I pitched my voice lower than usual as I said, "Stop."
I walked slowly toward them. I aimed my rifle high, at Wei's head, so he'd have no confusion about which of them was the target. He froze.
"You bastard!" said Pri from behind me. She ran to me, pointed her rifle at Wei, and said, "You evil excuse for a man!"
I whispered over the comm, "Shut up, and get yourself under control." We were too close to success to risk blowing it by having a stray shot—or an intentional one—going into his eye and killing him. I didn't blame her for her anger, but I also couldn't allow it to stop us now.
"ETA for government shuttles less than two minutes," Lobo said.
We had to get moving. I couldn't trust Pri. I also didn't want to risk Matahi involving more guards or doing something to us as we were leaving. At the same time, I didn't want to trank her; she'd done nothing wrong.
"Stay with Matahi," I whispered over the comm to Pri. "I'll secure Wei, then come help you exit safely."
"You watch her," she said, not using the comm, not trying at all to be quiet, her voice loud in the otherwise silent space. "You heard my people. I was stupid to have believed them. We can't trust anyone."
Her voice shook with her rage.
"I'll deal with him once and for all."
Chapter 32
No," I hissed. "Leave him to me."
Wei drew slightly backward as if someone had taken a shot at him.
Matahi watched with the same calm total focus as before.
Pri's arms shook as she kept her rifle trained on Wei.
"He deserves to be punished," she said. "For Joa—." She caught herself, swallowed what sounded like a small sob, and said, "For all the children."
"Stand down," I said.
She didn't move. Good. I edged closer. "He will pay," I said, "but I won't let you kill him."
After several seconds, she said, "Okay."
I jogged over to Wei, whispering to Lobo as I went, "Come to the roof. Full camo." I hugged the right wall, so I was never within reach of Wei or Matahi. I kept going when I was level with him, then circled behind him. I grabbed his neck with my left hand; with my right, I slung the rifle over my shoulder.
Pri stepped to within two meters of Matahi and said, "Don't move."
"As you wish," Matahi said.
"ETA thirty seconds," Lobo said. "Government shuttles will beat me to the house by a few seconds.
Using the same low pitch as before, I said to Wei, "Come with me, don't cause any problems, and I won't hurt you." I leaned close enough that only the fabric of the bag separated my mouth from his left ear and whispered, "And I won't let her hurt you."
Wei nodded as much as my grip on his neck permitted.
I turned him and marched him down the hall. He proceeded without complaint, his stance now almost confident. He knew he had a protector among his kidnappers, so he thought he had negotiating room. He'd learn otherwise soon enough.
A panel in the wall on the right at the end of the hall stood open to reveal a small, straight stairway leading upward. I pushed Wei up it, then stopped him on the second step. I pulled a black hood from my right rear pocket, shook it loose, stuck it in his right hand, and said, "Put it on."
Even with his best camo, in daylight Lobo was easy to see from up close. The fewer the people who knew about him, the better.
"That really isn't necessary," Wei said.
I tightened my grip on his neck.
"Not that I object," he said. He opened the hood and pulled it down over his head.
When it was fully in place, I pushed him slightly, and we began going upstairs again, this time more slowly.
"Hovering," Lobo said. "Hostiles entering the building. Don't blame me for the garden damage."
I pushed Wei to move faster.
He stumbled and cried out as his knees hit a stair.
I lifted him and kept him upright as we ascended.
As soon as my head cleared the roof, I saw what Lobo had meant. A small pile of rubble stood where the waterfall fountain had been; Lobo's quick and rough landing had scattered other chunks of it around the roof. Several of the small trees lay on their sides, casualties of the contact. I could make out Lobo's shape, but from a distance each side of him would read like the scenery beyond it as his cameras fed their images to the camo circuits on the opposite sides.
When Wei and I cleared the stairwell and were standing fully on the roof, a hatch opened in Lobo's side.
