Читать книгу Fleet of the Damned (Sten #4) - Allan Cole - Страница 7

CHAPTER TWO

STEN AND LISA Haines squirmed through the mass confusion of the spaceport. As the main port for Prime World, Soward had always suffered from overcrowding. But this was clotting ridiculous—it was arm to tendril to antenna in beings.

The two became increasingly bewildered and unsettled as they pushed their way to the rented gravcar.

“What the hell is going on?” Sten asked, not really expecting a reply.

“I don’t know,” Lisa said, “but I think I’m already losing my tan, and if we don’t get out of here, I’m gonna be sick.”

“Give me a break,” Sten said. “Homicide detectives don’t get sick. It’s part of the job requirement.”

“Watch me,” Lisa said.

Sten grabbed her by the arm and steered the police captain around a staggering hulk of a young soldier.

“I don’t think I’ve seen so many uniforms,” he said, “since basic training.”

They slid into the gravcar, and Sten checked with local traffic control for clearance. They were told there would be a minimum forty-minute wait. An hour and a half later—after repeated delays blamed on military traffic—they were finally able to lift away.

Things weren’t much better as they cut through the city en route to Lisa’s place. Fowler was in nearly three-dimensional gridlock. The two hardly spoke at all until they finally cleared the outskirts and headed for the enormous forest where Lisa had her houseboat moored.

* * * *

“Was it always like this?” Lisa asked. “Or did I just get used to it?”

Commander Sten, formerly of the Eternal Emperor’s Household Guard, didn’t bother answering. The uniforms plus the host of military vehicles and convoys they had spotted made it all pretty obvious.

It almost seemed as if Prime World were bracing for an invasion. That was an impossibility, Sten was sure. But the Emperor sure as clot was mobilizing for a major military undertaking. And, Sten knew, anything that involved shooting was almost certainly going to require that he once again risk his young ass. “I don’t think I even want to know—yet,” he said. “Besides, we got a few days leave left. Let’s enjoy them.”

Lisa snuggled up to him and began softly stroking the inside of his thigh.

By the time they reached Lisa’s houseboat, the almost heady peacefulness they’d found on their long leaves from their respective jobs had returned.

The “boat” swung lazily on its mooring lines high above the broad expanse of pristine forest. The forest was one of the many protected wilderness areas the Emperor had set aside on Prime World. However, since the headquarters planet of his enormous empire was overcrowded and rents and land prices were astronomical, people were forced to become fairly creative about finding living space.

Lisa’s salary as a cop was hardly overwhelming. So she and a great many other people had taken

advantage of a loophole in the Emperor’s Wilderness Act. One couldn’t build in the forest, but the law didn’t say anything about over the forest.

So her landlord had leased the unsettleable land and then provided large McLean-powered houseboats to anyone would could pay the freight. It was a squeeze, but Lisa made sure she could afford it.

They tied up to the side and walked across the deck to the door. Lisa pressed her thumb against the fingerprint lock, and the door slid open. Before they entered she carefully checked the interior—a cop habit she would never lose. It was one of many things she shared in common with Sten. After his years of Mantis service, it was impossible for him to enter a room without making sure that things were reasonably as they should be.

A few minutes later, they were sprawled on a couch, the windows opened wide to clear out the musty air.

Sten sipped at his beer, half hoping it would wash away the slight feeling of sadness growing in his belly. He had been in love before, had known his share of women. But he had never been alone with a lady for this long a time, with no other requirement than to enjoy.

Lisa squeezed his hand. “Too bad it’s almost over,” she said softly.

Sten turned to her.

“Well, it ain’t over yet,” he said. He pulled her into his arms.

* * * *

Sten and Lisa had performed admirably, everyone agreed, in thwarting the high-level conspiracy against the Emperor. Things hadn’t worked out even close to perfection, of course, but one can’t have everything.

Regardless, they had both been promoted and awarded leaves of several months. Thanks to Sten’s old Mantis chum, Ida, there was more than enough money to enjoy the leave in style.

So the two had bought tickets to a distant world that consisted mostly of vast ocean and thousands of idyllic islands. They had charted an amphib and had spent week after blissful week hopping from island to island or just mooring out in the gentle seas, soaking up the sun and each other.

During those months they had purposefully avoided all news of or contact with the outside. There were scorched nerves to soothe and futures to be vaguely considered.

Sten wasn’t too sure how much he was looking forward to his own immediate future. The Emperor had not only promoted him but had heavily advised that he switch services from the army to the Imperial Navy. Advice from the Commander And Chief Of All He Surveys, Sten knew, was the same thing as an order.

So it was with a mixture of dread and some excitement that Sten contemplated what would come next. Entering the navy, even as a commander, meant that he would have to start all over again. That meant flight school. Sten wondered if he could get his old job back if he washed out. Clot, he’d even be willing to go back to being a nice, dumb, not-a-care-in-the-world private.

Right. And if you believe that, my boy, there’s some prime swamp land available at a dead bargain price on a Tahn prison planet.

* * * *

Sten came slowly awake. He felt to one side and noted Lisa’s absence. She was across the large main room of the houseboat, shuffling through her computer files for mail and phone calls.

“Bill,” she muttered. “Bill, bill, bill, letter, bill, police union dues, letter… Clot! Knock it off, you guys. I’ve been on vacation.”

“Anything for me?” Sten asked lazily. Since he had no home address—nor had he since he was seventeen—he had left word for everything to be forwarded to Lisa’s place.

“Yeah. About fifty bleeping phone calls. All from the same guy.”

Sten sat up, a nasty feeling growing slowly from his stomach to his throat.

“Who?”

“A Captain Hanks.”

Sten walked over to her and bent over her shoulder, tapping the keys to bring up the file. There they were, all right: call after call from a Captain Hanks. And Lisa hadn’t been exaggerating by much—there were nearly fifty of them.

Sten tapped the key that gave him Hanks’s recorded message. He was a shrill, whiny man whose voice went from basic urgency to ten-alarm emergency. But the gist of it was that Sten was wanted immediately, if not sooner. As soon as he returned he was to consider any remainder of his leave canceled. He was to report to Imperial Flight Training.

“Drakh,” Sten said.

He walked away from the computer and stared out the open window at the green waving forest, his brain churning. He felt Lisa gentle up behind him, her arms coming softly around his waist.

“I feel like crying,” she said. “Funny. I don’t think I ever have.”

“It’s easy,” Sten said. “You just squint up your eyes and think about almost anything at all.”

Sten did not report immediately as ordered. He and Lisa had a lot of good-byes to say.