All of Qin’s fears that he meant to betray them reared up in her mind. She squinted into the gloom, looking for him, but someone sprang up out of the smoke toward her. The man’s armor gave him the ability to reach the top of her stack of crates, but she shot before he reached her, a round slamming into his chest.
It ricocheted away before exploding, but the impact knocked him off his trajectory. She jumped to her feet and slammed a punch into him to ensure he wouldn’t find purchase on her perch. The ship’s gravity caught up with him and took him back toward the deck, but she’d been distracted momentarily. An explosion went off at the base of her crates.
What had been stable before bucked under her feet, and only through a gravity-defying dance of agility did she manage to snag her weapons before she tumbled off the side of the falling stack of crates.
For an instant, she had a view of the airlock tube, and she saw someone in a galaxy suit running down it toward the other ship. Johnny? Everyone else was armored.
Before she could warn Bonita or contemplate what his departure meant, the man she’d punched sprang out of the toppled crates. He was too close for her to bring her weapon to bear. He lunged at her, gauntleted fists leading.
Qin blocked the attacks with her rifle barrel, then growled and sprang at him. He tried to dodge out of the way but wasn’t fast enough. She slammed her shoulder into him, knocking him back into the smoke.
Bonita, still safe on her perch, fired at him. He landed on one of the explosives that hadn’t yet been detonated. It blew now, ripping his armor to pieces and sending shards tinkling all around the hold.
“Retreat!” someone cried. “There’s a whole army here.”
Several men stampeded out of the smoke and toward the airlock. But as they ran into the tube to escape back to their ship, an explosion flared orange, ripping the flexible passageway to shreds.
Armored men were blown out into space. Air and smoke from the hold whistled through the hatch.
At first, Qin assumed the ship’s computer system would recognize the problem and close it automatically. But almost everything was offline. An alarm sounded, but the hatch remained opened.
“Qin, close that, will you?” Bonita barked. “We didn’t bring oxygen tanks.”
Qin was already on the move. “Yes, Captain.”
She could feel the pull of the vacuum of space, threatening to draw her outside. Bits of broken crates and shards of armor clinked and clanked past as they hurtled through the hatchway.
Qin was surprised at how strong the pull was. She activated her magnetic boots to give her extra staying power as she ran, but she ended up almost flying to the hatch. She caught it, hooking her leg around it and yanking on it as she fought against the pull. Outside, the torn tube flapped as things struck it. The smuggler ship floated in space, fewer than ten meters away, but it had already closed its hatch. She had no idea what Johnny was doing over there.
Something careened past, clunking against her shoulder. Qin, with a snarl and a grunt, finished shutting the hatch. The pull disappeared, and the hold settled down, growing eerily quiet. Had all of their enemies been blown out into space? Or were some still alive and hiding, poised to shoot?
The smoke in the hold had all blown out, so the air—what remained of it—was clear. An alarm flashed, reporting that there wasn’t enough oxygen left inside to breathe. Qin and Bonita would both have a few minutes of reserve air in their suits.
Qin wanted to slump against the hatch and recover for a few seconds, but she made herself push away and search for enemies. There weren’t any bodies on the deck, either because they’d been blown out or the intruders had hidden. The crates that hadn’t been damaged or knocked down from the explosives remained strapped to the deck and the walls, so that left numerous hiding spots.
“There’s an armored guy in this corner back here who isn’t moving.” Bonita was kneeling atop her stack, peering around from her elevated position. “His armor is breached, so he may be dead. He’s the only one I can see.”
“I’m looking around,” Qin replied quietly, prowling around the perimeter.
She always felt at a disadvantage when her nose was shut away behind a faceplate and she couldn’t smell the scents around her. But no enemies sprang out at her. As she completed her circuit without hearing any scuffles or breathing or anything to suggest anyone other than she and Bonita remained in the hold, she came to a stop under her crates.
Bonita climbed down with her weapons slung over her shoulder. “Toes is gone?”
