Bactine (22 page)

Once inside his apartment, he changed into something comfortable and lay down on the bed. On the way home he had wondered why nobody here had thought of making one of these floater things a lot larger to create a flying balloon that was big enough to carry loads. That would give the pirates a hard time. He shrugged in the dark. There probably were things he didn't know. He could not imagine that nobody had ever tried it.

As he was wondering about the way he had emptied his heart and soul in front of the senator, a man he didn't know at all, his hydger started rattling.

"Go away whoever you are, I am not in the mood," he complained.

This was not good enough. The hydger kept at it, as if the person on the other end was not about to give up.

"This had better be good." He picked himself up from the bed and made his way over to the table where the troublemaker was. As he picked it up, the rattle stopped. "I wonder who it was I pissed off so much that I had to go through this day," he muttered and started back to the bed. Then the hydger started again. This time Daniel did not take chances. He was quick to get the box.

The screen showed a black triangle and no name. "Now what." Curiously, he flipped the switch. "Zacharias here."

There was some strange grunting sound, then a distorted voice said: "You are mister Daniel Zacharias?" There was a strange sound next to the voice, as if a steel brush grated over a bucket.

"Yes. Who is this?"

"My name is not important. I have to speak with you."

Daniel walked to a corner where, in a closet, he kept his special suitcase. With one hand he opened it and searched for something, as he asked what the talk would be about.

"I can not tell you that over this line," the voice said, as Daniel switched on his scanner.

"Null reading," it told him. He had to make the other person talk more.

"Listen, whoever you are. I am not in the mood to play games, so either you tell me what this is about, or I will simply hang up on you."

"No, don't. I have something important to discuss with you. You will come to the Maliser Park at the west side of Skarak. There is a group of six trees next to the entrance. Meet me there in an hour."

The black triangle disappeared, and the display then only showed a set of numbers. Coordinates.

"Scrambled voice pattern," the scanner said.

"Thanks. I had figured that out already," Daniel muttered, switching the scanner off and tossing it back into the suitcase. Clearly Earth's military stuff was not capable of tracing through local technology.

His finger hovered over the off switch of the hydger. It hesitated. Then, slowly, as if it had a mind of its own, it pressed the store-button. The secretive technology of the box hiccuped and then the display showed 'Maliser Park'.

Half an hour later he arrived at Maliser Park. He wanted to be early, to see where the strange person would come from. The entrance consisted of two thick trees that had suffered from pocks or a similar disease. Around the park were lights, and low bushes of a very needly kind. Entering the park unseen was impossible, he noticed. There were so many lights that even in the dark nothing could move here without being seen. That was a good thing.

Standing close to one of the thick trees, he looked over the area. He counted six trees in a group, just off to the left. Okay. Not okay. Further to the right also was a group of six trees. Tada for keeping things balanced, but this messed up the plan.

He took his chances and opted for the right-hand set of six. Keeping low, he ran over to them, took position and waited.

After more than half an hour, there still was nobody. He waited longer. Still nobody.

"Someone had you by the balls, Daniel," he muttered as he stepped out of the set of trees. As he slowly walked to the exit, still looking around, he saw a movement among the other six trees. He stopped and turned towards them.

A large cloaked figure stepped out into the light. "You are late. Come." Then it disappeared among the trees again.

Muttering something unintelligible he walked over. The figure in black stood waiting. The head was hidden under a hood and there was a mask in front of the face. The cloak was wide, as if it had to house a family of three.

"I was not late. You did not tell me what set of trees," Daniel said, half amused and half accusing.

"That does not matter." The steel brush was clearly there. And the voice was severely distorted, up to the point that Daniel had to pay close attention to the words. "I have an offer to make you, Mr. Zacharias. My aim is to take a ship out of commission. The Pricosine. You can make this happen." The owner of the voice clearly had problems speaking through the distorting contraption. The words came out in blurts.

"And for what reason would you want to do that?" Daniel felt himself tensing up. Whatever he had felt a few hours before, this was a direct attack on the ship that he loved, property of the man who had invited him to a party at his house. No matter how lousy a party it had been.

"I have my reasons," said the mask. "You will be richly rewarded if you cooperate."

"And if I don't?"

"You will suffer the consequences."

Daniel slowly moved into a stance from where he could react quickly. "I am not in the habit to negotiate with terrorists," he said, "and I am certainly not picking that up now." Quickly he jumped forward, reaching out to grab the mask and pull it off, but the person in the cloak was prepared. A small stick was suddenly thrust forward, hitting him in the chest. The punch itself was not a problem. The disabling current that it sent through Daniel's body however was.

His legs gave way, making him fall down. His arms did not obey the commands from his brain any more either. As he lay on the ground, the black figure watched him. "That, Mr. Zacharias, was not a smart thing to do." Then the person in black moved away, the steel brush rasping.

By the time Daniel's body started to understand him again, he had gotten very cold. There was a clear difference with the Bactine body. As if he was drunk, he clambered to his feet, seeking support from one of the trees. After a few minutes he felt able to walk again. First, however, he used the hydger to summon a carriage. He had to get back to the house of Clelem Dandra ko Galem and report this.

The carriage rattled off, with Daniel inside. The ride seemed to take ages, as hardly any light was there along the way. Daniel wondered again how the carriages worked, how they were powered and found their way around. And he muttered that the high speed was by far not fast enough, although that still was a lot faster than he would be able to run.

