The Trilisk Revolution (Parker Interstellar Travels) (14 page)

Luckily,
she had an opportunity to fix all this up in one day.

I
hope my slow self hasn’t noticed I’m gone yet. She’ll know by the time I get
back.

A
little quick research had allowed her to catch up with an old friend, Nell. Or
was Nell an old enemy? When it came to a drug supplier, the words could blend
together quickly. Her supplier had been someone who had given her a steady
stream of the drug whenever she needed it, never ratted her out, and kept her
supply of twitch pure and safe. But Cilreth had learned the hard way that when
it came to money, people had less friends than they thought. Cilreth2 had every
memory of it.

Nell
had moved up a notch in the supply chain since the original Cilreth left Earth.
She operated out of a nice mansion outside of Phoenix, where Cilreth had lived
before moving to the frontier. Even then Nell had had long silvery hair, though
Cilreth wasn’t sure if it was from endless twitch usage or just an affectation.

Cilreth2’s
spacecraft was, of course, utterly illegal to fly anywhere in the system, being
unregistered, stealthy, armed, without logging protocols, and of course, alien.
The Space Force would throw her in jail for a lifetime, should they ever find
out about it and catch her. But Cilreth2 could not care in her current
condition. She just needed a lot of twitch.

She
had considered approaching Maxsym with the problem several times. But the
bottom line was that Maxsym’s loyalty to PIT was high. They were providing him
with everything he needed. Anyway, Cilreth2 thought there was a good chance
Maxsym would think it was a test. He would report it to the others one way or
the other.

She
came in toward Phoenix directly. The gravity spinner allowed her to avoid the
complexities of reentry experienced by pilots of previous centuries. Soon she
had a lock on the house she sought.

The
Vovokan shuttle was strong and light, an amazing piece of technology. The
target mansion specs showed her it would hold the weight of her craft with a
lot to spare. She brought it down. The bottom of the craft extended a malleable
force field to hold the shuttle above the roof. The invisible field molded
itself to the shape of the roof, putting equal pressure across the entire
surface. Just another miracle of Vovokan technology.

I
wonder if they heard that. Must have been some creaking.

Cilreth2
picked up a stubby assault weapon and shrugged. She did not care that much if
they heard her coming. She would try asking for what she wanted first, but she
knew it would get rough fast. For them. With her withdrawal symptoms raging,
her patience was at an all time low.

She
had two attendants with her. She was trying to decide whether she needed them
when she had second thoughts about her approach. She discarded the assault
weapon. She had not thought this through carefully. No point in going in
shooting. Concealed weapons is what she wanted. Luckily she had brought more
than enough of an arsenal with her, just in case. She grabbed two pistols and a
sword. She smiled. The sword would give her a certain air of business. They
would laugh at it, until they saw how fast the new Cilreth was. The pistols
were almost antique 10mm weapons, but in solid working order.

When
you’re a perfect shot with super-fast reflexes, best to trade off magazine
capacity for stopping power
,
she thought. Modern pistols all used ultra high velocity rounds of tiny caliber
that gave a much higher magazine count and helped to cut down on unnecessary
death. Most of them could deliver a paralytic poison and be used as
almost
non-lethal weapons. By comparison, her 10mms were field cannons. They would
blow off limbs. That suited her mood just fine. Let them spend a couple of
months regrowing an arm or two.

Cilreth2
disembarked through a hatch on a smart rope. She dropped down smoothly and
tried a window. It was not locked. Cilreth2 paused, looking at the pocked weather
coating and the aged roof cleaning machine, which sat idle to her right.

Still
not spending money on your surroundings, I see,
Cilreth2 thought. She let herself in.

Once
inside, her perspective changed. She felt a little more like her old self and less
like a superhero. She found herself in an upstairs bathroom that she vaguely
remembered from Cilreth’s time here. The familiar smell of spiral filled the
air. Spiral was a mirror drug to twitch, the downer to the upper. Some people
wanted to function faster, others wanted to unwind and slow down time.

