Poisoned Pawn (28 page)

“Do I need to start carrying tissues?” he said. “For when I run into you. Since I never have any idea when that might be.”

“What?” I asked, confused.

“Never mind. Feel better now?”

I did. I nodded.

He shifted me out of his lap, onto the dirt in the hollow. “Good. I’ll call the base camp and have them send out a flitter. Or at least I’ll try.” He took a com out of his pack, then flipped it on. Nothing happened. He shook it and tried again. Still nothing happened. “I guess I won’t.”

I held out my hand. “Let me see it.”

He handed it to me and watched as I popped the back panel off. I poked inside before I put the panel in place again. I flipped the switch. The screen slowly came to life, blinking a no signal alert.

“Low battery,” I said and turned it off.

He took it back, his hand lingering on mine. He stood, stuffing the com in his pocket. He handed me the pack.

“You aren’t in any shape to do any hiking,” he said. “The only possible place to get a signal through is up on top of the ridge. You’ll be all right here?”

“Do I have a choice?” I looked away from him at the trees. Huge trunks blocked my sight in every direction.

“I’ll only be gone a couple of hours at the most.” He stood, com in one hand, studying me. “Promise me you won’t disappear?”

“Disappear where?” I tried to smile, it didn’t work. “I don’t plan on going anywhere.”

“Want me to leave you the rifle? It only shoots tranquilizer darts, but it’s better than nothing.”

“Just go, Tayvis. Get help and come back for me.”

He leaned over and kissed me quickly on the top of my head. And then he was gone.

I leaned against the tree and helped myself to his supplies. I managed half a ration bar and more water before my stomach told me I’d eaten enough. It was getting hot. The air was still. I used his jacket as a pillow and lay down. I drifted off to sleep.

I thought I was dreaming when I heard the voices. They echoed through the trees, faint but shrill. I sat up, looking around. The hot air buzzed with insects. Nothing seemed to be moving. I rolled over and closed my eyes. At least it wasn’t another nightmare.

The voices came closer. And louder. My eyes opened, the familiar knot of fear twisting my belly in knots. Those were not nice voices. They complained and swore. I scrambled back against the tree. I bumped one foot and bit my lip to keep from screaming at the pain.

“What was that?” one of the voices called. It was close, just around the tree.

Silence, sudden and ominous fell in the forest. I held my breath, clutching Tayvis’ jacket and hoping the voices would go away. Something high up in the tree cackled and squawked.

“Dumb animal,” the voice muttered.

I pulled Tayvis’ jacket up and tried to hide.

The voices complained again as they crashed through the bushes next to my tree. I tried to pretend that if I couldn’t see Luke’s men, they couldn’t see me. They saw me and stopped.

“Hello, Dace,” Dysun Farr said, with a nasty grin. “I know someone who wants you real bad. He offered me quite a bit of money if I brought you to him. Shall we go?”

“I should have shot you when I had the chance,” I answered.

“And I should never have trusted you.”

“You’re a cheating pirate, Dysun. You sold me out. Trusting you was the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.”

He slapped me, hard. “Watch your mouth.”

“You used to be nice.”

He hit me again. “I’ve learned better. Prison is good for teaching you to be tough, but you wouldn’t know that, would you?”

He waited for me to fight back. I kept my face turned away. I didn’t have the strength to deal with him. Luke had stolen that. But if I could keep him here long enough, Tayvis would come back. And Tayvis had a rifle. Except I was sitting on it.

“Say something else, Dace,” Dysun taunted.

What little hope I had shriveled into nothing. Tayvis had no weapon and he was hours away.

“Bring her,” Dysun ordered one of the other men. He stepped away.

The man reached over the tree root to drag me out. I clutched Tayvis’s jacket, keeping it with me.

Dysun saw it and snorted. “Still sleeping with the Patrol. Look where it’s gotten you, Dace.”

I said nothing.

He narrowed his eyes. “What? Nothing to say? That’s not like you.”

The man holding my arm shoved me towards Dysun. I couldn’t hide my wince as I stumbled.

Dysun glanced at my feet. “At least I know you won’t try running away this time. Let’s go.” He started walking, back towards the mansion.

The man behind me pushed me. I took a step and wished I hadn’t. It was agony trying to walk. My feet were scraped and bloodied and Tayvis’s medicine was starting to wear off. The man shoved me again.

