Episode Sixty-One, in which the Captain goes into the drink and Basto goes dark

“Hare,” Ship said. “I know where Johnny and the others are going. They’re heading directly for the place where Louis took Bael, and they’re closing fast.”

“Elibel, Rosalind, you’re coming with me. Elibel, start dumping data into Kli’s table, and into mine. Basto, stay here with Kli and watch everyone. Keep a special eye on the pods, and on Linda. Sorry, Linda, you are correct; we are not family, and I do not trust you. Kli, you know what you need to do. Any questions?”

“I’d rather…,” Rosalind said.

“I know, but I need you with me. You know more about Johnny and Melissa Bean than anyone here, and don’t forget; you’re in this for the lucre. Get ready to go.”

“Hare,” Kli said, “Bael and Kral are on the move.”

“IgrabbedBael.Weareonthestreetonfoot.”

“How is she? And where is Louis?”

“Patchedmostly.NoideaaboutLouis.”

“Coming to get you.”

I motioned Elibel and Rosalind though the break in the wall. We ran out into the night and up the alley and made for the screens. I could see that the flyers were still there.

“The flyers, Kli?”

“No sign of any locks, tracks, traces, sims. That’s not to say that there are none. If they exist, they’re good.”

We climbed to the larger of the two craft. No sign of enforcers or anyone else. I brought the flyer out from its hiding place and made for the shore, skimming just above the buildings. Dawn was coming, and Forest’s star was beginning to climb from the sea. The heavy gray clouds were showing outlines of pink, and a dash of orange had formed just above the water. It was quiet. In these moments before dawn, the city was remarkably free of the teeming throngs and the near-constant flyer traffic.

“Elibel, what do you think the figurines are? Are they just tokens on membership? Linda says that’s what they are, but I’m not sure that….”

“I know what they are,” Rosalind said.

“Yea?” We could see the coast, where the lights of the city stopped in a rough line. We were getting closer.

“It goes back to when Johnny was traveling with his tutors. They spent a cycle among the refugees on Banyan’s Hell, not long before they headed to Trinn. The tutors wanted to expose Johnny to the action gangs there.”

“Louis was there; so were we.”

“So was I,” she said. “Though I don’t recall you. I lied back there. I told you that Melissa introduced me to Johnny. It’s the story I’ve been telling; I almost believe it myself.”

“But…?”

“I actually met Johnny when we were much younger, on Banyan’s, well after I left Melissa’s school. She doesn’t know.”

“You were in with the action gangs?”

“Of course. They were the only game in town. We were….”

“Hold that thought. We’re over Bael and Kral. Ship?”

“I have them too. Johnny and Melissa are close. It looks like they’ve connected with a flyer and are lifting off. Move quick, Hare.”

I brought the flyer down to street level. Enhancements were no longer needed to make out the details of the street; I could see Kral in a dark doorway, holding Bael as if she were an injured fawn. She seemed barely conscious.

“Quick. Get in.”

Kral almost dragged Bael into the flyer. I brought the lid down as we were lifting.

“She’sallrightIthink.

“ThehealerwasalmostfinishedwhenIpulledheroutofthere.”

Keeping half an eye on the streetscape unfolding before us, I made a quick check on Bael. Her breathing and heart were both strong; the seared skin had been replaced. But she was definitely weak.

“How are you?”

“I’m all right, Hare. Louis’s healer was excellent, and Kral’s a wonderful nurse-protector. I just want to rest.”

“I was completely scared when I saw you. I thought they’d….”

“They didn’t, love. I’m going to rest now.”

Love. I pointed the flyer out across the flats.

“Hare. Johnny apparently has a lock on you, and he’s close, very close.”

“I see him.” The other flyer was fast. It was sending out flash bursts, though they could have been fired by a child; they were wild and wide, going off in all directions. I needed to get back to grab Linda, Kli, and Basto. But maybe this would be another opportunity. I headed to the water.

“Something weird is happening on Johnny’s flyer,” Ship said. “My probes show that Johnny’s adrenalin is high; his heart is pumping. Melissa seems to be unconscious.” I brought a magnification of the other flyer up in front of my left eye. As I watched, the flyer’s side vaporized. It began to move erratically.

