Salvaged Destiny (12 page)

“The size of any of these readings? What is your guess about
the dimensions of the cave they would have excavated? Standard size, do you
think?”

“I guess so. Nothing in the old reports was very specific.”
Lazlo tried to sound intelligent while fighting back a vivid fantasy of
unbuttoning her shirt as she did the same for him. Oh they needed to find these
weapons and get out of this canyon.

“That puts us at about ten by ten, which means…” Del stopped
staring at the display and craned her head up to look at the cliff to their
right. Her neck curved up and out of her collar as she looked and Lazlo wanted
to lean forward and sniff. Falling back onto his heels, he instead followed her
gaze.

“We should look right over there. It has good indicators. If
there’s nothing there, there are a couple of others to check farther along. But
I’m liking this one.”

“Right. Let’s go then.” A whisper of sound caught his
attention and Lazlo stilled. “Wait, do you hear something?” It had been so
quiet in the small canyon, aside from their conversation, that the faint
rattling sound was obvious, at least to him. Del stilled, turning her head back
the way they’d come and narrowing her eyes. They waited for a moment but the
noise did not occur again. Reaching a decision, Lazlo leaned close and
whispered in her ear.

“Stay. I’m going to take a look.” As he drew away, a tiny
whiff of her scent curled in his nose and it was good. He wanted to lick her
like a sorghum candy.
Stars, get a little control
, he chided himself as
he stood. Del looked up at him with concern. If she’d known what he was really
thinking, she’d be dashing away from him down the canyon, brandishing one of
her sharp hammers.

* * * * *

Lazlo returned from his quick reconnaissance back up the
canyon floor to find Del running her fingers through the sand, little lines and
mounds of disturbed material all around her. He hadn’t thought he’d been gone
that long. “No sign of anything, but it doesn’t mean no one was there. Let’s
power everything down again. I thought we’d be shielded by these canyon walls,
but better safe than sorry.”

Del moved to comply by turning off her datpad and the
scanner and stowing them in her pack. Standing next to Lazlo, she gestured for
him to follow her as she walked toward the hollow they had detected earlier. Crawling
around several rose-colored boulders, they slithered into a rock fall that
crowded the face of the cliff.

“Careful,” Lazlo cautioned as he grabbed on to her pack to
prevent her sliding down between two slabs. He lifted her as if she were a sack
of tender peaches, careful not to bump her anywhere, and Del thanked him as she
wedged her boots and back against the rocks to hold steady as she looked over
the enormous field of debris.

“Look at this. The whole side of the cliff fell down. See
how the color is brighter and clearer all along the top?” Lazlo looked up at
what Del indicated and noticed big swathes of bright-pink rock overhead
contrasting with the paler rose of the rest of the cliff.

“That’s because it hasn’t weathered much yet. This rock fall
was pretty recent.”

“How recent?”

Del shrugged and kept looking over the rocks as if she were
reading a datpad display. ”In geological terms this all happened a second ago. For
us, maybe fifty or a hundred years. We could do some tests, but why bother? If
something is under there, it’s no wonder no one came back for it. We just need
to get back there and have a look.”

Del indicated a dark shadow between the cliff bottom and an
enormous boulder that had fallen from the top. There was more sunlight in this
area due to the rock fall and it illuminated a bewildering chaos of tumbled
pink rocks.

“I don’t know if I’ll fit,” Lazlo admitted as he peered into
the darkness. The opening looked like it was only about fifty centimeters at
its widest.

Del huffed. “You won’t. I’m going. You hold my pack.” Before
he could caution her, she was off, disappearing from view in moments.

Lazlo waited, half of his attention listening for any
unusual noises, the other watching for her to return. He felt on edge, worried
about what Del was doing out of sight and wondering why he was starting to feel
like danger was approaching them. The sooner they investigated the holes in
this claustrophobic little valley and left it behind, the happier he would be.

Actually, he’d be happy to leave this whole project behind. Lazlo
wasn’t contributing much to the search and his attraction to Del was
distracting and unprofessional. Two traits he was trying to avoid, considering
his last relationship where he’d been distracted enough to be labeled
unprofessional by many. But it was hard to ignore how good Del still smelled,
even after hiking for hours.

The shafts of sunlight shining down had moved along the
sandy floor of the canyon a few centimeters by the time Del emerged from the
shadowy opening like a burrowing rodent. Her face was glowing and Lazlo felt a
rush of excitement. It didn’t look as if she’d discovered another abandoned
still. Reaching down for her, he grabbed her hands and pulled her out, setting
her down on the closest level surface.

