Return to Duty

by Elizabeth Hollows

  Pushing himself out of the dumpster, Jay dropped onto the ground, keeping the bin between himself and the diner. He turned, planning to assist Bryce, but found that the waiter had already clambered out. Bryce kept a hand on the bin for balance as he stared at the inferno. Bryce would be shocked at what had happened and that they’d survived it—but they didn’t have time to linger. Grabbing the waiter’s upper arm, Jay tugged him away from the burning wreckage, hoping to get them as far from the area as possible. Bryce resisted him, but Jay just kept pulling.

  “We need to get out of here before they see that we survived,” he said. “We have to move, Bryce. My ship’s not far.”

  Bryce hesitated for a few seconds before he turned into Jay’s hold. They broke into a run as they scrambled across the rock and dirt that made up Vicente’s terrain. The moon itself was barren, but it had fertile soil and a breathable atmosphere. That made it a tough place to call home, but it was useful for stopovers and industrial work. There was also a shuttle that ran from Vicente to Asam, which was popular with tradesmen and bachelors—people who wanted to get away for a few days and visit one, if not all the moons.

  Jay hoped the popularity of traveling to and from Vicente would assist them. They didn’t want to be noticed as they escaped. While his ship had cloaking technology, Jay preferred not to fly through monitored airspace with it, since the software had been obtained illegally. When they reached Jay’s ship, he was grateful to find it was free from damage and hadn’t been noticed by the kidnappers. Jay opened the doors and got them inside.

  His craft wasn’t large or luxurious. It had two sleeping quarters, a kitchenette and the piloting station. It was ideal for one person. Bryce would just have to make do while they were stuck together. He’d get the second sleeping quarters—if Jay couldn’t convince Bryce to climb into bed with him. It would take a few weeks for them to reach somewhere safe if they wanted to get away from their attackers.

  But that was a worry for when they were out of Vicente’s airspace.

  Closing the doors behind them, Jay moved to the piloting station with its well-worn seat and he started the ship.

  “Won’t they see us take off if we leave now?” Bryce asked, startling Jay. His hands were on the back of Jay’s chair and he was eyeing the control panel suspiciously.

  “No,” Jay answered, shrugging off the unsettling feeling of having someone else on board. “I’ve altered the engineering for better stealth.”

  It had been a pain to do, but it had been worth it for the many times his cloaking devices and silent take-offs had saved his life and his freedom.

  Tension still rested thick on Jay’s shoulders as he maneuvered the ship into the air. Warnings about the explosion were flashing on the display, but Jay dismissed them and focused on looking for additional air traffic. He breathed a sigh of relief to see that the shooter’s hovercraft was heading in a different direction. The attacking kidnappers likely believed that they were dead. The shooters would know otherwise once the news reports broadcasted a lack of bodies, but Jay planned to be far away from Vicente by the time that happened.

  “They’re getting away,” Bryce said, pointing at the disappearing hovercraft.

  “That they are,” Jay replied, while flying the ship in the opposite direction. “We should do the same.”

  “They have Zanik.”

  Jay grimaced. Wherever the Qui was going, it wouldn’t be a pleasant experience for him, but the use of a stunner offered some hope.

  “They’ll have taken him for blackmail or ransom,” Jay explained. “They kept him alive, and that bodes well for his eventual rescue.”

  “You’re just going to leave him with them?” Bryce demanded.

  Jay shifted with discomfort but tried to ignore it. He concentrated on the map of the area, needing to find a suitable place to uncloak the ship where no one would notice. He could feel Bryce’s glare burning a hole in the side of his head the longer he remained silent. Jay sighed.

  “Look,” he said. “I understand you’re worried about him, but you need to start worrying about yourself.”

  “We escaped an explosion. He was kidnapped.”

  “And you’re handling that spectacularly well for”—a civilian, his brain categorized, but he shook the word away—“someone who isn’t used to this kind of lifestyle, but you don’t go up against people like that. You don’t even report something like that. They think we’re dead, so we keep it that way.”

