Planetbound, DM Arnold [interesting books to read .TXT] 📗

father's debts. He used all our savings and borrowed more to do so. For a couple of years, I tried to help. George paid every penny, but it wiped him out and he had to start over.

“George ended up with what was left of the jewelry business, but he had no interest in running a retail shop. He sold the business to Jonathan for a pittance -- ten dollars or so.”

Nyk stood, picked up the tea bowls and carried them to the sink. “I don't know what to say, Yasuko.”

“I'll say it, then. Thank you, Nick, for entering our daughter's life -- for entering all our lives. I'm beginning to believe this will work out. Sukiko believes she's had a difficult time, particularly during her teen years. She doesn't know what a hard life is, and I've hoped to God she'd never have to learn.

“Since you brought her home from Wisconsin -- especially since you've been with us -- have been the best months we've had with her since before she entered puberty. There were plenty of times I despaired having anything like what we have together now.”

“Yasuko, I love being part of your family.”

“You really are like a son to us.”

He hugged her, kissed her forehead and gazed into her eyes. “Suki has your eyes...”

“Am I interrupting something?” Suki walked into the kitchen.

Yasuko pulled away from him. “Would you like some tea? There's a bit left.”

“I came to fetch Nick -- if you're done with him.”

“Good night, Yasuko. Thanks for the conversation.” Nyk held Suki's hand and ascended the stairs. “How did your call with Kronta go?”

“Very interesting.”

“What did you talk about?”

“About Daphne and me -- how she influenced my life.” She headed into the bedroom and began undressing. “Nick -- What's going on?”

“Some powerful forces are battling it out on the homeworld.”

“Battling what out?”

“My fate. I think our conversation with Daphne has given Illya the ammunition he needs. He said I can go to Floran and clear my name.”

“Are you going?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because Illya can't guarantee the outcome. Until he can -- I'm staying right here.”

“You don't trust him?”

“Him I trust. It's Tomyka Wells I don't. Illya thinks she's sent enforcers to abduct me.”

“Oh, Nick! It would be like what happened to Daphne and Illya.”

“I won't go peacefully -- and they'll have to find me first.” Nyk stretched out on the bed and Suki joined him. “I need to know one thing -- now that you've ... emerged from your tunnel. I need to know if you think you could manage Nicky on your own -- without me.”

“I don't want to have to face that. I faced it once, I don't want to face it again.”

“I need to know. I need to know how hard to push on this.”

“Illya asked me the same question. I don't know the answer. I know I can with you.”

Nyk closed up the lab. He had developed the habit of varying his route home. This time he walked in the wrong direction from the house and awaited a city bus. He rode the bus several blocks, stepped off it and walked around the block. Then, he awaited another bus headed the other way.

He walked up the steps and unlocked the front door. “It's Nick,” he called to the rear of the house.

Suki ran toward him and threw her arms around him. “Dinner's ready.” She kissed his lips.

He knelt beside her at the low dining table and sipped broth from a bowl. “Nick, a pair of young men called today while you were at the lab,” Yasuko said.

“Oh? What did they look like?”

“Blond, blue-eyed, clean-cut -- rather nondescript, I'd say.”

“What did you tell them?”

“I told them you weren't in.”

“Did you give them the lab address?”

“No.”

“Good -- if they come back, please don't.”

“As you wish, Nick.”

“And, Yasuko -- don't let them into the house.”

Nyk lay holding Suki. “I'm worried about those men who showed up,” she said.

“The other day I thought a pair fitting your mom's description might've been tailing me. I hopped a bus and lost them.”

“Oh, Nick!”

“I'll call Kronta in the morning and see if he knows anything about it. I'm being careful, korlyta.” He switched off the light, closed his eyes and attempted to will himself to sleep.

Suki shaking him awakened him. “Nick -- Nick,” she whispered. “I heard a noise.” Nyk sat up in bed. “It sounded like footsteps on the stairs.” She stood and slipped into her robe.

Nyk heard the apartment door open. He reached and touched the switch for the lamp on the bed stand. The bedroom door opened and Nyk turned on the light. Two young men stood in the doorway.

“Nykkyo Kyhana -- zi dev kun ni ziven,” one of them said.

“What? What did you say?”

“Zi dev kun ni ziven.”

“What language is that? Who are you?”

Suki screamed, threw herself at one of the men and began pounding him with her fists. “No! No! You're not taking him!”

The other man withdrew a short staff and touched her with it. She fell to the floor, unconscious.

“Suki!” Nyk jumped to her. “What did you do to her?”

The enforcer approached Nyk with the stunner. He thrust it, but Nyk dodged its glowing tip.

“Zi dev litir.” the first enforcer said to the second. “Zi dev lu brakebanda forig.” He pointed to the band on Nyk's forearm.

Nyk lowered his head and jumped toward the first enforcer, butting him in the abdomen and knocking him to the floor. He looked around the room for something to use as a weapon and grabbed a flashlight from the nightstand on Suki's side of the bed.

The agent with the stunner approached Nyk again and jabbed the wand toward him. Nyk deflected it with a left backhand and then brought the flashlight down onto the enforcer's forearm. The stunner flew from his grasp and lodged under the bed.

Deprived of his weapon, the second enforcer grabbed Nyk's arm, forcing him to drop the flashlight. Then the agent slipped his fingernails under the copper bracelet. Nyk broke free and jumped over the bed.

The first enforcer regained his breath and leapt at Nyk, grabbing his forearm and bending it behind his back.

“Zi dev liten.” the enforcer said. “Lu brakebanda...”

The second enforcer pried the copper bracelet from Nyk's wrist and it fell to the floor. “Mi va xi scanfa util...”

