第16节

Cadillac steadied himself and rubbed his face. His body seemed gripped

by a strange lethargy. 'Mo-Town! I feel -' His eyes widened as he

focused on Malone, then he quickly took in his strange surroundings.

'Where's Clearwater? And Brickman?" A jab of pain from his various

flesh wounds caused him to frown. He looked down at his left side and

saw two bloodstained rips in his walking skins on the outside curve of

the thigh. There was also a deep graze in his belly. An expression of

alarm crossed his face. 'Who shot me?!" 'You don't remember? Must

have been after you hit the ground." Malone told him about the Skyhawk

that had appeared out of the blue, making a single strafing run across

the campsite before turning for home.

Some premonition of what he was going to say next made Cadillac howl

with grief. He wrapped his arms around his chest and rocked from side

to side. 'Oh, Sweet Sky-Mother! Clearwater! Is she dead?"

'Not when we left. But she was hurt pretty bad."

'Oyy-yehh! This is all my fault! What about Brickman?"

'He's fine. Came out of it without a scratch."

The news caused Cadillac to grind his teeth. 'He would!

Hah! How typical! So what did you do?"

Malone did his best to conceal his irritation at being questioned in

this peremptory manner. Who the fuck did this guy think he was?

'Do?

The best we could. State she was in she couldn't be moved. So we

dressed the wounds with what we had then got the hell out. No point in

staying there once the camp had been spotted. We've had 'hawks over

our heads for the past couple of days."

Cadillac's mounting anger boiled over. 'Are you telling me she was

shot two days ago?!" Malone checked his watch. 'Exactly fifty-four

hours and twelve minutes ago."

'Why didn't someone tell me before now?!" Malone resisted the impulse

to smash Cadillac in the mouth. 'Because there was nothing you could

do, friend."

'Hahh!" Cadillac became aware of the metallic aftertaste on his

tongue. 'Was it Brickman's idea to pump me full of drugs?!" 'Yeah.

He said you'd be hysterical, and he was right.

Pull yourself together for crissakes!" 'I am together! He had no

right to take matters into his own hands like this! We've got to go

back for her!" 'Are you crazy? The only thing that could've saved her

was major surgery. Federation-type medicine - not the mumbo-jumbo you

monkeys mess around with. She'll be dead and buried by now-' 'No!

Don't say that!" Malone ignored the interruption. 'My job is to help

you get back to your own people. Isn't that what Brickman promised to

do?"

'Yes, but-' 'There are no "buts". That's what we're gonna do,

friend.

It was two of my guys who let that plane take us by surprise. So quit

blaming yourself for what happened.

I can understand Brickman being' upset at losing a neat piece of ass

but what the hell have you got to cry about?"

Cadillac brushed away the tears of rage and grief with shaking hands

that longed to fasten themselves around Malone's throat. 'She didn't

belong to him!" 'Could have fooled me. Is that what the fight was

about?"

'No. We were fighting because Brickman is a treacherous, lying toad!'

'That seems a mite ungrateful. Didn't he help you and Clearwater get

out of Ne-Issan?"

'He didn't do that to help us! He got us out in order to hand us over

to his masters in the Federation! He's not a renegade! He's been

working with a network of undercover agents for over a year!" 'I

see..." Malone ruminated on this for a moment.

'Did he tell you anything about this network - like it's name for

instance? Or who was running it?"

Cadillac realized he had said too much and was already regretting his

temporary loss of control. His antagonism towards Steve had not

diminished but