TWENTY
Because she had been taken unawares before, Kay was determined it would not happen again; more, this time when she went looking for the Rel who could tell her where to find yet another Rel, she was not alone. Jo Captain and Gunny, along with a squad of CFI’s best had her back, and woe to any who stood in their way.
It was the smart thing to do. Not that she liked doing it.
Investigation into the men who had captured her proved less than useful. They had names and background available, but the men were, as far as they could tell, low-level thugs. Since they were all dead, that would not provide much in the way of intel. Presumably, they had kin, and those relatives could be determined, then questioned, but that was, Kay felt, a low-percentage option.
The neighborhood in which the Rel supposedly resided was more upscale than Kay had expected. Rel tended to herd together, sometimes a dozen to a plex, and all they needed was a cool and humid place. They mostly slept when they weren’t working or socializing, and they didn’t need much in the way of bedding since they tended to clump together, back to front, or side to side. They didn’t spend much money on living quarters, but this place was new and, from its look, not cheap.
Herd mentality, that social structure. Repugnant, too.
Kay approached the entrance to the plex. Jo, Gunny, and the troops stayed back, ready to move, but they’d only come in on her signal. Better she talk to the Rel alone. Arriving with a group of armed soldiers would not strengthen her in the eyes of prey.
“Who calls?”
Kay gave her proper name. “I seek Zeth of the Hallows.”
“He is not here.”
“Then I would speak with his sibling Booterik.”
“A moment.”
The door slid open, and a single Rel stood there. A male, and his decorations muted, mostly dull blues with hints of purple.
“You are Booterik.”
“I am. You may enter.”
Kay smiled. “May I? How kind of you.”
She walked into the place, following the Rel as he waddled ahead of her. It was clean, neat, not much in the way of furniture. Dim, damp, cool—a relief from the tropical heat outside.
Something was wrong with the smell, and it took her a second to realize what it was: There wasn’t any scent of fear from the Rel. None.
And he was alone.
How interesting.
“Why do you wish to speak to Zeth?”
“My business and his.”
“And mine. I am his elder sibling.”
She regarded the Rel. This Booterik was insolent, at the very least impertinent. Something was wrong with him, that he would dare speak to a Vastalimi thus.
Carefully, she inhaled, searching for something in his scent. Drugs, perhaps. Chemical bravery? She couldn’t detect any such.
Madness?
Kay resisted the urge to open his belly with her claws. She was here for information. If this being could provide it, he could go on with his life, such a sad thing that it was.
“Zeth gave me information regarding the whereabouts of the Rajah’s daughter, who has been kidnapped.”
“And…?”
“His information was inaccurate.”
“Allow me to apologize in his stead. I am sure this was not done deliberately to deceive.”
“Are you?”
Booterik moved to a cushioned chair and sat upon it. He gestured at a similar seat across from him. “Sit if you wish.”
Kay glanced around but sensed no threat. They were, as far as she could tell, alone, just the two of them. But she remained standing. Not wise to sit in the presence of prey behaving thusly.
“Zeth is not the smartest among us, but he is not given to deliberate falsehood. Especially to…” He trailed off, waving a hand in her direction.
She understood that well enough. Especially not to a predator who would as soon kill you and eat you as look at you.
“I look forward to his explanation,” she said.
“Unfortunately, you will not be able to hear it from him directly. He has…left this world. He departed yesterday.”
“Where would his destination be?”
“Far, far away.” Booterik smiled. “Where you won’t ever be able to find him.”
If it isn’t drugs? Then he must be mentally deranged.
“I find your tone disturbing.”
“Do you?” Again the smile.
Kay relaxed her stance slightly, bent her knees a little, sank a hair lower. Enough to be able to move a little faster. Because if it wasn’t drugs, and if he wasn’t mentally off the beam, then Booterik here had a weapon of some kind close to hand and the belief that he could get it and use it before she got to him. Which was hardly sane by their standards, but still.
Hidden in the chair?
Interesting. She had heard about Rel who had overcome the prey response and offered a challenge to a Vastalimi. She’d never run into one herself, and that was because they were few and far between, and those who had tried it only did so the once since they were surely no longer among the living, having gone down that path. If not killed instantly, then soon afterward.
She let it percolate, to see what would happen. “Do you know how Zeth came by this misinformation?”
“As it happens, I do. But I don’t think I shall tell you.”
