Return

by Blaze Ward

  Someone might come along and finally take exception, finding that Oluchi had bedded his wife or mistress. Actually, they would take exception when he showed the woman how much better she could have demanded earlier. Some men just didn’t understand how to please a woman. It was more than just pleasuring her, but it started there.

  Actually listening when she spoke. Remembering little details.

  Having a thought for something beyond themselves.

  The others chucked their water-tight bags over the side, having extracted a frightening arsenal of death, so Oluchi took a deep breath and did the same. Helmets remained on, but masks got retracted.

  Sea monsters, dripping salty water onto the deck in gray bodysuits.

  “This way,” the tiny black woman said as she led the group to the starboard side of the vessel and up a quick flight of steps. Oluchi was last, for now, when they got up to the flying bridge, but it was empty.

  The rains were starting to get nasty. He couldn’t remember if he’d seen the weather forecast, but this felt bigger than just a fall rain coming on. Yisan didn’t get hurricanes, like some planets did, but all that water out there let some monsters get a long, running start.

  “When we open this hatch, a light probably goes on, if it already hasn’t from us boarding,” Grace said simply. “If it moves, I’m shooting it. If it shoots back, you engage. Xiuying, take the rear position, because at some point they’ll successfully flank up and we’ll be fighting both directions. Questions?”

  Oluchi grunted with the two men and watched the lithe woman move, trying to emulate the grace she embodied with her name. She had to be a dancer, on top of everything else.

  The hatch she opened was solid, rather than transparent. That was good, because she fired two quick shots and then drew the rest of them in.

  Oluchi closed the door to find two men out cold on the deck, and the bridge of Cardinal in their hands. He followed Lazarus over to the left, where a man had spilled out of a chair, but Oluchi’s eyes were on the console he had left operational.

  Internal security monitors.

  Lazarus started to touch something, but Oluchi caught his hand.

  “Allow me,” he said, sliding his bottom onto the warm seat and toggling a few things.

  Four monitors showed cabins and hallways as he flipped around. Oluchi recognized one of the cabins as a place he had slept, and wondered just how much blackmail Ardna had accumulated, if he was able to tape what were supposedly private quarters.

  He suppressed a growl and kept checking.

  There. Aileen. Flat on a bed. Unmoving.

  Behind him, Lazarus hissed.

  Oluchi caught the hand that stabbed at a button and shifted the monitors with his other hand. Lazarus wrestled with him for a moment.

  “She’s asleep, Lazarus,” he said as the vital monitors came up.

  Heartrate. Body temperature.

  Oluchi had no idea what might be normal for the furry woman, but she wasn’t dead. Right now, that might be the only thing keeping Lazarus from cutting the throats of the two men Grace and Xiuying were tucking into a corner.

  “Where?” Lazarus growled in a voice only vaguely Human.

  Oluchi checked. He’d actually slept in the next cabin over on a jaunt with a cute redhead, a year ago or so. He turned to catch Grace’s eye.

  “B-deck,” he said simply. “Cabin nine.”

  “Where’s Eha?” Lazarus pressed. “Where’s Ardna?”

  Toggle. Study. Flip.

  “I can’t find them,” Oluchi said finally.

  Lazarus’s face got ugly, but Oluchi forestalled him.

  “But I also can’t see C-1, Lazarus,” Oluchi said. “That’s his suite, up a deck from Aileen and all the way forward. Salon, sleeping chamber, closet, restroom.”

  “Good enough, for now,” Grace said. “We need to get all the way down to B-deck aft.”

  “What’s there?” Lazarus asked, but Oluchi already knew.

  “The armory,” she said with an angrier voice than he’d heard earlier tonight.

  Made sense. Some of the men would be armed, but if they could keep the rest of the crew from getting guns, it made things much easier.

  “Can you disable the console?” Lazarus pointed. “And would it matter?”

  “This is the primary,” Grace said. “There are a few others, but none with this level of sophistication.”

  “Good enough,” Lazarus smiled cruelly. “Oluchi, stand clear.”

