by Dan Moren
Eli stood, struggling to see through the mass of people, trying to find the blur, but he’d lost track of both it and Sayers amongst the throng.
Then something shimmered through his vision, heading for the dais and the tablet.
The lights went out.
The second Addy had seen the blur, she started moving. Her pulse quickened as she strode down the aisle, even as she faintly heard Taylor say something in her ear. Then there was nothing but static and she pulled her earpiece out with a growl.
The mission was the auction item. The tablet. Something about it triggered a vague memory in her head, like she’d heard of it once upon a time. Maybe something Boyland had said to her once? She couldn’t remember, and anyway it wasn’t important. What was important was stopping whoever the hell that blur was from getting it.
She was here to do a job. Get to the tablet.
Around her, the crowd had started surging to its feet, the background murmur of discontent rising to a higher pitch. Not quite at panic yet, but they’d get there.
Even as her eyes insisted on trying to blink away the impossible blur in front of her, she stayed focused, resisting the urge to wipe them clear. It was like trying to see through privacy glass; she could make out the vague outlines of a figure – head, arms, torso, legs – but none of the features. Taking out the contacts would have let her see them clearly, but she didn’t exactly have that kind of time.
She shoved her way past a few people who had stumbled into the aisles, hearing one or two of them yelp as they reeled into chairs or other people. Didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except getting to the tablet before the blur did.
Then all the lights in the room died, plunging them into blackness. A moment later, emergency lighting whined to life, blanketing the room in a deep crimson.
Addy was suddenly free of the crowd, standing right in front of the dais that held only the auctioneer, who was now cowering behind his lectern, and the plinth on which stood the gleaming slab of metal, now painted blood red.
She blinked and held her eyes closed for a split second – when she opened them, the contacts had detected the reduced light level and compensated, amplifying the meager light levels into a bright, if grainy image.
Just in time to see the blur shift directions and come after her.
Oh, you want to go? She felt the grin crossing her face, unbidden. Let’s do this.
One blurred fist lashed out at her and she juked to her right, letting it pass harmlessly over her left shoulder. The follow-up jab came from the other direction, but she blocked that easily with a forearm. They’re testing me. Fine, let them test her. Her teeth bared.
A knee came up towards her stomach, and she spun away from it, using her momentum to bring her leg around and deliver a kick to her opponent’s left shoulder, with enough force to bring them down.
But the blur had seen her spin and ducked under the kick, then came up and under during the split-second that she had been off-balance with a hard jab to her gut.
The wind went out of Addy in a poof and she staggered backwards, one hand on her stomach. Her spine refused to straighten, even as she insisted to her body that she was fine, that it felt worse than it was. But before she could catch her breath, the blur had pressed the advantage, raining down a flurry of blows that had her put up her arms, shielding her face from the worst of it.
Son of a bitch. Anger burned, hot white, in her chest as she blocked the punches, waiting for the cramp in her stomach to subside. This is not how this goes. Panic had seized the crowd now and they rushed the exits, jostling each other as they all tried to get out. In her peripheral vision, she caught a glimpse of Brody and Taylor fighting their way upstream towards her.
A hook broke through her block, glancing off her temple. Her ear rung, high and sharp, and then everything around the blur was equally distorted, flashing as the contacts tried to compensate. A roaring filled her ears, blocking out even the wall of noise from the rest of the room’s occupants. Addy wavered, nausea seizing her stomach, then thrust it down and let that supernova of fury explode in her chest.
With a deep, bass growl she launched herself forward, plowing right into the blur’s mid-section. It took them by surprise, and while her mass was a lot less than her target’s, her force was enough to knock them both to the ground, leaving her straddling the other’s chest.
Hit me, motherfucker. Her punches flailed into the blur’s face, knocking his head back and forth until, with a crackle and a spark, the ocular diffuser winked out, and she was left staring at a bruised and bloody man’s face. Breath heaved from her chest in ragged gasps as she stared down into the eyes, one swollen shut, the other rolled back into the head.
