by Kim Knox
“Ah.” The low sound vibrated through her ear and she grimaced. That was not right. Interference cut across the piece. “I…will be…ready—”
Chae tapped her ear, running her fingers around her shell to try to joggle the Samekh tech implanted in her ear, but Zayin had dropped to silence. The tech was dead. She pulled it free. And sat it on her palm. She frowned at the blackened mold of the earpiece…and poked it. It turned over and no charge stung her skin. What was it with her Samekh-supplied tech? She never seemed to hold onto anything for very long. “Does that look dead to you?” She cursed. “Someone fried it. All I got was that he’ll be ready.”
Daned lifted an eyebrow but didn’t reply. She’d activated unknown tech he didn’t trust, even when it fell apart on her palm. She scrubbed her hands together, the gritty black dust coating her trousers as it drifted to the floor. She brushed it away. Fuck, now they had no way of communicating with Zayin.
She glanced up at Daned, but the vacant look on his face said he was still refusing to talk. She wanted to board a ship so she wouldn’t have to think about every bloody word that came out of her mouth. Her fingers flexed around the grip of her Sel-9 and she lifted her shoulders. “Ready, pretty?”
“Yes, lady.”
He handed her his leash and her stomach cramped. She would’ve been on her ship now, waiting in the queue to enter the rift lock. Not this. Not standing with her heart in her throat waiting for the lift to hit the city floor, the screen to roll up and for them both to run like hell.
The lift thunked and she staggered. “So not ready for this,” she muttered.
Daned’s hand closed briefly over her shoulder and she didn’t want to find strength and comfort in the patronizing gesture. But she did. The light hum of the disconnecting security screen filled the silent lift. “A meter off the floor, we duck and run.”
“Understood, lady.”
“Glad that man had you grown with half a brain.”
Daned glared at her. “Thank you, lady.”
A grin cracked across her mouth. She couldn’t help it, the fear and wild rush of adrenaline firing through her body. The outside world began to clear, the cool night air breaking through into the lift.
“Why did I leave my ship today?” Chae muttered the words, trying to calm the rapid thud of her heart. “I could be on board now. I have a bath, for fuck’s sake. With water. And a host of not-exactly-illegal oils.” She fixed her gaze on the clearing shield, counting down the seconds over the pounding in her blood. “But, no, what am I doing instead?”
Shit. Enough height to break out. All right, she could do this. She’d done this sort of insane shit before. And had the unsightly scars to prove it. She flexed her fingers around her Sel-9 and Daned’s leash.
“What am I doing? I’m jumping into a gunfight.” She burst out of the lift, Daned at her side—
“Captain Beyon. A pleasure.”
“Well, fuck.” Chae stared down the barrel of an Ar-20, a monstrous weapon that could obliterate her and a twenty-meter area with one light press of the trigger. Panic whipped through her in a hot wave. She fought it down. It couldn’t help her. She blew out a slow breath and looked beyond the glittering black barrel to the suit holding it. “That wasn’t much of a gunfight.”
The man, an Ordan from the tattoos edging his jaw, gave her a bleak smile and pointed at her own weapon. “On the floor, please.”
“A polite henchman.” Slowly she bent to place her gun on the stone floor.
Where the hell was Zayin? Her gaze flicked around the empty streets, finding only silence. The first spatter of rain dropped through the angles of sharp white light and pinged against the metal struts of the sky track that sank deep into worn stone. Nothing moved. No Samekh with a small militia hid in the shadows.
Her gut twisted. She was so screwed. Had he seen the Ar-20 and run like hell? She would. She straightened, her hands lifting, her palms facing outward. “Does civility come as an optional extra?”
His mouth quirked upward into a sarcastic smile. “I’m a professional. Hiring a runner to complete the mission? They must be desperate.”
They. The word jumped out at her. She stopped herself from looking at Daned. He didn’t know that the man dressed as grown flesh was Ladaian. She had to buy time, make herself a distraction. Daned was a trained killer. She’d already had evidence of his skill. So…she had to make the mercenary not look at the naked guy.
She waggled her fingers and smirked. “I’m very good at what I do.”
