In the weeks that followed, David started to feel more like his old self. He was back to his fighting weight, and his hair was starting to cover his prison baldness. What wasn't going to change was the brand burned on his forehead. A circle with an X through it served as a constant reminder of his hatred for the Reliance and all that it stood for. He ran his hand over it. Darkness had closed in, and the only light came from the fire. RJ planned for them to leave in the morning, but she hadn't told David where she planned to go or why.
"So, I think the first thing we should do is something really big. Something so big they won't be able to cover it up," David was saying. "Like blowing up the Reliance bank in Satis . . ."
"We'd be killed before we could get out of town," RJ said dispassionately. "I understand the need to do something spectacular to grab the public's eye, and I would love to destroy the bank at Satis. I will do anything to hurt the Reliance, but remember this, David Grant. I don't do suicide missions. I like living. The fact is that I am intensely in love with myself, and fully believe that I am the most important person on this planet, if not the entire fucking universe. So when you talk of suicide missions to blow up banks, then you had better drop the 'we,' because I, for one, have no intention of dying for the cause."
"But Satis is . . ."
"The kind of thing you need an army for. So until we have that army, I suggest you put all your dreams of conquering Satis on hold." She paused."In the mean time, I suggest we continue to raid supply trains."
"Why? Why not get right to something that matters?" David asked, with angry disappointment. He had learned that when RJ made up her mind that was the end of the discussion as far as she was concerned. She proved it now by snoring loudly and feigning sleep.
They loaded the supplies, including the carefully hidden, fully assembled rocket launcher, onto the military-issue dirt bike they planned to ride. It was cold, so they dressed for it. The clothes David now wore, like RJ's, were not Reliance work-issue. Oh, the plain blue jeans and white T-shirts were, but the black leather jackets definitely were not. They were military-issue. He tied a leather headband around his forehead to hide his brand. RJ had already mounted the bike and was screaming at him to hurry up. He looked back at the cave. It had been the first place he had ever lived where he hadn't had the Reliance breathing down his throat. Even though he was eager to get on with the fight, he was reluctant to leave this place.
"Would you hurry it up?" RJ screamed.
He ran over and jumped on the bike behind her. He would have liked to drive, but he had no idea how. The only thing he had ever driven was a farm tractor, and he hadn't been very good at that.
At first, David sat loosely on the back, but as RJ started slinging them down the rough trail at break-neck speeds, he found himself clinging to her for dear life. She seemed to be oblivious to such obstacles as rocks and trees. He wondered if this was the same woman who had claimed to be a lover of her own life just the night before. David took comfort in the idea that the bike couldn't possibly go any faster, and then they hit the pavement.
David was scared shitless. Up till right then, the fastest thing he'd ever been on was the town whore. He was sure he couldn't have been any more petrified, and then he caught sight of a Reliance cop flashing his lights behind them.
"Oh shit! What do we do now?" David said, his panic showing in his voice.
"We pull over and see what the gentleman wants," RJ said. "Just keep cool, and everything will be all right." She pulled the bike over, and they came to a stop.
The police car stopped right behind them.
RJ got off the bike, and David followed suit.
"Any problem, officer?" she asked.
David tried his best to look unconcerned.
"Standard procedure," the officer stated, proving that he had studied his handbook well. "I'll have to see your military free-days pass."
Of course he assumed they were military. They were wearing the jackets, and they had access to a motorbike. Civilians didn't have either.
David swallowed hard, and started to go through his pockets. Very slowly at first, and then more urgently. It was OK that he looked nervous. After all, everyone was nervous when dealing with Reliance police.
David shrugged, raising his open hands in a gesture of frustration. "I don't seem to have them," he said, sounding quite convincingly upset.
"Could you give me your pass numbers then? I'll just run them through the machine," the officer suggested with surprising patience.
"Oh, come on, officer," David whined, "who remembers their pass numbers?"
"I do," the officer said."I'm sorry—he didn't sound sorry; he sounded bored—"but you know the rules. I must either see your passcards, or you must recite your numbers so that I may run them through the machine."
David assumed an expression of intense concentration. "Seven, seven, two—no. Seven, seven, four—no." Suddenly, he turned on RJ.
"I could have sworn I told you to get the passcards," he said hotly. David, of course, had never seen a pass-card in his life. RJ caught on quickly; she shrugged.
