“Yes.” A tendon in her neck twitched.
The pod hissed open, revealing an interior as pink as a womb but cool and dry. She took a step toward it, stopping as a scent flooded the room. It was like a bonfire made of licorice, smoke and aniseed, rage and love, so potent it burned to breathe.
“I will find you,” Vakar said, his voice so deep it was practically a growl.
Eva couldn’t think of a damn thing to say. Goodbye was pathetic. Adiós? Which god would that be? See you later? That was a promise she might not keep. I love you? She did, didn’t she, for fuck’s sake. What a time to stop lying to herself about that. Her throat was tight as an aahx’s cloaca.
She nodded and quietly got into the pod, making herself as comfortable as she could with her stomach full of stones. Sorry, Mari, she thought. The pod door slid shut, and with a smell like blood, everything went away.
Chapter 17
Wake Up and Smell the Colada
The first thing Eva heard when she woke up was a soft whir-click, followed very quickly by a hiss, a warm whiff of air, and a blaring klaxon that might as well have been inside her skull for how loud it was. It took her a few seconds to realize her eyes were open, because everything was dim and vaguely pink.
“Eva, get up,” a voice said, barely audible over the klaxon. It sounded familiar . . .
“Whuh,” she mumbled, her mouth tasting like acid and blood.
“I said get up. You need to leave now, before the guards get you.”
That sounded serious. She willed her limbs to move, and they grudgingly obeyed, so slowly she wondered whether she was dreaming.
She climbed out of a stasis pod, where she had been put by . . . someone. Tito. That cabrón resingado comemierda. How long had she been asleep?
“Stay low but move quickly,” the voice said. Where was it coming from? It floated around her, like the source was moving. “Get outside and make a left, then a right at the first junction. Second door on the left has a locker room where you can probably grab a weapon.”
“That,” Eva mumbled, “is a lot to ’member.”
She limped at first, the room careening around her like her ship in a bad plasma storm. Her eyes gradually focused on bare metal walls and a few computer stations, security cameras up in the corners. No people. Weird. The door opened at her touch, revealing a T-junction.
Left, she thought, okay.
Letting one hand trail along the wall for stability, Eva staggered forward, toward another T-junction up ahead. Right here. Or was it left? And why did it smell like—
Whatever was to the left exploded, the blast hitting Eva like a fiery linebacker and knocking her backward. She hoped that wasn’t the right direction, because it looked very wrong now. Staggering to her feet, she headed the other way.
Windows, and through them low walls and banks of desks. Q-net stations? Still no people, though. A pair of doors at the far end opened and closed over and over, but didn’t shut all the way, a limp form on the ground between them. Ah, well, that was a person. Past tense.
“Second door on the left,” the voice said. “Take whatever you can find.”
Finders, keepers, Eva thought. She opened the door to the locker room and found rows of neat bunks with storage lockers between them. First set was locked, as was the second. Third was also locked but she got impatient and threw a chair at it. Repeatedly. Inside she found a blaster with a spare magazine and an empty tin of chewing gum.
She slid the magazine into a slot on her belt—still wearing that awful leopard-print jumpsuit, of course—and headed back outside. Still no people.
“What’s going on?” she asked, assuming the voice could hear her.
No response.
She followed the hallway to another door, which opened onto an atrium with benches and large planters. At the far end of the room were a pair of guards, who exchanged fire with a pair of . . . mercs, maybe? They were in a uniform she didn’t recognize. And they were all heavily armed and armored. She slid behind one of the planters and wondered where she was supposed to go next.
“Who the fuck is that?” someone shouted, and now she was under fire. Who was on her side? Anyone? Her head was a mess of fog clearing way more slowly than she might like, and she still had no idea where she was going.
Guards across and mercs to the right, so left it was. She waited for a break in the volley and raced for the door, diving behind the wall inside. Unfortunately, she found she wasn’t alone, but the guard was so shocked he didn’t so much as flinch before she knocked his face sideways with her gun. One more smack and a swift kick later and now she had two guns and extra magazines. Much better.
