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  Yet as I passed through the indicated door, I heard the faint hum of a scanner. No chances being taken. The room was probably transmission proofed too. I hoped Binen realised what had happened when my signal disappeared.

  The Aglaoniken sat down and regarded me like a delicious meal. “Now, in here you can speak freely. You don’t need to worry about watching your words. We’ve seen it all, and I assure you, I’m completely unshockable.”

  I tugged my collar again. “I’m not a bad person.”

  “No, no, of course you aren’t. We can’t control what we find pleasurable. Now, is it whips? You like to tie people up?” I shook my head. “Be tied up? Ah...perhaps...you like other things? Other...creatures?”

  I swallowed. “Not animals. Just, you know, younger. People don’t understand what it’s like. I feel sick if I look at a grown body. Violated.”

  The Aglaoniken’s smile only widened. “Well, of course you do, and you can’t help it. How much younger? We aim to satisfy all tastes. Are you interested in infants?”

  “Fuck no! Not babies.”

  When I paused, the smile said, “A little older? Able to talk?”

  “Yeah. You know...still sweet. Innocent. I’m not a bad person, I swear. I love children!”

  “Yes, don’t we all. Pilot Bancilhon, you heard about us from someone on Brintando?”

  “Yeah, another pilot.” I gave the name, which sparked some kind of recognition. I wasn’t sure if that gambit would work, but this pilot hadn’t been shy about mouthing off. At least not to me. Maybe I looked like a fellow pervert. “A while ago. We’re not friends or anything.”

  “No. And I see from your ID that you’re marked ‘E’ under ‘Military’. Were you, er, expelled for unsavoury activity?”

  “For not making the grade. It was all a long time ago.” Maybe it sounded like I was covering up, but it was the simple truth.

  “I’m sure it was, and like I said, we are quite unshockable. You understand that our billing is all quite anonymous. We have two rates, and payment is in fifteen minute slots. For the special request you’ve made, there is a minimum charge of eight slots at the higher rate, plus a two hundred credit facility fee. That comes to two thousand credits, plus tax.”

  “Wow, that’s a lot.”

  The smile didn’t waver at all. “What we truly need can be expensive sometimes. Are you interested?”

  “Yeah. I’m good for the money.”

  “I can see that. If you would just authorise it here...thank you.” The scanner was taken away as soon as I’d put in my code. “Through here.”

  Another door, and an elevator. I hoped Binen could hear me. Strictly one-way communications on this gig.

  The elevator opened, two floors up, onto an clean, anonymous hallway. Windows at both ends. My escort pointed to a door to the left. “Through there, Pilot. And please do be aware all ‘breakages’ must be paid for.”

  “Understood.”

  “Then enjoy yourself.” The Aglaoniken tapped a code into the screen beside the door, and then beckoned me forward.

  The room was dark, except for a dim side light, and at first, I thought no one was inside. But as my eyes adjusted, I saw a small form crouched in the furthest corner of the room. A distressingly small form. My gorge rose at what customers could do with someone that little.

  Do to.

  “Hey,” I said, kneeling, but moving no closer. “I’m Pax. I’m not here to hurt you.”

  The little person looked up and I inhaled in surprise. The child’s facial skin cycled in stark streaks of red and black, while brilliant blue eyes stared at me.

  I’d never seen anything like this kid in my life. But as those eyes filled with tears and fright, my heart twisted.

  That was when I shoved the whole ‘observe and get out’ plan out the airlock. I couldn’t just walk away.

  “Do you speak Standard, little one? It’s okay. I won’t hurt you.” I’m sure those words had been uttered with far less sincerity before, but I had to say it. “You understand me?”

  A small nod.

  “You have a name? I’m Pax,” I repeated, pointing to my head. “You?”

  “Wahkit.”

  The whisper would have been inaudible except for my superior hearing. I didn’t recognise the name form at all. I suspected it was a slang term. Dear Porco, the child only wore a ragged pair of underpants, as if no one thought it worth providing more. “Can I call you ‘puggle’?”

  A shrug.

