by Jody Wallace
“I turned the cameras off,” she said. “Next time—ask.”
“Why are there...” Briar’s face blossomed with heat. Of course they’d have cameras on the patients if the medic had to leave the room. “Uh, well, I mean…” she stuttered. “Is it a problem?”
“It’s not a problem. At all.” Lincoln crossed his arms to match hers, apparently unperturbed that their lovemaking could have been recorded—but also not denying it or making any excuses, which was pleasing. “I want to know what happened. The plans were sound.”
“All right, fine,” Su said. “I’ll be serious. Nobody lets me have any fun.”
“Briar doesn’t look like she thinks it’s very fun,” Wil murmured. “Social cues are your friend.”
“Was there interference with the ambush?” Lincoln asked, uncustomarily demanding. Well, except for about thirty minutes ago, and those were demands he could make of Briar anytime he wanted. “Did the buyer get the piece?”
“No, no, I think every cat on the ship would have hijacked the planet if it looked like that was going happen. Their fears of being discovered are less than their fears of not saving their people.” Su fingered the bottom of the scar on her cheek.
“I can understand that.” Briar glanced quickly at Lincoln and away. “Sacrifices. I’d do it, too.”
Before anyone could respond, Mighty Mighty skidded past the entrance to the clinic, his tail fuzzed out. He skittered on the smooth concrete of the hallway, claws ticking, until he gained enough purchase to dart into the room.
“You’re all right!” he shouted and arrowed straight at Lincoln, launching himself into the air.
Lincoln, startled, caught the cat against his chest. A smile softened his features until he looked actually happy. “You are, too.”
Mighty rubbed his face against Lincoln’s jaw, his eyes closed with pleasure, bringing a lump to Briar’s throat. From the expression on Lincoln’s face, he might have a bit of lump in his throat as well. She hoped one day to cause Lincoln to wear that expression.
“I wasn’t sure we could get help in time,” Mighty said. “Not even Boson Higgs could convince them all to calm down.”
“The cats prevented some violence but not all of it,” Wil explained. “They’ll think their injuries came from a fight with a street gang.”
Mighty reached a paw toward Briar. “Come closer.”
Briar leaned against Lincoln and scratched Mighty under the chin. “I’m sorry we weren’t here to help with the aftermath.”
“None of this happened because you two were out of commission, so don’t feel bad,” Wil reassured them. “The cats did not announce their abilities, Tim doesn’t know we’re the ones involved in that scuffle, and Steven Wat still has the piece. But he’s relocated it, and the original trade that was supposed to happen tonight in the Mire collapsed. We convinced the cats that Lincoln needs to know the changes before they wage war on Steven themselves.”
“I helped convince them,” Mighty said. “Lincoln’s wisdom is valuable.”
“What?” Briar asked, completely confused. Just because the cats had transportation and mindreading abilities didn’t mean they could literally fight humans. “Wage war?”
“If we were to get Steven Wat alone, we could swarm him,” Mighty explained, his purr rippling through her fingertips.
Wil raised his eyebrows. “Isn’t that delightful-sounding?”
“Oh, hells,” Lincoln grumbled. “Is it what they did to you to transport you? Mighty, you aren’t supposed to be experimenting on people.”
“Who the fuck knows what they’ve been doing, if they can force us to forget?” Su cracked her knuckles in a menacing fashion and glared at Mighty, who squirmed onto his back to give Briar access to his tummy. Briar hoped she never got on Su’s bad side, but the cats seemed to revel in it. “Gods damned cats. Javier, you have got to develop a medicine that immunizes us against them.”
“They mean no harm.” Javier grasped Su’s fingers and halted the knuckle cracking. “That’s bad for your joints. You’re not as young as you used to be.”
“Not as old as you,” Su retorted.
Wil took Su’s hand from Javier and dropped a kiss on it before he continued. “I can’t believe we forgot to check whether Steven’s office was bugged. Granted, we never needed to before because all we did was gamble, and Pumpkin puts on a great normal cat act.”
