“Yes, Maddy?” he answered.
“How much longer is this errand of yours going to take?” she asked without preamble. “I got a message from my son-in-law. He wants us to hurry to our next assignment. The owners have increased what they’re offering to pay for those ships’ return.”
“Did Leonidas not arrange for a handsome young man to entertain you while we’re out here?” Jasim had foisted that research on Leonidas, having a notion that since he was married, he would know more about picking out a nice prostitute for a woman. It was possible that was faulty logic, but he certainly hadn’t had a clue about shopping for such things.
“Yes, he did, but I don’t need to be entertained for days.”
“I’ll try to expedite things,” Jasim said, as if he knew how to do so. Unless their target was itching for those comic books and came to get them that day, he and Leonidas could spend a long time watching this building. “Maddy, when you’re done with your, uhm, visitor, why don’t you bring the Interrogator over to the Red Dunes Cantina? I’ll buy you and your friend a drink.”
“I can’t believe you’re bribing me to stay on this dustball.”
“It might be a good idea to have you close if we need to chase someone down.”
“Chase… Listen, kid. I’m not here to chase people unless they’re piloting stolen goods that we’ve been hired to retrieve. Dustor isn’t a good place to pick fights with people. You never know who they’ll end up being connected to.”
“Just come by, please,” Jasim said. “We may need you.”
Maddy grumbled and cut the comm. Jasim wasn’t sure if that signaled agreement or not. He thought it would be a good idea to have the ship close in case Dufour arrived in a ship of his own. Jasim and Leonidas could take out just about any foe on foot, but even cyborgs had trouble wrestling armed and armored spaceships to the ground.
A few minutes later, Leonidas appeared, walking up the back stairs and away from the cantina. He was alone. Jasim waved him up the hill and to the wall.
“You convinced the owner not to comm Dufour?” Jasim asked.
“I convinced the owner to tell his android to tend the bar and then lock himself in his own lavatory for a while.”
“Huh, I didn’t know you were that convincing.”
“Brute force was involved. Sometimes it’s the easiest way to accomplish something.”
“Yes, sir. I wasn’t judging you.”
“No?” Leonidas asked, crouching behind the wall with Jasim. “What is it you do with a psychology degree?”
“That was my minor. I majored in education. I wanted to be a counselor or maybe a coach or a teacher and help young people,” Jasim said, watching him out of the side of his eye, expecting him to scoff. “I especially wanted to work with kids. Because when I was a kid… well, I didn’t have anyone to go to for advice. I would have liked to have had someone.”
Leonidas, facing the cantina, did not answer.
“I know, maybe it’s a waste of all those implants,” Jasim said, feeling the need to explain, to make someone understand—the suns knew those hiring firms hadn’t. “But I… well, I wasn’t one of the ones who enjoyed the fighting. I guess that’s not a secret to you on account of… my meeting with you. I did it, and I shot those who opposed us because we had to or they’d shoot us, but when I joined up, I was just looking for a way off the streets. And the bonus they gave us for agreeing to the cyborg upgrades… I’d never thought I’d see that much money in my life. It paid for almost all of my schooling. I’ve just got a few small loans left I’m paying off. But more than that, I confess, at the time, I just wanted to make sure I’d never be picked on again, never be the scrawny street rat running from bullies.”
Jasim cleared his throat and looked out toward the desert. This was more personal information—more honesty—than he’d meant to share. Especially while they were out here on a stakeout of a mailbox.
“Anyway,” he said, “I’m just wanting to do something… useful with my degree. After destroying—killing—so many in the war, some of whom I wasn’t sure we should be killing, I’d like to make up for it in a way. I know that’s not really possible, but at least if I could help people now… maybe it would make a small difference.”
“Why aren’t you?” Leonidas asked.
Jasim couldn’t tell from his tone if he was curious or if he cared at all—or if he thought Jasim was being a wuss.
“I applied to a lot of places after I finished school. As soon as people found out my history—what I was—they made excuses to cancel my interviews. Or they invited me in only to tell me that nobody was going to hire a cyborg to work with kids.”