  Bryce made an aggravated sound and pushed away from Jay’s chair, beginning to pace. Jay let him and did his best to ignore the waiter. Thankfully, Bryce seemed inclined to keep his mouth shut and process what had just happened, as well as Jay’s comments. Jay knew that leaving the man to his thoughts wasn’t the safest thing to do, but Jay didn’t have the time to devote to him. He could deal with Bryce going into shock when they were out of the moon’s orbit and able to put the ship into a star-jump.

  Jay still expected more protests from Bryce as he uncloaked the ship and slipped into the outgoing traffic, but the waiter remained silent. His shuffling steps over the metal only stopped once they’d passed the border scan. Jay waited until they were in the safety of open space to turn the ship to autopilot. When he finally swiveled his chair so they could talk, he found Bryce right in front of him, his arms crossed and a glare on his face.

  “Where are you taking us?” Bryce demanded.

  Jay blinked. No shock, no hysterical laughter and no panic attack from the explosion? Will this man ever cease to surprise me?

  “The next star quadrant,” he answered. “It should be far enough away that no one will search you out.” Jay mentally shuffled through his contacts. “I have a friend. He can set you up with some new documentation and some cash.”

  “What are you talking about? I need to get back to Vicente.”

  Damn, Jay thought, feeling a stab of pity. He’s in denial.

  Jay took a subtle, preparatory breath and kept his voice calm. “Bryce, you can’t go back there.”

  The waiter’s glare intensified and frustration was visible in every one of his coiled muscles and twitching fingers.

  “Bryce,” he continued, “those people will find you and kill you. You need to be far away when they learn you’re alive. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing to do but leave that part of your life behind.”

  “I need to be on Vicente,” Bryce insisted. “Don’t take me anywhere else.”

  Sensing the impending panic attack he’d expected earlier, Jay stood. He hoped that stepping away from the controls of the ship would allow Bryce to calm down and listen to reason. The waiter didn’t need to know that the ship was on autopilot and could perform the star-jump without his help. They would be leaving Vicente, whether Bryce agreed now or not.

  “I know this is hard to take in,” he said, using a soothing baritone to try to keep the man calm, “but you saw what those guys did and what they’re capable of. The best thing you can do is disappear. It will keep you and anyone you care about on Vicente safe.”

  “What about Zanik? I can’t just leave him there.”

  “He’ll be rescued,” Jay said. “There are people trained to get hostages like him back.”

  And their attempts sometimes work, Jay added, bitter irony infusing the words. Zanik might get free, but Jay wasn’t holding his breath. He wouldn’t state the harsh truth to Bryce. That would only make things worse.

  “Everything will be fine for him,” Jay continued, “so focus on yourself.”

  It had been Jay’s mantra for years—focus on yourself. Now Bryce would have to adopt it too.

  Unfortunately, the waiter still seemed skittish, angry and unreasonable, but before Jay could try another tactic, his ship started to light up and beep at him. Jay spun on his heel and looked at his screen. His eyes widened in shock at what he was reading. He stepped up to the console, re-reading the information but still feeling disbelief.

  Bryce came to stand beside him, but Jay didn’t even know h
ow to comprehend this himself, let alone explain it to a waiter who was miles out of his depth. He was being hailed by the Intelligence Agency.

  The IA was a powerful branch of the Universal Collective. The UC had members from every nation and planet. They were the soldiers, politicians and activists who worked outside a single government or world in order to protect the universe. The Intelligence branch was the keeper of secrets, and the men and women who worked there held the keys to peace or war. Jay was stunned.

  Why are they here?

  He didn’t know how to respond to their communication, but it didn’t seem to matter, because before he could devise a reply, his ship shook. The agency’s craft had grappled them and was pulling them onto the larger ship. They were being forcefully boarded, which meant the IA must know what had happened and assumed that it involved Jay and Bryce.

  I’m screwed, Jay thought.