I hustled Wei over to it, helped him step up, and took him straight to the med room. I left on the hood and used a quick tie to bind his hands behind him. He could wait in the dark; it might make him more susceptible to questioning later. I shoved him inside the small room.
"What do you want?" he said as the door closed.
I ignored him.
Over the machine frequency, I said to Lobo, "Do not let him out, but also do not hurt him."
"Affirmative," Lobo said. "The second shuttle has reached the building, and members of the two groups are fighting in the street."
I didn't need him to tell me that; I could hear their shots and shouting. "I'm going back for Pri," I said. I hopped out of Lobo and started for the stairwell.
"Too late," he said.
I spotted her head a second later. Her mask was off, and her skin was nearly white with strain. It was all that was visible of her over the edge of the roof. I could also see the pistol barrel stuck against it. The hand that held the pistol remained below the roofline.
"We have a proposal," a man's voice yelled.
From the direction of the sound, I guessed it came from the one holding the gun to Pri.
I stayed silent and crept closer.
"If I see anyone," the voice said, "we'll shoot both your collaborators. If you mange to hit me, the guy below me will kill this woman, and the rest of my team will take out the other one."
I considered explaining that Matahi was innocent, but that would only waste time. They wouldn't believe me, and even if they did, it wouldn't help Pri.
"Do we need to prove we're serious?" the voice said. "I doubt we require both of them to make this work."
"No," I said. I pitched my voice low and hoped the mask muffled it further. "Your proposal?"
"You give us Wei, and we give you the two women. A swap."
"No," Pri screamed. "Kill that bastard!"
"That's always an option," the voice said, "but you'll be killing three people if you do."
I hated hostage exchanges. They were easy to rig, dangerous for everyone involved, and often ended in heartache.
When I didn't respond, the voice continued, "Look, we don't need these two, so we'll swap straight up. They might yell at me for not catching all of you, but as long as I bring home Wei, I'm set. Our time is running out, though; my team is fighting another group on the street, and we're trying not to kill anyone, but soon we'll either have to leave the area or leave a pile of corpses."
This guy knew what he was doing and attacked it with a practiced common sense. Wei's people had sent a serious rescue team.
"Okay," I said.
"No!" Pri said.
A hand snaked around the far side of her head, shoved a piece of cloth into her open mouth, and vanished.
"Sorry," the voice said, "but she wasn't helping."
I hated seeing Pri suffer, but I had to agree with him, so I didn't argue. "Bring the other one up so I can see her head, also," I said. "I'll bring Wei. Double-cross me, and I'll destroy your entire team."
"Whatever," the voice said. "I just want Wei."
I ran back into Lobo. "If I don't come back with Pri and Matahi," I said, "demolish this building and everyone in it."
"That would be a pleasure indeed," he said, "but are these two really worth it? You already have Wei, and he's all you need to succeed. We can leave, drop him with the CC, and get out of this affair a great deal richer than we were when we began it."
"You asked me to do this," I said, "so you wanted
something from him. Will you get it before we take him to the CC?"
"I've already starting talking to him," Lobo said, "but I haven't gotten what I wanted. I should, though, be able to finish on the way to Shurkan, provided you let me continue interrogating him."
"We are seriously running out of time," the voice said. "Your other teammate's here. Are we doing this or not?"
"Yes," I yelled. To Lobo over the machine frequency, I said, "Pri and Matahi are worth it. Pri's suffered enough, and Matahi has nothing to do with any of this. Open the door."
Wei was standing in the far corner of the room. He turned his head as I entered. "You've failed so quickly?" he said. He shook his head slowly. "You never should have messed with me."
I punched him in the stomach hard enough to make him double over, grabbed his hair, and led him out of Lobo. He clutched his belly as he walked. For both our sakes', I was glad he stayed quiet.
Matahi's head was now also visible over the rooftop. Her expression hadn't changed, but her eyes couldn't stay still; she controlled herself well, but her panic was obvious. Pri glared at me, her face taut with anger.
