On The Imperium’s Secret Service (Imperium Cicernus) (10 page)

One of the twins smiled.  “I am Clarissa and that is Marissa,” she said, indicating her sister.

“No,
I
am Clarissa and
that
is Marissa,” the other twin said.  Her smile seemed slightly different, although Mariko realised that she could be exaggerating the differences between them.  “You have to keep us straight in your mind.”

Mariko glanced at them.  They were almost completely identical.  “I think I’ll just call you both Jane,” she said, picking the most common name in the Imperium.  “Would that help me to keep you straight?”

The twins burst into identical giggles. 

“
So
funny,” Marissa said.  Or was it Clarissa?  “Tell us about your master?”

“Lord Fitzgerald?”  Mariko asked.  “Why do you want me to tell you about him?”

“Because we’re interested, dummy,” Clarissa said.  Her twin had another fit of the giggles.  “We want to know all about him.”

Mariko understood, suddenly.  The twins must want to marry – or at least seduce – Fitz.  And that bothered her for some reason.  Not because she was jealous, but...why did it bother her?  She looked at the girls, with their perfect faces and bodies, and understood.  They looked perfect, but they were shallow, too shallow for anyone to endure for very long.  Fitz had even said as much, back when he’d been talking to Lady Mary.  They were just too irritating for anyone to enjoy their company.  She wondered, in a fit of sudden amusement, if they giggled in bed?  Or did they share their bed with a single man?

“He’s a good man,” she said, finally.  And she was telling the truth.  A nastier man could have taken advantage of their powerlessness, or of Mai’s crush on him.  “But that’s about all I can tell you.”

“What a shame,” the girls said, in unison.  “And where did
you
come from?”

Mariko briefly considered telling them the entire story, before dismissing the idea and cursing herself for being an idiot.  She’d known enough girls like them when she'd been a little girl, growing up on Edo.  Stupid, self-obsessed bitches, clinging together and stabbing their friends and enemies in the back.  They simply could not – ever – be trusted.  Any secrets shared with one of them would be public knowledge by the end of the day.  And they would do anything to marry the right person so they didn't have to work to earn a living.

“I’m just a retainer,” she said, finally.  She sighted Fitz heading back to their table with Mai in tow and stood up.  “Thank you for your time.”

Fitz gave her a concerned look when she returned to their table and sat down.  “Are you all right?”

“I think so,” Mariko said.  Mai looked flushed, but happy.  The dancing had been good for her, at least once she’d danced with someone decent.  “How long do you want to stay here?”

“No longer,” Fitz said.  He stood up and headed towards the open windows leading out into the lawn.  “Come on. We’ll go back and get some sleep.  Tomorrow will be a tedious day.”

***

He’d been right, Mariko decided, midway through their second day on the planet.  There was very little to do except swim, play games or brush up on one’s hunting skills while waiting for the final guest to arrive for the safari.  To add to her concerns, Fitz seemed occupied all day, leaving them to explore the complex alone and enjoy themselves.  No one seemed rude enough to tell them to buzz off, but the aristocrats either ignored them or stared until they went away.  Sir Hugh must have been busy spreading his own version of why Mai had slapped him around the complex. 

The only interesting part was a long series of lectures – complete with holographic images – about the type of creatures they might encounter in the jungle and precisely how dangerous they were.  Tuff had bent the laws on genetic
modification, and had created creatures right at the limit of what was allowed.  Several species could actually cross-breed, producing new and interesting combinations.  Some of them were large and bulky, so large that they might not realise that they had been shot even if a bullet went through their brains.  Others were so fast that they were extremely difficult to see until they were already on their targets, trying to kill them.  And, just as Fitz had warned, some looked like hairy humans, complete with disturbingly human faces.  The speaker commented that it had been the neo-apes that had sealed Tuff’s fate when he’d been hauled in front of the Emperor.  They were just
too
human to be taken lightly.

The more she heard, the less keen Mariko felt to go out on safari.  Space was dangerous, and often unpredictable, but she was used to it.  The jungle, on the other hand, was a vast unknown; the speaker freely admitted that they hadn't really catalogued all of Tuff’s creations, let alone the cross-breeds produced by several different races blended together.  He’d taken samples from a hundred worlds and dropped them on his creation just to see how they’d survive and adapt to their new environment.  The tiny crab-like creatures with poisonous claws, the social spiders who aggressively attacked each and every creature that entered their territory, the rock snakes from Anderson’s World...they’d all made niches for themselves on Tuff.  It had become a teeming biological maelstrom of life forms, all fighting and mating with each other.

“I’m not sure that I am very keen on this either,” Mai said, when Mariko raised her concerns, “but they wouldn't really let people get hurt, would they?”

“They have,” Mariko pointed out.  Since Tuff had become the greatest safari planet in the galaxy, seventy-four people – including some quite high-ranking aristocrats – had died trying to hunt the various creatures that infested the planet.  There was even a joke that the monsters had become intelligent and were keeping it to themselves to lure new food packets to their planet.  “I think we just have to be careful and avoid the more dangerous expeditions.”

Fitz didn't seem to agree, nor did most of the other young aristocrats.  They’d signed up for safaris that would take them dangerously close to the spider cities or the steaming lava pools that apparently hid some of the planet’s nastier monsters.  He didn't seem to mind that the girls were reluctant to go with them; in fact, Mariko suspected that he viewed it as a positive bonus.  The real hunters would go out, leaving the more timid aristocrats behind, and they’d bring back plenty of carcasses to show off and then eat.  Some of the animals on the planet were dangerously inedible, thanks to Tuff, but the remainder should be safe to eat.  Mariko just hoped the cooks knew the difference. 

