“Getting cold feet about taking me, are you?” Keith asked.
“No. I’m in a hurry. As I said, I believe I have hunters on my tail. We have to move fast to stay ahead of them.”
“Okay,” Keith said. “So where’s the next stop?”
“Up there,” Maddox said, glancing at the ceiling.
“In orbit?” Keith asked.
Maddox stared at the ace.
Keith began to slide out of the booth. After a half-second, Maddox did likewise.
The small man in the suit and tie turned to the waiting card players. “I have to run an errand. It’ll take me around twenty minutes.”
“Should we leave the cards on the table?” one of them asked.
“Bernie,” Keith told the bartender. “Make sure none of them looks at my hand.”
“Yes, Mr. Maker,” the bartender said. “Can I ask where you’re going?”
“You can ask all you want, Bernie, just make sure you keep a vigilant eye on those cards.”
Bernie the bartender nodded. He wouldn’t look at Maddox.
“Let’s make this quick,” Keith told Maddox.
“Yes, Mr. Maker,” Maddox said.
The words seemed to relax the bone breakers and made the bartender smirk. Then Maddox and Keith Maker exited the pub and hurried onto the street.
-10-
Halfway to the flitter, Maddox felt a chilly sensation between his shoulder blades again. Was this the same predator from earlier or someone else?
What did it mean if it was the same person? Could the New Men have put an operative into Glasgow before he set down? Could Octavian Nerva’s hitmen have done that? That seemed almost too incredible to believe. The likelier explanation was that someone else had read the Lord High Admiral’s candidate list. Keith Maker’s name was on it. If that was true, though, why hadn’t whoever else knew this already picked up the ace?
How much of a head start do I have? It may be less than an hour. I know so little. Just how good are the New Men? How good are those working for the oldest Methuselah People?
Keith glanced at him. “What’s wrong?” the ace asked.
That’s what made him an excellent strikefighter pilot. The man pays attention.
“If I go down,” Maddox said. “Leave Glasgow and bury yourself in whatever bolt-hole you’ve made for yourself.”
“Do you think what I do is illegal?”
“Not on the surface,” Maddox said. “You own a bar. But the company you keep—the bone breakers—tells me you might have other activities.”
After several strides, Keith sighed. “You know what the trouble is with the world?”
“I imagine you’ll tell me.”
“Too many people prefer to live in the moment. They’ll sell the future for another few credits today. My problem is that I see too clearly. Once I understood that simple truth, I realized the loan business would be extremely profitable.”
“I believe you mean loan—sharking,” Maddox said.
“I didn’t call it that at first. I thought about the Wallace Corporation. They won in Tau Ceti. You know why?”
“Because they had bigger muscles,” Maddox said.
“You’re a clever chap. You see that money talks louder than anything else does. I’d lost my brother to idealism—” Keith grinned— “to adventure. I decided it was time to cash in, to do things the easy way. I began to make money the way I’d shot down enemy pilots.”
“We’re being watched,” Maddox said, as his neck hair rose. “I feel it. Try to act normal.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Keith shoved his hands into his suit pockets and began to whistle.
The sensation grew until it became too much for Maddox. “Duck,” he hissed. Reaching in his jacket, he gripped his long barrel, spun around, scanned the buildings and barely saw a glitter flashing toward him in time. By flinging himself to the side, rolling on paving, he avoided the dart. It shattered against the nearby wall. Getting up, Maddox sensed as much as saw motion up on a roof two blocks away. He lifted his weapon and deliberately fired twice in that direction. The sniper ducked, and two tiny fountains of masonry blew upward where he’d been.
People on the street didn’t shout or panic at the shots. They were too busy disappearing.
Maddox turned and sprinted along the sidewalk. Keith Maker was already halfway down the block. The kid could travel. As Maddox ran after the ace, he took out a call unit and pressed a switch. Would Lieutenant Noonan know what to do?
“Cross the street!” Maddox shouted. Intuition told him to duck again. He did, and another dart hissed past his head, lifting hairs.
Then Maddox ran across the street. He fired at the same building. Afterward, he tucked his gun away, sprinting onto the other side. Keith panted, wiping sweat out of his eyes.
They converged on a cross street, with an intervening building blocking the sniper’s line-of-sight.
“I’m out of shape,” Keith said, breathing hard.
With his forearm, Maddox pushed the smaller man against the brick wall, the one facing the direction of the sniper.
“He’ll be moving into a new location,” Keith said. “It’s what I’d do.”
Maddox looked up into the sky. Where was Lieutenant Noonan? He took out the call unit and pressed it again.
“Reinforcements?” asked Keith.
A flitter appeared. It moved smoothly over the buildings by about one hundred feet.
“That’s illegal,” Keith said, noticing the car. “You’ll have the Air Patrol on us in no time.”
The flitter changed directions, and it came down fast, screeching as the bottom struck the middle of the cross street.
“Second-rate pilot,” Keith observed.
Maddox was already moving. The bubble canopy slid open.
Lieutenant Noonan had a disheveled look. “I told you I could do it.” She took in Keith Maker, and then gave Maddox a questioning look.
“A slight change in plans,” Maddox said. “Scoot over.”
“I can drive,” she said. “I already proved that.”
“This isn’t a debating society, Lieutenant,” Maddox said in a crisp voice.
She became stiff-lipped and slid into the passenger side.
In theory, there was a backseat, but it didn’t really seem big enough for anyone but a child. As Maddox ran around the front of the flitter, Keith approached the passenger side.
“Tight fit,” he said, “but I’ve been in worse.” He climbed into the back, sitting sideways with his feet on the upholstery.
“Wedge yourself in tight,” Maddox said, climbing behind the controls. “We’re going fast, and we have a lot of distance to travel.”
“Where’s the next stop?” Keith asked.
Maddox began tapping controls. The canopy closed and the flitter lifted. “Whoever shot at us must be tracking the vehicle. Now hang on, and belt in.”
“Don’t know that I can do that back here,” Keith said, looking around.
Lieutenant Noonan clicked her buckles into place.
Maddox first gained some height. Then he aimed the flitter’s nose toward the clouds, and he gunned it. The Gs pressed him backward into the cushioned seat.
“I’ll ask again,” Keith said. “Where are we headed in such a hurry?”
“Luna orbit,” Maddox said.
“You must be bloody kidding,” Keith said. “We’re going orbital in this little thing?”
“He said into Luna orbit,” Noonan said.
“What?” Keith asked. “This machine is too small to get us to the moon.”
“You’re right,” Maddox said. “Fortunately, we only have to go part way. Our scout will home in on my beacon.”
“That’s bloody clever,” Keith said. “But what if the competition homes in on the same beacon?”