Cypher (The Dragon's Bidding Book 2)

by Christina Westcott

  Into an empty landing bay.

  __________

  The professional banter in engineering went silent as Fitz charged through the hatch. Every head turned in her direction. She panned the Acton around the room, weapon set on high stun, ready to take down everyone in the room to capture Wolf…Cypher.

  He wasn’t here.

  She lowered her pistol and activated her comm. “Hazel, I don’t see him; he must have moved on. Do you still have a trace on him?”

  “He’s there; right in front of you,” the XO said.

  “Where?”

  “The intermix station. First position on the right, just inside the hatch. Can’t miss him.”

  Obviously she had. Fitz leveled the pistol at the first tech to her right, a young woman whose face turned a startling shade of white. The terrified officer shifted backward until she blundered into the console, her head twitching from side to side as she searched for a way to escape.

  “That’s not him,” Fitz said.

  “The ID tracker is showing him right there.”

  The woman flinched back as Fitz reached for her and pulled the ident-card from her pocket. It had been clipped on backwards, and as she turned it over, she found a familiar face staring back at her.

  “He switched ID’s. Who are you? What’s your name?”

  “Carter, ma’am. Lieutenant Zoni Carter. It must have been when that wirehead, uh…” She realized she’d used a slur to describe the agent to another augie. “He, ah… we ran into each other in the corridor and he knocked me down. But he helped me up.”

  “He switched IDs with Lieutenant Carter. What are you reading for her location?”

  “Nothing,” said Mandisa. “I show she’s not on board the ship. That’s impossible. The computer shows she logged in at 0800 this morning and hasn’t signed out, but she’s not here.”

  “He’s destroyed the tag already, probably chunked it down a recycle chute.”

  “And he’s loose on my ship with no way for us to track him.”

  “We may not need to. If he planted a bomb somewhere on board, he’ll want off in a hurry.” Fitz realized the techs in the compartment now hung on her every word, their eyes growing larger by the second. She clenched her jaw and backed out of engineering, pushing Costos behind her.

  “Has Lister convinced Ari to take this thing back to the dock?” Fitz asked the XO.

  “Captain declared an emergency and we’re scooting back at best possible speed.”

  “Could he get to a life pod?” An escape pod could be launched at this speed in an emergency, but only a desperate person would do so. Or a crazy one. She suspected that, by now, Cypher was both.

  “The Captain keeps the life pods locked down unless an Abandon Ship order is given. I don’t think he can get out that way unless he can get through all our security protocols.”

  Could he? Cypher still had access to all of Wolf’s high level clearances. She’d removed them from the computers in the palace and the headquarters building, but hadn’t wanted to pull them all out of Arachne, for fear of raising too many red flags with the wrong people. Like the media suddenly asking why the Triumvir had lost his security clearances.

  “Then he’ll head for the shuttle bay.”

  “Won’t do him any good,” Mandisa said. “No shuttle. We’ve been using it to run people and components back and forth to Lister’s refit and repair ship, and we didn’t get a chance to bring it back aboard before someone advanced our schedule by several hours.”

  Fitz smiled at the dig. That might turn out to be a lucky break. Lister’s voice came over the comm. “There are two construction pods in the bay. Would he be desperate enough to try to use one of them? They haven’t been recharging for long, and will have a very limited range.”

  “Our dorsal canon is online. If he tries that, we’ll just get in some target practice,” the XO said.

  “No,” Fitz said a bit too quickly. “I want him alive.”

  “Your call.”

  “We’re on our way to the shuttle bay.”

  “Boss Lady, Boss Lady. I found him.” Jumper raced down the corridor toward her. “He was up on A deck, but I think I can track him.”

  “I thought you said you had trouble picking out Cypher’s mind from a crowd?”

  “I was with him for a while, there in the Warren, remember? I know what he feels like now, and there’s an awful lot of Wolf trying to fight his way out. And, without all that stinky stuff on, he still smells the same, so yeah, I can track him. Follow me.”

