Looking down the Sternsnacht's long tunnel, I shuddered. ‘When we raided this world, we were under orders to stay until the Dragon delivered troops to kick us out. The Prince—the new one, Hanse Davion— wanted us to force Takashi Kurita to pull troops away from Mallory's World. We didn't expect to be here for three months, but that's what happened. One of my men, a kid really, named Kevin O'Dell shacked up with a girl from Akumashima. Her name is Hanako Aido.’
I swallowed hard. ‘The day after Kevin bought it back on Mallory's World, ComStar delivered a message from her saying that she was pregnant. O'Dell's father, an industrialist on Hamilton, back in the Lyran Commonwealth, wants his grandchild and the child's mother with him.’
She relaxed her arm. letting the gun's muzzle point up at the ceiling. ‘How much is he paying you?’
I stiffened, then brought up my head. ‘He's offering ten thousand a year to the girl's family, and seventy-five hundred to anyone who helps me out. Me? I'm doing this for Kevin.’
She watched me like a cat stalking a mouse, then nodded. ‘O.K. That's what I've heard. I can find Hanako—the Aido clan is large for a sawararenaifamily. I'll help you. Kell, but I have two rules.’ She tapped the squarish gold link in her nose. ‘First, no questions about this. And second, if you know what it is, don't get any ideas.’
I nodded. I did know what the renketsusignified, in theory, but I found the stories hard to believe. As I had heard it, the men and women wearing renketsuwere specially trained from their youth in the ways of love—much as a MechWarrior is trained to kill. Their education did not consist solely of skill in lovemaking, but included the study of many arts and sciences as well. The Kuritan way of life considered that an amorous companion should be more than just one who meets a partner's physical needs.
What was such an educated woman doing in the slums meant only for the untouchables, the sawararenai?
I held up my right hand. ‘Fine. This is your town. We play by your rules. You can call me Patrick.’
She hesitated, then nodded and bolstered her pistol. ‘I am the Little Dragon.’
I bowed to her in Kurita fashion. She returned the bow, then glanced at the door leading into the alley. ‘We better get you out of here. Those four you tangled with are scum of the scum, but when they jabber, more important people listen.’
I frowned. ‘ISF?’
The Little Dragon shrugged. ‘Even them. No, you angered some Yakuzawhen your lance used one ot their opium barges for a gunnery target.’
I smiled. ‘Can't they take a joke?’
She regarded me closely, raising an eyebrow. ‘I hope those attempts at humor are merely attempts to hide your nervousness, Patrick Kell. If not. your delusions of adequacy will get us both killed.’ She turned and exited through a smaller doorway leading deeper into the building.
Her warning had set up a resonance with my own doubts. I followed in silence.
After a long chase through the winding streets and black byways of Akumashima, the Little Dragon brought me into an apartment building through the rear entrance. She slipped her Sternsnacht from its holster, holding it at the ready as we crept stealthily up the dark stairway.
Aside from being sprayed everywhere with graffiti, the first door looked normal and might once have been considered a good place to live. The second floor, however, looked like it had been through a war. No doubt about It, the interior decorators had used flamethrowers and grenade launchers to remodel this level ot the building.
Deep in the shadows. I saw heavily seamed faces by the red glow of cigarettes and pipes. The sickly sweet odor of opium and a half-dozen other drugs gave me a shiver. Seeming to notice neither the smoke nor the ruined condition of the whole level, the Little Dragon picked her way across the building's second story. I stared ahead at her booted feet, matching my footsteps to hers, trying not to look at the wretches scattered over the soiled tatami.
From there, the Little Dragon pushed open a door that led to another stairwell. I looked over at her, but she waved me on up the stairs without a word. Occasionally casting a glance behind me just in case someone decided to follow from the second level, I trailed her.
Two more flights up. on the building's top level, we left the stairs and walked down a fairly clean corridor. Most of the doors stood open, giving me a good look at the empty, stripped apartments. Anything of value had long since been stolen. Indeed, in a few places, the plaster had been peeled back so that the wooden slats could be removed and used for fire fuel.
Finally, the Little Dragon stopped before a heavy, steel-sheathed door. She flipped open a small box set into the wall, and punched out a series of electronic notes, the code to unlock her door. She opened it. then waved me inside.
After my tour through the building's lower reaches, I expected to see some cold, dismal room with little more than a nest of filthy rags in the corner for bedding. Instead, a beautiful oasis seemed to appear before my eyes, and I knew it was easily the match of a luxury suite in any of the Hakkinshi's tallest towers.
Standing at the doorway and looking down into the sunken living room, I had no doubt that she had designed and furnished the apartment herself. Hand-woven rugs of intricate design—obviously created on the Muslim-dominated worlds of the Azami— covered almost all of the polished wooden floors. Delicate ricepaper paintings graced the walls, the best of which hung over the low dining table in the far left corner. A futon couch and an assortment of large cushions held the center of the room.
Two windows and a glass door opened out onto a covered balcony that offered a glimpse of the sluggish Chiisai river. A darkened doorway in the far right corner led deeper into the building. The kitchen, or what passed for it, occupied the corner nearest the door and was separated from the living room by a translucent panel lacquered with bright yellow and blue flowers.
I turned back to the Little Dragon as she shut the door, ‘It's beautiful.’
She whirled, a snarl peeling her lips back from even white teeth as though I'd insulted her. Fire flashed in her dark eyes and I tried to guess what could have made her so angry. Then she hesitated and bowed her head. ‘Forgive me, Colonel.’ Surveying the room, she pressed her left hand to her mouth as though seeing something horrible and malignant where I saw only beauty. ‘I have made a mistake. I should never have brought you here.’
I felt her anger and pain, but I dared not enfold her in my arms. Ours was. after all. a business relationship that did not allow such familiarity, She was the key to my whole mission, and as attracted as I might be to her, I could not let that jeopardize the operation. I opened my hands in a gesture of frustration, then let them fall limply to my sides. ‘I'm sorry. If you wish. I'll leave.’
She shook her head distractedly, then rubbed her forehead with one hand. ‘No. This is the only safe place in Akumashima.’
I raised an eyebrow. ‘Safe? What about that opium den down there?’
The Little Dragon moved down the steps to a small door on the side of the front door landing. ‘Those people are protective of me. I got them opium, gratis, after your Kell Hounds blew that barge apart. Anyone comes through that area to get me and they'll raise an alarm.’
She knelt and worked at a combination lock with long, slender fingers. ‘I think you'll be safe here. No one comes unless I bring them. Even so...’ She pulled a gun and holster from the storage area below the steps. ‘You'll need this.’
I accepted the blocky, blackened-polymer weapon from her and strapped it on. I tied the weighty pistol's holster to my right thigh, but turned the pistol around so the grip pointed forward. Reaching across my body, I drew the gun with my left hand. With a grunt ot satisfaction, I slid the weapon home again.