Hellflower (v1.1) by Eluki bes Shahar Read Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Eluki bes Shahar
dusted, if anyone w counting.
I chased after Tiggy as he ran by and whipped the last of the grenades off my neck and tossed them behind me just for luck as we ran down the steps.
The speeder was right where I left it, bless all the good numbers, I jumped in and keyed up the ignition while Tiggy swarmed in over the back. We took off at top speed into oncoming traffic just as the CityGuard in force came charging down the steps of the Justiciary. Paladin gave me a running commentary about where the bar cades in the city was. There wasn’t much traffic on the flybys this late Third Shift, so we took some scenic shortcuts and got around all f security checkpoints except the one at the Port.
That one we ran over.
###
By the time we reached it, Wanderweb heat hadn’t been able to track us for the longest time, owing to a unfortunate spasm in the City Central Computer traffic monitors. Paladin said they was sure we was somewhere on the other side of the city. So the shellycoats at the Port found a moment to be real surprised when Tiggy and me drove my rented speeder over their shiny purple-and-yellow barricade, then into the freight lift that serviced Firecat’s wing of the Port. I lost the comlink somewhere along the way. Big deal.
Paladin overrode the lockups that the Port Computer was trying to put on the lift. We drove out of the lift into the docking ring before PortSec could figure out which ship we was trying to reach, and jumped out of the speeder into the ship. Simple.
Then we took off.
I was never so glad to have a invisible co— as I was then. Firecat started taking off before I had her lock sealed, and by the time I was strapped into the mercy seat we was oriented toward the bay opening. I let Paladin Thread the Needle for me while I finished strapping in, and then I grabbed a handful of lifters and firewalled her.
I heard Tiggy go thump amongst the rokeach and then stopped thinking about him. The air show I had to put on to get out of range of Wanderweb’s stratospheric interceptors impressed even me, but Wanderweb jurisdiction extends only as far as its atmosphere. It wasn’t worth them getting into deep heat with Grand Central to chase us out into Imperial space, so eventually they got tired of shooting and left me alone. I’d better make up my mind to never coming back here for my next sixty incarnations or so, but unless Wanderweb Free Port wanted to hire a bounty hunter to chase me around the Outfar Pally and me was safe now.
When all the ground-to-orbit wartoys was back in their boxes on downside scenic Wanderweb, I put Firecat into a nice high orbit over Wanderweb City.
We’d won.
"What are you going to do with the alMayne mercenary now, Butterfly?" Paladin asked in a voice that only I could hear.
Real interesting question.
I had a cargo for Kiffit under my deck plates that I’d meant to lift with thirty hours ago. If Firecat wasn’t to Kiffit in reasonable time, there’d be questions I’d hate to answer and penalty fees that’d seriously compromise my old age pension. No matter how decorative Tiggy was, he was going to have to take second place to business.
So Tiggy had to go, and without showing me his gratitude or anything else. The question was-where?
I levered myself up out of the mercy seat and raised the cockpit up into the hold.
Right now I wanted everything I’d done myself out of on Wanderweb with my little jailbreak-wet bath, fresh meal, clean clothes, and something done about my burns and bruises. It’s a sad fact of hypership ecology that very few of these things was to be had now this side of Kiffit.
I headed for my emergency medical supplies and got out my box of Fenshee burntwine. Toxins is toxins, but this was a emergency.
My pet hellflower was sitting on the deck looking at me. His cutlery was tucked through the waistband of his Wanderweb Detention Issue pants and in his lap he was holding the blaster he’d picked up in Dead Storage. He was sweaty and grimy from
I chased after Tiggy as he ran by and whipped the last of the grenades off my neck and tossed them behind me just for luck as we ran down the steps.
The speeder was right where I left it, bless all the good numbers, I jumped in and keyed up the ignition while Tiggy swarmed in over the back. We took off at top speed into oncoming traffic just as the CityGuard in force came charging down the steps of the Justiciary. Paladin gave me a running commentary about where the bar cades in the city was. There wasn’t much traffic on the flybys this late Third Shift, so we took some scenic shortcuts and got around all f security checkpoints except the one at the Port.
That one we ran over.
###
By the time we reached it, Wanderweb heat hadn’t been able to track us for the longest time, owing to a unfortunate spasm in the City Central Computer traffic monitors. Paladin said they was sure we was somewhere on the other side of the city. So the shellycoats at the Port found a moment to be real surprised when Tiggy and me drove my rented speeder over their shiny purple-and-yellow barricade, then into the freight lift that serviced Firecat’s wing of the Port. I lost the comlink somewhere along the way. Big deal.
Paladin overrode the lockups that the Port Computer was trying to put on the lift. We drove out of the lift into the docking ring before PortSec could figure out which ship we was trying to reach, and jumped out of the speeder into the ship. Simple.
Then we took off.
I was never so glad to have a invisible co— as I was then. Firecat started taking off before I had her lock sealed, and by the time I was strapped into the mercy seat we was oriented toward the bay opening. I let Paladin Thread the Needle for me while I finished strapping in, and then I grabbed a handful of lifters and firewalled her.
I heard Tiggy go thump amongst the rokeach and then stopped thinking about him. The air show I had to put on to get out of range of Wanderweb’s stratospheric interceptors impressed even me, but Wanderweb jurisdiction extends only as far as its atmosphere. It wasn’t worth them getting into deep heat with Grand Central to chase us out into Imperial space, so eventually they got tired of shooting and left me alone. I’d better make up my mind to never coming back here for my next sixty incarnations or so, but unless Wanderweb Free Port wanted to hire a bounty hunter to chase me around the Outfar Pally and me was safe now.
When all the ground-to-orbit wartoys was back in their boxes on downside scenic Wanderweb, I put Firecat into a nice high orbit over Wanderweb City.
We’d won.
"What are you going to do with the alMayne mercenary now, Butterfly?" Paladin asked in a voice that only I could hear.
Real interesting question.
I had a cargo for Kiffit under my deck plates that I’d meant to lift with thirty hours ago. If Firecat wasn’t to Kiffit in reasonable time, there’d be questions I’d hate to answer and penalty fees that’d seriously compromise my old age pension. No matter how decorative Tiggy was, he was going to have to take second place to business.
So Tiggy had to go, and without showing me his gratitude or anything else. The question was-where?
I levered myself up out of the mercy seat and raised the cockpit up into the hold.
Right now I wanted everything I’d done myself out of on Wanderweb with my little jailbreak-wet bath, fresh meal, clean clothes, and something done about my burns and bruises. It’s a sad fact of hypership ecology that very few of these things was to be had now this side of Kiffit.
I headed for my emergency medical supplies and got out my box of Fenshee burntwine. Toxins is toxins, but this was a emergency.
My pet hellflower was sitting on the deck looking at me. His cutlery was tucked through the waistband of his Wanderweb Detention Issue pants and in his lap he was holding the blaster he’d picked up in Dead Storage. He was sweaty and grimy from