“Carry her if she won’t walk,” Dysun said without looking back.

The man gave me an evil look. I limped after Dysun, my pride and sense of self-preservation winning over my sore feet. I only hoped that Tayvis could follow their trail and that he would think to look for it. That he would guess I hadn’t gone on my own.

Tayvis said he loved me. I held that thought, treasuring it, using it to chase away the nightmare my life had become.

The tunnel was old, dusty and full of skittering insect life. Rinth ran ahead, waving his thick hands and keening. Lowell ran to keep up, holding his lantern high. Footsteps echoed behind him. Wherever the creature, Rinth, was taking them, Lowell would have some backup.

Rinth darted past intersections, loping through the maze without pausing. After the first few passages, Lowell quit looking. Rinth was faster than he appeared. Lowell was hard pressed to keep up.

The cross passages ended. The tunnel stretched unbroken, carved from solid rock. The walls were unfinished and rough. Lowell had to slow down to keep from tripping on the uneven floor.

Rinth glanced back, his breathless keening fading. “Find miya,” he said, his voice a desperate squeak.

“Find Miya,” Lowell agreed, breathing hard. He looked behind him, holding the lantern high. Paltronis and three of her squad followed him, looking grim in bandages, dust and blood. Paltronis nodded, signaling her readiness for whatever happened.

“These aren’t the same tunnels?” Lowell asked.

“We were farther down, they were more finished. Lasered through the rock,” Paltronis answered. “Are you sure you should be trusting that thing?” She waved her gun at Rinth.

“You have a better idea?”

Paltronis shrugged, setting her extra ammunition to rattling. She shifted it with one shoulder.

“You come now,” Rinth said. “You come. You come.”

“Yes, I come,” Lowell agreed.

Rinth took off again. His feet made quiet scurrying noises in the dust-filled passage. Lowell hurried after him. Rinth wasn’t running as fast now. He slowed to a fast walk and then a slower one. He trailed his three fingered hands along the base of the wall, thick fingers probing any crevice. Insects fled from some of the holes. Rinth ignored them.

“Where is it going?” Paltronis asked.

“Shh,” Lowell quieted her.

Rinth bent over, listening intently to something. His round ears swiveled. His fingers traced out holes near the floor. Rinth made a quiet hooting sound and stabbed his fingers at the wall. He pulled his fingers back out, sucking them and rocking slowly side to side.

He turned his gray pebble eyes on Lowell. He removed his fingers. “You come now?”

“I come now.” Lowell touched the creature on its furry head. Rinth’s ears went completely still, his eyes blinked once.

“You hoouraroo man,” Rinth said.

Lowell pulled his hand back, rubbing it along his leg. Something grated farther along the passage. A breath of air stirred dust.

“You come.” Rinth scuttled down the passage.

A new door gaped in the wall near the end of the passage. Rinth paused, glancing back and hooting before he disappeared into the new passage. The hallway beyond the door was smooth. Vents in the wall hinted it was a ventilation duct. It was only about three feet high. Rinth crouched in the tunnel.

“Quiet. You come now. You come now quiet.”

Lowell bent over and followed. He barely heard Paltronis and her squad as they followed him.

He was feeling his age by the time Rinth finally stopped. He sank down against the side of the duct, rubbing kinks out of his knees and the back of his neck. Rinth watched him with his blank pebble eyes, squatting in the dust of the vent. Paltronis and her men also took advantage of the break to sit, although none of them would admit to aches and pains.

“Where now?” Lowell asked Rinth.

“Quiet,” Rinth breathed. He pointed one thick finger down through a grate.

Lowell peered through the slits into a small hangar that held two flitters. One of them looked like it wouldn’t fly ever again. Parts were strewn across the floor around it. He glanced over his shoulder at Rinth.

“You watch,” Rinth said, rocking back and forth. “Find Miya. Not punish Rinth.”

“No, not punish Rinth. Good job.” Lowell stroked Rinth’s soft fur.

Rinth blinked, then patted Lowell’s hand. “Good hoouraroo man. Find Miya.”

Paltronis and her men moved to the other vents. One of them slid past Rinth to look out one on the far side. Paltronis settled next to Lowell. They both looked down into the hangar.

