by Nina Croft
“Because Jon asked her to. It was what he wanted—the only way he could see to save us.”
“Save me, you mean, don’t you? I don’t want to be saved at this price.”
“In a big part, yes. But not only you. Jon knew this was the only way any of us would survive.”
Alex wanted to rage and scream that she didn’t care about the rest of them, she only cared about Jon. But she knew she didn’t really mean that. The crew of El Cazador had become the family she’d never had. She’d known once they accepted her, they would die for her. That was the way they worked. But she’d thought they had accepted Jon as well, and they’d let him go.
“He wanted you to live—that’s why he did this.”
“You shouldn’t have let him. You should have stopped him.”
For a moment, rage flashed across the vampire’s face.
Something occurred to her. “What about Skylar?”
“The Collective will release her when this is over.”
“You mean when Jon is dead?”
“Dios! Yes, when he’s dead.”
“And would you still have let them go if it meant losing Skylar?”
He gritted his teeth and turned half away from her. “No.” The word was quietly spoken, but she heard it.
“I’m going after them,” she said, jumping to her feet.
“And how do you plan to get down there?”
Alex bit her lip. She had no clue. All she knew was she couldn’t sit here and let them kill Jon. She shifted her hand to the laser pistol at her belt, slid it from the holster, and pointed it at the vampire. He was half facing away, but at her movement, he turned. He looked from the gun in her hand to her face, his own expressionless.
“Take me back,” she said.
“Yeah, you’re a coldhearted killer, aren’t you? You think you can look me in the eyes and pull that trigger?”
Her finger tightened.
“For God’s sake, put the pistol away,” Tannis snapped. “You can’t kill him with that thing anyway. Unless you’re planning to kill me, instead.”
Despair swamped her at the words, but her hand fell to her side, and the laser crashed to the floor. “Take me back,” she pleaded. “Drop me off on the surface and I’ll find a way to get there. At least I could be with him. He won’t be alone when—”
“What? Maybe they’ll let you hold his hand while they blow his head off? Do you think that’s what he wants?”
“Shut up, Rico,” Tannis said. She turned to Alex. “Ignore him—he’s just feeling guilty. He knows he made a mistake, and he can’t stand being wrong.”
“Yeah, I seem to be getting that a lot lately.”
“I have to do something,” Alex said. “I’m not being reckless this time, but really, I can’t let this happen.”
“We won’t.” Tannis sighed. “We’re going in after them.”
“And we’ll all die,” Rico countered, but the words held no conviction. “Just what her boyfriend wanted to avoid.”
Tannis shrugged. “Then we die. I don’t leave my crew behind. Okay, we need a plan.”
Alex sat, hugging her knees to her chest, and let their arguing wash over her.
She wasn’t miserable enough to admit that she would rather be dead than live without Jon, though it felt like that right now. But she knew people recovered from broken hearts. What she wouldn’t recover from is giving up on him. Accepting his death as a tolerable price to pay for her continued survival.
She would have shot Rico, might even have shot Tannis, if she’d thought it would do some good. But she hadn’t wanted to shoot them, and it really wouldn’t have helped.
They would get out of this somehow; they had gotten out of bad situations before. But she knew she didn’t believe that. Deep down she knew this was a suicide mission, and a flash of guilt shot through her.
If there had been a shuttle left, she would have stolen it and gone alone, but Hezrai had blown up the first one and she presumed Skylar and Jon must have taken the other.
Her head pounded while she searched her mind for a way she could help; she felt so useless. Then an idea occurred to her. Janey was standing with the others, but she came over when Alex beckoned.
“What is it?” Janey asked.
Five minutes later, Alex had explained what she needed from Janey.
Janey thought for a minute and nodded. “I think it will work. Let me sort out the details and I’ll let you know before you leave. ”
There, it was done—for better or worse. Alex just hoped she wouldn’t live to regret it. Though things could hardly get worse than they were right now; she had a feeling she was taking them all to their deaths.
Tannis was still talking with Rico, but she looked up, caught Alex’s gaze and strolled over. “We’re not doing this for you, so you can stop wallowing in self-pity. We’d do it for any member of the crew.”
Alex heard the truth in the words, and her despair lifted a little.
“We don’t have a shuttle,” Tannis said. “So the Cazador will have to take us in. Daisy will stay on board—she can fly her if we don’t make it back. And Janey will stay as well—”
“I can help,” Janey said.
“No, you can’t. You’re a crap fighter anyway, and your leg’s still giving you trouble. Besides, it takes at least three people to run El Cazador. So that’s you, Daisy, and—”
“I’m coming with you,” Alex said.
“I know you are. I was going to say the Trog. That leaves me, Rico, and you to go in and presumably Skylar will fight on our side.”
“She’ll fight with us,” Rico said.
“Good. Right, this is going to be—what is it you say, Rico—a piece of cake.”
“Where is it we’re going again? Corps headquarters? Yeah, piece of cake probably covers it.” Rico grinned. His earlier temper appeared to have vanished. “Let’s go get some really big guns.”
“Good idea,” Tannis replied. “Blasters. I definitely believe we need blasters for this job.”
