Betrayal: Starship Renegades, #3

by S. J. Bryant

  Piper's whole body had started shaking as she reeled off facts and her face had gone even paler around her blue lips. "The velocity—"

  "Let it go. It doesn't matter."

  Piper's head snapped down and she locked eyes with Kari. "Everything matters. If the knife turns one quarter inch and the hand slips in the trail of rain that—"

  "Stop," Kari said. "Just stop."

  "But… what if you need to know?"

  "I don't need to know. And even if I did, it's not worth what it's doing to your head."

  "But I have to remember everything, I have to see everything. Otherwise they'll punish me."

  Kari pulled Piper close and wrapped her arms around her thin sister. "No, they won't. You're safe now and you don't have to see or remember anything ever again, not unless you want to."

  Kari caught Ryker's gaze over Piper's shoulder. He looked sad, worried. Atticus looked resigned—had he seen something like this before?

  Piper drew a ragged breath and leaned back. "Do you mean it?"

  "Of course I mean it," Kari said. "You can stop seeing everything."

  "I don't know if I can," Piper said. "I notice every tiny detail, every look, color, sound."

  "Then notice it if you have to," Kari said. "But then let it go. Let the memory go. You don't need it."

  "But I do. Like I need it to tell you that the barman will be back here in five minutes. He'll ask us to leave."

  Kari glanced at the barman who was looking even more agitated as he dried glasses with fierce enthusiasm. "It's okay. I could have guessed that."

  "But what about Wren?" Piper said. "If I hadn't been looking, hadn't been remembering. You'd be dead."

  Kari had no argument to that. It was true. If it wasn't for Piper's powers of observation, she would have walked into her room completely unaware. "Then you've done your part. You've saved my life, now you can let it go."

  "It hurts," Piper said. "It hurts to remember every painful detail."

  "I know," Kari said, although really she could only guess. "So let it go. Maybe one day you'll be able to turn it on and off and then it won't hurt so much."

  "Do you think?"

  "Yes."

  Piper was breathing easier and her stiff shoulders relaxed some. "Do you mean it? I can forget the rain patterns?"

  "Yes, forget them."

  Piper closed her eyes and after a few moments some color returned to her cheeks and lips. "Thank you."

  "Don't be ridiculous," Kari said. "There's nothing to thank me for. Just don't overload your brain. Next time—"

  "I hate to interrupt," the barman said as soon as he reached the head of their table. "But while I see your friend still has some drink left, she's been nursing it for the last hour. It's time for you lot to leave."

  Kari sighed. She couldn't blame the man really. They'd traipsed into his bar, bringing rain and blood, and not even the money to pay for drinks. "Do you know anything about the forest?"

  "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "We're going hiking for a few days," Atticus cut in. "We were just wondering if we should know anything, what supplies we should take."

  The bartender scowled. "Do I look like a bloody tour guide? Get out."

  "What if we paid," Ryker said.

  "That would be great, except you don't have any coins."

  "Another trade."

  "It doesn't look like you lot have got anything worth—"

  Ryker pulled a thick gun off his back. Kari recognized it as one of his favorites—more of a cannon than a gun, but with rapid-fire capabilities.

  The bartender raised an eyebrow. "What use would I have for a gun?"

  "Probably none," Ryker said. "But you could always sell it. We'd take it to the market ourselves if we had time, but we want to leave now."

  "Into the forest, in a storm?"

  Ryker grinned. "I know, crazy visitors."

  "You on the run from something?"

  Ryker's grin faded. "Probably better for everyone if you don't know that."

  "Is it going to bring trouble to my bar?"

  "No. The person following us won't be interested in you or your bar."

  The bartender continued to stare at the gun. "How much do you want for it?"

  "Food," Ryker said. "Enough rations to last all of us at least three days. Rope. And anything else we might need in the forest."

  "Deal."

  "And another round of drinks. The expensive stuff this time."

