The Bright Black Sea (77 page)

'Aye, I'm being punished for my failures, no doubt
about that. And yes, you don't count, but you had a share in my
fall and you can be touched...' she paused to illustrate that point
again. 'Min, on the other hand, still counts, and I can use what's
left of you to get to her. Otherwise, you're worthless, a loose end
to be tied up. Failure must not only be punished, but covered up as
well. You aren't targeted by an assassin of St Bleyth and live to
tell about it. You're on the company's account, not the
client's.'

'I won't say a word about it. Promise,' I replied,
scurrying around the small office trying to keep a safe distance
from her.

'Damnit, Litang, are you going to stand and fight, or
just whimper and cower like some Unity Standard puppy? Are you
afraid of this little riding crop? You were brave enough when you
faced Max who was out to kill you with a blade...'

'I'm afraid more of you, Naylea. I had a chance with
Max. I don't with you,' I replied. Which was true enough. I had no
expertise in martial arts beyond twin blade fencing, and if all
those dirty small men couldn't get the best of her in four months,
I wasn't likely to either. My only chance was to snatch my darter
out of her jacket pocket, and I'm sure she knew that. I could see
the anger in her eyes, but there was more than a bit of play acting
in them as well. She was a cruel, grey-eyed cat, and I, the little
ship mouse she was playing with, batting me around with her paws,
waiting for me to do something that she could pounce on.

'Besides, on Lontria I was fighting for your honor
against your cruel lout of a husband. I was motivated. But against
you, my dear...' I left it hanging, with a hopefully winning
smile.

She was watching me intently now, searching for the
lie. Perhaps she didn't find it, because she smiled, 'Oh, I make
allowances for you, Wil. It'll make what I must do so deliciously
bittersweet.' iShe illustrated that point with another lunge and
stinging blow. 'I felt a little of that pain too,' she said with a
wicked sigh. And struck me again.

Even with a grandmother from the drifts, I was a
pretty Unity Standard fellow. Even as a spaceer, I shared the
Unity's population's broad characteristic, which is to say, I was
accustomed to security, at least downside, and predisposed to be
easygoing, friendly, accommodating, and tolerant. There seemed some
sort of strange fondness between Cin and me. I saw it –
occasionally – in her eyes. It wasn't friendship, but whatever it
was, at whatever level it existed, and for that matter, why it
existed at all – it prevented me from taking Cin's threats
completely at her word. She wasn't play acting with her blows, they
were meant to hurt, but well, that was Cin the sadist – yet even
so, my Unity Standardness was inclined to let that ride. As for her
threats, I had to take them seriously, but there seemed a certain
vein of reluctance in them, which I might find a way of exploiting.
All of which, I suppose, are just feeble excuses for cowering,
yelping with the blows and sliding away from a slip of a woman
armed with only a short, leather bound rod.

'Still, you should try,' she snapped, suddenly
growing impatient.

'I don't fight battles I can't win,' I panted, and
added with a Unity Standard smile, 'And I wouldn't want to hurt
you, my dear.'

She smiled grimly. 'But I want to hurt you,' she
said, and launched a furious attack, landing stinging blows on my
exposed neck, and shielding hands circling around the room. Her
eyes dared me to try the door... And when I didn't she lost
patience and planted a boot in my midriff, sending me flying into
the corner, a heap of pain, gasping for breath.

'I think your face needs to be mussed up a bit. This
is actually going to hurt...'

I hadn't the breath to reply. I didn't even look at
her. I waited. Sprawled out as I was, she'd have to lean over to
hit my face, and if I could take a few blows, I hoped to be able to
grab her and bring her down on top of me. And if I could reach her
jacket pocket... I watched her feet approach and covered up my
head...

She lunged and landed a blow to my groin which took
what little breath I had acquired, curling me into a ball in pain.
She aimed a blow for the side of my head but it missed and landed
on my shoulder, I could hear the swish of the rod as it swung by my
head.

And , 'Damn!' and she stopped.

I was in too much pain to care.

'Blast and damn! We've company.' I heard her mutter.
Her com link must have alerted her to some tell-tales being tripped
somewhere. She turned and stepped over to the desk and console.

