by E. R. Paskey
Anna scanned the list, taking in the six items—Scarlet had included the microchips she and Vik were supposed to procure for Lobai—and committing them to memory. She then pushed the piece of paper back into Colin’s hand. “Where are we going now?”
“Back to the ship, I expect.” He arched a dark eyebrow at her. “Unless you have other ideas?”
“You go ahead. I’d like to stop in and check on something.” Anna shrugged. “Vik probably hasn’t been back here yet, but I need to make sure.” She glanced sideways at Deek, half-expecting him to protest, but the older spacer was curiously silent. She thought she understood. If it’ll get me off their ship sooner, he’ll be all for it.
“You’re welcome to go where you will, lass, but we’ll be accompanying you.” Colin glanced around before looking down at her, a frown pulling at the corners of his mouth. “I do not believe it is a good idea to split up at this juncture. Not until we figure out what’s going on.”
Anna opened her mouth to protest, but immediately closed it. Much as I hate to admit it, he’s got a point. If this was a holovid, this would be the point at which I’d be screaming for the characters not to go off by themselves. And it is Sub-Level 23. That was a dangerous part of Raveena on a good day.
She sighed and half-raised her hands. “Fine. I need to visit Sub-level 23.”
Chapter 12
AS EXPECTED, THIS ANNOUNCEMENT NETTED her raised eyebrows from both Colin and Deek.
“23?” Deek asked incredulously. “Don’t reckon I’ve ever been down there.” He shifted uneasily on his feet. “Heard stories, though.”
Under different circumstances, Anna might have tried to assure him it wasn’t as bad as all that. Unfortunately, she was older and wiser now and she knew that in many respects it was.
She glanced at Colin to find him giving her an incredulous look. “Please tell me your brother does not let you wander down there unescorted.”
That raised Anna’s hackles. Bristling, she narrowed her eyes at him. “I am a full-grown woman, thank you very much, and — ”
“ — Sublevel 23 is dangerous.” Colin held her gaze without flinching. “I would not even venture down there alone without an incredibly good reason.”
Well, when you put it that way… Anna unbent a little. “Vik and I always went together.” Her mouth went a little dry; once she had taken Bear with her, while Vik was detained with something he couldn’t leave. She wisely refrained from mentioning that to either of these men—she had a sneaking suspicion it would result in a rant.
“I’m glad to hear it.” Colin sounded a little mollified. “From the sound of it, I thought your brother had more sense than that.”
He set off down the corridor, and Anna rolled her eyes at his back as she loped to catch up. “Hey, I’m the one who knows where we’re going.”
Colin looked at her for a moment, before quirking a smile and giving her an old-fashioned sweeping bow with one arm. “Then, by all mean, lead the way, lass.”
Taken aback, Anna just stared at him for a few heartbeats. He is an odd one. “Thank you,” she managed at last, and took off down the corridor. She could feel curious eyes on them, but held her head high and refused to acknowledge that anything out of the ordinary had occurred.
Behind her, she thought she heard Deek growl, “Stop flirtin’ with her.”
She couldn’t hear Colin’s response.
A rueful smile tugged at her lips, before she shoved it away. Oh, if only he’d seen us in the cave.
She was pretty sure ‘flirty’ was simply a state of being for Colin. And he’s going to have to be careful, because he’ll get himself into trouble one of these days.
~oOo~
Whether by accident or design—and Anna and Vik had a running bet it was the latter—Sub-Levels 20 and down were not as well-lit as the rest of Raveena. Some joked it was to save power, but Anna thought it was more because the denizens of these levels tried to avoid the light as much as possible.
The bulkheads, overheads, and decks here were made of a darker metal; Anna suspected they were actually part of the original mining structure. The corridors felt more cramped as well. They were smaller than those on the levels further up and they always made Anna feel like she’d stepped into a warren belonging to some dark, scaly creatures.
That feeling was especially strong today. She stepped a little closer to Colin, suddenly grateful that she hadn’t come down here alone. If he noticed, he made no remark.
