Fugitive (34 page)

   "We've got to find Manx!" Drusilla shouted as she tried to wrestle away from Jack. "I can't let them get him!"

   "Now hold your horses," said Jack. "You shouldn't be facing them on your own. I've got everything under control. We'll go after him
and
the Nedwuts."

   "With what?" Tisana demanded. "It's against the law to carry a weapon on this planet, and you know it."

   "Yeah, I know, and it always gripes my cookies to have to turn them over whenever we land. I'd steal Tex back right now if I knew where to look. I should be able to—"

   The men and boys had followed Drusilla's mad dash and were now grouped just outside the ship. "You're gonna get us all thrown in the slammer, Mom," Larry said darkly.

   "What?" demanded Jack, momentarily diverted.

   "Thrown in the slammer," Larry repeated. "You know: the pen, the big house, sent up the river—"

   "What
have
you been teaching that boy?" Tisana asked in dismay.

   "Everything he needs to know to survive," Jack shot back. "Okay then, if I can't carry a weapon, Drusilla can. Lester gave her a pistol, remember? That gives her some kind of license to kill, doesn't it?"

   "That's putting a very broad interpretation on the matter," Tisana said mildly.

   "Oh, for the love of Mike!" said Jack. "What was I thinking? You're the best weapon we've got, Tisana, and nobody can confiscate
you."

   Leo and Cat nodded in agreement.

   Tisana knew they were right. "Okay, but where do we look?"

   "The lake house," Drusilla said, doing her best to control her wild, sexual urges and growing panic. "It's where he would go if he came back."

   "Yeah, you're probably right," said Jack. "We should have been cooking up the potion there at the house. Would have made more sense—though we didn't know he'd been living there when we started. It just seemed like the easiest—"

   "Does it matter?" Drusilla said desperately, inter rupting Jack's explanation. "We've got to find him!"

   "Okay," said Cat. "But the children must wait aboard the ship." Turning to Larry, he placed a hand on his son's shoulder. "As eldest, you will see to the safety of the others. Close the hatch and let no one in."

   "Not even you guys?" Larry asked.

   "Not even us," said Cat.

   "We can palm open the hatch ourselves," Jack reminded her son. "You just make sure those Nedwuts don't get aboard."

   Larry stood up taller. "I will protect the others," he said staunchly. "If they try to take us, we'll blast them!"

   Tisana's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Do you mean to tell me that those boys know how to fire the ship's weapons?"

"Well, maybe," said Jack.

   Tisana began to protest, even though she knew that where Jack and Cat's boys were concerned, she had no say, but it still seemed wrong to her.

   "They have to stay alive," Jack reminded her friend. "Whether we survive or not."

   "Yeah, right," said Tisana with a reluctant nod. "Let's go."

   "We'll need the other speeder," Jack said. "Cat and I will get it and follow you."

   "Wow," said Drusilla. "You have more than one?"

   "With all of this lot to haul around?" said Jack. "We ought to have a frickin' bus!"

***

In the meantime, there was some unrest in the Nedwut ranks, especially once Klarkunk let slip just who it was they were up against.

   "There are three adult males!" Klarkunk said exultantly. "We will take them all and then search for the children."

   Betlefat viewed his captain with a skeptical eye. "Are you sure about that?" he said doubtfully. "That's Jack Tshevnoe you're talking about. You didn't tell me we'd be going up against her gang. They've killed more of us than the Scorillian plague."

   "Fool!" Klarkunk spat contemptuously at his lieu tenant. "We will defeat them and then we will collect the bounty."

   "Yeah, and live long and prosper for the rest of our lives," Xentondu said.

   "You always were an ass-licker," Betlefat said, dismissing Xentondu with an obscene gesture. "We've got to be
alive
to prosper. Think ignatz here is planning to leave us alive to share?"

   Klarkunk growled menacingly. "You doubt my word?"

   "Yeah, I doubt your word," said Betlefat, squaring up to face his opponent. "Don't know why I've believed it this long."

   "You would falter now that our prize is within our grasp?"

