Children of Steel Page 29

  The nice thing was that it really didn't seem to bother anybody, and Joshua just acted like it was the most normal thing in the world, which I eventually realized it was for him. He was the boss here and everybody knew it, he didn't have to prove anything. That was the air about him I hadn't been able to place, he was in charge and knew it. He was his own master and that of quite a few others as well and saw no need to flaunt it. He just exuded total confidence in himself.

  I wondered if I could ever be like that? I honestly hoped so, though I didn't think I’d ever end up owning a huge estate like this one.

  Dinner ended about nine or so and sure enough, we all headed into town to go dancing. Most of those who had come for dinner went as well, so it was a pretty big group that rolled into the bar when we finally arrived.

  It was interesting to see that the respect Joshua commanded at the house extended into town as well. I asked Karen about it at one point, just to make sure I wasn't imagining it.

  "They have to," she smiled, "he runs one of the largest ranching operations on the planet, and at a nice profit too. He's also not afraid to throw somebody through a wall if they get out of line. He did start in the Corporations just like you, you know."

  "No I hadn't," I admitted, my respect for her stepfather growing. "Isn't he afraid of getting sued for any of that though?"

  She laughed, "He controls a fortune, and has an army of lawyers at his beck and call. Also he's very generous to the local politicians, so while he can't vote, his endorsement is very valuable." She looked at him as he danced with her mother, "Even the Prime minister listens to his advice, my natural father would be proud."

  "You really think so?" I asked out of curiosity.

  "Yeah, I do. They were good friends, met during the final stages of the Leverage War, or conflict, or whatever it was called. Anyway, he worked for one of the companies that were trying to take over some of the local farms. I think they met during some minor conflict and Joshua made a big impression on my father and they ended up friends.

  "So they kept in touch and when he made his buyout, my dad offered him a job. And the rest, as they say, is history." She looked at me and smiled sadly. "I do miss my Father, the one that died, but I don't think I could have gotten a better stepfather anywhere. I really love him and consider him to be my Father now."

  This gave me a lot of food for thought. It showed that anything was possible, that maybe there was more to aspire to than just working for the company for the rest of my life. That was what I had always figured was my only option, even after buyout.

  I glanced at Joshua as he left the dance floor. I didn't think I'd end up in a position like his though, to be honest I'd rather be poor with Cassandra, than rich without her. But maybe I should start giving more thought to the future, so I wouldn't have to be too poor. I bet Cassandra was, it was really her advice that decided me on the shuttle training. I guess she was getting ideas even then.

  Kathy dragged me out on the dance floor then, so I decided to think about it tomorrow and enjoy myself for now. After all, this was a vacation! So I got into the spirit of things and did my best to have fun. I could see everybody else was, including the dinner guests. I gathered that they did this quite a bit around here.

  As the night progressed we all had a fairly enjoyable time. I tried not to drink any alcohol, but made up for it a little with some of the inhalants. I knew they'd wear off quicker with a lot less side effects. By two o'clock, most of the people had left for the night, and we were mostly just sitting around talking. Kathy seemed to be enjoying herself in particular; she confided in me that she hadn't gone out that much in a while.

  "Too busy with school," she told me.

  We were down to about eight, the six of us plus Karen's parents, when a group of people came in. I got the impression that the evening was going to get fairly lively again, real soon. I heard an 'uh oh' from Kathy and turned to her.

  "Know them?" I asked.

  She paled a little, "See the one with the cattle prod?"

  I looked them over, he was the leader and looked middle aged, but in fairly good shape. "Yeah, who is he?"

  "That's my Father, and those others are some of his friends from the farm."

  I sat a little straighter in my chair and made sure my feet were planted, I had a sneaking suspicion just why they were here. "I thought your father didn't have any friends," I joked.

  "Not many, but the ones he does aren't very nice," she lowered her voice, "and here they come."

