by M. D. Cooper
“Got it.”
A concussive explosion detonated in the port airlock. It wasn’t so large as to blow the seals, but it would register as a visible shockwave on the ship’s hull.
“They’re on approach now,” I said.
“I know.” Sherry looked back and winked at me. “I was listening.”
“You know that’s rude.”
She laughed and only shook her head. “Everything we’re doing is rude. I’m OK with it.”
A connection hit our arrays from the Daedalus, and I accepted the connection.
I drew in a deep breath.
There was a long pause before a response came back from the Daedalus.
I wondered if I should have fought the directive more, but decided I had already pushed him enough.
On the display next to the airlock door, the Firelight came into view and slowly grew larger. Jacy and Tammy were keeping in touch, bringing the ships together a meter at a time. Two minutes later, there was a light thud. As if on cue, Oln and Finn appeared behind me, both men holding kinetic rifles.
“Is that really necessary?” Sherry asked, eyeing the pair.
“I sure hope not,” I said and opened the inner airlock door.
Sherry stepped inside and turned to face me. “Tell Penny…”
Her voice faded, and I raised an eyebrow. “Tell her what?”
“That…that I’m sorry.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Don’t be sorry, Sherry. No one’s sorry in this business. That sort of sentiment will get you dead.”
She heaved a sigh. “Maybe that’s the problem with this business.”
I didn’t reply, and the airlock door closed, sealing her in. It took a minute to match pressure with the Firelight, and then the outer door opened. Sherry glanced over her shoulder at us, and then stepped into her ship.
Once her vessel sent over a positive seal notification, I closed our outer door, and called up to Kallie.
A few seconds later, there was another soft thud as the ships released grapple, and the Firelight drifted away. I checked the scan data and saw that the Hard Case had backed off as well, likely under orders from the Daedalus.
Which means Mars is out there somewhere.
I didn’t know if she was alone in a small shuttle, or in something larger with her own team. A small part of me wondered if Mars and the general were really even DSA Intel. For all I knew, I was working for some rogue group, stealing hardware for them from the Daedalus.
What a shit-show.
I glanced back at Oln and Finn. “Get to the bay and start unpacking.”
“Unpacking what?” Oln asked.
“Oh, you’re gonna love this,” Finn said as he grabbed Oln’s arm and pulled him down the passage. “Trust me.”
The airlock’s outer door opened, and the lock ran a purge and clean cycle, something one might see happen if a lot of something nasty got inside and the seals needed to be cleaned. When it was done, Kallie was standing inside. When the lock cycled and the inner door opened, she took off her helmet, a grin on her face.
“I liked that more than I should have. Think we can become real pirates, Jax?”
I barked a nervous laugh, not having expected her to say anything close to that. “I’ll give it some thought. Good thing we fixed our stealth EV suit, eh?”
She shrugged. “Well, we could have grabbed one from the DSA cargo if this didn’t work, but yeah, wouldn’t have wanted either Sherry or Penny to get wise to that.”
“Speaking of ‘that’,” I gestured down the passage. “Let’s get geared up.”
“Lead the way, Captain.”
I couldn’t help but notice that she was smiling. At me.
30
UNHELD
Aboard the Firelight…
“Do you have it?” Jacy asked as I stepped across the threshold into the familiar confines of the Firelight.
“I sure do,” I nodded. “Vector and beacon specifics. Putting them on the shipnet now.”
A broad smile spread across Jacy’s face. “You’ve done well, Sherry. Very well. We had four separate teams working on this mission, and only one other managed to get their hands on a core. Unfortunately, it was a dud.”
“A dud?” My eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
“Follow me.” Jacy turned toward the ship’s cockpit. “We nabbed one from a courier before they made their delivery. Not Cynthia and I, another team. They ran initial diags on it, and it looked good, but once they dug in, it turned out that all the data was out of date. Possibly by decades.”
“Fuck,” I muttered. “Does that mean this was all for nothing?”
The colonel laughed. “I sure hope not. We’ve put a ton of work into this operation. We think that maybe the DSA got to the cores aboard the Kerrigan at some point and did something to them—or swapped them out. Not sure. Either way, these cores may be the only untainted ones out there, since our friend Jax likely dumped them before the DSA stepped in.”
“Shit,” I whispered as we stepped into the cockpit, where Cynthia sat at the controls. “Jax…he suspects I’m Paragonian.”
“Suspects?” Jacy turned toward me. “Did you confirm?”
“I confirmed nothing. I didn’t deny I was of Pargonian origin, but that’s all I gave him. He was pretty sure we’re PMF, though.”
“Fuck,” Cynthia groaned. “And that DSA cruiser is almost in weapons range.”
