Galaxy's Way

by E. R. Paskey

  Berenger was silent for a moment. Then he shook his head slightly. “Didn’t have to.”

  “Right.” Anna shut her eyes, a soft, mirthless laugh escaping her. “Because he trusted you.”

  “I ain’t proud of it,” Berenger said after a pregnant pause.

  “You shouldn’t be,” Colin said coldly. “Not after something like that.”

  Anna opened her eyes again and leaned forward to rest her elbows on her knees, cupping her face in her hands. “And I suppose,” she said through her gloved fingers, “that you also assured him we’d meet up on Riheld?”

  “Had to.”

  Oh, galaxies. Anna slid her fingers up into her hair and stared at the floor. That was ages ago. He may have already been and gone.

  “Anna?” Warm fingers touched her shoulder. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

  A lump formed in her throat; she viciously tried to swallow it. “I’m thinking we’re too late.”

  Colin’s fingers remained on her shoulder. “Too late?”

  “Either that or far too early.” Anna straightened and dropped her hands to glare at Berenger. “How long have you been here?”

  Berenger hesitated.

  “You’d best speak up,” Colin advised him.

  “Two days,” he said reluctantly.

  Just two days? Anna looked at his bruised and battered face and something niggled in the back of her mind. Something’s not right here. I don’t know what it is, but I can feel it.

  “Cap’n,” Deek said suddenly, “I hate to point out the obvious, but those bruises are mighty fresh for somebody who supposedly got double-crossed by Lobai weeks ago.”

  That’s it. Anna scrutinized Berenger, her dark eyes narrowing as she catalogued his injuries again.

  “It didn’t happen immediately,” Berenger said grouchily, but the damage had been done. The seed of doubt had been planted‌—‌and Anna still knew him well enough to see the flicker of panic he tried to hide.

  She darted a glance at Colin‌—‌to find him looking back at her, cold triumph in his expression. We have him now.

  Colin turned back to regard Berenger with raised eyebrows, his posture deliberately nonchalant. “Not at once? Then when did it happen?” He spread his hands. “Because according to you, right now you should be on some little backwater planet getting your son back.”

  Berenger hastened to defend himself. “Lobai didn’t pay me immediately. Took him a while, and I had to hang around and wait.”

  Still not right. Anna was already shaking her head. “I don’t buy that for a second. Why in the galaxy would Lobai keep you around after you’d proved yourself so willing and able to double-cross your crew?”

  Berenger shrugged his good shoulder, though by the wince he wasn’t quite able to hide, he regretted it immediately. “He thought he could use me in the meantime.”

  Deek made a derisive noise in the back of his throat. “Cap’n, his story’s got more holes in it than the Ladybelle after the Federation got done shooting her up a few years back.” He brought his pistol back up to cover the other man again. “Personally, I vote for the airlock.”

  “You can’t just go around shoving people out of airlocks,” Berenger retorted.

  Anna made a show of inspecting her fingernails. “Who’s going to know?”

  Berenger’s gaze shot to her and she registered shock there, but she also glimpsed something else behind it. Something more calculating than she would have ever credited Berenger to be.

  “You‌—‌we‌—‌aren’t that kind of pirate, Anna,” he told her.

  “I don’t know.” Slowly, deliberately, she glanced up at him through her eyelashes. “Up until a couple of weeks ago, I wouldn’t have thought we were the backstabbing kind of pirates, either.”

  Berenger actually growled. “I told you, I did it for my son — ”

  “Which I’m still not sure I believe,” Anna interjected.

  “ — and I also told you I know where Lobai is headed.” He glared at her mulishly. “Don’t you care about that?”

  “I do,” Colin answered. “But we’ll get to that in a minute.” He glanced at Anna again. “A word, lass?”

  Reluctantly, Anna picked herself up off the couch and allowed her erstwhile husband to lead her over to the other side of the room. “What?”

  Colin dropped his voice, but kept his blue eyes fixed fast on her face. “Do you think he’s telling the truth?”

  Anna bit her lip. “I don’t know. Part of it sounds like the truth … ”

  “But?”