"I'm sorry," she said, assuming an air of total indifference.
"You're sorry." He sounded as if he were barely controlling his temper. Then he exploded. "Sorry! Why, you stupid bitch! This is the first free-days pass we've had since we got married. You did this on purpose because you don't like sex." All David's very genuine terror lent veracity to his assumed rage, and the outlet in turn helped him regain control.
RJ kept a smile from her face only with great effort, and managed to play along. "Oh, please. You're not going to start all that again are you?" she sighed.
David looked at the officer, man appealing to man."The Reliance gave me three women to choose from. I went for looks, and wouldn't you know it, I wind up with the one that doesn't like to screw."
The officer started to speak, beginning to look uncomfortable, but RJ jumped in first.
"How am I supposed to get turned on by a guy that likes to wear my underclothes? Would you tell me that?"
"That's a lie!" David screamed back, turning to face RJ.
"Go ahead, officer, ask him to drop his drawers, and we'll just see who's lying," RJ demanded, with an air of wronged innocence.
"Oh, that's not fair!" David cried accusingly. "You know I always wear them when we're on the bike." He turned to the officer appealingly. "They keep me from chaffing. You understand, don't you?"
"Oh, really, Howard, you don't expect him to buy that, do you?" RJ asked with disgust. "It's you who purposely forgot the passes so that you could go back to the house and go through my clothes!"
"Lying bitch!" David screamed. The two faced off, totally ignoring the officer. RJ opened her mouth to scream something back, but the officer had obviously had enough. He whistled to get their attention, and threw up his hands as if to ward them off.
"Enough! It's obvious that you two are only a threat to each other, so just go on about your free days. I suggest that you take the time to try to work out your differences. As you know, the Reliance hardly ever sanctions a second marriage."
"Thank you, officer," David started pumping his hand. "Thank you very much!"
"Yes, well, just do me a favor, and try not to kill each other in my jurisdiction," he said.
He shook his head as he watched them drive away. "You meet all kinds on this job."
It was dusk when they reached the town. It was run-down, but still very much alive. The streets teemed with activity, none of which was Reliance sanctioned. Bars lined the roads, far outnumbering restaurants. They stopped at what seemed to be the busiest bar in town. It had golden arches outside, obviously a relic from antiquity, the plastic coating was beginning to flake. Even so, one could clearly see "Billions and Billions served" written below the arches. In answer to David's question, RJ said that no one knew what the "Billions served" were. Some speculated that they were drinks. Some of the hookers claimed it referred to satisfied Johns, but no one really knew—or cared.
David listened with a feeling of relief as the engine died. They got off the bike. David tried to stretch out his weary muscles, but that only aggravated his saddle sores. RJ looked as sharp as she had that morning, and David fought the urge to smack her. He followed RJ inside, where they sat on stools at the bar. The bar was low, and the stools were wooden and crudely made. David would have preferred to stand, but he supposed that would have been too conspicuous.
"What's yer poison?" the bartender asked.
"Whiskey, beer chaser," RJ said, without noticing the strange look David gave her.
In David's experience, you could have a whiskey, or you could have a beer, but you couldn't have both at one time. That was against Reliance Law. But then so was most of what he had seen since they drove into town.
"And what can I get for you?" the bartender asked David.
"Ah, just a beer," he said. He was given a beer, and one sip told him that this was not Reliance-approved beer. It was too strong for that. This was more like the "whiskey" they had back home. David took a look around the bar. The other customers, like he and RJ, were wearing non-regulation clothing. There wasn't a proper uniform in sight. You couldn't tell whether these people were farmers, ranchers, cloth makers or military. Where the hell had RJ brought him? As if reading his mind, RJ started talking in a low whisper that was barely audible above the constant din.
"Welcome to Alsterase, David. Nothing in this city is up to Reliance code. This is where escaped prisoners, tax evaders, politicos, and riffraff of virtually every type come to escape the Reliance," she explained.
"I've never heard of it," David said. "Why doesn't the Reliance just come wipe them all out in one fell swoop?"
RJ smiled, then ordered another drink. When it came, she explained. "Like you said, you've never heard of it. To attack the town would be to admit that such a place exists at draw attention to these rebels. Besides, Alsterase plays a very important role in Reliance politics."
"What's that?" David asked. By now, he was thoroughly confused, and looked it.
