CHAPTER 02
2192 - Ursa Major Galaxy Cluster, twenty-three million light years from Earth.
Keokuk squinted at the perfect ring of blue-white energy signaling the arrival of his ship. He focused and glanced out through the large windows of the forward viewing bay. The ring crackled as the sleek, compact outrider ship surged through it. Tumble Weave, an AmerIndian Confederacy lodge ship, came into view. The behemoth ship waited patiently for the small outrider ship that had carried Keokuk across galaxies.
Keokuk tapped his fingers together in a lightning fast staccato rhythm. Embroidered keying bands, fitted tight around his wrists, converted the movement of his fingers to letters and numbers, replacing the antiquated functions of a keyboard. On the inside of the lenses of his blue-hued glasses, code flashed down in a growing column. He had worked straight through the firing of the Kellion Cannon, straight through the miracle of correspondence travel. Most tribals were used to traveling vast distances in a fraction of a second by the use of a correspondence plane but few did it as frequently as Keokuk. As one of the Tsimshian top tri-jacks Keokuk's skills were in demand by nearly every tribe. He traveled almost constantly and was known by hundreds of tribals on every lodge ship in the AmerIndian Confederacy.
Keokuk double tapped his index finger and thumb. His comp lenses instantly displayed a graph of AmerIndian Confederacy lodge ships.
Bright icons showing his Tribe's totem marked the four ships he was slated to consult on in the next ten days. Keokuk finger tapped again and his comp lenses became translucent green so he could see his surroundings without any visual obstructions. Keokuk grabbed his embroidered black leather jacket; donning it he as left the room and entered the cold, cramped metallic halls of the outrider ship. The jacket was significantly oversized so it fit even his large, round frame well.
A quick tap of his fingers threw a deck map of the outrider ship onto the lens in front of his left eye. It had been a few months since he had been on this ship so he needed the comp guide. He scanned the deck map while simultaneously sliding down ten meters of ladder that led down to the deck of the ship's main airlock. He took a few turns before he spotted a small group of tribals chatting near the airlock.
A large Nez Perce officer dressed in his tribe's black pants, crew neck cotton tee and poly-lythe tactical vest uniform, handed Keokuk's leather satchel to him. The satchel was embroidered beautifully with the same Tsimshian rattlesnake Totem symbol that decorated his jacket. “The Diegueño have everything ready for you. I believe one of their Tsimshian cross-workers will be able to answer any of your questions.”
Keokuk smiled. The Diegueño tribe served as the AmerIndian Confederacy's preservationists. It was their task to care for the thousands of mammals, fish, birds and reptiles that the AmerIndian Confederacy maintained for the day they would all return to the Homeland. The Diegueño also grew the huge quantities of organic foods necessary to feed all 416,000 tribals in the AmerIndian Confederacy. It did not surprise Keokuk that the Diegueño tribals would send a Tsimshian cross-worker to help him. Out of the eight tribes that comprised the AmerIndian Confederacy the Diegueño had the most difficulty dealing with the complex comp technology necessary to keep the lodge ships running.
Throwing the satchel over his shoulder, Keokuk ignored the hard plastic clank as metric tons of the outrider ship's blastplast merged with the Diegueño's lodge ship at the airlock. “Oh before I go, I did some deep maintenance and repair on your Malakim carbon. It was twenty-seven percent deteriorated. It got it back down to twenty-one percent so that should give you anywhere from four to six additional months of solid performance.” Keokuk made a practice of working on the agent programs that ran the correspondence code on every Kellion Cannon ship he traveled on.
“Captain Hathai will be pleased to hear that. Thanks. It was good to see you again, Keokuk. Catch ya at the Steel Circle.” The other Nez Perce tribals smiled at the pleasant mention of the annual meeting of all the tribes.
Keokuk nodded and embraced the officer, as was the custom in the Confederacy upon arriving or departing. He then walked through the large airlock and was visually assaulted by the always-surprising site of the lodge ship Tumble Weave.
He was in a regular corridor of the Diegueño lodge ship but even that was enough to show him the eccentricity of the AmerIndian Confederacy's most lively tribe. Where other tribes left the corridors of their lodge ships unpainted and dark to increase the ship's energy efficiency and accessibility the corridors of Tumble Weave were well lit to see the wildly painted murals of animals and landscapes.