  Looking over at Bryce, he could only stare at the waiter, unable to think of anything comforting to say. It had all been Bryce’s fault, yet Jay couldn’t blame him for their situation or Jay’s impending life of imprisonment. Jay’s libido had drawn him into sticky situations before, but this was the first time he’d gotten himself tied up in an explosion, a kidnapping and a government capture, all without even kissing the person he’d been chasing.

  Briefly, Jay considered reaching for the waiter and pulling him into a quick, passionate last-hurrah of a kiss before IA threw him into a cell. But, once again, Jay was unimpressed to discover that of all the things he’d lost over the years, his conscience hadn’t been one of them.

  Chapter Two

  Okay, Jay thought as the IA craft pulled his ship closer, damage control.

  His past might be mottled by crimes and illegalities, but Jay hadn’t been involved in the Qui’s kidnapping. He could prove that. And even if his outstanding warrants weren’t enough for the IA to let him go, they should at least hand him over to a local authority. His crimes were small compared to what the IA normally went after. They wouldn’t be interested in him, and that meant he had a chance to escape later.

  But he didn’t want Bryce to get thrown into a cell with him because of bad timing.

  “Look,” Jay said, turning to the waiter. Bryce was reading the warnings but glanced at him. “We’re being boarded by the Intelligence Agency, and that means they’ve worked out that we witnessed something on Vicente. So, when they question you, tell them you’ve done nothing and that you don’t know me.”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Bryce said, sounding unimpressed.

  “Good,” Jay said. “But be less defensive next time.”

  He glanced at the warnings, which told him that they had only a few minutes before IA agents would force open the ship. It wasn’t a lot of time to prepare Bryce for an IA interrogation, but it was all he had.

  “You need to make them believe you,” Jay continued, looking back. “Admit you were only interested in the Qui for sex or his money. It will go a long way toward clearing your name.”

  “Excuse me?” Bryce demanded, sounding, of all things, offended.

  Maybe he doesn’t like his plans being so transparent? Well, that’s too bad.

  “It wasn’t hard to notice what you were after,” Jay explained. “They’ll recognize it too. They train agents to read people and discover their secrets. If you’re honest from the start, they won’t have a reason to suspect you.” Jay did feel a glimmer of sympathy, but sometimes a person just had to grin and bear it. “I know you’ll want to lie about using the Qui for his money, but—”

  “I wasn’t using Zanik for his money,” Bryce snapped.

  “Status, power, whatever you were after,” Jay said dismissively, focusing back on his ship. “You need to bare your secrets to IA. You think they’re dark and dirty? Well, the agency won’t care. It will mean nothing to them. Just let them help you and you’ll be better for it.”

  The silence stretched. The air was tense.

  “And what about you?” Bryce asked.

  Jay glanced at the waiter. He was watching Jay with unreadable eyes.

  “You’re telling me how to act, but what are you going to do?”

  There was no point lying, and even if he was going down, Jay could do it with a smirk. “Oh, I’m sure I can charm my way out of some of my arrest warrants.”

  Bryce narrowed his eyes, but before he could reply, the ship jerked and shuddered. They were inside the IA’s docking bay and the controls of Jay’s craft had been swiftly overridden. A minute later, a team of four IA agents burst into the ship. The agents were in black and wore the infamous IA masks. The masks were standard military issue with top-of-the-range technology, but while soldiers in combat had bulkier items that could withstand the rough and tumble of battle, IA masks were thin and smooth. They were designed for stealth and to hide one’s identity. The only agent with any distinguishing markings was the captain of the unit. He had two thin white lines painted on the right cheek of his mask to designate his rank.

  Jay put his hands on his head and moved away from the piloting station. Apparently, that wasn’t good enough. The captain of the unit struck Jay behind his knee with the butt of his gun. His leg buckled and he was forced to the ground. Jay gritted his teeth on a grunt of pain as he collided with the floor. Bryce, at least, wasn’t struck as he copied Jay’s position.

  Despite his knees throbbing from the rough collision with the metal, Jay still attempted to be pleasant.

  “Any reason why we’ve been boarded?”

  “We’ve done nothing,” Bryce announced, his eyes on the captain.