"If a rebellion ever starts, it's a fair bet that it will start here in Alsterase, the home of the malcontents. If you know where your enemy is, you know where to go to crush them quickly and completely."
David nodded his understanding.
"As long as there's a place for the malcontents to go, they'll go there. As long as they're here, they can't be in the towns stirring others into a rabble. As long as they're not stirring up any trouble, it's in the Reliance's best interest to leave them here to attract those rebellious souls who slip through the system." As RJ finished, she picked up the whiskey and downed it, then started on the beer.
David allowed his brain a few minutes to soak up what he'd just heard."OK, I think I get it. But if all that is true, what are we doing here? This place is no doubt crawling with Reliance spies." David glanced nervously around the bar as he spoke.
"Oh, no doubt about that at all. Which means that nobody asks any questions or gives out any information. See, everyone's either afraid that you're a spy, or afraid you'll think they're one. Spies in Alsterase are more or less useless."
David nodded slowly. "But that still doesn't answer my question. Why are we here?"
"A little reverse logic. You see, the Reliance knows that Alsterase is the festering place for a rebellion, but then so does anyone with half a brain. So, they don't really expect anyone to try. Oh, there's talk—there's always talk, but nothing ever comes of it. Therefore, this is the perfect place to start a rebellion. A town full of people who all hate the Reliance is the perfect cover, because only an idiot would seriously try anything here. Therefore, a really intelligent person who plays her cards right can march right into a ready-made army. Or at least a unit," she gulped her beer down.
It took several seconds for all of that to soak in. When it did, David still didn't understand, and he didn't like not understanding. He didn't like her drinking, either. While he sat sipping on his single beer (which was making him giddy already), RJ put away six of the combination drinks. Her speech wasn't slurred; her movements weren't clumsy. In fact, the only indication that she'd had anything to drink at all was that her right arm was flopping around like a fish on a pier.
He'd noticed the arm thing before. She seemed to have a habit of jerking it at odd moments; it could be a little distracting. Right now, the damned arm thing was enough to drive him crazy. When she started to order another round of drinks, he decided she'd really lost it.
"Don't you think you've had enough?" David asked quietly.
RJ laughed and patted him on the back, none too gently.
"More than, probably. Bartender! Do it again!" she yelled.
Just as the bartender set her drinks on the table, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and hot breath in her ear.
"Hey, baby, why don't you and me blow this dump?" The man was huge, six-foot-eight if he was an inch. He was gigantic, humongous, fantastically enormous, and damn near as blond as the woman he was coming on to.
"Well," RJ drawled slowly, not even looking at the man. "For one thing, I'm not your baby."
David gulped, and decided to give RJ charm lessons as soon as he got the chance.
"You could be," the big man said.
"You could be well-mannered, too. But you're not," RJ said coolly. "Any man can see that I am with this gentleman."
David looked around for several seconds before he realized that RJ meant him. The smile he gave the big man was sickly at best.
"Oh, I'm sure he wouldn't mind," the big man said, and added menacingly. "Would you, buddy?"
David gulped again. RJ had strapped a gun under his arm before he put his jacket on, but he didn't know if he could get to it—or if he should even try. He wasn't ready for this situation; he wasn't exactly sure how he should react, or if he should at all. Goddamn RJ! She was just sitting there, grinning at him, as if waiting for him to do the right thing. Whatever the hell that was.
"Actually, I do mind," David tried to sound cocky, but somehow, just didn't quite make it. He went for the gun, which turned out to be the wrong thing to do. Someone—he never knew who—hit him in the head with a beer bottle before he could clear leather. His head spun, his vision blurred, and he hit the floor just seconds after his gun.
RJ came off the stool, bringing a knee up into the big man's groin. He let out a howl and bent double. RJ brought her cupped hands down on the base of his skull, and he hit the floor shortly after David.
Some guy took exception to his friend's nose-dive and slung his fist into RJ's gut. It hit the chain-now hidden under her jacket, and he jerked his hand back, screaming. She delivered a well-placed kick to his head, and the second man fell beside his friend.
David kept trying to get up, but couldn't figure out which way that was. He didn't even know where he was, or what had happened. He didn't feel the blood running down his face. The noise around him registered, but it was just that—noise—no words, no sense.
RJ turned just in time to deliver a roundhouse kick into the ribs of yet another attacker. When the girl fell to the floor holding her ribs, she yelled out, "Elite! She's a fucking ELITE!"
