LINKS
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The Christa Affair
Chapter Thirty-Seven
"Look, you repulsive offspring of a Genthan Water-Mutant!" Jashi slammed his fist to the thick surface of the wooden desk as he sprang from his chair in anger. "I know more about this slim-pit of a world than I \ever\ wanted to know! I know about the Raiders; I know about Katya's kidnapping; I know about the alien ship and the disappearance of Christa; and I know that your phony-god of a brother has been off-planet the whole time you've been playing games with me. You slipped me a ringer, you bastard! And while we were under pact!" Jashi held his breath, his cane pointing straight at DeCarlo's chest to add effect to his tirade; if his guess about Licti was wrong, he had just made a major blunder.
For the second time in their short acquaintance, DeCarlo crumbled before his eyes, and Jashi knew they'd guessed correctly. "My brother?" His voice squeaked; the words stuck in his throat. The Squire's face drained of color, and his breath came in short explosions; his eyes filled with the fear of a hunted animal, darting about the room from one of his antagonists to another. He was armed, but he made no move for his holstered weapon. "What do you want?" he gasped.
"The real thing, for starters!" Jashi growled, waving his swagger-stick under DeCarlo's nose as he stepped closer to the desk. "I want the real Princess Katya, not her personal attendant."
"I never said she was..." his objection was cut short by the metal tip of Jashi's cane pressing against his throat. "Okay!" he croaked. "Okay! Take her! But get outta here before \Doyenne\ returns, please!"
"When?" demanded Jashi, jabbing again with the cane.
"Noon... Two days." They had even been right about the time.
"What about the I-26?"
DeCarlo moaned. "I can't," he whimpered. "\Doyenne\ will kill me! Please... I beg of you!"
"Twenty cubits!" Jashi refused to let up. "And the servants for Katya that I asked for too."
It was too much. Trapped between his fear of his brother and Jashi's impossible demands, DeCarlo snapped. "Com p'w-itzss!" he spat contemptuously, reverting to the Bardarani expression -- probably the vilest word he knew. His right hand started toward his face.
Dropping the cane, Jashi leaped across the desk, clasping DeCarlo's wrist and driving his hand away from his mouth. The oversized chair toppled over backwards, taking them both with it; the crash was deafening.
(.... "Watch the door, Karli!....") Jashi ordered as he struggled to keep DeCarlo from taking the poison. The Squire was larger and heavier, but soft living had taken its toll on his body. Jashi managed to get a knee into the other's groin, and the capsule popped free of DeCarlo's clinched fist; his breath whistled between clenched teeth. Jashi released his hold on the larger man and rolled free. Roi clipped DeCarlo neatly behind the left ear with the edge of his hand as tried to stand.
Cat-like, Jashi regained his feet at the end of the roll, his back against the wall. He surveyed the room, needlegun drawn from the shoulder holster tastefully concealed beneath the coat of his freetrader dress-blues. There was no alarm -- no pounding feet sounded in the hallway outside. "Lock it!" he ordered; nearest the door, Rang complied.
There was a second door in the room, behind the massive desk, and someone began pounding on it. The five crew-members froze at the sudden interruption of the silence. The pounding continued, and someone fumbled with the latch. (.... "Could be a diversion, Karli! You and Rang cover the other one....") Without thinking, they had all turned toward the unexpected commotion.
"Dammit, Juan! I'm tired of waiting on you!" The voice was female, faint thru the massive wooden door, but obviously angry. "Unlock this goddamn door right now, or I'll torch it!" Jashi's heart sank.
(.... "Karli?"....")
Karli crossed to the door, leaving Rang to guard the hallway entrance alone. "Hey, bitch!" she shouted rudely. "He's busy. Go away!"
It was the wrong thing to do. The shriek from beyond the door was unintelligible, but there was no mistaking the tone. Rang dived for cover behind the desk as an energy bolt sliced thru the door, expending the last of itself in setting the beautiful piece of furniture on fire; Karli tingled from the corona discharge as the beam passed just inches in front of her belt buckle. She recovered her wits and dropped to the floor, rolling clear as a second charge melted the ornate door latch. (.... !!! .... "I \told\ you!....")
The door burst open. "I'll kill her! And you, you bastard!" The words choked off abruptly as the intruder spotted DeCarlo on the floor. It was a Bardarani female, a weapon in each hand; unexpectedly finding herself in a room full of armed strangers, she couldn't make up her mind where to point either of them. Rang had found Jashi's cane where it rolled under the desk, and she was covered from every side. Her tail twitching in frustration, she raised her hands above her head; the weapons clattered to the polished wood floor.
Jashi and Roi swept thru the door into the room beyond, leaving the others to guard their newly-acquired prisoner and the locked door to the hallway. They found themselves in an ornate bedroom, lavishly decorated, with a video projector covering one wall; shadowy figures chased one another across the screen in an alien mating ritual. The room was empty, the door to the hallway beyond locked. Leaving Roi to do a detailed search, Jashi returned to DeCarlo's office.
