12

At the resort planet, Usiko and Ze'ev were actually starting to wish that Safari Joe would return. During the two and a half weeks that he was gone, both of the captives noticed things change. They were fed a large meal only once a day, and were not let out to run around. They were not given a blanket or a pillow at night anymore, and Usiko noticed that some of the other species, the sentient ones that probably would not rip each others' throats out being together, were stuck two to a cage. He wondered on this, and wondered. Kamata wouldn't do that, she liked animals, and the feral captives were treated the same way.

One day at breakfast, or what would have been breakfast if Safari Joe had been there taking care of things, Usiko and Ze'ev were talking. "Where were you?" the child asked suddenly.

Usiko looked at his young companion. "What do you mean?"

"I mean when that bald man got you."

"Ohhhh." Usiko's expression darkened. "I was on a jungle type...planet, I guess." He had told the child of Thundera, and how they had all had to escape in suspension pods. "My pod landed there, and the homing beacon was broken. That...thing...was hunting there and caught me." He shook his head, then looked at the boy. "What about you? Where did he catch you?"

Ze'ev scowled. "He didn't. M-my master sold me to him for the skin, but he decided not to skin me." Ze'ev's lips trembled a little. He had often been threatened with being sold to the tanner, but this time it was not a punishment; the Mutant simply got a better price from selling him than was worth keeping him.

Usiko frowned also, but then put an arm around the boy. Waiting until he looked up, the Thunderian said to him. "I'm glad he decided to keep ya, little one."

Ze'ev smiled a little bit. "Yeah...me too."

After a few minutes of companionable silence, the both of them saw a shuttle land in front of the place. Kamata stepped out. Well that explained things; Kamata had not been there, and the third in command would have been put in charge. The Third in Command was a human called Kraig Lechlan, and he was a sleaze. No one liked him, no one. Even half the staff couldn't stand his arrogant attitude and selfish disposition. The captives more than couldn't stand him, they hated his guts. There was hardly a sentient there that would not want to see him dead. He was cruel. He liked to smack people around. He liked to poke the feral exhibits with a sharp pole, and gloat over the fact that he had the power over them, and that they could not get to him through the cages.

Usiko growled. Ze'ev had not heard this of course, but he had seen the expression on Usiko's face and frowned himself. "What's wrong, Usiko?" he asked in his overloud voice.

Usiko sighed and said, "Kraig was in charge."

Ze'ev could not quite see the movement of his lips and asked, "What?"

Usiko turned to face him and repeated it, and pointed to Kamata. She was walking in the front, right where Ze'ev and Usiko's cages stood.

"Hey!" came the shout form one of the humans. They had been quiet ever since Cantel had been dragged away to his death, but one spoke now, the one who had complimented Cantel on his spitting abilities. "Hey, Kamata! Tell that miserable puke bag of a human to start feeding us!"

Kamata frowned a little, but hid the expression from the human. Usiko and Ze'ev both saw it fine, however, though the feline had to give his cagemate a play by play on the conversation. "Quiet now," Kamata said to him. "If you're not being fed enough it will be fixed, now pipe down." She spoke in that patient but firm way she did to the furred beings, even to other humans! Usiko was amazed at that woman.

Kamata was mad. Usiko could see it.

For about twenty minutes, nothing happened. Usiko sighed and went over to the treadmill and ran a little bit. He was going crazy in that damnable cell all the time. But then something interesting happened. There was a sound like something being thrown against a wall, and an angry female voice. Usiko jumped off the treadmill and told a passing guest to shut up so he could listen. The irritated visitor spewed a few choice words them moved on.

Not far from Usiko's cage, in the restricted area of the resort, Kamata had found the sleaze. "What the hell is wrong with you? I leave for two weeks and you screw up!"

Kraig turned with narrowed eyes. "What are you doing back?" he demanded. "You weren't supposed to be back for another three days!"

She growled a human growl. "My uncle's estate was settled sooner than I expected. What is it to you? So you could cover up all your little greedy schemes? I was told you aren't feeding the exhibits enough. I checked the logs, and they were right! You have not been keeping them on the training or exercise schedules either, and some of the staff said that you sent them home early. I am sick of your greed. Anything to save a buck!"

Kraig growled himself.

"What's going on?" Ze'ev said loudly.