  I leaned closer, but the puggle crouched back against the wall, so I stopped. I put my finger to my lips. “I’m going to get you out of here, puggle. Stop the bad people hurting you. Nod if you understand.”

  Eyes widened, the rippling ribbons paling a little, then a nod.

  “Can you walk? Good. We have to be quick. Do you know anyone here? Other than in this place?”

  A head shake. Not surprising.

  “Okay, I can still help. You’ll have to trust me. I know that’s hard—”

  The puggle put skinny little arms out to me and my heart broke.

  “Stay really quiet and come here. I’ll need to pick you up. Don’t be scared.”

  I couldn’t work out the puggle’s age, but the burden in my arms felt less than a small day pack. “Now this is the hard bit,” I whispered against soft dark hair. “I’m going to run really, really fast, and there might be some shouting and stuff. What I need you to do is stay with me until we’re outside, and then my friend will come to help. Understand?”

  Another little nod. Other than saying the name, the puggle had stayed completely quiet. “Ready, kiddo? Let’s do it.”

  I expected we were being monitored, so I knew we had only seconds. We were on the second floor, and there was only one way down that would get us out fast.

  I held the puggle tight. “Coming out now, hard and fast,” I said for Binen’s benefit.

  Please, let Binen have heard me. And then I ran.

  I hurtled down the short corridor, but still not quickly enough to evade a guard at the stairwell, who fired at me as I crashed hard against the window, the puggle’s head protected against my chest. I didn’t feel the shot. The last thing I remembered was the puggle’s utter silence and the rigidity of terror as we fell out onto the street.

