Firewall

by R. M. Olson

  “Hey,” she said, grinning. “I have all sorts of helpful things to add, probably. What are you doing?”

  Lev took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. “The same thing we’ve been doing for the last twenty-four damn hours, Jez,” he said through his teeth. “And we’re no closer to a solution, as far as I can see.”

  She sauntered over to the table and leaned in, glancing at the holoscreen. “OK, but to be fair, I wasn’t actually paying attention to whatever you said you were going to be figuring out last night.”

  There was something mildly gratifying in the way Lev sucked in his breath between his teeth.

  She was standing close to him, and she suddenly realized that, but if she shifted away from him it would feel too much like admitting how shaky her muscles went when she was close to him, which, now she thought about it, she was starting to feel a little shaky right now. Which was completely stupid, honestly. So she took a deep breath instead, and turned to grin at him.

  Which maybe wasn’t the best move, all things considered, because the way his eyes caught hers, and his expression went suddenly unfocused—

  She turned quickly back to Tae, who was watching both of them with an expression of completely undisguised exasperation.

  “We’re trying, Jez,” he said through his teeth, “to figure out how the hell we’re going to stop Grigory from taking down the entire Svodrani system government.”

  “Yeah, but I though we were trying to take down the entire—”

  “Jez. Can you please focus for three seconds? Yes, we want to take down the government. But replacing it with Grigory isn’t going to make things any better, and will probably make them a hell of a lot worse.”

  She grinned. “OK, fair enough.” Honestly, if she would admit it, she was harassing him because it was the only way she could think of to get rid of the tight ball of worry that was sitting in the pit of her stomach.

  Because she’d known people who’d worked for the mafia. She’d flown with them, when she was a kid and flying for Lena.

  And she knew, maybe better than Tae did, what a system run by those damn bastards would look like.

  Honestly, this whole time she’d been running with Masha, she’d been more worried about whatever the hell it was they were dealing with at the moment than Masha’s grand plan to take down the entire system government. Because she’d somehow, horrifyingly, realized that there were people in the system that she really wanted to keep alive, and trying to keep them alive—and to keep herself alive at the same time—seemed to take up most of her available attention at any given moment.

  But this? This was serious.

  And she knew damn well she didn’t want this Grigory bastard running anything bigger than this ship.

  “Anyways, I’m going back down to the gambling hall,” she said, straightening.

  Tae sat up abruptly. “We have about three days, Jez. Do you really think going down to the gambling hall—”

  She shot him an easy grin. “Not doing it just for fun this time. And anyways, you seemed happy enough about it when I was distracting all those bastards so that you could sneak in and get that ledger. Masha said she wanted to get some information, which, by the way, pretty sure you wanted too, so I told her I’d get it.”

  “And how are you going to get this information?” asked Lev warily, straightening as well.

  She was almost close enough to touch him right now, which was definitely not a good thing, because the problem with that was, she wasn’t totally sure she’d be able to stop herself from touching him if he looked at her again that way he had, and—

  “Jez?” said Tae with a sigh.

  “I got the guy she thought might have the information to come gambling with me.” She straightened, and enjoyed the sight of Lev obviously trying very, very hard not to say anything.

  “Jez,” said Ivan, frowning in concern. “I’m not sure that’s the best—”

  She shrugged. “Hey. You get information your way, I get it my way.”

  Tae scowled. “Jez—“

  She winked at him, and sauntered out the door. “Good luck with your figuring crap out,” she called over her shoulder as the door swung shut behind her.

  When it was closed, she paused for a moment, glancing around. She’d have to be down in the gambling hall pretty soon, but she still had a few minutes.

  If she was being honest with herself, she’d left early more because she couldn’t stand sitting still for one damn second longer. Yes, this wasn’t as bad as prison. But if she had to sit still too long, it started to feel pretty damn close.

  She started briskly off down the hall towards the main deck. Probably find something interesting happening there, be easy to kill a few minutes before she showed up to the gambling hall.

