by Gwynn White
“Oh.” Hale spun his glass, watching the liquid swirl. “Well, I’ve got even happier information. The worm came back with details.”
“A mind worm?” Fallow asked incredulously, his eyebrows high. “You gave that girl a mind worm? The only way she could possibly get it into him was while he slept.”
That wasn’t helping her any. “I know.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Hale said, his voice dark. “They’re planning to test Batch D-65 in the HUMP System.”
No way. “HUMP? Are they crazy? It’s heavily traveled, and all the settlements talk to one another. The Infonet out there is completely unregulated. There’s no way of keeping this quiet.”
“After listening to what Poe said, I don’t think they care much about keeping it quiet.”
“Poe?” Fallow asked. “As in High Councilwoman Poe?”
“The one and only,” Keva grumbled.
Fallow blinked, his skin losing color.
“What’s wrong?” Even for Fallow, this was an overreaction.
“Poe funded the scientist who made us.”
It didn’t matter how big the Black was. The universe still managed to be amazingly small. “Well, she’s funding this operation, too, or at least controlling it somehow.”
Hale resituated on the barstool, turning his back on the rest of the room to face Keva. “At least she was concerned about the survival rate.”
“That seems generous.” Fallow took in a breath, seeming relieved.
“Only because,” Keva said, “she doesn’t know how they’re going to replace those that die, quickly enough. There aren’t enough podfarms.”
“Oh.” Fallow downed the last of his Honey and poured himself another glass.
Hale took a sip and nodded appreciatively.
“Why HUMP?” Keva asked.
“Because that’s where Heliac Nine is, and Heliac Nine is where the research is taking place.”
Keva hadn’t known where Heliac Nine was. It was said to be a large station about the size of a small moon. They were heading closer to the place she spent most of her life avoiding.
Wait. What if in tracking down Batch D-65, they discovered Heliac Nine? What if she managed to disable it somehow? Not everything in the universe could be against her, maybe just this one thing would go right. Even with a station that large, there had to be a way. If she could remove the constant threat looming over her head. She…could get her life back.
She’d never had a life. She’d only had what the military and then what the Syndicate had given her.
Maybe she could finally be free. Maybe she could make a life for herself, not one someone else decided on.
“Where in HUMP?” Hale asked, pulling her out of her head.
Keva looked to Fallow. “What’s Sparrow say?”
Fallow’s eyes went distant for a moment.
Hale glanced at Keva.
She didn’t offer him any answers. Fallow’s story wasn’t hers to tell. Most long haulers knew the Allow Brothers owned the Jiggling Donkey franchise. What they didn’t know was that they were engineered humans from the same pod. And no one, as far as she knew, understood that they communicated through a hivemind.
“She says to look at Red Sky settlement on Bittermoon,” Fallow said, blinking.
“Red Sky?” Keva asked. “Why?”
“Because of the uprising.” Hale licked his lips, dropping his gaze.
Keva didn’t miss the fact that he didn’t question what had happened and he didn’t mention it either. In true spacer fashion, he simply took it as face value.
Fallow shared a smile with Keva. Hale had won a small token of respect.
“A few months ago—shit, it’s almost been a year, I guess,” Hale said, “Red Sky revolted against the mine owners. They wanted better rations, cleaner water, better medicines, schooling for their kids.”
It wasn’t uncommon for settlements to revolt, but those were usually squashed by the military quickly. For the settlement to still be active a year after their uprising said that something significant happened there.
“The military intervened,” Fallow said, “but the General in charge of the mission refused to go through with annihilating Red Sky.”
“Why?” Keva asked. It was unheard of for a General to ignore a command like that.
“She was born there.” Fallow clamped his lips shut and rose, watching someone behind Hale. “The military booted her after that, and now she captains a hauler. Captain Raven Fenn of the Ash’oa. If you cross paths with that woman, you can trust her. She saved Sparrow.”
For Fallow to give the woman’s name at all and then tell them to trust her spoke volumes.
“Keva,” Finn said, announcing his presence with a too-smooth voice.
She turned and grimaced at him. “Finn.” His toothy grin let the corners of his mouth reach to his cheeks.
“May I have a word?” He glanced significantly at Hale. “Alone.”
Keva refrained from showing any emotion on her face. “Let’s grab our booth.”
Finn led the way, his robes swaying stiffly as he walked. He set a device in the middle of the table and pressed the button erecting a privacy screen. “I received your report.”
“Then, you know I succeeded.”
“You blew your identity. Again. Do you know how many lives were lost securing that ident?”
She didn’t.
He glanced at Hale.
Dottie joined him and took Keva’s seat.
“And you brought a straggler with you, someone with a high profile.”
“She’s no one, Finn.”
“Then, why is it so many people are looking for her?” His mouth pulled down into a clown frown.
“Because Zervek is an asshole, that’s why.”
Finn took in a deep breath and folded his hands in front of him. “Look, Keva. I didn’t think I would have to have this conversation with you of all people, but you can’t allow yourself to grow attached to people.”
Keva ground her teeth.
“You can’t grow attachments to this woman. She will get you caught.”