A voice came on the comm. “This is Captain O’Flaherty. I have taken control of this craft, such as it is. We will ditch in the sea in fifteen seconds. Assistance requested.”

“Captain, are you on this channel?”

“Yea, Trieste.”

“I’m on top of you. I’ll fish you out as soon as you’re down.”

“Johnny’s mine.”

“Until we get this all straightened out, no. But later, you can have him, as long as I get a say in what happens to him afterwards.”

“A say, and nothing more. Agreed.”

It was pretty simple. She brought the flyer down, then canted it on its intact side, so it would float, but barely. We fished them out of the foundering craft. Bean was indeed unconscious, while Johnny was trussed and listless, as though drunk. Thick red welts ran along the side of his head. They looked painful.

“What happened back there?” I asked the Captain. I brought the flyer up and we headed for the Trinn’s house. “How did they get away?”

“Simple. One of the monkey crowd was on fast forward, and during the initial chaos dashed over to cut the constraints, both the cords and the power constraints. When the moment was right, Johnny grabbed me and we were out through the break.”

“This could be a set-up….”

“It’s not. I also waited until the moment was right. They were careless, relaxed my freeze. As I said, my plant is second to none.”

“Hare,” Kli said, “we’re under attack. I’m out of here.”

“Kli? Basto?”

“Sorry, Hare. No warning,” Ship said. “Two flyers suddenly moved into position over the house and have flooded the break.”

“What are you seeing?”

“They’re removing the pods now, and a few of the fighters. They have Linda. The others…they’re just burning…no sign of Kindness. I think Kli got away.”

“I did. I’m on the street, looking for a place to hide.”

“We’re on our way and tracking you.”

“Not for long. I’m about to obfuscate. I’ve got you. I’ll let you know when you’re close.”

“Basto?”

Nothing.

“The flyers are pulling away, Hare,” Ship said. “The house looks empty. I detect no residual tracking.”

We found Kli readily enough, or more accurately, he found us. We checked and double checked the Kindness house and saw nothing, so I dropped the flyer to the break. I told everyone to stay put, and the Captain and I went inside. It wasn’t pretty.

The room was littered with bodies, mostly the Captain’s and Linda’s people. Some had been burned; others had been hit with precision cuts. All were dead. A couple were the monkey’s fighters, but most of those were gone. As were the three pods and Linda.

“Linda, I know this is one of your channels. Can you connect?”

Silence.

The Captain moved slowly through the room, looking incongruous in the rumpled tatters of her dress. She stopped, and her tall frame folded beside on of the bodies. It was man with the burner.

“Oh, Lieutenant Gora,” she said. “Oh, Bory.” Her voice quavered. She took a medallion from around the man’s neck, paused for a moment, and kissed his forehead. Then she stood.

“Where is your Basto?” she asked.

We scanned the room and finally found him, lying beneath one of the Captain’s fighters, or what remained of her. His frame was inert, but mostly intact. A precision cut had disabled his processor, but I figured that he could be reconstituted…until I saw how the cut had severed one of the core nodes. His identity was intact but locked. It was true that an AI could be reconstituted, in the right lab with an ID imprint. We had neither. And the Rollot pattern I’d used back in the shed had meant that any ID imprint we could find wouldn’t match anyway. The shutdown lock only complicated matters.

“Kli, come in. I’m going to need your help.”

Kli appeared in the gap, bowled over by Rosalind, who pretty much leaped over him. She saw us and ran across the room, screaming. She fell on Basto, sobbing as she cradled his head, her thick gray hair falling across his shoulders. She knew enough about AIs to understand the trouble he was in.

“I think I can save him,” I said.

To Be Continued

Episode Sixty, in which Kral makes scents and Johnny takes a powder

With a flash, one wall of the room dissolved, and a rush of cold, wet, night air filled the room. The break was filled with more black-clad fighters, followed by three huge gold monkeys. The fighters all had big flashguns, and as they leaped into the room, they began firing. I fell behind one of the couches, and as I did, I could see that a flash burst had seared Bael’s side.

