The Baba Yaga (30 page)

“Jesus,” whispered Kinsella.

“So now we know where the portal is and, therefore, where Walker, Larsen, and the priest are.” Conway studied Kinsella. “You seem troubled, Mr Kinsella. I would have thought you would be pleased to hear that we would soon be bringing the murderers of your mentor to justice. Andrei Gusev’s death will not go unpunished.”

As if she gave a shit about Andrei Gusev. As if any of them gave a shit. Only him, the last of Andrei’s loyal lieutenants.

Conway stretched lazily, like a leopard contemplating making a move for dinner. “We should get going.”

Yes
, thought Kinsella.
A mob from the settlement might be too much even for your murderous lot.
“I thought I might remain here,” he said.

Conway looked at him with pale expressionless eyes. “I’d like you to come with me, Mr Kinsella.”

But I don’t want to be part of this any longer. I don’t want to see what you’re going to do to them...

“Your knowledge of Walker and Larsen might be crucial in taking them, if they decide to make a stand. People do that, in desperate straits. You may save lives if you come with us.”

Fat chance of that,
Kinsella thought, but he was cornered. “I’ll go and pack.”

“My team are seeing to that.” She nodded to him to follow, and they went down to the hold. The crimopaths were hard at work, sorting out supplies and weapons, and packing not one but two of the land vehicles that the
White Horseman
carried. Kinsella turned to Conway. “Two? One of those is big enough to carry all of us.”

“But we are not all going on the same journey, Mr Kinsella. You and I and two of my people will follow Larsen up into the mountains.”

“And Walker.”

She looked at him.

“Larsen and Walker,” he said.

“Yes, of course.”

“And the other two?” Kinsella said.

Conway rocked back and forth on the soles of her boots. “If they’ve been to the settlement, there’s a risk of infection. I’m sending two of my team to find out whether that’s the case. We may save lives,” she said, keeping her voice just this side of pious.

Kinsella looked carefully at what was being packed into the second vehicle. It looked more like they were packing for a ground assault than for a mission of mercy. He wondered, if the plan was destroy the settlement, why they weren’t simply going to fly the
White Horseman
overhead and fire a few missiles. That would surely be the quickest way to get the job done. And then he understood. They didn’t want the job done quickly. They wanted to take their time.

Kinsella left them to it. He went back to his own quarters and packed his gear: clothes, a weapon or two which, he hoped, Conway had somehow not discovered. When he was done, he sat on the edge of the bed and waited for his summons to leave. His mind was racing. But chief amongst his unanswered questions was this: If Walker and Larsen had been crooked, if they had murdered Andrei for his money, then why the hell had they come here, to this miserable place? It had been easy to persuade himself that Walker’s story of a world where humans and Vetch lived alongside each other in peaceful co-existence with the Weird had been nothing more than a pack of lies, a story to cover her escape from Hennessy’s World. And yet he had seen them, before they were murdered—two Vetch and two humans. And here she was, Delia Walker, on this godforsaken world, chasing a rumour, a fairy story. Chasing a portal between realities that she alone, it seemed, had always believed existed.

S
TELLA
M
ARIS WAS
a long way from Braun’s World, and Maria felt herself hardening further with every step she took. Jenny struggled on beside her, no longer complaining that her mother was insisting on yet another walk. The girl seemed to have accepted these hardships as part of life now.
If I thought about that too much
, Maria thought,
it might break my heart.

She was still shocked at Yershov’s betrayal, and, at least as much, she was saddened. It had been plain from the outset that the simmering tension between him and Walker was going to boil over at some point, and she had only hoped that she and Jenny would not be caught between them when it happened. Her loyalty was to Walker, who had rid the world of Amber and Springer, but she had not forgotten Yershov’s willingness to intervene on her behalf. He had not struck her as a man given to selfless acts, but he had not wanted to see Jenny harmed and that, at least, had warmed Maria to him. And then Failt had come to her while she and Jenny were resting, and told her what the pilot had done...

