The Quest of the DNA Cowboys (18 page)

Billy shook his head.

‘I don’t understand you. Why the hell don’t you split? Why don’t you run away from this place?’

The girl looked at him in surprise.

‘That’s silly talk, young sir. Where would I go?’

Billy lay on his back and stared at the ceiling. The girl seemed so certain that Port Judas was the whole world that he could think of nothing else to say. After a time he rolled over and began to stroke her breast. Just as the excitement was starting to mount again in both of them, there was a knock on the door. Billy’s mind flashed back to Dogbreath.

‘Not again.’

He rolled over, and grabbed the gun from his belt that was hanging on the bedpost. The knocking came again.

‘Who is it?’

‘It’s me, Billy. It’s Reave.’

Taking no chances, Billy padded across to the door, slipped the bolt, and stepped back.

‘Come in, but come in nice and slow.’

The door opened and Reave stepped inside. Billy lowered his gun.

‘What’s happening?’

‘I just been down to the parlour for a nightcap, and I heard something that I thought I ought to tell you about.’

Billy wrapped a blanket round himself and sat down on the bed.

‘Wouldn’t it have kept till morning?’

‘I don’t think so. There’s these two guys downstairs. They’re sitting in the corner. They’re wearing trench coats and they’ve got their hats pulled down over their faces. La Yuen told me that they’ve been asking about us. He reckons they’re secret agents from the war zone.’

‘Sounds like they’re from the Ghâshnákh.’

‘And they’re looking for us. I got a feeling it’s trouble, Billy.’

Billy reached for a cigar, lit it, and held the smoke in his lungs for a long time while he thought.

‘I don’t think they’ll try anything while we’re in here. There’s too many people about.’

‘So what do we do?’

I guess we’ve got to stick close to the inn until it’s time for the boat. Then we’ll make a run for it.’

‘What do we do about boat tickets?’

‘Get Lo Yuen to fix them for us.’

‘Think we can trust him?’

‘We’re going to have to.’

‘I suppose so.’

‘Listen. Go to bed. Lock the door, and we’ll see how things are in the morning. We’re going to have to play this thing by ear.’

Reave grinned.

‘When did we ever do anything else?’

He headed for the door, and Billy bolted it behind him. He went back to the young woman in his bed. She looked at him nervously.

‘Thou art in trouble.’

He ran his fingers between her legs.

‘Nothing we can’t take care of.’

To his surprise she pushed him away and sat up.

‘I think perhaps it’s time I was leaving thee.’

Billy put his arm round her.

‘Listen. There ain’t going to be no trouble. I thought you were going to stay the whole night?’

The girl shot him a sidelong glance.

‘Thou couldst try giving me another little present.’

Billy fumbled in his jacket, and dropped ten crowns on the girl’s stomach. She gathered them up and placed them with her clothes, then she lay down smiling.

‘Perhaps we should play them new games that thou hast taught me?’

Billy pulled her close to him, and they played for a long time before they fell asleep.

When Billy came down to the parlour the next morning, the two men in trench coats were sitting in a corner. They watched openly while Lo Yuen brought him a plate of eggs and a mug of beer.

They were just as Reave had described them. Dirty trench coats and grey fedoras pulled over their eyes. They just had to be Ghâshnákh agents. Billy ate his eggs and. stared back at them. Bit by bit the parlour began to fill up with the morning trade, and when the place was fairly full, Billy managed to get a quiet word with Lo Yuen.

‘I hear there’s a boat leaving tomorrow?’

The little man nodded.

‘Pier six, eleven in the morning.’

‘Could you fix it so me and my partner were on it?’

‘Very simple. I get you tickets.’

‘How much would it be for a good-class cabin for the two of us?’

‘Two hundred crowns.’

Billy dropped the coins in Lo Yuen’s hand.

‘There’s an extra fifty. It’s for your trouble.’

He gave the little man a hard look.

‘I wouldn’t like it if anyone else heard about it.’

Lo Yuen smiled blandly.

‘You no worry. Me soul of discretion. Ask anybody.’

‘Okay. Thanks.’

‘Okay. I go now.’

The little man hurried off to take care of his customers, Reave came down to the parlour rubbing his eyes. He flopped into the chair next to Billy and glanced at the men in the corner.

