Crystal Heat

3

Lylunda Elang sat on a couch in the armored peaceplex, cursing Exinta and trying not to think about the headache that was sitting behind her eyes ready to sink its claws. She rubbed absently at the itchy place on her wrist where they took blood to make sure what she’d been given. Jaink! I’ll be glad when I’m finally flushed clean of that stuff. I want a full spectrum clear, who knows what that ziz blew into me. Not from this lot either, I wouldn’t trust them with a cotton swab. What’s holding things up? I want to get out of here.

The door slid open and a nutrient dish with an immature Blurdslang hummed in. “Des’ Ela’?”

Lylunda got carefully to her feet, trying not to jar the lurking headache awake. “I can go?”

“I’ you ’ollow me?”

She sighed and moved after him.

The elder Blurdslang contemplated her for several moments, then played his fingerlings over the speaker cube. “The Directors are considerably disturbed by the use of a will suppressant; I am sure you can understand the reasoning behind that, smuggler, so I will not elaborate. The user has been located and probed. There was a confederate, a brother, but he left before we could lay hands on him. By the end of the dium, the user will be wiped and sold to a contract labor firm. The Kliu will be informed that they are not welcome here. We have discussed what to do about you, Lylunda Elang. There was a suggestion that since you drew those men here, you should share their fate. The Broker Jingko iKan spoke for you and convinced the majority that you are a valued client and will continue to be one.”

Too angry and alarmed to speak, Lylunda pressed her lips together and tried to ignore the throbbing in her left temple.

“The will suppressant was a bootleg version of c5 Z juice as it is called in the vernacular, overage, with a number of impurities that could cause you some difficulty. The medtechs suggest you prepare yourself for several days bed rest and a bland diet, eschewing all caffeine and other drugs. The Directors suggest you do it on board your ship, bound elsewhere.”

“All right. Can I go now?”

“In a moment. The Directors of Marrat’s Market are not banning you; they simply suggest that you clear up this difficulty before you attempt to return. Have you any questions?”

“No.”

“Your gear has been collected from your room in the ottotel and will be waiting in a transfer pod. A peacer ’bot will escort you to the pod. I am told to inform you this is a courtesy not a constraint.”

Migraine auras invading her eyes like flags of crumpled cellophane shivering in a high wind, Lylunda brought her ship to what counted as a stop at the Limit, drifting into a slow orbit about Marrat’s sun while the ottodoc grumbled at her blood and she ran a disinfect over the outer surface of the ship. The crawler dislodged three tags, one obvious and meant to be found, one subtle and one she didn’t understand at all that she found only by chance, a shift in the solar wind that jogged the crawler in just the right way.

By the time the doe’s notifier pinged, she was blind in large areas of her vision field and her head hurt so much that she couldn’t bear to move. She turned and almost drowned in the vomit that caught her by surprise as she groped for the slot; she slid her arm in and waited for the shot she hoped would give her some relief.

She felt the sting against her wrist, a moment later the burn of stomach acid in her throat, a shiver in her knees. She just had time to withdraw her arm before she collapsed in a heap on the floor.

When she woke, she knew there was only once place where she could feel safe for the next year. She had to go home.

3. Worm’s View

“Your jodidda juice din’t work. They got Xman, stinking slinkies. Almost got me, but I slid.”

The ears on the Kliu image curled tight and the eating mouth opened to show the tearing teeth. The speaking mouth rippled as if the old male wanted to chew the words, but when the sounds came through the twit cones, they were mild enough. “The woman remains at the Market?”

“The smuggler? When slinkies let her go, she took off. I got an idea where, but I don’t say no jodidda thing, and I don’t go nowhere till you pry Xman loose.”

“That requires consultation. I will get back to you.”

For several minutes Worm stared at the glassy blankness of the screen, fingers of one hand plucking at the plas cover on the chair ann. He moved his shoulders finally, straightened his back, and reached for the flake case.

“Da, Xman got snicked by the slinkies.”

The old man glared at him from the snakes tangle of wires and tubes of the Sustainer. “How come you clean?”

“Way we planned it, I zombi the femme and get out, he fetches her, I hit for the ship and get ready to go. When that don’t come off, he hits out for me anyway, but he don’t make it. I see peacer ’bots globe him and they got one jodiddan huge shaker with ’em, wouldda dusted me good if I’d tried snatching ’im. I cut out but stay in system, get through to Sniff Herk and he tells me that the slinkies,, they read Xman’s head, blew it clean and laid a contract on him. And they got a pickup for me, so I can’t go back. I get on to the scivs, tell ol’ jodface he gonna buy Xman out or I don’t go nowhere. They don’t come through, you better send Dogboy and Trish to see if they can lever him out.”

“You shoot y’ mouth too fast, boy. You gonna have some backin’ down to do if scivs set their claws and won’t move. They still got Mort, so they got us by the cojos. You gotta get that femme, so we hold value for the trade. When they lookin’ at her meat ’n all, they know they gotta do a deal.”

“Sorry, Da. I was so burned they give Xman junk juice, I din’t think. Da, call light’s on, I gotta go.”

“Since our investigations indicated that it was indeed a failure of the drug that led to the capture, we will extract your brother from his current situation. We will place him with your other brother to wait a successful outcome of this business.”

The screen blanked.

Worm swore and reestablished the link with his father to let him know about this turn in their collective fate.

4. Pillory is Not a Nice Place