Beast Master's Circus

  "This ties in with those other reports."

  "Seems likely. I have one of my men alerting other planet ports. We may pick them up elsewhere. The city security knows too." He grinned wryly. "I gather they aren't any happier about this than the port manager. Their officer here has made an offer to the port manager to bring in a deep probe and operator. Last I heard she was thinking about it. That's how serious she's taking everything."

  "Guada's First-ship family too," Brad said absently. "Our families have been friends since then. I'd do the same for her." He lapsed into brooding silence again as the copter hurtled on.

  It all fit together somehow. The dead beast masters, the missing beasts. The way in which the raiders had been able to arrive unnoticed and lift off again despite a closed port. They'd had a copter, he remembered. And left four men dead in the clan camp. Those would be places to start. With his teeth in the beginnings of a solution he'd not let go. A small deadly smile quirked his mouth. Nor would his kin.

  Storm was a trained fighter, a beast master who'd fought the Xiks across a dozen worlds. Tani, small, slender, untrained, was still in many ways Storm's equal. They'd stood shoulder to shoulder against the enemy before. And Logan, his wild-blooded son who loved the wilderness more than civilization. Logan who'd lost his half-brother's beasts and a fight against the raiders. They were three to take up a war trail indeed. And that they would do. He had only to find the trail head for them. That was his work.

  He set his teeth and willed calm. He'd be of no use if he allowed his anger to rule. First let them land at the clan camp and see what they could do to help there. He leaned forward to touch Kelson on the arm.

  "The Nitra, they know we're coming?"

  "The Thunder-talker has spoken. We are welcome to land and collect the dead. Tani's coming back to High Peaks with us. Jumps High and a couple of his people will lead Tani's mount back to the basin."

  "Any word of the paraowl?"

  "Not when I left."

  Brad fell silent again. If his young daughter-in-law had lost not only her beloved coyote friends but also Mandy she would be utterly devastated. When the copter sank to a landing the girl was the first there. She was leading Djimbut warriors who carried four bodies, one trampled and hoof-slashed almost beyond recognition as human. Brad grunted. That would be the work of Destiny, Tani's filly, three-quarter duo-corn and wholly ferocious to any she deemed a threat.

  Tani was everywhere now: guiding the bodies into the copter cargo hold, finger-talking rapidly with Jumps High, then the Djimbut medicine woman. Finally she came to stand looking at Brad.

  "Asizi." She used the ancient word of address. "We have none of our own dead. The Nitra will leave vengeance to us unless we ask. Of what lives were taken none were theirs, by the Thunder's will." The Thunder-talker moved up to stand by the girl. She spoke and her interpreter's hands flickered with quick fluency.

  "The enemy would have taken the gems which mark my power. But for the quick thinking of my younger sister all would have been lost. Her spirit-friends twice heard the enemy and twice that aided us to be ready. The clan stands with their clan-friend. If there be anything in which we can aid in return, let it be known." Kelson gave the bow over linked spread hands which was the Nitra acknowledgment in all formality of the Thunder-talker's power. Then he lifted them to sign.

  "Gratitude. The enemy evil ones were ours. To ours the law which judges. Our clan is greatly angered, we ride in war. Yet if there is need, be sure we shall ask."

  She made the small cupped-hand gesture of acceptance and turned away. From where Tani stood, there came a loud cry and the girl was running. Both Brad and Kelson jumped from the machine to follow. They reached her as she halted, half laughing, half crying.

  "Mandy. She's all right." From the brush along the camp edge stumped a weary, still almost flightless paraowl. She had flown where she could, walked where she must, and Mandy had not appreciated the walking part of the journey. Tani dropped linked arms to make a bridge and the tired bird clambered up to sit on a padded shoulder. There she rested, drawing her beak gently down Tani's cheek and crooning softly as she sent a series of pictures. Tani examined the indicated wing and sighed before turning to the men.

  "I sent her to take you a message, Brad. The copter came in faster and spray-stunned farther out than I expected. The stunner fringe caught Mandy as she flew, and knocked her silly. She landed several miles away without breaking more than some of the flight feathers in one wing. So she couldn't fly more than a few yards at one time. She's been flying and walking back here ever since."

  Mandy made a disgusted spitting sound and there was laughter. Kelson had been translating Tani's words into sign-talk as she went. Even Nitra faces broke up in amusement at Mandy's obvious disgust at having to walk.

  "She has very good hearing though. The copter came back very low still past her and she heard a few words. Say them for us, Mandy." The ferocious beak opened and an incongruous voice sounded. It was female, the accent was inner-systems and over-cultured.

  "...men. Oh, all right... go to this place. But there'd better be something there worth having besides those stupid animals. Your boss won't thank you for more of them dead either..." Mandy stopped and waited for the generous praise she promptly received.

  Kelson looked at them. "That might be useful. We can't run a voice scan on an imitation but it's so good to a human ear I'd bet experts at the school can tell us which world the woman comes from. Maybe more. Right now, we'd better head for High Peaks." He waited for Tani to settle Mandy before leading the way back to the copter and ushering them inside. He leaned out to sign to Jumps High.

  "What do you want of us?"

