“It’s not, and it will,” and it sounded like Case had her teeth gritted.
I didn’t want to know what the captain, his guard, and his lord were going to think of this little stunt, and hoped they couldn’t trace it back to the ship. Even as I thought it, the shuttle levelled out in what felt like a headlong glide, and then settled back to its previous pace. I could hear Targil and his men picking themselves up off the floor, as the internal comms went live.
“I have control. ETA twenty minutes. Is everyone okay, back there?”
“We’re fine,” Targil growled, and shot a glare at Mack and me.
I gave him my best wide-eyed look in return. It wasn’t hard. For one thing, the man was anything but fine, judging from the way he was moving, and his men were also not as fine as he said. One was cradling his wrist, another had an arm dangling uselessly by his side, and the third groaned softly as he tried to move.
I turned around at the sound, and saw Targil move back to the man’s side.
“Ribs, sir,” the man said.
“Stay there. I’ll send the docs on board to get you.”
“Sir,” and it sounded like a protest as well as acquiescence.
Targil ignored it, straightening up and moving to check the rest of his team. His face had gone from unhappy to sucking-lemons sour by the time he’d finished. He glanced over at where Mack and I were sitting.
“There’ll be a second protection team waiting,” he said. “They’ll take you directly to the costumers. I’ll come and collect you from there, once I’ve briefed his lordship. I apologies for the delay.”
Why he was apologizing, I didn’t know. After all, as far as he could tell, we were still safe, even though his men weren’t. The sourness I understood. No-one liked it when their team got hurt. Mack shrugged.
“I’m sure you can explain the ambush,” he said. “How did they get so close?”
Targil favored him with a long, calculating stare, and replied, his expression saying just how carefully he was choosing his words.
“The raiders were unexpected,” he said, and I heard Case’s denial through our comms.
“Lie.”
At least that explained more of the reluctance of the car service we’d managed to hire—the ‘out of town’ levy, in particular. Targil remained oblivious to her interruption and continued.
“... and some have stolen more advanced equipment than we realized. The lords are supposed to report the loss of cloaking technologies, immediately. His lordship will be looking into it.”
“Partial lie, mostly lie, true.” Case’s commentary ran parallel to the guard captain’s explanation.
Mack broached the most important factor, first.
“I wasn’t aware this world had any cloaking technology,” he said, and let the unspoken question hang.
Targil’s face colored slightly, and then faded back to its normal hue.
“Some lords have been working on it,” he said. “They’re supposed to report their advancements as well as the loss of any developmental tech.”
“All true.” Case sounded surprised.
The shuttle slowed, and Targil glanced towards the barrier separating us from the cockpit. He turned away from Mack, signaling that the time for questions was over. I watched as he rested one hand on the wall. His lips moved, as though he was speaking without making a sound, and I guessed he was either sub-vocalizing, or talking in his head. When he was done, he turned towards us.
“We’re here.”
The two guards that were still on their feet, took their places on either side of the door, and Targil came to stand beside Mack’s seat.
“If you would follow me,” was a clear instruction to unbuckle our harnesses and get our asses moving.
Mack complied, and then reached over to unbuckle me. I didn’t move when he was done, but waited for him to offer me his arm, and guide me to my feet. I was getting thoroughly sick of this ‘dutiful wife’ bullshit. Case sniggered in my head, and Mack favored me with a stern glare.
“Behave,” he murmured, to my surprise, out loud but soft.
Still, not soft enough to avoid being picked up by any mikes. I guess it helped position me for any disobedience I might decide on later.
“Don’t even,” came his instruction over the implant. “I want that level of uncooperativeness to come as a total surprise.
Until he’d added that last bit, I’d been prepared to rebel. After? Well, I could go along with that. I felt Mack relax, just the tiniest fraction, and turned a smirk into an adoring smile as he guided me out the door.
Contrary to Targil’s assurances that his lordship would meet us after I’d had time to change my dress, the good Lord Barangail was standing in the courtyard where the shuttle had come to a stop. The only shuttle.
“Where are the other two?” Mack asked, before I could blow my cover by doing just that.
I closed my mouth with a snap, realizing the stims had taken effect, and the vibration running through my muscles was just something I was going to have to suppress—along with the tendency to say everything that crossed my mind, or impulsively offer every single good idea that passed through my head.
Oh, shit.
It wasn’t as bad as the first time Delight had dosed me, but it was still going to be hard. I wasn’t quite hair-trigger hyper, but I was close.
“Good to know,” Mack said. “Case, Tens, you’re on overwatch.”
I needed both of them?
And my jaw locked tight before I could say it out loud. I could still protest inside my skull.
“Hey!”
It was both a relief and not, when Rohan laughed in response.
I got this, Mack, he said, and the little shit sounded far too pleased with himself. “Tens called me in. Leaves him and Case free for surveillance and comms, and maybe hauling your ass out of there if it gets caught alight.”
Well, no-one was going to say the boy was anything but Tens reincarnate...
“And you, Cutter. And you...” Mack didn’t sound happy about that combination, but he wasn’t arguing that it wasn’t useful. “Now, focus.”
