it was clear that she had never seen anyone like this.
Manka Warlock got some pleasure out of such reactions. She’d been getting a lot
of them on this trip, and it served to keep the common folk of North America off
balance. They weren’t sure if she was a human or a demon, and after a couple of
weeks with her, Raven wasn’t all that sure, either. She was proud, vain,
aristocratic, and genuinely amoral. Raven, it was true, would do almost anything
for the right payoff, but he knew when it was right or wrong—he just did it
anyway. To Warlock, people were divided into two basic categories: useful and
irrelevant. It was clear that deep down she believed herself to be vastly
superior to other human beings and immortal as well. She had on this trip done
things like blast a tree because when she pushed one of its branches out of the
way, it came back and struck her. Now she looked at the three captives less as a
goddess would look at her creations than as a laboratory scientist examining her
test rats. She gestured with a riding crop held in her left hand.
How utterly quaint and primitive, she said in her heavily Caribe-accented
English. Do they have fleas?
They bite, sometimes, Hawks responded, irritated.
Her face took on an ugly, maniacal expression, and the hand holding the riding
crop twitched. Raven stepped in.
Enough! he said. You wanted him—there he is. Go ahead—do what you want, but
remember why you are here and who you are working for.
The hand stilled, and some semblance of sanity crept back into her eyes, but the
look was still there.
Very well, she responded. I will take some lip, for a while, but do not try
my patience, nature man. There are things for which I would willingly surrender
even as fat a price as you would bring. You—all of you—belong to me now, as a
dog, a horse, or even a blanket belongs to someone. You are mine until I choose
to sell you. You are within a forcefield keyed to the two of us now. You cannot
leave without the both of us, and no matter what happened, you would never get
my cooperation to open it.
That won’t work on them, Raven told her. You don’t understand the cultures
here. Just achieving rank or manhood means undergoing tortures that are pretty
bad. Death is meaningless as a threat. If you kill them when they are captives,
they will go to a greater heavenly reward than if they died in bed.
The females, however, are disposable, she noted curtly.
Bullshit. If he gave in to save either one, he’d lose all respect in their eyes
and be a dead man to them anyway. The reverse is also true. You got me into this
because, hard as it is to believe, they are members of my race. I got in because
I liked the potential payoff. You decide right now between the payoff and your
ego.
She turned on her partner. You insect! How dare you speak so to me!
Come on—try and kill me. Maybe you will. If you do, you’ll wind up killing
them, too, and then you’ll be all alone when he starts looking for blame. You
decide right now whether you want to be crazy or you want to buy a one-way
ticket to Melchior.
That seemed to get to her, and she hesitated; there was even a flash of doubt
across her face. She was one level up from Roaring Bull, Hawks thought, but deep
down there were a lot of things that scared her as well. She knew it, and she
knew that Raven not only knew it but had just exposed it, and she hated him all
the more for it, yet she also accepted it as fact.
Tend to them, then. I will call in the skim, and we will get this on the road.
She turned and walked back into the small dome.
Your partner’s a psychotic, Hawks noted calmly. Sooner or later they’re not
going to be able to cover that up anymore from Master System.
Raven sighed. Yeah, I know. I sure as hell don’t plan no long-term relationship
with her. Still, she’s really good at what she does, and she’s useful to lots of
powerful folks. That brings me back to you three.
You spoke the truth to her, Cloud Dancer put in. I suppose even a Crow
understands some things.
Listen, lady, you’re in no spot to bargain, and you are just along for the ride
’cause I want your boy here to be reasonably happy and comfortable.
And perhaps because you might need three helpers if Warlock goes completely
over the edge of the cliff, Hawks added.
Raven shrugged. Could be you’re right. Now it’s time for some serious talk,
though. Have a seat on the ground, here.
They all sat and stared at the Crow.
Now, here’s the story, he began. A while back, down in South America
someplace, an illegal tech group got hold of some old papers. Hawks, you know
what was in them. I don’t, except that they’re some big knife at the throat of
Master System. Forbidden stuff. Well, some of ’em had connections, and they
traced something in the stuff to Lazlo Chen, of all people. How a half-breed
administrator from the middle east figures into something like this I don’t
know, either. Whatever it was, they got the idea that only Chen could help them,
and for some reason they thought he would. They made some contacts among their
version of people like me, and that finally got the word to Chen. What the
message was, again I got no idea, but it interested him. Intrigued him. They
wanted some kind of real fat deal for the stuff, and that he wasn’t about to do
or couldn’t do. So he used his connections and got them raided, and all were
killed, but the right folks got the papers. These started a clandestine courier
network that crossed into the Caribe region.
And that’s where Laughing Lady in there comes in, I suppose, Hawks responded,
interested.
Yeah, sort of. She’s worked her way up to the top of the Security Agency there
with blood and hard work, anyway. Probably got worse the higher she got or she
never would have gotten that far. Well, she worked out a system of transfers.
Island to island, then to someplace up north where it was to be handed to
somebody for Siberia, then somebody else in China, and finally to Chen.
As you know, something went wrong. Master System learned about at least the
existence of the papers and pushed every panic button in the world. Now, you
tell me the courier crashed, got hurt bad, and died, and you found it and read
it. All of a sudden you take off. Of course, since it was one of her girls,
Warlock was dispatched to find out who the traitor was working for, and because
she didn’t know the territory at all, she got hold of me. I was one of the few
not on the case but on routine patrol duties, so I won’t be missed, and I’ve
done a few jobs for the Caribes before. We set out to get you before the real
hunters did, and we did—so far, anyway. Now we deliver, the boss man covers our
trails and our asses, and that’s it for us.
The story was so absurd, it had to be true, and Hawks laughed. Chen. You’re
working for Chen!
Yeah, so that’s not exactly hard to figure. What’s so funny?
That’s just who I started out to find. He’s the only one who could really use
this stuff, and he has the power to get me off the hook as well.
Figured it was something like that. Mud Runner couldn’t have helped, anyway.
His stuff’s wired direct into Master. He’d have apologized profusely and got
drunk for a week after to cure his remorse, but he’d have still skinned you
alive. So, we’re the best thing could’a happened for your long-term future and
interests. It’s so far to Chen, you couldn’t go any further without coming back.
You’d’ve never made it. Now, ’cause neither of us can rightly trust you, there’s
several ways you can travel on this.
I’m listening, Hawks said.
Well, we can knock you cold, keep you out, and carry you in. That’s one. Lots
of trouble for us but effective. Or you can take a hypno and lock it in with a
printer until we unlock it over there. Or you can be bound, gagged, and chained.
What do you think?
Hawks could see the man’s reasoning. Traveling the distance to Chen might take
some time and might even involve transfers as risky and elaborate as those for
the documents—which had failed. Either knocking them cold or chaining them
carried greater risks of discovery and would involve more people in moving and
guarding them. On the other hand, Raven knew that both Hawks and Cloud Dancer
had broken a hypno coming out of Hyiakutt country, so he couldn’t be certain
that a hypno would really take or for how long. He wanted cooperation on the
hypno before he’d risk it.
What sort of hypno? Hawks asked. One like your partner would give?
Nothing too bad. Something to make a good cover and guard our backs is all. You
all would be put back in original condition at the other end. I wouldn’t want to
deliver you any other way—but if we get spot-checked, I wouldn’t want whatever
you know leaking out, or even that you know something worth leaking, if you get
my meaning.
They did. Why take us? Cloud Dancer put in. We both will go with him
anywhere, of course, but why do you bother with us?