by S. J. Bryant
"But… we're supposed to be her friends."
"That doesn't mean much."
"It should."
Kari snorted. "Tell that to the rest of the Universe."
"So what are we going to do?"
Kari glared into the distance.
Atticus busied himself by staring at the wall opposite and trying to come up with some plan. But no trinkets or gadgets could get them out of this mess. He was about as helpful as Rusty would be. They'd left the robot on board Ghost, much to Atticus' relief. He could imagine how much Rusty would complain at being hunched in the rain with no coolant.
"We don't do anything," Kari said at last.
"What?" Ryker said. "You know she won't give up."
"I know. But Piper and I will take her on by ourselves."
"What?" Ryker stared at Kari as if she'd lost her mind and Atticus had to agree. Ryker was a weapons master, why the hell would she want to throw that away?
"It has to be," Kari said.
"Kari, don't be stupid. You can't take on Wren by yourself, and you want to put Piper in danger too?"
Kari stood, wiping the mud from her hands onto her pants. "It's for the best. I'll meet you back at the ship when it's done."
"You won't survive—"
"Come on, Piper," Kari said.
"But Kari, we should—"
"Enough!" Kari said, eyes blazing. "Come with me now."
Piper stood, glancing at Ryker and Atticus.
Kari turned and strode down the alley without looking back, Piper trailing behind. They rounded the corner, out of sight.
Ryker cursed.
"What just happened?" Atticus said.
Ryker rubbed his temples before sitting beside Atticus with his back against the wall—apparently feeling no need to keep watch anymore. "That was Kari making a decision based on the information she had."
"What? What does that even mean?"
Ryker sighed, staring up at the sky.
Atticus followed his gaze. Dark clouds swirled around each other. A few drops of rain drizzled on them, making the icy wind even colder. Atticus was glad for Ryker's bulky shoulders which helped cut some of the chill.
"Kari doesn't trust… anyone really. Can't blame her, after everything. Then Wren tries to kill her?"
"What does that have to do with us?"
"How can she trust us after that?"
"But we had nothing to do with it."
"Why would that make any difference?"
Atticus gaped at the side of Ryker's face, but Ryker continued to watch the sky. Atticus tried to form words, to come up with an argument, but he had nothing. Kari didn't trust them so she'd chosen to take Piper and confront Wren by herself, rather than risk the danger of staying with Ryker and Atticus.
How did she live with so much distrust?
And what the hell was Atticus supposed to do now?
A bright streak of lightning split the sky, followed a few seconds later by a deep boom of thunder.
Atticus huddled back against the wall. At least he had Ryker, but hell. What a mess.
CHAPTER 5
Kari did her best to ignore the wet splat of raindrops on her bare skin but the cold water made her shiver. She wrapped her arms over her chest and led Piper into a darkened alley.
They hadn't seen many people since they left Ryker and Atticus; most were probably inside hiding from the rain. A few lights shone from windows in the buildings around them and silhouettes moved behind the glass, but Kari didn't pay them any attention. She had to be ready, had to be focused. Wren could be anywhere.
"We shouldn't have left them," Piper said.
She hugged her chest and her teeth chattered. The rain had plastered her hair to her face and her clothes to her skin so that she looked like a thin, drowned rat.
"We had to," Kari said.
"Why? That doesn't make any sense."
"Because we couldn't trust them."
Piper's brows drew together. "Why? They're not the ones who tried to kill you."
"Don't you see?" Kari said. "What Wren did just proves what I've said all along; you can't trust anyone. You of all people should know that by now. Or maybe you were protected inside the Facility, I don't know. But just believe me, as soon as you trust someone, they'll find a way to hurt you with it."
"That's a terrible way to think."
"It's saved my life more times than I can count, and Wren is just another example."
"Not everyone is like that."
"And how would you know? How would you tell the difference between a person who was, and a person who wasn't?"
"You'd just… you'd just know."
"Really," Kari said. "And before Wren got the call and started behaving strangely, did you know that she would turn on me?"
Piper pinned her blue-tinted lips together and glared at the ground.
"Exactly. There is no way to know. The only safe thing is to assume that everyone will turn on you eventually, and trust me, you'll be right pretty much every time. There's always another lie."
"But Ryker and Atticus…"
"I've only known Atticus for a few weeks and let me tell you—they've been weeks of hell. I don't know who he is, not really. And he's obviously hiding things. He's even traveled to this system before, and probably others. We don't know anything about where he comes from, or why he hired a spot on Ghost."
"And Ryker?"
Kari frowned and looked away, squinting against the sheets of rain that had grown so heavy that they obscured the wall of the building on the opposite side of the alley. Wetness soaked into her collar and stuck her shirt to her chest, dragging on her arms. Could Wren track in this kind of weather? Probably, the woman had been trained for everything.
"Well?" Piper said.
Kari sighed. "I can't trust anyone."
"But you know Ryker."
"Yeah, I know him." Kari tried not to think about the years they'd spent together, about the number of times they'd had to protect each other's backs because that was all they had.
"So? Don't you trust him?"