Keokuk pacified himself by interrupting the spectacle with a few quick stats displayed on his comp lenses. Tumble Weave was a full C5 class lodge ship, three kilometers in diameter, one hundred twenty decks. It could accommodate a community of 25,000 tribals. However, only 11,000 Diegueño lived on Tumble Weave. The other sixty decks left ample space for buffalo, wolves, horses, bears, lynx and numerous other animals to roam. The largest space-faring aquarium ever created took up the seven center decks of the ship. In sections divided by invisible gravity fields great white sharks swam near dolphins, blue whales and over one thousand other varieties of fish.
A plump Diegueño woman greeted Keokuk with an embrace. Her flowing, bright skirt and top were strikingly different than his dark attire. She introduced him to Condu, leader of the Tsimshian cross-workers on Tumble Weave. Condu was a Tsimshian tribal stationed on the Diegueño lodge ship to oversee the two hundred Tsimshian cross-workers assigned for extended periods to help the Diegueño with comp issues. Keokuk recognized Condu immediately because of the huge wad of bigui, gum made from fir and cedar trees, he constantly chewed. Another Diegueño took Keokuk's satchel and left to prepare a place for him in one of the large communal areas the Diegueño used instead of individual rooms like the other tribes.
Condu explained the problem as they walked through the halls toward the lodge ship server. “This bucket was captured right after the White Earth Massacre. Since then we have added patch code to the original server code to control the hundreds of filters, dozens of grav field generators and thousands of automatic feeders for the inner sea at the center of the ship. The original code was written in 2174 making it now eighteen years old. Despite continuous updates the UDA viruses, that we were able to suppress for years now, finally overcame our safeguards. All of the automatic systems supporting the marine life shut down simultaneously. The Diegueño do not have the skill to bring even the most basic systems back on line and we don't understand the filtering system well enough to know what the right order is to bring them online. The systems have been down for three hours and already hundreds of fish had died. Diegueño divers are physically keeping the predators away from the prey fish. Great whites attacked two Diegueño. Neither survived. I got all two hundred Tsimshian banging the server with edit undo dances and relinks but I don't think we can get the server back up in less than another three hours.”
Keokuk followed Condu into Tumble Weave's main comp room. Keokuk shook his head as he saw lush, vibrant plants positioned elegantly throughout the room. It was not the stark, clean interior he was used to seeing around a ship server. “Only the Diegueño,” he thought. The ship server, the size and shape of a coffin, hovered a meter off the floor. Not a single wire, cable or antenna interrupted its smooth exterior.
The Steady Pulse System invented by Fuchi megacorp two decades before had eliminated cumbersome wires and cables, but only for the AmerIndian Confederacy. The UDA paid Fuchi to mothball the system because it did not want the expense of converting millions of government comps. The AmerIndian Confederacy had stolen the designs for the system within eight months of its completion.
The Steady Pulse System allowed data to be transferred up to one thousand kilometers by high frequency beta waves. It had been a major advance in portable computing. With a Steady Pulse ship server every tribal on a lodge ship could link with a comp set and keying bands. AmerIndian Confederacy comp sets could be commanded
by voice or finger tapping (read through keying bands). Light, sleek glasses fixed with audio pickup mikes and tiny speakers extending near the ear, served each tribal as a portable comp. Comp sets read signals from finger tapping or the user’s voice and displayed information on adjustably opaque or translucent lenses. The tribal could choose to see data only or his surroundings and data. This unique tool had given the AmerIndian Confederacy a significant technology lead over their UDA opponents who still used traditional wall screens and keypad equipment. Keokuk had, like all Tsimshian, mastered these tools in his youth. Now he commonly walked the halls of a lodge ship as he wrote code and scanned the daily text uploads of various tribals. Disconcerted by the level of multitasking the Tsimshian engaged in, other tribals tolerated their lack of attention and distracted conversations due to their obvious technical value.
Condu frowned. “It's a variant of Bubonic Slide.” He fed the anti-virus code to Keokuk’s comp set view as well as the rest of the tech-jacks in the room.
Keokuk circled the server. “I presume you ran all of the standard breakers from the ‘30s and ‘40s.” Keokuk fingers began to move.
“Once we figured out what we were looking at we did. Took two hours. We've only been trying to kill the virus for an hour.” Every tribal in the room looked toward Keokuk. All of their comp set views changed, words dropping away to an ugly mass of zeros and ones, binary code. In seconds, Keokuk had cut access to the ship server unit and placed it under his sole and direct control.
