The taxi dodged through some of the morning traffic after Maddy told it to hurry up. The vehicle voiced a reminder of the existence of speed limits and even offered to display a copy of the traffic regulations, but she just told it to shut up and get there faster. It complied.
'Where are we going?' asked the girl. The car narrowly avoided a man on a motorcycle. The two vehicles warned each other to keep further away. Maddy felt like a piece of luggage as the taxi swung around a corner.
She debated briefly whether it would be a good idea to put the girl and the slave down on a corner somewhere, in case the terrorists found them and started shooting. Maddy had to peer around Sarti's body as the slave clung to the back of the vehicle.
'What happened back there?' the girl asked. 'Who are you?'
'My name's Linda.'
'Well, you can go to my hotel. This is my taxi after all, I hired it.'
'I've never liked Elite telling me what to do. No offence.'
They left most of the traffic behind and the taxi settled down on a quieter route. The buildings out towards the edge of the city were shorter, older, less maintained.
'Stop here,' said Maddy. The taxi pulled over to the curb. 'It's your taxi, you can pay,' she continued to the girl, who frowned. 'I lost my fone.'
The girl pressed the contact on her own fone. The taxi doors opened and they climbed out. Sarti scrambled down from the back looking pale.
'All right,' said Maddy. 'Well, thank you for the rescue. I suggest you never see me again.'
She turned and started to walk towards her flat which was in the next street, but heard rapid footsteps behind.
'Wait!' said the girl, catching up and planting herself in front of Maddy. 'What happened back there? Why did they want to harm you?'
'Who are you?'
'I'm Lady...' she began. 'That is, my name's Geranium.'
Maddy tried to keep a straight face. 'Well, Geranium, they wanted to harm me because I'm a dangerous person. And that's the reason you don't want to know me. Thank you for your help, as I said. Now go home.'
She made to move, but Geranium went so far as to put a hand out and side-step in front of her. Their eyes met.
'You're in real danger, aren't you?' Geranium said. 'I mean, I can see it in your eyes. Sort of...scared.'
The woman nodded. 'And it's too dangerous for you, so—'
'So I can help.'
'There's nothing you can do.' Maddy pushed forward, shouldering the girl out of the way. She walked over to a disposal compactor, reached into her satchel to take out the ghost, and dropped it in.
'What's that?' asked Geranium.
Maddy didn't answer, just started walking away. The hungry growl of the compactor's metallic jaws continued for a moment, then the compactor's AI asked what was to be retrieved.
'The...black box thing.'
Maddy turned and looked back as Geranium reached into the compactor and fetched out the ghost. The compactor seemed relieved, as if the hard metal device wasn't really something suitable for it.
'You don't want that,' said Maddy, standing a few metres away, hand tugging on the strap of her satchel.
'What is it?'
A man appeared in the street, heading for the taxi they'd exited. Maddy grabbed the ghost and shoved it back into her satchel. 'It's a...forget it.'
'It's why you were being chased. They were after that.' Her eyes gleamed. 'Is it something illegal? I once had a—'
The man reached the taxi and put his hand on the door to indicate his interest in using it. The door opened. For a single moment his eyes flickered to the two women by the compactor. He seemed innocent enough, perhaps merely wondering if they had already engaged the taxi.
Maddy grabbed Geranium's hand and hauled her along the street. Sarti followed a few metres behind, apparently forgotten. Every few steps Maddy would look over her shoulder. The man had entered the taxi and it was turning around to head back in a different direction.
'You're jumpy, aren't you?'
Maddy said nothing, just kept handling the girl along the street until they turned a corner and an old apartment building rose beside a vacant lot. At the entrance to the building Maddy pushed her up the steps. She went to press the contact on her fone which opened the door, and swore when she remembered the fone had been taken. It took a moment to find the security card instead. 'Inside!'
They stepped into the foyer. A set of steps rose between high frosted windows. Maddy pointed at Sarti, who was hesitating on the top step.
'Not her.'
