Stardust Dreams (18 page)

"Voyager… lose,"
Frezlo said. "No… renege."

"Aah, but a gambler's
forfeit is reversed if the winner cheated."

Cherry felt the beast's arm
twitch and applied a bit more pressure.

"Prove…
accusation."

Gallant shook his head. "If
I figured out how you did it—and I think I would if I examined that tunic of
yours—I'd have to turn you over to the crowd in the tavern. And you know how
they deal with cheats."

The moment he mentioned the
tunic, Frezlo's gaze darted to it, and Cherry had no doubt that Gallant had
made an accurate guess.

"Want… woman?"

"As I said, I hadn't
quite gotten tired of her yet. But I also want what you agreed to give me had I
won: the name of the person who hired you for the Weebort kill."

One second Cherry thought
Frezlo was going to cooperate, the next, he had pulled her in front of him with
his free arm crooked around her throat. In spite of the stranglehold, she held
on to his wrist.

"This is a waste of
time, Frezlo. She's not
that
important to me. Anyway, in the seconds
that it would take you to break her neck and shake loose your arm, I'd get a
shot off between your eyes."

Cherry wondered what one
called a Mexican standoff if one was a billion miles from Mexico.

"I… tell… name. Keep…
woman."

Gallants eyebrows raised a
notch. "That good, huh?"

"Best… ever. I… keep. No…
kill." To prove his point, he released Cherry and let her move to his side
again.

"That's all well and
good, but I've got an even better deal for you." He took a step into the
room and moved aside. "You give me the woman and the information, or I let
my pet have its annual meal a little early."

He whistled and held out
his index finger. A high-pitched buzz filled the room, and a fluorescent blue
insect about the size of a large mosquito landed on Gallant's finger. In a
flash, Frezlo yanked Cherry in front of him again.

"Now, Frezlo,"
Gallant said in a tone that implied the beast was a child. "You know she
can't protect you from a hungry drillfly. And if you think threatening to kill
her or me will keep me from releasing this littler bugger, think again. You
make one move, of any kind, and I take my thumb off its leg.

"It's well trained,
but being this close to its favorite dish is too much temptation. The moment I
let it go, it's going to head right for you. And you know how fast it attacks. Where
do you think it will enter? Your ear? Your nose? Your mouth?"

If Cherry didn't actually
feel the violent trembling of Frezlo's body, she wouldn't have believed it. That
little bug had him absolutely terrified.

"Just so you don't
feel left out, Cherry, let me explain why Frezlo suddenly has rubber in his
knees. A drillfly is the only natural enemy of Frezlo's species. They've tried
for centuries to eradicate them, but they never quite succeed, because only one
needs to survive to reproduce.

"You see, the drillfly
is born pregnant, carrying thousands of eggs. All it needs to do is fly inside
a host's head, where it nibbles on brain tissue until the eggs are ready to
hatch. Up to that time, the pain is enough to drive the host insane, but once
those babies start their feeding frenzy… well, I've heard it's a very
unpleasant way to die. But don't worry, it doesn't care for the taste of your
brain or mine— only Frezlo's."

With each sentence of
Gallant's explanation, Frezlo stumbled further back in the room, and Cherry was
forced to follow. But Gallant kept coming closer until Frezlo was pressed into
the corner.

Holding the insect a few
inches from Frezlo's nose, Gallant's voice sounded like a death knell. "Release
her."

Frezlo squeaked and looked
at his tunic laying on the bed a few feet away. Raw fear had apparently frozen
his vocal chords.

"The hook is in the
inside of his tunic," Cherry quickly offered. "He put it in an inside
pocket on the left side." Gallant backed up far enough to fetch the tunic,
then came back and handed it to Cherry.

"Oh, look what I
found," Cherry said as soon as she examined the inside. Besides the hook,
there was a set of cheats, just as Gallant had suspected.

Gallant explained to her
how to unlock the manacle with the hook and, within seconds, she was free and
standing behind him. "My mother always said cheaters only cheat themselves
in the end. Now, give me the information." Frezlo opened his mouth, but
only another squeak came out. Gallant stepped a few feet away in hopes that a
little breathing room would help Frezlo find his voice. "Try again. Who
hired you?"

Frezlo was now shaking so
uncontrollably, Cherry was certain she could feel the building vibrating around
them.

Gallant raised his finger
an inch. "Last chance, Frezlo."

The beast opened his mouth
again and this time he managed to make the squeak sound like a word. "Conrep."

Gallant lowered his finger
and in a doubtful voice repeated, "A Consociation representative?" Frezlo
bobbed his big head up and down. "You'd better be telling me the
truth." Between the sheer terror in his eyes and the jerky movements of
his head, Gallant decided to believe him. "Which one? And why? Why would a
Con rep want to silence the Weebort?"

Another head shake seemed
to signify that he had no idea. "Man… masked. Saw… emblem. I…
followed."

Gallant interpreted that to
mean that Frezlo followed the man who'd hired him once he figured out his
employer was someone of importance. He probably planned to blackmail the Con
rep after the assassination. "Where did he go?"

"Lore."

Gallant again repeated the
word to make sure he had understood. Lore was an unexplored, uninhabitable
planet, shrouded in mist and mystery. "Did he land there?" Frezlo
nodded shakily. "Did you?" He knew the answer would be negative. No
one who landed on Lord was ever heard from again.

"Nice doing business
with you, Frezlo." He nudged Cherry toward the door then backed away
himself. "Just to make sure you don't have any thoughts of coming after
us, I'm going to leave my pet with you while we take off."

