[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

helped me gather up my gear with the other three. Along with never ignoring a cry for help
the Sylebine loved a good sob story, but I feared my real one might make him nervous. So I
weaved a tale about this station being a listening post, manned single handed on rotation. But
my relief hadn't come, and with all these terrible rumours I heard on the broadcasts...
"I understand," said my new friend, sympathy in his large golden coloured eyes as he
helped me load my gear and offerings onto his ship. He smiled through a face of soft blue-
grey fur. "I am pleased to help. And to have a companion, or it would be a long and lonely
trip to Olojimi."
"Oh, you're going to Hollow Jimmy?" I couldn't keep the grin off my face. Perfect,
just perfect.
****
So I set off for Hollow Jimmy with a Sylebine, whose name I couldn't pronounce. He
said most of his people couldn't pronounce it either and that his friends just called him Ik.
Although it was small, I found his ship fairly comfortable. The grav field was weaker than
earth normal, which made me worry about my muscles wasting. I'd have to keep up a strict
exercise regime.
Ik made a pleasant companion, chatty, funny, and full of stories about his travels. I
taught him to play cards and soon felt glad we played only for fun and not money. I should
have known a salesman would have a good poker face.
It took us three weeks to get to Olojimi. We had a couple of stops on the way, on
planets and stations where Ik had sales meetings. Several times I went with him. I thought
only to help out by carrying his sample cases for him, but he said later that my presence
meant he could go to some places he might have been afraid to go without my protection.
"I'm not a good choice of bodyguard, Ik." I said to him, when he told me this while
we sat in a café after one such meeting.
"But you humans are so famous for being tough," he said, frowning, seemed slightly
puzzled by my attitude. "Isn't it true what they say? That on Earth everyone is a soldier?"
"Not quite," I said, thinking of Ilyan. "Not quite everyone."
****
The closer we got to Hollow Jimmy the more I started to think and plan, and the more
I started to brood. Ik noticed it of course. At first, I'd made an effort to enjoy myself with
him, to forget the empty sky, even briefly. But it became too hard and my grief and pain were
impossible to conceal. Poor Ik did his best to deal with it. More than once, I woke screaming
from a nightmare to find him stroking my hair and singing some soothing tune he admitted
parents crooned to their children back home on Sylebine.
When we reached Olojimi, nearly a month after he picked me up, having to say
goodbye to him made me sorry.
"Jadeth," he said to me, as I packed my gear. "Things are about to go very badly for
your people."
"I know." I checked the pistol I'd bought one on of our stops and put it into a holster
on my hip. Ik looked at it worried. He didn't like weapons much.
"You are sad, Sergeant Jadeth, I know this." I looked up into his golden eyes, thought
they seemed sad too. "You are looking for something. I wish I could help you find what you
look for."
"You have helped me, Ik," I said, straightening up and put on a long dark grey coat I'd
found in the prison. I'd had to patch a bullet hole in the back of it.
"You can work for me, if you want, Jadeth," Ik said, as I heaved my pack onto my
shoulders. "You have seen that sometimes I go with my money to dangerous places and I
need a bodyguard--"
"No!" I snapped, and then bit my lip. I can't do that job again. Can't let someone trust
me to protect him. I'd let Ik down, just as I'd let Ilyan down. "Sorry, Ik, but no. Thank you for
the offer, but I'm afraid I have something important I must do." I held out my hand to him. He
understood the gesture and took my hand. His soft and silky fur tickled my palm. "Goodbye,
Ik. Good health and goodwill."
He nodded his head, a back and forth rather than up and down motion, that made the
light glint off his fur.
"Good luck to you, Jadeth. Good health and goodwill."
I marched away. Good health I had; I'd never been fitter, but goodwill I had only a
very small supply of.
****
Hollow Jimmy had changed. It always used to be full of human soldiers on leave,
looking for fun. But now only the civilian humans that lived on the station and a small
number of soldiers remained, the soldiers waiting for transport home. They were tense and
quiet and wore "kill you if you look at me funny" expressions on their faces.
I made the bank my first stop. All my money Maiga had salted away into secret
accounts was still accessible--Military Intelligence hadn't found it yet. I soon had it all in
good, hard cash. Then I took a taxi to a coffee shop and on the way told the taxi driver I was a
man in the market for some very hard to obtain information and could pay well for it. I sat at
a table outside the coffee shop and waited.
An hours and two cups of coffee later, a woman sat down at my table. I eyed her
suspiciously. She wore her greying hair cropped short, like many women soldiers, but looked
past military age. She could be intelligence of course, but so could any body around here.
"Morning," she said, stirring an espresso she had brought with her to the table. "What
do you need?"
"Your name for a start," I said.
"Oh, you think my name is useful information to you, do you?"
Oh great, one of those conversations. Like talking to Esha, only even more fun.
"Are you any good?" I asked.
She sat back, looking smug, crossed her legs and brushed some imaginary dust off the
knee of her dark grey pants.
"You tell me, Jadeth."
I gasped and stared at her. She must be military intelligence. My hand reached
instinctively for my pistol.
"Oh, keep your knickers on, Sergeant, I'm not a spook." She sipped her espresso and
put the cup back down. "Any more."
I relaxed a tiny bit. She probably already knew what I wanted. But I got out my
snapper and she took out hers and let me send across all the information I had on Tesla.
"Tell me where this man is."
"Ah, Tesla, ex-intelligence analyst, fugitive." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]