“The doctor is engaged in a delicate examination at present and cannot be disturbed.”
Right, and Eva was the queen of Spain. “How long is it going to take?”
“I am not at liberty to estimate, but if you’ll provide an accepted form of—”
“Come on,” Eva said. “Just tell her Eva is here. She’ll want to see me.” That was probably not entirely untrue.
“With respect, the doctor’s friends don’t visit her at her place of work during business hours.”
One of the waiting humans spoke up. “We were here first, lady. Get in line.” The others muttered agreement.
Normally she wouldn’t have minded waiting—or at least, she would have pretended she didn’t mind while being enormously grumpy about it. Okay, fine, she hated waiting with the passion of a million white-hot stars. But in her defense this time, docking fees were charged by the hour on this resingado chunk of vice, so she needed to leave as quickly as possible.
“How about I show myself in and she’ll forgive you later?” Eva said.
“How about the door is locked and I’ve just armed the security lasers?” the receptionist replied.
Eva threw up her hands. “Fine, me cago en diez, I’ll just ping her.”
“No, I told you, she’s in—”
((Pink,)) Eva pinged. ((Waiting room.))
From the back, a low hum was followed by a wet thud. Silence dropped like the kind of bass note you feel rather than hear, and a full minute later a door opened.
Pink stepped into the reception area, her nose and mouth obscured by an air filter, her mint-green biosuit covered in bright red blood. One of the humans in the waiting room squealed, and the alien with the long tongue let out a low moan.
“Well, that was not good, but he’ll live,” Pink said. “Welcome back from the dead, Eva. You look like something a cat puked up.”
Eva had cleaned up the worst of her injuries, but she still had a few choice cuts on her face along with a split lip and a bruise under her right eye.
“You’re the one with blood all over you,” she replied.
“It’s not mine. The other doctor on duty is handling the situation.” Pink’s cybernetic iris widened and contracted as she stared at Eva. “This had better be an epic story, and you’ve got about five minutes to tell it. I have to get back to my patients.”
Eva reached out a hand for their usual handshake, but Pink ignored it. Not an auspicious start to the conversation.
“Not much to tell,” Eva said, following Pink to an exam room. The walls were a soothing pale blue lined with cabinets, and a long chair floated in midair, facing a small vidscreen meant to look like a window onto the bright lights outside. There was also blood on several surfaces, not including the chair, which Eva sat on.
“A year is a long time for nothing to happen.” Pink began carefully removing her bloody scrubs, glancing at Eva as she did.
The chair reclined gently as Eva leaned back into it. “I took an ice nap, woke up in the middle of a shitstorm, and now I’m trying to pull my life back together. The usual.”
“You get La Sirena Negra back?”
“Nah, Pete’s still got it. I did take down Glorious, though, so that’s something.”
“You took down— No, don’t tell me, that’s going to be a lot.” Pink dropped her scrubs into a yellow box marked with a hazard symbol, followed by her gloves. “If you don’t have a ship, how did you get here?”
“Got another ship from Pete. A real piece of shit, but I made it work. How did he end up with La Sirena Negra anyway?”
“I made the mistake of asking him for help finding you. By the time I figured out he was working for The Fridge, he’d already brought his whole squad on board and I didn’t feel like using my medical powers for evil.”
Eva scowled. “Did you leave, or did he kick you out?”
“I left.” Pink jammed her hands into a sanitizer pod. “Went to live with my brother and his family for a while, which was nice, but I couldn’t stay there waiting on you forever.”
“At least something good came of this shit. Sceilara, though? Why here?”
“Turns out, working as a medic on a small cargo freighter doesn’t get you the kind of experience a cushy doctor’s office wants to see.”
“Mierda, Pink, I’m sorry.”
Pink pulled her hands out and moved to a nearby counter to fiddle with equipment Eva didn’t recognize. “So you’ve got some grand plan to go after The Fridge again, and you want me to help?”
“I’m trying to get my ship back first. Revenge later.” Eva sucked in a breath, staring at the fake window. “I don’t suppose you know where Vakar is?”