  I don’t remember landing at all.

  ~~~~~

  The next week was a write off for me. The air sacs in my flight suit had protected my skull and neck just fine, but they couldn’t stop the projectile from the guard’s weapon punching a hole in a kidney and blowing out a vertebra. But I didn’t have long to assimilate the information from the doctors once they brought me out from sedation, because two thuggish law officers shouldered the medics aside in their eagerness to question me.

  My doctor’s protest about me being unfit for interrogation went ignored, so I had to rouse my foggy brain and keep Namjikil from being the next target of a visit. No, I hadn’t really gone there for child sex. I hadn’t intended to kidnap a child. It was all unplanned. No, I didn’t know the child. No, I didn’t know there were other children. No, I didn’t supply children to other brothels. They wouldn’t tell me about the other kids, or what had happened to the puggle.

  Despite my efforts, the lingering drugs meant I fell asleep, and by the time I awoke, there was a refreshing lack of uniforms in the ward. I found far too many bits of equipment and electronic devices attached to me, and I was trapped in the bed. My distress alerted the figure by the wall.

  “Settle down, Pax, or you’ll blow a stitch.” Binen pulled up a chair and sat.

  “Puggle?”

  “Byrd? Fine—”

  “No. Kid. Brothel.”

  “The little one is also fine. Safe and in protective custody. A bloody chromatomorph, Pax! Can you believe it?”

  I stared. Chromatomorphs were so rare they verged on the mythical. There were no populations anywhere near Lepaute. “How?”

  “I don’t know, and no one is talking to me. I tried my best, bu
t I was more worried about the police arresting you. Fortunately Cosi did some fast talking. I think you’re clear.”

  I nodded, not really concerned. The drugs still had a grip. “Cosi?”

  “Looking after Byrd. You’re a hell of a mess, you know.”

  “Yeah. How long?”

  Binen touched my wrist, face serious. “In a six months you’ll be completely normal. A year, tops.”

  “But?”

  “In the meantime you’ll be healing.”

  “Not flying.”

  “Correct. But it’s okay. You’re going to be fine, and you don’t need to worry about anything.”

  The full details took a while to be told. Binen waited patiently for hours as I drifted in and out of sleep, answering questions as I thought of them. I was, as Binen said, a mess, but I’d been lucky in lots of ways. A sunshade I’d noted on my way in broke my fall from five metres up, and because Binen is very smart, my partner was already out in front of the brothel calling for the police when I hit the ground. And I managed to hit that ground without hurting the kid, and in front of a street security officer who did all the right things to stabilise me while Binen took charge of the puggle. The brothel staff couldn’t explain the existence of a child of any kind in their establishment, let alone a child of a highly protected and extremely rare race, so the creepy Aglaoniken and the rest of them were in a supernova-sized load of trouble even before the EMAs loaded me into the emergency care vehicle.

  I’d be in hospital for two weeks, and in an exowalker for six months while my spinal cord was regrown and reattached. A new kidney was trivial, but another cost on top of what would probably reduce my savings to negative status. Lepaute’s medical treatment was costly but up to date, and as good as I could hope for anywhere in the sector. I might be creditless when I finished treatment, but I’d be healthy.

  By the time I got all the bad news, it was time for Binen to go back to Cosi and Byrd, and me to sleep—at least, try to. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. No. I wish I knew how the kid is doing.”

  “Not much you can do there, Pax.” My friend stood and stretched. “And don’t go fretting about the money side of things. We’ve got your back.”

  Unfortunately, there wasn’t much else to do, flat on my back, staring at the ceiling, and listening to machines softly whirr and peep. After Binen left, one of the medics came in and checked how I was doing. While the medic scrutinised results and screens, I asked, “How long before I’m back to normal? Six months?”

  The medic pursed lips. “More like twelve for full function. Back on your feet long before though.”

  “Will I be space-fit in a year?”

  A pat on my shoulder, an encouraging smile, damn it. “Let’s focus on the immediate progress indicators. You’re doing very well. Your physiognomy is something quite extraordinary. Do you want a sedative for tonight?”

  When medical types avoid answering questions, it’s never a good sign.

  So I had to face reality, and I had no business making my friends carry a useless partner out of obligation. I had to make sure they were okay.

  Binen and Cosi worried a lot more about my recovery than about my finances, because they’re decent people. And with Byrd distressed about me being injured, I concentrated on putting my little friend at ease, and left the vexed topic of money alone for the next few days. But as my condition progressed and the time approached for me to leave hospital and begin outpatient rehab, money and accommodation issues had to be discussed.

  I tried to be as casual as possible.

  “So,” I said, watching Byrd eat lunch and play with a toy fish. “I was thinking the best thing is to sell you two my share of the Aslam.”

  I fooled no one with my conversational tone. For the first time in my long friendship with them, Cosi was really angry with me.

  “No frecking way, Pax.”

  Byrd didn’t like that, and looked up. “Don’t yell, Cosi. Pax is sick.”

  “Sorry, kiddo.”

  “It’s okay, Byrd,” I said, reaching out to stroke the puggle’s hair. “We're just having a loud disagreement. Right, Cosi?”

  Cosi’s eyes narrowed at me. “That’s right. I’m worried because Pax is being silly.”

  “Yeah, really.” Binen glared at me too. “It’s your ship as well. And you’re taking a third of the cargo fees whether you’re crew or not.”

  “But I don’t know when I can lift off again.”

  “So? Just let us know and we’ll come pick you up. Byrd likes this planet, don’t you, kiddo?”

  “Yes!” The puggle bounced up and down on the chair to emphasise the point. “Come back for Pax!”

  “Okay, okay.” I was too tired and sore to argue. And frankly, what did I hope to win? Abandonment by the people I loved best in the entire universe? “Binen, um....” I flicked my glance at Byrd.

  Cosi took the hint. “Come on, Byrd. Let’s go see the fish tank on the next floor.”

  “Fish! Cool!”

  Binen grinned a little as they left. “Think we could install an aquarium onboard?”

  “For the puggle, I’d try.”

  “You can’t sell us the Aslam. At least wait until you know definitely if you can return to piloting or not. The chances are good.”

  “But you can’t hang around here for a year. You’ll have to go without me, and come back.”

  “Then we do—if we’ve sorted out your situation. And we have a month to do that, so stop trying to get rid of us. You’re making us cranky.”

  I nodded. “All right. Trying not to be a burden, that’s all.”

  “Nitwit.”

  “Yeah, that’s me. What did the police say about Namjikil’s kid and the others?” Binen had had to make enquiries for me. I was still persona non grata with the local authorities, to put it mildly.

  “All they’d tell me was that several children were found. Oh, and the Federation oversight unit are investigating the situation here as a priority. An overseer will come planetside in the next few days. The police won’t want to put a foot wrong.”

  “Can you contact Namjikil for me?”

  Binen frowned. “Already tried. I left a message. That’s all I could do. I’ll leave another one if you like.”

  I waved to say not to bother. “If the child is safe, then that’s all that matters.”

  “Except for you, you big blue lackwit. You wouldn’t be lying there unable to walk if you’d stuck to the plan.”

  “I couldn’t leave that kid there. I couldn’t. You didn’t see—”

  Binen held up a hand. “No. And I’m not criticising, Pax. Just saying you matter too.”

  “I did it for the kids. I’d do it again.”

  “Not for a while, I hope.” Binen leaned forward and kissed my forehead. “You are very brave and very reckless and I’m proud of you. Now get some rest and we’ll come see you tomorrow.”

  “Thanks. Say goodbye to the puggle for me.”