“This area is locked down,” the voice said. “Head right and let me reroute power to the doors or you’ll be trapped.”
Yeah, that would suck, Eva thought. But given how much of a vacuum things were at present, she figured they were reaching deep-space suck levels already.
To the right was a bare white room with another door on the end—locked—and scanning equipment in the center. No, that was a memvid recorder. A studio?
“Where the actual fuck am I?” Eva muttered. Was this a Fridge facility? Some kind of waystation? How long had she been out, and what was happening now?
And who kept giving her instructions?
The door beeped and slid open, revealing the other side of the recording facility, whatever equipment they needed to manipulate and play back the memvids. Had Mari been dragged through here when she was first taken? Eva gripped her weapons more tightly.
“Left out of this door, and then—mierda,” the voice said. “Cargo bay. Quick. I have to go.”
There was a muffled sound like shots being fired, then Eva was left to the klaxons again. At least they might have a ship in the cargo bay for her to steal. It was as good a plan as any.
She exited and followed the hallway left to a door, through which she found herself at the end of what did indeed appear to be a cargo bay full of shipping containers.
The roof was about ten meters up, and there were big double doors in the far wall for ships to enter and leave through. A few short-range shuttles sat around, so this facility probably couldn’t support bigger boats. That made her nervous; if there wasn’t an FTL-capable exit strategy then she’d just be orbiting shit central station until she could raise someone on a comm buoy. Assuming there was one, and that she didn’t get shot down while she was comiendo mierda.
There was a booth to the left, likely where the traffic controller sat, or the foreman. It was empty, unless there was a body on the floor Eva couldn’t see. Should she pick a shuttle and jump? Or wait for mystery voice to show up and bring the mystery plan together?
“Over there!” someone shouted, and now she was taking fire from guards pouring in through the cargo doors. She returned the favor, darting from cover to cover as the ones she didn’t take down moved closer to her position. She wouldn’t be able to reach the shuttles at this rate, let alone entertain the hope of getting off whatever rock they were on.
There was a muffled scream, and she peeked out of cover just long enough to see a guard drop, convulsing. From what? Another cry, another guard gone. Either the person was fast as light, hiding really well, or they were cloaked. Which would be expensive. Annoying, too, but apparently on her side, so she’d take it.
“My shuttle is outside,” the voice said, right next to her again. Eva jumped, swinging her gun in the direction of the sound. It connected and the person yelped, then cursed thoroughly in Spanish that trailed off as they moved.
Not they: she. Eva knew that yelp, and that string of foul language. But it couldn’t be, could it?
Questions later. She dodged fire from two more guards, ducking behind one container after another until she reached the shuttles. The door she had come through opened and the mercs arrived, communicating in hand signals as they spread out through the cargo bay. The guards hesitated, then turned their attention away from Eva to the bigger threat.
&
nbsp; Sucking in a breath, she hustled out the bay doors and found herself under a red sun on a red rock that was mostly, well, rock. She was relieved the atmo bubble extended to the escape route, since she wasn’t wearing a proper spacesuit.
At least she had her grav boots, for whatever that was worth.
“Over here,” the voice called, and she raced after it, almost running into a shuttle, which wasn’t cloaked but did have a decent camouflage mod that made it look like more red rocks. The door lifted open and she dove inside, rolling to her feet and throwing herself into a seat facing the rear of the craft.
“Are they going to shoot us down?” Eva asked.
“I sabotaged their cannons,” the voice said from the pilot’s chair. “Cállate, I need to concentrate.”
Eva closed her eyes as they lifted off, savoring the way her stomach fell into her crotch. She was alive. Within minutes they were free of atmo, the curve of the planet lit by a star that was more orange than red. They banked toward a small moon, where they landed next to a long-range ship—an Albatross, of all things, a human vessel that was out of production but still common as a cold because it was reliable and easy to customize with whatever wild tech you picked up. This one had been modded with a cargo bay door, an FTL supercharger with the requisite extra cooling tanks, and most importantly, a big fuck-off cannon.
