Fool's Paradise Snippet - Chapter 3
Chapter 3 - Acquisition
Here’s the 3rd chapter of my stand alone novel, Fool’s Paradise. It’s the tale of an interstellar freelance operative, who is hired to retrieve something of value from a planet which has descended into chaos. Before long, he figures out the job is going to be a lot more complicated than anticipated.
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Chapter Three – Acquisition
My suit's proximity sensors roused me from a light doze. A squirrel, devouring a nut, perched on the branch about a meter in front of me. I contemplated the creature in visual and infrared wavelengths. A small movement of my right leg startled the squirrel and it bounded off through the forest. The abandoned nut ricocheted off tree limbs as it fell.
The rim of Hemica's sun sank behind the western mountains. The rings, pale streaks by day, became arches across the sky to the south. My suit's AI, good for something after all, marked a moving star with a blinking carat on my faceplate. Vector and velocity indicated a spacecraft, which meant it was an Imperial Navy picket ship, there to guard against people like me.
Casting about for more squirrels, I leaned forward to peer into the gloom. The residents gathered at the foot of the bridge to the island. Most carried torches. Four people waited on the island, next to the empty stake.
The situation had potential benefits for me. It appeared most, if not all, of the villagers would soon be preoccupied with the island. It was likely to be the best chance I’d get to slip into the hut, acquire the item and get out undetected.
With high hopes and visions of an early end of the job dancing in my head, I picked my way down the tree and slunk into the village.
The evening provided a wealth of shadows. Although, with the suit on full stealth, I could have walked down what passed for the main drag without much notice. Old habits die hard, more so when they're good habits to have. I ghosted from one pool of darkness to another.
The large hut was less than ten meters away. Two burley guards, armed with spears, flanked the doorway. I lay on the ground, peeped around the curve of a hut, and considered my options.
There were only two guards. Their spears were cobbled out of lengths of pipe with pieces of hammered scrap metal for spearheads. A stunner blast would render them both unconscious easy enough. The item would be mine for the taking.
I was in no hurry. It was likely the pair of guards would drift over towards the island once the festivities began. They were already looked in that direction. The elegance of this possibility beckoned. Slipping by them unsuspected appealed to my sense of aesthetics.
Indecision paid a handsome dividend. Two more guards pulled a struggling child from the hut. A pole was strapped to the child's shoulders, so her arms were held straight out to her sides. Odd wickerwork spheres enclosed her hands.
The guest of honor had arrived.
Last to emerge was a tall villager who wore an elaborate mask of painted wood. The shaman took the lead and stalked towards the bridge. All four guards followed, the child between them.
I remained in the shadows until they crossed to the island, and then crept to the hut.
The villagers chanted; a low-pitched rhythm barely audible over the rumble of the falls. The guards secured the child to the stake.
"Evil!" The shaman's baritone silenced the crowd. "Evil and the spawn of evil!"
"Evil!" The villagers answered.
The infrared display showed the hut was empty. The nearest villager was more than one hundred meters away and engrossed by the ceremony.
"As this world was made pure, we shall cleanse ourselves with fire!" The shaman intoned.
"Fire!" The villagers shouted. "The cleansing fire!" The chants began anew.
I stood in the doorway. All I needed do was sweep the locator over the interior, find the item, and run. I could be picked up before morning. A man would have to be a fool to pass up an opportunity like that.
I am a fool.
There are situations that require stealth and there are situations that demand bold, decisive action. I sprinted for the bridge.
The noise, the chants. and the focus of the crowd, allowed me to make it to the foot of the bridge before anyone noticed. The metal shuddered under my pounding boots. Two of the guards stood on the span, several meters apart. The first, I shoved over the railing. A momentary flailing and then he was gone, over the falls.
The second guard turned in time to catch a stiff-armed blow to his windpipe. He crumpled, coughed, and gasped. I vaulted his body and was on the island.
