Everything hit me at once, not only were we not getting in and out of this place as easy as I thought, but we’d be lucky to get out of here alive. There was a giant metal crate wedged between the doors of the warehouse. The doors were sixteen feet tall and at least two feet thick. The eight-foot crate was keeping them held open. Even then the giant crate must have been reinforced to keep the doors from smashing it into bits.
A man in an orange jumper walked out on top of the crate. The top half of his suit was tied around his waist, showing off a set of massive arms. Forced manual labor, the best workout plan in the system. He held a giant wrench in both hands and bounced it gently against his thigh as he sat on the edge of the crate.
“So you must be Captain Drake,” he said with a lopsided smile as he looked down at us from his perch.
A couple of things bothered me right away. The fact that he knew my name meant someone told him I was coming and that smile tilted just the wrong side of crazy. This was the last thing we needed right now, but we didn’t have a choice. I motioned for Gabe and the Doc to stop and moved forward, placing myself between them and the man on the crate. I looked up into his madness filled eyes and gave him a wink.
“Seems as though you have me at a disadvantage, you’ve heard all about me and I, well I know almost nothing about you.” I gave him a dramatic bow, before looking back up at him.
He pointed the wrench at me. “A bow, I like that.” He hit me with the smile again. “That’s something I’m going to have to teach my men.”
Men? Well, that didn’t bode well for us, especially when the man leading them was obviously a bit unstable. It was going to be up to Gabe and I to get things under control. I didn't think Richard was much of a fighter unless he had been hiding something from us. The sound of metal striking metal came from the sides of the room, and I knew our day was going to get even more complicated.
Six men with equally big wrenches and hammers walked out of the shadows. Two men appeared behind the man on the crate. Another two moved onto the walkway behind us cutting off any chance of escape. All of the men looked hardened and mean. They were also armed, which didn’t make me feel better about our chances. I didn’t make a move for any of my weapons, keeping my eyes firmly locked on the man above me.
The two men behind him slipped around and dropped to the ground in front of the crate. “Captain, it seems we are at an impasse. I have something you want, and you have something that I need.”
And there it was, it always came down to a negotiation. Connor wouldn’t be covering the additional cost of bartering with psychopaths, and there was no way I was working this job without a profit. “And that would be?”
“I’ve got some boxes for you, but I need a ride out of here.”
Well that was going to be damn near impossible. When a miner signed his contract, they attached a chip to their ears. If it was removed wrong or activated by the company, your head went splat. The pay these guys would make after their five years of service was substantial, but not everyone was made to stick it out under the harsh conditions. I had to ask him even though I already knew the answer. “Aren’t you chipped?”
His smile vanished. “Fuck you, of course, I’m chipped, that’s the whole damn problem.”
“I can’t take you, and you know it.”
His smile vanished. “Well, I guess whatever was in those crates wasn’t that important to you after all.” He jumped off of the edge of the crate to stand in front of his men.
“Oh, I didn’t say I wasn’t willing to help you, just that I wouldn’t be letting you go for a ride on my ship.” I turned and pointed towards the Doc. “My man back here has some medical experience. He could remove the chips for you and your men, but you would still have to find your own way off this boat.”
He seemed to consider it for a second but then his mouth pulled into a snarl. “Not fucking good enough.” He moved forward a step pointing the massive wrench at my chest. “With the chips out, you could give us a ride.”
“And what’s the company going to do when seven chips go offline at once?” He looked at me and his eyes fell for a second. He knew what would happen. Guards would sweep the ship looking for the missing prisoners. If they didn’t find them, the entire ship would go into lockdown. That didn’t work for me.
“Not my fucking problem.”
“Listen, you have a chance to get off this tug, but it’s going to be my way. If that’s not good enough for you, I‘m willing to go through you instead.” I reached inside of my jumper and pulled out my shockstick. It looked kind of pathetic next to the man’s heavy wrench, but it would only take one touch to bring the larger man down.
The man snarled and rushed forward his men a few steps behind him. I ducked under the massive swing of his wrench and brought the shockstick up into his belly. His body shook, and he dropped the wrench. I pulled the stick free only to be tackled to the ground a moment later.
“What, you don’t think the company has shocksticks.” He snarled into my face.
His fist came down a moment later and rocked my head back against the metal flooring. I heard stunners firing after that, but it wouldn’t be enough. The Doc wasn’t cut out for this kind of thing and Gabe wouldn’t be able to get all six of them. I tried to hit him with shockstick again, but he knocked my arm easily to the side before head-butting me. My vision started to swim, and I knew if we were getting out of this alive we only had one chance.
“Maze, I need you.” I managed to mumble before he hit me again and the world went dark.
Chapter 18
Maze
Well, the captain had done it again. He was in trouble, and it was up to me to bail him out, again. The last thing I wanted to do was go further into the grubby little ship, but I didn’t have a choice.
We were on the verge of finally having a real relationship. We weren’t there yet, but he was worming his way into my heart. He’d always had a certain something that had drawn me in, but I always knew nothing would ever come from it. Now all of that was changing. There was no way I was going to risk our possible future together. “Ice, the captain is in trouble. I’m going in.”
