by J. J. Snow
Reilly had him. She had gotten an emotional response and had learned more in the process. The psycho wanted more than just a new military commander, that much was clear. In his mind, she had already told him yes a thousand times. So once she gave him her answer, things were going to get interesting. Either way, he had committed, he told her what he wanted. Now it was her turn to button push.
“No.”
Welch reeled for a moment, not believing what he had heard, not believing that she had turned him down. She couldn’t turn him down.
“Perhaps you didn’t understand…”
“I understand. I understand more than you know. And I’m telling you no.”
Welch’s eyes smoldered as he tried to remain calm “Then let me rephrase my offer: I would like to offer you the chance to save your own miserable life as well as the lives of your crew. It’s very simple really. I need some solid commanders for my fleet, and you have the fortunate opportunity to say yes. In exchange for your service, I spare your life and your crew’s lives. Of course, there is also the matter of the items you stole from my compound that will need to be dealt with—”
Reilly interrupted Welch again. “Well, I can’t help you out there. We sold most of that stuff to Alton on our last visit. The rest went up in flames when our ship crashed on Roen.”
Welch was caught off guard briefly and then recovered. “I see…and did you by chance come across a crate of ledgers?” he asked in a cold but nonchalant manner. He needed to know if she’d read them, if she knew what was in them.
Very interesting. How did Tiny know? Let’s see how indifferent he really is about those so-called ledgers! Reilly thought.
“Yeah, we did. I almost forgot about them, except Alton explicitly expressed an interest in that crate. He paid us up front for it, in fact.” Reilly tossed back the rest of her drink and then motioned at Welch for another fill as if he were a servant. He walked over, barely disguising his anger now as he mechanically filled the glass with another jot of liquor.
The door opened and Marek stepped in. Welch turned with a nasty look and then pulled himself together. Good-guy Welch waved the bounty hunter over. Marek handed him a slip of paper and whispered something. Welch gave a twisted smirk and nodded, then turned back to Reilly. She took another gulp from the glass as Marek walked into the lift, his right hand showing three fingers as the door closed. Welch began to speak again.
“Poor Raymond is beside himself! He is determined to torture you and your sergeant. He is not very happy with me interfering. Still, as a civilized man, I can’t just stand idly by. Your value to our galaxy and its future is tremendous. You need to think realistically about my offer, about the difference you could make by taking a position in my government. I’m willing to give you additional time to consider, have the doctor come back to do some pain management so you can decide with a clear mind, it’s that important to our future—even if it costs me the lives of my men.” Welch paused dramatically and looked back at Reilly.
All the pieces had fallen into place now. Welch, his role in the new AOC, his hatred of Crazy Ray, his desire to use Reilly and the crew to lead his campaign against the galaxy. Everything Reilly needed to start doing some serious button pushing.
Time to shake things up, Reilly thought, looking at Welch with contempt now.
“So he’s been killing off your men, huh? And you just take it? I mean this guy is one of the biggest dirtbags around, while you, well, you’re going to be the new commander-in-chief of the AOC! And still he’s sticking it to you! Huh…well, how about that! Maybe he was right. Maybe he is more of a man after all!” Reilly took another gulp as Welch narrowed his eyes and walked back towards the divan.
“And how do you know all that? I never mentioned my new title. Wait, let me guess—a little birdy told you?” he sneered. All traces of the refined Welch disappeared and his posture became predatory as he loosely gripped the bottle of brandy by the neck.
Reilly took a final gulp, emptying the glass, and then set it down. She needed to get to the detainment wing and soon if this was going to work. Welch would oblige her momentarily, she was sure.
“We all know. Raymond,” she said, exaggerating the name to mimic Welch’s speech, “told all of us what was in those ledgers. Said he was going to sell them to the highest bidder once you got in office and expose you for the fraud you are, expose your whole plan. I bet he’s still keeping them here right under your nose. They’re probably still in the storage bay in Hold Number Three. Why would I take a job working for the guy who got outsmarted by a psycho creep who never leaves his space station?” She grinned at him as he grabbed the half-full bottle and smashed it into the side of her head.
As she started to black out, Reilly thought to herself, and not for the first time, I am getting too old for this shit! She heard Welch in the distance call for Marek to transport her to the detainment wing and then heard him smashing some other items in the room. It didn’t take very long for the bad guy to come out after all. She flashed Marek a dopey grin as he hauled her to her feet. As they entered the lift, the last image she had was of Welch launching the reading lamp over the bar and into the mirror.
“You sure do know how to get folks riled up! I think I could do with a bit less of that right now, considering all the crazies round about this joint,” Marek whispered to Reilly fiercely as he pretended to check her restraints.
Reilly tried to focus as her vision blurred in and out. “I’m just getting started. You haven’t seen crazy yet!” she promised softly.
—————
Tiny was pleased with herself. It had only taken forty-five minutes to con the large man at the bar into showing her around. Another twenty-five minutes, she had convinced him to open the corridor to the torture wing. Five minutes more, and the man was taking her to see the famed Wanted Man #2 who was secured in the medical room while she hung on his arm, stroking his bicep. And exactly fifteen minutes after that, she had smashed him twice in the head, producing fractures similar to what Ty had sustained while they stood in the medical chamber room. The man had been bragging about how he had taken some extra time to rough up the sergeant before tossing him in the chamber. Tiny, feeling the need to release some seriously pent-up aggression before her dinner with Crazy Ray, had decided the timing and location were perfect. Any cameras were located outside the door of the medical chamber room, which was fortunate.
The man was the same height as Ty but weighed a bit more. Tiny struggled to roll the sergeant out of the chamber and gently onto the floor. Then she stripped her former escort and pulled him into the machine, locking it down. She paused to rest for a moment, trying to decide the best way to get Ty back to her room. She could carry him, but that would be obvious, especially when entering the main section of the detainment wing. Most of the residents were living it up in the club area this evening, so a couple hanging on each other on the way back to a room wouldn’t be unexpected. Tiny dressed Ty in the other guy’s clothes, but there was no way his face would go unrecognized. Wanted Man #2 was too big a prize. Everybody had been talking about Crazy Ray’s birthday present and the torture event of the decade.
She opened up the supply cabinets, looking for anything that might help. She settled on a surgeon’s mask for Ty and a set of scrubs for herself. Strangely enough, some of the detainers were germ freaks when they weren’t busy dismembering people, so a man in a mask wouldn’t be too odd. And she had seen several people walking around in scrubs. She got Ty dressed and then hoisted his weight onto her shoulders so it seemed like he was leaning on her.
“Damn it, Ty!” Tiny whispered as she tried to make him look normal. “This is like hauling a fraggin’ ox around!”
Tiny went back to rifling through the medical cabinets. Finally, she found what she was looking for. She filled the injector with a moderate dose of stimulants and shot Ty up. A few moments later, he opened his eyes and looked at her blearily.
“Oh shit. Am I in he
ll?” he asked, slightly slurring his words.
Tiny grimaced. “Not yet. But if you don’t do what I tell you to, you will be.”
She pulled Ty to his feet and pulled the mask up over his mouth. He looked back over at her, his eyes unfocused. “Where we going?”
“My room. Now shut up!” Tiny watched the cameras through the clear portion of the frosted glass slider and pulled on her own surgeon’s mask.
“Oh. Do I know you?” Ty wondered aloud. “You look familiar…have we…”
“Yes, you do, and no, we haven’t. No more talking, just walk!” Tiny put her arm around Ty and force-marched him out the door. She was surprised his legs were holding up as well as they were. She just hoped she had hit him with enough stims to get him back to the room before he blacked out again.
The torture wing was empty for the moment, and Tiny was able to make her way out without running into anybody. She continued down the corridor, half-dragging Ty as he leaned heavily on her while mumbling all sorts of nonsense. Tiny saw a small knot of people turn and head their way. She looked around and saw a nearby planter by the wall and quickly shoved Ty up against it, then turned him slightly so it looked as if the two of them were hanging onto each other in the corner.
“Why we here?” Ty slurred then blew a puff of air into his mask. “Got something on my face…get it off…oh, you have one, too…”
Tiny rolled her eyes as she waited for them to pass. The group, if they noticed, didn’t comment and continued on their way, laughing and talking. Tiny waited a moment longer for the corridor to clear, then hoisted Ty again and pushed for the next set of hallways. She had to stop twice more, once on a bench and then again using a planter. They passed by four more cameras. Tiny did her best to avoid them when she could, but there was no way she could avoid all of them with Ty. The last camera moved more quickly than the others, and she was sure it had caught them as they were walking away from it towards her corridor.
Finally, she reached her room. She promptly leaned Ty against the wall as she closed the door, sweating. He slid to the ground and then rolled to one side.
“Whoa…the room just tipped…I think gravity got lost again…” Ty murmured softly, his eyes rolling back.
“All right we made it, we made it,” Tiny said as she leaned against the door and patted Ty’s leg.
She sighed. She was wasting time, and she had a lot more to do. She grabbed Ty by the arms and hauled him into the back bedroom, then pulled off the mask and the borrowed clothes, stripping him down to his tac-shorts and shirt. The harness she had was going to be too small, but she had no choice. She wrestled him into the thing and checked all the bindings, then attached a locking carabiner to the loop on his chest. On the carabiner, she attached a piece of flagging. It would be the first thing he would see when he woke up. Tiny hoped he would be coherent enough to read it and keep calm until she returned.
She carefully removed the piece of wall she had precut earlier and proceeded to slide Ty’s head and shoulders into the ventilation shaft until she could clip him to the line she had rigged. She pulled a small remote from her pocket and slowly raised him up the shaft until he was out of sight. To prevent the wall from falling out of place, she tossed two magnet-locking devices in the shaft to hold it until she returned. They slid to either side, bracing the edges. Tiny entered a code in her handheld to lock them. Unless someone knew where to look, the wall would appear solid. And even if they did know something was wrong, they would need plasma cutters or a hacker to remove the magnetic locks.