A third guard lunged his crude spear aimed at me. I sidestepped and grasped the shaft, just behind the blade. Pivoting on one foot, I used the guard's momentum to swing him into the river. The current took him.
The last guard might have held his ground and become a problem. However, the shaman chose to speak.
"Smite the demon! Smite him!"
"Having received confirmation I was indeed a demon, the guard lost his nerve and fled over the bridge. Rather, he made an attempt. Half of the village had the same idea. The result was a tangle of humanity that would have made me laugh, had I the time to glance their way.
The shaman snarled and spit something unintelligible at me. I swung the butt end of the spear I still held in an arc and connected with the side of his head. His mask spun into the river and he dropped to the ground. I stood, frozen for an instant. His face looked...familiar.
No time for reminisces, I scrambled to the top of the brush pile around the stake. The spear blade proved useful to cut through the vines. I grabbed her hand and tried to decide what to do next.
The villagers were about to sort themselves out and pour onto the island from the bridge in none too pleasant a mood. The bridge to the other bank was long gone, swept away in a storm or demolished by the villagers to make their homes more defensible. The current was strong and the island was on the falls. Any attempt to swim for the far bank would result in following the unlucky guards. There appeared to be only one option.
I gathered the child in my arms and hopped down from the brush pile before someone took it into his head to toss a torch into it. My feet slid on the paving stones as I headed for the overlook rail in a staggering run. There was still a stone bench by the railing. I set a boot on it and let momentum carry us up. The other boot went onto the railing. I pushed, launching the two of us into the air ninety meters above the foot of the falls.
It wasn’t a sane option, just the only option.
The girl struggled in panic but I held tight. The mob on the island gasped, despite their fear of me, the demon.
Ten meters below the top of the falls the imbecilic AI in my suit realized what I'd done. The integral parachute extruded from its pockets. The AI concluded every bit of deceleration would be needed to save my fool neck, so all of the valves in the chute fabric remained closed. The gossamer fabric caught the rushing air and snapped out to the limit of the microns-thick suspension lines with a sharp crack.
The shock almost made me drop the child. She screamed as I pulled her to my chest. I told her that everything would be all right, but I don't think she believed me. I didn't believe it either.
The mob recovered from the shock of my supposed suicide. Several arrows and a spear shot past us but another pierced the canopy and severed suspension lines. The wind sighed through the growing tear.
My suit did what it could and opened vents at strategic points to moderate stress. This conflicted with slowing the fall. The AI must have run a number of simulations, chosen the least disastrous option, and implemented it.
The canopy ripped in two with a sharp sound. The child screamed. The villagers at the top of the falls roared.
We dropped the last ten meters, sank deep into the pool at the foot of the falls. The water felt icy cold and it seemed like a long time before I came back to the surface. Alone.
The current was spun me around. It was dark and hard for me to know what was going on or where the girl was. I engaged the IR capability on visor. It showed villagers on the right bank, the same side of the river as the village.
The girl surfaced with a splash a few meters away. I managed to get an arm around her and made for the far bank. My ruined parachute hadn't retracted and the drag slowed me down As the fabric and lines trailed behind.
We reached the shallows and staggered onto the bank. I sat on a fallen tree and tried to get my breathing under control. My legs were rubbery.
The girl backed against a large rock and watched me. She was ready to bolt.
"Ahem." I ventured. "We haven't been properly introduced. I'm-"
"I know who you are."
"You do? Who am I, then?"
"You're the shadow man and you've come just like he said you would."
"There they are!" One of the villagers shouted from across the river. An arrow flew over my head.
"This way." The girl dashed into the jungle.
It seemed a more than reasonable course of action under the circumstances. So, I instructed my suit to jettison the lines attached to the now useless parachute and followed her.
End of Chapter 3
If you’d like to read more, Fool’s Paradise is available here: https://novusmundibooks.com/product/fools-paradise
More of my work can be found here: