Windswept (7 page)

“And I appreciate that,” said Banks, “but wouldn’t we be safer on land?”

“Yes, which is why you’re going to do what I tell you to.” I grabbed his skinny shoulders, pulled him in front of me, then put his hands on the wheel and throttle. Then I started to get undressed.

He blinked and looked away. “OK, I might have hit my head during re-entry, so I may just be imagining this–”

I grabbed his face, and he jammed his eyes shut. “I need you to keep your shit together,” I said. “I also need you to open your eyes so I can send you instructions.”

“My pai isn’t working well,” he said.

“Is it working well enough for me to send you a picture?”

He nodded.

“Then open your fucking eyes, please.”

Banks did, and our pais did a handshake. I sent him a photo of the coastline, making sure to highlight the Emerald Masjid, then sent a shot of Jilly. “When I let go, start a count to twenty. Then point the boat toward that green tower in the first picture there. When you get to shore, that girl in the second picture will be waiting for you. Do
not
go with anyone but her, got it?”

He nodded.

“Good.” I patted his cheek. “See you around, Counselor,” I said, then jumped overboard.

My balance was a little off, thanks to not making my Six O’Clock. It wasn’t my most graceful dive, but it got me clear of the launch. I worked my way to the surface, thankful it wasn’t mating season for the squid. I would have enough problems with the WalWa skiffs and didn’t need a batch of horny, tentacled beasties thrown into the mix.

Once I got topside, I was glad to see the launch zipping away. I swam toward the WalWa boats, blinking up a distress signal from my pai. I made sure to put it on all channels; some signal buoy would put it out on the Public, which might attract someone who was looking for action. It might also attract anyone allied with Sou’s Reach, but that was a chance I could take. This late in the day Saarien’s minions were probably unconscious or on their way to it.

The skiffs were half a klick away and gaining. I blinked up a zoom to see if their foam cannons were armed, but could only see the boats hopping over the spray and now heading toward the cans. Better to assume they were ready to fire, which meant getting their attention pronto.

I blinked up a picture of the skiffs and fired it out to the Public with a landstamp and a note:
NOW DROWNING. WALWA NOT COMING TO MY AID. AVENGE ME WITH LAWSUITS AND STRIKES
. I waited a few moments, and the skiffs veered hard to port, right toward me, though they had slowed down a bit. Did that mean WalWa had a watch agent on the Public that scanned for anything I said? It had been a while since I’d gotten that kind of rise out of them. I’d have to see what kinds of hoops I could get the boat crews to jump through once they’d hauled me on board.

Then my head buzzed with a message:
we’re coming to get you. stand by.
That was quick, seeing how the skiffs were still a ways off. Then I looked at the message signature:
banks
.

I kicked and pushed myself up to get a better view and saw the recovery launch was heading my way. I also saw that it was now loaded with people.
HEAD TO SHORE, DUMBASS
, I texted back, but the launch kept chugging toward me. Great. Not only did Banks not follow instructions, he was also one of those lazy twits who shorthanded all his texts. What else should I have expected from a Big Three lawyer?

I kicked up again to look at the WalWa skiffs; they had cranked up the speed, and a quick zoom showed their round, warty riot foam cannons were aiming in our direction. I swam at the launch until they were close enough to throw me a line. My shoulders burned as I hauled myself on board. The Breaches, all pale and pooped, gave me goggle-eyed stares as I climbed over them to the pilot house.

“Do you not know how to follow instructions?” I said, shoving Banks away from the wheel. “I told you to head for shore, not to come back and get me.”

“But it’s choppy out here, and–”

“This? This is a calm day,” I said, spinning us about and putting the throttle to All Ahead Flee. “I could have swam all the way home if I’d wanted. You think I don’t know how to handle myself?”

“No,” said Banks, “I just thought–”

“Until you’ve had a solid meal, two beers and your pai’s firmware reburned, you don’t
get
to think,” I said, looking over my shoulder. The skiffs bounced over the waves, and would be within firing range in minutes. “You know why? ’Cause you don’t know shit about what goes on here. Everything you’ve learned about life went right out the window the minute you entered that can. You got me?”

Banks blinked a few times, then said, “I do. Turn us around.”

