Alexis Carew: Books 1, 2, and 3

by J. A. Sutherland

  Still if I don’t manage to talk my way out of this, no matter how distasteful the telling, we’ll neither of us have much of a future to find out what feelings we do have.

  “I would have stayed on Giron to be with him,” she went on quickly, “but my captain insisted we flee. And when I was back in New London, aboard a ship, I realized that I didn’t care about anything else. So I resigned my place and …” She glanced down again as though embarrassed. “Well, I took what money I had and found that Mister Dansby. He’s quite disreputable, I know, but I couldn’t just book passage on any ship to come here, now could I?” She gave Reinacher a pleading look. “I needed someone who could find where Delaine was stationed now and who could get me here from New London. It took most of what I’d managed to save, but I did get here. To be with Delaine … nothing more, Herr Reinacher, I assure you.”

  He regarded her for a moment with pursed lips, nodding, then began to slowly applaud.

  “Very nice. Very nice, yes. Almost, I believe you.”

  “Herr Reinacher —”

  “Nein.” He held up a hand to stop her. “Please. The tale needs no more protestations. It is the best of lies that has so much of the truth. Still, there is the part I believe is true and the part I do not believe is true.” He pointed at her. “You have layers to you.” He sat back and crossed his legs, reaching to his boottop to pull forth a thin knife. “And I must peel from you the real truth.”

  Reinacher tapped the knife blade against his lower lip and stared at her intently.

  “So,” he said, eyes narrowing, “first I will peel away the truths of what you have said and you will see that you cannot lie to me. I have dealt with many accomplished liars, Fraulein Carew, and you, while you show promise, are not of their skill.” His frequent gestures were now made with the hand holding the knife and Alexis’ eyes followed it. “I think it true that you are not leutnant zur see, but your voice when you say you have resigned, it does not have the ring of truth. So …” He bowed slightly. “… I congratulate you on a promotion, I think.” He smiled and waved the knife at her face. “Yes! You see? I know the lie from the truth.”

  Reinacher stood and began pacing. He made his way behind the couch Alexis sat on and walked back and forth, tapping the blade on the couch behind her as he went.

  “I do not believe that it is you who have made arrangements with Herr Dansby-not-Federmann. You are too young, too much the naïf still. You would hesitate to have dealings with such a man. Still, though …” He stopped pacing and tapped the knife blade rapidly in one spot. “You and he are much the same in many ways, I think.”

  Reinacher resumed pacing. Alexis felt an urge to comment or question his comparison of her to Dansby. She felt rather insulted that he’d dare say she was at all the same as Dansby in any way, and the offense had broken her out of the paralyzing fear she’d felt. She clenched her hands in her lap. They were trembling and she didn’t want Reinacher to see that, nor did she want to give him any more information to work with by speaking again. What he was doing with the little she’d told him so far was frightening enough.

  “You say a grandfather wished you to marry, so this means that your parents are dead — I believe this. But —” He went back to the other couch and sat facing her again. “— you do not speak of him as one who was forcing you to this marriage. There is too much affection in you.”

  Reinacher crossed his legs and sat back. Alexis eyes followed the knife blade as he rested his arms on the couch’s back.

  “Affection,” he mused, smiling slightly, “has so many uses. Curious, though, that you say you love Leutnant Theibaud … so much that you will give up your life in New London and follow him here, and yet I do not believe this. You care for him, certainly — and he for you, else he would not have dared lie to me — but your face is uncertain when you say it.”

  He leaned forward and slid the blade of his knife along his other palm.

  “Many uses, fraulein, you will see. I do not think it would be easy to peel the truth from you. But this Theibaud, he may not bear watching me make the attempt.”

  Alexis closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She wished yet again that she’d found some way to hide a weapon in this dress. She heard the compartment’s hatch slide open behind her — that would be Reinacher’s man and likely meant Reinacher was done with whatever game he was playing at and about to begin questioning her in earnest. She felt he was likely correct — neither she nor Delaine would be able stand silent and watch him harm the other. They’d tell him what he wanted, if only to make it stop.

