A Gathering of Widowmakers (The Widowmaker #4) (26 page)

"We'll pay for the damage when we get back, and since there's only one spaceport on the planet and our ship is there, they know we can't run out on the bill," answered Jeff. "They won't come looking for us."

"The rest of the interior's clean," announced Nighthawk, climbing back onto his seat. "Let's go."

"Maybe while we're here we ought to discuss what we've learned," suggested Jeff.

"We can do it while we're traveling," said Nighthawk. "It'll take us a couple of hours to reach our destination, and I don't like stopping this close to town. We've gone to the trouble of removing all the sensors and trackers, so why make it easy for someone to follow us?"

"Makes sense," agreed Jeff. He commanded the aircar to shoot forward.

"So what have you learned?" asked Nighthawk.

"Jason knows more about the Younger Brothers than we do, or he wouldn't have stopped at The Sharpshooter."

"True," said Nighthawk. "But he doesn't know enough."

Suddenly Jeff grinned. "I was right. Maybe I
am
learning to use my brain."

"I don't follow you," said Kinoshita.

"He bought a lot of stuff that we wouldn't have bought if we'd landed ahead of him," said Jeff. "That means he knows something we don't know."

"But not enough?" said Kinoshita.

"He knows he's going to need something to enhance his vision, his ability to perceive them—but he doesn't know
what
he'll need. That's why he bought every kind of goggle and vision enhancer they had. He thinks they may show up on a radiation detector. And because he's as careful and methodical as Jefferson, he made sure his pistol won't run out of bullets and his burner and screecher won't run out of power." He paused. "I just wish he'd have bought something to patch his incisions before he bleeds to death."

"He probably considers them a minor irritant," said Kinoshita. "He fought the last half hour of the action on Pericles with his hand cut off—not broken, not crushed, but severed."

"What kept him from bleeding to death?" asked Jeff.

"He cauterized it with a burner."

"Damn!" said Jeff. "That hurts even to think about! The man's got guts, I'll give him that. Anyway, it's obvious that he thinks one or more of those items he bought will give him an advantage. Maybe they're nocturnal, and he figures he'll have to face them in the dark. They're aliens; maybe some part of them, some deadly part, is hidden from human sight in the infrared spectrum and he needs the goggles to spot it. Maybe he's learned something about their physical make-up, something that makes him think he can spot them with a radiation detector before they know he's there."

"I hear a lot of 'maybes,'" said Nighthawk.

"We can't know until we encounter one," said Jeff.

"True."

Jeff frowned. "But you're not happy with my answer."

"Your answer is fine, as far as it goes," said Nighthawk. "But it's all guesswork and suppositions. Suppose you tell us what we
know
."

"We know Pallas Athene is now Hera, and we've pinpointed her location. We know she's being threatened by the Younger Brothers. We know Jason Newman landed here, caused a commotion at the spaceport, and picked up a bunch of equipment designed to help him spot something that might not be visible to the naked eye. And as far as I can tell, that's
all
we know." Jeff looked at Nighthawk. "What am I missing?"

"The forest."

"The forest?" repeated Jeff, puzzled.

"You've identified all the trees, but you still haven't seen the forest."

"I don't know what you're getting at."

"
Think
, Jeff," urged Nighthawk. "I know you can do it. Put the pieces together."

Jeff frowned. "Whatever it is, you didn't know it before we landed here or you would have mentioned it, or made me reason it out."

"Keep going."

"All right," said Jeff. "What do we know now that we didn't know three hours ago? We know that Jason bought a bunch of stuff, but if some of it is effective, some of it won't be, so we can't learn anything more from that until we actually come up against a Younger Brother. And we know Hera laid in a supply of standard weaponry, but that doesn't tell us a damned thing." He paused, his brow knotted in concentration. "Damn it, Jefferson, that's everything we've learned."

"No it isn't," said Nighthawk. "Keep going. Reason it out."

"She changed her name, but she did that years ago, and then she changed it again sometime before she moved to wherever the hell it is that she's hiding." Suddenly his eyes widened. "That's it, isn't it?"

"The name changes?" asked Kinoshita.

