"Maybe we should--" I began, when both our Snappers beeped. We flipped them open in unison. Maiga's face appeared on the screen. She looked half-crazed. I could hear a babble of voices behind her.
"We have to get off the station," she said, sounding breathless. "Meet us as port 134b."
"What?" Rish gasped, beating me to it.
"I just intercepted a message. They know he's here." 'He' meant Ilyan, I knew. And 'they' meant High Command.
"Shit!" Rish beat me to the punch again.
"Meet us at 134b right away. Our transport has agreed to leave early."
"Wait!" Rish said. "What about Rin?"
"If he's not with you then we have to leave him behind. I'm sorry." Her face vanished as she cut the connection.
"We can't just leave him!" Rish protested, turning to me.
"That bitch can." Now what? It's one of the fundamentals. You never leave a man behind. But Ilyan's safety had to be our priority. My priority. Okay, how long did we have to find Rin before Maiga left us behind too? Would Ilyan let her? Where the hell had the damn idiot marine gone anyway? Why the hell didn't he answer his Snapper?
I looked up slowly at the trouble ahead of us. The small knot of gawping people. The police officers. The taped off alleyway.
Oh, fuck. No.
I started walking. Had to be a walk, not a run. A running man attracts attention near a crime scene. A murder scene. Rish caught up to me and I knew by the look in his eyes he feared the same thing I did.
When we got to the small crowd, I didn't want to draw attention by pushing to the front. Luckily, Rish was tall enough to see over the heads of most of the people. He stretched up to look into the alleyway and I saw the blood drain from his face, leaving him looking grey and sick.
"Oh no," he whispered.
I didn't need to hear anything else. I grabbed Rish's arm and led him away. Not too fast. Just a couple of soldiers who'd seen so many corpses that one more couldn't hold our interest.
One of the little battery cabs that buzzed around the station stood nearby. The driver, a bored looking human bloke well past military age, leaned on the steering panel reading a paper. I shoved Rish into the cab and piled in after him.
"Port 134b, quick as you like, mate," I said. As we set off I glanced at Rish, who had a hand over his eyes. I didn't dare talk to him about what had happened. Most of the cabbies around here are intel gatherers for some organisation or other.
We got to the port in about ten minutes and paid off the driver. Maiga waited, pacing, at the airlock that led to the boarding walkway.
"Hurry up," she ordered as we walked up to her and stopped. "The others are aboard."
"Aren't you going to ask about Rin?" I asked, not moving.
"Well since he's not here you obviously didn't find him. Will you move?" She looked about a hairsbreadth from really losing it.
"We did find him," Rish said, his voice hoarse with grief and anger. "He's dead. He's fucking dead, Captain!"
Her jaw dropped and she went white. Rish didn't say anything else, just pushed past her and strode into the airlock. The clatter of his boots echoed down the walkway.
I waited for Maiga to unfreeze. When she did, she turned to me and spoke quietly, barely above a whisper. "Are you sure?"
"Yes."
I walked past her too and after a moment, she followed me down the walkway. Even her footsteps sounded subdued, her stride shorter than usual. For a moment I felt ashamed. Disgusted that I'd just used Rin's murder to score more points off Maiga.
Sometimes I think that if I could meet myself I'd beat the shit out of me.
Chapter 17
I stepped through the open airlock into the smuggler's ship. Our gear lay scattered around the floor. Jia and Vimal sat side by side on one of the smuggle boxes. She sobbed, her face in her hands, while he stroked her back, looking pale and sick.
The others stood around stunned. As I boarded Ilyan spun around away from Rish.
"Jadeth! What the hell happened?"
"Had to be..." I started, but stopped when Maiga shoved me further inside and started closing the inner airlock door.
"Wait!" Ilyan called, staring wild eyed at her, his face flushed. "What are you doing? We can't just leave! We have to find out who did this!"
"We have to go!" Maiga insisted. She flicked the intercom switch. "We're all aboard." At once I felt the vibration through the deck plates increase and heard thumps against the hull as the ship released docking clamps and disengaged from the station.
"Wait!" Ilyan insisted again.