  When she stepped into the main deck, at least three of the boyeviki sitting there turned to glare at her.

  “What are you doing here, Solokov?” one of the women grumbled, her hand going to her pocket, where Jez could see the unmistakable bulge of a heat pistol.

  Jez shrugged and dropped into a seat. “Just walking around, seeing the sights and whatever,” she said innocently. The woman scowled at her.

  “You’re going to wind up in a corridor with your insides cooked one of these days,” she said through her teeth.

  Jez shot her an easy grin. “Guess you could always try. But then you’d never win back what you lost at tokens, would you? That’d be a pity.”

  “I think that’s a chance I’m willing to take,” said the woman, shoving her chair back.

  Jez’s muscles tightened with anticipation, a pleasant rush of adrenalin washing through her. She leaned back in her chair and put her hands behind her head. “Well, you bastard, that assumes you could out-draw me. I’m willing to take a chance on that.” She raised her eyebrows suggestively.

  The woman’s brows lowered. “No, it doesn’t,” she spat. “It only assumes there are enough of us to take your sorry carcass. And judging from the people I’ve talked with in the last few days, there are more than enough for that.”

  “Yeah?” said Jez easily. “Well, you never know. Guess if you don’t think you can handle me, killing me’s got to be the best option, right? I mean, you certainly can’t damn well handle me on the gambling floor.”

  The woman took a few steps closer, her gaze icy. “Believe me, Jez, I’ve been watching you. You can handle gambling tokens, if you cheat. You can handle a fight, if you fight dirty. But you’re not the only one who can fight dirty.”

  Jez gave her an easy smile, heart beating more quickly.

  Looked like her life could get a hell of a lot more interesting in the next few days.

  She glanced quickly at her com, and swore. “Sorry kids,” she said, pushing herself to her feet. “Got places to go and things to do.”

  “I’m not finished, Solokov—” the woman started.

  Jez glanced over her shoulder and winked. “Get in line. Probably a waiting list to kill me, at this point.”

  She strolled out of the room and headed for the gambling hall.

  Nikoli was sitting at a table, looking decidedly impatient, when she entered the room. She could see him right away, seeing as there was no one else who’d dared to sit within two tables of him.

  She grinned to herself.

  A couple threats to her life, a gambling partner who looked like he drank credits for breakfast—so far, this was shaping up to be good evening.

  “Hey,” she said, pulling up the chair across from him and dropping into it. “Guess you’re ready to throw some tokens.”

  He gave her a cold look. Behind his chair, his two bodyguards were giving her identical hard stares.

  “I’ve been ready for the last ten minutes, Jez Solokov,” he said, his words cold.

  She shrugged easily. “Sorry. Time got away from me. I was listening to one of your boyevik friends tell me about all the different ways she wanted to kill me.”

  He stared at her for a m
oment, then raised an eyebrow. “You know, most people would be at least somewhat disturbed by that.”

  She shot him a cocky grin. “Yeah, well guess I’m not most people. Anyways, I was watching the plaguer. Bet her hands shake when she shoots, so see, I’m not too worried.”

  “Who was it?”

  “Inna, I think.”

  He looked at her, frowning slightly. “They do, actually,” he said, after a moment. “Her hands, I mean. They do shake just a bit when she shoots. How did you know?”

  She shrugged again. “Been in enough fights, I guess. Live longer when you figure out crap like that.”

  He sat back, watching her, eyebrows raised. “Well,” he said at last. “And here I was expecting someone who was only good at gambling. You’re surprisingly perceptive.”

  “Nah. Just lucky,” she drawled.

  Nikoli leaned forward slightly against the table. “Lucky, you say. I’d heard differently. In fact, I’d heard you were quite the grifter.”

  She gave him her most innocent look.

  He sighed. “I’m not stupid, Jez. Believe me, I wouldn’t have survived to get where I am if I were stupid.”

  She kept her innocent smile.