  “But he’s still not telling us something, and I don’t like it.”

  “Nor should you.”

  “Viktor should have been here by now.” The words emerged in a low, hushed tone; Anna knew she shouldn’t say them, but she couldn’t hold them in any longer. “Why isn’t he here?”

  Concern filled her captain’s face, worked its way into the lines of his body. “Perhaps he was delayed. Or he’s checking into other avenues and hasn’t worked his way here yet.”

  Another thought struck Anna, turning the blood in her veins to ice. “Or he still thinks I’m with Berenger. Safe.” She spat the last word; it tasted bitter on her tongue.

  She had the distinct impression Colin chose his next words with great care. “If your brother trusts this man, yes, it’s entirely possible.”

  Oh, galaxies, what a mess. Anna brought the heels of her fingerless-gloved hands up to her eyes. “What are we going to do?”

  Warm fingers curled over her hands, tugged them down from her eyes. “We,” Colin tipped his head toward Berenger while his eyes remained locked on hers, “are going to have another little chat with your friend.”

  They shared a grim smile before turning back to Berenger, and Deek, who had been keeping him under guard.

  Colin spent a moment tugging a couch around to face Berenger’s corner so they wouldn’t have to stand the entire time, and he and Anna sank down onto it. Deek perched on the edge of an old chair, his pistol still loosely pointed in Berenger’s direction.

  “Now, then.” Colin leaned forward, rubbing his hands together. “Where were we?”

  “Bear was about to tell us the rest of the story.” Anna tilted her head to one side, giving him a flat look. “Weren’t you?” Her mouth thinned. “I think you owe me that much, after everything.”

  Berenger regarded her for a long moment, and then he seemed to reach some sort of internal conclusion. Swallowing, he inclined his head in a nod. “I reckon you’ve got a point, Anna. After everything.” His eyes flicked to Colin and Deek before returning to her. “I have one condition.”

  Deek scoffed. “You ain’t exactly in any position to be makin’ conditions.”

  Anna had a feeling she knew where this was headed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Colin glance at her, but she kept her attention on her former crewmate. “And what would that be?”

  “I’ll tell you, and you only.”

  Knew it. Anna expected Colin to put his foot down and say that was completely out of the question, but to her surprise, he remained silent. She glanced sideways at him, to find he was still looking at her. “What? You aren’t going to object?”

  He raised one dark eyebrow. “Would you listen if I did?”

  He’s got a point there. Her mouth quirked with the beginnings of a smile, but she squashed it ruthlessly. “Probably not.”

  “Didn’t think so. Just be sensible about it.” Colin passed her one of his pistols. “If he tries anything, shoot him. We’ll be in the next room.”

  “Cap’n!” Deek protested, incredulity written all over his face, but Colin only waved him out.

  Anna did not fail to note the final, piercing glance he gave her before he disappeared into the hall. She curled her fingers around the butt of the pistol, her index finger automatically straightening out along the slide above the trigger.

  “He gave you a gun. Either he’s a very trusting sort, or else you’ve managed to win him over
.” Berenger’s voice was very dry. “Either way, I’m thinking he’s not exactly one of us.”

  “Meaning what?” Anna shot him a look as dry as his tone. “That he’s not a so-called pirate?” She snorted softly. “You’d be right on that front.” Before he could respond, she segued into another subject. “So you’ve got a kid.”

  “Yeah.”

  “You should have told us what was going on, Bear. We could have helped.”

  “Didn’t have much of a choice.” Berenger shifted on the mattress, apparently searching for a more comfortable spot. “But, for what it’s worth, Anna, I am sorry it came to that.” He shook his head, his expression pained behind all of his bruises and the swelling. “I swear, he was only supposed to tie you up long enough for us to get out of there.”

  Anger curled like smoke tendrils inside her chest, but Anna forced herself to set it aside. “Well, it’s fortunate for me that Colin was there.”

  “Why was he there?” Berenger did not move, but his body seemed to have gone rigid. “Lobai really hired an upstanding, law-abiding businessman like him?”

