Galaxy's Way

by E. R. Paskey

  She stood gingerly, but her legs supported her weight and the cabin only spun for a second or two before leveling out. The hand Colin splayed at the small of her back probably contributed to that; it was just enough pressure to keep her upright and not tipping backwards. She did not acknowledge him, however, but jerked her chin at Thabati. “Where are we going?”

  The dark-skinned captain motioned to the door. “If you’ll come with me.”

  It was not a request.

  Anna crossed the cabin. Just as she stepped out into the corridor, she cast one last look over her shoulder. Berenger was glaring after them, his expression bleak beneath his anger, and Colin ‌…‌ His bearded jaw was set, but his eyes looked like a storm she had witnessed when she was a child and they had stopped briefly in a harbor city on a small backwater world.

  Then the cabin door slid shut behind her and she heard a lock click. A glance sideways told her Thabati was responsible. She raised her dark eyebrows at him, but he only shook his head.

  “Not here.”

  He set off down the corridor and Palmer marched her along in his wake. Anna scanned everything as they passed, making a mental note of the layout of the Solace. It would come in handy if they had the opportunity to escape.

  She held her tongue until Thabati waved her into a comfortable compartment she knew must be his private living quarters. He dismissed Palmer with a curt nod, and the pale man, after shooting Anna one last assessing look, departed.

  Once the door had slid shut, Anna propped her hands on her hips and turned the full power of her icy glare on Thabati. “I take it back. Viktor’s not just going to flip, he’s going to absolutely flay you alive.”

  By way of answering, Thabati pulled a bottle of clear liquid out of a small refrigerator unit and held it out to her. “Drink?”

  Anna just continued to glare. He’s nuts. “What could possibly make you think I want alcohol after what you did to me? Or, for that matter, that I’d actually drink anything you gave me?”

  “It’s not alcohol.” Thabati shook the bottle. “Peach elixir. Thought you could use it after all that.”

  “You mean after you poisoned me?”

  “I had to make a choice, Anna.” Thabati poured two liberal glasses of elixir before capping the bottle and stowing it away. He handed one to Anna with an apologetic smile. “Trust me. You’ll want to drink this.”

  He held the glass out until Anna reluctantly took it. She did need something to drink; the back of her throat still burned. She sniffed the peach elixir tentatively. Instead of turning her stomach as she expected, it gave off a delicious aroma. She took a sip, and her eyes widened. It tasted as good as it smelled, and slid down her throat in a comforting icy trickle. “What did you give me?”

  “Doesn’t matter.” Waving that aside with a flick of his wrist, Thabati nodded to a couple of chairs. “Have a seat.”

  She complied‌…‌but only because her legs were still slightly unsteady.

  “I’m sorry it had to come to this,” Thabati began. “Under normal circumstances, I’d have left you and Viktor out of it entirely, but … ” he shrugged, smiling sheepishly, “the money is too good. I could retire off of what I’m being paid.”

  “Paid to do what?” Anna waved her glass. “Kidnap a traitor and a couple of nobodies?”

  Thabati considered her for a long moment, before tilting his own glass toward the light.

  When he did not immediately answer, Anna fought a spike of sharp irritation. “Well?”

  “Do you know why I poisoned you and not Dupree?”

  The lazy quality to his voice caught her off-guard; she narrowed her eyes, suddenly wary of a potential trap. “I thought it was because I was closest.”

  “A minor consideration, I assure you.” Thabati regarded her over the rim of his glass. “No, the real reason is that I had to be able to count on whichever one of you I picked having the most motivation to not let the other one of you die.”

  Anna blinked, processing that. Her eyes narrowed into slits. “You think I’d have let him die.” She’d never considered herself that coldhearted.

  “Oh, no.” Thabati chortled softly. “Not really. But I do think you’d have run straight to your brother, and that would have shot my whole plan straight to hell.”

  “I don’t understand.” Anna took a healthy swig of her elixir, before leaning forward to pin Thabati with a look that could have cut through a bulkhead. “What made you so sure Colin would cooperate?”

  “Please.” Thabati rolled his eyes. “Like you honestly haven’t noticed the way he looks at you.”

