I peered into the twilight while Loch opened the door. Nothing moved, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched.
“I think we should abort,” I whispered as soon as we were inside. Loch was a dark shape against the deeper darkness of the room.
“Why?” he asked.
“Just a feeling.”
To his credit, Loch didn’t scoff. “Five minutes?” he asked.
I nodded reluctantly. If someone was watching us, I doubted five minutes would make a ton of difference. But for us it could mean the difference between finding guns or going home empty-handed.
We moved quickly through the house. I set my com flashlight to the lowest setting and turned it on. It was hard to tell if the house had already been ransacked or if the people living here were just slobs.
Once we checked the house for occupants, Loch and I split up. I searched one bedroom while he searched the other. I found two well-used blaster pistols in the top of the closet, as well as a small cache of energy cells. No holsters, though, so I shoved one gun in my pocket and left the other out for Loch.
I was shoving energy cells into my other pockets when Loch entered the room. “Trouble,” he said. “You were right.”
I handed him the gun and ammo. “How bad?”
“Rockhurst’s men, at least a squad of six. We’ll have to split their attention. You should take your hood down.”
“They’ll never leave me alone if they know who I am.” I pulled out the pistol and loaded it. I had a feeling I was going to need it before the night was over. I tucked it back in my pocket. It wasn’t the safest way to carry it, but a better option didn’t present itself, so I went with what I had.
“But they also won’t shoot you in the back,” Loch said. It was hard to argue with that logic. “We’ll make it seem like you escaped from me. If they capture you, I’ll come for you,” he said. “You still owe me. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“You should’ve taken the money and run,” I said. “I tried to warn you.”
“Why? This is the most fun I’ve had in years,” Loch said. His eyes gleamed in the dark and I almost believed him. “We both go left then split at the next corner. You go right. You’re not going to be able to lose them in the crowd. Run hard and fast.”
“Be careful,” I said. “Your bounty doesn’t specify that they need to keep you alive.”
“But they will,” Loch said arrogantly. “Rockhurst won’t be able to resist parading me in front of the Consortium before he kills me. Ready?”
I wasn’t, not even close, but giving Richard time to move more men over here was not going to improve matters, so I nodded.
“Look like you’re fighting me without actually slowing us down,” Loch said. “Remember: left then right. Run like hell.”
“I got it. I’ll meet you back at the house or nearby.” I left my hood down and followed Loch when he grabbed my wrist and pulled me through the door.
Two men were in the alley across the street. One on the roof. Probably more I couldn’t spot. Two pistol blasts slammed into the side of our building close enough to heat the air before I heard my name shouted. The blasts stopped.
The men across the street moved to intercept, but Loch was already sprinting. I tugged on my arm and did my best to appear terrified. It wasn’t too difficult.
At the corner I realized that if I split from him, Loch would lose his human shield. I tried to follow him, but he hissed “Right!” at me and then darted left before the soldiers knew we were separating.
I swiped my left hand across the cuff around my right wrist, first inside to outside, then the opposite. I held my hand over the cuff for two seconds. It buzzed once.
My lungs burned and the cold air stabbed at my throat. The cuff pulsed and a wall to my left danced with a shower of electric sparks. These men hadn’t forgotten their stun pistols. And the cuff could only repel two more shots.
At the next corner, I pulled the gun from my pocket and spun. The man behind me was nearly a block away. I aimed and fired in one motion. The energy bolt went clean through his thigh. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting to hit, but he went down, so good enough.
I ducked behind the corner just before the second man could hit me with a stun pulse. I had to put distance between us then go to ground. I didn’t know how many men Richard had on-planet, but it couldn’t be enough to sweep an entire section of city or even the oblivious mercs living here would know something was up.
I kept my turns erratic so they couldn’t radio ahead for men to intercept me. These soldiers weren’t encumbered with heavy armor and they were in excellent physical shape. Outrunning them proved difficult.
Picking them off one at a time worked, but every time I stopped to aim at one, the others surged closer and I risked getting stunned. Since I’d surprised the first, I’d had a much more difficult time with the other three. I wounded one enough that he dropped back, but the final two were persistent as hell.
I hoped Loch was having better results.
It took nearly an hour of hard running before I lost them. I ran flat-out for another thirty minutes then stopped to check myself for trackers. I didn’t find any. The cuff’s repulsive field had done its job.
I pushed my exhausted body into a jog and looked for a place to hunker down for the night. I was at least an hour away from the house, even at a jog. And after that run, I needed rest more than I needed to return to base.
The next block revealed more cookie-cutter houses. I randomly chose the third one down as my palace for the night. I made sure I hadn’t left any tracks, then picked the lock and eased inside, gun first. The house was cold, dark, and empty. None of the rooms had any furniture, so I selected a bedroom and stationed myself inside against the door.
The constant wind whistled eerily around the abandoned buildings. I was alone in a vast, abandoned city. I pulled out my com and checked on Loch’s location.
His trackers were offline, but the last known location was near the edge of the central commercial district. The log showed they’d stayed in that same location for fifteen minutes before being disabled.
