Deuces Wild Boxed Set: Books 1-4: Beyond the Frontiers, Rampage, Labyrinth, Birthright

by Ell Leigh Clarke

  “Idiot,” Ryu muttered.

  “That is our ally you are speaking about,” Hirotoshi replied.

  “Ryu is right.” Tabitha ripped the arm off one of the fighters and beat him over the head with it before taking his gun away. She checked the settings, aimed, and shot him with it. “These bastards are stupid. Hlith’ven is an idiot.”

  Ryu slashed through the neck of the last fighting merchant. He fell to the ground with a gurgle, his blood splattering near Tabitha, who jumped out of the way.

  She pointed her Jean Dukes at the two remaining merchants. “Unlike your friend, I actually can handle two guns at once. So,” she waved her pistols, “talk. Why should we let you live?”

  “We didn’t shoot at you.” one of them argued. He was a small alien with bluish skin and multifaceted eyes. “I swear! We had guns, but we didn’t fire. We’ve never done anything like this before.”

  The other alien nodded nervously. He looked to be the same species as Don Guido, scrawny and green.

  “Have we met you before?” he asked Tabitha. “The rest of them seemed to know who you are. But he’s right, we’re both new.”

  Tabitha reached out in disgust and slapped both aliens. “Go home,” she ordered, waving a hand. “Go back to your ship and go home. You’re not cut out for this life.”

  They went, looking dazed, and Tabitha holstered her Jean Dukes and walked back to the building Hlith’ven was hiding in and stepped inside. A moment later, she hauled him into the street once more.

  She barely let him catch up. “Come on, Hlith’ven, let’s go get that medicine unloaded.”

  “But…but why?” Hlith’ven hurried along beside her, trying to keep her grip on his collar from making him trip. “You sent the merchants away.” He gave a little moan And put hands up to his face. “How am I going to pay Rotciv off now?”

  “We’re taking the medicine,” Tabitha explained to him, “and giving it back to Tiw. Don’t think of stealing it again, or it will go very poorly for you.”

  Hlith’ven began to protest, pointing behind him. “But what if—”

  Tabitha shook her head, her hair swishing. “I don’t want to hear it. We’ll figure out something.” She stepped up to a new level in the ground and yanked Hlith’ven along with her.

  “But if I don’t do this, I’ll have to do the weapons thing he wanted me to do!”

  Tabitha stopped, causing Hlith’ven to run ahead of her, choke on his collar, and fall on the ground. She considered his words as he picked himself up, then put her hands on her waist and leaned in. “Did he tell you where the deal was going down?”

  Hlith’ven checked his scraped skin. “Yes. I thought if I showed up with the money he wanted, he wouldn’t make me do the gunrunning.”

  “Listen to me carefully,” Tabitha told him. “You. Are. Stupid.”

  The guys had been walking behind them as Tabitha had been dragging Hlith’ven to his ship.

  Hirotoshi sighed.

  “He is!” Tabitha protested, pointing to the alien. “You know he is.”

  “Why am I stupid?” Hlith’ven asked.

  She turned back to him, but Ryu was the one who spoke.

  “Because someone like Rotciv doesn’t just get you to do one thing,” Ryu explained. “He’s going to make you do other stuff as well. In fact, showing him you had other ways to get the money might have been the worst thing you could have done.”

  Tabitha and Hirotoshi nodded.

  “How about this?” Tabitha asked. “We’ll pay off your debt for you.”

  Hlith’ven looked at her, and then at the others. “What? Why?”

  “Well…” She wiggled her fingers in a fashion Hlith’ven didn’t recognize. “Rotciv isn’t going to be bothering you anymore.”

  Hlith’ven entirely failed to grasp the nuance and gaped. “Why would you do that for me?”

  “Because,” she waved to the others and herself, “we’re very nice people.” She slung an arm around his shoulders. “Now, why don’t you tell me where this deal is going down? Is Rotciv going to be there?”

  “Yes. He said he wanted to meet me.” Hlith’ven’s shoulders drooped.

  “Yeah, I bet.”