“Not a clue. You both disappeared at the same time.”
Eva released her grip on the hope she’d been clinging to. It had been a silly idea in the first place, trying to gather up the frayed ends of her old life. For her, it had been only a few moments, but for everyone else? A year was a long time; people moved on, and asking them to come back was as stupid as asking her dad to turn over a ship he’d made into his home and livelihood.
Still, Eva’s abuela had always told her she was stubborn as a goat. Or was it crazy?
Pink pulled on a fresh set of gloves and set to wiping blood off the counter. “I’m sure you have a diplomatic and peaceable plan for getting our ship away from Pete.”
“It’s complicated. I was hoping if I could find all of you, get back to La Sirena Negra, maybe he would—”
“Roll over and play dead? This is the same Pete we’re talking about, yeah?”
Eva resisted the urge to dunk her head into the sterilizer unit.
“And then?” Pink continued. “Duck and run for as long as it takes? Let me know when I get to the complicated part, by the way.” She made a final brisk swipe, leaving the counter white as bone.
Pink had always liked to help people, even ones who needed the help because they’d screwed themselves over. Eva wanted to give her that: the righteous cause. The good fight.
But Eva knew all too well that no good deed went unpunished.
A thought occurred to her. “How’s the lawsuit coming?” she asked.
“The habitat one?” Pink grinned. “They settled. My brother got us enough media attention that their sweet little honeypot turned into a beehive. We weren’t the only group they’d pulled the same tricks on, and once everyone started comparing data, they couldn’t shut us up fast enough.”
“No shit.” Any win against a big corporation was huge, beyond David and Goliath. More like ant versus elephant. But if you got enough ants together, if the ants were angry enough and careful enough . . .
“You know what?” Eva said. “You’re right. It’s not complicated. I want my ship back, and I want my crew back, and I want The Fridge blasted to a smoking crater so I can piss on the ashes. If someone else doesn’t do it, I will. And I think I know someone who’s planning on doing it in the next few cycles.”
To her surprise, Pink laughed. “For a minute, I thought you were getting introspective on me. Nothing worse than being cooped up on a ship with a philosopher.”
“So you’re coming?” Eva tried to keep her tone neutral instead of eager-puppy.
“What’s in it for me?” Pink asked, arms crossed.
“You get off this tired-ass rock, for one. Back to the black, wandering the galaxy instead of being stuck here.”
“I didn’t realize I was a sweet young moisture farmer with dreams of space travel.” Pink tossed her soiled cleaning cloth into the yellow hazard box and grabbed a fresh one. “Maybe I’m old and I like solid ground under me now.”
“You’re not even forty.”
“Y’all make me tired enough to be a hundred.”
“Revenge, then,” Eva said. “Against Pete, at least. And The Fridge, though that’s more my target than yours.”
“I would enjoy giving Pete a severe case of heartburn,” Pink said, scrubbing at a stubborn bit of sticky blood. “Messing wi
th The Fridge is more justice than revenge, but it would still be sweet. Not sweet enough, though. What else you got?”
Eva sank into the chair, squinting. “I’ll be your best friend?” she offered tentatively.
Pink snorted. “You damn toddler, I’m already your best friend. What next, pretty please with sugar on top?”
“You want sugar? I’ll get you sugar. All the sugar you can eat.”
Pink pretended to throw the bottle of cleaning solution at Eva, who shielded her face with her arms.
“I’ll make you co-captain,” Eva said. “Big pay raise. You can even have my cabin.”
“I don’t want your cabin, and I know you pay yourself less than the rest of us, fool.” Pink threw out her other cloth and stripped off her gloves, tossing those in the yellow bin as well. “I might take that co-captain title, though. Captain Rebecca Jones, hmm. Sounds sexy.”
“It wouldn’t just be a title.” Eva sat up, leaning toward Pink and gripping the side of the chair. “I mean it. Equal partners, you and me.”
“You definitely need someone around to keep an eye on you.”