“It's not a variant of Bubonic Slide, it’s a predecessor. Written by Alexander Haim in 2127. Whoever got this bug in here was into the classics.” Keokuk stopped circling the server. With irreverence he jumped and landed, sitting on top of the floating server. It's grav field only dropped a few centimeters under his considerable weight. He clumsily pulled his legs into a lotus position. His hands fell to the humming plasteel surface of the ship server. He pulled his hands back up slowly until his fingers pointed up. The lenses of his comp set mirrored and his fingers began tapping.
Less than a minute passed before the tech-jacks staring at him felt the dull boom emanating from the lodge ship's center decks. Hundreds of systems were rebooting in the reverse sequence they had shut down. Cheers rang out as Condu helped Keokuk down from the server, slapping his back and laughing.
“Well played,” Condu exclaimed. “Why didn't you leave our comp set views active so we could watch your code? My boys could use the help.”
“You don't want your boys picking up my bad code habits. I find it takes me more time to defend my code than to write it so I don't try anymore.” Keokuk grinned.
“We are all a team here, Keokuk. You got to learn to play well with others,” Condu jabbed playfully at Keokuk's arm. “You know we will still have days of clean up even after your miracle save.”
Keokuk smiled wide. “Wish I could help. One thing that concerns me about this is whoever placed this virus had high level Haida access codes. I will look into it and get back to you with what I find. Listen, can you have Chief Sequoya authorize an outrider ship to rendezvous me with Brule’s lodge ship by noon tomorrow. I just gained about eighteen hours on my schedule. Like to take advantage of that if I can.”
“Sorry, no.” Keokuk shook his head as Condu showed him his area in the common room. Hundreds of families lived on this wide-open deck. No walls separated each family's area from the next. Children ran here and there playing Hunter and Doe. He also saw a young girl changing her shirt in the open with no more concern than if she were reading a book. “I need a place where I can work, somewhere quiet with no people around, preferably.”
“Keokuk, quiet places devoid of people are a little difficult to find on a Diegueño lodge ship. Trying to squeeze a ‘quiet time’, I guess. I had forgotten you’re a devout Evangelical Christian, aren’t you? Well, relax a while. Enjoy the change of scenery and the people. Go down to the crafts deck and spend some wampum. There is a lot of superb stock right now due to the artisans getting ready for the Steel Circle.”
“I have hours of work to do before I sleep and more when I wake. Now please, I don't care if it's an empty flight hangar, I need a quiet work area.”
Condu nodded in ascent and lead Keokuk back out of the common room.
It took some searching but in an hour Condu found a spot on the Wolf deck, an observation station resembling a tree fort. “I’ll speak to Chief Sequoya within the hour, see if we can get that outrider ship for you. I'll also try to keep your stay here as productive as possible,” Condu said.
“Excellent. Thank you, Condu.” Keokuk settled and set to work before Condu had reached the grass-covered floor again. He linked with the ship server and set to work on the lodge ship Tumble Weave’s navcomp. These powerful comps insured that when the ship fired its Kellion Cannon to create a correspondence plane, that correspondence plane would take the lodge ship to exactly the calculated position galaxies away. He lost himself in the work and was shaken from his concentration when his comp set blinked with an incoming message.
TO Keokuk / FROM Wolf Plume - Just hit Tumble Weave. Pack is hand delivering some sensitive data we obtained on our last op. Heard about your five-minute crisis crush. Well done. It's been way to long, friend. Meet the boys and me for a drink at “The Cave”, 2300 hrs.
Keokuk groaned at the interruption. It was late and he still had three hours of work to do before he turned in. But the request came from Wolf Plume, the old Russian who had swung him platinum level access to ship servers when he was eight and kept him reading with a steady flow of TwenCen comic books and even hard copy books throughout his teens. The groan turned to a grin as he pulled his jacket on. He labored his way down the tree and made his way quickly through the fifty meters of light forest toward the corridor entrance. A gray wolf approached and eyed him dangerously and he considered running until remembered Condu’s advice. He continued to walk slowly, not making any sudden movements. In a moment he exited safely into the corridor. The cold hall air hit him as he finger tapped up a ship map to lead him to “The Cave”.
Snow's smile was sweet and inviting. Keokuk smiled back as he handed his jacket to her. She took the jacket, caressing the soft black leather. She admired the fine embroidery. The jacket, bearing the Tsimshian symbol, was a gift from Blue Cloth that Keokuk had worn for a dozen years now.
“Heroes drink free tonight, enjoy yourself. Good to see you again, Teddy.” She poked playfully at his belly.