Alex glanced from one to the other—they were crazy. Rico caught her gaze and raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, I bet Alex’s never shot a blaster before. And I reckon we’ve got a couple of hours before we touch down to teach her.”
Chapter Twenty
“I’m sorry I killed your uncle.”
Skylar frowned. “What? I was listening…” She waved a hand in the general direction of the air, and he realized she must have been tuning in to other Collective members in her head. He wasn’t sure he liked the idea.
His pack had shared an almost telepathic bond, and occasionally he’d found it binding. One of the reasons he’d liked to get off planet.
“I said I was sorry I killed your uncle.”
“Don’t be. Aiden wasn’t really my uncle, and he was an asshole.”
“Yeah, I know. I had to research him—he was a complete dick. I can’t say I felt bad about killing him.”
“Did you ever feel bad about killing anyone?”
“Nah. I only accepted jobs killing dicks. Believe me, there are plenty of those around. Enough to keep me in business, anyway.”
He’d killed a lot of people, but most of the time he reckoned he’d been doing the world a service. Still, he was probably only getting what he deserved. As far as he was concerned, religion was a load of crap, but he’d always believed there was some form of balance in the universe. You reaped what you sowed, in the end. The thought of religion brought Alex to his mind. He’d been trying his best not to think about her.
Christ, he was in danger of getting maudlin again. He took a gulp from the flask. “So is there much chatter going on in the internal airwaves?”
Her brows drew together. “No, not a lot. Which probably means they’ve been ordered to shut down.”
“Does that mean they’re keeping something from you? Is this going to be a problem?” Rico would curse his dead body if anything happened to Skylar.
“Maybe. I honestly don’t know, but I’
m pretty sure they won’t harm me.”
A squadron of Corps had met them as soon as the shuttle touched down. They’d checked him over for weapons but hadn’t bothered with Skylar, and she still wore the laser pistol strapped to her waist. Now they’d been left to wait in what appeared to be an interrogation room. But it was large and airy, and he could see the pale blue sky out of the window. Not a bad place to die.
The room held a central table with two metal chairs on either side, and he and Skylar sat together on one side. He was trying to stay cool, but this was taking too long.
He jumped to his feet, too restless to sit any longer, and crossed to the window. It looked out on a concrete courtyard, and the big double set of gates they’d come through earlier. A couple of guards stood to attention, but nothing moved, and he turned back to Skylar. Part of him wished somebody would come and get this over with. But only part of him.
“Where the hell are they?” he asked.
“They’ll be here. The colonel wants to do the link with me himself.”
“Who is this colonel guy?”
“My commanding officer. Not a big fan of mine at the moment, but he—” She broke off, a frown forming on her face as she listened to the comm unit in her ear. “That was the Cazador.”
“Why would they comm you now?” Shock formed a cold lump in his middle as he scrambled for an explanation. “What’s gone wrong? Has Alex found out?”
“They’re coming for you.”
“Who’s coming for me?”
“Rico.” She bit her lip. “And the captain. Daisy just dropped them off.”
His brain whirled with a mass of contradicting thoughts. A rush of hope, followed by a flash of fury. It was a suicide mission. They were right in the middle of Corps headquarters; what did the crazy idiots think they could do?
Skylar was drumming her fingers on the tabletop, but otherwise she didn’t appear particularly bothered. In fact…
“You look pleased,” he accused.
“Rico’s doing the right thing. He was going to be guilty as hell over this when he thought it through, and he would have been hell to live with.”
“Yeah, and this way he’ll be dead, they both will—and you won’t be living with him at all.”
“Maybe.” She shrugged. “Probably.”
He threw his hands in the air and stalked away to glare out of the window. Why the hell couldn’t the bloody vampire mind his own goddamn business? This was Jon’s decision. He’d accepted it. Hell, Rico probably couldn’t face the idea of someone getting more of the glory than him. Even if that someone was dead.
He rested his forehead against the cool glass. There was only one good thing about this whole mess. “At least Alex will be safe on El Cazador,” he said. “I hope Daisy has orders to get the hell out of here.”
“Alex is with them.”
At her quietly spoken words, he spun around. She was still seated but watching him warily. His brain refused to make sense of her words.
“What do you mean she’s with them?”
“Alex is with Rico and Tannis—she wouldn’t stay behind. She wanted to come.”
“What the hell has that got to do with anything? They could have tied her up, drugged her…” He paced the floor as his panic mounted. “You have to get out of here. Now. Stop them.”
“I can’t. There’s no way I’ll be allowed to leave until the link is done.”
Jon slammed his fist into the metal table as a wave of hopelessness washed over him. It was going to happen again. He’d be unable to save her, and she would die. They all would. Not if he could help it.
“Jon?”
“What?”
“It’s too late anyway. The colonel is here.”
It took a moment for her words to make sense. Then he concentrated and heard the sound of booted feet on the corridor outside. Maybe if this was over with fast, Skylar could get away and stop them before they reached the compound.
“Will this colonel be able to pick up that the others are coming?”
“Only if he asks specifically. There’s too much going on in a mind, especially down deep. You can’t pick up everything.”