He laughed. “And what would that be? You were hired—what?—three hours ago and I’ve caught you already.”
Her weight shifted away from Daned, a slight sway to the right. “Gloating is a sign of insecurity, you know. It’s not a pleasant personality trait either.”
His fingers flexed against the trigger and Chae’s heart tightened. Hell, subconsciously he’d registered her movement. His tongue wet his lips. All right, not a good sign.
The man’s gaze narrowed. “So they hired you for your bravado? Or for just being really fucking annoying?”
Her boot slid against the stone. “Ah, so the payment for pleasantry has worn off.”
“Stand still.”
“I am standing still.” She waggled her fingers again. “See? But I’ve been on the sky track for hours. I don’t have my ground legs yet. Bloody thing has me lurching.” She grinned at him and he frowned, a line forming on his smooth brow. The overhead light made the wide barrel of his Ar-20 glitter, and the faint, initiating hum vibrated through her flesh. Fuck. He wanted to see how far he could splatter her across the sky track’s supporting metal. It was there in the too-bright shine of his pale eyes. “So who has the honor of catching me? Which family?”
“The Valens. The Honorable Prince Isberin sends his regards and hopes you experience a happy afterlife.”
Chae laughed and his trigger finger wavered. “Really? That’s the speech he decided to give to his defeated enemies? When his backside hits the sunder-seld, really, he has to think up something more original.”
Muscles bunched in the mercenary’s shoulders, his plain suit shifting, and his tongue darted out to wet his lips again in anticipation.
“So you get the full reward then? Not the men I tricked in Darkhan Uul?”
“I suppose I should thank you for that. I won’t have to share the finding or the killing fee.”
“And what could I offer you not to annihilate me?”
His head tilted, the overhead light a pool of white over his blond hair. “You’re a stunted runner out of Ulan Bator. You have nothing to offer me.”
A smile curved her lips and she saw the uncertainty flare in his gaze. “I do have one thing.”
The blur of Daned’s hands gripping the Ar-20 burned against her eyes. A turn. A twist. And Daned pressed the bulky gun into his own shoulder, aiming it unerringly at the suit’s head.
Chae’s smile deepened into a smirk. “I have him.”
“Does this please you, lady?”
Oh, she liked that touch, as they still couldn’t be certain who was watching them. “Yes, it does, pretty, thank you.”
The suit rubbed his fingers over his reddened knuckles. He glared at Daned. “What is he?”
“They gave me credit.” She patted Daned’s hard-muscled shoulder. “I found myself specialized flesh.” She folded her arms. “So…I think it’s time to tell me what you know.”
“I—” There was a dull thump and the Ordan sank to his knees, toppling sideways. His skull hit the stone with a sickening crack. Blood leaked black into the shadows and a trail of gray smoke drifted over his shoulders.
Chae’s jaw fell open. “What the…”
“There you are!” Aleph strode out of the thick blackness of an empty side street, tucking a small weapon back into the loose folds of his dark tunic.
Her chest bloomed heat, surprise making her take a step toward him. What the hell was he doing there? She stopped. It wasn’t Aleph. A nugget of silve
r glittered in his ear, a mark of his metal trade. Zayin. It was Zayin-Nun, Aleph’s pod-brother.
He glanced over Daned and his eyes narrowed briefly before he pulled the Ar-20 from his grip. “You have strange taste, Chae. Aleph always said that.” Zayin kicked over the dead man with a heavy boot, the Ordan’s skin grazed and bleeding from the impact with the uneven pavement. “More of the suits following you?”
“Seems that way.” Chae wiped her hand over her face, bent to retrieve her Sel-9 and her heart found some sort of even rhythm. The pool of blood seeped toward her and she held down a shudder. She didn’t question Zayin’s shooting him. They’d agreed to get her off-planet, shook on it, and nothing would interfere with the Samekh following that oath. The Samekh could be ruthless. And how many of these bastards lurked in the shadows? “We have to get off the street. The sooner I’m off this bloody planet, the safer I’ll feel.”
Zayin grinned at her, his baleen plates glistening in the bright spot of light. “Yes, let’s get you to your ship.”