I pulled her to the floor and behind the couch, though that would provide scant protection. I checked her wound. The flash burst had been narrow and would have gone deep, had it been a bit closer. But as it was, it had seared the skin along her waist. Linda’s people were shooting above us; I couldn’t see anyone else.

I knew that Bael was in pain; her plant would be creating blockers, and she was fading to unconsciousness. I pulled a heal-all from my pouch, drew back charred fabric from around the wound, and applied the heal-all. It morphed to take the shape of the burn and seemed to disappear in the burned skin.

Flash bursts were all around us. The couch to my front burst into flames. Then I smelled something. It wasn’t one smell, but a series of them, rapidly changing. Most of them were revolting, so powerfully affecting that I began to retch. My stomach felt as though it was about to come up my throat, and my eyes began to water. I didn’t have alternative air, so I blocked my reactions to the smells as well as I could. Even then, the nausea was overpowering. My whole face felt as though it was burning. I pulled Bael back from the burning couch, then peered around it.

The bursts had ceased. All of the fighters were in chaos, reeling from the nausea, their weapons forgotten. A few had some form of alternative air but hadn’t bothered to set it in place, and now they were having trouble activating it. Most stood doubled over, ready to vomit but unable to do so. The three giant monkeys stood in the middle, apparently unaffected by the onslaught, but not sure what to do. I saw Kral standing nearby, holding the lifeless Willi. Basto seemed unaffected; he’d grabbed one flashguns and was spinning around, looking for something to shoot. But there wasn’t anything.

“That’s you, Kral?”

“Yea.ButIcan’tgettherightmixforthemonkeys.”

“There may not be one. I think they’re organic simulations of some sort, shells for the walking sticks. Whatever the monkeys smell, the walking sticks are unaffected.”

“Here.”

The shroll tore a piece of fabric from Willi’s gown, wadded it and threw it to me.

“Holdthistoyourface.”

The cloth smelled heavily of old terrestrial flowers, lavendar at one moment, honeysuckle the next. It countered the other smells. I grabbed a flash from one of the Captain’s fighters. He was leaning on a wall, looking like he was about to collapse. Bael was as safe as she could be for the moment, and the burning couch had begun to extinguish itself. I sent a burst at the foot of one of the monkeys’ foot. The creature jumped, but remained standing. I kept sending out bursts as I moved closer, holding the cloth up to my face. The monkeys kept moving, seemingly dancing in a wild, leaping frolic, reflexively jumping with each burst.

As I got close, I pulled out my last sticky net. I’d used it on one monkey before; I hoped now that it would hold three. I threw the net and guided it down on their heads, and then contracted it around their necks. I had no idea whether or not monkey-form walking-stick surrogates actually had breathing tubes, or even lungs, though I figured that they did. All of Walking Stick’s monkey functions had apparently been operational. The net seemed to be slowing them down. I brought the flash to a narrow beam and proceeded to cut off their legs.

They didn’t seem to be feeling pain. The legs fell away, and the monkeys tumbled to the floor. I picked up one of the legs; it seemed to be an inert energy foam, lifeless now without the connection to the rest of the monkey simulation. Whatever blood had been released, it was rapidly evaporating. I tightened the net further, pulled out a knife and began to cut away the monkey fur. Inside was a small hard pod; I suspected that it contained one of our stick-thin friends. I looked for Basto; he was kneeling over Rosalind, holding one of Kral’s scented rags up to her face.

“Basto! Watch these little pod guys, will you?”

“Ship, where are you?”

“I receded, Hare, when the flaming started. Sorry, but Willi’s not a good avatar for fighting. I’ve been breaking the barnacles’ hold on Largo.”

“That’s all right; it was a good decision. We need to get Bael to a healer. Can you send down a lighter?”

“No need, cousin. I’m on my way.”

“Louis! Where in the name of Tio Burnside have you been?”

“Taking care of business, cousin. You been busy, mon?”

“You’ve been following?”

“Yea. Looks like it’s getting a wee crowded in there.”

“How soon can you be here?”

“I’m dropping over your location now. Getting inside won’t be a problem, of course.”