Leonidas straightened slightly, peering over the wall. “The post office is getting a visitor.”
Jasim leaned around the crumbled end of the wall as a round, floating drone with antennae extending from the top and articulating arms protruding from its belly flew toward the back of the cantina. This one was silver instead of bronze, but it reminded him of the other drone.
The back door opened, and it floated inside.
“If our target sent a drone to pick up the mail, keeping up with it may not be a simple matter,” Leonidas said.
“We could shoot it down,” Jasim said.
“Then it wouldn’t lead us back to Dufour.”
“Good point.”
Further, a drone could fly out of the range of their weapons quickly.
“Have you talked to your pilot recently?” Leonidas asked.
“Yes.” Jasim didn’t mention the reason for that conversation. “She should already be on her way.”
“Good. Make sure of that, and tell her to hurry. Following a drone in a ship would be—”
He stopped speaking when the door opened again. The round drone zipped out and up the stairs with a familiar blue mail package clasped in its grippers. It beelined straight out toward the Dune Sea. Quickly.
“Comm the pilot,” Leonidas said, jumping to his feet and over the wall. “I’ll keep it in sight, and you can track my armor, pick me up, and we’ll keep following it.”
He was already running away before he finished speaking, his legs churning as he raced after the drone. Jasim had no idea what its top speed would be, but tapped his comm unit to comply. He wagered it could fly faster than a cyborg could run, even one whose already enhanced speed was further enhanced by combat armor.
“Maddy?” Jasim asked. “I need a pick up, right now.”
The drone had already disappeared from his sight. He hoped Leonidas, who was speeding over the first of the dunes, could keep it in sight. Jasim wished he’d thought to bring a tracking device along. This would have been much easier if they had stuck a beacon to the bottom of that package.
“What happened to my drink?” Maddy replied.
“I’ll buy you two after we run this errand. Hurry, please.”
Grumbling came over the comm. Jasim paced behind the wall and looked back toward the city, hoping to spot the Interrogator flying over the skyline.
Fortunately, Maddy was dependable, even if she groused while being dependable. The ship soon appeared, tracking his comm and arrowing toward him.
“Don’t land,” Jasim said, jogging away from the wall. “Just hover and open the hatch. I’ll jump in.” He looked toward the desert again, but Leonidas and the drone were out of sight now.
The sleek ship swooped low, its logo glinting in the setting sun. It hovered twenty meters away from Jasim, kicking up sand that railed against his armor. As soon as the hatch opened, he ran and sprang ten feet into the air. He landed on the threshold, tugged the hatch shut, and sprinted into NavCom.
“Head out into the dunes,” he ordered, stepping over the knitting basket and sliding into the co-pilot’s seat. A half-finished project lay on the console in front of him. He pushed it aside and networked his armor with the Interrogator’s modest sensor station, using the comm link he had with Leonidas to locate his suit. “We’re going there.” He pointed as a h
olodisplay popped up, showing a blip for his location.
“I was almost done with my project, you know,” Maddy said, giving him a dark look.
“Leonidas’s hat?”
“His tassels. I’m going to use the rainbow yarn to make them extra colorful.”
“I’m sure his children will like that.” Jasim leaned forward, as if he could urge the ship to go faster just with his body. “Where’s your gentleman caller? Did he not want to stay for a drink?”
“He made a snide comment about my age, so I kicked him off the ship early.”
“Ah, unfortunate.”
“Yes, it is. He’s lucky I didn’t lodge one of my needles up his ass. Next time, I’ll take longer picking one from a catalog.”
“Maybe you should try going on dates instead,” Jasim said. That was what normal people did to find mates, wasn’t it? He’d never had much of an opportunity to try before entering the Cyborg Corps. In the neighborhood where he had grown up, “dates” had usually involved running from mafia hoodlums with a girl one liked or trying not to get shot while sitting on a moonlit rooftop and gazing out over a cityscape.
“Hard to date when you’re on a different planet every week,” Maddy said.
Jasim eyed the blip as they drew closer and tried to spot Leonidas on the view screen. That blip was still moving, so he must not have lost track of the drone yet.
