“Your friend, he’s insatiable, I take it,” Laura suggested.
“Hawking, yes. He’d bang three birds a day, assuming he had a hearty breakfast.”
“This one that was only for him. Who was it?”
“We were drinking one night and bragging about…, well, conquests, you know.” Impatience showed on Spice’s face. “Anyway, he made a bet with me that he could get anyone he wanted. He challenged me to name someone. I wanted to knock the boaster down a notch, so I said, ‘a Wraith.’ He’s all, ‘What’s a Wraith?’ So I told him what I knew, and he comes back to me a week later and says he’ll take the bet. Next, thing I know, he’s busy all the time, making arrangements, hiring people, buying service robots. Then he finally comms me one day and tells me it’s all set up. ‘What’s set up?’ I say. He’s all, ‘the sex slaves, and the Wraith.’ Well, I figured he could get a group of singles to board his ship, but I thought he was joking about the Wraith. I said, ‘Oh yeah, great, Trip. When do we leave?’ That’s when he explained about the prefabs and softening them up, and everything. He invited three other guys, friends of ours, but he only told me what was happening.”
“He got the Wraith,” Lucky said.
Sanj’s eyes opened wide. “I didn’t believe him.”
“Your friends have chosen not to go, but you’re going to take us with you on this trip instead.”
“I don’t want to go anymore,” he pleaded.
“I don’t care what you want,” Spice said cheerfully. “You’ve got the answers and the ship, so you’re coming along.”
Laura stood. “Get on board, Sanj, and tell the pilot everyone’s ready to take off. And if you tell the pilot that SWORD is on board the ship, I’ll hear you. I have really, really, excellent hearing.”
“And aim,” Spice added.
Sanj looked nervously from one SWORD agent to the other. “I believe you.”
Sanj, acting as Kinkade’s substitute aboard the ship, explained to the pilot that the guest list had changed, but everyone was on board and he could take off any time. The pilot, acting as Kinkade’s top crewmember, explained that he answered to Mr. Kinkade, and not some wannabe hanger-on. The pilot decided to comm ahead to the asteroid vacation home of his boss.
Meanwhile, Spice and Lucky each chose suites and luxuriated in the opulence of the yacht. Before they even took off, the wait staff served them refreshments and gave them maps of the recreation areas of the ship. Lucky went to Spice’s room. “A person can get used to this.”
“A person can get bored, I think.”
“You’re young. Wait ‘til you’re eighty. You’ll appreciate a soft chair and hot sauna.”
Spice laughed. “I’ll take your word for it.” She became thoughtful. “Do you think Comet’s all right?”
“From what Sanj said, Kinkade boasts having a Wraith in his control. I can’t imagine under what circumstances Comet would ever be contro—”
“What is it?”
“Comet has one weakness, and a person with Kinkade’s resources might be able to learn what it is.” Laura hastily sent a comm message to SWORD informing them that Karen M’kale Ramirez needed to be protected until Comet was found.
Spice did not pry. They had learned at the Scabbard that privacy was sacred. A closed door was to be left closed. When Laura finished the message, she looked at Spice. “This twisted life Kinkade lives, it’s been going on for a long time. At his expensive private school, he was quite popular with the ladies. Had a reputation for sleeping with every one of ‘em, except Philamina Stout. Apparently, it was the school joke that ‘Trip’ could charm anyone but her, so I followed her record.”
“What was different about her?”
“She was not like the other students. They all came from extremely wealthy families with extremely high opinions of themselves. Ms. Stout, on the other hand, was an ordinary girl, plucked from a neighborhood on the other side of the tracks.”
“What tracks?”
“It’s an expression.”
“Oh.”
“It was a Pygmalion scenario; rich people playing with poor people’s lives. One family ‘sponsored’ the girl through school, buying everything she needed: uniforms, tablets, comms, dental care, medical care, the works. Artemis Kinkade Junior heard about the ‘experiment’ being conducted by fellow muckety-mucks and made a bet on the outcome. He believed she could never pass as one of the socialite girls in the school. The sponsor, a man by the name of Fowler, bet that she would not only pass as one, but come to behave in every way like they did, even to the point of sleeping with several boys at the school, something her natural family had taught her was unwise.”
