Supremacy's Outlaw: A Space Opera Thriller Series (Insurgency Saga Book 3)

by T. E. Bakutis

  Fair enough. “Go,” Bharat urged Marquis.

  The bounty hunter turned heel, cloak billowing in an absurdly dramatic fashion, and strode toward a nearby boarded-up building. Pollen followed, bouncing Fatima as she did so, and Bharat grimaced as he searched for any signs of life. Fatima was breathing, at least, or maybe that was just the air popping out of her mouth every time Pollen’s shoulder bumped her stomach.

  All of them beating the snot out of each other should never have happened, but it was obvious Pollen was convinced Fatima had betrayed Jan and sent him to orbit. What audio had Rafe played for her? When had Rafe recorded that audio, and when had Jan told anyone Fatima had betrayed him?

  Jan had made it very clear he would keep Fatima’s so-called betrayal to himself, back before Bharat had unlocked his own memory of the truth, and Bharat could think of no reason Jan would reveal what he mistakenly thought Fatima had done ... unless he thought he was going to die. Yet even if Jan had told Rafe, why was Pollen out here and not down there with Jan?

  For now, Bharat would simply move forward and hope no one beat up anyone else. If Fatima hadn’t hit Pollen with that autocar, Bharat might very well be dead right now, or Pollen might be. Bharat would just have to hope Fatima would suffer no permanent damage from all the jostling and asphyxiation.

  With two precise chops, Marquis destroyed the sheet of wood blocking the doorframe of the abandoned building. His green and yellow armor must be powered, like a Vindicator suit. He tossed the wreckage aside and strode into the darkness, cloak billowing behind him. “The entry waits in the basement. Follow me!”

  Bharat didn’t know why anyone would wear a cloak when walking anywhere, but the fabric, he admitted, was visually striking. It was also the first thing Bharat would grab in a fight. He could probably strangle Marquis with it.

  Gloom closed in as Marquis led them down a darkened, narrow flight of steps. Bharat winced as Pollen turned and almost slammed Fatima’s head into a wall. Marquis led them into a basement that smelled of mildew and dead animal, now lit by the powerful headlamp above the X on Marquis’s helmet.

  Marquis spread his arms. “Stand back, if you please! I will now open the way to a sealed maintenance entrance!”

  “Right,” Pollen said. “How?”

  Marquis reached into his cloak, at his belt at his back, and pulled out a plastic tube about the size of a pistol. He placed its tip against the wall, then drew. The stick produced a narrow line of white goo that glittered beneath his headlamp. Marquis traced a large opening in the otherwise featureless wall.

  “Hey, Marquis.” Bharat grimaced as Fatima moaned something. “You sure this place is stable enough for explosives?”

  “Absolutely!” Marquis took several steps back. “Now cover your ears, ladies and gentlemen! This will be quite loud!”

  This was seeming like an increasingly bad idea. There were no windows down here. “Wait, before you—”

  The wall exploded with a boom that deafened Bharat. He cowered as shards of biocrete and plaster rained down, and his throat seized up as he involuntarily inhaled what was probably a toxic combination of mold, pulverized biocrete, and worse. He coughed and waved his hands in front of his now burning eyes, unable to make out anything through the smoke and dust.

  “MY APOLOGIES!” Marquis boomed. “I FORGOT NOT EVERYONE HAS CIRCULATED AIR!” What was probably a deafening voice to everyone else was barely a whisper to Bharat’s abused eardrums.

  Steady hands gripped Bharat and guided him forward. Coughing and blinking back tears, Bharat let Marquis lead him through the dust cloud and into the darkness beyond. He had to keep his focus on helping Jan and not, as he’d prefer, punching this insufferable bounty hunter in the junk.

  “REMAIN HERE!” Marquis boomed, and moved off.

  Bharat felt about until he found a wall, cool and un-blown-up. He leaned against it, trying to get his coughing under control. Where was Pollen? Where was Fatima? They must be back in the basement. Marquis must have gone back for them.

  Bharat’s suspicions were confirmed when a big shadow stumbled out of the dust, the woman on her shoulder coughing as furiously as Bharat. Fatima was awake! Pollen was coughing too and, also, struggling to stop Fatima from clawing off her face.

  Even as Bharat moved to help, Fatima slammed the side of her palm into Pollen’s gut. Pollen rolled Fatima off her shoulder like a discarded rug. Fatima slammed into the floor and scrambled away. She then stood, trembling, with fists raised.