“Oh, so you’ve had a change of heart?” I said. “Can’t deal with someone who’s Union calling the shots?”

“No,” said Banks, “it’s just that the only way out of here is to turn us around. We’re not as fast, but we’re more maneuverable, and by the time they come about–”

“Look,” I said, “I don’t know what they taught you about naval warfare in law school, but I can assure you that it’s wrong. Those skiffs are all loaded down with enough riot foam to freeze us for a month, and they’ll be good and ready to fire as soon as we’re in range.”

Banks nodded. “Good. You see my point, then.”

“Did you hit your head during re-entry?” I said. “They’re gonna be in range in thirty seconds, and once they start shooting and that foam starts setting–”

And then I realized what the mad bastard was getting at. I cranked the launch around hard. “Everyone, hold on to each other!” I yelled. “Duck down low and don’t let go. You,” I said to Banks, “start throwing as much useless weight overboard as you can. Except yourself.”

“So, I’m not useless?” said Banks.

“The day’s still young.”

He gave me a smile, then moved about the launch, chucking everything over the side. I braced myself against the wheel as we barreled toward the skiffs, the clock ticking down to zero. I blinked the numbers out of my field of vision as all of the WalWa boats opened fire, their cannons bursting like kids spitting cupcakes out of their mouths. The foam loads sailed overhead, splashing in our wake and expanding into giant, marshmallow islands. The cannons kept going, every barrage sailing over the screaming Breaches, but all falling just behind us. The gunnery crews must have been going nuts trying to level their guns as we blasted straight through their flotilla. By the time we passed the skiffs, the deckhands were shooting their riot hoses at us, but they just didn’t have enough oomph. When the skiffs finally came about, they were stuck in the middle of their own now-setting foam. They fired a few more rounds, but the shots went wild and had that air of desperation I so love to get from WalWa. As I turned the overcrowded launch to shore, I allowed myself a smile.

“Are you one of the whores?”

I turned around. The middle-aged lady with the dagger stare was at my elbow, her eyes hollow in the dusk shadows. “What?”

“The whores who lure men down from the corporate side,” she said, her voice a broken pennywhistle. “I know all about you. I’ve seen the shows, read the manga. You people sell each other out, turning innocents into sex slaves, make others fight for sport. I know all about this place, all the flesh and sin.”

That was when I realized I was still in my underwear. No one had ever accused me of prudery, but damned if it wasn’t difficult to stay cool when I was undressed. I pulled on my clothes with as much speed and dignity as I could muster. “Ma’am, how long have you been working for WalWa?”

“All my life,” she said, indignant. “I was born in a company hospital, went to company schools–”

“–and consumed too much company media,” I said, stifling the urge to mention her coming out of the company gene pool, too. WalWa loved its Indentures to interbreed, since servility is a recessive trait. “There aren’t any slaves on Santee, except for the Big Three Indentures.”

She stiffened. “I was never a slave!” she cried. “I was free to work and buy what I wanted! I was taken care of!” She pointed a bony finger at the corpse on the foredeck. “I was perfectly happy taking care of those people, but Thanh had to keep dreaming! He couldn’t see what a good thing we had!” She turned toward the body and spat. “Where’s your freedom now, you asshole?” And then she turned on me: “Take me back! I want to go home! I don’t want to be a slave! I don’t want–”

I slapped her. Not hard enough to send her to the deck – as much as I wanted to – but with enough pop to shake her. She put a hand to her cheek, but she shut her mouth long enough for me to kill the throttle and climb to the top of the pilot house. The other four Breaches looked up at me.

“This launch is going to shore,” I said. “When we arrive, you’ll have a choice: you can go to the WalWa Colonial Directorate, where you’ll likely be tried on the spot for Breach of Contract and sentenced to spending the rest of your life working in the bowels of the building,
or
you can take a risk and find out just what life has to offer when you’re free. It’s not an easy choice to make, but it’ll be the first real one a lot of you have ever had. Until then, unless you’ve got a medical emergency, sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up.” I climbed back inside the pilot house and slammed the throttle. The launch lurched against the surf as the engines buzzed back to life.

Banks made his way back to my shoulder. “Not the best motivational speech I’ve ever heard.”