  They had spied us by this time and were on their way over. Joshua had noticed them as soon as they had walked in, and I could tell he knew what was up. He exchanged a quick whispered conversation with Francis, then folded his hands on the table and waited for them to arrive.

  For my own part, I took an inventory of my own condition. I had a slight buzz on, but as it wasn't alcohol induced my reflexes should still be pretty good. The adrenaline rush that was starting to build was also helping to clear out the effects of the inhalers; the ones I had been using didn't last very long.

  They came up to where Kathy and I were sitting, which didn't surprise me tremendously. I had moved my chair around so I wouldn't be hit from behind, and looked them over.

  There were six of them with him and they were all wearing cattle prods on their belts. This was definitely going to be interesting, maybe even fun, if I didn't get shocked too bad.

  "Yes, Mister Vanderzyc," said Joshua from his seat. "Just how may I help you?"

  "By minding your own business!" He spat back. "This doesn't concern you; it's between my daughter and me." He turned to Kathy, "I though I raised you better than to hang around with dirty animals like this," he jerked his thumb at me, as his voice raised. "I can't believe that you'd do this on your own, it must be those professors at that so called school of yours that teach you this kind of behavior!"

  It was really kind interesting to watch him, I though as he continued his tirade for the next minute or two. I found the things he had to say about animen and myself in particular, even though we had never met mind you, quite enlightening. However he also reminded me a lot of the Colonel back at Arboral and I could feel my fur standing up along my body as I got angry thinking about that. I doubted anyone else noticed however with the clothes I was wearing.

  "So you're going to come back to the estate with me young lady!" he finished, glaring at all of us.

  "No," she said, looking right back at him.

  "No?!" he said amazed, "What do you mean no?"

  "What part of no didn't you understand?" she asked calmly. "No means no! Just that. You don't own me and I'm a legal adult now, so just go away. I've had it with your anger and your cruelty, and if the truth be known, I curse the accident of fate that made me your daughter!" she said the last very loudly and spat at his feet.

  I myself was somewhat taken aback by all of this. I had known she didn't like her father, but I hadn't realized that she totally despised him. I wondered what he must have done to earn such animosity. He was also clearly taken aback by such a vehement response.

  "I think you had better go now," said Joshua calmly, "before there's any trouble."

  "I told you to keep your furry nose out of this!" He said then turned back to Kathy, "You're coming with me!" and reached for her.

  He looked a little confused when his hand stopped just short of touching her, then he noticed my grip on his arm and looked at me. I just smiled innocently.

  "Get your hand off of me, you filthy bastard!" he grabbed his cattle prod with his free hand, and started to draw it.

  At this point Joshua, Dave and Gabe all started to rise, I waved them back down as I stood, "Gentlemen please," I smiled, not at all pleasantly. "There are hardly enough here for me! Anyway I think the man's grievance lies with me."

  Okay, so I like to show off and have a big ego, but if I couldn't handle this mob Herza had definitely been wasting her time on me. I watched as he brought the prod around towards me, and I checked my grip on
him.

  "You know," I said as if making normal conversation, "if you use that thing, you're going to get hurt a lot worse than me."

  "Go to hell!" he said and he stuck me with the prod.

  It was an interesting experience, I don't know if any of you have ever been exposed to a shock rod before, I had in training and one thing they always told you, 'make sure the person you're using it on isn't touching you'. I guess nobody had ever told him that.

  It hurt like hell for a second, but that passed pretty quickly and I heard him yell. He had just gotten about as good of a jolt as I had, through the grip I had on his arm. I had also dislocated his shoulder due to the muscle flex that happens when one gets shocked. Another thing he should have thought about. I had.

  I bent over and picked the cattle prod up from the floor and examined it, after letting him go.

  He wasn't doing too well, and the several seconds that everybody hesitated while looking at him moaning on the floor allowed me to gather my own wits. While I can take a shock like that without any real damage, it still stuns me for a couple of seconds.