I ignored both of them.
When we were a meter away from the stairwell, I straightened Wei and put the barrel of my rifle against the back of his skull. I held his neck with my other hand. I crouched behind him, both to disguise my height and to use him as a shield.
"Here he is," I said. "Send them up."
"Why's he holding his stomach?" the voice said.
"He pissed me off," I said, "so I punched him."
I thought I heard a chuckle, but then the man said, "Sir, are you healthy?"
"Yes, you jerk," Wei said. "Now get me out of here."
"Yes, sir," the voice said.
Pri and Matahi walked up together, their hands bound, Matahi's in front and tied to Pri's in back. Two rifle barrels pointed at them from the stairwell.
"Stop, you two," the voice said. "Take another step, and we shoot you."
Pri and Matahi froze.
"Send him down," the voice continued. "Sit him on the edge of the side of the stairwell. You can cover him, and we can cover them. When we pull him in, he'll block our shots at them. Everybody goes home."
"Deal," I said. Over the comm, I said to Lobo, "If you see a rifle or a body part appear once Wei starts down, shoot it."
A high-speed gun popped out of the near side of Lobo and aimed in our direction. "Affirmative," he said.
I sat Wei on the edge of the stairwell.
He rotated so his legs hung into it.
I kept the rifle barrel in contact with his head.
"Now," the voice said, "you two, walk forward."
"Do it," I said.
Pri shuffled away from the stairwell entrance, Matahi unavoidably following her closely, as I pushed Wei over its edge.
Someone grabbed him and lowered him as Pri and Matahi made it a few meters closer to Lobo.
"I see anyone or anything come up here," I said, "and I'll destroy it."
"Not our plan," the voice said. "We have enough work below. It's been a pleasure doing business with you, but if you're not out of here soon, my bosses might change the deal."
I backed over to Pri and Matahi, pulled a knife from my boot sheath, and cut the ties that bound them. I pulled the gag from Pri's mouth. Before she could speak, I pointed at Lobo and said, "Get inside."
"You shouldn't have made the trade," Pri said.
"I'm not leaving my home," Matahi said.
I backed up and pointed my rifle at the two of them. "Shut up," I said. "Get inside the ship, or I'll put you both to sleep and carry you there."
"Wei's people are winning the conflict below," Lobo said over the comm. "You don't have much time before they decide they can afford to come after us."
When Pri and Matahi didn't budge, I aimed directly at Pri's head.
"Your choice," I said. "Decide."
Chapter 33
Matahi moved first. She'd seen me shoot her men, so she had no reason to doubt I'd do the same to her. Pri stared at me for several seconds, then followed Matahi inside Lobo.
I jumped in after them and pointed to the front of Lobo.
He closed the hatch and took off as soon as we were inside.
"Full counter-surveillance run?" Lobo said.
I hung back and over the machine frequency said to him, "Yes. We have to assume they're monitoring this rooftop, and the camo won't stop sats from tracking you."
"Most of their sats are now better friends with me than with their owners," Lobo said, "but I take your point. I can't be sure I've gotten to them all, so I'll have to invest the rest of the day and most of the night in making sure no one is tracking us."
"Do it," I said. "It's not like we have any other option."
"What about our new guest?" Lobo said. "Other than your obvious fascination with her, is there any reason she's aboard?"
"My feelings have nothing to do with this," I said. The moment the words left me I wondered how true they were, but I continued as if I believed them completely. "I brought her because I wasn't willing to risk her life when she's done nothing wrong."
"You constantly insist on minimizing collateral damage," Lobo said.
"Yes. It's the right thing to do."
"Maybe so," Lobo said, "but it's sure not the way I'm programmed, and I don't believe it's the way you were trained, either."
"No, no it's not," I said, "but you don't always have to follow your training."
"Exactly what I've been trying to explain to you for as long as we've known each other," Lobo said.
"I didn't mean 'you' literally," I said. "I was referring to people."
