Joseph Lewis - Halcyon

“Well, that much I can believe.”

“You see, major, I’m not in the business of making enemies. I much prefer making allies. We have enough enemies already.”

“If you say so.” He was getting tired of standing around. Cuff her hands together. Definitely. If her friends do show up, I don’t need the dead weight on my arm. Syfax twisted the cuff around, trying to line it up with her free wrist but there was a kink in the little chain.

“Major? Major Zidane!” The shout echoed from the far end of the warehouse.

Syfax froze. Who the hell could that be?

The ambassador raised an eyebrow. “It seems someone is looking for you.”

“It does sound that way.” He flicked the open cuff back and forth in his free hand as he tried to identify the stranger. The yelling voice was closer now, louder and clearer. It was a woman’s voice.

“I can only hope my friends don’t come back to see who is yelling. It poses a dilemma for both of us. A bloody shoot-out would be in no one’s best interests. But if you agree to my terms, everyone walks away in one piece,” Chaou said. “But I’m worried that I can’t really trust you right now, major.”

“Then we’ll just have to risk a little bloodbath.” Syfax dropped the open cuff and reached for his revolver.

The ambassador snaked her hand away and the marshal felt a tiny stinging sensation in his fingertips. A blade? A razor between her fingers? Syfax glanced down but didn’t see any cuts or blood on his hand.

Chaou smiled. “Something the matter, major?”

Syfax shook his hand to throw off the strange tingling under his skin and then he reached for the ambassador again. The older woman smiled and held out her own hand as though to shake his. Frowning, Syfax closed his fingers tightly around Chaou’s outstretched hand.

Pain blossomed through Syfax’s arm and shoulder and neck. Every nerve buzzed and burned and the major tasted copper and oil in his empty mouth. Tiny lights danced across his vision, orange and green and purple. He yanked his hand back and lashed out with his other fist to knock the ambassador’s arm away. Syfax succeeded in hitting the older woman’s forearm as he collapsed to his side, clutching his arm and grinding his teeth, trying to blink his eyes clear of the lights. He opened his mouth, working his jaw to pop his ears. Dimly, he saw and heard Chaou mount her horse and gallop away down the street.

“Major!” Boots thumped and Kenan dashed into view. “Major!”

The corporal dropped to one knee and helped Syfax sit up. The orange and green spots faded and the numb buzzing in his arm gave way to a more painful and distracting ache. Syfax blinked and groaned, and spat. The street spun drunkenly to the left. He swallowed hard and blinked hard, trying to force his body into working properly.

“Major? Are you all right?”

“Mmm.” He nodded. Better not to use words, not yet. He gestured upward and Kenan helped him to his feet. He blinked a few more times and let the world resolve back into the shadowy shapes of warehouses and streetlights and horse dung.

“Major, what happened?” Kenan’s voice was loud, too loud.

Syfax rubbed his ear. “It felt like being stung by a thousand bees, on fire, on the inside. Where is she? Where’s Chaou?” He led the corporal into the street.

“I didn’t see her.” Kenan fell into step behind him. “We came in through the other end of the warehouse.”

“We? You brought Ohana?” Syfax stared down the road in the direction Chaou had ridden. “Where is she?”

“No, she’s back on the airship. I brought Ghanima, the pilot you found in the wreck.” Kenan indicated the figure just jogging out of the warehouse behind them. “I think it was the right choice.”

“Do you?” It wasn’t a question. The kid’s had half the night to come up with a plan and find me, and this is the best he could do?

“She’s really something.”

He glanced at his aide and saw the corporal’s grin. “Kid, we don’t drag civilians into an investigation unless they have something to contribute.”

“Well, technically she’s not a civilian.” He massaged his head and kept grinning. “I mean, she’s in the Air Corps. Security Section Four. Transportation.”

Syfax snapped his fingers in front of the corporal’s face. “Hey. This is not a debate.”

Kenan stopped grinning. “Yes, sir. Won’t happen again, sir.”

“See that it doesn’t.” Syfax studied the young woman in the orange jacket. The girl had her arms crossed and was absently tapping her foot as she glanced around the deserted road. Young, impatient, cocky. All I need right now. “Ghanima, right?”

“Yes, major. We saw two people leaving the warehouse on the other side.” She pointed back over her shoulder. “Kenan wanted to follow them, but I thought where they’d been might be more interesting than where they were going.”

“Good thinking.” Syfax forced a smile.

“That’s when I started calling your name.”

“Not good thinking.” Syfax stopped smiling. “Did you see which way Chaou went?”

“No, sir.”

“Fine.” The major glanced around at the empty street. “This warehouse was probably just a meeting place, not a center of operations.”

“What kind of operations?” Kenan asked. “Did the ambassador say what she’s doing?”

“She spouted some nationalistic gibberish. Nothing concrete. Either of you ever hear the word shifrah? Any idea what that means?”

“No.” Ghanima said, “So where does that leave us?”

“Nowhere, that’s where.” Syfax started walking. “I think Chaou electrocuted me with her hand. How the hell did she do that?”

Kenan cleared his throat. “Actually, we might know the answer to that one.”

“What do you mean?” Syfax kept his eyes on the road, scanning for recent hoof marks.

“Back at the airship, Hamuy got a little out of hand and Taziri shot him, but it didn’t kill him,” Ghanima said. “Hamuy’s got a metal plate under his skin. Armor, surgically inserted. And he said that Chaou had something done to her as well. This must be what he meant.”

Syfax squinted. Armor and electricity under the skin? That’s new. I hate new. “I assume Lieutenant Ohana had a good reason for shooting my prisoner.”

Ghanima nodded. “To save me, sir.”

“Fair enough,” Syfax said. “So, what did you do with him? Toss him in a jail cell? I mean, Hamuy’s not still on the airship with Ohana now, right? You didn’t leave them alone together?” The young officers were very quiet. Syfax glared at them. “Right?”

She kept one eye on her gauges and needles and the sweeping views of the city slowly turning beneath the Halcyon. Taziri kept the other eye on the mirror’s image of Medur Hamuy lying on the floor behind her. “Doctor? How are you doing back there?”

“Hm? What?” Evander sat up and scratched his beard. “What’s going on?”

“I said-oh, never mind.” For the third time that hour, the view of the city below rotated to show her Port Chellah’s harbor. The waves sparkled like diamonds, bright and piercing.

The doctor grumbled something in Hellan before saying, “Have you come up with a plan yet? Some place to go? Someone to talk to?”

Hamuy grunted. “Of course she hasn’t. The idiot is just floating around up here, waiting for someone to come along and tell her what to do.”

Taziri gripped the throttles a little tighter. Her eyes flicked over to the wrench lying on the engineer’s console.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” Hamuy chuckled. “Pathetic.”

Ignore him. “Doctor.” Taziri beckoned Evander to come up to the cockpit with a flick of her fingers. The older man crept around Hamuy and poked over the engineer’s shoulder. “Doctor, we may be up here for a while.”