Demeter (15 page)

“Hey, I’ve seen these guys before,” Debbie whispered anxiously to Cynthia.

Cynthia returned the whisper. “Shhhh. Better if they don’t think we have any idea who they are”

She was surprised that Debbie could figure out who they were so fast. They were obviously wearing heavy makeup, making their skin seem almost pitch black. They were wearing some sort of wig under those floppy cowboy hats. Even through all that, she thought she recognized one of them. But she wasn’t about to admit it.

Things had gotten very strange from the moment they met Miss Li at the observation deck. Miss Li had seemed in a hurry, and indicated that they had to leave right away. Cynthia wasn’t especially happy about the sudden change of plans, but not nearly as upset as Debbie had been. Debbie had started cajoling, whining, begging, and arguing with Miss Li to no avail. The drama had continued throughout the walk back to the hopper.

The sound of the falls crashing on the rocks below had made it necessary to virtually yell any conversation once they left the protected casing of the observation deck. Cynthia thought Debbie had made a good point that they had all agreed, including Miss Li, to take the hovercraft under the mist of Kuu’Aali Falls, and that they should at least do that before they left. Miss Li was adamant though, and they continued the battle from the observation deck, down the hallway, and into an elevator, where Cynthia better heard the fight. She saw Becky standing opposite Debbie. Becky rolled her eyes. Cynthia started to laugh. Miss Li cut off her laughter with a sharp look.

Back on the tarmac, Cynthia noticed a half dozen Slick and Cryellian fighters along with a couple of dozen hoppers. As Miss Li hurried them across the landing field, Cynthia saw a man in a big cowboy hat. At first she thought it was Hondo. She wondered what he was doing away from Shimmer’s Head. Then as the man approached from one side of the field, she caught sight of another man approaching from behind a hopper next to their own. That’s when she started to get nervous.

The biggest surprise was that Miss Li was obviously in league with the two dark men. She seemed angry when she first talked to one of the men off to the side, then shrugged and led them back to the girls. “Girls, we’re going on a little adventure with these gentlemen,” Miss Li spoke softly, “we’ll need to drop off a few items, like our bugs, before we leave.”

“Where are we going?” Cynthia asked innocently.

“Just down river a ways. There are some great caverns there,” the second cowboy volunteered.

“I don’t want to go to see any caverns.” Debbie started arguing with Miss Li again.

“We really don’t have a choice in the matter,” Miss Li returned.

“Exactly how far is it to these caverns?” Cynthia asked.

“Well about—” the second man started.

“Shut up.” The first man cut him off. “Ladies, we are going,” he commanded as he brandished a small pistol.

It was at that moment that Debbie exploded with a horrific sneeze that seemed to take the breath out of her. She rubbed her eyes and leaned on the railing up the steps to the hopper.

Inside the craft Miss Li asked each of the girls to turn over their bugs and their computers. Again, Debbie argued with Miss Li, but eventually complied. The second man crushed each item under his foot. Cynthia could see no point in arguing with Miss Li, or the two guns now pointed at them. They were ordered to empty their totes. They were then allowed to get their change of clothes, under Miss Li’s supervision. As they were standing by the doorway about to leave, the first man turned to Miss Li. “Let’s have yours too, Yara.”

“Mine? Why would you want mine, Newbold?” she asked haughtily.

“Who knows? There might be a bug in your bug. I just know that I was instructed to get rid of yours as well,” the man identified now as Newbold answered defensively.

“Okay then.” She smiled, pulled the bug from her ear, and tossed it across the room. It sailed past Newbold, landed on a luggage shelf, and then rolled toward the back.

“Now we’re going to have to waste time pulling that out to crush it.”

“You needed to crush mine? Why?”

Just then Debbie decided to make a break for it. Near the ship’s entry, the second man tackled her. She banged her head against a panel and was out cold.

Newbold stared at his companion. “Well that complicates things. Do we kill her or carry her?”

“She’s more useful alive,” Miss Li said.

“Great! Winger, you get to carry her,” Newbold commanded. “Ladies, if anyone tries that on the tarmac, we may have to change our plans and kill you on the spot. Are we clear?”

Cynthia could sense Becky’s head nodding affirmatively as her head did the same. This wasn’t going to be a fun experience.

Miss Li led the party out of the hopper. They approached the main building where a third dark man in a cowboy hat joined the group. The party then veered to the left and went down the path toward the river below the falls.

