Odd Girl Out

He sighed. 'Not far enough,' he said. 'It'll still take at least two days.'

'Maybe I can come up with a shortcut,' I said. 'I'll be there to help as soon as I can.' 'Make it fast.'

'I will,' I promised. 'Wait a second,' I added as a sudden thought struck me. 'Before you start packing, go get the biggest hammer you own. If things get too tight, you may have to destroy the coral.'

'Are you insane?' he demanded. 'Do you know how much I paid for the stuff?'

'More than your life is worth?' I asked pointedly. 'Remember, if there's nothing in your house worth stealing, there's no reason for anyone to murder you for it.'

He hissed out a breath. 'You're right,' he said reluctantly. 'It's just that …no, no, you're right.'

'We'll try to keep it from coming to that,' I assured him. 'But you'd best be ready. Just in case.'

I broke the connection. 'What's going on?' Karim asked.

'Our playmates are trying to change the game,' I told him, looking at Rebekah. She was still sitting in front of the boxes, still looking scared but determined. 'How are you doing?'

'All right,' she said. 'He's not going to—'

'What the frinking—?' a slurred voice said from across the room.

I looked over the bar. McMicking was staring in feigned horror at the dead Fillies he'd just shot. Before I could say anything, he heaved himself up off the floor and began staggering toward the door.

Leaving his reader lying on the floor. 'Karim—stop him,' I ordered.

Karim was already hurrying toward the would-be escapee, clearly intent on making sure a paying customer didn't wander outside and get himself killed. Slipping around the end of the bar behind him, I angled over and retrieved McMicking's reader.

McMicking put up a good fight, in a shambling, uncoordinated-drunk sort of fashion, muttering incomprehensibly the whole time. By the time Karim managed to get him turned around and walking toward the relative safety of the bar, I was back in place beside Bayta, checking out the data page McMicking had left for me.

It didn't look good. The real-time locators on the Fillies' six rental cars showed that four of them were traveling across Zumurrud District in the direction of Veldrick's house. The other two cars, presumably those of the dead walkers lying on our floor, were still in their original places in the Modhri's detector array.

Karim reached the bar and started maneuvering McMicking past Bayta and me toward the far end. 'Don' wanna be here,' McMicking muttered. His eyes caught mine with a look of silent urgency. 'Wanna go home. Wanna go home now.'

'You can't go home,' Karim said. 'It's not safe.'

'It's not exactly safe here, either,' I put in. 'Maybe we should just let him go.'

'What, through the middle of a fire zone?' Karim countered with a snort.

'They didn't shoot Dawid when he left,' I reminded him. 'They seem to have a pretty good idea of who their targets are.'

'He stays here,' Karim said firmly. Brushing past us, he guided McMicking to the other end of the bar.

Bayta moved close to me. 'What is it?' she asked quietly.

'The Modhri's doing it again,' I told her. 'Giving us the choice of sticking with Rebekah or nailing Veldrick's stash of coral.'

I tapped the reader's display. 'Only this time he's also tossing Veldrick's life into the pot.'

Bayta looked at Rebekah. 'We aren't abandoning her,' she said.

'I wasn't suggesting we do,' I said, frowning at the display. On the other hand, if four of our six Fillies were heading for Veldrick's house, and the other two were lying dead at our feet, that ought to mean there was no one out there in the street pointing guns at us.

Unless the Modhri had other walkers on New Tigris we didn't know about.

I looked over at Karim as he settled McMicking onto the floor. McMicking might have a handle on that, if I could get Karim out of earshot for a couple of minutes.

Fortunately, there was an obvious way to do that. 'Karim, I need you to go get your car and bring it here,' I said, digging the keys out of my pocket. 'It's parked about half a block north.'

He gave me a disbelieving look. 'You want me to do what?'

'It'll be all right,' I said, showing him the reader. 'See? Here are the real-time tracking marks for four of the Fillies' rental cars. That means all the survivors of the group have left.'

He peered at the display. 'What makes you think they don't have a few other friends?'

'Trust me,' I said, trying to sound like I believed it.

He looked at Rebekah, then back at me. 'All right,' he said. He hesitated a heartbeat, then set his P11 down on the bar. 'If they do have friends, there's no point in giving them another weapon. Back in a minute.'

He skirted the edge of the bar and crossed to one of the broken windows. For a long moment he gazed out into the night. Then, getting a careful grip on the edge of the window, he hauled himself up and over the sill and disappeared out into the night.

'He won't let the coral be destroyed, you know,' Rebekah warned quietly.

'Who won't?' I asked, gesturing McMicking over to us.

'The Modhri,' she said. 'If Mr. Veldrick tries to destroy it, the Eyes will kill him.'

'I thought he just needed the coral to find you,' McMicking said as he came up to us.

Rebekah shook her head. 'He also needs it for …what he needs it for.'

'Glad we cleared that up,' I said, turning to McMicking. 'Do you know if there are any other non-Humans on New Tigris at the moment?'

'There aren't,' he said. 'There were a few groups coming in and out over the past few months, but the last of them left about six weeks ago.'

'Just after our Fillies came in?'

'About then,' he confirmed.

'What about the other two torchyachts we saw at the spaceport?' Bayta asked.

'One is mine, the other is the Fillies',' McMicking told her. 'According to the port records, they're still paying rent on it.' He looked at Rebekah. 'Must have figured that when they left, they'd need to leave in a hurry.'

'Then this is our chance,' I said, lowering my voice. I didn't know whether or not the polyp colonies inside the dead Fillies could still hear, but I wasn't going to take any chances. 'With the walkers on their way to protect Veldrick's coral outpost, we've got a clear shot at the spaceport. I say we load Rebekah, Rebekah's boxes, Bayta, and Karim into Karim's car and send them on their way.'

'What about Mr. Veldrick?' Rebekah asked.

'Unless the Modhri gets impatient, I should be able to get there fast enough to get him out,' I said, skipping over the fact that McMicking and I had to go there anyway to pick up the coral.

'What about Customs?' Bayta asked.

'Not a problem,' McMicking said. 'Just have Karim park somewhere outside the spaceport and wait.'

There was the hum of a car engine, and I looked through the window to see Karim pull his car to the curb in front of the bar. 'Bayta, you're on guard duty,' I said, holstering my Beretta. 'Shoot anything that moves out there that isn't us.'

She nodded and headed to the left-hand broken window, the kwi held ready. 'Keep an eye on the cars,' I added to McMicking, handing him back his reader. 'If the colonies in the dead Fillies can still hear, there's no way we're going to be able to hide the transfer from him.'

He nodded and staggered his way over to the other of the broken windows, flopping down heavily in one of the chairs where he had a reasonably good view of that part of the street, picking up one of Rebekah's boxes, I headed for the door.

I had made it through our barricade and was unlocking the door when Karim came in through the window. 'What are we doing?' he asked, throwing a frown at McMicking. 'And he's supposed to be behind the bar.'

'We're moving out, and I was curious to see how far he would get,' I told him. 'Not very, as you see. Grab a box and let's get this show on the road.'

Despite my own assurances to the others, I nevertheless half expected the Modhri to have some stunt waiting up his sleeve. But the streets remained quiet as Karim and I loaded the boxes into his car trunk. Things remained equally quiet as we then loaded in Bayta, Rebekah, and Karim. 'Remember, find a nice quiet hiding place near the spaceport and wait for my call,' I told Bayta as I handed Karim back his P11.