  The cat led them back up two levels before picking up the scent. He trotted along, nose to the deck pads, stopping periodically to sniff the walls or make short detours down a corridor before turning back.

  “Could you pick up the pace a bit, Jumper?” The adrenaline zinging through Fitz had her on edge, aching to run faster than the cat’s deliberate speed.

  “Look, I’m not a damn dog, you know. I don’t do this very often.” Jumper stopped at the top of a flight of stairs. A sign indicated they lead to D deck and, according to the schematic loaded to her inhead, that contained only the shuttle bay and its control room. If that’s where he went, they had him cornered.

  “We’ll take it from here, Jumper.” She cleared the stairs in two bounds and charged aft.

  “Wait for me, Boss Lady, wait for me,” the cat howled, but she didn’t wait.

  __________

  The empty landing bay mocked Cypher. There was no place to go. Beyond the airlock lay only the vacuum of space. No escape there. If Gray Eyes came through the door now, there’d be no way out.

  So give up. Just surrender, The Other whispered inside him mind.

  “Leave me alone.” Cypher pressed his palms against his forehead, swaying on his feet. He couldn’t panic; when he was panicked or frightened, The Other seemed to have an easier path into his thoughts.

  You’re going to get us shot full of holes.

  “If I surrender, I’m dead anyway. They’ll wash me out like a bit of bad computer code.”

  Actually, that’s all you bloody are. A corrupted program running on a computer inside me.

  “No, I’m real, I’m alive.” Cypher’s voice rose.

  If you’re so intent on getting yourself killed, I wouldn’t normally care, but in this case, I don’t bloody well want you taking me with you.

  “Then either help me or get the hell out of my mind and go back to whatever pit you crawled out of.” Cypher noticed a pair of construction pods plugged into their recharging docks. He ran to the nearest one and popped the canopy.

  You have got to be kidding. Even I’m not crazy enough to attempt launching one of these death traps off a moving ship. Do you even know how to fly one?

  “I’m a fast learner. We are leaving, so either you help me or keep your bloody damn thoughts to yourself.” He pushed aside the restraints and started to climb into the pilot’s seat.

  Whoa there, hotshot, not been in space a lot? You’ll need one of those hard suits from the other room. This thing isn’t pressurized, and I don’t think even I would survive explosive decompression.

  Expecting to see Gray Eyes blast through the door any second, he dashed back to the control room and ripped open one of the cabinets, snatching out pieces of vac suit and pulling them on.

  Bloody hell, not like that. You’re worse than shepherding a farm boy on his first contract. Put the bottom on first.

  “Why should I trust you, if you want me dead?” he said, but pulled out the lower half of the suit and stepped into it.

  Because I plan on living long enough to kick your sorry existence out of my mind and get back to my life and the woman I love. Now back off and let me do this.

  Cypher relaxed and surrendered the body to that other mind. Like a passenger, he watched his hands flash through the movements of assembling the suit around him, snapping on pieces and dogging down catches with the quick efficiency of long experience. The helmet went on last, twisted and latched down with a reassuri
ng click. The Other flipped down the visor and started to turn his body toward the landing bay when he heard the rush of super-fast footsteps approaching.

  Into the cabinet. He dived inside, slamming the door and going as still and silent as an empty suit. Cypher felt The Other leave, returning control to him. His last words whispered into their shared mind. Don’t move. She won’t be able to read you through the suit, even infrared or thermal emissions.

  Weapons out, the two augies eased into the control room and scanned around, tension evident in their slow careful steps. The balding man who followed Gray Eyes awoke a trace of memory in Cypher, but he couldn’t remember where he’d seen him before; probably when the royal party came on board the ship.

  The Other interfaced with the suit’s computer and thought-clicked on the external pick-up so they could hear the augies’ conversation.

  “Check that side.” Gray Eyes—Fitz—instructed her partner while she went to the console and brought up a monitor to display the empty landing bay beyond. “He’s not here, but could he have been and realized there was no way out and left? Then we should have intercepted him in the corridor. He can’t be that far ahead of us. Keep looking.”