A broad stone staircase in long, wide steps carved right into the rock led to the river. At the first dock, bumping up and down in the river was a vessel similar to the one they had taken for the rafting adventure at Shimmer’s Head. The only differences were that this one looked newer and had a cover that broke the craft into three compartments. As soon as they were aboard, their hands were bound, but their feet were left free. Miss Li was not bound.

Becky glared at the man referred to as Winger. “I hope Debbie doesn’t have a concussion, you jerk.”

Miss Li sat down beside Cynthia, who inched away while still examining Debbie. “She’ll be all right,” Miss Li spoke comfortingly.

“How could you?” Cynthia spit out. “You know that Ryder will be all over this. He’s smart. He’ll figure it out.”

“They’re counting on that,” Miss Li said laconically and smiled.

Ryder felt awkward. He had a small army following him off Aster’s flyer: Aster, Ensign Steerman, Randy, Joel, and Athena. He tried to convince Joel and Athena to remain behind to continue collecting data, but Joel pointed out that he could just as easily conduct the search from their various destination points, and Athena was clearly not going to stay there alone.

Kuu’Aali Falls was one of the three most popular sites in Demeter. The Kuu’Aali Falls Hotel had accommodations for up to three hundred guests, and they were near capacity while the fleet was in. The area boasted five restaurants, several gift shops, an IMAX-type theatre, a hovercraft tour that went under the mist of the falls, and a small island that split the cascading waters as they descended to the river below. The island was a popular jump point for powered gliders known as kites. This kept a local shuttle business busy, as there was no actual landing large enough to accommodate full-sized hoppers or flyers on the island.

Aster had landed as close to the girls’ hopper as possible. Because of the congestion of visitors spending the night, they still had a quarter of a mile walk to get to the vessel. It was an odd sensation walking in the near total darkness as the fog-like mist of a light rain was blocking the typical twilight of night. No one was patrolling the poorly lit landing field, which displayed the eerie shadows of dozens of empty ships. Despite the distant thunder of the falls ahead, it was still quiet enough to hear their feet echoing across the tarmac, and occasionally splash when they inadvertently hit puddles of water from the slowing light rain. As the storm was starting to wind down, Ryder knew it must be about three hours before dawn. He realized that the people who kidnapped the girls could easily be lying in wait to attack them. He started to panic, realizing that although they had a fairly large group, they were unarmed. He actually jumped when Joel whispered, “It feels like a ghost town.”

As they approached the girls’ hopper, Ryder asked everyone to fan out and search the tarmac for anything that might be evidence. Understanding that they could be messing up a crime scene, he advised, “Look, find, but don’t touch.” Ryder had his own agenda, and it involved the third step up the flyer. He wasn’t sure why, but he didn’t want company.

There wasn’t much to see. No footprints. No blood, thank goodness. He still wasn’t sure how badly Debbie was hurt, but she was certainly injured. He wished that he had a magnifying glass. He started feeling back and forth with his hands. “Ah, there it is,” he said in relief. He was pretty sure he knew what Debbie had been up to with the sneeze, and he was right. He carefully picked up the contact-lens-sized sub-computer unit Debbie had placed on the outer edge of the steps under the handrail.

Inside the hopper there wasn’t much to see. The internal recorder had been destroyed, the computers were crushed on the floor, and there was residue that looked like the remains of the bugs. Ryder guessed that they would find Cynthia’s sub-computer unit and Becky’s, if she was using one, somewhere on the floor, but it would take time to locate it. Athena noticed that the girls’ bags had been dumped, but it looked like they had taken their change of clothes with them.

Aster stood next to Ryder. “So what’s next?” he asked.

Ryder felt exhausted. He realized that between the adrenaline rushes from jumping, and then from the girls’ kidnapping, he was starting to crash. But there was no help for it. “Let’s go down to the river.” The walk to the river was a long series of stone steps with several outcroppings that served as view areasview on the way down. There was a large pier that anchored the “Live Mist” hovercraft. Beyond that were several smaller docks with rafts tied to two of them. There was no beach beyond the piers, just water and rocks, with a steep rise to the observation decks. Towering yet another five hundred feet above the decks on the opposite side of the river was an outcropping dividing the path of the water over the falls. Ryder squinted to the top, and in the twilight thought he could spot the take off point for the kites. Either that or his eyes were playing tricks on him.