  Anna froze. The way he looks at me?

  “Clearly, the man is smitten, and, just as I expected, he has a bit of White Knight Syndrome. Your life was in danger; he proved he’d do anything to keep you alive.” Thabati settled back in his chair, a satisfied smirk on his face. “Including lie to his own crew about why he was walking Berenger out.”

  Her heart began to thud in her chest and a mass of butterflies began fluttering in the pit of her stomach at the implications of that, but Anna forced herself to set it aside. “He’d have done the same thing for any of his crew.”

  Thabati gave her a patently disbelieving look, but shrugged. “Maybe. Point is, he did it.”

  Why do I feel like the other shoe is about to drop? Anna wondered, eyeing him warily. She drank the remainder of her elixir in one long draught and set the glass aside. “Now what?”

  “He saved your life; now you’re going to return the favor.”

  I knew it. “I see.” She fought to keep her voice steady. “And just how do you figure that?”

  “You’re going to talk Berenger into cooperating with me, or I’ll shoot your ‘husband’.” Thabati made air quotes with his fingers.

  Anna broke out into a cold sweat. Oh, galaxies. She forced herself to breathe‌—‌and to relax into her chair as though this did not bother her in the slightest. “Funny,” she drawled. “Very funny.”

  Thabati’s dark face split with a smile that did not reach his eyes. “Not really. I mean it, Anna.”

  “What do you want Bear to do? Or tell you?” Anna held out her prosthetic hand. “Aside from whatever the Federation told him to get him out here looking for Lobai, I don’t think he knows much of anything.”

  Thabati surveyed her for a long moment. “Lobai let him live,” he said quietly. “My employer wants to know why.”

  Anna couldn’t help herself; she broke out into laughter. “He let him live?” she gasped when she could speak again. “That’s rich. He was almost beaten to a pulp! You should have seen him last week!”

  “He should be dead.” Thabati turned one hand palm up. “My employer wants to know why.”

  Anna laughed again, hard enough that tears sprang to her eyes. This just keeps getting better and better! And by ‘better’, she really meant ‘worse’. “What makes you think Bear is going to tell me anything?”

  “Oh, I’m sure he won’t want to.” Thabati gave her an easy smile, this one genuine. “But if the alternative is me shooting Dupree and shoving his body out an airlock, I think you’ll get creative.”

  The mental picture forming in her mind of that event left Anna sick to her stomach, but she forced herself to regard Thabati with cool amusement. “We’ve only known each other for a few weeks. I’d hate to see anybody else die over this, but I don’t understand why you — ”

  “Don’t play games with me, Anna. I’ll shoot him right now if you want.”

  Anna stopped, surveying the man sitting across the compartment from her. Instead of the warm, affable captain she had known for the last decade, she saw a cold, heartless stranger wearing Thabati’s skin. “Is the money really worth it?” she asked softly. “Worth more than a man’s life? Two men’s lives?” she amended, thinking of Berenger.

  “It’s worth more than twenty men’s lives, and yours included,” he replied promptly. “I told you, Anna, I can retire when this is done.”

  Her hear
t was still pounding, but words welled up in her, fast and furious. “If they don’t screw you over too. Frankly, I’d worry about that if I were you. Lobai screwed us all over, and then Bear double-crossed Viktor and me, and now you?” She shook her head. “You’d better watch your back, Zimwe.”

  He shook his head dismissively. “Got it covered already.”

  Anna made a show of settling more comfortable into her chair. “What do you want Bear to tell you, anyway?” When Thabati just eyed her, she shrugged. “Can’t interrogate him properly if I don’t know what information I’m after.”

  “I want everything he’s got on Lobai. Everything. And I want the names of the DOJ people who sent him out here.”

  “Do you want the name of his kid too?” Anna asked sarcastically. “‘Cause I can supply you with that right now.”

  Thabati flashed her a white-toothed grin. “Nice try.”

  “I think you need to tell me where we’re headed.”

  “You already know.”

  Shock settled over Anna, but it faded quickly. You should have seen this coming, she scolded herself. “We’re still going to Ydris?”