Cilreth2
used her heightened senses to listen to the house. She heard at least five
people moving inside. That was in line with the old days. Nell knew she was
safer with an entourage. In addition to her soldiers, she would have one or two
close companions and a variable number of clients in the house at any given
time. Cilreth2 might even be able to walk right in and out without notice.

She
cracked the door and peeked. Then she shrugged.

I
don’t have time for this. I’ll wake Cthulhu if I have to. Gimme my twitch.

Cilreth
walked out into the hall. She followed the hall, found a staircase, and walked
down. She saw Nell in the great room at the bottom of the stairs. Nell looked
older, of course, with some new face wrinkles to go with her silver hair. She
wore a warm but rugged looking green overshirt with tights over her legs. Tread
patches built into the leggings served as her shoes.

There
was a guard with a rifle on his shoulder, behind a couch that held Nell and two
other women. He looked young, brave and stupid, with long black hair and the
beginnings of a beard. The other women were younger, and obviously preened
themselves with an eye toward being noticed. They wore tight clothing with a
shifting translucent patch that moved over their bodies.

No
one looked at her for a second or two. Then the guard caught sight of Cilreth2.
He got a concerned look on his face. He touched Nell on the shoulder and
indicated the newcomer.

Nell’s
eyebrows went up. Then she smiled.

She’s
shocked, but covering well.

“Wow.
A blast from the past. Cilreth. It’s been a while, minnow.”

“You
owe me some twitch. With interest,” Cilreth2 said. The guard bristled a bit at
her tone, but he remained overconfident.

“How’s
that?” Nell asked. She smiled. She was still striking. Her silver hair went
surprisingly well on a face of mixed British and Chinese heritage.

“I
paid you a year’s worth of Cit2Cit creds as you recall. Then I had to leave it
behind. You made a nice profit off me.”

Nell
shrugged. “Not my fault you had to leave. Business. You know that.”

“Give
me your twitch,” Cilreth2 said slowly. The threat part went unsaid.

Nell’s
bodyguard began to move around the couch toward the stair. Another guard
approached from a side door. Their hands found the handles of their weapons.

Nell
perked up. She thrived on action. That was probably how she got into this
profession in the first place.

“No,”
Nell said.

Time
to teach her action is not always of the fun variety. If she can learn the
lesson without dying.

Her
amped nervous system had her moving before the guards could react. Her 10mms
flicked out.

Blam! Blam!

Cilreth2
put a round in each bodyguard’s forehead before anyone could move. Before they
could fall, Cilreth2 had Nell in both her fire cones. But another guard
appeared on a balcony above. Cilreth had one weapon aimed upwards in a fraction
of a second.

Blam!

The
guard above fell back out of sight. One of Cilreth2’s guns remained trained on
Nell. Cilreth2’s attendants sought out more combatants. They found three more
within as many seconds, but these ones were taking it slow, waiting.

So
much for the idea of making them regrow limbs. Unless medical technology has
taken a leap forward and they can regrow heads now.

“Live
or die,” Cilreth2 said. The lack of twitch had her nerves grating. It took a
lot of willpower to keep from just blowing Nell away on the spot as a release
of frustration.

Nell
smiled. But an attendant reported to Cilreth2 that her heart rate was rapid.

“Okay,
I hear you,” Nell said. “We’ll get you what’s yours.”

“With
interest,” Cilreth2 said. “I know you still have more friends in the house. Any
more attempts to kill me, and you’re not going to make it.”

Nell
nodded. Cilreth2 knew she would be talking with her friends among their links.

“Okay,
I’m sending someone to bring it. Don’t shoot her.”

“I
will, if she has a weapon,” Cilreth2 warned.

Cilreth2
tried to watch everything at once. She had her own vision and the feeds from
two attendants to process. She could also hear almost everything going on in
the house. One attendant kept rotating its view of the three armed people she
knew about, while another kept tabs on a woman who was retrieving her twitch.
Even with her fast reflexes it taxed her.

I
should have trained more with the PIT guys recently.