  Reinacher was staring at the hatch behind her. His eyes narrowed and he nodded.

  “And so it is bigger than the two.”

  Alexis turned her head and saw Commodore Balestra sliding the hatch closed. Balestra, face impassive, turned from the hatch and took three steps into the compartment.

  “I am curious what you have done with Heinrich,” Reinacher said.

  Balestra frowned. She pulled her tablet from a pocket and ran a finger over it.

  “My man at the door?” Reinacher prompted. He was still bent over, elbows on knees, running the blade of his knife over his palm.

  “There was no one at the hatchway,” Balestra said. She looked at Alexis. “So, vous.”

  “You know fraulein Aubert, commodore?” Reinacher asked with a smile.

  Balestra kept her gaze on Alexis. “From the blade in your hand, I think you know she is not.”

  “Your purpose here, commodore?”

  Balestra ignored him. “What Delaine has told me, Lieutenant Carew, it is true?”

  Alexis started to reach for her tablet in the little bag she held, but stopped. There wasn’t time for Balestra to view the messages or review the figures and timetables, nor was she asking for that. She nodded.

  “It is.”

  Balestra raised her tablet and spoke into it.

  “Allez.”

  In the same breath, she pulled a flechette pistol from her jacket and trained it on Reinacher.

  “So,” Reinacher said, “it is more than a leutnant or two who is disloyal.”

  “Drop the blade, Herr Reinacher, s'il vous plaît, and place your hands atop your head.” Balestra waited until he’d complied. “Stand slowly.”

  Reinacher remained still. “I think not. There is much for me to ponder in this. I had thought it was only Theibaud taken in by a woman, but now …”

  Alexis stood and slowly edged her way around the couch to Balestra’s side.

  Reinacher looked from her to Balestra. “Much more than leutnants, and more than a fleet, I think.” His eyes narrowed.

  “Shoot him,” Alexis whispered, seeing the man’s mind work on the puzzle of her purpose here and Balestra’s involvement, as it had on her own story for being there.

  “Kommodore Balestra does not like to kill, Leutnant Carew. I know this about her.” He smiled thinly. “But now I have learned another of your layers.”

  “Stand,” Balestra repeated, gesturing with the flechette pistol, and the gesture was all the distraction Reinacher required.

  He straightened, standing, but at the same time twisting and launching himself over the back of the couch he sat on, disappearing from view.

  Balestra fired. The flechettes tore at the couch’s cushions, shredding them. Balestra grabbed Alexis’ arm and dragged her to the floor behind their own couch just as Reinacher’s arm appeared wielding a laser. The bolt snapped through the space Balestra had just occupied.

  Alexis shared a look with Balestra and glanced around for some sort of weapon. It didn’t appear that Balestra’s flechette pistol would penetrate the couch’s back, while Reinacher’s laser likely would. A suspicion that was proven true a moment later as there was another snap and a smoking hole appeared in the back of the couch near Alexis’ head.

  Balestra raised her flechette and hosed the other couch with a stream of tiny darts as Alexis continued to look for something, anything, she could use as a weapon. Thei
r only advantage lay in the fact that Reinacher would have to replace the capacitor in his laser with a fresh one after each shot, and that would take time.

  A disturbingly short time, she noted as another smoking hole appeared in the center of the couch’s back. He might have two pistols and could have one at the ready while he reloaded the other, which would make rushing him after a shot disastrous for one of them. Her eyes fell on the sidebar.

  When next Balestra raised her arm to send a stream of flechettes in Reinacher’s direction, Alexis sprang for the sidebar. She scooped up the icebucket and an armful of bottles before scrambling back to shelter. Balestra gave her a confused look, then jerked back as a hole burnt through the couch near her nose.

  “That is not so much space to hide behind!” Reinacher called out. “I will find one of you — it is best, I think, to end this now.”

  “I couldn’t bloody agree more,” Alexis muttered. She dumped out the ice and unscrewed the bottles, pouring each into the bucket. The scents reached her nose as she poured.

  Peppermint … cinnamon … peach … what are these people thinking?

