Guerilla by Mel Odom

the HUD, studying the young girl and wondering how much she knew. She’d fired the arrow to warn Corporal Anders. That meant Noojin had seen something. And if one of the men had tried to kill her and the Quass’s granddaughter, Noojin had seen even more.
    Noojin’s jaw was set and her back was straight in obvious rebellion. Getting information out of her was going to be difficult. Kiwanuka was glad she wasn’t the one who was going to have to attempt it.

 
    NINE
    Offworlders’ Bazaar
    Makaum Sprawl
    0658 Hours Zulu Time
    L atest sim disks! Movies old and new! Action-­packed adventure tales! Erotica! Come see the beautiful men of Dardorn! Come see the beautiful women of Halinog as they perform the Forbidden Dance of Limber Shadows!”
    â€œAll-­terrain bicycles! Personal ATV riders! Don’t walk when you can ride!”
    â€œCome enjoy the zesty taste of Mongolian beef! Enjoy the fusion of spices that will provide a unique culinary experience!”
    Ignoring the hawkers lining the bazaar located near the center of the sprawl, Sytver Morlortai strode across the hard-­packed earthen road that cut through one of the offworlder hubs that had popped up on the backwater planet. Merchants from dozens of different worlds had Gatestreamed to Makaum to sell their wares. Many of those merchants were there to entice newbies with their flashy tech and manufactured goods. Others were there to sell to the Terran soldiers, offering products not sanctioned by the Terran Army.
    And a few of those hawkers would be spies who would learn what they could and sell information about the Phrenorians to the Terrans, or the Terrans to the Phrenorians. Maybe there would even be some information about the (ta)Klar, but information on those ­people was hard to get. That was one of the reasons Morlortai had come to Makaum.
    â€œInsect repellant!” The last was offered by a young woman at a brightly colored pushcart featuring a gigantic wasp that was actually small by Makaum standards. “Guaranteed to work!” She held up a wristband to display the merchandise. “White noise generators that will turn away the fiercest bloodsuckers! Don’t risk disease when a small payment will protect you!”
    Morlortai continued past her. She attempted to intercept him, but he held up a hand and warned her away. She was good-­looking enough to attract the attention of someone who thought talking to her might lead to a romantic liaison.
    Scowling, the young woman acted like she’d had no interest in him and approached an older Makaum woman who seemed tentative about visiting the market.
    Morlortai continued walking and scanned the other ­people in the area. He knew urban areas, even ones this primitive, and he knew how hunters approached prey. So far, he was neither. He’d come to the bazaar to investigate a potential business proposition.
    Most of the offworlder buildings were prefab domes of colored plascrete dozens of different hues that had been dumped into place by corp-­owned aerial transport vehicles. The domes were wired for solar power beamed down from corp-­owned satellites. Nobody went into business on Makaum without the corps getting a cut of the action.
    That was about as genteel as thieves could be.
    Of course, the corps owned most of the bashhounds that enforced security in the sprawl too. Most of the sec troops represented corp interests while others hired out to various enterprises. When the aldoede hit the spinning iangoero , though, the bashhounds’ loyalty would still be with the corps.
    From what Morlortai saw, the corps had nailed down most of the sprawl. The rest was divided by the Terran Army and the Phrenorians. No one except the (ta)Klar knew how much they controlled.
    A small part of Morlortai’s eroding morality felt bad for the Makaum ­people. He’d seen backward worlds ground under the heel of the technologically superior. There wasn’t