Cool Pursuit: Chaos Core Book 2

by Lalonde, Randolph

  “Dorian, stop! We got him!” Spin said.

  “You don’t leave them behind,” Dorian said, snapping a bone in Keith’s left hand. “You don’t turn them in to the UCA,” he said as he snapped a second.

  Spin rushed to Dorian and kicked him in the side. It was like kicking a concrete pillar. “Stop! We need him in one piece!”

  Dorian turned to look at her, his artificial eyes looked crazed, primed for murder. “What?”

  “We can’t kill him, it’ll turn the vote for sure,” she said soothingly. “You saved our butts, thank you.”

  He spat his cigar over the side and stood. “Well, he’s not goin’ anywhere now. Not on two broken legs. Where do you want him? I’ll air lift the snitchy bitch.”

  “Oh, fuck don’t let him take me,” Keith said from where he lay awkwardly on the catwalk. He turned his face away from Dorian, cringing.

  “Should we get him to the Cool Angel so his people can take care of him, or the Fleet Feather?”

  Dorian closed his eyes and seemed to consciously make an effort to focus before nodding.

  “I want him in our hands, Leland has the equipment to fix him up. Don’t let him out of your sight, he’s crafty enough to escape on broken legs, trust me,” Sun said.

  “What the hell?” asked Hugo from behind them as he came through the door.

  Dorian knelt down and gently took Keith in his arms, which still prompted more screaming than anyone, except for maybe Dorian himself, wanted. “Going for a ride, snitch-boy,” Spin heard him whisper to Keith. He leapt off the edge of the walkway and took flight across the sky, back towards the Fleet Feather.

  “I’m not letting Keith or Captain White walk away from this,” Sun said. “I want them to stand in front of the crew and take whatever payback they think is fair for burning me, burning Spin, burning Nigel and Boro and Trevor and anyone else his greed has touched.”

  “That’s fair, but what I just saw happen was the wrong way to do it, it’s punishment before a hearing,” Hugo said.

  “Is there any way he could justify turning against a Lieutenant and most of the people she’s accountable for?” Sun asked.

  “But you’re using strong arm tactics where the only way to gain trust is through the crew,” Hugo said. “You were right to come to me so I could get crewmembers back for this, we need to make them feel like they have a say again, and this treatment of the First Officer goes a long way to damage that trust before you’ve even gotten started.”

  Spin understood the sides of the argument, but was more interested in looking past the events. The details of the vote, how it would happen, where it would happen, who would be there and the arrangements of it all didn’t interest her. There would be a vote, and people with more experience with her were arranging it.

  Nigel burst through the door, out of breath. “Sorry, I did my best to catch up, but got lost a little, what’s going on?”

  Spin checked her message log with a glance and nodded. “You’re coming with me to the new Intergalactic Credit Exchange.”

  “Oh?” Sun asked.

  “You have more details to hammer out here, so we’ll go ahead,” Spin said. There was also an urgent message from Leland, and it told her not to read it in front of her. Something serious was going on. “You can find your own way back to the Feather?”

  “Yes, just run plans like this by me and ask next time.”

  “Don’t worry,” Spin said as she passed through the door.

  “So I’m going with her?” Nigel asked Sun.

  “Yes, make sure she gets where she wants to go, back to the ship and stays out of trouble.”

  “Aye,” Nigel said.

  He caught up and walked beside her silently as they walked through the half abandoned commerce centre, a great indoor mall with a transparent ceiling so natural light could cast long shadows and golden shafts. Spin’s mind was busy working through the idea that she may only have three months left to live. What would she be able to accomplish? Was there a way to fix the problem? The questions were complicated by a desire for revenge against everyone who was responsible for the capture of her friends and the death of Larken.

  “Hey, can I ask why we’re headed to an ICE office?”

  “I’m sorry, I’ve been quiet,” Spin said, suddenly aware that she had said nothing for the entire twenty-minute walk. “I’ve been bouncing some money around, and it’s finally arrived at a depot where they can give it to me in cash. I have to decide if I’m going to leave it with the Interplanetary Currency Exchanges, or cash out.”

