Transcript

Chapter I · Blood on My Jets

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Chapter one of Blood on My Jets by Algus Boutris. This is a LibriVox
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recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
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to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Ben Tucker. Blood
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on My Jets by Algus Boudras, Chapter one, Rocket rows the joy street
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of three planets. It's got neon lights, crummy dives, cheap hotels,
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and women to match. Every man who's ever rowed a ship into space knows
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about rocket Row. It runs along the far side of Flushing Spaceport, down
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toward the sound. The new Shanghai was full of dock workers and crewmen on
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liberty. It was noisy. I sat on a barstool and watched the fog,
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trying to infiltrate the open door. It didn't have a chance against the
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tobacco smoke that rolled out to meet it outside. The streets and alleys would
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be choked with wet, creeping darkness, full of quiet at footsteps, and
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the cops would find empty, pocketed corpses behind the ash cans in the morning.
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But none of that was any of my business. I was sick and
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tired of fog. The real kind, the kind that grow on Venus,
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and I was sick of the thought of blood. I'd seen too much of
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it soaking into the hot mud, and some of it spilled by my guns.
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I wanted to forget the night and fog that gave cover to every kind
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of dirty deal a man could imagine. I wanted to pull the corners of
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my world together until all that was left was the drink, the barstool,
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and me. But it wasn't going to work out that way, because I
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was in the New Shanghai on business, and my kind of business was the
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dirtiest, lousiest, most thankless racket in the world. The bartender moved up
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to where I was sitting of another one Ash. He asked, yeah,
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sure, Ming, I said, you still make the best stingers in the
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system. Maybe that's because you don't brew your own gin quby Ash couldby.
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He laughed. He shook up the drink and poured it in my glass.
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How to go on Venus, it went? I said. Ming was one
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of the few people who admitted knowing I was a dio, a detached operative.
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It was a crummy job, but it suited me. We were the
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hired gun rabble of the system thrown together into the damned as police force there
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ever had been. Spatial expansion hadn't really gotten under way until after the terot
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Martian War, and after it ended, every would be big shot there was
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had realized that all he really needed to set himself up as a pocket sized
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dictator with some salvaged gear from the mess the war had left a crew that
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wasn't too particular and a good looking piece of territory in the practically limitless areas
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of space. Most of them had picked slices of Venus. There were few
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in the asteroids hooked up with renegade marties, and one or two that had
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actually grabbed sections of Mars. Sending regular law enforcement officers or marines after each
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one of these boys would have been physically impossible. Earth government had come up
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with a cuter idea. It was a lot more economical to fight one big,
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decisive battle than to endure a series of inconclusive skirmishes. There were a
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lot of US boys out in space, most of us just drifting from one
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port to the next, picking up a living by our wits and by our
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skill with a gun. Some of us Earth government had quietly picked out the
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ones they considered trustworthy, sworn us in and turned us loose with a few
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standing orders and a lot of dependence on our discretion. Whenever something brewed between
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two of these minor warlords, we'd come flocking in and hire ourselves out to
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whichever side we felt had slightly more justice. Sometimes we wound up shooting at
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each other, but you couldn't even be sure that, since most of us
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didn't know beyond a guess or two who the other dios were. Usually,
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though, we had enough brains to pick the right side, and we'd make
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sure that was the one that came out on top. It was a process
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of a nation, actually. The warlords were helped to knock each other off
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until eventually those who remained either proved themselves to be strong leaders, which was
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what frontier planets needed, or else megalomaniacs, in which case it paid to
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devote a full scale military campaign to them. It was a highly informal system,
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but it had worked. It was tough on us, but it wasn't
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any harder than freelance grifting had been. It left an awful lot to personal
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discretion, and we paid ourselves out of whatever came to hand, but there
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hadn't been any big totalitarian regimes lately either. Yeah, I did pretty well,
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I repeated. Mink puckered his mouth and winked. I used to try
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and figure out how he did it, standing behind his bar all day,
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never going out, never talking much except to a few people like me.
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But I knew for sure that he could have told me exactly how much I
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had made on that Venus job and the gimmick I'd pulled to get it past
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customs too. But that was why I was in here. Something was up,
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something big. I wanted to find out what it was before every grifter
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and chiseler in the system tried to cut a piece of it for himself.