"No!" Maiga shouted back at him. "Military Intelligence knows you're here. They killed Rin!"
"She's right, Ilyan," I said. "They must have picked him up and made him confirm you're here."
Rish scowled and surged towards me. Diliph grabbed his arm, held him back.
"Are you saying he betrayed us?" Rish demanded.
"They could have had him for hours. More than enough time to..." I stopped, not wanting to say it, not wanting to make Jia cry any harder. Surely I didn't have to spell it out. Rish calmed down, though still glared at me. He turned away as Diliph released his hold. Tanashi wrapped her arms, around him and stretched up on her tiptoes to talk quietly to him.
"Lucky you intercepted that message," I said, glancing at Maiga.
"Lucky?" She glared at me. "Do you know how long it took to hack into the network and then the encoded transmissions? It was not lucky!"
"Oh, excuse me," I sneered. "I forgot that protecting your ego is the priority right now."
And this time she did lose it. She slammed into me and shoved me back against the airlock door. Her fist rammed into my guts, taking my breath and making me double up. She didn't get a chance to land a second one. Ilyan, looking utterly horrified, and Tesla the same, grabbed her arms and dragged her off me. The rest of them stared in shock as our XO tried to get free to beat the crap out of me.
"I've had enough of your shit, Jadeth!" she yelled as she struggled in their grip. "I've fucking had enough of you!"
"Please, Maiga," Ilyan pleaded. "Calm down, please."
I straightened up, rubbing my gut. Not a bad punch for a marine, a girl marine at that. She jerked her left arm away from Tesla with a sudden movement and I tensed, ready to defend myself, but she didn't come after me. Ilyan let her other arm go and she stalked to one of the seats against the wall where she dropped her head into her hands, gripping her hair nearly tight enough to pull it out.
"Are you all right?" Ilyan asked me quietly, as I stood rubbing my healed up side. I nodded, not quite able to speak yet, breath still short. Tanashi appeared at my side and ran her med scanner over me.
"He's fine," she said a moment later.
Ilyan looked at me with pained eyes and nodded, then went to sit beside Maiga. The horrible tension in the room started to ebb away, replaced by an even more horrible gloom. Looking helpless, the others drifted to the seats. I found a seat well away from Maiga and settled down, closed my eyes. The journey would take nearly a day. I needed to rest and to sort my head out.
Rin's dead. I let the reality of it sink in. It felt like I'd only just got him straightened out from Rish. Well I've been through that before plenty of times. A guy or gal joined my unit and sometimes died before I'd learnt their name at all.
So I felt sorry for Rin, but had to think priorities. What had he told Military Intelligence before they finished him? Our heading had to be a given. Our identities. Or enough information for High Command to confirm them.
My conversation with Ilyan about how we measured his success came into my thoughts. How he said we'd measure it in the number of assassins they sent after us. So we could see Rin's murder as a clear measure of Ilyan's success. I didn't feel like drinking a toast to celebrate.
****
A few hours later I woke up to some hushed talking. Ilyan, Tesla and Maiga, sat on the smuggle boxes, all huddled together, heads down over a snapper.
"What's the problem no
w?" I asked Diliph who sat beside me.
"Money," Diliph explained. "We're short on cash apparently and getting hold of any on Kitsnujitar is going to be very difficult."
"Everything on Kitsnujitar is going to be very difficult." I stood up and walked over to the three of them.
"We need cash, right?"
"Yes," Ilyan said as the three of them looked up at me. "We're short on ready cash. We meant to pick some up on Olojimi, but..." He shook his head. "We're running short on money in the bank too."
"Your money."
"Tesla and Maiga have used their money too," Ilyan said, sounding defensive.
"I've got a tidy sum saved," I said. A smart soldier saved up as much of his pay as he could, for when he retired. If he lived that long of course.
"No," Ilyan said firmly.
"It's just sitting in the bank."
"No!" Ilyan said more emphatic now. He glanced around at the others too. "That goes for all of you, before anyone else offers."
"Anyway," Maiga said, "there's no way to get at it until we get back to friendly territory. That doesn't solve our cash problem."