“So?”

“We’ve got it.” Del was laughing and hopping and Lazlo felt
a glorious rush of accomplishment. Success was sweet and so was she. Lazlo
couldn’t resist and he grabbed her up in a hug. Del twisted her head up to look
at him with surprise, which brought her mouth ever so close to his and in the
excitement of the moment, Lazlo leaned down and kissed her. She felt really
good, soft and wet and warm, and the hot urge to keep on kissing her flared
strongly enough in him to startle him. Letting go of her quickly, Lazlo tried
to appear nonchalant rather than as hard and eager as he actually was. Del looked
flustered as she adjusted her footing.

“Congratulations!” Lazlo managed to say, feeling like a
dolt. “Good job.”

Del peered at him as if she was going to say something, but
she shook her head and pulled out her datpad instead.

“Here, I took a few digimas, so you could see.” Del opened
up her datpad but stopped. “I know I was supposed to leave it off, but I
guessed back in there behind the rock it wouldn’t matter. And I didn’t want to
move anything. I thought they might explode or leak or start ticking.”

“Don’t worry about it. Let me see the images and then power
back down,” Lazlo reassured her and Del activated her device and showed him a
dimensional image of a shadowy cluster of grayish blobs. Better to look at
indeterminate grayish things than to think about how soft her lips had felt and
wish he could taste her again.

“Not seeing it.”

“That’s a bad one, the next one should be better.” Del
scrabbled at the datpad and another image popped up and showed a dark gray case
with some identifying numbers and letters visible under a thick coating of
dust. Lazlo rotated the resolution and spotted similar cases stacked below.

“How big was this?” Now he could concentrate. This was very
promising. The shape looked right as long as the dimensions were a match.

“About a meter long.” Del glanced from the digima to his
face and then back again, peering at the tiny cases with determination, as if
she could will them into being the correct items.

“Looks good. Did you open one?”

“No. I didn’t want to touch anything.”

“How many were in there?”

“I counted forty-three.”

Lazlo smiled. They’d done it. “Amazing. We need to get back
and report this so the major can send out a recovery team immediately.”

“They’re going to need some equipment. I don’t think those
cases can be moved out of there without widening the opening. I really had to
squeeze to get in there.” Del pressed at her stomach as if she were remembering
how tight it had been.

Lazlo worried she’d been hurt. He reached out to touch her
shoulder but she shifted away. Fine, so the hug and kiss hadn’t been well received.
“Did you get an abrasion?”

“What? No, it was just tight.” Del glanced at him and looked
away again quickly.

“Let’s go after we set some perimeter monitors.” Lazlo shut
down his regret about making her feel uncomfortable and pulled the small
devices from his pack and handed a few to Del, showing her where he wanted them
placed.

Once they were set, he activated them from his datpad,
wincing as it powered up for a few moments. It couldn’t be helped and Del was
likely correct in thinking most of the signal would be lost or garbled down among
the rocks. Tucking everything securely away in his pack, Lazlo looked for Del
and found her crouched down and inspecting something intently. Scrunching up
her face, she tossed aside a smallish rock and rose.

“Nothing good?”

“Nothing good enough to carry out,” Del replied and moved to
stand next to him with a questioning look. “Ready?”

“Let’s move. If we keep up a good pace, we should get back
to the port by dinnertime.” Lazlo started walking, confident he could retrace
their path. Elated by their success, he nearly had a spring in his step, but
the sand they trudged through kept him firmly on the ground. “Do you want to
have dinner?”

“Together?”

“No, I thought we could just go to the same place and sit
separately.” Lazlo waited for her answer with some anxiety. “Of course we
should go together. We have something to celebrate.”

“That we do. So I will.” Then Del grinned at him and Lazlo
felt happy. He hadn’t felt happy in so long it was an almost uncomfortable
sensation. So she wasn’t too bothered by his spontaneous show of affection. He
just needed to go much slower.

They walked for a few hundred more meters and the canyon
began to widen top and bottom, allowing more sunlight to reach them. Del
slipped on her shades and Lazlo followed suit.

“And we’re not going to some quick counter either,” Lazlo
continued. “I want to sit at a real table and not have to be bumped by people
walking by. Tell a servbot what we want and have it delivered to our table.”

