Drifter (12 page)

It was like his father always said. "I've been in a lot of fights, son, and never made money off one of them yet."

Lando keyed the comset.
"Tinker's Damn
to Orbital Control. We're heading for Elder's Flat. Have your security people meet us there."

There was a burst of outraged protest, but Lando flicked the set off.

Wendy bit her lip and clutched her armrests as Lando headed for the surface. The ship bucked up and down and jerked back and forth as the smuggler forced it down through the atmosphere.

Lando watched to see if the pursuing ship would try to catch them. It didn't. Good. Someone had decided to send surface forces instead. That would take some time, and the more the better.

They came in over the ocean just as they had done before. Wendy watched the wave tops whip by to either side, and felt slightly ill.

Tall cliffs made a jagged line against the sky, and Lando was about to pull up when he saw the river. It was wide but still strong after the rough-and-tumble journey down from the mountains.

Lando moved the stick to the left just as the sun appeared.

The river turned into a highway of light and the smuggler followed it upstream.

Rocky cliffs flashed by to either side, sometimes giving way to green valleys, but always closing ranks again.

Then the walls crept in. The river became smaller, faster, and broken by rapids. As Lando pulled the ship up and out, he was surprised by what he saw.

The plateau, or "flat" as Wendy would call it, was like a pan onto which wind and rain had deposited what little topsoil the mountains had to offer.

There was low-lying scrub at first, cut here and there by man-made roads, eventually giving way to carefully tended fields.

Some fields were planted, and some weren't. All of them had been contoured to minimize soil loss. No wonder the settlers were willing to pay such a high price for fertilizer. Farming had always been tough, but the conditions on Angel made it close to impossible.

There were houses as well, each one neat as a pin, surrounded by a cluster of sheds. Most were made of stone, something Angel had plenty of, but were missing the chimneys that one would normally expect to see.

Given the lack of forests, or nearby coal deposits, the settlers had nothing to burn. As a result, each house had to be equipped with its own fusion plant imported at great expense from one of the inner planets.

The town was small and carefully laid out. It consisted of two- and three-story buildings, an arrow-straight street, and a large church with an old-fashioned steeple. The whole thing looked like a scene from ancient Earth.

"There," Wendy said, pointing towards the bow viewscreen. "That's the airfield."

Viewed from above, the airfield looked like little more than a giant "X" that someone had scraped out of the ground. Lando saw a prefab hangar and a couple of beat-up planes, but nothing big or fancy enough to be corporate.

Good. It would be nice to have a little time before Mega-Metal's goons arrived and started to throw their weight around.

Lando killed speed, switched to repellors, and felt the landing jacks thump down a few moments later.

The Tink
slumped to the left, but Lando decided to dispense with the phony leak. Might as well save the Number 3 lube for someone who cared.

He did leave the ship's systems on standby, however. He hoped the Mega-Metals rep would listen to reason, but you never knew. He could run if push came to shove. Assuming they let him get aboard the ship, that is.

The Tink
was almost entirely surrounded by ground vehicles by the time Lando and Wendy climbed down from the lock. There were beat-up trucks, tractors, and homemade creations that defied description.

Behind them Lando saw flat, uncultivated ground, the dark clustering of the town, and the white-capped mountains beyond. He noticed that clouds had moved in to hide the sun and erase most of the shadows.

Lando watched as men, women, children, and dogs crowded in and around Wendy, all talking, laughing and barking at once, each eager to hug, kiss, or in some cases, lick her hand.

Lando felt envious. He had many things, not the least of which was
The Tink
and the freedom that the freighter represented. But Wendy had her people, a place to call home, and a cause that she believed in. It looked like a lot.

The crowd parted suddenly and people looked his way. Wendy moved forward with a large, awkward-looking man at her side.

The man's bones were visible under the surface of his wind-reddened skin. A shock of white hair stood straight up from the back of his head, and that, along with the beard that whipped sideways in the wind, gave him the look of an old-time prophet. He was dressed in heavy work clothes and wore a circle-and-triangle pendant around his neck.

But it was the man's eyes that caught and held Lando's attention. They were brown like Wendy's, warm in a way, but almost fanatically determined.

Lando knew that this was Wendy's father, the source of her strong personality, and a force to be reckoned with. It was something they had in common. Strong fathers and mothers who died young.

The man extended his hand and Lando took it. Wendy performed the introductions.

"Pik Lando, I'd like you to meet my father, Blopar Wendeen. Father, this is Pik Lando."

Lando found tremendous strength in the other man's hand. A hand heavily scarred by endless hours spent repairing machinery, and callused by hard physical labor.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir."

Wendeen nodded pleasantly, but his eyes were like lasers, cutting through the surface to see within.

"The pleasure is mutual, Citizen Lando," Blopar Wendeen replied gravely. "I look forward to giving you a proper welcome and hearing of your adventures. Unfortunately, Wendy informs me that there are other, more pressing matters to deal with first."

"Look!" a little boy yelled. "The corpos are coming!"

Lando turned in the direction of the boy's pointing finger and saw that he was correct. A VTOL aircraft had made its way through the mountain pass to the north and was coming in for a landing. It made a wide turn, and Lando saw the Mega-Metal markings and the words "Corporate Police" stenciled along the fuselage.

He turned back to Wendeen. "Yes, sir. I had a little disagreement with a man named Lorenzo Pal. He was wounded."

Blopar Wendeen frowned. "No offense, Citizen Lando, but we abhor violence, and I don't see why we should be held responsible for
your
actions."

Lando felt the blood rush to his face. He fought to control his voice. The sound of the VTOL's engines grew louder.