“Good to see you again, Snow. I'll tell you if I see any heroes.” Keokuk had to lean in to be heard.
“Crazy Eight, the new soft-jack for Crew Emerald Beta-”
Keokuk nodded, “I know Crazy Eight.”
“He'll pay twelve hundred wampum for this jacket.”
“It's not for sale and I believe I've mentioned that before.”
“Sorry, Keo,” she said tapping her fingers together. “Did Condu find you a place to doss tonight? Cause I…”
“Yes.” He said flatly.
“Don't wait so long to visit again.” She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him lightly on his clean-shaven head.
Keokuk walked slowly forward and let the audio/visual maelstrom that was “The Cave” soak into his head. Fast, hard rock pounded out of the large luminescent speakers set in front of the glass aquarium walls. The Cave was the AmerIndian Confederacy's undisputed hot spot. Clear plasteel made up the circular walls and the floors of all seven stories. “The Cave” was a cylinder surrounded by the bright shimmering waters of Tumble Weave’s center deck aquarium. Keokuk made his way through the undulating, drunken crowd. The Diegueño usually shared their lodge ships were over one thousand AC members from other tribes. These tribals, known as crossworkers, served various purposes. Some transported organically grown foods to other tribes. Some delivered Diegueño art and crafts to UDA black markets. Others consulted on research results from the on-ship Diegueño animal habitats.
Keokuk passed a group of young tribals
and tech-jacks. Together there were more than ten software, hardware and overall comp experts. They were skinny or fat, distinct from the hard bodies of the Apache or Brule soldiers. The tech-jacks averted their eyes from Keokuk, a clear cyber salute of their subculture. Only the tri-jack among the group, a Tsimshian crossworker known as Tokuga, nodded slightly at Keokuk over his drink. Keokuk nodded back and noticed respect and envy peeking out from behind Tokuga’s aloofness.
Keokuk wrangled a few more meters through the packed crowd and found what he was looking for. A back booth overflowed with Jade Dagger Pack. Wolf Plume, a grizzled old pilot bearing Russian features, was telling one of his numerous war tales. Next to him sat a handsome young Irishman tribe-named Slow Turtle. He laughed at Wolf Plume's exaggerations. Cavaho, a wiry soldier, was scanning the crowd, spotting Keokuk as soon as he came close to the booth. Cavaho gave no sign of recognition to Keokuk. Instead he continued staring at him placidly as he closed the last few meters to the booth. Thankfully Wovoka, the leader of Jade Dagger and Keokuk's brother, was absent. A weight of dread lifted from Keokuk's shoulders.
Keokuk broke the sound shield surrounding the booth and piled in next to Wolf Plume. Once inside the shield only the steady vibration of “Pimp Caine” at eighty decibels reminded the group they were in a crowded bar.
“Keokuk, thank you! Thank you for coming.” Wolf Plume's eager smile showed his joy at seeing his friend.
“For you, anything, old man. How are you surviving with this blood thirsty pack of dogs?” Keokuk jumped slightly as the massive body of a blue whale slid by meters behind Wolf Plume.
“These boys keep my blood flowing and I get around just fine, thank you.”
The Irish tribal sitting next to Wolf Plume tapped his fingers and words scrolled across the steel blue of his comp set. “Can I order you something?”
“Thanks, Slow Turtle. Get me a Philly cheesesteak and an order of cheese fries.”
Slow Turtle nodded and finger tapped the order. He refrained from mentioning the meal would do little to help Keokuk's already heavy frame. As an Apache warrior who tempered his body two to four hours a day for optimum performance he couldn't help but think it.
“Is Shakespeare giving you time to breathe between duties?” Wolf Plume took a long drink.
The last two years had been hectic for Keokuk. He had single-handedly written a self-adjusting slip code that allowed Zuni agents to penetrate UDA comm-gate security ICE in the field. He had been raised from tech-jack to tri-jack. The title was a Tsimshian badge of honor that declared a tribal had mastered three areas of comp expertise. Keokuk had developed expertise in code writing, installing, repairing and adjusting hardware and in getting the myriad of AC comps to talk to each other. Only legacy, the mastery of older model comps and ancient code languages had truly challenged him. As one of only sixteen Tsimshian tri-jacks, Keokuk’s assignments came straight from the Tsimshian chief, Shakespeare.
