Part 19 (1/2)
”Hey, we got trouble,” Diego said, staring up the hill. ”If that isn't Matthew Luzon, my name's not Diego Metaxos, and I do know my own name!”
”And the good and reverent Shepherd Howling, too, I'll wager,” Johnny added, noticing the man in flowing robes beside the Intergal vice-chairman ”Oh, he's come for me. He'll make me marry him . . .”
”Marry him!” burst from five throats.
”Not while we live!” Johnny said in a voice that sounded much like the snarls issuing from both track-cats. ”Bunny, get your sister into the copter and stay there!”
”She's my sister and I've the right-”
”Go,” Sean said and pointed to the copter. ”Lock the doors.”
”There's a box of flares, Bunny. Get 'em out, and if you see me circle my hand, aim 'em at that crowd.”
”Gotcha!” And, lifting her sister into her arms, Bunny sprinted back to the safety of the copter. Push come to shove, she'd fly it out of there herself-she'd watched Johnny often enough to understand the principles of the yoke and the gearing. No one was going to get her little sister, not when she'd just found her.
Johnny handed Yana the automatic and the clips, slapping Sean's hand away when he tried to get the weapon.
”You handle the cats, Sean. That is, if the clouded one will take orders like Nanook will,” Johnny suggested.
Both cats growled low in their bellies, making their necks vibrate as they took positions on either side of Sean Shongili.
The crowd's noise had died to a murmur. Matthew and Shepherd Howling led the pack by several strides.
”Well, Dr. Luzon, you've led me quite a hunt,” Johnny called when the men were near enough to hear him.
”While you, Captain Greene, did not reappear as you promised.”
”Oh, I reappeared. Dr. Luzon, just as I said I would, but you'd taken off in old Scobie's beat-up snocle. My compliments on your driving to get that snow bucket this far.”
Shepherd Howling raised one arm, his robe falling back over his bony wrist, pointing to the copter. ”The child Goat-dung is one of my flock and is about to become one with me, to the salvation of her humanity. You must return her to my protection. I don't care what error you infidels fall into or what the Great Monster does to you, but she must be returned to me, and the monster who abducted her, as well.”
”Well, now, sir, I can't rightly do that,” Johnny said.
”Watch who you're calling a monster, you abomination,” Sean snarled. ”This child is my niece, and she is and will remain with her closest relative. I, her uncle, and male guardian, did not condone and will not condone a marriage for the child to anyone.”
Shepherd Howling looked from Sean's face to the wound on Sean's leg, and back to his face again, his eyes widening with horror. ”You! You were the monster! The seal man! Then the girl-she, too, is a monster.”
”Monster?” Yana challenged, inserting herself between the injured Sean and the self-proclaimed Shepherd. ”I only see one monster here, and it isn't Dr. Shongili. Do you always throw lethal weapons at visitors, Mr. Howling?”
”He was no visitor when we first saw him,” Shepherd Howling blathered. ”He looked like a seal at first and then started-growing. And he came from the underworld via the portal from which all of the d.a.m.nable abominations of this planet emanate!”
”Nonsense,” Yana snapped. ”He was exploring an under-ground pa.s.sage where his pregnant sister and brother-in-law disappeared many years ago. You're making up this incredible story to prevent further inquiry into your own abominable activities.”
”I very much doubt that,” Matthew Luzon said, smiling unctuously. ”When I arrived, all of the Shepherd's flock were exclaiming about the monster they had found and were preparing to burn it over an open fire. I didn't see the beast myself, but I was naturally trying to prevail upon the Shepherd to allow me to study it rather than destroy it, to take it back to the laboratory and run some tests. Since Dr. Shongili's wound corresponds with that of the beast, I'd say he has some explaining to do.”
”I'd say you had more, Dr. Luzon,” Yana said in a voice so cold it made Johnny s.h.i.+ver, ”for I'm reasonably certain you would know the paragraphs in Collective Interplanetary Societies' regulations-which apply to Intergal as well as the rest of inhabited s.p.a.ce-about forced or child marriages.”
”But, Major Maddock, all during her return trip to her home here in the Vale of Tears, Goat-dung-”
”Phah!” Sean exploded.
