Read Passage at Arms for Free Online

The brass knew about it. Only their pets received courier assignment. Sometimes there were kickbacks. My companion didn't look like a man whose business was that big.
    "I see."
    "Sometimes tobacco, too. They don't raise it here. And chocolate, when I can make the contacts back home."
    "You should've loaded the boat." I didn't resent his running luxuries. Guess I'm a laissez-faire capitalist at heart.
    He grinned. "I did. Can't deal with the Captain, though. After a while one of the sergeants will notice that nobody has patrolled that part of the plain lately. He'll make the sweep himself, just to keep his hand in. And I'll find a bale of Con-marks when I get back." He hoisted his case.
    "This's for special people. I sell it practically at cost."
    "Conmarks ought to be drying up out here."
    "They're getting harder to come by. I'm not the only courier on the Canaan run." He brightened.
    "But, shit. There had to be billions floating around before the war. It'll come out. Just got to keep refusing military scrip."
    "I wish you luck, my friend." I was thinking of a few items in my own luggage, meant to sweeten the contacts I hoped to make.
    The subLieutenant kicked a floater. "Looks as good as any of them. Throw your stuff in and let's go."
    We had to cross two-thirds of a continent. A quarter of the way round Canaan's southern hemisphere. I slept twice. We stopped for fuel several times. The subLieutenant kept the floater screaming all the time he was at the controls. My turns, I kept it down to a sedate 250 kph.
    He wakened me once to show me a city. "They called it Mecklenburg. After some city on Old Earth.
    Population a hundred thousand. Biggest town for a thousand klicks."
    Mecklenburg lay in ruins. Threads of campfire smoke drifted up. "Old folks with deep roots, I guess. They wouldn't pull out. They're safe now. Nothing left to blast." He kicked the floater into motion.
    Later, he asked, "What's the name of that town where you want off?"
    "Kent."
    He punched up something on the floater's little info screen. "It's still there. Must not be much."
    "I don't know. Never been there."
    "Well, it can't be shit, that close to T-ville and still standing. Hell, you'd think they'd take it out just for spite."
    "The way our boys do?"
    "I guess." He sounded sour. "This war is a big pain in the ass."
    That was the one time I didn't like my companion. He didn't say that the way the grunts and spikes do. He was pissed because the war had disturbed his social life.
    I said nothing. The attitude is common among those who see little or no combat. He viewed the brush coming in as part of a gentleman's game, a passage of arms in a knight's spring jousts.
    We roared into Kent in midaftemoon. Kent was a sleepy village that might have been teleported whole from Old Earth's past. A few scruffy Guards represented the present. They looked like locals combining military responsibilities with their normal routine.
    "You know the address, I could drop you off, Lieutenant."
    "That's all right. They said ask the Guards. Somebody will pick me up. Right here is fine. Thanks for the lift."
    "Suit yourself." He gave me a long look after I dropped into the anpaved street. "Lieutenant....
    You've got balls. Climbers. Good luck." He slammed the hatch and lurched away. The last I saw, he was a streak heading toward Tur-beyville like a moth to flame.
    Good luck, he said. Like I'd damned well need it. Well, good luck to you too, courier. May you become wealthy on the Canaan run.
    That was when I started wondering if maybe I hadn't wangled my way into a hexenkessel.
    I spoke with a Guards woman. She made a call. Ten minutes later a woman eased a strange, rattling contraption up to me. It was a locally produced vehicle of venerable years, propelled by internal combustion. My nose couldn't decide if the fuel was alcohol or of petroleum derivation. We'd used both in the floater.
    "Jump in, Lieutenant. I'm Marie. He was taking a shower, so I came. Be a nice