Ambassador 5: Blue Diamond Sky (Ambassador: Space Opera Thriller Series) Read online

  I put them in the pockets of my jacket.

  Then it was time for us to go. First we pushed the boats back through the surf, so that the Pengali could take them to the point. The wind had strengthened and the waves had come up alarmingly. From where we were on the western side of the island, our view of the eastern sky and the escarpment where thunderclouds formed was blocked by cliffs. But it was the time of day for thunderstorms, and we were coming into the part of the year that they rolled in from the east almost every day.

  I trusted that Thayu had checked the weather when consulting with her people in the city through the satellite.

  She climbed behind the controls. Veyada and I each grabbed one of the plane’s side struts and Nicha the tail. We pushed the plane over the sand towards the water. A wave broke just in front of us and washed us back up the beach. We all got very wet.

  “Whoa, are you sure this is a good idea?” I asked her. “The sand would be easier.”

  “Yeah, but I want to conserve the charge.” To take of from the sand, the engine would be blowing sharp jets of air out a mesh of little holes at the bottom of the landing gear.

  “Try again,” Veyada said.

  We pushed. A wave broke over our feet and dragged the plane down the beach into the water. It tilted sideways a bit.

  “Jump on,” Veyada said.

  I did. Nicha swung himself up, dangling from the tail. Another wave broke. A churning mass of foam and sand washed over my feet and bottom half of my pants. Thayu gunned the engine.

  Veyada yelled, “Hang on!”

  We hit a third breaking wave.

  The plane’s nose went into the air. Oh fuck, we were going to flip. We were— The engine roared right next to my ears. I held on, oh, holy crap, I hung on. The plane became airborne. It flew low over the breakers and landed gently on the choppy surface on the other side.

  We clambered in. I was shivering.

  “Holy shit, Thayu. Were you trying to drown us?”

  She was fiddling with the instruments. “Nah. I knew those surfing lessons would come in handy one day. Sit down, put the seat belts on. It could get rough.”

  “No kidding.” Crap, why did I always get myself into these situations?

  Veyada, Nicha and I strapped in. I was half-sweaty, half-wet, but it was hot and airless in the plane, and the air smelled strongly of resin. Veyada insisted on sitting next to the open door.

  While Thayu steered the plane to the relative shelter of the shallow reef on the southern end of the beach, watched by the Pengali in the boats motoring out to the point, Veyada proceeded to open his gun case and took out the stand. He bolted the legs onto the back of the pilot’s seat and then the main barrel onto the pivoting stand.

  All this while the plane gathered speed, bumped over the water and finally took off.

  We quickly cleared the lump of rock that had been at our backs and had a wide view of the coast. The eastern sky was black with a giant thundercloud.

  “Thay’, look at the weather.”

  “I know,” she said, her tone laconic. “Once this is done, no one is going to go anywhere for a while, so we might as well do it now.”

  We circled the point, without coming into view of the beach.

  There were the three boats making their way across the choppy water to the point. We couldn’t see the other group in the thick forest.

  “Look,” Veyada said and pointed.

  I looked.

  While we couldn’t see the beach where Robert was from here, we could see part of the bay. It was full of large, light and dark grey shapes. Beisili. Hundreds of them.

  “Holy shit!” Nicha said. “How many of those fucking creatures are there?”

  “They probably feel bad weather,” Veyada said. “They come to shelter.”

  I needed to ask him one day where he had lived, because Veyada always gave the impression of having a far wider knowledge of wildlife than a Coldi on Asto would have.

  At a couple of spots, fights had broken out between the animals. Flecks of pink-white foam dotted the water. All right, I saw what Langga meant.

  From above, I spotted a couple of familiar shapes: the very large female with the younger female swimming very close and the dark grey male pushing the large female aside. Wasn’t he just like a leery old man chasing after that young virgin?