'That's Sarti, she's my slave. It's all right.' She indicated to Sarti to come inside. The slave did so, but stood back from Maddy near the door.
'Tell her to stay in the foyer.'
Maddy was in no mood right now for Helots. Even this girl's slave could have links to the Talon.
Geranium seemed about to say something, but apparently noticed the grim set of Maddy's jaw and muttered an instruction to Sarti.
'It's all right, miss,' the woman said. 'I understand.' Maddy caught a look from the slave that might have been resentful.
'Stay here and let us know if anyone comes,' said her mistress. Sarti nodded.
Maddy turned towards the stairs and led the way up to her apartment.
It was small, with just one bedroom, but it suited her. Being in a quiet part of town, the rules about making too much noise were enforced rigorously. There was a holovision, old but still dependable, and a small kitchen where Maddy prepared the simple meals she required. There was no AI in either the kitchen or the lounge. On the walls were several paintings. One showed the enormous bulk of a Slowboat orbiting a gas giant planet. A red dwarf star shone in one corner of the picture. Even the planet seemed small against the enormous colony ship. Maddy had drawn it from memory—it wasn't the Endeavour, just a Slowboat, of which there were four. Or maybe three now; it was heard to tell, since the Discovery had disappeared fifty years ago.
As soon as the door closed, Maddy threw the satchel down on a sofa and crossed the room to ensure the curtains were closed across the window looking out into the street. She stood there for a moment, leaning her head against the glass.
'Are you all right?' asked Geranium.
There was a pause, then, 'Yes. I am now. Well, sort, of. I get...sometimes open spaces frighten me. Where I come from there wasn't much room. So I get to a planet and sometimes things just seem too...big.'
'I see.' Geranium looked around the apartment and sat down on the sofa next to Maddy's satchel. She kept her hands folded in her lap. 'I get that sometimes with crowds. But it's the opposite: things seem too small.'
Maddy moved to the bedroom and came back with a backpack, which she opened and set on the floor. She started filling it with clothes and other essentials.
After a minute of watching, Geranium said, 'Are you going somewhere?'
Stuffing two pairs of underpants into the backpack, Maddy looked up. 'I can't stay here.'
'Why not?'
Items and clothes continued to go into the pack. 'Because the people who tried to kill me aren't going like the fact that they failed. They'll try again.'
Geranium twisted on the sofa to face Maddy. Such a small girl, Maddy thought. Useless in a crisis perhaps, a spoiled Elite teenager. She had to lose the kid soon or they would both go down.
'Someone tried to kill you?'
'Oh shit! Will you listen to me?' Maddy closed the backpack. 'I'm a terrorist, all right? My name's Linda Jones. I'm wanted on Earth and on the Endeavour colony and no doubt on the planet Lizard, which you've never heard of because it's not supposed to exist. Now I have to get out of here. Thanks for your help. My suggestion is you get out of town too, because once it's known who I am and the fact that you're with me, you'll be hunted down as well. Got all that?'
She went back to the curtains and peered out. 'No one out there yet. But it won't be long. They know where I live. Now, you can leave by the front if you like, but I'm going out another way.'
It had been so unbelievably stupid to wait three days with the ghost without doing something about it. Like she wanted them to find her. Like she was asking for it.
Stupid, stupid...
Geranium stood up and looked out of the window as well. Maddy checked the contents of the backpack. This moment had always been a possibility and she had a pretty good list in her head of what might be needed. Her stun gun sat on top of the pack, but it couldn't be worn openly without arousing notice.
'If I go out here now, is there someone waiting to shoot you?' the girl persisted. 'Maybe I could lead them off? Distract them?'
Maddy's laughter cut through Geranium like a knife. 'You wouldn't last a second. Don't you understand? They're terrorists. Like me. They want to kill me because I know about them.'
'So, I'll have to come with you then.'
Maddy stared at the girl, who stood with hands on hips, face set in a scowl. There was something about her, something that reminded Maddy of herself a year ago: scared, alone, but desperate to prove there was some inner strength that could make a difference.