  Thabati shrugged. “Lobai has a reckoning coming.”

  Cold certainty filled Anna then; in one crystalline moment, she saw the outcome of the next twenty-four hours. “We’re all going to end up dead, aren’t we?”

  Shutters fell over the captain’s dark eyes and she knew.

  For a second, Anna couldn’t find words. Then she took a shallow breath, leaned back in her chair, and fixed him with a grim smile. “Well, then if you make it out of this alive, I hope you enjoy your retirement while it lasts.” Her smile took on a sharp, nasty gleam. “There isn’t anywhere in the galaxy that my brother won’t find you when he realizes what you’ve done.”

  ~oOo~

  Anna’s stomach felt as heavy as lead as Palmer escorted her back to the cabin where they were being imprisoned. I don’t know what Thabati expects me to actually do, she thought resentfully. Like Bear’s going to tell me anything.

  Her gut twisted painfully; her flesh-and-blood palm grew damp. Maybe to save his own skin, but to save Colin?

  Not likely.

  Colin was already on his feet when the door slid open; his shoulders set and his hands curled into fists. His stormy expression did not relent when he saw Anna; his blue eyes merely scanned her from head to foot as though searching for injuries before his gaze snapped back to their captor. “What — ”

  He got no further; Palmer gave Anna a hard shove between the shoulder blades and sent her stumbling forward into the cabin. She would have fallen flat on her face, if not for Colin’s quick reflexes. He caught her around the waist and hauled her up against him, tucking her protectively into his side.

  They both glared at the door, but it had already shut and locked.

  “Thanks,” Anna said weakly, when the silence stretched on, dipping just this side of awkward. She made to disengage and step away from Colin, but he only loosened his hold enough to bring them face to face.

  “Are you all right?”

  No, she wanted to tell him, I am definitely not all right. We are so screwed. Instead, she flashed him a tight smile. “I’m fine.”

  The concern in his eyes did not change. “Sure you are.” His gaze skimmed her again, checking for obvious injuries, but finding none, he locked eyes with her again. “What did he want?”

  Anna opened her mouth to say something‌—‌what she wasn’t sure yet‌—‌but the words died in her throat as the reality of their current situation hit her. Not the dire straits in which they found themselves, but the way she and Colin were standing. The way he was still holding on to her, as though needing physical reassurance she was unharmed.

  Her gaze drifted past Colin’s shoulder as a wave of something that felt an awful lot like icy despair washed over her. He probably has no idea what this looks like.

  But Thabati did. And with that realization, the last vestiges of the mist that had been fogging her mind cleared away, leaving her with a cold, crystal-clear revelation. They’re watching us. And probably listening to us too.

  “Anna?” Colin’s fingers tightened on her shoulders. “Lass?”

  From his chair, Berenger added his two cents. “Snap out of it, kid.”

  It killed her to do it‌—‌what she wanted right this moment was to close the gap between them and let Colin wrap his arms around her‌—‌but Anna forced herself to detach. You’ve only known him a few weeks. Not enough time for anything, regardless of what Thabati thinks. Snapping her eyes abruptly back to Colin’s face, she said flatly, “Thabati’s crazy.”

  Before he could respond, she twisted out of his grasp. “And we’re all as good as dead.”

  From his position tied to the chair, Berenger huffed. “I could have told you that.”

  Anna sank down onto the bunk and clasped her hands in her lap, before addressing Berenger. “He wants to know the names of your handlers at the DOJ. Everything.”

  “‘Course he does.” Berenger looked disgusted, but behind it she glimpsed desperation and her heart clenched.

  Stay cool, Anna, she told herself. Tell them the rest and let them decide. Thabati can’t hold it over you if you tell them. “He also said that if you don’t cooperate, he’s going to shoot Colin.” She tipped her head toward her husband without looking at him.

  Berenger glanced between them, a ridge forming between his eyebrows. “Okay, you lost me there, kid. Don’t rightly see how that’s supposed to motivate me to talk.” He nodded to Colin. “No offense, Dupree.”

  Colin acknowledged him with a breezy shrug, but his attention was firmly fixed on Anna.