  Jay wanted to slap a hand to his forehead. Bryce was supposed to be distancing himself from Jay, not implying an association. Jay had to think fast.

  “The guy’s right,” Jay hurried to add. “We were only leaving Vicente to share a few drinks, maybe a bed.” He gave them a wry smile. “But this wasn’t the weekend getaway I’d planned for him.”

  He’s just an innocent fling, Jay was trying to convey. He’s not a thief or an accessory.

  Jay needed IA to dismiss Bryce and put him under witness protection. They wouldn’t do that if they thought Bryce was a criminal. Jay hoped the captain would work it out and keep Bryce from accidentally incriminating himself. The captain didn’t respond to them. He tilted his head in a motion implying that he was receiving orders through a communicator. A few seconds later he was gesturing for one of his agents to grab Bryce and pull him to his feet. The captain then did the same with Jay.

  Jay grimaced as his arms were yanked behind his back and cuffed. The metal bit into his skin and made him want to jerk away, but he resisted the urge. Bryce was restrained as well and the agents marched them off the ship and into the cargo hold. Jay only had a moment to glance around. The captain set a brutal pace and shoved a firm hand between Jay’s shoulders to keep him moving. Jay pressed his lips together, refusing to snap anything argumentative and make the situation worse.

  He did get concerned when he was led in the opposite direction to Bryce. He tried to look over his shoulder but was shoved in the back again.

  “Keep moving,” the captain ordered.

  Jay didn’t like the separation, but he hoped Bryce was smart enough to follow his advice and keep himself out of trouble. The walk through the corridors of the ship took a good five minutes and ended with him being shoved into a containment cell. It had a hard bed, a toilet and nothing else. The link between his cuffs was deactivated, allowing him to move his arms in front of him again. The bracelets were still present and just waiting to be reactivated.

  Wonderful, Jay thought.

  He hoped Bryce was getting a more hospitable welcome and would be released soon. The waiter didn’t deserve to be on IA’s bad side just because he’d been captured on the wrong ship at the wrong time. Of course, Jay didn’t deserve to be there either, but life was rarely fair. He might not be responsible for what had happened to the Qui, but he was a criminal all the same. The IA wouldn’t be letting him go.
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  Sighing, Jay took a seat on the bed. They’d come to get him soon, and the questioning would be intense and drawn out. He’d withstood an Intelligence Agency interrogation before, and while it had been during a time Jay wished he could forget, he’d proven his innocence then and he’d do it again now. Jay just had to keep his answers simple and to the point, and not let them intimidate him.

  It meant he needed to look at ease.

  Shifting to spread out on the bed, Jay put his back to the wall, crossed his feet at the ankles and his arms over his chest. It was a shame he’d lost his hat to the dumpster on Vicente. He would have liked to tip it down over his eyes. He would also have loved a shower to clean off the stink and grime of trash, but his cleanliness wasn’t an IA priority.

  There was nothing to occupy his thoughts and Jay’s mind turned to Bryce. How is he faring? Is he in an interrogation right now? Did he listen to my advice or is he digging himself a deep hole?

  Jay told himself not to give a damn and to only think about himself, but it was hard. Somewhere between flirting on the moon and trading eye-rolls over annoying customers, Jay had started to like Bryce. It was a feeling made worse after having protected him from the explosion. It was an ingrained instinct to look out for someone he’d saved. He wished he could stop giving a damn and live up to the image he portrayed.

  Jaybird was supposed to be an arrogant, uncaring, selfish asshole, but Jay had never been so heartless.

  He tried to force his worry for Bryce from his mind, clearing his head and feigning relaxation to any IA agents who might be watching him. He whistled loud, annoying tunes for something to do and smacked his hand against the wall in a counter beat to keep himself occupied. It was as much a distraction as it was an attempt to look unconcerned with the situation.

  He was almost relieved when his handcuffs reactivated after about an hour. He was running out of songs to whistle. Jay lifted his hands, observing the thin but unbreakable red energy link. The door opened and a new agent was revealed. His voice was gruff as he demanded, “On your feet.”