Monkey's Luck

by Bonnie Milani

  “And if I do, whatever drug you’ve put in that will make your interrogator’s work easier for

  you, no?”

  “No. Gods dammit, I’m trying to help you, okay?” I ran the sandwich under his nose. “Now,

  eat this, will you?”

  For a moment, I thought he’d snap my fingers off. Then his body sagged against the wall. I

  held the sandwich up again. This time he took a bite. Half the sandwich disappeared.

  He chewed – more’re less – swallowed. “It’s cold.”

  “It comes back on you, too.” I fed him the rest of the roll-up, fished out the next one while I

  studied the locks on his wrists.

  “Don’t bother.” Romeo must have guessed my thoughts. “The locks aren’t pickable. I’ve

  already tried.”

  “It’s wrong.” I yanked open the sandwich wishing I was tearing up Kriegsman.

  “Tell that flat tooth colonel of yours.”

  “I will.” I nearly shoved the sandwich at him. I made sure he swallowed before I spoke what

  was on my mind. “Look, I got to ask you a question.”

  I’d guessed right. If he hadn’t swallowed, he’d have spit the food at me.

  “Dammit, man, I got to have something to hand Kriegsman or I’ll never get you outta here!”

  “What is this – trying to see if subterfuge works better than direct torture?” He tried to shift

  his weight. The movement spasmed his back, arching him off the wall. I heard the groan he tried

  to stifle and nearly whimpered with him when he fell back, panting.

  The betrayal in his expression lit a burn behind my eyes. Monkey’s luck. First man I’d wanted

  to care about me and he thought I’d betrayed him. I ploughed on, anyway. “Look you know I’m

  no interrogator. But Roy told Kriegsman I was.”

  “Only a fool would believe anything Roy says.” He uhffed, a bitter sound. “You think your

  colonel is that much of a fool?”

  That put a dent in my thinking. Kriegsman was a vicious, sadistic bastard, but he was no fool.

  Worrisome thought, but I didn’t have time to worry it right now. “Whatever he is, he’s sure

  acting like he believes it. But unless I get some kind of intel to give him, we’re all going to be

  chained to a wall!” I ripped open the next sandwich and waved it under his nose. “C’mon – at

  least tell me why you all attacked us.”

  He tried and failed to ignore both the food and me. His appetite won, finally. He snapped up

  the sandwich. Almost took my fingers with it. “Sasaki sent us word the freighter was carrying a

  contingent of Marines.”

  “So he was a traitor after all.”

  “Depends on your perspective. He was not one of our people, I am sure of that.”

  “What else could it be?”

  He shrugged as much as the chains allowed so I switched tack. “So he told you there were

  Marines headed for Aram-”

  “No, only that there was a contingent of Marines aboard the freighter. The transmission was

  interrupted. So we did what we had to do.” He let his head drop back, eyes drooping. “For what

  it’s worth, we did not kill the crew. That was Sasaki’s work. We would not have even boarded if

  Sasaki had not been wounded. I went aboard to rescue him. Fool that I was I thought I would

  save the ‘woman’ I found, too.” He uhffed, a soft and bitter sound.

  “Instead you got Roy. That must’ve been a helluva disappointment.” And yet… Something in

  there formed a pattern. Damned if I could trace it out, though. I was suddenly too preoccupied

  trying to ignore the image of myself welcoming him onto that bridge.

  “It’s irrelevant now.” He perked ears at the bag.

  “For what it’s worth, you don’t have to worry about Roy. I told Kriegsman he’s harmless.”

  “I have no intentions of worrying about Roy.” Again, that bitter uhf. “Harmless. Like a spider

  in a spacesuit.”

  “Yeah, well, he’s part of the team, kind of, anyway.” I ripped open the last sandwich and held

  it up to his lips. “Last one. Now eat it slow.”

  He didn’t. The sandwich vanished. I counted my fingers just to play safe.

  Outside, I heard chairs scraping down the corridor. Time up. We’d have company in a second.