“Shakespeare keeps me busy.” Keokuk was an unapologetic workaholic and Chief Shakespeare did not shy from exploiting the fact. Keokuk might have minded if he had something else in his life that work took him away from, but he did not and he allowed the work to consume him. His career progression in the AC was benefiting from the sacrifice.
Keokuk stared into the crowd for moment. He didn't like to talk about himself. When he looked back at the group he met Cavaho's eyes. Cavaho's level gaze was empty, showing nothing of his feelings or thoughts. Keokuk looked away quickly. As withdrawn as Keokuk was, Cavaho made him feel like a lightweight in personal seclusion.
“So how can I help you, Wolf Plume?”
Wolf Plume laughed, “Am I that transparent? I'm sorry, Keokuk. Its just I know you have info could help our pack right now. We’re trailing 430 points behind Jade Pelt and one or two good ops would close that gap fast.”
Keokuk grinned. As a high level Tsimshian operative, Keokuk worked alone. Almost all of the other tribals in the AC worked in packs, small groups numbering between three and eight members, which vied for position against one another. The packs were ranked by a point system for successful operations and the highest ranked packs got first crack at choice assignments, equipment and new pack members culled from the AC's youth.
“It's no problem. I downloaded the primary daily dump from the mother comp just before I left Grizzly King,” Keokuk finger tapped and pulled up the available ops for Apache packs.
Wolf Plume, Slow Turtle and Cavaho squinted at Keokuk’s comp set. He had left it translucent and the text could be read on the front of his glasses, backwards. The three were discouraged to see that the lenses only showed backward V-binary, an advanced code language only few Tsimshian could read. Tribe Tsimshian used this rare code to hide sensitive information from others. The three sat back again waiting for Keokuk to interpret.
“Cease fire has ended on Idelas Prime Outpost in the Privilege System. Resistance forces there are looking for a flux crew to assist in setting up an underground railroad to transport escaped mine workers off planet to the nearest starbase.” Keokuk sent a map of the Privilege System to each of their comp set lenses. Stats on the resistance forces, ship and troop counts, played across the map. “It's a little more covert than your pack’s normal ops but resistance forces are paying six hundred tons of tritanium up front to the AC and promising eighty percent salvage after the resistance forces take the capital. AC has six thousand troops allocated for combat on the planet in six months. This will help lay ground work for that assault. Infiltrator and Turtle packs are to be sent for various other ops. Point value for the mission is anywhere from two thousand to three thousand for thirty days work.”
Wolf Plume stroked his well-groomed, grey beard. “That's an otter’s take of points. Just the kind of numbers we’re looking for, no? Could even give us some breathing room at the top for a while.”
Slow Turtle nodded. “What else?” He swirled the blue liquid in his glass and swigged down half in a hard swallow.
“There’s a two week op on Outpost TZ461 in the Freedom System. It's standard sabotage on a uranium mass driver. Negotiations aren't finished but it looks like the AC will net twelve fighters for the Nez Perce. Point values probably around fifteen hundred but that could go up if rumors of Admiral Lige's fleet being in the vicinity are confirmed.”
At the mention of Admiral Lige, Cavaho sat forward.
“Last op of note is an interesting one. This is deep access so I need to know each of you are going to keep this under raps.” Keokuk waited for each of them to agree. He had to wait for Wolf Plume’s reply. The old Russian had a tough time tracking all the data on his comp lenses and watching Keokuk at the same time. Keokuk didn't wait for Cavaho's reply because he knew there wouldn't be one. Nor was there any possibility Cavaho would tell anyone the information.
“Remember rumors some years back about Rowan Cartel discovering a habitable planet in the Periphery. Turns out they were true. Zuni agents have been working on this for about ten months and they confirmed Rowan Cartel discovered a habitable planet in the Canes Venatici Super Cluster. It's a small jungle planet they named Naanac. They have kept it secret from the UDA for six years now. They are using it for a research facility and for Rowan it’s the ultimate in privacy. No worries about the prying eyes of other megacorps and no UDA inspectors to bribe. A free-floating orbital asteroid field surrounds the planet. The asteroid field is the original rock crust of the planet blown into orbit by tremendous volcanic activity…” Their comp set lenses showed a graphic of what Keokuk described as he tapped his fingers.
“Skip the geography lesson. What's the op?” Slow Turtle finished his drink and raised his glass at a Diegueño waiter.
Wolf Plume cocked an eye at Slow Turtle and slapped the back of his head. “If you were paying attention you would understand that any op on this planet is going to depend on geography. Please finish, Keokuk.”