  “GO NOW!” Marquis’s booming voice ended the standoff before it could start again. “DOWN THE STAIRS AND ON TO ADVENTURE!” His headlamp glittered off the narrow walls, casting a massive shadow from Pollen’s form. “WE MUST SAVE JAN SABATO!”

  Bharat tapped Fatima’s shoulder. She glanced at him, eyes watery and furious, but didn’t punch him in the face. Bharat pointed behind himself and mouthed, “Help Jan.”

  Fatima pushed past him. Pollen stormed after her, and Bharat slammed his back against the wall to avoid being trampled. Marquis strode from the cloud of dust and smoke, then motioned grandly with one hand.

  Bharat hurried after Pollen, still coughing. The next time Marquis decided to blow up a wall in a small enclosed space, Bharat was going to be well away from it. At least a kilometer.

  They descended eight flights of metal stairs, leaving the dust and smoke behind. Bharat’s eyes still burned when they reached the bottom of the stairwell. He caught a hint of Fatima’s shadow, followed by Pollen’s larger shadow, striding toward what looked like a fenced-off deck against a sea of darkness.

  Then Marquis and his blazing headlamp finished descending, and Bharat’s shadow zoomed across the metal deck to terminate at a fence guarding a huge tunnel. Bands of bluish tile glistening on its curved walls. Bharat advanced quickly, hoping to stave off yet another confrontation between, well, anyone.

  Soon all four of them stood at the guardrail, looking down onto an open flat section about a meter below. A large rail split the surface, intended to guide the magnetic levitation train that gave this tunnel its name. There was no one else in sight, and this maintenance alcove looked abandoned.

  Pollen turned to face Marquis. “Where’s Jan?” Bharat could hear her voice now, but it remained muffled. He was probably going to get tinnitus from that explosion.

  “On his way,” Marquis said.

  “And how do you know that?”

  Marquis placed hands on hips, proudly. “I placed a tracker on him outside the Bowsprit!”

  At the looks everyone then gave him, he raised both hands.

  “I wished only to ensure Jan’s safety! He will be along in ...” Marquis paused. “Six minutes and forty-two seconds!”

  “So, Pollen.” Fatima glared as she rubbed her purpled neck. “I did not betray Jan.”

  “Jan says you did.”

  “And he truly believes that,” Fatima said, with a heavy sigh. “But that’s not my fault. It’s Mastermind’s.”

  Pollen glanced at Marquis, then at Bharat. Then back at Fatima. “Who?”

  “A ruthless hacker with eyes and ears everywhere.” Fatima pointed up. “It was Mastermind who sent Jan to orbit, after he stole our Mercy Plaza score, and he made me promise never to tell a soul. He warned me that if I revealed anything about what he did to us, he’d murder your families and your pets.”

  Marquis gasped. “He threatened innocent animals?”

  “Say this again,” Pollen said. “Make it make sense.”

  “I just did, you thick-headed bronto!” Fatima glared up at Pollen. “I left you behind to keep you safe. I needed time to slip off Mastermind’s surveillance, discover where the Supremacy had taken Jan, and find a way to free him.”

  “Yet Jan did not go free.”

  “And yet I have been trying! By the time I knew I’d evaded Mastermind’s listening devices, Jan was already in orbit.”

  “The Supremacy seized Jan from Ceto Security Division when the arrest warrant came down,” Bharat added. “They
wanted to make an example of the leader of the gang who embarrassed them. You did make off with four trucks full of regeneration drugs.”

  “So why does Jan say you betrayed him?” Pollen asked.

  “Mastermind likely spoofed a text to Jan, too, from me,” Fatima said, “which is why he showed up to meet me at a hangar in Star’s Landing. I thought he’d called me to warn me about a traitor in our crew. He probably thought the same about me.”

  “What traitor?” Pollen demanded. “We have no traitors!”

  “That is precisely what I said! I accepted the meeting to talk Jan out of his delusion, but I fell into the same trap. CSD snatched me up the moment I arrived, and then an Advanced officer in a black uniform arrived and took over from there.”

  “Captain Karus Varik,” Bharat added. “At the time, he worked for Supremacy President Peter Mullen. This was before Argus Tostow took power and the Supremacy returned Ceto to—”

  “Do not care.” Pollen showed Bharat a raised palm, but kept her eyes on Fatima. “You think to tell me the Supremacy took Jan, but did not take you? This is bullshit.”