“Maybe you could retire and settle down on one planet for a while,” he said as he tapped the sensors, hoping to locate the drone itself. Such a small device would normally be hard to spot, but with nothing but sand underneath them and the city fading to the rear, they should be able to find it. Or so he thought. The dunes looked empty of homes and machinery of any sort, but the sensors showed otherwise. Buildings were built into the dunes, and here and there, equipment sent out signals. Those signals clogged the sensors, and he ended up growling as he struggled to pick out the tiny drone in the mess.
“Retire?” Maddy asked. “From flying? Are you daft?”
“Occasionally.” Jasim pointed. “There’s Leonidas.”
“That’s who we’re chasing? You being all noble-hearted, I figured we were after evildoers.”
“He’s after evildoers. But we’re picking him up and continuing the quest.”
“Let’s see if I can even catch him,” Maddy said, dipping lower to the desert floor. “Damn, he’s fast. You cyborgs are freaks.”
She didn’t say it with any rancor—occasionally, Jasim even had the sense that Maddy liked him—but the words filled him with a sense of bleakness. What did it mean that even allies thought of them as something less than human?
“Is he going to jump in, or do we have to bowl him over?” Maddy asked.
Jasim commed Leonidas. “We’re right behind you.”
“I’m aware,” Leonidas said, his breathing hard.
“And…” Jasim let out a soft, triumphant “hah” as the sensors finally picked up the drone ahead of Leonidas. He locked onto it so they wouldn’t lose it. “We’ve got the drone in our sights, sir. Stop so we can get you.”
Leonidas slowed at the top of a dune, though he continued to look off toward the horizon instead of at the ship zipping toward him, as if he didn’t trust Jasim not to lose his target. Maddy hit the button to open the hatch and flew over him.
“Hop up, sir,” Jasim said.
“Hop up, he says about a twenty-foot leap,” Maddy muttered.
A clang sounded from the corridor behind them, Leonidas’s boots landing on the deck. Maddy shut the hatch and took off after the drone. Jasim leaned forward again, willing it to come onto the view screen and wondering how far out into the desert it would lead them. What was the range on those little drones? Fifty miles? A hundred?
Maddy picked up speed, and they closed on it. Finally, it came into sight. Jasim almost laughed at the metallic ball floating across the dunes with the perky blue package in its grip. He was surprised someone didn’t pop up from behind a dune and shoot it for its prize. But the number of buried buildings and equipment was dwindling as they flew farther from the city. Jasim couldn’t imagine where the delivery was going. He wondered if the drone sensed that it was being followed and was taking them on a chase.
“Stay back a little,” he told Maddy. “We don’t want it to be nervous about how close we’re stalking it.”
“A nervous drone?”
“We also don’t want to fly over a dune, run into a huge fortress full of artillery weapons, and get shot down,” he added, though the sensors should have told him if anything of that magnitude lay ahead.
Leonidas stepped into NavCom, his helmet under his arm, his damp hair plastered to his head. His mouth was open as he took deep breaths, but his eyes had that gleam in them again, as if he’d enjoyed chasing that drone, like a hound after a rabbit.
“Invigorating jog, sir?” Jasim asked, as the drone flew down the backside of a dune ahead of them and dropped out of sight. It was still on the sensors, so he didn’t worry.
“Next time, you get to run.”
“I figured you wanted a chance to prove how fit and virile you still are, despite your increasing… maturity.”
Leonidas’s eyes narrowed. He might have said something, but a plaintive bleep came from the sensors.
“Uh,” Jasim said, looking from the panel to the sand ahead as the Interrogator flew over the dune the drone had gone down. It had disappeared from the sensors.
“Where did it go?” Maddy asked, toggling between the ship’s various exterior cameras.
“I’m not reading it anymore,” Jasim said slowly. “But that doesn’t make any sense. It couldn’t have flown out of range that quickly.”
He looked toward Leonidas, thinking he might have an answer.
Leonidas shook his head, gazing at the view screen and the miles and miles of sand and dunes that stretched away beneath the red sky. The empty devoid-of-drones miles.