  Is he really ‌…‌ Anna threw back her head and laughed darkly. “Oh, no. Don’t go changing the subject on me now.”

  Berenger half-raised his good hand, as if to say it was worth a shot. “Your new friend — ”

  “You mean my husband?” Anna interjected lazily, just to watch the blood drain from his face again. She knew it was petty, but she couldn’t help herself.

  “ — only left because he thinks you’ll tell him everything when we’re done,” Berenger pressed on doggedly. “But you can’t.”

  He was probably right, but Anna wasn’t about to tell him that. She laid the pistol on the seat beside her. “Why not?”

  Instead of answering directly, Berenger narrowed his good eye at her in consideration. “What would you say if I told you there was a way you and your brother could get a pardon from the Federation, become honest citizens again?”

  Anna opened her mouth to tell him off for rubbing salt in old wounds, but closed her mouth before a word escaped her. She blinked once, twice, and then regarded him with suspicious eyes. “What are you saying, exactly?”

  “I happen to know that the Federation has been looking for a way to eliminate Lobai for a long time now.” Berenger twitched his good shoulder, and then immediately winced. “He’s dangerous, and involved in a lot of shady dealings, but nobody’s ever been able to pin anything to him.”

  “What does that have to do with Viktor and me? Or you, for that matter? Bear?” she prompted, when he hesitated a little too long.

  “I really do have a kid,” he said at last, in a rush. “And I really did only just find out he exists. But there’s a little more to it than that.”

  Anna snorted. “I figured as much.”

  Berenger wet his lips. “Y’see, the thing is, I used to be an investigator for the Department of Justice.”

  Anna went very still. I did not see that coming.

  “And by ‘investigator’, I really mean ‘undercover investigator’. That was my specialty.”

  Anna’s insides felt like they had been frozen with nitrogen. All this time, she and Viktor had been evading the Federation by existing on the fringes of society‌…‌and the Federation had been flying with them for four years.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Berenger said quickly. “It wasn’t like that, Anna. I swear. Some things happened‌—‌actually a lot of stuff went down‌—‌and I quit my job and left the planet. My girlfriend and I broke up before she knew she was pregnant.”

  Anna did not dare let herself relax; her shoulders remained stiff‌—‌and she maintained a firing grip on her pistol. Just in case.

  “The last four years I’ve been part of your crew, I’ve been part of the crew. There wasn’t any ulterior motive. I wanted to get away, and I wanted to go someplace the Federation couldn’t find me.”

  I think I’m beginning to understand. Anna’s eyes narrowed further into slits. “Until you somehow heard about your son.”

  “Yeah.” Berenger exhaled, suddenly looking as exhausted as a man who had nearly been beaten to death probably should. “Turns out my presence aboard your ship hadn’t gone quite as unnoticed as I’d thought. A year or so ago, somebody got wind of it and my former bosses posted people to keep an eye out.” His mouth twisted. “Contacting my ex was only one part of that.”

  Anna nodded slowly. “Which is how they found out about your son.”

  “Yeah. His mother really is dying.” Berenger tipped his head back against the wall. “That part is true.”

  “But there’s no creditor holding him hostage?”

  He gave a hollow snort. “Not unless you count the DOJ bringing in Child Services.”

  “What do they want you to do?”

  “Feed them anything about Lobai I could learn.” Berenger looked at her again. “They don’t care about you and your brother, other than whatever complications might arise if you get in their way.”

  Again hung unspoken in the air between them; Berenger was familiar with their history with the Federation.

  “Anna?” Colin’s voice echoed down the hall. “Are you all right in there?”

  “Just fine,” she called over her shoulder. “We’re nearly done.” Turning back to Berenger, she gave him a questioning look. “Aren’t we?”

  “More or less. Meant what I said about the pardon, though. If you help them take down Lobai, they’ll give it to you.”

  Anna looked at him for a long moment, before her mouth twisted into a grimace. “I wish I could believe you, Bear. I really do. But somehow, I just don’t see the Federation doing anything other than arresting the lot of us and impounding the Iliana.” Part of her was glad that Viktor wasn’t here to listen to this; finding out Berenger was Federation would gut him.

