Shadowplay

CELL 46

Tagwit priests stirred the vast cauldrons of beans and soup, starting new pots as soon as one was emptied. Day on day on day, dishing out bowls of food to the horde marching past, a meal three months long without interruption. More supplies came in every day, meat animals from the Plicik ranches, beans and rice from the Collective Farms, the Pakoseo assessment given freely by some and grudgingly by others. Soup and beans, beans and soup, steam curling up from the cauldrons, odor of sanctity, pleasing In the nostrils of Oppalatin.

Grumbling under his breath, the kana climbed into the flit. "This is gettin to be like work, Weeshk, we might's well be fuckin plainboys chasin fuckin bos out 'n the fuckin Grass."

"Shut up, Wakso, you worsen a sore toe. Sit down and strap up. We got a job to do, might's well get at it." Kaweeshk waited until his sour grumbling partner was settled, then he thumbed the starter…

The flit exploded, molten metal and metal shards slammed into other flits garaged at the Kasta, they began to burn, fuel caught, there were more explosions, alarms were clanging, there was confusion, panic, that gradually devolved to order as a few effective leaders appeared.

When the fire was out, two men stood by the twisted sooty rail of a walkway. "Bomb," one said. "At a first guess, one would say packed with thermit."

The second man was in such a rage he was trembling. He slapped his left hand against his leg, again and again and again, a dreary monotonous slap slap slap that he didn't realize he-was doing. After a long tense silence, he said, "Them!"

"Not much doubt of that. In here, too. Looks like we've got rats in the walls. Who was it in the flit?"

"One doesn't know, it doesn't matter. A brace of scuts on street patrol, no one Important." He grabbed the rail with both hands, shook It. "May their souls rot in hell's cellar. It's deliberate provocation, no question. And they're going to get what they asked for. Come on. One has to report to to the Math Hen. How long before one has your assessment of the debris?"