  The small woman slipped along the wall, gaze shifting, ever alert. Cypher held his breath as she eased past his hiding place, afraid The Other would betray him, leap out and surrender to her. He fought to keep his body rigid and under his control. For one second, those gray eyes stared into his but, unseeing, she moved on.

  In that instant he felt The Other’s emotions hit him like a kick to the heart. They were warm, tender, and like no sensation Cypher had ever felt in his short life.

  This must be love.

  It bore little resemblance to the lust he’d felt when he’d crushed his body against hers in that filthy alley. This emotion felt warmer, softer, not possessive, only belonging. If this was what the two of them shared, they would fight until the ends of the universe to be together again. And he would be burned away in their passion for each other. He would never experience anything like this, nor would anyone ever care for him with such tenderness and unwavering fidelity.

  Those thoughts opened a cold, desolate void in his gut.

  Gray Eyes returned to the monitor, searching the landing bay again, shaking her head and sending her ponytail swaying in a way Cypher found enchanting. “I don’t understand. He must have slipped past us. I was sure he’d come here first. We need to hook back up with Jumper, and maybe he can sniff out where he gave us the slip.” She leaned against the console, head down.

  Her partner stood behind her, watching her back in a way far too predatory to suit Cypher. The augie reached to the rear of his belt, sliding a dagger from its sheath. As the black of its blade slid into view, Cypher remembered where he’d seen the man before. That night, while he waited to meet Tritico, the bald man had been on the sidewalk outside the warehouse, and then been welcomed inside by Red, like a compatriot.

  Gray Eyes wouldn’t be a problem this time, Tritico had said. They’d taken care of that.

  With a traitor.

  The Other’s panic burned the fog from his mind and freed his body.

  He can kill her with that.

  With the suit’s power assists added to his augmentations, a kick sent the cabinet door ripping off its hinges and clattering across the room. Both augies turned in surprise toward the armored apparition hurtling down on them.

  Cypher grabbed for the man’s arm but, still unaccustomed to fighting augies, wasn’t prepared for the speed at which his opponent reacted. Unhampered by a vac suit, the augie whirled away and blurred around, bringing the knife skittering across the suit’s armored plastron. The sound of the blade rasping against plexisteel set Cypher’s teeth on edge.

  The augie drove him back, arm whirling so quickly that only Cypher’s accelerated perception could keep track of it. The augie slashed the blade repeatedly against his armor, leaving gouges, but for now, not penetrating. But did the augie have the strength to drive the blade through the plexisteel?

  His threat assessment computer warned that Gray Eyes had circled them, trying to get a clear shot. If she took him out of this fight, Baldy would be free to kill her, kill both of them and come out of this the hero. No way he was going to let that happen.

  Cypher dodged back as the knife slashed past him, then stepped to the side and hooked his foot behind the augie’s knee, spilling him onto his back. Continuing around, he snatched the pistol from Gray Eyes’ hand, wincing at the sound of bones snapping. He ripped out the power pack and flung the two pieces to opposite ends of the room.

  He pushed up his visor and grabbed her collar, dragging her close. “Stay the bloody hell out of this, Kimber,” The Other said.

  Her silver eyes widened as she recognized the voice.

  Baldy landed on his back, driving the blade toward his exposed face. He barely got his hands up in time to block the descending blow. With his fingers locked around the man’s wrist, he fought to keep the wavering dagger’s tip from plunging into his eye. Thrusting back with all his strength, he slammed his opponent against the edge of a console, again and again. Screens shattered and components cracked and flew away, but the augie was too tough. He’d been built to take that kind of punishment.

  Cypher pitched forward, throwing the man over his shoulder, torqueing his arm with a force even an augie’s enhanced skeletal system couldn’t handle, and bone snapped like a stick of candy.

  Without even a grunt of pain, the man scrambled back to his feet and picked up the dropped knife with his other hand. Realizing he couldn’t get through the vac suit, he charged Gray Eyes, now the softer of the two targets. Cypher grabbed him from behind and wrapped him in a bear hug, wrestling him away from the woman. He gripped the knife hand and now, with only one good arm, Baldy couldn’t match his strength. Cypher slammed his weight up and back, driving the blade into the augie’s chest.