  Berenger nodded, as though he had expected that much. “Well, then let me put it this way. The only way you’ll get paid for that shipment of microchips we delivered is if you get to Lobai first. Once the Federation has him, nobody’s getting a thing.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me at all.” Anna indicated his injuries with a jerk of her chin. “So let me guess: you thought you’d have an in with Lobai after you double-crossed us, and he either decided he didn’t need you, or else he figured you out. Which was it?”

  The shadowy smudges beneath Berenger’s eyes grew darker. “He figured out who I was.”

  Anna set the gun down on the couch beside her to rub her face with both hands. “Well, from all accounts, he’s nothing if not cautious.”

  “You don’t understand.” Berenger shook his head. “He shouldn’t have been able to get his hands on that information to begin with. Details of my job with the DOJ were kept on a need-to-know basis. Whoever gave him that information had clearance.”

  Anna offered him a wry smile. “If you think I’m shocked to hear there’s corruption in the government, you don’t know me at all.”

  He snorted softly. “Touché.”

  “You said you know where Lobai is. How?” Anna held up a forestalling hand before he could answer. “And, how do you know it wasn’t a trick?”

  “Because I heard enough bits and pieces to figure out he’s shipping the package he’s assembling to Ydris.”

  His words hit Anna like a bucket of ice water to the face. “Ydris?”

  Berenger nodded grimly. “Ydris.”

  Chapter 21

  ANNA STUMBLED OUT INTO THE corridor on unsteady feet, her flesh-and-blood hand coming up to rest on her now-pounding heart. Dread swirled through her. Of all the places in the galaxy Lobai‌—‌or his client‌—‌could have chosen, it had to be Ydris.

  She had to take two deep breaths before she trusted herself enough to call out, “Colin? We’re finished now.”

  A door on her right flew open before she’d barely finished speaking. Colin did not speak, but he took one look at her face and nodded to Deek. His first mate slipped past him and headed
out into the room beyond, presumably to keep an eye on Berenger.

  Before Anna could blink, one of Colin’s hands shot out to grasp her by the elbow. He tugged her into the room and shut the door behind them. “Are you all right, lass? What did he say to you? You’re white as a ghost.”

  The concern in his blue eyes made Anna’s stomach churn with guilt. “I’m fine.” The words tasted like ash in her mouth. “I’ve just had‌—‌he told me — ” Now she tasted acid; her throat clogged. She couldn’t meet his eyes; she chose instead to focus on a corner of the room past his shoulder.

  “Breathe, Anna.” Warm fingers curled around her shoulders. “It can’t be as bad as all that.”

  Oh, yes, it can, Anna thought. She forced herself to swallow. “He said Lobai’s gone to Ydris.”

  This did not elicit the reaction she expected. Colin’s forehead crinkled with a thoughtful frown, but all he said was, “Ydris, eh? Why does that not surprise me?” He shook his head. “Well, it’s a bit out of the way, true, but we shouldn’t have any trouble getting there.”

  Anna’s jaw hit the deck. “You can’t be serious. Ydris is a pleasure world‌—‌practically their entire clientele is made up of politicians and government officials!”

  “And why is that a problem?” Colin’s frown deepened, and then his expression abruptly cleared. “Ah. I see.” He grinned, his blue eyes sparkling impishly, and lifted a hand from her shoulder to tap her nose with one long finger. “You’ve forgotten you’ve gone and married a respectable businessman, Mrs. Dupree.”

  A dozen different responses tangled together in her mind; the only word Anna could force out was an astonished, “What?”

  “The captain of the Galaxy’s Way‌—‌which would be me, remember,” Colin dropped her a wink, “ — has a reputation as a fine, upstanding member of society. You are my wife. We shouldn’t have any trouble landing on Ydris.”

  Anna blinked at him. “I‌—‌I hadn’t thought of it that way,” she said faintly.

  His grin widened. “The only member of our party who might be cause for concern is your friend Berenger.”

  Anna snorted. “He won’t have any trouble.” The words slipped out before she could stop them.