Андрэ Нортон - Beast Master's Circus

Storm reached out to hold Tani protectively. He could feel the shivers which shook her. This was personal distress, not only a reaction to Logan's hurt and the abduction of part of Storm's team—fond as she was of her brother-in-law and of Storm's animals. His gaze met the worried gaze of his stepfather over her head. Storm's instincts told him there was something he hadn't heard as yet.

"Asizi? What else has happened?" But Brad was entering the house. He'd see Logan for himself. It was Kelson who spoke quickly.

"The raiders must have come on to High Peaks. They hit the Djimbut first. No, no one of the Nitra was badly hurt. But they seem to have had a double agenda there. They were after cat's-eye gemstones and beasts."

Tani lifted her head. "They took Minou and Ferarre," she wept. "They stunned Mandy but she got away from them." Her eyes glowed fury before filling with pain once more. "We killed four of them but they still got away with my friends."

Until now Storm had not completely reacted to the loss of Surra and Hing and her babies. Now that loss filled him. His arms clamped Tani to him and his head bent over hers. A silent moan of pain tore through him. Tani felt the echo of his grief.

"Storm, what is it, are you hurt?"

"Surra, Hing, and her babies. They took them as well." He felt her stiffen. She stepped back. Her face was transformed into an implacable rage. Her hands came up slowly from her sides, fingers crooked a little. The anger coming from her was so powerful Storm could feel it against his mind like heat.

He stiffened—there were times when he forgot that she had lived on Terra during the Xik attacks, lost her father to the enemy, and seen her mother killed. She'd fled her world to escape being mind-broken or killed and survived it all. Under the gentleness of her surface lived a woman who was descended from one of the greatest female warriors of her people. Six months earlier when courage was needed, she had not been found wanting.

"Surra, Hing and the babies, Minou, and Ferarre." Her voice was the long dangerous note of a warhorn as she roll-called. "We'll find where the raiders went." She turned on Kelson. "What do we know?" He restrained himself from stepping back at the intensity of that demand. At the rage which filled the small slender body. He spoke slowly, wanting to defuse that flaring fury.

"Whoever they were they had help on Arzor. The port manager swears no one could have breached security without aid. We're an outer world and security isn't what it can be on an inner world, but it's good enough. I acted on Tani's first call. We'd closed the port before they reached it. So they should have been picked up entering the gates. They weren't." He remembered manager Gauda's report on that and his own anger rose.

"They got across the permacrete landing area and entered their ship disguised as cargo handlers. To do that they had someone's help. The manager was certain of that much once she'd checked the security tapes. She's so furious she has accepted a patrol offer. They'll bring in an operator with a deep probe. She's made that known and thinks it may..." A series of urgent beeps sounded from the ranger copter. "Excuse me."

He pulled down the hush cover and talked, listened, talked again. Then he lifted the cover as a pleased look spread over his weathered face.

"Nice timing. One of the people involved has talked. It seems likely he's scared of what else the probe could uncover. He's a small-fry. Not really involved. Just bribed to leave coveralls and a couple of pallets in an unusual place and let the raiders know where and how to dodge the scanner for long enough to get a head start to their ship. But he knew who bribed him. That's the first mistake. He wasn't supposed to but he did. The peacekeepers are out picking up that one now."

Storm imagined Surra, injured, in pain, separated from the human who had walked beside her so long. She would not bow to others. She was a cat and it was not in her nature. She would fight them every step of the way. She would end up dead like the others the raiders had stolen. But Hing, so happy with her new litter and new mate after being so long alone. The kidnapers would take the babies as soon as they were old enough to be weaned. And Hing who needed her kind about her would be alone once more.

The pain of their loss tore at him. He thrust it down. He would be calm. He would hunt down the thieves and when he found them they'd talk. He'd have his team whole again or die in the hunt. He had no idea of the image he made. Nor how Tani had merged her own fury, then control, with his. Together they turned to study the ranger.

"When are they likely to have this talker?"

"Anytime now, but Storm, they won't let you talk..."

"We'll take Logan down to the hospital. Then we'll see what happens."

Kelson surrendered. "Yes. Logan is most important right now."

They flew back to the city. Logan was wheeled away. A doctor paused to speak before he too followed the stretcher. "He'll be fine. Don't worry. Come back in the morning."

Brad hesitated. Storm laid a hand on his stepfather's shoulder. "Go with Logan. Tani will be with me. When we're done we'll go to the ranch house. We can hire a vehicle to return there."

"No need. The crawler's at the edge of the port. I left it there when Kelson collected me. Use that." Storm nodded and stepped back. Brad headed for the hospital doors and vanished as Storm turned to eye Kelson.

"Tani and I will go to the port. I want to talk to Port Manager Gauda there and I may be able to have a few words with others."

"If you mean the man who was bribed, they won't let you near him. Go back to the ranch. If the authorities want to talk with you they'll find you."

"I'd rather find them. Wastes less time." His tone was implacable and Kelson threw up his hands.

"Do what you want to. You will anyhow, the same as Logan usually does."

"And that's made him one of the best rangers you have," Storm returned. "Think about it. This bunch attacked a Nitra clan camp. They didn't kill anyone, but if they had the Djimbut clan would have ridden to war. Worse still, if they'd succeeded in stealing the Thunder-talker's regalia other Nitra clans would have joined them." He punched the air for emphasis.

"Think. It isn't impossible even the Norbie clans could have united with them. An affront to the Thunder or a demand from it is one of the few things that could unite both the wild and civilized tribes. It did once before. A dead Nitra warrior or two is one thing. Stealing objects of power and desecrating them is a lot more."

Tani cut in quietly. "You know the patrol's attitude on settled planets where there's already a native people. Point out to them that the raiders could have begun war here. That makes it of patrol interest as well as ranger business. Causing war between native and human settlers is an interworld crime. What if the raiders do something like this elsewhere?"

Kelson's face had been hardening as he listened. He'd thought of the possibilities himself but had not considered the patrol in this. A year back, the lethal Xik-bred clickers had driven the wild clans from their desert lands. The patrol would have forced the human settlers to evacuate their ranches, then Arzor, rather than see a settler—native war. He nodded slowly.

"I'll talk to the patrol office here about this. Tani's right. If she hadn't figured out that the raiders wanted gems then we could be facing a native uprising. If the raiders pull something similar elsewhere the patrol could have a civil war on their hands. And to my mind this all ties in with what Tani's kin discovered from other worlds. Someone's trying to collect augmented beasts from beast master teams."

He stood a moment, his face thoughtful. Even with Terra a burned-out cinder, enough of the fleet and command structure had survived. A new High Command had risen which governed the patrol and the reactivated survey section. Most often now they acted as a clearinghouse for information and as the arbiters of final decisions.