‘I see they’re still here.’

‘Did you really expect them to be gone?’

‘I guess not. What are we going to do?’

‘Nothing. Nothing at all. We’re just going to sit here and drink. Lo Yuen’s getting our boat tickets, and at about ten thirty tomorrow, we’ll do a run for pier number six. Okay?’

‘It’s okay with me. I guess you know what you’re doing.’

‘I hope so. I don’t fancy being dragged back to Dur Shanzag.’

They spent the rest of the day sitting at their table in the parlour, drinking in a leisurely manner, and watching the two agents watching them. Towards the end of the evening they each found themselves a girl and retired behind the bolted doors of their rooms. Billy spent a pleasant night informing a second Port Judas whore of the joys that could be had from oral-genital contact. Billy reflected that if the idea spread round the town, he would probably be responsible for yet another addition to the Port Judas city ordinances.

The next morning Billy got up, dressed, crossed the corridor and tapped on Reave’s door.

‘Who is it?’

‘Billy, let me in, quick.’

He slipped inside, and Reave bolted the door behind him.

‘You got the tickets?’

Billy nodded.

‘Lo Yuen gave them to me last night, I also paid our bill.’

‘So we can walk straight out of here?’

‘If you’ve got everything together.’

Reave struggled into his jacket.

‘I’m ready.’

‘Okay, let’s go.’

They hurried down the stairs, and went straight across the parlour and out of the door before the two agents had a chance to move. Once in the street, they hurried along for a couple of blocks, and then ducked into an alley. Reave glanced behind.

‘Think we’ve lost them?’

‘I don’t know. Let’s keep moving.’

They doubled back through the narrow streets of the outlanders’ quarter, crossing the same route a number of times, before heading for the pier. There was no sign of the two men when they finally emerged on the quayside. They were jostled by sailors and dock workers as they looked for pier six. The smell of the river seemed like the scent of freedom. At last they came across a sign that read Pier Six and they hurried out to board the river boat.

The Maria Nowhere was a floating palace. It looked as though it had been designed by a fin de sičcle shipwright with an obsession about decorative wrought iron. It lay low in the water, but its elaborate white and gold superstructure was a maze of saloons, companionways and promenade decks. Towering above the wheel house were the ship’s pair of slender smoke stacks, and in the rear, the huge single paddle wheel that drove the river boat.

Billy and Reave breathlessly hurried up the gangway. At the top, they were stopped by the purser.

‘You have tickets, gentlemen?’

Billy produced the tickets and they were directed to the first-class berths. Halfway there, they were met by a steward and showed into a large, comfortable cabin. Reave grinned at Billy.

‘This is the way to travel.’

The cabin followed through the same design style as the outside of the boat, except that the wrought iron and white timber had been replaced by inlaid veneer, crystal mirrors and dark red plush. Billy flopped into an armchair while Reave wandered round the cabin looking in cupboards and opening drawers.

‘This sure is an improvement on anything else we’ve had.’

Billy laughed.

‘It’s a pity we’re so scruffy. That steward couldn’t believe we were first-class passengers.’

‘Fuck him. We’ve got money, and that’s what counts when you get down to it.’

There was a shudder as the boat’s engines began to turn over, and then after a few minutes an even tremor began. Reave went to the porthole.

‘We’re moving, Billy. We’re under way. Come and have a look.’

Billy moved across to the porthole. The waterfront of Port Judas was slowly receding. Billy put a hand on Reave’s shoulder.

‘Looks like we’re out of it, old buddy. We’ve got away from it all, Dur Shanzag and the good people of Port Judas. I got a feeling that life is going to get better. I got a good feeling, old buddy.’

Reave smiled.

‘I got a feeling that I need a drink now all the excitement’s over.’

Billy grinned.

‘Good idea, let’s go up to the saloon. I think it’s on the next deck up.’

They both stowed their porta-pacs in one of the cupboards, hid their surplus money under the mattress, and started for the door. Billy opened it, and found himself staring down the muzzle of a heavy-calibre automatic pistol. Behind the gun were the two men in trench coats.

‘Oh no!’

They pushed Billy back into the cabin. The agents’ eyes glittered from behind their hat brims and upturned collars.

