“Getting ready to…?”
“Why do you want to know?”
The woman smiled and freed a hand so she could point at her gun. “Mine is much, much bigger than yours. So I ask the questions and you answer the questions. Comprende?”
Knowing when to speak and when to shut the hell up, Titan nodded.
“Did you, in any way, harm her? Will I have to spend much time torturing you for it? I’m only trying to schedule our meeting, don’t take it personally.”
“Fuck, there’s no time for this. No, I haven’t hurt Kim nor have I done anything to her ship, and yes, I’m taking it personally because you’re getting in my face when it’s really not a good time.”
The woman smiled at this but didn’t move the gun away. “I find you entertaining.” Her smile vanished the next second, leaving Titan to wonder if he’d seen it at all. “Prove to me she’s safe.”
Titan flexed his forearm and felt the decoder strapped there. He brought his hand out, reached to his arm and gently, slowly, pulled his sleeve up to expose the decoder. “Here, she’s at the other end of this. I’ll call her and then you’ll let me finish my job. Okay?”
A regal nod answered him.
Cursing his bad luck and the lost time, Titan clicked on the comms link and waited. Nothing. He threw a murderous glance at the woman and clicked again. Fear slipped its cold little fingers in his chest and squeezed his heart. What could keep Kim from replying to the only active decoder outside the ship? It was her idea! She must have known it was him. She would’ve answered. Unless she couldn’t.
“Something’s wrong, she should be answering this.” Titan knew his voice had dropped several octaves.
“I must admit, you had me going for a while. You’re a very good liar…? What should I call you when I start shooting your limbs off?”
Titan swallowed. Fear for Kim made him sweat. He angrily rubbed at his temple. “Something happened to her.”
The kinetic gun hissed when the woman charged a projectile in the chamber. “Your name, hombre?”
“Would you shut the hell up?” he yelled, clicking several times on the decoder. Kim. Please, answer.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a tall, slim form slinking inside the alley. Unless this was a very, very tall human, it could only be a Yithian.
With energy born of fear for Kim and rage at whoever had hurt her, Titan barreled into the woman and plastered her against the wall just as a series of red flares slashed the air where she’d stood only a second before.
“There’s no time, follow me!” he snarled as he turned around and charged down the alley.
To her credit, the woman quickly grasped the situation and after firing behind at the unseen attackers, she ran side by side with Titan. They both rushed into a decrepit and leaky porch, sprinted across some dimly lit interior courtyard that smelled of urine and fuel, and emerged into a thick crowd of people. Walking fast, he saw the woman strapping the gun back to her hip, never missing a step as she cleaved like a dorsal fin through the massed bodies.
“You’ll have to explain sooner or later,” she said out of the corner of her mouth.
Titan nodded. “Not now. We have to move.”
He knew just where to go, where a couple wouldn’t attract attention. The red light district was only a few blocks away and as soon as they reached it, Titan rented a cubicle and pulled the woman inside. A narrow cot and a bedside table. Nothing else. He grimaced.
“Why are Yithians firing at you?” she asked, seemingly nonplussed that one had nearly sliced her in half.
“Look…woman—”
“Carmela.”
“Fine. Look, Carmela, I didn’t hurt Kim, you have to believe me. I never would do anything to hurt her. You get me?” She nodded, so he went on. “I’m here to give Drokesh a parting gift from Kim. I don’t know if she told you about her…time on the Gorgosh.”
Carmela shook her head. “I didn’t know she’d ever been there, no.”
Rage claimed him again and he could barely force the words out. “She was captured by Drokesh, and used…fuck, I can’t even say it. He did things to her that earned him a few of these.” Titan pointed to his belt, where the SIG rested. “He’s trying to get her back right now, but he won’t. Not as long as I’m around.”
“For once, the rumors were true.”
“What do you mean?” He was past—way past—playing word games.
Carmela made a gesture with her hand that could’ve meant the world is turning around or “I’m getting dizzy”. “There’s a price on your handsome head, hombre. A very high price. I was even tempted for a few seconds.”
