Lovers in the Woods (3 page)

Her gait and her voice were
firm, and in that moment he hated her for being composed and armed.
She knew how to handle the situation even though she had just lost
her partner and had to be afraid. He hated that leaving with her
was his only option. The idea of more men waiting somewhere made
his heart race and his palms sweat. He couldn’t stay and hide
anymore.
The
plan had sounded so foolproof in the beginning!

“
Come, Mr. Sajitar Haju,
you’re still under arrest. And I prefer to put some distance
between them and us and call HQ sooner rather than later. These
muggers are known to travel in groups.” She turned one last time to
face him. Grim determination twisted her features. “If they’re out
to kill us, they’ll send an army after us if they have to. So
you
’d
better stay close to me. Is that understood?”

He wanted to ask why she knew, but came up with “Where do we
go?” Glancing over his shoulder, Sajitar considered it careless to
leave the unconscious men behind. If they awoke and were able to
get rid of the handcuffs, they would go about their business which
meant they would take up the hunt again. He would have voted for
Rayenne’s anger to explode and put an end to their lives. The
thought came around again and frightened him.
Did I really think about killing someone?
As much as possible, violence and he walked different
paths.

“
There’s a small station
north
of here with an overhead transmission line. Just a few
hours ahead. We’ll call for help and wait there.”

She waited for him to lead his B-horse out of
the stable carefully. The stench of blood was in the air and though
his mare had been in many places, she shied away and would have
bolted without his hand at the reins.

Outside, he mounted the
fidgeting B-horse with some trouble and watched Rayenne do the
same. She was slender, but he knew better than to take her to be
fragile. He had met enough women to accept that there was no such
thing as a helpless woman
—n
ot on Belthraine, anyway. And truly not in a job
that consisted mostly of dealing with hardcore
criminals.

Again, it cut him to the quick that she
considered him to be one of them.

The thought of being the target of
Sanjongy caused him to turn every now and again while the B-horses
trotted down the street. He had done some illegal things in his
life, but to be on a death list had never been a possibility.
Sanjongy! Every man and his mouse feared the gang that had more
deaths on their list than the police had employees. And that was a
conservative estimate.

He tried to calm down and tell himself
that police officers made a much better target. No one loved to be
around them, and their reputation was worse than on other
planets.

There were stories of policemen
being bribed by high ranking criminals to look away while a robbery
took place. Stories of how they used brutal force if they thought
it appropriate, and sometimes even if they were just out for a
brawl. Their appearance far away from Belson Park had made some
local folks nervous.
This has to be the reason for two killers to show up.
Probably Felberi and Ray were in trouble with the gang and now they
want revenge.

Reflecting on his situation, he was not sure if the police
escort would do him any good. Sanjongy might catch him anyway. What
was one police officer against gang members? He inhaled
deeply.
Don’t expect the worst every
time.

Rayenne held the reins with one hand while
the other rested on the butt of her gun. Her fingers danced along
the trigger and her dark brown gelding fidgeted, sensing her
nervousness much better than the people watching them leave
town.

Sajitar kept quiet. He tried to look in
all directions at the same time, but he was not experienced enough
to recognize an assassin without looking into a muzzle. The end of
the shootout in the stable had been pure luck. He knew it, and he
was sure Rayenne did, too.

If Sanjongy sent more freaks with the mission
to kill, there was no doubt about the outcome.

They reached the main street of
the village. Now that the sun was up, there were women with
children as well as workers on coaches, snapping whips at their
B-horses. With one uniformed escort they were still worth a shy
glance
—then
all the passers-by hurried on. Sajitar sensed their sudden
unrest. The few men he had talked to had a crime register longer
than his arm, and right now Sajitar envied them being left alone
while he was led out of town. He glanced over his shoulder, but
there was no one to regret his departure.

Belthraine had been a settlers’ dream for
one and a half centuries. There were diggers who had thought the
planet would be rich in gems or minerals, coal or oil, but for
years they had been unlucky. They had built settlements around the
huge woods and cut down trees for huts and coaches. Only then did
they realize that the wood was special. Its grain in orange, light
yellow and dark red quickly became famous among rich people all
over the quadrant, and therefore expensive.

Large corporations established subsidiaries
to enhance the clearing and maximize exports.

Sajitar smiled. The news of the
corporations
—especially one called
2Harvest
—
pumping credits like confetti on New Year’s Eve
into the planet had been welcomed by the local authorities, but the
planet’s extraordinary mixture of gases, some of them not yet
identified, ruined all plans for a quick clearing
immediately.

There was no way to use machines fueled
with fossil energies. Every spark led to explosions and lives lost.
The atmosphere’s high saturation with oxygen prohibited the use of
powerful machines effectively, much to the chagrin of wealthy and
greedy corporation owners. Many alterations were tried and in the
end it was back to axes. The logging made slow progress and the
wood became even more expensive. Scientists were hired and fired,
but still the planet’s breathable air was a mystery.

Among those settlers living off the wood
had been Sajitar’s grandparents and then his parents. They had made
a small fortune with selling trunks, but Sajitar did not strive for
a living in the rural areas of the planet. Belson Park had
developed into a town and would soon be a city due to the money
spent by the corporations and some illegal businesses. He had
longed to be there like a moth to a flame.

Even if it burned.

“
Two attackers, ten o’clock!” Rayenne
shouted and had her gun up at the same moment. She shot without
taking time to aim, hitting one of the assassins in the shoulder.
The masked man screamed and fell backwards, dropping his gun while
the other took a dive. “Bastards!” Her B-horse reared, but she
turned it one-handed and shot again, if only to push the attackers
back.