Jeff shook his head. "No, not the name changes. She left the city to go hole up out in the wilderness—and she did it five days ago."

"See?" said Nighthawk with a smile. "I told you you could do it."

"Do what?" said Kinoshita. "What has he figured out?"

"She didn't ask Jason for help until three days ago," said Jeff. "That's when she found out that one of the most wanted gangs of killers on the Inner Frontier, a gang that may number as many as six hundred members, wasn't going to be deterred just because she'd left the city."

"We know that," said Kinoshita.

"Yeah, but we didn't
think
about it," said Jeff. "Or at least,
I
didn't."

"I don't see—"

"Look," said Jeff. "This is a gang that steals millions, that plunders whole cities, that kills on a grand scale. What the hell are they doing hundreds of miles from the nearest city, hunting down a lone woman?"

Kinoshita suddenly looked puzzled. "Retaliation for killing a gang member?" he ventured.

"If she'd killed even one of them, we'd know what we were up against, what race they were. The authorities would spread the word to every bounty hunter on the Inner Frontier." He paused. "I'll bet she didn't have much money when you knew her back on Sylene IV, and I'll bet she doesn't have a hell of a lot more now."

"She had enough to pay her bills, nothing more," admitted Kinoshita. "It never seemed to mean much to her. But how do you know she hasn't hit it rich?"

"You don't really think Jefferson and I are the only people those charming old ladies would offer a molecular imploder to, do you?" replied Jeff. "Hera's worried enough to ask Jason for help. If she had the money, don't you think she'd have bought an imploder?"

"All right, so she doesn't have much money," said Kinoshita. "So what?"

"If she's not living in a city that can be plundered, if she didn't kill a Younger Brother, and if she doesn't have any money, why are they after her?"

"When you put it that way, it doesn't make much sense, does it?" said Kinoshita. "There must be a reason."

"There is," said Jeff. "They don't want her at all. Could one woman, even a woman as remarkable as you tell us she is, hold off a well-armed gang with nothing but conventional weapons? Remember: they know she's still here, or she wouldn't have asked Jason to come to Bollander. And they had at least a day's head start on him."

"Then they probably killed her and left before Jason even touched down yesterday."

"They may have killed her," said Jeff. "We won't know that until we reach our destination. But they haven't left."

"Why would they stay?" asked Kinoshita.

"Because they were never after her," said Jeff. "She's just bait. Think back, Ito—what happened five days ago?"

A sudden look of comprehension crossed Kinoshita's face. "Jefferson killed Hairless Jack Bellamy—and then he killed Cleopatra Rome maybe half a day later."

"Right. And while he was doing that, I was taking the Jack of Blades out by the Tarica system. So suddenly there are two Widowmakers, and we're getting more active. Probably we're going to team up to go after some of the bigger gangs, gangs like the Younger Brothers." Jeff smiled. "But they don't know who or where the Widowmakers are. All they know is that they think it's time to kill the Widowmakers before we kill them."

"What has Hera got to do with it?"

"Jefferson's been retired for two years. As far as I can tell, he doesn't keep in contact with anyone except his garden supply shops and his antiquarian booksellers. The Younger Brothers don't know about either interest, so they have no idea how to track him down. And me, I'm the new kid on the block. Except for you, I haven't made a friend on the whole Frontier; I've been too busy collecting bounties. So if you were the Younger Brothers and you wanted to find a Widowmaker, you'd learn who actually knew one and lived to tell about it. You'd have heard about the affair on Pericles IV. There were only five survivors. Jason and Cassandra changed their names, and you travel with the Widowmaker. Friday was sitting in a maximum security prison with a death sentence hanging over his head. That left Pallas Athene. If they were ever going to draw the Widowmaker out, the best way was to use her as bait. They want more than one Widowmaker, of course, but at this point they'll settle for what they can get." He turned to Nighthawk. "How am I doing?"

"You've nailed it," said Nighthawk approvingly.

"But I still needed you to point me in the right direction."

"That's what I'm here for."

"I thought it was to kill the Younger Brothers," said Jeff with a smile.

"That, too," said Nighthawk. He did not return the smile.

30.