Chae grabbed Daned’s leash and jogged to keep up with Zayin’s long strides. Harsh spots of light splashed over high stone walls, the thin edges of access doors and shuttered windows bleached white. Unknown animals scurried over the wet alley floor, nails clicking. She jumped at every skitter. Something had her instincts crawling hot up her spine, and it irked her that she couldn’t work out what it was that unnerved her.
She pushed her unease down. The rain fell faster, thicker now and tasted foul on her tongue. She wiped the slick from her eyes, her cheek. “How far’s the yard?”
“Not far. Most of Baruun Urt huddles close to the sky track.” He glanced over to Daned who easily kept up the pace, his face blank. “Unusual flesh you have there.”
Chae snorted. “No wonder the man in Khovd was so pissed off that I took his flesh-pet from him. He must have paid a fortune for those implanted skills.” She grinned at Zayin, still wanting to distract him from thinking too hard about Daned. “Maybe it’ll teach him to improve his game.”
“Games of probability are not the Nun-Samekh way. We leave nothing to chance.”
And there, that simple reassurance crawled over her skin. Maybe it was the rain. It had already soaked through her jacket and tunic, sticking the materials to her shoulders and back. Her bag thumped wet against her thigh. A small device in Zayin’s clawed hand clicked and the whirr and clatter of an opening access cut the silence. Chae’s hand tightened around the grip of her Sel-9, but only golden light flooded out into the alley.
“Your ship is waiting, Chae.”
“We’re being a little kind in calling it a ship, aren’t we?”
“A tau-class is fast, maneuverable—”
“You don’t have to sell it to me, Zayin. It’s a done deal.” She laughed and followed him under the archway into a small covered courtyard, pulling Daned with her. She glanced at him. Rain had slicked his hair to his head, ran heavy droplets over his bare skin and, as he held her gaze for a brief second, tension tightened his eyes. Yes, whatever had her freaked had his senses on alert too. She turned back to Zayin. “And I’ve flown tau-class before when I was young and insane. I know how shitty they are.”
Zayin gave her a silent incline of his head. “Then I won’t speak of its joys further.”
Chae forced a smile she didn’t feel. Her awareness of the solid strength of Daned at her back eased her panic and she padded after Zayin. Another archway led into a wide stone corridor and beyond that Chae could just make out the running lights of ships, stacked high and held in stasis.
Water sluiced over the edges of the curved roof in a curtain of rain and Zayin walked into it. For a brief moment, he stood beneath it and opened his mouth wide. Rain funneled in and he smacked his mouth shut. He grinned and ejected the filtered water out through his mouth plate and into the yard. “The rain brings delicacies we can never resist.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
He ran his hand over his bald head, mirroring Aleph, and her gut twisted. He wasn’t her friend. Zayin was his pod-brother, but he was still an unknown. “The tau is this way.”
The cold rain plastered her hair to her head and ran icy rivulets down her neck to add to the wet already sticking her clothes to her spine. She followed him onto a small plate lift, the three of them crowding onto the meter-by-meter metal square.
Chae wanted to stare up, but the stream of water made it impossible. When she got her black crystal, she was leaving the planet Arkhengai far, far behind her.
“Here.”
Zayin jerked the plate lift to a halt and Chae grabbed at the rail to steady herself. A gray metal cylinder hung from the force-grips of a stasis bar. Chae ignored the heavy, sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. It was a metal can, maybe big enough for her to stand up in. Hell, it was only fifteen good strides long. It was not her day.
“It’s smaller than I remembered.” She put up the front others expected to see and glanced at Daned. “And it seriously won’t be much fun with him.” She gave them both a short smirk. “I will persevere.”
“You should try not to be a magnet for trouble. You always have been.”
Chae narrowed her eyes. “Aleph sharing stories?”
“We have a limited telepathy.”
“Bloody telepathy. Everyone but me.” She rubbed her wet hands together. “All right, open her up. It’s time to go before more people shoot at me.” She grimaced up at the sky, rain streaming over her face. “And before I get any wetter.” She wiped the flow of water from her eyes and cheeks. “Though I don’t think that’s possible.”
