Viper looked from Trix to the shuttle door and down to her hoverboard. Iza saw her decide a moment before the pressure building up in her cybernetic arm released and her other hand dropped.
Iza gestured toward the shuttle, inviting Viper to follow her inside. On board, Viper sat on the small bench with her eyes on the hatch. The bench had once served as Iza’s cot, the bedding lay neatly tucked away in case of emergencies now. Iza sat in the seat behind the copilot’s chair at an angle to face her. Trix stood at the hatch entrance, prepared to prevent Viper from escaping.
“So, let’s omit the part where I ask what you’ve been up to over the last two months and we get to the real questions,” Iza began. “What you were doing at Karter’s party the other night?”
“What party? I didn’t get any invitation to a party.” She was trying to be coy. Brazen little thing.
“My engagement party to Karter at Blue Hills Estate. You recognized me, though you didn’t offer your congratulations. Perhaps it was because you were leaving in a such a hurry.” Iza waited for her to come up with another story or lie. She didn’t.
“I was just taking care of some private business. It had nothing to do with you. It wasn’t personal.”
“It was personal to me. You took something of mine and I want it back.”
Viper laughed. “You know I can’t do that. The people I work with, they’re not the kind that give back out of charity. It was a team score, and the profits were split equally among us.”
Iza snorted. “So, you’re trying to convince me they split their haul with you equally? I doubt that very much. You’re barely a blip on the scales to them. They would just as soon turn on you as keep you.”
Her jeering must have hit a nerve because Viper’s smile instantly faded. There was a disappointed sadness in her eyes that Iza recognized. No doubt she’d already been explicitly told how little they cared.
Iza had run with a similar gang in her past. It had gotten her into loads of trouble. At the time, she thought she was evening the score, giving herself some kind of street credit. Instead, they were using her, just like they were using Viper now. Iza knew where this road ended. Viper would wind up in a juvenile detention facility, and the rest of them would walk free. They wouldn’t even leave her cabin empty for longer than a day before getting someone else.
“I’m sure they’ve told you how replaceable you are,” Iza said. She meant the words to sting. She would say whatever it took to get through to Viper. “They’re all out for themselves. If you get injured, caught, or killed tomorrow, they won’t give you another thought.”
There tears welled up in Viper’s eyes but her mouth remained sealed tight.
“Now me, on the other hand, I’m a different kind of captain. I’ve been where you are, I know these people. What they’ll take from you, you’ll never get back. Come with me today and I’ll help you in a way they never will.”
Viper’s eyebrows shot up. “How’s that?”
“A real home, with real work. You’ll have your own cabin, a place to call yours. When we get work, you’ll get a cut. It won’t be equal, but it’ll be fair.”
“Nothing illegal?”
“I didn’t say that,” Iza qualified with a smile. “However, we don’t leave our people behind to get caught by Enforcers so we can get away. If you’re injured, we don’t abandon you. We stick together.”
Iza realized what she offered wasn’t a false or unrealistic view of her crew. It was the truth. She and the others had stuck together. No matter their personal views or agendas, they’d looked out for one another and that was something she could depend on.
Iza gave Viper a moment to let the offer sink in. The option to have a real home. A place where she didn’t have to look over her shoulder. A place where she didn’t have to hide her stuff for fear that someone else would take it and sell it. Iza had fought hard to create that space on the Verity. Now, she was offering it to her young friend. The question: would it ever be enough?
“You think I have it, but I don’t. They put everything we took that night into the hold. I don’t have access to it now.”
“You’re lying. You have as much access as anyone else. I’m giving you a choice. Help me get my things back. I don’t even care what else you grab, as long as you bring me what’s mine. Then you and I are square, and I’ll give you place on my ship or drop you off at another desired location.”
“And if I don’t?” Viper’s chin lifted in challenge.
“If you don’t, I will sell you out to Captain Douketis and his crew faster than you can blink. I’ll tell them you told me everything. Not only that, I’ll convince them that you gained access because of me. He’ll be forced to give me a cut, cutting your share to zero.”
“You wouldn’t. You can’t do that!” Viper stared at her in shock.
“I can and I would enjoy doing it. Captain Douketis owes me one, anyway. You have no leverage, no standing, and barely any friends. I suggest you take me up on my offer. It’ll be better for you in the long run.”
“What makes you think threatening me will make me want to join your crew?”
“Oh, you’re mistaken, I wasn’t asking you to join my crew. I’m giving you a permanent way out. Their methods of dealing with traitors are painful at best. Their lifestyle will only get you either thrown in prison again or killed. Like I told you before, I’ve been where you are.”
“I doubt that,” Viper muttered. She worried her bottom lip, looking at Trix. “Is she on the level?”
“If you are asking if you can trust Iza, the answer is yes. I would trust her with my life.”
Viper nodded then let out a sigh, dropping her shoulders and her last defense. “Fine, I’ll do it.”
—
Braedon and Jovani were already waiting at the pickup point when Iza landed the shuttle. When they boarded, they were both surprised to see Viper.
“Um, is she coming with us?” Braedon asked.
“Yes,” Iza said. She smiled. “I made her an offer she couldn’t turn down.”