”The child,” Matthew went on, ”told me how happy she was to be coming home to such an auspicious marriage.”
”How many wives have you at the moment, Shepherd Howling?” Yana demanded.
”'Cita mentioned five,” Sean said icily. ”Also against the customs of this planet which do not, to the best of my knowledge, sanction polygamy.”
”Now now, Dr. Shongili. We mustn't be ethnocentric,” Matthew said with his smile still in place. ”We must allow religious communities their own mores and folk ways and rites, however strange they may seem to us.”
”Not with my niece,” Sean said.
”And how can you prove that you are her uncle?” Matthew demanded.
”h.e.l.l, man, that's so obvious, it's the stupidest question you've asked so far,” Diego Metaxos said, sputtering in his rage and turning the LD-404 in the Shepherd's-and Matthew Luzon's-direction.
”Young man,” Matthew began, ”you are in grave danger of-”
”Let's save the talk for a more appropriate time,” Yana said, noticing Sean beginning to sway with fatigue and pain. ”Captain Greene came to collect you, Dr. Luzon, so we'll do just that and leave these people to sort their sordid little folk ways by themselves in what ever way they care to, so long as it doesn't involve Dr. Shongili or his niece or any of the rest of us, for that matter.”
Matthew Luzon turned his back on her to appeal to the Shepherd, who was swelling with righteous indignation and anger. ”Shepherd, you can see what the investigation is up against. These people all justify each other's views, and no dissenting voice is allowed to be heard. If only you would appoint an apostle to lead your people while you come with me and speak to the commission on your views of the effects this planet has on people, justice would be far better served.”
The Shepherd's eyes widened with interest, and he nodded as Matthew spoke.
Johnny Greene cut them off short. ”If you think I'm bringing that one back in the same plane with that little girl, Dr. Luzon, I'd think again very carefully,” Johnny said. ”Not to mention the fact that we'd be grossly overloaded for the fuel I have on board.”
”You can refuel at Bogota, man.” Matthew snapped back, ”and you know it as well as I do.”
”I have a wounded man, Dr. Luzon, which requires me to take the straightest route back north.” Johnny jerked his head at Yana and Diego to help Sean back to the copter. ”So this captain limits his pa.s.sengers to those in jeopardy and those he originally ferried over. You, of course, are one, sir, but I can't authorize another pa.s.senger. So if you don't care to join this flight, Dr. Luzon, I'll be happy to request that other transport collect you, and your guest, ASAP!”
”Why, you . . .” Luzon's eyes sparked with suppressed anger.
”Captain Greene, sir, yes, sir, attached to the exclusive service of Dr. Whittaker Fiske, sir.” Johnny held the eye contact.
Suddenly, suspiciously, Luzon capitulated, saying in a deceptively pleasant tone of voice, ”Then, as soon as you are airborne, you will contact s.p.a.ceBase and request the immediate departure of a copter to collect myself, my a.s.sistant, and my guest. Is that plain? Any delay in the dispatch of that request will be a matter of record and dealt with appropriately. Do I make myself clear to you, Captain Greene, in the service-for the time being, that is-of Dr. Fiske?”
”Plain as day, sir. Thank you. sir. Good day, sir. And to you, sir,” Johnny said, snapping salutes at both Luzon and the astonished Shepherd Howling.
Then with a smart about face, he leapt over a hillock and proceeded as fast as the terrain permitted back to the copter.
He took off, aware of the moans of Coaxtl, who had never endured such an experience, and the purring rea.s.surances of Nanook, who found himself suddenly braver about flying.
No sooner was Johnny in the air than he switched channels on the comm unit, grinning as he did so. ”Hey, there MoonBase, this is Bravo-Jig-Fox-trot four-two-nine-one, Captain Johnny Greene, calling in for the immediate-I repeat-the immediate dispatch of a copter to these coordinates-” He read them out. ”-to collect Intergal Vice-Chairman Matthew Luzon, a.s.sistant, and guest pa.s.senger. This is top priority Please log in request immediately as of 1940.34 30 ”
”You got yourself in Luzon's bad books, honey? asked a female voice.
”Me, MoonBase? Not me,” Johnny replied in his most ingenuous tone. ”Is that Neva Marie's voice in my ears?”