  ~~~~~

  The question of where I would live while recovering was harder to answer. I was supposed to take over the lease of the apartment Cosi and Binen had rented, extending it for another month while I looked for something cheaper. This had all been agreed, Cosi told me, but the day before my discharge, the owners of the apartment suddenly and mysteriously withdrew consent to extend the lease or to have me take over the existing one. Which left me with very little time to find somewhere else to live.

  Cosi fumed. Binen muttered darkly about someone in authority having their nose out of joint. I considered who had to be turning a blind eye in a small city to allow a prominent brothel to traffic and sell children, and told them I’d been lucky not to have been thrown into jail on concocted charges.

  “Fine,” Binen said, huffing at me, “but that doesn’t solve the immediate problem. We can stay until the end of the lease but that only gives you three weeks.”

  “So I have three weeks to look for an apartment. Worst case scenario, you can pack me into
the hold and take me back to Fleet.”

  Cosi snorted and stomped out of the room. Fortunately Byrd wasn’t watching to imitate.

  With a little breathing room, I had to concentrate on the tedious business of leaving hospital and learning to live life wearing a whole body stimulaid to stop my muscles from wasting away, and using an exowalker to give me mobility. Exowalkers are clumsy and cumbersome until the user—me—learns to finesse them. I would probably become barely proficient about the time I had to say goodbye to my friends, and to Byrd who I would miss so much.

  I feared the loneliness most of all. I usually spent my downtime doing physical exercise, wearing myself out without having to think, filling in the hours until I was allowed back in space again. Now I still had to do physical exercise, and it was tiring enough, but it didn’t wear out my brain. Without the company of my friends, without a job to do, I didn’t know how I’d fill in the empty days. I tried not to think about it too much, but the time for Binen, Cosi, and Byrd to leave was coming up fast. I wasn’t ready.

  A week before their departure, Cosi came to my room. Binen had taken the puggle out for a walk, and I was doing some gentle weights work, hoping not to lose too much muscle strength during the long lay over.

  “Hey, Pax, there’s a couple of people here to see you.”

  I laid the weights down and made myself stand up straight. “The overseers?”

  “Nope. Come out and see.”

  The exowalker still didn’t respond as fast as I wanted it to, so walking was an awkward business. I made my slow way out to the living room.

  “Namjikil!”

  My friend stood and bowed. “Pax, greetings. My friend, Ledikjin.”

  The person with Namjikil was taller, less stocky, skin not as dark brown, but, with the same eerie blue eyes, clearly related to the Second Waver population in some way. Ledikjin bowed to me. “Greetings, friend Pax. Namjikil asked me to come and translate as my Standard is fluent. I hope this isn’t inconvenient?”

  “Hell no. Not to me. Cosi, do you mind?”

  “Not at all. Please, have a seat. Tea? Water?”

  Our visitors accepted the offer of drinks, and we settled down to chat. Namjikil kept shooting me guilty looks. “Namjikil, are you well? And your child?”