“We’re handling that.”
“The military is on to you. Just today, we’ve intercepted eighteen reports that made it to Section Two.”
Intelligence.
Finn nodded once, apparently satisfied that she understood the gravity of the situation. “What did you learn? You said the worm is active?”
“It is. Weapon testing will happen in the HUMP System.”
“I can’t send you.”
“You have to, Finn.” She pressed her middle finger and thumb together to ground herself and keep from leaping over the table. “You don’t have anyone else in place that could handle a situation like this.”
“You can’t handle a situation like this.”
“Really?” she challenged. “A bomb. If I can locate it in time, I have more knowledge on bomb defusing than anyone else you have. Unless you have another engineered military human who was trained in all aspects of the military since she was able to walk.”
He shifted in his seat.
“And if I can’t, I know how to evacuate. I know the best ways to get people out of a hostile situation.”
“The object of the mission isn’t to save people.”
Keva didn’t flinch. She expected to receive orders like that from the military but not from the Syndicate. She’d thought they protected the people.
“The mission is to retrieve the bomb and bring it back.”
Keva gave him a long stare.
“For study.”
Sure. For study. How many times had she heard that one before?
Hale stepped up to the table, Dothylian—now Dottie Vesbith—beside him now wearing a thickly woven scarf to hide the new ident chip’s insertion mark. He mouthed something she couldn’t hear through Finn’s privacy field.
Finn clicked the button on his device and stowed it.
Hale narrowed his eyes at Finn, then turned
his attention to Keva. “We have to go. Wilmur’s here.”
Finn’s nostrils flared. “Get rid of the girl, Keva. Stop playing around and do what you know you must.” He dragged his over-long, over-ugly face out of the booth and disappeared.
Dottie’s eyes were wide as she watched Finn leave. She turned her gaze back to Keva, her expression uncertain.
Yeah. For the sake of the mission, Keva should ditch Dottie. But… “You’re working to help ILO. I need you. You do that, and I’ll keep you safe from Wilmur.”
Dottie gave a jerky nod holding her arms around her middle.
Keva got up, the honey that Fallow had given her loosened her up. “He’s here. Let’s go.”
19
Keva,” ILO said over Keva’s earpiece.
“Yeah, I know,” Keva said. “We’re on the move.”
“Monitoring systems.”
“See if you can tap into surveillance without being discovered.”
“I can and will.”
Dottie wrung her hands, staring after Finn’s retreating back.
“Look, Dottie,” Keva said harshly. “I can’t have you backsliding now. You’ve done well up to this point. You falter now, you die. I can’t carry you.”
Hale glanced at the other woman, an eyebrow raised in challenge.
“Okay.” Dottie shook out her hands. “What do we do?”
“Well, first and foremost,” Keva said, “we don’t get caught. We’ll go back the way we came.”
“I vote for speed,” Hale said. “We go through the front door. We’ll all pass bioscans now that you have your new ident chip. You’ve got the tags for the basic facial scans.”
“And if he demands deep facial scan recognition isbe run? He’s Elite, Hale. And he’s high in the ranks.”
Hale glanced around. “Then we move fast. I’m no use without my guns.”
Keva had her knives, but she’d rather have guns if facing off with security. If they went the back way, it would take a good two hours to get back to the ship. If they went through the front door, they’d be back at the ship in a matter of minutes.
“Wilmur is docking,” ILO said. “I say run. It should take them a while to dock, and then a while longer to disembark. They’re docking on Elite Dock, Section Nine.”
Seventy-nine floors above them. They would be faster than Wilmur unless he took an atmoshuttle to the Commons. It wasn’t unheard of.
“Through the front door then. Let’s be quick.” Keva waved to Fallow as she followed Hale to the front.
They made quick work getting to the lifters.
“What are those?” Dottie asked, pointing to the air.
Keva barely glanced at them. “Gnats. Don’t worry about them. They have very little memory and are incapable of running deep facial scans. You should be hidden from them well enough by the marks we added to your face. Do you remember what I said about cameras?”
Dottie nodded.
“I can’t tell you where every camera is. Walk as I walk, shift your weight when I do.”
“Okay.”
They got in line for the lifters.
Hale stepped through the bioscanner first.
Keva pushed Dottie to go next. “Just in case something goes sideways. Remain calm, use your upbringing to keep yourself in control of your emotions, and step through.”
Dottie didn’t say anything as she obeyed Keva’s commands.
They passed through the bioscanner without issue.
Thank goodness.
They all took the same lifter headed down. The trip to the hundred and fortieth floor went a lot faster. Within moments, they were stepping off.
“I gotta say,” Hale said under his breath, “I like the name Dottie a lot better than Dothylian.” He said the last word with an exaggerated accent.
Dottie chuckled dryly. “It’s going to take some getting used to.”
“It did for all of us, kid.” Hale took the lead again.
Keva brought up the rear.
No one paid them any attention as they slogged to or from work. This level had mainly workers anyway. No one else would want to come so far down into the dregs of the jump station. They made it to the docks.
“Keva,” ILO said, her tone startled. “Wilmur took a smaller ship, and he’s docking three docks from us.”