A small flyer I hadn’t seen before hovered outside the break in the wall. The lid raised and a grinning Louis leaped out.

“I need to talk with you, Louis. I have a lot of questions.”

“In good time, cousin. Where is Bael?”

I was reluctant to send her off with him alone. I checked on her. The heal-all had done its work; her breathing and heart rate were strong and regular. She wasn’t in shock, and the damage seemed limited.

“Kral, can you go with Louis and Bael?”

“Yea.KnowthatI’mdepleted.Allthesesmellsarehardwork.

“Butit’sagoodidea.Youneedtoconstrainpeoplehere.”

“I’m doing that now.” I made the rounds, giving sopors to the guards as Kral carried Bael to the flyer. The three of them disappeared, and I continued around the room. I saw Elibel lying on the floor, breathing through one of Kral’s rags. When I got to Linda, she was sitting on the floor, holding her stomach and gagging. I gave her a rag and put livewire around her ankles and wrists.

“I’m sorry, Linda. I really am. I feel like we’re almost family.”

She took a deep breath through the rag. Her voice was raspy, and she coughed as she spoke. “You’re a little presumptuous, aren’t you? Do you really think she’ll settle in with you, a disenfranchised wanderer? Damn, son, you don’t even have home status. Anywhere. I checked. How is she?”

“I think she’ll be all right. But I’m getting her to a healer. Are you in league with the monkeys? Is Johnny?”

“No for me. From what I can see, they’re evil and stupid. Not my general cohort, son. For Johnny, I can’t say. But Melissa’s most likely up to her neck in monkey scat, and I know that she and Johnny have worked together…where are they?”

I stood and whirled around. The couch where Johnny and Melissa had been sprawled was empty. And the frozen statue of Captain Flaherty was gone as well. Basto was still across the room, focused on the walking sticks. Everyone else was either knocked out or getting over Kral’s onslaught.

“Ship, your probes?”

“I made sure that both Johnny and Melissa would be saturated. Even if they discover my little friends, they won’t find all of them.”

“What do you see?”

“They’re on the street with the Captain, heading toward the water. It’s hard to tell who’s in charge.”

“Keep watching. They may be more valuable to us this way.”

I went over to Elibel. “Do you have the figure?”

Kral’s smells had mostly dissipated, and Elibel was gulping in air. She smiled weakly and pulled the little sculpture from a pouch.

“They took the fake, as you thought they would.”

“Yea, but I hadn’t planned on having them leave so soon. Let me see it.”

She held up the figure. It was heavy for what it was, like the one I’d found in the snow on Ginga. Something I hadn’t noticed before was a small hole in the back of the head. I had no idea what it was for.

“What do you have there?” Linda asked. “Is that a…? Where did you get it?”

“It’s Johnny’s,” I said. “And if you are closer to him than you let on, don’t bother trying to use your plant; that’s blocked.”

Kli sat up from where he’d been lying on the floor. “Merigana! That shroll is potent, if nothing else. I felt like I’d fallen into a pit full of, well, you don’t want to know.”

“Time to get back to work, my friend,” I said. “Johnny’s on the move, and we need data. I need a dump of what you discovered about Johnny; everything. And: What are the enforcers up to? Where are they concentrating? Does anyone have a scan on the flyers behind the screens? Probabilities of Johnny’s destination. More background on the monkeys. Whether or not Johnny’s disappearance brought Breslaft into view. How the monkeys found us. And you need to access Elibel’s….”

“Whoa,” he said, shakily getting to his feet. “That’s enough for now. Can I get some bug juice?”

“Of course.” The voice was small and a little shaky, coming from behind some of the furniture. ” I have been a bad host,” the old Trinn said, steadying himself against the back of the couch. “I think we all need a bit of a tonic.” He looked around, surveying the flash cuts, the burnt couch, and the prone fighters scattered around the room. Then I could hear him making for the front of his house.

“Kral,” I said. “Report?”

“Louishastakenustoahealernearthewater.

“She’swithBaelnow.”

“Hare,” Ship said. “I know where Johnny and the others are going. They’re heading directly for the place where Louis took Bael, and they’re closing fast.”

To Be Continued