"No doubt she remembers the boots," RJ said in the sudden stillness. She announced, "I used to be an Elite. I have been well trained, and I don't have any qualms about killing anyone. So if you're feeling froggy, go ahead and jump."
With this said, she proceeded to kick every willing ass in the bar. She threw one poor man out the window, and another down the bar. In ten minutes, anyone who had thought it was a good idea to kick this stranger's ass had either rapidly changed his mind and left, or was suffering from some degree of bodily disrepair.
RJ stood up straight and took a deep, cleansing breath. Then she walked over to the bar where, by some miracle, her drinks still stood, and slung them down. Turning to David, who lay practically comatose on the floor, she picked him up, threw him over her shoulder, and started for the door.
Pausing in the doorway, RJ turned, "I'm not paying my bill. I didn't have a good time, and I don't think my date had a very good time either. What's more, the atmosphere in this place stinks." Having said her piece, she stomped out the door, slamming it behind her so hard that the rest of the glass fell out of the broken window.
When they reached the bike, RJ tried to set David's limp body on it. She put her hands in his armpits and sat him up, but as soon as she let go, he almost fell.
"Oh, come on, David," she said in exasperation. "It's been a long damn day."
After several unsuccessful tries, she finally got David to hold himself up long enough that she could get on the bike. At which point he promptly collapsed against her back.
"Can you hang on?" A gurgling sound was her only answer."Oh, I can tell that this is going to be a fun evening." She jammed David's limp body against the sissy bar with her back, and somehow managed to drive to the motel across the street. Not being in the mood for formalities, she drove the bike right inside and turned it off.
"Hey! Hey!" The fat, greasy, chrome-dome of a manager popped up from his seat behind the desk and waved his black-market nudie magazine in an apparent attempt to shoo them out. Clamping his huge, smelly cigar firmly in his teeth, he screamed, "No pets and no motorbikes in the lobby. That there's the rules. I'm trying to run a classy joint here."
RJ got off the bike and headed for the desk. David fell unceremoniously to the floor. She opened her jacket so that both chain and plasma blaster were visible.
"Lady, I don't care if you have a fucking rocket launcher, you can't bring your filthy motorbike in my lobby." Gun-toting customers were nothing new to him. The sight of a plasma blaster, not even a big one, didn't impress him.
RJ didn't feel like dealing with points of etiquette at the moment. She reached across the counter, grabbed the man by his collar, and lifted him off the floor with one hand. Then she drew her blaster and stuck it up one of his nostrils. Now he was impressed. She didn't even have to mention the fact that she did just happen to have a rocket launcher.
"Me, this pistol, and my incredibly bad attitude all say that I can park this bike up your ass if I like. Do you have a problem with that?"
"All right, all right," the manager huffed. RJ set him down slowly and removed the blaster. He straightened his dirty collar and tried to straighten his now bent cigar. "I swear, you girls are all alike. Give you a gun, and you turn into thugs."
"I need a room for tonight," RJ said.
"Just for tonight?"
"If the room is suitable, we'll be staying longer."
"Oh! How lucky for us!" The fact that the blaster was back in the holster seemed to restore some of his self-confidence, not to mention sarcasm. "Is your friend dead or alive?"
"I don't know. Why?" RJ asked, glancing at the pile of David on the floor.
"Charge more for stiffs. People leave them in the rooms. It makes an awful mess," he said.
RJ nodded. She could relate to that. So she yelled across the room, "David, are you dead?"
The pile of David made that gurgling sound again.
"See, he's not dead."
"He's pretty bad. May die tonight," the manager speculated.
"If he does, I'll take the body out myself." RJ shoved some credits at the man, poured David back on the bike, climbed aboard herself, started the engine and headed for the stairs.
"Hey, you crazy bitch . . . !" The rest of the man's obscenities were lost in the roar of the bike.
They reached the sixth floor in a few minutes. The top two floors of the old eight-story building were in such bad repair that even a "classy joint" like this had them closed off. A few people stepped out into the hall to see what all the noise was, but quickly lost interest. Just another crazy asshole riding a bike in the hall. Nothing very unusual about that. Not in Alsterase.
Outside the room, RJ stopped and shut the bike off. When she got off, David hit the floor again. He had this falling bit down pat. This time, however, he gurgled and stirred and seemed to want to get up. That he didn't do quite so well—not at all, in fact.
