Part 11 (2/2)
”Kill a billion people?”
”No,” Kat said, casting a quick glance back at Dumont.
”No, we didn't kill anyone. The war ended. They put the muzzle back on us dogs, and that was that.” There had to be more to the story. But neither Kat nor Dumont was talking, and Jeff couldn't begin to construct a question that might get them talking again. They rode in silence for a very long minute.
”Here, you take the gun.” Dumont tossed the rifle at them.
Jeff caught it by the barrel; the stock landed on the floor of the backseat. He looked at it, terrified, trying to remember where the safety was. Kat glanced at it. ”Don't worry, Jeff. The safety's on. It can't fire. Du, what you doing?”
”I'm quitting. I've had it. You want someone joked, you pop *im yourself. You the one that sicced that priest on me?”
”No. What priest?”
”Father Joseph. He wouldn't leave me alone today. One of you brains tell him about me?”
”Du, in case you haven't noticed, I've been full-time busy trying to figure out which end of this planet is up. Besides, I'm not Catholic. I don't know if any middies are.” Kat slowed down. ”Why? What did the preacher have to say to you?”
”He didn't say anything. Least, not at first. Just hung around me like I was some virgin he was h.o.r.n.y for. No, like I had the dust and he wanted a fix. No. I don't know. He was just there, every time I turned around.”
”So why didn't you tell him to get lost?” Kat asked. ”Your team isn't exactly known for putting up with anything you think is s.h.i.+t.”
”I did. So he asked me what I was doing. That miner Mary had me working with was running the thumper all over that d.a.m.n hill. I told the little priest we were making sounds to tell Mary what the hill looked like inside. It was kind of nice, talking to him. Next thing I know, my miner's been called away and me and the priest are humping that thumper all over that hill. He may be short, but d.a.m.n, that guy could lug. I kept on talking to him. He listened to whatever I said. So I ended up telling him about the war and all that s.h.i.+t and how I joked Guns and how I wish I hadn't.” Du closed down suddenly, like Vicky did when she thought she'd given something away for free.
Kat took them smoothly around a curve. The night stretched out ahead of them; it was damp this close to the James River. Its river barges and dams made Refuge and Richland possible.
”What did he have to say to that?” Kat finally asked.
”That it was never too late to start over. That life was always giving second chances. Or maybe he said G.o.d was. I don't know.” Du snickered. ”Stupid old a.s.shole. The streets don't give no second chances.”
”We got a second chance,” Kat said softly. ”n.o.body ever came back from a sour jump. We did. Mary d.a.m.n near killed Ray in the war. Did leave him crippled. They're giving each other a second chance. There're a lot of reasons that d.a.m.n boat is named Second Chance. You could be one of them.”
”That's what the priest said. But look at me now. First time the d.a.m.n Colonel needs somebody popped, he yanks my chain.”
”You sure?”
”Why else dump me here but so I can joke s.h.i.+t for you two?”
”Maybe the Colonel a.s.signed you 'cause you're good at your job.”
”Good at what job?” Du snorted.
”Good at knowing what's dangerous and making it not. Good at scaring the s.h.i.+t out of people and maybe saving their lives by making them go someplace else real fast. I don't know, Du, but I feel safer with you in the backseat, and not because I figure you'll shoot everybody we happen to see.”
The man in the backseat stared off into the night, slowly rubbing his chin. ”That the way you see me?” he asked finally.
”Yes, Du. That's you. Not just the cool dude you want all the other street rags and rages to see, but the guy I see, too. The guy who didn't shoot the next time the admiral started shouting for you to.”
”Yeah, I didn't shoot then. And you were real close.”
”Scary close, Du.”
”Can I have my rifle back?”
Jeff glanced at Kat; she gave him a quick nod. He handed the weapon very carefully back. ”Thanks,” the man said.
”You're welcome,” Jeff answered. Du half smiled, half sneered at the automatic politeness. ”I meant it,” Jeff added.
They rode into the darkness. Or maybe out of it.
Ray advanced his team slowly, holding a tight rein on their speed-and on his own frustration. Ahead, scouts ranged three blocks forward, checking each cross street before signaling them forward and hustling up the street to check the next one. It made for safe but slow going.
”Mr. Amba.s.sador, are you there?”
”Yes, Ms. San Paulo.”
”You may call me Hen if you wish.”
”I'm Ray to my friends. Were you able to get us any help?”
”Our security force has some electrocycles. They might scout for you. Where are you?” Ray read the closest street signs. ”Oh, that far out. Let me tell them where you are.”
Ray studied the town houses lining this block. Two, three stories high, they provided several windows for snipers, but all were closed and darkened. People slept behind them, or they were empty as their occupants roamed the streets, looking for a violent solution to a problem Ray didn't understand and that probably eluded them, too. What had gone wrong with this planet? Was it also swallowing him?
San Paulo came back on. ”The cyclists are moving. They should meet you in ten or fifteen minutes.”
”Good. Ray out.”
”'Bye.”
Ray gritted his teeth, forcing down a rising anger that had no explanation. Quickly, he advised his teams to be on the lookout for their allies.
”Slow going, but looks okay,” Lek observed beside him.
”That's not what's bothering me,” Ray said, picking one from several. ”Riots are only the symptom. What's the underlying cause? The farmers seem nice. The city types had quirks but didn't look all that bad.”
”I've worked for bosses who had smiles for the visiting firemen but were h.e.l.l on the miners,” Lek observed to the street ahead of them. ”Kind of hard to peg an outfit when you're on a whirlwind tour. Finally decided upper management wasn't dumb or nasty, just uninformed and blind.”
Ray couldn't argue that point. h.e.l.l, Unity had talked a good line. Right up to the point they started hanging people. ”G.o.d, I'd like to dig through these folks' archives. Newspapers, media, something to get the feel of the real them,” Ray said, addressing something he could.
Beside him, Lek grinned. ”Glad you said that, sir. While I'm doing their security net, I just might find time to put in a few extra nodes. You want all their news and media?”
”All you can poke a link into.” What had Mary and Matt said about the joys of having on staff a paranoid electronic genius with a sense of humor? This might get interesting.
The cyclists joined up. Adding his armed scouts to the backseats of the three-wheeled get-abouts let Ray dodge two mobs early and avoid three fires. They made it to the Great Hall in a half hour, but it did nothing to calm Ray's roiling temper.
Jeff missed his turn in the dark, and Kat had to do a U-turn back to the road into Sterlingview. Like most of the towns within a short trolley ride of Richland, all the houses had been designed to two or three floor plans. Over the years, residents had personalized them. Two they drove by in the twisting, turning streets had recently been very personalized-by fires. Jeff couldn't begin to guess what was going on, but something new and ugly was sweeping the world he'd grown up in.
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