The Rift Rider (9 page)

"Favours
and booze," Till's said. "Maybe, you haven't changed after all."

 
The little alien led them away from their
ship and down the runway. When they reached a nondescript patch of land, the
small man stopped and dropped to his knees. He wiped the sand away and placed
his hand on the ground. The surface shook, came apart and transformed into a
stairway leading deep underground. Charlie was last in line, and as he stepped
off the final step and onto the floor of hidden bunker, the stairs shifted
behind him and returned to the surface.

The bunker was
about three times the size of the Hawk Insurance office floor Charlie worked
on. In one corner, Tills had made a comfortable home for himself. Equipped with
underground heating, cooking facilities, an array of technological devices, a
bed and several sofas covered with animal furs, the underground den oozed
comfort and warmth.

It was only
after Charlie had shed his suxo suit and sat down on the low lying sofa that he
saw the series of alien animal heads peering down at him from the walls. Dead
eyes stared at him from faces covered in fur, scales, and shell. Charlie
shuddered under their gaze.

Tills brought
out a bottle of something pink and poured them all some mugs. Charlie sipped
the spirit, feeling its warmth ebb through him. It had the pleasing effect of
cough syrup without its medicinal taste. In fact it tasted like mulled cider.

Bei told Tills
what he needed, and the little man was happy to oblige. It seemed they had been
helping each other out for decades. He offered Awani one of his hover buggies.
She would drive it to Jajag City and Tills would claim it back whenever he
visited the city next.

Bei and Charlie,
however, needed something faster and less conspicuous. Tills said he had just
the thing. He led his three guests deeper into his bunker. Machinery in varying
states of disrepair lay in winding rows, giving the place a maze-like quality.

Charlie followed
from behind, as they walked around the littered lanes. On more than one
occasion, some metal corner, or sheared handle, tore at his clothes. Each time
his jacket got snagged, Bei moaned aloud and told Charlie to be more careful.

Tills stopped
next to a triangular pile of missiles. Each one had the demonic face of a
roller painted onto it. To the left of the missiles stood two eight-foot long
rockets. Charlie wondered if Tills had strapped the seats, handlebars, control
panel and leg rests to the massive rockets as some kind of joke.

"Here's
your transport," Tills said.

Bei admired the
two rockets with an almost religious reverence. "I thought they stopped
making rocket rides two centuries ago."

"They
did," Tills said. "But I got hold of a few antique ones last
year."

"Fourth
series?" Bei asked.

"Third. The
best in my opinion."

"And they
work?"

"Oh,
yeah," the tiny man said, grinning. "I made some of my own
modifications too. They run like dreams."

Or nightmares,
Charlie remembered the damage he had done to himself crashing his forty-nine CC
Honda Hobbit. And the moped had had trouble reaching fifty miles an hour. These
rocket rides looked like they could go five hundred.

"I
installed lunar and solar panels onto the back third of the rocket," Tills
continued. "So there's no need for fuel, making the rockets lighter and
faster."

Great, Charlie
thought. Even faster.

Tills showed
them the palm-sized square of blue positioned between the two handlebars. This
was the activation slab. He placed his hand on the slabs of both rides and
asked Bei and Charlie to do the same. The slabs hummed as they scanned their
handprints. From now on only Bei or Charlie could activate the rocket rides.

Tills pointed
out the two tubes running along the sides of the rocket. "These store energy.
You'll have enough to last five hours without sun or moon. And if you need to
get out of trouble in a hurry, you can use what you've stored all at once.
It'll inject the ride with a massive surge in power."

He ran a blue
hand down to the section of rocket directly beneath the seat. "There's a
switch under here. Just flick it and you'll get the surge three seconds
later." He laughed. "Whatever you do, don't activate
accidently."

Bei and Awani
joined in the small man's laughter. Charlie stood closed-mouthed, silently
envisaging the ride rising uncontrollably into the sky, before sending his
frozen corpse out into space.

Back inside
Tills den, Bei ran over the plan. Charlie idly rubbed the left side of his jaw.
Awani had torn out a molar and replaced it with the tooth chip. She had
anaesthetised him, so the whole operation passed without pain. But the tooth
still felt alien in his mouth and he worried how much it would hurt when he
pulled it out. Opposite him, Awani flashed a perfect smile, the gap left by the
tooth chip already filled with a golden molar.

"Hey
Charlie," Bei said in a stern teacher's voice. "Are you paying
attention?"

"Yes,"
Charlie said. "When we get to the palace I follow your lead."

"Just make
sure you know how to get out of there. I won't be able to come in and get you.
When you escape, Lady Ori can't know I've got anything to do with it."