Damn, these so-called smart officers overlook the obvious even when it's right under their noses. Or in this case their arses.
"This ship belongs to a smuggler, right?"
"Yes. So?" Maiga said, giving me a 'piss off' scowl.
"So maybe we have something he'd be interested in taking off our hands." I kicked the smuggle box Maiga and Tesla sat on. "Two somethings."
The three of them looked down at the boxes, then up at me.
"Excellent idea, Jadeth," Ilyan said, with the first smile I'd seen from him for hours.
Maiga stood up. "I'll go and talk to the captain."
"Stick it to him good," I said as she hurried away. Her back stiffened, but she didn't turn around, just strode on.
"I assume that means 'negotiate a good price'," Ilyan said, in a chilly voice that implied that better be what it meant.
"Yeah," I said, letting a sheepish tone into my voice. I looked at him more closely. He had dark circles under his eyes. "Have you slept? You should rest."
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I will try. I think I'm still... I just can't believe about Rin." Tesla put his head down. "He must have suffered horribly before he died." Ilyan said quietly. Tesla put his hand over his face and groaned. Seeing he was only upsetting Tesla even more Ilyan stood up and walked back to his seat. I followed and sat beside him.
"He was so young," Ilyan said quietly and glanced around at the others. "All of them are." He looked back at me, his eyes going red, shining. I reached out and put my hand over his. I knew a dumb grunt like me couldn't say anything to make it better. But I could just be there, stay strong for him.
I heard Maiga coming back then, and an unfamiliar voice, the smuggler. Ilyan looked at them, but I never took my eyes from his face, never let go of his hand.
Maiga and the smuggler passed us and he started inspecting the boxes. I heard him running a scanner over them and then sucking his teeth and making tutting noises. I didn't interfere. Maiga could handle it. He'd be a brave man if he tried to drive the price down too far. In her present mood she'd probably cut his heart out.
After a few minutes of intense talk he left the room for a few minutes and returned with a couple of bundles of what I recognised as Kitsnujitar currency notes. I watched him count them out in front of Maiga then shake her hand. She gathered up the bundles of notes and stowed them in her pack.
"Right," she said. "Someone help me get our stuff out of these."
I didn't rush over to give her a hand. Diliph and Vimal volunteered and started to dump out our gear into a heap on the floor.
When I looked back at Ilyan he'd fallen asleep. A couple of tears had escaped him, leaving glistening tracks down his cheeks. Carefully, not wanting to wake him, I let go of his hand and went to sort out my kit.
Chapter 18
Hostile territory described Kitsnujitar in many ways. Gravity seventeen percent stronger than Earth normal left us all tired just walking around. The human troops, fighting the Kits alongside the Okis were based in a bitingly cold region in the southern hemisphere. I knew the planet had nicer places, but for some reason nobody ever seems to fight a war in a garden spot.
The smuggler dropped us off in a small city, just outside the war zone. It was human held now, but at a heavy price, most of the buildings shattered. Despite this, plenty of civilian Kitsnujitar remained, existing tensely alongside the occupying humans and Okis. A scattering of representatives of other species lived there too, some just moved in recently, looking to see what profit they could make from the local misery.
Grief and paranoia made us see spies everywhere and we decided to leave the city the same day we arrived. Maiga logged onto the local military net and hacked into the secret files that showed current troop deployments. She downloaded good maps of the region too. One wrong turn out in the combat zone could leave you lost, and very soon stuck in a snowdrift and totally stuffed.
To move around freely we had to have military transport. Travelling in a stolen vehicle would be risky though, so Rish and me went off to pick up something that nobody would miss.
We found it in a dusty corner of a repair depot. A small armoured personnel carrier, which, according to the work docket taped to the side, needed repairs to its gun and was awaiting a delivery of spare parts. With luck, nobody would miss it until that delivery arrived.
****
The mission had become almost routine now. We tracked down units. Ilyan, Tesla and Maiga talked at the officers. Then, if the C.O. allowed it, Ilyan talked to the troops. Many of them had already heard rumours. They knew him. Ilyan. The Prophet. This helped us and worried me.