“The ship is prepped and ready to go.” Zayin tapped out a code on the small device on his palm. A gush of sanitized air warmed her and slowly the door to the craft peeled up. A gangway slid out to meet the plate and Chae scrambled over it.
She pushed Daned inside as she turned to Zayin. Rain drummed on the metal arch of the open door and she winced at the noise. “You keep my ship safe. I’ll be back for it.”
Zayin inclined his head. “To say it is to do it. We do not play with chance.”
Chae opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out. She wagged her finger at him. “All right, then.” She pressed the doorplate, stepped back and with a disheartening groan the curve of the outer door lowered. It clunked into place and seals hissed.
She let her shoulders drop. “My day started with a nice simple ‘Chae, I might have a quick trick for you’ from a friend. Now I’ve lost my ship, people want to vaporize me and, worst of all, I have to pilot this junk heap.” She grunted and ran her hands over her hair, squeezing out a run of water. “I’m also wet. And not in the good way.”
She blew out a hot breath and focused. She’d survived, alone, on Arkhengai for almost twenty years. Hell, they should give her a medal. A smile pulled at her mouth and she lifted her shoulders. Time to earn her crates of black crystal.
Chapter Four
The running light curved around the bulkhead and led to the cramped cockpit. Chae pressed open the doors to it. She peeled herself out of her jacket, hung it and her bag from a jag of metal, and shook out her tunic. Two rounded bucket seats faced the narrow console set beneath an arching screen and she willed herself to drop into the pilot chair. The console glowed under her deft touch, and the first rumble of the engines vibrated through the padding of her chair. Belatedly, she tugged the harness across her chest and secured it.
Daned dropped into the chair beside her, rubbing a towel over his hair. “Two hours and fifteen minutes left. The ship looks secure. Nobody stowing away and no trackers. We’re clear to go.”
She let out a short laugh. “We were going anyway.” She glanced at him. “I’m connecting to Arkhengai Tower. Strap in. And look pretty…pretty.”
Daned’s mouth thinned. “And that is the last time you call me that.”
Chae ran her hands over the comm. circuits, plugging in her flight plan. “You know, I don’t think it will be.” A burst of gray-white light s
hot over the screen and a quick flare of static noise cut back Daned’s reply. She flexed her fingers around the guidance rods. She had to push the tau to its furthest point. Probably not the best plan, but it was all that she had. “Arkhengai Tower, this is Captain Chae Beyon signing in and asking for permission for transit and rift lock. Destination Shavgar-7.”
“Captain Beyon? You’re not on your usual sig.”
A smile curved her lips. It was good to hear a familiar—if synthesized—voice. Noor had worked at almost as long as she’d been flying. The screen filled with his image. Noor was Misae and a stunning example of his species, even if he did say so himself. Seeing him triggered a happy burst of adrenaline. She was escaping Arkhengai. Always a good thing. “You’re looking fine today.” She ran her gaze over his thick, deeply patterned tentacles, each one grafted to a separate traffic control system. “The gamma’s out of action. I’m in a bucket with seats. Lucky me.”
Noor’s throaty chuckle filled the small cockpit and had her joining him. “Yes, your luck is infamous. So, is it business or pleasure, today, Chae?”
She pointed to Daned, who sat quietly in the next chair, the perfect image of vacant flesh. “Definitely pleasure.”
Noor tutted, the quiet click of his beak finishing each sound. “You should find a real male.” His expression took on a salacious twist and Chae couldn’t stop her grin. It was always very…odd…to flirt with a Misae. “Me, for instance.”
“Noor, we’re not a compatible species. If only I had a few more arms…and orifices…you’d be the one for me.”
“I know. Fate and biology have kept us apart.” His mouth stretched into what classified as a grin. “Can’t knock a cephalopod for trying.” He looked to his left, eyes narrowed on instrumentation she couldn’t see. “All right, you’re cleared to join the rift stream.”
Chae poured power into the tau’s engines, and the thrum increased until the tin can was practically shaking apart. She gritted her teeth and released the force-grips. The cylinder screamed into the sky and pressed her hard into the thick padding of her chair. “I hate tau-class.”