As he watched the lander shoot for the horizon, Worm swore and pushed the flikit after it. The flikit was a lot slower than a lander, so he didn’t dare go back to his ship or wait for the EYE to come home or even stop to scoop it up as he passed over it. In the time ’any of that would take, she could drop the loop on Lylunda and be on her way off planet.
There was enough fuel left in the zipper sled to take it around the world and back, so he set the call and concentrated in getting the most speed he could out of the flikit while keeping a wary eye on the screen, watching for any sign of the lander.
The chase seemed to go on forever across the mostly empty sea, though he overtook and left behind several large sailboats. Since the Spy had ignored them, he did also. He passed over several islands, most of them with locals doing this and that on the beaches and in the villages, ignored these.
Then he saw an island he recognized. The one the local had sculpted-and a good job it was, too. He’d got the coast just right, that spine of mountains like bony teeth, the thick jungle round the base of those teeth, the wide apron ’of pale yellow sand.
And belly down on that sand, the lander.
And a short distance off, two women talking.
He clicked the mufflers on, dipped to tree level, using the fronds as a sketch of a screen, cranked up the visuals, and focused on the women. Lylunda all right, looking angry, upset, sitting with a drum held between her hands, staring out at the sea as the Spy talked to her. He ground his teeth. If only he hadn’t deployed the EYE the last time, if he’d just kept it with him, he could listen to what they were saying. He could kill the Spy, stun Lylunda, and get off this stinking mudball. On the other hand, they could be talking local jabber. Be just his luck…
Cutter in one hand, Worm began easing closer, keeping as low as possible, the fronds of the treetops brushing against the side of the flikit as he crept past them. He had to be careful; he didn’t want the Spy sheltering herself behind Lylunda. The closer he could get before she noticed him, the less chance she’d have to think up something nasty.
The Spy turned and began trotting toward the lander. She was inside before Worm had time to react; she fired up the lifters and took off.
She was leaving. She had the woman and she let her go and now she was gone. All he could think of was that Lylunda had given her the information the Kliu wanted, so the Spy didn’t have to take the trouble to carry her off.
Sick with anger, Worm brought the flikit down on the sand, piled out of it, and ran to Lylunda. He jerked her to her feet, started shaking her. “What did you tell her? What? Tell me what you told her.” He coughed, saw flecks of red splatter her face, but that didn’t matter. He shook her some more, not giving her a chance to answer him, shouting the same questions over and and over.
She broke his hold with an ease that surprised him. He hadn’t expected her to be that strong.
“Worm. Sit down. Just sit down.” Her voice was soothing and it only increased his rage. He reached for her again, but she stepped between his arms, slapped her open hands against his shoulders and a moment later he was flat on his back staring up at the sky, wondering what had happened.
She knelt beside him, a sadness in her eyes that he hadn’t expected. “That you’re here tells me why you’re here,” she said.
It took him a while to sort out the sense of that. She waited for him to understand, then she went on, “If you keep being angry at me and trying to hurt me, I can’t help you.”
“What?” His throat was raw and trying to talk made his head dizzy. “Help me?”
“Didn’t your keph warn you?” She helped him sit up. He couldn’t believe how weak he was, how suddenly that weakness had flooded through him. “This is a deadly world if you don’t know how to cope with it.”
“Help me on my feet. I have to get back to my ship. There’s an ottodoc in it…”
“That won’t work, you know. You should let me take you into the village.”
“No! The flikit. I got to get back to my ship.”
“All right. If that’s what you want. Take my hand.” She pulled him up, set his arm about her shoulders and helped him stagger over to the flikit.
When they reached it, he grabbed onto her wrist and with remnants of his strength, fueled by desperation, he tried to pull her into the flikit.
She wrenched her arm free, slapped at his hand when he reached for her again. “If you managed to get me in there, we’d both be dead before we left the ground.”
“What? What are you talking about?” He barely got the words out before a fit off coughing seized him and nearly turned him inside out. “What… what what’s happening…
“Be quiet. It’s the only chance. Be qui…”
The darkness closed round him, cutting off her words.
8
He woke inside a room somewhere, stretched out on a hard, lumpy bed. His face was a sticky mess and there was a foul taste in his mouth. Lylunda was sitting in a chair beside him, a bowl in her hands.
“You’ll live,” she said, “but I don’t know if I’ve done you any favor feeding you the tung akar. Did you need money that much, Worm? That you’d come here to earn it?”
“Not money,” he said. Speaking hurt his throat, but he wanted her to understand. “I need you to trade for my brothers. That’s the price the Kliu put on your head. Mort and Xman. They’ve got them. They’re going, to hang Mort if I don’t bring you back. Or bring back what you know. You told the Spy, why can’t you tell me?”
“The Spy, that’s what you call her? I made a bargain with her, but I haven’t told her anything. Not yet.”
A blissful ease spread through him. There was time. There was still time. All he had to do was get his strength back. He closed his eyes and let sleep take him.
16. Family-Where You Go When There’s No Help For It
Message drone: to Wolff/Aleytys Greybond
from ship Backhoe/Shadith
(written message, not recorded)
Lee, I need your help. It’s touchy since Digby is moving to compete with Hunters and I’m on a job for him, but you’re the only one I think can do what has to be done. I don’t want to make a comcall, hence this letter. I’m heading for Wolff on the off chance that you’re home and that you can help. I’m in the Callidara, so it’ll be a while. I know this is vague, but I’m just letting you know I’m coming with a problem we’ve got to talk about.
Shadith reread what she’d written, wrinkling her nose. You’re really getting paranoid, Shadow. Just because this is Digby’s ship, it doesn’t have to mean he’s watching everything you do. Uh-huh. Maybe no, maybe so. I like that playful little git, but… Hm, think about it, Shadow. What are you really seeing there? Is the Digby you know just a face he puts on to charm you?
She shook her head, dropped the cargo shell into the drone insert, keyed in the destination, and sent the drone on its way to Wolff. It would get there in a few days, rather than the weeks it would take her to make the journey. Drones didn’t ’split like ships, it was some other, quicker way they took, but no one knew exactly how they worked, even on the Hegger world where they were invented and manufactured.
Message drone: to ship Backhoe/Shadith
from Wolff/Aleytys Greybond
(written message, not recorded)
My my, aren’t we being cautious. This is the second time you’ve written instead of sending a voice flake. What’s up, Shadow? As to me, I haven’t had aHunt for two years now and there’s no prospect of action anywhere in sight. We’ll deal with conflicts of interest if and when their ugly heads pop up. I’ll be delighted to see you. How long has it been? Three years? Four? You won’t recognize Lilai, she’s such a big girl now. I’ll