  He had no idea what the man was going to do, so he stood and slid to the side like a woman’s husband had just opened the front door downstairs.

  Lazarus fired into the console with his heavier beam, shattering it with a whoop of energy and a small shower of sparks.

  “Xiuying, are you capable of ripping the steering wheel off the post so they can’t go anywhere?” Lazarus turned to the dangerous dwarf.

  Xiuying smiled and reached into a pocket.

  “I can do you one better,” he said as he pulled out a powertorque.

  Oluchi watched the man kneel and back out the bolts holding the wheel on, then pocketing them while whistling under his breath.

  That was certainly not something Oluchi had expected, but they all had hidden depths.

  He watched Grace open the hatch forward, where he remembered the main stairwell down, and wondered what depths he might find inside himself.

  Tonight, he just might have to.

  Thirty-Four

  Lazarus

  Juvenile delinquency didn’t defray the rage pounding in his chest, but blowing up the security console had knocked some of the edges off, and Lazarus was more confident he wouldn’t overreact now.

  If that was possible.

  Oluchi caught him by the arm as Grace scouted the next chamber.

  “Why the violence, Lazarus?” he had apparently finally worked up the courage to ask.

  All night, the man had been just running on a wet, tumbling log, from the body language, but things were getting imminent.

  “Eha’s mate is in command of a warship capable of obliterating any security forces in orbit of this planet,” Lazarus told him in a low rumble. “If something happens to her, he might start shooting at surface targets when he’s done with that. There are a few people on this planet I would miss, if the Churquen decided to kill everyone. And he might. I’d like to stop that, but people who show up with guns like that don’t understand that there might be bigger guns until it gets out of hand.”

  “This isn’t out of hand?” Oluchi indicated the whole ship, something short of panic on his face, but well-concealed.

  Better than Lazarus had expected.

  “Leveling Tershuvi with energy weapons from orbit might not be out of hand for Addison Wolcott, Oluchi,” Lazarus said.

  He watched the man blink in surprise.

  Never had consequences, have you?

  Lazarus wasn’t surprised. For a gambler, Oluchi Pryce acted a lot like a high-class call girl.

  Still, he was here. He had put on the drysuit and come with them. He was holding a gun in his hand.

  And he had asked.

  Something came over the man now. A settling, for lack of a better term to call it.

  Oluchi Pryce’s shoulders came down at the same time his chin came up and his breath flowed out.

  The pretty playboy with the suave words seemed to disappear like a shade being drawn.

  “I’d like to prevent that,” he said simply. Firmly. “Eduardo, as you noted, is counting on me to protect his interests, so perhaps we’ll be able to settle for just killing Strav Ardna. Certainly the galaxy would be a better place.”

  Lazarus was shocked to his core, watching another man take root in that flesh, but he’d only known the gigolo for a day. Maybe Oluchi Pryce was capable of growing up, and had just never found the reason.

  Damsels in distress would be as good as anything.

  “Are you two done?” Grace hissed from the doorway.

  Lazarus s
tudied Oluchi for a moment and found what he wanted. He turned to Grace and nodded.

  In his hands, he still cradled the blaster rifle, and that seemed to fit his mood. Xiuying smiled with his even heavier weapon.

  Violence was in the air like the charge before a storm.

  Or the center of the storm outside.

  Grace moved. Flowed.

  Lazarus was silent behind her, and still felt like a clumsy ox as he watched her in motion. Oluchi had apparently gained experience in silence at some point as well.

  Probably coming and going through boudoir windows, but Lazarus didn’t even think that too loud. The man was here, and willing. Hopefully capable. Xiuying was also here, and dangerous.

  They could do this.

  Grace paused at the first level down and waited for him to catch up.

  “C-deck,” she whispered, gesturing. “Down one more.”

  Lazarus nodded and checked. They were in a spiral staircase, so the space was almost a closet, but that made it compact enough that someone would have to be right in the hallway, standing next to them, to see anyone.