“Sounds nice,” Del agreed as she walked along in front of
him, their boots digging in to the deeper sand and leaving tracks. Dinner would
be nice. Del was good company and he felt a little disappointed they wouldn’t
be working together anymore. But she was his friend now and he looked forward
to spending some time with her after all of this was concluded. Maybe an
entertainment, certainly dinner.

And he was going to follow up on his offer to help her
salvage the old still equipment. It was the least he could do for her. She
might even agree to go to the hot springs with him—or she might know someplace
even better, secluded and scenic. He could bring a blanket and some wine. Maybe
try another kiss sometime.

They rounded a corner of canyon wall and Del stopped in
shock. She’d been obsessively replaying that quick kiss and had stopped paying
attention to her surroundings. That had been a mistake.

A few meters away stood Avo Kirk and immediately behind him
was Sheriff Harata. Both men were wearing packs and boots and a light layer of
dust, clearly out exploring like her and Lazlo.

The sheriff smoothly drew his stunner and pointed it
directly at Del. The muzzle of the weapon looked as if it were a meter wide to
her frightened eyes as her stomach contracted in terror. She heard Lazlo curse
behind her and realized he could not draw a weapon because she was in the way. Everyone
was single file along the narrow canyon floor.

“Move it, Avo,” Harata barked out and the man scuttled
sideways. Del spared him a quick glare. At least he had the sense to look
shocked. Then she turned back to watch the sheriff as he stepped their way,
careful not to lose sight of his target, which happened to be her.

“That’s Casta back there, right? Step on out and keep your
hands where I can see them, portie.” Harata grinned as if he’d won a prize at
the Harvest Festival. She sensed Lazlo move and then she saw him stand next to
her, standing still and focused entirely on their enemy. Trying to swallow some
of her fear, she breathed in and out with effort when all she wanted to do was
scream.

“Stop there. Now, Kirk, you go and grab our cute little
scout there and keep her under control while I deal with our larger problem,” Harata
ordered and Avo crept her way and grabbed her arm, trying to push her to her
knees, which made Del very angry. She refused to cooperate, straining against
his grip and hissing curses at him. Del lost sight of the other two men as she
struggled against Avo, who finally shoved her into the sand and put a heavy
boot on her back to keep her down.

Fear and rage burned through her body and she twisted her
head to berate him. “Avo, you’re going to pay so much for this—”

“Shut your yak, you dirty little cycler,” Harata growled as Avo
looked deeply unsure. “Your whole family earned arrests and confiscations as
soon as I saw you. You are done now, all of you cruddy Browens. Hold her down,
Avo, do something right for once. I can’t believe you thought they were already
out of this canyon. ‘Tracks in the sand leading in and out’ my shiny arse,” Harata
mocked his guide.

Well, Del could have told him Avo knew less than nothing
about tracking. Not that she was going to tell the sheriff anything other than
to take a flying leap off Station Seventeen. Del tried to keep struggling but
fear and the pressure of Avo’s boot made it difficult.

The sheriff turned his attention back to Lazlo, who hadn’t
moved a millimeter during the entire struggle. “So, Casta, you’re what, a
lieutenant of Sekar’s, right? And he sent you out here as covertly as possible
to steal my salvage. What a prick the man is. A monumental, arrogant prick. Marching
onto my planet as if he has all rights to the place. The cache will be mine in
any case. I know we’re close—I can feel it. All I have to do now is decide what
to do with you.”

Del thought hard, which was difficult to do when Kirk’s boot
was impeding her breathing. The two men hadn’t found the weapons—after all,
they were still on their way in while she and Lazlo were on their way out. And
they had traveled several hundred meters away from the cave, which meant it
wouldn’t be easy for the other two to find. Unless either she or Lazlo said
something. Would they torture her for information? Avo’s hard and lumpy boot
was grinding into the bones of her back and she wanted to cry.

“How much would it cost me to convince you to just walk
away?” the sheriff speculated, moving a little closer but keeping the stunner
trained on the center of Lazlo’s body. Lazlo said nothing, just kept watching
the other man approach in a seemingly calm state of mind Del could not
understand. She was huffing and twisting under Avo’s boot to the best of her
ability, the pain of his weight on her making her squeak as he bore down on
her.

“Stop moving or Harata will shoot you,” Avo hissed at Del.

“Nothing,” Lazlo finally answered Harata, as if he’d been
considering the bribe.