“I resent that remark,” piped up another catty voice. Briar glanced up to see Pumpkin perched on top of the tall portable greenhouse. “You screwed up, too, Twinkletoes.”
“I said we, and don’t call me that,” Wil said.
“Why not? It’s funny.” Pumpkin peered over the edge of the box at the people below with his knowing orange eyes. “The cats didn’t screw up the surveillance of the buyer and the trade.”
“No.” Su sighed. “That was all humans.”
Lincoln heaved a giant sigh as well. “Is anyone going to tell me what happened?”
Someone rapped on the frame of the clinic entrance. Hoff, who had been on the surveillance team since he insisted he was a common visitor to Yassa Port’s stellarship docks and nobody would think it unusual if he was strolling around, nipped into the doorway.
“Oh, the man of the hour,” Pumpkin said.
Hoff removed a green knit cap, his grey and black hair springing out from his head like a bush. It mimicked the bush on his face. “She’s awake, and she’s asking for whoever’s in charge. Guess that’s not me?” he said hopefully.
Briar glanced up at Lincoln, who looked equally puzzled. “Who’s awake?”
“The buyer,” Hoff said, avoiding everyone’s gaze. If Briar knew one thing about Hoff, it was that brash was both his first nature and his second one. Right now, he was less than brash. What had happened? And why had nobody answered Lincoln?
“Why is the buyer here?” Lincoln asked in a stern voice that had even Su glancing at him in alarm. Mighty quit purring.
Hoff twisted the green cap. “She, ah, made us this afternoon, and we had to improvise.”
Lincoln breathed in and out, and his arm brushed Briar’s. “I recommended you not be on the stealth mission, Hoff.”
“I know that place like the back of my hands,” Hoff grumbled. “Damn woman’s got a sixth sense or something. Maybe she has a cat of her own.”
“That one does not and will never,” Mighty said with great precision, “have a cat.”
“Did you at least keep yourselves out of sight?” Lincoln asked the black feline. “That kind of person…”
“We aren’t stupid,” Pumpkin snipped from above. “She only knows about me. But the whole galaxy knows about me and my human Wil.”
“None of the plans will work now.” Lincoln scratched Mighty one last time and set him on the ground. “And you’ve kidnapped a dangerous criminal who will definitely seek revenge.”
“You should come talk to her,” Hoff said. “She doesn’t seem unreasonable. She’s been asking for her own cell, because Vex apparently smells bad.”
“Anyone who works for a slaver is both unreasonable and pure evil.” Lincoln exchanged a glance with Briar, and she didn’t know what to tell him. Yet. But a plan was spinning in her brain, one that would be even more undercover than all the things they’d done so far put together. “Fine. Let’s talk to her.”
Hoff led the procession, Mighty bringing up the rear, to the parts locker that had been retrofitted to secure Gullim Vex. Briar had to trot to keep up with Lincoln’s long strides, as he seemed impatient to finish this. He also seemed no more worse for the wear than she felt, except for the tightness in the area of her scar and her hunger.
They rounded the corner, Mighty falling back. The wire mesh door of the parts locker came into view, and Briar spotted a person wearing upmarket red and yellow coveralls seated in a chair near it.
“Have you come to spring me out of here?” her sweet voice begged. “I do not know what you’ve been feeding this man, but it’s inhumane.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Vex growled.
Hoff positioned himself beside the door so Lincoln was first. The moment Lincoln was fully in view, the woman from Selectstar leapt to her feet.
Lincoln froze.
The woman grasped the mesh of the door, her fingers threading through it. She was attractive, but not unusually so, with a kind-looking face and creases in the corners of her grey eyes. Aside from pampered nails, her fancy coveralls were the only thing about her that spoke of money and power. With her coloring and stature, she could have been Briar’s mother.
“Of all the rocks in all the galaxy, Lincoln Caster,” the woman said in an astounded gush, “I wouldn’t have expected to find you on this one.”
Chapter 13
Lincoln nearly turned on his heel and marched back the way he’d come when he recognized Jenna Banu on the other side of the cell door. It was her. The ringleader of the swindle that had gotten him ejected from Oka Conglomerate—the woman who’d made off with the stellarship components needed by Oka’s vulnerable citizens on decaying ships.