  Downside, a crew member might walk right up on them before they could do anything.

  Lazarus nodded to Xiuying and indicated he should watch here. The man nodded and Lazarus circled down after Grace, Oluchi right behind him.

  B-deck was nowhere as luxurious as C-deck had been, which made a crude sense. The parties occurred on C-deck and above, so that’s where the guests would be. If you were important enough to stay for a weekend, you might have a cabin up there. If you were a nobody or crew, Ardna could put you below.

  Grace was peeking out of the stairwell on B-deck, with Lazarus just around the coil from her. She motioned him closer and slipped partway into the hall so he could get close.

  It was still a crowded fit. He was almost dancing with the woman in the tight confines. They were certainly close enough to kiss, had they wanted. Her wry smile of acknowledgment almost made him blush.

  “You watch forward,” she whispered. “I’ll take Pryce and disable the lock on the armory, so nobody can open it quickly.”

  Lazarus nodded and slipped across the hallway to a slightly recessed door. Grace said something to Oluchi which caused him to slip back up the stairs, and return a moment later with Xiuying.

  They were all down here now. He didn’t like to think that they were trapped, because the hull of the ship itself looked to be a carbon-fiber monocast and he and the ex-marine had weapons heavy enough to blast a hole through if they needed out.

  It was mostly psychological.

  He watched forward. Xiuying watched up the shaft. Oluchi joined Grace and did something esoteric, hunched over the keypad to a door next to the stairwell aft.

  Steps coming down from above caused Xiuying to signal intruders.

  Lazarus motioned him to step to the right, and he moved a little closer to the bow, just outside the stairwell where he could watch and listen.

  One man from the weight of the treads. Not in a hurry. Not trying to be quiet. Heavy boots, rather than the sort of softer shoes you wore on a ship’s deck, and presumably a maritime yacht as well.

  Soldier.

  No, goon. Those men had been thugs with guns.

  Lazarus smiled, hoping he might recognize the man when he appeared.

  Pause as the man arrived on B-deck and turned.

  Movement as he stepped out and turned towards Xiuying.

  Lazarus hammered him at the base of the skull with the butt of his blaster rifle.

  Didn’t think he overdid it. The sound was softer than chucking a watermelon out a third story window to land on pavement below.

  The man went down like a sack of potatoes at Xiuying’s feet. The marine grinned and slung his own rifle, already up for a solid butt-stroke to the chin.

  Zip ties appeared from another of the bouncer’s pockets. Got used. Target got neutralized.

  Silence.

  Oluchi and Grace had reacted to the noise, and then gone back to what they were doing.

  Lazarus kept watch all directions. The boat creaked and pitched worse than it had.

  Disabling the cockpit permanently might cause troubles in another hour, but Lazarus didn’t plan to be here that long.

  Oluchi rose with a walk that reminded Lazarus of a cheetah with a bloody muzzle, from having run down some prey and killed it. Lazarus blinked and recalibrated his opinion of the man up a notch.

  Again.

  “They will need a fire ax to get in there now,” Oluchi assured him as the man came close, grinning.

  Lazarus grinned back.

  Grace slid past them, again closer to Lazarus than she needed to be, brushing herself against his side when she could have passed without any contact. Oluchi followed her, and Lazarus came third, leaving Xiuying watching the rear still.

  Pryce stopped the small woman a little forward and touched a hatch lightly. Lazarus was close enough to hear him whisper.

  “Small boat launch here in a water well,” he said.

  Ah. A shuttle for the big ship, capable of taking you to the dock, rather like bringing someone down from orbit, since Ajax could never land on a planetary surface.

  That would make escape easier to plan for, if they could just steal a boat.

  Just forward of that, Grace and Oluchi stopped and started working on a panel.

  Cabin nine.

  Aileen.

  Lazarus moved past them and aimed at the bow, just daring someone to step out right now. His safety was still off.

  The two thieves worked quickly while Lazarus listened.

  The lock opened and Grace touched him on the arm.