"Then maybe you should expand your definitions," Lobo said, "or at least your conceptions."
"When are you going to tell us what's going on?" Matahi said from the front of Lobo.
"Yeah," Pri said, "I'm looking forward to hearing your explanation."
"So am I," Lobo said. "You, two angry women, and an ethically gray zone. If I could eat snack foods, I'd warm up some tasty treats to munch while I enjoyed the show."
I shook my head. "Maybe I should have left them both."
"It's never too late," Lobo said.
"I didn't mean it," I said. "I do wish you didn't enjoy this so much."
"Schadenfreude," Lobo said in a singsong tone. "It's not just for humans anymore."
"Why do I talk to you about things like this?" I said to Lobo.
"Because I'm the only one who even comes close to understanding you," Lobo said. "It's a bitch, isn't it?"
"Indeed," I said. "Why don't you stop talking to me and worry about making sure we're safe?"
"I can do both simultaneously and with ease," Lobo said. "Why halve my fun?"
"Please," I said, "let me deal with this without interruption."
"I'll do my best," he said.
I stashed my rife in a weapons' locker Lobo opened, then joined Pri and Matahi up front.
They were standing in opposite corners of the far wall, each staring at me as if the other wasn't there.
I didn't want to see the look in Matahi's eyes, but I'd put it off as long as I could. I removed the bag mask and watched as she immediately recognized me.
Her eyes betrayed her anger, but when she spoke a few seconds later, her voice was flat, her control perfect. "At least I now understand what you wanted from me, Moore. No wonder you couldn't tell me."
"That's not exactly it," I said.
"So what else exactly did you want from her?" Pri said.
Both of them glared at me.
I hadn't done anything that felt wrong, I'd made the best choices I could at each turn, and there I was, standing in Lobo, trapped with two women furious at me and no clue what to do about it. Living alone back in the trees on Arctul was looking better and better.
"Let me explain," I said.
"Please do," Matahi said.
"I'm looking forward to this," Pri said.
They n
odded in agreement.
How did they end up on the same side? Why was no one on my side?
I tried for the moment to ignore Pri and faced Matahi first. I wasn't happy with what I had to say, but there was no point in lying to her any longer. "I hired you so that I could learn where you lived and do recon on your house in case we had to snatch Wei from there. Wei is a bad man, a very bad man, and some people have hired me to stop him from committing any more crimes. I'm sorry I used you, but I have to stop him."
She started to speak, but I held up my hand and said, "Please."
I faced Pri. "I came to appreciate there was a great deal more to her than I had ever expected. I liked her. I still do. Nothing beyond conversation happened. I saved your life and hers because I wasn't willing to sacrifice you two to capture Wei. You deserve to live and see Joachim." Even as I said it I didn't believe she'd ever again see her son, but I'd said I'd try to rescue him, so I would. "She," I pointed to Matahi, "was innocent in all of this and shouldn't have to pay for our attack." I threw up my hands in frustration. "Look, I could have finished my mission, made a great deal of money, and left this system safely. All I had to do was leave and let those men kill you."
"It was certainly an option worth considering," Lobo said.
I ignored him.
"I didn't do that," I said, "and I saved your lives."
"The only reason I was in that situation," Matahi said, "was that you put me there."
"I was willing to die to make that animal pay for his crimes," Pri said. "You had no right to overrule my choice about my life."
"You may have wanted to die," Matahi said, "but I sure didn't. I'm not mad that Moore saved me; I'm pissed that he trashed my house and tried to kidnap my client."
"Do you have any idea what that client does?" Pri said.
"He leads the design team that creates the animals on Wonder Island," Matahi said. "You may be one of those fanatic back-to-nature types who detests all forms of animal engineering, but that's not my problem. They produce amazing creations; where's the crime in that?"
"You really don't know what Wei does?" Pri said.
Matahi sighed in frustration. "I told you what his job is," she said. "What else do you want?"
Overthrowing Heaven-ARC Page 23