As she grabbed the clothes and the masks, there was a knock at the door. Tiny momentarily froze, then quickly tossed the clothes into the waste disposal unit and grabbed her blaster and knife before walking casually to the door. She opened it a crack to see a small, thin man looking back at her.
“Yeah?” she asked.
“Mr. Ray sent me. I’m Jamie. I’m to take you to his rooms for dinner.” The man smiled, showing sharp, pointed teeth.
“Right. I’ll be right out.” She closed the door in his face, then stripped and tossed on a black tac-shirt and black cargo pants with combat boots. She also layered knives on her belt, at her back, and in her boots. It would be expected, since she was a bounty hunter, that she would be armed at all times. She strapped on the blaster, then quickly smoothed down her hair.
She went back to the door and stepped out, closing it behind her. Jamie watched her, with his soft murderous hands and his watery blue eyes, before speaking. “The Boss must like you. He never has anyone up for dinner unless he likes them or he’s going to kill them.”
Tiny paused a moment to reflect on that comment and then calmly replied, “Well, I guess I shouldn’t keep him waiting, then. Either way, he’ll have an appetite.”
Jame nodded slowly and motioned for her to follow him. Tiny hoped Crazy Ray was leaning towards dinner as she walked to the lift and got on.
Chapter 14
Idiot! He had grossly misjudged her. He had allowed her to push his buttons and she had evoked a response, something that would not happen again. She had played him. The rage continued to well up as the bounty hunter dragged Reilly from the room and onto the lift, dripping blood as she went. She had knowledge, dangerous knowledge of his plans. How could she know? And now he had tipped his hand because he thought he had her trapped. He did have her trapped. She wasn’t going anywhere. He stopped his rampage and began to catch his breath. Welch looked around at his suite. It was in pieces.
His mind went over Reilly’s last words. There was no way a sniveling little freak like Raymond could have outsmarted him like she claimed. He was in charge now. In the back of his mind, a little voice reminded him of the people he had been losing, the fact that Raymond had been able to deactivate and flush the Enforcers, along with a number of other instances where the arms dealer had managed to get the upper hand. All little events that had slowly been chipping away at him, none of them overly damaging, like a swamp midge, small bites that over time turn into a bigger itch and then an infection that can kill you. Welch thought about this. There was no way Raymond could know. Still, it never hurt to be cautious, just in case. He pulled out his handheld and tersely contacted his security chief with what he required and clicked off, his anger simmering just below the surface. As he paced, the light from the red glass bottle caught his gaze.
He picked it up. The glass was thick but was leaking from the collision with Reilly’s skull. Or maybe some of it was blood, he couldn’t tell. He set it in the ice bucket on the bar, in front of the fractured mirror that now sported a reading lamp at its center. Welch smiled briefly. He would deal with her once he had inspected the hold. And when it turned out that there were no ledgers there, he would make sure she understood the price of lying. She was determined, but Welch had encountered many determined people in life, and when he was done with them, they were either broken to his will or dead.
That thought gave him pause. Reilly didn’t fear death, that much was clear. No, it would be much better to have her collared. Not implanted, because then she wouldn’t know she was his slave. But forced to be his military servant, she would stand by his side—fulfill his every whim while he could enjoy making her bow to his authority. She would watch his plan unfold and wish she had said yes to the gracious opportunity he had extended to her. By the time he was done, she would be begging him for the chance to prove herself worthy, to be part of his grand scheme. The famous Captain Campbell as his bootlicker for life! He sneered again. Why hadn’t he just gone with this option to begin with? It would be so much more enjoyable for him to have her under his thumb every waking hour…or sleeping, for that matter. He could implant her crew, and she could watch as they loyally obeyed his every whim, unable to do anything about it. So many more fun options! And so much more pain for her! These thoughts cheered him up immensely. He poured himself another drink while he waited to hear from his security chief. There was still much to be done, though, before reaching that poi
nt. He reluctantly forced himself back to the present, but smiled again as he remembered it wouldn’t all be work.
“The best part will be breaking her. It will be effort, but I have no doubt I’m up to the challenge, a very enjoyable challenge!” Welch smiled at himself in the broken glass as he considered all of his options. “Where to begin? Where to begin?”
—————
Ty woke up groggy in the dark. It was cold, and air was rushing by him in the enclosed space as he tried to figure out where he was. His head still hurt, but at least he felt like he could see a bit better. In fact, it looked like there was something in front of him. He strained to see it. It looked like writing.
“Don…Don’t…move…Don’t…move…harness…only…rated…to…one-eighty pounds…back…soon…Tiny…Don’t move, harness only rated to one-eighty pounds, back soon, Tiny. Harness?” He read the message again and then groaned as he realized where he was.
He looked up and then down as the darkness stretched away from him in both directions.
“That damn ninja chick…left my ass hanging in a ventilation shaft!” he mumbled to himself.
The cable that he was hanging from creaked with his movement. As he grabbed for it, wide awake now from the adrenaline rush, he realized he was clad just in his shorts and a t-shirt. Cold, unarmed, and in the dark, he attempted to assess his condition. His head was still fuzzy and he was sore all over.