  We followed the rocky contour of the island to the highest point, a weather-blown, treeless crop of granite without a sign of human habitation. I had no doubt that Pengali would have been there at some point, but they had a habit of not leaving evidence of their presence. On the other side of the top, the ground fell away quickly to the cliffs we had sailed around this morning. The island was really tiny, with only two beaches.

  Thayu appeared to be waiting for something, so when we were on the northern side of the island, she banked the plane in a sharp turn, and I had a dizzying view of the emerald waters and sheer cliffs.

  But I didn’t like those dark clouds.

  A flash of lightning bloomed inside the billowing masses. Already, it was raining at the escarpment, veils of grey reaching down from the clouds.

  Thayu said something into the microphone. And then, “All right. They’re all in the cave. We’re going in.”

  We had to approach the beach from over the southwestern point of the island where the Pengali waited with our boats. I could see them bobbing on the surface. They had taken down the cloth shelters, probably because they caught too much wind.

  Then we passed really low over the headland at a crazy speed.

  “Whoa. Too much tail wind,” Thayu said.

  She pulled the plane up, just missing the rocks at the northern end of the beach—or at least that was what it felt like to me—and made another sharp turn. I grabbed the edges of my seat with sweaty hands.

  The plane barely straightened out before the gliders hit the sand. A vicious hissing noise indicated that the air jets blasted at full tilt.

  The plane slid to a halt. Veyada took the gun off its mount and jumped into the sand.

  “Look at that,” Nicha said. “We have half a beach left to spare.”

  Thayu wiped her face. She picked up her weapons and arm brackets from the empty pilot’s seat next to her and put them on.

  Oh no, that had not been the way she had planned to land. For one, the nose was facing the wrong direction and we would need to turn the plane around first before we could make a quick exit if that proved necessary.

  In the bay we were out of the influence of the squalls of wind that made the sea at the point choppy. The movement of the water also helped whip up the frothing foam from the beisili’s mating, which washed up onto the beach in big rafts, as if someone had dropped a bottle of detergent in the water.

  The animals themselves were still at it, carrying on and squealing and honking. Most of the action was a fair distance from the shore and the squally wind carried snatches of noise to the beach.

  Nicha was watching the makeshift shelter under the trees, an oiled cloth strung between a couple of tree trunks. I could see a variety of containers and something that looked like a table. The boats were also there, but one had been moved much closer to the water. The drag marks in the sand were fresh.

  “Where is everyone?” Nicha asked. He peeked around the side of the plane, his gun at the ready.

  “They’re likely to be wherever that cave comes out,” Thayu said. She glanced up at the cliff face behind the camp, but it was impossible to see where we had looked down this morning. It might even be further up. I didn’t think we could see this part of the beach from up there.

  “Come on!” Thayu took off across the beach.

  Nicha and Veyada followed her and I trailed along.

  Thayu arrived at the edge of the forest, and urged us to join her.

  We ploughed our way through the sand over the exposed beach to the forest’s edge.

  “We’re being watched,” Thayu said, showing me her screen. It clearly displayed two human for
ms in the shelter.

  “They’re behind those containers,” Thayu said.

  “I can give them a warning blast.” Veyada motioned with the gun. “We might be out of their range, but they’re not out of ours.”

  “I don’t think we’re out of theirs either,” Thayu said. “I don’t want to take any chances. We don’t know who they are.”

  We kept walking along the forest’s edge, guns in hand. The shelter was primitive, consisting of just an oiled cloth, flapping in the wind. Something moved inside.

  “Stop,” Veyada said.

  We did. A person ran out of the shelter in our direction. It was a woman, yelling, “Cory! Cory! Don’t shoot!” It was Melissa.

  The next moment, a gunshot echoed over the beach from inside the shelter.

  For a brief, terrible moment, Melissa froze in mid-air. Then she fell face first in the sand.

  CHAPTER 18

  * * *

  NO. SHIT.

  Melissa lay in the sand with her head facing down the beach. A red stain bloomed on her back below her right shoulder.