Which I could do, now that Rohan was riding shotgun on the physical.
I focused on gliding elegantly down the steps and across the courtyard at Mack’s side. What had Case said? Oh, yeah: ‘In these societies, the ladies practice elegance from the time they’re born. By the time they’re your age, that grace comes as second nature. You don’t have that advantage, so focus.’
Well, damn. She didn’t have to be so mean about it.
I switched my attention from Mack to our waiting host, and counted the twelve men arrayed around him. Well, Hell. Who the fuck did he think we were? Assassins Are Us?
“Pretty much,” was not a comment I needed to hear from Case, but she was already showing where the sniper teams were situated overlooking the courtyard. “Don’t twitch the wrong way, okay?”
Rohan stopped me from nodding, or agreeing out loud, and I was grateful. Looked like I was going to be on a ban from every kind of stim pack known to man, the way the damn things affected me. On the upside, I wasn’t hurting or feeling tired, anymore, and I could now pay attention to the scans Case had running in the back of my head, while being conscious of my surroundings.
Bonus!
“Only if you’re paying attention, girl.”
Trust Mack to spoil it—but the man had a point. We’d come within three or four paces of Barangail, and he was holding up his hand. Mack stopped, and only the fact my arm was tucked through his, made me come to a halt, as well.
I really did need to pay more attention.
At least Barangail came straight to the point.
“Did you hack my shuttle?” he demanded, and the three men on either side of him aimed their weapons at us.
Targil and his men stopped, and took five paces away from us, which I thought was smart, if not very brave of them. Mack unwrapped my hand, so he could lay his arm across my shoulders, and Barangai
l’s lip curled.
“It’s a nice picture you’re trying to paint, Captain Star, but don’t I remember you from a little visit you paid me around three years back? You know, where you reacquired something I’d borrowed from a certain Miss Delight?”
Mack kept his arm around my shoulders, and kept silent. I leant into his side. The pain killers were working a treat, but I could still feel things moving where they shouldn’t. I wondered if Mack’s stim packs had any nans in them, because I could really do with some faster healing.
“Picky, picky, picky,” Mack said, in my head, but, externally, his attention never wavered from our host.
Barangail continued glaring at us, and then focused his attention on me.
“And you can drop the lord’s defenseless wife act,” he said. “I remember exactly how fast you moved when you put my vault guards out of action.”
This time, Rohan wasn’t quite fast enough to stop my grimace.
I remembered exactly how fast I’d been moving when I’d put his vault guards out of action, too. There’d been four of them, and Mack had been busy trying to keep the house guards clear of the door so we didn’t get stuck inside. I’d gone in, grabbed the chip, and gone out, again—and Delight’s instruction to ‘keep it quiet’ was blown fifty ways to stardust and back.
Like we’d ever been able to keep it quiet, anyway. That girl had left some serious intel out of her report—some of it the reason she’d lost the chip in the first place. Barangail’s intel had been first-class, and I guessed we hadn’t dealt with that as well as we’d thought.
“Rohan, you can let go of her mouth, now,” Mack said, keeping it in our heads. “Just don’t let her get loose, unless we need it.”
“You’re under guns,” Case reminded him, and showed him the four teams and their lines of fire.
“Well, fuck,” Mack said, quietly, out loud, as he started to lift his arm from my shoulders.
There was a chorus of clicks that sounded almost as one, and he froze. Barangail looked around at his men, and then back to Mack.
“I’d stay very still, were I you,” he said, “and I’d start answering my questions—or the next time you go over the cliff, it’ll be in a box with a teleport blocker strapped to the outside.”
Oh... so he did remember that particular expedition.
Well, crap.
I glanced up at Mack, and a single shot hissed out, and a bolt of energy burnt a hole just in front of my hemline. For once, I was grateful that Rohan had my limbs locked down, although he did let me turn my head back to face Barangail. I had never wanted to wipe the smirk off someone’s face quite so badly as I did right now.
“That’s the stim pack talking,” Tens said. “You really want to be very still, and extremely respectful.”
And Rohan caught the hint, because my jaw clamped shut and I couldn’t move it.
Well, fuck the ever-loving crap of a motherfucking, star-sucking, goat-smacking, symbiotic, turd-burgling, sphincter bard!
“Cutter!” Mack’s voice was as good as a slap upside the head, and then some.
“What!” but that didn’t escape my head, either.
“Pay attention,” I heard, followed by Mack’s sigh.
“Fine,” he said. “Yes, I had my people hack your shuttle, and fly it over the electrified force net the raiders had set down, before returning control to your pilot.”
He didn’t try to justify it, and he didn’t apologize. Barangail pressed his advantage.
“And are you my chip-stealing visitors?” he asked, although his voice said he already knew the answer.
Mack sighed.
“Yes, we are the ones who retrieved the chip you acquired from Miss Delight.”
“Excellent,” Barangail said, and clapped his hands together.
I flinched. Either we’d done something right, or we were about to die in a particularly spectacular rain of energy bolts and solid projectiles. Barangail gave a short laugh at my reaction, and rubbed his hands together.