Wendy held up a hand, as if anticipating what Lando would say. "Pik… please…"

But Lando's attention was focused on her father. He raised his voice in order to be heard over the sound of the aircraft engines. "Well,
Citizen
Wendeen, maybe
you
think Lorenzo Pal has the right to rape your daughter each time she returns to this planet, but
I
don't!"

Wendeen looked at Wendy, saw the confirmation in her eyes, and dropped his head. A full minute passed before he spoke. "Some say that we're fanatics… and at times like this… I wonder if they're right. If only I had known."

Wendeen looked lovingly at his daughter. Tears ran down his cheeks and into his beard. "I helped create the situation in which this could happen. Later, when this is settled, I will beg my daughter's forgiveness."

The VTOL settled into a cloud of dust. Its engines wound down.

Lando nodded. "We're out of time. Will you allow me to speak for you?"

Wendeen looked at the smuggler. "Nonviolently?"

Lando gestured towards the VTOL and the heavily armed corpos. "I'm tempted to shoot all twelve of them, but I'll try to control myself."

Wendeen frowned, realized that it was a joke, and smiled.

"Yes, Citizen Lando. You may speak for us."

Lando nodded. "Good. But just because I promised to be nonviolent doesn't mean they did. Tell your people to clear out."

Fire flashed deep in Wendeen's eyes. "No, Citizen Lando, such is not our way. We will stand at your side. If the security police open fire they must kill us as well."

Lando couldn't see the logic of this, and thought it was similar to the way that Wendy had sacrificed herself to Pal, but didn't say so. Why bother? It wouldn't do any good.

Lando turned and walked towards the corpos. Wendy, her father, and all the rest followed. It was important to be aggressive, to gain the upper hand.

It made a strange scene, the heavily armed corpos, marching shoulder to shoulder towards the unruly crowd of men, women, and children, the clustering of vehicles, and the windswept plain beyond.

Then the corpos began to spread out, making themselves harder to hit, and doing their best to look tough. But it seemed kind of silly, given the circumstances.

Outside of Lando's slug gun, and the mini-launcher up his sleeve, the settlers were armed with nothing more lethal than a shovel or two.

Then as both groups slowed, and came to a halt, a woman stepped forward. She wore brand new body armor and looked scared.

Lando's first reaction was surprise. He'd expected something in the Pal mode. A lean, mean, enforcement machine.

Still, it made a kind of sense. A man like Pal would never tolerate someone like himself as a Number Two. Too damned threatening. No, he'd choose a toady, a yes person, and here she was.

The woman cleared her throat. She wore her hair in a no-nonsense crew cut. She crossed her arms to hide the fact that her hands were shaking.

"My name's Corvo. Which one of you owns that ship?"

Lando stepped forward. "I do. Are you in charge of corporate security?"

The woman flinched as if surprised by Lando's aggressive tone. "Yes, for the moment anyway. Now, see here. I…"

"No,
you
see here," Lando said angrily. "I wish to file formal charges against one of your employees. Lorenzo Pal tried to force his attentions on my client through an inappropriate use of his quasi-governmental powers. I insist that he be arrested and shipped to Earth for trial."

One of the woman's goons, a skinny man with a weasellike face, whispered in her ear. Corvo nodded and looked triumphant. Lando groaned to himself. One of Pal's more experienced assistants was trying to regain the upper hand.

Corvo managed something resembling a sneer. "Nice try, spacer. But I know the truth."

The corpo turned to the crowd. She pointed at Lando. "This scum attacked our receptionist, beat him unconscious, and shot Mr. Pal. Fearing for Dr. Wendeen's life, Mr. Pal sent us here to place this man under arrest and put him away where he belongs. Like you, we detest violence."

There was anger in Blopar Wendeen's eyes. He started to say something but stopped when Lando held up a hand.

The corpos reached for their guns as the smuggler dipped his other hand into a pocket and withdrew the cube.

Lando shook his head in amusement. "You're pretty well-armed for a bunch of pacifists. Here, take a look at this." He tossed the cube to Corvo.

She fumbled the catch and dropped the cube, then bent to pick it up. "What's this supposed to be?"

Lando smiled. "Proof. Proof taken from your own surveillance system. Sound and pix of Lorenzo Pal forcing himself on Dr. Wendeen, going for his blaster, and paying the price."

A crafty look came over Corvo's face. She allowed the cube to fall, then stepped on it. The plastic shell made a crunching sound. "Oops! Silly me! Oh well, that's the way it goes sometimes. Now… put your hands on top of your head and turn around."

Lando made no move to obey. "You can step on as many copies as you like… the original is still on its way to Earth. I launched two message torps just outside the atmosphere."

Corvo frowned and looked at weasel-face. He shrugged, said something inaudible into a boom mike, and waited for a reply.

With their attention spans exhausted, children and dogs both began to play. Shouting and barking with excitement, they darted here and there, running between the goons, making them nervous.

It's hard to maintain an atmosphere of confrontation with children playing around you, and Lando could feel the tension ease. At least two of the tough-looking corpos broke into grins and petted dogs or winked at the children.

Then the reply came. Weasel-face said something angry, shot a mean look in Lando's direction, and whispered in Corvo's ear.

The administrator eyed the crowd and wished that she was somewhere else. She cleared her throat and looked uncertain.

"Orbital control confirms a launch. What message did you send?"

Lando considered the various possibilities. One part of him, the more emotional part, urged him to go for broke. He could tell the big lie, claim friends in high places, and suggest that legal action was inevitable. By doing so, he'd scare the hell out of Corvo and maybe Pal.

There was a down side however. Scared people do stupid things. Innocent people might get hurt. That suggested another approach. It wasn't as satisfying, but it would prevent the situation from escalating out of control. Lando felt the pressure of many eyes and forced a smile.