With a swift, decisive kick, I burst open Varon's door and saw her. Alicia was sprawled out on the bed with a look of sheer panic on her face. Relief washed over her when she saw me, but the fear in the room was still palpable.
“What the fuck?!” Ever eloquent, Varon’s voice rang out, his face incandescent with rage. Seeing the way he was clearly poised to take advantage of Alicia, whatever anger he felt was nothing compared to what was boiling up inside of me. White hot, electric fury coursed through every inch of my body, and I finally had my target in view.
“I hope you’re ready,” I said, tucking my pistol into my belt and tossing my knife to my dominant hand. “Because, there are no limits to what I’m about to do to you.”
“Is that right,” he sneered.
As I stepped toward him, I could hear the cocking of sidearms behind me. On instinct, I dropped into a crouch as the first rounds tore through the cabin. Yanking my gun out, I returned fire just enough to clear the door.
“You won’t get away with this, Razar!” Varon practically screamed.
“The fuck I won’t,” I snarled, firing again and slashing at Varon with my knife. He backed up just enough, and I held out my hand to Alicia, who grabbed it and leaped to her feet. “Come on!” She stepped next to me, and I took another swipe at Varon for good measure. It would have been wonderful to have caught him even a little.
“Wait!” she said suddenly. “My parents—Varon said he has people watching my parents.”
That’s what the bastard had on her. “He’s bluffing. He wouldn’t waste the resources to keep people on your parents when all he had to do was show you a picture, I’m guessing.”
“That bastard tricked me?”
I winced, glad I wasn’t Varon and almost feeling sorry for him if she ever got alone with him in a room again. Almost.
“Let’s get off this boat, babe, and we’ll figure out your parents. They wouldn’t want you to sacrifice yourself for them.” I knew it in my bones, even though I wasn’t a father. I wouldn’t want her to sacrifice herself for me. “Besides, if he really had them, there would be nothing stopping him from harming them once he was done with you.”
She nodded, expression grim. “I forgot the rule. Don’t negotiate with terrorists.”
We launched ourselves into the passageway, and raced to the end by the stairs. Alicia at my side, I was determined to put myself between her and any danger.
“Get under the stairs and stay low,” I told her. “This is going to get ugly.”
“So, I’m just supposed to sit here while you fight?”
“That’s the idea.”
“Like hell it is,” she shouted. “I’m with you.”
“Alright.” I pulled the Ripper’s pistol out of my belt and passed it to her. “Stay behind me. Do you know how to fire one of these?”
“I’m pretty sure I can figure it out.”
“You’d better.” And I meant it. At the far end of the passageway, Rippers began to come out from their hiding places.
Razar
“Jesus Christ.” It was an appropriate response. I wondered for a second where my tentacled crewmember friend had got off to. Seven on board? Hardly.
“How many are there,” she whispered.
“Ten from where I’m standing. On top of the three I killed up top. Does that sound right to you?”
“None of this is right to me.”
“Yeah, well, head up top, and keep your weapon trained on the doorway. Here,” I said, handing her my extra clip. “When I toss my gun up to you, drop me yours and replace the clip in mine. Think you can do that?”
“I’ll figure it out!” She sprang up the ladder, and I cracked off a few rounds. One Ripper hit the carpet with a shudder, but the one behind him had bloodlust in his black eyes. This was going to get really nasty.
They rushed up the passageway in a clump, firing wildly. I leaned back against the steps and shot round after round into the fray. This wasn’t a moment to look for kill shots, I just needed to slow them down. The time to go back and crush the survivors was after I had come out alive.
And I was going to come out alive. With Alicia to protect, I didn’t have a choice. It’s funny, back when I was in the military, I always considered it one of my greatest assets that I had nothing to lose. Folks said it made me a more dangerous fighter. Not so—I was never more dangerous than I was when I finally had something worth fighting for.
Two Rippers at the front of the throng squealed and went down, writhing, and clutching where my bullets had dug into their stomachs. The ones behind scrambled over them, heedless of their fallen comrades. So much for loyalty.
“Alicia!” On that alert, I pitched my gun up to the deck and she dropped the other one squarely into my hands. This woman was a keeper.
As soon as I caught it, I kicked open the door next to me and ducked into the galley. Still keeping my gun trained on the door, and also the gangway leading above, I took in the space. It was alive with potential weapons—pots, pans, knives. The works.
On impulse, I reached over and kicked on one of the gas burners, pulling a shiny titanium pan onto it. The doorway was suddenly thick with enemies, and I fired again and again. Catching the first one in the mouth, a spray of thick blood and needle pointed teeth cascaded out of him as he crumpled to the floor.
Behind him, I could see another start to ascend the stairs. Before I could get a bead on him, I heard a shot and saw him collapse with a spatter of blood. Alicia got sexier by the moment.
No time to dwell on that, because two more of the bastards pressed through the door and into the tiny galley. They raised their pistols, but I snatched the pan from the range and threw it at them. On instinct, they caught it, and screamed in pain. One dropped his weapon and I shot him dead on the spot.