Down on these levels, no one made eye contact. One might dart glances at someone else, or study them out of the corner of their eye, but to look directly at someone was taboo. Granted, Anna tended not to make much in the way of eye contact when she went anywhere, but Vik had always cautioned her to be especially careful on Raveena.
She threaded her way through the warren of corridors, halls and gaggles of shady individuals with the confidence of someone who knew exactly where she was going and what she would be doing when she got there. She doubted Vik would have stopped on Raveena without checking in with Scarlet—if only to demand if she knew why they’d been sold out and if he’d heard from her, Anna—which made it unlikely that he would have left anything with their contact here. Still, it was one of the few shots she had and she intended to make the best of it.
Not surprisingly, Colin all but glued himself to her side. He matched his pace to hers; they moved almost as a single—albeit grim—unit, with Deek clearly watching their backs. In several places, Anna was acutely aware of lingering scrutiny from a few rather unsavory characters, but when their gazes took in Colin, they skittered away like rats from a bright light. It reminded her of how things were when she traveled with Vik.
All right, she thought, with a touch of grim humor. I suppose I’ll keep him around for a while.
Wouldn’t hurt, at any rate—at least not until they made it out of this situation in one piece.
Finally, Anna caught sight of a neon sign with a fireworks display on it outside a cantina. Half the lights didn’t work, but it was unmistakably a fireworks display. She slowed and caught Colin’s eye, jerking her head minutely toward the entrance.
“Your friend own the place?” Colin asked in her ear as they entered the cantina.
“Something like that.” Anna gave the room a quick scan before sauntering up to the bar. She knew better than rest an elbow on it—this bar frequently was covered in sticky, unidentifiable substances—but propped a hip against the underside.
The bartender, a deceptively non-descript wall of muscle, flipped a towel over his shoulder as he approached. “What can I get ya?” His dark eyes showed no recognition as he took in Anna and her comrades, but she knew he knew who she was.
Anna tipped her head in the direction of the back. “Mal in?”
“Maybe.” The bartender’s eyes darted toward Colin and Deek. “Who are they?”
Oh, galaxies. Anna really, really did not want to do this, but she found herself face to face with insurmountable obstacle. Mal didn’t know Colin or Deek. She could see the wheels in the bartender’s head turning right now: why was she here with two strange men instead of her brother? Casually, she jerked a thumb toward Colin. “My husband and his first mate.”
That certainly prompted a reaction. The bartender’s eyebrows rose a whole half an inch—which, for him, was the equivalent of his jaw hitting the floor. “Wait here,” he said curtly, and disappeared into the back.
“Not one word,” Anna said between her teeth, when she heard Colin draw breath. A sideways glance out of the corner of her eye told her he was unsuccessfully smothering a grin. Deek just looked like he wanted to smother the pair of them and hightail it out of there and back up to safer levels.
The bartender stuck his head through a door and motioned for them to join him. “He’ll see you.”
“All of us?” Anna arched an eyebrow at him.
“Yes.” As she passed him, h
e muttered, “You really married this guy?”
Anna raised one shoulder in a shrug. “It’s a long story.” She left the bartender shaking his head.
Mal Dunham was a handsome middle-aged man—or would have been handsome, were it not for the chemical burns marring his skin. No one knew for certain how he had come by those burns, but rumors abounded—everything from a jealous ex-wife throwing acid on him to a secret espionage mission gone wrong. Anna’s favorite was a rescue mission gone horribly wrong.
“I’m actually surprised you don’t know Mal,” she said in a low voice, just before they entered a cozy office. Colin did not have a chance to respond.
“Anna.” Mal greeted her with a cordial nod. “This is a surprise.” His eyes—still bright blue despite the scar tissue surrounding them—swung to Colin. “Cho tells me congratulations are in order.” The scar tissue on one side of his mouth pulled up in a smile. “Your brother didn’t say anything when he was here last.”
“When was he here last?” Anna asked, coming forward to give Mal a side-hug. She’d known him since she was tiny; he had been one of Vik’s teachers, before everything fell apart.
“A few weeks ago.”
