by Gwynn White
That didn’t even make sense. “How had you known? We took off as soon as we arrived.”
Hale shot her a quick grin. “I had a feeling. Come on. Quickly. Get on board before—”
“Kadira Saqqaf,” Wilmur’s voice shouted across the dock.
Keva didn’t even flinch. “Get her on board.” She veered to the right, away from the Tencendor with her new name blazing in big blue letters.
“Roger that.” Hale led Dottie in the other direction.
“Kadira Saqqaf,” Wilmur repeated. “Stand down, or I will fire.”
Keva didn’t even look in his direction. His first shot sent everyone close by scrambling for cover.
Keva played along with the rest and scrambled to safety. Pulse blasts deflected off the deck, flying around Keva at unpredictable angles. It was nice to be shot at where the safest place to be was directly in front of the barrel.
“ILO, can you get him off me?” Keva ran talked. Not an easy thing to do.
“I can’t. Most ships have closed access since the shots were fired.”
“Is anything still open?”
“Too few.”
The blasts stopped as Wilmur’s troops chased after her.
Keva dodged around the ships in the docks, momentarily losing sight of three of the guards.
She stopped in the crease of an old but large hauler, right next to a new sleek yacht. If it had been open, that would have been an easy way out.
The sound of footsteps closed in on her. Just one set. Keva tensed ready to leap. The guard rounded the corner. He had just enough time to register Keva, his eyes going wide in surprise before she leveled him with a punch to the side of his head.
Keva smiled down at the unconscious guard. The same one who stopped her and Hale. She pulled his sidearm as the sound of more running steps drew near. They rounded the corner, skidding to a halt. Keva shot them and ran.
Bigger ships with better hiding places were only meters away. There were also more guards, and not just Wilmur’s. These had tight fitting red uniforms with gold buttons up the side, and silver tooling along the arms.
Metal hands and amber eyes. Mods. They were mercenary guards, and expensive.
Keva hefted her pistol and threw it away. It rang on the deck in the near silent docks.
Wilmur’s guards ran and held the attention of the two at the ramp of the large passenger ship. It had the red almost tribal coloring she had seen before. She slipped behind the guard and up the ramp.
The ship was a beast with wide corridors spoke of opulence bordering on the Elite. The ship could easily be mistaken for an Elite craft.
“ILO, do you read?”
No answer. Great. The ship was shielded. Keva was on her own.
The bright, but hidden light was perfect, set to illuminate without jarring the eye. The polished floor was nothing she had ever seen on any other craft, it was not the deck plate of every other ship. More like Set’ar station.
Recessed doors lined the long corridor. Keva slipped along the halls testing each door. None opened. She came to a large unsecured area where several of the corridors came together.
A spiral stair swept up on both sides to the floor above, and lifts set in the center went even higher.
Echoing steps from the floor above sent Keva to the nearest lift. She randomly pushed a button as she watched the area for anyone else. The lift door closed and silently rose. The icons on the control pad were foreign, with symbols and images instead of numbers. What was this ship?
Keva didn’t wait for the answer as the doors opened. She got out on another floor, empty of people and she ran as quietly as she could.
She skidded to a halt, as a door opened. She pressed herself into the wall, hiding in the open, as a girl swept out of the door and away. In the opposite direction. She wore a flowing dress and cape that wouldn’t look out place at all in Q’ian’Set. She didn’t need to kill the girl.
Keva shot through the door as it closed and entered the girl’s room.
The quarters were as large as her entire living space on Ghost—Scarlet Harpy. Quickly searching the various drawers and storage pods, she found clothes. She held them up to her guessing at the fit. They would be a little short and tight in the hips, but they might do if she could find any that didn’t billow with any sort of movement.
Keva shed her clothes and stuffed them down the trash chute. They were covered in radioactive dust anyway. She found a pair of pants and a top, both more form fitting than she liked, but the fabric was smooth and conformed to her shape well. She found a coat, well most of one, that ended at her mid back. Keva was showing far more than she usually did, but she certainly did not look like a ragged woman being chased on the docks of Kalamatra.
The soft utilitarian boots fit perfect, she was ready to leave. Keva snuck to the door and slid it open a crack. All clear. She slipped out as the door silently closed and whisper-raced down the empty corridor.
Another vacant area came into view. It looked the same, and she entered the lift scanning the pad. None of the icons or symbols looked familiar, except one. It was an icon of a ramp. It opened to the outside. Keva pressed the icon.
She had to get out of here, her barely existing cover was almost completely blown and here she was sneaking around a damn Family ship.
Moments later, the door opened and she peeked around the narrow wall covering her. An exit was just a short walk away.
It had a guard posted, but he faced outward, keeping people from entering, not leaving. Keva silently snuck up behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck and head, cutting off circulation. He struggled for a few moments then relaxed, unconscious.
Keva took his gun and ran back to the Tencendor.
20
Stekil met Keva at the rear door, a grin on his too old and fragile face. “You made it back.”
“Barely.” Keva turned as he closed the door behind her and sealed it. “Where’s Hale?”
“Bridge.”