Charlie nodded.
The plan sounded simple enough. Get in, get what he needed, and get out. Though
there was one point Bei had been a little vague about. "So how exactly
will I be entertaining Lady Ori?"

Bei looked at
Charlie and coughed. "Like I said, she just likes to have a lot of good
looking men around her all the time. Just laugh at her jokes, fetch whatever
she wants, and massage her shoulders whenever she asks."

"And that's
all?"

"Should
be," he said. "Nobody ever talks about what goes in there, so it's
difficult to predict." Beside him, Awani folded her arms and turned her
eyes to the floor.

"Just keep
her happy," Bei said. "When you get close enough to access her
tablet, slip the tooth in, upload the data, decode it, download it and slip it
out. Simple. Then get the hell out of there."

"Got
it," Charlie said. "And then you'll take me to Brother Yojim?"

"On my
word," Bei said. "Awani should have found him by then. Right,
Awani?"

Awani nodded.
"My contacts in the resistance will know how to contact him. And if his
message to you was right, he'll already be looking for you."

"Now,"
Bei said, handing Charlie a brown, shell-shaped piece of plastic. "Put
this in your ear."

Charlie took it.

Bei placed a
partner piece in his own ear. "We can communicate using the comm shells. Just
say the words without voicing them. The shells will pick up the vibrations.
They've got a range of two miles. I'll be hiding out on the edge of the city
while you work."

Charlie slipped
the shell into his ear. It fit snuggly inside. "And if there's serious
trouble, you'll come and rescue me."

"I'll do my
best," Bei said. "But I make no promises. If her mercenaries see me
coming back, they'll know something is up. They're a trigger-happy, shoot
first, ask questions later, bunch of bastards. I'd likely be dead within
minutes of breaching their security. Once you're inside the palace gates,
you'll need your wits and your balls to get back out again." Bei slapped
Charlie's shoulder. "Don't worry. I've got faith in you, Charlie."

Charlie smiled
weakly. "Thanks."

"Oh,"
Bei said. "I almost forgot." He lifted his right hand and squeezed it
into a fist. The hidden blade slid out smoothly, emerging from a patch of skin behind
his knuckles. It came out about five inches. The patch of blade closest to
Bei's skin was coated in green slime.

Bei spat on the
back of his hand. He rubbed the phlegm onto the base of the blade and the skin
around it. A few seconds later his arm, from wrist to elbow, rippled wildly, as
if infested by worms. The blue man grabbed the flat sides of the blade and
tugged gently. The blade slid out completely, trailed by a dozen green
tentacles.

Bei held it up
for Charlie to see. The slimy tentacles curled and snaked beneath it. "I
want you to have it."

Charlie
grimaced.

"It's
harmless," Bei said, showing him his already healing right hand. "To
the person wearing it anywhere."

"How does
it work?"

"Simple.
Once I slide it in the tentacles will hold it in place. Whenever you need it,
just clench your fist extra tight. To retract just flatten you hand. Every time
it slides in and out the tentacles release an anaesthetic.""

"It's got
your blood on it."

"Don't be
so squeamish," Bei said. "I've got no diseases. I'm not that kind of
smuggler. Anyway, the tentacles keep it sterilised."

When Charlie
said nothing, Bei raised his eyebrows, and said, "You saw what the blade
did on the destroyer. That's robundee steel, right there. It can cut through
anything. It'll come in useful if you have any trouble, I promise you,"

Charlie held up
his right hand. "Put it in." Bei was right. He needed a weapon.

"That's the
spirit," Bei said, and rammed the blade into the back of Charlie's hand.

Charlie's scream
lasted the two seconds it took for the blade to anesthetize his hand. Charlie
watched the tentacles slime their way down the blade and into his arm, pulling
the slick metal in with them. He felt nothing.

"Feeling
will come back in a minute or two." He smiled. "Go on, try it
out."

 
Charlie gripped his hand, and the blade
shot out. He threw some punches at the air in front of him, got into, and tried
out a few combinations he had copied from some Van Damme movies. He grinned.
"Cool."

Awani rolled her
eyes, and said, "You men and your toys."

Bei's amber eyes
turned serious. He placed a blue hand on Charlie's shoulder and kept it there
until he had finished speaking. "The Corporation plans to end our revolt
for good. Their confidence is high and we need to know why. That chip has the
answers. I know we aren't your people, Charlie. To you we must seem a strange
bunch, living in a world we no doubt messed up by ourselves. But I sense
something good and honest and brave in you. I know you'll do the right
thing."