  "The bow hands of the enemies who do this," was the swift reply. "If that cannot be done, then bring us sure word of their deaths. Bring us a death-trophy we can hang in the medicine tent." Kelson's hands moved in acknowledgment of that. Then he slid the door shut and started the engines. Tani glanced at the paraowl as they lifted. Mandy's feathers could be fixed as soon as they reached the basin ranch and had a night's rest. She hoped Logan would be well. Brad had mentioned only that he'd been hurt.

  Logan had been more than merely hurt. Storm, when he came running into the house, had found his brother lying in a spreading pool of blood. His eyes opened as Storm knelt by him and he tried to rise.

  "Lie quiet. I'll get this bleeding stopped. Think about what you want me to know." He worked for several minutes before sitting back. "That's well. Wait now." He turned to slide open the door in a cupboard. Behind that was a small chilled area with a palm-lock. From it he took medical items and used them quickly. "Now, talk fast, brother."

  Logan looked up. "Raiders. Copter." He spoke between gasps, his strength fading again. "Took Surra, Hing, her babies. Surra bad hurt, still alive. One..." his voice slid into silence before he drew on the last of his strength. "Woman, Storm. Woman shot me." His eyes shut and his body went limp in his brother's arms. Storm checked the medkit frantically. No, all was well. Logan might be long in mending completely. But he'd survive.

  He rose, lifting Logan to carry him to a bed. Then he permitted himself to consider the words briefly. It was possible. Arzor had rarely suffered pirate raids. It had little of portable value save for the cat's-eyes, and for those alone major raiding cost more than it could recoup. At a glance he'd seen at least two rooms had been looted of small valuables. They hadn't attempted to open the safe though, as real pirates would have done. And the raiders had also gone out of their way to take beast master animals. That argued they were tied in with the other deaths and abductions.

  Yet if they wanted the animals why hadn't they seen by now that it was futile? The beasts died. Why would they continue? He shook his head. Maybe this time the raider boss had been lucky. Surra could die, that was quite likely if she was in their hands and away from Storm too long. The meercats would probably survive. He hated to think of small, affectionate Hing and her new babies in cruel or uncaring hands. She'd never
known anything but affection.

  There was no time to think any further of that. He reached for the com. Kelson at the other end was almost incoherent with haste. No time to talk. He'd be there with Brad and Tani in two or three hours. Storm should hold on and wait. He did so but it seemed far longer than the time promised before he heard the ranger copter slipping in from overhead. Tani was first out and straight into his arms.

  Chapter Ten

  Storm reached out to hold Tani protectively. He could feel the shivers which shook her. This was personal distress, not only a reaction to Logan's hurt and the abduction of part of Storm's team-fond as she was of her brother-in-law and of Storm's animals. His gaze met the worried gaze of his stepfather over her head. Storm's instincts told him there was something he hadn't heard as yet.

  "Asizi? What else has happened?" But Brad was entering the house. He'd see Logan for himself. It was Kelson who spoke quickly.

  "The raiders must have come on to High Peaks. They hit the Djimbut first. No, no one of the Nitra was badly hurt. But they seem to have had a double agenda there. They were after cat's-eye gemstones and beasts."

  Tani lifted her head. "They took Minou and Ferarre," she wept. "They stunned Mandy but she got away from them." Her eyes glowed fury before filling with pain once more. "We killed four of them but they still got away with my friends."

  Until now Storm had not completely reacted to the loss of Surra and Hing and her babies. Now that loss filled him. His arms clamped Tani to him and his head bent over hers. A silent moan of pain tore through him. Tani felt the echo of his grief.

  "Storm, what is it, are you hurt?"

  "Surra, Hing, and her babies. They took them as well." He felt her stiffen. She stepped back. Her face was transformed into an implacable rage. Her hands came up slowly from her sides, fingers crooked a little. The anger coming from her was so powerful Storm could feel it against his mind like heat.

  He stiffened-there were times when he forgot that she had lived on Terra during the Xik attacks, lost her father to the enemy, and seen her mother killed. She'd fled her world to escape being mind-broken or killed and survived it all. Under the gentleness of her surface lived a woman who was descended from one of the greatest female warriors of her people. Six months earlier when courage was needed, she had not been found wanting.

  "Surra, Hing and the babies, Minou, and Ferarre." Her voice was the long dangerous note of a warhorn as she roll-called. "We'll find where the raiders went." She turned on Kelson. "What do we know?" He restrained himself from stepping back at the intensity of that demand. At the rage which filled the small slender body. He spoke slowly, wanting to defuse that flaring fury.

  "Whoever they were they had help on Arzor. The port manager swears no one could have breached security without aid. We're an outer world and security isn't what it can be on an inner world, but it's good enough. I acted on Tani's first call. We'd closed the port before they reached it. So they should have been picked up entering the gates. They weren't." He remembered manager Gauda's report on that and his own anger rose.

  "They got across the permacrete landing area and entered their ship disguised as cargo handlers. To do that they had someone's help. The manager was certain of that much once she'd checked the security tapes. She's so furious she has accepted a patrol offer. They'll bring in an operator with a deep probe. She's made that known and thinks it may..." A series of urgent beeps sounded from the ranger copter. "Excuse me."