A hand seized her shoulder, and she started.
The rest of the room snapped back into focus, loud and bright as the main lighting came back on. An alarm blared in her ears, punctuated by shouting from the room’s occupants. Taylor was looking down at her, anger shot through with horror on her face. Grim was not a tone that Addy had heard in Taylor’s voice before, but the otherwise stoic commander looked like she might have blown a fuse. “What the fuck.” Brody stood behind her, and even his normally upbeat expression had acquired a distinct look of shock. A lump rose in Addy’s throat.
“I– I stopped him,” said Addy, resting back on her heels. “That was the mission.”
“No, the mission was the tablet,” said Taylor, pointing one finger at the plinth on stage, which Addy quickly recognized as the source of the alarm.
The plinth that was now empty.
Shit. He’d had a partner. Maybe more than one. Addy swallowed, but the lump in her throat wouldn’t go away.
So much for last chances.
*
Kovalic put his hands up. “I know what you’re going to say.”
They’d regrouped after the mission, and he and Taylor had repaired to one of the few private spaces on the Cavalier, the closet-turned-medbay. Even with the hatch closed for privacy, Kovalic had a feeling that nobody on the small ship was going to have much trouble hearing them.
“Do you? Do you?” Nat’s blue eyes were glinting. “You probably think I’m going to tell you that your new pet project just cost us our mission. But no, I’m just going to tell you that Adelaide Sayers is a liability to this team and that you should send her packing.”
Kovalic grimaced. “We all make mistakes.” The second the words had left his mouth he wished he could bottle them back up.
Nat’s eyes widened. “Mistakes? Are you kidding me with this, Simon?” She waved a hand at the door. “Not only did she disobey orders, she was so busy almost beating a man to death that she took her eye off the ball, and we lost the mission objective.”
“But she didn’t kill him. That shows a certain amount of judgment.” The sound of the ice giving way under his feet was almost audible.
There was a squeak as Nat sat down heavily on the medbay’s gurney, her hands massaging her temples. “Are you even listening to yourself? What is going on, Simon?” She looked up at him, and the anger in her expression had faded into concern. “What the hell is this all about?”
Kovalic leaned against the bulkhead. “Look, I know she’s lacking some discipline.” He ignored Nat’s scoff. “But if we drum her out, she’s got no place else to go.”
“I’m sympathetic, Simon, I am. But if she keeps pulling stunts like that, we’re going to be the ones with no place else to go. She’s putting us all at risk.” Her mouth set in a line. “And maybe we’re seeing why she has no place else to go. Maybe… maybe she doesn’t belong here at all.”
It was Kovalic’s turn to frown. He gave a curt shake of his head. “I’m not ready to accept that. She can do good work here, I know it. Look at Bro–”
“Brody was half-drunk when you found him, and yeah, maybe he had some black marks on his record, but he also wasn’t flying off the handle and assaulting people.” Her lips pursed. “God, don’t let him know I was in here defending his virtue. I’ll never hear t
he end of it.”
Kovalic chuckled but it died in his throat as he saw the mirth dissipate from Nat’s expression. “OK, we’ll consider this mission a trial period. If she doesn’t work out, she doesn’t work out. But I think she can be helpful on this job, so let’s give her a chance to prove that.”
Nat eyed him for a moment, then got to her feet. “Look, it’s your call. As you’ve pointed out. But for now, I’m still your XO and as far as I’m concerned, she gets one last chance.” She raised a finger.
“One more chance,” Kovalic agreed. “But we do have more pressing matters to deal with. The tablet’s in the wind.”
“Hell of a job. Smash and grab was hardly elegant.”
“But it was effective. A couple ocular diffusers, cut the power to disable the security systems, and disappear into the crowd. Left a lot of pissed-off buyers in their wake, but even if Tseng-Tao’s Divide had any authorities worth the name, who’s going to report a theft from an underground antiquities auction?”