“One of those, hmm? Too dutiful and honorable to live in the
real world with the rest of us, huh, Avo?”

“Yes sir,” Kirk replied quickly as Del groaned and
struggled, flailing in the sand like a broken crab. A sharp stone was digging
painfully into her sternum and she tried to move to alleviate the pain, but Avo
just bore down even more. She couldn’t help but cry out as she felt warm blood
starting to flow under her shirt.

“Then we’re going to have to do this my preferred way. It
won’t cost me a mark.” Sheriff Harata reached for his belt and slowly withdrew
some bright-orange strips of plastic, tossing some to Avo, who missed his catch,
allowing the restraints to fall to the sand around Del’s body.

“Balls, Avo, how many times can you crack it up today? Put a
knee on her and get those picked up. Tie her up,” the sheriff ordered with a
sharp tone. Del froze, deathly afraid of what would happen if she were
restrained.

Del twisted her head and grunted as Avo shifted above her,
moving his boot off her back to adjust his hold, and she tensed, pushing with
all of her strength against his leg as he crouched off balance above her.

With a startled gust of air, he tipped to one side and she
followed him, shoving her dirty fingers at his eyes and trying to knee him as
she crawled away. Del heard other bodies moving, but she couldn’t pause to see
what was happening. She reached for the rock hammer on her belt and swung it at
Avo, who leaped away from the heavy titan head.

“You put that down, Del, or I’ll tell your daddy,” the guide
threatened in a thin voice. Del looked in his eyes and saw as much stress and
fear in him as she was feeling.

Del didn’t bother to reply. She just kept her hammer raised
and watched him as he held his hands out as if to rush her. Her every muscle
tense, Del gasped shallowly as she expected to feel the impact of Harata’s
stunner bolt any moment. Two breaths later, Avo did rush her and she took
another swing, which landed against his ribs with a mighty thump and crack. She’d
been aiming for his arm, but he’d raised it to strike at her and the arc of her
swing concluded at his torso.

Avo shrieked and fell on top of her as she dropped back down
onto the sand under his weight, breath pushed out of her lungs in a rush. She
shoved and kicked and twisted under him, short of breath and wincing from all
the pain.

Lazlo tried to calm his racing heartbeat as the sheriff
pointed the stunner at him. He’d been negligent in keeping a sufficient watch
on their location and now Del was paying the price, as that oaf tormented her
under his boot. But overwhelming anger at her distress wouldn’t serve him well
at this point and he tried to clear his mind and prepare to attack at the
first, best opportunity.

When Harata pulled out the restraints, Lazlo knew what was
going to come next—clipping them both, cutting their throats and then stashing
their bodies somewhere remote, which was actually anywhere they were standing. They
might even take turns raping Del before they killed her. So wrist clips could
not be allowed. Their lives would be over the minute the sheriff bound him.

Del must have realized this too, because she reared up when
Avo fumbled his catch and began to struggle against him. Lazlo couldn’t watch
any longer because he used her resistance as the split second of distraction he
needed to leap forward and slam his arm across Harata’s, sending the stunner
clattering away into the rocks. Then it was a fair fight and Lazlo was nothing
if not a dirty fighter.

Harata tried a few kicks and sidesweeps, which Lazlo eluded
well enough, considering the ground was crowded with obstacles. Lazlo threw a
few blows at the eyes and nose of the sheriff and allowed himself to feel a
small thrill of pleasure as they landed and blood started to spatter. Lazlo
watched Harata’s movements become more tight and erratic and knew that he had
to obtain control over the other man as soon as possible. Del was thrashing
under a screaming Avo and he had another awful vision of her being sexually
assaulted.

With a quick duck, Lazlo pushed into Harata’s space, found
an opening, elbow-punched his chest hard twice and palm-heel punched his throat
once. As the other man doubled up, Lazlo flipped him over his shoulder onto the
sand, immediately landing on him with knees in his stomach and hands twisting
his chin forcefully to the side. Harata’s body tensed as he tried to get a grip
on Lazlo’s head or face, but the torque Lazlo applied kept the sheriff’s torso
averted enough that he could not get a solid grip.

As Lazlo bore his full weight down, the sheriff’s breath
left in a burble along with his fight. Feeling nothing but determination to
subdue his enemy, Lazlo pressed his attack. Flipping the man over and kneeing
him in the kidneys, Lazlo swiftly pulled his own restraint clips free and
snapped them over the sheriff’s wrists, yelling out to the sheriff’s guide.