“Does she know what’s going on?” Jovani asked.
“Yes. How did it go?”
Braedon met Viper’s glare with one of his own. “I did what I was told,” he said, reading her reaction.
“So did I.” Viper crossed her arms over her chest, still glaring at him.
Iza waved a hand in the air. “Save your battle for the next underground VR tournament. Let’s get back to your recon. Where are we with everything?”
Braedon rolled his eyes away from Viper and back to Iza. “We confirmed our buy-in with Karter’s credits, and we have detailed notes about the entire operation.”
“Did anyone suspect or recognize you?”
“No, we were discreet,” Jovani said.
“In fact, Jovani got several job offers while we were there, he played his part so well,” Braedon said, smiling at him.
He has no idea. Jovani’s a skilled actor. Iza needed more time to cool off before she confronted Jovani about his deceit.
Viper laughed pulling Iza out of her disquieting thoughts. “Douketis will see you coming from a kilometer away.”
“That’s where you come in,” Iza told her with a smile. “You’re going to make us invisible.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Viper sat on the bench with her arms crossed over her chest while Iza gave the others their orders.
“Braedon, Trix, secure the shuttle and meet me on the flight deck in ten minutes. Viper, we need to find you a place to sleep.”
“I’d like a room with a view, if you don’t mind,” she said with a smirk.
“No promises,” Iza said.
They walked off the shuttle and into the Verity’s cargo area, where the dog ran up to greet them.
Cierra descended the stairs from the upper deck of the ship. “How did it go? Any trouble?”
“No, everything went according to plan” Iza responded. “We need to meet about—”
“What is
she doing here?” Cierra asked, her tone suddenly cold and sharp.
“I was invited,” Viper said, her hands going to her hips. “I see you’re still dressing like a barefooted gardener.”
“You look like something living under a city bridge, hoping for a scrap of processed food,” Cierra shot back.
The two women stared each other down from a meter apart, refusing to look at anyone else. It electrified the air in the room. The crackle of it made Iza take a step forward, worried something worse would happen. She was about to separate them when Braedon caught sight of the standoff.
“Wait, do you know each other?”
“You could say that,” Cierra snapped.
“Well, at least you’re acknowledging that I exist.”
“Don’t play the innocent victim here! You abandoned your family and ruined your body,” Cierra’s voice rose to a shrill.
Viper was rounding up to do more than talk when Iza stepped forward, holding up her hands between them.
“How do you two know each other?”
“Captain, this is my sister, Abby Quetzali.” Cierra’s words came out like a hiss.
“My name is Viper. Not that you ever cared about being my sister before.”
Cierra rolled her eyes. “Of course, I care. Mom and Dad care, too, for the record.”
“Don’t speak for them. They have their perfect little all-natural daughter to turn to. Why in the stars would they ever need me?”
“That’s not true. They love you. Why won’t you believe that?”
“I have no reason to believe it.” Viper shook her head. “I spent most of my life competing for the things that are important to me without their help. Meanwhile, you all did everything you could to hold me back.”
“I didn’t know you had a sister.” Braedon looked over both young women, trying to see the resemblance between the Healer he’d dated and his Dark Net gaming nemesis.
There really wasn’t one. Where Cierra was exotic and bright in her choice of colors, Viper was hard-edged and dark. Viper’s dyed green hair was cut in a short pixie cut that framed her heart-shaped face, and her wide blue eyes slanted slightly downward. In contrast, Cierra had all the curls and the gray eyes. But it wasn’t just a matter of their looks, it was the way each of them moved, their manners. Iza had never seen two people more opposite. Having both of them on board would be a lot more drama than Iza had signed up for.
“Well, I’m so happy to have provided you with this opportunity for a family reunion, but it doesn’t change anything,” Iza said. “Viper is here at my request and has agreed to help us with our job tomorrow.”
Cierra scoffed. “You’re working with those criminals?”
“I could say the same to you.” Viper looked around at the misfit crew. “I never would’ve thought you’d end up in space, so what brings you out here?”
Cierra didn’t answer right away, glancing in Braedon’s direction and shaking her head ever so slightly.
“Oh, I see. I had no idea that you and Little Lamb were acquainted.”
“Blacksheep,” Braedon corrected. “And your sister and I have known each other for some time. But don’t let that get in the way of our future tournament. I still plan on beating you again. Not only do I have my reputation to protect, but I believe you owe me some credits.” He crossed his arms in challenge.
“No chance, you’ll get a proper beating and then we can put this to rest,” Viper said. She moved to take a step toward him, but Cierra stepped into her path.
“That’s enough, you’ve done enough posturing this evening.”
“Are you going to try to get in my way, big sister?”
Iza could hear Viper’s mechanically enhanced arm winding up. The dog let out a warning growl. He was right, things were getting out of hand.
“Enough. Let me remind you that this is my ship. I make the rules here.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, Captain, we haven’t seen each other in two years. Our relationship isn’t like the ones from the story books,” Cierra said, turning to Iza. “Abby—” she sighed, “Viper and I don’t frequent the same circles.”