The
attendant settled on one guard who was behind Cilreth2 in the house. He was
moving out, getting ready to shoot her from behind. Cilreth2 stepped back from
Nell and turned one outstretched arm holding a pistol in a wide arc to cover the
doorway at her left flank. She fired just before the tenuous sound of footsteps
reached the doorway.

Blam! Blam!

Her
two rounds went through the doorframe and hit the guard before he even came out
into the open. His body fell out into the room, sending his weapon clattering
across the faux wood floor.

Nell
noted the ease with which Cilreth2 had dispatched the attack. Nell’s lips
thinned and she frowned.

“Where
did you learn to fight like that?”

“I’ve
been gone a while, Nell. Give me what I want, no tricks, and you can make it
through this. But I’m not keeping you alive for old times’ sake.”

“Okay.
The bag is here, behind me. She’s unarmed,” Nell said, stepping slowly aside
and indicating the door behind her.

“Send
her in,” Cilreth2 said calmly.

A
woman with curly black hair came in. Her eyes were wide. An attendant told
Cilreth2 this person was genuinely terrified. Cilreth2 covered her with a 10mm
anyway.

The
attendant scanned the bag. It did indeed contain twitch, but there was a hand
grenade buried at the bottom. Cilreth2 took the bag, then tossed it aside. She
shook her head.

“I
warned you.”

Cilreth
holstered her right firearm. She reached for her sword. Nell started to say
something, but it turned into a scream as Cilreth2’s sword sliced through the
bridge of her nose, sending blood into her eyes. Another of Nell’s armed
companions came out of cover from the kitchen door.

Blam!

The
guard fell, dead.

Arms.
You’re supposed to be aiming for arms.

Cilreth2
put an attendant on the last armed combatant, but it saw the person withdraw.
It was a young man in a vat-leather jacket. He was headed for the back door.
Nell lay on the floor, muttering.

Cilreth2
told the attendants out to watch for danger while she searched for more twitch.
It would not do for a survivor to shoot her in the back before she could escape
with her prize.

She
found what she needed in the same room it used to be. Cilreth2 silently thanked
Nell for being a creature of habit. Large plastic barrels of twitch lay across
one wall. One would be fake, a trap. She called an attendant in to make sure.

Yes.
It’s the same one. It sprays paralytic poison if you try to open it.

She
grabbed two of the heavy containers and hauled them up to the roof. The house
still had some clients, cowering in the bedrooms and one in a hall closet.

I
wonder if they’ll call the cops. I imagine they would have to be pretty scared
to do that, but, people have died here. I’d better hurry.

Cilreth2
grabbed two more containers. They strained her enhanced musculature. She wasn’t
sure the original Cilreth could have lifted one, much less taken it all the way
up to the shuttle on the roof. She decided to go for one last batch.

Who
knows how long it will be before I can get more? And I can hardly just ask
Maxsym to make me some. Unless he owed me a favor… I’ll have to think on that.

Cilreth2
got her last load. Some of the clients were finally starting to peek out of
their rooms. She ignored them. The sounds of Nell crying filtered up from
downstairs. Her attendants were on her tail as she left the house for the last
time and dropped her barrels in the cargo bay. Cilreth2 activated her shuttle
and lifted from the roof before she hit the pilot’s chair.

Problem
solved
, she thought to
herself as her craft rose above the green estate and lifted into orbit. She
could not wait any longer. She hopped into the back and gave herself a strong
dose.

Cilreth2
let out a long hiss of satisfaction as the twitch hit her souped up nervous
system.

“R’lyeh
risen! Mission successful. We won’t need more for a long time.”

In
the cargo hold behind her, half a metric ton of twitch lent weight to her
conviction.

For
the rest of the ride back, Cilreth2 worked hard to suppress the guilt that came
from the bodies she had left behind.

Chapter 18

Siobhan
watched her copy head toward the house. The duplicate slipped out of sight
suddenly, as if activating a stealth suit.

Frackjammers.

The
other Siobhan had to be moving in on a mission of her own. If copied perfectly,
the other version would also put the death of Spero above all else. So she
might as well try to coordinate her efforts. The other one was going in. She
should too.