She worked for Selectstar, and she was here. On Trash Planet.
“I guess I won’t be getting out of this stink pen after all,” Jenna said with a weary sigh.
“Correct,” Lincoln agreed. His hands trembled a little, so he stuck them in his pockets.
“You two know each other?” Hoff asked, eyes wide under his bushy eyebrows.
Lincoln nodded once. But there was a bright side. A tiny flicker of opportunity. The fact that he was familiar with Jenna Banu meant her regular methods, her disarming personality, her very normalcy, wouldn’t work on him and his friends.
Behind him, Wil and Su whispered. Javier had remained in the clinic, and much of the factory was quiet for the night. But the person whose reaction he was most concerned about was Briar. What he’d done, whether through gullibility or not, had caused harm to many.
“Lincoln gave me a good deal on some top-notch repair work and parts for some acquisition ships.” Jenna sat back down in her chair and crossed her legs as if discussing the weather. “Gave me a few other things, too, didn’t you, Linc?”
Acquisition ships. That was what they called the vessels used to transport captured humans to buyers. The cryopods kept them unconscious and helpless, without need for food, water, or living quarters. Some slavers liked mass cages, but Selectstar apparently felt such arrangements reduced the quality of the merchandise.
“You helped slavers?” Briar asked, squinting at him as if she couldn’t see him clearly…or was seeing him clearly for the first time, for the sucker he was.
“I didn’t know.” He could touch Briar and see if she flinched away, or he could give her time to adjust. He picked the second and studied Jenna through the mesh. “Didn’t even know what company she was with. This changes things.”
Hopefully not between him and Briar, but it altered all future plans. Was this a way of reminding him he couldn’t escape his mistakes? There was no wilier, more twofaced person in the universe than Jenna Banu; her very involvement heightened the risk factors thirty-fold.
“We can come to a compromise.” Jenna clasped her hands around her knee. “Since you were so helpful to me in the not so distant past, my fine, strapping lad, I’ll forget this happened, won’t even tell the others to, you know, raze this whole factory to the ground. All you have to do is take me back to Yassa Port, give me my things, and let me finish my errand.”
“And me,” Vex said, bristling at them from his corner. “You’re gonna regret keeping me in here. I got friends that’ll raze your factory, too.”
“I certainly regret them keeping you in here,” Jenna muttered, and Hoff raised a hand—out of sight of both prisoners—to hide a smile. Jenna’s wit and seeming good nature were two of the things that had charmed away Lincoln’s suspicions when he’d met her. The third and fourth things were the children.
“Threats won’t help,” Lincoln said. Her humor now turned his stomach, because he knew what other things she found humorous. “Not this time.”
“This is my factory.” Su came to stand beside Lincoln, since Briar had nipped out of Jenna’s sight, leaning on the wall and looking pensive. “Scarier people than you have tried to raze us to the ground. Recently, in fact. A mob boss from Gizem that could stomp a two-bit company like yours into the dust.”
Jenna smiled as if handing out real-food cookies she had baked herself. “Oh, is that what happened to Casada? We wondered why Zev’s organization shifted around and what it had to do with Trash Planet and SPA. I would love to hear that story.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lincoln said. Jenna could piece out a lie as easily as the cats, and he was telling the truth. He hoped she was pushable. He hoped the cats would push her so hard her brain fried. “You have no call to harm anyone here for—”
“Kidnapping me and forcing me to share space with the talking essence of rot when I am simply completing a task for my employer? All I need to do is buy an item from a poor little independent contractor lucky to have found me on the cybbie. And yet?” She waved a hand at Vex, who horked at her.
“The item was stolen,” Lincoln said. Interesting that she thought Steven was an independent contractor. Had she taken what he’d told her about himself at face value or was she trying to confuse matters?
She studied her fingernails. “Not by me.”
“You can’t have it.”