Gallant flicked his wrist
and the drillfly took off with a flutter of iridescent wings and a loud buzz. The
next instant, Frezlo's enormous body was wracked by a seizure, and he crashed
to the floor in a hairy heap.

Cherry stood by in shocked
silence as Gallant cautiously approached the body. Keeping his stunner pointed
at the beast's head, he nudged its side with the toe of his boot. When there
was no movement for another few seconds, he knelt and pressed his ear to
Frezlo's back. "He's dead."

Cherry marched over to
Gallant and shoved his shoulder so hard he tipped backward. "You
animal!

How dare you kill him after
he told you what you wanted to know?"

That insult coming out of
her mouth after he had just risked his life to save her was more than he could
stand. He leapt to his feet and stared down his nose at her. "I didn't
shoot him! And keep your voice down."

"I don't see any
difference between shooting him with that box of yours and letting that insect
do it for you."

His nerves were stretched
too far to defend himself in a rational manner. "The insect didn't kill
him, either."

"How can you say that?
I saw you let that thing go and it went right for his head. It flew in his ear
and killed him."

Through gritted teeth,
Gallant argued, "It didn't go in his ear."

"I saw it—"

"How the
drek
could you see it after I'd already made it disappear?"

They were standing toe to
toe, glaring at one another when his words registered in each of their minds at
the same time.

Cherry's curiosity
temporarily pushed aside her fury. "What did you just say?"

"Never mind. We have
to get out of here while it's still dark."

He was out the door before
she could get her feet moving, but she swiftly caught up with him outside.

"What—" His hand
clamped over her mouth.

"Hush," he
whispered. "Do you want to alert that crowd in the tavern that you're out
here with me instead of back there with Frezlo?" He didn't wait for an
answer before walking off again at a faster pace.

Cherry's lungs were heaving
by the time they reached the ship—both from the exertion of keeping up with him
while carrying a length of heavy chain and anger over the multitude of abuses
he had heaped on her in the last few hours. She could hardly decide which to
scream about first.

As they neared the ship,
the door opened and the stairway telescoped down. The moment they stepped
inside, the process was reversed and Gallant hurried to his chair. Cherry was
right behind him.

"I have a few things
to say to you, mister."

"It'll have to wait
until we're off-planet," Gallant muttered as he flipped switches and
pressed keys in the panel. Mar was busy bringing a grid up on his screen, and
when Cherry tried to speak to Dot, the female placed a finger to her lips and
closed her eyes.

"Sit!" Gallant
barked at her.

She was tempted to try standing
throughout takeoff just to defy him, but her obstinance didn't go so far as to
risk injury. For the next several minutes she remained quiet, outwardly. Inside,
she was ranting and raving. At least the enforced delay gave her a chance to
rehearse all the rotten names she was going to call him.

Gallant stretched out the
take-off procedures as long as possible, hoping for two miracles—that Cherry
would calm down and that she would forget what he said about making the
drillfly disappear. He may as well have asked for the Supreme Being to make an
appearance in the cockpit for all the good hoping did him. The second the ship
settled into cruise mode, she was on her feet in front of the panel, ready to
tear him to pieces.

Cherry faced him with her
fists on her hips, took one deep breath, and fired. "You are the most
despicable, vulgar, disgusting, lying, cheating—"

"Excuse us," Mar
interrupted.

Simultaneously, Cherry and
Gallant turned to him and demanded,
"What!"

Mar gave them a pleasant
smile. "You neglected to inform us of our destination."

"Lore," Gallant
said.

"Earth," Cherry
countered. "You
swore
you'd take me back if I helped you. Considering
what you just put me through I'd say you owe me a hell of a lot more than a
ride home. How
dare
you leave me like that? I could have been
killed!"

"You weren't in any
danger of being killed… at least not right away."

"Aargh!
How can you be
so—"

"Excuse us," Dot
interrupted. "Do you think you could settle this matter elsewhere while we
plot our course? Your…
discussion
is somewhat distracting."

"Fine," Gallant
said with a huff and rose from his chair.

"That course had
better be for Earth," Cherry warned as she followed Gallant into the
corridor.

"Lore!" Gallant
called over his shoulder. "I'm still the captain on this ship."

"Only as long as I let
you live," Cherry said to his back.

His frustration showed as
he slammed his fist against the door opener for his room. Not to be outdone, as
soon as they were inside, Cherry hit the panel just as hard to close the door
again.

Holding the length of chain
in front of her, she demanded, "You get this damn thing off me before I
use it to beat you with." As soon as she was free of the collar, she
resumed her verbal attack. "What you did to me back there was the lowest,
most wretched thing anyone—"

"You were never in any
serious danger!"

"How would you know? You
left me with those… those
creatures,
to do who knows what!"

"I wouldn't have had
to leave you at all if
you
hadn't taken my cubes out of my vest!"

"I wouldn't have taken
them if I hadn't found out
you
were using them to cheat."

"And I wouldn't have
had to cheat if you had just been reasonable and agreed to cooperate with me to
begin with!"

"Considering how you
ended up abandoning me, I was right not to agree."

"I never abandoned
you; I was right outside the whole time. Anyway, I knew Frezlo wouldn't allow
anyone to touch you once he decided to use you himself."

"And
who
was
the brainy bastard who put that idea into his head? He only wanted to kill me
before you made it sound like Sinbar had enjoyed me so much he should try me
himself!"

Gallant grinned in spite of
himself. "That was rather quick of me, wasn't it?"

"Quick? There was
nothing quick about how long it took for you to rescue me."