Sunset in Silvana (Da'ark Nocturne Book 1) (22 page)

There were no alarums during the day, so by the time evening fell, they were completely recovered and fully prepared to leave.  Having fortified themselves with the reheated remainder of the stew and more of the bread that Anoushka had purchased back in the village, they set out on foot through the forest.  They travelled through the night, and dawn found them in a small clearing, where we decided to pause and have breakfast.

“Any idea how long before we reach the river?” Iain asked Peter.

“About four to five hours, I’d say,” the boy said.  “We’ll be able to move more quickly now it’s light, though it’s best we keep hidden as much as possible, to avoid any farms or villages we see.”

“What are we going to do when we get there?” Anoushka asked.

“The people we’ve met seem pretty friendly,” Tanya said, “and I’ve got some money to buy us passage if we find a boat willing to take us.”

“Or we could hijack one,” RD added.

Tanya glared at him.  “Is violence always your answer?”

“Pretty much – it usually works.”

“Come and eat,” Anoushka said, her smile defusing the tension.

It was about midday when they entered a broad clearing in the woods, surrounding a path that stretched away to their left and right.

Bartes saw the glint of water through the trees on the other side.  “Over there,” he said, pointing.  “It must be the river.”

In their eagerness to confirm his discovery, they increased their pace, and they had almost reached the far side when a young man in the uniform of a Security Lieutenant stepped out from behind a tree and blocked their path.  He held a pistol negligently in his right hand.

“Put your hands on your heads,” he said, as several black-shirted troopers emerged on either side of him.

Tanya looked round to see that others of the Lieutenant’s platoon had surrounded them.  :
Oh, shit
: she sent to Bartes.

The lieutenant strutted forward.  “Surrender,” he said.  “We don’t really want to hurt you, but we will if we have to.  My superiors want you back, but I think they’ll be satisfied as long as you’re still breathing.”

“How did you find us?” Tanya asked, the despair showing in her voice.

“Oh, we always knew where you were.  We were just waiting for
you
to come to
us
.”

The fugitives stood uncertainly for some seconds.  RD drew himself to his full height and said, “We’re not going back with you.”

“Oh, I think you are,” the lieutenant said smugly.  “Restrain them.”

As several of the troopers moved to do his bidding, the lieutenant lurched sideways.  He fell as if pole-axed.  Milliseconds later, the crack of a rifle was heard, followed by the rattle of a light assault weapon.  Four of the troopers to the fugitives’ right fell as the others dived prone and began returning fire.

A figure about 30 yards along the right-hand path momentarily stood up and beckoned.  “This way,” he called as he ducked back into the bushes.

“Follow me,” RD said, as he dived sideways to avoid the crossfire.  Crouching low, he dashed toward the trees on the side from which they’d been hailed.

Tanya took hold of Anoushka’s arm and followed him.  :
Bartes – bring Joseph.  And Iain, you bring Peter,
: she sent.

RD led them cautiously along the tree-line.  There were shouts from the Zelynans, and an occasional warning shot flew over their heads, but most of the soldiers seemed keener on staying alive than on stopping their escape.  One conscientious but foolhardy trooper tried to follow them, but just got a bullet in the neck for his trouble.  He clutched his throat and fell, blood fountaining from his mouth.

As they neared the point from where they’d been hailed, they were met by the man who’d gestured to them.

“Follow me,” he said, and led them off into the trees.  A hundred yards or so further on they came to an outcrop of rock, which their rescuer walked directly into and disappeared.  They hesitantly followed, only to find that they passed through a hologram into a large cave.  “Wait here,” their rescuer told them, as he left to re-join the fire-fight.

Tanya and Bartes looked at each other, dumb-founded.  “Perhaps this is something Sophie arranged?” Tanya said.

“Ask that blasted cat of hers,” RD said.  “Where is it, anyway?”

“I don’t know,” Tanya replied in a puzzled tone.  “I haven’t seen her since we left the tractor.”

“She probably doesn’t like long walks,” Iain suggested.

“It’s not that,” Tanya replied.  “Remember, she followed us for a long way after we left the dacha.  Anyway, she knows she can always ride on my shoulders.  No, her mistress must need her at the moment.”

They were left by themselves to recover from their trek.  They relaxed as much as they dared, though the sporadic gunfire outside their hideout made that difficult.

After some time, there was a noise from the front of the cave as the last person they expected entered: Major Valentine.  He smiled at their astonishment.  “Just a few more minutes and we’ll be on our way, my friends.  Get some more rest while you can – we’ll be moving fast when we leave here.”