'Maybe you do,' she said.
Slinging the pack on her back, Maddy took another glimpse through the curtains. There was no one in the street, but then her enemies were not the type to give themselves away. She glanced around the room, at the paintings and the few other possessions she had gathered but could not now take with her.
Fortunately, this eventuality had been prepared for. They weren't going out the front door. Or the back.
'All right, now listen. We'll go to your hotel, you can get your stuff and then we head for the space port. You're to buy a ticket home and I'm going to put you on the ship myself. Is that clear?'
'What you going to do after that?'
'Never mind. Follow me,' she said, and walked, once again, away from everything that had any meaning.
They left the apartment and Maddy didn't bother locking the door. Doubtless the Talon would be here soon, and they would have ways of entering her apartment that didn't require keys. Perhaps she would feel better if they were to cause as little damage as possible to the landlord's property.
There was only one other apartment on that floor, on the other side of the stairwell. Between the two was a chute for garbage that led down to a furnace in the basement. They passed down the steps, Maddy first, Geranium following, holding onto the railing. On the first floor were another two apartments and the garbage chute in between.
Sarti was there, waiting, sitting in a corner beside the front door.
'Come on, Sarti!' called Geranium, and the slave rose. Maddy opened the door a crack and looked through. The street was still quiet. Then she turned and regarded Sarti. The slave kept her hands together in front of her chest.
'How long have you had this slave?' said Maddy.
'All my life.'
Maddy walked back to the garbage chute at the end of the foyer, and began to shift the fake plastic plants on either side. She pulled the chute open and looked into the hole. There was no tell-tale red glow or heat to show the furnace was lit. Removing her pack she prepared to shove it down.
'So you trust her?'
Geranium stalked over to the chute. 'Of course. Totally.'
Maddy glanced over at the slave. Female Helots seemed just as masculine as the males, the only difference physically being a slighter build. Being sterile, Helot females had no need of breasts and these were under-developed in almost all of them. But the facial features were the same, and the same thick black hair. From where Maddy stood, Sarti might have been Reed, or Lofar, or Igil Hoo. Except it looked like she was crying.
'I've had...bad experiences with Helots'
'All right.'
Walking back over to Sarti, who still cowered near the door, Maddy glared at her. 'You do everything your mistress tells you to do, all right? Everything.'
The Helot nodded.
Geranium glowered for a moment, then looked into the chute. 'Is this big enough for us?'
Maddy tossed the backpack in. There was a metallic rasp as the pack slid down the chute and a resounding boom when it hit the inside of the furnace at the bottom.
'They only light it on weekends,' she said. 'It should be cold in there. Tell your slave to go first.'
They overturned one of the pot plants and Sarti stood on it. She looked dubiously into the chute and then, when Geranium gave an encouraging nod, put both feet inside and shoved off. There was a small cry as she hit the bottom.
'I'll go next, Gerry.' Maddy put a foot onto the pot plant. She'd already done this once, when she originally sought a means of escape should it be needed. 'You come after. It's not a long slide, but it's steep.'
'Please don't call me Gerry.'
Maddy hesitated, both feet inside the chute. 'Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you'd prefer it.'
'Why?'
She tried to think of a tactful way to put it. 'Well, it's short for Geranium.'
'But my name is Geranium.'
'Do you have any other names?'
'Petunia.'
Well, that was awkward.
'Geranium it is.'
She pushed off and slid down the metal chute. At the bottom it was dark and a smell of ash filled her nostrils. Her feet contacted her pack and kicked against Sarti, who was invisible in the gloom.
A moment later Geranium came down the chute and slammed into Maddy. The three women lay there hard up against each other, legs entangled. For a single moment Maddy felt like giggling, then fumbled around until she located the door of the furnace and eased up the catch from the inside.
They climbed out, covered in ash and grime, into a small janitor's room filled with pipes and controls for the furnace. Sarti found a cloth and started to clean her mistress, but just made the smears of soot worse. Geranium flicked her away.
'Now what?' she said.