“Lieutenant Pinoke,” Ryder spoke tiredly into his bug, “is there any surveillance from the top of the falls?”

Pinoke paused longer than normal. Maybe she was getting tired too, or maybe it took longer to find that information than he thought it would. “Yes, there are three surveillance cameras at the top. And, I read your mind, one of the three cameras does focus on the river.”

“Can you start pulling the archives on that one?”

“Yes, Apprentice Ryder,” Pinoke responded, then added, “For your information, the fleet command did release the film of those three returning craft. None of the surveillance video showed anything that would indicate any of the assets…I mean any of your friends had ever been on those craft.”

“I figured not. We pretty well know they went down the river.” Ryder’s voice rose and fell as he walked along the docks bordering the water. “I’m hoping that the archives will give us some more useful information.”

“Apprentice Ryder, you should sleep. If you do not, your effectiveness will diminish by growing exponential percentages over the next four or five hours.”

“Exactly. Whatever you said. I’m going back to Aster’s flyer until Mr. Small gets here.” Turning to his companions he said, “Okay, we’ve got what we can get here. I need some sleep.” He almost laughed when he saw Joel and Athena leaning against the stone wall, actually dozing off on each others’ shoulders. “I guess you do too.” Twenty minutes later everyone was out cold in the flyer.

Ryder awoke to a pounding on the exterior of the craft. His eyes opened in time to see Steerman jump and fall out of his seat. Aster on the other hand had his eyes open and staring at Ryder. “Guess the cavalry has arrived,” Ryder squeaked out in a very dry and gravelly voice. “I need something to drink.”

Aster looked Ryder up and down. “You’re underage, even on Demeter.”

“Underage for water? No, better make that a soda of some kind. I really need a Diet Coke.”

The pounding continued, but Ryder noticed that Joel and Athena did not move. They were still out cold. Randy stirred but reacted like a fly was disturbing his sleep, swinging at the air above his head. Steerman rose and hit the panel to open access, while Ryder pulled a beverage from the portable refrigerator. It didn’t taste good, but he got a good swallow down before Mr. Small stormed in.

Mr. Small was dressed in a gray DDF uniform. He had two other uniformed DDF members of the security team behind him, and it looked like several others behind that. “Why didn’t you return to Europe as instructed?” Mr. Small asked sharply. “Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been? And why did you turn off the communications system?”

“We wanted to get some sleep.” Ryder’s dry throat was going to be a problem. He could tell that already. “And,” he stated more firmly, “I have no intention of returning to Europe without my sister or Cynthia…or Becky for that matter.” Mr. Small and Ryder stared at each other. Before they could find out who would have won the staring contest, someone from the tarmac called, “Major Small!”

“We’ll talk about this later,” Mr. Small stated with finality, then turned and strode down the steps. “What is it, Baron?” Ryder could hear Mr. Small say. Then the voices trailed off as they stepped away from the flyer entrance.

Ryder called Lieutenant Pinoke on his bug, but got no reaction. “Lieutenant Pinoke,” he repeated in a louder voice.

“Apprentice Ryder, I thought you’d still be asleep.”

“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” Ryder responded.

“What? Never mind. I was able to get some footage of your ‘friends’ on the stairs. They proceeded to a raft on the third pier. I have the ID information and pictures of the craft they took. It proceeded down river and out of sight.”

“Fantastic! Patch the information to Mr. I mean, Major Small.” Ryder stood up slowly. Every joint in his body hurt. He put his boots back on and proceeded out of the flyer and toward Mr. Small, with Aster and Steerman close behind. Mr. Small looked much bigger in uniform. His presence was certainly commanding action. By the time Ryder caught up with him, they could clearly see the girls’ hopper. There were eight or nine people in gray uniforms scouring the tarmac around the flyer. “Have you checked the surveillance archives yet?” Ryder’s voice scratched out.

“Yes, we have already seen the masquerade party that nabbed the girls. Even with close up imaging, we have been unable to get IDs through the rather macabre attire they chose. One thing we know, they don’t do the costume thing very well. I’m inclined to think they aren’t professionals.”

“You have professional kidnappers on Demeter?” Ryder tried to provoke Mr. Small to provide more information.

