Tanderon (37 page)

I gave her a general, street by street description of Valleyvale, filling in only the main points of interest. Teddy listened with her eyes closed and no expression on her face, which meant she was memorizing the data. I had brought her along more on an impulse than anything else, but it looked like the impulse might pay off.

I finally grounded the hopper in a tall weed patch about half a mile from the main highway leading to Wheatley, then we walked back to the highway. After fighting our way through all those weeds, we really looked like we’d been traveling for a while.

We strolled along the highway waiting for somebody to come by, but Tanderon’s local ground traffic tended to be on the light side. After an hour’s worth of strolling, Teddy stopped to wipe the sweat and dust from her forehead with the back of the hand that wasn’t holding a valise.

“I think five miles away from Wheatley would have been a better idea,” she said, sounding as hot and sweaty as she looked. “At this rate it’ll take us a week to get there.”

“No, it won’t,” I disagreed, glancing at her. “If we don’t get a bite soon, you get your first real lesson in overland travel mode. You’ve had the foundation for it laid down, haven’t you?”

“Yes, and we were even given one practice,” she answered glumly. “Somehow the classroom is starting to look better and better.”

Meaning that that one practice had left her as drained as everyone got at first.

Overland travel mode lets you move incredibly fast for a time, but it uses your bodily resources to do it. If you haven’t used the mode enough to let you develop special caches to draw on, you end up feeling as though you’re about to die of exhaustion. I wasn’t terribly anxious to use the mode for an extended period, but we didn’t have much time to waste.

So we kept going, and about ten minutes later we heard the sound of an engine. We turned to look, and saw an old- fashioned ground car coming along. Teddy started to look shocked then wiped the expression off, but I couldn’t really blame her for the reaction as you don’t often see relics like that. The vehicle was low slung and supposedly streamlined, but probably couldn’t do much more than a hundred and fifty mph. The ground car started to slow, kept going a short way past us, then stopped and waited while we hurried to get to it. A short-haired man with a red face looked out of the window at us, wetting his lips with a thick tongue as he watched us come running up.

“You girls need a ride?” he asked in a hoarse voice while his eyes drank us in.

“You bet,” I said, giving him a look that said a ride wasn’t all I needed. Teddy said nothing, but gave him the same kind of look.

“C’mon, then,” he said, and leaned over to open the door on the other side of the car. We went around to that side and I got in first after putting my bag in the back, then I moved all the way over to give Teddy room to get in. I also made sure to rub against red-face a little before I moved back slightly to give him room to drive. He stared at me and wet his lips again, then put a hand on my leg and slowly moved it up and down.

“Where you girls goin’?” he asked, just as hoarsely as before.

“To Wheatley,” I said, closing my eyes a bit to the stroking. “I hope getting there won’t take too long. We been on the road a long time with nobody’s company but our own.”

“I guess I c’n take care a that,” he said, retrieving his hand and starting the car moving again. “Wheatley’s just up the road.”

We drove in silence for a short while, and soon started to see old, abandoned, but once-elegant houses spaced out along the highway. When we rounded a turn we could see the start of a town far ahead, and that was when red-face began to slow down. After a minute he pulled off the road near a shack that was more rundown than the houses had been, obviously having been deserted for a longer time.

“Let’s stop here a while,” he said, his eyes looking at me hungrily. “We c’n count on th’ privacy.”

“Sure, baby,” I murmured, running my hand over his arm the same way he’d done with my leg. “How much of the foldin’ stuff you got? We don’t come cheap.”

“What d’ya mean?” he demanded, his hand grabbing my arm to stop the movement.

“I give you a ride, and now you pay fer it! I don’t hafta give you nothin’ else!”

“The hell you don’t!” I retorted, moving a short way away from him. “We don’t put out for nothin’ but a lousy ride! Whadda you think we are, a couple of kids?”

“No,” he said in an ugly voice. “I c’n see yer pros all the way. Get out.”

“Don’t be like that, baby,” I said immediately in a wheedling tone, going after his arm again. “We can do business… So how much have you got?”

“I said get out!” he repeated, leaning over to open the door near Teddy before giving me a shove. “I don’t need you if I hafta pay fer it.”