“I’ll make sure to remind him that you saved his ass yet again.”
“Lock down the ship, and keep the comms open.” They had better be safe while I was gone. The last thing I needed was to have to go further into the ship to save two more people.
“You got it. Bring our boys home safe.”
“Always.”
The guns on my thighs were tucked inside of the jumper, and my rifle was in hand. They better not of hurt him, not now, not when I was so close to finally getting what I wanted. Damn it Drake, why did you have to go in without real weapons? The lives of a few scumbag miners wasn't worth the cost of being killed. He always liked to try and do things without killing, and it always came back to bite him in the ass. Sometimes you just had to be ready to pull the trigger.
This was one of those moments that would end up adding to the legend of Captain Drake. How he single-handedly rescued his team from harm after being captured. Did I just snort? I might have actually snorted. It was good for business to grow the legend, and it was good for his friends to remind him on a regular basis that it was all bullshit. Not that he hadn’t earned some of his glorified reputation on his own, but not enough of it to have the one he did.
My holo was feeding an overlay to my cybernetic eye. The mini map was posted to the lower right side of my vision. The map showed me exactly where the entrance to the warehouse was and the position of the team’s comms inside of the building. Right now they were all huddled together. When they started to separate them is when things would get bad.
Kneeling against the wall, I peeked around the corner to get a view of the entrance to the warehouse. Two men stood out front with shocksticks in their hands, our shocksticks. My eye fed me the distance to the targets and the wind speed of the corridor. The wind was negligible being on a ship, but you never knew if it would be. So
metimes on these big ships, they had circulators pulling and pushing clean air around. They were strong enough to throw a well-placed shot off target. I let my eye do the targeting for me as I leaned around the corner.
Two muffled shots and the targets were on the ground. The rifle had been a gift from Drake years ago when we first started this wild ride together. The barrel had been vented slightly reducing the power of the laser it sent out, but greatly reducing the sound as the bolt released from the rifle. It was quiet but in the confines of the ship it seemed almost too loud.
The main thoroughfare behind me remained empty. That didn’t mean it would stay that way forever. Leaning back around the wall I scanned the entrance to the warehouse again. So far no one had come towards the sounds of the shots. There wasn’t time for me to be as cautious as I would have liked. There was no way to tell what those miners were doing to my boys, but I knew it wasn’t good.
I ran forward in a low crouch waiting for a shot to sound from ahead. When nothing happened, I broke into a sprint. When I reached the bodies, I dragged them off into the shadows at the side of the room. They wouldn’t stay hidden for long if someone was looking for them, but it would have to do. I closed the two shocksticks and tucked them behind my back. Sprinting towards the wall, I kicked out using the momentum to spring onto the top of the crate.
Quickly dropping to a knee, I scanned the interior of the warehouse. Three men were patrolling the corridors. One of them had a shockstick, and the other two had stunners. The light from the blaster bolt was going to be a problem inside of the darkened warehouse. As soon as I fired, they were going to know where I was.
I lined up my shots and started moving through my targets. The first two went down easy, but the third managed only to get grazed as he ducked behind some boxes. If he let the men guarding Drake know that I was coming, they would probably be killed. I doubted these miners were interested in a long drawn out hostage negotiation. Instead of jumping into the warehouse, I used the crate to climb on top of a row of containers. I ran across the top hoping to get eyes on the third man before he raised the alarm.
I reached the end of the row looking down hoping to catch a glimpse of him. He wasn’t there. Where in the hell could he be? Slowly turning I scanned the area until something hit me in the back. My body went rigid, and I fell off the containers towards the floor below. Twelve feet didn’t give you a lot of time to react. In fact, that kind of fall didn’t take more than a second.
Thankfully as soon as the shockstick broke contact with my body, I could move again. The implants positioned throughout my body made sure of it. I was able to get my feet under myself and turn the fall into an awkward roll forward. It didn’t stop the impact from hurting or my ankle from taking the worst of it, but it kept me alive.
Spinning around, my hands found my pistols. I was operating on pure instinct now. I didn’t even wait to see if someone was there I just fired. The man’s body took four slugs to the chest and the shockstick he had been holding fell from his lifeless fingers. I secured the weapon with the others tucked against my back. My rifle was a few feet away, I slung Nikita over my shoulders and kept my pistols pointed forward. Any killing that needed to be done now would have to be up close and personal.
Killing hadn’t always been so easy for me. When I joined the N.E.A., I always thought I wouldn’t be assigned to a combat detail. That changed when my team was ambushed outside of an embassy on Volstad Four. The leading transport hit a mine flipping it on its side and blocking the street. Our rear transport took a rocket, creating the perfect ambush. Two of the soldiers next to me went down instantly.
I hadn’t shot a rifle since basic, but the lieutenant was putting one in my hand and shouting instructions. I didn’t hesitate, I just turned to where he was pointing and started to fire. I brought down four of the five attackers before being hit three times. When I woke up in the hospital, a man from the military sciences division gave me a choice. Join up with their unit or an early retirement. There wasn’t anything for me to go home to so I joined up.
