Bactine (39 page)

Sygra looked at him. "Very good. I am sure she would be delighted to hear you talk like this."

Daniel seriously doubted that. He also was certain he'd never mention anything like weaknesses in her presence.

"It is one of the core values of the Litany of Nahmyo," Sygra explained. "When you are in touch with your weaknesses, you can anticipate them, and protect them a lot better, or even dissolve them. Use them to your advantage too, at times. And you can be more in synchronisation with the planet itself then."

Daniel nodded politely and looked around. He found that he was completely lost in what had appeared to be just a modest garden. Kernak had disappeared, as had his understanding of where the walk and the talk were going.

"You see, Mr. Zacharias," the senator continued, "I have turned a weakness into a strength."

"With your art collection?" Daniel tried.

"No, my dear friend. It is with drugs."

Daniel almost stumbled over his feet upon hearing that. So it was true... "In what respect do you mean that, sir? I mean, this is quite a revelation. Do you... uhm... use drugs?"

Sygra laughed. "Oh no, Mr. Zacharias. Far from, far from, I vow to you. I have, unfortunately, a brother who's weakness is drugs in that way. I am strongly opposed to them, and I have made it known that I will fight anything related to drugs because someone in my family is suffering from them. And suffering it is, Mr. Zacharias." Sygra's laughter disappeared as he said the words.

Daniel knew. "I have seen soldiers, good men, go down because of TSD, Rood, name them. I hate the stuff with a vengeance, sir."

The senator nodded. "Make everyone know this. They will know you for it. And fear you for it." Then, fully unexpected, Sygra reached out and heavily leaned on Daniel's arm.

Daniel felt the man falter and grabbed him under the arm. "Sir, are you okay?"

It took Sygra a while before he could respond. "I must go back inside, if you would be so kind, Mr. Zacharias." Leaning on Daniel, he made it back to the door. Kernak was lying near to it and watched interestedly as Daniel supported her boss into the house. Sygra lay down on a couch and seemed to pass out immediately. He looked the same way as when Daniel had seen him lying on the couch at Clelem's, during the soirée.

Sygra's servant seemed to sense what was going on, he came almost running and checked on his employer. "He will be fine, sir, thank you for assisting him inside. The senator suffers from a serious blood illness that at times makes him faint. Lying down will make him well again soon."

Daniel looked at the thin man who lay there with eyes closed and lips slightly apart. Weaknesses, he thought. "I think I should leave now," he said to the servant. "Please, would you thank the senator for his time and for introducing me to Kernak."

The servant nodded. "I will, sir. And it is a good sign that the beastie likes you."

"How do you know Kernak likes me?" Daniel asked. He was surprised by the certainty in the servant's words.

The servant smiled. "If Kernak did not like you, sir, you would not have been strolling through the garden with the senator. Please allow me to show you out."

-=-=-

Daniel sat in the carriage that was rolling towards Skarak. He was thinking about the remarkable visit that had ended so abruptly. A blood disease would make for a good cover if the man was using drugs. Perhaps Daniel had intruded on the man after he had taken something and had he witnessed- but no, that would be strange. And his talk about that religion. The Litany of Nahmyo. That sounded a bit simple also. Maybe it was a diversion of sorts. There were frauds in many religions.

The sign announcing that the carriage was now entering Skarak moved past the window of the carriage. Not long now, Daniel knew, before he'd be home. Lunch at the "Solid Rooster", which was a good place, was already on his mind when suddenly the carriage stopped.

"What's this?" he muttered. He had never been in a carriage that broke down. These things just didn't do that. They'd at best stop for something that was blocking their path. Daniel opened the door, stepped out of the carriage and was hit in the back by something. Or someone.

Daniel staggered away from the carriage. A blow had not been what he had expected. Before he really heard it, he already reacted to a sound that happened behind him. The combat training he'd had worked. He dropped himself to the ground, rolled to the side and as he was on his back he kicked at whatever would be coming up on him. His shoes connected with the legs of a heavy-set man. The kick did not throw the man over, but got him out of balance long enough for Daniel to get up and prepare for the next attack.

The man charged at Daniel. In his hand was something that looked like a knife, and he was waving it in a very skilled way. He was fast. He slashed the sleeve of Daniel's jacket and almost managed to slit part of his body too. Daniel got hold of the man's arm and yanked it hard. His arms were longer than those of the attacker, so he had the advantage of reach.

The man with the knife stumbled. Daniel kicked at one of the passing ankles, something cracked and the man went down. The pointy rocks that were placed along the side of the road became fatal for the man... he fell face down on one of them and lay still.

"Oh crap," Daniel said, watching the silent figure on the ground.

"Sir, are you unharmed?" Two gentlemen had jumped from their own carriage that had halted and had tried to come to Daniel's assistance. That had proven not to be necessary.

"Yes, I am fine," Daniel replied, looking at the sleeve. The knife had not even scraped his skin.

One of the other men took his hydger and was busy with it.

"He is informing the police," the other man said. "We are your witnesses, sir, we saw that you were attacked by this person. Do you have any idea what this ambush was for?"

Daniel shook his head. He now looked at his carriage and saw a thick branch stick from between the spokes of one of the wheels. The reason why the carriage had stopped was obvious.

About a quarter of an hour later, two black and yellow carriages had arrived. Policemen assessed the situation, and a medical examiner was kneeling on the ground next to the body of the assailant. The pointy rock that the unfortunate man had landed on, and the ground around it, had turned red. A nasty smelly kind of red.