Usiko winced, but the arguing humans didn't even notice. "Shhhh..." he said, and told the child what was going on, only moving his lips. Ze'ev frowned, nodded, and remained quiet.

"Oh get off my ass, Kamata. I know you're this save-the-animals tree-hugger, but I am sick of you! I saved a lot of money, and yeah I made a lot in return. They're fed enough to be alive, and those other luxuries they don't need. So don't even start with me."

Kamata narrowed her eyes. "Where's Joe?"

Kraig shrugged. "How should I know? He never came back. I'm in charge now."

A thin thread of worry made its way through her mind. Then she lost it. "You are in charge? I don't think so, you sleazy greedbag! I outrank you, I am in charge until we find him." She shoved the man. "So back off. You're cruising for unemployment here!"

That was it for Kraig. No one shoved him around! Not some pathetic girl! He shoved her back. "I'm in charge, woman. Unless you think you can take it from me."

Kamata's jaw dropped. He had never been this blatant before, he must think Safari Joe was gone for good. "Why you no good, slimy..." She narrowed her eyes, and without warning, tackled him.

Ze'ev and Usiko watched this, fascinated, and actually hoping that Kamata kicked him into the next millennium. And at first, that seemed to be happening.

Kamata was winning, until Kraig spotted a discarded bar from a disassembled cage, and swung it at her.

The woman was caught off guard, and took the blow full in the head. She dropped. Kraig laughed and kicked her. "Pathetic." He shook his head. "I guess I better get her taken care of. I don't want a murder to deal with." He shrugged and called someone over the radio. Two workers, a woman and a man, came shortly, and knelt by her. Soon after that, a shuttle was flying her out.

Usiko sighed and sat on the bunk. "Great. With that sleazebag in charge, who knows what'll happen?" Ze'ev climbed up next to him and leaned against his soft fur. The child took comfort in his older friend. He had found someone at last he thought he could trust. His whole life he had had nobody, but wished constantly that he did. Now it had come true...he hoped it had come true...but still there was that thread of doubt. Like if he believed it, he would only be disappointed. But it was a thin thread indeed. A very thin thread.

Usiko smiled and put an arm around him. He was feeling a simple love for the Mutant cub, as he often did, and he hoped more than ever that he could get them both out of there and show the child that the world wasn't all bad. That there were good people in it. But first, he had to get past Kraig.

***

On the remote desert moon, Safari Joe was having his own problems. Though most of the journey through the place was uneventful, he had had to dodge a few laser blasts from inside guns, and had stayed away from those places. There were more in some areas than others, but he wasn't there to get shot, he was there to find a way out.

He had been wandering for hours, almost a day total, resting five times, and eating twice. Kairo had curiously left the kitchen open. Joe only took the food that had not yet been opened, packaged food. He didn't trust Kairo not to poison him. He kept his hunting knife out all the time, and looked in all directions, as if he were stalking prey. But he wasn't stalking prey. Safari Joe was the prey, and he had no experience with it. He hated the trapped, helpless feeling, and the urge to always look over his shoulder. He was on edge. He did not sleep. Kairo was playing with him, he knew, but when would he spring the trap? When would he finally close his jaws and kill him? He sighed and went on. He had to find some kind of control panel, maybe a basement. He had the idea before, now he redoubled his efforts to find it.

Kairo Zarack had watched the whole thing. He had a hidden storeroom of food, and one of the chairs made quite a comfortable bed. He'd slept a while, trusting his sensors to alert him to anything interesting. It didn't.

When he got up, he looked to the monitors one again and laughed. He doubted very much that Gregor had gotten any sleep himself, he looked as nervous and jumpy as a cat at the dog pound. He had dark circles under his eyes, and a slightly crazed look in them, like someone who is paranoid. He probably was. Kairo chuckled as he watched. Joe really had no reason to be paranoid; he only got shot at when he tried to go somewhere he shouldn't; one was the secondary control center for the large shipping compound, in case this one shut down or something else happened, and the other was his smaller room where he kept all of his hunting weapons. And the food had not been touched by him in any way. He kept his amused, silent vigil.

Safari Joe wandered more, searching for a trapdoor. He found none, but he did find a route he had not traveled before, that was in the middle of the large building, and led to the other half. Did he not have any employees to take care of this stuff? If he did, they were all out for the day. Hell, the week.