“Thanks.” She walked briskly through the ship, thankfully avoiding the rest of Hale’s crew for now. “ILO, is Dottie on board?”
“Yes,” ILO said in Keva’s ear piece.
“Great.” Keva made it across the metal grate walkway that bridged the belly to the head of the ship and entered the bridge.
Hale’s second in command, Geny Pete took up the pilot’s seat. He talked low into his mouthpiece.
Hale stood over the navigation console, a worried frown on his face.
“What’s wrong?” Keva asked. “When can we get out of here?”
Hale barely glanced up at her. “The whole dock’s on lockdown, and they’re conducting ship to ship searches.”
Well shit. “What can we do?” She could hide Dottie in ILO’s storage room. After all, Keva hadn’t discovered it for three years, and it didn’t happen until ILO showed it to her. “What are our options?”
“Right now, we don’t have a lot of them.”
Keva nodded. “ILO, did you hear that?”
“Of course, I did.” ILO’s voice was sharp in Keva’s ear. “Dottie is hiding her clothes and making it look like she never existed.”
“Good. And you know where to stow her?”
“I do.”
That was the easy thing to settle. Keva’d stashed her Elite garb and anything that would tie her to that identity. So, she didn’t need to worry about that. However, if Wilmur searched this ship and found her…things could get complicated. But if she disappeared into the hidden room as well, there would be more questions. Like why the c was hauling an empty short hauler around.
“What are our options?” she asked Hale.
He quirked his lips but continued typing. “I’m working on that right now.”
“What are you doing?”
“Stirring up trouble.”
“The kind that could help us?”
“We can hope. I don’t think you quite understand what you did back there.” He tipped his head toward the docks.
“You mean, slipping onto another ship and drawing Wilmur there instead of on my tail?”
He nodded. “The Elite and the Families are already at each other’s throats, and that isn’t just any Family ship.”
It hadn’t looked like “just any” ship. It seemed like a pretty massive one, though not the largest one out on the docks. “Okay?”
“That’s an Osiris ship.”
“I don’t know anything about Family politics.” And she didn’t. The military had been too concerned with the Elite, and their politics and the Syndicate had kept her focused on the Elite and her mission.
“Well, let’s just say that the Elite think they control the Black, and to a significant extent they do, but they’ve lost a lot of that power. Like the push station revolt?”
“Where the Elite cut off supplies and left them to die?”
“And they did that because the Elite don’t need them.”
“They have slip drive.” And everyone else in the Black was reliant on those push stations. Without them, the spacers were crippled, making the Elite that much more powerful.
Hale nodded.
“Which is illegal or at least against contract because only the military is supposed to have slip drive.” Speed in space was a power card Keva wished she had.
“Right.” The dashboard chirped behind him, and Hale turned. He read something, typed a response and turned back to her. “Well, the Families took those push stations over and have been sort of maintaining them.”
Which made sense if the Families didn’t have slip drive. They didn’t want to be crippled as the Elite had intended. “They’re having you steal food and medical supplies.”
“Not just me, but yes. Who better to feed the discarded than those who did it?”
“You’re a regular hero. I might swoon.”
He ducked his head with a smile. “Save your swooning for later.”
Keva crossed her arms over her chest. There were just too many things that didn’t make sense with all of this though. “Where is that stolen food? Should we be worried that they’ll find that when they board the ship?”
Hale shook his head.
“We didn’t stop between here and Set’ar.”
“Oh, you’re right there. We didn’t stop. But we did pass off that food as we passed the push stations. They just reached out and grabbed it as we went by.”
There was a lot she didn’t understand about the world they lived in apparently. “Okay. So, the Families are having you do this?”
“Yeah and I’m only one of many. The Families are taking what the Elite throw away, the people they don’t care about, and they’re giving us all a second chance. They’re finding ways for us to make new lives.”
Keva thought about that for a moment. “Like a soldier who was spaced.”
Hale raised an eyebrow and nodded. “Or a rancher who lost his herd to terrastorms.”
Was he saying he used to be a rancher? Terrastorms only happened in the Reyher System.
“Where do you think Allorian came from? That’s the name of my farm.”
The name finally made sense, at least. Sad he had to change it.
The console beeped again.
Hale licked his bottom lip and read the message. He expelled a long breath. “JIN, on screen, if you will please.”
“Of course, Hale Reeve,” The AI’s pleasant male voice said over the speakers.
The plasteel glass panes darkened and two video ports pulled up.
One contained Wilmur’s face, flushed with rage.
The other showed a clean looking man who didn’t seem to be more than thirty, but whose eyes seemed older. His dark hair was combed back, and his crimson coat looked expensive. The high collar was stiff, giving him a look of clean lines.
“Are we on the feed?” Keva asked low.
Hale shook his head. “This is on general broadcast so everyone in the Four Systems can see.”
“Public?” The blood slowly leeched out of Keva’s face. “He’s publicly humiliating Wilmur Zervek. Does he realize what he’s doing?” The Elite weren’t people to mess around with on a good day, but Wilmur Zervek was one of the nastiest, most protected of the Elite. At least, as far as Keva knew. Whatever game this man was playing, it was dangerous and could have a devastating ripple effect. Lots of people could die.