RJ opened the door and pushed the bike into the room. After she was sure it was OK, she went back for David. After all, first things first: men were a dime a dozen, but a good bike was hard to come by. She kicked the door shut and tossed David over onto the bed.
RJ bent over David, looking at the cut in his scalp. It was deep, and about four inches long, but the skull seemed intact."You stupid jackass. Anyone with half a brain knows better than to pull a gun in Alsterase unless you have a death wish, or full body armor."
She cleaned and stitched the wound, berating David the entire time. "And another thing, never start anything unless you know what's behind you, you stupid prick." She covered him up after stripping him down to his shorts. "You'll live. You won't enjoy it for a while. Not with the headache you're going to have come morning, but you'll live."
Finished, she sat down on the edge of the bed and unwound the chain. Taking a coin from her pocket, she bent it double around a link, adding it to the small collection of change already bent into its folds. She smiled and let the chain fall to the floor.
He felt as if the sun were trying to drill its way through his eyelids. His head was pounding, but the soft, warm, and undeniably female contents of his arms temporarily distracted him from his pain. He smiled. It had been a dream. Prison, RJ, the brawl, all a dream. He was home after all, safe in his own bed with some delectable hometown girl. Jane? Or maybe Susan. He wanted to go back to sleep, but the pounding in his head became more insistent. Why did his head hurt? He put his hand to his head, and found the stitches.
OK, so it wasn't a dream. He couldn't decide if he was relieved or sorry. Without thinking, he pulled himself closer to the woman, and felt himself drifting off into unconsciousness again. Then it hit him. He was in bed with a woman! But who? He opened his eyes slowly. RJ sat in bed, wearing only her pants. She was cleaning her blaster as if it were the normal thing for a half-dressed woman to do while sitting in bed with a man wrapped around her waist.
David couldn't help realizing just how really built RJ was. Not that he hadn't noticed before now, but clothes did tend to screw up the view.
She blew some debris out of her gun, and it hit him in the face.
"Hey!" He wiped at his face.
"Well, I'm glad to see you're still alive. They charge extra for stiffs around here. Real classy place," she said with a smile.
David let go of her and rolled onto his back. It was the wrong thing to do. The room wouldn't quit moving, and he felt instant nausea.
"You're all heart, RJ." He held his head in an effort to keep it from splitting open. "God, I feel like I've been hit by a tractor."
"Actually, I believe it was a beer bottle," RJ offered. She stood up and grabbed her shirt off the chair where she had put it. She pulled it on and started wrapping the chain around her.
"Do you always have to wear that thing?" David asked making a face.
"Yes," RJ said simply, as she continued wrapping. She strapped the blaster, now in its holster, around her waist, and tied it down to her leg.
"Why? I mean, it must be heavy. And it looks kind of stupid."
"Because I like it," RJ replied dismissively.
David didn't take the hint. "There has to be a good reason for it. I mean, you don't do anything without a good reason." It was obvious that she had no intention of answering his question."You know I was damned near killed, and the why of it completely eludes me. You'd think you could answer one simple question."
"Well, you should be just thrilled because there really isn't a good reason for me to wear it," RJ drew in a long impatient breath and then blew it out."This chain helped me to escape from the Reliance. We were sent on a mission to cleanse this village . . . Do you have any idea what that means?"
David shook his head no. He was so ignorant that it was a real pain in the ass to have to tell him anything.
"It is Reliance policy that when an area becomes over-populated, when there are more people than necessary—you know, when they're using more than they're producing—then the Reliance sends in troops to 'cleanse' a village or two. They say they are just weeding out spies. At least, that's the official story that goes out over the viewscreen. But they kill everyone, David. Every man, woman, and child. I was a major in the Elite Guard. I was trained to fight armed soldiers: men, women, or aliens who were trying to kill me. I had crossed galaxies to battle aliens on distant planets, and now they wanted me to slaughter children. To cut down unarmed civilians and leave them to rot in the streets. To make a long story short, I refused. And I wasn't going to stand there and let them do it, either."
Her smile wasn't quite human as she continued."So, I put a blaster bolt right through my CO's head. The troops stopped shooting at the civilians and started after me. I evaded them easily at first, but then I lost my blaster and took a plasma hit, and things started going downhill fast. Just when it looked as if my chances of survival were nil, I saw this chain. I picked it up, and with it I made a hole in the wall of soldiers that surrounded me. And so, I escaped."