“I think I saw him run through the tube to the other ship. He was the only one I spotted wearing a galaxy suit.”
“Before the explosion? Or after it?” Bonita’s voice had a strange hitch to it. Concern?
For Johnny? Qin was more worried he was in the middle of betraying them and all that stuff about being Sir Bjarke Asger had been a lie.
“Before.”
“Did he set it?” Bonita asked. “I didn’t. Obviously. The tube wasn’t attached yet when we were setting the charges.”
“He might have dropped one as he ran through.” Qin shrugged.
“To cut those guys off from their ship and keep them from escaping? Or to cut us off from him and leave us stranded here until the Kingdom warship arrives and its crew wonders if we were the saviors… or if we were behind the attack on the Machu Picchu?”
“I don’t know.”
Asger sat beside Casmir, watching out the nearest porthole.
Before, it had all been black out there. Now, a light blue glow brightened the water, and he could occasionally make out walls of ice and stalactites dangling down from above. The submarine was navigating through a tunnel toward what he’d heard, and hoped, was a back door. Asger had the sense of a massive complex with miles of tunnels embedded in or even carved into the bottom layer of the ice. Presumably, generators and a big environmental control system kept areas inside livable for the astroshamans who were still partially human.
But nobody was telling him anything. What he’d gathered had been from snippets of conversation between the mercenaries, and when the door to navigation was open, a few murmurs that slipped out from Rache and the pilot.
Asger knew that two more of Rache’s submarines were coming this way and that the rest were trailing the Kingdom’s team. Stalking the Kingdom’s team, he feared. They had headed off in another direction, perhaps to the main entrance of the base. Asger didn’t know how they’d found it, since Casmir had been the one to lead this submarine here, through some clues on the network he’d hacked into.
“You doing all right?” Asger asked Casmir.
He wasn’t looking out the porthole or at anything. His chin was to his chest, his eyes closed, sweat gleaming on his forehead. Now and then, he wiped his brow or shifted in his seat, so Asger knew he wasn’t sleeping, but his lack of interest in the changing surroundings was worrisome.
Casmir nodded and opened his eyes to look at him. “I’ll be fine. I’m just trying to navigate the maze of their wireless network. It’s unorthodox. I’m able to see that there are a lot of nodes on it, likely robots and androids and automated machinery inside the base, but I haven’t been able to gain control of anything yet. I’ve spent most of my time trying to fend off attacks. There are these bots running around, attacking anything that isn’t familiar. Namely me.” A smile ghosted across his lips. “Are you all right? Nobody’s picked any fights with you, have they? I’m sorry I haven’t been paying much attention.”
“You sound like you have enough to deal with especially when…” Asger started to point out that Casmir was clearly sick with something, but maybe he shouldn’t mention that. He’d seen Yas and Kim trading whispers and looking Casmir’s way with concerned expressions. Whatever he had, it was more than the flu. “Protecting me isn’t your job,” he finished instead.
“It seems like I should do my best to keep our kidnappers from harassing you when you only came along to help me.”
Asger lowered hi
s voice. “You just figure out how to give us an advantage so we can find the gate and get it away from the mercs and up to the surface where our ships can pick it up.”
“That sounds more daunting than protecting you.”
Before Asger could respond, Yas appeared at his shoulder with a jet injector.
“I bring a gift,” he said. “For Casmir.”
Asger might have objected to the mercenary doctor injecting his friend with things, but Kim was at his side. She wouldn’t let Yas give Casmir anything dangerous.
“A cold bottle of fizzop?” Casmir rubbed his eyes.
“An immune-system enhancer and a cellular energy booster.”
“That doesn’t sound very tasty.”
“You don’t have to ingest it.” Yas leaned across Asger and pressed the injector to the side of Casmir’s neck.
“Here.” Kim handed him a cold bottle of water. “I put a packet of that electrolyte stuff you like in it.”
Casmir accepted it but said, “Do you mean the electrolyte stuff you think I should like?”
