Children of Zanar 1: The Zanari Inheritance Page 15

  ‘Orbital control is reporting one of their cruisers in orbit. The Monteagle’s Prize.’

  ‘Huh.’ Jay frowned and chewed his lips. ‘That’s Garaka’s baby. Claims he won it in a card game. It was the first cruiser the company got and he uses it as his personal base of operations. He could be down on the surface or up on the ship, but it means he’s in this system. What time is it in the spaceport?’

  ‘One hundred,’ Cassandra replied. ‘Give or take a few minutes.’

  ‘Little late to start looking for information. Probably not much we can do for the next twelve hours. Then I’ll go down and check some contacts.’

  ‘I’ll start checking mine. Computers don’t sleep as much as humans.’

  ‘Okay,’ Thea said. ‘We’ve got a plan.’

  ‘Which doesn’t involve shooting anything,’ Jinny said, not sounding especially pleased.

  Thea frowned at her. ‘We have a plan. Once we have more information, we’ll see what we can do about it. There may be some shooting. Why don’t you take Kaya over to the Sword and run her through the basics of shooting a hammer gun?’

  Jinny brightened visibly and bounced to her feet. ‘Come on, Kaya. We’re gonna go shoot things!’

  A bemused Kaya got to her feet and followed the bouncing Jinny out of the lounge, and Jay waited until they were gone before speaking. ‘You’re expecting her to fight?’ he asked Thea.

  ‘I’m expecting her to need to know how to before this is over,’ Thea replied. ‘She’s used a conventional rifle before, so a pressor rifle should be within her grasp, and she won’t be defenceless when something goes wrong.’

  ‘When something goes wrong?’

  Thea raised an eyebrow. ‘Perhaps you’re used to every plan you make going perfectly, Sor Colder, but I try to deal with the real world.’

  Jay frowned, not looking pleased. But he said, ‘No… No, I’m not used to every plan working as intended. Usually the opposite.’

  ~~~

  ‘Why does Thea have a shooting range here?’ Kaya asked as Jinny led the way into one of the areas behind the habitation section of the Sword. The room was long and slim. You could have two people shooting down it at the same time, but three would have been a squeeze. Near the entrance there were two small tables set behind a line on the floor, and the range went back from there. Far down the range, Kaya could see a pair of machines holding targets.

  ‘Well,’ Jinny replied, ‘mostly it’s for me. She does use it to keep her skills up to date, guns and knives. Thea’s an ace with a throwing knife. You, however, are here to learn to use a hammer gun.’ As she spoke, Jinny plucked a stubby rifle from a rack at the back of the range and held it out to Kaya.

  ‘A “hammer gun?” It shoots hammers?’ There did not, in fact, appear to be a muzzle on the thing; the barrel ended in a slightly curved, metal plate.

  ‘Correctly termed a pulsed-pressor assault weapon,’ Jinny said, grinning. ‘It uses pressor technology to impart kinetic energy from a distance. They used to say that a real marksman could drive a nail into a plank at two thousand metres with one, hence it’s a hammer gun. Actually, if you try to use one to drive a nail into a plank at much under six hundred metres, you’ll just get a lot of splinters. You hit a person with one and it’ll toss them around like a rag doll, even if they’re in armour. Without armour… it’s got a good chance of killing them.’

  ‘I, uh, I’ve never–’

  ‘Good!’ Jinny flashed a grin. ‘Nice girl like you shouldn’t need to worry about killing people. However, it’s not a nice galaxy and if it’s you, or some guy pointing a weapon at you, I think you should try to make sure you’re the one who walks away, don’t you?’

  Kaya took the rifle from Jinny. ‘Yes… Yes, I guess I should.’ She lifted the weapon to her shoulder, trying to get a feel for it. ‘This isn’t built like the hunting rifle I was taught on.’

  ‘It’s what’s called a bullpup design. Takes a little getting used to if you’re used to a more conventional rifle, but it’s easy enough. I’ll show you how to hook in the power pack and you can come in here to practise when you’ve got the spare time. Few hours in the range and you’ll think you’ve always been using one.’

  Kaya turned the rifle over, looking for the power pack, and found only a socket of some sort behind the grip. The purpose of that became clear when Jinny took a belt from below the rack. There was a curved block mounted on the back of the belt, from which a sturdy cable emerged and the plug on the end looked like it was intended to lock into the socket on the rifle.

  ‘Pack goes back on the charger when it’s not in use,’ Jinny explained. ‘If you need to reload one of these, you’re in a bigger battle than you should ever need to worry about, so you can take your time. Hook-up is pretty simple. You just push the plug in, tighten the shroud over it, and your weapon’s set to hammer some ass.’ She grinned. ‘However, proper range etiquette. We don’t load any gun until we’re on the firing line.’

  Kaya walked over to the firing line, put her rifle down on one of the tables, strapped the belt around her hips, and then spent a few seconds sorting out how to plug the cable in. Then Jinny showed her where the safety buttons were; to fire, you had to press down one of two buttons with your thumb before the trigger was enabled.

  ‘Maybe something a little closer,’ Jinny said, looking down the range at the target. She reached under the table to produce a remote control and used it to set the target machine moving, at a rather rapid pace, toward them, stopping at maybe ten metres away. ‘Okay, so it’s aim, make sure the safety’s down, squeeze the trigger. Treat it like you’d treat a hunting rifle, except you won’t notice the recoil so much.’

  ‘Okay…’ Kaya said. She lifted the rifle up to her shoulder, pressed it in as she’d been taught, sighted through to the target, pressed in the safety stud, and squeezed the trigger gently. There was a slight jerk against her shoulder and the target turned into confetti. ‘Wow!’

  Jinny giggled. ‘Keep in mind that paper targets tend to be less resilient than a human body, though one of these weapons will cause a lot of bruising, break bones, and you’ve got the possibility of secondary damage if you can throw them into a wall.’

  ‘O-okay.’

  ‘Extra points if you can push them off a cliff!’ Kaya lifted her eyes from the sights and turned her head to look at Jinny who was grinning like a madwoman. ‘What? Too much?’

