Андрэ Нортон - Beast Master's Circus

"You're sure? Then what do we do?"

"Hang on. I'm checking." He came back after several minutes. "I don't like this, Tani. The only copter it could be is one belonging to an outfit I don't trust very far. The copter has muffled engines and the pilot filed a flight plan toward the desert fringe on a sight-seeing trip with tourists. My contact at the port says seven people boarded. He knows two of them from the port here as minor but unsavory criminals." He paused. "It should be just about dark where you are by now."

"It is," Tani informed him.

"I can't get our copters back until morning. Tell the clan these people have no rights. If the warriors protect the clan in any way they must, then they are within our laws as well as their own." He paused again then spoke with heavy significance. "In any way. But do your best to see those ways don't include the tourists, who may be an innocent cover."

"And if they aren't?"

"Then that applies to them as well."

Her flying fingers had been keeping up with the conversation as Tani and Kelson spoke. From the growing Nitra circle about her there came soft hisses of satisfaction. If their actions were within settler law as well as their own, that meant that stunners taken were legitimate loot. They could be kept as could anything else taken from the attackers. The Nitra would have no use for the copter, but if they took that they could exchange its price for clan wealth in horses. Tani could guess at their reaction to that idea.

"I think you've said the right thing, Kelson."

"Tell them live tourists can be fined and the fine given to the clan as well, but only if the tourists are in one piece," he suggested.

"I'll do that. But you see what you can find out about them. I'll switch the com alarm off. Better our possible enemy doesn't know we have one. It'll flicker the lights if you call. The Thunder-talker's interpreter will stay with it; he's crippled so he isn't a warrior. If there's no attack going on when you call he can whistle me in to answer. Tani out."

She settled in to discuss tactics. The coyotes would eat and drink now then slip into the night. They'd show to heat sensors but as smaller blotches only, not as what they were. With fortune the enemy would assume them to be native animals disturbed by the movement. Jumps High had called in the camp's younger warriors as well. Thrown out in a screen, they would let the attackers through then close in behind. The experienced fighters would be ready, defending the camp and filling in the other half of a surrounding circle of death. The horse herd was loosed to wander about. The more heat blotches the better.

The Nitra medicine woman was signing, "What weapons will they have?"

"They'll have stunners for sure, those are legal and everyone has them. If they really mean this as an attack they could have pulse rifles." She grinned again as the listening warriors hissed in delight. They knew weaponry. A pulse rifle was normally beyond their ability to buy, but if the enemy brought the rifle here it was legitimate loot. Her hands flashed signs as she continued.

"They may have special things for their eyes. Lenses that allow them to see in the night as if it was the day."

The Nitra medicine woman gave a bark of amusement. "Hough! Djimbut are warriors. We can fight in dark or light, do they think we do not know our own lands? These enemies are fools if they think that way. Already we know they are here while they do not know we know. Kelson says their landing is not lawful. They are our prey and their property shall be ours." Tani signed swiftly then. She must make them understand that it would be bad if the possibly innocent tourists died.

The Thunder-drummer nodded, the human gesture of agreement the Arzoran natives had learned from the settlers. "We understand. It is simple, those without guns we do not harm, those with guns we shall kill. If your tourists fight against us, they too shall die."

It was a reasonable attitude, Tani thought, and Kelson could hardly expect the clan warriors to let themselves be shot, whether the shooter was a panicked tourist or not. She glanced from the tent entrance. By now it was about an hour after full dark. The clans tended to sleep about the second hour unless some celebration was occurring. Those in the copter would likely know that. She turned to the com.

"Kelson?"

"Kelson listening."

"I think if they come it'll be in about an hour. The clan's agreed not to hurt the tourists unless they're using weapons too. Then all bets are off. Did you find out anything more?"

His voice was harsh now. "Much more! The copter was supposed to be taking three tourists from an out-systems ship on a two-day tour, with one of the tourists acting as their pilot. The whole things's an orchestrated litany of lies. I checked the ship register. Nothing. But a friend in the patrol pulled a scan of the ship's registration and it's fake. So are the registered IDs of the two owners. She can't be sure who they really are but she'll keep trying to find out. She's found nothing on their so-called passenger as yet, but birds of a feather flock together." He heard her soft gasp.

"No time to talk that over. Listen. One of the port people says there were seven in the copter. That leaves four of ours. Two we knew about as soon as security saw their recorded faces, and port recording has ID'd the other two tentatively. All four are criminals. Never been sufficiently nailed to be forced into rehab but the peacekeepers say they're sure there's a lot of crime the four have been responsible for, it just hasn't been proven against them. All four are nasty pieces of work."

Tani had been thinking quickly, aided by the fast-moving hands of her friend, the Thunder-talker. "Kelson, would any of the four have ridden herd; are they used to outlands or are they city folk?"

There was a chuckle. "Well asked. Nope, they're all from the city." Her hands relayed that. Jumps High twittered a couple of swift orders in his own tongue and two of the warriors vanished. "I doubt they know much about local terrain and so far as I know none ride. They can't have more than stunners and just possibly a selective needier, either," Kelson assured her.

"Certain of that?"

"Fortunately. The port periphery sensors just put in a new weapons system. It lets us know if anyone crosses the port boundary carrying heavier weapons such as pulse rifles or blasters. It doesn't alert the carrier, just the peacekeepers. They can check them out without the one who's caught knowing how he came to be tagged. So, there were only stunners for certain when this bunch lifted from port, but there was a slightly different reading which could indicate a needier, one of the small handheld type."

She seized on the loophole. "But they could have landed and picked up other weapons after leaving."

"I don't think so. I timed your message, added the time they left here, and there's no gap. At steady speed they'd have just been landing when you heard them. We do think the copter may have basic heat sensors. Those would only give them a rather blurred heat signature and the rough size of the target. I'll get rangers to you at dawn. Where's Logan?"

Tani sighed. "At High Peaks with Hosteen's team. Logan twisted his wrist and ankle handling a frawn. Hosteen's riding circuit alone around our ranch. He's got Baku with him but Surra's still bonding with her new mate, and Hing has babies."

"Then neither man's going to be available. Okay, Tani. I'll have reinforcements in by dawn. I'd like some of these idiots to be alive when I get there but if it's you or them, let it be them. Kelson out."

From the darkness outside the tent came a twittering. The interpreter signed at flowing speed and fluency. "They come. Jumps High has put up the bodies of the merin deer on stakes as though they lived. Our scouts waited in line behind them. Our enemy sees beasts only. They see in the dark as you have said. They circled the deer so as not to alarm them." He stopped to listen as the cry of a night bird came. "The enemy approach. They are close to the horse herd." He gave a thin-lipped smirk.