Daniel made his statement to the police, and the two other men added theirs to that. One of the officers held the knife in a hand. "Do you have serious enemies, sir?"

"I am not certain," Daniel said.

"Well, it looks like it. This kind of knife," the policeman said, "is usually carried by murderers. Do you see this little tube?" He pointed at what looked like a slit in the blade. "If you get stabbed with this knife, pressing a little switch will inject a lethal dose of poison into your body which goes through this tube." The man showed Daniel where the switch was, conveniently located at the far end of the handle. It could be operated by the pinky.

"This is one of Dogom ko Tzuy's men," the medical examiner said, from his kneeling position. "You'd better be careful, sir, Seigner Dogom ko Tzuy is a powerful person. If he is indeed after you, then you are in trouble."

Daniel wondered how the examiner knew the killer had been with Huajo. The medical examiner showed him a tattoo of a ship, with the word 'Tzuy' beneath it. "Do you think I should file charges against Seigner Dogom ko Tzuy?" he asked one of the police officers.

The man shook his head. "I would advise against that, sir. There is no evidence. You do not know on whose orders this man really acted. And he won't tell us anymore."

The policemen then asked for Daniel's hydger identification, so they could get in touch in case they needed more information from him.

The two gentlemen who had witnessed the battle also presented their hydger information to one of the police officers. After waving away Daniel's gratitude, they boarded their carriage and went on their way.

The medical examiner was done with what he could do out in the street. Together with one of the officers he packed the body in a large sheet and hoisted that into one of the police carriages.

The number of people who had stopped their carriages and were observing the proceedings had grown to such an amount that a proper traffic jam was starting on the road. Once once of the policemen had left with the medical examiner and the corpse, the other officer start directing the people to move on, while Daniel worked on removing the branch from the wheel of his carriage.

"Will you be alright sir?" the policeman asked.

"I think I'll be fine, thank you." Daniel got into his carriage.

"Sir," the policeman said, leaning inside, "I do recommend that you do not take matters into your own hands. Someone has committed a serious crime against you. We do not want to come after you, the victim, for making the same mistake. I wish you a good day, sir." The policeman touched his hat and stepped back as Daniel told the carriage to take him home. And this time for real.

At home, Daniel showered and put on different clothes. The fight and the encounter with the knife had left more marks than he had originally thought. He frowned at the sleeve of the jacket. That probably was damaged beyond repair, but he would take it to a tailor anyway. These people here were amazing with repairs.

Then he tried to decide what his next step would be. He was trying to locate a missing woman that hated him, who was the daughter of a man who hated him, and apparently now there also was a contract out on him, put out by someone who seemed to hate him with a vengeance. But that could not be Huajo. The man had been ever so friendly to Daniel when he visited Huajo in his house.

"And you're the idiot who falls for friendly again," Daniel commented to himself. "Don't, stupid." It was as if everyone on this planet who was even slightly important was working with hidden agendas. There was no honour in that, according to Daniel.

After going out to the tailor's with his torn sleeve ("this is no problem, sir, it will be brand new"), Daniel tried to talk to Stroro and Darigyn. Darigyn answered, Stroro was nowhere to be found.

Darigyn was quite surprised about the call. "Daniel, how are you?"

Daniel told him what had happened during the carriage ride. His sailor friend was appalled about what he heard.

"And what are you going to do? Do you need some bone and muscle to make an impression on Dogom ko Tzuy?"

"I'm not sure. Not yet anyway. I have this wild idea though..." Daniel explained what he wanted to do.

"Oh. Yeah. I like that. I can get to Stroro, he near never has the hydger with him, but I probably know where he is."

The men arranged when and where they'd meet. Daniel lay down on his bed after that, while Darigyn went out to locate Stroro.

-=-=-

Daniel was hardly recognisable. He wore original sailor's clothes and a wool hat was pulled over his ears. With his hands in his pockets he walked towards the entrance of the harbour, slightly bent over to mask his height. Darigyn and Stroro were already there, leaning against the wall next to the gate and looking around at the business that was never ending.

"Hey, guys, I really appreciate you coming here on such short notice," Daniel greeted them.

"That's okay, Daniel. The new ship is not ready so there is not much for us to do," Stroro grinned. "Having a little job like this on the side is always a nice change. Keeps us out of trouble."

"Out of other trouble," Daniel said with a wink.

"Ah, don't worry. If we get caught we pretend to be drunk and lost," Stroro said, with stars shining in his eyes and a hip flask showing from his pocket for a moment. "A swig of this each and we can fool anyone." The three men laughed.

"Come, let's go and see what we can find. If there's anything to find," Daniel said. Just to be on the safe side, he wanted to search some of Huajo's ships. Maybe Rayko was on one of them.

"There is always something," Stroro predicted as they walked through the small entrance gate and proceeded down the long part of the quay where the smaller boats were moored.

Daniel asked himself how much he wanted to tell the men. He knew he could trust them quite far, even with his life in circumstances, but the things he was facing now... that probably was not something to share. No. What they knew now was enough for this moment.

The three walked along the gigantic warehouses, watching out for the heavy carts with goods that could be rolling out of there. Then they went through a small alley to reach their destination: the area where some of the ships of Huajo Dogom ko Tzuy were. There were two of them in port at that moment, both relatively small four-masters.

The time they had picked was perfect. There was no one around. The large warehouses were silent and dark.

"Where do you want to start?" Stroro asked, eyeing the ships one after the other.

Daniel looked at them also. The ships looked entirely deserted. They picked one. Stroro and Darigyn strolled up to the gangway and made their way to the deck.