After nearly a month, we'd reached as many of the units in the area as we could without leaving behind the transport and hiking overland, which Maiga refused to allow Ilyan to even contemplate. We didn't have either the equipment or the experience to survive on foot in that kind of terrain.
Even with our vehicle we'd all felt the effects of the cold. Tesla had woken up one morning with frostbite in his fingers. Tanashi had fixed him up fine, but I think that scared the shit out of both him and Ilyan. So even Ilyan didn't argue when Maiga suggested we head back to the city and take off. Chiamajan was the next stop and I've heard it's damn pretty, so I didn't argue either.
****
We headed for the city. We'd gone far enough out that the journey back took several days. At night, we parked up far enough off the road to keep out of sight of any passing vehicles. Snow fell steadily and we needed to dig the vehicle out every morning. At some point a mechanic had bolted a couple of racks for snow shovels onto the side of the transport, to save space inside.
The night before we thought we'd reach the city I had the midnight to four watch. Wrapped up to the eyeballs I patrolled around the vehicle warding off hypothermia with a combination of brisk walking, a flask of coffee and a steady stream of muttered complaints.
I stopped on the offside of the vehicle, out of the wind, and took the small silver coffee flask from my pocket. Unwrapping my face enough to drink meant letting the cold bite savagely at my nose, but the hot, dark, wonder brew thawed me out. I sipped from the small cup thinking kindly thoughts about whoever invented coffee. I should ask Ilyan who we had to thank for that. He always knew stuff like that.
A few sips sent enough scalding heat spreading through me to keep me from thinking I would freeze solid at any moment. I screwed the cap on tight and shoved the flask back in my pocket. After zipping my coat up high enough to cover most of my face again I settled my rifle in my arms and continued my patrol.
The snow crunched under my boots. The moonlight reflecting off it made a spooky cold light and I wished my watch could be finished so I could snuggle up inside the transport with the others. I pictured them all slumbering warm and cosy together like puppies in a basket in that cramped space. Puppies? I smiled at the image.<
br />
The smile froze and fell off as I came around to the other side of the vehicle and stopped dead. A figure, a man, stood at the door to the vehicle, working on the lock. For a second I thought it must be one of our party, who'd got out for some reason and couldn't get back in. But he wore dark grey clothing, including a balaclava over his face, which I didn't recognise as belonging to any of our people.
Intruder.
He turned and looked right at me. I brought the rifle to bear, ready to take him down, but my gloved hand slipped clumsily on the trigger and he moved. He moved so fast that he reached me before I could fire. I raised the rifle to try to club him down, but he dodged and rammed into me from the side, shoving me hard against the vehicle. A glint of steel flashed at me but I caught his wrist before he could stick me.
I dropped the rifle into the snow, and started reaching for my own knife, before realising I'd left it almost unreachable on a belt sheath, under my heavy coat, damn fool that I am. Should have put it in a pocket.
Pocket! With my free hand I reached in and grabbed the coffee flask. Not a real weapon of course, unless I could smack him in the face with it. But seeing the flash of metal he grabbed my wrist with his other hand and we struggled, panting, breath freezing on the air.
Not feeling like dancing with him like this all night, I decided to call for reinforcements. I yelled and kicked the wall of the vehicle a few times. He looked around, alarmed, and I took advantage of his distraction to knee him in the groin, sending him staggering away groaning. He fell to his hands and knees, but jumped back up right away.
Reaching my knife would take too long and I'd lost sight of the rifle, so I grabbed at the nearest thing to hand. As he rose I grabbed and swung one of the snow shovels from the rack. The flat of it smashed into his side and he fell down without even a shout.
I wouldn't let him even start to get up this time. I moved fast to stand over him, raising the shovel, ready to bring it down blade first and finish him.
"No!" He yelled. "Wait! I've come to help! I've come to help the Prophet!"
I froze, the shovel poised. Help?
I caught a glimpse of movement out the corner of my left eye and started to turn, but something grey flew at me and smashed into my head and I went down hard.