  Hlith’ven lived on a well-traveled station and was clearly terrified by Rotciv. He could do a lot for the crime lord. He just hadn’t counted on Hlith’ven running into someone like Tabitha.

  “It’s in the Q’abis system,” Hlith’ven, his voice soft, explained. “I was supposed to pick up the weapons from them and run them over to another place. They said they’d tell me when I showed up.” He fished in a pocket and took out a simple tablet, powering it up. “Look, here are the coordinates for the rendezvous. I was going to go as soon as I got the money.”

  “Good, good.” Tabitha copied the coordinates from Hlith’ven’s tablet and continued walking him back to his ship, from which Jun and Katsu had unloaded all the medicine.

  They gave her a thumbs-up, and she turned back to Hlith’ven. “Ok, we have a problem. One is you know too much, but I need you to go back to what you were doing. So, I’m going to give you an out, so to speak.

  He watched her, not sure what to think at the moment.

  “Here is the story, and you need to work it,” she told him. “You brought us here on a sightseeing tour,” Tabitha explained, as Hirotoshi and Ryu stepped up behind Tabitha. “We’re thinking of buying this colony, you see.”

  “Oh?”

  “Tabitha.” Hirotoshi sighed, “There is no way he is going to be able to remember this.”

  Tabitha’s lips pressed together. “Ok, new story. You stole shit, and we used you to find them.” She pointed to the bodies in the street. “You need to lie low for helping an undercover sting operation.” She sent contact information to his tablet. “Those who need to know can contact us here. We will get the medicine to the right place and take care of Rotciv.”

  He looked at her dubiously for a moment., then leaned to the side, looking at the dead bodies. “Would you let me know when you have him?”

  Tabitha smiled, “That’s the right attitude, and you bet.” She waved him toward his ship. “Now shoo.”

  The team watched as Hlith’ven flew away. “He is clearly not an accomplished pilot,” Ryu commented when the ship turned a hundred and eighty degrees and headed in the opposite direction.

  “Clearly,” Tabitha agreed. She clapped her hands as she turned toward the Achronyx. “Well, let’s go get this Skaine bastard,” she suggested, grinning at Hirotoshi. “And then return the medicine, of course. A good deed done, and another Skaine crossed off the list. It will be a good day.”

  Hirotoshi snorted. “Would you like to go triple or nothing on whether or not Rotciv is Skaine?”

  Her feet crunched on the gravel. “Hell yeah, I’ll take that bet.” She waved toward the ship. “Katsu still has to do push-ups, though. And Ryu.”

  “I will also come up with a bet,” Ryu countered. “Perhaps we could bet on…the types of guns they’re smuggling?”

  Tabitha shook her head. “Nope. Push-ups for you.”

  “Well, what about—”

  “Get started, Ryu.” Tabitha walked up the gangway. “I’m not going to have Achronyx land until you’ve finished.”

  Chapter 18

  Nickie

  Rebus Quadrant, Themis Colony

  Nickie heaved a sigh and slumped into an empty chair. It hadn’t been empty a moment ago, but she was willing to assume that whoever had been sitting in it wouldn’t mind giving it up. It was for a good cause. It would have been almost relaxing, if not for the bustle and noise of the colonists cheering and crying and endlessly talking. Their voices seemed to bounce off the walls of the main hall.

  We did good work today, she mused eventually, but this colony is still going to be in the Skaines’ database.

  Not if I have anything to do with it.

  There were very few systems that Meredith couldn’t have her way with. The colony would probably be off the database
and virtually erased from Skaine memory within the next ten minutes.

  Though I suspect you’re going to need to have a chat with the colonists if you don’t want anything like this happening again.

  Meredith was just offering practical advice, but Nickie heaved a sigh all the same, nodding in silent agreement. She gave herself a few more minutes to just sit and take a load off before she levered herself back to her feet and went to find Keen. If she sat too long she would probably fall asleep where she was sitting, and no one needed her wasting that sort of time.