Finally the carriage came to a halt at the house of Clelem. It lined itself up with the long queue of other carriages that were waiting for passengers. Daniel jumped out of the car and ran up to the platform where this time the two men in uniform were present again.

"Get me the floater down," he ordered, "I have to get back up there."

The two men frowned. "Sir, your invitation?"

"Come on, man," Daniel threw all courtesy overboard, "I was here earlier. The lady up there took my invitation. Don't you remember me?"

"Sir, over one hundred people came here this evening," one of them said, slightly apologising. "I do not recall having seen your... attire this evening. It would have stuck in my memory."

Daniel looked down. He was wearing his time-off clothes, not the blue suit. He pulled out the hydger and looked up the number for the Clelem. "Don't make me use this. Sir. I work on the Pricosine. I was here earlier, as I am the guy that got ripped apart during the pirate attack. And if you make me press this button, your boss will have your ass for breakfast."

Two pairs of eyes stared at him. "Sir. Please." They quickly conferred among each other and reached a verdict. A minute later the floater was down at the platform and Daniel hopped on board. The floater took him up, and as soon as it halted at the reception building, he was out and through the building in a matter of seconds. He dashed past people in the transparent tunnel, who were standing there, chatting and admiring the garden, and reached the hall which had become even more crowded.

Several of the guests stared at Daniel and started whispering. Around him, most of the talk fell silent as eyes peered at him, his appearance making quite the impression.

"Sir?" One of the servants approached him. "Oh, it is you. What happened to you, sir?"

"I got ambushed. I have to see the Seigner, can you take me to him?" Daniel did not feel like small talk.

"The Seigner is in a conversation, sir," the servant said.

"Then show me where he is, man. This is important."

The servant guided Daniel through the crowd, to a smaller room. It was the room where he had overheard the talk of Clelem with his family, concerning himself. Clelem sat a table with four other gentlemen.

"Seigner Dandra," the servant began, but Daniel pushed past him.

"I am very sorry to burst in on you like this, sir, truly I am, but I have to see you. Now. This is urgent."

Clelem looked up at Daniel. "You look very shaken up, Mr. Zacharias. And I recall it is very unlike you to interrupt people in this manner, so I assume there is indeed something pressing you have to tell me." He got up. "Please, come with me. Gentlemen, if you would please excuse my leave."

Clelem took Daniel to yet another room. It had windows that looked out over the bay. "Mr. Zacharias, talk to me."

Daniel told his story, about the call, the meeting in the park, the threat towards the Pricosine and how he had been stunned and left paralysed by the cloaked person.

Clelem nodded slowly. He got up, looked outside the room for a moment and closed the door. "Mr. Zacharias, I am in your debt for coming here and bringing this matter to my attention. Unfortunately this is not the first time I have been threatened. There were letters and messages. Anonymous of course, but they all were directed against either my person, my family or my ships. So far they have only been threats without any action being taken to turn them into serious affairs. But this..." Clelem shook his head. "Do you have any idea who this person was?"

"No, sir, I'm sorry. I would not know." Daniel had calmed down as Clelem was taking the time to listen to him, and he had relocated his more politely side again. "The shape of the person would give me reason to think of someone, but as I have no evidence of that, I would not feel safe in mentioning a name."

"Ah... one moment please..." Clelem walked to the door and talked to someone. He returned soon. "I have asked for some tea for you, Mr. Zacharias. You look like you can do with that."

"Thank you, Seigner. Have you mentioned the threats to the police?"

"I did, of course, but they are unable to provide me any services as long as no physical act has been committed. It is a sad truth, Mr. Zacharias, but it is so."

After a knock on the door, a servant came in with a cup of tea and two glasses of local cognac.

"Cheers, Mr. Zacharias."

The two men drank in silence. Then the door flew open.

"Father, Seigner Lastor has just told me-" Rayko stopped dead in her tracks. She stared at her father and Daniel. "I am sorry." Her eyes shot devastation at Daniel. "My apologies." She left the room.

"And mine, Mr. Zacharias. My daughter somehow learnt her manners from one of the sailors, I sometimes think."

Daniel waved it away. "That's fine, really. Miss Dandra ko Galem and I seem to be getting off on the wrong foot continually."

Clelem nodded. "Yes, so I've heard."

Daniel was not sure if there was a hidden chuckle in the man's words.

"Now, let us return to recent events. Mr. Zacharias, I would appreciate it if you were to keep up your efforts to inform me about strange things. Anything at all that attracts any kind of attention. You have my permissions to alert me or Mr. Slindris at any moment of the day or night, if you suspect it necessary."

"Thank you, Seigner. I will keep my eyes open." Daniel drank his tea before it would go cold. "Do you think that there is a chance that pirates have their hand in these threats?"

Clelem looked at him. "I have been thinking about that as well, Mr. Zacharias. At this point, I think, anything is possible..."

"Mr. Zacharias," Clelem said, "would you please honour me by staying a bit longer? Mr. Slindris told me that he saw you leave in quite a hurry after speaking with the senator. I hope the good man did not say anything to upset you?"

Daniel did not believe his ears. "No, no, the senator had no part in my leaving. Excuse me, sir, but my appearance..."

Clelem smiled. "We'll fix that for you. Just allow me a moment." He got up and left the room.

Minutes passed, and Daniel wondered if he had been forgotten. Then the door opened and Gaguran came in, carrying things. The man did not look amused.