“A figure of speech. There have been professional kidnappings and murders in the past, when the Pervs were more active. But things have been quiet on that front for, let me see, about fifteen years. When they were active, they were very good. The point is that theses kidnapper’s getups, though effective, are poorly done.”

“Did you get the raft they used to leave?” Ryder continued fishing for information.

“Yes, we assume from the departure down the stairs to the river that they took a raft. We’re investigating that now.” Mr. Small stared toward the falls.

“We have a complete description of the raft and its ID,” Ryder volunteered.

Mr. Small paused then frowned. “How did you get that?”

“Surveillance archive from the kite launch area above the falls.” Ryder had a strong desire to start pacing, but remained stationary.

Mr. Small shot a verbal volley at the DDF lieutenant who was accompanying him. “Baron! Did you hear that? How did you miss that?”

The chagrined-looking officer in gray approached. “We haven’t finished checking all the archives. I didn’t think the observation cameras would help, but we’re checking them.”

“No, the archives from the kite launch area,” Mr. Small corrected.

The man, Baron, looked up, and then flushed. “We’ll get right on it.”

“I’ve already had Lieutenant Pinoke forward Major Small the piece you want,” Ryder volunteered in as humble a voice as he could muster. He knew enough not to make Baron an enemy when he needed his professional help.

“I have something else that may be helpful,” Ryder spoke quietly to Mr. Small. “Debbie was able to drop off her sub-computer unit to me.”

“Third step?” Mr. Small asked knowingly.

“Yup.”

“Baron! We’ve got something else to look at. Can you free up one of your techs?” Small called the DDF officer back.

Accessing Debbie’s computer once it had gone into shutdown mode was a challenge. Deciphering her password didn’t work out. Finally the enlisted technician had to bring Lieutenant Miles Baron in to work a bypass. Once they got into the computer, they found that it had paused after recording nearly an hour. They saw the kidnappers enter and exit with the girls and Miss Li over and over again looking for some telltale hints as to who they might be. The kidnappers were wearing boots that were standard issue to all DDF forces and most civilians. This maybe discounted the Slick forces, and possibly even a Perv kidnapping. They had very little sound, but they finally focused on a section where they could hear a discussion between Miss Li and one of the kidnappers. The analysts kept trying to pull out a name. Then later there was an exchange between the two male kidnappers. It sounded like one of the kidnappers was named Singer or Stinger. They were baffled on the other name, other than knowing it was two syllables.

“It’s not much, but it’s something,” Mr. Small announced.

Ryder had to agree. They really could not clearly decipher any of the names. But he still had Lieutenant Pinoke start crosschecking matches with Singer and Stinger. “I’m not sure about the other man. Try anyone with the name Harold,” Ryder concluded. On another matter, he was more and more convinced from the recording that Miss Li was in league with the kidnappers.

Mr. Small approached Ryder as he was finishing his discussion with Pinoke. “So what are you working on?” he opened with a paternalistic voice.

Ryder started walking toward the falls across the tarmac. Mr. Small followed. Ryder was now wondering if Mr. Small was actually working with Miss Li. How could he not know she was a…a what? A traitor? A traitor to what? A kidnapper? Well both Major Small and Miss Li qualified in that category. Could he trust Mr. Small? If not, who could he trust? He decided to continue his investigation on his own, and simply watch where Mr. Small took it from here. “I’m not sure. What do you think about all this?”

“Well, we know that there were three kidnappers involved in the snatch. We’ve seen the raft arrive from downstream. The three perpetrators were disguised as soon as they exited the raft. They docked two hours before the girls’ hopper came in. We still haven’t ascertained when Miss Li arrived, or how. She may have already been here. I haven’t come across a flight plan with her name on it, so whenever she got here, she wasn’t driving.”

“Why did she do it?” Ryder asked sharply.

Mr. Small looked off toward the falls, his eyes troubled. “Things….” He hesitated, then looked away. “Things aren’t always as they appear. I really can’t say how she is involved, if she is involved.”

For Ryder, that was a breaking point. He could tell that Mr. Small was lying about something. And the statement “if she is involved” was preposterous. Either Mr. Small was involved himself, or was so attached to Miss Li that he refused to accept the obvious. Ryder would have to go it alone. Well, not alone. At least he had his own team to work with. Ryder called out as he marched away from Mr. Small, “Well, if you aren’t going to do anything, I am.”