Dread twisted my gut. I went further back in the log. His path out of the house had started erratic, dodging around corners at random, but then he stopped entirely for five minutes before making a straight line to downtown. He stopped smack in the middle of the central district for ten minutes, then continued to his final location.
Several possibilities arose, none of them great. Most likely, Loch had been captured by Richard’s team. And damn if I didn’t feel responsible. I should’ve been more adamant about leaving when I’d felt something was off to begin with.
I had to be careful, though, because it was also possible that Loch was working with Richard to double-cross me. It absolutely fit his personality, but it just didn’t ring true. However, that could have been my own selfish desire for him to be honorable clouding my judgment.
There was nothing I could do about it tonight. Tomorrow I’d go back to our house and pray Loch showed up. After all, a double-cross was much easier to deal with than a rescue mission.
Chapter 10
The perpetual gloom had one upside: it made sneaking around in the afternoon infinitely easier. I’d returned to the house to find it exactly as we’d left it—and with no signs of Loch. So now I was positioned on a rooftop three blocks down from the building where Loch’s tracker had first stopped, playing a game of Spot the Spotter.
The building had probably once been the home of the Yamado diplomat in charge of the planet. It was made from real wood with delicate sliding doors and a beautifully curved tile roof. The fact that it was still in pristine condition was not terribly surprising—you crossed a High House at your own peril. Even when you thought they were gone, they weren’t really gone.
If Richard had taken up residence, he either had permission or enormous balls. If he had permission, then this whole situation was far worse than I realized. One House potentially planning a wa
r with us was bad, but if two Houses were colluding . . . I would have to set aside my personal desires and contact Father immediately—the warning I’d given Bianca would no longer be sufficient.
It took three hours, but eventually my patience was rewarded. Richard Rockhurst emerged from the house flanked by two men. They turned left—toward the spaceport and Loch’s final location—and walked with purpose.
The urge to follow them was nearly irresistible. I vibrated with the need to move, but my training hadn’t been for nothing. I stayed put. Less than a minute later a shadow detached itself from an alley a block down. Another minute and a new man had taken up the position. Definitely Rockhurst’s men and definitely watching for anyone approaching the house.
I needed information and equipment. And I knew just who to call.
After I’d carefully extracted myself from the central district, I headed away from home base. I had no doubt that the call would be tracked and I didn’t want to lead them back to where I slept.
I pulled out the embossed card the fence, Veronica, had given me as well as the original, insecure com Loch had purchased. I connected voice-only.
“Hello, Irena,” Veronica answered on the second ring, “frustrated already?”
The fact that she’d connected my identity to my com just proved that she was the right lady for the job. “Something like that,” I said. “Can we meet?”
A long pause followed. I let the silence linger. “I should not,” Veronica said at last, “but I find myself intrigued. I will send you the location. Be there in twenty.”
The line went dead.
A few seconds later an encrypted message arrived with an address at the edge of the central district nearest to her shop. I’d have to hustle to make it early enough to scope out the location.
With no time to waste, I headed straight for the meeting point. Enough people were on the streets that I could blend into the normal hustle and bustle. I stopped two blocks away. Our meeting place appeared to be a tiny tea shop tucked between two boarded-up buildings. The shop had a steady stream of business.
I activated my cuff into the same defensive mode I’d used yesterday. If I got close to someone they might feel an odd sensation, like the air before a storm, but it wouldn’t activate unless someone shot at me.
It was a paltry defense, but it was the best I had.
I approached the shop with unhurried steps. Nothing appeared out of place and I didn’t feel watched. A bell over the door announced my entrance. A lovely older lady stood behind the counter taking orders. An older gentleman—her husband, perhaps—prepared each order.
Veronica was not in the store.
It was dinnertime, so I ordered a pot of jasmine green tea, a lemon scone, and a plate of tea sandwiches. I considered paying with the currency chips I had, but Veronica knew I would be here. I’d save the chips for when I truly needed to be anonymous.
After I paid, the old woman peered up at me then nodded. “She is waiting in the back,” she said with a wave. “Go on, I will bring your food and tea.”
“Thank you,” I said.
I pushed through the curtained door, not entirely sure what to expect. Veronica sat on a floor cushion next to a low table. A cup of tea steamed softly in the cool air of the room. She was dressed much the same as I was, except her hood was thrown back.
“Join me,” she said. Her voice was just as lovely as I remembered.
I knelt on the cushion that put my back to the wall. It put me adjacent to Veronica instead of across from her. She smiled into her cup but didn’t comment.
The woman from the front brought my pot of tea and a delicate porcelain cup. She poured the first cup then went back to get my food. She placed it on the table, bowed, and returned to the counter.
I swiped my identity chip over the tabletop reader and added a generous tip to my order. I’d recently spent four months as a waitress and bartender. It was one of the longest times I’d been able to stay in one place, hiding in plain sight. After all, no one expected Lady Ada von Hasenberg to be running plates and dealing with drunks.