  The bartender scowled. "Fine. Give it here." He reached for the gun.

  Ryker dropped it into his hands and the bartender staggered under the weight. He turned and toddled toward the bar. "I'll be right back with those drinks."

  "You didn't have to do that," Kari said.

  Ryker shrugged. "What's an old gun?" But Kari could see the sadness in his eyes. That gun had been with him a long time, had served him well.

  "We could have found something else to trade," Kari said.

  "Not quickly. Besides, what good is a gun if you're too dead to use it?"

  "Well… thank you."

  "Don't worry about it. Besides, when this is all over, I can always buy it back."

  Kari nodded and straightened her back. "Damn that. I'll buy it back for you."

  CHAPTER 11

  Wren woke as soon as the first streaks of dawn appeared on the horizon. The faint gray light filtered through the thinning clouds and into the small shed-like room she'd slept in. She kept still, listening, in case some instinct or noise had woken her, but all was quiet.

  She climbed out from under the bench and studied the shipping yard through the window. The ground was still wet and muddy but the rain had stopped and it looked like it would be a sunny day.

  A few people moved around the shipping yard, but Wren didn't recognize any of them. She didn't expect to. Kari wouldn't be stupid enough to come back.

  Wren did her best not to move her injured shoulder as she pulled the chair away from the broken door and stepped out into the early morning air.

  The breeze had a crisp chill and carried the fresh smell of wet grass. It also had the faint scent of burnt fuel; a ship had recently left the yard. Based on the ships still standing, it was the small freighter which had been parked at the far end.

  Wren noted the information, then filed it away as irrelevant to her job. Instead she went in the direction she'd seen Kari and the others go—toward the buildings of the city.

  The sun rose higher in the sky and broke through the clouds. It warmed Wren's skin and steam rose from the wet ground.

  It was strange to feel the heat of the sun on her bare flesh. On Zenith, no one risked going out in the sunlight, and while Wren had been on Albion a few times, it had always been for a job and she'd rarely had the time to enjoy the feel of the sun. Not that she had much time now either.

  Few people were out this early and so the trail left by Kari and the others was easy to follow. Ryker's deep footprints scarred the wet road all the way from the shipping yard to the front door of a bar. Just like she'd known they would.

  Wren pulled her hair over one side of her face and tugged the collar of her coat up. She hunched her shoulders and pushed her way inside, surprised that it was still open.

  But while it might have been a normal bar during the night, now it had become some kind of breakfast spot for people hoping to get an early start to the day. They crowded the tables in front of heaping plates of bacon and eggs.

  Wren's stomach grumbled. How long had it been since she ate?

  She eased the door shut, blending with the general background of the place, and took a seat in the corner, away from most of the people, but where she still had a good view of the door and the bar.

  A man with dark circles under his eyes came to her table. "What will it be?"

  "How much for the bacon and eggs?"

  "Big breakfast is four coins."

  "I'll have one of those."

  The man nodded and hurried off, not noticing
when Wren plucked a handful of coins from the pouch at his waist. They jingled in her palm and she raised an eyebrow. How long had it been since they made money out of metal? Ryevo was a strange place.

  She shoved the coins into one of her many pockets and returned to studying the room. The people looked normal enough. She'd known as soon as she'd entered that Kari and the others weren't there. But leaning against the wall behind the bar was a huge gun with a worn strap that Wren would have recognized anywhere.

  They had been here. And they'd traded Ryker's gun for something. He loved that gun. It must have been important, whatever he gave it up for. But then how long ago had they left? And where did they go?

  Wren hadn't noticed Ryker's footprints leaving the bar, at least not from the front door. Maybe they were getting smart.

  The waiter returned with a steaming plate and held out his hand.

  "That gun behind the bar," Wren said, ignoring his hand. "Where did you get it?"

  "Some guy traded it last night. What's it to you?"

  "Traded it for what?"

  "Why should I tell you?"