  “They did not take me because the CSD took me! I don’t know why the Supremacy seized Jan! Perhaps Mastermind had some particular animosity toward him. I don’t know!”

  “Three minutes,” Marquis intoned. “Jan and the others are moving at an impressive velocity, so we must assume they have obtained a vehicle. I shall flag them down as they arrive!”

  Fatima waved him off. “Yes, do that.”

  “Continue your discussion!” Marquis boomed. “You are making wonderful progress!” He leapt over the guardrail and landed gracefully on the tracks, turning his headlamp on the tunnel. It left the platform in near dusk.

  “So Jan thought, all this time, you betrayed him.” Pollen looked marginally less murderous. “And you have been trying to free him for five years?”

  “Yes!” Fatima exclaimed, throwing her arms up as if simulating fireworks. “Finally! It registers!”

  Pollen glanced at Bharat. “And you helped Fatima free Jan?”

  “Yes,” Bharat said, “by helping Fatima steal a data disc of great value to Senator Tarack. Tarack had the clout and financial means to free Jan Sabato from Tantalus prison, so Fatima and I worked together to give her incentive to do that.”

  “And you did not tell us all this ... why?”

  Bharat grimaced. “I didn’t remember.”

  Pollen scowled mightily. “How do you forget?”

  “You can do that with PBAs. Scrub memories. Senator Tarack scans our memories each time we return from a job, so your friend Kinsley scrubbed all memory of my plan with Fatima and hid it behind a restoration phrase. When Fatima repeated that phrase, it unlocked my memories. Until she did that, I had no idea I was in on our scheme.”

  Pollen looked to Fatima. “So this is why you allowed Tarack to know who stole her disc. That did seem unlike you.”

  “Did you notice that?” Fatima asked, with what Bharat would charitably describe as weapons-grade sarcasm. “No, Pollen, I did not want a ruthless and incredibly rich Supremacy senator hunting me. Yet Tarack knowing I took her disc was the only way Bharat could convince her Jan was her only option to retrieve it. It was the only way to get Jan out of Tantalus.”

  Pollen tilted her head. “This seems complicated.”

  “Yes, well, if you have a better plan to free someone from a high-security orbital prison, please, do share.”

  Pollen scowled. “You hit me with an autocar.”

  “And you all but choked me to death, so we’re even.” Fatima huffed. “I don’t want to fight you, Pollen. I want to save Jan, and then, once we’re all together, we will deal with Mastermind.”

  The low whine of repulsor jets told Bharat his hearing had fully recovered, or perhaps his PBA’s amplifiers had rebooted at last. A hovering vehicle was definitely approaching. And there was another sound coming with it, almost like ... screams?

  Jan. Shit. Bharat knew now Jan was on that vehicle.

  Marquis stood proudly in the center of the tunnel, hands on hips and headlamp shining bright. He couldn’t be stupid enough to stand there and get run down ... could he?

  A small AR window popped up to the left of Bharat’s vision, and he gasped in relief. His PBA had just wirelessly restored its connection to the nanos swimming in Jan’s blood. He fired off their termination code as headlights filled the tunnel, heading right for Marquis. The nanos would now self-destruct.

  Yet Marquis still stood in the middle of the tunnel. He raised both hands as if he had the power to stop a speeding repulsorcraft. He seemingly had no idea his armor wouldn’t save him if the speeding vehicle plowed into his chest.

  “EMIKO OKAZAKI!” Marquis boomed. “I HAVE FOUND BHARAT AND BROUGHT HIM HERE, AS CONTRACTED! SLOW YOUR VEHICLE AND WE—”

  What looked to be a maintenance scow zoomed out of the tunnel and barreled directly at Marquis, who had the good sense to drop flat. It whined right over him. Bharat caught a glimpse of two women clutching the sides of the speeding scow, one with red hair and one with dark, and then the scow zoomed away down the tunnel. Jan’s shrieking went silent, which meant Bharat had successfully triggered the torture nanos to self-destruct.

  So why were they still flying away?

  13: Laundering

  Clutching the maintenance scow’s side rail, Emiko shouted as best she could with air whipping past her face. “Rafe! Stop!”