  He pulled down the hush cover and talked, listened, talked again. Then he lifted the cover as a pleased look spread over his weathered face.

  "Nice timing. One of the people involved has talked. It seems likely he's scared of what else the probe could uncover. He's a small-fry. Not really involved. Just bribed to leave coveralls and a couple of pallets in an unusual place and let the raiders know where and how to dodge the scanner for long enough to get a head start to their ship. But he knew who bribed him. That's the first mistake. He wasn't supposed to but he did. The peacekeepers are out picking up that one now."

  Storm imagined Surra, injured, in pain, separated from the human who had walked beside her so long. She would not bow to others. She was a cat and it was not in her nature. She would fight them every step of the way. She would end up dead like the others the raiders had stolen. But Hing, so happy with her new litter and new mate after being so long alone. The kidnapers would take the babies as soon as they were old enough to be weaned. And Hing who needed her kind about her would be alone once more.

  The pain of their loss tore at him. He thrust it down. He would be calm. He would hunt down the thieves and when he found them they'd talk. He'd have his team whole again or die in the hunt. He had no idea of the image he made. Nor how Tani had merged her own fury, then control, with his. Together they turned to study the ranger.

  "When are they likely to have this talker?"

  "Anytime now, but Storm, they won't let you talk..."

  "We'll take Logan down to the hospital. Then we'll see what happens."

  Kelson surrendered. "Yes. Logan is most important right now."

  They flew back to the city. Logan was wheeled away. A doctor paused to speak before he too followed the stretcher. "He'll be fine. Don't worry. Come back in the morning."

  Brad hesitated. Storm laid a hand on his stepfather's shoulder. "Go with Logan. Tani will be with me. When we're done we'll go to the ranch house. We can hire a vehicle to return there."

  "No need. The crawler's at the edge of the port. I left it there when Kelson collected me. Use that." Storm nodded and stepped back. Brad headed for the hospital doors and vanished as Storm turned to eye Kelson.

  "Tani and I will go to the port. I want to talk to Port Manager Gauda there and I may be able to have a few words with others."

  "If you mean the man who was bribed, they won't let you near him. Go back to the ranch. If the authorities want to talk with you they'll find you."

  "I'd rather find them. Wastes less time." His tone was implacable and Kelson threw up his hands.

  "Do what you want to. You will anyhow, the same as Logan usually does."

  "And that's made him one of the best rangers you have," Storm returned. "Think about it. This bunch attacked a Nitra clan camp. They didn't kill anyone, but if they had the Djimbut clan would have ridden to war. Worse still, if they'd succeeded in stealing the Thunder-talker's regalia other Nitra clans would have joined them." He punched the air for emphasis.

  "Think. It isn't impossible even the Norbie clans could have united with them. An affront to the Thunder or a demand from it is one of the few things that could unite both the wild and civilized tribes. It did once before. A dead Nitra warrior or two is one thing. Stealing objects of power and desecrating them is a lot more."

  Tani cut in quietly. "You know the patrol's attitude on settled planets where there's already a native people. Point out to them that the raiders could have begun war here. That makes it of patrol interest as well as ranger business. Causing war between native and human settlers is an interworld crime. What if the raiders do something like this elsewhere?"

  Kelson's face had been hardening as he listened. He'd thought of the possibilities himself but had not considered the patrol in this. A year back, the lethal Xik-bred clickers had driven the wild clans from their desert lands. The patrol would have forced the human settlers to evacuate their ranches, then Arzor, rather than see a settler-native war. He nodded slowly.

  "I'll talk to the patrol office here about this. Tani's right. If she hadn't figured out that the raiders wanted gems then we could be facing a native uprising. If the raiders pull something similar elsewhere the patrol could have a civil war on their hands. And to my mind this all ties in with what Tani's kin discovered from other worlds. Someone's trying to collect augmented beasts from beast master teams."

  He stood a moment, his face thoughtful. Even with Terra a burned-out cinder, enough of the fleet and command structure had survived. A new High Command had risen which gov
erned the patrol and the reactivated survey section. Most often now they acted as a clearinghouse for information and as the arbiters of final decisions.

  "This could bring in High Command. It could even be that the raids are another Xik brew."

  Storm shook his head. "It doesn't feel like that."

  "Maybe not. But do you know it isn't for sure?"

  "Of course not."

  "But if High Command gets involved you have a lever," Kelson said softly, a grin sliding over his face.

  Tani chuckled. "He's got you there, my love. As a beast master they'd talk to you, get your opinion. Maybe let you talk to whoever the probe turns up here. Of course the Xiks could be involved."

  Her love looked down at her. "Cunning little warrior, aren't you?"

  "I learned from the best," Tani retorted ambiguously. "Now can we start for the port? Time is moving on."

  The ranger turned. "I can drop you at Brad's crawler. After that I'll talk to the patrol officer. Her Office is at the port too. Check with me before you leave for the ranch. If I've heard anything more I can tell you then." He climbed into the copter and waited until they were strapped in. Then he lifted for the port. Tani and Storm exited the machine by the crawler.