  He was easy enough to find. He was at the center of the largest crowd of colonists as they all vied for his attention. Nickie supposed he had a lot of work ahead of him to get the colony back on track, but he could handle the minutiae later. She tapped him on the shoulder and crooked her finger in a “follow me” gesture, turning on her heel and leading him to a slightly quieter hallway.

  “Quite a performance you put on out there,” he remarked once they came to a halt, sounding as if he were caught between wariness and admiration. Not an unreasonable response to a public execution, Nickie supposed, though she would have preferred the admiration.

  She shrugged and waved it off with a prideful sort of flippancy. “What can I say? I’m happiest when the spotlight is on me.” Her eyebrows rose as she asked, “But what about you? If nothing else, this has taught me that the spotlight is your worst fucking enemy.”

  Keen laughed ruefully and dragged a hand through his hair. “That would seem to be the case,” he agreed. “I suppose we’ll get the generator fixed and find out where all our equipment’s been stashed; see if we can’t get things back up and running in peace. We’ll need to get some attention back on us after that if we want to start trading with the ore distributors again. This colony doesn’t run on goodwill, after all. We need to start bringing money in again as soon as we can.”

  He recoiled slightly when Nickie held a finger up in his face.

  “Actually,” she corrected him sharply, “your first course of action is going to be getting some goddamn colonial defense weaponry.” She dropped her hand, instead folding her arms over her chest as she tried her hardest to look stern.

  “Meredith and I can get you off the Skaine database without a problem,” she continued, not yet mentioning that Meredith had probably already removed them from the database. “But if you go right back to mining and trading like nothing ever happened, you’re just going to attract someone else’s attention and this entire mess is going to start all over again.” She paused for a moment to let that sink in. “You need to get your hands on some AA weapons to, uh…discourage anyone else who might decide you’re an easy target.”

  Keen was quiet for a moment as he turned the idea over. “Okay, so what do you have in mind?” He held an arm out, gesturing toward the main hall. “The outpost is a mess right now. We can’t just pull anti-aircraft artillery out of a mine shaft. We’re going to have to start operations up again just to afford these defenses.”

  Nickie hummed a thoughtful note and tapped her chin with one finger. “I have an idea about that,” she replied after a moment. “Just let me talk things over with Meredith.”

  She turned away, but before she could say anything, Meredith beat her to it.

  You found something relevant in the database?

  Maybe. Nickie was no good at playing innocent, and she gave it only a half-hearted attempt. In the corner of her vision, she could see the database scrolling rapidly before it stopped on the entry that had caught her attention. There was a beat before Meredith dared to comment.

  Please tell me you aren’t planning on intercepting a weaponry exchange with the Leath. Please tell me you aren’t that crazy.

  Of course, I’m not crazy, Nickie assured her. I mean, you live in there. You know how stable my mind is.

  Notably, she did not say that she wasn’t planning on tangling with the Leath in the near future.

  That’s exactly what worries me.

  I’m very fucking offended. The reply was delivered as close to deadpan as Nickie could manage when she wasn’t speaking out loud.

  Don’t blame me when you get eaten as a side dish. You have been pressing your luck, and it will be entirely your fault.

  That’s what you’re here for, Nickie reminded her, trying to sound as sweet as she could. You’ll help. You wouldn’t leave me in the lurch with the Leath, would you? Had it been a physical conversation, she would have been batting her eyelashes.

  Meredith was silent for a very long moment after that.

  I suppose I would be in just as much trouble if you got into trouble. I don’t have much of a choice here since I know you aren’t going to change your mind.

  You’re my favorite, Nickie assured her earnestly. Glad that’s settled.

  She shook her head briefly and turned toward Keen again, who looked quietly baffled at Nickie’s strange behavior.

  “Okay!” Nickie declared, planting her hands on her hips. “You just stay focused on getting the colony back up and running and keeping all of your people in order. All right? I’ll handle the weapons. I’ll be back once I have them.”

  Keen seemed even more confused. “You can just…do that?” he asked, bewildered. “How? Honestly, who are you?”

  Nickie grinned and folded her arms. “You can call me Ranger Two,” she answered. “You may have heard of me?”

