Part 6 (2/2)
”This way, Mate.”
”Right behind you, Mate,” Janja said, and considered taking him and Jenk here and now. There were others...o...b..ard. Best to handle this slowly and with great care. That had worked on Lewuvul. One step at a time.
Vettering came out of the hold-cubicle ready to fight, but not against leveled stoppers. He did not recognize Janja, although once they and several others had spent some hours together in a bar in Thebanis's capital, and he had l.u.s.ted after her. She had been Corundum's woman then, but getting over it.
It seemed wise to restrain Vettering. They did, linking his wrists behind his back. Jenk was more than happy to do that, and Janja hoped that Vett's hands would survive the nasty tightness of those bonds.
Val.u.s.triana See was another matter.
Janja pressed her eyes closed, and swallowed. She stared at the very tall woman with the strange olive eyes ”d.a.m.n,” Janja murmured. ”I'd always thought it was a myth, that a person's elbows could actually be forced together behind her. Without dislocating her shoulders, I mean.”
”Sure swells the warheads, don't it,” Jenk said, copping a feel of one of Val.u.s.triana's large warhead-shaped b.r.e.a.s.t.s. ”This one's supple. She can take about anything. We're real proud of her.”
”Urn,” Janja said, her jaw tightening. She surveyed the big woman's dull eyes. ”Does she have any idea of what's going on? I mean, I can see that she's drugged up to here.” Then she was staring at the other TGO agent's 92.crotch, which was cruelly stuffed by a d.i.l.d.o tied in place.
”Oh yes. Just drugged to the eyebrows. To the hairline! She knows what's going on. She just can't do anything about it. AH right, stash, walk. We're going to take you to see your favorite person.”
Val.u.s.triana See moved dully, carefully, awkwardly. The very tall, slim heels of her clearpla.s.s sandals didn't help her gait.
Janja, Vermillion, and Jenk escorted the pair over to Lewuvul. As they left Starwolf they saw an apparition, and on their way through the S-tunnel linking the s.h.i.+ps, they asked Jenk about it. He explained the woman called Intaglio. And the girls. There were still three of those on Starwolf, Janja learned, even with one now on Lewuvul.
Jenk soon joined the captain, steward, and crewmem-ber of that s.h.i.+p in an increasingly smaller cabin. Jenk showed outrage, which was almost amusing to Janja; Vermillion tweet-laughed openly at the incongruity.
With Jenk securely locked in with his new companion, Janja and Vermillion checked the con, gave Vampy a swift report, and ushered the zombie that had been Val.u.s.triana See to Lortice's cabin. Seera and the naked Topaz sat on the rumpled bed. Topaz was softly weeping; Seera had an arm around her. Her reaction to the others' entry was one of delight, indicating that it was not she who had a.s.sisted in the mussing of the bed, or in the denuding of the teenager.
”She hates him, poor girl,” Seera said, cuddling the yellow-blond. ”Fears him-no, more than that. She's scared half to death of him-and of a woman named or at least called Intaglio. Topaz isn't her real name of course, but she does like it, and the color he dyed her hair. She's from Resh, originally-entered slavery vol- 93.untarily, at thirteen. Not quite five years-standard ago. Look at her waist, these marks. He's kept her in a stringently-laced corset ever since he acquired her-he did buy her, by the way. I mean kept her laced up just short of strangulation day and night. There are three others on his s.h.i.+p, with that Intaglio in charge of them. She is his slave, too.”
”We saw her,” Janja said. ”Topaz. Look at me. I am Janjaglaya Wye. I am with TransGalactic Order.” Seeing no reaction in the girl's eyes, she added, ”TGO,” and saw the flare of recognition. ”This is that lady's s.h.i.+p-Seerava's. Manjanungo tried to steal it, and her -his own cousin. We have just come from his s.h.i.+p, Topaz. We will be going back. Topaz: Manjanungo is dead. Dead.”
Janja saw the joy in the girl's eyes just before she broke down in hysterical sobbing. Janja a.s.sumed that it was relief.
”Vermillion?”
The Jarp ushered in Val.u.s.triana and Vettering. Seera stared.
”Seera, this one needs you-and Topaz,” she said, suddenly realizing that Topaz would be a lot better off with something to do, someone else to feel sorry for and help. ”She is Val.u.s.triana See, an Outie and a good agent of TGO.”
”She is magnificent!” Seera said. ”What has that monster done to her?”
”Most everything he could think of, I think. Right now she's drugged. Please be slow about easing off her bonds-their removal will be painful, surely, with her elbows touching behind her back this way. And . . . you will get this . . . plug out of her?”
