Chapter 13

Although the knives strapped to his forearms gave him the same sense of security as an old blanket he had lugged around when he was very young, there was difference. Benni felt the adrenaline running through his veins with a rush of freedom for the first time in his life. He relished that intimate feeling of being alive. He took a deep breath even though the air smelled a bit sterile.

Zylis was standing silently beside him as the two of them were chauffeured down a long hallway on a horizontal moving platform. The older man was no longer a commander now that he was entering the Temperdis. He was Zylis of the family Gravis, orphaned for the moment to family Volentin.

The overhead lights dimmed by half as they approached a set of shiny metal doors braced with vertical and horizontal beams resting on huge sprockets. The platform stopped and the driver tapped in a series of codes on a rather cheap looking keypad that jiggled loosely in its case. Benni found that little observation a confirmation of his entire experience in the hands of the Enforcers.

The bars and the doors slid back. Benni and his charge stepped into a large holding cell with another set of doors at its far end. The first doors shut. A disembodied voice began counting backwards from ten. At the count of zero the far doors began to hiss open. From the light of small globes attached to the ceiling, Benni recognized the plastmore walls beyond the doors. They were about to step into the Temperdis.

He had briefed Zylis endlessly during the span of time it had taken for two meals to be served on what to do and what not to do in the corridors of the Temperdis. Zylis had asked for maps from the Enforcer files but found them incomplete and sketchy. Benni had only directions, landmarks, and cues in his head for the two of them to follow. With that minor revelation, Benni thought that Zylis finally realized just how totally dependent the older man was to be on this convicted murderer.

The second set of doors shut and a small panel popped open at the far end the short hallway. Inside was a typical handle for a Temperdis door. Benni pulled the handle and beckoned Zylis to follow him with the wave of his index finger.

Benni almost choked when he stepped into the next space. "A dangerous business, indeed," he announced softly as he scanned the courtyard of Family Daoud on Level Seven. A number of mysteries cleared up in an instant as he considered the relationship between Daoud and the Enforcers. Daoud didn't lie when they said that they bought and sold information. They let everyone assume that they sold only in the Temperdis.

"Do you know where we are?" Zylis asked.

Benni wanted to say a few choice words but he chose the most cautious ones. "We are standing in the compound of one of my business clients. Since they haven't come forward to greet us, they have no business for us at the moment. Let us leave them in peace."

Benni, followed by Zylis, slipped out of the front gate and past the three guards.

"I'm hungry," Benni announced loud enough for the guards to hear. He turned into the corridor and relaxed a fraction as Zylis stepped forward and next to Benni's right elbow. Benni guessed that they had just missed the end of the rush between the end of day shift and the beginning of night shift because the halls were full but not so crowded that he was in danger of stepping on the next person's heels.

His goal was to find a bodega with enough room that both of them could stand with their backs to a wall while Benni sent a runner ahead to family Volentin. He passed on the first one and then the second one. A sketchy memory made him duck down a dark hallway which let them emerge onto another large concourse. Zylis kept Benni's pace with hardly a grunt. The remembered store was just around the corner.

Zylis's face looked completely bland, but Benni thought the man looked a touch paler than before. Inside the bodega he hired a runner from the owner and bought two tubes of flavored protein paste. Benni sucked down the near tasteless stuff, marveling at how gritty the food was after the prison rations he had been served. Zylis nearly choked much to Benni's amusement.

Since they were only one level up from home, the runner returned quickly as Benni finished patiently sucking and chewing his meal. While he waited, he weighed the fruits of his adventure with the Enforcers in the stark terms of the Temperdis. Benni had come out ahead with pockets full of slugs taken from the Enforcer stores. Before his 'disappearing, ' Benni would have been chomping at the bit to rush to Flager's to celebrate. How deflating that now it seemed that the slugs only slowed him down.

He had seen the mother lode of slugs in an Enforcer vault. With all of those slugs, they could have bought all of the information and business partners they needed to take control of the Temperdis. Benni had stared with disbelief at the waste of wealth. These top dwellers spent their money on plasma rifles, bugs, and tracking gizmos when they had the straightforward ability to tame the Temperdis already in their hands.

The runner returned but she was not alone. Doyan accompanied her.

"Safe-be," Benni declared. "This is Zylis of the Family Gravis. He is patriarch."

Doyan let a look of momentary confusion pass across her face which she quickly replaced with her usual slight smile. "Safe-be Benni and Zylis. You are out far too late and it's time to go home."

Hoping their little exchange satisfied the ears of the bodega owner, they walked out of the store and towards the stairwell. Doyan took the position next to the spaceman and Benni guarded him from behind. Not having to push or shove at this late hour, they made their way to Level Eight without much notice from the walking throngs. The hawkers were still loud and the drug addicts were pushy, but the pick pockets recognized a dangerous entourage and steered clear.

On Level Eight they emerged near Flager's, but Doyan took them the long way around rather than ducking through the alley across from its entrance and through Family Khan's outer enclave. Benni was disappointed that the front of the tavern was already patched and a new door and windows were already installed. He had wanted to see the damage done by the riot at least.

They stepped through the gate of their compound. The guards slid the door shut and Benni felt a rush of relief until Doyan slid out blade in less than an eye blink and held it to his throat.

"Explain" was all she said.

"He is patriarch of the spacemen," Benni replied more nonchalantly than he felt. "We made a business deal. He agreed to free me from the Enforcers if I brought him here. Safe-be."

Doyan eyed both of them before she dropped her hand and tucked her knife away. "Safe-be. Go to Shasa in your room, Benni; she lost two men in one day. You come with me, spaceman."

"Be careful with him, Doyan. He has the fighting skills of a child."

"I already noticed his lack of caution outside. Go. I will babysit your spaceman with Nagala."

If Zylis took offense at Doyan's and Benni's assessment, he didn't show it. He was too busy turning his head this way and that, taking in the family compound. The street was empty and the rooms were quiet for some reason.

Benni was about to say that there was more to the bargain, but Doyan had already taken the man by the elbow and started to walk away. He turned with a shrug, figuring that Zylis could handle the family on his own for awhile. He approached his familiar doorway with a trepidation that he hadn't felt before. He stepped through the curtain and saw a huddled figure on his mattress.

"Shasa?"

There was a pause of silence.

"Benni?"

The figure leapt from the mattress and pinned him to the wall, crushing leaves as she slammed into him. Her eyes scanned his face as her fingers traced the outline of his head and shoulders.

"I saw them take you," she whispered. "How did you get free?"

"I met a spaceman and we did some business. He freed me from the Enforcers and I brought him back with me."

Shasa's eyes went wide at the mention of the legendary word. "A spaceman is here?"

Benni nodded yes. Shasa looked at his face for sincerity and stepped back from him. With full force she swung her right arm and slapped him across his face. "Liar!"

She wound up to slap him again and Benni caught her arm. He blocked her while his other forearm pushed into her chest lifting her off of her feet. He ran her backwards and slammed her back against the opposite wall, pinning her between wall and his arm. The "woomph" that escaped her lungs appeared to flush some of the wildness out of her eyes.