  “What do you do?” Balestra whispered.

  Alexis shook her head; anything she said might be heard by Reinacher. She heaved the empty bottles, one by one, over the couches.

  Reinacher laughed. “I would allow you a last drink, frauleins, never fear.”

  She waited for the next snap of Reinacher’s laser, then stood and threw the contents of the bucket over the back of the other couch. Balestra rose at the same time and fired another stream of flechettes. Alexis caught her lip between her teeth and motioned to Balestra to be ready.

  The next snap of Reinacher’s laser was a accompanied by a thwump and a scream. Alexis and Balestra both rose, the commodore firing and Alexis grasping the now empty ice bucket.

  Reinacher was standing and flailing about. His left arm, from wrist to shoulder, was aflame, as well as his hair. Balestra fired, but Reinacher was moving so rapidly that the flechettes barely caught his arm. Reinacher spun and dashed for the side of the compartment. Balestra fired again and Reinacher staggered, but made it to the bulkhead. He flung open a hatch hidden there and disappeared behind it.

  Alexis and Balestra rushed after him. Alarms began sounding as they reached the bulkhead and when they opened the hatch the corridor beyond was filled with jets of fog. Balestra slammed the hatch shut, coughing.

  “We have to go after him!” Alexis yelled over the alarms.

  “Non!” Balestra shook her head. “The fire! In the smaller space, it is enough — we cannot breath the gas!”

  Alexis reached for the hatch, but Balestra stopped her and as she did the alarms stopped.

  “That must mean the fire’s out. We can go after him!”

  Balestra held the hatch closed. “The service corridors of a station, they are a maze, Lieutenant Carew. Reinacher is well gone and we must be as well.” She examined her flechette pistol. Alexis could see that the magazine was almost empty. “We would soon be weaponless, in any case.”

  “But —”

  “La Baie Marche fleet, it is in révolte. That is the message I have sent. La mutinerie has begun. Even now my officers fight for control. I must return to my ships.”

  “The message? ‘Allez’? That was to have your officers take over the ships? How can you have made plans so quickly?” Alexis asked. “I only told Delaine last night.”

  Balestra grasped her arm and pulled her toward the main hatchway. “Lieutenant Carew, La Baie Marche fleet has plans for this since ma grand-mère was l’aspirant …” She paused and Alexis looked at her. Balestra’s eyes were filled with generations of pain and hope. She shrugged. “We have waited only to know we were not alone.”

  Thirty-Seven

  There was a rapid knock on the compartment’s hatchway. Alexis and Balestra looked at each other.

  “Reinacher’s man,” Alexis asked, “did you leave his body out there?”

  Balestra frowned. “There was no one.” She frowned further. “You think that I have killed this man?”

  “Well, I assumed you’d done something with him. Reinacher left him to guard the door.”

  There was a second, louder, knock.

  Alexis scanned the compartment. The flames had burned out on the couch Reinacher had hidden behind. Luckily its material wasn’t flammable and the compartment was large enough that the little bit of heat and smoke had not set off the fire suppression system as it had in the service corridor. Still there was no way to hide the damage fire, laser, and flechettes had done to the room. Or to her dress, she realized, as she saw that a seam had split all down one leg from hip to hem.

  I don’t even remember that happening.

  Balestra gestured with her flechette pistol. “You beside the hatch and I will have a clear view as they enter,” she said.

  But before Alexis could move, the hatch was slid forcefully open. Alexis looked around for anything to use as a weapon and Balestra raised her pistol, but it was Delaine and Dansby who rushed into the compartment, both holding pistols of their own. Alexis noted Balestra and Delaine in their uniforms and Dansby in his formal wear, all with plenty of places to conceal weaponry. She grasped the side of her dress, trying to keep the torn pieces together.

  It was lovely, but I do miss a uniform.

  “Reinacher?” Delaine asked.

  “Disparu,” Balestra answered. She nodded at the hatch. “We must go.”