“Not the best one I’ve given,” I said, giving him a closer look. His pale face was as lean as the rest of the Breaches, but his was the only one that didn’t look miserable. In fact, he looked downright happy, his eyes surrounded by laugh lines. “You a critic?”

Banks’s smile broadened. “I’ve heard enough to know when they’re sincere.”

“What, were you in marketing, too?” I asked.

“What makes you say that?” he asked.

“The glaze in your eyes,” I said. “It comes with WalWa’s Sales and Leadership Program. They still using the needles?”

“Not in Legal,” he said, tapping the scales on his cheeks. “Well, not the little ones, anyway.”

He said it so deadpan that it took me a moment to realize he’d made a joke. Now I had reason not to trust him: lawyers only joked when they were about to screw you.

“You’ll have to forgive Mimi,” he said, nodding to the old lady. She now sat next to the body, gently stroking his wispy hair. “Thanh was the only thing keeping her going, and with him gone...” He shrugged, his smile lagging a bit.

“You known them long?” I asked.

“Two jumps,” he said. “They’re company lifers, doing botanical caretaking. I spent a lot of time helping in the gardens.”

“What, giving legal advice to begonias?”

“No, as a passenger. I can’t do hibernation.”

“No one should, not the way WalWa does it,” I said, and then The Fear tickled the back of my brain, sending icy slivers down my spine.
You missed six o’clock
, it said.
Let’s remember your
own
hibernation…
I gripped the steering wheel and focused on sailing.

“What’s going to happen to her?”

I cleared my throat. “Well, hell, Counselor, you should know.”

“Not really,” said Banks. “I covered real estate, not Service Relations.”

“If she decides to stay, her life’s over.”

“What, they won’t ship her back?”

“Maybe in the alternate universe you came from,” I said. “In
this
reality, WalWa pinches every penny, which means they’re not about to pay the gravity tax for some Breach who has a change of heart. She’ll be lucky if she ever sees natural sunlight again.”

This time, his smile actually went away. “Sorry, I didn’t know.”

“You do now,” I said, hanging onto the wheel as the launch bounced over the breakers. “If she decides to stay, she can get a job at a plantation as a staff botanist. She can open a flower shop. She can start a street kindergarten teaching kids about water lily filtration. Whatever she wants to do, she’ll be free to do it. That’s more than the Big Three could ever promise her.”

We puttered along, and Banks said, “And what about me? If I stay, what could I do?”

“Are you kidding me?” I said. “Santee property law makes a hurricane look orderly. You just have to pass the bar exam.”

“How tough is it?” he asked.

“Depends on how much you can drink.”

He looked at me, and I gave him a wink. What the hell. His smile returned, still overly broad and annoying, but it never hurt to groom legal talent. A future rum magnate would need all the lawyers she could get.

“Still, how do I know you’re not going to sell us into slavery?” he said.

“You’re just going to have to trust me, aren’t you?” I said.

“That’s what my recruiter said before they shipped me out.”

“Yeah, but did they ship you to a place like this?”

As the launch bobbled on the swell, a splash of water bounced off the hull and sprayed us. Everyone started, except Banks, who blinked, inhaled through his nose and said, “My God... does it always smell this good?”

“Every day,” I said. “Every single day.”

The sky was electric purple by the time we approached shore. Everything glowed, like it had been spray-painted with gold. “Wow,” Banks said at my shoulder.

“Not bad, huh?” I said.

“It’s almost enough to distract me from that horrible factory you’re steering us toward.”

“We’re only steering
near
that horrible factory,” I said. “And it’s an industrial cane refinery.”

“Oh,” said Banks. “That changes everything.”

“It should,” I said. “No refineries, no molasses.”

“And no city?”

“Worse,” I said. “No booze.”

“A tragedy.”

“Look, this isn’t Planet Paradise where diamonds and hookers bubble up out of the ground,” I said, zooming in on the beach to look for Jilly. “The only natural resources this place has are a lot of ocean and soil that grows sugarcane. The prices for sea water and industrial molasses are set, and with the way traffic’s been shrinking, the only thing that brings in extra cash is rum with a Co-Op seal.”