Tanya smiled.  “I always hoped you were on our side, Major,” she said.

“There’s no need to use that title any longer, Dr Miller – or should I use your first name?”

“I already told you to do so once – although that time it
was
a different name.”

“Okay – Tanya,” he added with a grin.  “If you’ll call me Valentine – it
is
my real name, after all.”

“I’ve never seen you out of uniform before.”

“The time for deception has passed – I’m here to get you to Telphania, by way of Duplif, so I can show my true colours.”

“But you had Karla and me tortured.”  Peter snarled.

Valentine shook his head sadly.  “I’m sorry – that wasn’t my idea.  Reynard enjoys that sort of thing.  When I found out, I stopped her.”

“And pulled my thoughts from my head,” the boy said.  “You forced me to betray my friends.”

“It was either that or let Reynard continue to interrogate you,” the Major said.  “If it’s any consolation, your friends were gone when we checked the locations you knew.  You held out long enough for them to escape.”

“I still don’t trust you.”

“Then I’ll have to do something to earn that trust – like reunite you with your sister.”

“We’ll see.”

“Now that you’re here and everything’s out in the open,” Iain said, “perhaps you can explain something: how is it that you – and everyone else in Zelyna, it seems – were able to track us?  We’ve checked every member of our party and all of our equipment for bugs several times over and found nothing.”

“The state-provided food and all the water you ate and drank at both dachas – and even back at your apartment block – was impregnated by identifiable radioactive trace elements,” Valentine replied.  “Whenever you relieved yourself – even when you breathed – you left a slight but perceptible trail behind you.”

Tanya put her head in her hands.  “I should have realised,” she said with a sigh.

“What do you mean?” Bartes asked.

“Our drug dispensers,” she said.  “They contained a radiation palliative, and since we weren’t actually at Pregeor, there had to be some other reason for it to be included.”

“Are we in any danger?” Iain asked.

“I doubt it,” Tanya told him.  “It could only have been a trace.  What’s more, we’ve gradually been eating less and less of our original supplies, and the water from the dacha ran out a while ago.  I’m betting most of it has been leached out of our system by now.”

“It
has
been getting harder to follow you,” Valentine agreed.

“That explains how the security forces have been able to track us,” RD said, “but not how our other enemies have been able find us so easily.”

“That’s indirectly my fault.”  Valentine gave a rueful grimace.  “You’ll have gathered that Reynard has been after my job?”

“She didn’t exactly go to too much effort to disguise the fact,” Tanya pointed out.

“Exactly.  Well, she wanted to demonstrate to our superiors that I was incompetent, so, to make my job of keeping you safe more difficult, she’s been feeding information about your whereabouts to the resistance.”

“The bitch,” Anoushka exclaimed.

“That explains most of it,” RD said, “but I’ve been thinking back to Plune, and there should have been no way that anyone would have been able to set up a mortar to attack us when we were sailing back to the dacha.  How could she know our plans when she wasn’t there when we decided?”

“I wondered about that at the time,” Valentine said, “so I made a few enquiries and found that she’d been paying one of my closest aides to spy on me.  He must have tipped her off.”

“I hope you dealt with him most severely,” Iain said.

“Permanently,” said Valentine.  His smile did not reach his eyes.

Bartes still couldn’t relax.  Perhaps it was only his natural paranoia, but he felt he couldn’t trust their rescuers.  The ex-Major sat with his back against the cave wall and seemed to be dozing, so Bartes reached out with his mind.

He’d been told that Valentine was highly psionic, and that indeed proved to be the case: his mind was so well shielded that a surface scan told Bartes nothing.  He pondered digging harder, but was nervous that the ex-Major would detect his probing.  Just as he was about to give up, Valentine was distracted by a burst of machine gun fire from just outside, and Bartes was able to get a rather disturbing picture from his mind.

A thick cloth was being held over a fire.  Eight chitinous, taloned legs took hold either side of the central seam and pulled.  A stitch broke, opening a small tear.  The light of the hungry flames that sprang through the rent showed that the cloth was a map of Ruine, a map that quickly caught alight and was consumed utterly.

Bartes also picked up what Valentine was thinking:
I wish I could do something about my mistress’s plans, but I can’t afford to defy her openly.  I’ve spent such an effort on these poor fools, and now they must be sacrificed.  I’ve got quite fond of some of them, too.  It’s a pity, but what alternative have I got?

It grew quiet outside, and soon one of their rescuers came through the cave entrance.  “We think it’s OK to move on,” he said.