Kairo sat up, and his unpleasant, unkind smile spread over his face. Now he was going in the right direction. It had been a surprise seeing Joe Gregor land on that desolate, forgotten moon, but he had been pleased. Of course he'd had to set up for his visit, now hadn't he?

There was little here. There was a large room with three huge roll-up doors that led outside, all locked down tight, and with no visible way to get them to be otherwise. Joe looked for a while, then gave up. His fatigue was getting to him.

Another was a bathroom, which Safari Joe realized he needed to use, and he did, wondering if Kairo was watching that too.

He was.

Safari Joe thought more and more about his not so friendly host. He had found out a lot about him. He'd been a hunter, and got into shipping and taxidermy, and expanded more on this than the actual hunting when he got older. Joe knew the man. He knew that he knew him, but there was not a picture in sight to jog his memory. Not one. He guessed there must have been some, but by this point he knew that he only saw what that bastard Kairo wanted him to see.

He knew that Kairo was the man's real name, though he'd changed it early in his teens. Kind of like him, Joe thought with a mirthless laugh. He had changed it back to Kairo later, he guessed because it was more responsible and respectable. He had been known for his hunting in his youth, and his earlier years, but as he got older, his reputation was more as a dealer in illegal goods, like endangered species, alive and dead, and other things of that type. Still, the files he had seen did not say what his name had been, or what year it was any more than it had a picture. Still he knew that he must have known him when Kairo was a young man...it is then that the history was most obscured.

He walked on.

Here was a storeroom, locked, but with a window in which he saw there was nothing there but boxes of furs; a janitorial closet, a linen closet, two more bedrooms, and a metal door with a blocked off window. With a weary sigh, the hunter turned the knob.

The door opened easily into a darkened room that smelled like it was another storeroom. He was right. As he turned on the light, he looked around and saw various creatures that had been stuffed by the ex-hunter and put in the room. Each had a tag as to whom it was to be shipped to, like many of the other rooms in the place. Joe looked around.

A small herd of trentsins, arranged in a realistic looking scene that mirrored the bleak purplish landscape of the moon, a large tiger, bigger than most species, and endangered throughout the universe, looking fierce as it growled its last, a host of birds and raccoons, and other small animals. Nothing much. Then he looked up.

Heads. The customary moose with three antlers. A deer-like creature with green fur and little yellow eyes, and two Thunderian heads even! Or at least humanoid felines that could have been Thunderians or some other similar race. One wall was covered in pelts. He was ready to walk out of the room, and then he turned around. The third wall had more skins on it, but Safari Joe did not see them. Safari Joe's eye saw only the fourth wall, containing one last head. This head had no tag that indicated a future buyer, and was fixed, as most of the others, in a last desperate snarl as its owner fought against hope to save itself and its young.

The head was human. It was topped by a bright thatch of unruly, carrot red hair. The eyes, which had also been preserved in their natural state had once been a startling green, and now were dulled to look flat and dead. It had been of a man in his early thirties, with rugged, tanned skin, made more so by the harsh preservation process.

Joe Gregor stared in shock. He did not move for a full five minutes, caught in a frighteningly real trance of deja-vu, feeling the severe disorientation of now knowing if you were here or in the past, years before, on a hot jungle world; of looking into the eyes of a man that should be dead. Then the paralysis broke as his mind came back into focus, and he knew exactly where he was, what had happened, and who he was dealing with. Safari Joe had been twelve when he had first met Kairo Zarack, and had seen him only once before, when his young, devastated eyes had traced every curve of his face, vowing to remember it, etching every feature in his memory.

Safari Joe dropped his hunting knife, without ever realizing he had done it, only aware of the man's face he was staring at. As he gazed at that face, a face of a man that had smiled proudly when his son had caught his first Jondron at the age of ten, who'd picked him up from the mud when he was four, on his first visit to the jungle planet and laughed gently when he'd cried, and wiped away the tears, and told him he was a tough little guy. A face that was usually kind and understanding, and honorable.

As he gazed at the dead, dull face of his father, a cry worked its way up his throat. Beads of sweat made their way down his face. His shaking hands balled into fists, over and over, so tight they could have shattered heavy glass. A choked, hurt sound came from between his clenched teeth, and he closed his eyes tight. He threw his head back and let out a scream, a wild, enraged howl of grief, and hurt, and fury as he screamed to the sky beyond the stone and steel of Kairo's compound.

Part 11

Part 13

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