“Forget the cheapskate,” Teddy said in a disgusted voice, already getting out of the car. “He couldn’a made it for both of us anyway.”

“I guess you’re right,” I said in a bored tone, following her out and retrieving my bag before adding, “Big man.”

Red-face leaned over again and slammed the door shut, then took off fast. We watched him and his dust cloud until they were out of sight, then Teddy turned to look at me.

“Weren’t you pushing it a little?” she asked, brushing some of the dust out of her hair. “What if he’d agreed to pay?”

“Then we would have done business,” I answered, wiping the heat of the sun from my neck. “If you need soft lights and sweet music you’re in the wrong line of work.”

She flushed a little, then laughed wryly.

“I was being juvenile, wasn’t I?” she conceded. “Next time I’ll get in first.”

“Curb your enthusiasm,” I advised with a sigh. “This routine goes only for around Wheatley. If you try it in Flowerville you won’t get paid either, but they’ll stand in line six-deep. Almost everybody there belongs to a different ‘social club,’ and they’re always on call for each other. When we get there we’ll have to connect up fast with one of our own, or it’ll be open season on us by all of them. Now that we’re almost there, let’s start walking again.”

We trudged on down the highway, managing to get just inside the town limits before the trusty agents of the peace reached us. They came roaring down the street in their own version of modern transportation, screeching to a stop right in front of us. The doors on both sides of the ground car flew open, and two really rough types got out. They were tall and blankfaced with eye-hiding sun reflectors, and were wearing stunners as if they were showing the weapons off for sale. Teddy and I glanced at each other, then waited for them to reach us.

“Get in the car,” the one near me said in a flat, lifeless voice, standing close enough to grab me if I started to run.

“What for?” I demanded brashly, just so as not to disappoint them. “Walking’s not against the law.”

Without changing expression, the one in front of me slapped me cross-handed so hard that I went down.

“Get in the car,” he repeated in the same flat tone. I put the back of my hand to my face and showed a little fear, then got up and grabbed my bag. The man stepped back a pace to let me pass, and his partner pushed Teddy. She had to run a few steps to stay on her feet, but she managed it and joined me in getting into the back of car. They closed the doors on us, got in themselves in front, then after backing up and turning around we drove into Wheatley.

The whole town of Wheatley is a monument to dry throats. The old wooden buildings stood back in their coats of peeling paint, the dust drifting over and around them, and just looking at those buildings made me lick my lips and swallow. Teddy stared out the window on her side of the car with a bored expression on her face, but I didn’t bother since I’d been to Wheatley before.

In a matter of minutes we pulled up in front of a dusty stone building, and our honor guard got out. The one on my side opened the door and said, “Out.” Stunned by the brilliant conversation I climbed out in time to have him grab my arm hard enough to leave fingerprints. He hustled me inside the building, and his partner followed with Teddy.

It was cooler and darker inside, but the air was still around the 92% humidity mark.

We were dragged over to a low desk that was surrounded by a wooden railing, where a man sat working. His bent head showed a bald spot, and when he looked up his jowly face was sweating. His narrowed eyes took in every inch of me before he gave the same inspection to Teddy, and when he’d finished looking he spoke to her rather than me.

“You might be old enough for a license, girl, but your partner ain’t,” he drawled.

“Don’t you know we don’t like freelance workers around here?”

“I don’t know nothin’ about your crummy town, and we never needed a license before,” Teddy answered sullenly. “That jerk was lucky we even looked at him.”

“Well, you look at any more a our people, girl, and a licence’ll cost you more’n you c’n pay without pain,” he countered without changing expression. “Where were you two headed?”

Teddy glanced at me and didn’t answer, so the jowly face turned in my direction to study me again.

“You know what happens to kids we pick up around here?” he asked me. “They get sent to live with some folks who don’t like kids, and I know ‘em. They really won’t like you. Where were you headed?”

“The Federation Academy,” I told him in a bored voice. “We’re new cadets.”

The fingerprint expert hanging onto my arm shifted his grip to a point down near my wrist, then levered my arm back. When he’d gotten it half way up my back I leaned over toward the desk and gasped.

“Where?” repeated the jowly man.