Titan only managed not to close his hands on her throat and shake her. She probably would’ve kicked his ass. “You knew what I was saying was the truth, but you still acted like a first-class bitch?”
“Calling women bitches won’t get you far with me,” she warned. “And no, I didn’t know ‘the truth’, I knew what I heard could potentially be part of the truth, and since it ties in with what you said, I believe it now.”
Even the word bitches sounded succulent in her mouth. Beetchez.
He rubbed his scalp and blew air through pursed lips. They were wasting time.
“Okay, I’m done fucking around—”
“You love her and want to avenge her honor.”
That stopped him cold. He started to talk, snapped his mouth closed, tried again with no luck. “Yeah, well, I guess that’s it.”
Wasn’t it though? He liked her—loved her even—and wanted Drokesh to pay. So yeah, that Carmela woman was right. Quick brain too.
“But you can’t reach her and that’s a problem.” She sat on the cot, which creaked under her tall frame. “Where’s the Femme Metal, I haven’t seen it at the docks?”
“It’s dormant, right outside the station’s air space. Kim’s waiting for the Yithian ships to…”
Titan’s words floated out of his brain. The Yithians were already there on the station. Did that mean…?
He sank on the cot by her side. “No.”
“If they had destroyed the ship, we would have heard the explosion. Kim could only be maintaining radio silence because of a temporary condition. Maybe she had to take the decoder off.”
Carmela’s words registered one at a time, as though he listened to a message with a bad connection. The only thing clear to him was rage. “I’m gonna kill them all if they touched a single purple braid on her head.”
“I have no doubt,” the woman said, rising to her full height. “Meanwhile, I suggest we move out. Our fifteen minutes are up.”
As they emerged into the alley, steam rose from maladjusted manhole covers and a smell permeated the air. Titan coughed and patted his waist. He felt like he waded knee-deep in nightmares, like he couldn’t wake up, couldn’t control the situation, that it controlled him. And he didn’t like that. Not one bit.
“I’m not playing nice anymore. I’m taking this to Collins’ house.”
Carmela agreed with a nod.
“You don’t have to come with me.”
“That’s why she paid me.”
With the beautiful and deadly woman by his side, Titan marched down the alley, turned at the corner and made his way to the club where he’d met Kim for the first time, the Flashpoint. Collins was bound to have left a few men behind. Titan knew a few by face. He’d get information from one of them.
When they entered the Flashpoint, music blared so loudly it made his eardrums hiss. Luck was with them for Titan spotted one of Collins’ bodyguards leaning on the balustrade. He must have spotted the pair as well for he looked surprised, turned around and shoved through the throng. Titan was already halfway up the stairs by the time the guy was reaching the backdoor. Carmela pushed aside anyone too slow, which won him precious seconds. The door closed in his face. He shouldered it, nearly took the thing off its hinges and closed his fist on the bodyguard just as the man was going for a wall-mounted comms link.
&nb
sp; “I don’t think so,” Titan snarled. He threw the man against the opposite wall, kept him there with a forearm against the nape of the neck. “Where’s Collins?”
No answer. The guy needed an attitude adjustment. Before Titan could reach down and pull out his silent micro pistol for added emphasis, Carmela smacked her telescopic baton right across the man’s shoulder. Titan heard and felt the collarbone snap. He drowned the guy’s yelp of pain with his hand.
“See? You made her mad. Now answer before I let her have at you.”
A shaking nod convinced Titan to release his face. “I don’t know, Titan, I swear, man.”
“We have company,” the woman said.
Titan saw her closing the door again and locking it. “Yithians?”
She nodded as she pulled the kinetic gun from its holster and pointed it at the door. “At least four. Probably more.”
Great.
“Where is he meeting Drokesh?” Titan demanded. He needed more time, dammit.
The man blanched. “H-here.”
“When?”