“Disgusting.”
“Indeed. Kinkade the third learned of the bet by eavesdropping on his father. No big deal until Junior cut off Trip’s expense account over an issue about grades. Trip made it his mission to make his father lose the bet by conquering Ms. Stout. Of course, the girl resisted him until the whole school knew of his failure to win over the oddball student. He harassed her so incessantly that she dropped out of the school.
“Of course, the rich people involved painted Ms. Stout as the failure, completely sweeping under the rug the fact that Trip was the cause of her declining grades and incomplete education. There were rumors, even, of a gang attack on her by Trip and his friends, but somehow that was covered up as well, probably with a payout to someone. She went back to her family who believed her to be the failure Fowler and Kinkade made her out to be. Never got her life on track. She was found dead three years later.”
“Where’s the justice?” Spice whispered.
“For her family, there is none. And now Trip is at it again. Imprisoning women, abusing them, giving them to friends as gifts, and he’s got Comet somehow.” Laura looked at the floor for a long moment, then looked back up at Sophie.
“We’ll get her,” Sophie promised. “And we’ll get him.”
“Hailey, Trip’s comm. There’s an incoming message.” Luna handed the comm to her.
“’Confirm change in passenger manifest according to Mr. Sanj Raymond. Was four men; change to two women and one man.’ What’s going on?” Hailey asked. “Bringing more women, but before it was going to be men?”
“Don’t let them kidnap two more, Hailey,” Mandy said.
“Then maybe the ship won’t come at all,” Shondra suggested.
“Four men. Four of us. They think we’re property!” Camille asserted.
“I don’t know what’s going on over there, but we need that ship to come here. I don’t care who’s on it.” Hailey started typing a reply: “New passenger manifest approved. Proceed at best speed to T’skala compound. Comm before docking.”
The women huddled around the comm, waiting for the reply. Minutes passed, then finally one word: Acknowledged.
They let out a collective sigh of relief and laughed together. “We’re going home!” Camille said happily.
“You know, this isn’t really over. When we go back, there’s going to be a trial. You’ll need to testify if you want to put him away.”
“Isn’t your testimony enough?” Mandy asked Hailey.
“I need to go on to other missions. I can’t sit around for a trial. Besides, Wraiths are supposed to be invisible. It’ll look like you four took over. That’s how it should be. I hardly did anything anyway.”
“Are you kidding?” Mandy exclaimed.
“After that first night that he attacked me, I was defeated, Hailey. But the next day, you talked to me, told me how to get strong, told me how to think positively.”
“That’s right, Hailey. And Mandy told us. Knowing there was a SWORD agent with us and getting instructions from her, it just, well, it gave me hope. Before that, I thought I’d end up dying here.” Luna looked sincerely at Hailey.
“And the words you got him to say, to take over the robots. That’s what saved us,” Mandy added.
Hailey smiled. “I guess we were all crucial.” They stood around awkwardly until Hailey broke
the silence. “So, how long should we wait before bringing him food and water and a pail to piss in?” The others laughed.
“I think tomorrow is soon enough,” Shondra suggested.
“I second that,” Camille added.
“Agent Hailey, tell us about some of your adventures,” Luna asked.
“Yeah. What was your best mission?” Mandy asked. They all sat down in the living room to hear Hailey’s tales.
“My best? You mean my favorite?” Hailey asked. They nodded. “I have one that’s best, and a close second.”
“Well, go on, then,” Luna prompted, smiling.
“And your father had no feelings for you at all?” Mandy sniffed.
“Not anymore. But he did when he was looking for me. He said he’d do anything to get me home, even return to SWORD. And he believed that I was found and brought home.”
“How is that your best mission?” Shondra asked. “That’s so sad.”