  For her part, she tried to look nonchalant. “Oh, this is where it gets interesting. I’m supposed to talk you out of the information, Bear.” She gave him a significant look.

  Berenger rocked back in his seat, his chest rumbling with deep, unamused chuckles. “Oh, that’s evil.” He shook his head, still laughing. “He’s got no guarantee it’s actually gonna work, though.”

  Anna only twisted her lips in a semblance of a smile; her throat had clogged.

  “Wait a minute.” It was Colin’s turn to glance between them, his expression hardening until it could have been carved from marble. “Thabati expects you to talk Berenger out of the information or he’s going to shoot me?”

  Anna spread her hands, wetting suddenly dry lips. “Crazy, right? Don’t know what he’s thinking.” She felt Colin’s blue eyes boring into her, but she couldn’t look at him. She couldn’t. He’d see the truth in her eyes and then everything really would be over.

  “You’re too concerned about me,” she said airily. “He can see that.” She placed a deliberate emphasis on ‘see’, hoping they’d get the hint.

  Berenger grasped it first. “Right,” he muttered, dropping his chin to his chest. “Might have known.”

  Colin was a little slower on the uptake, but when he got it, his expression hardened further. “That’s how they knew you were awake.”

  “Oh, probably,” she said lightly, fixing her gaze somewhere past his left ear.

  “He’s slipped a couple of gears.” Berenger was shaking his head. “This is crazy. You hear me, Thabati?” He raised his voice; it ricocheted off the bulkheads in the small cabin and made Anna wince.

  “Something tells me there’s no call for shouting,” Colin said dryly.

  Berenger shot him a thin-lipped glare. “I’ll shout as loud as I want.” He suited words to action, and bellowed, “I’ve gotta whizz, Thabati. Untie me and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”

  Chapter 31

  ANNA BLINKED AT HIM, BEFORE trading an astonished look with Colin. “Just like that? You’ll tell him whatever he wants to know?”

  “No skin off my nose.” Berenger shrugged. “My kid’s the important thing.”

  Thabati must have been monitoring the cabin’s surveillance feed, because less than five minutes later, just as Berenger was filling his
lungs to shout again, the door slid open to reveal Palmer, with another armed man behind him.

  “The Captain wants you, Berenger.”

  “About time.” Berenger scowled at him. “My bladder’s about to burst.” Palmer came forward to untie him from the chair, while the other man covered them in case anyone got any strange ideas about escaping. Berenger did not so much as spare a glance for Anna and Colin before Palmer whisked him out of the cabin, sealing the door shut behind them.

  Stunned silence filled the cabin, but it faded quickly into stilted awkwardness. Anna’s flesh-and-blood hand grew clammy; she discreetly wiped it on her pants leg and then tried to figure out what to do with herself. She settled for lowering herself to a corner of the bunk and bracing her hands behind her on the mattress, doing her best to look nonchalant and composed.

  Her insides, however, were quivering and roiling like a bunch of squiggling larvae. I suppose it’s too much to hope for that Bear doesn’t screw us over again. She felt Colin’s eyes on her, but she suddenly couldn’t look at him.

  The absurdity of the situation finally hit her. Here they were, alone in a cabin together. The only trouble was that it was both locked from the outside, and under surveillance. That last thought settled over her with cold certainty, and she knew she couldn’t let anything slip. If Thabati poisoned me because he thinks Colin‌…‌cares‌…‌for me, there’s no telling what he’ll do if we give him anything else to work with.

  The smiling captain had already blithely threatened to kill Colin if she didn’t get Berenger to cooperate; the thought of what else he could do to Colin before he killed him turned her stomach.

  “Ship to Anna, come in, lass.”

  Colin’s voice snapped her out of her reverie. Before she had time to think about it, she glanced up at him. He was staring down at her, his arms folded across his chest and his blue eyes somber. “What?”

  His scrutinizing expression did not change. “What were you thinking about?”

  Anna shook her head, dropping her eyes back to the scuffed deck. Instead, she tried to deflect. “How long was I out again? Bear could have saved us all some trouble and spoken up earlier.”