'The Patrol.' I managed to groan. 'I'll make you a
deal.'

'Not the Patrol, your pals, the bloody Neb-damned
Legion. They must have tagged you too,' she snarled, turning to
glare at me.

'Or your flier,' I muttered, still gasping for
breath, but unwilling to be blamed for one more Neb-blasted thing I
didn't do. 'Doesn't matter, the Patrol will be here in minutes.
There are alarms ringing in Patrol headquarters as we speak.'

'I'm afraid not. They haven't tripped the building's
alarms. They tripped the alarms I installed when I took possession.
The Patrol was rather careless in securing this facility. I had no
problem getting around the system and making this my base and the
Legion seems to have no problem nullifying their alarm system
either. Which, I suppose, is not surprising since this was one of
their warehouses and we are dealing with their special branch.
We'll just have to deal with the Legion without the help of the
Patrol.'

'Why?' I asked, finally able to look up at her. 'Trip
the Patrol's alarm and let them deal with the Legion. I'll give you
cover. You rescued me from the Legion. They know me and I'll give
them some sort of story about being chased here. It's close enough
to the truth,' I said hopefully. 'I'll keep you clear of the Patrol
– I owe you that much.'

'You owe me so much more, Litang. But how would we
explain how we got in here? They've suppressed the Patrol alarms in
any case. I can deal with the Legion. The question is what am I to
do with you?' she said as she drew her darter and aimed it at my
head, biting her lower lip. 'Am I to be denied my pleasure?' she
quietly asked herself. And closed her eyes to find the answer.

'I suggest we just postpone it,' I ventured softly.
'How far can you lug a corpse?'

03

She opened her cold grey eyes and stared at her
rather battered, disheveled, and apprehensive victim. 'A corpse
would slow me down.' she said, and with a shrug, holstered her
darter.

And getting down to business, continued, 'They'll
work their way though the warehouse... But carefully. There are too
many places for ambush to be anything but careful. And as likely as
not one of them will trip a sensor they haven't suppressed. We
can't be around for that, but we've a few minutes. First, I need to
find their tag,' she muttered, 'Stand up, I need to feel your
coat...'

I gasped as I stood, despite the armored clothing,
darts of pain shot though my poor body. She sniffed her distain and
ran her hand along the back of my jacket.. 'The dirty little men
put up a better fight than you. Ah, that's mine... And here's
theirs,' she said, showing me two tiny burrs resting in the palm of
her hand. 'Must have been one of the waiters...'

She looked about the room and settled on a desk
chair. She drew a small knife from a pocket and sliced out a hunk
of the back cushion with a few strokes, and set the tags in the
fabric.

'Our decoy.' she said, and giving me a hard, cold
look. 'It's either me or them, Litang. I can recover your corpse,
if you choose them, so it makes no difference to me.'

'Oh, it's you, my dear. The two of us against the
Legion. Besides, I need you to get me out of this alive,' I added,
painfully stretching my body to get it to move against the pain.
'You're the expert in getting in and out of places, or so I've been
told.'

She smiled, briefly, 'Fair enough. I want you out of
this place as well.' And shook her head. 'Let's get moving. Not a
sound and do exactly as I do. I'll have to leave you to the Legion
if you make a mistake.'

'That's always been your rule, hasn't it?' I
whispered back, as we crouched low to avoid being seen through the
windows overlooking the stack.

She gave me a sharp cutting smile. 'Yes,' she hissed,
and slowly opened the door. 'Follow me and do exactly as I do.'

We scuttled out the door and she pointed to rungs set
in the wall next to us. 'Up.'

I climbed up into the darkness under the roof to find
a platform with another set of rungs going up to a second, enclosed
platform with a ladder going up into shadows to access an access
point on the roof.

She took the hunk of fabric and stuffing from the
seat cushion she was holding and sent it sailing across the tops of
the racks away from door were the Legionnaires were organizing
their search. It made hardly a sound as it dropped to the floor and
out of sight. She pointed to the roof access ladder.

'I'll go first. Stay here while I scout the
roof.'

