“There’s a good man,” the senator said. “I really appreciate your confidence, Mr. Zacharias. Now, if you will excuse me. My old bones need the warmth of the inside again.”
“Good evening, Seigner Dirrit ko Asac. Thank you for your ear.”
The thin man smiled down at the still sitting Daniel. “I hope we can meet again someday.” He slowly walked off, his robe flowing left and right as he moved.
“I doubt it,” Daniel mumbled. He also got up and after a last look around the garden, he went inside, getting ready to leave.
Behind the plant, a shadow waited for a while, then also slipped into the house.
Daniel walked through the see-through tunnel, reached the reception building and one of the ladies who were still there found his coat. The floater was already waiting so he stepped in and waited until the thing had taken him to the platform at the foot of the hill. Once there, he saw a long line of carriages waiting. Both the men who had been there when he arrived were gone, so he walked to the first carriage and made it take him home.
All this trouble for a few hours…
24. A strange call
Once inside his apartment, he changed into something comfortable and lay down on the bed. On the way home he had wondered why nobody here had thought of making one of these floater things a lot larger to create a flying balloon that was big enough to carry loads. That would give the pirates a hard time. He shrugged in the dark. There probably were things he didn’t know. He could not imagine that nobody had ever tried it.
As he was wondering about the way he had emptied his heart and soul in front of the senator, a man he didn’t know at all, his hydger started rattling.
“Go away whoever you are, I am not in the mood,” he complained.
This was not good enough. The hydger kept at it, as if the person on the other end was not about to give up.
“This had better be good.” He picked himself up from the bed and made his way over to the table where the troublemaker was. As he picked it up, the rattle stopped. “I wonder who it was I pissed off so much that I had to go through this day,” he muttered and started back to the bed. Then the hydger started again. This time Daniel did not take chances. He was quick to get the box.
The screen showed a black triangle and no name. “Now what.” Curiously, he flipped the switch. “Zacharias here.”
There was some strange grunting sound, then a distorted voice said: “You are mister Daniel Zacharias?” There was a strange sound next to the voice, as if a steel brush grated over a bucket.
“Yes. Who is this?”
“My name is not important. I have to speak with you.”
Daniel walked to a corner where, in a closet, he kept his special suitcase. With one hand he opened it and searched for something, as he asked what the talk would be about.
“I can not tell you that over this line,” the voice said, as Daniel switched on his scanner.
“Null reading,” it told him. He had to make the other person talk more.
“Listen, whoever you are. I am not in the mood to play games, so either you tell me what this is about, or I will simply hang up on you.”
“No, don’t. I have something important to discuss with you. You will come to the Maliser Park at the west side of Skarak. There is a group of six trees next to the entrance. Meet me there in an hour.”
The black triangle disappeared, and the display then only showed a set of numbers. Coordinates.
“Scrambled voice pattern,” the scanner said.
“Thanks. I had figured that out already,” Daniel muttered, switching the scanner off and tossing it back into the suitcase. Clearly Earth’s military stuff was not capable of tracing through local technology.
His finger hovered over the off switch of the hydger. It hesitated. Then, slowly, as if it had a mind of its own, it pressed the store-button. The secretive technology of the box hiccuped and then the display showed ‘Maliser Park’.
Half an hour later he arrived at Maliser Park. He wanted to be early, to see where the strange person would come from. The entrance consisted of two thick trees that had suffered from pocks or a similar disease. Around the park were lights, and low bushes of a very needly kind. Entering the park unseen was impossible, he noticed. There were so many lights that even in the dark nothing could move here without being seen. That was a good thing.
Standing close to one of the thick trees, he looked over the area. He counted six trees in a group, just off to the left. Okay. Not okay. Further to the right also was a group of six trees. Tada for keeping things balanced, but this messed up the plan.
He took his chances and opted for the right-hand set of six. Keeping low, he ran over to them, took position and waited.
After more than half an hour, there still was nobody. He waited longer. Still nobody.
“Someone had you by the balls, Daniel,” he muttered as he stepped out of the set of trees. As he slowly walked to the exit, still looking around, he saw a movement among the other six trees. He stopped and turned towards them.
A large cloaked figure stepped out into the light. “You are late. Come.” Then it disappeared among the trees again.
Muttering something unintelligible he walked over. The figure in black stood waiting. The head was hidden under a hood and there was a mask in front of the face. The cloak was wide, as if it had to house a family of three.
“I was not late. You did not tell me what set of trees,” Daniel said, half amused and half accusing.
“That does not matter.” The steel brush was clearly there. And the voice was severely distorted, up to the point that Daniel had to pay close attention to the words. “I have an offer to make you, Mr. Zacharias. My aim is to take a ship out of commission. The Pricosine. You can make this happen.” The owner of the voice clearly had problems speaking through the distorting contraption. The words came out in blurts.
“And for what reason would you want to do that?” Daniel felt himself tensing up. Whatever he had felt a few hours before, this was a direct attack on the ship that he loved, property of the man who had invited him to a party at his house. No matter how lousy a party it had been.
“I have my reasons,” said the mask. “You will be richly rewarded if you cooperate.”
“And if I don’t?”
“You will suffer the consequences.”
Daniel slowly moved into a stance from where he could react quickly. “I am not in the habit to negotiate with terrorists,” he said, “and I am certainly not picking that up now.” Quickly he jumped forward, reaching out to grab the mask and pull it off, but the person in the cloak was prepared. A small stick was suddenly thrust forward, hitting him in the chest. The punch itself was not a problem. The disabling current that it sent through Daniel’s body however was.
His legs gave way, making him fall down. His arms did not obey the commands from his brain any more either. As he lay on the ground, the black figure watched him. “That, Mr. Zacharias, was not a smart thing to do.” Then the person in black moved away, the steel brush rasping.
By the time Daniel’s body started to understand him again, he had gotten very cold. There was a clear difference with the Bactine body. As if he was drunk, he clambered to his feet, seeking support from one of the trees. After a few minutes he felt able to walk again. First, however, he used the hydger to summon a carriage. He had to get back to the house of Clelem Dandra ko Galem and report this.
The carriage rattled off, with Daniel inside. The ride seemed to take ages, as hardly any light was there along the way. Daniel wondered again how the carriages worked, how they were powered and found their way around. And he muttered that the high speed was by far not fast enough, although that still was a lot faster than he would be able to run.
Finally the carriage came to a halt at the house of Clelem. It lined itself up with the long queue of other carriages that were waiting for passengers. Daniel jumped out of the car and ran up to the platform where this time