“What’ll you do with the other eye?”
Pink threw her a glance that would melt rebar.
“Let me take care of my patients,” Pink said. “Which includes you, fool. Coming in here looking like you got jumped in a back alley.” She flipped up her eye patch and appraised Eva more critically. “You’ve got multiple broken ribs and some ugly lacerations on your chest. Did you crash a ship or something?”
“That’s your first guess? Do I crash a lot of ships, is that a thing I do?”
Pink raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, fine,” Eva said. “I crashed a ship. You happy?”
Pink shook her head, but she was smiling.
Yeah, things are gonna be all right, Eva thought. Or at least not quite so wrong.
They took a cab back to the spaceport. Min was delighted to see Pink, and Sue was aggressively cheerful, which Eva decided was either her natural state or an elaborate defense mechanism. Maybe both. Mala was Mala, and purred prodigiously, along with the rest of the cats.
“So what’s our next stop, fearless coleader?” Pink asked after settling into her new med bay.
Eva flopped into the captain’s chair next to Min, staring out the viewport at the stars.
Once upon a time, she had thought she was giving these people, her people, a good life. Room and board, a job, eventually something like a family. They’d finally climbed past the bottom rung of the ladder and she’d pulled them all back down again with her stupid Fridge problem. And now she was scouring the galaxy to find them all so she could get her ship back and lead everyone on a wild crusade, because . . . Why?
Revenge, sure, but that wasn’t all. The Fridge was doing grotesque crap, and they’d keep doing it unless someone stopped them. She was only one person, but one person doing something was better than a whole lot of people doing nothing. Change had to start somewhere, with someone, and it might as well be her. Maybe it was like her dad had said: flip the right Reversi piece, and next thing you knew, the board would look a whole lot less dark.
But maybe more importantly, she just wanted her life back. Her family back.
Vakar back.
Eva pursed her lips. “What do you think, Captain Jones?”
Pink chuckled. “You know, I do like how that sounds, especially coming from you.” Her expression softened. “I’m guessing you want to try finding Vakar?”
“I do.” Eva rubbed her neck, her face burning. “But if my intel is right, some big Fridge arroz con mango will be happening in about two or three cycles. That doesn’t leave us a lot of time.”
“I had thought about trying to find his sister, to see if she knew where you two were, but you know. Things got busy.”
Vakar’s sister, of course. What was her name? Paula? Pollea!
“That’s it,” Eva said. “We start with her and see where it takes us.” It was something, at least. More than she’d had a minute ago.
“Cap,” Min said. “You’ve got a call on the emergency channel.”
“Yeah? Let’s have it.” Eva crossed her arms and scowled.
Min hesitated. “You don’t want it in your room?”
Eva shook her head. “No more secrets. Bring it up.”
Her sister’s face appeared in the comm projection. Tiny lines between her eyebrows betrayed more feeling than she typically allowed.
“Eva, you comemierda, I cannot believe you,” Mari said.
Pink whispered in Eva’s ear, “Isn’t that your sister?”
“I’ll tell you in a minute,” Eva muttered back. To Mari, she said. “How may I assist you, Agent Virgo?”
“The Fridge has been monitoring your aliases since you went missing, including the one you just used on Sceilara. That means now they know you’re alive and free.”
Eva winced, recovering quickly. “I didn’t have time to put together a new identity in a hurry. What’s done is done. I’ve got Pink, Leroy is doing his own thing, and now I’m going after Vakar.”
“How? The quennians aren’t going to cooperate, you know. His records are sealed.” Mari’s smug face was so punchable, Eva briefly regretted not having taken a swing while she had the chance.
“I’m going to check with his sister,” Eva retorted. “I’m sure you were too busy to stop in and chat with her, what with all your spying and shit, but maybe she’ll talk to me.”
“I was too busy, yes. I know you think this is all some elaborate game, but—” Mari froze, leaning away from the vidcam for a few moments before straightening again, her expression flat. “They bugged my comms. I have to go.”