  I tucked the wrappers back in the bag and tucked the bag under my arm. I wanted to stroke his

  cheek – hell, I wanted to pull him off that damned wall. All I could do was pull myself up to

  Aryan attitude and stride out.

  I stopped by the duty desk long enough to terrorize the jailors into lowering Romeo to the

  floor, then marched off to find Kriegsman. I didn’t care if I had to blow this whole base.

  Somehow, some way, I was going to get us out of here. I only hoped the surveillance cams in the

  corridor wouldn’t catch the tears I felt stinging my eyes.

  Chapter 6

  “I said fifteen minims, Vahrheitsyaeger.” Kriegsman barely glanced up when I stormed into his

  claustrophobic little office. “You’re late.”

  “And you have been torturing my prisoner!” The sight of his smug arrogance set off a surge

  of hatred so strong it overrode my survival instincts. I slammed my knuckles onto the tiny open

  space on his desk and leaned over them. “Henceforward you will keep your hand off of him!”

  “You do not tell me what to do!” Kriegsman shot out of his chair to snarl at me at face height.

  “I don’t give a gobbing fat damn what your real rank is, this is my base! I give the orders here!”

  For a long second we glared at each other before common sense kicked through my anger.

  “As you say, Colonel.” I straightened into the Aryan ‘try me’ version of attention. “I trust,

  however, that you will attempt no further interrogation of my prisoner. I need him alive and in

  good shape.”

  “What you need, Sergeant, is to give me a reason not to have you executed as a Lupan spy.”

  He gave that a narrow-eyed beat. “Because there was a traitor aboard your ship. And I strongly

  suspect I am looking at her.”

  Good thing I was already pale, because the threat in his tone drained my blood down into my

  toes. I covered by plastering a sneer on my lips and sighting down my nose at him. “You’re quite

  right, Colonel. We did indeed have a traitor aboard. Luckily for you and this base I’m not it.”

  He gave me his snake’s smile. “Really.”

  “Really.” Sheer terror sent my thinking into Jump speed. “Your traitor was Sasaki.”

  “Sasaki? Impossible! Samurai are hard-coded loyal –”

  “Quite so. And they take their loyalty oath to the Commonwealth Council.”

  “It’s the Council that’s backing us!”

  Great gods… but then…I took a long shot. “But not the whole Council.” The sudden catch in

  his breath told me the shot had struck home. “Sasaki was playing you, Colonel. He was a traitor,

  all right, but not to his oath. He betrayed you.”

  “He couldn’t –”

  “He could and he did.” Now that I was thinking about it, the idea made real sense. “I saw the

  freighter’s bridge, you didn’t. Lupans didn’t kill that bridge crew. They were shot, small bore

  guns at close range. All except the captain – and somebody sliced him into bloody little pieces.

  That’s sword work, not Lupan talons. And the only fighters we’ve got who carry swords are the

  Samurai. Which means Sasaki. And that means you’ve been betrayed.” Fighting a smirk, I lifted

  a brow at him. “Congrat
ulations, Colonel. Your bid for extra troops may have compromised this

  entire mission.”

  That wiped his smugness out. I turned my expression thoughtful and pushed the advantage.

  “Under the circumstances, I suggest we check with our people at HQ.” I sure as all the hells

  hoped he would. With any luck at all, I’d have the three of us out of here while Kriegsman

  waited for an answer. “They may feel the mission has been too thoroughly compromised to

  continue.”

  “And give those perfumed dandies a chance to pin the failure on me?” Pushing himself out of

  the chair Kriegsman paced off the few steps to the far wall, his fist slapping into the palm of his

  other hand. “No. We will simply have to move up the launch.”

  Oh, shit. That was not the answer I wanted. “How soon do you think you can launch?”

  Kriegsman was too lost in his own calculations to hear me. He reached the far wall and did an

  about-face. When he spoke, it was almost to himself. “Actually, this might even work better.