   "Don't give me that crap," Betlefat said. "One
unarmed
Zetithian alone was what we were hunting originally, now we're going up against the likes of—"

   "All the more sweet our victory," Klarkunk insisted, cutting him off. "Our people will hail our triumph over such a pestilence."

   Betlefat had seen quite enough hardship in his life thus far and was getting sick of it. He was ready to go back to their homeworld and do nothing but relax, fuck, eat well, and grow old. "They wouldn't kill us if we'd quit hunting them."

   "For five million credits apiece?" Klarkunk scoffed. "They will be hunted until they are too tired to fight and will give themselves up."

   "I don't think so," said Betlefat. "If they get tired they'll just retreat to Earth, and you know we have no hope of ever getting them there."

   "But you forget the Baradan ban on weapons. They will all be unarmed."

   "How do you disarm that witch?" Betlefat countered. "Answer me that?"

   "We simply kill her first."

   Betlefat shook his head. "That's been tried too."

   "But never on a weaponless world," Klarkunk said. "We may never get such a chance again."

   "How do you know they haven't smuggled in weapons just as we have?"

   "They are fools and respect the law. Besides, they do not know we are coming for them." Klarkunk was growing weary of the argument and was sorely tempted to blast his lieutenant without further discussion. "You will fight with us, or you will die right now," said Klarkunk. "It is your choice."

   Betlefat had an idea that his death was in the near future either way, but opted to postpone it for as long as possible. He held up his rifle in a gesture of solidarity.

   "A wise choice," said Klarkunk, clapping him on the back. "We will be victorious."

   The band of brigands cheered, but Betlefat wasn't sure there was anything to cheer about—at least, not yet.

***

Abandoning the speeders a little ways south of the house, Jack and her cohorts moved down the path through the jungle. The wind had shifted slightly, coming out of the northwest. Leo's head went up and he sniffed the air. "I smell them. They are there," he said, pointing into the wind.

   "I smell them too," said Jack. "How many do you think there are?"

   Leo shook his head. "Not sure, but there are several."

   "Shit, and all we've got to fight with is Tisana!" Ordi narily, this would be plenty, but if she was taken out by a pulse beam, it was all over. Jack hated being without her trusty Tex. Somehow the situation just didn't call for obeying the law—anyone's laws—unless it was the law of survival. She still didn't understand how she'd let the others talk her out of it. Still, she had the beacon Veluka had given her; Leo's assessment only confirmed what she already knew, but it wasn't doing her a bit of good because she knew that the beacon was only on the leader, Klarkunk. If they split up, it could still result in an ambush.

   Jack hated feeling so defenseless. When she'd said she had everything under control, it hadn't been completely accurate. Things could still go terribly wrong.

   The house was just barely visible through the trees ahead, but though Leo and the homing beacon insisted the Nedwuts were there, nothing stirred but the birds singing in the jungle canopy.

   Cat raised a hand and halted. "We should stop here for now," he said.

   "Drusilla," Jack said suddenly. "Where did you say that pistol was?"

   "Just inside the house," Drusilla replied. "Want me to go get it? Klog and Dwell can help us too."

   Jack wasn't sure just how, but she wasn't about to refuse help in any form. "We know the Nedwuts are here, and while they might have an idea we're coming, I seriously doubt they can see us as they seem to have retreated into the jungle. Tisana can cover you while you go get it. Don't dawdle, either; come right straight back. Do you understand? Straight back, no matter what."

   Drusilla nodded. She had to do something construc tive because otherwise she knew she was going to come completely unglued and start screaming for Manx. The speeder ride through the forest had been a torment, but at least she hoped she was moving closer to him then. She gave Jack a tight smile and sprang from the shelter of the jungle to dart across the clearing to the door, hoping that Dwell had had sense enough not to let anyone else inside.

   The door opened promptly and then closed firmly shut behind her. "Thanks, Dwell," she said gratefully. "Anything happening here?"

   "Yes," Dwell replied. "There have been some new developments."

   Drusilla gasped in horror as she saw that the pistol was missing from the sideboard where she'd left it. "Where's the gun?" she asked in dismay.

   "Manx has it," Dwell replied. "He is in the down stairs room. The Nedwuts have returned, but I have summoned help."