“You have two days in local time to release me—with my money—or the others will come looking.” She pretended to check the chrono that had no doubt been confiscated. Obtaining the passcode to unlock the device would have been a simple matter with Pumpkin on hand to read it in Jenna’s mind. “Oh, dear, I believe I have missed my first meeting. Do you think we don’t have trackers?”
“Do you think we don’t know how to find and remove trackers?” Su retorted. “I’m kinda good at it.”
Wil chuckled at that. “Leaves a scar, though.”
Jenna bared her wrists. “Strangely, I have no scars.”
Su laughed. “Lady, we can find all sorts of things you assume are hidden. You were unconscious for hours.”
Lincoln cast Su a sharp glance before he realized she meant that the cats had been of service. Good.
Jenna blinked a few times before smiling again. “You’re bluffing. Now you’re scrambling. Trying to pretend you have secrets, but a place this like? Far too primitive for the required technology. You actually have me imprisoned by a metal door.”
“It works.” Su didn’t seem intimidated by Jenna, but she’d lived in the relative anonymity of Trash Planet all her life. Did she realize what Jenna could bring crashing into them? Wil did. The distinct worry line between his brows wasn’t offset enough by his carefree smile.
“Two days,” Jenna reminded them, stretching her arms into the air as if she’d just woken from a wholesome nap. “My errand is harmless. I’m not here to scout for acquisitions. But I could make that recommendation to my employers.”
“Bigger companies than yours have tried that, too,” Su said. “Are you always this ineffective, or is this act especially for us?”
Jenna blinked again before returning her hands casually to her knee. Su had gotten Jenna to blink, twice, which was more than Lincoln had ever managed. But Lincoln hadn’t known the danger until it was too late. “Don’t think you can fool my contact into handing over the piece. You can’t be too careful in the staffing business. We have safeguards against impersonators. He won’t give it to anyone but me, and it’s not like a dump like this can afford it.”
It seemed thoughtless of her to reveal that after such big threats, but Jenna always gave just enough information to let you strangle yourself. There would be more to it, though you’d think you knew everything.
“We don’t care about that,” Su said.
“Then what in the dead zone am I doing in here with this junk sniffer, if you don’t want the part I came to buy? Is this for ranso
m? Do you want me to buy the part from you for a markup? No, no…not with Individual Caster present. It won’t be anything unethical unless you tell him starving children are in danger.” Jenna laughed. “That one works nearly every time when you bring a tiny, convincing child along with you. I do have a good supply of those.”
“We know what you’ll do with the part, and that’s enough of a reason to stop you from getting it,” Lincoln said, without letting any of his roiling emotions show.
“You’re such a damned prig,” Jenna cursed, shaking her hair out of her face in frustration. “At least give me my own cell. If you leave me in here with the stench much longer, I might have to commit murder.”
“Fucking bitch,” Vex growled. Lincoln couldn’t blame him.
When nobody else spoke, Lincoln glanced down the hall at the small black form of Mighty Mighty, who crouched out of sight of the cell. Whatever happened to Jenna Banu was going to involve the psychic powers of the cats. It would not involve vengeance on Lincoln’s part, because the Catamaran’s breakdown outweighed his regrets. The addition of the cats, a factor Selectstar couldn’t possibly have accounted for, gave him and his friends a chance to survive this.
But could they secure the part? And if they obtained it, would Selectstar bear down on them with everything in their arsenal, hunting for the reason they needed it?
The hurdles before them were towering, and their jetpacks were fresh out of fuel. They needed to trick Steven into going through with the trade Jenna claimed he’d never make with anyone but her—while counteracting the problems Jenna’s abduction would cause afterward.
Or during.
Or right this very minute.
In search of answers, he locked gazes with Briar. She eyed him back, but in a considering fashion, as if measuring him for something. A punishment rack was what he deserved. But she jerked a thumb at the cell and the woman in it.
“We’re going to need some DNA,” she said. “From them both.”
Lincoln marched awkwardly into the Tank Union Headquarters, still adjusting to the proportions of his new but temporary body. The makeshift cat carrier that held Pumpkin, who’d been practicing his menacing growl, bumped against Lincoln’s leg.