The second man had a better defense
position. He shot several bullets in a row, not caring if he hit
trees, bushes or men, but was a bad shooter. Bark blew up,
littering the way with pieces in orange and brown while some of the
settlers’ B-horses reared and galloped away, pulling their coaches
with them. Passers-by fled the scene screaming, running for cover.
One went down, his face distorted by pain. Some people shouted for
the police. A B-horse ran through the line of fire and wondrously
escaped unharmed.

Sajitar did not wait to learn the
winner.

“Run, Tessla, run!”

He pressed his heels into Tessla’s flanks,
spurring her to run flat into the woods. The mare complied, eager
to leave. He ducked on her back, her soft mane in his face. He did
not look back. The sound of high-pressure guns filled the air.
Something hit his side, stung and was gone a moment later. His cry
went unheard. Shouts followed him, words he did not understand and
did not want to hear.

Maybe Rayenne
was still trying to
catch him. Maybe she shouted at the assassin to give up or went
down this very moment. Sajitar only saw the dark wood in front of
him, trees with trunks so thick not even three men could embrace
them. The bark was rough and full of deep runnels. Branches hung
low like arms reaching out for him with twenty fingers each. They
scratched greedily over Sajitar’s back, but did not bring him down.
The B-horse stumbled over a root, caught her step and ran on. He
clung to the mane, pressed his knees against the saddle, knowing he
might break his neck if he fell off. Listening to the mighty inhale
of the B-horse, he hoped the odds were on his side to get away. If
he could shake off Rayenne and the freaks he would be in great
shape.

The shooting stopped abruptly and he was
still close enough to hear a woman’s voice.

“You stupid, damned idiot! Wait! Wait for
me!”

Sajitar closed his eyes as if to close his
ears, too. He was escaping, no matter who the attackers were. He
could survive in the woods. He had done so before, even if it had
cost him. In his mind there was no better option than being
alone.

“Stop!”

No
, all of his working brain cells
shouted.
No
stopping! You’re close to escaping!

He forced his mare on. The mount complied
eagerly, pumping air in her lungs and flattening to a hard gallop
wherever the ground allowed it.

The hooves behind him were getting closer. He
heard Rayenne’s voice through the blood pulsing through his
ears.

“Stop, Saji! Or I’ll shoot you in the
back!”

“Fuck this day.”

He reined his B-horse. Tessla slowed down
from gallop to trot, then to a walk that allowed him to turn in the
saddle. With wide nostrils the mare pumped air into her mighty
lungs, as if saying she had strength for another twenty
miles.

He could not believe that this young
police officer had in fact caught up on him. He did not like her
threat, either. His mare shook her slender head unwillingly. She
wanted to run on and he wanted that, too. The B-horse had more
common sense than he, and once again, he felt closer to his animal
than to any person.

Rayenne brought her gelding
close. The B-horse pumped air like its owner, but did not appear
out of breath. Sweat poured down Ray’s face. A black strand of hair
hung wet across her forehead, decorated with small twigs and
leaves. She wiped it away, glaring at him as if he had tried to
murder her instead of escaping. Irrationally, he thought that not
even being afraid and sweaty took an edge off her beauty. Her large
brown eyes were even larger now and he wanted to touch her reddened
cheek. The sudden emotion was unwelcome and irritating. A minute
ago he had wanted to leave her behind, ignoring the
consequences.
Am I out of my mind? Men lost homes and lands for a woman.
Don’t be one of them!

He cleared his throat, trying to look as
innocent as a young B-horse. He took out his flagon of Kiliak and
drank deep. He needed some strong wine to soothe his nerves
now.

“Did you get him for good?”

She panted so hard she needed a moment to
find her voice again.

“
I saw him fall. He won’t follow us
anymore.” Rayenne shook her head and looked over her shoulder where
the wood had closed like a flap behind them. “At least he stopped
shooting and I’m grateful for that.” It was almost night where they
stood and the street and people, good or bad, seemed miles away.
Their sounds were muffled, too, strengthening the impression that
the small town was a day’s ride away. “But he’s not dead.”
Exhaling, she turned back, fighting again with a loose lock that
wouldn’t stay behind her ear. “You unhurt?”

After she’d threatened to shoot him, the
question seemed misplaced, but he kept his voice blank as he
screwed his flagon closed and put it away.

“If you don’t count the bruises from the
branches around here, yes, I think so.”

“
Good. Guess that leaves us both stranded
in the wild. We can’t go back,” she cut him off, sharply. “Looks
like they sent a whole bunch of those killers. You must be really
important.” She cocked her head. “Whose toes did you step on? Wang,
personally? Were you…related to her?”

“You still think they came for me?”

“Do you want to contradict?”

He put his fingers on his chest, lowered
his chin and raised his brows to ask, “Do I really look like a
hardcore criminal to you?”

Rayenne flashed a short-lived smile that was
not meant to entertain him.

“
I’ll be in your company for a while, so I
won’t call you anything until we’re out of the woods. No pun
intended.” She looked around, up and down, then lowered her voice.
“I can’t say that I like to be here.”

He followed her scrutiny. The
trees stood close to each other, the branches touched ground here
and there and all of the orange, brown and golden leaves seemed to
turn like eyes toward the two strangers who dared to venture into
one of the wildest areas of Belthraine. Despite the great beauty,
there was no denying the danger. Everyone had heard of Emerald
Green and the many animals
—predators as well as fearsome
squirrels
—
it
harbored. There were few men who had ventured further than a day’s
walk into the woods. Some of them had come back, claiming they did
not understand why their three partners were gone without a trace.
Some came back and were changed for life. Some never found their
way back to reality and wandered in and out of the woods like
dreamers, never talking to anyone in sentences their friends
understood.