“Relax,” Jacy held up a hand. “If Jax wanted us dead, he could have told the DSA as soon as he suspected. Look.” She pointed at the forward display. “The Daedalus is slowing to match v with the Kerrigan. They’re not coming for us.”
I let out a long breath. “I don’t know what game he’s playing, but it’s a dangerous one. He locked up Penny before I left.”
“He did?” Jacy frowned. “Then who did you pay?”
“Him,” I laughed. “Only sixty, as well. Saved us a few million.”
“That complicates things,” Jacy shook her head. “More for him than us. I wonder if fifty million is enough to betray Korinth. Granted, it burns your cover too—if Penny survives.”
“Doubtful,” Cynthia chimed in. “Her days are numbered. Jax is probably going to turn her over to the DSA for a fee. That’s one smart smuggler. He’s going to get paid double for every part of this job.”
“Yeah,” Jacy’s smile faded. “Smart.” She shook her head as though clearing her mind. “Let’s go. I want to get the cores and get away from this shit-show as soon as
we can.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Oln asked, wide-eyed, when I entered the main bay with Kallie in tow. “Seriously…have you all known this shit was here, and just didn’t tell me?”
I held up a hand. “OK, before I answer that, I just want to say that after nearly two weeks, it’s really nice just to have it be only us aboard. It’s been constant pins and needles, worrying about saying the wrong thing.”
“I feel you there,” Finn nodded vigorously. “Been driving me bonkers.”
“OK, so did you know about this gear?” Oln asked Kallie.
“If it’s on my ship, I know about it, big boy.”
Oln’s eyes widened further. “What do you mean if it’s here you know about it? Does that mean…in my cabin, the—”
“Yeah,” Kallie nodded. “I know about that.”
“What about the—”
Kallie smirked. “That too. All of it.”
“Shiiiiit.” Oln stood dumbly for a moment, then looked up at the overhead. “Tammy, did you know about this gear too?”
He turned back to me, then looked at the two open crates, one filled with weapon cases, and the other with powered stealth armor. “So why didn’t anyone tell me about this stuff?”
Kallie walked up to him and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Because we figured you’d blab to Penny and Sherry.”
Oln scowled for a moment, and then shrugged. “OK, I guess that’s fair. So what are we doing with it all?”
I opened another crate that contained a much larger set of armor and beckoned the big man over. “You know how we’ve been practicing attacking a DSA cruiser in your sim?”
“Yeah, the most boring mission ever.”
“Well, you know there’s a big ol’ cruiser approaching right now.”
Oln cocked his head, then looked at the gear Finn and Kallie were pulling out of the crates. “Shit, this hardware looks like the stuff in the game.”
“Yeah. Oln. We turned the game into a training sim for this mission. That’s why we were doing the same thing over and over again.”
“So, wait. You’re telling me that we’re gonna gear up and hit a DSA cruiser…like, one filled with enemy soldiers…and we’re gonna do it just a few light seconds from a big whack of DSA ships commanded by a woman who hates us?”
Finn snorted. “Shit, when you put it that w—”
“This is awesome!” Oln bellowed.
He pushed me out of the way and began pulling his armor out of the crate.
“Well, I guess that’s that,” Finn said. “Still can’t believe you’re giving those DSA cores to Sherry, though. You realize she’s Paragonian, right? Like, PMF.”
“I do.” I nodded as I walked to the next crate and lifted it off the stack, prising it open and pulling out the gear I’d selected.
“And you think it’s wise to give them DSA cores?”
“Not especially, no.”
Finn glanced at Kallie, who was grinning like a cheshire cat.
“There are two crates,” she said. “They got one filled with…parts for the old toilet on the lower deck, if I don’t miss my guess.”
I pulled up the scan data and saw that the Firelight was taking an indirect route to the coordinates I’d given Sherry. I wished I could have trusted her, but I knew it wasn’t possible. Even so, I still hoped that we could deal with her ship while earning some points with her government for trying.
Or, if things went tits up with the DSA, I could grab the four cores and take them directly to Paragon myself.
Always good to have a deuce up your sleeve.
“Shit.” Finn whistled. “You’re friggin’ wily, Captain. I have to admit, when you first hired me on, I figured you for a bit of a dumbass, but you’ve got this whole thing wired.”
Kallie snorted. “Don’t get too carried away.”
“Just remember, everyone. When we’re done with this job, you’re all getting ten million extra. Even share.”
“Fuuuuck,” Finn breathed. “Ten mil? On top of our cut from Skip’s chits?”
“And don’t forget the delivery fees for the first eleven cores,” I added. “I know we’re going to catch a lot of heat if things go sideways, but we get away, and all we have to do is lay low, work up new IDs, and then live like royalty.”