Tears showed in Seera's eyes. ”Oh yes. Come on, Topaz-shape up, dear. You're all right now-better than 94.you've ever been. Now you start to live-you'll see, dear. But this poor woman needs our help.”
As they approached the towering zombie, both much shorter even if Val See were not perched upon her tall skinny heels, a voice came from behind Janja. ”All right. What about me?”
Janja turned to Vettering, leaving Val.u.s.triana to Seera and Topaz and putting them all three out of her mind for now.
”Captain Vettering. You and Althis have fallen on hard times since I spent time with you in the Loophole Bar in Raunch, on Thebanis,” Janja said, staring serenely into his eyes. ”I was very blond then, and with Corundum. h.e.l.lfire was calling me Cloud-Top, then. Name's Janja. From Aglaya. Back then I was just with Corundum. I wasn't with TGO, then.”*
”Holy Boodha'sa.s.siNo!”
”Forget it. We aren't after you, Vettering. I was a.s.signed to Manjanungo, because he took a TGO agent and had ideas too big for us all. He's dead. Dead, Vett. We've re-taken this s.h.i.+p. You just behave and I'll get you and Althis to some planet's s.p.a.ce station and set you both free.”
He studied her for quite a while. ”Janja, hmm? I remember. You're the slave who freed herself on Resh and wanted Jonuta's a.s.s. TGO! Boodha's-listen, TGO Janja. You take my s.h.i.+p and give me Manjy-nungo's and I'll do whatever you and TGO say anytime you say it, TGO Janja.”
”Still working the angles, hmm?” She smiled. ”Vettering, Vettering! You're incorrigible. Give you Man-janungo's multimillion-stell yacht! As a matter of fact it will be TGO property. As a matter of fact the hyper- * In s.p.a.cEWAYS #2, Corundum's Woman 95.wealthy clans of Jorinne were short in their last payment to TGO's upkeep.”
”So you steal the s.h.i.+p?”
”The word is confiscation, Vettering-it's you pirates and slavers who steal, remember?”
”Sounds the same to me,” he said. ”Stealing's stealing, whether it's by pickpockets or pirates or policers or governments.”
”Well, that's the business of policers and governments, isn't it? They afford the citizens protection and steal from them. Both history and experience have taught me that about you Galactics, Vett. Anyhow- you're just thinking about Manjanungo's toys on that s.h.i.+p, right? His girls. How many females can one male handle? How about the TGW woman? Lord, Vettering, what about Althis?” The big blowzy frowze, Janja added mentally but did not say. She remembered Vetter-ing's overblown woman.
”Her name is Lhari, and she was shoved into that s.h.i.+p with us. We did not take her, Janja. That was another, and may he and a certain Ulf rot slowly forever! Lhari is mine and Althis's, Janja-she loves it, loves us! And me-h.e.l.l, I love Althis. What's that got to do with other s.e.x-with some fun and games with Manjy's s.e.xy corseted toys?”
Janja forced herself not to smile. ”We-”
”Hey-what do you mean, 'you Galactics'? What do you call yourself?”
”I'm an Aglayan from Aglaya, Vett. We're not Homeworld stock-we're native to that planet. A different race, Vettering. We're Aglayans, not Galactics.”
”Huh! That's not possible. Oh, you've got those funny pale eyes, and skin and hair, and no canine teeth, but-”
”Huh! There are other differences, too, and who 96.cares what your Great Thinkers called impossible? It happened. Besides, you've never seen an Aglayan navel.”
”Love to.”
”We have to take Starwolf, Vettering. Manjanungo's dead but there's his s.h.i.+p, and his mate and a couple more, and his toys. Want to help? A few extra points withTGO?”
He gave her a sideward look, eyes narrowing. ”You really are?”
”I really am. The year or so since I met you has been a very, very busy one, Vett. I can't go back to Aglaya-I know too much, now. I'd never fit in again. On the other hand I believe in Right, and I have morals. So-TGO. I really am.”
”You'd be crazy to trust me with a weapon.”
”You'd be crazy to use it on anyone other than Manjanungo's people, Vett. They're there, and they're ruthless, and both Lhari and Althis are with them.”
Vettering nodded. ”I can't help you with my hands tied behind me. As it is I'll need to flex my fingers for two or three mins just to be sure that I've got my circulation back. After that-I am good with knife and stopper and hands and I would love to take Manjanungo's people apart.” After a moment he added, ”I'd rather take him apart, but you beat me to it. Well? Do you have a plan? Listen ...”
8.
Kill the varmints! Eat the varmints!
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