“Lammerly!” I gasped out, which caused my private arm bender to ease off and then pull me upright by the shoulder. If I’d answered their questions immediately they would have been suspicious; having the answers forced out of me made them much more acceptable and unquestionably true.

“What do you have to do with Lammerly?” the jowly man asked. I hesitated until I felt my arm being pushed up again, and then I talked fast.

“He’s our old man’s cousin!” I shrilled out. “We’re supposta stay with him!”

“Let’s find out,” the jowly man said, turning away. He reached over and used his

‘phone to call Lammerly, and asked him to come down without going into details.

Teddy and I were pushed over to an old wooden bench at the side of the grimy room, and we all waited.

About an hour later, Lammerly walked in. He went over to the jowly man without even glancing in our direction, and stopped to shake hands.

“Had to finish some chores, Jake,” Lammerly said to the man. “What’d you need me for?”

“You know those two, Alf?” Jowly Jake asked, pointing at Teddy and me. Lammerly turned his head as if noticing us for the first time, then came over to stand in front of us and stare. He was dark-haired and almost a giant of a man, with a broad and humorless face and dark, serious eyes.

“Where the hell’ve you two been?” he asked in a flat voice. “You were supposta be here a week ago.”

Teddy and I didn’t say anything, but Jake did.

“They were hitchin’ along the highway an’ tryin’ to work their way here,” he drawled.

“How come they’re visitin’ you?”

“My cousin George couldn’t handle ‘em,” Lammerly said, still staring at Teddy and me. “I said I’d take ‘em for a while and try my hand at it. They were due a week ago, and I thought they went on to Flowerville for sure.”

“Serve ‘em right if they did,” Jake said, the creaking of his chair saying he now leaned back. “You wanta take ‘em, or should we keep ‘em for a while? Sorta soften

‘em up for you.”

“I’m pretty good at softenin’ things up myself,” Lammerly responded, rubbing the knuckles of one hand with his other hand. “Walk, you two.”

Teddy and I exchanged sour looks and got up, then picked up our bags again and walked out of the building just ahead of Lammerly. When we were all outside he pushed us to the right and said, “That way.”

He followed no more than two steps behind us as we walked down the cracking street, and after a little more than four blocks worth of walking he stopped us by a hand on each of our shoulders.

“In there,” he said, pointing to a dirty yellow house that must have once looked bright and cheerful and welcoming. The one-story house was patched and repaired, standing alone among many others like it, a driveway and carport to the left, scraggly grass running to a short, gaping wooden fence on the right. Teddy and I walked up the worn stone walk and then climbed the two overlarge concrete steps. We stood and waited until Lammerly moved past us to open the door, then I followed him inside with Teddy following me.

Inside it was dim and dusty silent, thin patched drapes covering the wide window to the left of the front door. I moved ahead until I stood in the middle of ancient, overused furniture before I dropped my bag, then was able to turn as Lammerly closed the door behind Teddy. He was also dividing his stare between Teddy and me, but he couldn’t wait forever before taking the plunge.

“Diana?” he asked, looking at Teddy, which made her smile faintly. She already knew she hadn’t been seeing the real me, but the matter wasn’t one that made me feel like smiling.

“How soon they forget,” I murmured, bringing Lammerly’s serious eyes to me as Teddy’s smile widened. Lammerly had a sense of humor, but his usual sober manner tended to hide the fact.

“Forget, hell,” he returned with a snort, flipping a wall switch to get enough light for a better inspection of me. “You didn’t look like that the last time we worked together.

If Ringer hadn’t told me, I never would have known you.”

The ceiling light glared down on threadbare carpeting, old, faded chairs, a rickety couch, and chipped, dull lamp tables holding lamps that didn’t work any longer. I looked at the two once-upholstered chairs standing only a couple of feet away, chose the one that seemed sturdier, then collapsed into it.

“That’s the story of my life, Alf,” I told him, shaking sweat-dampened hair away from my face. “Nobody knows me. Alf Lammerly, meet Teddy Hughes. Teddy and I are teaming on this one.”

The man and woman nodded to each other as though they’d only just met, which happened to be exactly the way it was. Two agents meeting in public aren’t really meeting, they’re just reacting to the situation and each other’s roles. Alf made his smile of welcome warmer than it usually was, then turned his attention back to me.