
The response came in seconds. “I can land here but it might be best to land a little further away so the ship will not be heard. Then I will move to this island.” One of the smaller islands on the map acquired a red dot.
“I’M SORRY, BOSS,” THEY got away Sanur said into his comm.
“Who got away?”
Huh? What sort of question was that? He’d been sent to keep an eye on Sherren and the lovely Kit. Who did he expect?
“Sherren and Frankson. And they took the barkeep from the pub with them. Ben Bickle is his name.”
“Did they? That’s interesting. You stay down there, Rievers, and keep on the trail. I want to know if they come back. Got it?”
“Yes, boss.” He had half a mind to ask Cutson how he was supposed to do that. But he didn’t think that would go down well at all.
The Temple
Kit watched the terminator line creep across Urdus’s face. Most of the ocean was in daylight, the blue surface covered with swirling cloud but the continent was dark. She tried to find the lights of the city but the ship was too high. The planet might as well be uninhabited.
“Switch to stealth mode, Astra,” Dru said.
“Acknowledge.”
Javelin lost height, although still well above the atmosphere.
“Patrol ship at five hundred klicks.” Astra displayed the vessel, barely visible except for its running lights.
Kit straightened, her nerves jangling.
Dru smiled. “Relax. Urdus runs three patrols, circling the planet in a continuous loop. They’ve got an antique Yrmak cruiser and two superseded Imperial Hawk class frigates. That one’s a Hawk. It’s big enough to make a mess of Javelin but it won’t see us.
Kit held her breath, watching the running lights on the screen but the ship didn’t move and there was no hail from Urdus’s spaceport.
“Now comes the fun part,” Dru said. “Atmosphere... now.”
The ship bucked and jolted. Kit assumed they were in cloud, but the darkness was absolute. She ought to be getting used to this by now, but she wasn’t. Still, she wasn’t terrified as she had been the first time. Was it even a tiny bit... fun?