  ~~~

  Kaya ambled into the lounge and glanced around in the hope of seeing Jay, but he was in his cabin or somewhere else on the ship. Not where she wanted him to be… Or maybe him not being there was a good thing since she felt a lot like she had just gone ten rounds with a heavyweight boxer in powered armour.

  ‘You look tired.’ Thea’s voice came from behind her and Kaya turned around. ‘You look like someone kept you up long past your bedtime.’

  ‘How could you tell before you saw my face?’ Kaya asked. ‘I didn’t know you could detect fatigue.’

  ‘With psi? I can’t. By looking at the slumped shoulders, slight stumble to your walk, and the way you’re standing there like your spine was put together by a blind monkey… From that, I can infer fatigue. Sienna’s walls again?’

  ‘Well, Jinny made me empty the power pack on that rifle. Then Geogracus had me studying biology texts and running a biokinetic scan on Sienna. Then Sienna had me, yes, imagining walls again, followed by mazes. Have you ever tried to imagine a maze in your head?’

  Thea smirked. ‘Yes, actually I have. If you can set it up right, you can use it to trap someone’s mind if they attack you. It’s not something I use much, or at all really, but I was taught to do it.’

  ‘Oh, yeah, I guess you would’ve… Uh… Anyway, I think I need some coffee. And maybe a coffee. With a coffee chaser, and–’

  ‘Why not go lie down instead. We won’t be doing anything for several hours. I’ll take you down to Portishead later and we’ll see what we can pick up on the local chatter networks.’

/>   Kaya opened her mouth to argue, and yawned. ‘Okay… Okay, I’ll close my eyes for an hour.’ She really wanted to talk to Jay about that kiss, but… ‘Maybe two hours. I’ll see you later.’

  ‘Sleep well, Kaya,’ Thea said, and she watched the smaller girl walk into her cabin before turning to leave.

  Portishead, Teladish Prime.

  Jay stalked through the streets of Portishead with a purpose, face hidden behind a filter mask, as were the faces of more or less everyone he walked past. He had people to see, when he could find them, so he kept moving, head down.