A loud blast tore the door off its hinges. Carmela yelled as she fired in the smoking opening. A few red flares shot past but missed her. She leaped sideways, still firing through the hole. Debris fell around her. Screams were heard from beyond the ruined doorway. A shot was heard and the music abruptly stopped. The speakers fizzed when someone moved the mike.
“I want the human male named Titan Harris. I will harm no one else if you bring him to me. Alive.”
“Drokesh,” Titan spat. He shoved the man aside and drew both his SIG and the smaller Glock. He’d use the Glock rounds first, to make sure he kept enough of the larger caliber for Drokesh. At least four. The thought lifted Titan’s spirits considerably.
Creeping toward the large opening, Titan straightened his arm and took aim. He only had an obstructed view of Drokesh, who stood on the DJ platform and held the mike in his large hand. He wore some black-rubber garment with a high collar. Unless he shot through someone’s head to get at the Yithian—something Titan seriously considered—he wouldn’t cause enough damage for his taste.
“I can hold them for a while,” Carmela murmured. “Go around the back and come in through the front door.”
He was about to do just that when another section of wall, this one a foot from him, imploded inward. This time, a Yithian came through with the shower of debris and grabbed the woman by the wrists, pulling them wide and high. He was Yithian, all right, with the stature and skin color to prove it but his hair was much darker than any other member of that species Titan had ever seen. It wasn’t silver like the others but the color of stainless steel. He knocked into Carmela with so much force that both went crashing through the wall behind her, tumbling out of Titan’s view.
As much as Titan wanted to, helping Carmela meant losing Drokesh. And he wasn’t about to let that happen. He turned around and sprinted to the very last door, shouldered it and leaped down the steel stairs four by four. He hoped she was okay, although wrestling with a Yithian—man or woman—wasn’t terribly pleasant.
By the time the rest of the Yithian force had cleared the second floor, he’d be back, this time in front of the club, waiting for Drokesh’s kneecaps to go by. He could already feel the recoil of the gun, the smell of gunpowder, the satisfying impact when the bullets would hit. Four bullets. He had to save at least that much.
Drokesh, you sick bastard, I’m gonna make you hurt before I finish you.
* * * * *
Cold.
It proved her only certainty. Cold and humidity. It clammed her whole body, glued her eyes shut, made her nose feel runny. She shifted her legs, tried to move her arms but they wouldn’t. Or not enough anyway. She opened her eyes and gasped. Blackness. The immensity of space, a complete void. A sob fogged up the visor of her helmet. The sound of her erratic breathing the most frightening sound she’d ever heard. Kim forced her mind to clear.
Patting herself, she discovered the booster pack was still attached to her but only by a single strap. She hurriedly clasped it in her hand in case it floated away.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she murmured, closing her eyes briefly.
She fired a single, quick shot and twisted so she could survey her situation.
“Oh god…”
She was far from the station. So…far.
Panic threatened to overwhelm her. She fought the sobs choking her, menacing her judgment, poisoning her mind with images of a very slow and painful death. But the worst part was not seeing Titan again.
Like, whoa. I’m not dead yet, dammit.
The gauge indicated she had maybe fifteen minutes of power left in the booster pack before the battery died. It was hard to tell how close she was from Land’s End, only that it was much too far for a lone human in an a-suit. Like a blinking Cyclops, the rotating yellow beacon of the control tower flashed intermittently.
In quick bursts so she would conserve the battery, Kim fired the pack, keeping her body carefully aligned and as streamlined as she could. She must have dropped the bag somewhere while she was unconscious. Just as well, she had no use for it now. Not now that she was going to…
Kim stopped herself from venturing further down that chain of thought. I’m going to make it. I’m going to MAKE IT.
Too bad her rebreather would outlast her booster pack by several hours. She’d have plenty of time to see it coming, the abyss, the cold filtering in her suit, sweat crystallizing over her skin, her mouth drying up—
For fuck’s sake. Stop it!
