Steven Brust - My Own Kind of Freedom

He stared at the paper and tried to work it out.

Pointless, he told himself.

He frowned.

Oh, right. It’s about a hundred and fifty yards that way.

He went back to the main road and followed it most of the way out of town, turning to the right until he saw a low series of bungalows.

Yep, he said. Has to be that one.

His feet carried him that way, and right up to the door.

He was just about to knock on the door when he heard a crunch behind him. He turned quickly, reaching for his pistol, then stopped with it half out of the holster.

“Zoë!”

“Yes, sir?”

“What the xuexing de ta ma de diyu are you doing here?”

“I’m sorry, sir. Had you expected me to wait on Serenity while you spoke to the fed by yourself?”

“Well, seeing as how I gave that order, I sort of figured on it, yes. What about the rest of them?”

“I took the other shuttle. They’re still up in close orbit, geostationary.”

“All right. Well, as long as we’re here—”

“Our friend isn’t.”

“Hmmm?”

“The fed—assuming that’s what he is—left half an hour ago.”

“Oh. You’ve been waiting here?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I don’t suppose you know where he went?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You do?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Where?”

“Follow me, sir.”

It was fully dark by this time. They walked through the darkened back streets of Yuva for about fifteen minutes, until they stopped in front of what seemed, in the little ambient light there was, to be a large, black object of indeterminate shape. “Here, sir,” whispered Zoë.

Mal whispered back. “What is it?”

“In the light, it seemed to be a warehouse for the landing field.”

“How big?”

“Not terribly.”

“Okay.”

He dug around in his coat pocket for a minute, then whispered, “Got some light?”

Zoë kept the light dim, but they were able to spot the door. Mal positioned himself on the side with the latch, Zoë took the other. They both drew their weapons.

Mal found the latch with his left hand, turned it. The “click” seemed very loud. The door was also loud when it opened. He waited to see if anything would happen.

When the floodlights came on, he let himself fall backward, staying near the wall, then rolled, coming to rest on his stomach, pistol pointing toward the door. Zoë was clearly visible, on one knee, pistol and head swinging back and forth.

A voice emerged from the doorway.

“I’m not going to shoot at you. I’d appreciate it if you’d be equally reserved.”

“Who’s there?” called Mal.

“It’s me. Kit. I didn’t know who you were when I hit the lights.”

Mal lowered his pistol, pointing it at the ground next to his foot. Zoë pointed hers at a spot on the ground midway between her and the door.

He came out, showing empty hands, though there was a pistol tucked into his belt. “I take it you were looking for me?”

“That we were.”

“And I assume you didn’t save my life six hours ago in order to kill me now, so, would you like to come in?”

Mal glanced at Zoë, who stood up, holstered her gun, and shrugged. Mal stood up and holstered his own. “Well then,” he said.

They followed him inside, Zoë closing the door behind them. Kit flicked a heavy switch just inside the door, presumably turning off the floodlights. They followed him down a badly lit hall to a small office, with comm equipment, monitors, and keyboard set about here and there.

“Get comfortable,” he said.

Zoë rolled her eyes. “Is it all of Hera, or just Yuva where no one believes in chairs?”

“I get the chair,” said Kit, “because I got here first.”

Zoë leaned against the wall, Mal took a corner of the desk. “Is this a hideout you’ve used before, or was it spur of the moment?”

“I’ve had it in mind, just in case.”

Mal felt Zoë looking at him. “Best to have a bolt hole, in your line of work.”

“Yes, indeed.”

“Just what is your line of work?”

Now it was Kit studying him. “I’m a dentist,” he said at last.

Mal shrugged. “Look, you don’t have a cover any more; all you can do is wait to be retrieved, and hope that happens before they find you and take another shot. What harm is there in telling us?”

“I’m wondering if you’re the ones who blew my cover.”

“And then saved your life?”

Kit shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know what your angle is. Feel like telling me?”

“You’d never believe it,” said Zoë, staring at a spot over Kit’s shoulder.

“You don’t have to tell us anything,” said Mal. “We’re not going to threaten an Alliance officer. And we are surely not going to try to beat it out of you. But we came into the middle of this. We want the rest of the story. If you feel like telling us.”

Kit leaned back and stared at the ceiling. “What brought you to Yuva, anyway? I’ve learned who you are, but that only starts the questions. You aren’t miners, and I haven’t seen you around the office. I’d say security, but you aren’t wearing—”

“I captain a transport ship. We were hired to pick up some lumber for Mister Sakarya.”

“Yeah, that matches what I learned. But is it true?”

“Sure,” said the captain. “Why not?”

“Okay. You picked up some lumber. And then?”

Mal shrugged. “We were waiting to get paid, saw those two in the canteen, decided to interfere with their fun.”

“Mister Sakarya,” repeated Kit.

“Yes.”

“What do you know of Mister Sakarya?”

“Well, I gather he’s not burdened by excessive kindness toward his employees.”

“You could say that.”

“He seems like a thousand others I’ve seen. Big king in a little kingdom. Probably enjoys it too much.”

“Yeah, well.”

“Well what?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing you can tell us about him?”

“Sorry.”

“Or about what you’re doing?”

“Sorry.”

“Aren’t you curious about how we blew your cover?”

“Did you?”

“Not on purpose.”

Kit shrugged.

Mal said, “But then, someone tries to knock you on the head the day we show up here, and it hasn’t happened before, or you’d have been armed and expecting it. Bit hard to call it coincidence, isn’t it?”

“What’s your point?”

“That you might be curious about how it happened.”

“Maybe I am.”

“And if you tell us what you know, and we tell you what we know, we might both learn something.”

“Sorry. Can’t do it.”

“I suppose you couldn’t justify revealing anything to anyone without clearance for it.”

“Close enough.”

“A shame about that.”

“I suppose it is.”

“Do you have to tell them?”

“Yes.”

“But you are curious, aren’t you, Kit?”

“I’ll admit to that. But I’m afraid, well, you know. I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help, Captain Reynolds.”

Mal pushed himself away from the wall, nodded to Kit, and headed out. Zoë fell into step next to him.

“I have a question, sir.”

“What is it?”

“Did we learn anything?”

“Well, we have a lot more questions than we did before, but, yeah, we learned some things. We confirmed that he’s a fed. And he was on sort of mission here that had something to do with Sakarya, and something about our arrival here messed up his mission and almost got him killed.”

“I see. Something about our arrival.”