The enforcer slipped a credit-card sized device from his pocket and approached. Nyk struggled. The intruder grabbed Nyk's forearm and pressed the scanpad against it. He looked at it, pressed a control and held it to his own wrist. It chirped as it read the ID chip in his bone.

The enforcer pressed it to Nyk's wrist again. “Li xi vir ni niserxi n'est. Zi dev li liberiv!” Nyk found himself free of the enforcers' grasp.

He ran to Suki. She was beginning to regain consciousness. “She'll be all right,” the first enforcer said. “The effect is temporary.”

“What is the meaning of this? Who are you? What language were you using?”

“We -- we must've made a mistake,” the second enforcer said. “We're terribly sorry -- we'll be on our way.” He slipped the scanpad into his pocket. The two men headed for the door and were met by George. He was in a martial-arts crouch and brandishing the antique samurai short sword.

“No one's leaving. You make one move toward this door, and I'll cut you. I'll slit your throats.” Nyk heard a siren approach and more footsteps climbing the steps. A pair of NYPD officers entered the apartment.

Suki sat on the floor holding her head. “All right, what happened?” one cop asked.

“These men broke into our house and assaulted my daughter and her fiancé,” George said.

“It was a mistake,” one of the enforcers replied. “We had the wrong address -- we're terribly sorry.”

The other cop looked at George. “Do you wish to file a complaint?”

“This is my house. Yes, I'll file a complaint.”

“We'll take 'em to the station. You can follow us.”

Nyk saw one enforcer give the other a hand signal, then reach into his pocket and retrieve something. He popped it into his mouth, bit down and swallowed. “Oh, no you don't!” one cop said and headed to him. The enforcer's eyes rolled back in his head, he collapsed on the floor and began convulsing. The other cop ran to him. He became still.

“He's dead,” the first cop said.

The remaining enforcer dashed down the stairs and out the front door. “Stop! Halt!” the first cop shouted and started after him with his service pistol pulled.

“I'll call for support,” the second cop said. “Whoever they were, they must be plenty hot for one to put himself down so the other could escape.” He placed a call on his radio.

The first cop returned. “He got away.” More sirens sounded in the background.

Nyk sat in the living room conferring with a NYPD detective. “No -- I've never seen them before. My fiancée's mother thinks they came to the house earlier, asking for me -- but I have no idea what they wanted.”

“The medical examiner is looking over the body,” the detective said. “He swallowed some sort of poison, but nothing we can identify. We're sending samples to the state crime lab. So far -- no identification. He had nothing on him. He doesn't fit the description of any known subjects. We're running prints right now. The guy had no dental work. Not even a filling.” He showed a sketch to Nyk. “The only mark was a small tattoo on the right deltoid. Does this ring a bell?”

“I'm sorry, lieutenant -- I can't help you.”

“Do you know what they used to disable your fiancée?”

“It must've been a stun-gun of some sort. It happened so fast...”

“Thank you, Mr Kane.” He handed Nyk a business card. “If anything else comes up, feel free to contact me.”

Nyk climbed the stairs to the apartment. “That was too close,” Suki said.

He nodded, knelt to fetch the stunner from under the bed and concealed it in the cardboard carton on the top shelf of the closet. Nyk switched on the laptop computer. Soon he was looking at Kronta's image. “Illya -- a pair of enforcer goons came tonight.”

“I told you Tomyka's desperate. What happened?”

“They weren't successful.”

“Obviously.”

“One's dead -- he had a pill or something.”

“Enforcers always travel in pairs. Before an assignment they draw lots -- one carries the technology and the other carries the poison pill. In the event they're discovered the one with the pill sacrifices himself so the other can get away.”

“He left in such a hurry he forgot his stunner.”

Kronta's eyes widened. “Where is it now?”

“I have it.”

“If he had permitted our technology to fall into the hands of Earth authorities -- I don't know what we'd do.” Kronta shook his head.

“Tell Tomyka the stunner is secure.”

Kronta smiled. “It's not my role to help my opposition. I'll let her worry about it for a while. That enforcer will pay for botching the job -- and Tomyka will pay with him.”

“Will he return?”

“No. He's headed here, and he'll never return to Earth. The death of an enforcer won't be welcome news to the oversight committee. They'll be hard on Tomyka for engaging in such a dangerous gambit. I wish, though, you had considered my suggestion and returned here. This might have been avoided.”

“How did they find me?”

“Koichi's journal. He wrote his family has lived in the same house for over two hundred Earth years.”

“Tomyka read the address in the journal and sent them here.”

Kronta nodded. “Tomyka will use Koichi's records as they suit her. She's taking a fall, Nyk, and she'll fall hard. Please -- come to the homeworld and put an end to this madness.” The vidphone session went dark.

Suki put her hand on his shoulder and he jumped. “I'm sorry. This has me rattled.”

“Me, too.”

“The one who died was married and might've had a family.” Nyk shuddered. “Kronta said Tomyka would do foolish things. I had no idea how foolish.”

“What will you do?”

“Kronta wants me to return home and stand before the committee to clear my name.”

“Must you in person?”

“Yes -- under Floran law, a default is by definition an admission of guilt. I can stay here, but I'd worry -- not so much for me, but for you and Nicky.”

“If you go, for how long?”

“Kronta can't give me a guarantee. He says it's a near certainty I'd be reinstated with full privileges, but he can't guarantee it.”

“What do you think you should do?”

“I don't know...”

“I do. You must go. Nick -- you love your people and you love the Agency. You won't be whole or happy doing anything else. Besides -- if you're reinstated, perhaps I'd have a chance to see your beautiful world again.”

He nodded. “I'll call Kronta and make arrangements. I'd have to fly to Milwaukee and take the shuttlecar. What'll we tell your folks?”