She fingered the chain absently. "I have always looked at everything with a very analytical eye, but this chain . . . It's part of me. You see, I have this feeling that as long as I hold this chain, I will win against the Reliance. It's a stupid, romantic idea, and how it got into my purely logical and unromantic brain is a mystery to me. Still, it's what I believe."
David nodded. Now it made sense. Maybe not to her, but it did to him. "So, as long as I'm on a roll, what does RJ stand for?"
RJ shook her head and half grinned.
"Ruby Jean," David suggested.
RJ laughed, then sobered and looked right at David. "Why do you feel compelled to have all your questions answered? Some questions have no answers. Others are best left unanswered. Ignorance is not always a bad thing."
"Aw, geesh! It's just a name. How bad . . ."
"I'm going to check things out. I'll bring you something to eat." She walked to the door and was gone.
David held his hands to his head. The throbbing seemed even worse now. He tried to stay awake because he had heard somewhere that it was bad to sleep if you had a concussion. What he hadn't been told was that it was all but impossible to stay awake.
RJ kicked a rock down the street as she walked in her Elite boots, carrying her Reliance-issue blaster—so blatantly Reliance that everyone knew instinctively that she wasn't. She kept her hands in her pants pockets and had the air of one who was totally unafraid.
News traveled fast in Alsterase. After all, it didn't have the Reliance to slow it down. Most had heard of the platinum blonde goddess who had whipped Whitey Baldor and half the clientele of the Golden Arches. People stood clear as she walked by. She smiled and nodded her head in a friendly way that served only to further terrify them.
Derelicts, merchants, Reliance spies, rebels, prison escapees and hookers. Alsterase had its share of all of these, and none of them passed RJ's eyes unnoticed.
The roads were narrow and steep and in a state of total disrepair. The rails that once flowed down the center of the street had been removed long ago for the metal. This had once been a great and beautiful city. The city by the bay was now the city of the discontented and outcast. Its golden gates were long fallen into the sea. It was Alsterase now. Alsterase, where you went when you had nowhere else to go.
It would take a great deal to make this lot into an army. The very things that had driven them to Alsterase and made them the sworn enemies of the Reliance would make them hard to train and harder still to lead. They were a rebellious, undisciplined lot, who had grown out of the habit of taking orders. Still, they had the fighting spirit that RJ was looking for.
She walked down to the wharf area. It was full of cheap thrills like whorehouses, dirty movie parlors and bars, but RJ's attention was immediately drawn to a small island in the bay. It seemed to be almost entirely covered by structures. Structures obviously dating from antiquity and yet, from what she could see of them, they seemed to be in good repair.
She walked over to the edge of the pier, totally ignoring the rotting timbers, to see if she could get a better look. The architecture was at least as old as some of the buildings now laying in heaps around town, yet she could see no signs of wear. She pulled a small telescope from her pocket to help her get a better look, and still she could see no sign of decay. "Curioser and curiouser," she mumbled.
"They say is haunted," a voice said behind her.
RJ spun around, but she saw no one. Then there was a jerking on her pants leg.
"Down here!"
It was a little man, about three-foot-three. RJ smiled broadly at him. "Ah, but I don't believe in ghosts."
"Don't, either. Said they say, not I say." He craned his head back so he could look at her. His glance took in both chain and laser, but he didn't seem bothered. In fact, he looked relieved. "What interest in island?"
"So, who says I'm interested in the island?" RJ asked.
"I do," he replied with an impudent grin.
RJ laughed."Well, I am a little interested. Do you know anything about it?"
"Only what hear." He walked away, and RJ followed.
"And what do you hear?" she asked, somewhat impatiently.
"Man said been there once. Said evil things chased away. Lightning struck brother down before could get to building." The little man looked sideways at RJ and said, "Of course, know for what is—fishermen's stories. Have seen lights though, sometimes at night. Reason, don't know."
He had a strange habit of omitting words from sentences that RJ found mildly annoying.
"Sometime on very foggy nights lighthouse will come on. Fisher folk say is kindly spirit on some day, and on other say it demon."
"So, to whom am I speaking?" she asked.
"Name's Willie, but they call Mickey," he announced.