"I can't trust anyone. And besides, you don't know Ryker like I do. He wouldn't have come with us and left Atticus on his own. Ryker isn't like me. He doesn't see the danger like I do."
"He's right."
Kari glared at Piper. "The only reason I brought you along was because I didn't want to risk leaving you with them. You'd be thanking me if you had Atticus' knife against your throat right now."
"He wouldn't do that."
"You don't know."
"But—"
"No!" Kari said. "That's enough. I'm not arguing with you. We're leaving them behind so that they can't betray us."
"And what's your great plan?" Piper said.
Kari chewed on her bottom lip and glared at the rain. What was her plan? "We have to kill Wren."
"What?" Piper's voice cut through the rain and thunder like a high-pitched squeak.
"Quiet," Kari said, crouching and staring into the rain. But she couldn't see more than a few feet in any direction. Hopefully, neither could Wren.
"You're going to kill her?"
"She tried to kill me first."
"But… she was your friend."
"I don't have friends. Besides, she brought this upon herself. It's the only way. Otherwise I'll spend the rest of my—short—life, looking over my shoulder. She will never stop hunting me, not if the Guild has put a job on my head. My only chance is to kill her before she kills me."
"But that's horrible."
"Yes."
"You really think she'd put a job from the Guild above your life?"
"Hasn't she already proved it?"
Piper ran her foot through a puddle, creating ripples on the surface that joined with the tiny splashes made by the rain. "Yes."
"Exactly."
"Let me help."
"No."
"Then what are you going to do with me? You didn't want to leave me with Atticus and Ryker, and you don't want
me to come with you to find Wren. What exactly am I supposed to do?"
Piper had a point. Kari didn't want to leave her on her own on this strange planet either. "Fine, you can come with me. But stay back. Wren is deadly."
"You're going to see her."
"I can fight."
"Like her?"
Kari sighed. "No." No one she knew could fight like Wren. The woman moved faster than a viper with the accuracy of a trained sniper. She could kill with or without a weapon in the time it took most people to realize something was wrong.
"Then what's your plan?"
Kari stood up straighter and tried to look confident—a difficult task when she was soaked to the bone and had to keep blinking rain out of her eyes. "She'll want to use her knife. If I can shoot her before she gets close, then it's done."
"How can you be sure?"
"Because I know her. This is a personal kill, and she always prefers to kill with her knife, something about the 'feel' of it."
"That's horrible."
"Yes."
"So what, you're going to set yourself up as bait, and then when she appears, you're going to try to shoot her?"
"Yes." The plan sounded far worse from Piper's mouth than it had in Kari's head. "Easy."
"It's a bad idea."
"I don't have anything else. The longer I wait, the more chance there is of her tracking us. Then all you'll see is a flash of metal in the rain and I'll be dead."
Piper's face lost some of its color as she turned in a tight circle, squinting into the rain.
"If she were here, I'd already be dead."
Piper stared into Kari's eyes. "You really think you can shoot her first?"
Kari kept her face expressionless, hiding the uncertainty she felt inside. "Yes." She couldn't let Piper see the truth, couldn't let her see that the most likely outcome was Kari with a slit throat, her blood running in rivulets to join the rain.
"Then let's go," Piper said.
Kari nodded, took her plasma pistol from the holster at her belt and strode off in the general direction of the shipping yard. Wren would either be there, waiting for them, or she would have followed them into the ditch. Hopefully she wouldn't kill Atticus and Ryker… Kari suspected they'd be safe as long as they didn't try to get in the way. But nothing could be certain.
Rain sleeted down in cold waves and wind whipped Kari's soaking clothes against her skin like rags of ice. Occasional lightning cracked overhead, casting everything into sharp relief, followed moments later by deep, rolling thunder.
Storms didn't happen often on Zenith, and when they did, no one heard them because the whole population was underground in the tunnels. On any other day, Kari would have relished the feel of the rain, the smell of fresh-turned mud, and the sight of trees buffeted by wind. But not today. Not when it might be her last.
CHAPTER 6
Wren watched Kari and Piper approach the shipyard through the rain. Gray sheets of it poured out of the sky, hiding the distant buildings and the trees, and making everything blurry and indistinct. Rain trickled down the back of Wren's neck, beneath her collar, and soaked her back. Water made her grip on the knife slick, slippery. Not ideal.
Wind howled between the ships, interspersed by loud cracks of thunder and streaks of lightning that made the distant buildings stand out like tombstones.
The rain lifted smells from the ground, like the wet mud at Wren's feet that sucked at her boots each time she moved. It had layers, each one distinct, with its own story detailed in the individual aromas.
The trees carried a leafy scent that Wren only distantly remembered from her childhood training. The Guild had provided an indoor forest for practice. It wouldn't be right for a Guild assassin to fail a job because they'd never seen real trees before.
Thick, nitrogen rich mud lay just beneath the dusty topsoil which had been all but washed away by the rain. And the rain itself carried that special scent: petrichor. Wren had always found that smell to be electric, invigorating, perhaps because it occurred so rarely on Zenith.
She crouched in the shadows behind Ghost, her keen eyes watching the two figures through the storm. She couldn't see their faces, not yet, but she'd never mistake Kari's characteristic slump and the thin waif beside her could only be Piper.