  We’ll still be able to use the talks for cover.”

  Talks? I felt my knees tremble as the answer clicked home. Of all the hells in the universe…

  “... Bogue Dast Station is only one Jump point from Den Lupus,” Kriegsman was saying.

  “We’ll ricochet off the Bogue Dast Jump point. That lets us drop into the Den Lupus system

  claiming diplomatic cover…” He reached his desk and paced away again. “The Lupans have

  recalled their fleet in this sector. With any luck at all, we’ll have their home bases fried before

  the Dogs realize we’re hostiles.” He was smiling when he about faced the next time. “And then

  we’ll take care of their cities.”

  I tried to swallow but my mouth was too dry. Gobbing hells, why would anybody on the

  Council risk attacking Den Lupus now? “The Lupans still have battle forces operating in other

  sectors.“ I made it sound like the fact didn’t scare me shitless. “How do you plan on handling

  those?”

  “Dogs.” Kriegsman dismissed the question with an impatient wave. “Once we kill off their

  leaders they’ll be nothing more than wandering packs. We’ll pick them off at our convenience.”

  I might have believed him once, before I met Romeo. Now… I didn’t want to even think

  about what those hunting packs would do to our worlds in retaliation. I’d seen their handiwork

  too often already.

  I realized Kriegsman was still talking, mostly to himself. “…We’ll have to act fast. The

  diplomatic convoys are still too far out from station to warrant an attack. We’ll have to take out

  the station on the backswing.”

  Warm as it was, I had to hide a shudder. Dear gods. He was going to take out the peace

  keepers on both sides. Had he never seen…? The realization slammed home like a blast of ice.

  No, he’d never been in real combat. He’d never seen those talons slice through a man’s armor, or

  retched out the stink of whole cities of burning flesh. Watching him, I recognized the delusion:

  he and his dumbass backers figured the Lupans would just give up once their peacemakers were

  gone. They thought they’d just step in and take over the pieces. Instead, they were going to drag

  the whole gods-be-damned Commonwealth in to Armageddon.

  Shit. There’d be no place left to hide if he succeeded. No hope for Romeo or me at all. Not

  unless somebody stopped him. For an insane second I thought about trying. I gave it up quick.

  Stop him with what? No, all I could do was the three of us out of here. Even that’d take a

  miracle.

  I realized Kriegsman was scowling up at me. “Are those diplomatic passcodes our people

  provided still good?” he asked.

  “Yes.” I lied. I hadn’t a clue what codes he meant, but if it gobbed Kriegsman, it suited me.

  On the other hand, maybe …. “That’s the reason I’m concerned about my Lupan prisoner,” I told

  him.

  “What of him?”

  “Before the attack, I found a set of pended messages under Sasaki’s ID. All coded, none of

  the codes ours. Most certainly not intended for our own people.”

  “So?” Kriegsman was no longer interested. “The messages weren’t sent. No damage done.”

  “Unless whoever is waiting for those messages has instructions to take action if they don’t

  arrive.” I rocked forward to stare down at Kriegsman. “My first guess is those messages are in

  Lupan code, one we haven’t encountered before. My second guess is that the Dog I captured was

  Sasaki’s handler – and that he was desperate to acquire whatever intel is in those messages.

  Given that Dog came aboard personally, I suspect his biopattern may be a way to open the code.

  To test that I’ll need to get him back aboard the freighter.”

  He looked up, sharp-focused on me again. “Do you really expect me to allow a Lupan warrior

  to run free on this base?”

  “I don’t propose to set him free,” I lied. “But we need to test those messages. Can you think

  of any other way other than sync to test a biopat?”

  “Cut off his hand and shove it in the ship’s sync link.”

  The thought of letting Kriegsman or his scum mutilate a decent man like Romeo put a real

  Aryan sneer on my face. “That would only be dead flesh, Colonel. If accessing the code didn’t

  need the whole Dog, they wouldn’t have sent one.”

  “Then have the freighter’s sync linked in to the stockade.”