  Shit. Melissa. I stared at her motionless form, my heart beating like crazy, blood roaring in my ears. Was she breathing? I thought so. Or maybe not. I couldn’t tell.

  The shooter used an Earth-style hunting rifle with bullets. That had to be Robert. What the hell was wrong with him? “We have to help her.”

  I made to get up, but Thayu held me back. “Stay here. He’ll shoot you as well.”

  “But . . . Melissa!”

  “Let’s flush him out.” Veyada extracted a device from his pocket.

  I asked, “Does the cave come out in the shelter or somewhere else? Where are the others?”

  “Inside,” Thayu said. “They descended into the cave, met with some trouble and are still inside.”

  “Trouble? None that Sheydu can’t solve?”

  “She’s waiting for the right moment. The guy shut a metal door on them and they’re locked inside the cave. She’s got the gear to blow it up, but we need to time our actions well. We get one shot at this. She says the ceiling of the cave may collapse, causing further problems. Besides, the guy is extremely dangerous, armed to the teeth with equipment that we’re unfamiliar with and highly trained to use it.”

  I could kick myself. The signs had been there in all the information I had about Robert. Yet I had so desperately wanted to believe that he’d been an innocent victim of some sort of scheme designed by Clovis and company to divest rich men of their money. But I should have known that rich people are rarely rich because they are dumb.

  “All right, then, can we at least get to Melissa?” I couldn’t stand the sight of her lying on the beach like a discarded doll. It had started to rain, big fat drops that made little plop-plop noises when they fell.

  Thayu shook her head. “Not yet. Too dangerous.”

  “Do something, then.”

  She could be slowly dying of her wounds down there. Something we could do might save her, if we got the opportunity to do it.

  “We’re working on it,” Thayu said.

  It took far too long for my liking. The rain became heavier. Big drops of water fell from the trees above us. Thayu was talking to the others, then she complained about the reception. Then she said that the receiver was no longer charging. There was no sunlight on the other beach where the transmitter stood, and the equipment might even have blown over.

  I’m losing reception. It is now or never, she sent to Sheydu.

  “I don’t like it,” Nicha said. “Too much stuff doesn’t work in this weather.”

  “We don’t have any other time. Let’s go.”

  Veyada took a little device from his pocket.

  He clicked it on and his voice was amplified over the beach. “Anyone in the shelter, come out immediately. We will shoot.”

  A man yelled inside the shelter, I couldn’t hear what was said. The next thing, a couple of people ran out and a giant explosion rocked the ground. A spray of rocks, wood and other things burst out from underneath the shelter.

  A strange hissing noise approached from behind us.

  I looked over my shoulder, but saw only trees. “Veyada, what’s tha—”

  The heavens opened. Bit fat drops fell from the sky as if someone had turned on a shower at full blast. A clap of thunder made the ground shake. The air turned misty, obscuring our view of the shelter.

  Veyada had dropped to his belly and was firing at that end of the beach, wiping rain out of his face. Raindrops hissed where they fell on the barrel of the gun. The discharge beams flew, sizzling, through the rain, producing flashes where they met raindrops. I looked over his shoulder at the infrared screen, but could not make out anything shaped like a person.

  After a while, he stopped firing. “I think they’re all out.” He carefully got to his feet.

  A few people had taken cover behind some trees closer to the shelter. From our position, we could see their backs. I only recognised Deyu because she was still carrying the rope over her shoulder.

  In the pissing rain, one person ran to Melissa and dropped to his knees next to her. He set a box down on the sand and moved her shirt up.

  That looked like Telaris with the emergency kit, thank the heavens. If anyone could help her, he could.

  “Look, there,” Thayu yelled.

  Two people were moving across the beach, one holding a gun to the other person’s head.

  Veyada turned his gun on them.

  “Who is it?” I asked.

  “Robert.”

  “Who has he got?” Thayu said, wiping water out of her eyes.

  Lightning cracked and struck somewhere really close. I winced and ducked my head. The ground shook with the clap of thunder that echoed through the bay. Holy shit.