“Avo Kirk, get off her now or I’ll break both your arms!”

The guide stopped moaning long enough to shriek his ribs
were broken and Lazlo stood with a bounce, all the adrenaline in his system
charging his body. He made sure the sheriff was secure after he clipped his
legs together and rushed to Del, pulling the other man off her and tossing him
into a large boulder where Kirk cried out and sprawled in the sand.

She blinked up at him, pale and covered in smears of wet
sand courtesy of spittle from the man who had been howling on top of her. Lazlo
turned and cuffed Kirk, drawing his arms back despite the other man’s cries
that his ribs were broken and his lung was now punctured. A quick search of his
person revealed only a knife in a boot, which Lazlo collected. He returned to
Harata to search for more weapons. The sheriff was better armed—in addition to
the thrown-away stunner, he had a handheld shocker, two knives and a strange
device of unknown purpose.

Sheriff Harata was silent as he watched his guide sob and
curl on the ground and he shot a hot look of hatred at Lazlo, who wanted to
kick sand in his eyes. But instead he walked away and knelt next to the now
silent and unmoving Del, tears leaking from the corners of her frightened gray
eyes. She looked so small and helpless sprawled there in the churned-up sand that
he was afraid to touch her.

“It’s over.”

“I’m hurt,” she whispered and all the intense energy from
the fight disappeared as cold dread filled him.

“Where?” Lazlo struggled to keep his voice calm and quiet so
that he wouldn’t upset Del any further.

“My back. It hurts.” Anxiety whispered in his mind and Lazlo
strained to remember his medic training. He might be able to stabilize her, but
how long would it take before he could arrange emergency evacuation for her? If
she had spinal damage or was bleeding internally—

Trying to dismiss panic, Lazlo focused on triage.

“Can you move your legs?”

“Crack it, that hurts.” She closed her eyes and winced as
she shifted her boots in the sand.

“I hope you’re paralyzed, you dirty whore!” Harata shouted out
in frustration and Lazlo glanced over at him. The man was still restrained and
red in the face. No threat. But extremely irritating.

“I’m not paralyzed, you shit-eater!” Del shouted back and
Lazlo grinned at her. She was a brave one.

“Can you sit up?”

“I don’t want to,” Del groused, but then slowly rose with a
hiss of pain. She staggered and he helped steady her.

“I need to see what’s injured,” Lazlo warned her as he
reached for the buttons on her shirt. She was paler and starting to shiver,
unable to assist him, and he realized shock was setting in. Mumbling and
wincing, she allowed him to pull off her shirt and lift up her tank. Her back
was covered with already-purpling indentations from Kirk’s boot and Lazlo took
a deep breath, trying not to be enraged by what had happened.

Her hands pulled up to her chest as he shifted her shirt and
he thought she was being modest, but he noticed a dark stain on her tank
between her breasts.

“Let’s see that,” he requested softly and Del glanced up at
him, eyes watering as she awkwardly pulled her top down, revealing a large
abrasion oozing bright-red blood between her breasts. Muttering under his
breath, Lazlo shrugged off his pack and retrieved his first-aid pouch, ripping
it open to get at an absorbent square, which he pressed to her wound. Del
sobbed and he nearly withdrew the pressure, hating that he was hurting her.

“Hold it there, as tight as you can stand,” Lazlo ordered
her and she nodded, head hanging low, soft hair dirty and mussed. The smallest
person in the valley and she’d gotten the worst of the entire confrontation.
But he needed to evaluate her condition, not become emotionally compromised. “Are
you hurt anywhere else?”

“Don’t think so. Are you hurt?” Del asked in a quiet voice
and he assured her he was uninjured. He didn’t say he wished that he were the
one who had been wounded if it could have spared her. Breathing more normally,
Lazlo tried to decide what to do next.

“You Browens are too slippery to get hurt. You’re like rats.
I can’t wait to get back and knock down your gate and start to work on the lot
of you!” Harata was trying to roll over on the sand, his dark eyes skewering
Del with the same expression of rage Lazlo had seen on all sorts of criminals
doing their best to intimidate a witness.

“Go screw yourself, Harata!” Del looked as if she wanted to
bite the sheriff, and that wouldn’t be good. Lazlo hated the thought she’d get
that close to the old reprobate. He rummaged in his pack and pulled out a spare
pair of his socks, which he used to gag the other man.