   Momentarily heartened by at least part of this infor mation, she couldn't keep from commenting. "Help, huh? By that you mean Lester, I suppose?"

   "Of course," Dwell replied. "Who else would I call?"

   "Oh, I don't know," Drusilla muttered. "The Mounties, maybe, or the Marines?"

   "I do not understand."

   "You wouldn't," Drusilla said ruefully. "Manx is okay?"

   "Yes, and he is armed, but he is trapped in there. He has managed to hold them off for a time, but if they rush the room in force, they may be able to take him."

   "Damn Nedwuts," Drusilla growled, sounding more like Jack than she could possibly have known. "Where are they?"

   "There has been weapons fire from across the lake," Dwell reported, "but Manx thinks they have moved to the western edge."

   "Closing in, huh?"

   "Yes."

   "Well, I've got to get to him," she said roundly. "Somehow!"

   "No," Dwell said. "He cautions you not to come to the beach room, or to that side of the house. Stay inside."

   "I'd like to, and I know I should," Drusilla replied, "but if I don't get my hands on him soon, I'm going to explode or something."

   "Explode?" Dwell echoed. "Why would you explode?"

   "Some potion the witch, Tisana, gave me," Drusilla said, running a nervous hand through her hair. "I—I can hardly even think clearly."

***

Manx was in the room beneath her, desperate that Drusilla should not expose herself to danger. "Open a link, Dwell," he said urgently. "Let me talk to her."

   "Link is open," said Dwell. "You may proceed."

   "Drusilla?" Manx called out, trying to keep his voice steady. "Don't come down here. Do you hear me? Don't do it!"

   "I—I have to," she said, though the sound of his voice helped to soothe her frazzled nerves.

   "No you don't!" he said with more urgency in his tone.
"Stay there!"

   "Can you come up here?"

   "No," Manx replied. "I'll get shot at if I make for the stairs, and you will too, if you come down them."

   "You could cover me," she said desperately.

   "And have two of us trapped down here?" he scoffed. "I don't think so. Is anyone else with you?"

   "Yes," she replied. "Some friends of yours from the old country. They're in the jungle not far from the house." Drusilla felt a maddening urge to laugh hysteri cally at the irony of their predicament, but she somehow managed to hold it in check. "Funny you finally coming back and I can't get to you."

   "We'll be together soon," Manx promised. "If Zef was right and they're who I think they are, there's hope. Cark and Leccarian are both good fighters."

   "There'd be more hope if they had some weapons," Drusilla said with a brittle laugh. "They have a witch with them who can start fires or something, but that's all we've got besides the weapon you have."

   Manx's hopes for survival diminished slightly with this news, but he wasn't completely disheartened. "Guess they weren't expecting the Nedwuts to be here."

   "Yes they were," admitted Drusilla. "At least they figured the Nedwuts would come back for you eventually. Guess we should have come after the pistol sooner, but if we had, you wouldn't—" Her voice cracked as she realized that without it, Manx would be dead now. Swallowing the bile that rose in her throat, she went on, "The plan was to lure you in, but the bad guys got here a little too quickly."

   "Lure me in?"

   "With the scent potion," Drusilla explained. "Tisana— that's the witch—made it smell like the other two men and… well… me—only an
aroused
me—which is why I'm in the state I'm in."

   "Is that what it was?" he said admiringly. "I'll have to say, the witch makes a mean brew. It worked. My dick stiffened up like you were standing right in front of me. I can still smell it." He cleared his throat with difficulty and took a moment to squeeze his cock in an effort to ease the discomfort. "So, they knew there might be Nedwuts here and they still came without weapons? That was risky."

   "Yeah, I know," Drusilla agreed. "But you know how the Baradans feel about violence."

   "Guess the natives should have thought of that before they let offworlders visit their peaceful little planet," Manx said grimly. "But I'm glad they did or I never would have met you."

   "I know," Drusilla said. "I can't stand the thought of going on without you."

   "I had to leave," he said. "You know why that was."

   "Yes, I'm sure I was in no danger as long as you weren't around," she said, her irritation with the whole situation rising rapidly. "But, let me tell you something, big guy, I don't believe that crap. The Baradans could have helped if we'd just told them about you."