  “Colonel –”

  He glanced up at me over the rim of a comm unit. His eyes were cold steel. “This is my

  operation, Vahrheitsyaeger. Maybe it’s been compromised and maybe it hasn’t. Right now I only

  have your word for it. So if you don’t mind, I’ll do some research of my own.” The snake smile

  was back. “You can rest up while that’s in process.”

  “We don’t have time –”

  “You have as much time as I choose to give you.” He brought up his comm displays as he

  dropped back into his chair. “I’m moving the launch up to zero-nine-hundred hours. Even if

  Sasaki has indeed betrayed us, the Dogs can’t get an attack force here in time to stop us.” He

  touched a display. “I’ll have Sasaki’s quarters set up for you.”

  Yeah, right. And those quarters’d be so monitored they’d run chem trails on my farts. “If I can

  make a suggestion?” I waited til Kriegsman looked up. “Since I’m here as a sergeant, it would be

  best to allow me to draw quarters from the general pool.”

  Kriegsman thought about that a moment, then nodded. “As you wish.” He started to say

  ‘dismissed’ but I stiffened and he re-thought it. We traded salutes, then I whirled and headed out

  the door.

  Monkey’s luck. Kriegsman would be checking things out, okay, but he wouldn’t be on those

  codes. That sonuvabitch suspected me every which way from payday. I could only hope I could

  get us out of here before his suspicions paid off.

  I caught a sidelong glimpse of the man’s expression in the instant before the door closed

  behind me. Sight ran a chill straight down my guts. Far as Kriegsman was concerned, I was

  target practice.

  Chapter 7

  I made it out of the command post without my knees buckling. To my surprise, it was dark

  outside. It wasn’t the fact night had fallen that surprised me. It was the totality of the darkness. It

  took me a moment to realize that the base was
literally, physically dark. There were none of the

  blazing over head lights that normally lit a base. Instead, only dim, red emergency lights marked

  the main road. The buildings were all under black-out shields so they hunkered like a series of

  low-lying hills in the dark. Only light came from the scattered stars overhead. I glanced up,

  automatically looking for the Milky Way This far out on the rim, though, the rest of the galaxy

  was just a vague haze near the horizon.

  Damn, that interview with Kriegsman had taken longer than I’d realized. It’d taken a lot out

  of me, too. Now, the adrenalin high that had kept me going was draining away, taking my

  strength with it. Zero nine hundred hours – damn, I didn’t need a chron implant to tell me that

  wasn’t more than twelve hours away. There was no time…I needed to think, dammit! Roy could

  probably get aboard fairly easily: Kriegsman believed he was my joy toy, so he could always say

  I’d sent him back to the freighter to settle my gear. Romeo, though… I gave up fancy thinking.

  I’d just have to hope Kriegsman hadn’t already barred me from seeing Romeo. I could talk my

  way past those guards, haul the man’s furry ass out to the freighter and try to get off world

  before.

  Nobody survives combat without developing a watcher sense. I’d been walking while I

  thought, too involved in my worries to pay attention to that unhappy feeling at the back of my

  neck. Bad part of an Army base is there are no convenient store windows to use for mirrors. I

  scouted the passing soldiers till I found a grunt sporting a pair of those non-reg mirrored glasses

  newbie soldiers think make them look tough. Pretending to do an impromptu inspection, I

  checked the images in his eyeglass lenses. Yeah, as I’d thought: about twenty meters behind me,

  a pair of those Streikern polar bears were doing their sweaty best to look inconspicuous. In the

  dark, their furry white curls shone like snow in moonlight.

  Right. Those two could hold their own against a squad of Earth-born humans. All I had to do

  was walk out of the stockade with Romeo in tow. Easy bet I’d be dragged right back in again.

  And chained to the wall beside him. Shit. I sent the now-nervous newbie on his way with a grunt.

  Okay, so seeing Romeo was out. Might as well check on Roy. Leaving the polar bears to stalk