“That’s only partially true. Since I know both of you,” Braedon said.
The coincidence seemed to defy odds, but Iza somehow wasn’t surprised that Braedon would unwittingly find himself trapped between two feuding sisters. The guy was a magnet for trouble. She couldn’t help noting that her life kept getting more complicated, not less, the longer he was on her ship.
“And how do you two know each other?” Viper asked.
“We—” Braedon started to say.
“That’s a story for another time,” Cierra cut him off. If her eyes held daggers, he’d already be bleeding out on the floor.
“You mean the two of you were— Ha! Stars, wait until your parents find out,” Viper said. Her jeering made her older sister’s mouth clamp shut.
“Our parents,” Cierra corrected once she’d gained her voice again.
“I still can’t believe it,” Braedon said under his breath, still shaking his head.
“Have your domestic disputes elsewhere,” Iza interjected. “I’ve got work to do. Cierra, if I recall, you have no interest in what we have planned this evening, so I suggest you keep to your cabin or the infirmary this evening. The rest of you, meet me on the flight deck where we can go over the plan.” Iza looked around. “Speaking of, where’s Karter?”
“He left,” Cierra said, turning to leave.
“What do you mean he left? How? We took the only shuttle.”
“How would I know? He told me he was leaving, and as you can see, he’s gone. And before you ask, he didn’t say what time he’d be returning.” Cierra turned her back on them and retired to her cabin.
Fantastic. Iza didn’t need any more problems. If they were going to pull off this job, they couldn’t be also worrying about Karter getting captured and held for ransom.
She sent him a warning message, not sure if he’d be able to receive it: >> If you get yourself nabbed while we’re here, don’t think I’ll shed a tear or waste valuable resources coming after you. You have until this job is complete to be back here or you’ll get left behind. <<
She was patting herself on the back for making her point when she received notification of a new message. It was from Karter. That was fast.
>> Understood. -KH<<
Iza shook her head. Karter could take care of himself; he’d even been able to secure a new handheld, apparently. She had more important things to do than worry about him.
—
After two hours of deliberations and arguments over the plan, Iza was squeezing the bridge of her nose and considering dropping the whole thing. The sphere seemed impossible to reach. She felt close to contacting the TSS to see if they might handle the problem of getting it before Mr. Arvonen did something drastic.
The Verity’s crew had begun the meeting by standing around a three-dimensional holographic rendering of the auction hall, but after a while they’d all gotten tired and sat down to strategize. Iza’s backside was beginning to ache from sitting on the hard flooring in the flight deck for so long.
All the ideas they’d come up with Viper had shot down. Every single one. There seemed to be no way in or out with the goods that didn’t end in all of them being caught or killed.
“I’m telling you, what you want to do is impossible” Viper insisted. “The place where they’re holding everything is next level. You need at least four players to reach all that treasure. Every security measure has a back-up. Not to mention, there’s only one way in or out.”
“We’re running out of time. The auction is tomorrow. We’ve got to find a way in, and purchasing all the items you stole won’t work,” Iza said. “I don’t want any more bad ideas. Let’s go over our assets again and how we can use them.”
“All right, between the five of us, there are two telepaths and two who are unreadable,” Jovani said in a monotone voice, clearly sick of rehashing the same i
nformation.
“Two coders,” Braedon said.
“Two with super strength in at least one arm,” Viper said.
“We know what the box looks like and it’s small enough that it can be easily hidden from most people, but not from me,” Iza said, rubbing both hands over her face. “I think the only way to get what we want is for one of us to get caught.”
Viper stiffened. “Who?”
“Me,” Iza said. “I’m the most recognizable and I can be a bigger distraction than any of you.”
“I don’t like it. How will we get you back?” Jovani asked.
“They won’t hurt me in front of all those people, and I have a legitimate reason for being there.”
“You don’t have a pass or a buy-in. You won’t get a meter inside the room.”
“It doesn’t matter. All I need is for the video feed to pick me up and the rest will happen naturally.”
“But how will we get you out?” Jovani asked again, this time enunciating each word for emphasis.
Iza turned to him. His protectiveness took her breath away. Her gaze dropped away when she remembered his role as a TSS Agent in disguise, his agenda still unknown to her. Maybe he wanted the sphere, too. Does he plan to take it? What’s his real mission? She shook her head. It was making her brain dizzy trying to keep up with his duplicity.
“I’ll get myself out. Douketis doesn’t need to keep me, and if I’m with him, I can’t be the one stealing from him.”
“He’ll never go along with it. Douketis will come after you, and when he does, he’ll find me,” Viper said, shaking her head. “No extra lives. Game over.”
“Trust me, I’ll distract them so you can all get out. It’s the only way.”
The others remained silent. Iza figured they were trying to come up with another plan, but this was the approach that had the best chance for success. They’d exhausted all other possibilities. There were no guarantees, but if she got caught, Karter wouldn’t let her rot in a cell or on the Iron Dog. He still needed her, and that meant she had an emergency out. At least, she hoped he’d smoothed things over enough with his cousin enough to help her.
Divided Loyalties (Verity Chronicles Book 2): A Cadicle Space Opera Adventure Page 16