Anna suppressed a disappointed sigh. She’d been aboard the Iliana while Viktor visited Mal the last time. She nodded to Colin, indicating their marriage. “It was fairly sudden.”
“Clearly.” Mal gestured to the chairs and couch. “Please, have a seat.”
“We can’t stay long,” Anna began, “but I wanted to drop by and ask you to let Vik know I’m all right in case you see him the next couple of weeks.”
Mal’s eyes darted to Colin again. “Again, wasn’t aware you’d parted ways with your brother.”
“We haven’t, exactly.” Anna huffed impatiently. “It’s a long story.”
Something firm settled over Mal’s face. “I’ve got time if you’ve got time.” He switched abruptly to another dialect. {Are you in some kind of trouble? Do you need help disposing of bodies?}
{No.} Anna almost smiled at the startled look Colin shot her before he schooled his expression into bored neutrality. She jerked a thumb toward Colin. “He is actually my husband, according to the laws on Plimus, anyway.”
When Mal smoothed a hand over his ruined chin to hide either laughter or a fierce grimace—it could go either way—Anna knew she had to be the only other person in the galaxy besides Colin unaware of the customs on Plimus.
“Your brother know?” Mal asked gruffly. “Can’t imagine he took that lying down.”
Anna resisted the urge to stare up at the ceiling. “He doesn’t know yet. That’s part of the story.”
“Are you familiar with a man called Lobai?” Colin broke in.
Mal gave him a long, measured look, before nodding. “Has high standards, that one, but he pays well.”
“Not anymore,” Deek muttered.
In a few brief sentences—helped along by Colin interjecting things here and there—Anna told Mal the story. At the end, he looked as though he didn’t know whether he ought to laugh or call in a couple of his guys to make Colin disappear. He settled for shaking his head. “I’d like to be there when you tell your brother the rest of this story. Should be a doozy.”
“Everyone keeps saying that,” Colin muttered. “Really, I don’t see what all the fuss is about.” He raised his black-leather-clad shoulders in a brief shrug. “All we have to do is return to Plimus and file the appropriate paperwork.”
Mal shot him another look, this one a touch disbelieving, but he made no comment.
Yeah, Anna thought. Simple. She clasped her hands together. “Then we go our separate ways and get back to our lives.”
{You think it’ll be that easy?} Mal observed.
Anna narrowed her eyes at him. {It was an accident.}
{And he hasn’t touched you?}
{Not like that.}
Mal almost said something else, but held it back.
“Would you mind sharing with the rest of the room?” Colin drawled, with a touch of asperity.
Nettled, Anna turned a flippant smile on him. “He was just offering to cut your fingers off if you’d laid a hand on me.”
Deek bristled. “Here, now,” he said sharply, but he fell silent when Colin raised a hand.
He seemed to realize there was no point arguing with Mal. Instead, he simply said, “She’s safe with me and my crew.”
Mal just grunted. “Heard that before.” He gave Colin a long, calculating look before shifting to Anna with a warmer expression. “If you’re going after Lobai, girl, you’d best watch your back.”
“He’s always been a mite pernicious,” Deek said.
“But he’s always held up his end of the deal.” Mal shook his head. “Whatever’s happened to make him change his mind must be something awful powerful.”
“We’ll keep that in mind,” Colin said.
Rising from her seat, Anna addressed Mal again in their dialect. {Don’t worry about these guys. I’ll be fine. Tell Vik that, when you see him, please.}
Mal nodded, his eyes darting to Colin and back. {My offer to hide the bodies stands, just so you know.}
At that, Anne broke into a grin. {Thanks, Mal. I appreciate it.}
He switched back to Standard. “If you happen to come across any of Farfallel’s Best on your travels, pick me up a bottle.”
Anna touched two fingers to her forehead in a salute. “Will do.” She gave him the Galaxy’s Way’s comm codes and she, Colin, and Deek turned to leave.
“Good luck, Anna,” Mal called after them. “I have a feeling you’re gonna need it.”
