“Carlie, what the hell are you doing?” ’Chanasked. He sounded both concerned and annoyed.
“Did they tell you who I kidnaped?” Icalled.
’Chan glanced at his keeper-I wasn’t sure ifshe was his boss as a security admin, or in a different chain ofcommand, or what. “No,” he called back.
“I think you should take a look.”
The woman in blue whispered something to him;he threw her a startled glance.
“It may not be who they think it is,” Isaid.
“Carlie, this is insane,” he answered.
“Come take a look, and then tell methat.”
That definitely had his interest; he came andlooked. I leaned aside and pointed toward the luggagecompartment.
“Is that Dad?” ’Chan asked, leaning in. “Theysaid…”
And that was when Singh grabbed him by thefront of his worksuit and heaved him over me into the cab.
“Go!” I shouted, but I didn’t really need to;the cab was already moving.
The door closed on ’Chan’s foot at first; wemust have been forty meters up by the time the cab was able to getit free and Singh managed to pull ’Chan entirely in.
“I’m being ordered to land immediately,” thecab told us.
“You tell ‘em that if you land, I’ll startshooting.”
“They want to know whether I consider this acredible threat.”
“I have an active gun here; what doyou think?”
“I think I am not programmed for threatassessment. I am reporting this conclusion to the city police.”
“It’s city cops now?”
“Yes, mis’.”
That was bad. I didn’t want to mess with citycops. I glanced out through the bubble at the city zipping past.“Is this your maximum velocity?”
“I am exceeding the posted speed limits bythe customary twenty-five percent.”
“Go to emergency maximum, please.”
“I am forbidden to do so without an orderfrom authorized personnel.”
“An active gun doesn’t constituteauthorization?”
“I regret to say it does not.”
I looked out and saw no fewer than four copcars following us-and those two black floaters. The cops seemed tobe ignoring the floaters; I wasn’t sure what to make of that.
Getting from the cab into the ship was goingto be tricky.
“Privacy,” I said.
“The city police have overridden my privacysystems.”
Damn. “They’re listening?”
“I would assume so.”
I only had to think for a second. “Listen,cab,” I said. “I like you, and I don’t want you to get hurt. Put usdown where I point, and as soon as we’re out, get the hell out ofthere. You understand?”
“Yes, mis’.”
“We’re clear on the fare and tip?”
“I believe so, mis’.”
I smiled. I did like this cab. “If you’recoding for even more-well, how much can you take without gettingcalled for an ethics violation?”
“You might be surprised, mis’.”
I smiled wider. It even had something like asense of humor-and maybe a sense of honor, too, giving me agraceful way to avoid wasting too much money. “I might, atthat. Okay, not that much, but I’m feeling generous. You chargewhat seems fair.”
“Thank you, mis’.”
We were approaching the port by then. I triedto arrange myself so that my gestures wouldn’t be visible to thecops behind us, but I knew the onboard security cams would befeeding to them, and they could calculate from those. “Put us downthere,” I said, pointing at the steps to Ukiba’sairlock.
“Yes, mis’.”
“Carlie!” ’Chan said. “What the hell are youdoing?”
I turned to look at him; he and Singh werethoroughly tangled on the seat beside me. Dad was leaning over theseat-back and grinning at them.
“Getting you out,” I said. I would have said“off this planet” if the cops hadn’t been listening. “Mis’ Singh,can you manage both?”
Singh had straightened himself out. He lookedat ’Chan and Dad, considering. He did not look happy.
“Never mind,” I said. “Get him.” I pointed at’Chan. “I’ll get the other.”
“Carlie, you know the implant kicked in, andI’m paralyzed from the hips down, right?”
“I know,” I said. “You just cooperate and noone gets hurt.”
“Oh, come on, Carlie, I’m your brother! Youaren’t…” He stopped in mid-sentence, and I don’t know whether itwas because he realized the cops were listening, or because hesuspected I really was that crazy.
Or maybe it’s just that he didn’t think I waslistening, because I was hauling Dad out of the rear compartment.Dad was helping me as much as he could, but that wasn’t much.
Grandfather Nakada’s doctors were going tohave some work to do getting my family back in shape, I thought.Assuming anyone bothered to do anything with Dad other than stickhim back in a dreamtank.
The cab was settling down right next to theUkiba-I mean, close enough that my feet wouldn’t have totouch the plastic pavement at all, I’d step straight from the cabonto the metal steps. I heaved Dad onto my shoulder and got readyto jump, but paused long enough to com Perkins two words-“Open up.”I knew the cops would intercept that, but I was hoping they mightnot realize I was talking to the ship rather than the cab, or thatthey simply wouldn’t react quickly enough.
The cab opened up first, but only by a secondor two. By the time I was solidly on the steps and trying to climbwith my old man on my shoulder the airlock door was slidingaside.
I was relying on the fact that the cops werehuman, and had only human reaction times; the pause while theydecided whether to shoot or not gave us time to get aboard theship.
But only barely. Singh was right on my heels,with ’Chan on his shoulder, and the first trank bounced offthe steps where his foot had been an instant before while I wasstill staggering into the airlock.
We made it, though, and the airlock closed upbehind us, and the ship began moving the instant the outer door hada good seal.
If we’d been using a commercial vessel thatwould have been it, the authorities would have shut it down beforeit got off the ground, but I was pretty sure Yoshio Nakada wasn’tthe sort of person who would allow that. I’d gambled that theUkiba did not have any of the standard police or portoverrides-or at least, that they didn’t actually override theship’s own systems.
The warning sirens were howling; we couldhear them through the hull until we got through the inner door ofthe lock. I hoped the newsies and cops would all realize we meantit, and that the overrides weren’t going to stop us; I didn’t wantanyone to be hurt by the launch.
I dumped Dad on the vibrating floor as soonas we were in the ship; he might only weigh half what he ought to,but that was still more than I was accustomed to carrying, and theship’s acceleration made any movement more difficult.
Singh lowered ’Chan to the deck, too, and weboth sank down as well, and sat there leaning against the wall andpanting as the roar of atmosphere past the hull peaked, and thenbegan to fade.
“Mis’ Hsing?” Perkins asked over theintercom.
“Right here,” I said. “Everyone’s aboard andalive.”
“We’re clear of the crater and heading forspace,” Perkins said. “I’m ignoring a lot of questions and demandsfrom the ground.”
I nodded, not that I thought he could see it.“Good.”
“What’s our destination?”
“American City,” I told him. “The Nakadacompound.”
“Thank you. May I ask who our passengersare?”
I glanced around. “The one with the workinglegs is Minish Singh,” I said. “He’s a passenger-I promised him aride off Epimetheus in exchange for his help with the others. Theskin and bone near-corpse is my biological father, Guohan Hsing; wewant to make sure he’s healthy, then get him settled into adreamery on Prometheus. And the last one’s my brother Sebastian,who needs to have an implant removed before we can let him go.”
“An implant? So we’re being tracked?”
I sighed. “Perkins, we’re staying in-system.They don’t need an implant to track us.”