  “She won’t know us,” the dark woman said with a smile. “You go first.”

  Lazarus nodded and handed Grace his rifle. She looked at him, maybe a little surprised, but took it.

  He popped the hatch and slipped in.

  Aileen was on the bottom bunk. He knew she was alive because they had been monitoring her from above, but she didn’t move now.

  Looking close, one eye was swollen, like someone had punched her. Fur on her near arm had a cooked look to it, like someone had used a stun rod on her, grounding a tremendous amount of electricity into a Yithadreph.

  Lazarus had no idea what that level of shock would do to a non-Human.

  He reached out a tentative hand and touched the woman who had been his boss for a while.

  “Aileen, it’s Lazarus,” he said.

  She stirred, groaned, moved her head a little towards him.

  “Wha?”

  “It’s Lazarus,” he repeated.

  Her good eye opened, found him, focused.

  The woman surged up and wrapped her arms around his neck tight. He could feel her sobbing.

  “They took Eha,” she whispered. “I tried to stop them, but there were too many.”

  “I know,” Lazarus wrapped his arms around the woman and held her. “I brought friends. We’re going to get her back.”

  Something about his tone caused her to flinch, but he already knew what it was.

  Humans, and their capability of mass violence. No other species moved as quickly to unmitigated force.

  She leaned back finally and Lazarus got a good look at her face.

  Battered. Badly. Someone using fists. Someone beating a woman much smaller than he was, as she was four foot six tall.

  Someone Lazarus was going to kill slowly. Didn’t have a name yet, but this was a missive he was willing to address as Dear Occupant.

  He stood and got her upright.

  Grace slipped into the cabin now and knelt.

  “Aileen, this is Grace,” Lazarus whispered. “She’s a friend.”

  Aileen flinched at meeting a new Human, especially one with skin the color of aged oak, when Lazarus was pale with freckles, but she submitted to a quick inspection.

  “On a Human, I’d say concussion and possibly a few fractures, but nothing bad,” Grace said after a few moments, focusing her eye
s on Aileen and raising a finger. “Follow my finger.”

  She moved it, and Lazarus could see the edges of a concussion. Not bad. Maybe the Yithadreph’s head was just as hard as she was always saying.

  “Now what?” Aileen asked.

  “Now, we go up and rescue Eha,” Lazarus replied coldly. “Whether those folks like it or not.”

  “He’s going to kill her,” Aileen said. “He had that look in his eyes, Ambassador or not.”

  “If he does, I’ll let Addison burn this planet down,” Lazarus replied, causing Grace’s head to snap around.

  “What?” she demanded in a tight voice.

  “Eha’s mate commands a warship unlike anything in the galaxy,” Lazarus turned to her as she rose into his space. “It could kill Yisan. I’d help him.”

  Silence.

  Long, painful, jagged.

  Grace nodded. Maybe smiled grimly at some inside observation she wasn’t willing to share.

  They exited the cabin and closed the door.

  “Now where?” Grace asked.

  “Forward, up a deck,” Aileen volunteered from her spot just behind Lazarus. “That’s where Ardna was. He had guards outside the hatch and inside. Mostly inside.”

  “How many?” Grace asked.

  “Six and two, I think,” Aileen replied. “At least last time when I was up there.”

  “Good enough,” Grace said.

  Lazarus watched her turn to him with a smile and hand her stunner pistol to him. He took it blankly.

  Watched her remove her drysuit top, unhook the front of her shirt that had been underneath, and pull it open, showing nothing but skin and breasts underneath.

  He couldn’t help but stare.

  She chuckled.

  “Yes, that will do,” she said. “Lazarus, you stay close behind me and the others come along in the forward stairwell quietly.”

  She moved like a predator now. Forward up an empty corridor, so Lazarus presumed most of the crew on duty was either up on C-deck or down on A.

  They made it to a forward stairwell. The rocking was getting a little worse now, but only noticeable because Lazarus was watching for it. Hopefully, nobody had noticed the three crew members removed from the situation.