  They decided that Delaine and Balestra would exit first, so that all four of them would not be seen returning to the reception at the same time. The two would collect any officers from Balestra’s fleet who had not gotten her message and were still at the reception, then return to their ships. Balestra thought they had, perhaps, an hour before the other Hanoverese ships in the system began noticing something odd about her ships — less if Reinacher was not lying dead in a service corridor and was able to raise the alarm. Both the Berry March fleet and Röslein had to set sail as quickly as possible.

  Alexis wrapped her arms around Delaine and buried her face in his chest.

  “Be careful,” she whispered.

  Delaine grasped her shoulders and pushed her gently back. He looked around the compartment at the shredded couches, the scent of Reinacher’s burning hair still lingering in the air.

  “Moi?” He smiled and caught her nose between thumb and forefinger. “Toi!”

  Alexis dug her thumb into his side. “As careful as we may be then, the both of us.”

  Delaine nodded, kissed her, and hurried after Balestra.

  “We’ll give them a minute or two to clear the ballroom and then follow.”

  “Reinacher had a man watching the door,” Alexis said. “He may come back.”

  Dansby shook his head. “Not that one.” At Alexis’ look, he explained, “I followed along when he took you out of the reception. Waited a bit, then staggered up on Reinacher’s man with a bottle in hand, like I was a drunkard.” Dansby slid the hatch shut so no one would see the damaged room if they happened to pass by. “Had a knife up under his ribs and in his heart before he knew it.”

  Dansby smiled and Alexis couldn’t find it in her heart to pity Heinrich if he’d chosen to work with a man like Reinacher.

  “So there I am,” Dansby continued, “one arm holding up a corpse, the other wiping my blade on the gent’s jacket, and trying to keep his blood from getting on my finery, when your young Frenchman comes around the corner.” Dansby crossed to the sideboard and examined the bottles. “No schnapps?”

  “We’re right out,” Alexis said, glancing at the shredded couch.

  “Pity. I like a drop of the peach now and again.” He took up a bottle of something, poured himself a glass, and gestured toward the hatch. “Time enough, do you think?”

  They left the compartment, making sure the hatch was well-shut behind them.

  “Your Frenchman, there,” Dansby continued as they made their way out of the reception hall and into the station�
��s main corridors, “was all for breaking his way right in, but he saw the sense of us disposing of Herr Reinacher’s man first. He helped me drag him down to a maintenance compartment around the corner, but no sooner had we got him there than these bloody Hanoverese blokes come into the corridor.” He shrugged. “So we’re stuck there while these fellows stand about and chatter. Couldn’t very well let them see us coming out of a maintenance closet, so we were stuck. That Theibaud boy was ready to kill the lot of them — didn’t like the waiting one bit. Balestra must’ve followed just a bit after we’d carted the body off.”

  Alexis frowned. “But what were you doing at the reception to begin with? How did you get in?”

  Dansby gave her a pained look. “Have you not learned yet? Getting in and out of places is what I do.” He shrugged. “I assumed you’d get in some sort of trouble — didn’t expect there’d be so many others trying to get you out of it. What became of Reinacher?”

  Alexis related Balestra’s arrival and the subsequent firefight with Reinacher. When she was done, Dansby shook his head and muttered a string of oaths.

  “What?”

  “Do you not see it?” Dansby glared at her. “Shot and set on fire and you let him get away? Are you a fool?” He picked up the pace, hurrying toward Röslein’s place on the station’s quayside. “Did you learn nothing from the business with Coalson? Fail to kill a man the first time and he’ll always be back to bite you on the arse.”

  Thirty-Eight

  There was none of Röslein’s previous dawdling after leaving Dietraching. Though Dansby gave them no specifics, his sense of urgency communicated itself to the crew and the ship sailed for New London space without stopping. The only deviations from their course were to avoid systems that might slow their journey or expose them to Hanoverese shipping.

  Whether anyone from Hanover was actually pursuing them was open for debate. Dansby believed it was far more likely that all of Hanover’s attention would be on Balestra’s fleet, while Mynatt, after she’d been informed of events aboard the station, thought that Reinacher would be focusing his attention on Röslein and Alexis.