“Get plenty of sleep,” he advised them, after a brief dinner in the smaller dining room.  He’d managed to beg out of the large dinner being hosted by Lady Mary, much to Mariko’s relief.  “You will really want to be fresh for tomorrow.”

Mariko scowled. 
She
wasn't sure that she wanted to be fresh for anything.

“Come on,” Mai said, when Mariko expressed her doubts out loud.  She’d been reading about some of the more interesting exploits carried out on Tuff.  “It might just be fun.”

***

Mariko lay in her bed, trying to sleep.  It wasn't easy; the heat was still an omnipresent sensation, a mocking reminder that the planet was unpleasantly hot for baseline humans
, despite the air conditioning.  Tuff might have eventually intended to engineer humans specifically for his world; certainly, it had been one of the charges levelled against him at his trial.  She was still tossing and turning when she heard someone walk through the next room and open the door.  Slipping out of bed as quietly as she could, she peered into the darkness and saw Fitz’s dark form slipping into the jungle.  Mariko remembered all the horror stories about what lurked inside the jungle and shivered.  He had to be out of his mind.  Surely no one would be insane enough to go on safari in the middle of the night.

She hesitated, and then picked up her pistol and protective bracelet before hurrying outside and looking around for him.  He was briefly visible against the jungle before he vanished, heading north towards the Lava Pools.  They’d been warned that the Lava Pools were among the most dangerous parts of the planet, utterly unsuited for human exploration without proper equipment and an escort of trained specialised.  And yet Fitz was going on his own!  She couldn’t leave him alone, even if it risked them both being killed by the monsters lurking in the shadows.

After a moment, Mariko started to follow him into the jungle. 

Five minutes after following Fitz into the jungle, Mariko was already regretting her decision.  The heat kept growing stronger and she could feel the insects buzzing around her, invisible in the darkness.  Even the slight illumination provided by the first of the planet’s moons rising in the distance didn't help her to keep track of Fitz.  He seemed almost invisible, moving from place to place as if he moved only when she wasn’t looking.  There were clearly layers to him that he kept well hidden.

Sweat poured down her body as she heard the sounds of animals moving in the distance.  Most of the dangerous animals, they had been assured at the briefing, slept
during the night, but many of the creatures they hunted were nocturnal.  She found herself glancing back, only to realise that she’d completely lost track of the cabin where they’d been staying.  If she turned back, there was no guarantee that she would manage to get back to safety.  In hindsight, walking out in the woods alone might have been her most dangerous mistake since she’d come to the Sumter Sector – and that included fighting Carlos and his goons. 

She turned...and cursed as she realised that she had lost track of Fitz.  He seemed to have shimmered into the darkness, to have vanished completely.  She stumbled forward, staring around her, but she saw nothing.  He was gone, and she was lost.  She didn't even have a beacon she could use to find her way back to the cabin. 

At least Mai wasn't with her, she told herself as she came to a halt, trying to decide what to do.  She’d be safe back at the complex even if Mariko was eaten by Tuff’s homemade monsters.  Maybe she should just try to walk back, or start screaming for help.  But screaming would probably attract the monsters long before it attracted anyone human.

Something
moved
at the corner of her eye.  She was still turning when a dark shape slammed into her, knocking her to the ground.  Mariko would have cried out if a hand had not clamped down over her mouth, almost choking her.  She tried to struggle, but her assailant knew how to hold someone down and render struggling impossible.  Resistance was futile.  Strong arms rolled her over and she found herself staring up at a very familiar face.

“Mariko,” Fitz said, in surprise.  He didn't sound like a vain fop or playboy aristocrat, not now.  “What are you doing here?”

Mariko stared up at him in shock. 

“I followed you,” she said, finally.  No lie came to her mind that would have seemed even remotely believable.  “I saw you going off into the darkness and thought I’d better go with you.”

Fitz glared down at her.  “You came out into the jungle without any protection?”

Mariko nodded, shamefaced.  She knew the dangers of outer space, but she hadn’t quite taken the dangers of the jungle seriously.  Fitz wore a black outfit that allowed him to blend into the darkness and carried several weapons on his belt.  He probably also had a repulsing field to keep the various animals and insects away from him.  Mariko was already ruefully aware that some of the insects had decided that she tasted good enough to eat, even with the genetic modifications running through her bloodline.  Tuff had probably thought that engineering a taste for human flesh into his creations would make his safari world more interesting to the aristocracy.  He’d been right.

“Silly girl,” Fitz said.  He rolled off her – it was curious how there hadn't been anything intimate about how he’d held her down – and climbed to his feet.  “I ought to send you back to the cabin, but I bet you didn’t even bring a compass.”

“No, Milord,” Mariko admitted.

“And I can't afford to risk leaving you here to wait for me,” Fitz added, as he held out a hand to help her stand upright.  “You’d better come with me. Just don’t interfere or get in the way.”

He turned, without waiting for her to say anything, and led the way further into the jungle.  Mariko hesitated and then followed him, finding it difficult to match his pace.  She hadn't believed that he’d served in the military, still less an elite unit like the Grenadier Guards, but now she found herself wondering if there was some truth to the story after all.  He was carrying more than she was, and wearing an all-encompassing outfit, yet he seemed to slip through the jungle like a ghost.  Maybe he’d been going on safari since he was old enough to carry a gun – the aristocracy would ignore all Imperial laws about gun ownership – or maybe he had some pretty heavy sequencing worked into his genes.  The aristocracy made a big thing about being pureblood humans, but she doubted that there
were
any pureblood humans around these days.  There were just too many advantages to modifying the genome of one’s children, even on a world that normally shunned advanced technology.