So, Kari had decided to come and face her alone. Wren had anticipated as much. She could have followed them—with Ryker and Atticus—into the ditch and toward the city, but what would have been the point? Kari was as easy to predict as a loaded dice.
She'd see Wren's betrayal—Wren tried to ignore the pang of guilt that flashed through her stomach like a knife made of ice—and she'd figure Atticus and Ryker couldn't be trusted either. Did she trust Piper? Hmmm… probably not completely, but she wouldn't leave her little sister alone with anyone else.
Yes, Wren had known as soon as she'd seen the four of them sprint out of Ghost and slide into the ditch at the other side of the shipyard. She'd known that Kari would be back. Kari and her distrust were inseparable and drove her away from Atticus and Ryker.
Foolish of her, to give away the best protection she could hope to get just because she couldn't face more betrayal. That was emotion. Not logic.
The two silhouettes slowed as they drew closer to Ghost, their faces indistinct pink blurs through the rain. Kari twisted, looking over both shoulders and squinting into the darkness. Piper seemed too cold to look.
Wren didn't bother moving. She'd chosen her spot well and the deep shadows would hide her until she wanted to be found.
Yes, she'd predicted Kari's actions easily enough. Once the other woman figured she couldn't trust Atticus and Ryker, she would have looked to the future and seen the rest of her life spent running. So, she'd done the only logical thing, she'd come back to face Wren and put an end to it—one way or another.
Wren had to admire that. She would have done the same thing in Kari's position. Better to get the pain over and done with, rather than spend every waking moment looking over your shoulder. It took bravery and Wren would give credit where credit was due.
Still, it would have been easier if she'd been able to kill Kari back inside Ghost, in her sleeping pod, without all the fuss of coming out in the rain and hiding in the shadows. That would have been cleaner.
But it had almost been like Kari was expecting her. How could that be? She'd given no sign of suspicion or worry when Wren had left her in the dining room… then not five minutes later she'd come into her sleeping pod with her gun already drawn. What had happened?
Wren frowned and wiped rain out of her eyes.
What had made Kari suddenly wary?
Wren didn't like to be surprised. She knew she could read most people like open books. Hell she probably knew Kari better than herself. So why had she been suspicious?
Wren narrowed her gaze at the thin form shivering beside Kari. Piper. That girl saw too much. Wren had seen the way her eyes darted around the room, taking in every tiny detail and cataloging it away. That had to be it. Hadn't Wren caught Piper looking at her in strange ways for the last few days? She must have guessed what had happened, must have warned Kari. Little bitch.
But Wren couldn't be too mad. It was her own fault for getting lulled into a false sense of security. If she'd been paying more attention, she would have seen Piper's looks, would have read the other woman's suspicions. Oh well. She'd know better next time.
Now she had to finish the job, get it over and done with, and get back to the Guild.
Ah, but it was good to breathe this new air—a new system. Wren longed for the freedom to travel to different systems, but her life debt to the Guild kept her tied to Raxis. One day she might be able to buy her freedom, but not today, probably not for many long years.
But that was a worry for another day. Today her only concern was Kari.
The two figures came to a stop beside Ghost. They huddled close together, their clothes soaked and clinging to their bodies. The glow from the plasma core of Kari's gun cast a blue
light across her hand, making it stand out against the dull, rain-soaked world.
Could they feel Wren watching them?
Wren imagined they could. She didn't see how anyone could stand so close to an attacker and not feel their eyes, not feel the danger.
Wren adjusted her grip, trying to wipe her hands dry—a futile effort because the rain kept pouring. It drummed on the tops of ships and cascaded into the dirt.
She should get it over with. A quick flick of her wrist and Kari would be dead, knife lodged in her neck. But Wren hesitated. Didn't Kari deserve more than that? She'd had the courage to walk out here in the open; must know that Wren could kill her without getting close, but had done it anyway. She wanted a chance to prove herself, to fight for her own life. That was okay. Wren could give her that at least.
It would have been better if the Guild had never given Wren the job in the first place. It was… disappointing that it had to end this way. Wren had come to respect Kari, had even enjoyed some of their time together on Ghost. And now it had to end with a bloody knife in the back.
Fate.
Atoms to atoms.
Wren clutched her knife and strode out of the shadow.
CHAPTER 7
"Take this," Kari said, handing Piper a small pistol. She doubted that Wren would attack Piper, but she couldn't leave her sister undefended. And besides, two people shooting was better than none.
"I've never fired one."
"Point and shoot."
"Yes, triggered release of internal plasma build-up. Average velocity of three thousand feet per second with an impact energy of ten thousand joules, minus heat transfer. My point is… what if I can't hurt her?"
Kari was only half listening. The rain made everything hard to see and she couldn't hear anything over the tinny percussion of droplets on top of the ship and the deafening roll of thunder. Wren would be out there, or she'd come back soon. She had to. But if she caught Kari by surprise…
And what was Piper talking about? Impact energy? Why was she even thinking about that now?
"Just do your best," Kari said. She didn't want to sound tight, wanted to listen to Piper and her ridiculous lists of facts. But not now.