  "Here hold this," I handed the prod to Kathy. I looked around at the rest of his group. They were still looking at him groaning on the floor, definitely not the brightest of crowds. Having regained my own composure I reached behind me and grabbed my chair. This got them going again, and they all drew their own cattle prods and started spreading out to encircle me.

  I decided I didn't want any part of that and started swinging the wooden chair like a scythe, as I charged their right flank. I have to give them credit for organization, the ones on the left charged in to try and get me from behind. I was able to cut through those in front of me before they got in range however, but broke the chair into useless fragments on the two in front of me in the process.

  I turned and kidney punched both of them as I went by, just in case the chair hadn't had the desired effect. They went down. I let the remaining four back me up against the wall, so they couldn't get behind me. I almost regretted not having any throwing stars or a knife with me, but then I wasn't planning on killing anybody, yet.

  Using a pair of crescent kicks, I was able to clear a path long enough to get into the middle of them. I had noticed that all of the prods were long, with electrodes on the end only. That made them pretty useless close in and I quickly went to work around me with elbows, knees, and the occasional claw. I got three of them pretty good then, but I also got zapped in the back myself.

  Luckily, he wasn't able to hold it on me for more than a second, but I jumped clear across the room from the shock as I hadn't been ready for it. I had enough presence of mind to tuck and roll when I landed, even managing to get up on my feet.

  The first one to make it to me had lost his prod, so he started in with his fists. It took me a couple of seconds to clear my head, but I was able to block most of his punches. By then two more were closing in, the others were getting up off the floor themselves.

  I jumped the one who had been punching me, hitting and kicking him as many times as possible before the other two got there. When I turned away and went after the one on the left, knocking his prod out of the way first, I saw him collapse to the floor out of the corner of my eye.

  The next one had too much confidence in the cattle prod and once I was past it he turned to run. I grabbed him by the hair and pulled him back 'til I could get a good grip on his shoulder too, then I spun him around and threw him at the one coming at me from behind. Right into his cattle prod, which discharged nicely I might add.

  As he looked in shock at his buddy, whom he had just given a really nasty jolt to, I broke his arm and several of his ribs for good measure. I then looked at the three remaining ones who had gathered themselves for another attack. They had lost their cattle prods, so I just charged right in kicking and punching.

  I really enjoyed just beating the living crap out of them, the sound of cracking and breaking bones was music to my ears. I really didn't feel any of their hits, I was so worked up, and just kept going until nobody was left standing, making sure I gave them each a few scars to remember me by.

  Surveying the damage, I noticed the one who had gotten shocked by his buddy was starting to move again and so was Mr. Vanderzyc. I gave myself a quick once over, no broken bones, no cuts, just some bruises. I wasn't surprised to see that my shirt was ruined, it had two burned spots in it from the electrical shocks and was splattered with somebody's blood. At least the blood wasn't mine.

  I grabbed a chair from an empty table, and went back to join my friend's.

  "Pretty impressive Raj," said Joshua.

  Gabe and Dave just gave me knowing looks, they knew how much I worked out and practiced.

  I gave him a big smile, and looked at Mr. Vanderzyc who was holding his arm and getting up off the floor.

  "Next time I'm gonna kill you," he said looking around at his friends.

  For some reason that did it, up to now I’d been angry, but I hadn’t really lost my temper. I got back up, walked over to him and quickly grabbed his arm and gave it a hard pull. I could feel it pop back into the socket as he screamed. I waited till he calmed down a little and looked at him.

  "Feel better?" I asked softly, and was surprised when he nodded. "Good!" I said, and punched him in the face, hard. He went back a couple of feet and hit the wall and slid down to the ground, out cold. I turned to the one remaining one, who stood there aghast.

  "Never threaten a leopard!" I told him, "he just might believe you!" and I went back to my seat.

  "Was that really necessary Raj?" Joshua asked me.