  Rafe didn’t stop. If anything, he pushed the repulsorcraft faster, and all sign of the lights and people they’d just passed vanished. Yet Emiko knew what she’d seen when they blew out of the tunnel and almost flattened Marquis.

  Pollen had been back there on that maglev platform, and Fatima, and a big man with a big beard that was almost certainly Bharat. These were the people Emiko was desperate to find, and Rafe was taking her away from them. What was he thinking?

  Emiko exchanged a glance with Kinsley, also holding on for dear life on the other side of the speeding scow, and recognized what they both already knew. They had to stop this vehicle. Either Rafe was too focused on flying to notice whom they’d just blown past, or he had noticed, and he wanted to get away from them for some reason. Either possibility was very, very bad.

  Emiko gripped the side rail with both hands and struggled against the momentum pushing on her legs. She managed to get both feet on the base of the scow at the same moment Rafe slid the vehicle into a tight, sloping turn. Emiko immediately lost her balance and almost fell off.

  “Rafe!” she shouted again. “Stop!”

  Kinsley braced herself between the scow’s side platform, for maintenance staff, and the scow’s central core, which powered its repulsorlifts. She yanked open the maintenance panel, which flew right off, and got to work. Emiko remembered then there were few mechanics more talented than Kinsley.

  With a thump that nearly sent Emiko flying, the repulsorcraft bucked and slowed. Its engines whined loudly as it wobbled, and Rafe pushed and pulled at the controls. His voice became audible as the wind died. “Oh no, no, no!”

  “Rafe!” Emiko shouted. “Turn around, dammit! That was Bharat back there, with Fatima! We have to get Jan to them!”

  Rafe didn’t answer. He glanced back instead, saw Kinsley stand up, and grimaced. “Ah, shit.” He turned forward and tapped rapidly on the still-floating scow’s forward console.

  “I’ve throttled the scow’s engine intake,” Kinsley said, smiling proudly. “You can’t get it running again from there. You’ve caused enough problems, Mastermi—”

  Whatever else Kinsley might have said ended as both sides of the scow violently separated from the main portion and the bed holding Jan. Emiko was flailing and airborne for what seemed like an eternity before the hard ground stole her breath. Was she dead? She hurt too much to be dead.

  She saw two blurry scows as a new repulsorlift on Rafe’s skiff sputtered, revved, and ignited. Rafe’s craft sped off once more. Emiko’s world returned to lizard-filled dar
kness.

  Emiko gasped for air she couldn’t find. Eventually, mercifully, she gathered enough energy to curl into a ball on the ground. When she tried to stand, a spear split her shin with agony. She collapsed once more.

  “Hey, don’t move,” Kinsley warned from somewhere in the darkness. “I think you hurt something in your fall.”

  Emiko felt soft hands on her shoulders. She sat back, gripped Kinsley’s hands, and turned in what she assumed was Kinsley’s direction. She couldn’t see a damn thing. She sucked in breaths until she could speak again.

  “What,” she wheezed, “just happened?”

  “Rafe triggered the scow to eject its side compartments and, apparently, activated an auxiliary repulsorlift.”

  Emiko breathed, swallowed, and breathed some more. “Why?”

  “I suspect he wanted to escape before Jan woke up, so we could not hold him accountable for his betrayal.”

  Rafe had betrayed Jan? How? Emiko tried to stand again, then cried out as her leg stabbed her again. “We have to get to the others!” Despite her urgency, she sat down hard.

  “The others no doubt started after us the moment we pulled away,” Kinsley said. “Rafe has already escaped with Jan. Don’t stress. The others will catch up to us soon enough.”

  “And what do you mean, Rafe betrayed Jan?” Emiko demanded. “How did he betray Jan?”

  “Rafe sold Jan out to the Supremacy,” Kinsley said, quite matter-of-factly, “who then placed Jan in orbit.”

  Emiko did a double take, then realized Kinsley probably couldn’t see that. “He said it was Fatima.”

  “And that is what Jan has always thought. I know only what Fatima shared with me, but neither of us had any inkling that Rafe was the one she calls Mastermind. I could only be certain once he blew past Bharat and the others moments ago.”

  “But why?” Emiko asked. “Why would Rafe betray Jan?”

  “I’m not sure. Gambling debts? Drug addiction? I can only guess at Rafe’s intentions, but we can now safely assume he is not the master criminal he claimed to be. While Rafe is ambitious and creative, he is not, well, competent.”