A group of men straggled through the main door. Luke Verity strode in behind the others. Dried blood splotched one temple, like a ragged spider. His blue hair was dusty and matted with more blood. He wore a ferocious scowl. The other men with him were dressed in everything from full formal evening dress, now ripped and dirty, to mechanics coveralls, also ripped and dirty.

“How soon?” Luke demanded.

“This one, never,” one of the mechanics said.

Luke raised a gun. Then thought better of it.

The mechanic pretended not to see the gun. “The other one will take about an hour, maybe more. I just got the parts yesterday.”

“Then fix it.” Luke turned on the other men.

“Some party, Luke,” the man in evening dress said. “I don’t remember seeing the Patrol on the guest list.”

“Shut up, Mahoney,” Luke snapped.

Lowell made a mental note of the name; it was familiar to him. Mahoney was one of the top negotiators for the Blackthorne Conglomerate.

“You promised that there would be no interference,” Mahoney continued, his voice sharp and accusing. “You said everything was under control here. What happened to Daviessbrowun? You were supposed to have him agreeable to whatever we proposed.”

Luke’s lip curled. “I had his daughter. He should have given in.”

“His daughter has been safe on his estate half the sector away. You were duped, Luke Verity. Like the amateur and idiot you are.”

Luke raised the gun and fired. Mahoney dropped to the ground, half his face burned away.

“Anyone else want to criticize me?” Luke asked.

The other men looked away, shuffling through the parts and tools strewn over the floor.

The smell of burnt flesh drifted into the ventilation system. Lowell turned away, checking his team’s reaction. Paltronis and her men watched through the vents, faces cold and set. Rinth rocked side to side, crooning very softly. Lowell patted him. Rinth took Lowell’s hand in one of his huge stubby ones.

“Find Miya,” Rinth whispered. “Not Luke. Bad Luke. Punish Luke.”

“I want her found!” Luke shouted.

“We will, Rinth. We’ll find her.” Lowell pulled his hand free and turned back to the grate.

“I want that scheming, conniving Patrol agent found. So I can kill her myself.” Luke paced around the hangar, gun clenched in his fist.

His men found places out of sight to hide. The mechanic was under the flitter. A straggler stumbled into the room, his clothes burned by blaster fire.

Luke turned on him. “What’s wrong now?”

The man staggered, then collapsed to the floor. Luke grabbed him, jerking him back to his feet.

“The doors are sealed,” the man gasped. “But not for long. They’ve brought in explosives.”

Lowell nodded. Boline had a good explosives expert on his team. Nothing short of eight-foot-thick blast steel would hold them for long.

“We can knock the grates out easily enough,” Paltronis whispered in his ear. “There’s only a dozen of them.”

“And only five of us,” Lowell answered. “Let’s wait and see what we learn.”

“We’ll lose them if they get that flitter up. I can shoot him from here,” Paltronis continued.

“And get every gun in the place firing back,” Lowell said. “I don’t want to chance it. Besides, I want Luke Verity alive. If he doesn’t have Dace, who does?”

“Who’s the real quarry, sir?” Paltronis studied his face.

He studied her back. Light from the hangar striped her face. “Dace is our priority. We need Luke alive.”

Luke shook the man, who gurgled. Luke dropped the body, throwing it away in disgust. “How long?” he demanded of the mechanic.

The mechanic slid out from under the flitter. “You could fly it now, but…”

Luke shot him as he wiped a wrench with a greasy rag. Luke kicked the body aside and climbed into the flitter. Huge doors at the far end of the room slid up, showing early dawn sky outside.

“You come now,” Rinth crooned, rocking side to side. “You come now. Bad Luke. Bad Luke.”

“Look for another way down,” Lowell ordered his team.

The end men scrambled along the duct. Paltronis kicked the grate. The noise they made was covered by the sound of the flitter’s engines. Luke’s men, the few still alive, tried to get on the flitter before it lifted. The engine growled as the flitter headed out of the doors. One man fell from the still open door, screaming only a moment before he hit the rocks outside. The doors slid shut.

Lowell sat back and pulled out his com. All he got was static.

“Find Miya,” Rinth said in a very lost voice.

“We will,” Lowell assured him. “Her name’s not Miya, it’s Dace.”

“Not Miya?” Rinth asked, puzzled.

“Dace,” Lowell said. “Not Miya.”

“Dace?” Rinth huddled in on himself, digesting this new information.