“Shit. Hale.”
He stopped and turned to her.
The docks spread out along the ring several hundred meters away. The long run from the docks to the station would be without cover of any sort. It was one long arm with nothing but lights. “He’s here.” She searched the string of ships on the other side of the dark void between them. She spotted the Allorian—the Tencendor now. The name was odd to Keva, but she didn’t bother thinking about it too much.
The Scarlet Harpy was still attached to the underbelly.
Scarlet Harpy.
Keva almost even liked the new name, it would do.
Three docks to the left, a smaller atmoshuttle finished docking sequences, and people ran out of it. It looked like a swarm of space roaches.
“There. Do you see?”
Hale swore. “How did they get on to us so fast?”
“He must have shuttled directly from the docks. We can’t cross here.”
“Agreed.” Hale stepped back into the corridor and walked briskly toward the next dock entrance.
Keva had long since perfected the ability to match step with men with much longer legs than she had. She met him stride for stride.
But Dottie had to jog to keep up.
Hale paused at the next entrance and scanned the area. “I don’t see anything suspicious.”
Keva saw other ships, but nothing like the atmoshuttle with guards spilling out of it. She looked up and saw another atmoshuttle landing on the level above and to their right, more guards filing out. “Look. Maybe they’re not onto us. Maybe they’re trying to plug the holes the best they can.”
“Oh, good.” Hale released a quick breath. “I was afraid my skills of diversion were getting rusty.”
“We don’t rust in space,” Keva said under her breath. An old spacer saying.
Hale finished scanning the area and nodded. “The coast is clear. Come on. Let’s go.”
Keva brought up the rear, walking briskly as they crossed the long, wide, empty arm that connected the gravitation ring and the docks to the jump station. They’d made it about halfway when one of the guards that had issued from the rear of the atmoshuttle stopped at the end of the runway, hand on his gun.
“I wish I had my gun right now,” Hale said.
“Me, too.”
Dottie glanced over her shoulder at Keva.
“Stay calm. If you flake right now, we’re all dead.”
“I’m not going to flake,” Dottie gritted between clenched teeth.
Good. Whatever it took to keep the woman from disappearing inside her head, freaking out, making a reckless move, whatever. “How are we getting passed him?” The man was still too far away to hear them.
Hale gestured behind him with one hand, palm down. “Just let me do the talking.”
“And if they have deep facial scan tech?” Keva asked just loud enough for Hale to hear her.
He didn’t answer. He changed his path to move around the guard when he was within shouting distance.
The guard shifted to block his path.
Slowing down, Hale stopped in front of the guard and crossed his arms over his chest. “What’s this? Why are you slowing up my business?”
“We’re searching for someone,” the guard said gruffly. “Fugitives.”
“Great. Sounds like everyone else in the damned universe is too.” Hale craned his neck forward. “I’m not hiding any fugitives.”
“Don’t you want to know what they look like?”
“Nope.”
“There’s a reward.”
Dottie stopped almost directly behind Hale.
Keva took a position behind and to his right.
&
nbsp; Hale nodded his head. “How big a reward?”
“Lofty.” The guard smiled smugly. “Two Elite ladies stowed away aboard The Allorian.”
“Stowed away, you say.” Hale scratched his eyebrow. “Who’s the dumbass captain that allowed that to happen?”
“Captain Hale Reeve.”
“Oh.”
“And, he let the two stow away with their ship, Ghost Star.”
“What a ridiculous name.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” The guard glanced at Keva, then turned his attention back to Hale, dismissing her. “You wouldn’t know where either of these two ships are, would you?”
Keva didn’t know if the guard was trying to bait them, or if he was just that stupid. Stowing away on a ship wasn’t as easy as it seemed in holovids. Plus, stowing away with a ship? To ‘stow away’ implied the captain and crew didn’t know about it.
“No, but I’ll keep my eye out. A ‘lofty reward’ could buy a lot of repairs.”
The guard shrugged. “And if you happen to see Captain Reeve, let him know that we understand the position he was put in.”
“I will if I happen to see him.” Hale smiled. “After I give him a good ribbin’ for letting two princesses sneak onto his ship with a ship.”
The guard narrowed his eyes. “It’s entirely possible he was given a solid story to go along with it.”
“Or money.” Hale tipped his head and leaned back on his left foot. “I wonder how much two princesses would pay for something like that.”
“I’m not a princess,” Dottie said just low enough for Keva to hear.
At least, Keva hoped the guard hadn’t heard. The docks had sound muffling technology deployed to keep the noise down, a necessary expense or they’d all be deaf.
The guard didn’t react. “Well, if you hear anything.” He stepped aside.
Hale nodded and moved around him. “Will do.”
They walked onto the docks and beneath the belly of a large starship with family tribal runes smattered across the hull. They didn’t talk until they drew closer to the Tencendor.
“How is it that they don’t see your ship?” Keva asked softly.
Hale pointed to the hull. “We changed her name.”
“Sure, on the hull, but the transponder code too?”
“Transferred the title while docked in Set’ar.”