Keokuk couldn't help himself. He chuckled at Wolf Plume's abruptness. “This fr
ee-floating asteroid field, it’s called the Free Mantle. It surrounds Naanac and makes it virtually impenetrable. The Free Mantle is free-floating asteroids over two kilometers deep that will grind and smash even the smallest ship into dust. The only way on or off the planet is to build a channel through the Free Mantle large enough to get a ship through. Costs Rowan Cartel millions of creds to build one channel once a year to take the research data back to their headquarters on Earth. The window of opportunity is coming soon. Rowan Cartel are sending out the annual shuttle and the Elders want an Infiltrator team to slip in and retrieve animals for the Diegueño to add to the AmerIndian Confederacy zoo.”
Cavaho's normal stoicism was now replaced with a look of interest.
Slow Turtle tried to regain a semblance of intellectual dignity. “Steel Circle starts soon, won’t whatever team takes this miss out on the gathering.”
Keokuk nodded. “That's why four thousand to six thousand points are being offered. However, I should tell you now Elder Weaver is leaning toward sending Jade Shark. He was impressed with their work on the Holstice Penetration. Your going have to pull some strings and move fast if you want the Naanac op.”
Keokuk finger tapped and cleared his comp set and the others’ as well.
Wolf Plume extended his fist forward toward Keokuk and Keokuk placed his fist against it. “Thank you. You always come through for us. So what do you pups think?”
Slow Turtle spoke without hesitation, as he often did. “Definitely the mass driver sabotage op. It’s right up our alley. We could probably cut the timetable down to a week. Also a higher chance of gun play than the other ops and I really want to break in that new Sledge Decimator I picked up on Privilege.”
Wolf Plume nodded, “If Lige’s in the vicinity we may get a shot at a force survey that could net us an extra three thousand points off the same op. I'd like to get a good look at his new Atlas class colony ship, Black Mariah.”
The three men turned to Cavaho. He stared back for a moment and shook his head.
“You don't like the sabotage op?” Slow Turtle asked, surprised Cavaho had any opinion on the matter.
Wolf Plume stroked his beard. “The Naanac op?”
Cavaho nodded.
“You might be right,” Wolf Plume said rapping the table. “It would be a challenge for our overall performance. I think we are getting a little too comfortable with the storming-the-gates approach. That's dangerous for an Infiltrator Pack.”
Slow Turtle grinned. “Good Point. We beat the hell out of the Trighter back on Upsilon 26. The shield generator only had three undamaged panels left and I have a feeling Kill Spotted Horse is getting a little tired of the repairs. He's already replacing our external plate armor with scryxat rather than our usual plasteel.”
Keokuk looked outside the booth. Just outside the sound shield stood three pretty Diegueño women. He recognized Hana, daughter of Diegueño Chief Sequoya, and immediately stiffened. Walking up behind Hana was Wovoka.
A cold silence fell on the booth as the brothers met each other’s gaze.
“I'm sorry, Keokuk. We were supposed to meet Wovoka an hour from now,” Wolf Plume sounded flustered.
Keokuk's eyes never left his brother’s. “No worries, old man. Why don't you and Slow Turtle go on? The ladies are waiting.”
Immediately, Slow Turtle and Wolf Plume bustled out of the booth. Hana was talking to Wolf Plume before the sound shield resumed. Wovoka continued to glare at his brother and Keokuk returned the look with intensity. Wolf Plume physically pulled Wovoka around, away from Keokuk. Quick words passed between the two, blocked by the sound shield. Keokuk watched as Wolf Plume talked, his hands making sweeping motions as the old man soothed the angry warrior. Then Hana was talking to Wovoka, laying her hands on his shoulders. She led him away and Wovoka only shot one venomous look back. Keokuk’s lips pulled back, baring his teeth in challenge.
Cavaho and Keokuk watched the group go. Slow Turtle spun one of the women onto the dance floor, laughing and spilling his drink all at once. Wovoka was pulled into a tight kiss by Hana and looked like he would have to come up for air soon. The last woman, older and wearing more clothes than the other two combined, leaned back in her chair, readying herself for Wolf Plume's unabridged version of Jade Dagger's latest mission. Her readiness to listen was truly an expression of affection. The seats surrounding Wolf Plume were quickly vacated by tribals who knew better than to start listening to one of Wolf Plume's lengthy orations.
Keokuk looked at all three couples, then at Cavaho sitting next to him. “Feel like kicking someone's face in?”
Cavaho smiled broadly.