Eva swallowed questions like nasty medicine as she exited the transport and made her way to the Albatross’s bridge.
Her rescuer was already there, still invisible. “This is Agent Virgo,” the voice said. “The package has been retrieved. The merc assault was ongoing when I disembarked.”
“Well done, Virgo,” a husky female voice responded through the comm. “What about your secondary objective?”
Virgo was silent for a moment. “That package was also retrieved,” she finally said.
The mystery woman laughed. “Glad to hear it. We’re less than seven cycles out from the priority mission and we need your head in the game now more than ever.”
“Yes, ma’am. Virgo out.”
The link died, and Eva cleared her throat.
“So,” she said. “Qué pinga, Mari?”
Whether she decloaked on purpose or her power supply went dry, Mari was suddenly visible in the pilot’s chair. Eva’s sister looked enough like her to mark them as related—brown hair, tan skin, same resting bitch face. But everything about Mari was a shade lighter, like she was slightly better lit, and she was about ten kilos thinner. She’d always beaten Eva at hide-and-seek, but Eva could knock her out with a solid punch.
And here she was. After all Eva had done, after all the worrying and danger, after nearly a month on Nuvesta and beyond, thinking Mari was dead or worse. Relief fought with confusion and anger in the pit of her stomach, which was otherwise as empty as it had been when they’d thrown her in the brig on that starship. When Tito had dragged her away from Vakar . . . But she didn’t want to think about him yet. Not yet.
“Well?” Eva asked.
“Well what?” Mari said.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
Mari rolled her eyes. “‘Qué pinga?’ is not much of a question.”
“No jodas tanto.”
“No es lo que jode sino lo seguido.”
Eva got up and moved to the copilot seat next to her sister. “Where are we going?”
“A safe house, for now, until I decide what to do with you.” Mari’s hands flowed quickly through the motions of setting the ship aloft and programming in their destination.
Her sister was so calm, so collected. Same as she always had been. And like before, it drove Eva right into a supernova.
“What to do with me?” Eva asked. “What is this? What’s going on? Merc assaults, secret missions . . . You’re a historian, a scientist, not a—” Eva gestured at the whole bridge, as if that could encompass the galaxy of shit that didn’t make sense. “How about you fill me in on, I don’t know, fucking everything?”
Mari stiffened, then slowly seemed to relax, muscle by muscle. “There are some things I can’t tell you for security reasons, but I’ll do my best.”
“Were you ever actually kidnapped by The Fridge? What happened?”
“It was a necessary deception, to secure their cooperation.”
Eva slammed a hand on the console. “You’re talking like a weird spy. Get over it and use normal words, Agent Virgo.”
Mari threw her a hard side eye. “My bosses wanted me to get in and steal their stuff, basically,” she said. “Information, resources, whatever I could manage, with the ultimate goal being a hostile takeover. But The Fridge has a lot of layers, little scattered cells that needed to be found. So the plan was for me to offer myself to them as an agent, and offer you as an asset to prove my loyalty.”
The skin on Eva’s neck went hot. “So you sold me out by pretending to be in trouble? I thought you were . . . that whole act you put on when you called me was fake? Coño carajo, my crew almost died! I almost died! Repeatedly!” Eva’s right hand clenched into a fist tight enough to choke a sentient gas, even as her eyes filled with traitorous tears. She’d be damned if she cried now, no matter how much this hurt.
“I didn’t expect them to send you to such dangerous places,” Mari said. “I thought it would be standard supply runs.” Her face twitched like she was suppressing a bunch of expressions. “You always acted like the work you did for Dad was boring and safe, like Mom had exaggerated when she said he was a criminal. You never told me about Garilia.”
“Fuck you,” Eva snarled. “Like that’s a big fucking excuse. ‘Sorry, Eva, if I’d known you had a reputation for doing wild shit, maybe I wouldn’t have used you like a credit chit.’ You could have done anything else, but this? You got me involved, you didn’t warn me—”
“Your reactions had to be realistic,” Mari said. “You’re not nearly as good a liar as you think you are.”