“Then we can do business, although I don’t think you really need my costumers.” He looked at me. “Your armored corset did do its job, after all—and I know Mack couldn’t care less how you looked on his arm, given that’s not your primary role, is it?”
I glared at him, and shook my head, wondering if Rohan had unlocked my mouth enough to let me speak.
“Not a chance,” he replied, and I could hear Tens’s echoed “Uh, uh,” in the background.
Barangail found my silence intriguing.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. “Cat got your tongue?”
“Don’t make me regret this...” Rohan said, and I felt my jaw unlock.
“No,” I managed, and stopped myself from saying more.
Barangail cocked his head.
“I remember you having more of a mouth on you than that,” he said.
“Oh, you do, do you?” I asked, and heard Mack shift uneasily beside me.
I glanced at him, frowned, and turned back to our host, with a shrug.
“What can I say? I have orders to behave.”
“You have orders to behave...”
I nodded.
“Yup,” and I cast a rebellious glance at Mack, “and, contrary to popular belief, I can follow orders.”
Barangail looked from me to Mack, and then he grinned.
“You have to give her orders to get her to behave?” He made it sound like the joke of a millennia.
I didn’t have to look at Mack to see his mouth curl in distaste. His answer said it all.
“Yup.”
Barangail laughed, and I could see several of his guards smirking. Right now, I wanted to smack the ever-loving crap out of all of them...with my blaster. I felt my hand twitch, and then my arm froze.
“Not right now, you don’t,” Rohan told me, and I knew he’d taken control of my limbs, again.
It almost made me regret teaching him the trick of which synapses to fire to drive a human. Almost. Him getting me out of a very bad place before even worse things could happen to me just about made up for what was happening, now.
“I’m saving your ass. Again,” he said, sounding disgruntled. “Pretty sure Mack would kick me ten ways to stardust if I let you do something stupid and you got yourself shot.”
Given Mack would probably get his ass shot off at the same time I did, I didn’t think Rohan was in any danger of Mack doing anything if the boy let me loose.
“No, but I could.”
And there was Tens, sticking his nose in just where it didn’t belong.
“Mack’s kinda integral to the ship,” he said, then added, “You, too, I suppose.”
He didn’t have to sound like he hated the idea so much, but, before either of us could say anything else, Barangail stopped laughing.
“Inside,” he said, all business. “There’s a meal, as per the invitation, and we have trade to discuss.”
7—Of Lords and Kings
“Snipers are still on full alert,” Case said, as Barangail turned his back on Mack and me.
I resisted the urge to look for them, almost relieved Rohan had locked my head facing to the front. The stims were wreaking havoc on my self-control, and I almost looked forward to them wearing off. This was embarrassing. The kid was getting good, though. I felt things unlock as soon as I’d focused on the way Barangail’s guards formed a wall around him.
The guy was as paranoid as Hell.
“With good reason,” Case said. “He’s got enemies in every quarter, and is hated by his own.”
She paused.
“He’s also the second or third richest man on the planet, and one of the few with holdings in the Gorge, so he was a good choice for employer. Just don’t piss him off, any more than he already is, until we’re gone.”
Now, how in all the stars did they think I....
“I’m sure you’ll find a way,” Mack muttered, as we followed Barangail and his entourage up the stairs and into the mansion proper.
&nbs
p; As we did, another set of guards formed up around us. They stopped us once we got through the doors and into a very large foyer. Barangail was nowhere in sight.
“We’ll need your weapons.”
Mack and I looked towards the guard who’d spoken, and I noticed he was wearing the same uniform and subdued markings as Targil. Mack must have picked it up, as well.
“Are your men collecting them, or are we permitted to disarm, Captain...?”
It was a good question. The way the men around us were standing, they were looking for an excuse to add another hole to our body armor. The captain smiled.
“Foksall, and I will do the disarming. I’m sure you know the drill.”
His smile disappeared as he said it, and Mack raised his hands, slowly.
My own hands did the same, and I realized Rohan had more sense than my stimmed-up self. At least he let me turn my head. My lady’s costume didn’t show any of the weapons I was carrying.
“Excuse me, ma’am.”
One of the guards had come up on my blind side. He was standing just out of arm’s reach, not that it mattered. Beyond the fact that Rohan had a firm grip on every muscle I might use to try for a grab, I could just see another two guards moving up close behind me from the corner of my eye. I could also see the others standing well back, guns at the ready, out front.
What the Hell? I hadn’t been that fast when I’d gone through the vault.
“Wanta bet?”
Yeah. Thanks, Rohan.
“Any time. Now, hold still.”
Like I had a choice. I couldn’t move a muscle, and that was a good thing. These boys were thorough... and had no sense of propriety. My dress was unseamed by a knife half the length of my forearm, with a broad, sharp-edged blade that went through the material like butter.
“Sorry, m’lady,” the guard muttered, “but, seeing as it’s ruined, anyhow...”
He stopped, his words tapering off into a whistle. The sound brought his captain hurrying over, and the man seemed more than pleased with what they’d uncovered.
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