  Keen blinked at her uncomprehendingly, and Nickie’s face fell.

  “Really?” she asked, trying very hard not to whine and not succeeding. “Not even a glimmer of recognition?” She swore to herself she wouldn’t pout in front of the leader of the colony. She could sulk about it later, back on the ship with Grim. He would be able to appreciate her disappointment.

  Keen shrugged. “You might have noticed we’re a little isolated,” he pointed out. “That didn’t happen by accident.”

  Nickie huffed out an aggravated sigh and grumbled under her breath, “So much for that introduction,” before she straightened back up and dragged a hand down her face. “Whatever! Not important! The important part is that I’ll handle getting you those defensive measures and you can keep everything here calm in the meantime.”

  Keen nodded in easy agreement. “I’m certainly not going to complain,” he replied wryly. “I take it that means you’ll be on your way, then?”

  “Once I find where Grim wandered off to, yeah,” Nickie confirmed, already starting to head back to the main hall. “Wasting time isn’t really my favorite hobby.”

  “Fair enough.” He sighed good-naturedly. “Just look for the largest crowd of gawkers, and you’ll likely find him at the center of it.”

  Nickie flashed him a cheerful thumbs-up and loped back into the main hall to track her Yollin companion down.

  As suspected, he was surrounded by a gaggle of colonists, still gawking at the novelty of seeing a Yollin in person. Extricating him from the group very nearly took as much skill as the entire confrontation with the Skaines. By the time she managed to rescue him, they both offered regretful goodbyes. She was almost convinced she would need to smuggle him off the planet.

  In contrast, she felt a little underappreciated, considering it was she who had gone through all the trouble to save all their asses.

  As soon as they were out of the main hall, they made a beeline back to the Penitent Granddaughter as if both of their asses were on fire and they were trying to outrun the blaze.

  Rebus Quadrant, Themis Colony, Aboard the Penitent Granddaughter

  The doors to the bridge slid open, and Nickie and Grim stepped through.

  Lefty and Brandy followed them and vacuumed up the dirt, ash, and blood they tracked in. With a stretch, Nickie tumbled down into the captain’s chair and turned her attention to the main viewing screen. Meredith was already powering it on, and a moment later the airfield was on the display. Most of the colonists had gathered there to wave the ship off.

  “You think I should tell them?” Nickie mused, leaning an elbow o
n one of the armrests and propping her chin in her hand. She smiled impishly.

  “You may as well,” Meredith replied. “Who knows how long it will take them to figure it out on their own if you don’t?”

  “I feel like I’m missing something.” Grim sighed, slumping down at what was supposed to be the first officer’s station.

  “You’ll figure it out in a second,” Nickie assured him. “Mere, patch me through to Keen’s communicator and put him on speaker.”

  “Of course,” Meredith agreed. Just a few seconds later Keen’s voice came through the bridge speakers.

  “I kind of figured you had said everything you needed to say,” he remarked, sounding vaguely amused. “Just can’t bear to say goodbye to our little spit of rock, then?”

  Nickie snorted. “Not quite,” she drawled in return. “I just wanted to say that you should probably go check on the main generator down in the mine. You never know when something might change.”

  “I’ll get someone right on that,” he replied slowly, suspicion creeping into his words. Nickie grinned and kept an eye on the viewing screen, spotting where Keen was when one of the colonists abruptly went haring away from the crowd and toward the mines.

  “It must be quite a big deal if you’re calling just to tell me about it,” Keen remarked.

  She hummed a low note, but simply remarked, “Who am I to say?” with a lofty sort of innocence. “What’s important varies from person to person, doesn’t it?”

  Keen sighed slowly. “You’re not just going to tell me,” he stated, though it was perhaps supposed to be a question.

  “Nope,” Nickie answered cheerfully. “You’ll know soon enough.”

  Keen grumbled, good-natured but still sullen nonetheless, and hung up. Nickie leaned toward the viewing screen in anticipation, her grin getting brighter as she saw the person who had been sent to check the generator pelting back toward the airfield at top speed.