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I got a note in my mailbox today, I said, casually. Yeah,
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he asked, just as quietly. Must have been put there as soon
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as I touched down this morning. Somebody wants me to go to work for
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them. They're paying high, too high. Maybe you hear anything about a
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big job coming off somewhere, Ming grinned, if you mean that little letter
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from trans Soolar. Yeah, I know about that. He got serious and
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moved closer. But that's all I know. Nobody else knows, even that
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much. Sure something's cooking, but nobody knows what it is. He broke
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off. You got company, boy, have you got company? I looked
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in the back bar mirror. A girl had come in the doorway and was
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walking toward me. Her dress tightened and intriguing places. Her face was as
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much of a treat, high cheeked, brown eyed, with a small,
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up tilted nose and a full mouth. It was framed by short, curly
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hair the color of new copper wire. I liked it, so did the
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spacemen and the dock workers sitting at the bar. One or two half rose
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to invite her to join them, but they sat down again when they saw
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who she was headed for. There was something about that hare. I had
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seen it before somewhere. The guy next to me got up and slid out
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of the way. I let my eyes stay on the bottles on the back
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bar until she sat down beside me. I gave me a look. He
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nodded and moved down the bar ash The voice was low but crisp. It
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had whispers and murmurs in it, too, and I knew i'd heard it
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before. I'm pat mac kay. I turned my head and looked at her.
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Her dress tied as paint from him to Bodice was mysteriously loose in the
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sleeves. Ruffles at each shoulder hid bulges that mother Nature never put there.
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They looked more like twin shoulder holsters. They were, And the last time
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I'd seen her she was seventeen eighteen, maybe in a ball gown, her
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hair long then curling around her shoulders, and the voice hadn't been as controlled
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or as crisp, but she'd been saying, you're a good dancer, mister
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Holcombe. Not much on the light conversation, but a good leader. I'd
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swept her around another couple and kept my cheek away from hers. The academy
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is geared to the production of good leaders pat good conversationalists, on the other
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hand, are born, not made. She laughed, a giddy party laugh
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from a girl who dated academy boys exclusively, who loved the glitter and pomp
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of graduation ceremonies, who hung around the academy all she could, who had
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been to graduation balls before and would certainly be to a number of them again.
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Before she managed to separate all the black and silver uniforms she had danced
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with and found herself a man from inside one of them, an academy drag,
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a number, and a score of little black books like Harry, Oh,
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pardon me, it's graduation night, like mister Thornston, you mean,
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And she looked up at me, raking my face with the green eyes.
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If you will, you're jealous, mister Holcombe, she said, breaking out
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her best little teas manner. Maybe I knew she was trying to get me
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angry. She was getting there fast too. Well. Now, if you
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displayed some of mister Thorston's other gifts, I could forget about the conversation,
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She said, lightly, meaning you'd like me to dance you out on the
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terrace and make a pass at you. Maybe she was daring me. I
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danced her out on the terrace and found a darker corner. She looked up
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at me, her eyes a little surprised, but her lips were parted.
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I tightened my arms and kissed her. It started gently, just a kiss,
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sneaked in between dances, but her arms were growing tighter too, and
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her fingers were hooking. We held it while I listened to the blood running
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in my ears, until we broke apart. Both was dropping our arms,
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standing and looking at each other, dragging air down our throats, ash you.
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She started to say something and broke it. It sounded a little too
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much like a movie heroine, all of a sudden, she was holding the
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pose a little too long. Too Well, she's a kid, she's doing
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it the way the grown ups and the movies do it, I told myself.
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But I danced her out here for a purpose. Maybe she didn't deserve
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it, but I was sick to death with little bits of fluff that hung
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around drinking and borrowed glamour, getting the big play from boys like Harry Thorston.
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I reached out and grabbed. Now comes the part you've really been asking
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for, I said. I crouched, bent her over my knee and brought
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my hand down hard, three times in all, putting everything I had into
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it. Now, I said, letting her get up, Maybe you'll quit
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bothering guys who worked all their lives to get in a spot where they could
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go out and be of some help and the only job they ever wanted.
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The TSN think you stack up worth a damn beside the only thing that counts.