  He gritted his teeth. “I’m beginning to wonder how you survived to get where you are,” he said quietly. “I think at least half the people on this ship at the moment want to kill you.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “None of them have yet, though.”

  He watched her for a moment, narrowing his eyes. “Alright,” he said at last. “You asked me to come here. And I agreed. I’m one of Grigory’s top avtoritete. Believe me, I have plenty of better things to do with my time than gamble with some low-life cheating smuggler pilot. So, Jez. Do you know why I agreed?”

  “‘Cause I’m so damn hot?” she suggested, grinning.

  His eyes narrowed further. “No. I’ll tell you why. Because, Jez Solokov, I understand you’ve been promising to teach some of my people your tricks, and ended up cheating them out of everything they owned.”

  Jez gave him a reminiscent smile.

  “So here’s what we’re going to do—you are going to tell me how you’re doing it. Because it turns out that what you do could come in handy.”

  He didn’t bother to state what would happen if she refused, and she’d been around long enough to know exactly what that meant.

  She studied him for a moment.

  She had him. She had his interest, which hell, was probably the most important part. And OK, she still had to get the information out of him, and judging by his narrowed eyes and suspicious expression, it might not be as easy as she’d imagined.

  Still, not like she hadn’t come here with a plan. Despite what those idiots Lev and Tae seemed to think, which was actually a little insulting now that she thought about it, she was damn good at coming up with plans.

  “Well, here’s the thing,” she drawled. “The only reason I’m probably still alive here is that there’s a hell of a lot of people on this ship asking themselves the same question you’re asking me, and they aren’t going to kill me until they figure it out. So I figure, just telling you straight out isn’t going to do me much good.”

  He frowned and opened his mouth, and she shot him a quick wink. “But see, I like you. Seem like a pretty decent person. So here’s my deal.” She glanced around quickly. “You send your bodyguards away.”

  His frown deepened. “I’m not going to send away my guards.”

  She shrugged. “Not like they have to go far. Couple tables down is fine, just don’t want them to hear what we talk about.”

  He glared at her for a few moments, then at last he gave a slow nod. “And if I agree to that?”

  She smiled at him. “Then I’ll give you the same offer I gave everyone else. You pick the game. I’ll play slow. And if you can catch what I’m doing—” she quirked an eyebrow. “You win. Or, maybe it’s just beginners luck, and there’s nothing to catch.”

  He glared at her again, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “And if we play and I don’t catch what you’ve done, and I still win?”

  She grinned wider. “Then you win, and I tell you. Easy peasy. Can’t say I don’t play fair.”

  “I think everyone who’s played against you would disagree with that.”

  She tried to hide a smirk. “So. We have a deal?”

  For a moment he was silent, looking at her. At last he nodded, a quick jerk of his head. “Fine. We have a deal.” He gestured with his head, and the guards withdrew to a table that was just far enough to be out of earshot, but close enough that the wouldn’t even have to aim to cook her insides to well-done.

  She grinned at him. “Guess we can do business. Figured you might be the type.”

  He watched her carefully. “We’ll see,” he said, and there was a hint of coldness in his voice.

  She gave a luxurious sigh and leaned back. “Alright then, we can get started. What’s your game?”

  He pulled out a bag of gambling tokens. “My own tokens. I assume you want to inspect them?”

  “May as well,” she said, taking the proffered bag. Her fingers tingled with adrenalin, and the grin on her face was widening, because she honestly couldn’t help it.

  She looked up after a moment, dropping the bag of tokens on the table and glancing around. “Not very courteous of you, honestly,” she said as he took the bag, checking it carefully, probably to see if she’d tampered with it.

  “What do you mean?” he glanced up.

  She raised an eyebrow. “Well, bit of a shame to invite someone to play, and then not provide the refreshment.”

  He gave her a wry glance, but beckoned a server over.

  The woman approached. “The usual, sir?”

  He nodded. “Please. A bottle, and two glasses. And bring some massandra as well, please.”