  Baldy screamed, a sound like nothing Cypher had ever heard a human throat make, and dropped to the deck in convulsions. His back bowed in an arch that would have broken unarmored bones, while arms and legs beat a hideous tattoo against the floor. Spittle flew from his mouth.

  Cypher watched the display in bewilderment, but The Other knew. He could feel his mind partner’s horror and revulsion. Memories washed over him, of men and women in hospital beds dying this way, screaming and writhing in agony while all he could do was wait for the horrible death that never came.

  Gray Eyes started at the spectacle with equal horror.

  We have to go, The Other said, taking control of the body and forcing him to move. He grabbed the woman by the shoulder and pinned her against a bulkhead, putting his face close to hers.

  “Fitz, stay out of this bloody mess. I’ll handle it,” The Other said, words delivered in that damnable upper-class Willcommin accent. For a second, Cypher thought he would kiss her, but that would have been impossible through the helmet’s opening.

  He slapped the visor down and turned away, stepping through the hatch into the landing bay and locking it behind him. On a small monitor beside the entrance, Cypher could see Gray Eyes on the other side, beating her fists against the plexisteel, screaming words he couldn’t hear.

  He watched his fingers tapping at a control box, dancing across the keys with hyperkinetic speed. Alarms wailed, and yellow emergency lights whirled on the ceiling, casting bright glints across the bay. His palm hovered over a large red button.

  Danger—Emergency Activation Only.

  When I hit this, all hell is going to break loose. We’ll have at best four seconds to make it to that pod and strap in before things start flying out of here, us included.

  His hand slammed down. The heavy airlock door began to grind upward, its actuators droning. The alarms accelerated to a frenzied pulse as atmosphere howled out the widening opening, dragging first small objects, then heavier ones, down vacuum’s maw. He felt the force of it clawing at him as he ran, threatening to drag him from his feet. Reac
hing the pod, he jumped in, pulled the canopy down and latched it, then began searching for the controls to release the pod from its docking cradle.

  Before he could punch it, she came in over his inhead display, her image patched through on one of his comm channels.

  “Wolf, don’t do this, please. We’ll figure it out. Get him out of your head. It’s too dangerous to launch that thing off a moving ship.”

  She had to know it was too late, that he was committed to this course. No turning back now. All Cypher could say was, “He loves you.”

  Then they were moving, sliding, not flying but tumbling, caught in the whirlwind of atmosphere venting. The second pod broke loose and slammed into his, throwing him against his restraints. He bit his tongue and blood filled his mouth as he fought the controls without effect. Just a whirling piece of flotsam now. Picking up speed, the pod clipped the edge of the lock’s opening with enough force to drive his forehead against the inside of his helmet. A darkness deeper that space engulfed them both.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Fitz rocked back and forth, clutching her injured hand against her chest as she stared at Costos’ body, contorted in its final death agonies. The black blade jutted from his chest. Black against black.

  Warnings lights still whirled, alarms shrilled, and voices screamed at her inside her head. Her comm demanded attention, and a blizzard of emergency messages scrolled down her inhead display. Aware of their commands, she chose to ignore them, retreating instead to that cold place inside her where feelings couldn’t touch.

  Dammit, Nick, why? I trusted you; thought you believed in what we were trying to do. I would have gladly given you the symbiont. I, of all people, knew how you felt; what it meant to die day by day for the Dragon. For all your years of service, you deserved it, deserved a future, but instead I waited. So tied up in my own pain that I couldn’t see yours…

  …And Tritico got to you first.

  Muffled shouts and a pounding on the closet door eventually brought her out of her fugue. She shoved the two heavy totes out of the way and released the terrified techs, one supporting his partner. They edged around her and rushed for the exit. As they left, Jumper streaked in and approached the body. He sniffed it and backed away hissing, a row of fur on his back bristling upright.