The countryside became more rugged as the farms gradually disappeared. The land was covered by rocky outcroppings, deep gullies and ravines, and dry river beds.

"Well, they're probably still alive," said Kinoshita. "There are enough places to hide."

"From men, yes," said Jeff. "From aliens? It depends on their senses and abilities."

He looked to Nighthawk, who nodded his agreement.

"How close are we getting?" asked Kinoshita.

"You are 6.327 miles from your destination," announced the aircar.

"Stop when you're three miles away," said Nighthawk.

"Registered," replied the aircar.

"Three miles over this terrain is a hell of a walk," said Kinoshita. "We'll be lucky if one of us doesn't break an ankle."

"We know it's a trap," said Jeff. "Do you really want us to drive right up to wherever it is she's hiding?"

"I was just remarking," said Kinoshita defensively.

"Besides, we won't find Jason there," continued Jeff.

"Why not?"

"Because he's got sixty years of Jefferson's experiences and memories. If I know it's a trap, so does he."

"That may not stop him," said Nighthawk. "He came here out of loyalty to a friend. Maybe she's just bait, but he'll do what he can to save her anyway. He'll try to protect himself, but he won't stand by and watch them kill her."

Kinoshita donned his infrared and ultraviolet goggles in quick succession, then took them off. "Nothing," he complained. "I can't see a damned thing with them that I couldn't see before."

"It could mean we won't need them," said Nighthawk. "On the other hand, it could simply mean that there aren't any Younger Brothers within your field of vision. You don't really expect a tree or a rock to look any different, do you?"

"No, I guess not."

The vehicle came to a stop and hovered a few inches above the ground. "We are now exactly three miles from your destination."

"Shut down all systems in ten seconds," ordered Jeff, "and re-activate on my command, once you verify my voiceprint."

"Done," said the aircar just before its power went dead.

"What if you're wounded or killed?" asked Kinoshita.

"Jefferson's voiceprint is identical to mine," replied Jeff. "The vehicle will respond to his command."

"And if you're both killed?"

"Then you'll have a long walk back to the spaceport," said Nighthawk.

"Well, shall we begin?" said Jeff, hanging his various goggles around his neck and looping the radiation detector over a shoulder as Nighthawk and Kinoshita did the same.

"Might as well," replied Nighthawk.

With Jeff in the lead the three men began approaching what they assumed would be a cabin or a farmhouse, some dwelling where Hera had planned to make her last stand. They kept to the heavy foliage, walking around the numerous gullies, picking up a number of cuts and scratches from the thick thornbush.

After they'd gone half the distance Nighthawk stopped.

"What is it?" asked Jeff.

"I need to think for a minute."

"What's the problem?"

"I don't think we're looking for a house at all," said Nighthawk. "Consider our surroundings. We haven't seen a road or a landing field in the last eighty miles. This land we're on is as virgin as it gets. And the sisters at The Sharpshooter didn't give us an address; they pinpointed a spot on the map." He paused. "This area is honeycombed with caves. My guess is that Hera's holed up in one. It's more defensible, it's probably connected to half a dozen other caves—escape routes if she needs them. It might even have its own water source. It wouldn't take much to set up a generator for power; she could even run it off a screecher battery so she'd have all the comforts of home."

"There are probably twenty caves that could qualify as the location," said Kinoshita. "How do we tell which one is the right one?"

"We don't bother," said Nighthawk.

"Right," agreed Jeff. "We let
her
find
us
."

"How?" said Kinoshita.

"We'll go another three-quarters of a mile," said Nighthawk. "Then we'll stop and find a cave that's connected to others."

"And then we'll create enough of a disturbance to let both sides know we're here," added Jeff, "and duck into the cave. She probably knows the cave system inside out, and they don't. She figures to find us before they do."

"Hopefully Jason will be with her," continued Nighthawk, "and if we all put our heads together and trade information, maybe we can figure out just what the Younger Brothers are and what makes them tick—and how to silence that ticking before it silences us."

"Sounds good to me," said Jeff. "Let's get moving."

They proceeded cautiously for another thousand yards, then stopped again. Jeff activated his radiation detector, stared at it, and shook his head.