“I’ll come and check.”  Valentine got to his feet.  “Be ready to move when I get back,” he said to the fugitives as he left the hideout.

Now it was safe to talk, Bartes looked over at Tanya and said, “I’m afraid I’ve got bad news.”  He showed her telepathically what he’d picked up from the ex-Major.

She looked stricken.  “But I thought... I’d hoped...” Her tone was anguished.

“What?”

Her face took on a look of grim determination.  “Never mind.  We’re in deep trouble.  What do you think we should do?”

“I don’t know…”

They’d lapsed into silent circumspection when RD woke from a doze in a sweat.  “What’s the matter?” Anoushka asked him.

He clasped her hand, his eyes wild.  “I had a dream,” he said, quietly but with urgency.  “A sort of premonition – we were walking through the woods with our rescuers, and we reached a barge moored by the riverbank.  Valentine ushered us aboard, but when we went below, the compartment filled up with some sort of gas…”

“That fits with what Tanya and I suspect,” Bartes whispered, and he described what he’d ‘overheard’ from Valentine.

RD looked grim.  “I know what to do now.  But if you don’t mind, I won’t tell you in advance.  The fewer that know about it, the less likely it is that Valentine picks it up from any unguarded thoughts.  Pretend to go along with whatever he says.  Just be prepared to act when I do.”

“Valentine is mine,” Tanya said.

RD raised a quizzical eyebrow.  “You realise that we can’t afford to leave him alive?”

Tanya nodded reluctantly.

“Very well.  I reckon it’s time you broke out some of your home-made combat drug.”

By the time Tanya had administered her concoction, the gunfire outside had stopped.  Soon Valentine returned with a half-dozen of their ‘rescuers’.

“We must leave immediately,” he said.  “It’s getting late, and we’ll be trapped if reinforcements arrive.”

“Is that all that’s left of you?” RD asked.

“All that can walk.  There are a few that can’t, but can still hold a gun – they’ve volunteered to stay behind and delay any more troops that the Zelynans send.  Let’s move. 

As they set out for the boat, RD hung back and started limping on his left leg.

“What’s the matter?” Valentine asked.

“I think I must have pulled a muscle running from the fire-fight.”

“We can’t afford to wait for you.  You two –” (he pointed at two of the soldiers) “help him along as fast as you can.  The rest of us will go on ahead.”

One of the soldiers put RD’s left arm over his shoulder and took some of the weight off his leg, while the other led them along the path.  They were soon out of sight of the rest of the convoy, and when RD judged they were also out of earshot, he gasped and put all his weight on the soldier supporting him.  The man stumbled, cursing as his knee hit the ground.

“What’s wrong?” their escort asked.  “Do you need help?”  He turned back towards the pair.

“Sorry, my leg gave way,” RD said.  “Here, let me help you up.”  He extended his hand towards the kneeling soldier.

As the man reached out, RD thrust his other hand into his boot and drew his combat knife from its sheath.  In one smooth movement, he buried the blade in the soldier’s neck, just under the chinstrap of his helmet, driving it through the man’s vocal cords and into the base of his brain.

“What the hell?” the other soldier said, raising his rifle.

RD rolled aside of the toppling corpse, gathered his now-fy-functional legs beneath him, and launched himself almost horizontally towards the other soldier.  He buried his fist in the man’s crotch.

The soldier’s breath whooshed out of him and he toppled over.  He lay curled up in a foetal position, moaning, until RD cut his throat.

“Sleep well,” he said, briskly cleaning his knife on the dead man’s uniform and returning it to its sheath.  “I’ll take your rifle, if you don’t mind.  Or even if you do.  I think I can find a use for it.”

Meanwhile, the rest of the party had reached the barge, which was manned by three heavily-bearded men in boiler-suits.

“Those men look like Duplifis,” Bartes said.

“That’s exactly what they are,” Valentine said.  “The authorities treat them as harmless idiots, so they can get away with smuggling whatever – or in this case whoever – they want.  Now I suggest you all get aboard.”

“Shouldn’t we wait for the others?” Tanya asked.

“We should be ready to go as soon as they get here,” Valentine said.  “Let’s get you below deck.”

They crossed the gang-plank in a single file and made for the open hold.  Anoushka, Joseph and Peter descended the ladder one after the other.  Bartes lingered, reluctant to follow them. 
Where the hell is RD,
he thought to himself.  There was the sound of a single shot and a cry from the Duplifi at the wheel as he crumpled and fell with a bullet in his brain. 
Ah, there he is.