“At least we got one of them,” said Nat, her expression tightening at the reminder of Sayers’s behavior. “Citadel security might have him under lock and key for now, but it’s even money whether Juarez enforcement or that Hanif baron who owned the tablet gets to him first. And honestly, in his shoes, I’m not sure which one I’d rather.”
“Best not waste any more time, then. I’m thinking divide and conquer: if you talk to Sayers, I’ll see if I can persuade Citadel security to let me have a chat with our would-be thief.”
“Why do I get all the fun jobs?”
“Delegation?”
Her lips thinned to a line, Nat stalked out of the medbay. Kovalic let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding.
It was entirely possible that he’d gotten himself in over his head.
Addy sat on the edge of the ship’s ramp, staring at her hands. They looked fine now, sure, but an hour ago they’d almost killed a man. She waggled the fingers experimentally, and they responded well enough. Sometimes, though, they just seemed to take on a life of their own.
But it’s not really the hands. It’s the person they’re connected to.
Losing control was bad enough, but giving an opening for the partners of the man she’d jumped to make off with the mission objective made it that much worse. The SPT had failed to get the tablet, and it was her fault. She should have been paying better attention.
Footsteps sounded behind her, and she felt the ramp flex and bounce slightly from the pressure. Eli Brody settled down next to her, elbows on knees, and the two of them sat and looked out over the grassy meadow where they’d parked the ship. A breeze rippled through the tall grasses, eddies whirling as though wakes left by unseen creatures.
“Rough morning, huh?” said Brody. If any of his shock from seeing what Addy had done lingered, it wasn’t evident in his expression.
Addy gave a noncommittal grunt, neither an invitation to continue talking nor one that suggested he should get up and walk away.
“They read you the riot act?”
That had been the more worrisome thing: so far, they hadn’t. Taylor and Kovalic had been closeted in that, well, closet, and the acoustics of the ship being what they were, she’d retreated out here. When they’d made a decision, she imagined she’d find out soon enough. She shook her head.
“Well I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” said Brody, leaning back on his elbows. “They’re not going to drum you out because of one, uh, incident. If they had, I’d have been out on my ear my first mission.”
Yeah, but what about on the eighteenth incident?
“Taylor’s got a hell of a bark on her, but she’s not a bad sort when you get right down to it,” Brody continued, undaunted by her lack of participation in the conversation. He could probably talk for three or four without breaking a sweat. “And Kovalic, well, don’t tell anyone, but he’s a big softie. How do you think I ended up here?”
She eyed him sidelong. She’d met a few flight jockeys in her day, and while most of them projected the devil-may-care attitude he’d demonstrated, he’d yet to display the overinflated ego that usually seemed to accompany it.
“How did you end up here?”
Brody grinned and she was reminded once again that it wasn’t an unpleasant sight. “Long story,” he said. “Kovalic helped me out of a jam… and then kinda got me into another one. Or, well, maybe I got myself into that one. Anyway,” he said, waving a hand, “I think we’re about even now. Point is, if you’ve already gotten this far, they’re not about to cut you loose on job one.”
Whatever hidden depths were lending confidence to Brody didn’t seem to echo in Addy. But he seemed sure of himself, and that wasn’t nothing.
“Thanks.”
Brody shaded his eyes against the sun, which had begun to drop lower in the sky. “’Course. We’re on the same team, after all. That means something.” For a moment, it sounded like there was a catch in his voice, but before she could say something, the sound of a throat clearing came from behind them.
Addy stiffened, though she resisted the temptation to jump to full attention. Brody lolled his head back, not leaving his comfortable perch on the ramp. “Commander.”
“Lieutenant. Can you take another look at that port stabilizing thruster? It’s acting up again.”
“No rest for the wicked,” said Brody, his cheerfulness returned unabated. Clambering to his feet, he gave Addy a friendly smile, and then traipsed back up the ramp and into the ship.
Addy got to her feet, turning to face Taylor at the top of the ramp and adopting a parade rest. “Commander.”