  "You heard him," I said taking a few deep breaths to calm myself down, "and I believe him. When he comes too, maybe he'll learn to be a little more careful about what he says."

  "Maybe he'll just be that much more careful about planning his next attack," replied Joshua. "You definitely gave him the incentive, that's for sure."

  I hadn't thought about that, "Do you really think so?" I asked concerned now that the adrenaline was starting to wear off and my anger was subsiding. "I'll admit that I do have a tendency to get carried away."

  "I wouldn't worry about it Raj," put in Dave, "We'll be gone from here by the time he feels like fighting again."

  "And as for his bothering Kathy again, I'll have my lawyers get after him for what he did tonight." Joshua gave us a lazy smile, "After all, I can't have my guests being attacked even if some of them enjoy it!" He laughed then and everybody else joined in.

  "Can I help it if I enjoy fighting?" I protested weakly, "It's what I do for a living."

  "We just wish you'd stop taking your work home with you," Kathy said dryly, and everybody started laughing all over again.

  The police arrived next and after a quick private conversation with Joshua, they ignored us, somewhat to my surprise. We got up and left at that point, as they started dragging the still unconscious bodies out.

  "Good Lord Raj," said Fran watching as we walked outside, "how hard did you hit them anyway?"

  "Just as hard as I could!" I grumbled quietly.

  The trip back was uneventful and conversation resumed as if the fight had never happened. Kathy was pretty quiet the whole way back however. Once back, everybody headed for their respective bedrooms. I went to the bathroom to clean up and tossed the ruined shirt in the garbage. When I came back to the room, Kathy was sitting staring quietly out the window. I knelt down behind her and put my arms around her.

  "Mad at me?" I asked cautiously.

  "Why should I be mad at you Raj?" she asked quietly.

  "Well, I did punch your father's lights out for one," I admitted quietly.

  "No that's not it," she reached back and scratched under my chin. "It's the fact that he showed up at all. All his life he's treated me like I was a burden to him, told me I was just a worthless woman, and I had better remember my place. That he was sorry he had me, that it was all my mother's fault and anything else he could think of to belittle me.

  "Then aft
er trying to fill me full of hate and fear for so many years he comes to try to take me back there. Like I was his property, chattel to be punished for misbehaving! Damn it! I'm an adult now, and he has no claim to me anymore! I'd just wish he'd leave me alone."

  She was crying quietly now and I held her for awhile. I really didn't know what to say. After all, I was property, somebody's chattel or rather some corporation's. But then they valued me, treated me well, gave me praise and took good care of me for the most part.

  "You want me to kill him for you?" I finally asked. He reminded me so much of the scum from Arboral I didn’t think my conscious would bother me too much if I did.

  "Raj!" she turned and looked at my in the moonlight, "are you serious?"

  "Sure, why not? I could get into his bedroom late one night, he'd never feel a thing. Nobody would know who either." I shrugged, I didn’t think it would be all that hard.

  "No Raj," she started stroking the side of my face, "That wouldn't be right."

  I couldn't see why not, and said so. "What's not right about it? It's clear to everybody he doesn't mean you well."

  She sighed, "People don't just go around killing each other Raj. Trust me, it's wrong. But it was sweet of you to offer." she gave me a kiss then, and we gently made love.

  Later, she fell asleep within the circle of my arms and I suddenly wondered, what I would have done if she had said yes?

  18

  The rest of the weekend passed without incident. I did get to see quite a bit of the farm, as Karen took us on an aerial tour of most of it. We had a picnic the next day, and I was surprised to find my shirt had been replaced by the next night. Other than that, we just spent a lot of time enjoying the outdoors.

  After we had dropped the girls off Monday, we headed back to the plant and checked our messages. I spent the rest of the day writing my reply to Cassandra's letter, and getting a larger copy made of her picture to replace the older one I had on ship. I ended up at Martial that night once again with Herza.