“Sniper!” Valentine shouted.  Bartes, Iain and Tanya took cover behind the boat’s superstructure, while Valentine’s men turned towards the trees, went prone and returned fire.

The two remaining Duplifis, who were not trained for situations like this, reacted more slowly.  One stood as if stunned, then shrieked as a bullet hit him.  He fell, clutching frantically at his stomach.  The other looked wildly about him and ran towards the other side of the boat.  For a moment, it seemed as if he’d be able to reach the relative safety of the water, but a hole appeared in his back, below his left shoulder-blade.  With a pained grunt, he stumbled forwards and lay, twitching, over the far railing.

“Now’s our chance,”
Bartes whispered.  “They think they’re in cover – but we’ve got the drop on them.”  He and Iain drew their pistols.  “Lower your weapons and put your hands on your heads,” he said aloud. 

“What are you doing, Bartes – Iain?  We’re your friends,” Valentine said.

Bartes raised a sardonic eyebrow and held his pistol ready.

Tanya had also drawn her pistol, and was pointing it at Valentine.  She could sense that the ex-Major was gathering his will, but she hesitated.

:
Tanya! Now!
: Bartes sent.

:
I can’t,
: she cried mentally.

:
You must!
:

I know,
she thought,
but – 
Her mind froze.  He’d been their friend – she’d trusted him.  She still wanted to believe in him, even though he’d deceived them all, even though he was working for someone – something –

Her finger seemed to move of its own accord.  Valentine’s stunned expression as her bullet hit him right between the eyes imprinted itself indelibly in her brain. His body arched, and he fell backwards over the low railings on the deck.  The river swallowed him as if he’d never been...

RD emerged from the trees as Bartes and Iain began to bind and gag their prisoners.  “Well done,” he said.  “Like a well-oiled machine – as always.  But why didn’t you save us some trouble and just shoot them all?”

“It wasn’t necessary,” Bartes said.

“And I, for one, am grateful,” Tanya added.  “Excuse me.”  She walked away, into the woods.  Bartes and Iain watched her go with sympathy in their eyes.

As soon as Tanya was out of sight, she threw up.  She found a quiet spot where she could curl up in the leaves and let go of her emotions.  After a few minutes, she became aware that a soft body had insinuated itself into the gap between her chest and her thighs, and was vibrating gently.

:
Thank you, little sister,
: Tanya sent.

:
No problem,
: Slimmest replied gently.  :
You know, it even gets to my mistress sometimes.
:

:
It’s not just the death and the pain,
: Tanya told her.  :
I was beginning to care for Valentine, and when he turned up I
knew
he was on our side, and the bastard betrayed us and I had to kill him.  It tore me up inside to do it.  I had no choice but to put a bullet in his brain.
:

:
Oh, I wouldn’t be too sure he’s dead.  His kind are notoriously hard to kill.
:

:
His kind?
:

:
Kailyphs.  Look, let’s not complicate this unnecessarily for now.  You’ll remember about his people when you get your other memories back.
:

:
I
am
beginning to remember my past – who I really am – and some of the things I’ve done, and I’m not so sure I want to learn any more.  Was I – am I – really a stone-cold assassin?
:

:
No – you’re not.  You have killed, yes, but only when really necessary.  Some people – like you and my mistress – have to make uncomfortable decisions in order to keep other people safe.  Now relax and let the pain drain away.
:

Back at the boat, Bartes had finished interrogating the prisoners, and RD & Iain were looking through the vessel’s travel papers.

“Do they know anything?” RD asked as Bartes crossed the gang-plank.

“No – they’re just mercenaries Valentine hired.”  Bartes looked frustrated.  “I even checked psionically, to make sure they were telling the truth.”

“We’ve found a map of the region that might help.”  Iain laid out the sheet and they gathered round it.

“Peter?” Bartes said, looking round at the boy.  “Come and have a look at this.  Does it show that pass you mentioned?”

“Here.”  Peter pointed to a narrow section of the southern mountain range.  “You can see that the Telphanian border is just on the eastern side.”

“And you believe we can get through?”

“It’s our best chance.  It’ll be guarded, but hopefully we can slip through unnoticed.”

“It’s still a long journey,” RD pointed out

“Look here.”  Bartes pointed at the map.  “The river wanders a bit, but if we could reach this point, just south of Gomsk, we could save at least part of the trek – and who knows?  We might find an unmarked tributary which would take us even further.”

“It would definitely help – if we could fool the Zelynans patrolling the river,” RD said.  “We’d have to pass by Tureskow, and according to this permit, we’d have to spend the night tied up there – and we don’t exactly look like Duplifis.”