“We’ll have to get out and search,” Jasim said. “It must have gone to ground. But it should still show up on the sensors if that were the case.” After all, they had been picking up all manner of underground facilities earlier.
“It might have flown into a compound that has shielding from sensors,” Leonidas said.
“No search.” Maddy spun in her chair to face Jasim. “I’ve gone along with this little side trip, because you’re nice boys, and you brought me yarn and a man, but we can’t stay on Dustor indefinitely.”
“We’re not planning to search indefinitely, Maddy,” Jasim said.
“It’s a tiny drone somewhere out there under miles and miles of sand. The saying about needles and haystacks comes to mind.”
“It couldn’t have gone far in that little bit of time,” Jasim said.
“It could still take you days to find it. And I’ve had my son-in-law nagging me on the comm. As he’s been pointing out, he loses money when this ship isn’t flying jobs. He loses even more money when it’s burning fuel on a planet it shouldn’t even be on. It’s time for the Interrogator and its crew—” she gave Jasim a pointed look, “—to go back to work.”
“I… need to do this, Maddy,” Jasim said.
“Then you’re going to get bumped off the crew.”
He looked at her bleakly. Couldn’t he have a few days to help his kind without losing his job? “Can’t you at least wait until dawn?”
Maddy hit a button on the comm panel, and The Pulverizer’s familiar face appeared, dark eyes angry, tattooed cheek twitching, his sharp jaw made sharper by the trimmed beard that outlined its contours.
“What is my ship doing on Dustor?” he demanded, the message recorded earlier. “Maddy, what are you doing? Having a honeymoon with that cyborg? You think I have so many ships in my fleet that I can have some of them going off on sightseeing tours? I want the Interrogator back here, with the cyborg or without—someone’s going out to get these yachts. Damn it, Maddy, this is a big deal, and that’s my ship you’ve absconded with. You will return it.” Th
e Pulverizer slapped his hand down to close the comm.
“He’s more polite with you than he is with me,” Jasim observed. “He uses your first name.”
“If I don’t answer him soon, that’ll change,” Maddy grumbled.
“I brought some rat bars,” Leonidas said. “We can search and make it back to the city on foot on our own if need be.”
Jasim grimaced. “I’m sure we could, but… this is my job. And jobs aren’t easy to come by.” He had no delusions about The Pulverizer rehiring him if he simply disappeared, going off on this personal mission. Maybe it was foolish to think that it wasn’t already too late. He might lose his job because of the choice he’d already made, because he had bribed Maddy to fly so far out of the way. Even though he longed to do something else with his life, it wasn’t as if he could simply go out and start a career as a teacher when he finished here. He’d already tried that. And if The Pulverizer put out a warning about his lack of reliability, would he even be able to get another job in this business?
“I’ll go search then,” Leonidas said, and stalked back to the hatch.
A faint hiss sounded as it unsealed, and he soon appeared walking along the side of the dune underneath them.
“Let him finish this,” Maddy said. “Whatever it is.”
Jasim sighed and stood up. “I can’t. I’m the one who asked him for help with this.”
“I can’t wait for you.”
“I know. I understand.” He rested a hand on her shoulder. She’d already detoured far from their itinerary to bring him here. “Thanks and good luck with your next partner.”
“Partner?” Maddy’s eyebrows rose. “Whoever told you that you were my partner? You’re just the hired meat.” She smiled as she said the words and swatted him on the back with a knitting needle as he left NavCom.
He couldn’t manage a return smile, not with his future looking bleak. But it would be much bleaker if they didn’t stop this killer.
Chapter 11
The last sun had set, the stars gleaming in the sky overhead, so Jasim paused in his pacing to put on his helmet and allow his armor’s night-vision powers to amplify his sight. Cyborgs had optical enhancements to see in dim conditions, but he didn’t want to chance missing anything. Jasim and Leonidas had already been walking around the side and base of the long dune for an hour. He was about to head into the valley between it and another long dune to broaden the search area. He doubted the drone could have gone far in the time between when they had last seen it flying over that dune and when they’d flown over it themselves.