Kay took a step toward him—
The Rel came out of the chair, impossibly fast, faster than she had ever seen one move, faster than it should be possible. As he did, a knife appeared in his hand, snatched from a hiding place in his chair. He came straight at her, the knife leading, and he shoved it toward her belly, intending to skewer her—
He was faster than any Rel she had ever seen, but that didn’t mean he was faster than she was. Nor was he trained. He was depending on his speed, his lines were all open, save for the knife, and his attack was out of balance—
—when the blade’s point was two centimeters from her belly and the Rel’s attack fully committed, Kay pivoted. The blade tickled her hair below the navel. The Rel might have tried to slash inwardly, but she dropped low and slammed her elbow into his arm as she pivoted, felt the bone break just above his wrist, then she threw her body into his, knocking him sideways and sprawling.
He hit the wall, bounced off, somehow kept to his feet.
The Rel recovered, the knife fallen from his limp hand, and he came at her again, arms extended, face contorted, his sad, dull, grinding teeth bared in a poor imitation of a snarl.
She kept her claws sheathed, snapped her right hand out in a straight punch, and hit him on the nose. The force of his charge and the hit straightened him out, stopped him, and knocked him unconscious. She danced to her left, and he fell and slid past her on his back.
She triggered her com. “We are going to need to transport an unconscious Rel out of here and back to the base for a medical examination,” she said.
“Why?” Jo asked.
“He attacked me, and I had to put him down.”
“A Rel attacked you? What, is he stoned or crazy?”
“I cannot say for certain. But perhaps we should determine his reason.”
Wink knew Rel physiology well enough to offer standard medical treatment, of course. Every alien species had its own quirks, and he was far from an extee specialist, but he could do lumps and bumps and sniffles and wheezes. He’d trained at enough hospitals to have run into most of the alien species who interacted with humans.
It didn’t take more than a minute into his exam before he realized what he was dealing with, and it was beyond his ability to get into it.
“Wow,” he said.
“What?” That from Jo, who was the only other person in the room.
“We need to get Formentara in here.”
Jo looked at him. “Why would—? Really?”
“Yeah. Our friend Booterik here is wired.”
“A Rel on augs? I never heard of such a thing.”
“I’ll get hir.”
“Formentara is gonna be as happy as a Malay monkey on mushrooms.”
Jo stepped out as Formentara came in. Outside the exam room, Kay stood, waiting.
“Your Rel is augmented.”
Kay nodded. “Yes.”
“You knew?”
“It seems a reasonable assumption. I did not detect hormone or somatic drug odors from him, so the augmentation is unusual. His demeanor was most un-Rel-like. His speed beyond that of a normal Rel. Augmentation would allow for that. From our short conversation, I got the impression his brother was no longer among the living. This one will have answers we need.”
“Formentara will figure out what’s what, then we can ask your Rel about it. It would seem to be connected to Indira’s kidnapping.”
“So it would seem—”
“Shit! Shit—!” Formentara yelled.
Jo and Kay blew through the door, Jo’s pistol out and Kay’s claws ready.
The Rel on the table jittered like a spider on a hot griddle. Wink frantically waved control-jive at his computer diagnostics, and Formentara did likewise to hir gear.
As they watched, the jitters stopped, and the Rel lay suddenly still.
“He’s arrested,” Wink said. “I’m going to pump adrenaline directly into his—”
“Don’t bother,” Formentara said. “His EEG is flat. He’s not coming back. Shit! I missed it!”
Jo said, “Missed what?”
“The second burner, dammit!”
Formentara said, “He’s running a myotonic speed rig, custom augware, adjusted to Rel physiology—got a suppressor, too, so that’s why Kay couldn’t smell him.
“He has a brainburner implant, a high-voltage capacitor, set for query-discharge. If somebody opens his aug for inspection and doesn’t shut the CNS implant down, it zaps his limbics.
“First thing I did was close it. But there’s a second burner, wrapped around his cortex. A neural net. It fried him before I realized it was there. Stupid!”
Wink said, “Nobody would have caught that, it doesn’t show, it’s completely biological, there’s nothing to detect—”
“I should have caught it! Some asshead slipped it past me! And I tell you what, whoever did it is not from around here. This was done by somebody who knew what the fuck they were doing, and it is recent. Days old, no more.”
Jo had never seen hir so angry. She said, “Well, well. This is another whole ugly jar of worms, isn’t it? A Rel on aug, and with enough suicide in him to be doubly sure nobody could poke around in his head. Why?”