Who would have thought too, back on Braun’s World, that she would believe the word of a Vetch? But you didn’t doubt Failt. You didn’t doubt him, because he was devoted to Delia Walker, and he had her best interests at heart. So when he came and told you that Yershov had sold out Walker to her enemies, and that they were coming after her—well, you wanted to help. Whispering with Failt in her cabin, they had made their plans to get away—she to warn the settlement, Failt to warn Walker—and she had slipped out of the ship while the pilot was sleeping and hurried off with Jenny. Failt had left after her and, given that she had not yet been troubled by the pilot, she could only assume he had taken off after the child. She’d known that Failt was drawing the pilot after him in part to protect her and Jenny, but she had let him get on with it. One more reason to be thankful to the creature. One more reason to like a Vetch.

“Mummy,” said Jenny. “What’s that?”

The little girl was pointing ahead. Maria, looking to where her daughter was pointing, saw a great sleek ship coming to land. She knew immediately that these were their enemies and that they were in terrible danger. “Come on, Jenny,” she said, taking her daughter’s hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

But the ship had landed between them and the settlement. It would be a long walk round, and Maria wasn’t sure that the plains offered enough cover. They inched on carefully to a little watering hole that she had seen, with a couple of trees around it, which gave some cover and a place from which to watch the new arrivals. Six people came out of the ship altogether—Maria did not know if there others inside—three men and three women. One of the women seemed to be in command; Maria, with her experience through Kit’s long service in Fleet, recognised an officer when she saw one. Most of the others seemed to be military—they had the uniforms, at least—but something about the way they interacted with each other, and with their commander, made Maria uneasy. They seemed reluctant to follow orders, verging on insubordinate. But this was surely an important mission, one to be given to only the most trusted of people. Why send a crew that was on the verge of mutiny? Maria could not answer this, so she filed it away. There was no point in worrying over questions she couldn’t answer.

One of the men was not military, Maria knew that. Not just the lack of uniform, but the bearing, and the general air of being slightly less fit than he might have liked. He hung back from the others and seemed, Maria thought, unhappy to be there. He didn’t assist with the work, either, but watched as the five grunts—if that was what they were—brought out two ground vehicles, and then began to load them with supplies and hardware. Eventually, one of the vehicles was ready for departure, and the group split. The commander, and the civilian, and two of the grunts piled into one vehicle and set off into the desert. The other two remained behind, loading their vehicle. When they began to bring out ground cannon, Maria knew it was time to get moving. But how, she wondered, could she get to the settlement to warn them before they got there?

There was no point setting off before dark. The two soldiers would surely see her, and that would be the end of her mission. But as darkness fell, she began to regret her delay when she heard the sound of a motor vehicle coming towards them.

“Jenny,” she whispered, “lie down on the ground.”

The little girl did what she was told, and Maria looked round hopelessly for a weapon. Branches from the tree, she thought, hysterically. How good a defence would that be against their firepower?

The vehicle slowed, and then the engine stopped. Maria heard feet padding towards her, and got ready to fight, with tooth and claw if needs be. And then a familiar, ugly face appeared out of the darkness. “Mama Maria! Here you are! Come on, we gotta hurry!”

“Failt!” she cried, softly, and pulled the child to her. Jenny too jumped up from where she had been lying and wrapped her arms around her playmate. “How did you get here?” Maria said. “And where did you find this?”

She pointed at the vehicle. Failt gave a throaty laugh. “Pinched it from that big ship down there. Thought it wasn’t fair they should get there first. Thought it would be better if we had it. They weren’t happy, though,” he said, and laughed again. “They weren’t happy at all.”

Maria couldn’t help laughing herself. “But how did you know where to find us?”