  The rain intensified. I didn’t think that was possible.

  “I think it’s Reida,” Veyada said. He was wiping water out of his face.

  “What’s he doing?”

  “He’s making for that boat. Damn it, I’m out of charge.” He wriggled his recharge pouch from his belt, opened the pearl chamber in the gun and shook the spent pearls onto the sand. They hissed when drops hit them.

  “Look at the bay,” Thayu said.

  The part of it I could see before it disappeared in the pelting rain was covered in pink foam. There were at least three beisili fights in that area, globs of foam flying through the air. The sound of the honking females carried even over the roar of the weather.

  Veyada swore.

  He had reloaded the large gun, but now Robert and Reida had arrived at the boat and Veyada couldn’t blow up the boat without hitting them. I presumed that had been his intention. He was out of reliable range for Nicha and Thayu’s guns, even mine, and the others couldn’t see him, and we couldn’t warn them.

  Thayu jumped up and started running towards the pair.

  Robert forced Reida into the boat. Then he went to the controls and started the engine with a roar that rose over the noise of the rain. Another clap of thunder broke nearby.

  Thayu ran past Telaris and Melissa. She yelled something. Some others also started running. Deyu, Nicha, Veyada.

  The engine roared again. He was nuts to go out in these conditions. The water was hardly visible, let alone all the beisili in it. But the boat moved off the sand onto the water, where it quickly gathered speed.

  Thayu reached the spot where the boat had been, followed by a couple of others. None of them could do anything about the retreating boat. It ploughed through thick layers of foam, until the boat was pushing so much of it ahead of the bow that the buildup started to spill over the sides. Robert slowed down, yelling at Reida, who bailed foam out of the boat with his hands. But there was far too much of it. Foam spilled over the sides and over the engine housing. The engine stalled. Robert took off his shirt to wipe the air inlets clean.

  A beisili raised its head nearly. It was wearing a little cap of foam like snow on its head. Then another one came up. One, a big fema
le bent her neck and nudged the boat. Robert raised his gun.

  Bang

  A couple of other animals bobbed up.

  Robert fired again.

  Bang, bang.

  But that only brought more animals to the boat. They jostled through the mass of foam, tails and flippers threshing. The boat rocked. Robert lost his balance and stumbled. Reida seized the opportunity and flew up from the bench. He hit Robert on the side of the head.

  Robert went down. I’d heard Coldi crack skulls that way.

  The beisili were carrying on and fighting, occasionally upsetting the boat.

  Reida had to hang onto the side. It was rocking violently, embroiled in a boiling patch of beisili activity. Huge rafts of foam heaped up against the sides, and spilled over into the boat. The wind whipped some of it into Reida’s face.

  Robert raised himself. He aimed his gun . . .

  “Reida, watch out!” My voice drowned in the sound of pelting rain and thunder.

  Veyada raised the big gun.

  Deyu yelled, “No, don’t!”

  And Reida leapt onto the edge of the boat and . . . jumped out. He plunged into the foam. Robert was firing indiscriminately into the water. Then he ran out of ammunition.

  Could Reida swim? I had no idea.

  “Reida!”

  Shit, we had to get the other boat on the water.

  Deyu and Nicha had already turned it over and were running down the beach with it.

  Reida rose back up out of the foam. His head and shoulders stuck out of it as if he was standing in shallow water. He . . . moved. Holy crap, he had jumped onto the back of a beisili. The animal rolled on its side, waving its flippers around to try and get this thing off its back. Reida slid forward until he could grab the animal’s neck. It rolled and threshed in the water, but Reida held on to the neck as hard as he could.

  Meanwhile, Robert had reloaded his gun. He raised it—

  Thayu shot at him.

  The white sizzling beam missed by a hair’s width.

  Robert stumbled back and fell in the boat. He scrambled to the engine and, like Langga had done, opened the panel at the back to control it that way.