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She just stood there, tears of rage in her eyes. I was
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never sure whether it was what I'd done or what I said that had her
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so mad, But the last thing I heard her say as I walked away
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was damn you, Ash Holcombe, damn you for being such a snobbish,
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stuck up. Well maybe I was wrong, and maybe I wasn't. I
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didn't know as much in those days as I should have either. But it
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was too late now, too late by a war and a hundred revolutions,
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too late by all the men who had gone down before my guns, too
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late by years of loneliness and bitterness. But if it was too late,
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why did I remember it all now? With Thorston up in the asteroids,
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a little king in his own right, with me in the new Shanghai,
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a white ray burn splashed through my hair, with the Academy a dim thing
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behind both of us. And Pat? Why was Pat here? What had
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she done through the years while I fought my way from one end of the
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system to the other and Harry took the easy way out during the war?
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Hello, Pat, I said, I haven't seen you in a long time.
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Well what else was I going to say? I don't know what she
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had expected me to say. She kept her face in profile and didn't let
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me see what it was showing. I'm here on business. I hear you're
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a good man these days. For the job I've got, She twisted the
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words like a knife. All right, if she wanted it that way,
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she'd get it. So they tell me, I said fifteen thousand for a
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month's work. She said it quietly, without any build up. Maybe she
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figured fifteen thousand didn't need one. I sat there for a minute, not
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saying anything, but thinking hard. What kind of a set up was she
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offering me? Was this the big job that was floating around. There's usually
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a sure way to find out when someone offers you a blind deal. Argue.
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Maybe they'll get mad or scared you won't take it and spill something.
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No thanks, I said, She frowned. Don't try hackling with me,
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Ash, I can get somebody just as good for less. I don't doubt
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it. You could probably get three. That's why I don't want any part
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of it. It's sucker bait. She looked at me for the first time,
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mouth twisted. Since Wind is a hired gun like you, turned down
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that kind of money. The job's worth it, believe me. That hit
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me, but I couldn't afford to get touchy, probably is, but would
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stand or pay at three thousand a month plus bounties and commissions. This little
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errand of yours, whatever it may be, must break so many law as
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it could land me in a death house, I said, watching her eyes.
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It didn't add up. Nothing add it up. Why she picked me
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in the first place. I had a reputation as one of the better gunnies.
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Sure, but there were at least twenty guys I'd never draw against if
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I could help it, and four or five of them were available because she
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had known me and this job. What kind of hanky panky was going on
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at these prices? I watched her eyes acquiring dangerous highlights. The temper that
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went with her hair was beginning to stir. Do you want to get in
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on the biggest deal that's ever been pulled off in space? Or don't you?
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She said? Or are you going to chicken out? She added contemptuously.
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I let it slide off my shoulders. I don't know, I said.
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I wanted to get a chance to really talk things out with her,
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and this wasn't the place for it anyway. This is no place to talk
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to business. Walk out of here. As if I'd turned you down and
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go up the street. I'll catch up to you. Okay. She got
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up and walked out. Sorry, honey, I called after her, loud
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enough for everybody to hear. A snicker went up. I cut it off
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with a look at the characters lined up against the bar, and got back
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to my drink. I finished it casually, put it down, paid and
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walked slowly to the door. I let everybody get a good look at me.
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Turning down the street in the opposite direction from the one Pat had taken.
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I ducked into the first cross street and moved swiftly over to the alley
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the perilel the street that Pat was on. I was thinking all the way.
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Being a do O was one thing, Getting into something solo was another.
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I could get killed for all I knew, and maybe by a lawman's
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gun. That was a risk I ran on every job, but in this
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case I didn't even know yet what was going on. The smart thing to
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do would have been to pass the word to my SBI contact, but that
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would take too much time. There was nothing I could do but dive into
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this mess head on and hope I'd have time to yell for help. Later,
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I was about to turn into another alley that ran back to the main
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street when I heard the coughing of a sorrow air gun and the faint sizzle
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of a colt in reply. Instantly I was running silently up the alley.
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One hand unzipped the chest of my coverall, and the other one dove in
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and grabbed the butt of the heavy sturmy. That's my favorite man killer.
