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By Root 1140 0

if this is your way of amusing yourself at my expense I have to tell you I am not impressed. I thought we were... well friends might be too strong a word but I thought at least we‟d come to an understanding. I thought we were sort of in this together you know? I mean I‟m only transporting you. I‟m not part of the kidnap team. I‟m not part of the whole conspiracy thing. If it comes to that I‟m on your side. I don‟t mean you any harm. I just want to take the money and run, that‟s all I want to do.‟ She could hear it clearly in his voice now. He was talking as much to himself as to her. He had almost decided. He was almost sure she was no longer able to hear him. He was almost ready to come to her. Careful, she thought, careful, this is when the sunbirds were most likely to take fright and run away.

Leela grunted through her nose, a small clenched snore, and set her foot drumming, heel tapping the floor in a continuous spasm.

„In the names of all the gods,‟ the pilot exclaimed, „don‟t you die on me. I won‟t get paid and I will get dead. Don‟t you die on me you stupid little scuffler.‟

Leela was exultant. She had him. He was coming. He was unlocking the bulkhead doors and the airlock doors, and he was coming. She was going to be free of this prison. Would he come armed she wondered? Would he come armed and angry? She had not really thought much beyond baiting him to within reach. It made no difference, she would disarm him; she would kill him if she had to. No, she must not kill him since she needed him to work the speeder yacht. She had not planned beyond this, she suddenly realised, because she had not really believed that such a simple scheme would succeed.

Keep it simple, her trainer always said. Plans go wrong: complicated plans go wrong complicatedly. This plan would

not go wrong; she would not let it go wrong. She felt a change in the background vibrations. Was that the doors unlocking?

She stopped drumming her heel. She had considered going to wait by the cell door to ambush the pilot once she was sure he was coming to her, but she had discarded that idea. Even after he left the flight deck from where he watched and from where he controlled everything he might still be able to see inside the cell. The only place she was sure he could not see was here, where she was. It was only here she could be sure of the element of surprise. She would have to sacrifice some freedom of movement to get it, but surprise was the essential thing: everything else she could make up for.

She listened. She had not heard the entrance to the cell close in the first place so she was not sure what sound it would make when it opened. Come on, she thought. She was ready. Where was he? He was taking longer than she had expected. Had he given up on her? Did he think she was dead? Had she made a mistake that he had spotted. Was the panic in his voice just pretence? Was it him who was playing games after all? She knew she had failed. Then she heard it: the soft thud of door fastenings being drawn back, a brief sough of air. The door was opening. She waited for a moment and then she began to twitch her foot in single random spasms. She heard his voice: „Don‟t be scuffling dead. Don‟t you be scuffling dead.‟ But there was something strange and muffled about it. „Even dying you‟re a killer, you murderous little scuffler.‟ He was coming closer but the voice was not clear: it was dull with an echo that was not quite an echo.

„My employer doesn‟t take disappointment well. Or at all in fact.‟ What was it about the voice? It sounded close but distant at the same time. The curtain was snatched back and Leela pushed herself up and kicked herself forward. The pseudo-grav made the move more controllable so that she vaulted over the figure that was bending towards where she had been laying. As she jumped over the pilot she realised that he was wearing some sort of protective suit and a helmet that enclosed his head. She twisted herself round and grabbed at the helmet with both hands. Bouncing her knees high against his back to get as much leverage as possible