The other had backed up toward me to avoid the searing pan. With a sweep of my leg, I tripped him and held his head to the flaming burner as I dispatched another Ripper just coming in. My friend on the stove was screaming so loud that I had the mercy to snatch a long knife from the nearby countertop and put him out of his misery.
When he hit the floor, I put the pan back in its place. That was a nice trick, and worth having at my disposal again.
“How many can you see, babe?”
“Three,” she shouted from above. There was a gunshot, and her voice rang out again. “Two!”
“Keep up the good work!” Stepping over bodies and blood, I edged to the door and looked into the passageway. There were two, alright, but they were hanging back. Smart fuckers.
“Drop your weapon and come out, Jorkan,” came a hissing croak of a voice. “Do that, and we’ll let the human live.”
“You clearly haven’t been paying attention,” I said. “How about you drop your weapons and we’ll let you go home. Sound like a plan?”
He replied with a gunshot. I guess his answer was ‘No’.
Swinging into the open, I put one of the bastards on ice before either of them could manage a shot. The one who had threatened us had pulled up a compatriot from the floor. It looked to be one of the first two Rippers I’d shot. The poor devil was still alive, barely, and was none too pleased about being a living shield.
I ducked back into the galley and checked my clip. I’d exchanged some heavy fire, but still had enough to do some damage. ‘Fuck it’ I thought. Snatching up that white-hot pan, I surged into the hallway and rushed my foe at the other end. As I sent out a hail of bullets, the wounded Ripper-shield buckled and fell dead.
With a hearty swing, I caught the standing Ripper hard across the head with the hot pan. He staggered, but stayed up, wheeling on me. Pressing the searing edge against his face, I fired five or six times into his chest. He went down in heap.
“Come on down, babe.” She inched down the stairs, clearly stifled by the air thick with carnage.
“All clear,” I said. She raised her pistol and fired it directly at me. There was an ugly, guttural squawk behind me, and I turned to se
e a Ripper slumped to the floor.
“I thought you said there were ten?”
“I did,” I said.
“That one makes eleven.”
“No, that one makes ten.”
“Eleven.”
“We’ll count them later,” I said, shaking my head. “Come on.”
Varon was hiding in the bathroom of his suite. It might have seemed like the perfect refuge to his cowardly little mind, but all I saw were hard surfaces to slam his head against. Which is exactly what I started doing.
By the time I let him drop, the edge of the sink was slick with his blood. So was the floor. And the tub. It was a good time.
He struggled away from me across the floor into the suite, desperate to reach a gun discarded on the carpet. With a single deft swipe of her foot, Alicia knocked it out of his reach. He looked up at her with pure hatred in his swollen, bleeding eyes.
“Make a fist,” she said.
“What?”
“Your right hand. Make a fist and put it on the floor.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to break your hand.” This woman was a force of nature. Varon whimpered and tried to refuse, but when he heard my sidearm cock, he knew there was no choice.
Balling up his fist, he stretched out his arm, and Alicia brought her heel down on his hand with as much force as she could muster. I could hear each bone splinter even above Varon’s screaming.
“You fuckers have no idea what you’ve gotten yourselves into,” he spat through broken teeth as he rolled onto his back, clutching the mangled hand. “You can’t begin to imagine how powerful I am. This whole thing,” he made a feeble gesture to the bloodbath around him, “I’m going to twist it until you’re the ones in jail.”
“Is that right?” Alicia’s voice was cold.
“Fucking right, that’s right!” Blood and hunks of teeth sputtered out of his mouth with each invective. “With my money, and my influence, no one will even dare to question that Razar and his little human slut were colluding with the Rippers. So, go upstairs and soak up some sunshine, because it’s the last time you’ll ever get the chance.”
“I’m not the criminal here, and you know it,” I said. “There is only one felon left alive on this stinking yacht, and you know exactly who it is, Varon. Yilap knows, too. So I imagine a lot of people know it by now.”
“That’s impossible.”
“I contacted Yilap as soon as I knew you were coming here.” Varon’s head thumped down on the carpet, and it was as if all the air rushed out of him. “But that’s not all, is it?” He opened his eyes and peered up at me.
“Your crimes go much further back, and reach even further than your deals with the Rippers, don’t they?” I was hunched over him now. “You’ve violated the tenets of the Earth/Jorkan Protocols, haven’t you?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” His eyes were wide, and I could read in them that he’d never thought any of this would come out.
“Come on, Varon.” I let the end of my gun graze lightly across his chest. “Just once, I’d like to hear the truth out of your stinking, lying mouth. Alicia isn’t really your match, is she?”
Those beady eyes of his went flat, and flickered back and forth from Alicia to me.
Alicia
I was tingling all over. My ears started ringing. Was it possible that this entire thing had been a scam pulled off by this bloody little weasel on the floor?
Wait—was that what he had meant when he’d mentioned the trouble he’d gone to in order to procure me?
“Razar, what are you talking about?” I kept my voice calm and steely. If I snapped, it wouldn’t be pretty.
“He knows it. Don’t you?” Varon just stared at him, so Razar stood up and spoke to me. “I’m not entirely sure how he managed it, but this little shit managed to get hold of some government files. That was weeks ago. Maybe even months. Isn’t that right?”