Hale gave Keva a dry look. “Trust me. Wilmur should be more concerned about humiliating Koyl Osiris. He’s not someone to trifle with. He must be close to something big to take on the Elite like this. This here was history in the making. A public execution if you will.”
She didn’t know anything about the man, but the fact that she’d never heard of him in the military or in all her Syndicate dealings made her think that perhaps Hale was overconfident in the man.
“Wilmur Zervek,” Koyl said, folding his hands on his desk. “What business gives you the right to shut down my docks?”
“Your docks indeed. You own nothing here, you are nobody.”
Koyl only raised an eyebrow. Wilmur didn’t ruffle him at all.
“I am looking for two runaways.” Wilmur raised his chin, his eyes cold. “And it would appear you allowed them safe harbor.”
“I did not know you were a bounty hunter, Wilmur.”
Wilmur’s eyes flicked to the side and he frowned.
“When you locked down my docks, you stopped my trade. When the trade stopped, the money ceased. I am taking from you what you owe for every minute my docks remain in lockdown.”
A bodiless hand passed a vidscreen to Wilmur. His face went ruddy. “You have made a grave mistake.”
“I believe that a mistake has been made.” Koyl took in a deep breath and smiled. “I can assure you I have no interest in handing over your runaways. They might be anywhere by now, and it is not worth my time to catch them.”
Wilmur’s eyes flashed in fury, “They are here.” He stabbed his finger downward to Kalamatra. “I arrived before them.” His anger only amplified as he went on.
Something lit up in Koyl’s eyes. “If you are running after them, how did you arrive first?”
Keva held her breath. If this was public, then the military would be watching, and if Wilmur admitted to breaching the slip drive contract? That could be a power changer. They might have more time to look for Batch D-65 after all.
“You—” Wilmur paused, raising one corner of his lips. “You overstep yourself.”
Damn that man. All he had to do was to slip up. Just once.
Koyl’s smile widened. “Are you sure?” Something shifted in his eyes, something that made Keva’s stomach twist. “With what I now know?”
“You know nothing,” Wilmur said, spitting out the last word.
He’d damn well better know nothing. If Hale spilled his guts about what he’d learned from Keva, she was going to kill him.
“I am certainly glad that you think so. HUMP System will be relieved to hear that nothing is coming.”
Keva stared at the back of Hale’s head. What had he told who? If Koyl tipped their hand, they wouldn’t have any way of getting their hands on the Batch D-65.
Wilmur leaned forward a predatory smile on his lips. “You would do well not to cross me.”
“You would do well to remember your place and stay in your own playbox. Do not reach into mine again.”
“And if I do?”
Koyl leaned forward, and a steel-like smile graced his lips. “Then, that will be a new day. Won’t it, little prince?”
Wilmur curled his lips and took a step back. He looked away, his nostrils flaring. “I will lift the hold on your docks.”
“I will stop the transaction as soon as the lift is made.” Koyl narrowed his eyes in a forced smile. “A pleasure doing business with the Zerveks. Oh, and Wilmur,” Koyl said, his hand raised to conclude the video.
Wilmur blinked slowly, his lips a line of disdain. “Yes?”
“The kind of blood you’re planning to spill will stain deeply.”
Wilmur went still, not looking away, but not saying anything either.
“We will find a way to stop you. We have the power of the Black.”
Wilmur remained still for another moment before chuffing a breath. “And what is that? Friend.”
“The people.”
Damn, Koyl just made a public call to arms. Keva watched in a state of shock.
Wilmur ran his tongue along his molars. “We shall see how powerful that remains. Will we not?” He ended the comm, his square going black.
Koyl’s square went black as well.
“What did you tell him?” Keva demanded, her face hot. Everything the Syndicate had sent her to discover was out there for the public to hear. She’s already failed her first real mission and then screwed up when she decided to save Dottie. What would they do now with her failure on public display?
Hale started to turn, and stopped, looking up.
Koyl’s face lit up on the display again. “Hale, this was risky. You forced me to tip my hand.”
“I didn’t realize you were going to do all that.” Hale spread his hands wide.
Koyl closed his eyes for a quick moment and nodded. “There are bigger things in play right now, Hale. I cannot come to your aid every time you stub your toe.”
“In my defense, I stubbed a really big toe.”
Koyl’s expression was dry as he stared at the captain. “I assume she’s on your ship and safe.”
“You’re correct.”
“And you know where you’re going.”
“Relatively. Yes.”
Koyl stared at something on his desk. “We can’t help you again. I’m leaving within the hour and don’t know when I’ll return.”
“And if this is as big as we think it is?”
Koyl didn’t have an immediate reply.
“Are the other Families able to assist?” Hale pushed worry etching lines on his face.
“If you need it, they will do what they can. Call on Raptis Family. She’ll be in the area and has been alerted.”
Raptis? What kind of name was that?
Koyl looked from Hale and met Keva’s gaze. “You must be the infamous Keva Duste.”
She was going to kill Hale. “I was hoping to be a little less infamous.”