His tentacles shook. “Sniffed you on the breeze. Humans smell. I know your smell now, yours and Jenny’s.” He pulled her hand, dragging her towards the vehicle. “We gotta go, Mama Maria. Those people down there—they’re mean. They won’t be good to us if they catch us. And we have a job to do. Promised Missus Dee that we’d see it done.”

Maria lifted Jenny up into the cab, and climbed in after her. “You found them? What happened? Did you lose Yershov?”

Failt shook his head. Quickly—and with an eye on Jenny, God bless him—he explained what had happened up by the river. “Yershov won’t be troubling us no more,” he said, as he started the vehicle up again. Maria shook her head. He hadn’t deserved this, she thought. He’d brought them here, after all, and all the time he had been in a great deal of pain. But it wasn’t a good idea to betray Walker. Maria was thankful to her, and loyal, but she knew that Walker was not a person to cross.

As they sped on towards the settlement, Failt passed over Walker’s handheld, and told Maria all that Walker and Larsen had said. “They said there were names on there, names of people you needed to contact. Messages you were to send. Instructions for what to do. They want you to spread word about what happened. Tell people what you know.”

“If we want to do that, we should go back to the
Baba Yaga
,” Maria said.

“But there’s a problem,” Failt said. “Before I took this thing”—he patted the controls in the cab—“I listened in to what they were saying.” He glanced at Jenny, nodding off between them, and lowered his voice. “Bad things planned,” he said. “Going to get to the settlement and finish off as many as they can. We’ve slowed them down, yes, but they’re still coming.”

So, a choice, thought Maria. Go back to the
Baba Yaga
and make sure the news got out, or warn the people of the settlement that they were in danger, and hope they survived long enough to return to the
Baba Yaga
afterwards.

“What you want to do, Mama Maria?”

There was no choice, not really. Maria was made of simpler stuff than the spies and spooks she had fallen in with. Not for her were the complicated games of ends and means. “Keep going, Failt,” she said. “We have to warn those poor people down there.”

T
HEY SPED OFF
towards the settlement, darkness falling around them. Failt had found binoculars amongst the kit, and Maria kept watch on the progress of the pair behind them: they were running, incredibly, and making good speed, despite the heavy packs they were both carrying. There was no danger of the pair catching up with their party, but there was something relentless about them that frightened Maria. The sooner they could reach the settlement and warn the people of Stella Maris, the better.

“Can you make this thing go any faster?” she said to Failt. To Jenny, she said, “Sit still, sweetheart, and make sure you’re holding tight.”

Failt bumped and bashed the vehicle across the rocky plain. Closer to the settlement the landscape underwent a sudden change, becoming more fertile and managed. A road appeared too, taking them the rest of the way. Maria, turning to look at their destination, saw a wooden fence. She frowned. It didn’t look like very strong. They had stolen the weaponry that their pursuers had intended to bring to attack the town, but who knew what they were carrying with them?

Failt slowed down as they drew nearer to the fence and, at last, brought the vehicle to a halt. The gateway was blocked, not by a gate, but by people: three lines, four abreast, humans and Vetch alike, preventing them from going any further. Failt sniffed. “They don’t look pleased to see us, Mama Maria,” he said. “Not very grateful, are they?”

Maria looked anxiously at the welcoming party. They didn’t look ready to talk. Nevertheless, she had to try. She climbed down from the cab, lifting Jenny after her, and walked slowly towards the gateway, holding her little girl’s hand. Failt hopped out and followed behind. She tried to look as non-threatening as possible—but, really, Maria thought, how much less threatening could she look? She was a young mum, with a little girl, and a stray Vetch orphan that had somehow come into her care. But these people seemed to be hardening against her with every step she took towards them: their arms locked together, their faces set, their eyes stern and unfriendly. She saw human faces, men and women; Vetch faces; even some children here and there—and not one of them was welcoming. At last she stopped, and discovered that not only was she holding Jenny’s hand, but that Failt’s hairy paw had somehow wrapped itself around her free hand. She squeezed it tight.