For his part, Varon kept his mouth shut. He just lurched forward, wincing with the pain, and struggled up until he was sitting on the edge of the bed. A trickle of blood strung from his mouth to the bloody mess of his hand, cuddled in his lap. If I hadn’t known the wretched, broken figure for the slimy rapist that he was, I might have pitied him.
“It’s protocol that when someone in close, personal employ is matched with a human, the superior is notified so that they can begin to make arrangements for a replacement. So, it seems that someone on Varon’s payroll matched up.”
“That’s a lie,” Varon spat.
“Is it? Any time you’d like to tell the truth, I know we’d all be glad to hear it.”
“You want the truth, Razar? Alright. The truth is that Alicia Harper matched with me. No doubt you’ve enjoyed fucking her, playing your little games. You’ve probably even convinced her that you love her, haven’t you?”
“What are you babbling about?” I stared at him, not bothering to hide my disgust.
“What I’m talking about, pet, is our match. You belong to me by right. This conniving fucker here,” he said, gesturing to Razar, “was going out of his way to steal you.”
Did he really think he could emotionally manipulate me that way? He was even stupider than I had imagined.
But I glanced at Razar and lifted an eyebrow. I did want to know how much he knew—and how much he’d kept from me. “Is that true?”
“I’ve seen the files.” Razar’s voice was firm, and even.
“What?” It was Varon’s turn to panic. “That’s impossible.”
“Yilap showed them to me. He was suspicious of you, and given the way you’ve been making a public spectacle of yourself at the casino, I don’t blame him. You’ve seemed far more interested in getting drunk and showing off than in Alicia.” Razar’s gaze met mine. “That just proves what a fool you are, Varon.”
There was no doubt in my mind that every word Razar was speaking was the golden truth. He had never given me a reason not to trust him, and now he was making good on all the unspoken promises we had made to each other.
“Someone in your employ matched with a human.”
“No!”
“You managed to get hold of the files. Once you saw Alicia’s pictures, you decided you wanted her for yourself. So, it must have felt like the perfect time to use all that wealth and influence you’re always bragging about.”
“Fuck you!”
“A party boy like you could make short work of bankrupting your companies, but it’s even more expensive to grease the palms of all those officials, isn’t it? How many did it take? How many of them were in on it?”
“None!”
“He already told you he’s seen the files, Varon.” Those bruised eyes flashed over to me. “It’s time to give up, don’t you think?” He slumped over, even more blood trickling out of his mouth.
“That’s not all, I’m afraid,” Razar said.
“What else could there possibly be?” I asked.
“No matter how much hush money you spend, news like this has a way of getting around, doesn’t it, Varon?”
“It does,” he said quietly.
Judging by the look on Razar’s face, he was as surprised by that admission as I was. Varon forced his battered body upright again and looked at the two of us.
“When I saw your picture, I had to have you. And I didn’t care what it cost. It only takes one or two officials to get the records changed. The scientists who manage the matching almost never see these things to fruition, so that didn’t take much.” He laughed. “Who the hell believes scientists anyway?”
“But then the trouble started.” Razar kept his eyes locked on his erstwhile employer.
“Goddamn right it did.”
“What do you mean?” I demanded.
Varon looked at me like I was a child. “The Rippers, girl. I don’t know who slipped them the information, but they found out about my little switcheroo. And information like that? On a rich person like me? All they could smell was money.”
“That’s why you went colluded with them?”
“It was one reason among many. The world rises and falls on leverage, my pet. That heap of sons-of-bitches out there had me leveraged from almost every angle.” His eyes glittered with something like sorrow as they looked on me. “Though you were the key that locked me in.”
I was stunned. This whole horrible business about government corruption and treasonous alliances with an enemy force, and I was the lynchpin. It almost made me lose sight of the question beating inside my chest.
“Varon,” my voice was soft, “what name was on the original file?”
He started to laugh. It was a hoarse, mirthless sound, and rattled me to the base of my spine. In spite of everything, I found myself moving closer to him. Burning with need for an answer, I was ready to shake it out of him if I had to.
“Look at me, Varon. Whose name was on that file?”
He cracked open his eyes and looked at me. “Whose do you think?”
My knees went weak, and I felt as if I might melt and explode at the same time. Reeling with the elation and relief of it all, I faced Razar as if for the first time, basking in the smile on his face.
“Is it…” I started. “Please, Razar. Tell me it’s true.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn’t. His eyes were as wet as mine, and all he could manage was a tight nod. If I thought I was about to faint before, now I was almost certain of it. As my knees started to go, Razar’s expression changed. Tipping backwards, I could feel a strong arm snake around my waist.
“You’re not terribly observant, are you, bitch?” Varon’s face was right by my ear, and I inhaled the dark scent of his blood. Reaching down with his good hand, he yanked up the edge of the bed and came back with a pistol. “If you’d actually spent any time with me, you would have known I am left-handed.”
The muzzle of the gun snugged hard up against my temple, and his other arm dug so tightly into my stomach that all the air was forced out of me.
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