“Tu madre.”
“La tuya.”
“Same thing.” Eva ran her hand over her face. Whatever fog she’d been in before had definitely lifted, because now she was starving and furious. “So when the gmaarg put out the bounty on me, what did you do?”
Mari took a deep breath, exhaling it slowly. “I had posed as a mercenary, pretending I didn’t care what happened to you. I couldn’t start caring because the situation had changed. It would have blown my cover.”
“Right, of course. I’m sure it was a real challenge.”
“I’m not a robot, comemierda. As soon as I found out, I started making plans. It took some time, but thankfully there were . . . mitigating circumstances that worked in my favor.”
For some reason, this yanked a laugh out of Eva. Maybe because she had spent so long thinking she was the one helping Mari. Which was apparently true, if not how she had expected.
“What’s so funny?” Mari asked.
“What isn’t?” Mari had been the one playing Reversi all along. Eva didn’t want to play anymore. She wanted to flip the fucking board and set it on fire.
“I know this is a lot to take in at once, but—”
“What did you tell Mom?” Eva interrupted.
“About what?”
“Anything. Everything. Pete knew you were missing because The Fridge contacted him, but you and Mom have always been closer. She would have freaked out looking for you if you hadn’t told her something.”
Mari looked at a point past Eva’s shoulder. “I said I was starting a new project in a remote place and I wouldn’t be able to call her for a while, but I’d write when I could. The Fridge was careful enough about loose ends like that to ensure their operations wouldn’t be compromised.”
Loose ends. Mitigating circumstances. Assets. Missions. For all that Mari sounded like a spy, she also sounded a lot like their dad. She was certainly as good a liar as he was, better than Eva had ever realized.
Eva stared at the bridge screen, the stars streaming past them in wavering lines. “Where is my crew?” she aske
d coldly.
Mari fidgeted with the controls, but an Albatross mostly flew itself, so there wasn’t much for her to do. “They’re scattered. Min stayed with the ship, working for Dad.”
“Dad has my ship?” Me cago en diez. And poor Min. If Pete did anything to her—
“Yes. He’s been shuttling people around, delivering stuff. Nothing serious or dangerous. Mostly.”
Asshole. Of course he’d taken advantage of Eva’s temporary absence; she just couldn’t believe how quickly he’d moved. And how had he managed to get La Sirena Negra away from Pink? Her skin flushed hot and cold all at once. “Leroy?”
“He’s on Brodevis.”
“‘Planet of a Thousand Paradises’? The hell is he doing there?”
Mari smirked. “Let me show you.” She gestured at the bridge screen.
At first, Eva wasn’t sure what they were watching, but suddenly Leroy’s face took up the whole screen—well, most of his face, since his eyes and forehead were covered by a green mask. His hair had been cut and spiked up, even dyed a little more extremely orange. The shot pulled back to show him wearing a yellow jumpsuit that looked strangely reptilian, like it was made of snakeskin, along with metal spiked bands on his wrists and biceps.
“What a ridiculous costume,” Eva said. “Is that . . . is he on Crash Sisters?”
“Yes.” Mari rolled her eyes. “They call him The King. Have you ever watched this show? It’s absurd.”
On the screen, Leroy threw back his head and roared, his eyes wide with apparent rage. But Eva knew how he looked mad, and this wasn’t it. This was wild, unmitigated glee.
“He’s the big villain this season,” Mari continued. “But my sources suggest he’s secretly dating another actress, who plays a character named Momoko. His ratings are excellent, for the moment. Fame can be fickle.”
That probably didn’t matter to him. He was living his best life just being on the show, his favorite show. Eva could only imagine how excited he and Min had been about the whole thing when it went down. And she had missed it . . .
Eva’s stomach rumbled, bringing her back to the present and the rest of her questions. “How about Pink, then?”
Chilling Effect_A Novel Page 24