  She nodded and moved off, and returned a moment later with a bottle of something that looked very, very expensive, and very, very strong, and another bottle that looked just as expensive, and much less strong.

  Jez gave a dreamy grin. “See, you bastard? I knew I liked you.”

  He leaned forward on the table. “The game, Jez, is fool’s tokens. I’m not stupid enough to think you’d have offered to let me chose the game if you hadn’t figured out how to cheat at all of them. But from a purely academic standpoint, if I’m going to catch you, I’d like it to be at the game that’s impossible to cheat at.”

  He pulled out the two glasses, and lifted the bottle that honestly probably couldn’t even get Tae drunk.

  She winked at him. “Nah. I’ll have what you’re having.”

  He gave her an appraising glance. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. This is pretty strong stuff, and you don’t weigh much.”

  She shrugged, still grinning. “Well,” she drawled, “guess it will be pretty easy for you to win at tokens if I’m falling-down drunk. So don’t see that there’s a downside for you.”

  He raised an eyebrow, but uncorked the bottle and poured a small splash into the bottom of each of their glasses.

  She took a sip, and frowned. “You don’t have anything stronger than this?”

  He gave her another long look, but she could see the annoyance under his neutral expression.

  She’d got him.

  “Alright,” he said, standing. “It’s your funeral.” He beckoned the server over and said something in a low voice. She slipped away, and as Jez watched, she pulled down another bottle from the bar, covered with dust, its contents a dark amber. She placed it on the table, and Nikoli nodded his thanks.

  When he pulled out the stopper, the sharp fumes of alcohol wafting from it was enough to make people three tables down from them cough and blink back tears.

  “That’s more like it,” said Jez, grinning broadly. He raised an eyebrow, and she splashed a generous measure into each of their glasses. She raised hers, the alcohol vapour burning her sinuses delightfully.

  Not too often you could do exactly what
that bastard Masha asked you to do and also enjoy yourself at the same time.

  “Well, you plaguer, let’s see how you do at fool’s tokens.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  LEV LOOKED UP from his holoscreen at the loud ‘thump’ on the door.

  Then he noticed the time, and his chest clenched with sudden worry.

  Jez wasn’t back yet. She should have been back by now.

  “What—“ Tae began, frowning.

  Ysbel stood, pushing back her chair, and crossed quickly to the door, one hand on her heat pistol. “Stay back, please,” she said over her shoulder.

  The ‘thump’ came again, and cautiously, she cracked the door open. Then she swung it wide, cursing.

  Jez stood there, swaying slightly, and for one panicked moment Lev’s mind flashed back to that night in the jail on a remote prison planet, where Jez, swaying and bloody, had somehow managed to get the key they needed to escape, and almost died herself in the process.

  He jumped to his feet, crossing to the door in a few quick strides. His eyes scanned Jez’s rumpled clothing—no blood, at least none that he could see, no visible burn-marks, nothing visibly broken—

  And then the overpowering scent of alcohol hit him, strong enough that he almost staggered back.

  “Is she—” Tae was standing as well, his voice worried.

  Jez turned and gave Lev a drunken grin. “Hey genius,” she slurred.

  “Jez—“ he began, voice tight with a fear that was rapidly turning to irritation.

  “Yep,” she said, obviously over-enunciating her syllables. “‘M not hurt at all. Just—just drunk. Really damn drunk.”

  He stared at her for a moment in utter disbelief, then he grabbed her arm as she swayed alarmingly. The panic from a few seconds ago was still sloshing through his veins, and he found his hand on her arm was shaking.

  “Jez,” he said through his teeth. “You could have been killed. What were you thinking? Getting drunk on Grigory’s ship, which happens to be filled with people who want to actually kill you—”

  “Come on, get inside, you idiot,” Ysbel grunted, taking Jez’s other arm.

  It seemed to take Jez a moment to remember how to move her legs, then she staggered inside, leaning against them heavily.