She had her encryptor, and she had a feeling the Tecran thought she was more immobilized than she really was.
She'd use everything she could against him.
They did not get to do this to her twice.
15
“Rial?” Hal frowned at the incoming comm, moving sideways in the narrow street to allow a Balcoan woman and her two children to pass. He'd told his team not to contact him if possible while they were undercover, just in case someone was monitoring the comms.
“I know I'm breaking protocol, but I think I'm blown anyway.” Rial's tone coming through the earpiece was quietly furious. “I saw Fiona Russell, and I thought the plan was to keep her hidden. If that changed, it would have been better to tell us, because she saw me and waved. If I was being watched, they know I'm a crew member.”
Hal stumbled to a stop, and pressed himself up against a wall to get out of the way. “Say that again.”
“She waved. She would have called a greeting if that UC officer with her hadn't been hurrying her along——”
“You are telling me that Fiona Russell was outside of the Illium? Walking the streets of Larga Ways?” He struggled to keep his voice low.
“You didn't know.” Rial spoke slowly, making it a statement, not a question. “Favri and I will try to see where she went.”
Hal heard a change in the background noise, and guessed Rial was moving.
“You say she was with a UC officer?”
“Yes. Grihan. In uniform.”
“Try to find her. I'm calling the ship.” Maybe someone was listening in, but Hal couldn't spare the time to run back to the Illium. If they were being monitored, so be it.
He tapped his earpiece. “Carmain.”
She came on immediately.
“Yes, sir?”
“Are you on duty?”
“No. Pila is, with one of the other guards. We split up, so one of us was always on. I'm in the canteen.”
“Rial just spotted Fiona on Larga Ways with a UC official.”
There was dead silence for a beat.
“He's sure?”
Hal could hear her breathing ramp up. She was running.
“He's sure. She waved hello to him.”
She swore under her breath. “Give me two minutes.”
She cut off comms, and Hal flicked back to Rial. “Any luck?”
“She went down a side street, but there's no sign of her. If only I'd followed my gut. I knew it wasn't right that she was out. And I have to admit, if she hadn't waved, I wouldn't even have noticed her, because she had a helmet on. She looked like a cadet.”
Something clicked in Hal's brain. He cut Rial off, tapped his ear. “Voa.”
“Captain?”
“I need to know where Fiona Russell is, using the tracker in her cadet uniform.”
“I haven't been given those tracking signatures but . . . we don't have any cadets at the moment, so whichever cadet signal is moving will be her.”
Hal heard her fingers tapping on the screen.
“This can't be right. She's outside the Illium.”
“Oh, it's right.” Hal knew he sounded grim.
Voa blew out a breath and he heard her fingers flying over the screen. “I've brought up every senior officer's handheld tracker. You're three streets to the right of her, five blocks down, but Rial and Favri are standing right outside the building where she is.” She gave the address.
“Tell me if she moves.” Hal cut her off, connected back to Rial. “She's inside a building right next to you.”
“There's a door here,” Favri called out, but before Rial could say anything, Voa cut back in.
“She's moving. Quickly, so I think she's in one of the supply hovers. She exited the building on the other side to Favri and Rial, and she'll already be out of sight of them. But she's heading in your general direction. Run straight up the street, and it's possible you'll see her as she crosses in front of you.”
Hal ran. He tapped his earpiece. “Rial, she's left the building, but search it, see what you can find. I'm chasing her down.”
“But how——?”
He cut Rial off as a comm came through from Carmain. He was getting strange looks from the people around him as he dodged shoppers and residents. He'd have to get the way station commander involved if this carried on much longer, but if possible, he'd rather get his hands on Fiona, stash her back on the Illium, and maybe they could pretend this had never happened.
“Talk,” he said to Carmain.
“There was a breach.” Her voice was almost expressionless. “All comms are dead around the area of Fiona's room. Pila received a comm from Chel, directing him to go to the communications division and wait for him, Hisma got a comm from you, telling him to expect a UC officer to come for Fiona, that she was due at a council meeting. We've found a metal disc attached to the wall just around the corner from her door, and Gerbardi says it has those comms from Chel and yourself prerecorded on it, and that it's responsible for the dead zone in that section of the ship.”
“So if either Hisma or Pila had asked a question, the prerecorded messages wouldn't have stood up to scrutiny.”
“No. But in both cases, the order was issued and then it appeared as if you and Chel had cut off comms. It would take a brave junior officer or guard to comm you back with a question, when the instruction was so clear.”
True. As a strategy, it was risky, but not that risky.
Hal pushed himself a little harder, leaping over a small fluffy kapoot that bounced on the end of a stretchy lead held by a Balcoan doing her afternoon shopping.
“Coming up on your left.” Voa's voice hummed with tension, and Hal saw the narrow supply hover moving above head height. Its white sides had no windows, and the front was so darkly tinted, he couldn't see in.
Larga Ways was vehicle free, except for hovers transporting goods to and from the docked ships. This one seemed to be moving faster than was allowed, and by the time Hal made it to the crossroad, it had already passed him.