~oOo~
The three of them departed Mal’s office and headed back out into the cantina. Anna nodded to Cho as they passed; he nodded back without saying a word. Colin observed this exchange, but he waited until they had left Sublevel 23 behind to remark on it.
“You’re awfully cozy with that group.”
“Yep.” Anna popped the ‘p’, unwilling to say anything further while she was still mulling over everything Mal had told them.
“How did you and your brother meet him?”
“An’ what happened to his face?” Deek broke in. “Haven’t seen a mug that ugly in years—and I’ve seen some ugly mugs.”
Anna shrugged and leaned up against the back wall of the hydro-elevator while it whisked them back up to the levels containing docking berths. “Nobody knows. He won’t say, so people just make stuff up.” She could feel Colin’s eyes boring into the side of her face, but ignored him.
“Is that all?” Colin asked at last, a hint of asperity returning. “You’re not going to explain any more of that?” He waved a hand in Sublevel 23’s general direction.
“What is there to explain?” Anna deliberately lifted her eyebrows in an expression of not-so-polite incredulity. “I needed to leave a message with him for my brother, and I’ve done it. We can now go wherever you’re taking us next.”
Colin’s mouth flattened into a thin line as he studied her, before he shrugged and swept it all aside to be dealt with at a later time. “We’ll have to be here a little longer in order to refuel, but after that we’re gone.”
Deek and Anna both knew better than to ask where until after they strode up the landing ramp into the relative safety of the Galaxy’s Way. “Where now, Cap’n?” Deek inquired.
“Opaline.”
When Colin declined to elaborate, Anna just rolled her eyes. He was being petty, paying her back for being less than forthcoming about her meeting with Mal. Which was none of his business anyway, except he invited himself along, she thought, irritated. Fine. Be that way. She’d find out what was waiting for them on Opaline by another method.
~oOo~
She found Mondego in the galley, preparing lunch. He greeted her with an amused smile as she entered, and a cheeky, “Welcome back, Mrs. Dupree.”
Anna flushed, but found herself chuckling anyway. “You really don�
�t have to call me that,” she said, perching on a chair to watch him work. He seemed to be making bread—and the sight made her mouth water. I haven’t had homemade bread in forever.
“Sure I do. Makes you turn red and drives the Captain up the bulkhead.” Mondego winked at her. “Win, win, as far as I’m concerned.”
Shaking her head, Anna shifted her chair around so she could lean back against the table on her elbows and watch him work. “We’re headed to Opaline next.”
“Oh, that should be interesting.”
Anna’s ears perked up, but she kept her voice casual as she asked, “Do you visit there often?”
Mondego shrugged. “Not too often, but often enough.”
“What is Col — ” Anna cut herself off, “I mean, the Captain expecting to find there?”
“He didn’t tell you?”
Anna shook her head. “He’s a little busy at the moment.”
“Oh, well, that’s normal. He’s probably planning on talking to an old enemy.” Mondego paused to shoot her a grin. “That appropriately vague enough for you?”
“You remind me of our engineer,” Anna said with a wry smile. “For somebody who has to be as precise as he is in his work, Nico hates to be pinned down to anything.”
“Smart man. Life’s more fun that way.” Mondego put a log of dough into a loaf pan and set it in the oven to rise.
Okay. Clearly, I am not going to get the information I want right now. Taking a deep breath, Anna let it out slowly and resisted the urge to ball her hands into fists. You can be patient, she told herself. He won’t be able to keep it a secret indefinitely. Don’t let him get to you.
Too late, she realized Mondego was speaking again. “I’m sorry?”
He raised his eyebrows at her. “I was just saying that I hope we’re able to get you back to your brother.” He shook his head slightly and deftly put another roll of dough into a pan. “I know I’d be a basket case if I got separated from Tatiana like that.”
Anna’s breath caught in her throat, which decided all of a sudden it wanted to close up. “It wasn’t—pleasant,” she managed at last. “But I’m glad your captain was there—I don’t think I could have gotten out of that lake by myself.” The mere thought of it sent cold chill slithering its way down her vertebrae.