RJ nodded seriously, as if there were perceptible logic in his statement. She'd noticed for some time that the little man's eyes kept darting around. He seemed unusually worried, even for Alsterase. Had he sought her out as protection? Even in Alsterase there was safety in numbers. Especially when one of the numbers carried a blaster.
"OK, shorty. What kind of trouble are you in?" she asked.
"Bad," he said with a smile. "See, am bit light-fingered. Lifted man's wallet today. Reliance. Badge in wallet. Now know spy. Soon all Alsterase will know. Unless kill first. This man and another have been chasing all over. Am tired, running out of hiding places," he explained. "Won't dare attack while in such company." The words had no sooner left his mouth, than blaster fire tore up the pier beside her."Of course, could be wrong."
RJ glanced back quickly. There were two men, one holding the blaster, another with a more primitive projectile weapon. The man with the blaster would be an Elite, the other a secondary. Both were of course Reliance spies. It wasn't incredible intuition that told her this—although she possessed incredible intuition. It was common knowledge. Elites got lasers, secondaries got projectile weapons, and first-class soldiers made do with swords. At least, that was the way it was here on Earth.
RJ didn't wait around to give them time to aim. She picked up the little man, stuck him under her arm, ran for the nearest pile of rubble, and jumped behind it.
"Oh, come on, little man, we don't want any trouble. I just want my wallet back. Why involve your friend?" The Elite's attempt at persuasion was ruined by the obvious threatening tone in his voice. He was enjoying this. If he had to shoot her, too—even in front of the half-dozen witnesses that were scattered around, it didn't bother him. "You might as well come out. We're going to find you, anyway."
Mickey looked at RJ. "Better go. No sense getting hurt."
"Honey, the day I let some dick with a hand blaster intimidate me, that's the day I hang up my chain." RJ pulled her own hand blaster, and handed it to the midget. "Here, hold this for me." She stood up in full view of the Reliance men.
Mickey pulled at her pants leg urgently. "What doing, trying get killed?"
"Just shut up and stay down." RJ moved away from the pile of rubble unwinding the chain as she walked.
"I don't have any quarrel with you, lady, just tell me where the midget is," the Elite said.
The Elite, he was the real threat. She finished unwinding the chain with a jerk and a flip of her wrist. It snaked out hitting the Elite in the head. Fawapp! Thunk! He hit the ground—dead. His blaster skidded across the ground to rest against a dead fish.
The secondary was in deep shit, and he knew it. He could think of only one possible explanation for what had just happened, and he didn't like it one bit.
RJ slowly and deliberately rolled up the chain.
Seeing her take no defensive action, the soldier aimed.
Mickey fired, missing the soldier completely. But the force from the plasma blaster sent him flying into a wall which he skidded down to land with his butt in a bucket.
"Freak!" The secondary hoped he was wrong about that. The midget had distracted him, but he was ready now. Unfortunately for him, the moment of hesitation was more than she'd really needed. He fired, but he lost all interest in the result of his shot. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the chain coming at him—almost in slow motion, like a nightmare. He even seemed to scream in slow motion, "B-i-i-t-c-h-h-h-f-f-f-r-r-r-e-a-k!"
The chain caught the soldier in the left side with such force that he was pitched sideways and slammed face-first into the pavement, his nose shoved into his brain. His death was, if not painless, at least mercifully swift.
"Men really just don't know how to talk to a lady anymore," RJ mumbled to herself. "It's a crying shame what this world is coming to." She picked up the weapons of the two dead men, and then retrieved her own blaster from where Mickey had dropped it. She took a few moments to wrap the still bloody chain around her waist, then went to pull the little man out of the bucket. This proved more difficult than eliminating the Reliance spies.
"Thank you. Thank you very much," Mickey said.
"Tell me something. When you kill people around here, are you expected to clean up your own mess?" asked RJ, ruefully surveying the destruction she had wreaked.
"Killing Reliance spies considered community service work. Someone else will clean mess. You saved life." Clearly, this meant a great deal to the little man.
"Well, I do expect something in return," RJ admitted.
"Anything," Mickey promised earnestly.
"First, I think it might be a good idea if we put a little distance between ourselves and these corpses," she said.
Mickey nodded his agreement, and they went on their way.
Strapped to the wrist of the former Elite, and hidden by his cooling corpse, his comlink glowed and pulsed.