To call in Tean Lee, Larga Way's head of security, or not?
Hal ran after the hover while he debated with himself. Any chance of keeping Fiona's presence here secret would be completely compromised if he brought Lee into this mess, and they still had a long journey back home where anything could happen to them. But on the other hand, without Lee's help, they may lose her right now, if she wasn't already lying dead in that hover.
He tapped his earpiece. “Lee.”
The station commander had given Hal his direct comms signature yesterday in the spirit of cooperation, and he came online immediately. “Vakeri?”
“I have a problem.” It was hard to think up a delicate way to admit to keeping secrets while running through the streets after a hover.
“I gathered that when I saw you running through the market. You don't look happy.”
Lens feed.
He'd forgotten Larga Ways had deemed lens feed in the main public areas to be a matter of security, as the use of some small bombs and weapons could potentially breach the gel dome.
“I'm not. We found another Earth woman a few days ago, a prisoner on the Garmman trader we towed in yesterday, and she's just been abducted from my ship.”
Lee let a long moment of silence stretch out. “We'll talk about sharing information vital to the safety of this station another time. She in that hover you're chasing?”
“Yes.”
“I need to get down to the security division, so I can direct this in real time. How sure are you she's there?”
“All our cadet uniforms are embedded with a tracker so we know where they are if they slip out and cause trouble. Fiona is wearing one of those uniforms.”
“She there willingly?”
Hal could hear the caution in Lee's voice. If Fiona wanted to leave the Illium, he had no right to stop her.
“Very doubtful. I think you can imagine the reasons why it would be difficult for some people to explain her presence here. Eas
ier for her to just disappear.”
The hover cleared the buildings, and Hal saw it move toward one of the docking arms. There were at least twenty vessels docked along the arm; all small, fast runners.
“It's fine. They have to stop and get permission to proceed along the dock,” Lee said, his voice calm. “You'll catch them.”
But nothing had happened as it was supposed to since Rial had spoken to him, so Hal kept his pace as fast as he could.
The hover reached the guards at the security point.
A high-energy field encircled the way station around its central disc. The only place it could be shut down was across the entrance to each docking arm, to allow people and hovers through, controlling the flow on and off the way station.
The two guards stationed on the way station side of the field stepped forward, but the hover didn't slow, it simply sailed over them and through the check point, past the shocked guards on the docking arm side.
The field was down.
“What?” Lee's voice was incredulous in his ear. He cut off, and Hal kept running full tilt, but he was barely a leap away when he heard the high buzzing sound of the field snapping back into place.
He stumbled, trying to stop his forward momentum, and one of the guards grabbed him, hauling him back so that the faint purple light of the field hissed an inch from his face.
He gave a quick nod of thanks to the man, and tapped his earpiece. “Lee?” Nothing. “Lee?”
“Dead zone. I've been trying since it went over our head.” The other guard lowered her hand from her ear.
Another dead zone. Surprise, surprise.
Hal looked down the length of the docking arm. The hover was still moving, although it was already halfway down the line.
Going to the last vessel. He'd bet a month's pay on it.
“Let me through, I've got to catch them.”
The guards looked at each other.
“They've kidnapped one of my crew. Let me through.”
“State your name and vessel for the log, and I'll do it,” the woman said.
Hal reeled the information off, and with a snap, the field between the two ten meter poles disappeared.
Before they could change their mind, or whoever was pulling the strings right now reset it to shut him out, Hal ran through.
He wouldn't mind backup, but he knew the guards had to receive permission to leave their posts, and with a dead zone in place, Lee couldn't get through to them.
The hover stopped at the far end, not at the last vessel but the second last.
Hal realized why as soon as he was close enough to see.
The last vessel was a Larga Ways security patrol runner. They were well-equipped, had good weapons, and spent their time patrolling the nearspace around Larga Ways. They also always docked at the end of the arm, so they could easily come and go.
“Are you there?” Lee's voice suddenly came through, too loud.
Hal winced. “Yes. If they take off, can I use your runner?”
Lee didn't even hesitate. “Yes. I'd really like to ask them a few questions. Like how on Guimaymi's Star they created a dead zone in my comms, and shut off a specific part of my energy field.”
Hal gave a grunt of acknowledgment. He needed all his breath to run. His legs were burning now, his chest heaving as he pushed himself.
Up ahead, a Tecran armed with a shockgun hopped out of the hover and opened the rear doors. Fiona exploded out, trying to jump over his head.
She looked up and caught sight of Hal, and as she flew through the air, his gaze locked with hers.
And then she fell limp to the floor.
The bastard had shot her. And Hal was still too far away.
The Tecran set his shockgun on the ground and desperately hauled Fiona to what looked like a two-person runner.
He dragged her to the door and pushed her inside, and turned back to grab his weapon.
But the runner's door closed, and Hal could hear the whine of its engines revving.
The Tecran spun back to it, shock clear on his face, and hammered on the door, but the runner slid out of its berth, and shot up to exit height, and accelerated away.