"Now what, Jash?" asked his brother as he entered. Rang was carefully extinguishing the last of the fire; DeCarlo had regained consciousness and was making a rather shaky attempt to sit up.
"Knock em out, Suu. We're taking both of them with us." He rummaged thru a closet in the corner, extracted two dufflebags of the sort used by spacers on shore-leave. "Put em in these."
DeCarlo seemed relieved at the prospect of no longer having to deal with the current situation. He accepted the hypospray without resistance and sank tiredly to the floor even before it took effect; the Bardarani was another matter. She hissed and growled, cursing softly in her native tongue, and in spite of the weapons trained on her, began to back away as Suu approached. The fear in her hooded eyes was unmistakable.
"Wait a minute, Suu." Jashi gestured with his free left hand as he spoke. "What's in that?"
"Bardaran Quick-Sleep. She won't be harmed." The common knockout drug -- formulated by the Bardarani themselves -- was relatively safe for use on most humanoid species. Suu was close to the alien female.
"Fool! You think I fear death?" the Bardarani hissed scathingly. "Better that by far, than to fall into the hands of a filthy Human! You will have to kill me." Suu hadn't thought she was that close -- neither had Jashi. The end of the alien creature's tail caught her squarely across the side of her head.
The hypospray crashed against the wall, discharged, and flew jet-propelled across the room to explode against the far wall. Suu was hurled backwards by the force of the blow, a deep gash below her right eye bleeding profusely; her momentum was arrested by the corner of the desk and she somersaulted backwards across it and onto Rang.
Jashi resisted the impulse to shoot as the Bardarani turned to face him. "Rang! Now!" he yelled. Rang was scrambling for the cane containing the concealed tranquilizer gun; Suu's unexpected arrival had knocked it from his grasp. The Bardarani charged, claws extended, eyes covered by their protective transparent lid. Two hundred standard mass-units of alien female fury bore down on him, and still Jashi held his fire. At the last moment he stepped clear; the wall behind him shook as the Bardarani crashed heavily into it, unable to arrest her headlong rush.
The anticipated hiatus in the hostilities never materialized; undaunted by her violent collision with the thick wooden partition, the Bardarani charged again without pause. She was close, this time, and Jashi knew he would never avoid the deadly rush. Resignedly he squeezed the trigger of his weapon; a third eye appeared in the wrinkled alien forehead and she crashed to the floor at his feet. Jashi shrugged. "She \said\ I'd have to kill her."
Unbelievably, still no alarm had been raised. Had the thick walls and the noise of the drunken crowd down the hall drowned out the commotion in the room? Jashi was thankful for small favors -- no matter how incredible -- but he knew that every moment they remained, their luck stretched nearer the breaking point.
Roi had returned to the office during the scuffle. "Roi, hide that somewhere," Jashi ordered, gesturing at the dead Bardarani. "We'll go out that way," he added, indicating the bedroom exit. He rummaged thru the desk drawer and came up with a ring of keys.
With considerable effort, they got the unconscious DeCarlo into one of the dufflebags. They added a properly-adjusted grav-plate from the L'sa'rian manifest case brought along by Rang, and the heavy bundle floated a few inches above the floor, easily manageable by Roi; with the carry-strap slung over his shoulder, to a causal observer Roi would appear to be carrying it -- the weight wouldn't be obvious. Suu was in pain, but she could walk, with difficulty; Plastiskin had reduced the profuse flow of blood to a trickle. They stepped carefully into the empty hallway and Jashi locked the door behind them.
At the end of the passage, beyond another of the ever-present massive wooden doors, lay the tube-station, and -- Jashi hoped -- the Squire's private car. They were almost there when their luck ran out. "Hey! Where ya think yer goin?" demanded a drunken voice from behind them. "Stinky... Stinky! I think somebody's stealin yer stuff!" The drunk began pounding on the door nearest him. "Stinky! Pig-Mug! Somebody's making off with the stuff!" The pounding continued relentlessly.
They were at the door -- it was locked. Jashi fumbled with the ring of pilfered keys, trying one after another in sequence. The pounding behind them ceased as what was obviously Pig-Mug burst into the hall, knocking the drunk roughly aside.
Pig-Mug was Human -- titanic and stark naked; he carried an Uzi assault rifle. What's goin on here?" he roared. The hall behind him began to fill with curious patrons attracted by the noise; they followed as Pig-Mug lumbered down the hall, waving the Uzi over his head.
Jashi's hand shook as he tried the last key. It fit, and the lock turned. The hinges of the door squealed in protest as he forced it open; they found themselves staring into an overgrown deserted side-street, dimly illuminated by the lights of Extasy-Central reflected back from the overcast.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
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