I graciously backed out of the way to let her climb
ahead. I followed her up the rungs slowly, bitting back grunts of
pain when I had to use my sore shoulder and bruised arms to climb
the ladder in the black shadows between the heavy rafters. It took
her only seconds to open the door a crack and let a shaft of light
in. She spend a minute, slowly widening it, crouched low. Satisfied
that she could exit without notice, she whispered. 'Stay,' and
slipped out and closed the door.

Left alone, I felt a rising knot of fear twisting in
my gut and tried stomping it down with a few deep breaths and a
dose of spaceer fatalism – what was written was written. The Litang
on this page would never know the next page and if I was dead on
the next page, so be it – I was alive on this page.

I turned my attention to the question of what could I
do, having been left casually unattended? There was likely some
sort of an alarm or com unit I could activate to contact the Patrol
in the security office we'd just vacated. If I acted promptly, I
might be able to set off an alarm and hide amongst the racks until
the Patrol arrived. But I only toyed with that idea. It was the
flip side of spaceer fatalism. I didn't know how long Cin would be
away, and if I failed to raise the alarm I'd have both Cin and the
Legion after me, both content to deal with a corpse. I decided to
trust Cin to get me clear of the Legion and my karma to get me
clear of her when the time came. As I mentioned, I feared Cin a
whole lot less than the Legion. For no good reason at all.

So I spent the time (long enough to have done just
about anything I wanted to with the office security controls as it
turned out) considering all the decisions that had me clinging to
rungs in the rafters of a Despar warehouse with a pack of killers
looking for me below and my assassin above. Going to lunch alone
today topped the list. I deserved this, but I I had time to trace
all the decisions back to my youthful ambition to see more of the
Nebula than dear ol'Faelrain. I'd likely be a full trade inspector
now if I'd stayed. Regular, Unity Standard hours, cushy job flying
rocket boats. Alas, that's not how it was written.

'We've a chance,' she whispered, startling me as she
slipping through the narrow crack of the door above me. 'There are
Legion fliers about, but they've not occupied the roof yet. We must
move quickly. Follow me and don't hesitate. If you hear a flier,
freeze. The fog is still heavy enough that they might mistake you
for a vent or something. Are you with me, Litang?'

'Aye.'

'Right. Across this section, it's a jump down to a
lower section. That takes us to the rail tracks. We'll jump to the
top of one of the bulk wagons and down the far side. After that we
run alongside of the wagons. Be sure to dodge under them if you
hear a flier. We're close to the bay and the tracks lead to the
spaceport. With any luck, the fog will hold and we'll get clear
away on foot. Once we make port we'll be safe enough. Got it?'

'Right, just follow you.'

She smiled. 'Right. And don't count on the Patrol. I
won't tolerate that. We'll wait for the next flier to go over, and
make our break.'

We didn't wait long, and as soon as the hissing whine
of its hover rockets passed into silence, we were off running.

Half blinded as I emerged into the milky brightness
that clung to everything, I followed Cin as she dashed from
environ-unit to environ-unit, keeping an eye and ear to the bright,
white and low sky.

She raced ahead and, reaching the edge of the roof,
disappeared over the side. I followed, but skidded to a stop. The
roof of the next section was ten meters lower. Sh had landed in a
crouch and was looking up at me. She gestured to jump. But I
hesitated. Heights are tricky, each planet has its own gravity, so
visual clues are misleading, easy jumps on some moons and planets
will break your legs on others. I turned and lowered myself over
the side – my bruised shoulder sending darts of pain down my arm
before dropping and rolling, without twisting anything else. She
gave a disgusted shake of her head, and took off. I found my feet
and took off after her.

This section was narrow and we reached the edge in
seconds. Below stretched several long lines of wide and large bulk
grain wagons, disappearing into the fog in either direction.
Choosing her landing spot, she stepped back and took a running
leap, clearing the three to four meter gap between the building and
first line of freight wagons landing with meter a to spare, landing
lightly on the wagon' s sloping roof. She spun and had her darter
out in an instant, searching the dock for our pursuers. Finding
none, she waved me on.