I hadn’t needed the money, but after more than a year on the run, I had needed the companionship. The ladies I worked with were amazing, and unlike my experience with the merc squad, I enjoyed their company. But it had been eye-opening just how little a full-time job could pay, so now I was even more conscious about tipping well.
Veronica set a circular device on the table and clicked the middle. I took a sip of tea and pretended ignorance. I didn’t know where she’d gotten her hands on a silencer, but I would dearly love to. All communications from inside a six-foot radius from the silencer would not transmit outside that radius—voices, coms, bugs, nothing. Yet we could still hear the faint murmurs from the front of the shop.
They were so illegal that I hadn’t even bothered to steal one when I’d left home. Because while Ada von Hasenberg had permission to carry one, neither Irena Hasan nor Maria Franco did. And getting caught with one was an automatic ten-year sentence.
“You may lower your hood, if you like. It’s safe here. And would you prefer Irena or . . .” She paused delicately.
If it was meant to shock me, it worked. I pulled myself together and refocused on my purpose. I lowered my hood. “Irena is fine. Thank you for agreeing to meet,” I said after another sip of tea. At least the tea was good.
I picked up one of the delicate triangle tea sandwiches and was transported back to my mother’s afternoon tea parties. The women of the Consortium were just as bloodthirsty and power-hungry as the men, perhaps more so, and entering a ladies’ tea always struck me as entering a nest of pretty vipers.
“I am still not sure it was a good idea,” she said, breaking me from my thoughts.
“Probably not,” I agreed. She grinned. The expression made her look years younger. Perhaps she was not that much older than me after all. “But all the same, I’m glad you did,” I said. “I need . . . assistance. I am willing to pay.”
“Money is only an incentive if I’m alive to enjoy it,” she said. “And considering I have an idea of the trouble hounding you, that’s a pretty big if.”
“I’m not asking for involvement. Just a little information and perhaps an item or two, if you happen to have them sitting around.”
She took a sip of her tea. I let the silence settle around us. I’d said all I was willing to at this point. The rest was up to her.
Finally, she said, “And if I want to be involved?”
“I would strongly discourage it,” I said immediately. I paused, reconsidered. “Unless you are special ops,” I said. “Then I could use the help.”
Her laugh was even more entrancing than her voice. “You are not what I expected,” she said. “Let us discuss details. As I’m sure you’re aware, the silencer will keep our conversation private. I will begin: I want off this planet.”
Warning bells went off. “What is preventing you from doing that now?” I asked. From the look of her shop she was highly successful. Successful fences were not poor.
Shadows darkened her eyes. “No one will take me. Even new visitors are warned off before I can book passage.”
“Okay,” I said slowly. “If I take you, do I need to worry about an angry husband hunting us? It won’t affect my decision, but I need to be able to prepare for it.”
“He is not my husband, and he is off-planet now, so we should not have to worry about him. But, yes, he will follow me if I leave a trail, so I will not leave a trail. And when I am safe, I will deal with him.” She smiled with vicious intent.
I finished the last of the tiny sandwiches and broke off a piece of scone. “I am not opposed to taking you off-planet, but my own escape plan is shaky at best. There are many things that can go wrong. Most probably will. And even if it goes off perfectly, we won’t be safe. You should know that before you commit.”
She tilted her head and studied me for a few seconds before her eyes widened. “You’re stealing a ship,” she breathed. “Y
ou’re stealing Rockhurst’s ship.”
I neither confirmed nor denied the claim.
She laughed, caught between delight and astonishment. “What do you need to pull this off?”
“First, I have reason to believe my companion has been captured. I need to know his location, as well as the building blueprints. Guard locations would be helpful, too.”
“Do you know who he is?” she asked. I gave her a pointed look. She smiled, then sobered. “He is being held at the detention center the mercs use before they ship out their bounties,” she said. “News travels fast here. So far his identity remains secret but it won’t for long. Same for you.”
“I am hoping to be gone before it becomes a problem. I also need these items,” I said. I held up my com display so she could see the list.
Her eyebrows climbed her forehead as she read but she didn’t balk. “I can get most of those today. The last two will take a bit longer. Maybe by tomorrow.”
I nodded. “Good. I’d like to be ready by tomorrow night if possible. The longer I stay, the worse the danger becomes.” I let frost creep into my expression. “And if you betray me, your not-husband will be the least of your worries.”
She remained unruffled. “I would not have met with you if I hadn’t already decided to throw my lot in with yours. We succeed or fail together, now. Do not let me down.”
The weight of responsibility settled around me. Now I had two people counting on me. And while I was sure both of them would be fine without me, I always felt responsible for those in my care. According to my father, it made me a terrible von Hasenberg.
We separated and left through different entrances. Veronica promised to contact me tomorrow when she had all of the items I’d requested. That left me the rest of the day to do my initial prep work.
I turned off the insecure com Loch had bought for me. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Veronica; it was that I didn’t trust anyone. Leaving the com off meant it couldn’t be tracked. It also meant she couldn’t contact me in an emergency, but the trade-off was worth it. I wouldn’t sleep if I had to worry about a sneak attack.
Polaris Rising Page 11