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"No," Ilyan said firmly.
"It's just sitting in the bank."
"No!" Ilyan said more emphatic now. He glanced around at the others too. "That goes
for all of you, before anyone else offers."
"Anyway," Maiga said, "there's no way to get at it until we get back to friendly
territory. That doesn't solve our cash problem."
Damn, these so-called smart officers overlook the obvious even when it's right under
their noses. Or in this case their arses.
"This ship belongs to a smuggler, right?"
"Yes. So?" Maiga said, giving me a 'piss off' scowl.
"So maybe we have something he'd be interested in taking off our hands." I kicked the
smuggle box Maiga and Tesla sat on. "Two somethings."
The three of them looked down at the boxes, then up at me.
"Excellent idea, Jadeth," Ilyan said, with the first smile I'd seen from him for hours.
Maiga stood up. "I'll go and talk to the captain."
"Stick it to him good," I said as she hurried away. Her back stiffened, but she didn't
turn around, just strode on.
"I assume that means 'negotiate a good price'," Ilyan said, in a chilly voice that
implied that better be what it meant.
"Yeah," I said, letting a sheepish tone into my voice. I looked at him more closely. He
had dark circles under his eyes. "Have you slept? You should rest."
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I will try. I think I'm still... I just can't
believe about Rin." Tesla put his head down. "He must have suffered horribly before he
died." Ilyan said quietly. Tesla put his hand over his face and groaned. Seeing he was only
upsetting Tesla even more Ilyan stood up and walked back to his seat. I followed and sat
beside him.
"He was so young," Ilyan said quietly and glanced around at the others. "All of them
are." He looked back at me, his eyes going red, shining. I reached out and put my hand over
his. I knew a dumb grunt like me couldn't say anything to make it better. But I could just be
there, stay strong for him.
I heard Maiga coming back then, and an unfamiliar voice, the smuggler. Ilyan looked
at them, but I never took my eyes from his face, never let go of his hand.
Maiga and the smuggler passed us and he started inspecting the boxes. I heard him
running a scanner over them and then sucking his teeth and making tutting noises. I didn't
interfere. Maiga could handle it. He'd be a brave man if he tried to drive the price down too
far. In her present mood she'd probably cut his heart out.
After a few minutes of intense talk he left the room for a few minutes and returned
with a couple of bundles of what I recognised as Kitsnujitar currency notes. I watched him
count them out in front of Maiga then shake her hand. She gathered up the bundles of notes
and stowed them in her pack.
"Right," she said. "Someone help me get our stuff out of these."
I didn't rush over to give her a hand. Diliph and Vimal volunteered and started to
dump out our gear into a heap on the floor.
When I looked back at Ilyan he'd fallen asleep. A couple of tears had escaped him,
leaving glistening tracks down his cheeks. Carefully, not wanting to wake him, I let go of his
hand and went to sort out my kit.
Chapter 18
Hostile territory described Kitsnujitar in many ways. Gravity seventeen percent
stronger than Earth normal left us all tired just walking around. The human troops, fighting
the Kits alongside the Okis were based in a bitingly cold region in the southern hemisphere. I
knew the planet had nicer places, but for some reason nobody ever seems to fight a war in a
garden spot.
The smuggler dropped us off in a small city, just outside the war zone. It was human
held now, but at a heavy price, most of the buildings shattered. Despite this, plenty of civilian
Kitsnujitar remained, existing tensely alongside the occupying humans and Okis. A scattering
of representatives of other species lived there too, some just moved in recently, looking to see
what profit they could make from the local misery.
Grief and paranoia made us see spies everywhere and we decided to leave the city the
same day we arrived. Maiga logged onto the local military net and hacked into the secret files
that showed current troop deployments. She downloaded good maps of the region too. One
wrong turn out in the combat zone could leave you lost, and very soon stuck in a snowdrift
and totally stuffed.
To move around freely we had to have military transport. Travelling in a stolen
vehicle would be risky though, so Rish and me went off to pick up something that nobody
would miss.
We found it in a dusty corner of a repair depot. A small armoured personnel carrier,
which, according to the work docket taped to the side, needed repairs to its gun and was
awaiting a delivery of spare parts. With luck, nobody would miss it until that delivery arrived.
****
The mission had become almost routine now. We tracked down units. Ilyan, Tesla and
Maiga talked at the officers. Then, if the C.O. allowed it, Ilyan talked to the troops. Many of
them had already heard rumours. They knew him. Ilyan. The Prophet. This helped us and
worried me.
After nearly a month, we'd reached as many of the units in the area as we could
without leaving behind the transport and hiking overland, which Maiga refused to allow Ilyan
to even contemplate. We didn't have either the equipment or the experience to survive on foot
in that kind of terrain.
Even with our vehicle we'd all felt the effects of the cold. Tesla had woken up one
morning with frostbite in his fingers. Tanashi had fixed him up fine, but I think that scared
the shit out of both him and Ilyan. So even Ilyan didn't argue when Maiga suggested we head
back to the city and take off. Chiamajan was the next stop and I've heard it's damn pretty, so I
didn't argue either.
****
We headed for the city. We'd gone far enough out that the journey back took several
days. At night, we parked up far enough off the road to keep out of sight of any passing
vehicles. Snow fell steadily and we needed to dig the vehicle out every morning. At some
point a mechanic had bolted a couple of racks for snow shovels onto the side of the transport,
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