  "I'll pay you a couple of extra coins." Wren would have preferred to hold her knife to his neck and see how much he talked then, but she didn't want to draw the extra attention.

  "Rations, rope. Said they were going into the forest."

  The man wiggled the fingers of his outstretched hand.

  Wren dropped six coins into his waiting palm and he was gone, back into the crowd.

  The forest… her plans to get a sniper rifle were useless then. The close-packed trees would make it nothing more than an annoyance. No matter. Kari had even less experience in trees than Wren did. An easy kill.

  Wren dived into her meal, careful to keep her senses tuned to the bar. In her experience, one always learned the most when one sat and listened. It was a far more effective technique than trying to ask questions.

  The salty bacon didn't taste quite the same as she was used to—not that she often had the luxury of bacon when traveling on Ghost—but it was still good.

  She was scraping the last of the egg off her plate when a shadow moved just a foot to her left.

  She turned on it, the knife she'd been using for eating already moving. But a hand snapped out of the darkness and snatched hold of her wrist, freezing it in place. The shadow resolved itself into a tall woman with a black coat.

  She kept Wren's wrist pinned and sat in the chair beside her. "Are you going to stab me?"

  Wren didn't like being surprised. How had this other woman done it? No one could sneak up on her. She'd been trained by the Guild practically from birth, her senses finely tuned…

  "Well?"

  "Depends why you're here." Wren measured the woman, she had at least a half dozen knives secreted around her body and a gun at her waist. She was strong too, there weren't many people that could keep hold of Wren.

  "Just want to talk."

  "Then you won't mind letting me go."

  "As long as you don't try anything with that knife."

  Wren nodded once and the woman let her go. Wren lowered the knife so that it was just beneath the level of the table, still aimed at the stranger, but she didn't swing.

  "Don't see many from the Guild out here."

  Wren's heart skipped a beat and she twisted, expecting to see more Guild members hidden in the shadows.

  "It's just me."

  "What are you doing here?" Wren said. Had the Guild sent another person to take out Kari? That would be the ultimate insult. It said that they didn't trust her to see the job done. It also meant that they'd known where Kari was the whole time and knew that she hadn't told the truth.

  "You first. Why are you here?" Her gray eyes bore into Wren like two flinty pieces of steel.

  "A job," Wren said. "Why else?"

  "Ah. Of course." She waved to the waiter who brought over two tall glasses of amber liquid.

  "Little early for drinking, isn't it?" Wren said, searching for any way to buy herself time. Why was this woman here? She looked older than Wren, with streaks of gray at her temples, but Wren didn't recognize her. That wasn't so unusual, it wasn't as if the Guild had social functions.

  The woman shrugged. "It's evening somewhere. My name is Hong by the way."

  "You still haven't answered my question."

  "That's because I don't know how you'll react and you've still got that knife pointed at me."

  Wren didn't move the knife, and she didn't touch the glass the waiter had put in front of her. She wasn't stupid; to drink that would be equivalent to asking to be poisoned. Did this woman think she was some rookie, fresh out of the Guild?

  "I should warn you," Hong said. "If you try to stab me, I'll kill you first. I'm faster than you."

  Wren's eyes narrowed. "Oh yeah?"

  "Yeah. I got you before, didn't I?"

  "You took me by surprise."

  "Exactly."

  Anger and embarrassment vied for Wren's attention. Who was this person? She showed up out of nowhere and expected to be able to throw around insults? Well just wait until they were out of sight of everyone. Then she'd learn.

  "I won't hurt you," Hong said. "Unless you try to hurt me first."

  "Promises are cheap," Wren said. After all, deception was one of the first things the Guild taught.

  "True," Hong said with a shrug. "But what are your choices?"

  "I could leave."

  "You could. But I think you want to know who I am. And honestly? I could do with the company."

  Wren wanted to get up and leave Hong to her own company, but she was right; Wren did want to know who this woman was, and what she was doing there. Wren needed to know why the Guild didn't trust her.