  “You know what I’d do?” Nigel said. “Pay who I had to pay, take what might get me through some trouble, plus a little fun money, then leave it. Safer there, right?” They boarded their new shuttle and Nigel sat at the controls.

  “You’re smarter than you look, Nigel.”

  “That’s a compliment, right?” he asked.

  “Absolutely,” Spin replied.

  “Better to look low and dirty on the outside and always be thinking on the inside than to be dirty all the way though,” Nigel said offhandedly. She’d heard Boro say the same.

  “Before we take off, I have to talk to Leland.”

  “All right, I’ll keep the ship warm.”

  Spin sat down in the co-pilot seat and called Leland, who answered after several seconds. “Spin, Nigel, how is it going out there?”

  “All right, did Dorian get there?” Spin asked.

  “Yeah, what a mess. I’ve got him comfortable now, took a good scan, and I was just about to start setting bones and injecting localized recovery meds.”

  “We’ll let you go so you can get back to it,” Spin said.

  “No, what I have to tell you won’t wait either. I hate to be blunt, Nigel, but unless Spin trusts you with her life, you can’t be in the cabin for the next part of the conversation.”

  Nigel looked to Spin, surprised. “Yeah, that’s blunt.”

  “I trust him,” Spin said.

  “More than Sun?” Leland pressed.

  “I’ll just go wait in the back,” Nigel said. “No worries, this sounds like the kind of secret I won’t be able to hold in anyway.” He left and closed the cockpit door behind him.

  “All right, what’s going on, Leland?”

  “I’m keeping a checklist of medical equipment on the ship just so things stay organized in case of an emergency, and found that one of the scanners was missing. I found it in your quarters, that’s all right, you had no idea I was obsessing a little over our gear.”

  “I’ll know for next time,” Spin said. “Glad you’re keeping track though.”

  “That’s not why we have to talk. What I found on it, the details behind the readings and results recorded are a problem. I know you just wanted to find out how much time you have left, and that the results are grim. I’m sorry about that, but I’m sorrier about the cause I found when I looked into the how and why.”

  He may have been eager to tell her what he found, but Spin could see that now that the moment was upon him, he was afraid to say it aloud. “Tell me, like it’s a bandage, just rip it off.”

  “You know, that’s not always the best practice? Sometimes you cause more damage than-“ he stopped himself and sighed. “I’ve looked the results and the records over and over again, there’s no other explanation. Sun slipped you an anti-toxin that enhances your immune system against foreign substances. I can only assume that she meant to get the Cetrimemodel out of your system, and it worked, but it also triggered a biological anti-tampering mechanism in your system, costing you eight months. I wouldn’t tell you this if I wasn’t sure.”

  “How do you know it was her?” Spin asked, hoping she could prove him wrong in every way.

  He brought up a recording from the infirmary of Sun looking through the tiny drawers containing their medicines then locking the cabinet after taking a small patch.

  “It was the day you rescued us,” he said.

  Spin could see from the time stamp that it
was within an hour after she told her she was on Cetrimemodel. “Keep this to yourself, thank you for telling me. I’ll be aboard soon.”

  “Listen, if it comes to loyalty, or a question of rights, I’m with you on both counts. You saved me, not her, you, and she had no right to tamper.”

  “Thank you, Leland,” Spin said, closing the connection. Her trust in Sun evaporated, burned away by a surge of hate that had her hands balled into fists and her eyes squeezed shut. A long education in self-control kept her from kicking and punching everything in front of her, and she breathed deeply, slowly until anger didn’t blur her vision and muddy her thoughts. It was suppressed, to emerge another time. “She couldn’t have meant to do it,” Spin said to herself.

  “Spin?” Nigel asked through the door.

  “Come in,” she replied. It wasn’t Sun’s intention to shorten her life, but she did, and it was all because she had to control what was going on around her, Spin included. She couldn’t just let the drugs work their own way through her system, or have a conversation about ending the effects early. No, she had to sneak a counter-dose on the sly, Sun had to get her way. “I’m sorry, Nigel, I needed a minute.”