That was when I learned that killing someone became a matter of perspective. Anyone can become a killer under the right circumstances, and I had found mine. If serving meant that lives had to be lost for the greater good, then so be it. It took me years to realize most of what I had been taught was bullshit. The military branch of the N.E.A. as just as corrupt as the government they worked for. That was about the time I left the service and found Drake. I had been disillusioned and depressed. Drake had saved me from myself. Now I only killed to protect the people that I loved.
The warehouse was a maze. Despite my mini map I continually got lost. I guess that’s what happens when there was no real map of the interior. The cargo containers had been arranged to create alleys, and not all of them went through to the next section. It took me twenty minutes to reach the corridor my team was being held in. Just in time for me to see one of the dots moving on my map.
“Shit.”
Time wasn’t on my side anymore, and I’d already lost the chance for a stealth attack, so I needed to move. Running forward I dove around the corner letting my eye pick out the targets. Rolling to my feet the guns in my hands came to life. The cybernetic implants I had running along my arms kept my aim steady as my body rocked to the side with the momentum of my roll. The spent energy packs slipped out of my guns as I rose to my feet. Slamming the two new energy packs home I followed the dot that was moving on the mini map.
Three quick turns brought the first muffled screams to my ears. When I came around the corner my guns were already firing. Two men hit the ground as my blaster bolts riddled them with holes, but the last one managed to scoot behind the unconscious body of Captain Drake before I could get another shot off. The man held a shockstick inches away from Drake’s temple. If I killed him fast enough, I might be able to stop him from doing any real damage. Just as I was about to pull the trigger, he spoke.
“I’d think twice about that princess.”
“Move away from him, and you can go.” That was all I was willing to offer.
“Let’s not pretend that’s going to happen. I have something you want, three of them in fact.” The man smiled, and his eyes sparkled with a touch of insanity. “Toss your guns to the side, and he might just live through this.”
It wasn’t really a choice. A shockstick to the temple would knock you unconscious, hold it there long enough and the person would wake up scrambled if they woke up at all. I tossed my pistols on the ground and set my rifle against the wall. All I needed was for him to step away from Drake and this was over. There was no doubt in my mind that I would be able to take him. He ran the shockstick down Drake’s arm as he stepped around him. Damn, he was a big fucker. That didn’t mean too much as long as he didn’t have the quickness to match his bulk. Drake moaned as the man sent another small shiver of electricity through him.
“It’s good to see we understand each other. Now, why don’t you take a few steps closer? It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to taste the scent of a woman.”
Gross, just fucking gross. I couldn’t wait for this asshat to take a step closer to me. He was going to be in for a surprise. I tried to keep my face neutral, but I don’t think I succeeded, because when he started speaking again, he looked pleased.
“Oh, that’s the kind of fire I like in a woman. You’re going to need to hold onto that spirit to get through what me and the boys have in store for you.”
God, I really hated this smug fucker. Just one more step and I could end this. “That kind of depends on a few things.”
He stood a little straighter, his smile disappearing. “Like what?”
“On how long you and your boys could last. From the looks of this place, I’m betting not long.”
“You bitch.” The man snarled as he lunged for me.
That small step forward was all I needed. Slipping two of the shocksticks out from behind my back I met his charge. I used his strength against him, sweeping t
he two shocksticks up and to the side to redirect his attack. Just like most huge assholes, he didn’t think he could lose. They always tended to underestimate me because I was a woman. After what happened in the next few seconds, he’d never be able to make that mistake again. Each of his swings grew wilder and more out of control as I continued to dodge out of the way. Finally, he overextended leaving all of his weight on his front foot, It was the opportunity I had been waiting for.
His knee snapped when my foot slammed into it. He screamed in rage as he fell. He lashed out with his arms as he hit the ground. One of his meaty fists managed to connect sending me flying into the wall before I could finish him.
Instead of coming towards me, the man made it back to his feet and limped towards Drake. He jumped to hit him, but I managed to knock the shockstick wide. The giant fell to the floor beside the captain, and I landed a vicious kick to his ribs forcing him to roll away.
When he tried to stand again, his leg gave out. I rushed forward knocking his off-balance attack to the side and slammed the shockstick into his temple. He dropped to the ground instantly. I hit him again over the heart. If that didn’t kill him, then he’d at least be out for a few hours. I turned around to find Drake’s eyes locked on me.
“It’s good to see you, Maze, but I had them right where I wanted them.”
“Of course you did, Captain.”
After untying him and giving him a quick once over, I moved to retrieve my weapons. I tossed one of the pistols to him, and he snatched it out of the air. He must have been ok if his coordination was holding up, or maybe it was just pure adrenaline.
Drake stood next to me and grabbed an extra energy pack from my belt and tucked it into his pocket. He leaned in giving me a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you,” he whispered as he pulled away.
Forced Compliance (The Galactic Outlaws Book 1) Page 14