Hal's own steps faltered for a moment, and he staggered, trying to keep the runner in sight.
The look she'd sent him. Hope. Relief.
When she'd seen him, she thought she was going to be saved.
She'd been taken on his watch. Off his ship. And right in front of him.
He would not let this go.
His breath was ragged now, and he was starting to slow, but he aimed for the security patrol vessel, bearing down on the Tecran.
Fiona's abductor backed away and then ran to the very end of the docking arm, and Hal was happy to ignore him. Lee's guards could deal with him.
As he reached the runner, the doors opened.
“No time to key it to you, so I've overridden the settings, and it's keyed for general use. Which means don't let it get into the wrong hands.” Lee's voice was harsh with outrage.
“Thank you.” Hal ran inside, straight to the pilot console, throwing himself into the chair and initiating engines.
He had just initiated the release from the dock when the door opened again and the Tecran fell through, his shockgun flying from his hand as he rolled across the floor.
The door shut and Hal had a second to decide whether to stop and hand the Tecran over to Lee's guards or keep going.
He chose to keep going, slapping the runner into an automatic exit program and grabbing for the Tecran's shockgun.
“Vakeri, you have a passenger.” Lee's voice was hoarse, as if he'd been shouting.
“I see him. No time to stop.”
“The yurve shit is going to fly for this.”
Hal gave a bitter smile as the runner slid through the gel dome and out into space. He pointed the shockgun straight at the Tecran.
“Yes. It is. And quite a bit of it will be thrown by me.” He checked the settings, and stilled. It was on maximum. The Tecran must have adjusted it after he shot Fiona, intending to take down the guards permanently.
If not, Fiona Russell was dead.
Because he thought it might be useful to interrogate the Tecran later, Hal dialed down the charge, and as the Tecran righted himself and staggered to his feet, Hal shot him back down.
16
Fee came back to consciousness slowly.
It was quiet, the muted throb of the engines the only real sound she could hear aside from her own breathing.
She tried to shift her position and sit up, and was overcome by the white noise of panic when she couldn't do it.
She was paralyzed.
A noise erupted from her throat, a harsh, animal cry, and she was so shocked by the sound of it, she snapped out of her terror, forced her breathing to slow down.
She had been in this situation before.
When she'd woken those few times on the Tecran's ship, and again on the Fasbe, she'd had the same sense of powerlessness. She had overcome the fear then, she would do it again now.
“I think you might be awake.” The voice sounded like it was from somewhere in front of her, but she couldn't see if anyone was there, or if it was coming from the comms. Her heart raced again, and she was gratified to find she was finally able to open her eyes.
“You should not have been shot. If I ever have the pleasure of meeting Lieutenant Cy again, he will regret it.”
If her body had been working right, she would have shivered at the tone of that voice. Icy, cold rage. The tone also seemed a little mechanical this time, whereas before it had sounded . . . nice. Deep, but melodic.
“There's hardly any time.” The tone changed, almost to panic. “I hope you can hear me. I arranged . . .”
Fee went under, her mind shutting down. When she jerked back awake, she was aware she'd zoned out, but not for how long. She struggled to pay attention.
“. . . are you able to answer?”
She felt a new wave of uncons
ciousness wash over her, pulling her under, and she fought and clawed her way back.
“Obviously too injured——”
She heard the outrage again, the fury. At least whoever was talking seemed to find the idea of her being shot enraging.
She was with him, there. It had really, really hurt.
She'd been waiting for the Tecran to open the hover's doors, and when he did, she'd jumped, flying over him.
Captain Vakeri had been on the dock.
Her memory slowly started coming back.
He'd been running flat out toward her. He was still a way off, but the sight of him, huge, bearing down on them . . . she remembered almost laughing with relief, because he looked like he could take down a ten ton truck, let alone a single Tecran.
And then pain.
The asshole had shot her in the back again, she realized. She wondered where he was, and decided she hoped whoever was talking to her did find the bastard.
“. . . get you to the med chamber.”
Fee tried to lift her head, but it didn't move at all.
There was something strange about the way he was talking . . . she tried to work it out, and then realized, he'd been speaking in English.
She fought her limp, rag doll body, trying to struggle upright, and ended up squirming on the reclined seat she was lying on. She was so frustrated, she screamed, and it came out as a gurgling whimper.
Argh!
“I will kill him.” The voice was almost expressionless. “I think that's the only response that will make me feel better. You can't even speak because of what he did.”
She heard herself panting in fury and fear.
“You'll be coming through the gel wall in a few minutes. I'll have a drone waiting for you.” His voice was back to the way it had been when he'd first spoken, rich and smooth, and she forced herself to close her eyes and calm down. There was nothing she could do right now, she was trapped in her own body, but whoever was talking was giving her something she hadn't had in over two months, the sound of someone talking to her in her mother tongue.
The engines in the runner revved, and then settled down on a pillow of air, and she forced her eyes open again.
Dark Deeds (Class 5 Series Book 2) Page 11