  Portishead was another town familiar to those who travelled between worlds, like Down City on Abertine. The people did not nose into other people’s business, unless there was a profit in it, and most carried weapons in case their business looked likely to result in profit for someone else. No one really looked at anyone else, especially when the other people were in the uniforms of Ishara Safety and Security who were known to hit you with a shock baton first and then throw you in a cell for three days before asking questions. Yes, most people carried a weapon, but they also would refrain from using it unless the circumstances were dire.

  On Abertine, many of the Down City buildings had simple double-door entrances to keep the cold out. In Portishead, the buildings had double doors and positive air pressure, and it was a lot more important that the system worked. Keeping the tainted atmosphere out of the buildings was almost impossible, but making sure the contamination stayed within acceptable limits was, and everyone preferred it that way; trying to drink through a filter mask was just no fun at all.

  Jay waited until he was through the lock on the Great Horn Bar before moving his mask to hang around his neck and looking around. The usual collection of middle-income natives and outsiders, plus a collection of richer Teladishi slumming it. It was because of the latter that he was going to find Bennina Markif here, and it was Bennina he was here to see.

  He spotted her leaning against the bar, appraising the potential customers; a tall, slim woman with breasts large enough to draw attention in more or less any company, but here, with them crammed into a low-cut, split-sided gown, she got all the attention she wanted and more. Her blonde hair fell as a cloud down to her shoulders, her legs were long and accentuated by outrageously high heels, and she was, especially by the standards of Portishead’s professional hostesses, a very attractive woman. Jay was not there for her body, however.

  ‘Benni,’ Jay said as he stepped up to lean on the bar beside her and signalled the bartender. ‘How’s things?’

  Bennina looked at Jay, pursing her lips. ‘Jay… Haven’t seen you on Teladish for a while.’ She had a good voice to go with the body: soft, sultry, cultivated. Her somewhat angular features and exaggerated bust gave her the look of an animated character brought to life by a sex-starved artist. Jay happened to know that the features were sculpted and, while her breasts were actually natural, she had had structural work done on her spine and legs to let her function in Teladish’s high gravity and while constantly in high heels.

  ‘Well, business, you know how it goes. Are you still Garaka’s favourite off-base shlooka?’

  Her angled, bright-blue eyes narrowed. ‘He comes to see me when he feels like it, sure.’

  ‘Good. Let me buy you a drink and maybe we can go someplace private and discuss his recent visits.’

  ‘You got the cash, I’ve got the time. Whether we talk about Garaka or not… That’s going to depend.’