“It’s berry flavored. What’s not to like?”
“It’s unsweetened.”
“Sugar doesn’t need to lace everything you consume.”
“Ugh, maybe you and Rache are right for each other.”
Yas’s eyebrows rose.
Kim frowned.
Asger shuddered. “Nobody’s right for that man. He—”
Rache walked down the aisle and stopped to look at Asger. “I need to talk with you, knight.” He jerked his thumb toward navigation and headed back that way without waiting for an answer.
“It’s Sir Knight.” Asger was inclined to ignore the command and stay in his seat.
But Yas squinted after Rache and then looked at Asger. “I think he’s going to offer you a weapon to use against the astroshamans.”
“Why me?”
“You’re presumably not cybernetically enhanced,” Yas said. “Is that true?”
“It’s true. I don’t need enhancements.”
“Which you would know is true if you’d seen his calendars.” Casmir patted him on the shoulder.
Asger frowned. He didn’t want these grubby mercenaries knowing about his modeling work. Or Rache, dear God. He could imagine the snarky comments now.
“Will you go see what he wants, please?” Casmir lowered his voice. “Better to make him believe we’re working with him for now, so he won’t expect it later when we choose a moment to sneak off on our own.”
“And return to the Kingdom subs?”
“And finish the mission while determining our own fate.”
“You worry me, Casmir. For so many reasons.”
Casmir smiled and gave him another pat. “You should go.” He rested a hand on his midsection. “All this twisting around in these tunnels is unsettling my stomach further.”
Asger lurched to his feet. “Seat’s all yours,” he told Kim and Yas, though he doubted anyone would sit in the potential line of fire, and headed up to navigation.
Rache had taken over the pilot’s spot again, and he banged the hatch shut, trapping Asger alone inside with him. Rache wasn’t wearing his helmet. It would be possible to strangle his vulnerable neck… if one were strong enough and quick enough. That would put an end to his murders of Kingdom subjects and his hobby of destroying Kingdom resources. Asger might get himself killed doing the deed, but maybe it would be worth it. A way to protect his friends and redeem himself to his superiors. If he killed the Kingdom’s greatest enemy, nobody would question his worthiness to be a knight.
“If you don’t stop staring at my neck and breathing hard,” Rache said without looking back from the console, “I’m going to rethink my offer.”
“What offer?” Asger crossed his arms over his chest and made himself look out the porthole.
The glowing pale blue light was brighter to the front, warming the icy walls comprising their tunnel. Asger jumped when he spotted machinery integrated into what looked to be a ceiling above them. A few black pillars dotted the route ahead, metal columns with glowing blue indicators—were they the source of the light?—that went from the top to an ice floor below them. They’d left the ocean and were completely within the ice now. Asger tried not to imagine pieces crumbling down to crush them.
“With Dr. Peshlakai’s help, we’ve retrofitted a tranquilizer gun to shoot vials of a liquid that will break open and turn gaseous upon impact. You may be familiar with it since Kim was thoughtful enough to make it and bring it over.”
Asger didn’t know anything about it, but he didn’t want to admit that Kim had confided more to the mercenaries than to him, so he grunted in response.
“It’s designed to make a cyborg’s cyberware break down,” Rache said, “hopefully fast enough to have an effect in a battle.”
“I’ll take it and put it to use, if that’s what you’re offering.”
Rache turned to look at him, which was disturbing since he was piloting them through the maze. “My people would also be susceptible. Our armor will protect us, but armor gets damaged. I need you to give me your word as a knight that you won’t attack them. Or me.”
Asger didn’t bother hiding his grimace. He didn’t want to give his word to Rache on anything. “Forever or just while we’re infiltrating the base? I can’t give my word not to attack you when we get to the gate—the Kingdom sent me to get that, not to help you get it.”
“I want your word that you won’t attack us with our weapon,” Rache said.
“You just said Kim made it.”
“We provided the gun.”