“Stars,” Kallie whispered. “You’re right, it’s so good to be able to just say this shit. We should buy a space station or something.”
“Where? Paragon?” Finn asked.
“Nah. In Chal. A fringer. Those places are gold mines.”
I held up my hands. “OK, everyone, don’t get carried away. Let’s focus on this mission. We still have to rob the Daedalus.”
“Wait.” Oln poked his head around the crates. “Rob?”
“Yeah,” Kallie chuckled. “I guess Intel’s worried that some of the stuff they’re hauling is going to get skimmed and sent to the wrong place, so they want us to lift it and bring it back.”
A booming laugh filled the bay, and Oln’s meaty hand slapped a crate. “Oh, this just gets better and better.”
“Well, sort of,” I said. “Downside is that we’re doing the no-kill version of this mission. If we do it right, we get in and out, and no one knows.”
“I hate that version. Can I kill just one person?”
“We’ll see. If you’re super sneaky, maybe I’ll let you.”
We continued to get suited up, friendly banter echoing back and forth, the kind of banter that had been absent the past two weeks. Here we were, about to embark on the most dangerous mission we’d ever even considered, and the atmosphere was relaxed and jovial.
It’s a good crew, all right.
“Shit,” I hissed, swapping to the game’s chat system.
“Fuck,” Kallie growled. “Shoulda just killed that bitch.”
“Finn, Oln, you two keep gearing up. Kallie and I will deal with this.”
“ ‘This’?” Oln asked.
I didn’t reply, snatching a nearby pistol and tugging my armor’s base layer into place. Kallie was ahead of me and up the ladder by the time my hands hit the rungs.
By the time I reached the top of the ladder, Kallie was already gone. Pausing before I rounded the corner that led to the bridge, I checked my pistol over, ensuring it had a full magazine and charge.
The feeds in the passage showed it to be clear, but the optics in the bridge were disabled. I hoped Tammy and Penny were still in there, because I didn’t have time to check every room.
“You want to have round two with Oln?” I called out as I crept down the passage. “He’s down in the bay, it can be arranged.”
“You’re a funny man.” Penny’s voice came from the bridge—meaning nothing, insofar as her actually being in there was concerned. “I think I’ll go with these odds.”
“Why don’t you show yourself?” I asked as I eased past the galley. “We don’t have all day for whatever shit you have planned. The Daedalus will arrive soon.”
“Oh yeah, they will,” Penny said. “I had Tammy ask them to send a repair crew. They’re going to be here soon.”
I couldn’t help a long-suffering groan. “What did I do to deserve you, Penny?”
“None of this would have happened if you�
��d just brought all the cores.”
“You’re right,” I replied. “Something else—probably equally bad—would have happened. How’d you get out of the hold, by the way?”
“Oh, I have a few tricks for that,” she called out. “Not that I’ll tell the likes of you.”
By then, I’d reached the end of the corridor and stepped into the bridge’s entranceway. On my right, on the other side of my captain’s chair, stood Penny, holding a gun to Tammy’s head. I couldn’t help but notice that she had the trigger pulled.
“Reverse trigger,” I commented.
“Observant,” Penny replied. “You shoot me, I let go, she dies. Or, you know, I spasm or twitch or something, and she dies.”
“Hi, boss, sorry about this,” Tammy added. “I should have been paying closer attention.”
“It’s OK.” I turned my attention to Penny. “What is it that you want? Because I promise you, even if you kill a few of us, you’re going to lose. There’s too much heat out there. I just have to send message that you’re aboard, and the DSA will be here before you can say ‘my ass hurts’.”
“Well, after being strapped to the deck in your hold, my ass does hurt, so there’s that,” she grunted. “I’ll admit that I kinda want to put a few rounds in your head, Jax. I took you for one of the few honest smugglers out there. That’s why you were selected to get the cores from Skip. Then you pull this shit—leaving some behind, and then double-crossing me in a deal with Sherry? Did you at least get the seventy million?”
“What? She was going to pay you seventy?” I shook my head. “That little—I only got sixty. Granted, it’s a lot more than you were going to pay me.”
Penny smirked. “Serves you right.”
“You still haven’t said what you want,” I prompted, waving my pistol for emphasis.
“You know, you never asked why I came on this trip.”
Great, more circles. Can this woman ever give a straight answer? “I just figured you’d lie, so there was no point in asking.”
She looked wounded, and if I didn’t know better, I would have believed her. “Well, if you had taken the time to ask, I would have told you it’s because I’m looking to break ties with Korinth. The DSA has been closing in around him. This business with the cores was too risky, if you ask me, but he wouldn’t listen. I’d be shocked if Intelligence Section didn’t pick him up in the next week or so. The guy’s done.”