“But you could.”  Tanya had recovered her composure and re-joined them.

“What do you mean?”

“Most Duplifis have masses of facial hair, like the three men that were crewing this boat, and they all wore shapeless overalls.  If I could remove their beards relatively intact – well, I’ve got some surgical adhesive in my medkit…”

Iain pondered for a moment.  “It’s worth a try.  I’m sure that RD, Bartes and I could put on a show.”

Shaving a dead man is not an occupation to be desired, but Tanya coped with it while RD, Bartes and Iain removed the Duplifis’ overalls and put them on. 

Tanya came over to them, gingerly carrying three hunks of something dark and unsavoury.  “Here you are.  They obviously weren’t terribly keen on personal hygiene, but it made it easier for me to get their beards off in one piece.  I’m willing to lay odds that you’re not going to like wearing them, though.”

RD’s mouth puckered.  “Do we have to?  They smell.  And they could have Things in them.”

Bartes shrugged.  “Come on.  A man’s got to wear what a man’s got to wear.  Give me that adhesive, Tanya.  Is there a mirror around?”

“Hmm.”  Tanya viewed the effect critically when they had finished.  “Not bad.  But we’ll need to do something about the blood on those overalls.  Can you smear some engine grease over it?  That’ll do something to camouflage it.”

They hid their prisoners and the bodies of the crew members in the undergrowth, stowed the weapons aboard, and set out for Tureskow.  Joseph and the girls hid below, while Peter sat on the deck, trying to teach the three impostors to speak with Duplifian accents.  Iain took to it easily, but neither Bartes nor RD could manage very well, so, by common consent, Iain became the boat’s captain.  Once Iain sounded sufficiently convincing, Peter joined the others in hiding.

It was completely dark by the time they reached Tureskow and tied up at the jetty.  “What are you doing here?” a voice demanded.

“Please, sir,” Iain said in a deeper register than his normal voice, every syllable dripping obsequiousness, “we have permit.”

There was a grunt, and the voice continued, “You’re supposed to dock before sunset.”

“So sorry, sir – we have problem with engine.”

“Humph.  Typical Duplifi workmanship.  Where are your papers?”

“Here, sir.”  They had retrieved the papers of the dead men.  In the dark, with the false beards, Tanya’s team-mates looked enough like the fuzzy pictures on them to pass muster.

There was a pregnant pause.  “You there – is that blood on your overalls?”

There was a grunt from RD before Iain continued.  “Very sorry, sir.  Achmed is half-witted.  He speak Duplifi bad enough, and could not learn your tongue.  Ishmael, too, cannot.  See what I have to work with?  But they my cousins, so my mother, she insist I employ them.”  He gave a theatrical sigh.  “As for blood, Achmed cut himself while repairing engine.”

The guard seemed mollified.  “You’ll have to sleep on your boat.”

“Thank you, sir.  We lose much time, so we go early in morning.”  Steps receded into the distance, and Iain’s real voice said quietly, “Well, that went well.”

“Half-witted?” RD hissed indignantly.

“Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative,” Iain quoted, as he opened the hatch to the compartment.

“You’ve done something like this before,” Tanya said.

“I believe that I have,” Iain simpered.  “You’d better stay in here for tonight – with the hatch open for extra air.  We’ll sleep on deck.  If we leave before dawn, we should manage to avoid detection.”

Those below found it difficult to sleep.  They were tired enough, but as the boat moved in response to the river’s flow, it creaked and groaned in a most disturbing fashion.

“Tanya?”  Anoushka’s whisper sounded troubled.  “I don’t like it in here.”

“Nor do I,” Peter added.  “It seems almost alive.”

“Wrong expression,” Tanya said.  “There’s death here: death, fear and pain.  I can’t be sure exactly what happened, but it must have been really awful to leave such a deep psionic impression.”  They huddled together and soon Slimmest joined them, her purring dispelling some of the ghastly presence.  Eventually, they slept.

Tanya opened her eyes.  The hold was filled with people.  She and her friends were packed in with many others – men, women and children.  Some looked at her with dead eyes, others with terror.  Some were moaning, others whimpering.  Mothers were trying to comfort their children, and families held each other tightly.

Valentine was kneeling beside her.  He didn’t seem angry, or even sad, merely concerned.  “Come with me,” he said, helping her to her feet, taking her hand and leading her out of the hold and on to the riverbank, where he indicated that she should look back at the barge.  An endless stream of struggling victims was being dragged toward a greasy black spiral on the deck of the boat, following its path inwards before disappearing with wails of despair.