Gambit
Chapter 9
„Look, Rafe, this is all very captivating, but could you just move on to the part regarding when and where you lost Beka?" Dylan Hunt sounded more than weary. Still standing in the darkness, he had listened to Raphael Valentine's story, while at the same time trying to make out any suspicious sounds. He periodically peered into the adjacent room, where he had gently laid down the woman he had found in bed with Rafe, after having stunned her.
„Okay," Raphael replied. „I'm getting there, I'm getting there..."
„Well, get there faster. I don't know how much time we have before someone comes barging in on us."
„Don't worry, no one will. I'm having the whole house to myself. They check up once a day, making sure I'm fine and haven't left. Other than that, I'm on my own."
„But for the girl!"
„But for the girl, agreed! But she is just a slave," Rafe stated in an indifferent tone.
Just a slave? What the hell is going on with you? Dylan thought quite puzzled. He had known Beka's brother for several years now; he knew him as a clever, reckless, more often than not less than law-abiding, rather colourful character. But treacherous, cold, unfeeling Raphael was not.
„Oh, what the hell... Anyway: when John showed up at the Maru, it turned out he and Beka did know each other well..." Rafe Valentine continued.
She had been waiting for them on the flight deck. The minute they stepped out of the elevator, her gauss gun seemed more or less to jump out of its holster and into her hand on its own. Pointing it steadily at John's head, Beka had started shouting at him with unprecedented urgency:
„Goddammit, Rafe, what have you gotten us into this time? Close the airlocks, keep an eye on this guy and prepare for launch. We're leaving right away, and so you don't start wondering: we'll be heading directly back to the Andromeda, no Seneshall Drift, no nothing."
They left within a matter of moments. About half an hour later Beka had engaged the auto-pilot and had joined them at the bar. Rafe had kept his distance from John during the time they spent alone. Whatever was up, he wanted to hear it from Beka first.
„Beka, what's the matter?" Rafe had wanted to ask the minute she had joined them, but before he could do so, John had started speaking:
„Hello, Rebekkah. You do not seem too pleased to see me?"
Her eyes had narrowed.
„What did you expect? Last time we met, you tried to kill me, along with Dylan, Trance and Rhade and you almost managed to blow up the Andromeda."
„Yes, but as I see it, I had a damn' good reason. And, as in the end, you guys blew my ship up, I say we call it quits."
„It was an accident."
„I bet it was," he stated. „Still: I barely survived. By the time I was on my two feet again, everything was in pieces, and then you made it back and won the war and reconnected Tarn Vedra to known space. Looks like you had a run."
„What is it you want?"
„A lift to Seneshall?"
„What else?"
„That's all, I swear. Look, it was Rafe, who offered. I only found out later on in our conversation that he was your brother."
„He is right about that, Rocket," Rafe admitted, but Beka seemed not appeased at all.
„But then you decided to come along, notwithstanding..." It was not a question.
„Can you blame me for it? I was just so curious."
„Well, you know the old saying: curiosity kills the cat."
„Ahh! But cats have nine lives, have they not," he smiled.
„Not anymore," Beka replied coldly, „but for Tarn Vedra they are extinct, you know."
„So lucky me I'm Seefran..."
„Seefran? What is 'Seefran'? Beka, what's going on?" Rafe hurriedly inquired.
„It's a long, sad story," the other man answered, his eyes not leaving Beka's face for a single moment.
„He's right, Rafe," Beka confirmed, „but this is not the time to tell you. First we have to get rid of this guy."
„Beka," Rafe then interrupted in a low voice, „I don't know, who the guy is, but it was really my idea; and if you think it better, than let's just drop him back on Infinity. But as we are already on our way – and he doesn't seem a threat – why don't you reconsider?" She seemed not to be moved, but he kept on nagging. And finally Beka's soft spot for him had taken over.
„Okay, Rafe, Seneshall Drift. But you don't let him out of your sight. And you keep the gun at him. The minute we dock I want you and Jonah out, and I'll be on my way."
Raphael Valentine was pleased. It didn't last for long.
Beka had disappeared into the cockpit, and he had spent the rest of their voyage in silence, under the amused gaze of the man he had come to know as John.
By now, Dylan was livid.
„Let me guess," he pressed through clenched jaws. „There was a ‚welcoming committee' awaiting you on Seneshall."
Rafe nodded in reply. „Indeed; all of it Drago-Katsov, about thirty of them. They boarded us the minute I opened up the airlock."
„I don't get it: I thought the guy was Seefran, not Nietzschean."
„I don't get either.He is not a Nietzschean, as isn't the guy he met with on the drift. Yet both seemed to command all Übers around with quite some authority. And they all obeyed them."
Dylan shook his head.
„Was John his real name?"
„He didn't say."
"The other guy' name?"
"Didn't say either."
„Was he also from Seefra?"
„How the hell should I know? I don't even know, what this Seefra is."
„You mean, nobody told you?"
„Nobody had the time. The minute they got us, Beka and I were separated and they brought us here. They didn't seem to want us any harm, but since I arrived, I didn't get to see either John nor his ‚business-partner'. Neither did I see Beka. Sarpedon told me that they had her somewhere around here, that they wanted to make her a business-offer she couldn't turn down, and that I was free to move everywhere on Myrmidon, as long as I don't send any messages and don't leave. Which I couldn't do anyway, since they also took the Maru and I have no ship.After two days I started to wonder more and more..."
„It took you long enough..." Dylan couldn't refrain from saying, but then he remembered how he had wasted time and shut up, feeling guilty.
„Yes, but at least I came up with the plan of talking Mr Superior Idiot into selling Beka's cds on the Valparaiso flea-market, so that you might find them."
„Still, it was a lucky shot! Listen, Rafe, how long now until dawn?"
„About two more hours. Why? Do you have a plan?"
„As a matter of fact, I have. There is a slipfighter hidden just outside the city. As you can move freely, you stand a better chance to make it to it without rising suspicions. Take it and get back to the Andromeda. Tell Harper and Rommie what you just told me, and contact Rhade on Terrazed."
„What about you?"
„I'll stick around some more with my Nietzschean buddies. See, where they're keeping Beka and what they want from her."
„Why you and not me?"
„Because you didn't find out anything for more than a week now. If you disappear, it might cause some stirr-up. Maybe we get lucky, they make mistakes or let their guard drop..."
„Like this is going to happen. Dylan, they're Drago-Katsov."
„Still, it's our only shot." Seeing the disapproval on Raphael's face, Dylan threw up his hands in a gesture of surrender. „Okay, all right! You have a better idea? Some miraculous plan B?"
„No," Rafe reluctantly admitted.
„Well, then, plan A will just have to do. Now move," he urged him, handing him over one of his forcelances and the flexi with the map showing the way back to the slipfighter.
For just one second both men stood in silence, watching one another.
„I'm sorry, Dylan," Raphael then pleaded, extending his hand towards him. „Find her for me, will you?"
„We'll get her back, don't worry," Dylan smiled accepting the hand he had been offered, his voice displaying a confidence he didn't feel at all. He remained there in the overstuffed bedroom for a moment, regarding Beka's brother disappear into the darkness of the garden, then followed him through the window, vanishing in the thick foliage outside.
For the next quarter of an hour, the captain just kept searching for the best spot to hide and still observe the house, where sometime during the next hours someone was due to check on Raphael Valentine. Finally finding it beneath a thick, dark-green bush of enormous proportions, Dylan settled down on his belly, trying to make himself as comfortable as possible and bracing himself for a long wait.
Hold on, Beka, hold on, he silently prayed. We'll get you out of this! Or so he hoped, at least.
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