[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.In places where it narrowed, she dropped behind me.In my youth, I wouldn’t have let someone follow where I couldn’t see them, but with all the sensors in my biomech, it made no difference; I knew what she was doing regardless of where she ran.In any case, I doubted she would attack.It wasn’t only my intuition about her, though that played a big part in my decision to trust her.When the knights asked me to train them, they acknowledged me as one of their circle.It was an odd choice, given that I no longer lived here.I wouldn’t have trusted an outsider.Then again, if I had thought someone could teach me tykado, I might have been willing to accept them on a limited basis.As we descended into the deeper levels, we lost the spillover of light from the lampposts in the upper canals.I switched on my stylus and the sphere of light moved with us as we ran.My companion kept up well, not at all out of breath.So I said, “Bhaaj” and hit the heel of my hand against my abdomen.“Bhaajan.”She nodded to me.After a moment, she repeated my gesture.“Pat Sandjan.”So.Daughter of the sand.It was an act of trust for her to say her name; we never revealed them to outsiders.She hesitated before she said Sandjan, which made me think it was a nickname.Maybe someday she would tell me if she had inherited a second name.I used only Bhaajan because I knew nothing about my parents or true kin.I’d never chosen a nickname, why I wasn’t sure, maybe because I wanted to be someone’s daughter even if I knew nothing else about the woman who died giving me birth.Pat and I weren’t alone.I caught rustles from the other side of the wall, hints of other runners.Every now and then I glimpsed one down in the canal or across on the other midwalk.They were training with us.We used to do that, me, Jak, Dig, and Gourd, jogging together.We hadn’t thought anything about it; we just liked to run.It was what gangs did.It wasn’t until I started winning marathons in the army that I realized what all that dashing about had done for me.So we continued, our feet pounding the ground.We soon turned into a narrow tunnel.A few more turns and we reached the Black Mark.Pat went ahead, around a corner of the building, which was a hexagon tonight.I wondered how Jak always managed to fold up and hide an entire building so fast.One of these days, I’d convince him to let me help so I could see how he achieved that feat.I stopped in front of the casino’s wall and peered at the points of light glittering within the black surface.They went too deep.The effect had to be holographic; those walls couldn’t really be several meters thick.“Heya, Bhaaj,” a man said, his voice like whiskey.I looked up to see Jak a few paces away.Pat had disappeared.“Heya,” I said.“Is Braze done?”“Yah.” He scowled.“She lost big.”“I thought you liked it when people lost big.”He shifted his feet like a runner impatient to take off.“Says she can’t pay.”I walked with him around the building, squeezing between the walls and the surrounding rock formations.A few meters ahead, a horizontal line of light appeared in the darkness.“Your casino has a leak,” I said.“It’s the VIP exit.” Jak stopped behind a rock column.“Private like.”Private, as in an exit for ISC officers who could be court-martialed if they were caught gambling.I joined him behind the column and switched off my stylus.The darkness became complete except for that glimmering line.With no other light here, it seemed as bright as a sun.Jak’s breath whispered across the nape of my neck.“Quiet here.” His sensuous drawl wound around me.“Got ideas for the dark.”So did I, but this wasn’t the time.“Got rocks for a brain,” I muttered.Jak laughed softly.“Need to get back inside.Braze’ll be out soon.”I touched his hand where it rested on my shoulder.“See you.”“Yah,” he murmured.I didn’t hear him leave, but I felt his departure as if it were loss of air behind me.Up ahead, the line of light widened.A woman’s gruff laugh scraped the night.“Andorian ale, Jak.Pure Andorian.Twenty cases.It’s yours.”Jak’s voice rumbled.“Might cover tonight’s debt.” He sounded good-natured, but I knew him too well to be fooled.He was pissed.He didn’t want her ale, he wanted her credits.Even so.He served Andorian ale in his casino, and it didn’t come cheap.Braze’s offer might be worth what she lost.Which begged the question, why did an ISC officer have twenty crates of exorbitantly priced ale lying around, available to sell on the black market? You had to import it from offworld.The line of light widened more, becoming an exit.Jak and Braze stood in the archway, their bodies silhouetted against the sparkling blackness beyond, where pinpoint holos glittered in the dark.Braze sounded drunk and horny.“You come with me,” she said in a slurred voice.“C’mon, Jakie boy.” She put her hand on the crouch of his pants.“You got it, hmm?”I gritted my teeth, wondering how it would feel to break her oversized nose with my fist.Crunch.Yah, that would be good.Jak deftly moved away her hand.“See you, Braze.My people will pick up the crates in the morning.”“Usual place,” she mumbled.“Yah.” Jak stepped back into the casino.“The usual.” He closed up the entrance, and the archway disappeared like a camera shutter snapping closed.“Heh,” Braze stood alone in the dark.In my IR vision, she was a hazy red glow.Max, I thought.Stealth mode on my boots.Done, Max thought.He sent commands to my ankle sockets, which connected to nanites in my boots.They would tweak the molecular structure of my footwear, softening or deforming the boots as needed to make my footfalls silent.A glow formed around Braze, coming from a hand lamp.She set off in the direction opposite from where I stood.I waited a moment and then followed, silent and hidden.Braze took a route with no obvious path, making her way between columns and walls riddled with holes.She was a large woman, most of that muscle.Probably she thought she was walking quietly, but to my augmented ears, she sounded like a herd of ruzik, the giant animals ridden by the Abaj Tacalique.Whatever race had stranded my ancestors on Raylicon had also bioengineered the ruzik using the DNA of several Earth species, including an animal called T-rex that died off eons ago.Apparently enough of its DNA survived to make new animals.So I prowled after Braze the T-rex.I expected her either to go home, which meant I had wasted my time, or to meet her contacts in the Maze.She did neither.Instead she kept descending, deeper than smugglers usually ventured.They needed access to the surface to move their products, and we were below the canals now, in tunnels cool enough that my vision showed only the dimmest red.The aqueducts were warmer because they were closer to the surface; the cold here usually kept me from coming this deep.Another light appeared ahead.I stepped behind a tall outcropping and watched Braze approach the light, her body a bulky silhouette against its glow.She stopped and spoke, her voice barely audible.Max, crank up my hearing, I thought.Done.“Twenty-five crates,” Braze was saying.“And they better all be Andorian.I’ll know if it’s cheaper shit.”“Andorian ale?” a woman demanded.Her voice sounded like rusty hinges creaking on an antique door.“That wasn’t in our bargain.”I knew that voice.But from where? It tugged my memory.I couldn’t risk creeping any closer to see better
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]