  “What’s up?” he asked, sitting in the pilot’s seat and turning towards her.

  She looked at him as though seeing him for the first time, assuming nothing and inspecting. He really was concerned, it was all over his body language, his long face was deeply etched with it. He still had a little of that adolescent awkwardness tall people had even though he was twenty-three. Nigel and his friends were always kind to her, none of them had ever done anything to make her distrust them. She trusted Boro more than Sun, more than anyone, and Nigel was the one who introduced them. “I can trust you, can’t I?”

  “Yes,” Nigel said without a split second’s hesitation. “I can trust you too, right?” he asked, playing it up as though he was joining a conversation between two conspirators. His attempt at conversational play withered quickly, he could see how serious she was.

  “If I can’t trust you, then I’m alone,” Spin said, aware that it would make a deep impression on Nigel. “I can’t trust Sun, she’s acting like I’m a child in her care, and it’s backfired. I was going to help her, help everyone find a place before I died, now, with what she’s done to me, I don’t know if I can even look at her.”

  “What did she do?” Nigel asked. He was wide-eyed, concerned, and ready to become very angry with Sun.

  “She saw how detached I was while I was on Cetrimemodel I guess, and without checking for adverse effects, or whether or not there was a genetic component to it, she touched me with a counter drug. All limited edition dolls die young, and I had about eleven months left, maybe more, but now, thanks to a safeguard against genetic tampering that she activated, it’s down to three.”

  “What?” Nigel asked. “She didn’t mean to do it, but,” he stammered. “Three months.”

  “It doesn’t matter that she didn’t mean to. Sun tampered with me, thinking I couldn’t make my own decision about what I put into my system, taking charge like she always does. Now I only have time to help you and the few people I care about, or I have to chase a ghost of a chance that I might find a cure.”

  “Find the cure,” Nigel said. “I’ll do whatever you need, I’ll go with you anywhere to get that done.”

  “Geist,” Spin said. “The place I was made is there.”

  Nigel laughed and nodded. “It couldn’t have been Paradiso or Sky Heaven. Well, we’re going to Geist. You, me and Della and Mirra for sure. I bet you could get the Governor to help out somehow, and even Sun. I know she loves you like a daughter, it was a mistake.”

  “But if she won’t trust me to make decisions for myself, there’s no way she’ll go along with what we have to do to get to Geist and get into the plant. This depends on a lot of information that’s just alien to anyone who hasn’t been inside the Countess’ organization, anyone who doesn’t know that corporate world.”

  “What if she gets control of the Cool Angel?”

  “Today is revenge day, and I’m going to ruin Captain White, but the only way I can do that involves a risk that could burn her, it could burn me with the rest of the crew. I know why White betrayed Sun, Boro and me, and the secret we were keeping will get him killed. It’ll either make the vote, or get us kicked off the ship for good.”

  “He did something before we were fucked over?” Nigel asked. “Boro didn’t tell me about anything that would get the Captain spaced, you’ve gotta share.”

  “I’ll do better than that, I’ll show you,” Spin said. “Let’s get to the Exchange.”

  16

  The blacked out faceplate on Aldo’s helmet was the only thing that hid his disgust at what he had to watch early that morning. Before the sun broke the horizon, he and his partner, Corrine, escorted Master Kort to the main slave quarters. The horseshoe shaped housing complex was three stories tall, and was usually two thirds empty, but everyone had been called back from the factories, from the mines and the gentler service areas in the estate. The majority of the guards on and around the estate were called in as well, a hundred and forty-seven, all armoured and armed, were in attendance to make sure everything went smoothly.

  Guards that Aldo didn’t envy, and few of whom he knew, were tasked with bringing the slaves to the main courtyard in the middle of the complex. The first four groups didn’t know what was going on until they saw the gun-like tagger that bonded a thin black strip bearing a code, a microns thick sealed poison layer and an equally small tracker to their skin.

