He closed his eyes, opened them, and cursed long and creatively. He took an inventory of his pains, and nothing hurt too much; the worst were the knuckles of his right hand, where he’d clocked that fat lüzi de jiba.
There was a rattle, a pause, and the door swung out. They were good—they looked before opening the door—but they unlocked it first, so they weren’t all that good.
But he wasn’t about to try anything now; he wasn’t in shape for it, and didn’t know enough.
When the door opened, there was an unarmed guard there. He swung to his feet, and saw an armed guard a few paces behind him. Okay, so they knew their business.
“Jayne Cobb?” said the guard.
Jayne waited.
“Is your name Jayne Cobb?”
He continued waiting. The guard shrugged. “You’re charged with two counts of battery and one charge of public drunkenness. Anything to say? If you aren’t Jayne Cobb, now’s the time to say so, except I was on duty last night when you were hauled in, so it doesn’t much matter.”
“Anything to say? What, you’re my judge?”
The guard nodded. “We handle minor administrative matters at this level. If you’d killed someone, we’d have to—”
“Do I get a—”
“No.”
Jayne glared at him. “Well, you just do what you do.”
The guard nodded, and read from a clipboard. “Jayne Cobb, you are hereby sentenced to five weeks of indenture to Heracorp—”
“Indenture?” Jayne rose to his feet. The second guard took a step forward and swung his shotgun so it was a bit closer to pointing toward Jayne.
He estimated his chances. He didn’t like them. He shrugged. Five weeks in the mines wouldn’t be any fun, but he’d lived through worse. “All right,” he said. “Maybe we’ll have a talk when I get out.”
The guard smirked.
Jayne wasn’t always the best at reading people, but he knew what a smirk meant. He glared at the guard.
“All right, how does it work?”
“How does what wo—”
“Hump that fayu. How do they do it?”
“It varies,” said Mark, “but there’s always something. Maybe you show up five minutes late for work, that’s another six months. Maybe you leave for lunch a minute early, that’s another six. Pushing another worker, two months; pushing at a guard, another year. Obscenity—”
“Okay,” said Mal. “How do they get away with that?”
“Who’s going to stop him?”
“What, does he have an army backing him?”
“Call it a large security force.”
“Huh.”
The bartender reached under the counter, but emerged with nothing more than a damp cloth, with which he absently attacked some of the splotches on the stainless steel counter in front of him. “What about you?” he said.
“Hmmm?”
“What are you doing here?”
“Delivering cut maple.”
“Ahh.” The bartender smiled.
“You know what it’s for?”
“It’s for me. I’ve been wanting a new place, and he’s been promising me one for most of a year now. A real saloon, made of good wood. Know what I mean? And I want swinging doors, holo windows, a dart board, a flyball booth, maybe a couple of pool tables. So, what was that ruckus about last night? Those two guys you picked on were on Mister Sakarya’s private security staff.”
Mal felt a quick glance from Zoë, and checked his tongue, then said, “A personal matter.”
“For your sake, I hope it stays personal.”
“I’m like to feel the same way. Where is the lockdown?”
“Back of the security office, just down the street.”
“The security office for the company?”
“That’s right.”
“They house the lockdown for the Locals?”
The bartender nodded.
“Well. You have to like it that they make no effort to hide it.”
Mark stared down at the rag in his hand.
Mal shrugged, nodded to Zoë, and they made their way out the door.
“Sir—”
“I need to talk to Jayne.”
“Sir, tell me you aren’t thinking about breaking Jayne out of a lockdown.”
“I just need to talk to him.”
“And when they don’t let us see him, which they won’t?”
“We’ll think of something.”
“Think of something, sir?”
“Yep.”
“Okay. Well. Smear me with engine grease and call me Kaylee. I’m just full of optimism.”
“There it is; that’s the security office. Are we supposed to knock?”
“Couldn’t say, sir.”
They went in. Two men sat behind desks, facing each other. Both looked up as they entered.
“Good afternoon,” said Mal. “Can you tell me where to find the lockdown?”
The bigger of the two said, “You want to be put in jail?”
“Not exactly,” said Mal. “There’s someone you have here. How do I arrange to visit him?”
The two security officers looked at each other.
Two minutes later, they walked out again.
“Don’t say it, Zoë.”
“I have to, sir.”
Mal sighed. “All right. Say it.”
“Now is when you need to think of something.”
“Feel better?”
“Yes, thank you, sir.”
He stopped when they got back to the street, not sure which way to turn.
“He has an army, sir.”
“A small one, sure.”
“To pull a jailbreak would be suicide.”
“Did you see that place? You and I could walk in there and walk out with him.”
“Then what? They have an army, sir.”
“Well, I suppose they do, kind of.”
“You don’t owe Jayne anything.”
“It isn’t about owing Jayne, it’s about needing to ask him some questions.”
“Sir, what makes you think he’ll answer?”
“If we break him out of jail, he’ll answer.”
“Would you mind telling me what you want to ask him?”
“I’d like to find out what he might have done that set all this off.”
“I think it’s safe to say he tried to call in the Alliance to get the reward on River and Simon.”
“I’m sure he did, Zoë. Then what happened?”
“You think he’d know?”
“All right, Zoë. How would you suggest we find out?”
“I’d suggest, sir, that we don’t. That we get back to Serenity and get off this gorram world.”
“Can’t do that, Zoë.”
“Anzhao yi tou bei yange de liniu de shuzui xiwang why not?”
He closed his eyes. “Let’s go back to the canteen and have a beer while I think about this.”
“Yes, sir. I’m good with two out of three.”
She matched paces with the Captain as they headed the short block toward the canteen. Her eyes never stopped moving, and her mind never stopped working.
She was, by now, very much aware that there was more than one thing going on. Yes, the Captain had been behaving oddly ever since Inara had left; but that wasn’t all of it. There was something else, and it was something that could get the Captain killed—not to mention Wash, herself, and the rest of the crew.
She was also very much aware that she was closer to the Captain than anyone else: she knew him better, and he’d accept things from her that he wouldn’t from anyone else. But there were lines that she’d never crossed, and he had put those lines there for a reason. She knew why the walls were there; she had her own walls that permitted her to live in Serenity Valley. It had taken a long series of accidents and tremendous effort to let Wash inside as far as he was. And Wash understood enough of those barriers and lines to respect them, and to love her anyway; that was how they survived.