“Specialist,” said Taylor, her voice even. “Major Kovalic and I have discussed your actions this morning and while they were far from satisfactory, we have agreed that, for the time being, you will continue in your capacity on this team.”
The hope rose in her chest slowly, but she kept one hand firmly atop it, waiting for the implicit “but” that was surely on its way.
“However, any further behavior of that kind will not be tolerated, and will see you dismissed from the SPT and likely from the service altogether. Am I understood?”
Addy swallowed, and nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
Once again those eyes, cold and calculating, were on her, though she wouldn’t call them malicious. Whatever Taylor was looking for, she evidently found it, because she gave a curt nod, and then disappeared back into the ship.
The breath Addy had been holding whistled out of her, shoulders slumping. She turned to look back at the wide open plains all around, letting the breeze run its fingers through her close-cropped curls. Thin goddamned ice. And the cracks are already showing.
CHAPTER 6
Dust settled in Kovalic’s wake as he trudged back to the Cavalier, which they’d docked just outside of the only thing that passed for a town on Tseng-Tao’s Divide. Beyond the Citadel Hotel, the moon didn’t have much to offer, other than the administration of the Juarez system generally turning a blind eye to the goings-on here.
As he crested a rise, the small ship came into view, its battered exterior not even a little out of place amidst the scrub vegetation and dirt. Like the most competent operatives he’d known, its exterior painted a misleading picture: it had already been in excellent condition when they’d first started using it, before the Bayern mission, and over the last three months Brody had spent all his spare time further tweaking the ship’s performance. They’d been working missions out of it non-stop since then, spending far more time aboard than back at home on Nova.
Each member of the crew had carved out their own favorite spots on the ship, so he was unsurprised to find Tapper stretched out on the Cavalier’s lowered entry ramp, a boonie hat tipped over his eyes. To somebody who hadn’t served with the sergeant for as long as Kovalic had, it might look like the older man was taking a nap, but Kovalic knew he was just resting his eyes. If there were danger anywhere within a half mile, Tapper would be the first one to know.
; “Boss,” he said, without twitching a muscle.
“Tap. All quiet on the western front?”
“More or less. The commander’s glued to a relay screen. Brody’s playing with the flight control systems.”
“Sayers?”
Tapper pushed the hat back from his forehead, squinting one-eyed at Kovalic. “Last I saw her, doing pull-ups in the bunk room. Looked exhausting. I left her to it. How’d things go with you?”
“The Citadel’s security office was nice enough to give me a few minutes with the thief we nabbed after I flashed them a Commonwealth Security Bureau badge.” He doubted the Commonwealth’s chief law enforcement agency would be happy about spies appropriating their authority, but what they didn’t know… “The crew were pros, and well-funded to boot: They bribed or suborned most of the private security brought in for the auction, which gave them all the inside information they needed to avoid and subvert the protections around the tablet. According to the one we nabbed, payment was blind, so he doesn’t even know who hired them. Delivery’s a drop on Jericho Station; he assumed his partners were probably already on their way there.”
A whistle escaped through Tapper’s teeth. “Mercenaries, eh? Surprised you got that much out of him.”
“Well,” said Kovalic, “I might have pointed out that it was a better deal than he was going to get from either the Juarez authorities or a certain Hanif baron. Plus, I jammed his door open and made sure Citadel security was on a coffee break.”
“You’re a generous man, boss,” said Tapper. “Still, Jericho’s a pretty big haystack. I dunno, maybe if that guy hadn’t been beaten to a pulp, he would have been more cooperative.”
Kovalic leaned against one of the ship’s landing struts. “Something on your mind, sergeant?”
“You know me, boss. I’m the introspective sort.”
They both chuckled, but Kovalic sobered first. “Seriously. You’ve been doing this longer than me and Nat put together. I value your advice.”
Tapper’s lined face wrinkled even further. “I read her jacket. Sayers. I have to ask: is she really the best person for the job?”