“Okay. Well, just do this quick.”
He sat in the chair and tried to keep his panic from showing too clearly, but sweat was breaking out on his forehead and a tremor shook his hands where they rested on his thighs.
Christ, his life had taken some strange turns, but his death was turning out to be far stranger. Sitting here, willing them to come along and kill him. Terrified his executioner wouldn’t get here fast enough. But beneath the terror was a burgeoning exhilaration. He’d been trying not to think about it—because it only made what he was doing harder—but he’d known they would come after him if they discovered what he’d done. And not just Alex, but Tannis and Janey and Daisy, even the Trog. Because he was one of them. He belonged; he was part of something. He pressed his fingertips to his eyes. Why now, when it was too late?
The door opened, and a man stepped inside. Jon caught a glimpse of two guards taking up position outside the door before it closed behind him. The colonel wore the same uniform as Skylar—a plain black jumpsuit with the insignia of the Corps at his breast. He appeared more boy than man with a pale, unlined face, but when Jon peered into his eyes, he saw the years reflected in their violet depths.
Skylar rose and stood to attention; Jon guessed the action was instinctive. He stayed where he was and kept his lips clamped together to stop anything stupid from escaping, but the colonel ignored him anyway and concentrated on Skylar.
“Lieutenant.”
“Sir.”
“Are you ready?”
She nodded. The colonel moved to stand in front of her only inches away, his right hand resting on her shoulder. Both of them closed their eyes. It seemed like an age to Jon, but it was probably only a few seconds, when the colonel blinked and took a step back.
He glanced toward Jon. “So Aiden Ross committed suicide?”
“Yes, sir.” Skylar replied.
“But you don’t know why?”
“No, sir.”
He studied her for a moment longer, then nodded toward the door. “You’re free to go.”
Skylar shook her head. “I’ll wait.”
Jon wanted to tell her that he didn’t need an audience for this. But in fact, the idea that there was a friend present at his death was strangely comforting. For a second he wished Alex were there to hold his hand.
The colonel shrugged and drew his laser pistol. Jon wondered whether he should stand up or remain seated. Was there an etiquette involved with your own execution? He decided to stay seated. It wasn’t that his legs wouldn’t hold him, but why risk it?
The pistol pointed straight at his chest now. But still the colonel didn’t shoot. Jon wasn’t afraid to die—not really—but this long, drawn-out process was giving him the jitters. Why couldn’t the guy get on with it?
He caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. Skylar’s hand moved to rest on her own pistol, her grip tightening.
He shook his head.
For a moment, he thought she would ignore his silent plea, but her hand dropped to her side, and she nodded once.
“Tell them thanks for trying,” he said. “Tell them it meant a lot.”
Skylar bit her lip, her shoulders tense. “I will.”
Jon turned back to the colonel. “For fuck’s sake get on with it,” he snarled. “I don’t have all day.”
Amusement glinted in the colonel’s eyes, but instead of getting on with it, he lowered the pistol so it hung at his side. “You’re obviously eager to die, but unfortunately, there’s been a delay.”
Jon had to stifle the urge to grab the laser pistol and shoot himself. The whole situation was turning into a farce. How hard could it be to get someone to kill you? Even now, Alex might be poised outside, ready to storm the place and go down in a blaze of glory. Goddamn idiot!
“A delay? What sort of delay?”
“What’s going on, Skylar?”
“Callum Meridian is coming. He wants to talk to you before…” She waved in the general direction of the colonel’s laser.
“We do not have time for this,” he ground out.
“But Callum Meridian…” Her tone rang with pure awe.
Actually, he’d be excited himself if it wasn’t for the fact that he was on a strict timetable here. Callum Meridian was the founding member of the Collective. The one who had started it all. He’d crash landed on Trakis Seven over five hundred years ago, somehow survived the radiation levels, and discovered Meridian. He was the first. The oldest. He was also a recluse and hadn’t been seen in years. Now, he was coming to talk to Jon.
“Well, isn’t this turning into a party,” he muttered. “But you know, we really don’t have time for this.”
She shrugged, opened her mouth to answer, when her gaze fixed over his left shoulder. Jon twisted around so he could see out of the window. Out in the courtyard the double gates were opening.
“They’re here,” Skylar said.
She drew her laser pistol and shot the colonel through the chest.
…
The speeder came to a halt in front of a set of double metal gates, black with the violet insignia of the Corps stamped on each. Alex wiped her hands down the side of her dress and adjusted the makeshift headdress. She’d lost the original when she’d handed herself over to Hezrai, but Tannis had improvised, ripping up one of Rico’s black shirts and making a passable replacement. At least if you didn’t look too closely.
Rico was in the driver’s seat with Tannis beside him, and Alex sat in the back, gnawing on her lip while she waited for someone to come. If they failed to get inside the gates, the whole thing would be off. The place was impenetrable.
At last, the gates opened slightly, and two guards walked through. From the color of their eyes, it was obvious they were human not Collective, and she hoped they wouldn’t have to kill them.
“Okay, you’re on,” Rico murmured. When she didn’t move, he peered over his shoulder. “You can do this.”