“But I discovered my past. I found my mother. And I know Jackson will be my future.” Hailey ran her hand past her nose. “I visit my mom every couple of years, whenever Laura can get me there.” She smiled feebly.
“What’s the close second?” Camille asked.
“The Abraxas Titan. That’s when I met Carter.”
“Carter? What about Jackson forever and ever and ever and ever –” Luna teased. Shondra slapped her knee.
“Who’s Carter?” Mandy asked. Hailey related the whole story, much to the delight of her audience. When she revealed that Carter and Karen were best buddies, more than one Kinkade-survivor sniffled.
“Damn, my voice is tired of talking. I’ve never talked so much in my whole life,” Hailey said. “Time for someone else to tell a story.”
“Our stories don’t compare, Agent Hailey. Who wants to watch a vid? I’ll make hot chocolate.”
The friends settled down and watched a comedic vid together, feeling free to laugh, feeling free.
Holding Pattern
For the next six days, Spice and Lucky travelled while Sanj sweated out the conclusion of the doomed adventure. At the same time, Hailey and company recreated while Kinkade sweated out his upcoming incarceration. Well, not exactly sweated, as he was left in the chilly cell for an entire night without any clothes and only the thin blanket on the cot. And he was already incarcerated to a certain extent, so what lay before him was continued incarceration.
Every morning, just as he had done, Hailey brought him a decent breakfast and a fresh pitcher of water. She even sent the MUPA robot in to empty his chamber pot. She treated him humanely, giving him warm clothes – once she remembered that he was bare – and tossing a few books on tablet into his cell to stave off boredom.
On the sixth day of waiting for the ship, Hailey heard a hissing noise coming from her former cell. She remembered the bullet hole in the outer wall as air gently blew past her down the hall and through the riddled door. Oh no, she thought, running into the cell. A large crack had stretched out in two directions from the initial breach. There was no way to plug it. That wall was structurally unsound; it was going to fail.
Hailey ran back to the common area. “We need a new place to wait. Is there an airtight… anything?” she asked urgently. The others looked at her with confusion, shaking their heads. “Trip.” Hailey went to his cell and demanded to know what other structures were on the asteroid.
“Let’s make a deal, Mari,” Kinkade said.
Hailey was furious. “You’re gonna die, too, when the wall fails, you twit.”
“What wall?” Kinkade asked, alarmed.
“The one your ACMEs put a bullet in on your command. Now tell me where we can go, and I’ll take you along.”
Kinkade got to his feet, anxious, then strangely calm. “There’s another prefab, connected to this one. It’s a supply house, pretty much.”
“How do you get there?”
“It’s got a lock. Only I can open it.”
Hailey grabbed him by the arm. “Move.” In the living room, Hailey gave orders. “Shondra, Luna, get anything we’ll need. We’re moving. Mandy, Camille, hold this guy.”
Unburdened, Hailey ran to the hall and grabbed a cot mattress from Mandy’s cell. She propped it up against the door with all the holes in it, and the breach sucked it tight. Still there was hissing: air escaping. She remembered the giant gash in the interior wall. She went into that cell and put that mattress against the breach. The rushing air slowed, then stopped. The end cell would now be evacuated of all its air. They were only protected by an inner wall with a gash, an interior door full of holes, and two mattresses.
“Hurry,” she called as she ran back to the group. “Where’s the passage?”
“That door,” Kinkade said, nodding his head at a previously unused door.
“Go!” Mandy and Camille took Kinkade to the door and he gave them the passcode to unlock it.
“Got it, Hailey.”
The other three followed them through the door, a short passage, and another door. They stood in a dark, hexagonal room. “These doors are not rated to withstand decompression!” Hailey yelled at Kinkade.
“Sentries! Secure everyone here except me!” Kinkade shouted. Eight ACMEs came out of the darkness of the storage room and took hold of the five women, leaving Kinkade free.
“Kinkade! No one’s safe in here! We need a stronger door! Like an airlock!” Hailey yelled over the chaos in the room. “Call off your ACMEs! We have to work together!”