  "Fine," Wren said, and eased the knife to the table although she kept a firm grip on it.

  "You can have a drink too if you want." Hong reached for Wren's glass, took a long drink, and put it back on the bar.

  Wren still didn't take it. So what if it didn't affect this stranger? She herself had intentionally built up a tolerance to a half dozen poisons so that she could pull exactly the same trick.

  "Suspicious," Hong said. "Must be a reason for that."

  "I thought you were answering the questions."

  "Fine, fine. I used to be part of the Guild."

  "Used to be?" Wren's pulse quickened although she kept her face expressionless. "You bought yourself out?"

  A quick grin passed over Hong's face. "No."

  Wren frowned. "But then…"

  "I left."

  Wren snorted. "No one leaves."

  "I did."

  "No. You didn't." What was she trying to play at? No one left the Guild without buying out their contract and almost no one could afford that. Not until they were at least seventy years old anyway, and how many assassins made it that far?

  Hong turned in her chair so that she faced Wren full-on. "I left. I decided I didn't want to do jobs anymore, and I left."

  Wren scoured her face for any sign of deceit, but if she was lying then she was good at it. But then… she'd run away from the Guild? No one ran from the Guild and lived long enough to tell about it.

  "Ah," Hong said. "You're starting to believe me."

  "It can't be."

  "It is. Three years I've been free of them."

  "That's not possible. They would have hunted you down by now."

  "They've tried," Hong said, finishing the last of her drink and placing the empty glass on the table. "I thought that's why you were here when I first saw you. But then I realized you weren't looking for me and I got curious."

  Wren said nothing, mind racing. If Hong really had run from the Guild, then she'd broken her oath. Wren should kill her. Guild policy demanded it. She jerked the serrated knife forward, driving it toward Hong's gut.

  But Hong brought her free hand down and slammed it onto Wren's arm, pinning her wrist to the table so that the knife stopped just short of Hong's stomach. Hong's eyes flashed as she pushed down ha
rder on Wren's wrist until it felt as though her bones would crumble.

  "I told you," she said in a low whisper. "That I'm faster. Try something like that again, and I will kill you. Do you think the Guild hasn't sent people after me? All of them died. Don't be the next."

  Wren's heart hammered her ribs and pain encompassed her wrist. If the bones broke she'd be like a cripple, her skills diminished. It would heal eventually, but would she still be able to kill Kari?

  "Do we have an understanding?"

  Wren's thoughts argued back and forth. On the one hand, Guild policy demanded that she kill this woman; no one could break their oath to the Guild and live. But on the other hand, Hong wasn't Wren's job, and she was fast. Wren couldn't be sure that if she tried to kill Hong, which one of them would survive. What the hell was she supposed to do?

  The best she could do for the Guild and herself, was live. Then she could finish her job on Kari, and tell the Guild where Hong was hiding. They'd send in a team, and everything would be taken care of. Good.

  "Fine," she said.

  Hong gave her wrist one more squish before letting her go.

  She snaked her hand to her chest, leaving the knife on the table, and massaged her aching wrists. Her bones weren't broken, but it had been a close thing. She'd have a lot of bruising and pain for the next few days.

  "If you're not going to drink that…" Hong took her drink.

  Wren said nothing. What could she say? The woman had broken her oath. Other than similar training, what did they have in common?

  "So, you're here on a job," Hong said.

  Wren nodded.

  "Wouldn't be that group of off-worlders that came in here last night? Big guy, two women and an older man."

  "Yes."

  Hong nodded. "They made quite a scene. Should be an easy job."

  Wren shrugged.

  "It should be, but it looks like you've already had some trouble." She waved at Wren's shoulder with the half-empty glass. "So you know them, it's personal."

  Wren scowled. This was why Guild members didn't spend time together, having someone constantly reading you got irritating, not to mention dangerous.

  "Ah, a Guild mandated kill," Hong said. "But one that you wouldn't have taken if it was from a normal client."