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I reached the mouth of the alley and stopped abruptly in the shadows. A
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man lay in the middle of the street, unnaturally flat against the concrete slab
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the street lamp up. The block was dark, its base surrounded by shattered
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glass. The Sorrow went into action again from the roof of a building across
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the street. I saw the slugs chipped cement from the railing of a flight
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of steps four doors up. A pale blue flare winked from behind the railing,
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and the man with the sorrow ducked, but was up again as another
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gun raked the stairs from a spot on my side of the street. I
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didn't like that set up one bit. The stirmy in my hand went whoomp,
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and the man on the roof sailed out over the street and landed with
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a crunch. The other gun cut off abruptly. Two colt beams probed for
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it from the stairs, and that clenched it. It was Pat, all
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right, and somewhere she had become a fair hand at street fighting. Ay
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Pat, I yelled and ducked away from the storm of bullets the other gunman
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flung at me. The result was what I had hoped for. The man
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had exposed himself to Pat's fire by shooting at me. The colts sizzled viciously,
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and the burst of sorrow noise stopped in mid clip. A gun clattered
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on cement. I poked my head cautiously around the corner. Silence blanked rocket
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row, and then was tempered by a scuffing noise. Up the street,
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a leather belt was being pressed against the side of a building by the weight
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of a body that was sliding slowly downwards. I spotted a glowing dot.
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That was a tunic smoldering around a colt burn ash. Yeah, ok,
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I grinned. She sounded a little worried. I sprinted across the street at
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a weaving run and dove behind the stairway. What happened, I asked.
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I don't know, but I've got an idea. I got about a hundred
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yards up the street when I spotted this skuy tailing me. I yelled and
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he ducked. At the same time, this other fellow started running toward me
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across the street. I burned him down and ducked in here just as the
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bird on the roof opened up. That's it until you came along, I
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swore. I didn't go for three men gunning one girl. I looked over
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the top of the railing. One or two people were starting to come out
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of doorways. Maybe we'd better get out o here, I said. We
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ran up the street to another alley. She reholstered her guns on the way,
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revealing a lot of what the dress advertised. We stopped inside the alley
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and caught our breaths. Well anyway, I said, I know what you're
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in this for. She looked up sharply. What you need money to buy
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some underwear with? She slammed her hand into my face. I ducked back
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and stood there blinking. Look Holcombe, As far as I'm concerned, the
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deals on fine. Thanks for helping me out back there, too, but
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just thinks no further payment, and no kidding around. This is a business
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deal. Have you got that straight? Or do I burn you down where
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you stand and find another boy? She meant it. I looked down at
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her hand, and one of the colts was in it. Okay, I
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hadn't meant that crack as a pass, but as long as the question had
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come up, it was all right by me to have it settled right here.
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But put that thing away before I make you eat it. She grinned
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suddenly and put the gun back. I'm sorry, Ash, but it's the
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best way I've found to establish a clear cut business relationship partners. She stuck
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out her hand and I took it. Deal. A siren rose and died
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on rocket row. Pat jumped back. Damn it, she said. She
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sought a glance up the alley. We'd better split up, she said,
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Look, Ash, she said hastily. I'll get in touch with you.
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Meanwhile. Do what I tell you to and don't waste time asking me why.
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I'll tell yo later. All you have to do now is take the
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job Transoler is going to offer you. That's all. Take that job and
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start to carry it out. I'll be in touch with you. Somewhere along
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the line, she looked down toward the alley's mouth. I followed her glance
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and saw shadowy figures of men running by. They'll be here in a minute.
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I've got a car a couple blocks away. I'll see you ash Yeah,
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hurry up, I added. As the first of the cops came warily
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into the alley, I pulled my gun and ducked behind a barrel. As
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she started to run, the cop yelled and came after her. I snapped
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a shot over his head, and that drove him into cover. Over the
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shouts that rose, I could hear her footsteps fading out. I followed her,
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cautiously, sliding from behind one ashcan to another, keeping the copse down
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with an occasional shot. I made it out of the alley and into the
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street, then ducked into a doorway, kicked the lock loose, took the
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stairs too at a time to the roof, and got away over the housetops.
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And all the time I was wondering about pat, the job that Transler
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was going to offer me, and how she had known about it. End
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of chapter one