Kinkade stared at his nemesis. “I always get out of jams,” he snarled.
“You can’t stop a breach with points and bits!”
“You can’t stop a man with points and more points! My only regret is that you never got to experience me.”
“Thank the universe!” Hailey retorted. “Be smart, Kinkade. We need shelter!”
“I need shelter and my bedroom is the safest place here. Double walls and doors all around.” He laughed meanly. “Ta ta, bitches.” Kinkade swept through the first door in the short passage. The women watched helplessly as he flew through the second door right before the first one slammed shut. Their ears hurt and they cried out, but Hailey struggled to free herself from the grippers of the sentry, ignoring the pain and fighting the panic that rose within her. The door to their storage hexagon began to bow outward, sucked toward the breach like everything else.
“Sentries, let go!” she tried. To her great surprise, the sentries let go. Her friends covered their ears and fell to their knees. Hailey looked around for anything solid, big, and flat. The single light over the door did little to illuminate the storage room. She pushed her way through the stacks of crated food and found, in the back of the hexagon, several wall panels not used during construction. “Spares,” she exulted. Grabbing one, she shouted, “out of my way!” The survivors crawled to the sides as Hailey carried a wall panel to the door. She placed it against the door, and the pressure in the hexagon stabilized noticeably. “Find stuffing,” she ordered. The women spread out and collected every bit of fabric they could find, taking off their clothes to add to the effort. “Wait,” Hailey called from the darkness. “I think I’ve got the perfect thing.”
She made her way to the barricaded door and activated the trigger on the high-pressure tube she found. Self-hardening sealant squirted out. Hailey traced it around the wall panel, both sides, top, and bottom. The pressure in the hexagon was low, but stable.
Hailey slid to the floor. “I think,” she panted, “we’re safe.”
“What if something blows out?” Luna asked quietly.
“Nope. Not enough pressure differential to force out a wall panel. And this goo is stronger than anything.”
“Hailey?” Mandy whispered. “It’s hard to breathe.”
“I’ll find oxygen masks. Breathe shallowly. As little as you can manage.” Hailey crawled around, feeling her way through crates and cabinets. She wished, one last time, she had her Wraith gifts: her perfect recollection to remember what she saw the instant
she entered the room, when there was sufficient light spilling in from the living room. Alas, she could not wish her implants to work. There was no magic in the galaxy. Only technology, training, and teamwork.
She searched and searched as her friends began to fade. “Hold on,” she called softly. “I’ll find ‘em.”
Rescue Party - a Day Late
The captain commed Kinkade as soon as they came out of compression, as per the commed orders he received a week before. He got no reply. He approached the asteroid cautiously and gasped at the sight that greeted him. The main prefab building was broken and scattered across the landscape. Only a small section remained. The pilot flew around the surviving shelter and finally landed several meters away.
Lucky was on his doorstep the instant he ordered engine shutdown. “What’s the status?”
“It’s gone,” he said, stunned.
“What do you mean? What’s gone?”
“The prefab. All of it, except one small section. But there’s no airlock. No way to get in.”
“Do they answer hails?”
“No.”
“Stay here.” Lucky ran back to where Spice waited at the airlock.
“You can’t order me to stay anywhere. I’m the captain of this ship!” He ran after her. “Who are you? What are you doing?”
“Spice, there might be survivors in a small prefab section. But there’s no airlock. Any ideas?”
“I can go there in my suit, but we have to get them out somehow.” The captain caught up. Spice addressed him. “Hey, you. You got some kind of airlock extension, for docking farther away?” The captain looked at the woman dressed all in black.
“Who are you?”
“We’ll explain later. Do you have it?”
“Well, not far enough, and there’s no hatch on the prefab.”
“Listen carefully, and don’t mess this up. Get back to the bridge and hop this yacht as close as possible. Line up this airlock with a side of the building. Got it?”
Hailey's Comet Anthology Page 10