  Jay smiled. ‘Pretty sure I can convince you, Benni. One way or another.’

  ~~~

  Kaya looked out on the streets of Portishead through the visor of her mask and decided that she preferred the cold of Down City. It was not helping that she was overheating. Jeans, T-shirt, and a jacket had seemed like a good idea to keep as much of the atmosphere off her skin as possible, but it was around three hundred and six kelvin on the streets and there was sweat beading under the seals of her mask and right down her back. She was really going to need a shower when she got back to the ship.

  More annoying was the fact that she had slept a full six hours, and Cassandra had let her sleep that long, and Jay had gone down to the planet an hour before Kaya had woken up. She felt like he was avoiding her and that Cassandra, and maybe Thea too, was conspiring to help him. That was silly. Why would she?

  Thea headed into a bar and Kaya followed, wondering what kind of hole it was going to be. They went through one door and Kaya felt an outward breeze blow at her hair as they stepped into an entry vestibule. When the outer door was closed, Thea opened the inner one and stepped through, removing her mask as she went. Kaya followed suit, thankful to get the sweaty thing off her face.

  ‘Better,’ Thea said. ‘Come on, we’ll get a drink and watch the locals.’

  The locals, it seemed, were not entirely local. The bar was not as rough as most of the ones Kaya had been in in Down City and its occupants seemed moderately well-off. They were also dressed in a variety of fashions while the locals seemed to prefer loose-fitting clothes in various shades of brown. Or maybe the atmosphere just turned everything brown given enough exposure.

  Sitting at a table with a couple of beers, Thea’s eyes scanned the room. ‘Lot of mercs come in here,’ she said. ‘They’re off-duty, so they’re not in uniform, but you can spot them.’

  Kaya scanned the room and came up with nothing significant. If there were mercenaries here, they looked the same as the other people. ‘How?’

  ‘Hmm. Well, see the woman at the bar? Brown hair, tall, dressed in red and black?’ Kaya nodded. ‘The tattoos on her right cheek mark off the number of times she’s killed in combat. There’s a grey-haired man three tables in front of us. He’s ex-military just from the way he sits, like someone stuffed a pole up his ass. There’s a laser-burn scar over his right eye that’s too recent for a man his age to have got it in military service. I’d say he was a marine, got into the mercenary business after because he didn’t know anything else.’

  ‘Wishes he did,’ Kaya said, looking at the grizzled man Thea was describing. He looked tired, worn, and his dark eyes were dead. ‘He’s alone, but he comes here so he can pretend to have a life.’

  ‘That too.’ Thea smiled. ‘People give away a lot about themselves without realising it. I think you’re good at picking up on it. You should learn to trust your instincts more.’

  ‘I don’t… I’m not sure my instincts are that great.’

  ‘Oh? Want to talk about it?’

  Kaya frowned. ‘Nothing to talk about. I just don’t think I’m that good at figuring people out.’

  ‘Hmm. The man who just walked in. What do you make of him?’

  The man standing at the door while he removed his mask was big, tall and muscular, and dressed in a black tank top and dark camo pants tucked into high, military boots. There was a tattoo on his right shoulder, some sort of sword-and-shield design, and there was a long, heavy knife lashed to his right thigh. When he walked toward the bar, it was more of a swagger and his face looked like it had been in a few fights. But…

  ‘He’s no mercenary,’ Kaya said. ‘He wants to be, I think. He’s all confidence, dresses the part, but then none of the others are dressing the part. And they’re all carrying pistols while he’s got that knife. I mean, you’ve got knives, but his looks like it was meant for show, not use. And if he was as good at fighting as he is swaggering, his nose would be the right shape.’ Thea smiled and said nothing, and Kaya cracked after a minute of silence. ‘So, was I right or not?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Thea said, ‘but that’s more or less what I thought when he came in. Comparing and contrasting, he has confidence and lacks ability, while you have the abilities…’

  ‘So, you’re saying I should get my act together and start swaggering around like that guy?’

  Thea furrowed her brow and pursed her lips, and then shook her head. ‘I’d suggest more strutting than swaggering. I’m built more for swaggering than you are and I prefe
r a good, firm strut. However, it’s even better, under most circumstances, to aim for quiet confidence. Out on the street around here, you keep your back straight and pretend everyone else should be kissing your boots. Good advice for any spaceport town. Act like you’re the baddest bitch on the block, even if you’re not. Otherwise, know you’re good, but let everyone else think you’re ordinary.’

  Kaya smirked. ‘You never look like you’re ordinary.’

  ‘Why, thank you. Of course, that’s because I’m not. I am the baddest bitch on the block.’

  ‘No question about that,’ Kaya agreed. ‘Now I just have to work on believing I’m the second baddest.’

  59/1/483.

  They had moved bars five times and heard a lot of chatter, none of which Kaya thought sounded interesting. Thea had not commented; she watched and listened, but she never said anything, and Kaya had no way of knowing whether Thea was using her telepathy to gather more information.

  When they walked into the sixth bar, a far more downmarket place than their first with half-naked waiting staff, Kaya spotted Jay near the back of the room. Thea had apparently seen him too, because she took Kaya’s arm and steered her toward a table well away from Jay’s.

  He’s talking to someone, Thea said into Kaya’s mind. He saw us. If he can, he’ll come to us when he’s done.

  A waiter wearing tight, black slacks and a leather collar, no shirt, walked over to their table, squashing the bored expression he had been wearing and replacing it with a smile. It looked like it was an effort. ‘I’m Pari,’ he said. ‘What can I get you?’

  ‘Two glasses of white wine,’ Thea said, smiling back. ‘And keep up the eye candy.’

  Pari’s smile switched from general customer-greeting mode to something more playful. ‘Of course.’ And he turned to strut back toward the bar with his behind swinging to draw the eyes.

  ‘Don’t drink the wine,’ Thea said quietly. ‘It’ll be over-expensive and taste like something with a busted liver urinated it last night.’