Mari vanished. Eva stared at the place where her sister’s face had been, her mind pulled in a dozen directions. Presumably Mari meant The Fridge had bugged her comms, which meant they had heard the whole conversation, which meant Mari’s cover was blown. Mierda, mojón y porquería.
“What on god’s good green earth just happened?” Pink asked, one hand on Eva’s chair.
“Mari was a double agent for The Fridge the whole time,” Eva said, massaging her temple with one hand. “She’s the one who pulled me out of cryo, but also she sold me out in the first place to get in good with them. Sorry I didn’t tell you earlier.”
Pink fell silent for so long that Eva finally twisted around to look up at her.
“Eva,” Pink said. “That is real messed up. That is ten kilos of wrong in a five-kilo bag.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m serious.” Pink knelt down and put both hands on Eva’s shoulders. “Look at me, Eva Innocente.”
Eva stared into Pink’s eye, fighting the urge to look away.
“You didn’t deserve that,” Pink said. “You’ve made a lot of stupid choices, and I know you’ll never forgive yourself for what happened on Garilia, but you’re half an asshole trying to do better. Your family are whole entire assholes. You hear me?”
“My mom isn’t so bad,” Eva muttered.
Pink gave a short laugh and stood. “I’m starting you on therapy again as soon as we have a minute to breathe, woman. Don’t you let me forget.”
Eva nodded, finding herself unable to speak past the tightness in her throat.
“So what now, Cap?” Min asked.
Eva swallowed, flexing her hands. “We find Vakar’s sister,” she said. “She’s on, fuck, what was the place called . . .” Mari had told her, just after she woke up. Last place Vakar was seen. Come on, Eva, think. “He was on a ship, and his sister was on some station in Crux Hemithea.”
“DS Nor?” Min asked.
“DS Nor, that’s it, of course. Big hub. Move it.” Eva paused. “Assuming that’s okay with my co-captain.”
Pink grinned and patted Eva’s head. “Next time, ask me before you start barking orders, ’kay?”
The FTL drives whined on, and Eva sent up yet another prayer to the Virgin for luck. Because if The Fridge had been listening to that conversation
, they were probably on their way to Vakar’s sister as well, and all Eva could do was hope she got there first.
Forty-seven minutes later, they were docking at DS Nor, a space station primarily for personnel involved in resource mining in the Crux Hemithea system. It was also a popular waystation for travelers, plopped as it was right next to not one but two Gates. Security was no tighter than most places with a high turnover; whatever credentials Pete had set up for El Cucullo seemed to be solid, and Eva’s alias hadn’t been burned by The Fridge for some reason, so they docked without incident.
Probably walking into a trap, Eva thought. At least weapons were outlawed, so all she had to worry about were the million other ways someone might come after her.
“You think we can manage this without violence?” Pink asked.
“We can try,” Eva said.
“Eva, come on,” Pink said. “I’d like to walk out of here calmly, without someone chasing me down or trying to kill me.”
“I can’t control what other people do.”
Pink rolled her eye. “Can you at least promise me not to start any unnecessary fights?”
“Sure, I promise.”
Getting to Vakar’s sister meant walking down an endless circular corridor leading to the station’s living quarters, past what seemed like a million identical doors. Pink had wrapped Eva’s chest in stiff bandages and told her not to cough, or sneeze, or laugh. Her bones were still a work in progress, her skin was raw and itchy where the Albatross’s restraints had dug into her chest and stomach, and her bruises were fresh as a country road. Which was to say, shitty.
“Hey, remember the last time you did something like this, on that cruise ship?” Pink asked.
“Yeah,” Eva replied.
“Remember how you ended up a meat popsicle?”
“I do remember that.”
“Just making sure.”
They finally stopped in front of a nondescript door labeled D-12, its only differentiating feature a tiny crystal stuck to the top of the doorframe. Eva raised her hand to knock, but hesitated. She was so close to finding Vakar, and all she could think was that something was about to go terribly wrong. It always did.
Chilling Effect_A Novel Page 29