‘You will not move or make a sound.’

‘Turn round and place your hands on the wall.’

The agents’ voices were little more than a cold hiss. Billy and Reave did as they were told, and were patted down and relieved of their guns. They were then ordered to sit on the bed. Billy decided to try and bluff it out.

‘Who are you, and what do you want?’

Silently one of the agents reached in his pocket and produced a black leather billfold. He flicked it open. Inside was an enamel badge with the eye and flames emblem in red on a black background.

‘We are agents of the Ghâshnákh. We are taking you back to Dur Shanzag for interrogation.’

Billy started to get up.

‘Listen, you’ve made a mistake. I don’t know who you’re looking for but …’

One of the agents hissed at him.

‘Sit down. If you move again I shall blow your head off. One would suffice to take back for interrogation.’ Billy sat down abruptly.

‘As for being mistaken, there is no possibility of that. You are without question the deserters who stole a fighting machine. We found it where you abandoned it in the desert. Your accessory the albino pervert also told us much before he died. There is no mistake.’

Reave leaped to his feet.

‘You mean you killed Burt the Medicine?’

‘Obviously, and we’ll kill you if you don’t sit down.’

Reave sank to the bed.

‘What are you going to do with us?’

‘You’ll be taken back to Dur Shanzag for examination by the Eight.’

‘And then?’

‘You won’t survive examination.’

There seemed to be nothing more to say. Then Billy had an idea.

‘You’ll have to get us off the boat.’

‘You’ll be taken off at the next place we land. The crew won’t interrupt us. There are no laws on river boats except those the captain cares to invent.’

This time there was nothing at all to say. The little tableau remained totally static. Billy and Reave sat side by side on the bed. The two agents stood slightly apart, with their backs to the door, watching them.

Then it all erupted.

The door flew open and there was the ugly whine of a needler. The two agents swung round and crashed to the floor. Their bodies were riddled with tiny slivers of steel. The Minstrel Boy stood in the doorway holding a miniature needle gun in his right hand.

‘The next time I get you idiots out of trouble, I’m going to charge you.’

A.A. Catto followed Valdo into his apartment. She really hadn’t bargained for this situation. It promised to be painful and humiliating. The odd thing was that she also felt a vague stirring of excitement.

Three Hostess-1s were waiting in the bedroom. A black velvet coverlet had been laid across the bed, and the wall colouring had been set at a dark purple. A.A. Catto had to admit that her brother had a fine sense of the gothic. A short plaited whip of white leather lay on the bed. It was arranged to give the impression that it had been casually tossed there.

Valdo snapped his fingers at the Hostess-1s.

‘Quick now. Undress Miss Catto.’

The Hostess-1s surrounded A.A. Catto and began systematically to remove her clothes. She did nothing to stop them. It was an odd sensation to be involved in. A situation over which she had no control.

When she was completely naked, Valdo hit the light controls so the walls faded almost to black and the room was completely dark except for a single white spot shining down on the bed.

Valdo’s voice was a sinister whisper.

‘Lie down, my dear sister.’

A.A. Catto was finding the stage management ritual very exciting. She wasn’t too sure about the actual pain.

Two of the Hostess-1s took hold of her wrists, and gently but firmly led her towards the bed. She was laid face down, and the Hostess-1s pulled shiny chrome manacles, padded on the inside with soft black leather, from hidden recesses in the bed and snapped them on to A.A. Catto’s wrists and ankles. A.A. Catto was spreadeagled on the velvet. She was totally unable to move.

Valdo hit two more buttons and the dim glow of the walls began to undulate in changing shapes and patterns. Richard Strauss came through hidden speakers. A.A. Catto swivelled, her head round to look at Valdo. He was pulling on a pair of white kid gloves. He smiled down at her.

‘You must admit that I have taken a lot of trouble over you.’

‘You do have good taste.’

Valdo leaned forward and picked up the whip.

‘I like to pride myself on that.’

He flicked the whip in the air, as though he was testing it.

‘Would you like some altacaine before we start?’

‘I think I would prefer a shot of deadout.’

‘Oh come now, sister. That would defeat the whole purpose of the exercise. It really must be altacaine or nothing.’