Charlie
swallowed. "I'll do my best."

The amber eyes
regarded him steadily. "I just hope that's enough."

Seenthee's two
moons were high in the sky when they climbed out of the bunker. Tills had
brought the two rocket rides up a secret lift and set them to hover mode. Under
the white moonlight they looked like two sharks poised to attack.

"Beautiful,"
Bei said.

"I suppose
it's too much to expect to get them back in one piece," Tills said,
strapping a bag of technological goodies and medical supplies to the back of
Bei's ride.

"We'll do
our best," Bei said. "It'd be sacrilege to see them come to any
harm."

Charlie was more
concerned with himself to coming to harm.

"Keep the
rides about two metres of the floor," Tills said. "At that height the
planet's magnetic pull will stabilise your flight. Any higher and you risk
losing control."

Bei flashed a
grin at Tills. "Sounds fun."

Charlie frowned.
He experienced an unpleasant sensation passing through his bowels.

"Good
luck," Awani said, handing him a bug-eyed pair of goggles.

Charlie smiled,
thanked her and slipped them on.

"I'll be
waiting for you in Jajag city," she said, and leant forward, kissing him
softly on the cheek.

A thrill ran
through him. He coughed and, forgetting his fears, said, "I'm looking
forward to it."

"You should
be," she said, smiling a mischievous smile.

Even covered
head to foot in animal fur, with the cold wind whipping at his nose, Charlie
felt a delightful trembling down below.

Bei got on his
ride, removed his glove and pressed his hand against the blue activation slab.
It hummed to life. He pulled on the accelerator and the ride rose into the air.

Charlie took a
deep breath, slung a leg over his ride and activated it. He twisted the
accelerator as Bei had done. The ride jolted upwards, spinning wildly as it
rose. Charlie screamed, gripping the accelerator even tighter and sending it in
ever increasing circles. He squeezed his legs tight around the rocket's body,
holding on for dear life.

"Ease up on
the accelerator and grip the stabiliser," Bei called over.

"What?"
Charlie shouted.

"Twist the
control on the other handle bar."

Charlie did and
the ride immediately came under his control. It took a lot longer to control
his racing heart.

"You
okay?" Awani said, looking up at him.

Charlie nodded,
coercing his lips into a smile.

She smiled back,
and blew him a kiss.

Charlie raised a
gloved hand. He hoped he would see this beautiful alien girl again.

"Here we
go," Bei said. He revved the ride's rocket engine, igniting its rear in
blue and red. He smiled, and shot forwards in a colourful blur.

Charlie
swallowed, closed his eyes, said to himself, "it's no different from the
Hobbit," pulled back the accelerator, and rocketed after the blue man.
Charlie kept his eyes locked on the trail of dust ahead of him. The
acceleration was terrific. Like a giant invisible hand, it pinned him down
against the cooled surface of the ride.

 
With the ride humming pleasantly beneath
his chest and the wind whipping over him, Charlie's fears gradually faded and
he began to enjoy himself. He hurtled across the desert, increasing his speed,
as he grew more adventurous. The barren floor raced beneath him in a blur of
browns and greys.

Charlie caught
up with Bei's ride. He twisted his head and, brimming with satisfaction,
grinned at the blue man. Bei returned his smile, his lips and cheeks flapping
in the gusting wind.

The distant
mountains loomed ahead. Beyond them lay their destination, Het City, the
personal fiefdom of Lady Ori. As they rode, Bei and Charlie communicated to
each other through the shell communication devices in their ears. Despite the
whizzing and whirring of the wind blowing past them, they could hear each other
clearly. They ran over the mission once more and then Bei told Charlie about
Lady Ori, one of the most powerful women outside of the Corporation.

Through hacking,
blackmail and insider trading she had acquired great wealth and even greater
power. She was one of a handful of independent leaders that ruled, with the
Corporation's permission, the more barren or secluded sections of the
continental belts. The Corporation called them Special Appointments but the
rest of the turen population called them monarchs.

They ruled their
fiefdoms with a whip in one hand and an energy blaster in the other. A handful
of lucky turen worked in their palaces. The rest worked in mines or under the
baking light of Veiga, harvesting resources to be sold to the Corporation.

In time, the two
men's conversation faded, both content to ride in silence. As they flew across
the moonlight desert plain, Charlie's mind lay full and alert and he
experienced the cool, sharp mindfulness that came to him when riding a wave.
For now all thoughts of home and fears about what was to come had drifted into
the far corners of his mind.

He breathed in
and out and, feeling the rush of speed flow through him, smiled.