“Wif sent you?” She straightened her dress— green and brown and shapeless— over her large form.
“Yes, ma’am.” Kade stared at his shoes.
“That code’s well and truly out of date.” Kiri disappeared from view, letting the door swing slowly open of its own accord.
Inside was a low roofed kitchen. Kiri started working at a scarred, stained table, mixing batter with huge jiggling arms. A sparkling tattal circled her entire forearm. Pots and pans hung from the wall behind her like a constellation of full moons. She set another pan on the ancient gas stove to heat.
“Not the most sensible time to turn up, you know, love,” Kiri said as she continued to work.
“Sorry, ma’am.” He noticed the front of his shirt was stained with blood.
“Well, I suppose we can say you were looking for Roker.” She shrugged. “Come on, come in. Standing on the steps won’t help.” She gestured at his shirt. “I assume that’s someone else’s blood?”
“A bit of both. Mainly someone else’s.” Kade lifted his shirt as he stepped into the warmth of the kitchen. A dark, livid bruise marked the left side of his chest. The skin had been broken and a stream of dry blood led all the way down across his stomach.
“Ouch,” Kiri set down her mixing spoon. “Could have been worse though, if you didn’t have all that muscle.” She cocked her head to the side. “Broken rib?”
He shrugged and winced in pain.
“Here, cut a lemon.” Kiri gestured to a bowl of fruit with her chin as she went to pour batter into the pan.
Kade found a knife and did as he had been asked, nearly slicing off the tip of his finger in the process. The knife continued to shake after he’d set it down.
“Plates are above the sink.”
“Oh. Right.” He got a plate and put the four slices of lemon on the edge. “I didn’t get the array,” he said a moment later, concentrating as he adjusted a wedge to a more exact angle.
Kiri looked back over her shoulder, examined him with a strange expression. “You don’t like pancakes?”
“I love pancakes.”
Kiri raised her eyebrows and looked pointedly at the single plate on the table. Kade got another.
“There’s syrup in one of those tins near the cooler if you prefer.”
“Thank you, yes.” Kade felt like a boy again, though neither motherly women nor pancakes had featured during that part of his life.
“Good. Well, get rid of those pistols and get us two stools.”
Kade took off his pack and set it on the floor, then took out the weapons. He didn’t immediately put them down, wondering if she just wanted to get him unarmed. Eventually, he did as he was told and sat down at the table. A moment later a plump pancake slapped down onto his plate. Steam rose enticingly and his mouth started to water. He suddenly felt as if he hadn’t eaten in a week. He spread around a big dollop of the thick, golden syrup, rolled the pancake and took a bite. It was just about the best thing he’d ever eaten. He didn’t stop until his fingers were sweet and sticky and the last soggy crumbs had disappeared.
“Hungry?” Kiri asked as she sat down as well. “Why don’t you tell me what happened while I eat this.”
Kade suddenly became nervous again.
“I like you, Kade,” Kiri said as she squeezed a wedge of lemon, releasing a bitter tang into the air. “You’ve got more manners than most people who knock on my door. And the fact that you’re here at all says a lot as well. Just tell me what happened.”
“I waited at the tavern but nobody contacted me. I thought something must have happened to the others but decided to do the job anyway. There were a few minor problems with the entry, but nothing major.”
Her pancake done, Kiri returned to the stove. “We’ll have a look at your ribs after breakfast. Keep going.”
“Then, when I got into the laboratory, the others were already there.”
“Really?”
Kade didn’t reply.
“Sorry. So the others got the cell then?”
“That’s the strange thing— they took something else.” There was more than one strange thing about all of this.
“They stole something else?”
“Yes.”
“And yet you’re here empty handed?”
“Yes.”
Kiri raised her eyebrows.
He took the box from his pack and sat it down on the table. “I was supposed to put whatever I stole in here and post it to you. But the thing I was supposedly sent to steal was as big as a scooter engine. Either the information was wrong, or the location changed. I’m not sure. If I knew what I was actually after...”
“What about the other men?”
“They stole something smaller, about book sized. Then they killed a few guards and disappeared through a hole in the floor. And a short while after that Tribalin and Whiparill emergency undocked.”
“Really? Well, that is interesting.”
As he started on his second pancake, Kade examined the woman’s face, trying to work out what her strange tone meant.
“Do you want to know something even more interesting, Kade Traskel?” Kiri was back at the stove. She looked over her shoulder. “You’ve been set up.”
Kade stopped chewing.
“Actually, we’ve been set up. Well and truly.”
See more of The Brightest Light
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Scott J. Robinson grew up in a small town in rural Australia, the kind of place where you had to make your own fun. And from a young age, his idea of fun was to create strange worlds and populate them with interesting people.
He now lives in a different small town, with his wife and three children, and still enjoys creating strange worlds. Though now, he actually finishes some of the things he starts. When not writing he enjoys photography and camping and recently retired from an amazingly mediocre cricket career.
For more information visit
www.tengama.com
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