“You’re real criminal masterminds.”
Rache looked at him for long seconds before saying, “Once we’ve defeated the astroshamans and claimed the gate, you and I can have another battle if you want.”
Asger remembered their skirmish in the cargo hold of the astroshaman ship. He wouldn’t have come out on top if Zee and Casmir hadn’t helped, but his pride wouldn’t let him back down from a challenge.
“I would love to battle you again, especially if it’s to keep you busy while my colleagues are sneaking away with the gate.”
“Your colleagues Kim and Casmir are going to carry the gate away? I don’t think Casmir could carry the change in his pocket right now.”
“You forgot about Zee.”
Rache waved a dismissive hand and looked back long enough to adjust their path so they didn’t run into one of those pillars. A line of little square lights flashed on and off as they sailed by. Asger hoped it wasn’t an alarm, that their passage wasn’t being tracked and transmitted to whatever headquarters existed inside.
“Give me your word or don’t,” Rache said. “I’d rather not take the weapon than give it to someone who will betray us.”
Asger gritted his teeth. It wouldn’t be a betrayal if he shot Rache. He would be doing the right thing. Giving his word, on the other hand, was like making a deal with the devil.
But he wanted any advantage he could get in dealing with what was ahead. “I promise I won’t use your tranquilizer gun to shoot you or your people.”
“Good.” Rache seemed willing to accept his word. That was surprising. “Meet us at the airlock with your weapons and all your armor on in ten minutes. If nothing leaps out to attack the submarine, we’ll head inside then.”
“Head inside what?”
“This.”
Rache guided them around a corner, and the ice walls widened into an underwater harbor that was large enough to hold a hundred submarines like theirs. There wasn’t anything that looked like a docking area, but two massive blue-black doors with more indicator lights were closed up ahead, suggesting an inner harbor beyond them.
“Those are big doors,” he murmured. “Are we sure this is the back way?”
“Not entirely. When we were here last week, we located an underwater cable that goes into the base in another location about five miles away. We detected what we believe is a power station over there. The K
ingdom submarines apparently detected it, too, because they headed that direction. Casmir is the one that found this back entrance through the network.”
Asger gritted his teeth, frustrated that Casmir was helping the mercenaries instead of their own people. Not that he’d had a choice. It frustrated Asger further that there was no way to get a message to the Kingdom submarine commanders. Even if he took his chip online, the only network he could try to access was the astroshaman one, and from what he’d heard from Casmir, he’d get his chip fried even if he could get through the security to hop on.
As Rache turned their craft and entered the harbor, other vessels came into view to the left. At first, Asger thought they were the other borrowed tourism submarines, but these were made of the same black metal alloy as the pillars and the door, and their shapes reminded him more of jellyfish back on Odin than the long cylindrical submarines. Long limbs lined with fins dangled down from the dome-shaped bodies.
“No life readings,” Rache murmured, “at least none that we can detect. Those vessels all appear to be powered down.”
“Just parked there? I guess that means their crews are in the base.”
“I expected no less.” Rache waved at him again. “Go get ready.”
Asger hadn’t removed any of his armor except for his helmet since coming aboard—as if he’d be so insane as to make himself vulnerable around these men—so there wasn’t much to get ready, but he headed back to check on the others. It occurred to him that Kim and Casmir shouldn’t go along. There was no reason for Kim to go, and Casmir was too sick to infiltrate an enemy base and hunt through miles of corridors. Rache’s people would have to come back and get him after they’d cleared the way and found the gate.
The idea of going off alone with these mercenaries didn’t fill Asger with delight, but he would do it. And he would find his opportunity to take the prize for the Kingdom.
Asger paused near Casmir’s seat—Yas was sitting next to him now, some diagnostic monitor hooked up to his arm—and eyed Zee, wondering if Casmir would be willing to send the crusher along to help him.
Before he could ask, Rache came up behind him.
Gate Quest (Star Kingdom Book 5) Page 20