Land’s End’s lights grew in intensity, until she could make out some details of the station. The larger ships, their antennas sticking out like a bad case of bed head, the docking ports and even the control tower’s windows. Tall buildings along the interior of the station gleamed with advertisement panels, flashed their slogans across the system.
Kim focused on the docking ports where along the underside several emergency and service exits perforated the thick station’s core. She’d used one once, back when she’d just started out with Alex and her crew. Kim forced the images of half of them dying from her mind. No time to think about death and long-gone friends or she’d start crying, and bawling in an a-suit was unpleasant business. Especially since one couldn’t wipe a runny nose. Pretty sight.
After an eternity of firing the pack in cautious bursts, Kim finally managed to approach Land’s End enough to entertain the idea she just might not die in space. The darkened underside loomed over her head as she passed underneath the station’s rim. Somewhere to her left, the Femme Metal waited for her crew back, floating, immobile, her hatch opened. Kim already missed the butt-ugly little ship.
Okay, if I’m not brain-damaged, the service entrances should be along here.
Kim whooped in her a-suit when she spotted a yellow placard with a giant black arrow pointing toward her right. She changed hands and fired the pack toward her left. Gaining momentum now, she extended her arms, desperate to catch anything that would give her a good handhold and narrowed her eyes to see in the distance. She definitely should have them adjusted again.
Like a landing strip of eons past, a channel of flashing white lights indicated the service entrance some two or three hundred feet away. Kim spread her arms wide now, legs too. Every little bit helps.
Fashioned for this exact situation, “holy shit” handles bristled along the groove and inside the flashing channel. Grinning like an idiot, she twisted, contorted and thanked her lucky star she was a flexible girl when finally her gloved hand closed over a handle.
“How ‘bout THAT! Ha!”
Feet as anchors, she climbed hand over hand until she’d reached the hatch and pounded on the big, shiny, delicious-looking red button. With a hiss of steam, the hatch opened and she pushed it in. Laughing hysterically and unable to stop herself, Kim closed the hatch with her feet, kept it shut while she worked the access panel on that side and felt the pressure compressing her suit as it adjusted once again to
one atmosphere. She’d never been so damn glad to get some kilopascal around her!
Kim knew she must have triggered some emergency response back in the tower but didn’t really care about that just then. She was a-li-ve. Titan would get a good kick in the butt. All his fault, the stubborn…man.
Working quickly now, she wrestled the a-suit off, hid it and the pack under the steel stairs, adjusted her cargo pants and T-shirt and was already up two levels when she heard feet clambering down. Male voices raised in alarm forced her to think, and think fast.
She had a stunner on her but couldn’t really use it. Land’s End was pretty forgiving of everything else—since crooks ran the thing—but attacking station personnel never ranked high on the cool factor and often resulted in permanent ban. The only human outpost for thousands of light-years in every direction, people were usually careful not to piss off the authority too much.
A crazy idea popped into her mind. Born out of panic and probably lack of oxygen, Kim turned it around in her mind as she froze on the landing, the voices getting closer, louder.
“Help!”
Kim pounded up the steps, her big boots clattered against the metal sheets. “Help!”
“Who’s down there?” demanded a man as he rounded the corner of the next landing above her head.
A stunner gleamed in his gloved hand. Two other men were right on his heels. All three wore the dark blue coveralls of security guards. At least, she hadn’t fallen on druggies or pimps prowling the station’s underbelly.
“The Yithian ship!” Kim stopped, put a hand over her chest and took dramatic breaths. “It nearly got me. It just left, I think. There…were two of them. They’re here…on a raid, from the Gorgosh.”
One of the guards cursed. “Again? Fuck.”
His colleague pressed his comms link against his throat. “The situation’s been confirmed. There’s a chick down in tunnel B, she says both ships are in on it.”
A chick.
Kim tried not to give the rude bastard a piece of her mind. She kept drawing deep breaths, the entire time gripping the handrail hard to keep from shaking out of her clothes.
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