  Before they were on the honour system, if they tried to escape, they would be brought back, punished, implanted with a tag and sent back to work. Now they all had a black code that wound around their necks, and no chance of escape. The occasional slave would get free before, and a loss of less than one percent was acceptable, but that wouldn’t be possible. The loss would be reflected in how many died by breaking their work and rest perimeters.

  Master Kort watched as slaves were branded, unmoved by tears, by the ones who tried to run at the last moment. “Please, mistakes happen, these things kill innocent people. We know how dangerous it is out there, no one in my family has ever run,” one woman pleaded, Thena, a respected person among the slaves. She shielded her nine-year-old daughter, Bea, from the end of the line. “You know us.”

  At Kort’s small nod a pair of guards pulled Bea from her mother’s arms and held her while the black strip was punched onto her by the printing gun. Her daughter returned to her, wailing, and Thena allowed them to tag her without resistance. “See? Mommy’s getting one too, it’s all right,” she told her daughter. Thena was a good actress, she was able to hide whatever anger or sadness she had for her child’s benefit, but it was a lie. What Master Kort was doing would be remembered by thousands of slaves, and Aldo was sure it would come back to haunt them somehow.

  “They brought it on themselves,” Corrine said. “If just one of them got in Aspen and Larken’s way when they ran, none of this would be happening. They were treated like royalty here; it couldn’t have taken much to convince them that running was wrong. I don’t even understand why they left.”

  Aldo only nodded, remembering the presentation the Countess gave with crystal clarity. If he was told he would be breeding stock, forced to watch his children be sold, he would have done anything to change his fate, whether it meant running or jumping off the nearest balcony.

  “Right?” Corrine pressed.

  “Some people can’t see the light while they’re standing in it,” he replied. It was something his grandfather said to him before the fall. Before a virus infected bulk loader bot crushed him to death.

  “Captain, you will make sure that every slave in our inventory is tagged today. Any who leave the perimeter will be executed, and your pay will be docked for the loss. Do you understand?”

  Captain Okan, who had a light green cape added to his armour so everyone knew who he was at a glance, turned to face
Master Kort. “We will be finished by sundown.”

  Knowing him, they would be, and Aldo would be surprised if a single slave made it outside the perimeter. “Enough of this chore,” Master Kort said as he turned away from the mournful lines. “The brand doesn’t even cause pain, but these people act like we’re using a hot brand.” He stalked to a waiting hover car, with Aldo and Corrine close behind. He sat beside the driver, and they sat behind. “To the Shuttered House,” Kort said.

  Aldo was once amazed at the expansiveness of the green and blue estate. There were three palaces, the main one with its tall towers being the centrepiece. All of it existed under a blue energy shield that allowed things to leave, but not to enter. It served to mark the perimeter of the main living and leisure areas as well, and from where they moved across the broad lawn between the servant and utility buildings, he couldn’t see the edge of it. It once seemed endless, but it started to feel like it was shrinking to him, even though he knew they had recently added a kilometre.

  The mines on the planet and in the asteroids in orbit were secondary perimeters, staked so the slaves knew how far they could roam while working. Before they would be retrieved, now the toxin hidden against their necks would pass into their systems through the skin and kill them in minutes. Aldo knew the method of control from seeing how other masters controlled their slaves. He used to take pride in the fact that the Countess didn’t employ those methods. Some efforts were even made to keep their slaves happy, but now that new enforcement methods were in place, he wondered how much longer they would have good medicine, good food, and good lodgings.

  They arrived at the Shuttered House, a private prison disguised as a two story house. It was as well decorated as any other part of the estate, with trimmed square shrubbery, white finishing trim on the quartz brick, and a two story surrounding deck with guards on watch. They opened the double doors at Master Kort’s approach and entered the modest foyer. There was only room for six people to stand, and the floor was solid marble, but the false front ended in that room. Through one more pair of secure doors there was a lift leading up and down to private cells and other areas of foul business.